We are now going to do an exercise. This is to help prepare you for our journey to the space outside. We are going to take something that you do all of the time but most probably have it set on automatic. The drill is to help you back away from the automaticity and look at the mechanics of the process. In other words, by having you observe the mechanics of the process the idea is to have you disable the auto-pilot and take over the controls for yourself.
First thing you need to do is look around in your immediate surroundings and locate a reasonably flat surface that is at least somewhat elevated from the floor e.g., table top, desk top, etc.
Okay. Assuming you have done that, I now want you to imagine a basketball of, what you consider to be a regulation size and color, resting on this flat surface you have located.
Have you put it there? Do you see it?
Note: If you have trouble in doing any part of this exercise don’t get concerned. It’s okay. Just do what you can comfortably do. When you finish the steps you might try returning to see if you can now do the step(s) that you couldn’t earlier. If you still cannot do the step(s) I would suggest that you go back to the beginning a come forward. Note: if there are steps that you continue to have trouble with that’s okay. This will not prevent you from being able to make the journey.
Your basketball that you have imagined as sitting on the flat surface and are now looking at is what is called a mock-up. I know that the term, mock-up, usually is in reference to a model built to scale for study, testing or display, but this basketball you’re looking at right now is obviously not any such thing. Instead, what you are looking at is an object of your creation and it too is referred to as a mock-up (mental mock-up) and you are the one that mocked it up. It is a mental image picture that you have created and notice that this mock-up is not inside your head.
All right. I am now going to list out several more directives for what I would like for you to do to your mocked-up basketball. As you complete one step just move down the list to the next.. If you are not able to do what is called for on a particular step then move on to another.
1. Make your mock-up the size of a tennis ball.
2. Make your mock-up at least three times its original size.
3. Make your mock-up touch all sides of the room.
4. Make your mock-up just the right size for you.
5. Make your mock-up turn different colors.
6. Make your mock-up roll around on the surface.
7. Make your mock-up float gently up to the ceiling.
8. Keeping your mock-up on the ceiling, make it roll in a tight circle then with each new roll have its circle get larger and larger until it begins to hit the outer walls of the room.
9. Have your mock-up (still on the ceiling) roll behind you then gently float down to rest on the floor. Notice how you are looking at it while it is behind you.
10. Put your mock-up back in its original position in its original size and color.
11. Make your mock-up feel happy.
12. Make your mock-up feel angry.
13. Make your mock-up feel terrified.
14. Make your mock-up feel very sad.
15. Make your mock-up feel hopeless.
16. Make your mock-up feel apathetic.
17. Make your mock-up feel enthusiastic and full of energy.
18. Make your mock-up disappear.
19. Make your mock-up reappear somewhere else.
20. Make your mock-up explode into tiny fragments that float around the room like confetti.
21. Make the fragments of your mock-up reassemble in the shape of a airplane.
22. Make the fragments of your mock-up reassemble in front of you as the basketball.
23. Make your mock-up genuinely thank you then, not hampered by anything, whoosh off into space.
That’s it. End of exercise..
Thank you.
Perhaps you felt silly while doing this exercise. Many people do at first. But I also suspect that you are realizing that mocking-up is indeed an activity that you are constantly engaged in yet do not necessarily refer to it as mocking-up. I’m sure that if you recall some of the books you have read you will also be able to recall many of the mock-ups that you made while reading a particular book. The author provided the words but you provided the mock-ups. Anyway, I doubt if you need me to give you any more examples of mocking-up or common mock-ups. I’m sure you’ve got the concept. In any case, this exercise and variations of it, which you can make up, can in many circumstances be helpful in getting a person refamiliarized with the mechanics of creative imagination.
You might wonder, if mocking-up is such an integrated function in how we operate, why a person would need to be refamiliarized with it. Well, we have come to live in a society that is extremely visually oriented. We have an abundance of external sources that are continually providing complete visual mock-ups for us. All we are required to do is sit back and receive those myriad mock-ups that are coming at us 24/7 from any angle you can imagine. Now mocking-up is an ability that we all have and like any ability it can deteriorate if not used. With having such a supply of mock-ups provided for us from external sources a person can begin to unknowingly abstain from originating their own mock-ups more and more to a point where they depend on the environment to provide them with the mock-ups they require. Therefore, they become increasingly unwilling to originate mock-ups of their own and their ability to do so moves into a condition of atrophy.
Note: It is impossible for one to lose their ability to mock-up. The ability is always there but it can atrophy to such an extent that it exists within the person only as a potential. And fortunately for us, that potential can be rehabilitated.
Next…we embark for the space outside.
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