Michael is an educational and documentary filmmaker; writer, photographer and co-founder of Touch the Future.

Mother and child are not separate. During pregnancy the two share the same nutrients, oxygen and hormones. They participate and share in each others emotional and cognitive ambience. Few experience this subtle dialogue. Those that do usually believe it's severed at birth. This is simply not the case. The dialogue continues, a deep relationship, beyond the borders of the body, time and space. This is the great gift of the pre-verbal child. Theirs is a world of deep intuitive knowing, boundless affection and an open invitation to rediscover the fresh immediacy of being alive.

I will never forget those pre-verbal days. John-Michael would come toddling along and suddenly... stop short. Something new had caught his gaze. This time it happened to be moss. You know, that stringy stuff we put in our potted plants. He began to reach and then, looked up, eyes filled with passion, burning with curiosity. Friend or foe he wanted to know? In that glance an exchange took place, one so quick it was complete before words could form. My perception of moss caused a subtle change in us both. A spontaneous field of meaning was created, and like the shot in his mother's dream, was shared by both. It wasn't facts or figures but a "silent knowing". My ambience created order and safety for John-Michael and I, by watching, listening and feeling, rediscovered the wonder of seeing the world through eyes that are innocent. All in a glance. All without words.

Armed with his new insight my little munchkin charged ahead. Moss went flying in all directions. He pulled, tugged, smelled and tasted, all the time building a full structure of knowledge that would last a lifetime. Usually, out of fear, we say no, don't touch that, you'll get dirty or poke your eye out! But the little darlings persist and sooner or later all of this, the sight, sound, smell, the taste, and the "silent knowing" is tucked neatly away as a precise pattern of neural connections. Then he looks up again and we give whatever it is a name.

What's in a word, that sound that comes to stand between us and the "real" world? Why have words become so important? What gives them the power to shape and control our lives? How can we use this incredible resource to build a better world?

Words are symbols or triggers that stimulate a subtle replica of the original experience within the brain. Once in place the actual moss is not necessary. All that is needed is the symbol and the full sensory pattern; the texture, taste, smell and emotional ambiance of the original experience is projected as an image in the mind. That's right! Researchers at the University of California at San Diego recently released photos confirming that simple word recognition is accomplished primarily by the visual centers of the brain, not the thinking or memory centers. Words are experienced as images and without these inner pictures, words would have no meaning at all.

Literally, "the ability to make mental images" is called imagination. Yet, the actual powers of imagination go far beyond this to include the creative inception of all new forms and possibilities. We take imagination for granted, assume that it is there, hard-wired into the system, standard equipment you might say. But this is not the case and that is why we are in trouble. Like all human potentials imagination must be awakened, nourished and developed or we loose the capacity.

How important do you think words would be if our children never developed the capacity to create these inner images? Imagine, if you can, not being able to imagine. Without imagination the world would remain exactly as it has been. There would be no new possibilities, no creative power, personal choice or freedom. We would be stranded in a world without hope. This is the world many of our young people face for we have virtually eliminated imagination from early childhood.

Limit the need, range and use of words and you control how and what people think. Limit make-believe play in the early years and you limit the ability to plan ahead, control attention, conceive of new alternatives and solve problems. Give children a constant supply of finished images and representational toys and you eliminate all need to create. Why bother? Its all been done for them. Without the external challenge, the developing brain has no need to build the neural pathways required for inner imagery. In this subtle but profound way the brains of our children are different from every generation that preceded them.

Doing it all for them is a subtle form of control and television is the perfect tool for this control. Television confines physical activity. It isolates, limits and unifies experience. It eliminates the need for descriptive words and floods the brain with a compelling form of counterfeit imagery.

But the problem goes deeper than television. Changes in the American family, lack of leisure time, over-crowded schools, falling academic standards, the demise of meaningful family dialogue, the devaluation of language itself have all conspired to put an end to imagination. And when imagination goes, personal freedom goes right along with it. They are inseparable.

The American Dream, all creative dreaming for that matter, is based on an inner vision. There is idealism. That too is based on an inner perception, an insight of what can be rather than what has been. When we live in our memory we live in the past, the "has-been". But when we live in our imagination we live in our potential, the "what-can-be". Idealism, innovation and hope take root and blossom only in imagination. No problem ever found a solution which did not arise first as an inner image, an insight. And words, especially descriptive words, are the keys that unlock this creative power.