Want Consciousness Change? Try Shoes and Puzzles...

OK, in my introduction post I promised, so here you go...

Consciousness Change and Shoes

A vintage English actress named Beryl Reid (1919–1996) won a Tony and an Olivier Award, so she knew a thing or two about acting. She swore by shoes as her “way in” to any character.

Successful acting is, of course, all about switching consciousness from that of yourself to the character you want to represent. And of course as most women (and these days a lot of men too) will tell you, the right shoes can have a massive effect on how you feel about yourself and which “identity” you need to project right now.

Still not convinced? Just think about the impression you get of other people based on which shoes they are wearing. Imagine going to see your child's principal and they greet you wearing a business suit and bright red sneakers. (Male or female, this is likely to be equally as shocking.) The color and style of their shoes has no relation to their educational qualifications or ability as a principal. But don't these "inappropriate" shoes make you feel uneasy? Why?

Because they suggest something about the person's character and how they think. It suggests that maybe this person isn't going to think and behave in quite the way you might expect them to do as a school principal.

Or, put it another way, their state of conciousness may be different to what you need from them right now.

If you'd make this judgement about someone wearing the "wrong" shoes, then you're admitting that shoes have an effect on consciousness.

Consciousness Change and Puzzles

A puzzle is a problem to be solved. And most good puzzles are hard enough to not be solvable right away – or they wouldn’t be terribly interesting.

(Actually, A Rubik cube is one of the LEAST interesting puzzles, because its solution is entirely predictable and achievable once you know the rules to follow. But it doesn’t stop it being any less impressive to people who haven’t worked it out yet.)

No, most interesting puzzles (think cryptic crosswords) require some element of lateral thinking or insight to get to the solution.

People who are good at this type of puzzle are good at looking at the problem from lots of different points of view, rather than doggedly fixating on just one way forward. And this is, of course, a key element of consciousness change – the ability and willingness to see things differently.

If you want to see consciousness change on this planet and want to encourage flexible thinking in yourself, regular practice with some hard puzzles is actually not a bad place to start.

Carriad
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