Expanding possibilities

Expanded possibilities depend on our ability to create and perceive opportunities. Since the outside reflects the inside, expanded possibilities also depend on our ability to perceive what, in us, needs changing, and to effect those changes.

Most of us perceive some opportunities and some of the obvious things that need changing. To go further and to help others go further, we may need to go deeper inside, expand or refine our perceptions, and develop the ability to notice more subtle information and clues.

To receive more subtle information we need to develop our subtle senses. I use the plural here deliberately - it is much more reliable to obtain and cross reference information from several sources than to rely on one source or sense. When we rely on just one sense, it is all too easy to be misled.

Hence, we need new, subtle senses (or to re-awaken and start using old, neglected ones).

Developing new senses

One thing that encourages me to believe it is possible for anyone to do this is the way our brains support such changes.

"Implicit in Bach-y-Rita’s work is the idea that we are all born with a far more adaptable, all-purpose, opportunistic brain than we have understood". Norman Doidge, The brain that changes itself.

Part of our brain’s adaptability is that any part of our neo cortex appears to be able to receive input from any sense, and will learn to make sense of that information with reference to input simultaneously received from other senses.

That suggests that all we have to do to develop a ‘new’ sense is pay attention in a new way so that our brains get and learn from new input. After a while our brains will detect and anticipate patterns, so that, from the fog of new information, we start to notice what is unexpected, which is often the information that is most useful to us.

An ounce of practise is, of course, worth a ton of theory and, the more I practise/pay attention, the more I notice. I also find that I am ‘given’ one manageable sized piece at a time. Nature is wonderful, but our brains can also support our progress in destructive processes (like developing addictions and compulsions) so it is up to us to use and develop our brains wisely.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at 10:51 am and is filed under co-creation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.