I have no problem with imagination ─ I grew up on SF and ghost stories, and as a grandpa I know not a little about Harry Potter. On the other hand, I have no reason to think, and I don't think, that magic ─ the alteration of reality independently of the rules of physics ─ exists anywhere but in imagination.
Dreams? It's unusual for me to remember what I dream, but from personal experience I think dreams are of two kinds. First, there are long sequences of loosely connected, plotless episodes, which I know about by being snapped awake from deep sleep once or twice and jotting down the details for later consideration. And then there are waking dreams, where you can interact with the dream, sometimes affect the story line, have a better chance of remembering it, and so on. A waking dream can reflect anxieties and other moods (and indigestion &c). You probably know the various hypotheses to account for such phenomena. But I don't attach magic to them either, prognostication, clairvoyance &c.
Don't think I follow that sentence. What does 'personification' mean in this context? And what lessons can be written objectively, and what kind of thing would one actually learn in such a lesson?
