In my first post, I discussed the What if Factor and how I came to create an exercise that explored seeing the world in extra-ordinary ways. The images you see here are the result of that process. You can see in these collages that there are very few actual human parts but our minds easily translate an egg for a head, spinach for hair and seaweed for fingers as perfectly comprehensible.
What we see is what we want to see and, of course, we understand what these creatures are and are not. So our ideas about what a face ‘should’ look like can easily be adjusted and acceptable within the context of “why not” or “what if?” Imagination and the absolute rising up of childlike, joyful, “all things possible” conjuring, manifests in crazy, fabulous and innovative outcomes. Sadly, that sense of all things possible we are born with and have as children gets smothered out of us by the ‘experts’ in our world.: parents, teachers, older siblings and friends…society in general. “Be reasonable” they said. “That’s crazy”. “The world doesn’t look or work that way”. Yet…‘the individual drive to bring ourselves and our own way of seeing the world is an undeniable force. One way or another a unique and creative spirit will unveil itself.’
What if?
One can learn to see in a way that is new again, on purpose and with intention. Though I am not speaking about seeing in only creative ways, it is impossible for me to visit the concept of shifting the ‘how’ we see without overlapping into the domain of creativity. The processes of conjuring, creating and information gathering are linked but are not the same. They inform one another but do not necessarily find their path from the same information bank. For example, conjuring and inventing straddle the hemispheres of the brain and dance between logic, intuition and spontaneity.
Creativity to me is making the conjured thing come to life in a uniquely magical or powerful way. How we observe and translate the world obviously plays a part in all of this. Sometimes I see things in a linear way but I rarely create that way. Obviously, pulling something together may become a linear process but the spark comes from an undefined cosmic bank of nudges that show up in fragments, pictures, aha’s, intuitions and awesome ‘accidents’. We move between the two modalities of logic and spontaneity all day long. It’s not something we think about and each of us spends more time in one domain more than the other and in varying degrees.
Most of us know where we fall on the continuum between logic and spontaneity as our dominant style. That prevailing influence is to be noticed…not self-defining. Just know that labeling yourself as one thing or the other, left brain, right brain, can keep you trapped there and it’s not necessarily true that you are one or the other ever. It’s always a dance between the two hemispheres. Actually, it is as much a modality as a place. If evidence shows that you tend…which we all do…to hang out in one domain more than the other, just notice it and know the envelope is there to be pushed. If you naturally tend toward a linear operating style, there are ways to break out and become a bit more spontaneous. Same goes for those who rarely seem to visit an organized and logical sequence of steps toward an end. It is possible to move more in that direction when you need to…even though it may feel really structured. and claustrophobic.
It isn’t about changing your operating style. It’s about noticing it and appreciating that we don’t all do that the same way. Try stretching a bit into other ways of processing your world and understanding that much of how you do that is already hard wired.
As I said, my intention is to share what I have discovered about seeing our world and the powerful effects that noticing has upon who we are, who we become and our relationship to all things. Some of my thoughts may seem a stretch to some. To others, not so much. That’s good actually. I simply ask that you suspend judgment and consider these ideas. If you take away but one concept or idea that creates an aha moment then I’ll be content for it only takes one small adjustment in how we notice to make a difference in our world-view which then makes a difference in how we show up in that world.
Next Post: The domain of rigid relics