PROJECT MIND
The Conscious Conquest of Man & Matter
Through Accelerated Thought
by David S. Devor (T. Kun)

Summary of Chapter 5:
Creativity & Breakthrough
- Conventionality & Distraction

. . . the inner freedom and development intrinsic to the exploration and discovery of what essentially, as human beings, we are. We have yet to learn to relate to ourselves and to others not as objects, but rather as process--that miraculous, dynamic, developmental and intelligent process we so glibly call "life." [page 41]

. . . Candidates for Accelerated Thought will be creatively inclined and, if not leaders in their technical specialties, at least highly conversant in some discipline or field of enquiry. [page 42]

They may be considered creative geniuses. At times we find such individuals tend to display character traits of audacity, impudence, nonconformity, rebelliousness, unconventionality, obsessiveness, intolerance, impatience, arrogance, unsociability, eccentricity, etc. [page 42]

Unfortunately, far-reaching new insights and theories, unlike discoveries that are ripe to be made, have very few points of correspondence with existing, empirical knowledge. [page 44]

David Bohm would attribute this to what he calls "implicate order"--that all there is to know is already embedded in a higher reality which sooner or later becomes revealed. [page 44]

What is it that constrains genius and the discovery of breakthroughs? There is no formal policy or elitist conspiracy to hold back progress. Quite to the contrary, there is plenty of rivalry, competition and incentive to egg scientists on. Yet no artificial constraints need to be imposed upon thought when that thought is already fettered by conventional, distracted consciousness. Society siphons off our energy and conditions us to a low grade, "reflective" form of thought that we mistake for real, conscious thought. [page 44]

When we reflect--like the moon which is passively illuminated by the sun--we do not generate energy. We simply allow the energy of attention already present in us--lent to us from on high--to focus on whatever holds our interest. . . . Associative reflection absorbs most of what little attention we do have, limiting us basically to observing or thinking about one thing at a time. [page 44-45]

Mechanical, reflective thought is easily mistaken for true thought. Reflective thought, like driving a car, is basically a mechanical act, although it can be performed with more or less attention and on many levels of proficiency. [page 45]

A formal system is said to be capable of reflection if it can reason about itself. Gdel was the first person to discuss such things in detail. Nowadays reflective systems are the bread and butter of many a logician. However, computer modeling of logic is just now reaching the point where reflection is being seriously explored. [page 45]

Another serious limitation of reflection is that in absorbing the bulk of our attention, the object of our interest largely deprives us of the energy to guide our thoughts and follow them in a straight line. We become easily distracted by thoughts and events that catch our attention. [page 46]

Although no particular "villain" can be singled out, and there is no intention here to anthropomorphize society, it would still seem as though there existed deeply embedded in society's modus operandi a strategy of "divide and rule" served by the forces of distraction. [page 47]

The inability to communicate new meaning to others, especially to those in our own field, discourages us and saps our energy. [page 47]

What is it in an individual scientist's relation to nature that facilitates the kind of seeing that eventually leads to productive discourse? What enables McClintock to see further and deeper into the mysteries of genetics than her colleagues?

The more deeply the intensely focused mind probes the data that the cosmos presents, the more we understand the overall cosmic pattern and the less we will be distracted--our energy depleted by the dissonance of this or that out-of-place feature. [page 48]

Creativity is inherent in the cosmos as it is in mankind. [page 48]

. . . "idiots savant" represent a certain class of individual who, in childhood, make a fateful kind of choice. They "choose" to maintain contact with something inner at the expense of outward integration. They preserve certain primordial channels to higher intelligence at the expense of the skills upon which social development depends. . . . Limited and restricted as they may be, in the narrow domains of the performance they govern, these channels represent a capacity for concentrated attention beyond anything we normally experience or imagine. [page 49]

How can we even begin to guess at the quality of inner life these apparent "subnormals" (including those who don't display capabilities we recognize as having merit by our common standards) have preserved for themselves? [page 49]

Like gravity, distraction and its consequences are everywhere. [page 51]

Human intelligence, fundamentally, is one. That there seem to be distinct as well as higher and lower forms, including automatic skills of mind and body appearing to be autonomous and unrelated to creative vision, is distraction's way (through the agency of reflective thought) of throwing sand in our eyes. [page 51]

With You is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. (Psalms 36:9) [page 53]

"When you suddenly see the problem, something happens that you have the answer--before you are able to put it into words. It is all done subconsciously. This has happened too many times to me, and I know when to take it seriously. I'm so absolutely sure. I don't talk about it, I don't have to tell anybody about it, I'm just sure this is it. [page 53]

Accelerated Thought is a high-energy mental process whereby realizations (consisting of problems and solutions) arrive second by second in rapid-fire sequence rather than once a week, once a year or once in a lifetime as is typical with Eureka experiences under a regime of reflective thought. [page 54]

Creative individuals, in fight to preserve their independence of spirit, inevitably must sacrifice at least some of the comforts of conformity for an existence of relative social isolation. Such sacrifice affords them a corresponding measure of inner freedom. [page 55]

There are those who, for one reason or another, fight harder than the rest to preserve their sense of unique identity and independent spirit. The price they pay in social dissonance and maladjustment (and sometimes in psychological imbalance) is often very high. This undoubtedly accounts to a considerable extent for the anti-social traits popularly associated with highly creative individuals. [page 55]

Having accustomed themselves to foregoing a certain degree of approbation as the price for preserving and cultivating a corresponding measure of freedom of thought, these people, somewhat more than others, become adept at breaking out of conventional framework of thought and seeing from fresh new angles. . . . Despite the opportunities and enticements business seems to offer, the truly creative individuals plainly going to be discouraged by the bureaucratic group-think of industrial and commercial environments with their mundane and narrowly defined mission-oriented mandates and conformist hierarchies. [page 55-56]

Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. (Psalms 26:2) [page 56]

The creatively inclined existential lone tends to be relegated to roles at society's periphery where more tolerance exists towards individualism and independent thought. But even at the fringes such as individual rarely finds a framework to support the full and free expression of his particular creative bent. [page 56]

Normally, it is only in light of proven achievements that creative genius is finally recognized. Hard facts impose themselves upon us whether we like them or not. [page 57]

It is commonplace about scientific discourse that the more a claim is at odds with accepted beliefs, the more resistance it encounters. (It is also the case that any divergent claim is by its nature hard to understand, even for those who listen with goodwill.) And the results that McClintock reported in 1951 were totally at variance with the view of genetics that predominated. [page 57]

Would she be able to communicate her "understanding" to others? She was sufficiently aware of the disparity already present between her own thinking and that of her colleagues to know that many of them would have difficulty seeing the implication of her new findings. [page 57]

McClintock was right to be apprehensive. Her talk at the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium that summer was met with stony silence. With one or two exceptions, no one understood. Afterward, there was mumbling--even some snickering--and outright complaints. It was impossible to understand. What was this woman up to? [page 57]

We do not so readily accept such pretensions in others until we are confronted with irrefutable proof or are otherwise coerced by circumstances (e.g., social consensus or physical force) to make this effort of comprehension and ego adaptation. [page 57]

In the mid-1800s, Hungarian physician Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis discovered that bacteria was the cause of infectious disease. Despite a spectacular drop in mortality in the wards under his control, he was ridiculed, ostracized and forced out of his post at Vienna General Hospital. Nothing he did succeeded in overcoming barriers of envy, suspicion and ignorance. Almost predictably, he lost his mind and committed suicide. [page 57-58]

Manifestly brilliant young people judged by their peers "most likely to succeed," more often than not become rather pedestrian scientists, educators and the like, if not outright failures. [page 58]

That we tend to recognize creative genius only in retrospect is not just because we are petty and deny credit to those who threaten to reveal our mediocrity. We have genuine difficulty in distinguishing truly original thought from mere pretentious nonconformity and other forms of gratuitously defiant deviance. [page 58]

To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes or labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep. Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering? They are not such poor calculators. If they had not been overcome with drowsiness they would have performed something. The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face? [page 58-59]

. . . true creativity is the immediate, ongoing, waking vision of a unified intelligence. Yet traditionally, creativity is seen to be comprised of discrete stages including self-application, incubation, Eureka, elaboration, etc. . . . Creativity is almost universally considered to be an inherently brief condition and not the continuing state of Being that, potentially, it is. [page 59]

. . . Hypnosis gives some credence to the popular belief that the unconscious includes a record of everything we have experienced since birth and perhaps earlier. The unconscious and its programmed routines, like instinct, can normally be trusted to operate reliably below the level of awareness. The subconscious is our inborn, hard-wired, coded knowledge of the world that forms an integral part of us. It contains all that is knowable to man and is the functional complexity of our "soul" impressed by nature onto the material of our essence. It can be awakened to any significant degree only through intense, direct contact with reality and, to some extent, through the exercise of intuition that aims at the heart of essence. Instinct provides the only common ground shared by the unconscious and subconscious. . . . One could say that the unconscious contains "forgotten" experience while the subconscious contains innate knowledge not yet experienced. [page 59-60]

Seeing becomes vision when what is seen is a discovery--a newly perceived reality. [page 60]

A man who strays from the path of understanding comes to rest in the company of the dead. (Proverbs 21:16) [page 61]

That our state of distracted awareness almost completely inhibits the possibility of vision escapes the understanding of those who study creativity. [page 61]

Creativity researchers quite rightly attribute the rarely observed psychological phenomena associated with creativity to the subconscious, . . . The subconscious is the repository of cosmic truth emanating from essence. [page 61]

. . . Once our relationship with the material world begins to reflect cosmic reality (and this is the objective of all the great philosophies, ways and religions), the truth buried in this subconscious need no longer fear the light of day. [page 61]

Some of us prefer the neurotic never-never land where nothing can be absolutely true because it can lead us away from other personal truths that hurt so much. The neurotic has a personal stake in the denial of truth, and it is this we must face when stating that a truth has been found. To find truth is to find freedom. It means to eliminate neurotic choice which is no more than rationalized anarchy. The neurotic who wants to be free to see all sides often cannot believe that he may proceed directly to what is true--not my truth but his. He has only to journey inside himself, which a lot closer than India. [page 61]

We will begin to recognize true innovators and reduce the superfluous pain and trouble we wreak upon them only when we gain a clearer notion of our own inner makeup. We must discover how, through creativity, information can be integrated within consciousness to become real knowledge, and how our minds can integrate with matter in a new, rectified way. [page 61-62]

The field of art seems to be free of many constraints that inhibit creativity. The raw materials are relatively inexpensive (when compared, for example, with the tools of science) and creativity is widely acknowledged to be inseparable from the very nature of art. Nor, provided he has independent means, does the artist need the active sanction, cooperation or approval of others, at least at the creative stage of the work. He brings down flashes of vision, giving them form, however vague, to serve as signposts to those who will attempt to travel farther along these same roads. [page 62]

The main problem facing the artist concerns the abuse of this very freedom. In the functional world of science and technology, "the proof is in the pudding." A theory or an invention, whether expressed as a product or a process, either works or it doesn't, is useful or it isn't. Very little subjectivity enters into it. Criteria of validity and value are less clear- cut in matters of aesthetics, and largely leave the rigors of sincerity in the hands of the artist himself. [page 62]

The inventor is kept honest by the heartless, unyielding laws of physics. But without hard and fast criteria for art, and original art in particular, what is to keep the creative artist's work tied to any reality? [page 62]

Thus conditions for the successful expression of creative genius include not only the freedom to exercise one's hard-won flair for original thought, but also the requirements of inner consistency, fortitude and discipline necessary to overcome difficulties, doubts and uncertainties. [page 62]

This degree of integrity is hard to find even in men of the cloth, let alone in poets, artists and others pretending to creativity. These, like most people who pursue creativity (being generally predisposed to dissension, rebellion and non-conformity), tend to gravitate toward the fringes of society where both deviation and laxness are tolerated. [page 62]

On the other hand, those creatively inclined people who find accommodation by compromising somewhat within mainstream society usually do so at the expense of having to live what remains of their nonconformist impulses, thoughts and aspirations largely in the solitude of their own hearts. To further relieve the dissonance and discomfort of this existentially lonely "corner" of their psyche, they may make one concession too many. Forsaking their secret defiance towards conformist banality amounts to surrender (self- betrayal), breaking their already tenuous contact with that mysterious, unborn reality. [page 63]

Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. (Psalms 142:7) [page 63]

. . . there is still another class of individual who, like the artist, appears to be free of many social and material restraints and could be thought of as an exception to this rule. Take the case of today's computer "whiz-kid." This free-wheeling program writer has a very high degree of freedom in developing, testing and applying any program he devises. With his personal computer substituting for laboratory, workshop and scientific personnel, it would seem that the world is his oyster. [page 63]

. . . Although, strictly speaking, a program is nothing more than a set of instructions to manipulate data, matter, other programs or even itself, the consequences of such manipulation are not always foreseen and can be far-ranging indeed, as the work done so far in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and neural networking shows. [page 63-64]

The hypotheses of sciences concerned with relation and abstract form use constructs that describe, map, model and understand the unknown. While all science is concerned with relation and the exploration of reality, computer science and mathematics, taken exclusively as independent tools of discovery, concern themselves principally with concepts of relation. [page 64]

. . . Theorizing in mathematics and computer science can soon reach a point where conceptual forms and patterns become so rarefied, so abstract, so far removed from experience as to become completely enigmatic. The progression of such constructs proceeds blindly according to the rules of some proposition, principle or thought game. Similarly, the ability to control forms on a computer screen is worlds away from the control of matter. Form is infinitely more pliant than matter. [page 64]

. . . abstract concepts, to the extent that they become bereft of significant referents to the known world, tend to lose meaning and usefulness until an internally consistent abstract theory is found to correspond to some real phenomenon or, at very least, to fit into some existing theory. [page 64-65]

The image of creative genius so often projected by professionals in these and many other fields derives mainly from the gift of associational facility--the ability to easily grasp, retain and manipulate ideas and bits of information. It is at a premium in professions dominated by the subtleties of abstraction. [page 65]

. . . To understand an idea, one first has to envision it, then take hold of it and finally become one with it. New ideas (including old ideas which are new to the one exposed to them) display a certain pristine resistance to suitors of insufficient virtue. [page 66]

He knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. I was woven together in the depths of the earth. (Psalms 103:14, 139:15) [page 66]

. . . Concepts, feelings, sensations and perceptions are the mind-forms with which we maintain and create representations of outer reality. Just as certain dispositions of matter lead to the release of given forms of energy, so special, meaningful configurations of the forms of thought, feeling and sensation can release corresponding energies and awarenesses. [page 66]

All matter is created out of some imperceptible substratum . . . nothingness, unimaginable and undetectable. But it is a particular form of nothingness out of which all matter is created. (Paul Dirac) [page 66]

It is important to understand the terms "matter," "form," and "energy"--actually three aspects of one thing. When we talk about levels of materiality, we mean coarser and finer forms of matter: for instance, solid, liquid, gas and plasma. Or to take a more concrete example: ice, water steam and super-heated steam. [page 66-67]

These different forms of matter imply different energy levels. Anyone who has been burned by steam knows that it packs much m ore force than boiling water at the same temperature. . . . The different life forms--mineral, vegetable, animal and human-- also display progressively finer levels of materiality, not only in their physical appearance and complexity of organization, but also in that elusive quality we call "life-energy," "consciousness" or "intelligence." [page 67]

One interesting criterion that can help us differentiate levels as they apply to life forms is noting the principal foods these life forms require. Animals can manage on coarser food than can humans (raw meat, rough vegetation, decaying matter, etc.), while plants get by on still coarser fare (inorganic matter). Now, thanks to Einstein, it is becoming common knowledge that matter is itself a form of energy. . . . energy is also matter, albeit of a much finer consistency. It will eventually be shown to be transformable again and again into still finer forms of matter and energy appertaining to the higher cosmic dimensions to which these finer forms belong. [page 67]

Living creatures participate in similar processes. The cells of our body, including brain cells, burn food for energy in complex oxidation-like processes. Our minds, however (and by "mind" I refer here to the capacity of consciousness that derives from our ability to sense, feel and think), having spectacular transformational possibilities on a cosmic scale strangely evocative of Einstein's famous formula. Virtually, all the great traditions, in one way or another, tell us we have the incredible ability to embrace virtually all cosmic levels of energy and matter, including those yet undreamed-of by science. [page 67-68]

Besides occasional Eureka experiences and despite the constraints of distraction, communal life permits at least vestiges of higher level, quasi-cosmic type transformational mind- processes. These usually come in the form of "peak experiences"--short bursts of heightened awareness and feeling--in the spheres of identity formation, rites of passage, romantic love, parenthood, religious revelation, sports (participative and spectator), ceremonies (communal, religious and others) and death. [page 68]

Unfortunately, for most of us these breakthroughs are mostly passive, lived as replays evoked from artistic representation. We depend on others to create the inspiration upon which our elevated state depends. The wave of feeling we ride is based on invocations of hope vibrating on the wavelength of shared values. [page 69]

There are also moments during which, spontaneously, we suddenly wake up to the feeling that life is passing us by--that we have forgotten to live it and to explore its possibilities. The most notable of these "moments" is depression, and especially the depression known as "mid-life crisis." . . . Only a person who is pursuing his true vocation, or some line connected to that vocation, will be spared the worst of the pain inherent in this "valley of the shadow of death." [page 69]

Just as matter can be shaped and formed or even completely transformed into energy, concepts and images (which are the representations by which matter is retained by thought) can be molded through imagination and transformed into awareness. [page 69-70]

A new idea or form is revealed as a reality simultaneously with its meaning. And meaning, in the end, boils down to usefulness, even if that use is temporarily restricted to merely aesthetic or intellectual realms. Its place is defined by its known function. [page 70]

The discovery of each new possibility suggests to man, at least unconsciously, the prospect of removing all that limits him and bars his way to paradise. [page 70]

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