Free Think! by Edward de Bono

underestimate the importance of possibilities. Most great advances in science are based on possibilities.
    Research shows that people who smoke a lot of cannabis have an increased chance of developing schizophrenia. This may be so. But if we look at this information in a different way there is a possibility that people with a schizophrenic tendency enjoy cannabis more, and so more people with this tendency smoke cannabis heavily.
    I once commented that I did not think that the Harvard Case Study method was a good way of teaching. Someone pointed out that a lot of brilliant people came out of the Harvard Business School. I pointed out that if a lot of brilliant people make their way towards an archway, then a lot of brilliant people will emerge from that archway. The archway has contributed very little. To get into Harvard you have to be brilliant, so when you come out you are still brilliant. There is a very real need to look at the information and data in new and different ways.
    Possibilities and creativity
    As we've seen, one of the formal tools of lateral thinking is 'challenge'. We need to use this to open up possibilities even when we are sure we have the right, and only, answer.
    In traditional thinking, if there is an obvious and apparentlysatisfactory answer we stick with it and never explore other possibilities. We use possibilities only as a way of getting to the truth. If we believe we have already got to the truth, we do not need possibilities. One of the very important roles of creativity is to seek to look at data in different ways. Otherwise we remain stuck in old concepts, which the data can be used to support. Simply analysing data will not produce new ideas. If you want a really new idea you have to be able to start it off in your head, with creativity, and then check the idea out against the available data.
    I have mentioned it before, but it is important enough to mention again. Once we have found the 'right answer' and the 'truth' we stop thinking. What is the point of thinking further?
    The result is that there are many excellent ideas that completely block further progress. We do not think about these matters. There is the dangerous habit in psychology (especially in the USA) of calling all thinking 'problem solving'. So, if we do not perceive a problem, there is no point thinking about it.
    I would say that this may be the most serious barrier to human progress.
    Religion – truth or heresy?
    Religion needs certainty and truth. It would be hard to be a martyr for possibility.Galileo got into trouble when his 'possibilities' challenged the certainty of the Church.
    The Church needed the logic and certainty of the GG3 in order to prove heretics wrong. The Church could never accept heresies as possibilities.
    While logic, truth and certainty (with the possibilities of hypotheses) have been very powerful in science, they have been limiting and even dangerous in other areas. Other people have other truths.
    In perception, possibility is central. Do you look at a situation this way – or that way? You always need to keep possibilities in mind.
    If we really want truth, why should we bother with possibilities? There are a number of reasons:
There is the obvious need for possibility as a hypothesis or framework on the way to finding the truth.
Truths accepted too easily can be challenged by opening up alternative possibilities (as suggested above).
There are times when you have to live with many possibilities as you cannot determine the truth. This is often the case with perception.
    The pre-Socratic philosophers in ancient Greece had much more to say about 'possibility' and invented the

hypothesis. For obvious reasons the Church preferred thelogic and truth of the GG3.
    Creative possibilities
    There is a type of examination called 'multiple choice'. The candidate is asked a question and then given a list of possible answers. The candidate then chooses their answer from this list.
    The advantages of this