what word comes to mind when I say
imagination creativity ingenuity
make-believe no matter who you are or
where you come from chances are you
spent a lot of time imagining things but
while you might use your imagination
every day scientists understand
imagination a lot less than you might
imagine
where does imagination come from why do
we imagine at all and is there a way for
you to become more imaginative with the
help of my friends here at Cirque du
Soliel Zarkana we're about to explore
the delightful possibilities of
imagination and our journey begins right
where you'd imagine it would in your
brain look at the X in the middle of
your screen now imagine a red triangle
there got it
does it look something like this if we
guessed right you might be thinking
what's the big deal until you realize
you could have easily imagined this or
this or this or any of a hundred
different kinds of triangles but you
didn't and we knew that our imaginations
are unique there's evidence that some
ideas and images are shared by all of us
to show you what we mean we'll give you
another shot
imagine a hero that's all the
information we're gonna give you just
picture a hero in your mind got an image
in your head
does it look something like this did we
read your mind again
of course real heroes come in all shapes
and sizes all ages all genders it could
be your parents or grandparents or Rosa
Parks or Jackie Robinson you might even
think of a sandwich but your default
setting is probably a hero that looks
like Superman so what's going on here
here to explain is dr. Sara Mednick from
the University of California Riverside
every culture shares common images and
themes that make up the raw material of
your imagination psychologist Carl Jung
called this a collective unconscious but
new research has uncovered something
called the social unconscious these are
shared beliefs and values you might
incorporate into your thoughts and
behaviors without even realizing it