...Paracelsus gave much thought to the effect of imagination on the life of man... 

...He associated the term with the word "magic," 

declaring that "determined imagination is the beginning of all magical operations." 

...He went on to explain that the imaginative power is sustained by the action of the will... 

...He insisted that to imagine and believe are necessary to the perfection of all arts and sciences... 

...It would appear, therefore, that by imagination, 

Paracelsus implied a kind of internal visualization 

-- the power to see clearly in the mind --

...All of the practical achievements of mankind exist first as ideas, and as such, 

must be imaged or experienced within the subjective nature... 

...Paracelsus assumed that imagination, therefore, 

was not merely the seeing of things that had no existence in themselves, 

but rather, the courage to extend the faculties of the mind into the unknown; 

to discover something of the infinite potential of universal consciousness...

- Manly Palmer Hall -

Excerpted from "Short Talks on Many Subjects" 

© The Philosophical Research Society