Mind Mapping and Mind Napping

Perched on a library chair waiting to speak to the teacher at a parents evening, I looked up. There on the wall was an illustration of something I already used, but not given a name. It was a poster called ‘mind mapping’ and appeared as a collection of errant balloons attached to a central point by lines. Each balloon contained a sub-subject title related to the central concept which was written in bold capitols in the central balloon .

I was impressed that schools were teaching thinking. After all there is no qualification in thinking, no examination. It’s one of those things that is so ‘natural’ (like breathing) that it is often ignored. However, many past cultures, such as in the Middle East and Ancient Greece, have given great importance to the subject. Stories such as The Thousand and One Arabian Nights and The Iliad contain in hidden layers, instruction about the common failings and strengths of the emotional, instinctual, intellectual and intuitive drivers in the human psyche.

I use the word ‘drivers’ deliberately as they are very similar to the ‘drivers’ needed by computer programmes to enable programmes to link with individual computers. Without drivers the programmes – although present – do not work.

The most common thinking malfunction that I believe is prevalent in western societies is the dualism and syllogistic fallacies.

To examine dualism first; this is the division of an idea into two opposing parts – the ‘either / or ‘ question. This question structure is heard repeatedly in interviews on television and radio. To the credit of interviewees, they often reply – ‘it is both’ – thus up-ending the hidden intention on behalf of the questioner to illicit an answer that might be probed to destruction.

In Eastern philosophy dualistic thought is not prevalent. Things with a common thread are seen to co-exist and have a scalar quality; meaning they are similar and differ more in scale than quality. The Yin Yang symbol is a well known illustration of parts that describe a whole, without opposing each other.

A syllogism is like a crevasse in an ice field; everything looks easy to walk through, but is not. It consists of two preconceptions, which conflate into an untruth.

All journalists are wrong

There is a journalist interviewing me

Therefore this journalist is wrong.

There is a swallow

Swallows appear in the summer

Therefore it must be summer.

With such dangerous thinking patterns posing as logical, I believe that it is important that we think before we think.

This is because most of our reality consists of thoughts that we make real, through our thoughts. In life, we set up neural patterns which act as ‘safe routes’ across the ice fields. This is fine, but it also has the effect of restricting exploration.

When I look at the map of the London Underground I see a perfect example of the ‘mind map’ of a human. There are places which are signified by a circle and the name of a station. Most importantly, these stations are linked in specific, but restricted, ways. When you examine the map there are more journeys you cannot make, than journeys you can.

This is exactly how the freedom of our thoughts becomes frozen and so makes the freedom, impossible.

Only at moments in our life that we later look back upon as highly significant, do we link up old stations in new ways. The creation of the new Thames Link railway illustrates this perfectly. Previously existing stations are joined in directions previously labelled as ‘too expensive’ or ‘too risky’ or ‘not necessary’.

As humans we become experts at finding reasons why new ideas should not be explored. With age we are prone to become content with what we see as ‘our lot’. Further explorations are not deemed necessary and we trot out the ‘proofs’ that we hold close to our hearts as ‘forever truths’.

In the real world there are no ‘forever truths’. Life is subject to constant change even if – like the slow moving glacier – it does not appear to be so.

Moments like going to the hairdresser or barber, are therefore stations in time for deep reflection.