The practice is simple: Believe in a unique concept as whole-heartedly as possible for one week.

As you embrace these concepts you can temporarily re-sculpt your neuro-network, thus opening up to ideas and inventions hidden deep within your mind. Now for this exercise, let’s ask ourselves this:]

Mind Wrap 3: What if Uniqueness Was Universally Acknowledged as The Purpose of Life?

A 17 year old boy wrote a 100-page ebook explaining why uniqueness is love and should be pursued on an individual level as if it was the most important thing one could do with one’s life. He open-sourced it on the web. Within a week he had 100,000 reads on his website. Within a year his book had been translated into 130 languages and had 1.8 billion reads. Within 2 years, societies all over the world began to change. A perspective had been introduced that could not be unlearned and it had resonated so profoundly with all of humanity that a renaissance regarding the theory of “what life is” had emerged. Imagine yourself 5 years beyond the date the book was released. Over 5 billion reads meant that almost everyone on earth was aware of the “new perspective”.

For one week immerse yourself in the temporary belief that the whole of humanity revered uniqueness beyond anything else. A person was encouraged, from birth, to pursue uniqueness as their life-long mission and all efforts from society were to support platforms that reward that mission. How would life be different? What kinds of holidays and events would emerge? What would homes look like? What would clothes look like? How would the family dynamic change? If every form of expression was not only tolerated but intensely desired by the community, how would that change your life? Most important, how would you feel about living in a world like that? How would it change your quality of life?

Author’s Ponderings: Uniqueness is Everything

I stand on a platform awaiting my train. Across town, I am meeting a friend for lunch to revisit a business idea we had dreamed up a decade ago… well before “The Epic”. People watching is interesting these days. Fashion is not dictated by fads anymore. Clothes and accessories are uniquely custom, super-functional, dramatic and totally awesome thanks to 3-d printing, 3-d weaving, 3-d welding and just about 3-d everything else. A boy next to me holds a skateboard with a surface that has two footprints molded into it, exact imprints of the bottom of his own two feet. “It’s for downhill racing”, he tells a curious bystander. “My trick board is like something you’ve never seen”. I smiled. He can’t be but 14. I wonder how old he was when he read, or was read, the ebook, now commonly referred to as “The Epic”.

Not only can I tell you exactly where I was when I finished reading it for the first time, but I can tell you the date, the time, what I was wearing, what was hanging on each wall and how my dim office lamp casted shadows across the desk. As I hung on the final word, life started too ooze with clarity. I clenched the arms of my chair, an instinctive attempt to hold onto my previous sense of reality. I was unsteady. I laid my forehead on my desk and forced myself to breathe deeply. The subtle scent of my wooden desk seeped into my sinuses. That’s when the moment became visceral. I sucked that scent into my soul over and over again in longer deeper breaths. I am uncertain how long I remained there but the epiphany … the paradigm shift … the metamorphoses … the moment … for me, I can tell you exactly what that moment smelled like. That moment smelled like old timber.

My train is a little late … no big deal. I settle down on the broad arm of a nearby bench. Looking back, the thing that amazed me the most was the speed at which “The Epic” became universally read. It had to be shared. The morning after my first read, almost wordlessly, I led my wife by the shoulders to my office desk and sat her down at my computer. As she read for hours, I delighted in cutting fresh lavender from the yard, arranging it in a vase and delivering it to her, without a sound. She was the visceral type. She was going to need it.

I can’t tell you the details of the book. I wouldn’t want to. It unravels your world so succinctly and rebuilds your perception of reality so beautifully that I am still unsure just how the magical weaving of words worked. But it did. What I can tell you, is that it changed my perception of “what life is”.

Imagine this. Imagine living life by just two core truths; to love yourself is to live uniquely, to love life is to create that which enables others to live more uniquely. Creativity is not just a part of life. Creativity is the point of life! The more creatively you act, the more valuable you are to the universe!

Immediately I began analyze my life, my past through this new prism. The truths were qualified again and again. It was exhilarating.

On the grandest level, when a mother holds a newborn to her chest for the first time she is overcome by the feeling that she has just brought into this stage of existence, a being with creative potential, greater than any other entity ever known in the history of her life. The emotion is seeded with the fact that she created something so unique that with her assistance will live and create unencumbered unique thoughts, unique actions and experience unique events that will ultimately help expand the universe. Her position, as a mother, having the utmost, intimate relationship with that amazing being, that spirited life-force, was the most inspiring feeling of all. Before “The Epic”, a birth was amazing. After “The Epic”, births were infinitely precious. I thought of my first born. I thought of my mother.

On the simplest level, I re-acknowledged of my immense value to the universe. If creativity was the purpose of life than just the fact that I was born with a unique perspective, was traveling a unique path, and had unique thoughts was as a rule, of tremendous value. I began to love any thought that popped into my head. I began to love every unique solution I could conceive of to solve a problem. I began to love myself for simply sitting on a bench, observing a boy interact enthusiastically with another, feeling the warm breeze on my skin and silently narrating the scene around me. No one ever had or ever will experience that moment, that scene, from that perspective with the “life-path” of experiences and events with which to observe it. I can’t tell you how amazing this is. I can only tell you that love, true love of myself and everything in the universe was defined. Creativity and uniqueness was love. To love was to create. Just by the act of being alive I was living and resonating with love.

Within weeks of the first reading, simply put, the world was happier, and it began to change.

Expression changed

It felt as if the mystery of why we are here had been resolved and everyone had the instantaneous justification to just open up and release the inner artist. Phrases like “the law of uniqueness” had emerged. A child was taught that creativity was why they were here and from a young age they embraced the philosophy and thrived. New sports were created, new buildings were built, new art was almost worshiped, new clothing styles exploded.

Laws changed

Those laws that attempted to diminish the creative potential were not good laws. Those who attempted to diminish the creative potential of another were not good people. Citizens began to use the litmus test “does this rule allow for more creativity or less creativity”.

Business changed

People didn’t want conformity and they were rewarding those who offered uniqueness. Before “The Epic”, flash mobs were a sporadic and effective method of supporting a local establishment. Today, they are called flash movements and small, creative businesses can launch in a month with the almost instantaneous crowd-funded support. Small businesses can’t open fast enough to satisfy the demand! It is one of the most beautiful things to be a part of, truly.

Compassion changed

A transient women, driven by hunger, lifted a trash can lid so she could get one more meal. She wanted to live one more day, so she could think some more unique thoughts, from her unique perspective, that would be forever imprinted in the energy of the universe, and thus have tremendous value. This is why she wanted to live, because life had become infinitely more precious. Folks would stop and buy her a meal so they could just hear some of her unique tale and make that uniqueness part of it their own perspective. They wanted to help create one more day and enable another to continue to live … uniquely.

Religion changed

New religion’s blossomed with new ceremonies, activities, communities and prayer forms united buy one core fundamental, “be unique”, be your own religion. This was the often unspoken core of the “law of uniqueness”. Historically, many turned to religion to explain the following: where am I from, why am I here and where am I going?

There was an answer. The answer was this:

If you knew where you came from you would not be as creative in this stage of existence. If you knew where you were going you would not be as creative in this stage of existence. Why are you here?… to be unique! That is what the universe wants! Create and you will exist in love. Live uniquely and you will exist in happiness.

After thousands of years of not knowing, love was defined and embraced. Fear, sadness, hate, jealousy receded softly out of existence. I want to tell you more but you have to read it for yourself! “The Epic” will cure your cognitive dissonance. Read it.

I can see my train approaching. I lean over and touched my nose to the arm of the park bench and took a breath of fresh timber. The boy with the board reached the train door first, pressed the open button, and entered the vessel. My thoughts traveled to my friend across town. We were going to develop a device that captured the essence of “The Epic” to a tee. We were creating a new device that allows other people to create devices more easily. True to the law of uniqueness, tackling this project is one of the greatest feeling I have ever felt. But that story is for another time.

You are the creator… keep expanding the universe… love.

- by Action

Believe that this is the truth and ponder the implications of what happens next. What will change in your life immediately? How will society change? How will the power structures shift? How will the creative offerings evolve?

Remember, this is a fact and everyone believes it because they all have the plans. Take a week and immerse yourself in the new reality. After 7 days reflect upon the wisdom that you have acquired and retain the most important epiphanies. Later you will deposit them to your wisdom bank and nurture them indefinitely.

In the next edition I will summarize my mind-wrap experience and launch a new “belief”. In the mean time, enjoy the liberty and wonderment of keeping an open mind.

~ Action

[Editors note: If you would like to review the overall premise of the Mind Wrap exercises, please revisit the original post here.]

Mind Wrap 1: Free Energy Device

I have thoroughly immersed myself in the daydream that unlimited energy was available to me and every other human on the planet. The device could be constructed by building a small and portable machine. The challenge was to imagine what my life and the world would be like if this technology suddenly existed as an open source offering. Then, I extracted as much wisdom as I could from this wildly imaginative hypothetical. I looked around my home and neighborhood and imagined life with this free energy involved. Here are my imaginings.

I wake up after a very restful sleep and sit up in bed. My wife is still snoozing so I slide out of bed and look in on the kids before walking downstairs. The dog greets me with a rushed yawn and a quick wag. She is anxious to get outside into the fresh Colorado snow that had fallen overnight. I walk through the kitchen and the sliding glass door into the greenhouse opens with a touch. She pants frustratingly at the humidity and scrambles the 25 feet to the other side. I press an automatic door opener on the wall and a glass, garage-like door slides open a couple feet to let her pass. I can see her through the foggy panes as she tussles in the renewed winter landscape.

I smile as I reach up to pick fresh strawberries from a hanging gutter above. The green vines drape over the edge and pop brightly against the dark ornate woodwork a friend of my parents created for our youngest’s first birthday gift. The name and birth date are intricately carved upon the weathered driftwood from the shore of a northern lake. It hung at the same height as my eldest’s, engraved raised garden bed from not 2 years before. I fill a small bucket and pop a few in my mouth, savoring in the exchange of energy. Weeks ago, a tiny seed became a sprout and wound its way intelligently over the bed of soil to hang a majestic blood red ornament of nourishment … a perfect strawberry, a true miracle to my taste buds on this chilly December morning.

I glance at the fish tank bubbling at my feet, a canal around the periphery of the green house and the plant’s number one water source. Colorado columbine, a native flowering plant lines the edges of the tank in a beautiful rectangle, the only plant in the room that exists simply for the aesthetic appeal. The delicate blue blossoms won’t bloom this time of year but the green leaves pop against the background of the snowy scene outside. The rest of the room is, juice-able, soup-able, salad-able and snack-able. The kids love it in here. It is a spiritual place without any of us ever identifying it as such. It is a balmy sanctuary embedded in the sanctuary that is our neighborhood, embedded in the sanctuary of these mountains, embedded in the sanctuary of our beautiful planet.

I pop another strawberry and stare beyond the hazy greenhouse windows toward the east. Our closest neighbor is a few football fields away. The earth’s population over the past decade has scattered across the land, occupying each corner of the globe in the most unobtrusive and symbiotic manner imaginable. Everyone’s basic needs have been met with self-sustaining personal food sources and self-sustaining shelters. The concept of time-share dwellings has become universal as those who wish to live in other parts of the world are continuously trading homes as they bounce from new environments for new experiences. My neighbor’s house has hosted a variety of unique families and small groups. I believe that they are home now in time for the holiday.

In this new age, scarcity is almost incomprehensible to the young ones. War is a prehistoric notion. The life span is now about 120 years for females and 110 for males. Doctors and scientists pursue their ambitions with pure enjoyment unencumbered by energy costs. All technology is open-sourced. Planned obsolescence seems an ancient, absurd term. There are no more power lines, hi tension lines, underground cables or cell phone towers. Families are bigger yet houses are smaller. Portable energy means diverse meeting halls in the remotest of places for group interaction and entertainment. Robbery has dwindled to nothing as the paradigm of success has shifted from material wealth to inspiring art. Those who create with love in harmony are most highly revered. Those who destroy…well we haven’t heard from them in a very long time.

I was a younger man when the free energy movement began. It swept the globe and armed 7 billion people with a leveraging force that gave them each true sovereignty, independence and self-respect. It could not be stopped. The old power structures crumbled but nobody starved. The old wealthy power brokers were not hunted down and killed or imprisoned. They simply assimilated. It was their only course of action. They did not go quietly though. They tried to start a war. We laugh at the old saying but in reality in the second decade of the new millennium the power brokers started WW3 and literally nobody showed up. The soldiers were building greenhouses and growing their own food; the refugees were heating their own gathering houses to build more free energy devices. The destitute and homeless lived in heated abodes and began to collaborate on growing their own food. There were very few homeless shelters and soup kitchens a few years later. There was no demand. There was less need for outdoor farmland as a two car garage was now a greenhouse. The wilderness came back. Wandering the countryside one could pick wild fruit and berries and gather as they traveled from place to place. Animals and plants thrived alongside humans. The earth became the dream of a young child.

I popped a last strawberry in my mouth and went in to blend up some jam for the family breakfast. The kids are young and have no memory of the “liberation” but they pulse with the frequency of creativity and love all year long because of that one day… the day free energy was reacquired from those who stole it and reintroduced to the world. We celebrate that act every year on their winter solstice. Today is that day and I promise you it is the most wonderful celebration humanity has ever known.

The dog just scrambled by the kitchen window, tossing snow in the air with her nose. I know now exactly how she feels…exactly how she feels.
~ Action

I would like to reintroduce to you the importance of your imagination.

There is a simple strategy that I have practiced over the past few years to deliberately extract more wisdom from my daydreams. My actual dreams have always been fantastic. As a young child I would often talk or shout in my sleep as I fought dragons or climbed jagged peaks, much to the bemusement of my parents, three brothers, and anyone else who slept over. My dreams were always vivid, extraordinary and weird. There were no rules no limitations and no consequences. Most nights I couldn’t wait to fall asleep and enter the theater of limitless entertainment and adventure. There where nightmares, of course, but their influence became blunted as I learned to subtly order them away upon arrival. I loved to sleep and dream and ironically would often find myself daydreaming about them.

I am not sure when I started the practice of subconsciously ordering my daydreams to be as unique and farfetched as my night dreams. I guess it was in my late 20’s when I had begrudgingly assimilated into this insanely mundane system that we refer to as society. It wasn’t enough to listen to music, write, drink, hike, fish, etc. The world had stopped delivering inspiration and around my 27th year I determined that inspiration was all I really wanted out of life. I also realized, suddenly, that that responsibility was now mine… an important moment. I needed a form of self-created entertainment that could play through my mind as I waited in line for coffee, drove to work, showered, waited in the doctor’s office and so on. I didn’t want to restrict myself to typical ponderings so I swung the pendulum of thought as far out-of-the-box as I could. I consciously eliminated my mental governor who historically identified and discarded abstract thoughts as inconsequential. I was now reformatting my neuro-network to allow as many unconventional and outlandish thoughts into my consciousness and then encourage myself to believe these “thought-forms” were undeniably true, albeit temporarily. It is important to note that I always allow myself to climb back out of these rabbit holes, retaining the wisdom that I feel necessary to help free me from this boring assimilated life. The process was haphazard at first but over the years I had optimized it into what I like to refer to as the “Mind-Wrap”.

The simple practice: I believe in a unique concept as whole-heartedly as I can for one week. Now, belief is a tricky term. It literally means accept something to be true without proof. Kids do this hundreds of times a day without effort. As an adult, though, it is tricky to free yourself to really imagine. The only way I could fool myself into really imagining was to give myself a one-week grace period and then return to a “typical” perspective.

Over the years, hundreds of outlying concepts traveled through my mind, temporarily re-sculpting my neuro-network. No single belief-system ever stuck but what I discovered was that my ability to temporarily believe something deeper and wider became more enhanced. The little governing voice became hushed and that silence has been truly liberating.

My hope is that my daydreams will leap one step closer to the night dreams… hopefully, until the difference is barely perceptible. Whatever the outcome, though, the ride has been, and continues to be, a very enjoyable one.

So, lets begin with an example, a trial concept, a “Mind-Wrap”. I refer to each concept as a “Mind-Wrap” so as to envision the mind actually wrapping around a belief system and completely harnessing it. For one week, believe something with such intensity that it allows you to view your world from a different perspective. It may help to believe that the majority of the population is convinced of this as well. Your safety valve is that you consciously know you will snap out of that belief system at weeks end. See if you can’t retain a nugget of wisdom along the way that will actually have merit and value to your current perspective.

~ Action