Creativity? Ingenuity? Make-believe?

創造力？獨創性？說服力？

No matter who you are or where you come from, chances are you spend a lot of time imagining things.

不管你是誰或你來自何方，你可能常常花很多時間想像一些事。

But while you might use your imagination every day, scientists understand imagination a lot less than you might imagine.

雖然你可能每天都在運用你的想像力，科學家對想像力的了解遠遠不及你的想像。

Where does imagination come from? Why do we imagine at all? And is there a way for you to become more imaginative?

想像力是從哪裡來的？我們到底為什麼會想像呢？有沒有辦法讓你變得更有想像力？

With the help of my friends here at Cirque du Soleil's Zarkana, we are about to explore the delightful possibilities of imagination.

在我的朋友太陽劇團 Zarkana 的幫助下，我們將要來探索想像力令人愉悅的可能性。

And our journey begins right where you'd imagine it would: in your brain.

我們的旅程就在你料想到的地方開始——你的腦中。

Look at the X in the middle of your screen. Now imagine a red triangle there. Got it? Does it look something like this?

看著螢幕中央的 X。現在想像著那裡有個紅色的三角形。可以嗎？是不是長得像這樣？

If we guessed right, you might be thinking: "What's the big deal?" Until you realize you could've easily imagined this, or this, or this,

如果我們猜對的話，你可能會想那又怎樣？直到你發現你也可以輕易地想像成這樣，或這樣，或這樣，

or any of a hundred different kinds of triangles, but you didn't, and we knew that.

或任何一百種不同的三角形。但是你沒有，而且我們也知道。

Our imaginations are unique, but there's evidence that some ideas and images are shared by all of us.

我們的想像力是獨一無二的，但證據顯示大家對一些圖像的想法是相同的。

To show you what we mean, we'll give you another shot.

為了要讓你了解，我們再試一次。

Imagine a hero. That's all the information we're gonna give you.

想像一位英雄。這是我們能給你的所有資訊。

Just picture a hero in your mind. Got an image in your head? Does it look something like this? Did we read your mind again?

就在腦海中想像一位英雄。在腦中有個畫面了嗎？看起來是不是像這樣？我們是不是又猜到你的想法了？

Of course, real heroes come in all shapes and sizes, all ages, all genders.

當然，真正的英雄可以是各式各樣的，各種年紀，和不同的性別。

It could be your parents or grandparents, or Rosa Parks or Jackie Robinson.

可以是你的父母或祖父母。或是羅莎．帕克斯、傑基．羅賓森。

You might even think of a sandwich.

你甚至可能想到一個三明治。

But your default setting is probably a hero that looks like Superman, so what's going on here?

但你默認設置中應該是一個長得像超人的英雄。到底發生了什麼事？

Here to explain is Dr. Sara Mednick from University of California, Riverside.

現在從加州大學河濱分校來的 Sara Mednick 博士要來替我們解釋。

Every culture shares common images and themes that make up the raw material of your imagination.

每個文化都有一些共同的圖像跟主題，構成我們想像中最基本的元素。

Psychologist Carl Jung called this the collective unconscious, but new research has uncovered something called the social unconscious.

心理學家 Carl Jung 把這個稱作集體潛意識，但新的研究發現了一個叫做社會潛意識的現象。

These are shared beliefs and values you might incorporate into your thoughts and behaviors without even realizing it.

這些共同的信念或價值觀可能會融入你的想法和行為舉止，而你甚至完全沒有察覺。