Imagination helps us create concepts, which filter our sensory inputs and ultimately impact our emotional experience. Thus, we can imagine a rock or river to be a deity and so condition ourselves to feel joyful whenever we encounter that rock or river. Our emotional experiences can also inform and shape our concepts. So, when a rock or river gives us joy in some way, we declare it must be a deity. Concepts therefore help us rationalize emotions; emotions help us rationalize concepts—it is a two-way process.
