Foundational Principles of the Mind

Confusion exists because we live in two worlds simultaneously. The world of the mind operates independently. The external world is fixed and routine. There needs to be a balance based on understanding. While we cannot change a building or a town, we can make contributions to change. And we need to know what can be changed and what cannot.

Basic Principles

• Making Sense
  Jumping to Conclusions
  Patterns in the brain provide fast tracks to instant solutions. The short attention span of existing tracks tend to repeat the same thing, perhaps using different descriptions.
• Trapped Ideas
  Seeing What is There
  The nature of natural thought sequences don't necessarily distinguish between what is important and what we see. This is because experience often traps ideas.

Personal Preferences

• Thinking Steps
  Existing prejudices decide the steps we take and we are unable to comprehend new possibilities, since we are trapped by existing patterns. The patterns are often arbitrary and taken for granted.
• Creating What Does Not Exist
  There is no time for creativity because information is processed too quickly. Our minds are not computers. We need to understand the system and design instructions in the forms of powerful triggers. Hence we need the thinking tools that serve human values, not a fascist political system. The time is ripe to reap the benefits we can achieve in a fresh system of thinking that breaks free from the stranglehold of traditional logical thinking.

Related resources

• New thinking is the possession of thinking skills
• The Edward de Bono tools are in use around the world and they work.
• The Six Thinking Hats create powerful thinking that replaces argument and judgement with parallel thinking.
• Lateral Thinking is the direct method used for escaping old ideas and developing creativity.