Cassandra Vieten wants La Jolla residents to spend five minutes each morning imagining their day.
Vieten, director of research at UC San Diego's Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, published her book "Imagine That: Transform How You Think, Feel, and Live with the Science of Imagination" on Aug. 11. The 304-page hardcover, priced at $29, lays out a case that imagination is not a gift reserved for artists but a trainable skill with measurable effects on the brain and body. The publisher also lists Pete Docter as a contributor.
"We suffer from relegating imagination to art, entertainment and creative things when, in fact, you use your imagination all day, every day," Vieten told UC San Diego Today in an interview published Tuesday, Sept. 8.
The Clarke Center, part of UC San Diego's Qualcomm Institute in La Jolla, studies the neuroscience behind how people generate ideas. Vieten also serves as a clinical professor in the UC San Diego School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine and directs the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness.
Her research points to imagination's physical footprint. When a blindfolded person imagines something visual, the visual cortex activates. Imagining movement fires the motor cortex. Imagining sound triggers the auditory cortex.
That neural wiring cuts both ways. Vieten warns of what she calls the "Great Flattening," a dampening of imagination driven by constant screen time and dependence on artificial intelligence. In the UC San Diego Today interview, she said over-reliance on AI can erode a person's ability to generate original ideas.
Her proposed antidote is simple.
Vieten recommends a five-minute morning routine: after brushing teeth or pouring coffee, visualize the full day ahead and ask how you want to feel in each situation. The practice, she said, can shift the brain out of anxiety-driven worst-case thinking and into what she described as a "rest-and-digest mode" more conducive to relationships, creativity, productivity and focus.
The book introduces the concept of "imagination neurodiversity," the idea that each person has a distinct set of imagination strengths that can be identified and developed. Vieten describes three core domains: cognitive-narrative, sensory-motor and social-emotional.
Clarke Center director Erik Viirre is working to position the La Jolla-based center as a global leader in imagination neuroscience, according to Vieten. She has also submitted a grant proposing an educational curriculum for imagination training.
Vieten will lead an online workshop, "Imagine That: The Science, Power, and Magic of Your Imagination," on Wednesday, Sept. 16, from 10 a.m. to noon. The Institute of Noetic Sciences is hosting the session. Registration costs $39.
Upcoming La Jolla events
- Monday, Sept. 14: Afro-Cuban jazz quintet plays a free concert at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library.
- Wednesday, Sept. 16: La Jolla Shores Permit Review Committee meets to consider a demolition and two additions.
- Wednesday, Sept. 16: Vieten's online imagination workshop, 10 a.m.–noon, $39 through the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
