Creativity? Ingenuity? Make-believe?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

You might even think of a sandwich.

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

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

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

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

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