Warren Hilton

“ To my astonishment, I found that the great majority of the men of science to whom I first applied protested that mental imagery was unknown to them, and they looked on me as fanciful and fantastic in supposing that the words ‘mental imagery’ really expressed what I believed everybody supposed them to mean. ”

“ Without creative imagination the human race would still be living in [Pg 51] caves. Without creative imagination there would be no ships, no engines, no automobiles, no corporations, no systems, no plans, no business. Nothing exists in all the world that had not a previous counterpart in the mind of him who designed it. ”

“ Visual Imagery When we speak of “images” in connection with Imagination and Recognition we do not refer merely to mental pictures of things seen. Mental images are representations of past mental experiences of any and every kind. They include past sensations of sound, taste, smell, feeling, pain, motion and the other senses, as well as sensations of sight. One may have a mental image of the voice of a friend, of the perfume of a flower, just as he may have mental images of their [Pg 10] appearance to the eye. ”

“ Imagery of Taste and Smell
Last evening we entertained a number of friends at dinner. One of the [Pg 12] ladies was an accomplished musician, and later in the evening she delighted us with her exquisite playing upon the piano. The airs she played were familiar to me. I am fond of music and I enjoyed her playing. I can sit here today and in imagination I can see her seated before the piano and remember just how her hands looked as she fingered the keys. But I find it difficult to recall the air of the selection or the tones of the piano. ”

“ The Process of Creative Imagination There is another type of imagination from the purely reproductive memory imagination of which we have been speaking in this book.
There is also Creative Imagination.
Creative Imagination is more than mere memory. It takes the elements of the past as reproduced by memory and rearranges them. It forms new combinations out of the material of the past. ”

“ Imagination in Handling Employees
In commercial affairs men are the great means to money-making, and efficient personal service the great key to prosperity. In your dealings with employees do not be guided by the necessities of the moment. Expediency is the poorest of all excuses for action. ”

“ It recombines these elements into new and original mental pictures, the creations of the inventive mind.
Business and Financial Imagination
No particular profession or pursuit has a monopoly of creative imagination. It is not the exclusive property of the poet, the artist, the inventor, the philosopher. We tell you this because you have heard all your life of the poetic imagination, the artistic imagination, and so on, but it is rare indeed that you have heard mention of the business imagination.
The fact is no man can succeed in any pursuit unless he has a creative imagination. ”

“ The one who is a good visualizer says:
“This morning’s breakfast-table is both dim and bright; it is dim if I try to think of it with my eyes closed. All the objects are clear at once, yet when I confine my attention to any one object it becomes far more distinct. I have more power to recall color than any other one thing; if, for example, I were to recall a plate decorated with flowers I could reproduce in a drawing the exact tone, etc. The color of anything that was on the table is perfectly vivid. [Pg 17] There is very little limitation to the extent of my images ”

“ The more sensory images we have of any object the better we know it.
If you want to make a first impression lasting, make it vivid. It will then photograph itself upon the memory and arouse the curiosity.
A boy who is a poor visualizer will never make a good artist. A man who is a poor visualizer is out of place as a photographer or a picture salesman. ”

“ You must find a way to collect from your debtors and at the same time hold their business. And so in a hundred thousand different ways you are constantly required to use creative thought in laying every stone in the structure of your fortune. ”

“ The man who is looking for trouble generally finds it. Despair is the forerunner of disaster, and fear brings failure, because despair and fear are the emotional elements attendant upon thoughts of defeat. ”

“ A Rule for Influencing Others The practical importance of the fact of mental imagery and of the individual differences in power of mental imagery is very great. They should be particularly taken into account in any business or profession in which one seeks to implant knowledge or conviction in the mind of another. ”

“ As they think of a football game, all the players are standing stock-still; they are as they are represented in a photograph. They are in the act of running, but no motion is represented. Likewise, the banners and streamers are [Pg 26] all motionless. They find it impossible to think of such a thing as motion. Others find that the motions are the most vivid part of their images. What they remember of a scene is principally movement.
“One writes: ‘When the word “breakfast-table” was given out I saw our breakfast-table at home, especially the table and the white tablecloth. ”

“ The Klamaths, one of the Red Indian tribes, believe in a Supreme God whom they call ‘The Most Ancient One,’ ‘Our Old Father,’ or ‘The Old One on High.’ He is believed to have created the world—that is, to have made plants, animals and man. ”

“ Or is your mental picture blurred and doubtful?
2. How clearly can you see the space [Pg 41] that intervenes between your house and some far-distant object? Have you a clear impression of the visual elements that determine this distance?
3. Can you see a bird flying through the air? an automobile rushing down the street?
4. Can you imagine a red surface? a green surface? Try each primary color; which is most distinct to your mind’s eye?
5. Can you see a smooth surface? a rough surface? a curved surface? a flat surface? a cube? Does the cube look solid? ”

“ Our recollection of past experiences may be either full and distinct or hazy and inadequate. Some persons are entirely unable to reproduce certain kinds of sensory experiences. Somehow they are aware of having had these experiences, but they cannot reproduce them. Every one of us has his own peculiarities. ”

“ If you have pianos to advertise, do not limit your advertisement to a beautiful picture of the mahogany case and general words telling the reader that it is “the best.” Pianos are musical instruments, and the descriptive words should first of all call up delightful auditory images in your reader’s mind. ”

“ The principle involved here is the same as that involved in seeing pictures in a flickering log fire or having a vision of past or future events by gazing into a crystal. In any of these cases, it is not the blot, the fire or the crystal that produces the vision, but the cre [Pg 64] ative imagination that recombines old elements into new forms. The number of images suggested to one by certain standard forms of ink-blot when compared with established results is a measure of his imaginative ability. ”

“ I can look down the mentally seen page and see the words that commence all the lines, and from any one of these words I can continue the line. I find this much easier to do if the words begin as in a straight line than if there are breaks. ”

“ But when asked how the Old Father created the world, the Klamath philosopher replies: ‘By thinking and willing.’”
How Men Get Things
We get what we desire because the [Pg 53] things we desire are the things we think about. Love begets love. ”

“ I can see the scene quite perfectly, the position of the actors and stage setting, even the action of a player who brought out the sound.’
“Quite a large proportion of persons find it impossible to imagine motion at all. ”