Imagination, in common discourse, is often relegated to a secondary domain of thought – a frivolous, playful, and unreliable mental activity confined to childhood, the arts, or, at best, applied creativity. A “magic box” that opens only when logical rigor relaxes, when attention drifts toward invention and fantasy. Yet this view, however seductive, is ultimately reductive – if not misleading.

When examined through the lens of contemporary cognitive science, imagination instead reveals itself as a profound and complex cognitive function. Not only does it actively participate in processes of knowing, but it also constitutes one of their foundational dimensions. It is the mental faculty through which we construct alternative worlds, test hypothetical scenarios, and explore the unknown without needing to experience it directly. Far from being a mere appendage to rational thought, it serves as one of its key structural supports.

Even more striking is what emerges from recent scientific research: imagination possesses a metacognitive character. This means it does not merely generate mental content that diverges from reality, but is also capable of reflecting on itself – monitoring and adjusting its own trajectories, becoming the object of awareness and intentional regulation. In other words, imagining is not just about conjuring what is absent from the world, but also about knowing one is imagining, directing that act toward specific goals, and assessing its quality, limitations, and implications.

This represents a genuine epistemological shift – recasting imagination not as a passive or automatic process, but as a strategic ally of thought. Within this framework, imagination emerges as a faculty that weaves together multiple dimensions of our cognitive experience:

• perception, which provides sensory input;
• intuition, which enables rapid, non-linear associations;
• intentionality, which channels imaginative effort toward a purpose;
• and self-awareness, which allows us to revise and reinterpret what has been imagined, imbuing it with meaning and value.

It is within this layered and dynamic space that imagination assumes a renewed role: no longer a retreat into the unreal, but a critical tool for probing the possible. It becomes the lens through which we may observe not only what is, but what could be – and, through this, reconfigure our relationship with the present.

It enables us to anticipate without predicting, and to plan without constraining.

In educational, professional, and social contexts – and even more so within the fields of Futures Thinking and Foresight – this reconceptualization of imagination as a metacognitive skill proves to be strategically essential. To anticipate the future is not to guess what will occur, but to cultivate a gaze that can recognize alternatives, navigate uncertainties, and imagine trajectories not yet in existence. Doing so requires more than creativity; it demands a deep literacy in conscious imagination.

To rediscover imagination through a metacognitive lens is to restore its dignity as an epistemic, transformative, and educational faculty. A faculty not only capable of generating visions, but also of sustaining, interrogating, and refining them. A power to be reintegrated into our intellectual and civic formation – so that it may help us not only to imagine different worlds, but to understand the conditions that make them possible.

What are metacognitive skills?

In the lexicon of cognitive science and education, “metacognition” refers to that reflective capacity that allows individuals to become aware of their own mental processes, monitor them in real time, evaluate them critically, and, when necessary, modify them.

In essence, it is the ability to “think about one’s own thinking“: to know what one is thinking, how one is processing it, and why.

Though this faculty may at first seem abstract, it plays a crucial role across multiple domains of cognitive life. It enables us to break free from the automatic or unconscious dimensions of mental activity by introducing higher levels of regulation, control, and intentionality. In pedagogy, metacognition has long been recognized as a key enabler of deep learning, self-evaluation, and autonomy in study. When this faculty is extended to the domain of imagination, however, it opens a conceptual horizon that is still largely unexplored – yet extraordinarily rich with potential.

​In her article “Imagining Imagination: Towards Cognitive and Metacognitive Models,” Helen Burns (2022) explores the intrinsic interrelationship between imagination, cognition, and metacognition, proposing theoretical models that foreground imagination as a core component of thinking and learning. According to Burns, promoting authentic literacy in imagination – understood not as escapism, but as an epistemic practice – requires a deliberate integration of its metacognitive dimension. She argues that the synergy between imagination and metacognition enhances our capacity to learn and contributes to the development of personal and, potentially, democratic awareness.

From this perspective, to “imagine well” entails being aware of the imaginative act itself – assessing its directions, reconsidering its implications, and potentially reshaping them. It is an invitation not to passively undergo imagination as a spontaneous flow, but to engage it with lucid intentionality, much like one would engage in logical reasoning, storytelling, or design.

Imagination as a regulated process

Imagination, then, should no longer be understood as an uncontrolled mental energy – a centrifugal force of thought—but rather as a process that can be structured, guided, and modulated. Metacognition is pivotal in this regard, offering a reflective scaffolding that enables greater mastery over the content, form, and goals of the imaginative act.

This hypothesis is empirically supported by the study conducted by Xiaoyu Jia, Weijian Li, Liren Cao (2019), published in Frontiers in Psychology, which demonstrates that individuals with higher metacognitive awareness are more adept at engaging in creative thinking. Not only do they generate a greater number of ideas, but they also exhibit a heightened ability to select those that are most relevant, innovative, and contextually appropriate.

This finding is essential: it is not enough merely to “be creative.” One must also understand how creativity unfolds, under what mental conditions it thrives, and what strategies promote or inhibit it. Metacognition here becomes an inner compass – a “meta-regulator” of thought – enabling one to monitor the flow of imagination, to distinguish between plausible possibilities and unproductive fantasies, and to direct imagination toward meaningful, relevant, and transformative ends.

In contexts such as problem-solving, innovation, and strategic planning – central to Foresight and Futures Thinking – this conscious regulation of imagination becomes critically important. It helps avoid both sterile improvisation and aimless speculation, favoring instead a form of design-oriented imagination capable of engaging with the full complexity of reality.

Imagining as a conscious act

Further theoretical insights are offered by Kieron P. O’Connor and Frederick Aardema’s (2003) in their study published in Consciousness and Cognition, where they outline a taxonomy of consciousness levels associated with imagination: precognitive, cognitive, and metacognitive.

The precognitive level includes automatic sensory and mnemonic processes that generate mental images without deliberate intent.

The cognitive level encompasses partial awareness of imagination, as seen in daydreaming, divergent thinking, or spontaneous storytelling.

The metacognitive level represents the highest threshold – where individuals are fully aware of their imaginative acts and exercise reflective control over them.

From this perspective, imagining is far from a naïve activity. Rather, it is a sophisticated mental operation that can – and should – be exercised deliberately, refined over time, and subjected to critical scrutiny. Metacognitive reflection enhances not only the quality of imagination, but also its coherence, heuristic potential, and contextual relevance.

This view has significant implications for education and training. To teach people how to imagine—and even more, how to think about imagining – is to introduce them to a dynamic, integrative mode of thinking that is particularly well suited to navigating uncertainty and ambiguity.

Imagination as an epistemic faculty

At this point, the reflection moves beyond the cognitive and practical aspects of imagination and into a broader philosophical terrain: epistemology – the study of the nature, scope, and conditions of knowledge.

According to Joshua Myers  [The epistemic status of the imagination, 2021], visualization and metacognitive awareness are central to imagination when it is understood as an epistemic faculty – a means of producing knowledge.

Such a stance demands that we radically reconsider the status of imagination. No longer should it be viewed merely as a supplementary mental activity – useful for generating images, metaphors, or ideas – but rather as a true tool of knowledge, on par with intuition, deduction, or empirical observation.

What does it mean, concretely, to treat imagination as an epistemic faculty?

First, it means recognizing that imagining is not escapism, but a cognitive operation that enables individuals to construct mental models of the possible – to explore what is not yet but could be. Imagination allows us to transcend the constraints of the present, projecting thought into alternative futures, latent hypotheses, or emergent configurations. In this sense, it is both an exploratory function and a heuristic method – a way to question reality from new, potentially generative standpoints.

Second, when imagination is supported by metacognitive awareness, it becomes a reflective practice. It allows us to test alternatives, simulate consequences, and assess implications. We do not merely fabricate hypothetical worlds; we learn to differentiate between idle speculation and models with internal consistency, plausibility, and epistemic worth. Metacognition, in this light, does not constrain imagination, but hones and directs it – enhancing its capacity to produce insights that, while not always empirically verified, are nonetheless meaningful for understanding and engaging with the world.

Finally, viewing imagination as epistemic enables us to reassess its role in anticipating, designing, and constructing futures. Exercised with rigor and awareness, imagination not only expands the horizon of possibilities, but reshapes our very perception of reality. It becomes a cognitive medium through which we may challenge what is taken as “given,” “necessary,” or “unchangeable,” and reimagine the present through emerging, still-unformed visions.

In this way, imagination is not the antithesis of knowledge – as rationalist traditions have long implied – but an integral part of it. It operates in the liminal space between the known and the unknown, between evidence and speculation, between the already thought and the thinkable.

To recognize imagination as an epistemic faculty is to restore its full philosophical dignity and acknowledge its extraordinary transformative power. It invites us to understand that knowledge does not arise only from observing the world as it is, but also – and perhaps more urgently – from imagining how it might be different. In a time marked by profound discontinuities, systemic crises, and radical transitions, this faculty is not a luxury: it is a cognitive, cultural, and evolutionary imperative.

From epistemology to practice: metacognitive imagination in Futures Thinking

To embrace imagination as an epistemic faculty – as outlined thus far – is to acknowledge its active, conscious role in the production of knowledge, particularly in domains characterized by uncertainty, potentiality, and the not-yet. This recognition finds its most compelling and transformative expression in the field of Futures Thinking and Strategic Foresight.

Futures Thinking does not aim to predict the future in a deterministic sense. Rather, it seeks to multiply and qualify possibilities. It is a deliberate and structured process that explores future scenarios, tests alternative hypotheses, imagines evolutionary pathways, and evaluates the implications of present decisions.

Within this framework, imagination is not ornamental, nor merely inspirational. It functions as the central cognitive engine of the process. And when imagination is supported by solid metacognitive awareness – that is, a critical and methodical reflection on how and why we imagine what we imagine – it becomes a powerful tool for strategic design.

A pedagogy of conscious imagination

Training in the metacognition of imagination is not simply a matter of developing creative thinking. Rather, it involves teaching how to think the thinking that imagines: to recognize its patterns, its blind spots, and its potential. It entails cultivating a form of knowledge that inhabits the space between reason and possibility, between what is and what could be.

Educating the imagination – in its highest sense as a metacognitive and epistemic faculty – is not about encouraging unfocused creativity or celebrating spontaneous flashes of insight. It is something far more profound, demanding, and transformative.

To train the metacognitive imagination is to guide individuals in critically engaging with their own imaginative processes: questioning not only what they are imagining, but how they are doing so; examining the assumptions that underlie their mental models; exploring the cognitive frameworks they are operating within; identifying the alternatives they have left unexplored; and reflecting on which visions they are privileging – and why.

This kind of education, still largely unstructured in formal learning environments and even more so in organizational settings, aims to foster a mental posture capable of inhabiting the liminal space between the actual and the possible, between systemic rationality and creative intuition, between what exists and what might – or ought to – exist. It is, in essence, a pedagogy of liminality: one that does not aim to transmit pre-defined knowledge, but rather to prepare minds capable of navigating uncertainty, remaining present in productive ambiguity, and generating new meaning in uncharted territories.

In today’s complex and turbulent world – marked by multidimensional crises, deep discontinuities, and systemic transitions – this capability emerges as one of the essential competencies of the 21st century. No longer a luxury, but an educational, political, and cultural necessity.

Teaching people how to imagine consciously is not an abstract intellectual exercise. It is the act of training change-makers: enabling the emergence of citizens, professionals, and leaders who are capable of anticipating the signals of the future, proactively adapting to transformations, and above all, acting with transformative intelligence.

Such intelligence does not separate thinking from action, but connects them through vision, regulated intuition, and systemic reflection.

An infrastructure for the future

This form of education cannot be confined to schools or academic institutions. It concerns every space in which meaning is produced, decisions are taken, and futures are imagined. Businesses aiming for sustainable innovation, public administrations managing social complexity, communities seeking regeneration, and movements aspiring to transformation – all these domains require a culture of conscious imagination. Not as rhetorical embellishment, but as a foundational cognitive and ethical infrastructure for the future.

In this sense, a pedagogy of metacognitive imagination is not a standalone discipline to be added to existing curricula or strategies. It is a transversal weave to be integrated across educational, organizational, and civic practices. It is an invitation to cultivate minds that are not only capable of thinking about the future, but also of interrogating the present through the lens of what might otherwise be.