PLEASE NOTE: What follows are the first two chapters of the THINK! training course. These pages are normally viewed within the training course interface. Some of the descriptive text refers to parts of the interface. For reference view the screen shot of the THINK! Training Course Interface from the link at the top of the page.
Welcome to the THINK! Training Course
Whether your interest is to create new inventions, improve existing products or services, solve personal or business problems, or simply to gain deeper insights into any subject, THINK! stimulates your thinking in new unexplored directions and helps you find innovative ways to work toward realizing any goal you seek to achieve. Prepare yourself for a quantum leap forward in creativity and critical thinking.
THINK! is a tool that amplifies your thinking, but it cannot actually do the thinking for you. Sorry about that but there is no other way. Learning has to be generating from within your own mind.
Thinking is something that cannot be taught, it can only be learned. Learning is something very personal and unique to the individual mind. Consequently, THINK! is not a tool of teaching, it is a stimulating environment that fosters self-propelled learning. THINK! is a highly specialized classroom where your own mind is the best teacher and student you could ever hope to find.
Whenever a need for information arises it can usually be found by searching through existing recorded knowledge. But what happens when we want something new, unique, and innovative - something outside of recorded knowledge?
New, by definition, is something that never existed before. Something new has to be created. How can we find something that does not yet exist - by searching through that which already exists? Since there is nothing new in what is already known, it naturally follows that the only place to find something new, must be by searching the unknown. So where do we find the unknown, and by what means do we begin our search?
Now for the single most important revelation - The unknown can be found in limitless abundance, laying dormant within your own subconscious mind. THINK! is an effective combination of tools and technique that provides direct access to this vast storehouse of raw information. THINK! is an easy to learn, easy to use, self guided method of utilizing your subconscious mind to generate new ideas, evaluate your new ideas, and follow through with implementing your new ideas to further your goals in life.
Benefits of the Training Course
The THINK! training course is optimized to get you started quickly and efficiently. The course can be completed in about ninety minutes if all the exercises are performed in the allotted time. THINK! is actually very simple and easy to learn, and should be relaxing and enjoyable to use. There are only a few basic concepts to get acquainted with. The training course explains the theory and method behind THINK!. Keep in mind that learning any new skill is awkward at first and requires a little patience in getting started. Confidence and proficiency in using THINK! comes with the experience gained through regular practice. THINK! favors the "learn by doing" approach which motivates practice by focusing on any subject of your choice that you can put to immediate practical use.
Physical fitness, as it’s portrayed in the mainstream media, always emphasizes weight loss and the associated improvement in physical appearance, an alluring appeal to our self-image. In reality, improved appearance is but a minor side benefit of physical fitness. By far the most significant benefit is experiencing the profound internal physical changes that endow the body with advanced motor skills and new found feelings of comfort, confidence, and freedom in physical performance. These are the attributes that truly enhance your quality of life.
Its important to realize that developing the brain’s thinking skills is the same type of process as developing the body’s physical skills. Even the proverbial 98 lb. weakling has the potential to develop their physique to Olympian levels. It is simply a matter of proper training and attitude, and allowing the body time to rebuild itself in response.
You won’t be able to admire your brain’s new mental musculature in front of a mirror, but you will feel the improvement in the same way Olympic athlete’s feel the power within themselves to perform great feats of strength and agility. The brain actually develops physically by means of its built-in lifelong property called Neuroplasticity. This subject will be covered in more detail later. For now just be aware that given time, proper training, and proper attitude, your brain will inevitably respond and the power of your mind will multiply accordingly.
Layout of the Training Course
In addition to this training course THINK! consists of three interfaces that are optimized to exercise and amplify your thinking skills. Two of these interfaces are dedicated to the task of generating new ideas by leveraging the Right-Brain function of creativity. The remaining interface is focused on the task of evaluating your new ideas by maximizing your skills of critical thinking which depends on the Right-Brain and Left-Brain working together.
Generating New Ideas With Creative Thinking
After a short introduction you will perform six idea exercises. Your age or level of education is not a factor in these kinds of exercises. There is no right or wrong, no grading of any kind, and there is definitely no such thing as a mistake. The objective of each exercise is simply to generate as many new ideas as possible, without stopping to evaluate how good, or bad, or sensible, each idea may be. Evaluating new ideas is a separate thinking process that is best accomplished after generating a number of new ideas to work with.
The "Skills and Theory" section explains the concepts and techniques of the THINK! method. Don't worry if you don't understand everything in this section. Volumes of information have been condensed to the pure essentials and much information is inferred rather than clearly stated. The course is designed to be fast and efficient, and is best repeated at regular intervals as needed. The exercises need not be repeated since you will already be using THINK! in practice. The time required to repeat the course is effectively halved when the exercises are omitted.
Beginners should review the course once every week or two. More advanced practitioners can extend the interval to once a month or several times a year. Eventually the information will become second nature. This open-ended approach to learning is most consistent with the natural function of the brain. It takes some time for the brain to expand and rebuild itself while it absorbs, processes, and integrates new concepts into its constantly evolving information matrix. Be assured that everything will make more sense as you gain more experience.
After completing the "Skills and Theory" section you will repeat the same six idea exercises, but this time using THINK!. You will experience the effect first hand by comparing the number and scope of your ideas before and after using THINK!. Beginners commonly generate three or four times as many ideas on the second round of exercises. With practice this number can be multiplied many times.
Evaluating Ideas With Critical Thinking
Once a number of ideas are generated it’s time to evaluate their potential to resolve your subject by utilizing the skills of critical thinking. Even the most revolutionary new idea is worthless unless you act to bring it to fruition. Implementing new ideas to achieve optimal results is generally more complex than generating them. It’s easy to get confused while contemplating the myriad of interrelated factors that will significantly impact the end result.
THINK! includes powerful tools that will expand your skills of critical thinking to help you realize the full potential of your new ideas. Creative thinking is wild and completely free of any kind of structure. Critical thinking definitely benefits from working within a well conceived structure to keep your thoughts organized. THINK! fosters clarity of thought to what otherwise can easily turn into an unruly dish of cerebral spaghetti.
THINK! brings order to chaos with a sound open-ended method of working. The process begins by following a strict step by step sequence, but once the full sequence has been completed, your deliberations can jump to any step in the sequence as you explore and organize the many facets of your subject that are sure to emerge. This type of open-ended architecture within a structured format is characteristic of Promptoria software.
Summary
Ultimately the aim of THINK! is the same as what any sentient being seeks or can ever hope to achieve - the development of wisdom. Critical and creative thinking are two distinctive types of thinking but this does not mean one type is any “better” than the other. The two work together as one in a natural complimentary relationship, like two sides of the same coin. Wisdom is the seamless blend of Logic and Imagination combined with the intelligence to marshal and deploy these forces to shape your reality. The mind itself IS reality, for without it nothing else matters.
As your idea generating power evolves so to will your intuition and your ability to judge which ideas have the greatest potential and how to implement them to maximum advantage.
The course concludes with a chapter about best practices of using THINK! and incorporating THINK! as an integral part of the routine in your daily life.
About the Training Course Interface
(To view a screen shot of the THINK! Training Course Interface click the link at the top of this page.)
The table of contents shown to the left lays out the course. Click on a heading to display the associated contents. The THINK! training course is designed be done sequentially starting at the top and working down. Each step builds upon the steps preceding it.
At the top of this panel there are two bars with down-pointing arrows. Click on either of these bars to expose their controls as needed. The center bar allows you to change the font size of the text to suit your preference. Click on the exposed left and right arrows repeatedly to make the text bigger or smaller.
The bar to the left exposes a button to reset the training course. Some chapters of the course include exercises where you will enter text. The text you enter will be saved automatically in case you do not want to complete the course in a single session, or to save your work for future reference. Clicking the "Reset" button will erase all the text you have entered.
The bar to the right opens to display a countdown timer. The timer will open automatically when needed for the chapters that include exercises. The blank panel above the timer will open to expose the "Trigger" button for the exercises that use THINK!.
Move your mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen to activate the main tool bar. This tool bar is available in each of THINK!'s work spaces. For detailed information about THINK!'s interfaces click the "Help" button on the tool bar.
Please Note: The following chapter is intended to introduce THINK! to new users. The information describes the underlying concepts behind the THINK! method of generating and evaluating new ideas. Although this information provides a valuable background to the process, people that prefer to jump right into the training can bypass this chapter and begin the first set of exercises.
Introduction
The power to create and apply new ideas to improve our life and the world we live in is the most important ability of the human mind. The advance of civilization can be traced by the history of new ideas, and every single idea, whether great or small, spawned in the mind of one person at one point in time.
Generating new ideas is often associated with creating new inventions but an idea does not have to be something made of metal, plastic, wood, or cloth. A new idea could be a new type of service, a new way to change or improve something, or a new outlook on life and living. A new idea does not have to be revolutionary. It could be a part of your day-to-day activity, a new way to break a bad habit, a new approach to treat a relationship, a new “twist” to induce a child to eat a nourishing breakfast. There is no limit to the scope and application of new and original ideas.
New ideas are strange, mysterious, unfamiliar, and often reach beyond traditional or accepted concepts. New ideas result from inspiration that happens when known elements are put together in an unusual way, or used in a different and innovative approach. Usually the inspiration to connect things in unusual ways comes about completely by chance. Unpredictable random occurrences, an extraordinary convergence of coincidence, or the infamous “Happy Accident”. These elusive moments are known by many names, but in common they describe spontaneous events, that happen completely by chance, in an unforeseeable future beyond our deliberate control.
Generating new ideas then - is a deliberate effort to have an accident - On Purpose!
How does the mind learn to produce new ideas?
It doesn’t. Producing new ideas is actually the primal function of the brain - it is the natural thinking ability to associate thoughts and to recognize associations that are meaningful and significant. A mind at birth, knowing only life itself, does nothing but produce new ideas. Every experience is a new and wondrous event. Infants have no preconceived notions about how to interpret experiences. An open mind is free to absorb and create its own ideas about how to interpret experiences and thereby develop its own unique measures of meaning and significance.
Over time we learn all the basics of living, and later expand our perceptions as we gain life experience and study the abundant wealth of knowledge recorded by our ancestors. As we accumulate sufficient knowledge to make our way in the world, our perception of need for new ideas diminishes. We gradually forget how to produce new ideas simply from a lack of practice. So the mind does not need to LEARN how to produce new ideas, what it needs is to find a way to REMEMBER.
The constant stream of information received by our senses is organized inside of the brain within a meaningful framework. Thinking is, to a large extent, the process of acquiring information and building this ever expanding mental framework. At the most fundamental level, building our personal framework is essentially a one-way process that could be thought of as transforming the UNKNOWN into the KNOWN.
But what happens when we need a new idea, something that never existed before. A new idea is something unknown that becomes known only AFTER it has been conceived. A new idea is something unknown that the mind has to generate. The difficulty we experience generating new ideas stems from the fact that our thinking is oriented toward transforming the unknown into the known.
It feels unnatural to reverse this process in a futile effort to now transform the known into the unknown. Because of the overriding influence of our training and education it seems completely irrational using what we already know, to create something we don't know until after we have created it. It sounds ridiculous, and yet this is in fact precisely what we must do to create something truly new and original.
The mind strives to build its framework from which to make sense of the world. Everyone develops their own unique methods or PATTERNS of thinking to organize and comprehend information, patterns that reflect each individual’s version of "what makes sense".
Unfortunately, these patterns of thinking tend to become so firmly established in the mind that whenever something is encountered that does not fit a known pattern, something new that does not make sense, we tend to instantly reject it as being bad, wrong, silly, or otherwise irrelevant. Rejecting new ideas is much easier than investing time and energy thinking about them, and once rejected the potential value they are sure to contain is lost forever.
Breaking Free From Established Patterns To Stimulate New Ideas
THINK! is a working environment comprised of tools and technique designed for exactly this purpose. Utilizing a powerful technique called Random Word Stimulation, which will later become clear and familiar, everything in your world will change! You will quickly begin to acquire a new unexpected mental prowess, a new fluency of thinking, and a greatly enhanced ability to find new ways of looking at everything you see, learn, and do.
THINK! probes deep into the infinite realms of your subconscious mind and works to rearrange all the bits of stored information in a new, unusual, and unexpected order. THINK! will expose the hidden treasures buried in your subconscious and allow you to utilize its full potential for your success, happiness, and fulfillment.
Of course applying creative thinking to generate new ideas is only half the battle. Even the most revolutionary idea is not worth much unless it is put into action. THINK! also includes powerful tools that will energize and expand your skills of critical thinking to help you realize the full potential of your new ideas.
THINK! is easy to learn, easy to use, and is extremely effective. Regardless of age or level of education, regular practice of only ten - fifteen minutes per day can produce astonishing results.
Think! is always interesting, always stimulating, and most important - THINK! Will Always Produce Results!
You possess the most powerful instrument in the universe - Your Brain!
As a child you had a huge advantage when it came to learning new things - You Didn't Know Anything.
Every experience was a new learning experience. Every experience is recorded into the brain in complete detail. Everything you have ever seen, heard, touched, smelled, and tasted, everything you have ever thought, and everything in your dreams. Over a lifetime, billions of bits of information are recorded.
How does the brain manage this overwhelming amount of information?
Essentially the brain functions as a fully automated self-organizing pattern generator. Incoming information is organized into patterns that are stored in the brain and can later be recalled. A pattern is comprised of a group of separate bits of information that collectively mean something the mind recognizes as being significant. Patterns can be very simple, or very complex involving hundreds, thousands, or even millions of bits of information.
Once a pattern has been established the brain creates what we call a Trigger that binds all the bits of information together as a whole. Triggers can take on many different forms, a word ,an image, or anything that is easily recognized. The brain builds it’s constantly evolving framework of patterns along with the triggers that bind them to our conscious mind. All that is required to recall an individual pattern is recognition of its associated trigger. The act of thinking is more a matter of managing triggers, than managing all the bits of information that make up patterns.
Every time a pattern is triggered, its impression in the brain’s memory strengthens; optimizing its capability to be later recognized and remembered.
This remarkable self-organizing ability of the brain, known as Neuroplasticity, is what makes thought possible. But there is a weakness. As life unfolds we establish all the patterns required to make our way in the world. The need to create new patterns diminishes over time. As we reach adulthood our existing patterns become so firmly established that the brain looses motivation to develop further. Even worse, eventually the brain can fail to recognize new incoming information as being something new, and will tend to trigger the closest matching existing pattern rather than expend the extra energy to create a new one.
Constant triggering of existing patterns continually deepens these patterns into the brain and progressively impairs our ability to creatively process new information. The development of rigid patterns of thinking is not a physical manifestation of aging; it is brought about by a persistent perception that there is no need for new thinking. It is entirely a matter of choice rather than one of inevitable circumstance.
How does this process actually happen in the brain?
A thorough answer to this question would fill volumes. Every new discovery about the inner workings of the brain, instead of finally answering the question, exposes a whole new level of unexpected complexity. However, for our purposes, the following grossly over-simplified explanation will suffice:
From the earliest days of medical dissection the brain and nervous system were thought of in much the same way as we think of an electrical system. The brain was thought of as a control panel full of switches and the nervous system was a complex array of wires that connected the brain to the various parts of the body. Electrical impulses were thus distributed from the brain to control all the systems of the body.
With the invention of the electron microscope came the discovery that the brain and nervous system are comprised of a mass of billions of separate fibers, called Neurons. An intricately woven tapestry were the individual fibers wrap around each other but do not actually touch each other. In response to a trigger, the brain generates pulses of electro-chemical energy that travel through this mass of Neurons, jumping the gaps between one Neuron and the next. The act of jumping a gap has the effect of drawing the associated Neurons closer together. Every time the same pattern is triggered, these gaps close a bit more which makes it easier to jump the gap and thereby further strengthens the connection between those particular Neurons.
So in response to a trigger, the brain creates patterns of connections between neurons, literally reshaping itself to optimize its capability to recognize the patterns it creates. Over a lifetime, constant triggering of the same patterns strengthens the connections to such a degree that new connections become difficult to create. Energy naturally follows the path of least resistance. It is unnatural for energy to favor creating new connections instead of following existing ones. Creating new connections requires extra power, power that is generated by our force of will.
The transformation described above takes place automatically every second of every day of our lives no matter what we are doing. The brain adapts to our mental exertions (or lack there of) in the same way our muscles adapt to physical exertions. The willpower to engage in proper training and practice has potential to produce the Olympic athlete, the concert violinist, or the consummate couch potato. Whether or not we decide to deliberately participate in our own brain’s development is entirely a matter of choice.
How does THINK! fit into the picture?
Remember that triggers are initiated in response to a need for something relevant. It is the perception of need that drives the whole system. Usually the need is for something that is known, like a need for food, a need for shelter, a need for information, or a need for a vacation. But what happens when we need a new idea? As mentioned earlier, a new idea is something unknown until after it is created. The unknown is generally something thrust upon us, not something we actively seek. The brain spends a lifetime creating patterns in response to relevant needs.
Patterns represent things that are known. Triggers represent established patterns that are known. There is no trigger for “unknown”. It is the lack of this most special trigger that produces the awkward experience were the mind goes blank, leaving us staring into empty space, blindly searching for a trigger that does not exist.
THINK! Supplies a Trigger for the Unknown
Buried inside THINK! is a cache of 16,154 words and phrases, carefully selected from a list of over 200,000 for their potential to stimulate creative thought (yes, we evaluated every one, one at a time). History is full of new discoveries initiated by the association of unrelated ideas that occurred by accident. THINK! produces these “Happy Accidents” on demand whenever you need them. Through the technique of Random Word Stimulation THINK! maximizes the probability of recognizing meaningful chance associations. The advanced random word generator integrated into THINK! evokes random words to supply that “unknown” trigger.
Once you have defined a subject you want to generate new ideas about, your brain will immediately begin to do exactly what it is designed to do - search through its recorded information to find associations that connect the subject to the concepts expressed by the random words supplied by THINK!. Usually there is no obvious logical connection, but the drive to associate ideas is so strong that the search is performed regardless, and in the subsequent chaos new ideas begin to emerge.
The net result is a flood of new ideas. Fresh, original, and abundant ideas the brain would never discover left to its own devices. THINK! is a “Tool for the Mind” that will help you generate an unlimited number of new ideas about absolutely any type of subject of your choice.
But the benefits don’t stop there. With regular use, THINK! prompts the brain’s Neuroplasticity to adapt to this exciting task of creating new patterns from unknown triggers. Brain development will experience renewed vigor, freed from the constant triggering of existing patterns. The brain will once again resume it’s natural self-propelled evolution, creating new patterns and new connections, constantly reshaping itself in a never-ending quest to become better at anything and everything you call upon it to do.
Children especially benefit from regular use of THINK!. Practice in creative thinking skills throughout the development years of a child will build a brain that never looses its natural flexibility to generate any number of new ideas at will, coupled with the wisdom to successfully marshal new ideas into productive action.
So whatever happened to that child with the huge advantage in learning new things?
That child is still within you, is still the essence of you. It’s time to get re-acquainted.
