COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES

 In the far reaches of an infinite cosmos, there’s a galaxy that looks just like the Milky Way, with a solar system that’s the spitting image of ours, with a planet that’s a dead ringer for earth, with a house that’s indistinguishable from yours, inhabited by someone who looks just like you, who is right now reading this very book and imagining you, in a distant galaxy, just reaching the end of this sentence. And there’s not just one such copy. In an infinite universe, there are infinitely many. In some, your doppelgänger is now reading this sentence, along with you. In others, he or she has skipped ahead, or feels in need of a snack and has put the book down. In others still, he or she has, well, a less than felicitous disposition and is someone you’d rather not meet in a dark alley.   ~Brian Greene, "The Hidden Reality"

Explosive idea, eh? Makes my head spin. That's some coloring outside the lines of imagination. However, this is where science is taking us.

When we were very young, usually before 1st grade, we all colored outside the lines; it's a part of childhood development - the scribbling. Then seemingly overnight, the master of scribbling hands the parent a piece of artwork that shows she’s tried to color inside the lines. It’s a big moment when one will do the proud parent dance as they tape the picture to the fridge.

That switch in coloring skills is a milestone for children because it shows that their motor skills and cognitive skills are developing.  ~Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., assoc prof of psychology, Fordham University

And Denise Bodman, Ph.D., a principal lecturer at the T. Denny Sanford School of Social & Family Dynamics of Arizona State University tell us:

As children become aware of boundaries, they start thinking and planning around them. Soon, she may color with an understanding of spatial vocabulary such as “above,” “below,” and “between.” When children start coloring inside the lines, they’re learning about cause and effect.

Coloring within the lines is tapping into self-control and confidence with a level of focus and concentration that helps us master many other tasks, fostering confidence.

All that is great in the development of a child or as a newbie to a skill, industry, practice, or purpose. Staying within the lines, following a systematic regimen and order has its value, of course, but it shouldn't be the only message a person gets. It's time to allow thinking beyond the boundaries – without the restraints. To think creatively, behave in an unconventional manner, and to not follow the rules.

Don't get me wrong, you can create some imaginative things within the lines. However, expanding beyond them is like exploring the multi-verse of your mind. Where would computers / the internet be without non-linear thinkers:

• Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, an 1800's English mathematician, worked on the Analytical Engine, and considered a computer programmer, even before computers were a thing
• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple
• Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn – fathers of the internet

Imagine science without...

• Einstein, Newton, Nikola Tesla, Galileo
• Marie Curie and her work with radium
• Rosalind Franklin's work in describing and assisting the discovery of  DNA’s double-helix structure

Where would philosophy be without...

• Plato and Aristotle
• Conscious, the Buddha and Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)
• John Locke, who inspired our Founding Fathers with the ideas of a social contract
• Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ernest Holmes

Where would entertainment and literature be without “outside of the lines color-ers” like...

• Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph of Netflix
• Walt Disney and Stan Lee
• Marlon Brando, Uta Hagen, or Stanislavsky in the acting field
• Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe (who many consider the first sci-fi author) or Shakespeare

How about innovations in the painting world without

• Picasso's "Guernica" in 1937
• Manet or Monet or Van Gogh
• Jackson Pollacks "Blue Holes Number 11" in 1952
• DaVinci's "Mona Lisa" in 1503
• Salvador Dali, Warhol, Klimt, Vermeer, Kahlo

Innovations in music without...

• Bach's harmonics
• Debussy's creation of mood and imagery
• Gershwin's pop music mix of orchestral and jazz
• Hildegard Von Bingen, Beethoven, the Beatles

Or the working space culture of Google and Zappos; their employee perks of free food, complementary wellness services, basketball courts, bring your dog to work, and other things changed the idea of creativity and work.

What did they all see outside the lines? Opportunities, innovation, change, the infinite... and love!!!!

Here's a "think outside the box question" some of you might have gotten at a job interview:

You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night, it's raining heavily.

You pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for a bus:

The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

An old friend who once saved your life.

An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.

You have only one seat in your car. Which one would you choose to offer a ride to?

Do you pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first?

Or do you take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back?

However, if you do all that, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.

Think about it. It's a moral and ethical dilemma, but a decision must be made. Save a life? make a repayment for your saved life? or get that perfect partner?

The usual clever, imaginative, thinking out of the box answer is:

I would give the car keys to my old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital.

And I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams.

There's no best answer...you could use your cell phone to call for help. But, it's designed to make you think, and that's what all this is about - what you think and how you think it.

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. ~Arthur C. Clarke

It's the what if? Envisioning...strengthens the mind, strengthens the intention, and strengthens our relation to any condition as one that will be overcome, changed, adapted, or healed.

Dr. Joe Dispenza reminds us that the brain doesn't know the difference between a real-life event and imagining it, so keeping it up will prepare the perception nodule, like a software program in the hardware - brain. 

You are the programmer, the language is your imagination, thoughts, and feelings, and practice and commitment change your relation to conditions. It's an energy that colors you outside the lines of all that stuff that gets in our way.

Our whole endeavor is to personalize the impersonal, that is, to individualize the Creative Spirit. While we cannot think of God as an infinite person, that is, as a being with any limitation whatsoever, we should think of the Creative Spirit as that Infinite Being in whom all personality is rooted. Thus, each is continuously individualizing God, and thus, also, each is individually using the Law of Cause and Effect. ~Ernest Holmes, "Lessons in Spiritual Mind Healing"

Following the steps or those "twice a day" suggestions are good, but eventually, you must make it your own in order for it to take hold in your subconscious and belief system.

You may cry our, “I'm not clever or imaginative or creative or..." But I would say back to you, "uh-uh, that's a bunch of bull, we all are!"

I am not asking you to change the world, just change the time, place, length, frequency, words in your spiritual practice. Play and find out what works best for you to reveal the Divinity in You, so you can 
vibrate at the speed of the Divine, and bust through, soar and zoom to your best experiences.

Alan Kay (the husband of author Bonnie MacBird) famously said “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

Color outside the lines of logic, religion, spirituality, this philosophy, what you've learned about spiritual practice....everything, and make your Universe a multi-verse of possibilities; making the seemingly impossible possible!

Affirmative Incantation
I see wonderfully colorful and mystical variances being uniquely expressed in each of us. And I am no exception. In Nature's great creative diversity, I am a bold, brave, loving, successful and productive example. I am seen, respected and heard by all. I take myself in my very capable hands to share my time, talent and treasures with the world. My intuition guides me to wise, wondrous and mystical ways and I play with an inventive, vibrant and enlightened palate. Whatever happens, I know I can handle it with grace and ease.