by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com
Blink: the Power of thinking without thinking by Malcolm Gladwell, writer for the New York Times, is about our abilities in rapid cognition. In just a few seconds we draw conclusions about everyday happenings using a unique ability of our unconscious mind. Since its release Jan. 2005, Blink has stayed on top of business book selling lists.
We all have an internal computer with an adaptive unconscious to quietly process a lot of data quickly… in a “blink” of the eye. Called rapid cognition, a knowing without knowing, we all make snap judgments within limited time and information… and in most cases with a great amount of accuracy.
“The adaptive unconscious does an excellent job sizing up the world warning people of danger, setting goals and initiating action in a sophisticated and efficient manner.”
Blink sets out to prove that “decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately.”
There are instances though that may betray us. Why? How can we train ourselves to be good at snap responses.? When should we trust our immediate instincts? Our unconscious processing system is very powerful with potential to create practical skills in rapid cognition. According to Gladwell, this power of knowing happens in the first 2 seconds. It is not a gift for a fortunate few, but an ability we can all cultivate for ourselves.
He lists many case studies to verify his book’s premise.
In war games, it is impractical to take time to analyze rationally when the enemy is pursing you. By the time you complete a calm rational analysis the enemy may have over taken you.
In an experiment several military strategist went up against some New York stock traders… who live a fast-paced rapid cognition decision making lifestyle. With their rapid cognition experience they actually defeated the war specialist in the first war game. In this case rapid knowledge outperformed shrewd analysis.
Although in the second war game, the military learned from the traders, applied the skill of rapid cognition along with their experience skills came back to take the next game.
There are times when wrong snap decisions are made. We call this prejudice.
To overcome prejudice in thinking, it takes retraining and taking in new experiences different from the past to implant new information in the unconscious mind. Like learning to play basketball, to develop rapid cognition requires training, rules, and rehearsal.
Then in real world scenarios we can respond with more refined skill. It gives a case for continued learning and perfecting abilities prior to impelling needs that trigger the rapid cognition process.
For more on Blink note Glidewell’s web link.
http://gladwell.com/blink/index.html
"Knowing:" A Core Spiritual Gift
The apostle Paul in the Bible said he wished we all would prophesy… to predict, reveal things from Divine origin.
Prophecy is much like Blink…to know without knowing. Prophecy works in connection with the universal mind of God, Spirit that is connected to all things.
“The Spirit searches all things” (1 Corinthians 2:10)
and Jesus said that the Spirit would tell us things that are to come. (John 16:13) He promised that we would have His Spirit in us, connected directly to God for living in all the potential of the Spirit.
That is the Spirit that created everything from the beginning, knows all things and orchestrates all things. Our mind works much like an internet Search engine… it searches all parts of stored data in the brain in micro-seconds, in response to everything… as Galdwell points out. The Spirit, since Jesus, was sent to do the same… but this connection is with the whole universe. Spirit knows what people think, their plans and can give us direction related to everything… based on its Infinite Connections.
It is the most powerful attribute of those living in Jesus Spirit, but its visible demonstration of existence is mysteriously not seen around too much. Why? I wonder the same thing. Why? Are we selling ourselves short on what we have available to us. Our society generally does not seem to recognize the possibilities here. Galdwell is on to something in Blink. This leads us to an even higher level… the Spirit Level.
When looking at the New York Times recently, I saw the top 3 books in the “How-to" category were written by Spiritual representatives. The #1 and #3 books by pastors (The Purpose Driven Life and Your Best Life Now). The #2 book was by a psychic-medium (If You Could See What I See). What intrigued me about all this is the interest in “foretelling” the future and the source most are looking into seems to be the psychic world. I will say though that seeing into the future is not an exclusive capability of psychic-mediums.
In the Bible, many prophets are prominent. Here’s a few:
Jeremiah, the prophet, said, quoting the Spirit of God,
“Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will
tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
(Jeremiah 33:3, NASB)
Jesus, the Prophet and Teacher, said, "But when He,
the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth;
for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears,
He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and
will disclose it to you.”
(John 16: 13,14, NASB)
Paul, Prophet and Apostle, said, “That your faith would not rest
on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit;
for the Spirit searches all things,
even the depths of God.
(1 Corinthians 2: 5, 10, NASB)
We serve a kingdom of Power as Paul says… it’s not about words, knowledge, clever strategies of our minds to do clever things. It is about pure Power.
(see 1 Corinthians 2 and 3).
It’s about Action, Not Talk. Spirit produces above human results… Super Natural results… beyond our ability to really understand exactly how it happens.
Above all, all this is part of us.
The Same Spirit that spoke to Jeremiah, Jesus, Paul IS in Us.
We are all made to prophesy… to see from Spirit what is to come and share with each other. It is ours to cultivate. As Gladwell discovered from "knowing" skills, developing Spiritual knowing requires the same…
belief in them,
training for them,
rules about them
and rehearsal … practice, practice, practice.
Jesus reminded us that it is according to our faith these things happen. Spirit works, when we let it and stay in stride with it. The Supernatural is with us, we have the ability to “know without knowing.” This is an unsung, under-rated, under-used, under-explored powerful dynamic available to us.
As Gladwell gave insight to potential of our mind’s abilities, I say the same of our Spiritual abilities. “It’s not a gift for the fortunate few,
it’s an ability WE ALL CAN cultivate.”
In Spirit, WE ALL have Predictive Intelligence.
This prophetic gift of “knowing without knowing,” advanced rapid cognition or what I call sensing, has worked a lot for me. When considering leading business books in the past, sometimes a new book would seem to jump out at me. Interestingly, more than half of these have ended up on the top ten of business book lists. It’s my rapid cognition skill. I, do though, spend a lot of time reading biz articles and books. So, like Gladwell observed, you build this skill.
More than this is, I know you can learn prophetic skills. I have focused a lot in this area. Through time you become more finely tuned in sensing when the Spirit is prompting, talking to you. The Scriptures very clearly implicate that we all have this potential in Spirit.
“Ask me and I will tell you some remarkable secrets
about what is going to happen.”
(Jeremiah 33:3, NLT)
Think on the impact this would have on our everyday lives, within our business ventures… daily decision-making and problem solving, creating new products and services, advancing into new markets, satisfying real customer interests…. “Spirit Searches all things” and gives you the best course of action.
Predictive Intelligence is a Spiritual Service at our disposal.
Geffry Fields writes more on this on his blog Jesus is Us… “Predictive Intelligence... a Spiritual Arsenal”. Here’s the link:
http://jesusisus.blogspot.com/2005/07/predictive-intelligence-spiritual.html
John, Prophet and Apostle, heard the Spirit say to him:
“Come up here
and I will show you what will happen." (Revelation 4:1,2)
In Spirit, he saw….
In Spirit, you will See what is to come…
No comments:
Post a Comment