“If we concentrate on the content of thought, we lose the sight of its direction.”
Amit Goswami, The Self-Aware Universe
So how do you know you’ve had a light bulb moment as opposed to having any old thought?
The first indicator is that they seem to arrive against the ‘normal’ conscious stream of thought which comprises the internal dialogue and commentary we run inside our heads.
They can stop you in your tracks and make you drop everything in order to pursue them. All of a sudden, everything you have done to date seems mundane. You know you are on to the ‘next big thing’.
Like our breathing and heart beat, most of us never give a second thought to our own thought processes. This is a bit of a shame as merely by thinking about our thinking and controlling our thoughts, we can modify and control the world around us at a fundamental level. It’s even possible that most thoughts aren’t necessarily what you think of as your own. Curious? These are themes we will explore in more depth later.
For now, just for a moment put this book down and have a think about the thoughts that are running through your mind. As you think about them, notice that the first thought you had seems to get replaced by the second and the third and so on.
This might sound simplistic or even a bit weird if you’ve never thought about this before. Notice even as you even think about what I have written and you are now reading how any other thoughts seem to get pushed to one side.
The upshot is that when we are engaged in what we think of as ‘conscious thought’, this is enough to block any other thoughts from coming in.
This phenomenon has attracted the rather fancy sounding name of the Quantum Collapse of Thought and there is an audio visualization that accompanies this book to help you experience this state more deeply. This process, by the way, is similar to ‘counting sheep’ to get to sleep.
Light bulb moments tend to come in when you are least expecting them and they also seem to appear in less than a second. It’s almost like you have jumped out of time. The reason for this is that’s sort of what has happened.
Like Newton when he was apocryphally hit on his head by that apple, you get the whole vision - and sounds, smells and tastes - in what appears to be no time at all.
Very strong light bulb moments also seem to hit every cell of your body. Your heart can beat faster; you get excited and just can’t wait to get all the ideas down on paper before they disappear from your memory.
You get a really good ‘gut feeling’ about it. Incidentally, we will explore in this book how phrases like ‘gut feeling’ in common usage in our language give much away as to what is actually going on. When we say things like “Off the top of my head”, that’s a good clue as to where the associated thought actually comes from.
So light bulb moments seem to occur outside your ‘normal’ stream of consciousness. You may get one when driving home from work, while ironing, when painting or mowing the lawn. The common factor here is that you are doing something else entirely other than trying to come up with an idea for the ‘latest, greatest thing’.
They don’t tend to happen when you are immersed in something like a film or a concert. Here the external experience kind of takes over your consciousness.
Light bulb moments also have a tendency to be repeated if you ignore them. You may see an example that reminds you of your idea in a newspaper or on TV. Perhaps someone says something at a dinner party that reminds you of your vision. You may even have a vivid dream about it. The repetition is often in a different, or slightly modified form, so that you notice it and pay attention to it.
As we will explore, some light bulb moments do indeed come in your dreams or you may be even awakened with one. Between 2am and 4am in the morning is a common time for this to happen. You are then are kept awake thinking about them, unable to get back to sleep or you may even be driven to awaken fully and write the ideas down.
Light bulb moments that occur in dreams can often come in an allegorical or metaphorical form. For example, the German organic chemist Kekulé was trying to work out the molecular structure for benzene which he knew had six carbon and six hydrogen atoms. He had a dream about a snake biting its tail and subsequently discovered, or uncovered, the benzene ring which became the basis for all organic chemistry.
So the key to having a light bulb moment is not to try too hard to have one and your mind may come up with it anyway.
If you screw your face up and try and think of something, that word that’s on the tip of your tongue, it won’t come in. Perhaps you have known that you knew the answer to a quiz question or the name of someone you met in the street by accident. Frustratingly at the time, the answer or name eludes you but you remember it sometime later, again when not thinking about it.
Edison however didn’t relax and just let the idea for the right filament material come in naturally. He took the sledgehammer approach and tried everything known to man (and woman) until he found something that worked.
There is nothing wrong with this technique per se and, as I mentioned, he did find out lots about what didn’t work too. This all adds to the collective thought pool.
As you will see though, there is a much smarter way to go about the whole process of invention and that’s to think about something else entirely but on purpose rather than by chance.
As mentioned, at the end of each chapter, there is a simple example which demonstrates the principles we explore. You can either complete it now or move on to the next chapter and come back and do it later.
I am sure you are familiar with the process of word association. I say “dog”, you say “cat”, the next person might say “caterpillar”, the next “tank” and so on. So within just a few steps, we’ve got from a warm mammal, to an insect larva, to a killing machine. All without consciously having to think about it.
The fact that our brains can do this within the blink of an eye in itself is incredible. Even the fastest computer cannot currently make these lateral associations and each pairing or grouping of people will come up with amazingly different outcomes. This infinity of permutations is what spawns invention and innovation and this exercise is designed to demonstrate that ability in us.
As I mentioned, be prepared and be warned that you may not read the rest of this book. I do this exercise in my workshops and often people are taken off in amazing new directions as a result.
Just in case you don’t get to read chapter 2, this exercise is also equally good for either coming up with new ideas or getting unblocked.
Its power is belied by its simplicity.
Step 1: Go and get any book (you can use this one) and make a note of how many pages it contains.
Step 2: Get a sheet of paper - as large as possible - A3 or tabloid.
Step 3: In the centre, draw a circle or a cloud and, inside it, a picture of what it is you would like to explore - an opportunity or a problem.
Step 4: Draw four branches or lines out from the central image but only going half way to the edge of the page (ie. leave some room).
Step 5: Think of any number between say 10 and the total number of pages in the book. Open the book at that page number and think of another number between 1 and 10. Count down that number of lines and find the first noun (or word that appeals to you) on that line. Write that word on one of the four branches.
Step 6: Repeat step 5 three times for each of the other main branches.
Step 7: Do this rapidly and without thinking about it. On new branches from each of the four main branches, write down 3 or 4 words that the come to mind from the main branch word in relation to the central image. If more words again come to mind, add these as third level branches.
Step 8: Relax … and see if the process has given you a new perspective or idea.
Once completed, you should have ended up with something looking like the example image overleaf. You may also have seen a new aspect of the subject that you were ‘thinking’ about.
You can also combine any of the first, second and third level branch words to form new seeds or even light bulb moments.
What you can then do is take this phrase and use it as the central theme and repeat the process with a new set of words. I guarantee you will experience a new insight and perspective on the initial opportunity or problem.
Light bulb moments come in when you least expect them.
They occur in less than a second.
They represent a disassociation in your thought stream.
They can be repeated in different forms if you ignore them or don’t at first spot them.