"After we read a story, we have mind-movies and then we do buddy-buzz," Cai tells me."Mind-movies," I ask?"Yup. Mind-movies are what happens when you read a story that doesn't have any pictures. You make a mind-movie, and that's how you know what the story looks like. Then we buddy-buzz and talk about what we saw."Oooohhhh... Mind-movies... How cool!My boy is talking about vision, and he seems to really have a handle on this thing, so I push back a bit..."So," I say, "I think the person who wrote the story saw a mind-movie first, then wrote it down."Cai looks at me, crosses his arms, and says, "Of course. Did you know that all movies are mind-movies before they get made into real movies?""Are you saying that everything starts with ideas," I ask?He thinks for a moment... "Not ideas, mind-movies! And sometimes people just start making up stories and movies without mind-movies, and then they get a mind-movie so they can finish!"We spend the next few minutes discussing mind-movies, father and son in the kitchen, riffing on some pretty significant concepts. This stuff that has taken me 47 years and countless books on the nature of the Universe to even begin to get a handle on. Junior Bodhisattva, on the other hand, just comes off a school bus and lays it out for me as clear as day. And with a "duh!" attitude, no less! Cai went on to tell me how the people who made some of his favorite books and movies had used their "mind-movies" to create them.Yeah, of course everything we create starts with an idea. Kids know this stuff intuitively, and once they have a mind-movie in their head, it isn't long before every cell in their being is vibrating with the electricity of their vision. From the parental chair, it can feel as if junior has embodied the spirit of an atomic pit-bull that refuses to let go. On one hand, a kid with a vision can be huge pain in the rear. (I was... Hypothetically...) On the other hand, there are huge lessons to be learned about jumping on a vision and riding it for all it's worth.Children latch onto their mind-movies about what their world can be - often without any attachment to how it all comes together. They just don't care where the toy comes from, so long as it arrives. They aren't concerned about whether their mind-movies are based in reality or not, because if they are real to the child, that's real enough.I've been reading Ken Wilber's "Theory of Everything" recently. Early in the book he points out that people, faced with problems, eventually find a way to solve them. As a species, we're very, very good at sitting around and coming up with solutions. We have think-tanks, brainstorming sessions, meetings of the mind, process focus groups...Six year-old kids? They see mind-movies, start churning, ask for what they want, and have an endless well of faith that what they saw will come to be.I can't say for sure, but I think it may just be that simple...
Ken Mossman
Author Bio
Ken Mossman PCC, CPCC, is a business and personal coach who specializes working with fathers and ?creative cliff-jumpers,? men and women with creative dreams that just won?t quit. Ken's coaching style is lively, fun, challenging, full of humor and shamelessly irreverent. To contact Ken or learn more, visit: http://www.cirruscoaching.com
