the patient’s arm to fly up. When he asked what had happened, the patient would say, “My arm moved.” Then Penfield would ask the patient to raise an arm. When he asked what happened, the patient would say, “I moved my arm.” In this simple direct way, Penfield showed something that everyone is aware of instinctively. There’s a huge difference between having your arm move and moving it yourself. The difference lays bare the mysterious gap between mind and brain. Wanting to move your arm is an action of the mind; involuntary movement is an action triggered in the brain—they are not the same.
The distinction may sound finicky, but in the end it will be hugely important. For now, just remember that you are not your brain. The mind that gives orders to the brain is the only true creator, just as Mozart is the true creator of the music played on a radio. Instead of passively accepting anything in the world “out there,” first claim your role as creator, which is active. Here is the true beginning of learning to make reality.
Creativity is based on making things new. Pablo Picasso often placed two eyes on the same side of a face, which bears no resemblance to nature (unless we are talking about flatfish like flounders and halibut, whose tiny fry are born with eyes on either side of their heads, only to have both eyes migrate to one side as they mature). Some people would accuse Picasso of making a mistake. There’s a joke about a first-grade teacher taking her class to a modern art museum. Standing in front of an abstract painting, she says, “That’s supposed to be a horse.” From the back of the group a little boy pipes up, “Then why isn’t it?”
But abstract painting makes “mistakes” in order to create something new. Picasso is seeing the human face in a new way. Because perception is endlessly adaptable, if you give Picasso a chance, you allow your own seeing to be distorted, compared to the ordinary way of looking at faces. A disturbed emotion arises, and all at once,you may laugh or tremble nervously or find his abstract style beautiful. The new way excites you; you become part of it. The brain is designed to allow everyone to make things new. If the brain were a computer, it would store information, sort it in different ways, and make lightning-fast calculations.
Creativity goes beyond that. It turns the raw material of life into an entirely new picture, one never seen before. If you have Hamburger Helper for dinner five nights in a row, you can get bored, complain, and wonder why life doesn’t change. Or you can make something new. Right now you are assembling your world like a jigsaw puzzle in which every piece is under your control.
MAKING IT NEW
HOW TO TRANSFORM YOUR PERCEPTIONS
Take responsibility for your own experience.
Be skeptical of fixed reactions, both yours and anyone else’s.
Confront old conditioning. It leads to unconscious behavior.
Be aware of your emotions and where they come from.
Examine your core beliefs. Hold them up to the light, and discard beliefs that make you stuck.
Ask yourself what part of reality you are rejecting. Freely consult the viewpoint of the people around you. Respect what they see in the situation.
Practice empathy so that you can experience the world through someone else’s eyes.
These points all center on self-awareness. When you do anything—eat breakfast, make love, think about the universe, write a pop song—your mind can be in only one of three states: unconscious, aware, and self-aware. When you are unconscious, yourmind is passively receiving the constant stream of input from the outside world, with minimal reactions and no creativity. When you are aware, you pay attention to this stream of input. You select, decide, sort, process, and so on, making choices about what to accept and what to reject. When you are self-aware, you loop back on what you are doing, asking How is this for me? At any given moment, all three states coexist. We have
The distinction may sound finicky, but in the end it will be hugely important. For now, just remember that you are not your brain. The mind that gives orders to the brain is the only true creator, just as Mozart is the true creator of the music played on a radio. Instead of passively accepting anything in the world “out there,” first claim your role as creator, which is active. Here is the true beginning of learning to make reality.
Creativity is based on making things new. Pablo Picasso often placed two eyes on the same side of a face, which bears no resemblance to nature (unless we are talking about flatfish like flounders and halibut, whose tiny fry are born with eyes on either side of their heads, only to have both eyes migrate to one side as they mature). Some people would accuse Picasso of making a mistake. There’s a joke about a first-grade teacher taking her class to a modern art museum. Standing in front of an abstract painting, she says, “That’s supposed to be a horse.” From the back of the group a little boy pipes up, “Then why isn’t it?”
But abstract painting makes “mistakes” in order to create something new. Picasso is seeing the human face in a new way. Because perception is endlessly adaptable, if you give Picasso a chance, you allow your own seeing to be distorted, compared to the ordinary way of looking at faces. A disturbed emotion arises, and all at once,you may laugh or tremble nervously or find his abstract style beautiful. The new way excites you; you become part of it. The brain is designed to allow everyone to make things new. If the brain were a computer, it would store information, sort it in different ways, and make lightning-fast calculations.
Creativity goes beyond that. It turns the raw material of life into an entirely new picture, one never seen before. If you have Hamburger Helper for dinner five nights in a row, you can get bored, complain, and wonder why life doesn’t change. Or you can make something new. Right now you are assembling your world like a jigsaw puzzle in which every piece is under your control.
MAKING IT NEW
HOW TO TRANSFORM YOUR PERCEPTIONS
Take responsibility for your own experience.
Be skeptical of fixed reactions, both yours and anyone else’s.
Confront old conditioning. It leads to unconscious behavior.
Be aware of your emotions and where they come from.
Examine your core beliefs. Hold them up to the light, and discard beliefs that make you stuck.
Ask yourself what part of reality you are rejecting. Freely consult the viewpoint of the people around you. Respect what they see in the situation.
Practice empathy so that you can experience the world through someone else’s eyes.
These points all center on self-awareness. When you do anything—eat breakfast, make love, think about the universe, write a pop song—your mind can be in only one of three states: unconscious, aware, and self-aware. When you are unconscious, yourmind is passively receiving the constant stream of input from the outside world, with minimal reactions and no creativity. When you are aware, you pay attention to this stream of input. You select, decide, sort, process, and so on, making choices about what to accept and what to reject. When you are self-aware, you loop back on what you are doing, asking How is this for me? At any given moment, all three states coexist. We have
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