Before reading anything, please watch the astounding TED video testimony of a scientist who actually suffered a stroke.  It is riveting.

www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

 

It is important to note that the material below was written long before Roger Sperry and his colleagues performed their famous studies “split-brain” studies 1960s. The results of these studies later led to Roger Sperry being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1981.

From The Urantia Book, P.566 – §1 [49 6 -7]

“The one physical uniformity of mortals is the brain and nervous system; nevertheless, there are three basic organizations of the brain mechanism: the one-, the two-, and the three-brained types. Urantians are of the two-brained type, somewhat more imaginative, adventurous, and philosophical than the one-brained mortals but somewhat less spiritual, ethical, and worshipful than the three-brained orders. These brain differences characterize even the prehuman animal existences.

 

“From the two-hemisphere type of the Urantian cerebral cortex you can, by analogy, grasp something of the one-brained type. The third brain of the three-brained orders is best conceived as an evolvement of your lower or rudimentary form of brain, which is developed to the point where it functions chiefly in control of physical activities, leaving the two superior brains free for higher engagements: one for intellectual functions and the other for the spiritual-counterparting activities of the Thought Adjuster.”

 

BELOW IS AN EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER SIX OF “THE METAVALUES BREAKTHROUGH”

by Larry Mullins

COPYRIGHT 2009 Larry Mullins, St. Augustine, FL

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CHAPTER SIX

MetaThink™ . . . a new Concept of Reality

“The culmination of millions of years of evolution has been the development of the human brain. Not only is the human brain aware of its own existence, but through it the universe has begun to know itself. Our minds have become the spearhead of evolution, and the degree in which we progress depends upon the degree to which we make use of this most incredible product of nature—the degree to which we use our intelligence and our consciousness to the full.”^[i]

PETER RUSSELL

The Brain Book

 

“I split myself into three people. I know what they look like. One speculates, and one criticizes and the third tries to correlate. It usually turns out to be a fight but out of it comes the whole week’s work.”^[ii]

JOHN STEINBECK

Journal of a Novel . . . The East of Eden Letters

 

You were born with the legacy of the most prodigious data processor known to humankind. Unfortunately, you were not given comprehensive training nor even an operator’s manual on how to use it. For this reason, very few people benefit from even a fraction of their brain’s capacity. In fact, even though we rely upon our brains constantly, we have no clue how they work.

If I were to ask you your telephone number, you would respond easily. However, if I were to ask you what looked for that number, where it found the number, and how it delivered that number to your conscious mind, you would be at a loss to answer me. Likewise, we admire people who make their living by creating—by writing, drawing, composing, etc.—yet you might be surprised to learn that creative practitioners really don’t know how they do what they do. This is also true of kinesthetic geniuses––the basketball player who can sink a three-pointer without touching the rim, or the golf pro who makes an incredibly difficult putt on unfavorable terrain. The brain computes the math for athletes on a level beyond consciousness to calculate factors like distance, force, trajectory, etc. and translate them to precise commands for the muscles. Like the great creators, world-class athletes simply show up and cooperate with a process that no one can fully explain.

John Steinbeck declared that he was “split into three people” during the creative process because he sensed he was being engaged in a three-dimensional adventure. Likewise, when you are involved in deep thinking about your life or any major problem or important goal, you may sense that you are also getting information from three sources. In this chapter, I will explain why this is so and how to make this creative process work so effectively that you will astound those who now underestimate you. I will teach you the remarkable technique of MetaThink™, and provide powerful methods to balance the information you receive from the resident “scientist” and “visionary” that are hardwired into your brain.

I call this multidimensional mental process MetaThink because it transcends ordinary thinking. You will be able to understand MetaThink quickly and put it to use immediately in your life. The secret of MetaValues genius is bound up in MetaThink. MetaThink will connect you to inner resources that are beyond your ability to imagine now.

About the time Abraham Maslow was doing his important early work, John F. Kennedy was President of the United States. President Kennedy has often been heralded as a genius, yet he reportedly had an IQ of 119.^[iii] Even so, in the domain of intellect, Kennedy gracefully held sway over the most impressive minds of his day and generation. Just a month before his fateful trip to Dallas in 1963, Kennedy was asked during his final  press conference if he enjoyed being President. He replied that he did and went on to say that the definition of happiness, according to the ancient Greeks, is the “Full use of your powers along the lines of excellence.”^[iv]

In today’s world, the demands on a visionary leader are even greater than they were in the days of John F. Kennedy. For this reason, I suggest expanding the ancient Greek definition to be more in accord with my research into the science of MetaValues: The definition of happiness is the full use of your powers along the lines of Integrity, Caring, and Excellence.

The MetaThink concept will be made crystal clear to you in this chapter. I can write this with confidence because we all have brains that were hardwired to think in three psychic dimensions:

The dimension of fact, or the way things are.

The dimension of value, or the way things ought to be.

The dimension of synthesis, or how best to get from the way things are to the way things ought to be.

Why have you not heard of these three psychic dimensions before? Sadly, because most people are educated by one-dimensional thinkers who train others to be one-dimensional thinkers. Recipients of this one-dimensional education are then compressed into various logic-tight disciplines that inhibit the scope of their thinking. They are thus able to blend comfortably into society and become pure scientists, religious visionaries, or perhaps academics who are dedicated specialists in one particular field. Before I explain in detail how you can overcome this syndrome, I must tell you a story that should be required reading in every university in the world. This allegory illustrates the dangers of restricted, single-dimension thinking. It was written in the nineteenth century by a minister, Reverend Edwin A. Abbott, the headmaster of the City of London School. His strange work has endured for well over a century and is still in print.

 

Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions

Abbot’s novel, Flatland, is narrated by a square, a citizen of a two-dimensional world as flat as a piece of paper. The residents of this land move about freely on its surface, unaware of anything existing above or below them. A third dimension (that of height) is inconceivable to them. The status of the residents of Flatland is determined by the number of sides they have. A triangle has the lowest status, a square is a bit higher, a pentagon yet higher and so on. The highest status of all is that of theChief Circle, who is the high priest of Flatland.

One night the square has an amazing dream. He dreams of a primitive land called Lineland, a land of a single dimension. The residents of this land are all lines or points. The king of Lineland is the longest of these lines. All of these poor creatures understand but one dimension, and moving in any direction other than from side to side is beyond their comprehension.

In this dream, the square elects to tell the king of Lineland about Flatland—his homeland of relatively unlimited potentials. But the king believes the square to be demented. A spirited exchange follows and the square says angrily, “I am a completion of your incomplete self. You are a line, but I am a Line of Lines . . . and even I, though infinitely superior to you, am of little account to the nobles of Flatland.” This is too much for the king and he orders all of his subjects to prepare to attack the mad intruder. Just before the attack is launched, the square is awakened by the sound of the breakfast bell. To his relief, he is back in reality. But the dream seems to be a mysterious precursor to another event that is to take place as the day progresses.

Later that morning, the square is teaching his grandson plane geometry. He explains that the area of a square can be determined by multiplying the measurement of two of its sides. The lad is quite bright and meditates upon this idea. Then he asks: “You have also shown me numbers can be raised to the third power. Does this have any meaning in geometry?” The square patiently explains that a point, by moving to a length of three inches, makes a line of three inches. “This may be represented by a 3,” he says. Then he shows how moving the line of three inches parallel with itself for three inches, a square of three inches is formed with an area of nine inches. “This can be represented by 3 to the second power,” the square tells the boy. Now the grandson becomes very excited. “Well then, what if a square could move parallel to itself somehow? I can’t imagine this, but if it could, would it form something that represented 3 to the third power?”

The square seems to have learned nothing from his dream; he is quite intolerant of the boy’s ideas. He becomes quite annoyed at the boy’s absurd speculation and finally retorts, “If you would talk less nonsense, you would remember more sense. Go to bed!”

As the day wears on, however, the square cannot get the notions of the young lad out of his mind. Suddenly he exclaims aloud, “The boy is a fool!” And then something most remarkable takes place. The square has a visitation. A voice seems to come from nowhere in particular, saying, “The boy is no fool. Three to the third power has an obvious place in geometry!” The voice says that he is a visitor from Spaceland, a land of three dimensions. Just as the square had called himself a “line of lines” when talking to the residents of Lineland, the visitor claims to be a “Circle of Circles” —a sphere.

Yet, the square does not see a sphere. He sees but a strange circle that grows larger and larger and then begins to diminish in size again. The sphere explains that this is caused because he is entering Flatland from above, and as he “passes through” the plane, the sphere appears as a circle that seems to change in size. But the square finds this idea bizarre and can understand nothing of what is happening. At this point, the sphere decides to give the square a transcendental experience. He causes the square to enter the third dimension. The square is overwhelmed by what he sees. “Either this is madness, or it is hell!” the square exclaims. “It is neither,” says the sphere. “It is knowledge. It is three dimensions. Open your eye once again and try to look steadily.”

The square now becomes emotional. He is so exhilarated by this totally new reality that he begins to imagine that there may be even more “spacious space, some more dimensional dimensionality.” There may be a land of four, five, or six dimensions, the square speculates. But these ideas annoy the sphere. “I showed you the ultimate reality. There is no land beyond this, no greater dimension. The very idea is inconceivable,” the sphere grumbles. But the square will not be dissuaded. He continues to insist with such energy that the infuriated sphere hurls him back into Flatland.

The square now sees a glorious future before him in which he can tour Flatland and tell everyone what he has seen with his own eye. He begins to proclaim the great Gospel of Three Dimensions (as best he is able, because he can no longer remember exactly what he has seen). The enlightened square attracts the notice of the authorities who eventually arrest him and bring him to trial. The square is sent to a benevolent retention center that is much like a modern mental ward.

Each year theChief Circlevisits the square. Inevitably, the square cannot resist trying once more to convince theChief Circleof what he had seen. The circle always reacts in the same way. He turns away sadly and leaves the mad square alone with his bizarre dreams.

 

An Endless Series of “Flatlands”

The history of humankind could be measured as a series of self-created flatlands of limitation. Europe was long encased in a flatland of fear untilColumbusventured into the unknown and broke the spell. Galileo andNewtoneach pushed the frontier yet farther—challenging the imaginations of those who sought to preserve the status quo. Then Einstein ventured beyond the stars—and envisioned a cosmos unbounded by Newton’s mechanisms, only to be followed by a host of quantum physics scientists who peered into the world of the infinitely small and discovered yet another unfathomable frontier that appears to defy some of Einstein’s paradigms of time and space.

Likewise, daring visionaries, artists, poets, and philosophers have challenged the boundaries of their day and generation and sought to inspire the human mind to new, higher levels of creative discovery. Just as in the allegory of Flatland, the greatest of these innovators have too often been treated with varying degrees of scorn and doubt by those who were invested in the current boundaries of thought. Perhaps the most tragic examples of the Flatland mindset are the billions of prisons of self-limitation and inner conflict that humankind imposes upon itself. Indeed, it would have been immeasurably helpful if we were given an owner’s manual along with our brains. If we were, it would be much easier to use them to fuller capacity. What might such a manual reveal to us about the brain’s hardwiring?

 

Your Two Brains

If you had been given an owner’s manual for your brain, the first thing it would reveal to you is that you actually have two brains. Each brain has its own consciousness and its own perspective of reality. These two hemispheres are connected by a tissue complex containing countless networks of nerves that transmit information between the two brains. The best evidence that the two brains have separate consciousness is the fact that doctors have surgically removed the entire right brain while a patient is fully conscious, talking to the doctor, and unaware of any difference. (Since the brain feels no pain, these operations can be performed while the patient is conscious.) On the other hand, when a left brain has been surgically removed for medical reasons, patients have lost their ability to speak. They remained conscious, thinking people. Their personalities remained virtually intact, although they were unable to communicate verbally.

How do people retain a sense of their own identity after an operation that removes so much of their dual-brain? Where does consciousness reside? Perhaps the real question is: “Where does our consciousness of consciousness reside?” All forms of life seem to have some degree of consciousness. But, as far as we can tell, only humans are aware that they are aware. For example, a horse in a stable knows that he is very cold on a bitter winter night. But he does not know that he knows that he is cold. Our ability to be conscious of ourselves as perceivers seems to be part of the software of the human brain. This software exists independently of the brain, yet—apparently at least—it cannot function without it. Viktor Frankl wrote about this transcendent sense of identity. He called it the irreducible essence of self. We can’t define this essence, or even contemplate it, because the observer cannot be the thing observed. Frankl believed this essence is a key spiritual component of a human being.

The disciplines of science ask, and strive to answer in various ways, questions about what is (material reality). Religious visionaries ideally would seek to ask and answer questions about what ought to be. And philosophers should properly ask and answer questions about the methods to get from what is (material reality) to what ought to be (a vision of a better reality). We are learning now that science, religion and philosophy need each other. They work with maximum effectiveness when they are able to access and relate to information from each other. This notion can best be understood through allegory. Imagine two geniuses standing in front of you. Each is a master of his particular discipline. Each of these brilliant experts carries a map of the Earth. You can see that the two maps are different. “My map is reality!” shouts one. “My map is reality!” shouts the other.

The first gentleman steps forward. “Look! Here are all of the political boundaries of the world, all of the countries, the cities, the populations, the roads. This is what you need to understand the world!” “Nonsense!” shouts the second. “My map shows the topographical features of the Earth, all of the rivers, the mountains, valleys, forests, and elevations. This is the reality of the planet!” Then, a third expert, a philosopher appears. She has copies of both maps on sheets of acetate. She lays them, one upon the other, and puts them before the two men. “This is a synthesis of your ideas, but even this is nowhere near a model of the reality of the world. You should never crystallize your perceptions of reality. Several billion years from now, humankind will begin to grasp not only what reality is, but what it means. From the perspective of the human mind, truth is the emerging, evolving reality which we must experience and constantly redefine as we strive to move from what is to what ought to be.”

But one of the geniuses retorts, “How can you presume to know what ought to be?”

“What ought to be is the ultimate expression of the highest MetaValue of all: Love, the philosopher replies. “Love is the synthesis of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. Love as the desire to do good to others. Such love is a living expression of evolving reality. This presents the true thinker with new challenges when deciding a course of action: Will this contemplated action work toward the greatest good for all concerned?”

Unfortunately, the world’s leaders have too often failed to listen to their MetaThinkers. In fact, those with a great deal invested in the status quo have even put MetaThinkers to death. But more and more people, especially the youth, are beginning to understand the deeper realities and significance of Values. MetaValues transcend the confines of materialistic science. The necessary renaissance of consciousness will never be achieved within the segmented, logic-tight disciplines of science, nor of those of formal theology. The best of each discipline is needed, fully synthesized by MetaValue insights. The application of classic scientific methods alone has too often proven to be inadequate to solve modern problems.

“The eye of the material mind perceives a world of factual knowledge; the eye of the spiritualized intellect discerns a world of true values. These two views, synchronized and harmonized, reveal the world of reality, wherein wisdom interprets the phenomena of the universe in terms of progressive personal experience.”^[v]

 

Our Advisors: The Scientist, the Visionary, and the Philosopher

The human brain seems to have been designed for MetaThinking . The left hemisphere of the brain is generally acknowledged as the seat of logical, pragmatic, fact-oriented thinking. It is

 

very time-conscious, the word-thinking center of our speech, and can be a wonderful servant in determining what is. The right hemisphere is the seat of creative thinking. It is intuitive, conceptual, and unbound by time. For these reasons, we might say that the left brain is our resident scientist and the right brain is our resident visionary.

The two points of view, the scientific and the visionary, are synthesized by the passage of billions of messages back and forth each second between the two hemispheres. We (that is, the essence of inner identity) might be considered to be the resident philosopher, and our task is to oversee this synthesizing process. We can thus determine or define the meaning of what our “two brains” perceive. Here is another way of saying all of this: the left hemisphere gathers information and provides the material fact of what is and the right hemisphere conceptualizes a vision of what could be. There is obviously a gap between what is and what ought to be, and we evaluate the meaning of this gap by synthesizing the two perspectives. Ideally, we should then strive to take action and close this gap.

It is upon the vast loom that exists between what is and what should be that we weave our destiny, with threads of thought and action. And, it is in this realm of moral choice where our human will can assert its relative creative freedom.

Most modern specialists can be likened to Flatlanders when they see things in one dimension. Perhaps they are materialists who can only think in terms of material reality—what is. Or they may be dreamers, who can only think in terms of what ought to be, and who are not grounded in reality. Or, worst of all, they may be stuck in the dead center of indecision. Many people simply can’t make up their minds.

The MetaThinker transcends the compartments between the essential disciplines. Traditionally, the materialist took pride in power, and the poet reminded him to temper power with compassion. But now things happen too fast. The voice of the poet and the visionary are sometimes ignored. What the world needs now are leaders who are MetaThinkers.

 

 

However, though MetaThink is a necessary element to a safe, progressive world, it is not the whole answer. With information coming from two brains, how can we be certain we are making the right decision? No wonder Steinbeck likened his creative work to a fight. Even if we complete our decision by acting it out, how can we be assured we are doing the right thing?

 

 

 

The Shortest Route and the Fastest Path

We must return once more to Buckminster Fuller for the most powerful formula for right action: “Convert all experience to the highest advantage of others.” This is a daring, almost counterintuitive concept. Yet Fuller declared that when he committed to making it his purpose to serve others by helping abet their “inclusion” into the “design of the universe,” his life altered beyond recognition. He said he “chickened” many times, and when he did, everything went wrong. Only when he returned to his commitment did things begin to work again.

It took me years to understand the depth of Fuller’s statement. He was saying that when he worked toward helping others achieve harmony with the plan of the universe, things fell into place for him. The universe seemed to rush to his assistance. But when he deviated from his focus on unselfish service, he became out of sync with the plan of the universe and things began to go wrong. Unselfish service reaches the highest levels of power and effectiveness when it results in the actualization of something good, beautiful, and true. Some rare individuals who may have never heard of MetaValues strive to do this intuitively. For most of us, this path requires a great deal of conscious effort.

It is reasonable to assert that we live in a materialistic world too often dominated by left-brain thinkers. In most individuals, the left brain, being the seat of language, easily dominates the right. IQ tests were traditionally weighted toward the ability to demonstrate skill in understanding and using language. You may have noted that word-experts tell us what to think, what movies and plays to attend, and what books to read. Word-people even tell us which works of art are of importance and which are not. Too often, the general public passively accepts aggressive word-people as authorities. MetaThink insists we think for ourselves, that we challenge the broad assumptions of both those who presume to tell us the way things are and those who fancy that they know the way things ought to be. Recall Buckminster Fuller’s breakthrough was set into motion when he decided to start thinking for himself. MetaThink is based upon the premise that MetaValues provide an inner compass that points toward right action and, once you are in motion, keeps the wheels from falling off.

So, exactly what is the practical application for MetaThink? How can you put MetaThink to work for you this very day and begin to revolutionize your life? First, understand the three cardinal principles of applying MetaThink:

The work is important, the self is not. Of all the pitfalls in personal growth, the most tempting and dangerous is pride. Personal ego is like a clerk residing in the conscious realm of the mind. If the clerk is not humble and willing to acknowledge that the immense spectrum of mental activities that takes place is beyond the scope of his consciousness, trouble ensues. The ego begins to take credit for everything. The clerk begins to imagine that he is running the entire enterprise. In fact, his greatest power is his ability to allow the process or shut it off. Every professional athlete or artist knows that if the conscious mind begins to take over and attempts to direct things, the three-pointer hits the rim and the piano concerto loses its nuanced depth and richness.

When you synthesize and harmonize both sides of your brain’s output, you more fully employ the enormous powers of the mind. You thus tap into resources of remarkable magnitude. Yet, just as you have no idea how you bring your phone number into the field of consciousness, you will never have much conscious understanding of how MetaThink works. Very little of the mind’s work is conscious. The most important conscious acts you will participate in are the choices you will make. Without your consent, nothing happens. But once you choose to flick the switch, you are connected to an immense network that will serve you with elegance and precision. All you need do is show up and push the right button.

Much the same thing happens when you power up your computer. Until you push the power button, it is simply a big box of cold possibilities. But once you give consent and act on your decision to use your computer and log on to the Internet, it comes to life. Thousands, perhaps millions of gigabytes of information are at your fingertips. You are suddenly connected to virtually any spot on the planet. If you are able to install and master the right software, you can make wonderful graphics that would have taken a professional illustrator days and even weeks to complete a few decades ago. Yet, think about it: although you have mastered the technique of pushing the right buttons, do you really know what is taking place? Can you really take credit for much more than knowing what buttons to push? And, if the buttons fail to work, do you know how to fix the computer? Avoid the pitfalls of pride and self-aggrandizement by remembering this mantra: The work is important, the self is not.

Maintain the vision of what you want, that which ought to be. You have heard of the importance of vision before. However, in the left-brain world in which we live, very few people understand the life-altering significance of maintaining a vision. The operative word is maintaining. It is not enough to have a splendid vision. Usually, once the work begins, the vision is the first thing lost and the left brain takes over. Our conscious mind becomes mired in concern about obstacles and fear of failure.

Walt Disney achieved the creative successes he did because he understood this principle. Michael Vance tells us that Disney always used six humans and one accountant on every creative team. By this, Vance meant that Disney used six right-brain visionaries and one materially-grounded left-brainer. He understood that very few people are able to MetaThink—to integrate an inspiring vision with practical realities—and create a master plan. Disney also knew that, although the appropriate amount of left-brain practical insight will help keep the project financially and materially on track, a little practicality goes a long way. Left brainers tend to aggressively dominate teams, and they must be outnumbered or the team effort may grind to a halt. John F. Kennedy defined the exquisite tension between materialistic thinking and visionary insight in this way:

“When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.” ^[vi]

Most of us fail to achieve our dreams because we let our left brains sabotage our efforts with thoughts of fear and admonitions toward safety. Growth choices cannot be made and carried out if we are too self-concerned and dominated by fear. At the first sign of discomfort or danger, we will run back to our comfort zone. Once fear takes over the result is an abrupt disconnect. The network goes down and the circuits go dark. Hence, our second requisite for MetaThink: Maintain the vision of what you want, that which ought to be. You must believe in your vision, you must have faith in its promise. You must be armed against the Jonah Complex by means of an impregnable self-respect.

Measure all of your ought-to-be’s with the benchmark of MetaValues—Truth, Beauty, and Goodness actionized as Integrity, Excellence, and Caring. The triumph of the human spirit is assured—beyond all doubt and in spite of any apparent circumstances—when it wills its own wholehearted, unconditional commitment to be personally guided and actualized by the MetaValues of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. We can, in the manner of Flatland, see this statement on one level as a mere platitude. Or, we can imagine the implications of it on higher levels of reality. If we really believed these words to be ultimately true, how would we act? What would we do this very day? How could we be afraid? The “still, small voice” within will not give us peace until we begin moving in the direction of our dreams—regardless of how vague and undefined these dreams may be at this moment. Your role in this process is simply to show up, turn on the power, and follow your inner, intuitive directions.

TAKING ACTION

Our action-objective is to start the conscious cultivation of your creative power in new and positive ways. Creativity is the key to freedom and self-actualization. Maslow conjectured that when we discuss creativity and self-actualization, we may be talking about the same thing. The Self-Actualizer deliberately consults the resident visionary (the right brain) more often and more robustly than the non-actualizer. The Self-Actualizer acts upon the advice of the resident visionary with greater confidence and focus. Self-actualization itself may simply be the capturing of an ought-to-be vision and the relentless devotion to its fruition.

 Begin to capture the visions of your right brain. Set aside time––perhaps a half hour––every day to spend with your muse, your resident visionary. She is always anxious to provide good ideas, and occasionally great visions. We are usually too busy, too occupied with problems and concerns to listen. During this half hour, you are stepping into the “eye of the hurricane,” where there is always total calm. Surely no one has ever been confronted with greater burdens than George Washington during the dark days of the Revolutionary War. He would give orders that he was not to be disturbed at certain times and this is when he renewed his inner strength. Set aside a half hour tomorrow to begin the process of consulting with your resident visionary. During this period, strive to think in pictures, not words.

Capture these creative ideas by commanding your left brain to record them in writing. Carry a small notebook and record creative ideas when they come through at odd times during the day. Cultivate this new partnership with your resident visionary. Genuine “eurekas” are rare and could come at any time. When they do, you just won the lottery. Those ought-to-be’s have tremendous power. They preexist somewhere, waiting to be discovered and actualized by a human mind. An individual’s single most important lifetime decision is the choice of what primary idea will use him. Somewhere out there is a significant ought-to-be with your name on it. Your MetaValues breakthrough will be set into motion when you yield to it. Harry Emerson Fosdick, who was the renowned minister of New York’s Riverside Church for decades, wrote of such ought-to-be’s, “ . . . the greatest hour in a man’s life is when he turns the corner of a street and turns into a new idea. That is certainly the greatest hour of many a youth’s life, especially if, as the youth faces that idea or cause, there rises in him the invincible conviction that he belongs to it.”^[vii]

Make no mistake: we are all being used by ideas all the time. For too many of us these ideas are limiting beliefs that someone else made up, notions we have assumed were true and we have adopted. For the fortunate few, the Buckminster Fullers and the Marva Collinses, the ideas that used them were ought-to-be’s upon which their names were emblazoned. Remember that your supreme ought-to-be needs you as much as you need it. Even the most wonderful concept has no temporal power until it finds a human channel to manifest it. Until then, it is but a potential. But your great vision will simply fade into oblivion if you do not act upon it. The first step is to record it. Then begin to embellish it.

The Next-Step Strategy. Most people suffer from what I call the Drift Delusion. They are as yet without their marvelous, vivid dream of something that ought to be. Perhaps you also believe that, one glorious morning, God will whisper your momentous task into your ear. And perhaps this will happen. But in the meantime, what are you becoming? Will you be ready when this realization takes place? What are you to do in the meantime? As Robert H. Schuller ofCalifornia’s Crystal Cathedral once pointed out, even God cannot steer a parked car. Surely, there must be a way to fill this very unforgiving minute with meaning and purpose. Surely, there is a way to move in the general direction of our dreams—even when we cannot see the ultimate destination. Indeed, there is.

“Trust only movement,” declared Alfred Adler. He knew that the attitude of holding back and avoiding commitment prevents you from interacting with the very dynamics that are necessary to help you discover your dream. The Drift Delusion is the strategy of procrastination and ease-seeking. It is the fatal error of believing you can keep your talent, enthusiasm, and wholehearted commitment on hold until you discover what it is you really want to do. This idea is the opium of mediocrity. The antidote for the Drift Delusion is the Next-Step Strategy. It is based upon this premise: although few of us can articulate the ultimate vision or purpose for our lives, we all know what our next step should be.

Your next step is the thing you think about now and then but have failed to act upon. It may be a modest step, such as cleaning that workroom and beginning in earnest to prepare for your new career as a writer. It may be signing up to take those classes you keep thinking about. Or making that contact you fear may reject you. The important thing is movement in the direction of your dreams. However slight, this movement awakens forces around you that are poised and anxious to aid you. The Next-Step Strategy isn’t something you do once and forget. You must use it daily. You must develop the habit of confronting your fears and taking action each day.

Do the process of capturing ideas, embellishing them, and planning next steps for several days before going on to chapter seven. Then we will take the visualization process to another level. Having a magnificent data processor––the human brain––and knowing something about how it works is important, but not enough. The Internet exponentially multiplied the power of the computer. The MetaValues connection achieves even more for the mind if we acquire the right visualization software, install it, and learn to master it. In our next chapter, you will learn about the software that world-class performers employ and how to obtain it and put it to work in your life.