Creative Intelligence and Vision

In Friday’s article, which was Elizabeth Gilbert talking about genius and the creative process, I said that was the end of the series on Creative Intelligence. But as I thought about it over the weekend, I decided I wanted to extend the series a few more days, because I wanted to talk about how Creative Intelligence is so closely related to Vision.

I also have received a lot of positive feedback on this series, so that also made me decide to stretch it out a few more days.

Vision is the ability to see the world in the largest way possible.  Living a Low Density Lifestyle is something that will help you develop your visionary capabilities.

You can use vision to to find happiness, love, prosperity, a successful career, fulfilling work or to change the world.

You can vision small or large, and you can make the vision a reality. Many have done it before us, and many will do it after us. And most importantly, many are doing it right now. You have the power to be one of those who are doing it now.

To vision you need to learn to think different (and that should sound familiar, one because it’s the theme Apple Computer uses, and secondly because that’s what Creative Intelligence is about), to add space in between your thoughts, and to let go of your current way of thinking in order to see something new.

In other words, you need to interject a certain amount of dreaminess into your thinking, whether it be daydreaming, gazing into space or applying your night dreams to situations that arise during the day.

I believe John Lennon’s song “Imagine” strikes such a resonant chord because it is a song about the power to vision, and it empowers us to vision the highest calling of humanity — living in a world of peace (which, sad to say, is such an elusive thing — could that be because so few people know how to vision?)

And so, the question is, What is Your Vision?

It might be something you’ve never thought about before, primarily because it is a quality that none of us are encouraged to cultivate. But what and who are we without a vision? If you have a vision, then you have a dream to live by, and it becomes a passion, something that can fire you up and inspire you every waking hour of your life.

And when this occurs, your actions in everyday life will be performed with effortless effort.

So ask yourself, What is My Vision?

Take some time to ponder that question. It’s not a test. Come back to it. And your vision can change and evolve, so what you come up with now may change tomorrow, next week, or next year.

I will continue on with Creative Intelligence and Vision tomorrow.

Creative Intelligence and the Creative Process

As a finale for the series on Creative Intelligence, here’s an excellent talk given in Feb. 2009 by Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert about the creative process.

In the talk she states the same thing I have been getting at in this series on Creative Intelligence – that we are all geniuses, and that it is not just something that is bestowed on a select few.

We all have an inner Einstein, an innate genius lurking within. You just have to tap into its potential. The best way to do so is by living a Low Density Lifestyle.

By the way, this talk on Creative Intelligence and the Creative Process by Elizabeth Gilbert comes from the TED conference.

The TED conference is an annual conference that brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.

Where Does Creative Intelligence Come From?

Deepak Chopra on Quantum Physics and Consciousness

Where does creative intelligence come from?  Yes, I know it comes from the mind, but it’s a different mindset to think in a creative fashion than it is when you are thinking logically.

When you use your creative intelligence, you are accessing the dreaming mind, the aspect of your mind that taps into a greater world.

You are actually accessing the world of quantum physics when you use your creative intelligence, a world that tells us of a vast and unlimited universe, a world of infinite energy, infinite potential and infinite information.

This is where the source of the creativity lies.

The Zero-Point Field

Quantum physics tells us that the source of all matter is what is called the Zero-Point Field. It lies at the core of the universe and it is where matter emanates from.

When you dream and use your imagination, you are tapping into the place where consciousness, stillness, breath and wisdom originate from, the place that Eastern philosophies call Universal Mind, or Big Mind. This might sound mystical, but you have to remember that the source for most famous ideas throughout history have come to their originator in a flash, often when they were least expecting something. The inventor Nicola Tesla said, “Creative ideas come to us like a bolt of lightning.”

To access the Zero-Point Field, it is a matter of being still and calm, and feeling your center. In other words, you become light of body and mind. And you know what we call that—that’s right, that’s the Low Density Lifestyle.

When you are in that Low Density Lifestyle mode, you don’t have blockages that impede your ability to access the Zero-Point Field in order to use your creative intelligence to your utmost potential.  When you are living a High Density Lifestyle, you have too much static and densities in body and mind, blocking your ability to fully utilize your creative potential.

This is why when someone gets a creative thought, a new idea or new insight that comes to them, it comes when they fully relax and allow themselves to just be in the flow.  That sounds familiar, right?  That’s because, as I’ve said before, to get into a Low Density Lifestyle, you have to be FREE—you have to Flow, Relax, and do things with Effortless Effort.

In the above video, Deepak Chopra explains the world of quantum physics. After watching the video, you may understand these heady ideas better.

As I have been saying throughout this series on creative intelligence, we all have it.  We all have tremendous innate genius potential, it’s just waiting to be utilized.  So start right now.

In tomorrow’s last installment from this series on creative intelligene (I know, I know, all good things must come to an end) we’ll hear from Elizabeth Gilbert, best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love on genius and the creative process.

Creative Intelligence and and New and Visionary Ideas That Were Rejected – Part 2

One Idea That Was Rejected Was a Bunch of Blokes From Liverpool

I told you about Creative Intelligence and New and Visionary Ideas that were rejected in yesterday’s article. Because the list is long, I will tell you about more rejections.

It takes creative intelligence – which is a mix of creative and logical thinking and the imagination – to come up with new and visionary ideas.  But it takes no creative intelligence whatsoever to reject them.  People who reject them are too stuck in a High Density Lifestyle to recognize brilliance.

So let’s examine some more of the things that have become commonplace that were rejected at first.

How Could They Tell Them No?

The Beatles
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” — Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962

Xerox
In 1938 Chester Carlson invented xerography. Virtually every major corporation, including IBM and Xerox, didn’t think much of his idea and rejected it. They felt that since carbon paper was cheap and readily available, no one would buy an expensive copying machine.

U.S. Patent Office
In 1899 Charles Duell, the director of the U.S. Patent Office, suggested that the government close the office because everything that could be invented had been invented.

The Radio
“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” –David Sarnoff’s Associates in rejecting a proposal for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

Talking Pictures
“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” –H.M. Warner (Warner Brothers) before rejecting proposal for movies with sound in 1927.

The Airplane
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” –Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

Nautilus Machines
“You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can’t be done. It’s just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training.” –Rejection letter to Arthur Jones, who invented the Nautilus Fitness Machine

The Computer
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”– Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

The Personal Computer
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” — Ken Olsen, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

Tomorrow I’ll look at where creative ideas come from, and tie it in with ideas from quantum physics.

Creative Intelligence and New and Visionary Ideas That Were Rejected

Apple Computer – A Company Rejected by the Experts – and their Think Different TV Ad

When you use your creative intelligence – and remember, everyone has it – you are using the mind’s greater potential. You will be able to come up with new, visionary and brilliant ideas.

In yesterday’s article, I told you how you can use your creative intelligence to come up with visionary ideas. I also mentioned how some brilliant ideas are rejected when they are first proposed. They are rejected because the people who judge them have limited creative intelligence and are caught up in a High Density Lifestyle.

But because the people who came up with these ideas were visionaries living a Low Density Lifestyle, and believed in the power of their ideas, they were able to overcome the entrenched way of thinking of the experts and bring their ideas to fruition.

In today and tomorrow’s articles, I will tell you about some ideas, concepts and people who were rejected at first, but have gone on to tremendous success. So here goes – I think you will get a kick out of this:

How Could They Tell Them No?

Apple Computer
“So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.’” — Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer.

Federal Express
Fred Smith, while a student at Yale, came up with the concept of Federal Express, a national overnight delivery service. The U.S. Postal Service, U.P.S., his own business professor, and virtually every delivery expert in the United States predicted his enterprise would fail. Based on their experiences in the industry, no one, they said, would pay a fancy price for speed and reliability.

Mrs. Fields Cookies
“A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make.” — Response to Debbi Fields’ idea of starting Mrs. Fields’ Cookies.

Handwashing for Doctors
In the mid-1800’s in Vienna, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, an obstetrician, proposed that obstetricians wash their hands before delivering babies to lessen the possibility of spreading disease. He even proved his point by doing a study that showed how washing hands would lessen disease in newborns. The physicians involved refused to believe his idea could make a difference and ran him out of Vienna. He ended up committing suicide as a result of the emotional stress he suffered.

The Telephone
In 1861, in Germany, Phillip Reiss invented a machine that could transmit music and was on the verge of inventing the telephone, but was persuaded there was no market for a telephone, because the telegraph was an adequate way to send messages. Fifteen years later Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

Tomorrow: More ideas that were rejected.

Using Your Creative Intelligence

You Can Use Your Creative Intelligence to Create New and Visionary Ideas

“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.” – Victor Hugo

When you live a Low Density Lifestyle, your creative intelligence is heightened, which will allow you to create new and visionary ideas.

And in this day and age, this is very important.

Why?

Welcome to the Imagination Age

Because this is no longer the information age. This is the imagination age. The highest achievers are people who create new ideas, people with imagination who fully use their creative intelligence.

Imagination is dynamic, and your ability to creatively think and tap into your inner genius is infinite.

It is not hard to use your creative thinking abilities and come up with new ideas. It’s the same process you use to vision. It is an innate ability that all of us have, but because it is not encouraged or cultivated, it has atrophied – it is like muscles that you never use.

Creativity is Key

The physicist David Bohm once said, “Creativity is a fundamental principle of the Cosmos and what needed to be explained were the processes that were not creative.”

If creativity is a fundamental principle of the cosmos, then we all have great capabilities of thinking of brilliant ideas.

The French philosopher Voltaire said, “Good is the enemy of great.” We’re at our best when we’re forced to stretch beyond what we know, yet we tend to come up with ideas that are predictable and within our comfort zone. We settle on good when we could keep going all the way to great.

Part of this is because we don’t cultivate our imagination, and part of this is because we’re afraid to come up with new ideas because they may sound crazy and make us look foolish. But often new ideas, because

they can be so farsighted in scope, look outlandish to those who can’t think that far ahead.

New Ideas and the Experts Who “Know it All”

Most of the time new ideas, because they are visionary in nature, are rejected by many – especially the experts who claim they know it all.

History is littered with brilliant ideas that end up on the rejection pile, but because the person who believed in their idea felt so strong about it, it was able to rise to the top and eventually succeed.

Tomorrow I will tell you about some brilliant ideas that were rejected when they were first proposed. They were rejected because the people who were judging it had limited creative intelligence and were caught up in a High Density Lifestyle.

Imagination and Creative Intelligence

Check out those crazy hamsters! That’s really creative and imaginative.

“An act of imagination, a speculative adventure…underlies every improvement of natural knowledge.” – Sir Peter Brian Medawar (1915-1987) British Zoologist

“The imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself.” - William Blake

As I mentioned in my articles on Creative Intelligence and I.Q. Part 1 and Part 2: Imagination is an important part of creative intelligence.

And to repeat what I said in the articles on Creative Intelligence and I.Q., imagination, in combination with creative and logical thinking is what creative intelligence is about. And using creative intelligence is much more important than I.Q. in being able to access your innate genius potential.

The Imagination

So let’s talk some more about the imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge, Albert Einstein once said.

All the great artists and scientists throughout time have understood how important imagination is. Most great ideas don’t come when we use only our logical thinking capabilities. They mostly come when we let down our guards, enter into a Low Density Lifestyle, and let the imagination take hold.

Nicola Tesla, the great scientist and inventor, once said, “Creative ideas come to us like a bolt of lightning.”

Steven Weinberg won a Nobel Prize for physics for his electroweak theory and said the idea came to him in a flash one day, while he was driving his car.

Albert Einstein once wondered, “Why is it I get my best ideas in the morning while I’m shaving?” This is because when we allow ourselves to relax and let the mind space out, the imagination can take over.

History is filled with many stories of creative insights that arrived like flashes of light, whether in daydreams, creative reveries or dreams. When you let go of your current way of thinking in order to see something new, you are letting your imagination take hold.

Imagination is Infinite

Imagination is infinite. All it takes to touch it is to close the eyes, quiet the mind and be silent – in other words, to enter into a Low Density Lifestyle. And then it flows – it may be images, thoughts, ideas or whatever, but the key is not to silence it or to criticize it. You may then want to express what you imagined – through written or spoken words, images, musical notations, or however you are most comfortable.

The key is to go and use your imagination. We are not encouraged to. But it is an important part of our lives.

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious…He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.” - Albert Einstein

Creative Intelligence and I.Q.: Part 2

Creative Intelligence and I.Q.: In yesterday’s post, I told you that I.Q. is not the true test of whether a person is a genius. I told  you about Albert Einstein, and how not-very-bright he seemed growing up.

I also told  you that the key to tapping into your inner Einstein, or your innate genius capability, is using your creative intelligence, which is a combination of creative thinking, logical thinking and imagination.

Now I want to talk about this more, and discuss two types of tests.

Test Your Intelligence

An I.Q. test is what is called a convergence test. It is where you sort through the answers and converge on the right answer.

To test your creative intelligence you would take a divergence test. A divergence test asks you to use your creative intelligence and take your mind in many different directions. There is no single right answer in this kind of test.

In a divergence test, the tester is looking for the number and uniqueness of your responses.

Here is a question from a divergence test. Try it out yourself:

A Brick, a Blanket and Two Students

Write down as many different uses that you can think of for the following objects:

1. a brick

2. a blanket

This question comes from an actual divergence test that an English researcher named Liam Hudson used for a study of creative intelligence and I.Q.  He found that average students had much more diverse answers than students with high I.Q.’s. Here’s an example of answers:

A student named Poole said for a brick:

To use in smash-and-grab raids. To help hold a house together. To use in a game of Russian roulette if you want to keep fit at the same time (bricks at ten paces turn and throw – no evasive action allowed). To hold the eiderdown on a bed tie a brick at each corner. As a breaker of empty of Coca-Cola bottles.

And this same student said for a blanket:

To use on a bed. As a cover for illicit sex in the woods.  As a tent. To make smoke signals with. As a sail for a boat, cart or sled. As a substitute for a towel. As a target for shooting practice for short-sighted people. As a thing to catch people jumping out of burning skyscrapers.

Pretty creative, wouldn’t you say?  This student with an average I.Q. has really high creative intelligence.  (Then again, we all have high creative intelligence).

Now, another student named Florence, who had one of the highest I.Q.’s in the school,  answered the question with these answers:

Brick: Building things, throwing.

Blanket: Keeping warm, smothering fires, tying to trees and sleeping in (as a hammock), improvised stretcher.

And that’s all his answers to the two. He was very functional, but he lacked creative intelligence – he showed no imagination with his answers.  And this was from a high schooler who was considered one of the top students, based on his I.Q.

Use Your Intelligence

I.Q. isn’t it.  Creative intelligence is.  I.Q. tells you how smart a person is within a limited scope.  But it tells you nothing of their imagination and their range of thought.

You want to use your innate genius potential? Forget trying to raise your I.Q.  Instead raise your C.Q. – your creative intelligence.  You do this by thinking creatively, thinking logically and using your imagination.

Using your creative intelligence – how radical a thought.

Living a Low Density Lifestyle – how radical a thought too.

Creative Intelligence and I.Q.

Creative intelligence and IQ: Which do you think is more important in telling us whether a person has genius capability?

Why IQ, right?  Everybody knows that.  Why just in the news recently was this:

Older Fathers Linked to Lower I.Q, Scores
The children of older fathers scored lower than the offspring of younger fathers on I.Q. tests and a range of other cognitive measures at 8 months old, 4 years old and 7 years old, according to a study that added to a growing body of evidence suggesting risks to postponing fatherhood.

The study is the first to show that the children of older fathers do not perform as well on cognitive tests at young ages. Although the differences in scores were slight and usually off by just a few points on average, the study’s authors called the findings “unexpectedly startling.”

I.Q. Tests Are Limited

Ok, so that must be the truth, right?

Wrong. I.Q. tests can only tell so much.  One thing they tell is whether a person is good at taking tests.  One thing they do is cause the person taking it, if their score isn’t at the high achiever level, to believe that they don’t have what it takes to be a brilliant minded person.

But they are wrong, dead wrong for that. Yes, if the score is high that does mean the person is very bright academically. But that’s not the full picture.

Albert Einstein

The story of Albert Einstein fits right into this. Growing up, his parents wondered if he was slightly retarded, because he had trouble doing mundane tasks. He was a slow learner and not very good at school.  His teachers told him he’d never amount to much.  He was expelled from high school and flunked his college entrance exam. Thanks to a family connection, he got a job as a civil service worker in a patent office. It was there that he devised one of the most famous theories of all history, his relativity theory.

His advances, light years (pun intended) ahead of contemporary theories, seemed to have come out of left field, because he was an unknown with no academic credentials.  But Einstein had something going for him, and it wasn’t I.Q. It was his creative intelligence.

Creative intelligence is a mix of logical thinking, creative thinking and the imagination. It is when you use these three components in some combination that you can access your genius potential.

It’s precisely what Einstein did, and it’s how you can tap into your inner Einstein.

Here’s what Einstein himself had to say about it:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world.”

Here’s another thing: creative intelligence is not linear and not neccessarily accomplished by thinking in words. Often times, to use your creative intelligence, you think visually, using images.

Here’s Einstein again, talking about his thinking processes:

“Words and language, whether written or spoken, do not seem to play any part in my thought processes.  The psychological entities that serve as building blocks for my thought are certain signs or images, more or less clear, that I can reproduce and recombine at will.”

So forget I.Q., and instead use your creative intelligence. It will help you tap into your innate genius ability, and help you live a Low Density Lifestyle.

How to Achieve a Low Density Lifestyle: The 12-Steps to Becoming FREE

I’ve talked about the Low Density Lifestyle, High Density Lifestyle, and the concept of FREE (Flow/Relax/Effortless Effort).

Today I want to outline the 12 steps to becoming FREE. These are the things that if you put into practice, will help you to live a happy, healthy, vibrant, successful and enlightened life.

In tomorrow’s post I will tell you what a Low Density Lifestyle can do for you, and how it can make your life a whole lot better.

After this post and tomorrow’s, the postings will shift in format. What will happen next is that instead of the posts explaining what a Low Density Lifestyle is all about–which is pretty much what we’ve been doing so far–we’re going to bounce around from category to category.

What I mean by a category is one of the 12 steps listed below, along with what is covered in tomorrow’s posting about what a Low Density Lifestyle can do for you.  Once we go in that new direction, we will be covering a lot of ground and a lot of interesting topics, so fasten your seat belt

If you feel like you still need to get a handle on the fundamentals of a Low Density Lifestyle, sign up for the free 5-day email course on this website. You can sign up for it by entering your name and email address in the box that occasionally pops up in front of your eyes, or you can put your info in the sign up form that appears in the top right column. I can guarantee you that you will learn a lot from the email course.

Anyway, here are the 12 steps to becoming FREE:

Diet and Nutrition: Eating a whole foods oriented diet.
Health and Wellness: Being proactive with your health and becoming empowered and educated as to how the body and mind work and what it takes to be healthy.
Movement and Exercise: Take up a regular practice of movement and exercise, especially the types that emphasize flow.
Flexibility of Body and Mind: Being able to be flexible with your body and your mind, so that you don’t hold onto dogmas and become rigid and unyielding with the way you think or move.
Mindfulness: Being aware of your actions and reactions in your daily life.
Integrity: Being ethical, being willing to do the right thing, being true to yourself and being authentic.
Attitude and Emotions: The way we see the world is the way the world operates based on our perception, so it’s important to be aware of your attitude towards yourself and others.
Abundance: Are you willing to share of yourself, because you believe there is plenty to go around, or are you immersed in a scarcity mindset, where you believe it’s every person for themselves, and you have to get yours before someone else takes it?
Laughter: Laughter and humor is so good for our health and well-being.  ‘Nuff said on that.
The Dreamer: Are you using your dreaming abilities–your creative intelligence and imagination?  Are or you thinking the same old same old, and going along with the tribe?
Do What You Love: When you do what you love, and love what you do, life has profound meaning.
Connecting to the Spiritual Dimension: There is a sacred aspect to life, and the more connected you are to it, the better off you are.

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