“Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation.”
Bertrand Russell
If you’ve been taking the Illuminations in Part 1, you may have experienced one or more Aha-moments already. It’s equally possible that you’ve had a light bulb moment at random, as you’ve been going about your daily life. Such is the nature of these gifts of inspiration. Just by being alive, on each breath, you have been stirring up and interacting with the collective mind.
So this section is designed to help you take these ideas to the next stage. The ‘Science’ here does not relate to our neurology or to an explanation of consciousness or ideas. Rather, it describes a methodology which is easy to follow that will help you bring your ideas into physical reality.
Perhaps you had a brainwave but you didn’t follow it up, only to see someone else bringing it out a year or two later. Well, this section will guide you through an easy to follow process to prevent this eventuality from happening again.
Incidentally, the exercises in this section are dubbed Crystallizations as they bring Illuminations into physical reality.
You can think of the superconsciousness as a super-saturated solution of thoughts. Our brains are the transducer that taps into them. Our minds and bodies are the vehicle by which we manifest them into our world.
To make this manifestation happen, we will use a process akin to the Scientific Method and indeed show how you can define your own method.
Now we can be forgiven for thinking that the scientific method is something that was developed relatively recently - say since the Industrial Revolution.
In fact, it has been in common use for thousands of years. It’s often said that Aristotle was its progenitor but who actually introduced it has been lost in antiquity. It’s more likely that it fell into common usage because any other methods led to less successful results.
It is essentially common sense. If you think about it, it’s how we are programed to learn from the moment we leave the womb.
Here’s how it works in essence:
Step 1: You observe or notice a new phenomenon, or a pattern, and you try and make sense of it.
Step 2: You form an explanation, theory or hypothesis. This can take the form of an analogy like “riding a beam of light” or a mathematical equation like E=mc2.
Step 3: You make a prediction based on your theory.
Step 4: You measure and test against your prediction.
Step 5: If it’s successful, you shout “Eureka” and if not you go back to Step 1 or 2.
Using this technique is how a baby learns that making certain sounds attracts attention to get fed or a change of nappy.
For scientists, what then happens after Step 5 is that your discovery then becomes a “Law” that is until someone else (or you) finds something that doesn’t fit the model. The whole sequence is then repeated again and again.
By using these techniques, we have developed a remarkable understanding and mastery of our physical world. By probing the very small and the very large, we understand how matter and energy behave and interact. Devices we use daily in the modern world would look like magic to anyone journeying to our time from even 50 or 100 years ago.
We can tap into a huge library of much of human knowledge within seconds. We have devices that can see inside our bodies and some say our minds. We can zap cancerous cells without making an incision.
Using Laws derived by Newton using the scientific method 400 years or so ago, we are able to send images back from space probes orbiting other worlds millions of miles away from the Earth. Even without using later modifications like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, Newton’s Laws of Motion are accurate enough to ensure a probe arrives to within a few tens of metres of its target and within seconds of its planned arrival time. The lack of resistance in the vacuum of space helps here.
Of course light bulb moments occur at all stages of the scientific method - they don’t just have to kick the process off.
In step 1, the new noticing of the new phenomenon might be a light bulb moment in itself. For example, noticing an anomaly in some data or seeing the world upside down.
In step 2, as did Newton, Kekulé and Einstein, you conceive of a new way of describing or understanding the world. This could come in a dream or a reverie under an apple tree.
In step 3, your prediction can come in the form of a light bulb moment. For example, if it is true that gravity can bend light, then if there is a solar eclipse, we should be able to see stars that should be behind the Sun during an eclipse. Note that this was predicted by Henry Cavendish as far back as 1784 and proved by Sir Arthur Eddington on the West Coast of Africa in 1919.
In step 4, when your prediction is proven true, the ramifications hit you and the spin off implications are immense. When Watson and Crick determined the structure of DNA, they might not have realized it could be used for forensic uses in catching criminals years later.
If you have a light bulb moment of the form of Step 2 or 3 at any time, you would then jump back to Step 1 to check it and move directly to Step 4 to predict where this might lead.
The people who capitalize benefit from the scientific method fall into three broad camps.
Firstly, the theoreticians who love the pursuit of academic enquiry. For them, being the first to come up with the theory is reward enough.
Secondly, the developers who take the theory and make use of it. Edison was a prime example. Edison was a master at using the scientific method, sometimes in a spectacular showman-like manner. For example, he was a great proponent of Direct Current (DC) over Alternating Current (AC). To show how dangerous AC would be in the home, he electrocuted a circus elephant called Topsy (who had gone mad and killed several of its keepers). Quite an extreme way of testing a hypothesis, I think you’ll agree.
Thirdly, people who experience the initial idea in action can have light bulb moments of their own. Customers, observers, competitors and plagiarists can make use of the development in a way the inventor did not foresee. By the way, not all such extensions of the original discoveries are beneficial to absolutely everyone. The electrocution of Topsy led to the development of the electric chair which is still in use today for execution.
In the commercial world, the smart move is to communicate across all three of these types of user. By canvassing users, you can get ideas for the next phase of research and development.
Technology companies like Apple and Facebook even get their users working on new developments on their behalf. The most successful applications for the Apple iPhone and the Facebook social community have every chance of being embedded into future versions. This eventuality can be a source of annoyance or pleasure for any developer. They could either think that their idea has been copied or be proud that their ingenuity was worthy of such an accolade. The smart ones of course either get rewarded financially in some way, perhaps with an offer of employment.
I mention this as the creative path is not necessarily one that is smooth. There have been many cases of copyright theft and commercially naive inventors who see someone else capitalizing on their ideas.
This section contains some light bulb moments and hypotheses of my own to help you benefit from your own genius.
The proof is in the puddings of your in-ventions.