Tapping unseen energy: The creative power of teaching and imaginal space

The creative process is how we engage with life, and all of us interact with life in different ways. For me, teaching has been my creative passion because it feels like the ultimate “meeting of life.” Every new group is a mystery—you never know who will show up or what challenges and gifts will emerge.

One of my favorite authors, Jacob Needleman, writes that a sense of meaning is more important than anything else in life. Without meaning, we fall into despair. As he says, “We’re built to serve something greater than ourselves.”

Getting Messy is a book about the beauty and richness of teaching. Here’s an excerpt from the conclusion:

A friend who loves metaphors once asked me what metaphor came to mind for this book. Instantly, my subconscious provided a very clear image, though I hesitated to share it. The image was the mushroom cloud from the atomic bomb. (Messy, indeed.)

This image stemmed from a play I’d recently seen about the science leading up to the bomb. What stood out to me was the idea of two different substances colliding, splitting atoms, and releasing an enormous amount of energy. Intrigued, I looked it up:

“In 1898, French physicist Pierre Curie and his Polish wife Maria Sklodowska-Curie discovered that pitchblende, an ore of uranium, contained a substance emitting large amounts of radioactivity, which they named radium. This raised hopes that elements around us held tremendous amounts of unseen energy, waiting to be tapped.”

That phrase—“tremendous amounts of unseen energy, waiting to be tapped”—resonated deeply with me. It perfectly captures the essence of Getting Messy.

The book is about learning, creativity, imagination, and stepping into the unknown. It presents a higher vision of teaching and learning, one that bridges two polarities: learner-expert and learning process-creative process. When we bridge these polarities, we create third space—imaginal space.

Like the radium discovered by the Curies, imaginal space is already present in our everyday lives. It’s an unseen energy, waiting for us to access it.

I believe it’s time to tap into that energy.