Increase Your Power of Creative Thinking in Eight Days

^Mcneade ^Mcneade tyoun tyoun

POWER OF CREATIVE THINKING ¡n Eight Days!

by

Ron Dalrymple, Ph.D., F.R.C.

Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, Inc. Printing and Publishing Dept. San José, California

Firs Fi rstt Editio n, 1985

Copyright 1985 Supreme Grand Lodge of AMOEC , Inc. Inc. A ll Rights Rights Reserved Reserved

Li bra ry o f Cong ress Cat alog No.: 85 85-50 -50428

N o p art of this publicatio n may be reproduced, stored in a retr ieva l System, System, or transmitted transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, otherwise, without prior written permission of the the publisher.

RO SICR UCIA N PRESS, l~TO., l~TO., SAN JOSE

L I T H O I N U S A, A,

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would wou ld lik l ike e to es e s p ec ially ia lly thank Dr. Bruce Bruce Fretz, Fretz, D irecto r of o f the the Counseling Psyc hology p rogram at the the University of Maryland, for his invaluable guidance and assistance in preparation of the dissertation research and manuscript which served as the the informational basis of this book. Drs. Karen Verbeke, Verbeke, Kathy Zamostny, Zamostny, Franklin Westbrook and Kent Norman also provided helpfu l insights and suggestions suggestions contributing to the gradual evolution of this work. The author would also like lik e to thank thank the the Rosicrucian Order for the the many many years of insight and growth which helped forge the inspiration al m atrix m anifest in this effort. effort.

CONTENTS

Introduction .......................................................................................... Firs Fi rstt Day: In itial iti al Self-As Se lf-As sessm ses sment ent

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......... .............. ......... ......... ......... ........ ......... ......... ......... ......... ......... .......

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Second Day: De velop ve lop ing a Creativ e Self-Attitude , Fart 1 ....................

25

Third Th ird Day: Day : D ev elop el op in g a Cre C reat ativ ive e Self-A Se lf-A ttitu tti tude de,, Far F artt 2 ........................ 39 Fourth Day: Pra ctic ing Cr eativity, eat ivity, Fa rt 1 ............................................

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Fifth Day: Thinkin g in Creative Pattern Patterns, s, Part

63

1

................................. Sixth Day: Day: Th inking in Creative Patterns, Part 2 ................................. Seventh Seventh Day: Day: Pra cticin g Crea tivity, Part 2 .......................................... Eighth Day: Final Self-Assessment ...................................................... Calcu Ca lcu lating lat ing Yo ur Cre ativ at ivity ity Quotient

79 95 105

........ ............ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ .......1 ...11 17

Conclusión...............................................................................................

12 1

INTROD U CTION CTION

This b ook is about creativity and you. you.

Cre ativity is the ability to bring new or unique things into being. It is the basis of invention, writing, art, music, mathematics, philosophy, thoug thought ht,, and and life itself. It is the source source o f humor humor and and the the w ell sp rin g of health and happiness. And it can be applied to any and all aspects o f our live s, in ord er to broade broaden n and and bring depth to our da ily realities. Eve ryb ody is Creative Creative in differ different ent way s, but often often we are not fu lly aw are of it. it. We each each poss ess a vast res erv oir of Creative Creative potenti potential, al, just wa itin g to be released. released. To rele ase this potential potential,, a ll we need need do is learn what creativity is and how to app ly it to our ow n lives. Once we le arn how to do this, this, we are each capable of am azin g things. The purp ose o f this this book is to help you develop you r Creative Creative potential in three three different different wa ys. First, you w ill be shown h ow to change yo ur attitud attitudes es about you rse lf and and you r Creative Creative potential. potential. Ma ny pe ople are astonished to to learn that that by si m ply thinking about them selves in Creative wa ys, their minds begin to function function more creatively. creatively. A num ber of techniques and examples will be given showing you how to achieve this. The secon second d w ay in which this book helps you dev elop yo ur Creative Creative potential potential is b y sh ow ing you a number of patterns of think ing that that are readil y app lied to Creative Creative endeavors. endeavors. These These simp le and easy-t o-ap ply techniques techniques allow you to approach approach a wide range of problems with a new and flexible repertoire of thinking and and prob lem -solvin g skills. The third third wa y this book helps d evelop y ou r Creative Creative potential is by giv in g you a lot of practi practice ce in perform ing Creati Creative ve tasks. tasks. Yo u w ill ha ve the the opportunity to complete a wide ra ng e o f Creati Creative ve exercises, in or der to practice practice the the new ly Creative Creative attitudes attitudes and think ing patterns you w il l be learning. The material in this book is divided into an eight-d ay pro gram . The first and eighth eighth days a llo w you to asses s the the levels of your Creative Creative functioning before and after you complete complete the the creativity p rog ram 7

INCREASE YOUR POWER OF CREATIVE THINKING

contained in the the book. book. In this this manner, you w ill be able to see see how much you have learned and how y our Creativ Creative e abilities have grown.

The second s econd and third thir d days day s of o f the prog pr ogra ram m teach yo u how h ow to im pr ov e yo u r Creative Creat ive self-c s elf-conc oncept ept,, by s ho w ing in g you yo u how ho w to stop s top thi t hink nk ing in g ne ga tiv ely abou aboutt yourself, and and to replace any ne gativ e thoughts thoughts and and feelin gs with po sitiv e ones. ones. Three Three different approaches are giv en for you to accom plish this. The fourth fourt h day da y g iv e s you a number num ber of c r e a tiv ti v ity it y exe e xe rcis rc ises es to complet com plete, e, which stimulate stimulate a wide range o f mental processes. By com bining the pos itive thinking o f the the second second and and third third days with the practice exerc ises o f the the fourth fourth day, day, you are give n a chanc chance e to put the the po sit ive thinkin g to work. The fifth fifth and sixth days teach you a numb er of specific thinkin g patterns and techniques that can be app lied to ma ny different types of problem s and situations situations which demand Crea Creativ tive e Soluti Solutions ons.. Y ou w ill learn how to analyze p roblem s by stretching stretching your imagina tion and by rea rran gin g yo ur thoughts thoughts at wi ll, disco vering in the process that that your Creat Creative ive powe r is only limited by your self-doubts and and by w hateve r habits habits of rigid thinking you p resently maintain. maintain. The sevent seventh h day aga in allo ws you to to practice practice usin g you r expan ding Creative Creative abilities in a num ber of different different and interesting wa ys. It give s you a chance chance to to use use yo ur new ly a cqu ired Creative Creative thinkin g patterns and and your n ew Creative Creative self-att self-attitude itude in tac kli ng the the exercises. Once you ha ve learned to use thes these e techniques techniques in a diversit y of wa ys, you w ill be able to to ap ply them them better better to to yo ur d ail y life. A s pre viou sly mention mentioned, ed, the the eight eighth h day allo w s you to rea sse ss your Creati Creative ve abilities after completing completing the the creativity program . You w ill be able to to deter determine mine how much pro gre ss yo u’ve made already, and you w ill have m any ideas and insights about your ow n Creative Creative process es to take take with you. Ideally, you w ill h ave learned to think think about you rse lf in in a more Creati Creative ve manner, manner, and you w ill know h ow to app ly yo ur Creativ Creative e abilities to ma ny different problem s and opportunities. opportunities.

Just re lax la x and en joy jo y your yo urse self. lf.

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FIRST DAY

9

First Day: Initial Self-Assessment

The Th e fo ll o w in g three th ree e xe rc ise is e s a llo ll o w you y ou to determ de term ine, ine , or measur me asure, e, you y ou r present lev el o f Creative Creative ability in terms o f using your im agination and and you y ou r rea so n ing in g pow er. er . Each Ea ch e xe rc ise is e is i s term te rmed ed a meas me asur ure e and is selfse lfexplanatory. explanatory. It provides you w ith a suggested time lim it for com pleting the measure. To s core each measure, si m ply ad add d up the the number o f answers you ga ve w ithin the the suggested time limit. limit. These scores w ill later be compared compared with the test scores you obtain after co mp leting th the e crea tivity program. program. The firs fi rs t meas m easure ure deter det ermi mine nes s yo u r ab a b ilit il ity y to m ake up u p ideas ide as at at w ill which describe describe a give n phrase or expression. This gi ve s you a chanc chance e to let your im agin ation play, to dream dream up anything yo u want that that fits the giv en phras phrase. e. The go al is to think of as man y things as you can within the th e giv en time limit. The second measure mea sure determ det ermine ines s y ou r ab a b ilit il ity y to think th ink o f as ma ny associations associations as you can which fit a give n category. A s you progress through the measure, the categories of association become more and more complex, c hallen ging you to re ally concén concéntr trat ate. e. As with the first measure, the the goal go al is to think of as many thing s as you can within with in the give n time limit. limit. The third th ird meas m easur ure e asses ass esses ses yo u r ab a b ilit il ity y to think thin k in term t erm s of of relationships. You w ill be asked asked to think think of answers that that have d ifferent types o f relationships to the the giv en words. As with the other other measures measures,, the go al is to think o f as as many answers as you can within the give n time limit. If you have d iffic ulty with any of these measures, measures, don’t don’t w orr y ab abou outt that th at!! The entire purpose o f this book is to show you how to imp rov e you r Creative Creative abilities, with the the hope hope that that eve ryo ne can lea m something from the th e c rea tivity program th that at follow s. It is important important to remember th that at cre ativity is a set set of skills which can can be be learned learned by vir tu ally everyone. A ll that that it takes takes is a little time and and energy. 11

INCREASE YOUR POWER OP CREATIVE THINKING

Once you ha ve learned to expand you r Creative Creative abilities, you w il l be able able to app ly them in a multi multitud tude e o f way s in y our d aily life. It is essential to realize that that by using the power o f Creati Creative ve thinking w e are able able to change and and im im prove the troubl troubled ed world we liv e in. in. So relax, enjoy yo urse ur self, lf, and learn lea rn all al l you yo u can. The future futur e is in our ou r hands. hands. When When you are ready, please proceed to the next page and and begin the first day o f th the crea tivity program. program.

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INCUBASE YOUR POWER OF CREATIVE THINKING

Measure 1 In this measure, measure, you w il l be asked to think think of as many wo rds or phrases as you can which can be used to describe the give n phrase. For e xample, i f you w ere asked to respond respond to the the expression, “ The man was as tall as ____ ______ ____ ____ ____ __ you yo u m igh ig h t answ an swer er with wi th m an any y diffe di ffere rent nt word w ords s and phrases. Some of these these migh t be “the trees,” trees,” “ the sky,” sky,” “ Wilt Chamberlai Chamberlain,” n,” an and d so so on. You r go al here is to think think of as many answers to the the giv en phrases phrases as you yo u can. Y ou r scor s core e on this thi s measur mea sure e w il l be the number of o f words wo rds and phrases phrases you wr ite down which somehow describe the the give n phrases. phrases. It is important to time you rse lf on this this measure so that that this begin ning score can later be compared compared to you r fina l score on an equivalen t measure. measure. A llo w you rself exac tly fiv e minutes minutes to complete complete this this meas measur ure. e. When When you are ready, turn the the page and begin, and be sure sure to a llow llo w you y ou rs elf el f exac ex ac tly tl y fiv f iv e minutes min utes w o rk in g time.

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Write as many words an and d phrases phrases as you yo u can think of o f which complete the given phrases below: 1. The mountain air smelled like:

2. The candy tasted tasted like:

3. The ocean looked loo ked like:

4. The touch of the sun wa was s as wa warm rm as:


Af ter te r you have completed Measure 1 with in the fiv e minute time time limit, simply add up the number of sepárate words and phrases you wrote down for a ll four parts of the measure measure comb combine ined. d. For example, if you ga ve fiv e answers to each o f the the firs t two questions, questions, and and seven answers to each each of the third and fourth questions, your total score for the measure would be 24. Write you y ou r total sc ore in the space below. Measure Measure 1 Total S c o re : ____ ______ ____ ____ __

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Measure 2 In this measure measure,, you w ili be giv en certain words or combinations combinations o£ o£ words, and your task w il l be to to list as many associations association s to the word s as you can. For Fo r examp exa mple, le, i f you we were re asked, “ Ñ ame am e ev e v eryt er yth h ing in g you yo u can that is orange,” you migh t answer with "the sun, sun,”” “ a bea beach ch umbrella,” umbrella,” “ oranges from Florida,” Flor ida,” and and so so on on. A s with the first measur measure, e, your go al is to think think of as many answ ers to the give gi ve n words as you can. can. Yo ur score on this measure w ill il l be the number number of things you w rite down which fit the cate gory described described by the the giv en wo word rds. s. It is al so importan! to time yo urs elf on this measure measure so you r score can can be compared compared to the the equivalen t measure give n at the end o f the the creativity crea tivity program. program. A llo w yours elf exactly tw o minutes minutes to to complete each each of the the three parts o f this measure. measure. When When you are ready, proceed proce ed to the next nex t paga and begin.

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INCREA.SE YOUR POWER OF CREATIVE THINKING

Write down as many things as you can think think of which fit the the given giv en categories below: 1

. Ñam e everyt ever ythin hin g you can can that that is blu blue: e:

2

. Ñame Ña me eve e very ryth thin ing g you can that that is blue and and roun round: d:

3, Ñame Ña me eve ryth ing you can that that is blue, round, and coid coid::

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1NCREASE YOUR POWER OF CREATIVE THINKING

A fte r you have completed completed Measure Measure 2 within the six minute minute total time limit, sim ply ad add d up up the the numb number er of sepárate sepárate things yo u wrote down fo r a ll three parts of the measure combined. combined. Write y ou r total score in the space space below. Measure 2 Total S c o re :______ :________ _____ ___

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INC REASE YOUR POWER OF CREATIVE THINKING

Measure 3 In this measure, measure, you w il l be give n a certain word, and and your task w ill il l be to think of as many answers as you can that that have d ifferent sp ecific relationship s to the the giv en word, word, You w ill be asked to think of synonyms, synonyms, antonyms, antonyms, and and words that rhym e with the give n word. For example, if you were we re g ive iv e n the word “ tight tig ht,” ,” you would wo uld be asked to list li st as many man y words as you could that rhyme rhym e with “ tight,” tight, ” next as many words as you could could that have the same mean ing as “ tight,” an and d then then as many words w ords as you could that have ha ve the opp osite os ite m eani ea ning ng from fr om “ tight. tig ht.”” Yo ur seo re on this measure w ill be the the number number of answers you write wri te down which which p rop erly relate to the the give n word. As with the the previous two measures, measures, it is im portant to time you rself rse lf so you r score can can be be compared to the the equ ivalent measure measure give n at the the end end of the the crea tivity program. A llo w you rself exac tly two minutes minutes to to complete complete each each of the three three parís of this measure. When you are ready, tum the page and begin.

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INCREASE YOUB POWER OP CREATIVE THINKING

The Th e giv g iv e n wo rd is i s " co id,” id ,” as in “ not hot.” hot. ” 1. Write down as man y words as you can that rhym e wit h or sound sound lik e “coid”:

2, Write Wr ite down as ma many ny words wo rds as you can that ha ve the same, or a sim ilar meaning to to the the word word “ coid” :

3. Write down down as many words as you can that hav e an an opposite, or nearly opposite, opposite, meaning to to the the word “ coid” :

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INCREASE YOUE POWER OF CREATIVE THINKING

Af ter y ou hav e completed Measure 3 within th the e six minute minute total time limit, s im ply ad add d up up the the number o í sepárate sepárate things you wrote down for a ll three parts of the measure combined. combined. Write you r total score in the space below. Measure Measure 3 Total S c o re : -------------

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SECOND DAY

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Second Day: Developing a Creative Self-Attitude Part 1

Toda To da y g iv e s y ou a chance chan ce to see how h ow you ttain ttaink k about about yours you rself elf,, in i n terms term s o í you r Creative Creative abilities and potentia potential. l. You w ill learn how your present present attitudes were formed and how those attitudes can be changed at will. When When these these attitude-changing techniques techniques are ap plied to crea tivity, tivi ty, you can learn to become more Creative Creative by think ing more c reat re at ive ly about about yo u rs elf el f and about y ou r ab ilit il ity y to handle han dle any number nu mber and ran ge o f problems, The third th ird day d ay o f the pro gram gra m , whic w hich h is, "D ev e lop lo p in g a Cre C reat ativ ive e SelfSe lfAttitude, Part 2,’’ continúes with these techniques. Relax, and get ready to think differently about yourself! When you are ready, turn the page and begin.

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Developin g a Creative Self-Attit Self-Attitude ude Partí The purpose of this this discussion discussion is to help y ou understand understand how people form attitudes attitudes about creativity, h ow these attitudes affect one’s Creative Creative abilities, and h ow these attitud attitudes es can be chang ed at will. First, First, we w ill consider consider your p reviou s Creativ Creative e activities activities,, h ow you became inv olve d in them, them, and and the the types of experienc es which might have interfered interfered with yo ur Creative Creative potenti potential. al. Second, Second, we w il l ex am ine a gener al procedure for ch ang ing ho w yo u think about about both both yo ur Creati Creative ve potential potential and your approaches to bein g Creati Creative ve.. Finally, we w ill present present three three w ay s in w hich you can apply this procedure toward you r Creat Creativ ive e development.

Current Attitudes Creativity is gen erally define defined d as bein g the the tenden tendency cy or ability to produce unusu al or orig ina l responses to a given situation situation or set set of stimuli. Most people are potentially Creati Creative ve in many w ay s but may not be fully awar e of it it. Lear nin g how to think about oneself differently differently can help ex pand one’s Creative Creative abilities, abilities, so that that one can lear n to generate or igin al ideas and productions in a multitude of areas. Before procee ding to a discussion o f how to chan ge the the attitud attitudes es we have about creativity and Creative Creative endeavors, it is first help ful to understand our present attit attitud udes es,, ho w w e form ed them, them, and how they affect us. Ex erc ise 1. In the the space provided, list wha t you con sider to to be three three of you r m ajor or favorite accomplishments accomplishments o f a Creati Creative ve natur nature. e. Inelude every thin g that that you feel is Creative Creative,, whether yo u think others would agree or not not.. For example, you might list dra win gs or paint ings you've done, done, poems or stories yo u’ve written, written, things yo u’ve built, built, or unusual thoughts yo u’ve u’ve had. had.

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1)

2)

3)

The type ty pes s o f Creative ac tivi ti viti ties es w e en e n joy jo y doi d oing ng usua us ually lly d ev elop el op because we seem to have some talent in those endeavors, or because because we are exposed to the the activitie s through other other people or through some form of training. training. Often we wo rk hard at at deve lopin g the things w e alrea dy seem to be good at doing. doing. In this manner, manner, it is easy to ov erloo er loo k other othe r areas of crea tivity which we might otherwise develop. This tendency tendency is is unfortunate unfortunate since since the same same princ ipies ipie s o f expa ndin g one’s Creative Creative potential app ly regardles s o f the the speciñc area involv ed. Once Once the the prin cipie s are learned, learned, they can can be be applied to any projec t or activ ity. Understanding Understanding how we developed our present abilities is therefore important to to learn ing how to g ene ralize them them.. Exerc Ex ercise ise 2. Take a moment to think about about each of the the answers you ga ve in Exercise Exe rcise 1, con side ring how yo u acquired or develop ed those Creative Creative accomplishmen ts. Then, in the the space prov ided on the the next page, brie fly describe the the most important experiences or influences influences w hich helped you

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produce those achievements. Y ou mig ht list parents, teachers, teachers, or friends who helped you develop specific abilities, or you migh t have read certain certain books wh ich influenced you. For exam ple, you might list that that a certain certain teacher taught yo u to writ e Creative Creative fiction or that a friend taug ht you how to paint. paint.

It is a lso important to understand understand whic h influences and experien ces have impeded or interfered interfered with our Creativ Creative e development. development. Sometim os we find that our Creative attempts attempts are not not met with a pp ro va l from others, or we m ight have experienced frustration in the the past when und ertaking va rio us d ifficult Creative Creative endeavors. These types of experiences can make us be líeve that that we lack Creative Creative potentíal potentíal,, thereafter thereafter dive rting our interests from Creative projects. projects. In orde r to to un rave ra vell these these negativ o influences, influences, we must first be be a wa re of wh ere and ho w they occur occur,, Ex erci se 3. 3. In the the space provided on the the next page, list the experiences yo u’ve u’ve had w hich have interfe interfered red with yo ur Creativ Creative e activities activities.. F ollow ing this list, list, write do wn the Creativ Creative e things you m ight hav e acc omp lished by now, w ere it not not for these these negative influences. For exam ple, yo u might list specific experien ces wh en someone disco uraged y ou r Creati Creative ve effor efforts, ts, and the the things y ou m ight have accom plished otherwise.

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Over Ov er the past sev era l decades, decades, much research has shown shown that cr ea tiv ity is g en erally discouraged in our school systems. systems. We are taught taught from an ear ly age to behave in certain ways, to conform conform to the the expectations of other others, s, an and d not to to deviate ve ry far fro m those expectations. expectations. If we do deviate devia te from the established norms, norms, we are chastised and and ridiculed ridicu led by othe others rs.. Since cre ati vity inv olv es th the e producti production on of unusu unusual al responses responses or idea ideas, s, these these types o f a ctiv ity are in complete complete opposition to the conform ist norms set by our peers and by our social systems. These negative circumstances circumstances can destroy one ’s Creative Creative endeavors o r manage to distort them in some manner. manner. These ef fects then further influence on e’s selfconcept about about his or he r Creative potential as being le ss than it migh t be. be. Other Other form s of ne gativ e self-statement self-statements s also influence our Creative Creative selfconcep concept. t. Self-statements Self-statements are the internal monologues with which we refer to ourselves. ourselves. When When we d evelop many ne gativ e self-statement self-statements s as a result result of lif e ’s experiences, these these grea tly lim it our crea tivo potential. potential.

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Part of becoming more more Crea Creati tive ve inv olv es le arnin g how to stop stop referring referring to ourselv es in nega tive ways, and repl acin g the the neg ative self-stateme self-statements nts with pos itive ones. ones. This sim ply entails b reakin g oíd habits habits and and rep lacin g them with ne w ones. ones. The fir st step step in this proce ss is to be be aware o f the the many w ays in which we think think nega tive ly about about ourselves. ourselves. Exerc ise 4. 4. List below all of the the ways in which you think ne gativ ely about ab out yourself. Fo r example, you migh t lis t the the ideas that you can’t write we ll, y ou’ re poor at mathemat mathematics, ics, and and you’re not as popular as you would like to be. be.

Thi T hin n kin ki n g for f or a moment mom ent about the ne ga tive ti ve self-s se lf-state tateme ments nts y o u V e listed lis ted above, how would th these ese interfere with yo ur Creative Creative potential? Fo r example, if you would like to learn how to play piano, piano, but but you ’ve maintained maintained fo r ye ars the self-perception that you’re al l thumb thumbs, s, how would this influence influence you r rate of growth as a pian ist? It wou ld slow you down at th the e least, poss ibly until you either quit piano or learned to change you r self-perception. self-perception.

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The ma teria te ria l that fo llo ll o w s present pres ents s a number num ber of o f wa ys in wh which ich y ou can lea m to change how you think about about yourse you rself, lf, both as as a Creative Creative individua l an and d in more general terms. terms. A number number of different approaches w ill be presented presented which are designed to to accom plish this. this. Remember: Most people are poten tially Creative Creative in many w ays but may not be be fu lly aware of it. it. Some of li fe ’s experie nces encourage our Creative Creative endeavors, endeavors, and some experiences interfere with our endeavors. These experiences help shape our our self-concepts, which then then gr ea tly influence our continuin g intere sts sts in Creative activ ities . Internal s elf-statements rein force an and d maintain our self-concepts, and these self-statements can be changed at will.

Chan ging Attitudes Attitudes Creativity, rather tha than n being identified with any sp ecific prod product uct,, is s imp ly a particular way o f thinking. thinking. It is a style of thinking that that intima tely inv olv es th the e self-concept. self-concept. A s discussed discussed in in the the previo us section, section, the the self-concept se lf-concept is rein forced forc ed and maintained by the selfstatem statement ents s w ith which we address address ourselves. If we think of ourse lves in a neg ative man manner, ner, then then we tend tend to create nega tive ex perience s in our live s, an and d we hamper our Creative Creative potential potential.. Convers ely, i f we l ea m to think of o urs elve s in a pos itiv e manner, manner, then then we tend tend to create more pos itive experience s in our lives, an and d we facilítate our Creative Creative abilities in general. By regu latin g our self-stat self-statement ements, s, we shape shape our self-concept. self-concept. Learn ing to change how we think abo about ut ourse lves can seem difficult at first, becaus because e o f the the persistence o f our present present hab habit its. s. A s we gradu ally effect effec t the the change and construct construct a more p os itiv e self-concept, this, too, too, becomes pers isten! isten ! and resistant to to change. Rep lacin g one’s neg ative self-statements self-statements with pos itive ones is execut executed ed with a simpl e procedure. procedure. The first step is to to be be aware of one's nega tive self-statements, as was outlined with Exercise 4. Briefly glance through the answers you gave to that exercise. These self-statements will now serve as cues to to when you are thinking ne ga tiv ely ab abou outt yourself.

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INCREASE YOUR POWER OP CREATIVE THINKINO

Whenev Whe nevery eryou ou realize tha that you are repeating one oí o í these these intern internal al selfself - statem statement ents, s, or o r you find yourse you rself lf thinking negativ neg atively ely about yourse you rself lf in any manne manner, r, tell yours you rself elf to Stop! Th is is m ost importa imp ortant, nt, so pleas pl eas e repe re peat at this t his idea ide a to yo u rs elf el f sev s ev eral er al times. times. Whenever you find yours elf repeating an internal monologue o f a neg ative na natu ture re,, or realiz e that that you are thinking n eg at ive ly about about you y ou rs elf el f in any w ay ay,, t ell el l you y ou rs elf el f to Stop! Th This is must be done don e forc fo rcef eful ully ly,, since habitual self-statements tend tend to wo rk in an automatic manner, often esc ap aping ing our conscious awareness. We must must begin now to exert a stronger influence over these processes in order to change them. Once Once the the ne ga gative tive self-statements are interrupted in this manner, they can can be be replaced replaced with po sitive self-st self-statem atements ents,, which we w ill soon deve lop in this program. Then, Then, each time time you stop a nega tive though thought, t, you w ill repeat a po sitiv e self-state self-statement ment fiv e times to yourself, to help establish it as a new habit habit.. This must be be done ev er y time you become aware o f a neg ative self-sta self-statemen tement, t, which requ ires some sma ll degree of diligen ce at first. T his is because because habits form ed lon g ag o tend tend to pop up in unexpected ways, at unexpected unexpected times. times. The proce ss becomes easier an and d easier with time, time, fortunately, so that you can eventu ally f org et ab abou outt the entire entire procedure procedure.. Y ou r neg ative self-statements self-statements are are then then fu lly replaced with the the positive ones. There Th ere are a number num ber o f types typ es o f pos p os itiv it iv e self-s sel f-stat tatem ement ents s that can be used in this procedure. procedure. Af te r discussing each of three basic forms o f such such statem statement ents, s, we w ill wo rk at de velo pin g some self-statements self-statements of our own, own, those those which seem to best best work fo r each of us as individuáis. individuáis. The Th e firs fi rs t for f orm m o f po p o siti si tiv v e self-s sel f-state tateme ment nt that we w e w i l l co nsid ns ider er is based b ased upon attitud design ed attitudina inall and personali person ality ty factors. factors. These are statements designed to help us see ours elve s and think about about ourse lves as unique, unique, Creative Creative individuáis, capable of doing man y things beyond beyond our present present lim its o f self-perception. It is important for each o f us to realiz e that that we are indeed indeed unique unique individuáis, an and d either possess now or can deve lop a number number of undiscovered tale talents nts.. E qu ally important is the realization that each ofu s must di seo ve r for f or ours elves what these talents are, are, an and d how w e m ight best apply app ly them to our our lives . We cannot re ly on parents, peers, or anyone 32


else to tell te ll us what to do or who to be be. We can learn learn much fro m others, but the decisions w e make in l ite ha ve to be our own, since we are the ones ones who l iv e w ith the consequen consequences ces.. Samuel Johnson Johnson reflected this idea with, “ No one ever y et became great by imitation.” This concept was echoed by W. W. Somerset Maugham with, “ Im prop riety is the the soul soul of wit.” Each of these these thinkers was e xpr essin g the idea that that crea tivity and and ind ividu ality g o hand hand in hand hand.. Le arn ing to rela x and be be oneself a llows the the boundaries o f the mind to expand and to to embrace m ore unusual unusual ideas, ideas, things which migh t not occur to other individuáis. individuáis. Being Creati Creative ve involves understanding that often there are no right or wrong answers, and and that that the the opinions of other people are sometimes per fectly irrelevant. How ever, when one one steps steps aside aside from the the pre va iling paths of conform ity in this this world, she or he is lik l ik ely el y to encounter encounter some degree of rejec tion and and scorn from others. Peer pressur e and and most social institutions wor k to reinforce conform ism and and to punish punish any deviation from the the established established norms. norms. Ind ividuáis often seek to control one anothe anotherr for p ersonal reason reasons, s, wh ich can also gre at ly im pede Creative Creative produ ctivity. Jonathan S w ift if t rathe ra therr cy n ica ic a lly, ll y, i f not humo hu morou rously, sly, exp e xpre ress ssed ed this State State o f affairs with, “ When When a true genius genius appears in this world, you m ay know him [o r her] b y this sign, that that the the dunc dunces es are all in con federacy ag ainst him [o r her].” her].” Lea rnin g to be unique unique and and individu alistic therefore in vo lve s some degree o f risk-taking. Th is ineludes ineludes establishing our own set of valúes, rather than turning turn ing to others fo r continuous continuous reinfor cement ceme nt and support. Fortunately, beco min g more mo re Creative tend tends s to to increase one’s selfconfidence, just as developing one’s self-confidence tends to increase one’s Creati Creative ve activities . Self-confidence furthers furthers one’s a bilities to take risks risk s and to set one’s own valúes. A s we reconstruct how we think about about ourselves and and how we allo w others others to influence us, us, we are creating the the prop er conditions for our Creative Creative ideas ideas to to emerge. Psy cho logis ts Ro gers and and M aslo w each each emphasize the importance importance o f establishing an environment o f psych ological safety and and free freedom, dom, within within which cre ativity w ill flourish naturally. 33


Sum marizing the above conce concept pts, s, cre ativ ity is facilitated by: by: thinking about about ourselves as being unique unique individuáis; individu áis; rea r ea lizin lizi n g that that we are each capable of fin din g our own answers to life li fe ’s problems; understanding that that we need not not bow too deeply to peer or so cial pressures; and and reali re alizin zin g that risk-taking and self-confidence are important characteristics to develop. A list o f self-statements self-statements based based on on these these and and related ideas fo llows. llow s. I w il l be Creativ Creative, e, unique.

I can find m y own answ ers to problems. problems. I am not afraid to take risk s o f a reasonable nature. nature. I have ev ery reason reason to believe in myself. I w ill not wo rry ab abou outt what other others s think. think. Most questions are not a matter of rig ht an and d wrong. I w ill not think think of my self negatively. I w ill relax an and d be myself. Exerc Ex ercise ise 5. 5. Read through the the above lis t of statements statements severa sev era l times and and choose the two which you like th the e best, best, or which seem to make the the most sense to you. In the space below, b elow, write wr ite down dow n the statements you ha ve chosen chosen.. F ollow ol low in g this, this, a llow you r mind mind to wander fo r a moment, moment, and and see see what other po sit ive self-statements come to mind mind.. Write W rite these these down as well.

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Read through through your l is t of self-statements self-statements sev era l times, and and tell yo u rs elf el f that you yo u w i l l Rem R emem embe berr them. Fro F rom m now n ow on, when wh en ever ev er you find yo u rs elf el f think thi nk ing in g n e g a tiv ti v e ly about you rself rs elf,, te t e ll y o u rs e lf to Stop, as pre viou sly discuss discussed, ed, and and replace the negativ e self-statement self-statement with whic heve r of these pos itive self-stat self-statements ements seems to fit the situat situation ion.. Take Tak e a momen mom entt to repe re peat at yo ur chosen chos en po p o s itiv it iv e selfse lf-sta statem tem ents ent s sev s ev eral er al times to yourself, say ing each one one at least fiv e times. times. Make a habit of repeating these statement statements s to your sel f eve ry night before yo u g o to bed bed,, and an d when you wake wak e up in the the mornin g. Th is conclud con cludes es the th e second sec ond day da y o f the cre c re a tiv ti v ity it y pro p rogr gram am . Rem R emem embe berr eve ryth ing that you have learned today, today, fo r you w ill find innumerable innumerable way s to apply these these techniques techniques to you r daily life.

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THIRD THIRD DA Y

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Third Th ird Day: Da y: Dev D ev elo el o p in g a Cre C reat ativ ive e SelfSe lf-At Attit titud ude e Part 2

Toda To day y continú c ontinúes es with w ith the technique techn iques s designad desig nad to help you y ou th ink about yo u rs elf el f in a Creative Cre ative manner. manner . C hang ha ngin ing g one’ on e’s s habits habi ts and self-attitude self-att itudes s takes time, e sp ecia ec ially lly because the the oíd habits and attitudes can be resistant to change, often popp ing up when we least expect them. them. In order to counteract and change unwanted habits, habits, we must mu st be persisten persi stentt in our efforts to remo ve them. them. This requires being awa re of our thinking processes as they happen. happen. We begin begin this procedure procedure by tel lin g o urselves to be be more aware o f our thoughts and and fee lin gs as they occur, occur, so that we can Stop Stop the nega ne gative tive thoughts thoughts and fee lin gs and and replace them with p ositiv os itiv e ones. ones. Do not be discouraged discouraged if this method seems seems diffic ult to pe rform at first, because because with pr actice it becomes easy. It becomes a habit. habit. Take Tak e a mom ent to r ev ie w the po siti si tive ve self-stat self- stateme ements nts yo u lear l earned ned yester yes terday day,, and decide to make m ake them th em a part par t of o f you r life. lif e. Relax, and and enjoy the the th rill of ga inin g more control ov er you r life! When you are ready, ready , tura the pag e and begin.

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Develo ping a Creative Self-Attitude Self-Attitude Part 2 The Th e second seco nd form fo rm o f po siti si tive ve self-sta self -statem tement ent that th at we w i l l discu d iscuss ss is i s based on the idea of o f allow all ow in g the conscious mind to rela x its usual boundarie boundaries, s, in order to tap tap the the w ellspri ells pring ng of cre ativity ati vity resident within with in the the subconscious mind. This approach follows Freud’s psychoanalytíc psychoanalytíc tradition, where creativity is postulated as being an ínteraction between conscious and unconscious processes. The well-k now n process oifree is based based on the concept of this Ínteraction, wh ere one relax es association is the usual ego, or conscious conscio us Controls, Controls, and States States w ha hatev tever er comes com es to mind. mind. Free association is executed when one is relaxed, wíthout muscular exertion exertio n or sensory distraction, distraction, and and sim ply speaks as if in volve vo lved d in a ram bling conve co nversar rsaron on.. The loosen ing of o f the the usu usual al conscious conscious Con Contro trols ls allows forgotten memories and unwanted relationships to surface, a process that helps the individual gain self-insight and understanding. Sim ilarly , a varia tion of free association can be used used when searching for fo r Creative ideas. ideas. Here, one does not not totall tot allyy allo a llo w her or o r his thoughts to to ramble, ramble, but but rather rather allows allo ws them them to vacill ate around around a giv en idea or subjec subject. t. For Fo r example, exam ple, i f one wish es to think o f new and unusual unusual uses uses for a piece of string, str ing, one a llows llo ws the thoughts to fluctuate around around the the idea of the the string. In this sense, sense, one’s one’ s thoughts are centered on a specific speci fic point po int of reference, as opposed to Freudian free association where one’s thoughts are not specifically centered. This Th is app a ppli lica catio tion n o f free fre e asso a ssocia ciatio tion n to cre c re a tiv ti v ity it y m ight ig ht better bet ter be termed rela xed attention, attention, since one is low erin er in g the usual boundaries of the the ego wh ile maintain m aintaining ing some degree of attention attention as to where one ’s thought thoughtss are leading. The important si m ilar ity between these these two form s of free association associa tion is i s that that each each taps into unconscious and and preconscious material, g iv in g the conscious conscious mind a greater field of visión. Relaxed attention involves some degree of detachment from one's thoughts, thoughts, where one obser ves the thoughts thoughts passin pa ssing g through the mind like an impar im partial tial bystander. bystander. This degree d egree o f detachment detachment allow s the processes of the mind a wide range of movement, and avails the individual of a means of ob servin ser vin g and absorbing abso rbing the processes that that occu occur. r. This 40


technique technique is an effec tive means means of balan cing control with the the loosenin g o f control ov er conscious processes processes.. To o much control leads leads to rig id ity and and little creativity, and and too too little control produces produces a laek o f awareness as to where the thoughts thoughts are progr essin g. Finding Find ing one’s ind ividua l sense of balance between control and the slackening o f control req uires some experimentation and and practice. practice. One approach approach to to find ing one’s balance balance is to sit o r lie down in a relaxed position positio n and observe obse rve on e’s thoughts thoughts as if one wer e watch ing a mental mental televisión scre screen en.. T his process is fac ilitated by clo sing one’s eyes and im aginin ag inin g a blank white screen stretched stretched across the the inside o f the the forehea forehead, d, across wh ich the the image s and and thoughts thoughts w ill progress. Take a moment to cióse you r eyes, ima gine such such a screen, screen, and and observe observ e wha tever appears there. there. Do this before pro ceeding. This Th is process pro cess of im a gin gi n in g a scree sc reen n in v o lve lv e s the facu fa cu lty o f visualiza- tion, since the the ima ges and thoughts occur in a visual sense, sense, Free association was o rig ina lly developed as a semantic semantic process, process, but but relaxed attention attention can be approached from either.the either.the verba l or v isu al modes. That is, one can practice observing verbal and visual streams of consciousness when enga ging gin g in Creative endeavors. The entire e ntire purp p urpose ose o f these procedu pro cedures res is i s to find f ind Creativ C reative e ideas idea s or or answers to problems by tapping tap ping the the subconscious subconscious mind. mind. Other theorists present sim ilar concepts, concepts, such such as as the the idea of “ regress reg ress ion in Service o f the the ego,” where one volun tarily r elaxes e go Contro Controls ls in in order to “r egre ss” to more prim itive lev els of thou though ght. t. Another group o f theoris theorists ts conceives of cre ativ ity as controIled controIled regression to pa ssiv ely experienced fantasy and and prim itive lev els of though thought, t, which are then then integrated integrated with reality, This latter group o f inves tigator s has also used used hypnosis as a means means of tapping the subconscious. Self-suggestion is is a means of app lying a form of self-hypnosis to our Creative endeavors. Self-suggestion simply involves “feeding” or pro gra m m ing the subconscious mind to do do what we desire. desire. One tells the the subconscious mind a number of o f times what to do, do, and and then then forg fo rget ets s about it, it, assuming assu ming in the process that that the the job w ill then be accomplished. accomplished. B y forg etting abou aboutt the the process after g iv in g the subconsc subconsciou ious s its instructions, instructions, one is sending a me ssage into that reg ión and and then then allo wing wi ng 41

INCEEASE YOUR POWER OF CREATIVE THINKING

the the subco nsciou s to take take ove r the the process. Th is is an important point point,, since since continuing to to consciously think the the orig ina l directive wi ll sim ply keep the thought thought in the the conscious mind, preve ntin g the the subcon scious from doin g its Creative Creative work.

The self-st sel f-state ateme ments nts we are d ev el o p in g in th is p rogr ro gra a m are a spec sp ec ific ifi c form of self-suggestion. Self-suggestions can be be more complex, such such as as a wr iter directin g the the subconsci subconscious ous to to formúlate a plot fo r a new nov el, or a mathematician as king the subcon subconsci scious ous for help in so lvi ng a theo theorem. rem. The impo im porta rtanc nce e o f for ge ttin tt in g about the process pro cess,, once the subconsc su bconscious ious is told wha t to to do, do, is also seen when one waits f or an answer. The subconscious mind will project ideas and insights into the conscious mind when it is ready to do so, and this can happen at any time. Chara cteristically, it happen happens s when we least expect it, it, The best best wa y we can prepa re fo r it is sim ply pl y to be open to it and and wait fo r it to come, come, Should Should we keep think ing the the origi na l direc tive on a conscious conscious level, repeatin g it it endlessly to ourselves, we w ill only inter fere with the the process process.. Th is indica ind icates tes an essenti esse ntial al aspect asp ect o f pr op er ly usin us ing g the self-st se lf-statem atem ents we are d eveloping in this this program. Once the the statements statements have been repeated repeated to to onese on eself lf a number numb er of times , they must be forgotten about for the time being, allowing the subconscious mind to go to work . The app ropria te statements are not not thought thought about con sciously scio usly aga in until the the need need arises. That is, is, when one one aga in re alize ali zes s that she she or he is thinki ng negatively about oneself, then the positive self-statements are used again to replace the negative ones. Sum ma rizing the above concept concepts, s, before procee ding to our list o f selfstatement statements s for this this sectio section, n, we know that cre ati vity is facilita ted by: re la xin g the usual boundaries boundaries between the conscious and subconscio subconscious us minds, so that that origin ori gin al ideas and and insights can surface fro m the subconscious subconscious into the conscious; conscious; relaxed attentio attention, n, a procedure sim ilar to free association, where one observes the conscious processes like a detached detached bystander; using a visua l mental screen across which images imag es and and thoughts thoughts can progress; prog ress; and and using s elf-su gges tion to feed directions into the subconcious mind, after which one forgets about the process and waits wait s fo r the answers to come. come.

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INCEEASE YOUR POWER OF CREATIVE THINKING

A list of self-statem ents based on these and and relatad relatad ideas ideas follow s. I

w ill re lease Controls Controls and let

m y mind wander.

I w il l use free association, association, and and let ideas flow. I w ill relax, and and just let it happen. happen. I w ill let m y ideas ideas play. play. I w ill feel like a bystand bystander, er, observ ing m y ideas flow through through me. me. I w ill il l let one answe r lead to anot another her.. I w ill ob serve m y mental screen screen,, all ow ing thoughts thoughts and and images to flow across across it. it. I w ill use self-sugg estion to progra m m y subconsciou subconscious s min mind, d, when search se arch ing fo r Creative ideas, ideas, or to change how I think about about things. Exe rcise 6. 6. As with the previo us lis t of self-stat self-statement ements, s, read read through the above list seve r al times, and and choose two which y ou like li ke the best best,, or which seem to make the most sense to you. In the the space below, w rite down the the statements statements you have chos chosen. en. Fo llow ing this this,, allo w y our mind to wander wan der for a moment, and and see what other other pos itivo self-statements come to mind. mind. Write these down as well.

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INCUBASE YOUR POWER OP CREATIVE THINKING

Ftea tead through through this list severa l times, and and tell y ou rse lf that that you w ill Remember them. them. Whenever you find you rse lf thinking ne ga tiv ely ab abou outt yo urse ur self, lf, or want w ant to generat gen erate e Creat C reative ive ideas, ideas , te t e ll y o u rs elf el f to Stop, Sto p, then feed your subconscious subconscious mind mind whiche whic hever ver o f these these self-statements seems appropriate appro priate to the the situation. situation. Take a moment to repeat the the self-statements fiv e times to yourself, before mo vin g on to the the next sectio section. n. This Th is section sec tion is perha p erhaps ps best conclud co ncluded ed by John Locke, Locke , who w ho r eflect efl ecta a an idea sim ilar ila r to that that developed develope d here with the technique of self-suggestio n. “ The thoughts that come often unsought and, and, as it were, drop dro p into the mind mi nd,, are commo nly the the most valuable of any we hav e.” Ex ercise 7. A ga in repeat repeat your list of self-state self-statements, ments, the then n sit for a few moments in quiet relaxa re laxa tion to see see what ideas come to mind mind.. Write Wr ite in the space below wh whate atever ver ideas occur to to you. you.

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The third th ird and fin fi n al for f orm m o f po p o s itiv it iv e self-sta self -statem tement ent that th at we w il l discuss disc uss is based on the the idea o f how w e think about our mental capabilities. A number number of crea tivi ty researchers h ave focused on this approac approach, h, seek ing to stimulate stimulate Creative production production by teac hing ind ividuáis h ow to think differently about about their p roblem -solving abilities abilities.. W illiam illia m James expressed this idea with, “ Genius, Genius, in tru truth, th, means little more than than the the facu lty o f perc eiv ing in an unhabi unhabitual tual way .” Le am ing how to think think pos itive ly about about one’s problem -solving abilities requires some understanding understanding of the the proble m- solving process. process. R ea lizin g that that problem s are a normal part of life , the fir st step in this process is to anticípate that that one one w ill il l be able able to cope with and solv e his or her problems as they arise. Th is attitude attitude grea tly increases the the likelihood that one one w ill be able to find an adequate solution solu tion to the situation. Given th that at one one remains optim istic about about being able to to s olve one’s problems problems as they arise, it it is not alw ays an easy m atter to reco gnize an and d com pletely id entify a specific problem when it occurs. occurs. One One of the the clearest iden tifyin g fe ature atures s o f a problem is found found within one’ s emotional reaction to the the situation, situation, Rather than beco ming distracted by the emotion, one can can use it as a cue to shift one’s attention to the problem that seems to be causing the the upse upset. t. This is analogous to to becom ing aware o f neg ative selfstatements in order orde r to replace them them with p os itiv e ones. ones. Further, usin g the the emotion as a cue cue to to shift one’s attent attention ion helps helps avoid ma king im pu lsive reactions to the the problem. Once Once the individu ind ividu al has reco gniz ed that a problem exists exis ts and has focused her or his attention upon upon it, it, one tells onese on eself lf to gather gat her more facts and an d Inform ation about about it. it. A ll aspects of the situation must be understood understood and an d define defined d ve ry spe cifically , so that that no detail w ill be missed. missed. The individua indiv iduall must then then formúlate formú late wh at the the nature nature of the prob lem is. Fo r example, one asks what forces are interacting to produce a given conflict. A fter ft er th the e problem has been been defined and and formulated, formulated, one can begin to generate alterna alte rnative tive pos sible Solutions to it. One One technique useful here is known as as “brainstorm ing,” a procedure similar to the pre vio us ly discussed concepts o f free ass ociation an and d relaxed relax ed attention. The basic rules of brainstorm ing are: are: to rule out out criticism; to a llow any and and all

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ideas to come to mind, no matter how improbable; improb able; that quantity o f ideas w ill lead to to more high qu ality ideas; ideas; and and that that comb ining and and imp rov ing upon upon ideas is encouraged. What this means is that when one tries to generat e altern alt ernativ ative e Solutions Solutions to a problem, problem, one tells ones elf to to init ial ly allo w any and and all ideas ideas to come to mind, mind, without attemp ting to evalúate them until later. Sepárate ideas can be taken taken apart and and recombined recombined at will, form ulatin g w hatev er one wishes. Fo liow in g the generation of as many alterna tive Solutions Solutions as possible possible,, one then then m oves ov es to the decision-m decis ion-m aking phase in or der to selec t the the best best strate gy or strategies. strategies. This requires m aking a prediction as to the the lik ely consequence s of each proposed course of action. One must also consid er the rela tive tiv e ease o f implem entation o f each each course course of o f action. action. One then then balances the the possible effective ness o f the the action action aga inst the expected diff icu lty o f using it. it. If this this procedure should should indícate indícate that that none none o f the proposed alterna alte rnative tives s seem feasible, then one can return return to the the generation o f further alternatives. alternatives. Once Once a course of action is selected, selected, one implem ents it and tries trie s it out. out. If the solution works, the problem is solved. I f the solution does not work, one can can try other generated alternatives, alterna tives, r eturnin g to any phase o f the the procedure as required. Su m m ariz ing the the above concepts, concepts, before proceeding to ou r list of selfstatements for fo r this section, section, we k now no w that findin fin din g Creative Creative Solutions to problems is facilitated facilitated by: by: learn ing to thin think k of oneself as being able to cope with with and solve problems as they arise; arise; telling one self to to observe emotional reactions a s cues ale rting one to the the presence of a specific problem; telling oneself to define and formúlate problems specifically; and tellin g on eself to generate and test test alternative Solutions to problems.

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INCREASE YOÜR POWER OF CREATIVE THINKING

A list o f self-statements self-statements based based on these these and and related ideas ideas follow s. I can cope w ith problem s I enco encoun unter ter.. I can learn learn to perceive things in many different ways. Problems are a normal part o f life. life. I w ill use emotional emo tional reactions r eactions as cues to the presence of problems. I w ill not react react im im pu lsive ly to proble problems. ms. I w ill define e ve ry d etail related related to a problem. problem.

I w ill generate alternative Solutions to to the the problem , without initially jud gin g them them.. I w ill evalúate and and ve rif y th the e alternatives alternatives only after several have been generated. I can turn turn a giv en disadvantage disadv antage into an advantage. Exercise 8. A s with the the prev ious two lists o f selfself-stat statements ements,, read through through the the above lis t severa l times, times, an and d choose choose two wh ich you lik e the best best,, or w hich seem to make the most sense to you. you. In the space below, writ e down the the stat statement ements s you have chosen chosen.. Fo liow ing this, this, allo w you r mind to wander fo r a moment, moment, and and see what other pos itiv e self-statements come to mind. Write these down as we ll.

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Read through this list s everal times, and and tell yo urs elf that that you w ill Remem ber the state statemen ments. ts. Whenever you find y ou rsel f thinking neg atively ab abou outt you rself or your ability to face and and solve a given problem, tell y ou rse lf to to Stop, Stop, then then repeat to yo ur self se lf several times wh iche ver o f these these self-statements seem appro priate priat e to the situation. situation. Take Ta ke a momen mo mentt to rep eat the self-st se lf-state atemen ments ts fiv f iv e tim es to you y ours rself elf.. This concludes conclu des the descr de script iption ion o f po siti si tive ve self-st self -state ateme ments nts based on the the three approaches of attitudinal and and persona pers ona lity factors, tap ping the subconscious mind, mind, and mental abili a bilities ties.. Read through thro ugh each o f the the three lists o f self-statements again, an and d think about about how you w ould use them in different situati situations ons.. For examp le, if you had to to think of a title fo r a story you yo u had written wr itten,, you y ou woul w ould d firs fi rs t Stop Sto p a ll n eg at ive iv e thoug th oughts hts about yo y o u rs elf el f and and your yo ur ab ility ili ty to think o f such a title. tit le. Yo u m ight ig ht then use one o f the the statements statements from th the e firs t list, such as, as, “I w ill il l be Creative, Creative, unique,” unique,” and, an d, “ I w ill not not w orr y ab abou outt what others others think.” think.” A s you wrote out a couple of attempted attempted Solution Solutions, s, you m ight find that they didn’t quite seem seem to fit the story. N ext, you could repeat repeat to you rse lf some o f the statements statements from th the e second second list, such such as as, “ I w ill release Control Controls s and and let my m ind wander,” wander,” and, “ I w il l let my ideas ideas play .” Should Should th the e answers still be slow in com ing, you could t ry som e of o f the statements statements from the third list, such such as, as, " I can perce ive this problem in a different different w ay ,” an and d, “ I need need to define define eve ry detail detail o f the the problem problem first.” If you still had not arrived at a solution after trying to stimulate ideas ideas with the selfself-stat statements ements,, you could use se lf-sugge stion give n to you r subcon scious, in struc ting it to find Solutions for you. Then, Then, a ll yo u need do is wait, be ing certain to continué a positiv e internal m onologue.

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Ex ercis e 9. 9. Once Once more, say you r six statements statements to yourself. yourse lf. Now, Now , write in the the space be low as many things th ings as you can think of that are round round,, blue, and warm.

Remember: We can learn to increase our Creativ Creative e abilities by cha ngin g our attitu attitudes des about ou rse lve s and our Creati Creative ve potential potential.. B y rep lac ing o ur negative self-statements self-statements with positive ones, ones, and by fee ding selfsugg estio ns to the the subcons cious mind, we can re formú late our selfconcept and our Creative activitie s at will. Some of the the m ajo r concepts upon wh ich these self-statements can be based inelude that crea tivity can be facilitated by: by: thinking of ourse lves as being u niqu ely Creativ Creative, e, selfconfiden confident, t, independ independent, ent, and capable of taking risk s; re lax in g the the boun daries between the the conscious and sub consciou s minds, minds, and ob se rv ing the thoughts and and imag es that that pas s a cross one’s mental mental screen with a detached detached perspective; and te lling oneself to define and formúlate prob lem s as they arise, sea rch ing for Creative Creative Solutions Solutions until one one is found and verified. Most important of all, all, reme mbe r to replace yo ur neg ative self-statements self-statements w ith po sitive ones. Reme mber also to repeat these these statements statements to yo urs elf eve ry nigh t before before go ing to bed bed and when you aw ake in the the morning. A s these these concepts concepts become second nature to you, you w ill be amazed to discove r the the pow erf ul effect they have u pon you r thinking and you r Creati Creative ve abilities.

This Th is concludes conclu des the third day of the cre c re a tivi ti vi ty prog pr ogra ram. m. Sleep Sle ep w e ll on on these these ideas, ideas, for fo r tom orrow you w il l have hav e a chanc chance e to practice putting these these techniques to work.

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FOURTH DAY

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Fourth Fourth Day: Practicing Creativity Part 1

Toda To day y g ív e s you a chance to put yo ur d ev elo el o p in g Creati C reative ve abi a bilit litie ies s to work, What What follow follo w s are a number number of different ex ercises ercise s which tap various vario us aspects of your Creative potential. potential. Before proce eding edin g with the exercises, take a moment to look over ov er the po sitiv o self-statements o f the second second and third days, and and repeat them to your yo ursel self. f. Focus F ocus upon how the statements sta tements can be used used when app a pplie lied d to so lvin g a g iven problem, as outlined outlined in in the the third day day o f the the program. You w ill il l now ha ve a chance chance to direct ly a pply this procedure procedure to a numbe numberr of different cr ea tiv ity tasks. Ftem Ftemem ember ber to first Stop all n ega tive thoughts abou ab outt you rself rs elf and and you r deve lop ing in g Creative Creative abilities, and then then to to apply ap ply wh iche ver o f the the statements statements seem to fit the problem. You can can also use self-su ggestio gge stion n and feed the the statemen statements ts to your subconsci subconscious, ous, gi vi n g the subconscious subconscious a moment to go to work for you. Th is latter procedure usually requires more time to work, although it can provide ideas immediately. The fo llo ll o w in g exe e xerc rcis ises es g iv e y ou recommen recom mended ded tim ti m e lim li m its it s wit w ithi hin n which to work. Tr y to fo llo w these these limits as clo sely as possible, possible, to to obtain obtain the th e máximum máximu m benefit fr om the practice. The seventh seve nth day o f the pro gr am w i ll present prese nt “P ra ct icin ic in g C reat re at ivit iv ity, y, Part 2.” 2.” No w relax, an and d let your Creative ideas flow! When When you are ready, ready , turn the pa page ge and begin.

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Practicing Creativity Part 1 E xerci xe rcise se 10 10. This is a measure to see how many m any things th ings you can think of that are alike in some way. Fo r example, if y ou were asked to list al l the the things you could think think of th that at are are al way s viol et or are vio let more often than th an any any other other color, you might list “ vio let s—th s—the flower ,” “ tw iligh t,” an and d so on. on. You m ay use one word, word, seve se vera rall words, or a phrase to describe each thing. A llo w yo ursel ur selff abo about ut three minutes to complete this exercise. The cate ca tego go ry is “ square.” squar e.” List Li st all al l the thing th ings s you yo u can think thin k o f in the space below that are always square or that are square more often than any other ot her shape. shape.

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Exe rcise 11 11. When When you are are thinking creative ly, it is is often often helpful help ful to think in sequences sequences of ima ges an and d words that that are somehow linked together. together. To p ractice th inkin g in sequences, sequences, this measure measure requ ires you to think of words h aving av ing m eanings which are are the the same same as or sim ilar to a given word. word. For example, if you were g iven the word “ long,” you might write “lengthy,” “extended,” “tiresome,” and so on. Write down as many words as you can think think of, allo w ing you rself about about five minutes minutes to complete the exercise. In the the space below each of the fol low ing three three words, words, write as many words as you can think of that that ha have sim ilar m eanings to the the give g ive n word: Quick

Weak

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Heavy


Exercis Ex ercise e 12. When When tryin tr yin g to find Creative answers, answers, you can often see things in in a new ligh t by rearr ang ing how you c atego rize certain objects objects or ideas ideas.. Yo u can practice this this type of mental fle x ib ility by listin g as many objects as you can which which belong to any g ive n class o f object objects. s. In thís thís exer cise, yo ur task w ill be to to list as man y objects as you can which belong to the the give n class. class. For exam ple, if you were g ive n the class class “ dog,” you m igh t lis li s t “ terr te rrie ier, r,”” “ span sp aniel iel,” ,” “ c o llie ll ie ,” and so on. on. A llo ll o w yo u rs elf el f about about two minutes to complete this e xercise. In the the space below, lis t as ma ny things as you can that that belon g to the the class “metal.”

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Exerc Ex ercise ise 13. Crea tive ideas often come from fin din g new uses uses for common objects. In this exerc ise, you y ou are to lis t as many uses as you can for the the g ive n object. object. P or exa mple, i f you were asked asked to to list all the uses uses you could fo f o r a piece pie ce of strin st ring, g, you y ou migh mi ghtt inelude inel ude “ pictur pic ture e h ange an ger,” r,” “ teeth cleaner,” “ toy to y hat strap,” and and so so on. on. You r answers can be rea listic list ic or comp letely imaginary. A llo w yourself abou aboutt five minute minutes s to complete complete this exercise. In the space below, l ist is t as many man y uses uses as you can can for a “tin “ tin can.” can.”

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Exercise 14. Another important aspect aspect of cre ati vity is lea rning how to to express com plex ideas in a simple form. One means means of practicing this is creating titles for a given story plot. plot. In this exercise, you w ill be give n a story stor y plot and asked to to write as many ap propriate prop riate titles as you can which represent the plot. The titles can be rea listic list ic or ima gina tive , but they must must have some clear relationship to the the give n plot. For example, if you were giv en a plot about about a convict ed felón be comin g the the Presiden t of the United State States, s, you migh t cali it “ From P arolee arol ee to President,” or perhaps, perhaps, “ Jail to the the Chief.” A llo ll o w you rse lf about about three three minutes minutes to complete this exercise. In the space below, wr ite as man y approp riate t itles as you can can for fo r the the fo llo w in g plot: A poor imm igrant carne carne to the the Unite United d States States ove r one hundre hundred d years ago, and wanted to get rich. rich. He tr ied many m any differen t occupations, occupations, and and fin al ly decided decided that that sellin g ille i lle ga l and contraband contraband goods was the most profitable business there was, He eventually began selling arms and munitions to both sides of any given conflict, but found that when the confl co nflict ict ended ended so did his business. He then decided to buy newspapers newspa pers and sell prop aganda as well, to insure that that world wide conflicts could be sustained and even started. Years later, one of his descendan descendants ts continued continued his wo rk w ith another mark eting etin g scam—The Coid War.

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INCREASE YOUR POWER OF OF CREATI VE THINK ING

Ex erc ise 15. Creative Crea tive think ing often inv olve ol ves s the p roces s o f abstraction, where we use metaphors, símiles, puns, and other constructions to get our ideas across to others. others. Many o f these these verba l constructions constructions compare one thing to another. another. In this exercise, you w ill il l be give gi ven n an incomplete incom plete sentence and w ill il l be asked asked to com plete the sentence sentence by com parin g the the first part o f the the sentenc sentence e with as many diffe rent things as you can can. For example, if you were give gi ve n the incomplet e senten sentence, ce, “ Want i s _____________________ ________________________________ ______________________ _____________________ _____________________ ___________ you mi might ght complet com plete e it i t with wi th “ Want is the the mistress of invention," invention, " and and “ Want Want is the burden ofthe poor,” and and so on. You can complete the given sentence sentence with a single singl e word, word , a series o f words, or a phrase, but but make sure that that the the answer som ehow relates to the first part o f the the senten sentence. ce. Al lo w yo y o u rs elf el f about two minutes m inutes to comple com plete te this exe e xerci rcise. se. In the the space space below, complete the fo llo w in g incomplete sentenc sentence e with as many comparisons as you can: can: “ Reason Reason i s ________________________

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FIFTH DAY

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Fifth Day: Thinking in Creative Pattems Patte ms Part 1

Toda To day y g iv e s you a chance to think thi nk about how ho w our thi t hink nk ing in g proc pr ocesse esses s occur. occur. Usu ally we think think in specific patterns oí mental ana lysis or reaction, and many of these patterns become habits, in the same way that self-attitudes become habits. Once these habits are formed, we simply practice them without thinking about it. In this sense, our habits occur on practically a subconscious level. Fortunately, we can learn to change these habit habit pattern patterns, s, in a manner simila sim ilarr to that that which we leam ed to apply ap ply to cha ngin g our self-attitudes. self-attitudes. The first step in this this process is to become aware o f our current think ing pattems, pattem s, an and d the next step step is to replace w hichev hic hev er habits we de sire with other, other, more Creative habi habits. ts. Take a mom ent to re v ie w the proce pro cess ss we used to re pla ce n eg at ive iv e selfsel fattitud attitudes es with p os itive itiv e ones ones.. The most mo st important impo rtant aspect o f that that process was to be aware o f what we were thinking, because because once once that step step is accomplis accomplished, hed, it is rela tiv ely simple to replace the negativ e thoughts thoughts and and feeling s w ith posit ive ones ones.. The operation in vo lved in that that process is one one of replacement. replacement. By contrast, contrast, the the operations operations in vol ved in chang ing one’s spec ific patterns patterns of mental analysis are somewhat more complex. These operations in vo lve not not on ly being aware o f one’s thoug thoughts hts as they occur occur,, but but a number number o f techniques used used to transform transfor m the thoughts thoughts as w ell. These technique techniques s m ight appear to be be slig h tly impo sing at first, but but they become become easy eas y and fun fun to use once you make ma ke them habits. habits. The Th e techniques techniq ues can be used used in sol vin g eve ryd ay problems, in cracking m athematical equati equations, ons, in dreaming up im ag ina tive ideas, ideas, in Creative Creative writin g, an and d in countles countless s other forms o f abstract and and Creative Creative thinking. Take Ta ke you y ou r tim e le ar n ing in g these techniques, techn iques, and be sure to app a pp ly y ou r new ly Creative self-attitude and and self-statements as you absorb these these concept concepts. s. Just before yo u g o to sleep, repe at the ideas ideas yo u are about to learn sever al times, times, a llo w ing you r subconsc subconscious ious to digest the the information information in m yriad ways. 63


The sixth six th day d ay o f the pro gram gr am presents, pres ents, “ Th in kin ki n g in C reat re ativ ive e Patter P atterns, ns, Part Par t 2.” 2.” Relax, and let you y ou r rain raind d expandí When When you are ready, please proceed to the next page and begin.

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Th inki in kin n g In Crea Cr ea tiv e Patte P atterns rns Part 1 The purpose purp ose o f this disc d iscus ussio sion n is to help hel p you yo u think th ink about how people people think think.. Our goal go al is to help you disc over ov er what underlies thinkin g proces processes, ses, how different types of thin king habits develop, develop, and and how you can can leam to change change you r thinking habits habits at will. First, First, we w ill discuss discuss the the most important different different types o f thinking. thinking. Seco Second nd,, we w ill examine how these these different types o f thinking are linked together to to form lar ger and and larg larg er arrangements. arrangements. Finally, w e w ill present various wa ys in which you can can rearrange these conce concepts pts,, to form wh atever new concepts you wish. Types of Thinking

Thin Th inki king ng proc p roces esse ses s often ofte n deal dea l with w ith com co m plex pl ex arra a rrang ngem emen entt of o f image ima ges, s, such as shapes, sounds, and colors. These images represent either external objects or events, the self, or other interna l thought concepts. concepts. We w ill divide simple types of thought processes into three three categories, those those being figura l, semantic, and and symbolic. thought forms consist of images, figures, figures, or likenesses o f Figural thought people, places, things, things, or events, either perc eived eive d from the environment, recalled from memory, mem ory, or created by the imagination. These concepts occur in a vis ua l sense, and and can can be as simp le as basic figures, figu res, such such as a circle, triang le, or o r square, square, or as com plex as the configuratio config urations ns o f a modern modern abstra abstract ct painting or sim ilar ima ges conceived by the most viv id imagin ation. Colors are included included in in this category . Semantic thought forms con sist of verbal information, both in spoken spoken and and written form. form. Speech in vo lve s auditory aud itory processes, processes, and and written language ineludes figu ral im age ry which conve ys spoken spoken or auditory information. Semantic forms begin wit h sounds sounds that that are are spoken in in various vario us rhythms rhy thms and and frequencies, frequencies, and are written as sy llables. llable s. The sounds sounds and and sylla bles are combined to form words, then phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and so on. Various rules o f formulation, o r syntax, are used used to make these these combinations combinations,, rules which va ry from langu age to langua ge and and from culture to culture. 65


Symbolic thought thought forms consist o f signs, characters, characters, figures, Ietters Ietters,, numbers, numbers, tokens, tokens, and and combinations o f any o f these, these, where each sym bolic form is used to represent something else. A s mentioned, mentioned, figu ral and semantic thought thought form s are spec ific type s of sym bolic concept concepts. s. Other types o f sy mb olic concepts concepts are mathematics, mathematics, mu sical notation, notation, Chemica Chemicall symbols, business business and and commerce symbols, m eteo rolo gic al symbols, sym bols denoting electronics, and and many more. Simple th inkin g processes processes combine to to form compound thinking thinking processes, which more clo se ly describe our our da ily mental activities . That is, any giv en thought thought mig ht inv ol ve figu ral, semantic, semantic, and and other sym bolic pro perties simultaneously. Different types o f associations and and relationsh ips are used used to to bind bind elements elements togethe r into these networks o f though thought. t. As we shall see, it is by re arran ging the associations and relationships between sepárate thoughts that one is able to generate Creative ideas at will. Habit thinking process process es are thoughts and thought sequences which occur frequently, frequently, either due due to ove rlea rni ng of the the informa tion or to emotional intensity h av ing become attach attached ed to to the the information. The associations an and d relationsh ips b inding the sepárate sepárate thought elements together into a habit habit process are often rig id an and d la rg el y invariant. Thereb The reby, y, habit h abitual ual thought thou ght proce pro cess sses es often oft en obscur obs cure e other ot her per p erce cepti ption ons s comp eting for conscious attentio attention, n, blinding the individ ual to variou s forms of information. Fortunately, habit processes can be be changed at w ill, by bein g aware o f their presence, presence, understanding understanding how they are formed, formed, and an d learnin g ho w they are altered. altered. It is toward this end that we w il l now build. Remember: Th in kin ki n g proc pr oces esse ses s are ar e bu ilt around ar ound fig u ral, ra l, semanti sem antic, c, and sym s ym bolic bo lic forms which are often often linked by associations an and d relations hips into simple, compound compound,, o r habit thinking processes. Ass ocia tions are linkage s between thought elements or thought thought compounds compounds which are not based based upon a rule, regula tion, principie prin cipie , code, code, or other constructed constructed relationship. A sso ciatio ns can be brought about about by a number of different means, means, where sepárate elements elements o f thought thought are

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IN CREASE YOU R POWER OF C REATIVE THINK1NG

placed in con tigu ity (nearness or pro xim ity ) to one anoth another, er, such such that that the the occurrence of one o f the the elements evok es the occurrence occurrence of the other elemen t(s), The association becomes a learned process, process, a habit habit.. The initia in itia l strength o f the habit formed depends depends on on how ma ny times the the association is made while b eing learned, learned, and and on on the the emotiona l inten sity evoked by the association. For exam ple, one mig ht requ ire man y triáis to learn a phone number associated associated with a particu lar individ ual, if one has little interest in that that perso person. n. How ever, if another another individual ex cites on e’s interest, the number might be learned instantaneously. The habit stren s trength gth of the assoc as sociat iation ion can chang cha nge e ov o v e r time, tim e, depen de pending ding on how often the associatio asso ciatio n continúes continú es to be be reinfo rced, rced , and on the va ry in g degree o f emotional intensity elicited by the the associat association. ion. The phone pho ne number numb er exa m ple pl e depic d epicts ts a desira desi rable ble asso as socia ciatio tion n we w e wish w ish to make, make, but but there are other associations or habits we mi ght gh t wish w ish to change. To chan c hange ge one’ o ne’ s habits o f associa asso ciatio tion, n, one must m ust eit her he r change cha nge how ho w often an association association is reinforced or the the emotional qu alíty of the associatio association. n. For exam ple, suppose that that one one has learned learned to associate the idea idea of a dog with the idea of bein g bitten by a dog, and and that that this this asso ciation e licit s an intense intense fear of dogs. In ord er to change this fearful association, one practices thinking thin king about dogs in new ways. One One can focus on devel de velop op ing new thoughts in relatio n to dogs, such such as, as, “Dogs are faithful,” “D ogs og s are fun,” fun,” “ Dog s are fu rry ,” and and so so on, on, in order to add add new associa tions to the or igin al one. one. These These new associations are then then practiced practiced wh ile one feels po sitive emotions abou aboutt dogs. Fee ling p os itiv ely wh ile one thinks thinks po siti ve ly about about dogs w ill more ra pidly replace the initia l fear and and nega ne gative tive a ssociations. With time, the the initial init ial fe elin gs and and thoughts are are extinguished, and the new fee lings lin gs and and thoughts become habits habits.. In this fashion, habits habits whic h have ha ve lo n g been been taken taken for fo r granted can be changed. changed. One One can learn to alter thoughts and and feelin gs which one has come to accep acceptt as “ rea lity,” disco verin g in the process process the essence essence of crea tivity . Creative Cre ative ideas are often foun found d by learnin g how to per ceive ceiv e and and how to think and and feel in new ways, rather than ri g id ly respon ding in habitual patterns. To better understand how these habit h abit pattern pat terns s often oft en co ntro nt roll our thoughts, it is helpful to understand the three processes by which 67

INCEEASE YOUR POWER OF CREATIVE TH1NKING

associations are formed. The firs t process is repeated association, where sepárate elements occur together enough time s that the association between the the elements becomes learned. The asso ciation can inelude any combination of elements from the three three thought form for m s—figu ral, ral , semantic, and an d symbolic. A s a simple example, one migh t associate the colo r red red with the ima ge of a friend if that that friend w ears red cloth ing often. often. The second s econd proc p roces ess s by w hich hic h element elem ents s can become bec ome assoc as sociat iated ed is sensoiy association, which occurs when any of the senses of sight, sound, touch touch,, smell, o r taste arouse arouse any thought forms of a figu ral, ral , semantic, or sym bolic bol ic nature nature.. An association can be learned between an an elicite d thought form an and d the the specific spe cific sensory s timulation timula tion which caused caused it to be be aroused, or an association can be learned between two or more thought forms aroused aroused by the the same same spec ific sen sory stimulation. A n instance of the firs t situation is found found when when one associates the sound sound o f a typ ew riter with the the idea of doing o ffice work. A n instance o f the the second second situation is found found if one associates the sound sound of a typ ew rite r with the idea of doing offic e work wo rk an and d with the idea of a machine gun firin g, such such that that the the ideas o f office work wo rk an and d a machine gun become associated afterwards. The three though t houghtt form fo rms s of o f figu ra l, semantic, sema ntic, and sym s ym b olic ol ic info i nform rmat ation ion are aroused differently by the sepárate senses, Figural processes are most re ad ily aroused by the sense sense of sight. but are also aroused by the other other senses senses.. For example, the the sm ell of honey m ight el icit the figu ral image of a brier patch if one once once enco encounte untered red a beehive in the the vic in ity of a brier patch. patch. In this instance, instance, the imag es o f bees bees an and d beehive s have become linked to the the sensation of the the sm ell o f honey and to to the the ima ge of a brier brie r patch patch through through direct association. A s a result o f this linkag e, the sme ll of honey becomes becomes directly linked to the the image of the the brier patch patch as well. A s is often the the case case with associations, associations, if A is associated with B and and B is associated with C, then then A becomes associated wit h C. In this manner, manner, long chains of association sequences are formed. Semantic thought forms are most rea dily aroused through the sense of hearing, where one responds responds ve rb all y to spoken language, an and d through through the sense sense of visión, when v iew in g written language. Other sense senses s can elici el icitt semantic thought forms, such such as the the sense sense o f touch touch used used in Braille, and an d the the scen scentt of sp ringtime g iv in g rise to poetic poetic expression. Semantic

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thought thought forms often in vo lve a combination combination of informational forms, integ ratin g sensory im ages w ith mem ory and other perceptual forms, forms, creating various lev els of sy mbolic meaning. meaning. For example, example, the the word “ beach” beach” conv eys a verbal and and visu al message, wh ile stimulating mem ories o f one’s experien ces at the the bea beach ch.. Figu Fi gu ral an and d semantic semantic impr essions ession s are sparked by senso ry im pressions pressio ns such such as as heat heat,, the the touc touch h of sand sand or pebbles, pebbles, and and the the smell o f sea sea air. A sing le word wo rd can stimulate long association sequences of images, words, impressions, other symbols, and feelings, feelin gs, demo nstrating th the e depth depth of semantic thought forms. In general, different symb olic thought thought forms forms or combinations combinations thereof are aroused by the different senses. In addition to the figural and semantic semantic examp les give n, m any other examp les can be drawn. drawn. Sym bolic thought forms are, are, in fact, fact, different means of ex pre ssin g the dimensión and an d nature nature of o f things an and d events perce ived through the sens senses, es, as we ll as the th e relatio nship s inferred between observed phenomena phenomena.. The third th ird and fin al associ ass ociat ation ion process pro cess by which whi ch elem e lement ents s o f thought thoug ht can become associated is emotional association . As with wit h repeated and and sensory association, association, emotional association can can link tog ether elements or compounds compounds of elements from th the e figu ral, semantic, semantic, and and symb olic thought forms form s often binding together toget her va st compounds of interconnected interconnected though thoughts. ts. Since many sepárate thought thought element elements s are in itia lly formed with emotional emo tional components, components, the arousal o f any given giv en emotion can stimulate a multitude o f associated a ssociated thoughts thoughts.. It is this process o f emotional association that that accou accounts nts for the lev el of habit strength of many thought processes, processes, as pr eviou ev iou sly discusse discussed. d. That is, by increasi incr easing ng or o r decreasin g the the intensity o f emotion attached attached to to spec ific thoughts, thoughts, one can can alter the frequen cy of occurrence o f those those thought processes. Thi s process is enhanced enhanced by using sensory association simultaneously, simultaneo usly, since the the emotion attached attached to to spec ific thoughts often often aris es as a function function o f how the things or events are perc eived which wh ich produce th the e though thoughts. ts. For examp le, if one perceiv pe rceiv es earthworms earthworm s w ig g lín g about in the the mu mud, one m igh t feel disgust. The more intense this this emotion is, the more stron str ongly gly w ill it become attache attached d to the thought thought of earthworms. earthworms. I f one has previo us ly attach attached ed feelings of disgust

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to other thoughts, thoughts, such as snakes and other othe r reptiles, reptile s, then then an associa tion sequence is formed between earthworms, snakes, snakes, and other reptiles. The connecting factor lin kin g together these these sepárate sepárate thoughts thoughts is the the feel ing of disgust. A fte r these conneetions are made, made, if one should become caught in traffic traf fic an and d feel disgusted about about it, it, then then these other thoughts thoughts m ight come to mind. The greater the habit strength of these associations, the more rap idly and for cefu lly w il l they come to to min mind. d. To break the as soci so ciat ativ ive e powe po werr o f these conne c onneetion etions, s, one on e can prac pr actic tice e fe eli n g differe diff ere ntly ntl y about about these these thought thoughts, s, and one can practice ass ociating ocia ting different thoughts with the original ones. These ideas were presented ea rlie r in this section when when discus sing the alteration of habit habit strength. strength. In addition to these techniques, one can use simultaneous sensory association, where one changes how one perceives things. For example, one one could decide decide to think think abou aboutt earthworms as sim ply being bio log ica l constructions o f matter and and energy , an and d nothing more. Once this change is effected, effected, fee ling s of disgust become dissociated dissociated from the thought thought of earthworms, and the conneetions to snakes and other reptiles are ended as w el l—unles l—unless s one sim ilar ly changes how those those creatures creatures are perceived. Theref The refore ore,, emo e mo tiona tio nall ass a ssoci ociati ation ons s lin l in k in g toge to geth ther er diffe di ffe rent re nt thoug th ought ht proeesse s can be changed changed in an y one of three way s: emotions emo tions attached to to the thoughts can be be changed, other thoughts attached to the initia ini tia l thoughts thoughts can be changed, and and how one perc eiv es the initia l thoughts can be changed. changed. In all o f these cases, cases, spec s pec ific e motions link lin k together a number of differen t thought thoughts. s. Emotional association can also occur when a specific thought becomes linked to more than one one emotion. emotion. F or exam ple, i f one has has recen rec ently tly had so me neg ativ e experience exper iences s with wit h a good go od friend, then then thinki ng ab about out the the friend w ill arouse arouse both both po sitive an and d neg ative feeling s. These conflic ting emotions w ill th then en produ produce ce contradictory perceptions con cerning the individual, indivi dual, such such that that two or mor e distinct and and opp osing osi ng association sequences develop, Thinkin Thi nkin g about about the friend can then then spark either or both both of the the association sequences. sequences. The contradic tory sequences w ill tend tend to modify mo dify an and d alter one another another,, as we ll as confuse the individual, until the th e con flictin g emotions un derlying the the sequences sequences are resolved. This situation m ight better be termed emotional emotion al dissociation , where the the

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opposin opp osing g emotions emo tions tend to to disrupt thought thought processes, processes, rather than link them together. Summarizing these these ideas about associations will help to clarify how these concepts can be used when one is trying to generate Creative ideas. Associations are linkages between thought elements or compounds which are not based based upo upon n a rule rule,, where info rmation rma tion fro m fig ura l, semantic, semantic, or sym bolic thought forms are brought together b y repeated, repeated, sensory, or emotional co ntiguity, The link ag age e becomes a learned process, process, where the habit habit strength o f the the associatio n is determined by how often the the association associa tion is reinforced, and by the the emotiona l intensity inten sity o f the the association. association. The emotional intensity is affected affected by the the sensory q ua lity o f the perceptions percep tions arous a rousing ing the the thought processes invo lved. The form o f thoughts aroused aroused is also influenced by by the the sensory qua lity o f inco min g information. It follow s from this description that sensory sensory information, emotional reactions to the the senso ry inform ation, ation , and thoughts linked toge ther through the the actions of these these processes proce sses are a ll part of a system. system. Changin Cha ngin g one part of the the system sy stem chang es the other parts. parts. Link ag ages es between sepárate thought elements elements or compounds can be changed changed by a lter ing the emotions bond ing the the thoughts together, by cha ng nging ing which elements associate associate with which other elemen elements, ts, and and by ch anging ho w one perce ives incoming sensory information. information. Give n these concepts, concepts, suppose that that one one wish es to im plement these these prin cipies cipie s in ge ner atin g Creative ideas ideas.. One approach to this would be to to apply ap ply each one of the pre viou s concepts to the task task at ha hand nd.. For example, examp le, suppose suppose that that one wishes to li st ever yth ing that one can can think of that is brown. Here, the the task is to lis t a ll the figures, words, symbols, and concepts concepts that one can, can, expr essing ess ing the idea o f “ brown.” The fir f irst st step w ould ou ld be to lis li s t a ll the th e associ ass ociati ation ons s in i n it ia ll y attached to the th e idea of “ brown,” w ithin each of the figur al, semantic, semantic, and and symb olic forms. Within W ithin the fig ur al form, one m ight igh t think of bear, bear, grass, and earth. earth. Within Within the semantic semantic form, one migh t think of the many words connoting brown, such such as “ autumn autumn,” ,” “ muddy,” and “dark.” Within the the symb olic form, one m igh t think o f the letter lett er “ b,” b,” the number “ 2,” a box, and and so on. on.

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The second step ste p woul wo uld d be to ap p ly each e ach one o f the sen sory so ry chann ch annels els to the idea of “ brown,” to see what further responses are sparked. As soc iatin g the the sense sense o f vis ión with the idea idea of brown might make one think about about the eye and the iris ir is of the eye, as w el l as va riou s brown things p erceived ercei ved in the environment. In this examp le, the the response of “ eye ” w as already generated generated unde underr the the figu ral form o f repeate repeated d associations, demonstr&ting demonstr&ting that the succ essive steps o f this technique m ay or m ay not produce unique responses. responses. The entir ety o f the steps as a whole, how ever, should should produce produce a number number of unique re sponses to the the task. Each of o f the other sense channels channe ls of o f sound, sound, smell, sme ll, taste, and touch touch are next applied to the the idea of “brown.” “b rown.” The third step is to asso a ssocia ciate te diff d iffer eren entt emotion emot ions s wit w ith h the ide a of of “ brown/' to see what further asso ciat ive sequences sequences might m ight be found found.. One might ap ply the the emotion of com fort to the the tas task, k, sparking the ideas ideas o f a circle of warmth bonding people together, together, the the fire-warmth nature nature of comfort, or perhaps the appearance o f variou s artic les o f furniture. One alternately applies pos itive an and d negative emotions to the the task. task. The fourth fourt h and fina fin a l step is to look lo ok for fo r com binati bin ations ons o f respon resp onses ses derive d from the responses found with the firs t three steps. steps. Por exam ple, one migh t combine the idea of a sunset sunset with the iris o f the the eye an and d suddenly think about about a refle ction o f the the Sun in one’s eyes. I f one has alread y found many responses under the first three steps, steps, then then many more responses can often be be found found when loo king ki ng at combination s of o f the the initial responsos. To be exhaustive when looking at these various combinati combinations, ons, one would ha ve to compare ev er y response with ev ery other response, response, and and with e ve ry other combination of responses. Since this task becomes becomes in fin ite ly lar ge when carried to the the extreme, one one must must continué with it i t only as long as it continúes continúes to yie ld unique responses. In order to assist this this process of lo okin g for unique associations, associations, please refer to Table 1: the use use of this table is 1: Associa Asso ciatio tion n Table, Table, An exam ple o f the presented in Table 3: Associa the word Asso ciatio tion n Table Example, Exampl e, in response to the “brown.” Due to the the lar ge number of responses that this serie s o f steps can can generate, Tab le 1 may not be be larg la rge e enough to hold them. them. It is presented as a schematic schematic means of orga nizi ng one’s associations associations to the give n task. task. 72


Exerc Ex erc ise 16. Us ing Table Tab le 1 as a guide, gene rate as ma many ny assoc iations as possible possible with a ny one o o f the the follow ing ítems ítems:: 1. Spiral 2. Green 3. Seed Remember: As soc iation s link together information from figu ral, semantic, semantic, and and sym bolic forms, linkag es effected by repeated repeated,, sensory, or emotional contigu ity. These link age s can be be changed changed by alt erin g the emotions bonding the thoughts thoughts together, together, by chan ging which elements associate with which other elements, elements, and and by cha nging how one perc eives incom ing sensory sen sory inform ation. Table Tab le 1 can be used as a guide to gen erating era ting new ne w associations with a giv en figure , word, symbol, or conce concept. pt. These These associations associa tions can be used used to construct more co m plex ple x Creative structures, structures, which w ill be presented presented in the m aterial o f the the sixth da y o f the program , which is “ Thin king in C reative Patterns, Part 2. 2.” Before you go to sleep tonight, take take a moment to rev iew the many concepts concepts you have just learned. learned. Te ll yo urs elf that that since since you are bec oming more and more Creative every day, these concepts will become second nature nature to you. you. T ell el l your yo ur subconscious to absorb absorb these ideas thorough ly, and that that when you awaken in the the morn ing you w ill have a new understanding o f them. them. Further, Further, tell y our ou r subconscious that that,, as time goes by, by, these these ideas w ill become you r daily habits habits.. Then sim ply c lear your mind and and relax, res tin g assured that that you r subconscious subconscious mind w ill il l take care care of e ver yth ing else. else. When When you awaken in the the morning, try to reca ll as many o f the the ideas ideas as you can, can, and and tel l yo urs elf again that you w ill remember reme mber them and and apply app ly them on a daily basis.

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T a b le 1 : A ss o c ía ti o n T a b le

Form ---------------------- ---------------------------- -------------------------- -------------------------- ---------------Column ___________ ___________ ________ ___ Combinations Fig ural Semantic Semantic Symbolic _____ Combinations Associations Repeated:

Sensory; Sight Sound

Smoll Taste Touch

Emotional: Positive Negativa Row Combinations

Row X Column Combinations

T a b l e 2 : : A s s o c i a t i o n T a b le le — E x a m p l e , B r o w n

Form Column Combinations

Figural

Semantic

Symbolic

Bear, rug, suit, tree, grass, Cigar paint, earth

dark, muddy earthy. quiet, autumn

vibrations abbreviation

Browning of grass told told of fallin g le aves

Sensory: Sight

iris of eye

eas y to olean

sunset

Sound

deep tones

sbutting out noíse

low notes notes

Smell

roasting beef

pungent odors

fire

Tas te

eating beans

well-done

wholesome

Touch

petting horse

soft and furry

electric

sun reflected in open eyes booming tuba behind locked shutters glow ing embers benath benath a busy grill growing child child well fed fed sleeping soundly on mats of fur

Associations Repeated:

Emotional: Positive

joy of newness

warm and comfortable comfortable

filthy furniture

rusting and rotting

Row Combinations

brown eyes engrossed in ea ti ng be ans

pu un ng ge en ntt o d do o rs rs w a affted through the autumn breeze

R o w X Column C om b i n a ti o ns

tall, statuesque, j u n g l e land of sturdy multiplied and fi g ure s, h a v i n g p as sed

Negativo

love of earth earth filled my being foxholes stank from the spoils of death death sp pe e ct ctr um um ga ga v e up a ll ll up all co lors but one

quietness of creature comforts beckoned one to rest

rhythmic beat of nature settling into a

search for harmony nearin g its cióse, cióse, in a

T a b l e 2 : : A s s o c i a t i o n T a b le le — E x a m p l e , B r o w n

Form Column Combinations

Figural

Semantic

Symbolic

Bear, rug, suit, tree, grass, Cigar paint, earth

dark, muddy earthy. quiet, autumn

vibrations abbreviation

Browning of grass told told of fallin g le aves

Sensory: Sight

iris of eye

eas y to olean

sunset

Sound

deep tones

sbutting out noíse

low notes notes

Smell

roasting beef

pungent odors

fire

Tas te

eating beans

well-done

wholesome

Touch

petting horse

soft and furry

electric

sun reflected in open eyes booming tuba behind locked shutters glow ing embers benath benath a busy grill growing child child well fed fed sleeping soundly on mats of fur

Associations Repeated:

Emotional: Positive

joy of newness

warm and comfortable comfortable

filthy furniture

rusting and rotting

Row Combinations

brown eyes engrossed in ea ti ng be ans

pu un ng ge en ntt o d do o rs rs w a affted through the autumn breeze

R o w X Column C om b i n a ti o ns

tall, statuesque, j u n g l e land of sturdy multiplied and fi g ure s, h a v i n g p as sed distributed, burned by its youth, lies in somber repose the sun and cultured by the wind

Negativo

love of earth earth filled my being foxholes stank from the spoils of death death sp pe e ct ctr um um ga ga v e up a ll ll up all co lors but one

quietness of creature comforts beckoned one to rest

rhythmic beat of nature settling into a low hum of satisfaction satisfaction

search for harmony nearin g its cióse, cióse, in a universe fully matured and at rest.

SIXTH DAY

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Sixth D a y: Thinking Th inking in Creative Patterns Patterns Part 2

Toda To day y continúes contin úes with wi th the Creative Cre ative thin th inki king ng pattern pat terns s you yo u bega b egan n to iearn iea rn yester yes terday day.. Take Tak e s ever ev er a l moments mom ents to r e v ie w the d iffer iff eren entt typ es o f thinking think ing and the the form s of o f associations w hich link the thought thought processes together. Consider how these constructions affect you r thinking processes, and how they the y bind together y ou r patterns o f perception and analysis. Focus aga in upon the idea o f changing chan ging you r think ing patterns patterns and and mak ing them them more Creative, Creative, simila r to how w e considered considered alterin g one’s self-statements self-statements and and self-attitude. self-attitude. Decide to become more and and more aware of your yo ur thoughts thoughts as th ey occur, and o f the patterns patterns in w hich they th ey oecur, Reca ll from page 34 how these these patterns patterns can can be changed changed by fin din g new associations associations to many giv en concepts concepts or mental processes, processes, using the the Asso ciation Table (fifth da y) as a guide. guide. Toda To day y we w il l expand exp and upon these conc c oncepts epts in our discu di scussio ssion n of of relationships. relationships. Cióse you r eyes for a moment and and tell you rse lf that that you are go ing to Iearn Iearn e ver yth ing you can today, today, and that that this this new knowledge w ill add add to you r understanding of yester day ’s discussion. discussion. Jus Justt rela x and watch your thoughts change form. When you are ready, ready , turn the the page pag e and begin.

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INCREASE YOUR POWER OF CREATIVE THINKINO

Th inki in king ng in C re at ive iv e Pat P atte tem ms Part

2

Yes terda y we discussed discussed different types o f thinking processe s and and some some of the ways in which these processes are linked together. We considered considered figur al, semantic, semantic, and and symbo lic forms, which are linked together by associations and and relationships. Asso ciatio ns are link ages between between thin king kin g process es which wh ich are not based based upon upon a rule or other constructed constructed relationship. Associations can be formed by repeated, sensory, or emotional emo tional contiguity, contig uity, such such that that a habit is form ed between the the associated elementa. elementa. Compounds of asso ciations begin to form, such such that each mental men tal element is associated with a multitude multitude of other elements. One One can learn to change change these these asso ciative ne tworks either by alte ring the emotions which bind thoughts together, by changing which elements associate with which other elements, elements, or by changing how one one perce ives incom inc om ing sensory sen sory information. Table 1 was presented as as a means of ass ignin g the the generation of new associations with a giv en figure, word, word, symbol, or concept concept.. The fle xib le generation o f new associations can th then en be used used in the construction construction o f new rela tionsh ips between elements, which is the topic of discuss ion today. today. Relationships Relationships are linkag es between thought thought elements or compou compounds nds which are based upon a rule, princ ipie, o r other constructed constructed process. This is an important distinction, since associa tions are formed either by repetition or by sensory or emotional contiguity. Re lationships are intentionally intentionally formed by follow ing some some principie or set of principies, principies, often cre atin g a new eleme nt or produc product. t. Relatio nsh ips constitute much of our da ily thinking, in addition to associations. associations. The Th e elemen ele ments ts or compou co mpounds nds linke lin ked d toge to gethe therr by rela re latio tions ns hips hi ps can be any of the processes drawn from the figura l, semantic semantic,, or sym bolic thought forms. The re lations hips used used to to link these elements or compounds compounds together are different for each each type o f symbolic expres sion used used.. For example, in the the figu ra l domain, domain, the the relationship between two Unes Unes allow ed to intersect can be be expressed by the angle between between them. them. The words “ oblique,” oblique,” “ acut acute, e,”” an and d “perpendicular” “perpendicular” con vey three three ver y 80


differen t relationsh ips. In the the semantic domain, nouns nouns and and verbs are related in that noun nouns s represent peo ple, places, things, or qua lities, an and d verbs expres e xpress s action, Stat State, e, or a rela tion between two or more m ore people, places, places, things, things, or qualities. qualities. A s another exam ple o f symbolic expression, in mathem atics the sign, +, +, is used used to represent adding one qu antity to anothe another. r. In each o f these these examp les, sepárate elem ents are combined by the relationships giv en to produce produce new elements or produ products cts.. Many other types typ es o f relationsh relat ionsh ips are ar e used used to link elements and and compounds compounds together toget her within each of these forms. forms. Relation ships are used used within each sym bolic form as a means means o f building m ore com plex struc structu tures res,, in order to represent represent more com plex phenomena. As with associations, relationships inferred between different phenomena are often learned processes, wh which ich may or may not truly represent external actualities actualities.. Once Once these these relation ships ship s are learned, the individu indi vidual al m ay continué to to see them them despite encou ntering contradictory evidence again and again. As habitual processes, the relationships can be kept in mind more stro ngly by th the e senso ry and and emotiona emo tionall qu alities alitie s o f the the elements and the connections between between them them.. Further Further,, the associations one has has linked to the elements elements in vo lve d in the the relationship are different for each each individual. This Th is means that two sepárate sepá rate ind ividu ivi du áis ái s can obs o bserv erve e the same sam e even ev entt occurring an and d infer tw o co mp letely different sets sets of perceptions and and relatio nship s in reactio n to the event. event. Further Further,, each indivi dua l could be be ma king co mp letely incorrect infere inferences. nces. For example, when when two or more individuá is observe the scene scene o f an acc accide ident, nt, rad ically different perceptions o f the the events occu rring are often mad made. e. Modern Scien Science ce is a set o f prin cip ies and procedures design ed to min imize perceptual and and inferential erro rs by esta blishing a means means o f testing and and retestin g the relationships inferred between observable events. This procedure wo rks best when one maintains a continuo usly open mind. mind. As soon as one one makes an assumption about about a spe cific set of phenomena, phenomena, one begins begin s to focus upon and be liev e the speci fic set of relationships chos chosen. en. This process creates selective sele ctive perception, perception, where one begins to see and and be liev e what he or she expects expect s to see. see. This lim its one’s range o f awareness an and d understanding. understanding.

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INCREASB YOUR POWER OF CREATIVE THINKING

A more Creative that ever ev ery y Creative and flexible approach is to reaJize tha formula formulated ted thou though ght, t, ass associ ociati ation on,, an and relation relationship ship is merely mer ely an an assumption about an an external external or internal internal event, an attempt to represent to ourselves and to each be true true each.. othe o therr what we pe rceiv e and believe to be about what we cali “reality.” Understanding Understanding the the world around around us us and and ourselves is gre atly facilitated by lea rning rni ng how to rearra nge the thoughts thoughts we associa te together, and and the the relationships we construct to build more complex structures of thought. The p rin ri n cipi ci pies es deve de velop lop ed in the last la st sectio sec tion n to alte al terr ass a ssoc ocia iatio tions ns can al so be applied to change the the structur structure e of e xist ing relationships an and d to create create new relationships. relationships. The diffe di ffere rent nt typ t ypes es o f rela re latio tions nshi hips ps that can be form ula ted are as a s vast va st as the the human human imagination. imagination. Some relationships link together sim ple elements follo w in g some rule or principie, and other relationship s link together more com plex sets of elements. elements. Learn ing how to change the the nature nature of the relationships one uses uses to link together different thoughts thoughts giv es one a fundamental fundamental ke y to crea tivo thinking. thinking. One One approach to rear ran gin g one’s thought thoughts, s, although eumbersome, has already be en given. The Asso ciat ion Table could be applied to each of the elements or sets of elements within a given relationship, in the hopes of finding new relationships between the the giv en elements. Po r example, if A is related to B, B, one could could gen erate many m ore a ssocia tions to A and B which help modify, define, define, or otherwise sp ecify the two giv en elements elements.. A s the new asso ciations are compared and contraste contrasted, d, more co m plex insight ins ights s are found found between the different elem ents and compoun compounds. ds. Throu Th rou gh these th ese e v o lv in g insigh ins ights, ts, one w il l infe in ferr more m ore and more mor e relationships that that ex ist between between the two giv en element elements. s. A s a concrete concrete examp le of this use use of the the Asso ciat ion Table, Table, suppose one one is g iven that that fear is the the opposite of love. By g enera ting associations to to the concepts o f fear and love, love , one might also in fer that fear is the absence absence of lov e, that love h elps one surmount surmount fear, fear, and and that w hi le lov l ov e attracts others, fear rep els them. them. Thus, Thus, one can can obtain new insig hts to the the giv en elements in the relationship by comparing and contrasting the associa tions one form ulates to each. each.

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Unfortunate Unfortunately, ly, this app lication o f the the Asso ciation Table to the the genera tion of o f Creative relationsh ips is sometimes tedious and and timeconsuming. Through the course of one’s d aily ai ly activitie a ctivitie s, it is more useful to hav e a few sim ple rules of o f thumb thumb that one can can apply ap ply at any time to a given situation. One rule of thumb that is quick and easy to apply to semantic associations is found found within the ve ry nature nature of comp aring arin g and and contra sting elements. It is helpf ul to think think of this approach schematically, using what what one one migh t cali a “verba l constellation.” A verba ver ball constella tion is created arou around nd the the two give g ive n elements or sets of elements in a relationship, sparkin spar king g many Creative idea ideas. s. To demónstra demó nstrate te this technique, techn ique, suppose that one is i s g iv en the two elements “ fa ir ” and and “dark “d ark”” and told that they are oppo sitely site ly related (many (man y types o f relationship s m ight pertain here). One can then then draw two columns as shown in Figu re 1, where one column is named “ Function,” refe rring rri ng to associations to be drawn that that have the same meaning mea ning as the the given elements. The second column is labeled “Form,” referring to associations to be drawn that that have a sound sound sim ilar ila r to the the given giv en elements. Along the function dimensión, one lists associations that have meanings the the same as, as, or si m ila r to, to, the the give gi ve n words. A lo n g the form dimensión, one one lists words that that have a sound sound simila sim ilarr to the give gi ve n words. words. This Th is verb ve rb al cons co nste tella lla tion tio n of o f associ ass ociati ation ons s can then be used to genéra gen érate te different types of Creative Creative relationships. relationships. Puns are ea sily created created from the constellation conste llation by find ing word substitutions substitutions that have a sound sound or meanin me anin g sim ilar to either of the giv en words. words. Fo r example, suppose suppose that that one one thinks thinks of the the sente sentenc nce, e, “ The soc ialite ’s comp lexión was fair.” One One could could then then make a pun pun by saying, “ The socia lite’s com plexión was fare,” meaning that that the the soc ialite’s appearance ga ve her adm ission to societal functions. functions. Here, the word substitution has a sound sound sim ilar ila r to the give n word. Ob serving serv ing Figu re 1, it is noted noted that that since the the two g iven iv en words are opposite in meaning, the the synonyms drawn from the the two g iven words become antonyms. antonyms. That is, is, synonym s to “fa “ fa ir ” are antonyms to the synonyms of “ dark.” dark.” I f this this term inolo gy is confusing, confusing, it it is hoped hoped Figure í w ill il l make the point clear. One can then then use use the the two sets sets of synony s ynonyms ms to make parad oxical titles for books, books, plays, or stories. stories. Various cr ea tivity

83


Figure 1 Verb al Constellation Constellation FAIR

DARK

Sim ilar Sounds Sounds:: (Form Dimensión)

Sim ilar Meanings: Meanings: (Function (Function Dimensions)

Hair

Light

Stair

Bright

Wear

Clear

Fare

Honest

ANTO AN TO NY MS

Lark

-«---- --------------------------- -

Obtuse

Hark

■---------------------

Obscure

Stark

----- --------------------------- -

Shadow

Park

-----

-

-

-»

Similar Sounds (Form Dimensions)

Shade

-----

■

Sim ilar Meanings Meanings (Functio (Function n Dimension Dimensions) s)

EXERCISES

WONDERFUL

TERRIBLE

BEAUTIFUL

UGLY

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tests tests assess assess one’s abi lity to make up Creative Creative titles for stories. stories. A p p ly in g the words gi ve n in Fig ure 1 to the the invention o f paradoxica parad oxicall titles, one one could could invent the the titles, “ The Bright Brig ht Shadows,” or “ The Obtus Obtuse e Ligh t.” Paradoxes can can be pow erfu lly expressive, since since they express two opposite concepts concep ts at once. once. A s a further exercise, do the same with the words give gi ve n under under “ Exercises ” in Fig ure ur e 1. Then try to think of other types o f Creative Creative relationsh ips that can can be be drawn from this verb al constellation. Further, Further, what other other forms o f verb al constellations constellations can you think of that that might be helpful to the generation o f Creative Creative relationships? Remember Remem ber that that verba l constellation s are based on the the idea of com par ing and contrasting words and and the the concepts behind behind them, them, by loo king ki ng at the form and function o f the the words and and the the associations drawn from them. them. In a sens sense, e, one one is sch ema tically obs ervin g different dimensions o f the words, to find Creative relationsh ips between the words. A sim ilar quick and and easy procedure procedure can be applíed to figural associati associations, ons, using what one one might cali a “ spatial constellation.” constellation.” A spatial constellation constellation is create created d by allo w ing a given figu re to va ry spa tially in e ve ry w ay that that one might imagine, in order order to stimul stimulate ate Creative ideas. To demónstra demó nstrate te this technique, suppose supp ose that one is gi ve n the fig f igu u re o f a brick, and asked to to produce as many unusual unusual uses as possib po ssible le for the brick. Many cr ea tivity tiv ity measures assess unus unusual ual uses uses for common objects objects.. One One can can begin by listin lis tin g the sensory dimensions of a brick, such such as its length, width, height, color, density, and material composition. One then lists list s as many man y unusual unusual uses uses as one can for the brick bric k as given giv en , as shown in Figu Fi gure re 2. These uses migh t inelude: a doorstop, a counterbalance for a pulley system, an anchor for a canoe, and a headrest for a yogi. The next nex t step o f the procedur proce dure e is i s to imag im agin ine e each e ach o f the the listed lis ted dimensions o f the the brick to change wh ile ho ldin g the the other dimensions consta constant. nt. One One could ima gine the the length o f the brick to va ry, from perhaps one inch to a thou thousand sand miles, produ cíng ve v e r y differen d ifferentt ideas about about its 85


Figure 2 Spatial Constellation Figure/Object

Sketch

Unusual Uses doorstop, counterbalance, anchor, headrest

Brick Dimensions length

child ’s playthings; gala ctic space space stati station on

width

Cosmic s tair steps

height

towering planks

color

(brown)

multispectral sculptu sculptures res

density

(heav y)

building block in anti-grav ity machin machine; e; center o f gra vi ty in space space station station

material composition

seawall water filter; part part of igloo

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potential potential uses. uses. For example, the tiny bricks might be ima gin ati ve ly used used as part of a child’ ch ild’ s playth ings, and and the the imm ensely l on g bricks migh t be used used to construct a galactic galac tic space statio station. n. Sim Si m ilarly ila rly,, one could could imag ine the the width and and height of the the brick to vary, perhaps spark ing im agin ative thoughts thoughts of Cosmic stairs teps for gia nts and and towe rin g planks for the wa lls o f Troy. Clearly, the the ideas one one invenís from these these procedures procedures might pertain mor e clo se ly to Scienc Science e fiction than to da ily realities re alities,, so that the usefulne usefulness ss o f any g ive n idea has has to be individ individ ually assessed assessed with reference referen ce to the problem prob lem to be solved. Next, one would im agin e the color co lor of the the brick to to vary, vary , perhaps spa rkin g thoughts thoughts o f multispec tral sculptures sculptures composed composed of many such such bricks. bricks. Then, Then, one would im agin e the density of the the brick to var y, perhaps from a ligh t and airy object to one one hea vie r than than the Earth. Earth. The light and and airy brick might be used sed as as a building block in an an imag ina ry a nti-gr avity machine, machine, and the the infin in fin itely ite ly hea h ea vy brick m ight igh t be be used used as as the the center center of gr a vity vi ty in constructing a space station to orbit the the Eart Earth. h. Fin ally , one would imagin e the material composition o f the the brick to to vary, perhaps from a porous subst substanc ance e to one one of frozen water. The porous brick m ight be use used d as part of a sea wall wa ll to filt er water, and the froze n brick b rick m ight be used as a part of an igloo. Many novel ideas can can be generate generated d by using this form o f spatial constellation. Some o f the the ideas mig ht be germane to the problem or issue under under consideration, consideration, others w ill il l certain cer tain ly not be be useful useful.. Throu gh the creation of many ideas, however, how ever, it becomes more lik ely el y that some some useful ideas w ill arise. It is important to keep an open mind toward an y of the the formulations formu lations that that are generated, generated, since many unexpected discov dis cov eries erie s and ideas might mig ht be found found in addition to, to, or instead instead of, of, the ori gi n a lly intend intended ed target solution—this solution—this is what is meant by “ serendipity.” Remember that that spatial spatial constellations are creat created ed by allo w ing a give n figure to va ry spa tially in ev er y w ay that that one can imagine, imagine, so the the succe success ss of the constellation in ge nera ting nov el ideas is in part contingent contingent on on how many dimensions or different aspects aspects of the the figur e one init ia lly identifies. identifies. It is h elpful to sketch how the figure changes as each each of its dimensions is allow ed to change, as as shown in Fig ure ur e 2. 2.

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Exercise 17. (1) Us ing F igu re 1 as a guide, ere ate a verb al const c onstellati ellation on out oí the word p air “ hig h—low.” Create Create the the constellation in the space space below; then then make as many puns and and paradoxical titles as you can from the constellation.

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(2) (2) Using Figu re 2 as a guide, create a spa tial constellation con stellation out of the figu re o f a pyramid. Use the space space below fo r the the constellati constellation; on; then then allo w each each of the dimensions of the pyram id to va ry wh ile hold ing the the other dimensions constant, constant, Thin k o f as many uses as you can for each o f the the resulting figures.

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Verbal and and spatial constellations, constellations, as we ll as the the Asso ciation Table, are are but but a few e xam ples o f how Creative Creative relationships can be generated generated.. There are as many means of gene rating such relationships as one can can imagine. The o n ly lim l im it one has upon u pon this p rocess roc ess is the lim li m it one on e decide de cides s to impose imp ose upon upon oneself. Just as the the free and and open mind is mos t rece ptive pti ve to nov el ideas, ideas, so is the open mind best able to formú late new means, or new approaches designed to spark even more ideas and relationships. Here, one is creating new relationships that that giv e birth to to s till more Creati Creative ve relationships. Since Creative ideas can be born born at any time by anybody, it is he lpful lpfu l to allo w one’s mind the the fle xib ility necessary to perce ive such ideas. ideas. This is accom plished not not on ly through the relaxed attention and the Creative Creative self-perception p revio us ly pointed pointed out out,, but but through through allo w ing one’s mind mind to constantly shift and va ry the the relations hips that bind bind thoughts thoughts together. This Th is is best ac hieve hie ved d by a p p lyin ly ing g the principie the principie of covaria to every covariation tion to thought one one thinks. thinks. Th is pra ctice is less form idab le than it sound sounds, s, since once once it becomes becomes a habit habit it is quite easy to do. do. The princ ipie o f cova riation sim ply Stat States es that that one one allo ws a thought thought to change in terms o f its shape, shape, form, function, function, and motion, wh ile h old ing the other thoughts associated with it constan constant. t. The Ass ocia tion Tab le and and the verba ve rba l and and spatial constellations are all exam ples of the the use use of the the princip ie of cova riation in spec ific forms. forms. Other Other exam ples of co varia tion are found throughout throughout mathematics, mathematics, physics, chess, chess, Creative Creative wr iting, music, drama, drama, and and wh ere ver individu áis compare the rela tive effect o f chan ging one element upo upon n the other other elements in a giv en set. set. Form ally, c ovar iation can be describe described d as the the process process of observing how changing one variable or dimensión dimensión of an object affects affects other variab les or other give n dimensions o f the the object under under consideration. The concep con ceptt of d ensit en sity y illu il lust stra rate tes s w e ll the p rin ri n cipi ci pie e o f co varia va ria tion. tio n. Suppose that one one know s that the density of an objec t increases as its mass increases, and that that the the density dens ity decreases as the the volu m e o f the the object increases. Combining Com bining these two concepts together, one can derive de rive that that density equals mass divided by volume. Here, density is said said to covar y with mass and volume, m eaning that that a change in mass mass or volum e g ive s a change in density, and the the changes fo llow a ruled ruled relationship. 90


Sim ilarly, i f one perceives a set of variables as maintaining maintaining certain certain fixed relationships to one one another another,, then then chang ing one of the variables w ill change the the others as as well. A p p ly in g this process to one’s thought thoughts s and and emotions gi ve s one greater control o ve r one’s behavior, as as describe described d in the text of the fifth day. In fact, this process can be applied to any fo rm of sym bolic expression. expression. As pre viou sly explained, explained, semantic semantic and and figu figu ral means of expression are different different forms o f a more more general symbolic expression performed by humans humans,, where e xternal xtern al or o r interna l States States are represented by sym bols. Ana logously, the principie of c ovariation is the the more generic means of crea tively rearrang ing one's perceptio perceptions, ns, just just as the the As sociation Table and and the the verbal and and spatial co nstellations are s pec ific examples. A pp lyin g the the principie of covariation to the the full realm of symbolic expression giv es an individual an important key to the the Creative Creative mastery of one’s world, Us ing the se lf-sugge stion techniques presented on days 2 and 3 of this text, text, use use your ima ginatio n to think think o f how a pp lyin g the techn techniq ique ue of covariation in your da ily life migh t benefit benefit you. you. Remember; Relationships lin k together inform ation from figu ral, semantic, semantic, and and sym bolic forms, follo w in g some rule or other other constru constructed cted principie, often producing a new element or product. Like associations, relationships can become habitual proces ses and are affected affected by the sensory, emotional, and associa tive pro perties of the elements elements and connections connections inv olved. Relation ships can link togeth er simple elements or more comp lex arrangements o f elements. elements. Like associations, relationships can be restructured using the Ass ociatio n Table. As soc iation s drawn from each each of the the elements or compounds in the the relation rela tionship ship are comp ared and contrasted contrasted,, with the hopes hopes of find ing new relation ships between the sepárate sepárate sets of ideas ideas.. Ano ther means of generatin g Creative Creative relationships relationships for semantic information is found with the verbal constellation, where the function and form dimen sions o f the the two related wo rds are com pared and and contrasted in in a quest quest for Creative relationships. A spatial con stellation can be be used used to generate generate Creative Creative ideas ideas for figura l information, information, by a llow ing the the 91


dimensions of the figu re to change wh ile holdi h olding ng the the other dimensions constant. These The se techn te chnique iquess repre rep resen sentt but but a fe w o f those poss po ssib ible le in the th e genera gen eratio tion n of Creative relationsh ips an and d ideas, ideas, an and d are specific spe cific e xamples xam ples of the principie prin cipie of covariation. This prin cipie can be be applied applied to any form of sym bolic boli c thought, thought, since it consists of al low lo w ing in g one thought to to change at a time in terms of o f its shape, shape, form, function, function, and motion, whil w hilee holdin ho ldin g the other thought thoughtss associated with it cons consta tant nt.. The prin cipie of c ovariation ovariatio n is the the essence of o f the the Creative process, since it allow all ow s one to change chang e at w ill the the realities rea lities one wishes to endor endorse. se. Before you go g o to sleep tonight, tonight, rev iew ie w these concepts concepts and and tell your you r subconscious mind mind that you w ill il l remember rem ember these ideas and and that that you w ill il l attain a deeper deep er and deeper understanding o f the concepts and of how to app ly them them in your d aily life. Start Start thinking now about about various variou s w ays in which you can apply these these ideas to to problems that you are presently pre sently fac ing or expect expe ct to to face in the the futur future. e. Make these these cre ativit ati vity y ideas a part of your yo ur mental men tal reper rep ertoi toire, re, and mak makee a regu re gu lar la r habit of o f ob o b se rv ing in g the patterns patterns of your thinking processes. You w ill be rewarded many times ov er by the insig hts you obtain to to your own thoughts, thoughts, feelin gs, an and d behavior, as you piece together the Ínterconnect Ínterconnections ions of o f mental processes which you might otherwise have taken for grante granted. d. Making these these techniq techniques ues your personal habit habitss w ill giv e you a greater sens sensee and and degree degree o f control over your life as you ac tively direct your mind to function the the way w ay you want wan t it to function. function. Rather than being controlled controlle d by habits you formed year y earss ago, you can change and re-create your yo ur pers p erson onal al habits as you choos c hoosee and as situat si tuation ional al circum circ umstan stances ces change around you. As you apply a pply these these techniqu techniques es to your dai ly affairs and problems, you w ill di seove r a new sense of o f freedom and self-worth, and a greate r mastery o ver y our environment environment.. This Th is is the essen es sence ce o f creat cre ativ ivity ity . Tom T om orro or row w you y ou w i l l hav h avee a chance chanc e to ap p ly these new n ew ly learned lear ned techniques techniques to a numb number er of cre ativity ativ ity tasks as you you work w ork your y our w ay through “ Practícing Creativity, Part 2. 2.” 92

SEVENTH DAY

93

Seventh Seventh Day: Practicing Creativity Part 2

To da day y giv g iv e s y ou a second chance chanc e to put y o u r dev de v el o p in g Creative Crea tive abilities to work. What fol low s are a number number of exercises analogous to the the ones ones you you completed completed wh ile taking “ De velop ing C reativity, Part 1. 1.” Alth ough ou gh the exe rcises rcis es take the the same form, form, the questions asked asked are are different. Before p roceeding with the exercises, take take a moment to look o ve r the the po sit ive self-statements o f the second second and and third days, days, and repeat them to your yo urse self. lf. Reme Re mem m ber be r how you y ou ap appl plie ied d these the se statem s tatements ents to com c om plet pl etin ing g the tasks tasks on the the fourth fourth day o f the the program, progra m, an and d focus upon ap pl yin g them again to today’s toda y’s tasks. tasks. In addition, take take a moment to look o ve r the thinking think ing pattern techniques of the fifth and sixth days o f the program . Remember how you learned to change your associations an and d relationships, relationships, by using the Associa tion Table and and the prin cipie of covariation. Focus on the idea that that you are go in g to create a number number of yo u r own ow n techn te chniqu iques es des d esign ign ed to stimu sti mulat late e Creat C reative ive ideas, in addi a ddition tion to to the th e Associa tion Table and and the princ ipie o f covariation . T el l your subconsci subconscious ous mind to go to wo rk on the the tas task. k. Fin ally, repeat to to you rse lf severa l times that that you are goin g to apply ev eryth ing you have learned in in the th e crea tivi ty pro gram so far toward th the e completion of today’s exercises. As with the exercises g iven on th the e fourt fourth h day, day, the the follow ing exercises giv e you recomme recommended nded time time limits within which to work work.. T ry to follow these these limits because because they teach teach you to think crea tive ly on the spo spot. t. N ow relax, and and allow y ou r thoughts thoughts to to flo w in orig ina l patte pattern rns. s. When you are ready, turn the page and begin.

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Practicing Creativi C reativity ty Part 2 Ex ercise erc ise 18. Th This is is a measure to to see how man y things you could think of that that are alike in some way. For example, if you w ere asked to list a ll the the things you could think think of that that are are always vio let or are vio let more often tha than n any other other color, color, you migh t list “ vio let s—the s—the flow er,” “t w ili gh t,” an and d so on. on. You m ay use one word, seve ral words, or a phrase to describe describe each thing. thing. A llo w you rse lf abou aboutt three minute minutes s to complete this exercise. The ca tego te gory ry is “ ho llow ll ow .” List Li st a ll the thi t hing ngs s you y ou can in the th e space belo be low w that are alw ays ho llow llo w or that are ho llow llo w more mo re often than than not. not.

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Exerc ise 19. When When you are are thinking creative ly, it is often helpful to think in sequences sequences of o f images image s and words that are somehow som ehow linked together. together. To practice think ing in sequen sequences ces,, this measure requires you to think think of words ha ving meanings w hich are the the same as as or sim ilar to a given word. word. For example, example, if you were given th the e word “ long,” you m ight write "leng thy ,” “ extende extended,” d,” “ tiresome,” an and d so so on on. Write down down as many words as you can can,, al lo w in g yo ur self ab abou outt five minutes minutes to to complete the exercise. In the the space below each of the the fo llo w in g three three words, words, writ e as many words as you can that have meanings similar to the given word: Slow

Strong

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Light


Exe rcise rcis e 20. When When tryin g to find Creative answers, you can oíten see things things in a new new ligh t by re arranging how you categorize certain certain object objects s or ideas ideas.. You can can practice this this type type o f mental mental fle xib ility by listin g as man y objects objects as you can which belong to any g ive n class o f objects. objects. In this exercise, you r task w ill be to to list as many objects as you can can which belong to to the the give n class. class. Fo r example, example, if you were g ive n the class “ dog,” dog,” you yo u m igh t li s t “ terr te rrie ier, r,”” “ span sp aniel iel,” ,” “ c olli ol lie e ,” and so on. A ll o w y ou rs elf el f about two minutes to comp lete this exercise . In the space below, lis t as many things as you can that belo ng to the the class “gases.”

98

INCREASE YOUR POWER OP CREATIVE THINRING

Exe rcise 21. Creative ideas often often come from find ing new uses uses for common objects. In this exercis e, you are to lis t as man y uses uses as you can for the give n object object.. Fo r example, i f you w ere asked asked to to list a ll the uses uses you yo u could cou ld for fo r a pie ce of string str ing,, you yo u m igh ig h t inelu i nelude de “ pictu pic ture re han h ange ger,” r,” “ teeth cleaner,” “t oy hat strap," and so on. on. You r answers can be rea listic list ic or comp letely imaginary. A llo w you rself abou aboutt five minutes minutes to to complete complete this exercise. In the space space below, l ist is t as ma many ny uses as you can fo r a “ sheet of aluminum aluminum foil. ”

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INCREASE

YOUR

POWER

O F CREATIVE

THINKING

Exercise 22. Another important aspect aspect o f cre ativ ity is learning how to express co mplex ideas ideas in a simple form. One means of practicin g this this is by creating titles for a give n story plot plot.. In this exercise exercise,, you w ill be given a story p lot and asked asked to write as many appropriate titles as you can can which r epresent the plot. plot. The titles can be be rea listic list ic or im agina ag inative, tive, but but they must hav e some clear relationship relationship to the the give n plot. Fo r example, if you yo u wer w ere e g iv e n a plo t about a convic con victed ted fe lón ló n beco be com m ing in g the Pre siden sid entt of the the United United State States, s, you migh t cali it “F rom P ar de e to President,” President,” o r perhaps perhaps,, “ Jai! to the Chief.” Chief.” A llo w you rself about about three minutes minutes to complete this exercise. In the space below, wri te as ma ny app ropria te titles as you can fo r the foll ow ing plot: plot: A dejected dejected actor actor had had fifteen fifteen face lifts in a futile attempt attempt to to sustain sustain his m ediocre career. Outcast Outcast by a ll the majo r motion picture studios studios,, he fin a lly landed a job in the the on ly professio pr ofessio n that demands demands more pretense and and m ake-b elieve than acting—politics. actin g—politics.

100

INCREASE YOUR POWER QF CREATIVE THINKING

Exerc ise 23. Crea tive thinking often often inv olve s th the process process of abstraction, where w e use metaphors, símil s ímiles, es, puns puns,, and other constructions to get our ideas across to others. others. Many M any o f these these verba l constructions compare one thing to anoth another. er. In this exercise, y ou w il l be give gi ve n an incom plete sentence sentence and and w ill be asked asked to complete the senten sentence ce by co mp mparing aring the firs t part of the the sente sentence nce with as man y differen t thing s as you can. can. For exam ple, i f you were giv en the incomp lete senten sentence, ce, “ Want Want i s ______________ you yo u mig m igh h t com plete ple te it i t with w ith “ Want is the the mistress mistres s of invention” and and “Want “ Want is the the burdea burdea ofthe oft he poor,” poo r,” an and d so on. on. Yo u can complete the the g iven senten sentence ce with a sin gle word, a series of words, or a phrase, phrase, but but make sure that the answer somehow relates r elates to the firs t part o f the th e sent senten ence ce.. A llo w you rself ab abou outt two minutes to complete this exercise. In the the space space below, complete the fo llo w in g incom plete sentence sentence with as many comparisons as you can: can: “L ife is --------------------------------- -------- ”

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EIGHTH DAY

103

Eighth Day: Final Self-Assessment

During the past past seven days, you have completed a number number of crea tivit y stimulating tasks. tasks. You have lea m ed to think abo about ut you rself in a more Creative manner, manner, you have studie studied d think ing patterns and and how to change them, them, and and you ha ve had the opportunity oppo rtunity to put you r evo e vo lv in g Creative abilities to work by practicin g cre ativ ity tasks. tasks. You have learned learned many things which you can take take with you to a pply to yo ur da ily life an and d the the problems which confron t you. you. It is e spe cially helpful at this point to obtain obtain some idea about about how yo ur Creative Creative abilities have gr own during the the last week. week. The follo w in g three three measures are analogou s to the ones you took on the the first day o f the progra m so tha thatt you can compare today’s scores to to you r ear lier performance. The measures toda y are o f exa ctly th the e same form, but but the the actual questions asked are different. Aga in, th the e measures measures assess assess how w ell y ou use yo ur ima gination an and d your yo ur rea r easo soni ning ng pow p ower. er. Each measu m easure re is i s sel s elf-e f-e xp lana la na tory to ry and pro vid es you yo u with wit h a sugges sug gested ted tim t ime e lim l im it fo r com c om plet pl etin ing g the measure. To score sco re each measure, measure, sim ply ad add d up up the the number number of answers you g av e wit hin the suggested time limit. You w ill th then en be given a metho method d of comp aring these these scores to your pe rform ance on the first firs t day. day. The firs fi rs t measure mea sure determ det erm ines ine s your yo ur a b ilit il ity y to make ma ke up ideas idea s at w i ll which describe a giv en phrase o r expression. The goa l is to think of as as many things as you you can within the given time limit, by let ting your imagination play, play, The second seco nd measure me asure determ det ermine ines s your yo ur a bili bi lity ty to think thin k of o f as many ma ny associations associations as you can which fit a give n catego ry. A s you pro gress through the measure measure,, the catego ries of asso ciation become mo re and more complex, cha llengin g you to rea lly concéntr concéntrate. ate. As with the first measure, measure, the g oa l is to think of as many th ings as you can within the given time limit.

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The third thir d measu me asure re asses a ssesses ses yo ur a b ilit il ity y to think thin k in ter ms of relationships. You w ill il l be be asked asked to think think of answers that have d ifferent types o f relation ships to the the give n words, A s with the other measure measures, s, the the goal goa l is to think o f as as many answers as you can with in the the giv en time limit. As you work your wa y through through the the mea measu sures res,, try to apply every thing you yo u hav h ave e learn le arned ed from fr om the cr e a tivi ti vity ty pro p rogr gram am . Re peat pe at you y ou r pos p os itiv it ive e selfsel fstatements statements as you approach each task task,, and ap ply the Creative Creative thin king patterns patterns you have learned. learned. Remember how you focused you r deve lopin g abilities upon upon the the practicin g of c rea tivity tasks tasks and and how you puzzled out out the problems. problems. R eflect fo r a moment moment on any orig ina l Creative Creative thinking patterns patterns that you have discovered, and and try to app ly them them today. today. Relax, and and enjo y the fee lin g of accomplishm ent you have as the familiarity and ease you have in handling these tasks grows and expands in new directions. When When you are ready, please proceed to the next page and and begin. begin.

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Measure 4 In this measure, measure, you w il l be asked to think of as as many wo rds or phrases as you can which can be used to describe the give n phrase. phrase. Fo r example, if you were w ere asked to to respond to the expression, express ion, “ The man was as tal l as ______ yo u mig m igh h t an swer sw er with wi th m an any y diff di ffer eren en t words wo rds _________ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ___ you and an d phrases. phrases. Some of these these migh t be be “ the trees,” “ the sky,” “ Wilt Chamberlain,” Cham berlain,” and so on. on. You r goal here here is to think think o f as many answers to the give n phrases as as you can. Y our ou r score s core on this measure meas ure w il l be the number o f words wor ds and phrases you write down which somehow describe the given phrases. It is im portan! to time yo urs elf on this this measure, measure, so that that this final score can can be compared compared fai rly to your beginn ing score on Measure 1 given on the first day of the the program. program. A llo w yours elf exactly fiv e minutes minutes to complete this measure. measure. When you are ready, turn the page and begin, and be sure to allow yo u rsel rs elff exac ex ac tly tl y fi v e m inutes inu tes w o rk in g time.

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Write as many words w ords and phrases as you can think oí which complete the given phrases below: 1. The touch o f her hand hand was like: lik e:

2. The stars stars looked look ed like: like :

3. The taste of the water was as sweet as: as:

4. The sprin g flow ers smelled like:

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Af te r you have completed completed Measure 4 within the fiv e minute minute time limit, sim ply ad add d up up the the number number of sepárate word s and phrases you w rote down d own fo r all fou r parts of the measure combined. combined. Write yo ur total sco re in the the space below. Measur Measure e 4 Total S c o re : ____ ______ ____ ____ __

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INCREASE YOUR POWER OF CREATIVE TH1NKING

Measure 5

In this this measure measure,, you w ill be given certain certain words o r combinations of words, and and your yo ur task w ill il l be to lis t as many associations ass ociations to the the words as you yo u can. For F or exa e xamp mple, le, i f you y ou w ere er e asked, "Ñ am e ev ery er y th ing in g you y ou can that is orang e," you m ight answer with “ the the sun, sun,”” "a beac beach h umbrella,” umbrella,” “ oranges from Florida,” and and so on. A s with the previou s measur measure, e, your g oal is to think of as many answers answers to the give n words as you can. can. Your score on this measure wil w illl be the the number of things you y ou w rite down which fit the category categ ory described by the the given words. It is important impo rtant to time y ourse ou rse lf on on this measure so that that this final fina l score score can be compared compared fa irly to your b eginnin g score on Measure Measure 2 given giv en on the the first day of the the program. A llo w you rself exact ly two minutes minutes to to comp lete each of the three parts of this measure. measure. When When you are ready, please proceed to the next page and begin.

110


Write down down as many things as you can can which fit the givc n categories cate gories below: 1

. Ñame Ñam e ev ever eryth yth ing in g you can can that that is red: red:

2

. Ñame ever ev eryth yth ing in g you can can that is red and and hot: hot:

3. Ñame Ñam e ever ev eryt yth h ing in g you can that is red, red, hot, hot, and and young:

111


A fter you have completed Measure Measure 5 within the six minute minute total time limit, s imp ly ad add d up up the the number number of sepárate sepárate things you wrote down for all three parts of the measure combined. combined. Write yo ur tota l score in the space below. Measure 5 Total Tota l S c o re :-----:-------------------

112

INCREASE YOUR POWER OF CREATIVE THINKINO

Measure 6 In this this measure, measure, you w ill be giv en a certain certain word, and and your task w il l be to think of as many answers as you can that that hav e different s pec ific relationships to the the giv en word. You w ill be asked asked to think think of synonyms, antonyms, antonyms, and and words that rhyme rhyme w ith the the giv en word. word. For example, i f you yo u w ere er e g iv e n the word wo rd “ tig ht,” ht ,” y ou would wo uld be asked to lis l is t as m any an y words as you could could that that rhyme w ith “ tight,” next as many words as you could that that have the same meaning as “ tight,” and and then then as as many words as you yo u could co uld that tha t have hav e a mean me an ing in g oppo op posit site e to “ tig ht.” ht .” Yo ur score on this this measure measure w ill be the the number o f answers you w rite down down which proper ly relate to the giv en word. word. A s with the the previous two measur measures, es, it is important to time yo urs elf so you r score can be compared compared to the the equivalen t measure (Measure 3) giv en on the the firs t day o f the the program. program. A llo w you rself exactly two minutes minutes to to complete each each of the the three parts of this measure. When When you are ready, tu m the the page and begin. begin.

113

INCREASE YOÜR POWER OP CREATIVE THINKING

The g iv e n word wo rd is “ lig li g h t” as in “ not he h e av y. ” . Write down as as man many y words as you can that rhyme with or sound sound like “light”: 1

2. Write down as man many y words wor ds as as you yo u can that have hav e the same, or a sim ilar meaning to the the word word “ ligh t” :

3. Write down as man y words word s as you can can that have an an opposite, or nearly opposite, meaning to to the the word word “ ligh t” :

114


Af ter you have completed completed Measure 6 within the six minute total time limit, limit , s im ply ad add d up the number number of sepárate things thin gs you wrote wr ote down fo r all three parts of the measure combine combined. d. Write W rite your yo ur total tota l score in the space space below. Measure 6 Total Score:

_______ _______ _

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Calculating Calcula ting Your Yo ur Creativity Quot Quotien ientt

No w that you ha ve completed com pleted a number number o f measures before and after taking the the cre at ivity program, it is p ossible to calcúlate calcúlate your percentage of improvem ent on the the measure measures s given. Using these percentages, percentages, we w ill not analogous calcúlate your Creativity Quotient. This quotient is not a nalogous to an intelligen inte lligen ce quotient, quotient, ñor is it normed or standardized standardized against a sample populatio population. n. It is simp ly a proportion tellin g you ho w much much your Creativ Creative e ability ha has s increase increased d rela tive to the the measures measures given. It is important to realize th that at your Creative Creative potential might have grown in wa ys which these these measures do do not asses assess. s. In the same wa y that intellige int ellige nce nc e quotients q uotients are biased biased toward one’s academic orientation an and d performance, this creativity quotient is biased toward one’s innate or learned ability to perform w ell on these these types o f measure measures. s. Therefo re, the most important thing for you to look for f or is the amount amount you h h ave imp roved rove d at these these tasks. tasks. This Th is can serv s erve e as a diagno diag nost stic ic measu m easure re for f or you, p oint oi nt ing in g out the areas area s of of Creative performance which you migh t want to work the hardest at impr im provin ovin g in the the future future.. For example, example, if your scores scores increase signific an tly on Ratios A an and dB below, but not on C, then this indicates that your use of free flowing imagin ation ha has s appreciab appr eciab ly increased, increased, but but your you r use use of reasoning rea soning has not. ot. Y ou might then rev iew days fiv e an and d six o f the the program, co ver ing th the e development of Creative Creative think ing patterns. patterns. Conversely, Converse ly, if you y ou r performance performan ce should increase on Ratio C, but but not not on on A an and d B, B, then then you might mig ht revie re vie w da ys two and and three three as w ell el l as days four and an d six, six, to help those im imag ag ina tive ideas flow. Ratio D is an avera av era ge o f all the th e other other three ratios, gi v in g you an over all assessment assessment of your you r improvemen improv ementt at at crea cr ea tiv ity tasks. If this ratio should should not not regist er an increase in your you r performance, then then you might migh t want to re vie w the entire creativity program. program. Do not not be be discouraged i f you r scores do not not increase grea tly, or if they even decrease. decrease. It ma y we ll be that the ideas ideas are busily s inkin g into your mind at deeper leve ls, an and d it w ill il l take time before the concepts concepts produce a change in your yo ur behavior. 117


For each o f the three self-assessment m easures used used,, you r score obtained obtained after taking tak ing the the crea tiv ity pro gram w il l be put in the numerator of the ratio ratio,, and your score obtaine obtained d before tak ing the program w ill be put put in the the denominator. denominator. This fig ure ur e is then then mu ltiplied by 100 to to giv e your cre ativit at ivit y ratios. This means that a score score o f 100 on any o f the ratios indicates no change in you r performance. A score above 100 means an increase in performance, and a score below 100 means a decrease. decrease. Fina lly, Eatio D is calculated, calculated, which is an avera ge of the the other three ratios. ratios. Ra tio D giv es y ou you r Crea tivity Quotient Quotient for the three three selfassessment measures. To calcúla calc úlate te y ou r cre c rea a tivi ti vity ty ratio ra tios s and you r Cr ea tivi ti vity ty Quotient, Quoti ent, w rite ri te the scores you obtained on Measures 1 through 6 in the spaces as indicated.

118


Ratio A : F F ill

in the the spaces below with the scores you obtained on on Measure Mea sures s 1 and 4; 4; then calcúla calc úlate te the ratio: rat io: Ratio Ratio A =

Measure 4 X 10 100 0= Measure 1

Ratio B: F F ill il l

in the spaces below w ith the scores you obtained on Measures 2 and 5; then calcúlate the ratio: Ratio B =

Measu Measurr e s X100g Measure 2

Ratio C: F F ill il l

in the spaces below w ith the scores you obtained on Measures Meas ures 3 and 6; then calcúlate calcúla te the ratio: Ratio Rat io C =

Measure 6 X 10 100 0= Measure 3

Ratio D: Fill F ill

in the the spaces below belo w with the scores you calculated for Ratios Ra tios A, B, and C; then calcúlate Ratio D:

_ . „ Ratio Ra tio A + Ratio Ra tio B + Ratio Ra tio C Ratio D =--------------- r ------------------ =

Ratio D is you r ove rall C rea tivity Quot Quotie ient nt..

119

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Conclusión

The entir en tire e purpose purp ose o f this cre c re a ti v ity it y pro p rogr gram am has been to stim ulate ula te yo u r Creative abi a bili litie tie s a lon lo n g a number numbe r of o f diffe di ffe rent re nt dimens dim ensions ions,, with wi th the hope that that you w ill take these these ideas ideas and apply them them to your d aily life. They Th ey can be used in d a ily il y prob p roblem lem so lv in g, in i n re lati la tin n g more mo re fle f le x ib ly to to other other people, people, and and in in seeing ourse lves in a more p osit ive light. You have been been shown shown how to perce ive yo ur sel f differently, differently, tak ing the the habits habits and and perceptions o f yo ur present self-con cept and lea rning rn ing ho w to mold and restructure restructure them them into a new you. These are p rinc ipies which w ill serve you w el l if y ou g iv e them them the the time time and and attent attention ion they they deserve. deserve. They Th ey are also a lso pri p rin n cipi ci pies es wh which ich you y ou m igh ig h t want wan t to share sha re with wi th others, to help them them adopt a more Creative and and fle xib le attitude attitude toward lif e as well. we ll. Eemember to repeat repeat your p osit ive self-sta self-statement tements s to you rself whe never you need or desir d esire e to do so, re plac pl ac in g an y ne ga tive ti ve self-st sel f-statem atem ents ent s that mig ht arise. Learn to use use you r subconscious mind on a daily dai ly basis, feeding feedin g it suggestions an and d then then allow all ow ing in g it to go to work. You have ha ve also been shown shown how th inking patterns form, form, an and d how you can can read ily change th them em.. E ea lizin liz in g that many o f our habits habits of thought and an d behavior beha vior are the the product of random random experiences , we obtain a new sens sense e o f power an and d control ove r our live s by learnin g how to change those those habits habits at will. w ill. Eemember to use the the principies princ ipies built into the the Ass ociatio oci ation n Table, the the verb al an and d spatial constellations, and and th the e principie princ ipie of covaria tion in restructuring your th thou ought ghts, s, feelings, an and d behavior. As with the use use of pos p ositiv itiv e self-statements, these techniques require time and patience for you to obtain the máximum benefit from them, Make a habit habit o f rev iew ie w in g these ideas ideas often, often, and and try to invent you r own techniques for st imu lating Creative ideas. ideas. Make up up you r own patterns of thinking, consta ntly searchin se archin g for better wa ys o f understanding understanding th the e world aroun around d you. you. Use the pos itiv e self-statements self-statements and and your subcons subconsciou cious s as you ev ol ve your o rigin al thinking patt patter erns. ns. Fin ally, you have been been allowed to practice a range of cre ativ ity tasks to to help you focus on on ap ply ing these these techniques techniques to you r daily world.

121


Rem emb er to to app ly the the positive self-statements and the the Creative Creative think ing patterns to to prob lem s yo u encounter, encounter, and to to share these concepts with other others. s. Find w ay s to make these these concepts concepts work fo r you, you, allo w in g your mind to become and rema in flexible.

R ev iew these these ideas whene ver you fee l a need need to to do so, so, stimu lating your subconscious to feed and and grow gr ow upon these mind-ex panding concepts. Think Th ink o f these ideas ide as as seeds, plant p lanted ed in y o u r mind min d to gro g ro w w ith time, t ime, gi vi n g birth birth to countl countless ess other other forms o f mental mental life and discovery. Decide now to create y ou r own wo rld as much as as possible, rath er than than pa ss ive ly be ing controlled by circumstances or other peop le around around you. you. Decide now to to make cre ativ ity a part of you r life. The quality o f life life for all humankind depends upon the Crea Creati tive ve pow er we collectively wield, and upon our creatively restructuring the illusions and confu sed emotions emotions w hich have lon g dominated the hum an race.

122

Explanatory THE ROSICRUCIAN ORDER ANT ICf PAT ING que stio ns w hich may be asked by the readers of this book, the publishers wish toannouncethatthere isbutone universal Ros icrucia n Order existíng ¡n the world today, united in its various ¡urisdictions, and havtng one Supreme Council in accordance wtth the original plan of the ancient Rosicrucian manifestoes. manifestoes. The Rosicrucian Rosicrucian O rderis nota religious religious orsectarian society. This international organization retains the ancient traditions, teachings, principies, and practical helpfulness of the Brotherhood as founded centuries ago. It ¡s known as the An the An cie nt My sticat Order Rosae Rosae Crucis, Crucis, which narne. for popular use. ¡s abbreviated into AMORC. The Headquarters of the Worldwide Jurlsdiction (The Americas, Australasia, Europe. Africa, and Asía) is loca ted at San José, Califo rnia. Those interested in knowing more of the history and presentday helpful offerings o f the Rosicrucia ns may have atrae atrae copy copy of the book entitled, The Mastery oí Lile, Lile , by sending a defini te request to Scribe Rosicruc ian Order, AMORC, Ros icru cian Park. San José, California 95191.

The Rosicrucian Library consista of a number of uníque books which are listed on the following page, and which may be purchased from the ROSICRUCIAN SUPPLY BUREAU

San J os é , C alifornia 95191

The Rosicrucian Libra ry Volume Rosicrucian Questlons and Answera witb Complete Complete Hiatory of the the Order ii Rosicrucian Principies for the Home and Business Mystical U fe of Jesús Jesús m The Mystical rv The Secret Doctrines of Jesús V Unto Thee I Orant (Secret Teachtngs of Tibet) VI A Thousand Thousand Years of Yesterdays (A Revelatlon of Reincarnatlon) Reincarnatlon) Fate with the the Cycles of Uf e VI I Solí Mastery and Fate (A Vocational Ouide) VIII Rosicrucian Manual IX Mystics at Prayer X Behold the Sign (A Book of Ancient Symbolism) Manslon s of the 8oul XI Manslons (A Cosmic Conceptlon) Conceptlon) Lemu ria—The The Lost Contlnen Contlnentt of the Pacific XII Lemuria— XII I The Technique of the Master XIV The Symbollc Prophecy of the Oreat Pyramid XVI The Technique of The Disciple Mental Poisoning XVI I Mental XV III Glande—The Mlrror of Self XXI I The Sanctuary of Self XXII I Sepher Yezirah XXV Son of the Sun XXVI The Conscious Interlude XX VII Essays of a Modera Mystic XX VII I Cosmic Mlsslon Pulfilled XXIX Whisperings of Self XXX Herballsm Through the Ages XXXI Egypt ’s Ancient Herítage XXXII Yesterday Has Much to Teil XXXII I The Eteraal Fruits of Knowledge XXXI V Cares That Infest XXXV Mental Aichemy XXX VI Messag es from the Celestial Sanctum Sanctum XXX VII In Search of Reallty the Mlnd’s Eye XXXV III Through the XXXI X Mystlclsm—The Ultímate Experience Other Essays Essa ys XL The Conscience of Science and Other XLI The Universo of Numbers XLII Great Women Initiates XL III Inerease your Power of Creative Thinkíng (Other volume s w wil illl be added from time to tim time. e. Wrlte for complete catalogue.) x

Increase Your Power of Creative Thinking in Eight Days

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