As any parent knows, fantasy plays an important part in a child’s life. Childhood games are active playing-out of fantasies. Fantasy plays an important part in creativity. Being creative depends on your ability to imagine something different. This is an attribute of the Natural Child ego which is possibly the one most pervasive and important thruout life..
It can also be a problem for those who withdraw into a fantasy world. Mental problems can be regarded as perfectly normal behaviors carried to excess.
And fantasy also has therapeutic value. How can someone change who can’t imagine anything different? A child knows that these games are not real – these are conscious fantasies which offer an outlet for feelings which cannot acceptably be expressed or allow children to practice and learn new behaviors before needing them. Fantasy only becomes a problem if the person can no longer distinguish it from reality.
Conscious fantasies offer very useful opportunities to work thru thoughts without any actual immediate physical impact. Nicola Tesla apparently had the ability to mentally design a motor, set it running in his mind and mentally return to it a week or so later to check it for signs of wear and efficiency of design. We all have similar abilities to an extent. An experiment was performed with athlete, where some practised a particular move, some didn’t practice and some imagined themselves performing the move to perfection.
It was subsequently found that the group which improved the most were those who simply imagined themselves improving. A key part of having this work for you is to get your conscious mind out of the way and leave it to your subconscious mind. This is also called being in “The Zone”. Your subconscious is much better at controlling your actions than your conscious mind, as long as it knows what is expected. It depends on your conscious mind to give direction initially. It may be that practicing in imagination works better than actual physical practice because it helps the athlete to remove his conscious mind from the equation.
Children use these fantasy sessions to develop hidden skills as well as revealing their hopes and dreams. This use of conscious fantasy continues even into old age. An important aspect of using this in practice is not to let perceived reality limit your dreams or hopes. Perceived limitations may be no more than a learned thing and may not reflect reality at all. Ignore all preconceptions; otherwise you will never break out of the limitations of your comfort zone. Your Child ego is still the state which can best help you uncover hidden talents and realise your dreams. If you don’t wish for the stars you’re not going to reach them, except purely by accident. You need a grand dream to accomplish great things.