The Power of Imagination

 

"The nation that does not have the" imagination ", does not have great concepts... Ladies and Gentlemen, the nation nations have the imagination , have great fantasies: having courage; has a willingness to face risk .....
(Lecture of President Soekarno in Semarang, July 29, 1956)

Imagination is one thing that can not be released for a writer of fiction. An author can not create a masterpiece without imagination. However important the imagination possessed not only for an author or artist only, but for all people. Because the imagination is the source of many discoveries and development of science and technology (Science and Technology).

Once the importance of imagination to the extent that Einstein is a world famous scientific figures once said, "imagination is more important than knowledge." (Alan, Emil Burton, 2008: 36) Why did Einstein dare to say so?

Surely what Einstein said is not nonsense. Imagination is more important than knowledge, because imagination is not limited to space and time, while knowledge is limited. Knowledge is the result. While the results need tools, and tools to gain knowledge itself is imagination. That's why, in addition to imagination has a broad reach, the excess of imagination is also due to aspects of usability, ie, as a means of achieving knowledge.

Imagination is often interpreted as the power of thought to imagine in wishful thinking or creating stories, drawings, paintings, essays, and depictions of events based on reality or experience of a person. (Kartono, 2009: 173) With the human imagination to imagine new things, new discoveries, and then try to realize and get it. If humans do not possess the power of imagination in his mind, humans will never develop. Thus, low or dulling of the public imagination in a nation could become an obstacle to progress.

According to Mahmud Mahdi (2006: 111) imagination is divided into two, namely the re-creative imagination and creative imagination. Imagine something that has been known event called the re-creative imagination. While the creative imagination is imagining things or events that have occurred or unknown.

Examples of re-creative imagination is to imagine the days when we used to sit in the elementary school. Examples of creative imagination is easy to imagine landing or flying to the moon and do not ever go there.

With a creative imagination that humans can successfully create new things. Including new discoveries in the field of science and technology always starts from an imagination. Submarines, aircraft, radios, televisions, robots and all the modern inventions of the world is the fruit of human imagination.

It is important that the imagination is not just a dream or delusion. Imagination must be distinguished from fantasy, hallucinations, or daydreams are empty. Fantasy, hallucinations or empty daydreams can be said without a vision and orientation, as well as tend to do unconsciously. While imagination clearly has a vision and goals as well as a lot more done consciously.

Indeed, imagination is often associated with dreams, but it was only as a stimulus for the birth of mere imagination. The dreams that come by our creativity processed into formulations imagination, and imagination is brought into the world of reality. Thus, it is in principle imagination is accessing data from any origin to be presented to the real world. (Muhibbuddin, 2011: 22)

Hence, the birth of the imagination is the source of creativity. Because the hallmark of creativity is the ability to process something ordinary into something of high value. So, now increasingly clear imagination very useful as a starting point to discover new things.