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THE BUILDER AND THE PLAN

       Table of Content

      IN THE processes of Efficient Constructive Imagination, directed by a definite purpose and toward a determined end, you will find it advantageous to follow the general rule given below. This rule, which is the result of a careful study of the requirements of the case made by competent investigators of the subject, is not a hard­and­fast rule to be observed absolutely by you under all circumstances; rather it is a general framework of the actual method to be followed by you, the special details being supplied by yourself. Rightly understood and intelligently adapted by you to the special circumstances of particular cases, this rule will be found to meet the requirements of practically all the cases likely to require your attention.

      General Rule

      I. Create a clear mental picture of the general idea representing your Definite Purpose, i. e., the particular end which you wish to accomplish; the particular obstacle which you wish to overcome; the particular result which you wish to obtain; the particular desire which you wish to satisfy; the particular ideal which you wish to make real; the particular idea which you wish to materialize in objective form.

      II. Form a comprehensive picture of the whole field of the proposed undertaking; get a comprehensive and inclusive view of the whole field of the business into which you purpose embarking; see the whole enterprise in all of its general aspects; compose a comprehensive idea including the whole matter under consideration.

      III. Make a written list of all of the probable factors involved in the problem or undertaking; compile a list of all of the probable elements involved in the working out of the matter; gather together all of the ideas of the things at all likely to be called into the creative process; have within easy reach the ideas of all of the materials likely to be employed in the construction of the ideal form which you wish to materialize.

      IV. Classify these ideas, elements and factors according to their general nature, their general uses, their known relations and associations; cross­indexing them under appropriate headings, and referring to the lesser elements, parts, or factors of which each is composed. Diagram and chart these ideas according to your system of classification, so as to have the whole matter under your mind’s eye, and so that you may be able to grasp the arrangement at a glance without having to hunt for scattered items.

      V. Weigh the various factors one against the other, taking into consideration the associated and related values of each in the general idea, plan or purpose. Determine in this way which are the primary factors involved; which are the secondary; and which are the lesser values. Concentrate on the prime factors, and make these the central points in your process of Constructive Imagination—the focal centres around which you purpose grouping the associated factors or elements.

      VI. Experiment by tentatively placing the secondary factors in association with and relation to the prime factors, regardless of how improbable or incongruous at first may seem such association and relation. Around the letter “A” build alphabet­block combinations of the letters B, C, D, E, F, G, etc., blocks, to see if they “make sense,” or if they suggest anything of rational meaning to you. Discard all combinations that seem lacking in utility—but only after actually making the test and experiment. Continue this until you have secured satisfactory results. Where there are several apparently satisfactory, or fairly promising combinations, weigh these one against the other to determine their comparative values, discarding the lesser values, and retaining the greater, until you have secured the “survival of the fittest.” Then proceed to test out the lesser factors in the same way, working out all the details of the plan.

      VII. Having reached at least a fairly satisfactory working plan, idea, invention, or solution of your problem, you should then carefully detach yourself” from it—you should move from your personal point of view, and try to see it as others will see it. Try to imagine the effect it will have on the persons whom you wish to be interested in your finished product; how it will meet their requirements, satisfy their wants, arouse their desires for it. Your own created conjunction, plan, method, design or invention naturally will seem to you as the infant appears to its mother—no mother is an unprejudiced critic of her own baby. You must see the thing as others will see it, in order to arrive at an intelligent idea of the actual degree of utility possessed by your invention, creation, composition, or contrivance. You must employ past experience, reason, judgment, discrimination and cool decision in this final testing process.

      In the present, and in several following sections of this book, we shall ask you to consider in further detail the several divisions or principles composing the above­mentioned General Rule, together with certain instructions designed to promote the effective application of each of these special points.

      In the General Rule of Efficient Constructive Imagination, the first step is that of: “Creating a clear mental picture of the general idea representing your Definite Purpose, i. e., the particular end which you wish to accomplish; the particular obstacle which you wish to overcome; the particular result which you wish to obtain; the particular desire which you wish to satisfy; the particular ideal which you wish to make real; the particular idea which you wish to materialize in objective form.”

      Definite Purpose is an essential characteristic of all true Constructive Imagination. This Definite Purpose may not be the actual purpose to objectify a subjective image already created in the mind—though often it is precisely this purpose of externalizing the created internal image. More often, however, the Definite Purpose is that of overcoming an obstacle; supplying a perceived want; discovering an efficient method of performing certain work. There is always present a “fixed idea” supported by a “fixed feeling.” The more definite the purpose, the more directly does the creative work proceed to its end. The more persistent the feeling and the desire inspiring it, the stronger is the urge toward the objective materialization.

      Halleck says of this characteristic of the Creative Imagination: “The Constructive Imagination is always characterized by a definite purpose, which is never lost sight of until the image is complete. A child starts to build a house out of blocks. These are often changed and taken down many times, before the form in which they are built is such as to fix the growing, purposive image in the child’s mind. Before an architect builds a house, he must form successive images, which he alters whenever they conflict with the general plan of that special dwelling. An inventor often spends years in changing and re­combining the images of parts of his machine, but he is all the while dominated by a Definite Purpose. The images must be altered until matter poured into their mold fulfills the aim of the inventor.”

      We would here, however, caution you against harboring the idea that the Definite Purpose is a crystallized, fixed, unchangeable archetype which the inventor strives to represent as best he can in material, objective form. Rather, the Definite Purpose is an evolving, developing Idea, moving forward as do all living forms. It advances and, usually, gradually takes on new and better forms and details; also, it frequently discards as inefficient or impracticable some of the forms or details which it had accepted at the start.

      As a writer has said: “The Creative Ideal arises in the inventor and proceeds through him. Its life is a ‘becoming’ process, and not an unchangeable fixed form. Its ‘fixed’ character consists of its Continuity and Definite Purpose. * * * If we liken creative imagination to physiological generation, this Creative Ideal is the ovum awaiting fertilization in order to begin its development. * * * The Creative Ideal is a creative image tending to become real.”

      Before you may expect successfully to accomplish creative mental work, you must know, at least in a general way, just what you wish to create. You must select at least the general goal toward which you desire to journey. You must not be content to sing, in the words of the familiar ballad, “I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on the way.” You must sketch at least the general map of the country over which you wish to travel, and to indicate with at least a fair degree of definiteness the place at which you hope to arrive at your journey’s end.

      We do not hold that you must necessarily work out a detailed map of that country—the details you may fill in

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