The Lost Knowledge of Imagination

The Lost Knowledge of Imagination 

By Gary Lachman

 Starting in the mid-to-late 1700s, there was a subtle but profound shift in human consciousness. For centuries, early humanity relied heavily on the right brain—its creativity, intuition, and imagination—to navigate the world. People believed in animism, forest spirits, gods, angels, and countless other unseen forces. Then, around the Enlightenment, the left brain began to dominate. Everything became scientific and material. Reality was reduced to cause-and-effect in the physical world, with little room left for spirit, myth, or imagination.

Lachman traces this evolution through the ideas of various philosophers and scientists. One thinker (whose name escapes me as well) made a striking distinction: there are the rules of geometry and the rules of imagination. Each mode of consciousness, he argued, operates according to its own valid set of principles.

Chapter 2 explores Owen Barfield, a member of the Inklings and close friend of J.R.R. Tolkien. Barfield proposed a radical idea: imagination actually fuels language, rather than the other way around. While many believe we first experience the world and then develop language to describe it, Barfield suggested we are born with imagination and linguistic capacity already within us. We then project that inner reality onto the physical world we encounter.

Another perspective Lachman covers is the notion that the outside world is essentially an illusion. What we perceive as reality—sights, sounds, smells, and textures—may simply be data fed into our brains, much like being plugged into a computer that generates all sensory input. In this view, our perception shapes how the physical world appears to us.

Throughout the book, many thinkers advocate for a fusion of right-brain and left-brain consciousness—merging science with imagination—to arrive at the fullest, most perfect form of truth. Yet if the world is ultimately an illusion, the very concept of objective truth becomes slippery. What we call “truth” may simply be the things we can all agree upon.

Overall, Lachman’s book is a fascinating exploration of how we lost touch with the imaginative faculty that once defined human experience. It’s thought-provoking and worth reading if you’re interested in consciousness, philosophy, and the hidden history of ideas.