Chapter One: The Imagination
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings as something separate from the rest – a kind of optical illusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us . . . Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison. – Albert Einstein “Your imagination has never been trained.” “Huh?” “Your ability to imagine has never been harnessed. At its worst, your imagination is merely a distraction from the monotony of the daily world, and at its best it is an escape hatch into worlds of fantasy.” I didn’t know what to say. Before I had a chance to formulate a question, Einstein peered at me, “Don’t you think it is odd that we can imagine limitless possibilities and yet we cannot attain them? Wasn’t it Hume that said, “Nothing we imagine is absolutely impossible?” Einstein grabbed the armrest of his wooden chair and pulled himself out of his s...