Page 125 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

116 INTERGALACTIC THINKING

The Great Unknown. Oh, really?

Unknown

Unknown

Known

Unknown

Unknown

We tend to think of the area outside our home galaxy as the great unknown. But
we do know a great deal that can be great starting places for creative exploration.
It's not that the data relating to golf, music, banking, and gravel are unknown.
We just think of it as inappropriate data for the solution mix. Or we don't think of
it at all. But we're overlooking a great resource for creative inspiration.

Scientists used to say we can’t create anything in the physical realm,
we just transform energy and matter, until they discovered that matter
is energy. So we don’t create; we transfer energy. The same is true in the
conceptual realm. New ideas are not really created; they’re old ideas
transformed. The only question is do we find the answer inside or out-
side the box. Traditional thinking or Intergalactic Thinking.

Intergalactic Thinking as a Conscious Creative Thinking Tool
You can practice Intergalactic Thinking in different ways. There’s the
strict, disciplined way used in both groupthink and when you’re on
your own. Then there’s the method of simply being open to new ideas
from any realm.
The most highly realized creative thinkers are usually people who
can draw inspiration from almost anything almost anytime. Some of
the greatest thinkers of all time were people who did not limit their
thinking to the relatively small “atmospheric influence” of their own
area of expertise. These Intergalactic Thinkers reached many of the
greatest creative achievements of all time as a result of their intentional
or unwitting use of data from a totally unrelated galaxy of thought to
provoke a creative spark. (In Chapter 18, we talk about these hyper-