‘Tell me one last thing,’ said Harry. ‘Is this real? or has this been happening inside my head?’
Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry’s ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure.
‘Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?’

– J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I rediscovered this quote recently, re-reading the Harry Potter novels in anticipation of the upcoming release of the first installment of the film version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I love the quote in that it encapsulates almost perfectly a though I have been pondering for quite a while;

Why do things of the imagination ‘not exist’?

This thought includes mental constructs including, but not limited to imaginary friends, Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and even the tooth fairy. Perhaps as physical entities, in which people externally cannot visualize, they may not exist, but in the mind they are as real as day. Perhaps more so in children than in adults, but imaginary entities and realities do exist none the less.

So how dare we say that something that is not present in the physical world in a corporal reality does not exist? Why do we choose to stand by the framework that dictates that if it is imaginary it is therefore not real?

Somewhere in the years of primary school (I would hazard to break that down further to say, somewhere between kindergarten and grade three), human beings lose the liveliness of their imagination. That is to say, Santa Clause ceases to exist and imaginary friends die; it is a time when children take their first steps into an adult world of skepticism, pessimism and prejudices.

I admit that it is during this time that parents, teachers and adults tend to criticize children’s naivety in believing what is’ not real’, what exists only in a child’s head, pushing them to grow up a little more with each passing year of school, however I do not believe it adults telling children that their imagination is false is entirely to blame for this phenomenon.

No, I think imagination has more to blame for the demise of itself than we give it credit for.

I think, that in the years where imagination begins to wain, is when concepts such as death, loss and loneliness become more understandable and more real. No longer is the imagination a sanctuary of  purely wholesome belief systems or beings; it becomes a world where your parents die and you’re all alone, where the big kid at school beats you up, where you become a mass murderer, where you grow up and no-one loves you. Suddenly the imagination becomes a scary place and the only consolation we have as children and even adults is to say to ourselves “It’s okay….it’s not real. It’s all in my head”.

Sure as adults we try to nurture children’s imaginations and encourage story telling of fairies and unicorns as long as it is confined to a page, to a story that doesn’t escape into a real world foray where it is going to impact on daily lives.

It is when adults see their children believing things that exist in the mind “really exist” in the physical world that they get scared and start preaching “reality” and “sense”. Because if the world contained within the imagination is allowed to exist in the physical world in which humans live, all the bad things we never hope to happen may well become a reality as well.

Just a thought;

xx Chani Unger