Where is your imagination?

The answer is more obvious than you think. This and stories of fungi.

Bodhi Shola photographs mycelium in Mexico for Atmos

Hi fam,

I believe we live in a crisis of imagination.

This morning, I woke up to a paper on biological theory titled "Imagination: A New Foundation for the Science of Mind." In a nutshell, the paper argues that science is reclaiming the power of imagination, which had been dismissed as "woo-woo" or nonsense.

This is good news.

I believe science has always needed an element of imagination for its survival. Imagination is not a peripheral feature of cognition or merely an area for aesthetic research. It is what keeps scientists asking questions, staying curious, and breaking free from assumptions.

I had a great chat with Swan Dao the other day, the founder of the Institute of Devotional Arts. They mentioned how we need to recognize the mythopoetic aspects of our minds that shape our thinking. Swan said, "We need a new field of imagination studies," or "Phantasia Science," to bridge the gap between the humanities and sciences.

While I agree and love the word mythopoetic, I believe we have always needed imagination to come up with what's next. However, because creativity and imagination often don't have a tangible return on investment, they are frequently undervalued.

This is wild to me.

Imagination, if looked at from the scientific lens, is our ability to stay curious, to keep re-inventing ourselves, to keep questioning the status quo, and by default it is the key to solving many of our current existential problems:

• Climate change

• Conflict and war

• Lack of purpose and depression

• Business and good profit

Creative thinking is truly at the forefront of our development.

This week, I’m sharing the work I directed with photographer Bodhi Shola on mushrooms and fungi.

For this story, Biologist Merlin Sheldrake weighs in on why mushrooms have always been the main characters.

“When you start learning about everything fungi can do, it’s hard not to see them as protagonists in the story of life on Earth.”

According to Sheldrake, the burgeoning public interest in fungi—a kingdom that includes everything from yeast and varieties of mold to psychedelics and the shiitake in your fridge—coincides with a growing body of knowledge about them. But the symbolic functions that fungi fulfill are perhaps what most capture our imaginations.

Read the full story here.

Until next time.

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