In Praise of Daydreamers
Collaged Hare
I came across some notes this week, that I took in 2009, while training to become a play therapist. I instantly remembered where I was in the lecture theatre that day and who the visiting Professor was – Mooli Lahad. It stands out in my mind, because I’d never taken notes so quickly, nor been so enthralled about what I was hearing. He was talking about the treatment of trauma and PTSD especially.
He started by stating his belief about the western world and its negative view of ‘fantasy’. “It thinks fantasy is delusional and about ‘spacing out’. It does not hold it in an honourable place as creativity. The imaginative child loses focus very quickly”, he said, “because they take what they want and then get bored…And they get overlooked in class and often ‘put down’ as daydreamers, who haven’t learned to concentrate and take school seriously. Daydreaming is frowned upon and the child soon gets lost and feels disengaged”.
Then I remember him pausing, for a long time, before leaning forward, resting both elbows on the lectern, fixing his eyes upon us collectively and saying, “The education system has let the imaginative child down, because it is information focused”.
I felt my heart lurch and my shoulders slump into their cradle. That’s me, I thought. I was that eternal daydreamer, roaming the plains of my imagination each day, 100% disconnected from the institution of school. Mooli told us that cultures that allow magical reality and lively fantasy, suffer less from psychological disorders and neuroses and cultures with rituals and ceremonies have less mental sickness.
“Daydreaming is a daily expression of our inner soul. It is normal and necessary and brings about health and healing”.
Daydreaming brings us home to ourselves. It gives us time to gain mastery. It changes the unchangeable and gives space for unfinished business to be finished. Fantasy allows us to rehearse, prepare and get ready for what is up ahead.
We learned about the professors work with holocaust survivors, genocide victims and those who had fled war and were eking out their days in refugee camps. “Creative fantasy brings healing for PTSD, because our trauma memories are stored in the visual part of the brain”. And all of this connected me with the passionate belief I’ve held, all my life (at an intuitive level), that all things creative are deeply healing – they leave you feeling restored.
I’m daydreaming now…I can see a school system that starts at 8.45am each day, by handing out Daydreaming Journals or Sketching books and allows each child to let their imagination run free, (not chanting times-tables or spelling tests). An approach to education that promotes unique and creative problem solving and fosters a commitment to turbo-charging ‘out of the box’ thinking and originality. This, I believe, would equip children for the uncertain world they must surely face and foster each child’s remarkable ability to overcome life’s rough terrain.
The lecture ended with these words... “Those who are able to escape into fantasy and imagination are better able to cope with life’s challenges, knocks and traumas”.
Will we ever live to see Fantasy Studies on the school timetable?
Why not?
