ABSTRACT
Since early medieval days, a distinction has been made between what was called true imagination (imaginatio vera) and confabulation (phantasmagoria). From the standpoint of dreaming, I have called this true imagination embodied and substantive, while I consider confabulation to be a mental process, akin to rational thinking. The hallmark of substantive embodied imagination is a direct phenomenal experience of a spontaneous selfpresentation. The characteristics of confabulation are an indirect, disembodied feeling of distance, and a controlling, grasping attitude of habitual consciousness trying to ®gure things out or make them up. Whereas embodied imagination facilitates a meeting with substantive alien presences through mutual intelligence, confabulation belongs to the endless recon-®rmation of pre-existing notions of self, holding otherness at bay. Confabulation is akin to allegory, an image which stands for a thought, described by Corbin as ``a rational operation, implying no transition either to a new plane of being or to a new depth of consciousness.''24 They are mortal enemies: where confabulation holds sway, embodiment disappears, causing a loss of substance and erecting a wall against the fresh. It is of the utmost importance in work on embodied imagination to guard against confabulation.
