ABSTRACT
This chapter describes imagination as a process of uncoupling, a looping out of the immediate situation, and a return to that situation. The three-dimensions of the loop of imagination describe visually both the amplitude and directionality of the imagining. The model can also account for what nourishes imagination, the resources that enable the loop to expand, but also, that which constrains the looping. Anticipation, decision making and innovation involve imagination oriented toward the future, and can entail different levels of generalization. Daydreaming can be indifferently oriented in time, and is not bound by demands of plausibility, while decision making is generally rather plausible. The chapter also gives example, that examines the role of imagination in the creation of utopian dreams which can lead to social and political movements. It propose that imagination is disengaging from the here-and-now of a proximal experience, which is submitted to causality and temporal linearity, to explore, or engage with alternative, distal experiences.
