A poignant example of this internalizing Intuition function is reported in Oliver Sacks’ (2008) book about music and the mind. He reports an incident recounted by Jerome Bruner, a noted psychologist. Bruner apparently loved classical music and plays a recording of a piece of music one day that he particularly enjoyed. Bruner went to replace the recording and discovered that he had never played this work in the first place. He had imagined this work of art in full detail in his own mind. I had the fortune to take a course from Jerome Bruner at Harvard University. He requires heavy glasses and I suspect doesn’t see well even wearing the glasses. As a result, he might be creating many aspects of his world in his mind rather than relying on stimuli from the outside world. As he noted in one of his more influential books, Jerome Bruner (1973) is going “beyond the information given.”
It is important to note that when we are faced with nothingness, as in contemplating the Great Silence, the sensing function fails to operate. A Mideastern Desert and a nearby Dead Sea offer very little, as does the struggling community of Anatevka. There is little, if nothing to see, hear, taste or feel. There isn’t much for Dr. Bruner to hear when he fails to activate his recording. We are confronted with a blank screen and must turn to the Intuitive function for any guidance or sense of meaning – much as we must “makeup” stories when viewing an Ink Blot or ambiguous picture.
This capacity to envision something that doesn’t exist in the external world provides us with many benefits including creating something new, anticipating something that could happen, and replay (actually re-create) past experiences. Unicorns live in our Intuitive realm, along with that meeting that will be held tomorrow, and that splendid birthday party held for us last week. Each of these items in our Intuitive realm exists independent of the external world. They may or may not be accurate portrayals of an upcoming event or past event. They are often just variants on Unicorns and other mythic figures and events.
All these benefits relate to the adaptive functions that enable us to survive in a sometimes hostile or at least challenging environment. It should also be noted, however, that the Intuitive function can also get us in trouble. As Robert Sapolsky (2004) has noted we can envision something that is threatening but doesn’t actually exist (imagined lions). More generally, we can adopt a strong internal schema (Piaget, 1923/2001; Bartlett, 1995) that does a very effective job of creating images, expectations and memories that bear little resemblance to what has occured or will occur in the external environment.
Transcendence
Among the benefits of imagination that may be of great benefit, but also may create major troubles and misery, is the capacity of transcendence. We can imagine what is not there, because what we are envisioning is too large (such as the history of humankind), too far into the future (future of humankind), or too complex (nature and purpose of existence). Perhaps unlike other species, humans are fully aware that they will die someday, and that the world will “live on” past their mortal existence.
As the existential philosophers (such as Sartre), psychologists (such as Rollo May), and theologians (such as Paul Tilllich) repeatedly emphasize, we are profoundly anxious and wandering aimlessly on our planet precisely because we have this capacity to transcend—imagining that which is very large, existing in the future and elusively complex. We can imagine not just Sapolsky’s attacking lions, but also our own death and the seemingly indifference of the universe to our death. We become religious, existential poets, or the users of mind and emotion altering drugs (Gerald May) precisely because of this capacity to imagine.
