How to Coach Yourself and Others Better Coaching Through Visualisation | Page 154

can generate images in the absence of visual input. In the mind, this
ability is translated into the reproduction of pictures of life, of our
worlds, that can affect us in profound ways. This phenomenon was
recognized by philosophers and scientists centuries ago.
Aristotle identified phantasia, what has since been interpreted as
imagination. However, Aristotle’s use of the term phantasia appears
to be more closely associated with what humans actively perceive, or
see. This realization, and the later assumption that an object being
physically seen cannot be imagined at the same moment, conflicts
with the equation of phantasia to imagination. Beyond this, Plato
adapted phantasia to describe perception, using phainesthai, meaning
“to appear,” in relation to mental processes. However, today,
phantasia remains understood as fictional imagery, or fantasy. The
modern term that essentially describes Aristotle’s and Plato’s
concepts is mental imagery, forming an image of something in our
minds in the absence of seeing that something.

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