Visualizing the unseen

When I was a little girl, my dad used to read to me before I went to sleep. I remember him reading “The little prince” to me. I remember looking at the hat-shaped illustration (figure 1); and then turning the page and seeing the “x-rayed version” (figure 2) of the boa constrictor digesting the elephant. I needed to see it to believe it. And I did. I believed. A few pages later, I looked at the three drawing attempts made of a sheep (figure 3). Then, I looked at the box (figure 4). “The sheep you asked for is inside” my dad read. I looked at the box. I imagined the sheep inside the box. I didn’t need to see it to believe it. I knew the sheep was in the box, and it astonished me.