Next — Previous — Contents — Home — Contact

Chapter Seven
A Stellar Mind

How does thinking differ from consciousness? The following table differentiates thinking from consciousness.

Thinking is a process of arranging perceptual material into concepts, thoughts, and principles, which are linguistic. Consciousness is a process of arranging mental pictures into mental scenarios, which are like movies.

Thinking generates the knowledge one uses to expand one's consciousness. Consciousness provides the mental scenarios one uses to guide one's actions.

Because human beings have a volitional consciousness, they can choose to be honest and productive (moral) or dishonest and destructive (immoral). But for a human being to survive, he or she has to continuously think and act. Professional value producers think and act honestly and, thus, are moral. Professional value destroyers think and act dishonestly and, thus, are immoral.

There is an inseparable relationship between the perfect mind and numbers. The perfect mind jumps to life when controlling the numbers of business. The perfect mind is inherently a multi-million-dollar wealth dynamo. One of the fastest ways to experience the limitless power of the perfect mind is to link essentially every thought with wealth creation.

Every human being is born without knowledge. The intense drive to compete for survival motivates everyone to acquire various levels of knowledge. But because of the mind disease of mysticism, everyone has been limited in his or her capacity to generate new knowledge.

When one removes all the mysticism from one's mind, one quickly discovers the clean, healthy, reality-integrating mind. One can then develop new knowledge without limits. One's new knowledge reveals success puzzles and points one in the direction toward evermore success puzzles. Each of these success puzzles then integrates into super success pictures that no one has seen before. This process continues in an upward spiral to continuously yield new knowledge and success. Electrifying excitement and great fun result, as all of existence—not just a tiny field of knowledge—becomes within one's grasp.

The Perfect Mind/Perfect Body breakthrough lets one permanently leave behind the weak traditional mind by developing the omnipotent perfect mind. By doing this, one will wake up everyday in the world of Advanced Man: a world of magnificent control over one's health, prosperity, well-being, and future.

The perfect mind is the means to generate wealth without limits. Yet, wealth does not automatically accrue to one just because one has the perfect mind. The perfect mind must be applied to wealth creation. And even with the perfect mind, wealth creation is not easy.

So the question might arise, "Why go through the work of developing the perfect mind?" The answer is simple. Because of its no-limit nature, the perfect mind provides stunning advantages for capturing power, wealth, health, romance, and happiness. Moreover, as people begin evolving into the perfect mind and body, everyone else will evolve in order to remain competitive.

The AC System and the C-of-U System have no choice but to collide. As deduced from the 1996 Genuine Power publication, these two world-dominating forces must inevitably collide—like the collision between antimatter and matter. This is because the value destroyers use the AC System to rule life on earth, but the value producers want to use the C-of-U System to generate an infinite array of prosperity for everybody.

Since dishonest people have too much at stake to simply give up without an all-out battle, the two power systems will collide. What will happen when they collide? The real power system—the C-of-U System—will vanish the fake power system—the AC System. Then everyone will scramble to embrace the real power system to survive and prosper.

If one puts the microscope on each of these systems, one will see that the dishonest AC System is ridiculous and the honest C-of-U System is serious. Then one will wonder, "How could that dishonest system dominate life for so long?" The answer is that the AC System needs everyone's mind to be scrambled by illusions, con jobs and deception, i.e., irrationality. In reality, this is the only way parasitical elites can rule conscious beings.

Initially, the idea of a man-made mind seems bizarre. But the alternative is to be run by nature—by subconscious urges and emotions. No other animal has to develop its mind; animals simply use the apparatus nature gives them. But man has to develop his mind to survive and flourish.

The man-made mind is the perfect mind, which functions by logically integrating reality to discover new knowledge without limits. It receives sensations from its environment through the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. The brain automatically integrates these sensations into percepts. Percepts are images in one's mind that correspond to observable things in reality.

The perfect mind integrates essentially similar percepts into a mental unit, which is called a concept. Concepts are symbolized by words. Integrating percepts into concepts enables man to function at the conceptual level of consciousness. This is beyond the cognitive reach of all other animals. But the perfect mind does not stop here. The perfect mind integrates concepts into more-abstract concepts that correspond to ever-wider realms of reality.

By following the rules of logic and grammar, the perfect mind integrates concepts into complete thoughts. It then condenses conceptually similar thoughts into a principle. Principles enable man to deal with a vast amount of information in just a few mental units.

The perfect mind validates its knowledge by traveling down the hierarchy from abstract principles to directly observable entities. At each step of the way, it applies logic to its knowledge to make sure it corresponds to reality.

The perfect mind checks its new knowledge with everything else that it knows. If no contradictions exist, then the perfect mind has achieved certainty regarding this new knowledge.

Words are the primary tools of thinking. Images are the primary tools of consciousness. This man-made mind converts words into images and uses them in consciousness. Man uses these conceptualized images to form mental movies. He views these mental movies from various perspectives and alters them until they are exactly the way he wants them. Then, with the mental movie completed, he can compare it with reality. He can then figure out what needs to be done to realize the contents inside his head.

The perfect mind is rational, logical, and honest. Thus, those with this mind do not seek to contradict the laws of reality or implement their thoughts through immoral means. They do not waste time trying to violate physical laws, objective laws, or individual rights—each person's right to his own person and property.

Moreover, because those with the perfect mind are aware of their thought processes, they keep coming back to any errors they might have until those errors are corrected.

This man-made mind can achieve any rational value or goal it chooses via the above processes. And since it is a productive mind, it always benefits itself, other people, and civilization.

Human beings have a mental dictionary inside their head. However, most people have vague or erroneous definitions for the concepts in their internal dictionary. This is especially true in the case of abstract concepts such as justice, friendship, and reality. The two main reasons why many people have unclear or false definitions in their head is that (1) individuals fail to accurately define the concepts they use and (2) the anti-mind culture in which everyone lives constantly—daily—subverts the meanings of crucial words.

Awesome power accrues to those who consciously formulate clear definitions to the concepts in their internal dictionary—the dictionary inside their head. This is not an easy task; it requires diligent effort. But the payoff is definitely worth the effort.

When one's internal dictionary contains objective definitions to concepts, one can make startling integrations of knowledge. This alone makes one appear to be a genius, even if one's IQ is below 125. Attaching valid definitions to one's concepts in one's internal dictionary is not just useful for playing ScrabbleÔ. It is good for making million-dollar breakthroughs in work, developing a fulfilling love relationship, and achieving abiding happiness.

Picture a supercomputer that performs immense mathematical calculations at lightning speeds with consistent accuracy. People are in awe of such a machine that functions so effectively. Now picture a mystic-free mind that learned how to do integrated thinking. This mind performs lightning-like integrations of facts with astonishing accuracy. It integrates all available knowledge rapidly and precisely. Errors are rare. When errors do arise, this mind corrects them swiftly.

The mind described above is the perfect mind. It functions via a valid epistemology: reason and logic. The perfect mind is free of irrationality and its psychology is healthy and super-efficient. It integrates knowledge like calculators integrate numbers. Gray areas do not exist; black-and-white answers are the only products of this mind.

To most people today, the perfect mind is out of this world. But soon, this mind will permeate planet Earth. This is beginning to happen in cyberspace. Eventually, the perfect mind will replace the traditional mind everywhere on earth.

To grasp the difference between the traditional mind and the perfect mind, one can look at snowmobiles. In the 1970s, snowmobile manufacturers made some impressive machines. Snowmobiles such as the 1975 Arctic Cat el Tigré Z 440 and the 1978 Ski-Doo Blizzard 6500 dominated the trails at that time. Later, manufacturers introduced advanced high-performance machines such as the 1984 Arctic Cat el Tigré 6000 and the 1983 Ski-Doo Blizzard 9500. These and similar offerings from Polaris and Yamaha dominated the trails. Earlier snowmobiles could not compete against these new machines in the areas of speed and handling.

There were essentially four snowmobiles that dominated the trails in the early 1980s. They were the Arctic Cat el Tigré, Ski-Doo Blizzard, Polaris Centurion, and Yamaha SRX. The other consumer snowmobiles could not match the superior performance of these four machines.

Now, however, those four machines are obsolete. Today, snowmobiles utilize advanced technology that far surpasses the technology of the 1970s and 1980s. For example, independent front suspension and long-travel rear suspension enable the 1999 Arctic Cat ZL 600 to out-handle all earlier machines.

Modern engine, clutch, and track technology make even the mightiest machines of yesterday obsolete. The 1999 Arctic Cat ZRT 800—with its 150 horsepower triple-cylinder engine, independent front suspension, and 13.5 inches of rear suspension—can out-accelerate, out-handle, and outperform all machines of the past, including the 1970 Arctic Cat King Cat four-cylinder snowmobile. With a 0 to 60 time of just 3.6 seconds and a quarter-mile speed of 100 mph, the ZRT 800 leaves yesterday's machines in the dust.

Now consider the traditional mind. That mind has produced everything humans have to date—an impressive feat. But with the rise of the perfect mind, which is an honest integrating mind, the traditional mind is obsolete. The traditional mind arose from the philosophical works of Heraclitus, Plato, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Marx, William James, et al. Thus, the traditional mind is limited by irrationality.

The perfect mind, by contrast, arose from the philosophical works of Parmenides, Aristotle, Bacon, Mill, Rand, Branden, Wallace, et al. This mind has no limits; it is free of irrationality. Thus, it can think in all areas of knowledge. With a valid epistemology and psychology, the perfect mind outthinks, outflanks, and outperforms all traditional minds—even the brightest, most-promising traditional minds.

Like the mighty machines of yesterday trying to compete with today's advanced snowmobiles, the traditional mind will be left in the dust by the perfect mind.

One of the greatest attributes of man is his unique capacity for abstract thought. No other animal can perform abstract thinking beyond a rudimentary level. Abstract or conceptual thinking is the key that lets man control nature.

The beautiful thing about abstract thinking is that it can be performed by anyone. However, like writing or riding a bike, abstract thinking does not automatically well up inside a person; one needs to learn how to do it. Yet, after learning and practicing abstract thinking, one can do it anytime, anyplace. What is abstract thinking?

Abstract thinking begins with things that are directly perceivable through a person's eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin. The person's brain automatically integrates these incoming sensations into percepts. The person then integrates his percepts into concepts. He uses his concepts to form thoughts, which are often expressed in sentences or drawings. At this point, the person is performing abstract thinking. Now, if the person wants to break into wide-open thinking, he needs to integrate his thoughts into principles. Principled thinking is wide-open thinking.

Principled thinking is the key to wide-open thinking because principles condense and retain not just a large amount of information, but a limitless amount of information. Yes, anyone can discover open-ended thinking—and, thus, capture open-ended prosperity and happiness—by using principled thinking.

In fact, the newly discovered perfect mind is a mind that functions through principled thinking. Anyone who develops the perfect mind can solve almost any problem in his or her life. Those who develop the perfect mind will eventually discover a rich paradise on earth. They will use their consciousness according to its nature. They will think rationally and powerfully to control their own destiny.

The perfect mind jumps beyond all mind circuitry of the past. It thinks in all fields of knowledge and integrates diverse knowledge—powerfully, precisely—for stunning breakthroughs that advance oneself and society into new realms of prosperity. In essence, this mind is a super-survival mechanism.

Everyone experiences times of insecurity, including those with the perfect mind. The emotions of sadness, loneliness, and insecurity are inherent in conscious life. Yet, those with the perfect mind experience negative emotions far less compared to those with the traditional mind.

When a person with the traditional mind feels insecure, outside circumstances tend to increase his insecurity. If, for example, a potentially dangerous thing happens to such a person while he feels insecure, his level of insecurity rises. Such a person tends to be negatively influenced by outside circumstances.

When a person with the perfect mind feels insecure, and a dangerous external circumstance arises, the person's survival mechanism prompts him to action. The person immediately acts in his rational best interest rather than becoming gloomy or paralyzed by fear. In other words, when a person with the perfect mind is feeling down and something threatening occurs, his subconscious jolts him to take self-preserving actions. This occurs regardless how the person feels.

Say a person with the perfect mind is feeling tired or gloomy. And say he is about to get into a car accident. Well, the survival mechanism inherent in the perfect mind kicks in and he becomes alive—jolted out of a mental torpor—and reacts competently to avert potential danger. Uniquely, time dilates during this period as the person feels like each second equals a minute. The person thinks at lightning-like speed to immediately gain complete control of the situation.

The perfect mind contains a life-and-death survival mechanism, which is based on widely integrated knowledge. That survival mechanism causes each person to act in his or her rational best interest. This is a crucial survival advantage that the perfect mind has over the traditional mind: the perfect mind is completely integrated with the exigencies of life and death.

Amazingly, Citizens of Earth are in the Information Age and yet few people know how to think. Thinking is not taught in the schools or colleges. But thinking and knowledge drive the new information economy, which is replacing the agricultural and industrial economies of yesterday.

Learning how to think delivers two primary values: survival and prosperity. When a person thinks objectively and creatively, he or she will survive and thrive. But who learned how to think? Most people did not. And, who really wants to spend the time and effort to learn this skill? Few people. Yet, each person who learns how to think can outperform those who never learned how to think.

Since knowledge of how to think does not automatically well up inside man, he needs to explicitly learn how to think. When he knows how to think, he can visualize a fabulous life for himself, make rational plans, set realistic goals, achieve those goals, and live the life he has imagined.

Thinking consists of two basic categories: lateral and vertical thinking. Lateral thinking comprises creative thinking; it consists of stepping off common paths to discover new concepts, ideas, and perspectives. Vertical thinking comprises logical thinking; it consists of identifying reality in abstract terms.

For example, one might use lateral thinking to come up with several new ways to conduct one's work. Then one would use vertical thinking to determine which ideas are the most effective and choose the best one.

Anyone who develops the perfect mind, which is a super mind, quickly realizes that this is one hungry mind. It requires a steady—and vast—feeding of knowledge. In fact, its survival depends on a steady flow of data, facts, information, and knowledge.

The perfect mind generates limitless knowledge. It uses lateral thinking (creative thinking), vertical thinking (logical thinking), and the scientific method (controlled testing) to generate an infinite array of knowledge. But it needs a constant river of knowledge flowing from outside sources to fuel its knowledge-generating processes. It gets this knowledge from books, audiocassettes, videotapes, magazines, newspapers, CD-ROMs, the Internet, TV, radio, other people, et al.

The point here is that everyone who develops the perfect mind will have to regularly feed it an enormous amount of information. Like feeding the body, one has to feed one's mind daily. Yesterday's food is not sufficient for today's activities; yesterday's knowledge is not sufficient for today's thinking. This process of feeding never ends. That means one has to plan for the expense of books, tapes, magazines, newspapers, TV, and the Internet.

Is the perfect mind worth it? Is the perfect mind worth the continual expense required to feed it? Definitely. The perfect mind is omnificent: it is the creator of all things. The perfect mind is the mechanism that will generate all of one's future wealth, health, happiness, romance, and fulfillment.

Low-level thinking consists of applying the knowledge in one's head to specific cases. For example, say a person has integrated the concept "criminal mind" with the rest of his knowledge. Then one day he discovers that John Sherman was one of the strongest advocates of America's first income tax. The person learns that John Sherman was a career politician who flourished in politics for forty years. He also learns that John Sherman was the impetus for such evils as the federal income tax, the Department of Internal Revenue, the Sherman Antitrust Act, and other statist policies and regulations.

With little conscious effort, this person identifies John Sherman as a man with a criminal mind. This person's subconscious feeds him knowledge about criminal minds, and he applies it to this particular case. He consciously evaluates the application and he sees that it is valid. Using low-level thinking, he has identified John Sherman as a man with a criminal mind.

High-level thinking consists of forming new concepts, thoughts, hypotheses, and knowledge. This is a more intense process of thought. One can feel the mental groping that accompanies high-level thinking. Such thinking is responsible for stunning breakthroughs and advances in civilization.

For example, generating new concepts such as those in Perfect Mind/Perfect Body requires high-level thinking. Or, discovering brand-new realms of knowledge like Objectivist philosophy requires high-level thinking. Also, developing radically new technology such as the World Wide Web demands high-level thinking. If one is not aware of exerting high effort in one's thought processes, then one is not doing high-level thinking.

The perfect mind? "Oh," some people will reply, "Isn't that some new-age crap?" Others will reply, "That's a supernatural, super-conscious mind or some other inexplicable thing, isn't it?"

The perfect mind is not new-age nor is it supernatural. In fact, it is the antipode of such mystical madness. It is the exact opposite of new-age philosophies, supernatural dimensions, the occult, and other forms of mysticism. But what is the perfect mind?

The perfect mind is an honest integrating mind. It is the mind used by conscious beings dwelling among the Civilization of the Universe. And it is the controlling force of existence.

Functioning within the laws of physics, the perfect mind unifies the four other forces of nature: gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear force. Yes, the perfect mind is the fifth and controlling force of existence. And it is omnificent.

Omnificent? The creator of all things? Sounds like a fantasy. Yet, the perfect mind is a mystic-free consciousness. The four other forces of nature are helpless by themselves to fulfill the needs of conscious beings. For example, the four forces of nature do not come together by themselves to produce semiconductors, supercomputers, or space stations. But conscious beings can and do produce these and other assets.

The perfect mind is not only omnificent, it is omnipotent. How does it work? Being grounded in reality, it integrates sensations into percepts, percepts into concepts, concepts into thoughts, and thoughts into principles—all in accord with reality and logic. Those open-ended principles let one advance into new knowledge, prosperity, romance, and happiness without limits. Moreover, each person with the perfect mind consistently produces values for self, others, and civilization.

The result? Continuous breakthroughs and advances in civilization beget an endless flow of prosperity and happiness to everyone on earth.

The rise of cyberspace made this discovery possible. Now, with Perfect Mind/Perfect Body available to all, anyone can develop this mind. Thus, anyone can experience limitless power, wealth, romantic love, happiness, and life.

The perfect mind is a thinking machine. This mind is a non-stop dynamic that regularly produces new knowledge. How does this thinking machine work? First, one has to realize that this is not really a machine; it is a conscious mind.

The perfect mind forms concepts and thoughts from percepts. It then forms principles from thoughts. Principles enable this "thinking machine" to generate an infinite array of knowledge.

This thinking machine requires a steady input of knowledge to feed its operations. For example, it eats up knowledge flowing from books, tapes, magazines, the Internet, and more.

Output from the thinking machine may take the form of writing. Or, output may consist of speeches, artwork, or specific actions such as building a new invention. Whatever form its output comprises, this "thinking machine" generates an unlimited array of new knowledge.

A non-creative approach to thinking consists of using conventional thinking. This is to say, one thinks along normal, established patterns. This comprises a narrow range of thought that rarely leads to new concepts, ideas, and knowledge.

A creative approach to thinking is to use sideways thinking. One recognizes normal patterns of thought in a given situation. Then one purposely moves sideways—outside the established patterns of thought—to see the situation from a brand new perspective. One can continue thinking in new directions until one comes up with new and better ideas than conventional thinking can produce.

For example, say one has a situation concerning transportation. One needs a way to get from place to place. Conventional thinking would immediately say, "get a car." How obvious. But by using creative thinking, one sidesteps convention. One thinks to one's self, "How can I get to various places using a different method?" Then one makes a list of possible methods to get from place to place:

Many of the ideas one generates using sideways thinking will not be better than ideas that conventional thinking can produce. But one or two might be. And that is enough to overcome a problem, create a new opportunity, or make a valuable breakthrough.

In the above example, one might decide to work, shop, and communicate via the Internet—by getting Internet access, a web page, and an email account. One might work, order food, purchase clothes, send mail, pay bills, and more via the Internet. When one has to physically go somewhere, one might choose to take a taxi. Thus, one does not need a car—or the headaches that come with it: payments, insurance, maintenance, parking tickets, moving violations, and depreciation.

There is an important distinction between consciousness, thinking, and emotions. What is that distinction?

Consciousness is an operator that generates mental models that parallel the physical world like a road map parallels the actual terrain. It is used like a mental movie for deriving superior solutions before taking action. Consciousness uses metaphors, analogies, and comparisons to understand the new by comparing the new to the known. For instance, the perfect mind is to the traditional mind like the personal computer is to pencil-and-paper. The perfect mind and the personal computer perform operations swiftly, efficiently, and accurately; the traditional mind and pencil-and-paper perform operations slowly, inefficiently, and sloppily.

A person visualizes the outcome of an event. Then he uses his consciousness to develop alternative scenarios. He chooses the most desirable scenario before taking action. Then he performs integrated thinking to figure out exactly what he needs to do to actualize this desired scenario. Finally, he acts on his thoughts to manifest his vision. Upon actualizing his vision, he experiences the emotions of excitement and happiness that well up inside himself.

As shown in the example above, consciousness enables one to visualize situations and different possible outcomes. Thinking enables one to create a plan and determine specific steps that will bring one's vision into reality. Emotions are the means to experience happiness, which is the moral purpose of conscious life.

A widespread error consists of using emotions in place of thinking. People who do this typically use thinking to justify or rationalize their emotion-based actions. But emotions are not equivalent to cognition. Emotions cannot identify reality; they simply react to specific situations.

In essence, consciousness functions in terms of picture-images, thinking functions in terms of concepts, and emotions function in terms of feelings.

A common myth is that structure stifles creativity. According to this and similar myths about creativity, a person needs spontaneity and an unstructured environment to tap into limitless creativity.

In reality, however, creativity requires structure. Once one has structure or a routine, creativity can flourish. How? Not by eliminating the structure or routine, but by making variations and new combinations within the structure.

In other words, to be creative, one does not need to abandon structure and discipline. Instead, one needs a framework in which to exercise creativity. For example, look at time management and creativity. Popular notions assert that people need to be free from time constraints so they can be creative—so they can sit around and come up with creative ideas.

But consider a person who operates from a precise schedule where every hour is planned. Such a person cannot afford to take hours or days from his schedule to "come up with creative ideas." Instead, this person works diligently through every task on his schedule within the allotted time. And because of this structure, the person feels intense pressure to be creative—to creatively solve problems and come up with new products while adhering to his schedule.

Such a person knows that his schedule limits the amount of time he has for each task. Therefore, he feels constant pressure to come up with creative solutions to problems and generate new, more effective ways to do things within his tight schedule. He knows he cannot just sit around and wait for ideas to come to him. If he did this, he would fall hopelessly behind in the other tasks he has to perform to live profitably, successfully, happily. Instead, this person actively seeks out creative alternatives and applies them within his structured schedule.

What is the result? This person consistently generates fresh, creative alternatives and valuable breakthroughs that are applied within his tightly controlled schedule. This culminates in new products, along with a more efficient means of producing and promoting these products.

The person who lacks structure, by contrast, will no doubt come up with creative ideas and solutions. But, this person will differ from the structured person in two ways: (1) his creativity will be passive; he waits for creative ideas to "well up" inside his head. And (2) he will not generate nearly as many creative ideas and solutions because he lacks the ongoing pressure to be creative essentially every hour of the day.

No human being is born with a developed conceptual faculty, although the faculty itself is dormant in everyone. Each person has to develop his or her conceptual faculty. Sadly, in the anticivilization, many people do not fully develop their conceptual faculty.

Essentially all children between the ages of two and four begin to develop their conceptual faculty through their own hard effort. This is a natural dynamic in the Civilization of the Universe. For example, children learn to talk, read, and conceptualize at a fairly simple level. But every child is relentlessly, criminally drawn into the anticivilization, which is now infesting planet Earth.

Once in the anticivilization, most young people and adults stop developing their conceptual faculty. Many of them have developed their minds enough to have a career and family. But most people—young and old—have never fully developed their conceptual faculty. How can people survive without a fully developed conceptual faculty? The anticivilization provides them with a guaranteed survival in exchange for partially or totally surrendering their volition. After a few decades of living like this, each such person dies.

The key to limitless wealth, health, romance, excitement, fulfillment, and happiness on earth or anywhere else in existence is to fully develop the conceptual faculty. In fact, with the rise of cyberspace and the forthcoming Civilization of the Universe, a fully developed conceptual faculty will become a requisite for survival. But in the Civilization of the Universe, everyone fully develops their conceptual faculty—naturally, quickly—to benefit oneself and everybody else.

So how does one develop the conceptual faculty? One has to learn how to think conceptually. And thinking does not consist of using emotions, intuitions, or mysticism. Thinking consists of forming concepts objectively and then rationally integrating concepts into ideas and principles. To do this, one has to become conscious of one's thought processes through introspection. When one becomes aware of one's thought processes one can eliminate any thinking errors and develop a rational method of thinking. Then one can continuously improve and refine one's thinking throughout one's life as one grows in knowledge and experience. The key here is to consciously learn a rational method of thinking.

The process of learning how to think rationally culminates in a fully developed conceptual faculty. What happens when one unleashes the full power of the conceptual faculty that is latent in every human being? One begins integrating concepts and ideas, slowly at first. Then one begins integrating knowledge at ever-greater speeds until one explodes into new concepts and knowledge that lets one capture limitless power, prosperity, and happiness. In essence, one becomes the commander of one's own life. No longer do external authorities, parents, or influential people direct one's life. Great joy and fulfillment result.

Conceptual consciousness is the survival mechanism for human beings. But it does not develop automatically or effortlessly. While the conceptual faculty lies dormant in every human being, each person must volitionally develop it. No one can develop a conceptual faculty for anyone else.

In the anticivilization, society works at every angle—from politics and religion to education and entertainment—to prevent individuals from fully developing the conceptual faculty. By blocking people from fully developing the conceptual faculty, parasitical-elite rulers can continue to destroy wealth and life with impunity.

Developing the conceptual faculty to its fullest extent is hard work. Very hard work. It requires focus, discipline, effort, and patience. Yet, it is the natural survival mechanism for conscious beings throughout existence. Thus, all human beings are capable of developing it. However, because of the anticivilization, few people on earth fully develop the conceptual faculty.

What is the default mode when an individual fails to develop the conceptual faculty? That default mode is the perceptual mentality. Such a mentality uses memorization, association, and specialization rather than conceptual integration. To better understand how a perceptual mentality survives, one needs to take a closer look at such an undeveloped person.

The perceptual-bound person has not developed a conceptual consciousness. Thus, this person never unleashes or even glimpses the awesome power inherent in conscious beings. Such a person will live and die without ever knowing great power, wealth, romantic love, and happiness. Furthermore, such a person feels subconscious guilt and anxiety throughout life because he never fully developed the conceptual faculty—the human survival mechanism.

So how does the perceptual-bound person use his consciousness? He relates concepts and ideas to each other, not according to the laws of logic, but according to arbitrary associations. He then uses memory to store and recall these arbitrary associations. In essence, his subconscious contains a chaotic mess of arbitrary links and emotion-based associations where conceptually integrated knowledge should exist.

He applies this method of thinking at work by entering into the specialization mode. He puts himself in a narrow field of knowledge, typically an overspecialized profession. Once in his "specialty", he effectively prevents himself from integrating with the rest of human knowledge. He eliminates the need to reach beyond his area of expertise.

In the specialization mode, such a person learns and grows primarily through repetition—by doing the same routine over and over until he learns what works and what does not work. When he does master his field, he becomes an "expert". Others seek him because of his expertise in his field. But, this person never really integrated knowledge within his field. And he certainly did not integrate his specialized knowledge with other fields of knowledge.

What is the result? He becomes stuck in his field—caught in the specialization trap Plato laid nearly 2400 years ago. Around 370 BC, Plato wrote his masterpiece The Republic. In that book, Plato sought to identify "the good". Plato's conclusion? He asserted that the good is everyone doing only one job—a job prescribed by the parasitical-elite class.

The person with a perceptual mentality realizes that if his specialty becomes replaced by, say, new technology, he will become obsolete. Such a mentality fakes integration while surviving on a shaky foundation of memory, association, and narrow-range thinking.

The fact is that a perceptual-bound person lives unhappily. He is cut off from the values of life: personal growth, limitless productivity, magnificent prosperity, romantic love, deep happiness, and inspiring beauty. What is the remedy for this unnecessary mode of living?

The remedy for the perceptual-bound person is to develop his or her conceptual faculty—to learn how to conceptually integrate knowledge. And that can be done by anyone at essentially any age, regardless if one is sixteen or sixty. Anyone can learn how to use his or her mind conceptually—to integrate knowledge rationally. Once a person fully develops his or her conceptual faculty, he or she will soar to breathtaking heights of power, riches, romance, excitement, and fulfillment.

Those who fail to develop the conceptual faculty remain stuck in a perceptual mentality. Such a mentality deals with directly perceivable entities, emotions, false premises, arbitrary assertions, and irrational ideas.

The perceptual mentality is the link between the prehistoric mind of the past and the advanced mind of the future. It functions within tiny ranges of knowledge. And it never penetrates the heights of objectively formulated abstract knowledge. In place of abstract thinking, this mentality deals with mystical concepts: heaven, hell, God, saviors, angels, devils, reincarnation, altruism, communism, socialism, et al.

Because the perceptual mentality does not integrate knowledge objectively at the abstract level of consciousness, it does not fully understand abstract concepts. Things such as the incredibly small (quarks and below) and the incredibly large (galaxy clusters and above) exceed the understanding of this mentality. But since this mentality lives in reality, it has to deal with reality—including the abstract aspects of reality. How does the perceptual mentality deal with abstract concepts and ideas? It uses mysticism.

The person with a perceptual mentality uses mysticism to explain abstract things. For example, such a person asserts that the universe consists of heaven above and hell below—and God runs the entire show. In reality, there is no basis for such an assertion. And there is no way anyone can rationally integrate such an abstraction with the rest of human knowledge.

Once the perceptual mentality fully develops the conceptual faculty, the need for mysticism vanishes. Anyone who evolves into the conceptual mode of consciousness quickly discovers that mysticism only impedes thinking. It merely blocks valid, abstract thinking. Such an evolved person realizes that mysticism provides no values. In fact, mysticism is the tool used by parasitical elites and their backers to mulct and destroy billions of dollars worth of values.

Because the AC System keeps hoards of people stunted at the perceptual level of awareness, entire societies are based on this kind of mentality. Thus, in the anticivilization, mysticism and narrow-range thinking prevail. But as more people fully develop the conceptual faculty, they will outcompete non-integrating minds. This is beginning to happen in cyberspace.

The remedy for the perceptual mentality is to fully develop the conceptual faculty. But this requires discipline and effort. Why will individuals volitionally choose to develop the conceptual faculty? So they can survive, prosper, and enjoy exciting romance. In other words, those who develop the conceptual faculty will leave the perceptual mentality in the dust as they soar to unimaginable heights of power, money, and sexual love. As each individual understands the key to capturing boundless prosperity and romance, he or she will scramble to fully develop the conceptual faculty.

The perfect mind is the honest integrating mind. It is a super mind. But this mind is not a thing. Consider mathematics. Math is not a thing—a physical object—that one takes with oneself like a briefcase. Rather, mathematics is a process one applies to numbers. One uses mathematics to integrate numbers and generate answers.

What is the perfect mind? It is a process. One uses this mind to integrate knowledge without limits. It lets one understand anything in reality. Moreover, one can use this mind to take control over every area of one's life, to live the life one has always wanted.

How does the perfect mind work? Simple. One begins with reality. One takes in sense data from one's eyes, ears, nose, and so on. One's brain automatically integrates this sense data into percepts. Then one integrates these percepts into rational concepts. From here, one integrates concepts into rational ideas. And one integrates rational ideas into abstract principles.

When one reaches the level of abstract principles, one is fully using the perfect mind. To be sure, one keeps all of one's principles attached to directly perceivable things. One also validates one's knowledge using reduction by following one's knowledge down the hierarchical chain to observable reality. If one discovers a contradiction during this stage, one can be pretty sure one has an error in one's thinking. By finding and correcting errors, one can think in all areas of knowledge without limits.

Besides principled thinking, the perfect mind is infinitely creative. This mind operates not only vertically, i.e., up and down the hierarchy of knowledge. It functions horizontally or laterally. Instead of only thinking along traditional paths, the perfect mind steps out of the familiar to explore new and different approaches, perspectives, and concepts. It switches to new perspectives and ideas when appropriate. And it follows the logical conclusion of these new perspectives and ideas.

This mind continuously discovers new perspectives and concepts. Then it uses reason to validate or discard them and build new knowledge without limits. The result of this combination of horizontal and vertical thinking is boundless knowledge. One does not need to worry about running into a dead-end with this mind. By definition, the perfect mind is a process of wide-open thinking.

Since the perfect mind is a process and not a thing, anyone can develop and use it. There are no barriers—monetary, intelligence, or background—that prevent individuals from developing this super mind. All a person needs to do is learn how this mind functions, like a person learns how to read or write. And after some practice, this process of wide-open thinking becomes very rewarding.

The perfect mind is enjoyable to use because it delivers breakthrough knowledge, along with material and spiritual benefits. Spiritual benefits include control over one's destiny, serenity, and happiness. Material benefits include physical well-being and financial prosperity. These benefits are open-ended. And they are available to everyone who develops this mind, from youth through adults.

Intense creativity. What is it? It is high-effort, intentional creativity. Intentional creativity? How can that be? Creativity happens randomly, by accident, or unconsciously, right? Yes, creativity does occur this way. But intense creativity is different.

Intense creativity involves the conscious use of creativity. One is aware of the creative process, and one actively pursues creative solutions and alternatives. The creative thought process comprises lateral thinking, which was first identified by Edward de Bono in the late 1960s. By becoming aware of the creative process and using it to actively pursue creative solutions, one can experience intense creativity.

One takes in sensations from the environment through the five senses. The brain automatically integrates these sensations into percepts. No volition is involved at this stage; hence, no creativity exists here. Next, one integrates percepts into concepts. This requires volition. It also requires a rational method of cognition to make sure one's concepts correspond to reality. This is the where volition enters. One can also apply creativity at this stage.

One still has to follow an objective method of thinking to form valid concepts. But one can apply creativity at this stage to the concepts one forms. For example, everyone forms common concepts such as milk, flower, house, and truck. But one can use creativity to form radically new concepts that ordinary thinking completely overlooks.

One can use analogies to identify new concepts. Or one can identify creative concepts by determining the opposite of existing concepts. Sometimes creative concepts arise from scientific discoveries. Usually creative concepts and ideas arise from a pressing need. Examples of creative concepts include the perfect mind, the perfect body, Advanced Man, the AC System, and the C-of-U System. These new, creative concepts are objectively valid. Yet, traditional thinking could never discover them.

The next stage of cognition consists of integrating concepts into complete thoughts. Creativity applies here, too. Most people integrate concepts into common thoughts such as "the airplane is soaring" or "she is riding the black horse." These are complete thoughts with a subject and predicate. But they are not creative. Now, by using lateral thinking, one can form radically unique and creative thoughts.

For example, one might form the thought "valid government consists of only protecting each citizen's person and property." From this thought flows the idea that government should be in business to provide bodily-and-property protection just as McDonalds is in business to provide fast food. Government should earn its income by protecting individual rights just as McDonalds earns its income by serving food.

Finally, one integrates one's thoughts into principles. Creativity also applies here. Again, most people form common principles such as "gravity causes things to fall toward the earth" or "living organisms require food." These are not very creative. But by using the techniques of lateral thinking, one can form very creative principles such as "the anticivilization kills all human beings" or "all human beings live forever in the Civilization of the Universe." These principles are formed objectively. And as such, they are applicable throughout all time and space.

The difference here is that the former principles arise by following the most obvious paths of thought. The latter principles arise by forging new paths that culminate in new concepts, thoughts, principles, and knowledge.

Certainly, people do use intense creativity during emergencies or when they are desperate. People in such situations are highly motivated to find solutions to their problems. But one does not need to wait until one is in a bind to discover and use intense creativity. One can tap into intense creativity at will, regularly—as much as one wants. How? By practicing lateral thinking: by purposefully moving sideways across one's thought patterns to seek new approaches to things.

The evolution of man's mind went from an objective mode to a subjective mode. Now man's mind is evolving to an objective mode, although this is a much different paradigm compared to primitive man's objective mind.

As prehistoric man's animal mind began developing an oral language, his mind evolved into a bicameral or two-chamber organization (see Neo-Tech III). Man used this mind between 9000 BC and 1000 BC. Bicameral man's reporting of external events was objective. He could not add subjective interpretations to what he observed because he did not yet develop subjective consciousness. Bicameral man lacked an internalized sense of self, time, and space. Distorting reality or prevaricating was not possible for man during this period of primitive objectivity.

After 1000 BC, man evolved into consciousness. The development of a sophisticated alphabet that was capable of producing metaphors and analogies made this possible. Metaphors and analogies enabled man to conceptually see the world, his own person, and his place in the world with ever-increasing clarity. And, for the first time in history, volitional consciousness enabled man to be either objective or subjective.

For example, conscious man uses subjective truths—especially throughout the legal system. What is true for one person may not be true for another person. Using truth opens the floodgates to an endless sea of subjectivity. Furthermore, conscious man developed subjective-based philosophies, religions, politics, and laws that dominate the world. Thus, most of conscious man's world—the anticivilization—is awash in subjectivity. And in such a subjective milieu, some people can get away with murder while others can be murdered for being highly productive.

Now conscious man stands on the brink of a new cognitive paradigm: the perfect mind. That mind is objective, yet it has no connection with the bicameral mind. The perfect mind will overtake the subjective/mystical mind shortly after the turn of the millennium. Certainly, those who develop the perfect mind will retain the introspective sense-of-self characteristics that are inherent in the traditional mind. But this new paradigm of mind uses a method of thinking that is objective and accurate. The perfect mind is a supra-powerful integrator of all knowledge. And it generates knowledge objectively. How? Through reality-based principled thinking.

Today, many people think subjectively. Some gain short-term advantages by manipulating mystical notions and subjective laws. But with the discovery of the perfect mind, individuals will begin dumping the subjective/mystical mode for the objective/mystic-free mode. Armed with the ability to integrate all knowledge accurately and objectively, these individuals will increasingly outthink and outperform everyone that is hampered with the subjective/mystical mind. Competitive pressures will eventually drive everyone into the newly discovered perfect mind.

Two minds exist. One is the traditional mind; the other is the perfect mind. The traditional mind comprises the specialized mind, the mystical mind, and the criminal mind. The perfect mind comprises the business mind, which is an honest integrating mind.

Now, today, at the close of the second millennium AD, two epochal shifts are occurring. The first is the replacement of the traditional mind with the perfect mind. The second is the replacement of the anticivilization with the Civilization of the Universe.

The rise of the perfect mind was made possible by the millennial work of Ayn Rand and her Objectivist philosophy. The rise of the Civilization of the Universe was made possible by the millennial work of Timothy Berners-Lee and his World Wide Web.

The work of those two people will forever alter life on earth. Their work will alter human life more than anyone else's work, including Edison's and Einstein's work. As everyone functions with the perfect mind in a rational civilization, the old power system will fade away and be forgotten forever. Gone will be the days of destroying values and human beings as a route to power and wealth.

To develop this new mind and enter a rational world, one needs to abandon the traditional mind. One needs to dismiss that mind permanently as an aberration of nature. Yes, that mind can only deliver destruction to conscious beings. It does not and cannot deliver abiding values to anyone.

How can one tell if one is dealing with the traditional mind? The following comparison lets one quickly identify the traditional mind in business, love, and life.

By understanding the difference between these two minds, one can easily spot and eliminate the traditional mind from one's life—forever.

What is the link between thinking and survival? Thinking is the process for building knowledge. Knowledge, in turn, is the source for action in the physical world. Valid knowledge is the requisite for actions that lead to survival, prosperity, and happiness. The ability to think, to generate knowledge—and to act on one's knowledge—is crucial for survival—especially in the cyberspace/information age.

Tragically, valid thinking is not taught in the anticivilization. People learn how to read, write, perform math calculations, create artwork, and so on. But they do not learn a valid method of thinking. This is no surprise; in order for the anticivilization and its humanoid rulers to continue existing, accurate thinking must be blocked. The anticivilization has an entire arsenal of tools to do this. That arsenal includes whole-language reading techniques, subjectivist philosophy, force-backed "laws", specious regulations, and compulsory state education.

If a person does want to learn how to think, that person's mind becomes corrupted by the grossly dishonest teachings now permeating colleges and universities. A mind trying to learn how to think receives contradictory teachings like Kant's anti-logic profferings and Hegel's mind-numbing dialectic. Such teachings are not integrated with reality. Thus, these teachings impede one's ability to think rationally.

What can one do? How can one escape the seemingly omnipresent trap of the anticivilization, which stunts everyone's mind? One can replace the old mystical-thinking paradigm with the new mystic-free-thinking paradigm.

The power from this new paradigm comes from sideways thinking and up-and-down thinking. What is sideways thinking? What is up-and-down thinking? Sideways thinking, in essence, is creative thinking. Up-and-down thinking, in essence, is logical thinking. (Reference: Neo-Tech Advantage #112). Both are crucially important. And each comes together to produce the most powerful method of thinking available to conscious beings: wide-scope honest integrated thinking.

Sideways thinking consists of thinking in new directions rather than thinking along traditional paths. Sideways thinking is far-from-equilibrium thinking. Its goal is not to be rational or logical; that is the goal of up-and-down thinking. The goal of sideways thinking is to generate more ideas, new ideas, or better ideas. Such ideas might come from looking at known things in entirely different ways—upside down, reverse, from new angles, and so on.

Sideways thinking might proceed along the traditional path for awhile and then abruptly jump off the path—sideways—to examine something else. It then might turn around and head back down the traditional route in the opposite direction, jump to some new point and wander about. During this process, sideways thinking is likely to gain new views and ideas that would be missed if one adhered to traditional lines of thought.

However, sideways thinking itself is not enough. If one only used sideways thinking, one would drown in a sea of chaos. One then needs to switch into the other mode of thinking to make sense out of one's new findings. That other mode of thinking is up-and-down thinking.

In up-and-down thinking, one evaluates the material provided by sideways thinking. One can then choose the best material and discard the rest. Then one can put it into context and look at its logical implications. This lets one validate or discard one's creative findings.

By using both methods of thinking, one can come up with new and better ideas and anchor them to the rest of human knowledge. Such a creative/logical process is the epitome of dynamic thinking.

The conscious mind of the last three thousand years is, in essence, a non-contextual mind. As such, it operates without the restraint of context, which produces sloppy results—not valid knowledge.

Consider that without context, one can go almost anywhere with one's reasoning and arguing. Without the restraint of context, a person can literally generate an endless array of arbitrary scenarios. That is exactly what happened over the last few millennia.

Without context, a person can assert almost anything while maintaining a facade of objectivity. The non-contextual mentality uses false contexts—i.e., false power—to "win" any argument, defend any case, justify any action...right up to mass theft and murder. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao used false contexts to murder millions in order to gain unearned power, wealth, and personal glory.

Valid knowledge building requires context and hierarchy. That is to say, valid thinking requires that one specify the context one is dealing with and does not drop context or arbitrarily integrate random contexts into one's assertions. Also, valid thinking requires that one adhere to the hierarchical nature of knowledge: more-abstract concepts and ideas are built upon less-abstract concepts and ideas. This is the essence of valid thinking and knowledge.

A person can, without context, assert almost anything by distorting concepts and twisting facts to support one's assertions. Today, as throughout history, lawyers, prosecutors, politicians, theologians, establishment intellectuals, and the media understand this and use it to gain unearned livelihoods and power. Such people garner great power and wealth without producing commensurate values. These people are primarily concerned with sound-good assertions. Their victims sense something is wrong but can not identify what is happening. Thus, external authorities use false contexts with impunity to destroy people ranging from Socrates, to Jesus, to Boethius, to Joan of Arc, to Giordano Bruno, to Algernon Sidney, to Stew Leonard, to Harry Helmsley.

Finally, today, midst the political imprisonment and killing of human beings, the contextual mentality has arisen: the perfect mind. That honest integrating mind takes thinking to the highest level. The perfect mind soars far above all non-contextual mentalities as it generates valid, breathtaking knowledge that is grounded in the facts of reality. In other words, the perfect mind uses accurate contexts and adheres to the hierarchical nature of knowledge. Such a process lets one build competitive knowledge without limits.

What are the implications of the perfect mind? The implications are: (1) the non-contextual mentality will be left in the dust while (2) the perfect mind replaces the traditional mind to deliver boundless prosperity to everyone on earth. With no limits on knowledge building, the perfect mind confronts and honestly solves all problems concerning human life—including energy, technological, transportation, and housing needs.

Most people live and die without ever discovering an area in which they excel. Nearly everyone gives up their childhood dreams of greatness as they grow into adulthood. Such dreams are not only are natural: they are crucially important for one's future. Once people give up their dreams of greatness, they settle for whatever they can get—an okay job, a decent spouse, a livable house, a functional car. Everyone then begins the dying process, slowly at first beginning on the inside. A few decades after giving up their dreams, people begin to die physically. Tragically, most human beings die unfulfilled, never experiencing the crystal-clear world of open-ended growth and excitement.

How can one avert such a tragedy? One avoids the scourge of dying unfulfilled by discovering the genius within. How does one do that? How can a person discover a latent genius inside one's self?

First, one needs to integrate one's child-self and teenage-self with one's adult-self. Such a process consists of working through any emotional pain that is associated with events in one's past. Once a person does this—i.e., purges repressed emotions from one's psyche—one can embrace that brilliant, creative child hiding in the recesses of one's psyche. By offering to protect the vulnerable child-self, one can unite with that loving and creative part of one's psyche. One can also unite with one's teenage-self—a self that might have been filled with shame, guilt, confusion, and hatred. By integrating with one's teenage-self, one will re-experience an incredibly powerful and sexy part of one's self.

After integrating with one's roots, one can develop the conceptual faculty. By doing so—by learning how to do valid, abstract thinking—one will be poised to discover the genius within.

To be sure, discovering one's genius does not involve self-deception. One must be totally honest with self; one cannot afford to mislead or deceive oneself during such a crucial process.

Finally, one can list all the things one likes to do or would like to do. Such a list can be made quickly, without any conscious thought involved. One can let any and all ideas flow freely from one's subconscious onto this list. Then, after one has listed about twenty things in which one is interested, one can consciously choose the things that most appeal to oneself. One can discard all the items that do not profoundly motivate oneself. One can then focus on one or two areas that are the most appealing.

This process will not only reveal where one's prime interests exist; it will reveal where one's genius can be developed. This area might be directly related to what one is currently doing in life. Or, it may have nothing to do with one's present lifestyle. And, this area of potential genius might not have anything to do with what other people think is right for oneself.

Only one's self can really determine where one's genius can be developed. By honestly looking at the totality of one's life experiences and knowledge, one can discover the genius within. One can then create a beautiful life that is filled with riches, romance, and happiness.

Specialization is the conscious mode of the anticivilization. Integration is the conscious mode of the Civilization of the Universe. Criminal-minded leaders in the anticivilization craft societies where jobs and careers are specialized. That is, work and thought are highly delimited within narrow ranges of knowledge. Not much conscious effort is needed to perform specialized jobs. Why do the parasitical-elite leaders specialize everyone? To make sure no one thinks in wide ranges of knowledge, because such a person could quickly identify the leaders' false power. Once people begin identifying the ruling elite's false power, everything will collapse—from communism to socialism to democracy to Plato's Republic to the anticivilization itself.

Human beings are meant to survive through integration, not specialization. The awesome capacity of the human brain is a perfect match for the integration mode. Using the human brain in a narrow, specialized mode is analogous to using a Ferrari F-50 sports car to bring groceries home from the supermarket. It will do this. But it is capable of—and designed for—much more explosive performance than driving around at 35 miles per hour. Functioning in the specialized mode is like driving this sports car at speeds that never exceed 35 miles per hour. Functioning in the integrating mode is like driving this sports car at 200 miles per hour. It is the same car, yet each approach yields a very different experience.

People begin life with curiosity and strive to satisfy their curiosity. This usually culminates in new knowledge. Now, if a person becomes specialized later in life, his range of knowledge gradually shrinks toward zero, which culminates in psychological death, followed by physical death. But, if a person becomes an integrated thinker, his range of knowledge continuously expands toward infinity, which culminates in ever increasing prosperity and fulfillment.

The following table compares specialization and integration.

Numerous authors have written about creativity. Many have came up with interesting and useful methods to increase creativity. Some techniques involve passively waiting for the subconscious to deliver creative solutions. Other techniques involve actively seeking out creative solutions by thinking along different paths.

But the fundamental key to creativity—the aspect that makes all techniques of creativity come to life—is having compelling goals. When one has a compelling goal, a goal that one eagerly wants to achieve, one becomes creative regardless of one's current thinking skills.

Thinking skills do improve one's ability to reason and be creative. Yet, when one picks a goal to achieve that is meaningful to self, one finds oneself coming up with creative ideas. When one works to achieve goals set by other people, one usually is not motivated to come up with creative new breakthroughs. But when one sets one's own non-contradictory, compelling goals, the creative juices begin to flow.

A person feels happy while working on goals that are meaningful to self. Also, a person experiences fulfillment upon completing one's goal. That happiness/fulfillment combination is the fuel that drives one into creative thinking. Normally, when a person acts from other people's goals or one's own uninspiring goals, the person thinks along traditional, known patterns. Such thinking occurs along narrow-range, linear patterns with few if any detours, sidetracks, or new routes. In short, without a burning motivation, many people fall into the path-of-least-resistance thinking rut. This type of thinking feels easier and is more secure. But it keeps one from discovering new possibilities and perhaps more profitable solutions.

With a compelling goal, a person pushes beyond routine vertical thinking. Motivated by the desire to achieve, the person steps out of the known. He "leaps" into new paths and patterns. And while in those new paths, the person explores new possibilities. Such leaping and exploration is called lateral thinking. People who are inspired by self-chosen goals sidestep vertical thinking for a while and use lateral thinking. With lateral thinking, anyone can generate new ideas and perspectives on essentially any subject. The key is being motivated to look beyond the familiar, the known. A compelling goal provides the motivation to do this.

By using lateral thinking, one can come up with many unique, creative ideas. Several of these will not be useful, but a few might be. This is where one employs vertical or logical thinking. One uses logical thinking to determine which if any new ideas are better than the obvious traditional approaches. This combination of using lateral thinking and vertical thinking results in a life free of limits, stagnation, and boredom.

Some people disdain abstract knowledge; they prefer to deal with the directly perceivable. Other people scorn concrete-bound knowledge; they prefer to deal with abstractions that have no logical connection to reality. Both of these approaches are erroneous. There is a better alternative.

That better alternative is reality-based abstract thinking. Such thinking lets one think in all directions of human knowledge for greater understandings and powerful breakthroughs.

Here is how reality-based abstract thinking works. One begins with reality—directly observable facts. One integrates facts of reality using logic to form objective concepts. One then integrates those concepts using logic to form rational thoughts. If one forms each concept and thought rationally, one's abstract knowledge will have a valid base in reality.

Valid, abstract knowledge is crucial for gaining a greater understanding of life and reality. But powerful breakthroughs come not so much through vertical thinking (i.e., rational, logical thinking); they come through a combination of vertical thinking and lateral thinking (i.e., creative thinking).

Most people understand what vertical thinking is. Logical, rational thought is easy for people to understand; they use it to survive. But lateral thinking is very different from vertical thinking. In lateral thinking, one purposely crosses known paths to venture into the unknown. Once in the unknown, one can look around for unique, new ideas. Commercially successful artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs frequently do this, although they may not be explicitly aware of this process.

Once in the unknown, one can gain wildly new perspectives on known situations and ideas. Such new perspectives can yield important breakthroughs and new knowledge. Lateral thinking can open the door to new concepts, ideas, and perspectives. To be sure, lateral thinking does not always yield valuable new ideas. But it keeps one from stagnating in narrow or worn-out patterns of thought and action.

Once one comes up with a new idea from lateral thinking, one can use vertical thinking to check the validity and worth of the idea. By applying reason and logic to one's new idea, one can determine if it is worth using.

A crucial point here is that reason and logic alone will not produce the most powerful, breakthrough knowledge. One needs to use lateral thinking to gain breakthrough ideas and then vertical thinking to verify their worth. Thus, both lateral thinking and vertical thinking are an unbeatable combination to expand one's knowledge, power, productivity, prosperity, well-being, and happiness.

Lateral thinking yields creative insights, while vertical thinking yields abstract knowledge that is grounded in reality. Such thinking always outflanks mystical, pragmatic, and criminal thinking. Reality-based abstract thinking will eventually leave mystical and criminal thinking behind forever.

The most original, creative, valuable ideas come not from one-directional thinking. Such ideas come from multi-directional thinking. This means thinking up and down the hierarchy of knowledge, as well as thinking sideways into the new and unknown. In other words, multi-directional thinking is a combination of vertical thinking and horizontal thinking (see Neo-Tech Advantage #112).

Vertical thinking consists of both induction and deduction—building up knowledge inductively from reality and then deducing particular facts and ideas from one's knowledge. This is crucial in building valid knowledge.

Lateral thinking consists of sidestepping conventional thinking paths to venture off into the unexplored. One mentally steps out of known patterns and explores new, uncharted territory. While there, one can seek new perspectives, concepts, and ideas. Afterwards, one can bring those new ideas into known patterns and use vertical thinking to check their validity and value.

Multi-directional thinking—the combination of lateral and vertical thinking—obviates mental stagnation. It lets one generate knowledge without limits. And that reality-based, limitless knowledge is super power.

The following diagram reveals multi-directional thinking.

Multi-directional thinking employs both creativity and logic in the thought process. One uses creativity to step out of the known to find new ideas. One then uses logic to see if those new ideas are valid and useful. Since multi-directional thinking arises from reality and is non-contradictory, one can generate a limitless array of new knowledge.

Honest integrating minds are bright minds. Stagnating, mystical, and criminal minds are dark minds. The former is a perfect mind; the latter is a traditional mind.

Dark minds wallow in the unreal, the irrational. Such minds operate in an unreal dimension; they disdain logic. As a result, these minds stagnate in closed circles of the millennia-old dynamics of mysticism, sacrifice, and force. People with dark minds are perennially closed off from the light of new knowledge. They live and die in a world of finely crafted illusions designed to avoid honest, productive effort.

But bright minds work with the real, the rational. These minds gladly integrate with reality; they embrace and use logic. As a result, these minds flourish in the wide-open realms of reason, self-interest, and competition. People with bright minds break into the temple of knowledge for unlimited power. They live in a world of crystal-clear reality in which they craft competitive values for self and other people.

An analogy illuminates the difference between these two minds. Imagine walking through the countryside in England during a foggy, rainy evening. Looking into the distance, one can see only faint specks of light from houses and street lamps. Everything else appears as a blackout: no shapes, no life—just static, seemingly endless darkness. Wandering through this environment is like operating with the dark mind: things are vague and there are not many leads to the new, the interesting, and the creative.

Now compare the foggy English countryside to the brilliant, sun-lit islands of Hawaii. Blue skies, clear blue water, white sand, lush vegetation, and exotic architecture provide limitless vistas, creativity, and fun. One captures breathtaking views at every angle and one is at peace with all life. Moving through this environment is like operating with the bright mind: things are perfectly clear and nearly every direction leads to new, creative, fascinating ideas and knowledge.

The following table reveals dark and bright minds throughout history.

An important point here is that anyone at any time can choose to abandon the dark mind—and the inevitable stagnation that comes with it. How? One can continuously exert honest, productive effort. That sweeps one into the bright mind. And once one's mind is illuminated, darkness can never return.

The difference between the traditional mind and the perfect mind is immense. Consider the following analogy: using the traditional mind is like navigating through an unfamiliar building with the lights off. However, using the perfect mind is like navigating through an unfamiliar building with the lights on. Getting where one wants to go is possible in the dark via inefficient and sometimes painful actions. But switch on all the lights and suddenly one's route becomes perfectly clear.

Functioning with the perfect mind is like having all the lights on inside one's head; one knows where one is going and can figure out how to get there. Using this new organization of consciousness, which is reality-based principled thinking, one's life immediately becomes much easier, more fulfilling, and happier.

The traditional mind hinders one's thinking processes because of mysticism, false premises, ideas detached from reality, non-contextual assertions, and other thinking errors. It leaves one unable to consistently deal with reality. Those who live through the traditional mind also die through it. But now this mode of living is unnecessary; the discovery of the perfect mind renders the traditional mind obsolete.

The perfect mind operates without traditional-mind errors. The perfect mind integrates knowledge vertically and horizontally without limits. It is a higher consciousness that lets any individual control reality within the immutable laws of nature for endless prosperity and fulfillment.

The following table illustrates the difference between these two minds.

Lateral thinking comprises creative thinking; vertical thinking comprises logical thinking. In lateral thinking, one crosses known paths—one moves laterally across traditional patterns of thought—for new perspectives, concepts, ideas, and solutions. In vertical thinking, one uses logical reasoning to induce or deduce new knowledge.

An error that people have committed throughout history is the use of only one of these methods of thinking. This is an error because the advancement of knowledge and life requires the use of both lateral and vertical thinking.

Artists typically rely on lateral thinking at the expense of vertical thinking. And mathematicians typically rely on vertical thinking at the expense of lateral thinking. But what happens when a person omits one of these methods of thinking? That person's thoughts are either irrational or closed to new creations.

For instance, look at some of the so-called creative leaders of Europe during the past few centuries. These people have espoused some of the most bizarre, incomprehensible, and contradictory nonsense that ever arose from the human mind. These nonsensical ideas merely baffle the mind; they do nothing else. So, why do they come into existence? How could a mind produce such ludicrous ideas and proffer them as valid?

The answer is that such people go into the realm of chaos, i.e., lateral thinking, to come up with new ideas...but they fail to subject their new ideas to logic and reason. Thus, they never see if their new creations have validity in reality. In short, they move from the lateral thinking stage right into the mass promulgation stage without ever scrutinizing their ideas via vertical thinking. The result, not surprisingly, is absurd ideas that float across the centuries, making their way from the intellectuals to the media to the schools and entertainment and, finally, into citizens' heads.

On the other side of the coin there is the error of ignoring lateral thinking and using only vertical thinking. People who commit this error usually do offer logical ideas. But with the generative element of lateral thinking missing, their assertions are narrow and closed—cut off from open-ended knowledge. In short, this error culminates in highly delimited knowledge.

Like using both the left and the right hemispheres of one's brain, using both lateral and vertical thinking culminates in wide-open, supra-powerful ideas and knowledge. Stagnation vanishes. Closed doors open. And one enters the temple of knowledge: open-ended principled thinking for boundless knowledge and prosperity.

Again, lateral thinking consists of moving across known routes to venture into the unknown. One might discover the unexpected: a new approach to a situation, the missing piece to one's problem, and so on. Vertical thinking consists of moving along a logical chain of thought either inductively or deductively—from known particulars to a valid generalization or from a valid generalization to certain particulars. The key is to combine both methods of thinking for the most powerful results.

Differentiation consists of analyzing various entities and noticing which entities are similar to each other and how they differ from all other entities. Integration consists of uniting those similar entities into a new mental entity, which is a concept.

Concept formation requires both differentiation and integration. A grave error in thinking occurs when a person uses differentiation without integration or vice versa. Linguistic analyst philosophers commit the error of differentiation without integration. Conversely, mystics and theologians commit the error of integration without differentiation.

And here is what happens. People who only use differentiation in their thinking end up seeking out all kinds of details, which culminates in a cumbersome assortment of unintegrated data. Such people become overwhelmed by all this unrelated data as they fail to build it into a mighty structure of knowledge. They never gain the power that comes from integrating their data into new concepts, ideas, and knowledge.

At the other end of the spectrum, people who only use integration in their thinking end up formulating sweeping conclusions that lack valid ties to reality. Such people fail to differentiate individual entities prior to integrating new mental entities. This results in an "anything goes" approach to knowledge building. These people do build, cognitively speaking. But they do not build valid knowledge—they build pseudo knowledge, i.e., error upon errors. Eventually, they cannot go anywhere with their mystical colossus. This is the point where people adopt such assemblages of errors and use force to implement them...or they abandon such assemblages in favor of more plausible ideas.

The English philosopher George Edward Moore (1873-1950) typifies the use of differentiation without integration. He applied differentiation in his thought processes, as revealed in his collection of philosophical essays, books, and lectures. But he never integrated this differentiated material into a systematic structure of knowledge—into a coherent philosophical system.

The Eastern-religion scholar Alan Watts (1915-1973) typifies the use of integration without differentiation. In his lectures, he makes abundant use of integration. He comes to sweeping conclusions in many different areas of life. However, his lack of differentiation—or at least his lack of accurate differentiation—culminates in widely integrated material that lacks a rational basis. Such sweeping assertions sound good but are essentially useless. They do not unite rationally differentiated entities. Thus, those sweeping conclusions arise not from reality, but from mysticism.

Building in the physical world requires that one differentiate the various building materials—concrete blocks, dimensional lumber, plywood, roofing shingles, nails, etc. One can then put these materials together in a logical, organized pattern. The result is a building with structural integrity: a building that endures the test of time while providing benefits to its users.

Building in the mental world requires that one differentiate one's various perceptions. One can then integrate perceptions that share a common denominator. This results in objective concepts—concepts that have a valid link to reality. One can further integrate one's concepts into thoughts via grammar. Lastly, one can integrate one's thoughts into principles by integrating thoughts that share a common denominator. The result of employing both differentiation and integration is knowledge with structural integrity: valid knowledge that endures the test of logic and reason while providing benefits to its users.

Everyone has heard that grammar plays an important role in writing. Schools constantly emphasize the importance of good grammar in writing. However, grammar is primarily a tool for thinking.

Yes, grammar is first and foremost a tool for thinking, not writing. Of course, this contradicts what is taught in the schools. But in reality, grammar is a fundamental tool of cognition. It offers valid guidelines to form complete, logical thoughts. After one has formed complete thoughts, one may wish to communicate such thoughts to others in written form. Certainly, grammar is important in written communication. But one needs to form complete thoughts—thoughts containing at least a subject and a predicate—before one has something of value to communicate to others.

Without coherent thoughts formed by one's own mind, one is reduced to conveying essentially useless information or parroting the thoughts of other people. In a technologically advanced society, one cannot survive as an autonomous human being without doing one's own thinking. In order to be free and then prosper, one has to form one's own thoughts—i.e., think for oneself. Those who do form their own thoughts have something to communicate to others. And if they choose to communicate their thoughts to others, grammar plays an important role. But grammar's essential function is to provide the guidelines that enable one to form complete thoughts.

Language and grammar primarily are tools of cognition. Only after one has used these tools to think—to integrate one's concepts into complete thoughts—does one need these to communicate. In the forthcoming Civilization of the Universe, everyone will be a sovereign individual. Thus, each person will need to think for oneself and act from one's own thinking. Grammar is the crucial tool that enables one to form one's own thoughts.

To sum up the thought process, one receives sensations from one's surroundings. One's brain automatically integrates these sensations into percepts. Then one uses one's mind to volitionally integrate percepts that have common denominators into concepts. At this point—when one's mind has concepts—one uses grammar to volitionally integrate these concepts into complete thoughts. After one's mind has complete thoughts, one volitionally integrates thoughts that have common denominators into principles. Principles are the mind's most highly-leveraged units of knowledge.

An important point here is that one needs to observe the laws of logic—both deductive and inductive logic—during each stage of the thought process. Doing so ensures that one's concepts, thoughts, and principles remain linked to reality. In other words, one uses logic in one's thought processes to make sure one's knowledge is—and remains—grounded in reality. Reality-based principled thinking is the most powerful, open-ended form of cognition available to conscious beings. It is the dynamic that delivers increasing prosperity to individuals and societies in all advanced civilizations.

People see geniuses—superlative scientists, musicians, and thinkers, for example—and marvel at their greatness. People correctly believe that geniuses exert effort that spans many years or decades to develop their talents to a remarkable level. But there is something more to geniuses than one might expect. There is a long chain of events—usually spanning centuries or even millennia—that create the context from which geniuses flourish.

From the widest perspective, geniuses—those who move the world with their creations—need a series of events to be in place before they can blossom into greatness. Once the requisite conditions exist, geniuses can and often do change the course of history.

A genius that lacks the requisite chain of events prior to his life cannot fully actualize his potential. Such a person is considered "too far ahead of his time." Leonardo da Vince (1452-1519) as an inventor, for example, was such a person. He was able to conceive and experiment with air travel in the fifteenth century. However, the requisite chain of events did not yet exist. Thus, da Vince's work on air-travel inventions could never "take off' during his lifetime. Consistent air travel would have to wait for centuries—until the work of Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782), Wilbur Wright (1867-1912), Orville Wright (1871-1948), and other historical figures.

But a genius with the requisite chain of events prior to his life can produce astonishing results. Take, for example, the nineteenth century composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

Prior to the seventeenth century, classical music did not exist. In fact, music before this time was scattered about, lacking any central focus. However, the rise of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) changed that. Bach is the father of classical music: he laid the foundation for and created some of the most beautiful music on earth.

Johann Sebastian Bach made possible Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). Haydn went on to become one of the most prolific composers of all time—producing more than one hundred symphonies, along with beautiful concertos, sonatas, and more.

Franz Joseph Haydn made possible Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). Mozart produced some of the most colorful music of all time. His sonatas, concertos, symphonies, and other works have blessed planet Earth with supremely beautiful music that has lifted spirits for centuries.

Finally, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart made possible Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). Beethoven produced some of the most intensely rapturous music of all time. His music brings listeners through a wide range of emotions: from melancholy to joy to ecstasy. Beethoven earned his greatness as a composer. But without the specific chain of events that preceded him, Beethoven could not have blossomed into the unparalleled composer that he became.

Why would anyone resist developing the perfect mind—a mind that enables one to think clearly in all areas of knowledge? Is it because of the effort involved to learn and use this new way of thinking? Or is it because people tend to resist whatever is new, at least initially? These factors will play a minor role in resisting this new mind. But what is the primary reason why people will resist developing the perfect mind?

Developing the perfect mind is not very hard to do, and it certainly does not require any special talent or skill. Any normal conscious being can do this. Developing the perfect mind is not painful either; nor does it require extraordinary effort. That is because this mind is rational, integrated, and powerful, which are natural conditions for conscious beings.

Any new thing or breakthrough that has value—that makes conscious life easier, happier, and more prosperous—will triumph in the long run. Initial resistance—and hostility—to radically new breakthroughs is commonplace. But if a new discovery is demonstrably superior to what currently exists, it will inexorably permeate society.

What happens upon developing the perfect mind? First, one needs to understand the nature of this mind. It is a mystic-free mind that begins with reality and integrates facts, concepts, and ideas—honestly, logically—into principles. In essence, it consists of principled thinking. And that gives one the highest leverage possible for understanding reality, solving problems, and creating an exquisite life for oneself. Again, why would anyone resist this new mind?

At first, people will declare that such thinking is simplistic. They will say that things are too complicated to understand using a sweeping statement. But this is merely a rationalization to avoid principled thinking. If one keeps one's knowledge grounded in the facts of reality and one integrates objectively, such sweeping statements—i.e., highly condensed principles—are powerful tools to understand and deal with reality.

The fundamental reason why people will initially shun the perfect mind is because they cannot hide from its all-encompassing scope and ruthless objectivity.

As a personal matter, developing such a mind leaves one unequivocally clear about one's ties to earth's anticivilization. Almost immediately after one performs reality-based principled thinking, one's anticivilization investments leap to the forefront of one's consciousness. Since ties to an anticivilization are unnatural and fatal, one cannot rationalize them away...at least not with the perfect mind. At first, such a situation can be difficult to face—especially if one has invested one's entire life in the 3000-year-old world of force and fraud.

Developing the perfect mind can never occur automatically or by osmosis. It has to be developed consciously, like one develops, for example, mathematical skills. And when one does this, one will quickly understand exactly where one's anticivilization ties exist. That revelation will shock some people. Yet, upon grasping the futility of today's world of cleverly manipulated illusions, one will begin to look for a way out. And the perfect mind is the most highly leveraged mechanism for finding one's way out of the anticivilization...and finding one's way into the Civilization of the Universe.

Next — Previous — Contents — Home — Contact