Expanding possibilities

"Janusian thinking" , named after a Roman god with two faces, each looking in opposite directions, is the ability to simultaneously imagine or hold in mind two opposite or contradictory ideas, concepts or images. Geniuses including Einstein, Mozart, Edison, van Gogh, Pasteur, Joseph Conrad and Picasso all used this ability to arrive at original insights.

Neils Bohr developed the principle of complementality which states that an object can have several (apparently) contradictory properties, light, for example, being both a wave and a particle. Bohr believed that holding opposite ideas together in mind suspends thought, allowing a new point of view to emerge from an intelligence beyond thought.

2-pointing geniuses?

This sounds a lot like an application of the two-point of Matrix Energetics. Since it is often our minds that limit us, it may well be an application many of us could usefully practise.

It is also a practise recommended by sages. One of the clearest spiritual teachers I know of is Adyashanti. Adyshanti sometimes points out when he is contradicting himself and advices us to get used to it.

That’s good advice. Research suggests that apparent consistency is maintained by our dominant and dysfunctional left brains - even if they have to make up stories (i.e. tell lies) in order to maintain that apparent consistency. Consistency then, comes at a high price - truth and limitation. If we don’t tolerate ambiguity, opposites and paradoxes, we confine ourselves to the sterile, limited and unreal world of our left brains.

Changing our own minds, not other people’s

Another advantage of being able to hold opposite ideas in mind is that we can discuss ideas openly and honestly, paying attention to the views of others without trying to change their minds. This allows us to have creative converstaions. Such conversations, enjoyed by Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Socrates and others, are believed to have contributed to some of the major breakthoughs in our understanding of the way the world works.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 1:05 pm 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.