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Newsletter of Project Renaissance and Win Wenger
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 2005 (Best viewed with
fixed-width font)
IN THIS ISSUE:
* Quote of the
Month
* Announcements,
News Items
* Events,
Workshops
* FEATURE ARTICLE:
Accessing
your Math Savant - by Wendi Friesen
* Comments,
Feedback
Research
Project Volunteers - Win Wenger
Visualization
in Mathematics - Tarek
Solution
Focus Combined with Socratic Method - Rod Sherwin
Socratic
Method in Mathematics - Charles
* Organizational
Notes
* Links
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"I was asked to memorise what I did not understand;
and, my memory
being so good, it refused to be insulted in that
manner."
- Aleister
Crowley
........................................................................
ANNOUNCEMENTS
~~~
WELCOME to all new members who have joined us this month.
We hope to
hear from you and to give you much food for thought. Back
issues are
available upon request. Just add the month to the subject
line:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=BackIssues
Or see the online archives: http://www.winwenger.com/strmlist.htm
~~~
SAY IT OUT LOUD is an excellent description of the Jewish
teachings,
by Rabbi Noah Weinberg, Dean of Aish HaTorah. It is No. 3
in the 48
ways to wisdom. "The Sages are encouraging us to
articulate what we
know. Words are very powerful, and they help ideas to
penetrate our
consciousness." You can read the full instructive
article here:
http://www.aish.com/spirituality/48ways/ . You can also
listen to this
class on RealAudio. It concludes with:
"'Say it out loud' helps you concentrate so that you
don't fall asleep.
It helps you clarify fuzzy ideas. The more senses you
involve, the more
of an impression it leaves on you. What you speak is an
expression of
who you are. It's a feedback system. Language is the
bridge where body
meets the soul." Treat yourself to an inspiring
read.
~~~
NEW EMAIL ADDRESS? Please send us an address-change
announcement. Do not
use the unsubscribe link in such a case, then entering a
new subscribe
message. This makes extra work for you and your registrar
and may result
in deletion of all your personal information from our
records. Put any
other updated information you'd like us to have about you
into the same
address-change message. Use this link:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=AddressChange
~~~
MUMBAI, INDIA - Nikhil Gangoli, ngangoli2003@yahoo.co.in
, is interested
in forming and hosting an Image-Streaming group in
Mumbai. Contact him
by email or here if you live in that area:
1 Neelam 14B Road Khar, Mumbai 400052, India -- Phone
91-22-26494032
And see also his website, http://www.ezinfocenter.com/7597098/FREE
~~~
PORTLAND, OREGON, INTEREST GROUP - Members of Project
Renaissance, would
you like to form a local group in the Portland area for
discussions,
practicing creativity and problem-solving, and enjoying
mutual listening?
John Arrowwood will coordinate. Please contact him by
email at
ProjRen@HanlonsRazor.com .
~~~
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - Is there anyone in or around
Manchester or the
northwest of England who can help get a new member
started with Image-
Streaming and other techniques in Win Wenger's book,
"Beyond OK"? He
will cover phone costs or other expenses of contacting
him:
Adrian, aka inhypnosis <inhypnosis@yahoo.com>.
~~~
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - Saleem Javaid ( s.javaid@att.net ) is
looking for
Project Renaissance participants to get together in the
Atlanta metro
area. Please email him if you're in the area and
interested.
~~~
Rick van Deijk has created an online community/forum,
"IS Online", with
write-ups of his image-streams, articles, and a way for
people to find
live partners online. Quite an ambitious undertaking.
Thanks, Rick! His
email is rickvdeijk@gmail.com; his website:
http://vdeijk.proboards29.com/
........................................................................
EVENTS
~~~
MONTHLY HIGH THINKTANK MEETINGS, 2005-2006
Thursday, 7:30 pm, August 11
Thursday, 7:30 pm, September 15
Thursday, 7:30 pm, October 20
*TUESDAY, 7:30 pm, November 22
Thursday, 7:30 pm, December 8
Thursday, 7:30 pm, January 5
Thursday, 7:30 pm, February 9
Thursday, 7:30 pm, March 9
Thursday, 7:30 pm, April 13
Thursday, 7:30 pm, May 4
Thursday, 7:30 pm, June 1
Quince Orchard Public Library, Room "A"
15831 Quince Orchard Rd.
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20878
(240-777-0200)
Directions:
From Route 270, take Quince Orchard Road to just beyond
the intersection with Route 28, about four miles or so.
Or take Route 28
West about five miles, just barely to Quince Orchard Road
left. Either
way, the Library is on your left. Just feet beyond the
intersection,
look for the nameless little spur of a road off Quince
Orchard which
leads into the Library parking lot. Or go to
www.MapQuest.com , type in
your own address including zip code, and type in the
Quince Orchard
Library's address, and get directions (and map) from
there.
* Please note the one exception to Thursday meetings.
~~~
UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS - Capitol Creativity Network
The Capitol Creativity Network
(www.capitolcreativitynetwork.com ) meets
on the second Thursday of every month. Time: 7:00-9:30pm.
Fee: $10 at
the door. Location: Social Room of Van Ness East
apartment complex;
2939 Van Ness St., NW; Washington, DC.
We explore and experience different facets of creativity,
from corporate
to expressive to scientific, etc. Each meeting is interactive, and
designed to have the participants experience their own
creativity in
real time. CCN's got a little something for every kind of
Creator in
2005:
~ September 8:
"Creative Thinking Techniques"
by Dr. Win Wenger,
Founder and Director of Project Renaissance; author
"The Einstein
Factor" and over 40 other books.
~ October 13:
"New Working Models: Using storytelling, improv and visual
techniques to extract relevant data and design functional
working models"
by Michelle James, Principal of The Center for Creative
Emergence;
business creativity catalyst.
~ November 10:
"Visual Mapping" by Nusa Maal, President of SenseSmart.
~ December 8:
"The Courage of Your Yearning: Using the principles of
creativity to create a life lived from your deepest
gladness" by Juanita
Weaver, creativity consultant.
Michelle James
The Center for Creative Emergence,
www.creativeemergence.com
Consciously Creating What's Next
McLean, VA USA
703.760.9009
michelle@creativeemergence.com
mjames7770@aol.com
~~~
CREATIVITY IN WORK DEVELOPMENT
August 26 - October 7
Your Work, Business, and Leadership as a Practical
Expression of
Your Creative
Self
A professional and personal development program spanning
6 weeks. Led by
Michelle James, Principal of The Center for Creative
Emergence. See
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=g9visnbab.0.a5nrmibab.nc7qncbab.141&p=
http%3A%2F%2Fcreativeemergence.com%2F_wsn%2Fpage11.html
for the complete program description and detailed
testimonials.
This program is for entrepreneurs, leaders, managers,
consultants,
trainers, educators, executives, business owners, thought
influencers,
seekers, creators, artists, healers, psychologists,
teachers, sales and
marketing professionals, pioneers, change agents and
people in transition,
to name a few. It is for people who believe they are not
creative at all
as well as those who are already highly in tune with
their own creativity.
~~~
METAFORUM INTERNATIONAL
Academy for Integrative Communication
Bernd Isert, President ( team@metaforum.com )
* 13th World
Campus in Brazil, February 5th to 24th, 2006
Personal and professional development, with professional
coaching,
NLP from practitioner to trainer, systemic structural
constellation
work, hypnotherapy, mediation, and much more. Our
approach is systemic,
neuro-linguistic and integrative. Here learning,
experiencing, joie de
vivre and international encounters all belong to a
greater whole.
Visit our English website here:
http://www.metaforum.com/english.html
And see photo galleries of last year's events in Hungary
and Brasil:
http://www.metaforum.com/english/soca04-gallery/index.html
http://www.metaforum.com/metaforum/winter2005_galerie/index.html
........................................................................
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Feature Article:
ACCESSING YOUR MATH SAVANT
by Wendi Friesen
Here's a little trance:
Close your eyes (after you read this).
Take a deep breath.
And relax for a moment.
Now, think of any 2 numbers that you are going to
multiply together, and
just let them float out in front of you.
Now, imagine for a moment that you have a magnificently
gifted part of
your mind that loves to do math, can calculate any
numbers almost
instantly, comprehend in ways that you could never do
consciously. and
begin to take a floating drifting journey through the
velvety darkness
behind your very relaxed eyelids. As you travel into this
vast expanse
of space, where anything is possible, you go to the
amazing part of
your mind and you discover a savant that loves to do
math.
Notice any color, texture, any knobs or buttons, or
perhaps just sleek
chrome and glass, or other aspects of the input panel to
your savant.
You don't need to create this savant; you simply discover it.
Now you simply place those two number into that input
slot or keyboard,
wherever things go in.
You probably already noticed that there is an output
space as well, and
just as quickly as you put those numbers in, the total of
those two
numbers multiplied came out of the output. What does the
answer look
like? Is it on paper, or is the number just floating
there, is there a
color or frame or glow around it?
That is the savant - and it can appear in any form you
can imagine.
The purpose of having a savant to do these functions is
to take away the
desire to figure it out consciously. What happens inside
that savant,
stays in that savant.
We are much more capable, and we function much more
quickly, on an
unconscious level, obviously. We can perform much
higher-level tasks,
and be immensely more creative, when we set aside our
conscious effort
and allow our minds to work in that state of whatever it
is that happens
when we stop trying.
I was taking an IQ test long ago, and there were several
anagrams. These
were on the subject of dead world leaders. Not my
favorite subject. I
built a savant machine in my mind that would unscramble
them and spit them
out. I instantly got them right. Just pushed 'em in one
end, and out the
other came such surprises as Charles De Gaulle. (I even
now remember that
one from the test - it has been over 7 years since I took
that IQ test.)
Cool, yes? You can use this to spell, read, remember
names (just insert
The face with the letters of the name), remember phone
numbers, or find
solutions to problems. The real magic, I think, is when
you visualize a
specific savant with certain visual qualities. It gets
stored in your
brain and is very easy to retrieve later. The reason I
can remember
Charles is that the pathway to the place where I stored
those names is
anchored in my brain with a link to something visual. I
can even remember
the page of the book that I was reading at the time.
Your math savant might need to do much more complex tasks
than add or
multiply. You can give the savant special functions,
bring in a helper
character, give it noises and even make it grunt if you
like that sort
of thing. Try it and let us know how it works for you.
- Wendi Friesen ( mind@wendi.com )
------------------------------------
To send feedback privately to Wendi Friesen, email her
at:
mailto:mind@wendi.com?subject=Savant
To send your comments about this article to The Stream,
write to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=Savant
To post your feedback or promote a discussion of this
topic:
http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/7733/#PostMessage
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........................................................................
COMMENTS and FEEDBACK
~~~
RESEARCH PROJECT VOLUNTEERS - Win Wenger (
mailto:wwenger101@aol.com )
This is an invitation for as many as possible of you who
are reading
this to commit to testing the procedure Wendi describes
above and to
reporting how it worked for you, as indicator of how it
might serve a
larger audience, and gathering data on how to make it
effective for a
larger audience. We are looking for a minimum of 20 to 25
participants.
Please reply to:
Win Wenger ( mailto:wwenger101@aol.com )
~~~
VISUALIZATION IN MATHEMATICS - Tarek (
tarek_f@sbcglobal.net )
I just read a Winsights column about how we need sensory
referents for
our abstractions. That has been my guiding principle for
the last couple
of years (and earlier, but less comprehensively) of my
education and
served me very well (I now have a BS in math). I didn't
use image-
streaming or any formal techniques--just practiced
visualizing and
brainstormed and drew pictures until I had a very clear
picture of what
was going on. On one occasion, I did use a very
image-streaming-like
visualization, just letting my imagery go where it would
without too
much direction (but no verbal descriptions). That
culminated in my
solving (more or less--I wasn't concerned with taking all
the glory for
myself, although I figured out what was needed) a problem
that had
eluded my professor (who is not a bad mathematician--he
received an
honor from the AMS that he shared with only 4 other
mathematicians in
the country and got his Ph.D. from Berkeley). Just about
every concept
that comes up, I have a visual explanation for it, with
very few
exceptions.
- Tarek ( tarek_f@sbcglobal.net )
~~~
SOLUTION FOCUS COMBINED WITH SOCRATIC METHOD - Rod
Sherwin
( sf@sherwinprosperity.com )
I wanted to share some success I had in doing my first
solution-focused
workshop. I work as a business analyst in Information
Technology and am
often tasked with getting alignment between different
groups. I am also
working on a project where all forward progress had
stalled with the
stakeholders throwing up their hands insisting there was
nothing they
could do to improve the situation.
Under the guise of getting the high-level stakeholder
needs for a
solution (i.e., an IT system), I organised a workshop
that included the
Future Perfect and Scaling exercises. I also mixed in the
concepts of
dynamic format (see http://www.winwenger.com/dynform.htm
) and
Windtunnelling ( http://www.winwenger.com/part55.htm )
from Project
Renaissance in getting the answers from the exercises.
Let me outline
how the workshop went.
I got people to pair up, preferably from different work
areas. I then
described the processes of Windtunnelling, which
basically involves
talking non-stop to get past all of our standard answers
that we have
and force the brain to make new connections. The listener
of the pair
had to take notes and encourage the talker to keep going
when they
started to slow down. This format ensures that all
participants feel
heard and validated, and it helped the different groups
understand
each other's point of view.
I then described the future perfect scenario, which is
the idea of
going home from work and, while asleep, a miracle happens
but you don't
know about it because you are asleep. So you come in to
work as normal
and then I asked them to notice concrete things they see,
hear or feel
are different if their ideal solution is in place. Using
the concept of
a miracle gives people permission to ask for things they
don't think are
actually possible and gives you some valuable indicators
for success.
After describing the scenario, I gave them 5 minutes to
share their
answers to their listening buddy about what was
different. (For future
reference, I would actually use at least 10-15 minutes
here since most
people in the group didn't get past their pat answers.)
I then repeated the setup, this time with the scaling
exercise and
getting them to share their ideas on 1 or 2 point
improvements.
I then had the group share the ideas captured from each
scenario and
then asked the questions, "Are any of these doable
now?" or along those
lines. I was not surprised, however, others were
pleasantly surprised
to find that there were things that could be done now to
improve the
situation without the need to wait for a new software
system to be
purchased. We also have a check list of requirements that
must be
included in the eventual replacement system.
Given this was my first attempt to integrate
Solution-Focused and
Project Renaissance problem-solving techniques into my
work, I was
excited about first designing the format for the workshop
and then
actually having it run smoothly and achieve the outcome
that I desired
for the group.
Word has gotten around the organisation about the success
of the
workshop and other departments are talking to me about
using the
format. This is great for me since I'm trying to broaden
my business
experience outside IT into corporate change and culture
management.
- Rod Sherwin ( sf@sherwinprosperity.com )
Principal Solutioneer, Model Thinking, Melbourne,
Australia
~~~
SOCRATIC METHOD IN MATHEMATICS - Charles (
java_man4@msn.com )
Addressing Socratic method, I write down my thoughts like
insane about
the lecture's contents, which has tremendously,
tremendously helped me.
Due to it, I was one of very few people in my Spanish
Advanced Grammar
class, who having actually done something to the
information in lecture
rather than just hearing it, earned an A in the class. I
have noticed
also that due to it I have had a tremendously
"live" understanding in
my math classes, rather than understanding the notes 6
hours later, and
I have even, due to it, thought of solutions to problems
on the board
that the teacher has struggled to answer for many
minutes, and have
thought of questions and answers that go far more deeply
into math
than is required in the class. Thank you immensely for
working for re-
popularizing the Socratic method. Feedback very much
appreciated.
Thank you.
- Charles ( java_man4@msn.com )
~~~
------------------------------------------------------------------~~~~~~
To send your comments to The Stream for possible
publication here, write
to: mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=Comments
........................................................................
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ORGANIZATIONAL NOTES
~~~
TOPICAL INTEREST GROUPS:
Our membership is large and diverse, and many of you have
expressed an
interest in communicating with other members who share
your topic of
concern or research interest. If you'd like us to share
your email
address with other interested members, and to supply
theirs to you,
please email your name, email address and subject/topic
to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=InterestGroups
Your communications will be private. If you'd like to
take a topic
public, just post your discussions on Project
Renaissance's board:
http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/7733/#PostMessage
~~~
ADDRESS CHANGE?
If your email address changes or your email box is full
or your spam
filter blocks us, we can't get The Stream to you. Please,
before that
happens, make sure you notify us of any change and put
winwenger.com on
your safe senders list. Write to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=AddressChange
~~~
SUBSCRIBER OR MEMBER?
If you currently only subscribe to The Stream, you can
upgrade your
participation in Project Renaissance to full membership,
free.
Membership in Project Renaissance entitles members to
additional
benefits. If you're not yet a member, please register
now, here:
http://www.winwenger.com/regmem.htm
or from link on the homepage, http://www.winwenger.com .
~~~
DUPLICATE MAILING?
If you received two (or more?) copies of this issue of
The Stream,
please let us know by replying to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=duplicate
~~~
HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE...
* You can post messages to Project Renaissance's
discussion board about
any Project
Renaissance topic and join any ongoing discussions. No
log-in required.
Please visit our homepage at http://www.winwenger.com
and click the
Discussion Board link. To post a message right now,
click here: http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/7733/#PostMessage
Then scroll up
the page for the full message index.
* The long-established, popular Image-Streaming egroup is
here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/imagestream - requires Yahoo sign-in.
* Submit articles, comments or questions for possible
inclusion in
The Stream:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=TotheEditor
........................................................................
LINKS
* Back issues of
THE STREAM by email upon request from
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=BackIssues
* Index of feature
articles in The Stream archives:
http://www.winwenger.com/strmlist.htm
* Archived copies
of Capital Ideasmiths are here:
http://www.winwenger.com/Capitalidea/capidea1.htm
* Project
Renaissance homepage:
http://www.winwenger.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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