 Unconscious Inventing
A RECENT article in Science magazine told of how the inventor Kurzweil uses his unconscious mind to solve tricky problems. Every evening before bed, Kurzweil chooses a troublesome problem - it could be a business question, a tricky technical puzzle, or even a relationship issue. He firstly outlines the general ‘shape’ of a possible solution - what it might look like and the general characteristics. Then, lying in bed, Kurzweil begins to fantasize about it, sometimes imagining that he's giving a presentation about how he solved the problem. He drifts off to sleep while doing this. In the morning, he begins thinking about the problem again as soon as he is aware he is awake. Often, the solution will have come to him in a dream. This sounds pretty tricky, until you look at the similarities to hypnosis. In hypnosis speak, Kurzweil: 1) ‘Primes’ his unconscious mind by thinking about the problem. 2) ‘Future Paces’ himself to a time when he has solved the problem 3) Enters a hypnotic state (REM sleep) and his unconscious fills in the blanks. Those of you who have been subscribers for a while may remember the ‘Think Different’ Top Tip we gave a three years ago, outlining how to achieve the same results using self hypnosis. If you missed it, you can read it again in the archive section of the website (Issue 1-4, Oct 1999). Website Update Test Your Relationship Skills GO the Knowledge section of www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk and you can take our new relationship test. The test is based around the discoveries about what makes for successful relationships in the book ‘Why Marriages Fail’, featured as this issue’s Top Book. In addition to the test, there’s an article ‘Research Based Relationship Advice’ describing some of the key relationship skills from Gottman’s research. More New Articles Other articles recently added to the main site are: • The Pitfalls of Positive Thinking
• Why An Optimistic Outlook will make you Healthy, Wealthy and More Popular! (Featured Article)
• 7 Basic Human Needs for Good Mental Health and Emotional Well-being | |
Top Tip  Grandma was right - as usual. A warm glass of milk before bed may not feature in many rock and roll memoirs, but the fact remains that milk is a concentrated source of an amino acid called tryptophan, which triggers the formation of serotonin. Serotonin has a complex relationship to brain and body functions, however we do know that when concentrations are high we tend to feel sleepier and experience more restful and deeper sleep. So forget hot chocolate, which has two separate stimulants (caffeine and theobromine), and enjoy the relaxing mood-enhancing benefits of warm milk before bedtime. Rock and Roll!  Startling Statistic Healthy Relationships People who stay happily married long term live an average of four years longer than people who are unhappily married or remain unmarried. Competition Win the Top Book! ANSWERS as usual by post or email to: competition@uncommon-knowledge.co.uk Remember to include your postal address in case you win! Here’s the question: Where is John Gottman’s ‘Love Lab’ based?
a) Seattle
b) The South seas
c) Swindon The first three correct answers drawn on Sept 1st will win a copy of this issue’s top book ‘Making Marriage Work’. The 3 lucky winners of ‘The Tipping Point’ from last issue were Sue Pullen from East Sussex, Toni Tonkin of the USA, and Janet Rice-Koreisha.  Top Book The 7 Priniciples for Making Marriages Work by John Gottman and Nan Silver. Click here to read review. |
| Uncommon Quotes “A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.” Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, winner of the 1937 Nobel Prize for medicine “If you are content with yourself, you’ll stop taking those little steps forward and begin taking big steps backward.”
Greg Maddux, American baseball pitcher How often do we wait until things have got really bad before we do something about them? But if this quote is true, then we need to constantly improve and refine ourselves. Although self-criticism can be painful if we do it all the time, we can note things about ourselves that we would like to change and calmly go about changing them. Then, when the time comes for your discovery, perhaps you’ll be prepared. You could try taking one thing about yourself that you’d like to change and ask the question, “How will things be once that has changed?” Then you could think about how to get there. Or, on the other hand… |
