Using imagination in meditation can connect people to the Divine and to each other and can deepen the spiritual experiences of daily life. Shared Imagination delves into that notion, offering a creative and experiential channel to the Divine and describing the surprising ways this process can blossom in people’s lives. The work centers on personal stories of spiritual encounters as told, with permission, by the women and men who have entered the world of prayerful imagining. These encounters, or “shared imaginations,” arose in a variety of settings: individual and group meditation meetings, recounted dreams, shared spiritual experiences, imaginative conversations with God, letters written to holy people of the past, and some mystical traveling conversations. The stories illustrate the interlacing of an individual’s imagination with that of the Divine. Instructions on how to form and facilitate an imaginative meditation group are interspersed between the stories and detailed in three appendices. Arising from author Mary Ann Archer’s experiences as a professional musician and spiritual director, this collection of personal spiritual narratives presents an exploration of the use of imagination in meditation for a clearer connection with the Divine.

NOTE: This storybook includes a read-aloud option which is accessible on Google and IOS devices. Ellie, Evan, Jesse, and Molly go on the best adventure of all as they learn about sharing an imagination when they play and pretend together in Storybook 10 of the We Thinkers! Vol. 2 social emotional learning curriculum for ages 4-7. From imagining their swings as their galloping ponies to speeding in their firetruck to the rescue of a turtle family in danger, the four friends use the social concepts they’ve learned to make smart guesses about what each other is imagining and use flexible thinking to adapt to change and work together as a group to include others’ ideas in their constantly changing imaginary world. When they think about each other’s thoughts, feelings, and actions, along with sharing their own with their friends, they can play and imagine in ways they never would have thought of by themselves! When we consider the thoughts and feelings of multiple minds, it fosters our own creativity and relationship development, along with other fundamental concepts taught in storybooks 1-10, which align with the corresponding teaching units within the related curriculum. Best practice: teach these concepts in order, starting with storybook 1 of 10 while using the corresponding curriculum.

If Brown can learn to use all of the friendship skills he learns from the others pencils, he will make friends. This first book in the Building Relationship series focuses on relationship-building skills for children. Included are tips for parents and teachers on how to help children who feel left out and have trouble making friends.

Everywhere Sophia and her dog Monty go, Sophia's blanket goes too. Nobody understands why, so Sophia shows them that it's not JUST a blanket. But who can help Sophia when something happens to her blanket?

“Big ideas that just might save the world”—The Guardian The founder of the international Transition Towns movement asks why true creative, positive thinking is in decline, asserts that it's more important now than ever, and suggests ways our communities can revive and reclaim it. In these times of deep division and deeper despair, if there is a consensus about anything in the world, it is that the future is going to be awful. There is an epidemic of loneliness, an epidemic of anxiety, a mental health crisis of vast proportions, especially among young people. There’s a rise in extremist movements and governments. Catastrophic climate change. Biodiversity loss. Food insecurity. The fracturing of ecosystems and communities beyond, it seems, repair. The future—to say nothing of the present—looks grim. But as Transition movement cofounder Rob Hopkins tells us, there is plenty of evidence that things can change, and cultures can change, rapidly, dramatically, and unexpectedly—for the better. He has seen it happen around the world and in his own town of Totnes, England, where the community is becoming its own housing developer, energy company, enterprise incubator, and local food network—with cascading benefits to the community that extend far beyond the projects themselves. We do have the capability to effect dramatic change, Hopkins argues, but we’re failing because we’ve largely allowed our most critical tool to languish: human imagination. As defined by social reformer John Dewey, imagination is the ability to look at things as if they could be otherwise. The ability, that is, to ask What if? And if there was ever a time when we needed that ability, it is now. Imagination is central to empathy, to creating better lives, to envisioning and then enacting a positive future. Yet imagination is also demonstrably in decline at precisely the moment when we need it most. In this passionate exploration, Hopkins asks why imagination is in decline, and what we must do to revive and reclaim it. Once we do, there is no end to what we might accomplish. From What Is to What If is a call to action to reclaim and unleash our collective imagination, told through the stories of individuals and communities around the world who are doing it now, as we speak, and witnessing often rapid and dramatic change for the better.

The Relationship Alphabet is an alphabetical survey of relationship topics based on the research of Dr. John Gottman. The book includes insights on communication, conflict management and friendship building. Practical discussion questions make it easy to turn ideas into action.

Aimed at lay, student, and academic readers alike, this book concerns the imagination and, specifically, imagination in music. It opens with a discussion of the invalidity of the idea of the creative genius and the connected view that ideas originate just in the individual mind. An alternative view of the imaginative process is then presented, that ideas spring from a subconscious dialogue activated by engagement in the world around. Ideas are therefore never just of our own making. This view is supported by evidence from many studies and corresponds with descriptions by artists of their experience of imagining. The third subject is how imaginations can be shared when musicians work with other artists, and the way the constraints imposed by trying to share subconscious imagining result in clearly distinct forms of joint working. The final chapter covers the use of the musical imagination in making meanings from music. The evidence is that music does not communicate meanings directly, and so composers or performers cannot be looked to as authorities on its meaning. Instead, music is commonly heard as analogous to human experience, and listeners who perceive such analogies may then imagine their own meanings from the music.

The human imagination manifests in countless different forms. We imagine the possible and the impossible. How do we do this so effortlessly? Why did the capacity for imagination evolve and manifest with undeniably manifold complexity uniquely in human beings? This handbook reflects on such questions by collecting perspectives on imagination from leading experts. It showcases a rich and detailed analysis on how the imagination is understood across several disciplines of study, including anthropology, archaeology, medicine, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and the arts. An integrated theoretical-empirical-applied picture of the field is presented, which stands to inform researchers, students, and practitioners about the issues of relevance across the board when considering the imagination. With each chapter, the nature of human imagination is examined - what it entails, how it evolved, and why it singularly defines us as a species.

This book discusses that imagination is as important to thinking and reasoning as it is to making and acting. By reexamining our philosophical and psychological heritage, it traces a framework, a conceptual topology, that underlies the most disparate theories: a framework that presents imagination as founded in the placement of appearances. It shows how this framework was progressively developed by thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant, and how it is reflected in more recent developments in theorists as different as Peirce, Saussure, Wittgenstein, Benjamin, and Bachelard. The conceptual topology of imagination incorporates logic, mathematics, and science as well as production, play, and art. Recognizing this topology can move us past the confusions to a unifying view of imagination for the future. ​

"Provides plenty of fodder for those wishing to explore what evangelicalism is and reimagine what it might become. It's an eye-opener."--Publishers Weekly Contemporary American evangelicalism is suffering from an identity crisis--and a lot of bad press. In this book, acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior examines evangelical history, both good and bad. By analyzing the literature, art, and popular culture that has surrounded evangelicalism, she unpacks some of the movement's most deeply held concepts, ideas, values, and practices to consider what is Christian rather than merely cultural. The result is a clearer path forward for evangelicals amid their current identity crisis--and insight for others who want a deeper understanding of what the term "evangelical" means today. Brought to life with color illustrations, images, and paintings, this book explores ideas including conversion, domesticity, empire, sentimentality, and more. In the end, it goes beyond evangelicalism to show us how we might be influenced by images, stories, and metaphors in ways we cannot always see.