Every really new idea looks crazy at first.
Alfred North Whitehead
Ideas are the seminal cognitions of the objects of our perception; essentially, untried concepts. All creativity begins with the possibility of something new being conceived. New ideas that are inspiring lead to the birth of new hypotheses, beliefs, values, capabilities, behaviors and ideals of what can be created within, and change, the environments we live in. The more we learn, the more new possibilities arise, which fuels greater curiosity.
Ideas, made of the same stuff as ideals, exist in the immanent mind of our self-organizing universe all the time. When appropriate conditions arise, new ways of thinking (ideas) about the nature of the objects of our perception can take hold and be conceived in the fertile womb of our mind. An idea is “a fiction object or picture created by the imagination; the same when proposed as a pattern to be copied, or a standard to be reached; one of the archetypes or patterns of created things, conceived by the Platonists to have excited objectively from eternity in the mind of the Deity” as defined in Webster’s Dictionary. A mind able to question existing beliefs, is an open mind. Into open minds — not predetermined minds — new ideas can be conceived, developed and evaluated for their usefulness. Out of trial and error, new hypotheses generate which, in turn, eventually mature into useful beliefs.
Lama Ole Nydahl says the brain is like a television and mind is space — inherently wise and full of potential — and the more open our minds are, the more information our receivers can pick up. Gregory Bateson also had the notion of the mind as immanent, and the mind we think of as being our own is simply a fragmented part of a larger mind field.
This might explain the phenomenon of the simultaneous discovery of new theories from separate individuals working in physical isolation from one another. Our thinking and perceiving are all part of the self-organizing nature of the universe in which new structures — including ideas — emerge out of the universal field of possibilities. Certain people just happen to be the most fertile soil for these ideas to germinate and take root in. New ideas about future possibilities are, in essence, fragments of ideals yet to be acknowledged. New ideas also help clarify and refine existing ideals.
Realization is the process of coming to know what is real. What is real becomes more apparent when we have seen past the myths and superstitions that have obscured our perception. It is by examining phenomena of life from alternative perspectives that we us open to receiving new information that can also stimulate new ideas. Curiosity is driven by new ideas and information and the desire to more fully discover the nature of existence.
Curiosity is lost when we hold our beliefs with such certainty that we accept them as reality and, in the process, censor or distort other ideas or perceptions that don’t fit with the existing patterns. Yet, having a curiosity to learn more leads us to learn enough to know how little we know and how much more there always is to discover. Many advances in understanding the world have come when a person from one culture or discipline entertains a perspective from a different culture or discipline.
Since the universe is infinite, there are infinite points of perspective by which to view anything. “One’s mind,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes, “once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” Rather than being trapped by the stupidity and ignorance of any one limited perspective, our curiosity keeps us open to discovering and realizing more about the nature of things. The evolution of human consciousness is dependent on regularly entertaining new ideas and then discovering how they may be useful in gaining greater mastery in the process of learning to relate more respectfully and harmoniously with the rest of creation.
New ideas are articulated by asking: “How else are you thinking about this?”, “What other ways are there to think about this?”, “What else is possible or a possible explanation?”, “When you let go of how you have been thinking about this, what comes to you?”, “What would you rather believe?” Brainstorming sessions in which the mind is free to throw out uncensored ideas, can lead to useful new ideas.
