Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book seeks to explore a new kind of scholarship that not only points to the future, but also crosses boundaries between what is considered “reality” to the imaginal creations forged by literary authors and esoteric explorers. It discusses the types of research that receives sanctioned funding sources or accolades from institutions that take a large percentage of the grant profits from the labor of academics. The book examines the idea of education to a purely creative moment, when learning and doing are integral to a creative explosion once the smoke clears from the ruins. It outlines the creative imaginations of fictional worlds and combines them with academic research to tell a new kind of tale of the future that has yet to emerge on the horizon.