When Fiction Feels Real: How Imagined Experiences Trigger Real Mindsets

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on how emotions—and therefore mindsets—can be triggered by experiences that aren’t real in the physical sense. Stories, dreams, movies, daydreams… they may be fictional, but the feelings they evoke are anything but.

Take that animated movie—you know the one. It opens with a couple who met as children and spent their lives together. She couldn’t have kids, and when she passed, the old man was left completely alone. I’ve seen it multiple times, and I cry every time. It makes me think of me and my own husband, and our future. That sadness pulls me into a Knowledge-Based Mindset. I reflect. I imagine. I feel.

Then there are the scary books—the ones that made me practically sprint from the bathroom to the bedroom at night, keeping the light on until morning. Was I being logical? Not at all. My Survival-Based Mindset had kicked in, responding to imagined danger as if it were real.

And just last week, I heard my husband and oldest child scream from the other room. Instantly, my mind filled in the blanks: my youngest had fallen down the stairs, or maybe gotten ahold of scissors. My heart raced. I jumped out of bed, only to meet my husband running toward me—because there was a bat in the house. I’m not scared of bats, so it’s my job to catch them (yes, this has happened before, but that’s another story). His Survival-Based Mindset had triggered mine, thanks to my imagination. Once I realized it was just a bat, I calmed down and shifted into a more Balanced Mindset. I waited for the bat to land, then caught it.

You can call me batwoman :)

And then there are my dreams. Vivid, detailed, emotionally charged. I once dreamed I was holding my newborn son with one arm, clinging to a gutter as floodwaters rushed past. My arms ached. The towel wrapped around him began to slip. I let go of the gutter, but it was too late—he was pulled from my arms. I swam in panic, flailing for a foot, anything. Then I was pulled into a raft, screaming, “No, let me go. I have to find my baby!” I woke up with my heart racing and tears in my eyes. It felt so real. But I didn’t have a son—though I was pregnant, and had lost a previous pregnancy. Vivid dreams were common for me during pregnancy. I’m often not “me” in them—sometimes I’m male, sometimes a child, sometimes elderly. But the emotional themes are consistent.

For a couple of years, I frequently dreamed about zombies—instinct-driven, reactive, feeding in groups. Looking back, they were a perfect symbol of the Survival-Based Mindset. At the time, I was working a job I didn’t like and felt trapped. Maybe my dreams were trying to tell me something: change mindsets, think for yourself.

There are so many symbols of mindset in popular media, but that’s a topic for another post.

(One of my favorite movies)

The point is this: fictional circumstances can trigger real mindsets. Our emotions respond as if the situation were real, and the mindset that follows is appropriate to that emotional state. And even when we realize it’s not reality, the mindset doesn’t instantly switch off. It lingers. It shapes how we feel, how we think, and how we respond upon "waking up".

💬 Questions for the Reader:

Think of a time when a fictional experience—book, movie, dream—triggered a strong emotional reaction. What mindset did it activate? Did that mindset linger after the moment passed?