Stepping Into Possibility Thinking

Our thoughts really belong to the collectiveor contradictory information reaches a critical
consciousness of the world in all of time.mass do we acknowledge it.
Our individual minds process the cumulativeThis resistance to fresh insight is common to
database recorded on the physical and subtleeveryone regardless of culture, background,
levels and devise interesting combinations, uniqueintelligence, and educational level.
interpretations, and random permutations. WhenYet confronting resistance is another force, an
this assemblage of information is startling enough,irresistible compulsion to overcome stasis and
we hail it as an expression of genius.discover anew. Consequently, what happens is
The pattern of human thinking is designed to holdthat people and societies do change, but slowly,
homeostatic belief systems. This has greatvery slowly, because the dynamism of new
survival value for establishing consensus reality.paradigms are always slowed down by the drag
Our minds love to believe that our particularof old paradigms.
interpretation of events is true. And, if othersTo transcend the built-in limitations of our minds
disagree with us, it only convinces us that ourto resist fresh ideas is an act of will. We must
experience of the world is the authentic one.choose to question the nature of our beliefs. We
We establish the dominance of our world-viewmust choose to be interested in other
through selective filtering patterns. This is whyperspectives.
every fresh interpretation of knowledge, everyWhen we surrender our view that we know
invention, every innovation is met with violentsomething, when we are willing to entertain the
opposition.discomfort of an alternative answer, and when
In fact, given the remarkable gravitational pull ofwe prefer curiosity to pride, we step into the
any established view, it's almost miraculous whenrealm of possibility thinking.
a new paradigm claws its way out of the slime ofPossibility thinking is a heroic act because it allows
resistance into the clear light of acceptance.the future to break from the past. It allows for a
Homeostasis is maintained through two factors:flow of new probabilities and outcomes.
pride and denial. We use the emotion of pride toOur future depends on those who dare to think
defend a cherished position and we use thebeyond the confines of orthodoxy.
mechanism of denial to suppress anything thatPossibility thinking is the child of evolution.
contradicts our position. Only when the opposing