You have the right to dream -- do not forget. There are many possible solutions to one problem and just as many ways of finding the answer. Here are some. Let's start with ratiocination (as opposed to hallucination?). Reasoning -- of which there are some types. A great metaphor for these comes from Masanobu Fukuoka an agricultural pioneer. He likens inductive reasoning to the lowermost of two rock climbers working in tandem.
This one is Dr. Watson to the uppermost -- Sherlock Holmes himself. To deduce is to work from a first (a priori) assumption backward through the details necessary to make it true. Holmes lowers the rope to Watson who painstakingly works his way through the clues the great detective has already noted on his way up. Watson, the sounding board tests Holmes' train of thought for himself -- and they both reach the top -- the solution to the mystery.
Fukuoka -- who advocates working from a great vision back [did Einstein do this?] to find the necessary measures to achieve it -- calls this intuitive reasoning. He says this is tantamount to lowering the rock climber
onto the summit from a helicopter. To be really scientific, you could test all of these styles and see what works best for you!
So you have your senses -- requisite equipment for any investigation. But would you say you have ever had a conclusion come to you in a flash? It happens. Reams of data that don't support the chosen a priori assumption (hypothesis) because they are aberrant -- unexplainable -- may be the very ones pointing us to great discoveries -- the real breakthroughs in science (which Fukuoka describes).
Here are some a priori assumptions that have guided the actions and behaviours of many over the years.
* Humans are the crown of creation. The world was made for us, and we may do with it what we like.
* Humans are disease organisms on the face of earth (Gaia) and we are giving her a fever.
* All things in Nature -- animals, plants, people and spirit exist in a delicate balance. The earth which contains our ancestors is loving and benign toward us.
* Nature has many dangers in store for us, and we must use our science to ensure we survive.
* Everything that can be known can be known through science and the study of our three-dimensional world.
* Some things you can know to be true because you feel them -- such as the existence of love -- but you cannot prove them.
* The government and the economy like death and taxes are certain and cannot be changed.
* The elders will always have authority over the youngers because they have accumulated wisdom and knowledge.
* More.. The day will come when there is peace on earth but we haven't found how to achieve it.
I am saying all these things to show how each and every culture (and religion) has basic assumptions that you may challenge at your own peril. Even science (a religion for some?) has a priori assumptions -- beyond which the evidence of the senses is useless. Aboriginal dreaming and the European status quo are alike because they take events of the past (creation, science) and presence them in the everlasting now. And can they change? Here is the common ground of the the two. The difference is in the details. And the way the senses are used. And the approach to nature..
To me, intuitive reasoning (knowing, believing what is possible before it is done) is the backbone of the creative process. Here is another example, from the field of architecture -- showing backward and forward reasoning working beautifully together. Jorn Utzon who designed the Sydney Opera House was not an engineer. However, after years of working on the problem of the concrete 'sails' (a key -- years of familiarity are necessary to achieve mastery) -- he got the answer in a flash. Use spheres as the mathematical underpinning of the shells' curvature.
And the engineers did the rest.. It worked.
I encourage you to pay attention to those
still small voices deep inside (or do you already).
Once the status quo and the ancestral dreaming are put on the table for investigation, what do we have?
Open slather on the future. A good time for new beginnings methinks. I doubt many solutions will come from a considered approach to the status quo. What we need are breakthroughs -- real acts of unfettered genius.
That's why I enjoy telling people about universal land rights. A real new beginning.. For me the journey was accelerated on reading the Ringing Cedars. I could be Watson to Anastasia's Holmes (although I hope I would not be so slow!).
This is serious -- I envision a new Bill of Rights for Humanity including Land Rights for all as a key item. The Right to Dream could be included..
Check this for a blast from the past --an apocryphal story re the founding of America. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness was supposed to be Life, Liberty and the Right to Land [or property]. Were we ready? Perhaps not. Are we now?
You have the right to dream.
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