Introduction
The dark

We develop the imagination when we use it and pay it attention; the imagination improves when we simply let it see things. But seeing things is not so easy; sometimes it is dark. How then can we light up the dark? Actually there is no such thing as the dark; there is merely an absence of light. But what could be casting this shadow over everything we see? There is a clue — if I examine this darkness I will see that it has a familiar outline. It has exactly the same shape as ... me. We make darkness by getting in the way of the light. So we nourish our imaginations simply by not getting in the way; the less we darken the world the clearer we see it.

Everything we see in the outside world is manufactured in our heads. We do not develop the imagination by forcing it into prodigious and self-conscious feats of creativity; we develop our imaginations by observation and attention.