The Method Garbage-in Garbage-out

The more clearly, completely and intently you formulate a question and di-

rect it to the unconscious, the more quickly and effectively the unconscious

can come up with an answer to it. A sloppy question would generate a half-

baked solution: garbage-in garbage-out. Errors in formulating the question

or in the information supplied will generate solutions tainted with these

errors. This gives us an interesting insight into the nature of unconscious

processing — it works like a quantum supercomputer using a different type

of logic. It does not in itself have any content, but it links up with content

(even non-local content) when required to solve a problem.

The intuitive mind is frequently associated with a universal mind in

metaphysical and religious literature. Our local (discriminating) mind can-

not fathom the processes that go on in the universal mind-brain. To avoid a

cognitive overload, it treats it as a black box. Is this unconscious processing

going on in the universal mind-brain? This question will be explored in a

later chapter, including to what extent scientists believe that the universe, as

a whole, operates as a supercomputer.

Ramanujan

Srinivasa Ramanujan was born in India, near Madras, in 1887. By the age

of 10, it became clear that Ramanujan was not like the other children. As a

child, he had already derived Euler’s identity between trigonometric func-

tions and exponentials. After receiving little formal education, he worked

as a junior clerk in the Port Trust of Madras. He then mailed some of the

results to his ‘dreams’ to three well-known mathematicians, hoping for

contact with other mathematical minds. One was received by the brilliant

Cambridge mathematician, Godfrey Hardy. The letter contained 120 theo-

rems totally unknown to Western mathematicians. On reading the letter,

Hardy was stunned. He came to the conclusion that it could only be written

by a mathematician of the highest class. In terms of mathematical skills,

Hardy later rated Ramanujan even higher than David Hilbert, universally

recognised as one of the greatest Western mathematician of the nineteenth

century.

Unfortunately, neither Hardy nor Ramanujan were interested in the

thinking process by which Ramanujan discovered these incredible theo-

rems, especially when these theorems came pouring out of his ‘dreams’ with

such frequency. Hardy noted, ‘It seemed ridiculous to worry him about how

he had found this or that known theorem, when he was showing me half a

dozen new ones almost every day.’ Ramanujan used to say that the goddess

of Namakkal inspired him with the formulae in dreams. He kept a note pad

next to his bed to write down the formulae that he claimed were revealed to

him in dreams. On the spot, Ramanujan could recite complex theorems in

arithmetic that would require a computer to prove. Working in total isola-

tion from the main currents of his field, he was able to rederive 100 years’

worth of Western mathematics on his own. Jonathan Borwein says, ‘He had

such a feel for things that they just flowed out of his brain.’5

We know that the left brain is active for most of the day and when we

go to sleep, activity shifts to the right brain. In dreams, right brain activity

is evident.

One interesting aspect of Ramanujan’s powers is that he often took

hours or even months to labouriously verify and prove what he often re-

ceived in an instant, and that sometimes his insight turned out to be wrong!

Ideas arrived at by intuition, just as ideas derived from deliberate conscious

thinking, can contain errors.

Dream Solutions

We know that the right brain takes over when we are in a dream state. The

ideas generated in dreams can therefore be attributed largely to the right

brain. Niels Bohr, one of the founding fathers of quantum physics, dreamt

of a planetary system as a model for atoms, which led to the ‘Bohr model’ of

atomic structure and a Nobel Prize. The laboratory procedure for producing

insulin on a mass basis was discovered in a dream by Sir Frederick Banting.

Otto Loewi dreamt the design of an experiment; went to the laboratory

later and performed the experiment and generated the results of the the-

ory of chemical transmission of nervous impulse which won him the 1936

Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. The most popular song in history

‘Yesterday’ was received by Beatle Paul McCartney in a dream — chords and

melody.

The ‘Unconscious’ Idea Generator

The great Russian composer, Tchaikovsky, says that the germ of a future

composition comes to him suddenly and unexpectedly. He says, ‘I forget

everything and behave like a mad man; everything within starts pulsing

and quivering; one thought follows another.’ He describes this as a magic

process which occurs to him when he is in a ‘somnambulistic state.’ Brahms

told one biographer that when the inspirations for his most famous compo-

sitions came to him ‘they are clothed in the right forms, harmonies, and or-

chestration. Measure by measure the finished product is revealed to him.’

Richard Strauss, the composer, also says that when the ideas flowed

in him, ‘the entire musical, measure by measure’ followed. It seemed to

him that he ‘was dictated to by two wholly different Omnipotent Entities

...and was conscious of being aided by more than an earthly Power.’ Puccini

described in similar terms. He says that the music of the opera, Madame

Butterfly, was ‘dictated’ to him by God. He says, ‘I was merely instrumental

in putting it on paper and communicating it to the public.’

This echoes the view that normal people with intact brains have ex-

periences which make them feel as if they had more than one mind or one

person in their bodies — like split-brain patients. George Elliot told J W

Cross that in all of what she considered her best writings, something that

was ‘not herself’ took possession of her, and that she felt her own personal-

ity to be ‘merely the instrument through which this spirit, as it were, was

acting. The German poet Goethe reported that he wrote his first novel,

Werther, ‘almost unconsciously, like a somnambulist,’ and was amazed

when he realised what he had done.

‘Inner listening’ is the term that is often used when the creative ideas

output from what seems to be another person. In many of the experiences

the communication even seems to come in the form of an audible voice.

The left brain often views the right brain which is delivering the solu-

tions as another mind or person — which is not far from the truth — as evi-

denced in experiences of split-brain patients. The illusion of a unitary self is

caused by the fact that, for most of the day, we normally only hear the vocal

left brain talking. When the right brain intervenes, using the left brain’s

speech centres, we attribute the messages to ‘another person.’

Brain Drain

Truman Stafford could calculate in his head in 60 seconds a multiplication

sum whose answer consisted of 36 figures, when only 10 years old. However,

when he went on to a professional career in mathematics, he lost this men-

tal gift. Similarly, Richard Whately, a nineteenth century Archbishop of

Dublin, although being a calculating genius in early childhood lost the abil-

ity after undertaking formal education. Why is this so? David Kaiser offers

a clue.

Kaiser noted that novel skills, such as music, which are processed ini-

tially in the right brain, migrate over (after extensive practice) to the left

brain. This has been noted in lesion and EEG studies 4 Over-practicing

skills enables an individual to learn how to model exterior rules (of the right

brain) in the more confidently controlled domain of interior rules (of the left

brain). However, when the skills do migrate to the left brain, the creativity

and the computational power diminishes, perhaps because direct access to

the universal mind (via the intuitive right brain) diminishes significantly.

The ‘Unconscious’ Calculator

Enid Blyton, the novelist, says that she receives directions from what she

terms her ‘undermind’ that ‘the story must be 40,000 words long’ and sure

enough, the book ends almost to the word. The unconscious appears to

possess mind-boggling computational power. There are many cases in his-

tory to illustrate this. As an example, let’s look at Zerah Colburn.

Zerah Colburn was born in 1804, the son of a farmer of Vermont, USA.

When only six, not yet able to read or write, the young Zerah began giving

public demonstrations of his mathematical skills. One of the most spec-

tacular feats related to the number 4,294,967,297, which until shortly before

his time was thought to be prime by mathematicians. Leonhard Euler, one

of the greatest mathematicians in history, labouriously calculated on paper

that it was divisible by 641. When Colburn, ignorant of all this, was given

the same problem he swiftly arrived at 641 ‘by the mere operation of his

mind.’ The really significant feature about Colburn is that he was totally

unable to explain how he had reached his conclusion. Having never had for-

mal education, he was entirely ignorant of elementary mathematical rules,

and could not even perform the simplest multiplication and division sums

on paper. Everything was done in his head, where he literally saw the com-

putation form up clearly and effortlessly before him. 3

The Unconscious Problem Solver

William James asks: ‘Why do we spend years straining after a certain sci-

entific or practical problem, but all in vain — thought refusing to evolve

the solution we desire? And why, some day, walking in the street with our

attention miles away from the quest, does the answer saunter into our

minds as carelessly as if it had never been called for — suggested possibly

by the flowers on the bonnet of the lady in front of us, or possibly by noth-

ing that we can discover? If reason can give us relief then, why did she not

do so sooner?

Henri Poincare, when talking about the creative process, says, ‘Often

when one works at a hard question, nothing good is accomplished at the

first attack. Then one takes a long rest and sits down anew to the work.

During the first half-hour, as before, nothing is found, and then all of a

sudden the decisive idea presents itself to the mind.’ This sequence of events

is not only evident in scientific quests — similar descriptions are found in

religious quests — for example, as described by (Saint) Theresa of Avila or

(Saint) John of the Cross. In religion, it may be described as ‘insight’; in sci-

entific circles it may be described as creativity.

Renowned physicist, Helmholtz, admitted that often his ideas ar-

rived suddenly, without any effort on his part, while taking easy walks over

wooded hills in sunny weather. Physicist Lord Kelvin reported receiving

inspiration in similar ways. He sometimes had to devise explanations for

deductions that came to him in a flash of intuition. Gauss described how a

solution came to him for an arithmetical theorem that he had spent years

trying to prove — like a sudden flash of lightning the riddle happened to be

solved. Henri Poincare, the famous mathematician, says that the appear-

ances of sudden illuminations are obvious indications of a long course of

previous unconscious work. Before and after, there had to be controlled

conscious work, but in between was some mysterious process. In a letter

to a French scientific journal in 1886, referring to an arithmetic theorem,

the proof of which eluded him for years, Gauss writes, ‘Two days ago, I suc-

ceeded, not on account of my painful efforts, but by the grace of God. Like

a sudden flash of lightning, the riddle happened to be solved.’2