Breaking Free from the Reptilian Mind!

According to neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean, we have a three part brain, consisting of reptilian, paleomammalian, and neomammalian sections of the brain.
- The reptilian section regulates the body's life-support systems, such as respiration, cardiovascular and nervous functions. It is also responsible for survival and instinctual behaviors, such as aggression, dominance, territoriality, competitiveness, hoarding, pain and fear response (fight [anger] or flight [avoidance]) and ritualistic or repeating behavior (including addictions). It is 'cold blooded' (lacks emotion), and controlling (if we let it).
- The paleomammalian section (the limbic brain) is generally associated with long term memory and emotional learning.
- The neomammalian section (the right and left cortex you normally think of when you picture a brain, unique to mammals) is the 'thinking' and 'feeling' part of the brain, involved in advanced levels of cognition, such as logic and reason, language, creativity, planning, perception, emotion, and holistic levels of integration of sensory information.

What is somewhat surprising in our culture today is how much of it seems to be designed to get us to rely primarily on the reptilian brain functions. As soon as we enter school, we are taught to sit down, shut up and obey the teacher (fear and routine based). Rather than creative learning through exploration, discovery, and optimization, children are taught through rote repetition and memorization. TV often shuts of the higher levels of consciousness and feeds directly into the lower levels, hence the focus on power, sex and greed. Sports often feeds our instincts towards violence, competitiveness, aggression, and dominance. Video games teens play are full of first-person-shooter scenarios where the child routinely kills dozens if not hundreds of virtual human beings in gory bloodbath of destruction. As adults, we become slaves to the clock, filling our lives with routine, seeing work as an extension of school... sit down, shut up, and obey your boss. There is little spontaneity, free expression of ideas, discovery, or creativity. Outside work we spend our days either shuttling the kids to various competitive events or vegging in front of the TV. Is that how life should be?!?!?!?

We can continue being subservient to our reptilian brain, or we can choose to rise above it and become truly free. The first step is awareness, awakening. Realize that life does not need to be a series of routines imposed on us by others. Authority is not always right. The norm is not always the best. We can go higher. We can rise above the din. We can seek truth and goodness and love. We can be free. How?

What if we turned off the TV and spent some time sharing our deepest selves with each other? What if we shut off the video games and spent time exploring nature, helping those in need, sharing with others, becoming more aware of the beauty of the creation? What if we dropped our daily routines and acted more spontaneously? Let life flow naturally instead of always trying to beat the clock (like people did before clocks were invented)? What if we questioned authority, challenged assumptions, lived fearlessly? What if we sought the truth and lived in love? What if we broke our psychological conditioning and became truly free individuals?

What if? Why not? Why not start now? Refuse to be manipulated by the media or those in power who would like to keep you controlled, passive, predictable. Think differently. Seek a new perspective. Seek truth, goodness, and free creative expression guided by love. The truth will make you free! Ready, set, GO!

What is the meaning of life?

Can I answer any questions for ya? "Sure. What is the meaning of life? (LOL!)" Guess what? What if the 'unanswerable question' was (drum roll please...) answerable? Things that make you go "hmmmmmmmm..." Can life be full if it lacks purpose? No more than a bucket of holes. So how do we 'find our purpose'?

Part of the difficulty in answering the question is that we are all individuals, so everyone's 'purpose' is assumed to be slightly different. We are not islands, however. Is there a common purpose that we all share? Based on the common purpose, do we then each have an individual calling? Yes and Yes.

(Intentional Digression:) Now it occurred to me that there may be a subconscious resistance to the idea of having a purpose in life. Why? We may perceive that as being externally imposed. We just want to be 'free'. Is being 'free' and having a purpose mutually exclusive? (maybe this is why we laugh at the idea of finding the meaning of life... perhaps it is a nervous laughter, fearing we might be somehow bound by our calling if we took the time to figure it out). I am convinced there is an elegant and happy solution to this cognitive dissonance. Allow me to take a shot at it.

There was a man who lived long ago who was, and still is, considered one of the wisest men that ever lived. Through his wisdom, he gained great power and wealth. About four thousand years ago he built the great temple in Jerusalem, parts of which still stand today... you likely know his name... King Solomon, son of King David. In what reads like a private journal, he struggles with this very question (the book of Ecclesiastes). Oft quoted, was the dark side of this private struggle... "Vanity, vanity (uselessness), all is vanity". Drifting between glimpses of light and existential angst, he wonders aloud about the meaning of life. If this life is all we have, then we shall go as we came... with nothing. Looking at life that way, it could seem useless.

But wait! Over there, a candle burns! Where there are shadows, there must be light! As Solomon gazed at the candle, what did he see? (Puzzle piece #1) "... I realized that the best thing for them is to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live. God wants all people to eat and drink and be happy in their work, which are gifts from God." Appreciate what you have. Let the glass that is half full quench your thirst, and be thankful. Find the good, and do it. Enjoy a good meal, a good friend, a job well done. Give. Love. Give love. But wait, there's more! What is his conclusion? (Puzzle piece #2) "Now everything has been heard, so I give my final advice: Honor God and keep his commands, because this the duty (i.e purpose) of all mankind". Why is this important? "God will judge everything, even what is done in secret, the good and the evil".

"Honor God". What does that mean? It is said that imitation is the highest form of flattery. Learn about His nature, His grace, His love, His mercy, and then be as He is. Commune with Him. Get to know Him. Then encourage, inspire, guide, be an example to others. Look at the heart (not status) and find the good. Wealth means nothing. Power is fleeting. To quote the Apostle Paul, "I may understand all the secret things of God and have all knowledge, and I may have faith so great I can move mountains. But even with all these things, if I do not have love, then I am nothing." Living in Love honors God, for God is love.

"Keep his commands". What does that mean? For Solomon, that was keeping the Ten Commandments, and all the other laws of Moses. Do you know what? This part is impossible. Surprised? Do you know why it is impossible? Solomon knew why. Earlier he had noted, "Surely there is not a good person on earth who always does good and never sins." Paul said it another way. "All have sinned and are not good enough for God's glory... no one can be made right by following the law. The law only shows us our sins". Solomon was the 'Bill Gates' of his day... he had it all. Was he a success? No. Not by a long shot. Despite all his wisdom and wealth, he died a broken man. Some of his sons turned against him. One even killed his brother. He had let pride and materialism win out. He knew that he fell short and his self condemnation destroyed him in the end.

Let's face it... if Wikileaks could see everything we ever did, we'd be toast. So, if "God will judge everything, even what is done in secret, the good and the evil", are we toast? Yikes! But wait...White horse to the rescue!

How so? There was another who was also known as the son of David, born in the city of David (Bethlehem), who came about 2,000 years later. The Word of God by whom all things were made was born in a manger. "In him there was life, and that life was the LIGHT of all people. The LIGHT shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it. There was a man named John who was sent by God. He came to tell people the truth about the LIGHT so that through him all people could hear about the LIGHT and believe...The true LIGHT that gives light to all was coming into the world!... to all who did accept him and believe in him he gave the right to become the children of God... They were born of God."(John 1:4-13). Now we are not talking about a candle here... this was the Great Supernova! The King of Kings and Lord of Lords came to our rescue. How? He brought with Him (through his life, death, and resurrection) the forgiveness of sins. Through hindsight, we have an advantage over Solomon. Jesus condensed all the Law of Moses into two commandments: (1) Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength, and (2) Love your neighbor as yourself. To that, he added one more. (3) "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."

So what is the meaning of life? What is our purpose? Honor God, and Love (1), Love (2), Love (3). Using our individual talents and circle of influence, we each bring our own unique flair to this task, making our purpose special to God. Enjoy and appreciate good food, good friends, gainful employment. Treat everyone with respect and kindness (even if you think they don't deserve it). With the heart of a child, love God, have love and compassion for those around you, protect the innocent, and give generously to the needy. Then, may God bless you richly in Jesus Christ! That is my Christmas message to you all, this December 25, 2010.

Spontaneity!

If I was asked to sum up in one word, what is the key to being more creative, that word would be 'spontaneity'. We are made to be creative... to grow, to learn, to experiment, to try new things, and to make the world a better place. We have been given everything we need to be highly creative! We just need to release who we are from our constructed box of who we appear to be.

Why do we become someone other than our free and joyful creative self? The answers are legion, but the common thread is fear. Fear of not being accepted, not being liked, being perceived as strange or different, fear of failure, etc. etc. etc. So how do we get rid of fear? The Book of Life says, "There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear". In Hebrew, the root of the word "love" is "I give". When our attitude is one of wanting to do good, to give, to better the world around us, when we do that fully we lose our consciousness of self. All we care about is increasing the amount of joy and decreasing the amount of suffering in the world we can affect, then the self no longer matters. When we know that we are loved infinitely by the only one who can love us infinitely, we can give without reservation, without fear. That is the core of the saying, "You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free". When we are no longer self focused, we are no longer self conscious. When we are no longer self conscious, we don't care if others judge us, because we know in our heart we are innocent of all charges, so we give anyway, fearlessly.

Living fearlessly, we are free to be ourselves, our child-like self. Spontaneity is just the free expression of who we are. Nobody to impress... Nobody to fear. Just be free.

Challenge yourself. Find a stubborn problem. Find something wrong, something that needs fixing. Next, love. Love the people that are hurt by this problem (that could include yourself, but ideally, it's not all about you). Then, go at it. Explore the elements that affect it. What makes it worse? What if you do the opposite? What makes it better? What if you do that 10 times as much? If you could magically achieve the perfect solution, what would it look like? If you were the problem, what would you 'be afraid of' that would threaten your existence? Jump around, in and out, turn the problem on its head, shake it up, and see what comes out. There is a solution. There is a way to make it better. Ask God. Pray and anticipate results. Ask a child. Listen. Look at nature... the brilliance of the creation leads scientists to new innovations on a daily basis. The answer will come.

When the answer comes, the next level of courage is to act. You could revel in the joy that comes from realizing the solution, and then go back to being a couch potato. Not good. The real joy comes from doing it. Start small if you need to. Make a prototype. Do a test run. Make a 'proof of concept model'. Test out the theory and see what happens. Did it solve the problem? Awesome! Did it fail to solve it? Great! Learn, adjust, and try again. The answer exists... the challenge of the explorer is to find that uncharted territory and make a map. Drive the world around you to a better place and enjoy the ride! Life can be a wondrous experience! Choose wonder!

The Importance of Innovation!

INNOVATION. Every business needs it to grow. The world keeps moving, and if you don't innovate, you will be left behind. At the heart of innovation is "nova", Latin for "new". If you don't have something new and better to offer on a regular basis, your competitor will, and your lunch will be MIA.

Guess what? Innovation isn't just about money. Money is fine and we all want more of it, but it is not the key to happiness. Joy doesn't come from money. Any happiness or joy that you get from money and the things that it buys are temporary, and leave you feeling empty, if that is all that there is to it. Finance aside, innovation can take many other forms and provide many other benefits. Art, music, humor, film, photography, video games, books, blogs, and baubles can all be innovative. Innovation is fun! True innovation can be a joyful, exhilarating experience! Creativity, the master key to innovation, is a major source of joy and fulfillment. Fun, play, humor, and spontineity are all hallmarks of companies people love to work for. They are also key to innovation. Innovation with a purpose, to better the life of someone else, for example, can be richly rewarding.

Do you want to be more innovative? I can help. Do you want to be more creative? I can definitely give you some pointers. Do you want to be more productive and have more fun in the process? You've come to the right place.

Innovation is one of those fields that you will never know everything about... it is always expanding... but I have learned a lot, and I would like to share much of what I have learned with you. Read all you want. We'll make more.

The JEDO Way - The Joy of Creation! Part 5

Want to have some creative fun? Let's play around with ideas for a few minutes...

Try this... Think of two things that are totally unrelated and then we will imagine what they might be... for example:
Elephant - - - Physics
Inkwell - - - Partridge
Jellyfish - - - Database
Sandwich - - - Explorer

First, make up your own list. Develop a list of at least 5-10 pairs. The more unrelated the better.

Done? OK, the next step is to figure out how to connect them somehow. Our minds are geared toward finding connections. For example, looking at the list above, I might imagine that we learned how to understand elephant language, and that they were in fact primarily theoretical physicists with some brilliant new ways of looking at the universe that changed our perspective forever. For the next pair, I might imagine a bird shaped inkwell, or I might imagine a bird that could shoot ink as a self defense mechanism, like an octopus. For the next one, I could consider the genetic structure of a jellyfish as being a molecular scale database (which it is), or I could envision a new type of database that is transparent and amorphous, rather than rigid and highly structured.,,, etc. etc.

Ready? Now try it on your own! Make a game of it. Try to come up with at least 3-4 alternate meanings for each word pair. Don't just read this and say, "ya, whatever"... Do it! I am not going anywhere. It's fun! It really is. Hmmmm.... maybe we can make a board game out of this... not today. We'll save that for another day. OK, ready..... GO!

Done? Don't be lazy! Stop now and try it out (would it help if I say 'please'?). It's fun! I promise!

I can't check on you, so I am going to have to trust you. I can trust you, right? Done? Cool. Then read on...

Now you may be wondering, why did I ask you go to through that exercise? It is the most basic and simple example of how we can create by bringing two or more things together and making connections to form something new.

Want to be more creative? You need to relax your preconceptions and ideas about the way things 'should be', and try something new. The idea is to figure out how to look at something from a different perspective, and/or think of things that nobody else has thought of. You could combine two unrelated words in your field of interest, and develop some new ideas that may even be practical as well as fresh and new. Want to stretch a little more? Take one word from your field of interest and ten words that are as unrelated as possible, then combine them and see what you come up with. Alternately, take your list of unrelated words you just developed and combine them with a third set of words from your area of interest. Play, play, play, and you will be surprised at how much fun it can be coming up with new ideas!

Remember: You are a creative genius. You just forgot how to be who you are.... but it is starting to come back to you now!

Happy playing!

The JEDO Way - The Joy of Creation! Part 4

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by!

Now you may be wondering about why I call this the JEDO Way. What JEDO stands for (in case you missed it) is Joy through Exploration, Discovery and Optimization. When we first started learning, this is how we learned everything... and we had a lot to learn! Given what we had to work with, we learned amazingly well. You have seen pictures of babies swimming underwater, and perhaps you or someone you know learned two different languages fluently and without an accent (I learned German and English) by the time you where three or four. I have even heard about "Your Baby can Read" programs that teach toddlers to read at an extraordinarily young age. Walking on two feet is something only the most advanced robotics have been able to do in the last few years, but you were doing it like a champ at two. The most advanced artificial intelligence computers are now able to carry on a limited conversation... but can they make up a joke? You were cracking them up at three years old! We were creative, intuitive, energetic, joyful, inquisitive, spontaneous, imaginative, and playful... something no machine will ever be.... and we can be again! We've done it before, we can do it again, only now with added qualities (such as maturity, responsibility, integrity, understanding and wisdom, spiritual insight, and so forth).

So where do we start? A good place to start is to learn to play again. That's right, play... and I don't mean video games, Trivial Pursuit, or football. While those are all fun and have their place, they are not playing like a child plays. A child plays with all kinds of different elements; colors outside of the lines on purpose, uses a stick as a rifle, a tricycle for a car, etc., etc., etc. That which 'is' can be something else if we want it to be. We can put together this and that and imagine that is is something completely different. Play is a matter of exploring the world around you with open eyes and an open mind, latching on to things that intrigue you, and then looking at them in different ways, mixing them up with other things, and discovering a whole new perspective on what it is and what it can do. Suddenly there is something new in your world... and maybe it is pretty good, but not great, so you play around with it some more. You try a bunch of different things until, Bingo! Perfect! It makes you laugh and you play with it and show it off.

You know what? That is exactly how invention works. I work in new products... I invent for a living, and that is what I do when I need to come up with a new invention. Think about cooking... this is also how new food creations come into being. Art. Floral arrangements. Scrapbooks. New toys. Crazy web videos. New magazines. The best stuff comes out of being free to play with lots of different elements, discovering something that works, and making it the best that it can be.... JEDO. It can work for marriages, starting new businesses, developing new hobbies, learning new skills, you name it. JEDO is a way of approaching any aspect of your life, and making it the best that it can be.

I challenge you to spend the rest of the day living 'the JEDO Way'. Take time to play, and have fun! Try to find a way of looking at something that is brand new! Put things together in new and different ways. Mix it up. Laugh! Find the humor in things! Enjoy! Your new life is beginning to unfold!!! Who knows what you'll discover!

The JEDO Way - The Joy of Creation! Part 3

G'Day!

Hope this day finds you well and hungry for insight. With any luck, you may find something on the menu that appeals to you!

Creativity... why is it important? Creation is the act of putting two or more things together in a way that is new to you (that is one definition of it, anyway). Why is that important? For one thing, learning is a process of putting the pieces together, so learning is a creative process (if it is learning by exploration, discovery and optimization, not rote memorization and data dumping). Remember when you went to a class that downloaded reams of data into your brain?... you remembered it just long enough to pass the test. Within a short time, the info was less than a memory. On the other hand, do you remember discovering something new by exploring something that you were interested in? Here is an example... In high school, I was asked to do a paper in math class. I chose the subject of pi. I liked geometry and started playing around with circles, squares and triangles. Before long, I discovered an equation for pi (one that I have never heard of before or since). It is "the limit of [4X sin (45/X)] as "X" approaches infinity". The larger the number you put in for "X", the closer to pi the number will be (try it out if you don't believe me). I still remember that formula today because I discovered it by playing with shapes. When we were little children, our lives were filled with discovery. We were expert learners. Now? Not so much....

Do you know what will make life more fulfilling? For one thing, becoming a good learner again... maybe even a great learner. As we increase in (useful) knowledge, our horizons expand, and we are able to achieve more. When we achieve more, we will become enriched as we gain more mastery over our circumstances (now that may be financial, but it could be enrichment in other areas such as a better marriage, happier and more well adjusted children, better relationships with your co-workers and/or friends, a better prayer life, etc.). When you are more enriched, then you will have more to give to others. As you give selflessly, you will find even deeper rewards flow into your life. Sounds kinda cool, doesn't it?

Another thing... the act of creation is a natural source of joy. When was the last time you did something creative that you were kind of proud of... solved a problem, came up with an idea, did something artistic, discovered a new way of doing something, etc. Take a minute to think of something.(pause while brain cells go on a search and rescue mission.... ) OK. Now remember how it felt... how you felt a sense of joy and happiness in figuring this out. Kinda cool, wasn't it? And you know what else? I bet you went back to check it out again more than once... maybe shared it with someone else. You know why? Because that felt good too. When you do something creative, it is fun at the time, and the joy repeats for several times that you review the creation in your mind and/or share it with someone who gets it and likes it. It is the gift that you give to yourself (at least) that keeps on giving (for a while anyway...). When the glow runs out, you are motivated to do something else that is creative, and so forth.

Combine acts of creation with acts of love, and you have a dynamic duo! Put it all together with some other traits such as spirituality, integrity, and a desire to learn, and you have one powerful thang going on! What right thinking person wouldn't want more of that it their life?

You are welcome to stop by anytime at http://fullcreativelife.blogger.com !

The JEDO Way - The Joy of Creation! Part 2

Hello again! Welcome back (or just 'Welcome!' if this is your first visit)

Who are you? No really, who are you? Who is the real you? Living in the physical world has so many driving and sometimes conflicting influences... it can force us to behave in ways that we wouldn't if we had our druthers. Do that long enough, and you can kind of get lost in the shuffle. You wake up one day and wonder how you got to this place in your life and wonder where you are going, and if that is really where you want to end up. It happens to the best of us from time to time... but it doesn't have to be that way.

The challenge is first to find out who we are, and then to act accordingly.

So who are you? As I mentioned in my last post, you are a creative genius with a moderate to serious case of the stifles. All illness (even the stifles) can be affected (if not outright cured) by modifying your perspective. Ask any Christian Scientist (the real ones at least)... healing becomes self evident when you take on a right perspective. Now I am not a Christian Scientist... more of a Christian Engineer, but from what I have seen, the principal works... but I digress.

The point is that you will be, to a large extent, who you see yourself to be. Do you see yourself as unfortunate? You will be. As powerless? You will be. As trapped? You'll stay that way as long as you think that way. But... what if you saw yourself as creative, spontaneous, humorous, self motivated, interesting, influential, innovative, prosperous, spiritual, confident, ethical, and courageous. Do you think you might act a little differently? Of course you would. Do you think your life might take a turn for the better? (please take a moment to consider how it would!)

Guess what? You are all of those things and more! You know how I know this? Because you were once a 4 year old, and as such, to a greater or lesser extent, those were all characteristics that you embodied. God made you (sorry atheists, no offense, but I know he is real... just trust me on this one for now) a complex, creative, funny, imaginative, vibrant young child. Before all this conformist pressure came crashing down on your head for years, you were who you are. No pretenses, no bull.

Now am I saying we should all act like 4 year olds? Welllllll, yes and no. We want to be 'child-like' but not 'childish'. Childish is the dark side of 'the force'... selfish, arrogant, uncaring, immature, etc. Child-like is, well, Christ-like. Wise as serpents and harmless as doves. No pretenses. Relaxed, fun loving, confident, strong, ethical, spiritually aware, in tune with the transient nature of the physical and the eternal (and therefore more real) nature of the unseen. As adults, we can still play 'Army', but in the battlefield of the mind and soul. We can be warriors for justice, officers in defense of the truth, snipers aiming to destroy evil and corruption and error. We can also play, by having a playful and fun attitude, cheering up those around us in creative and fresh ways.

What I am saying is that you can be yourself, but in order to do that, it will take a process of re-discovery. That is where the JEDO Way comes in. We get joy through exploration (in this case, exploring who we are, I mean really are, as a person), discovery (every time we find a piece of our true original nature that has been lost, it is a great discovery!), and optimization (making that which 'is' as good as it can possibly be... in this case that means you!). I am challenging you to live life the JEDO Way, not for my sake, but for yours. I want you to find your inner original pure, kind, loving, wonderful self, and then be!

The JEDO Way - The Joy of Creation! Part 1

Greetings Earthlings! Welcome to a different way. Welcome to a new way. Welcome to truth, as I see it.

I call the 'The JEDO Way', because, if it is capitalized, it must be an acronym, and it is! It stands for "Joy through Exploration, Discovery, and Optimization". The root of this is based in years of study in the subject of Creativity. Over 30 years ago, I went to a unique and excellent technical college called WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) where I had my minor in "Creativity and Creative Problem Solving". Have you ever heard of such a minor? Probably not, probably never will. WPI had a great system called "The Plan" that permitted you to make up your own major and minor, as long as you could justify it by courses and projects. As part of my minor, I taught a 3 day course to 18 students on "Creativity and Creative Problem Solving" (want to learn something really well? Try teaching it to someone else!!!). I also wrote a chapter in the "Freshperson's Guide to WPI" entitled, "The Case for Creativity in Technical Education". I later repeated the Creativity course as an adult education course at a local church.

Now all this would not mean much, if nothing came of it. Well, I now have over 75 patents or patents pending with my name on them... so there must have been something in what I learned... and there was!

Creativity is one of the most underestimated and misunderstood aspects of our culture today. People think of artists and musicians as being creative, but the fact is, anyone from garbage men to scientists to teenagers to elephant trainers can be creative... in short, anyone!

Why would you care? Let me offer some suggestions. First, YOU are creative. You may not think so, but you are. You were born creative. Up until the age of 5 you were practically a creative genius! When you got to school, the "sit down and shut up, there is only one right answer to every question, and if you don't agree you are going to detention" attitude drove it underground, but it is still there, crying to be re-awakened!

Have you ever sat back in wonder at the joy, excitement, laughter, fun, imagination, excitement and spontaneity of little children? Do you think they were worried about being politically correct or fitting in with the norm or dressing for success? Duh. They are just themselves, who cares.

Guess what? That is one of the biggest keys to being happy, being creative, being loving, having integrity, having openness to deep spiritual truth, and achieving a wisdom about life. One of... not the only, but a BIG one. So spend some time with children (your own if you have some), and pay attention. You might just learn what it means to be alive!!!