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

For thousands of years these simple words have enchanted children and grown-ups alike. Their special sound, and hidden meaning, prepare an inner stage, a place where the magic of words and especially those of the storyteller come alive.

Each word chosen by the storyteller comes packed with a lifetime of experiences. Words are symbols, simple patterns of black and white which have no meaning by themselves. It is only when the outer symbol is connected with a inner thought, feeling or sensation held deep in our memory, that words dance with meaning.

Storytelling is similar to good theater. The same magic spell occurs as the lights dim and the curtain begins to rise. We suspend our normal judgment and allow ourselves to be taken-in by the performance. Both storytelling and good acting imply a temporary suspension of critical judgment. We actually make ourselves believe that what we are seeing or hearing is true. But, this tendency to make-believe has been taken too far. You and I are telling ourselves stories all day long. We create fantastic images and believe in all sorts of things. Now I am afraid, these inner images have become more real, more alive and more compelling than nature itself.

Imagination goes much deeper than make-believe play and storytelling. Imagination is a mental field, a swirling flood of impressions, a movement of the immediate present blending seamlessly with the distant past.

The dictionary defines imagination is the capacity to create mental images of something not present to the senses. Dreams and problem solving happen in our imagination. Logic, reason and mathematics are all highly imaginative processes. Anything symbolic, including all forms of written and oral language, involve imagination.

Imagination is the process through which we build the image we have about ourselves. It is for this reason that we need to discover all we can about this most creative capacity of all.

To understand what this means, it might help to consider that image, imagine and magic all have a common root.

Image: is a mental picture held in the mind.

Imagine: is the act of forming a mental images.

Magic: is when the mind believes that an image or illusion is true.

You and I have become powerful magicians. We use the magic of words every day to conger images in our own minds and in the minds of others. This process of creating and believing in mental images is such a fundamental part of the human experience that it is difficult to overstate its importance, yet we take it for granted. Few of us however, have tried to see what is going on behind the smoke and mirrors. We all want to know how a magician is able to make an elephant disappear. Why not have the same interest is seeing the true nature of our own magic show?

It might come a surprise but, our eyes are playing tricks all the time. A great deal of research has been done on the process we call vision. What is most interesting is the fact that the light coming in our eyes is not directly involved in creating the image we see in our mind. The lens of the eye focus an image on the retina, that's true. But that sensory information is instantly transformed into pulses of energy which are carried deep into the brain. Once inside, the brain constructs a new image using its own inner light and that is what we "see".

All mental images are created in the same way. When you dream at night no light coming in your eyes yet, all those images keep popping up. The creative power of the mind is literally recreating what we see, sixty or more times each second. In a very real sense, the images we see with our eyes or in our dreams are all part of the same process, all part of imagination.

We participate in our perceptions. Part of what we call reality is information coming in directly from our senses and part is created from data stored in our personal memory. Though the light generated by the sun is the same for all of us, what each of us do to that light is quite unique.

The question is, "do we really see our children, as they actually are, or has the magic of imagination distorted our view? Does having an image, of your daughter or son, help you to be a better parent? Or does it get in the way? Is the rage that leads to child abuse really caused by the spilled glass of milk, or is something within the parent to blame?

The creative power of imagination is so great that we often fail to see the difference between what is true and what is imagined, especially when it comes to our own self-image. So, Discovering Imagination, involves looking at the image making process, including and perhaps most importantly the image we have created about ourselves and our children.