Synthetic imagination and pure imagining

In his classic 1937 book Think and Grow Rich (download pdf of entire book), Napoleon Hill contrasts synthetic imagination with creative imagination:

SYNTHETIC IMAGINATION: Through the faculty of synthetic imagination, one may arrange old concepts, ideas, or plans into new combinations¹. This faculty creates nothing. It merely works with the material of experience, education, and observation with which it is fed. It is the faculty used most by the inventor, with the exception of he who draws upon the creative imagination, when he cannot solve his problem through synthetic imagination.

CREATIVE IMAGINATION: Through the faculty of creative imagination, the finite mind of man has direct communication with Infinite Intelligence². It is the faculty through which ‘hunches’ and ‘inspirations’ are received. It is by this faculty that all basic, or new ideas are handed over to man.

1. Today, this is known as combinatorial creativity.
2. Infinite Intelligence is also known as spirit, source, intent and the Tao, and by various other names (read more about Infinite Intelligence and the synonyms). But the name is irrelevant: “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao” – Tao Te Ching.

In place of creative imagination I have adopted the term pure imagining for the following reasons:

Both forms of imagination could be considered creative.
The contrast with synthetic imagination is stronger.
Imagination is an abstract noun, a pseudo-thing, whereas imagining is a verb, an activity.
Pure imagining suggests a co-creative partnership with intent (aka Infinite Intelligence, spirit, Creative Action etc. — view list of synonyms and related terms).

The image below shows the relationship between the two forms of imagination, the brain’s hemispheres and the two worlds.