Conversations with a Soul by Tom McArthur Page B

explode shattering the status quo, destroying facades, and setting us off in a new direction.
    According to the Soul, paradox does not need to be resolved but embraced; contradiction does not need to be untangled but accepted as part of the competing complexities of being alive; history is not the final word but simply the prologue to a story that is being written.

    Technically it’s known as 'Brainstorming' and most of us have, at one time or another, participated in brainstorming, even if we never called it that.
    When as children, together with a small group of friends, we tried to solve a puzzle or contribute to the building of a story or piled up pillows so that they might serve as a secret castle, everyone owned a stake in the enterprise and no one thought to stop the flow of creativity for such puerile reasons as grammar, logic, or an inadequate vocabulary. Trusting our imaginations we simply let the process take its course, confident that it would turn out all right in the end. We gave permission for wizards to come and join our game and for inconsistencies to lose their power; a common stick became a magic sword and dragons switched from enemies to invincible, fire breathing allies.
    Some managers, many of them in complex business settings, have finally caught on to the value of revisiting those childhood games. Under the guidance of highly paid consultants (which mother used to manage for free) they regularly engage in brainstorming sessions.
    A cardinal rule of brainstorming exercises is that everyone is required to suspend their much beloved critical analysis , so much a part of their training. Thus constrained, each member of the team is required to abandon exercising judgement and encouraged to give themselves (and each other) permission to contribute their ideas, no matter how absurd they might seem. Questions about cost, workability, practicality and simple logic are not allowed to interfere with the flow of ideas.
    In practice brainstorming is less of a technique and more of a game, the goal of which is to deal with a problem or an issue or an idea through the use of free association .
    Members of the team, some of whom have previously been humiliated for making inappropriate suggestions, are understandably cautious and the game is slow to start. Yet after a short while, when the dreaded curse of censure fails to materialize, they warm to the game and the ideas begin to flow!
    Many insights emerge from this simple game. Not least, each participant learns that every contribution has value; sometimes providing a springboard for more ideas; sometimes simply expanding the range of possibilities; sometimes encouraging the other members of the team to risk and sometimes simply asserting each members right to be a part of the enterprise. Above all is the discovery that hiding behind the mundane and prosaic there lay mystery and endless possibilities.
    Amongst all the preposterous ideas that are tossed out, there are almost always some worthy of further exploration. Most of these contributions would certainly have been preempted had the rules encouraged or simply permitted a critical attitude. Now, upon reflection, they seem to have been born in a stroke of brilliance.
    There’s usually a fair amount of laughter that accompanies the exercise as the participants relax and learn to trust the process. They begin to flirt with each other’s ideas and build upon them. Most find it a wonderful experience to allow their imaginations free reign and, for a while, enjoy a sunny life in a community free from censure.
    Soon they have accumulated a significant store of ideas where before there were none. Avenues for exploration open up and possibilities begin to emerge and most of the players are reluctant to end the game when time is called.
    One way of understanding the brainstorming game is to see it as a non-censored, free-wheeling experience in the manipulation of images.
    My Soul loves to play this game!
    Yet more than