The idea which the subconscious sends you may seem to be ever so logical, ever so perfect for the purpose, and still not fit the world of reality. Again, you must always take the precaution to check it for other reasons. For example, as pre­viously stated, if you sent down incomplete or inaccurate information, your idea result may need revising. You should not submit your idea to your boss or anyone else until you have made any corrections or changes that seem desirable. You should certainly not go all out with it until you have submitted it to critical scrutiny. You may have thought wrongly, closed the wrong circuit, set the wrong switch. Problems are always being solved wrongly, and the solu­tion taken out to do a job in the world. This can be seen with especially tragic results in the field of international governments and statesmanship. The sorry state of Planet Earth is proof enough. Someone scribbled in the subway, “Peace by 1970–with or without people.” (Editors Note: Sign of the times?)

New ideas can be good or bad, just the same as old ones. The age or youth of an idea has little to do with its value. Some of the greatest ideas are old ones; some of the most foolish are new. The opposite is also true.

In the field of idea production, many fine ideas have been given out that did not bring material success to their orig­inators. After you have solved the immediate problem, the next step may be to convince others to support your idea. When you have reached what seems a satisfactory idea, you then have to detach yourself from it. Pretend to be a disinterested stranger and view it without the emotional excitement of the originator.

Hastily to accept an idea and try it out and then see if it works, and to “admit it” if it fails, isn’t a very sensible procedure. You can save yourself a good deal of trouble and embarrassment by some objective verification of your subjective offering. Your own idea will seem to you as the infant appears to its mother. No baby has an unprejudiced critic in its mother. Try to imagine the effect it will have on the persons whom you wish to be interested. This may be a customer, a buyer, an editor, an audience, depending on the type of idea. Consider how it will arouse their de­sires for it, meet their requirements, and satisfy their wants.

• Follow the plan of writing down your idea
• State spe­cifically what it is, what it can do, what is required to put it in operation
• Take time to digest this description; re-examine it from time to time
• Guard against half-baked ideas
• Add, subtract, change or modify until you are sure of the soundness of what you have

Simply to imagine and decide on a plan and then to learn, like the burnt child who dreads the fire, how it works and what its conse­quences are, is not to think scientifically or even ade­quately.

To see the thing as others will see it in order to arrive at an intelligent estimate of what you have done, you must employ past experience, reason, judgment and discrimina­tion. Do not allow the glow of creative achievement to give you a false sense of victory. Everyone who produces an idea has a wonderful feeling, which is often far from justified. The more practical, detached, objective, imper­sonal, you can be at this time, the better. It is therefore well, at this point, to take a different view, a critical atti­tude, and look hard for everything that could be wrong, impractical, inconsistent, or otherwise poorly worked out. It is obviously much better if you can do this yourself than if you give anyone else the chance of doing it. Avoid such errors and embarrassment by being your own severest critic. Refuse to make up your mind too rapidly. Refuse to be too easily satisfied. Refuse to regard a judgment as finally and unchangeably true. At this point you may even aggressively take the view that you may be wrong. Put the conclusion to every test. You may think you have the answer but you must know that you know it by sincerely trying to prove yourself wrong.

When you verify, include these points:

1. Check for suitabil­ity to purpose, to people involved, to time and place, and so on
2. Check whether it solves the problem. State the prob­lem again clearly in this connection. Go over the supposi­tions or preliminary notions on which you have based your conclusion
3. Test rival plans for merits and demerits, con­sidering ease of doing, practicality, desirability, breadth of application, and other advantages or disadvantages
4. Next, exercise your judgment to get rid of rival suppositions and tentatively select the best
5. Then select an idea which sur­vives the first four steps, and test it. You are then ready to get down to a basis of action and decision
6. Finally, you study the consequences, consider the results, and make any modifications that appear to be required

At any time you feel you have to get advice, get it from sensible sources. It is foolish and distracting to ask for information or advice from persons who are unqualified to give it; yet how often this is done. They ask a banker about marrying a certain girl. They ask the doctor about chang­ing their jobs. They ask the priest how to invest their money. They ask a lawyer how to design a house. They ask a salesman how to make up a tax form. At least if you are going to get advice, get it from someone who knows the subject involved. Even Mr. Ford gave silly advice on politics, and Mr. Edison did the same on educa­tional affairs. It doesn’t matter how fine they are, or how capable in their own field, or how much you like them. They cannot give information or advice unless they know the particular thing required.

To take a bird’s eye view of the process of idea produc­tion, you have gathered the raw materials, both specific and general. You have worked them over in your conscious mind. You have let your subconscious mind work upon them. You have received the idea. You have shaped and developed it to a practical design for a realistic world. Your idea was so shaped and developed, not by accident, but by plan. It resulted from a simple method that took the confusion and indefiniteness out of the way and en­abled you to be the master of the situation. Whenever you pursue this formula conscientiously, you will get the de­sired result. Yes, it has its details; it takes some work. But it is better than wringing your hands and worrying. It is better than staring at the wall and watching the clock tick precious minutes away.

IT IS BETTER THAN MAGIC FOR IT IS RELIABLE

It is one of Nature’s wonders that whenever you are possessed by an idea which reinforces a previous idea, an additional spurt of energy is released with it to help in its development.

It is advisable to act on your ideas as soon as they are ready, for if idea energy is kept in storage, as it were, it loses its freshness and might be said to dry up into nothing­ness. You start doubting if it is really as good as you first thought it was. You begin to wonder if you have enough experience to work it out, if someone else isn’t better quali­fied. Once an idea begins to get this kind of treatment only a miracle can keep it alive.

To be sure, prompt action is not always feasible. Excel­lent ideas have been delayed for years. Should yours be one like this, put it away if you must, but don’t forget to bring it out frequently to keep interest alive. Keep it aerated, moist and fresh.

As an example of delayed action on ideas, take the case of E. M. Statler, the great hotel man. More new hotel ideas came from him than hotels had ever heard of in all their history. And these ideas, many of them, came to him as a young boy long before there was anything he could do about them. As a youth, he had a job as a bellboy and one of his more tiresome duties was running up and down stairs with ice water for guests. So he had the idea of piping ice water into every room. The brightness of this was not only having the idea, but also having the wisdom not to tell anyone about it. He did not confide in the other bellboys. He did not tell his boss. He kept it strictly to himself. So it was sensational when years later he piped ice water into the rooms of his own hotel. Other ideas he carried around for years were a private bath with every room; face-cloth and free paper shoe bags in every room; typewriter loaned to guests on request; bed head reading lamps, and many other new ideas.

Your ideas can prove to be equally valuable so don’t throw them carelessly around and give them away right and left. When you get an idea that fills you with enthusiastic energy, bottle it up. Don’t tell a soul. Think about it and work on it, but keep quiet vocally. If you must have infor­mation that necessitates talking to someone, talk, but don’t tell him why you need the information.

Why should we be so insistent on this point? There are good reasons. It is because, for one thing, talking is action. If you have an exciting idea which fills you with energy, then you go into action via words, you use up the idea energy for nothing. It’s all gone by the time you stop talking about it. To do real work on the idea after that, you have to draw on your ordinary quota and this turns what should be fun into work.

As if that weren’t enough, the danger of telling everyone about your idea does not stop with lessening your fitness for action. Sometimes the people you tell will throw cold water on your idea. Merge discouragement with inactivity and you can see where your idea ends, right in the middle of the discard.

Therefore, work out your idea completely before you talk. Know every detail. Be prepared to answer every pos­sible criticism. Fortify yourself with every argument you may need to defend it. All this means that an idea must be pretty far advanced before its originator can take the risk of having it hammered at, torn about, or ridiculed.

Keep in mind the ready dissipation of idea energy, and when your idea is finally ready for action, use only such action as is helpful to its promotion. If your idea is a story plot, don’t tell it. Write it down–otherwise you waste your idea to no avail.

One final caution, don’t hold on to the idea too long. That’s as bad as not holding on long enough. The factor of timeliness is also important.

The steady procession of new things may soon make an invention obsolete. One young man who created a promis­ing household gadget refused a $25,000 offer for it. Then another article came out that did the job better, and the value of his invention skidded to zero.

Important as are ideas, in themselves they are not enough. That idea for getting more business, for simplifying work procedures, or for the great American novel is of value only when it is acted upon. Every day thousands of people bury good ideas because they do not act upon them. No matter how good the idea, you gain nothing unless you do some­thing with it. You must act upon it to give it value. A good idea if not acted upon is psychologically demoralizing, but if acted upon produces immense satisfaction.

Creative thinkers all through the ages reveal the satisfac­tion of producing ideas. Many of them, in fact, have gone through refined torment for the privilege. People who pro­duce ideas, great or small, are reasonably happy. Their minds have certain contentment, and their idea energy keeps pace with their production. Those who do not produce have a restlessness and sense of non-fulfillment. They are dissatisfied and often frustrated. It is therefore well worth the effort to know how to get ideas by such methods as are available and dependable, and thereby enhance one’s personal satisfactions, and one’s contribution to life.

In a manner of speaking, the subconscious mind is just as conscious, just as capable of perceiving and thinking, as the objective mind is. People who are engaged in creative work can direct their subconscious to give them ideas and inspiration. This is something everyone should know how to do.

We have discussed at length the preliminary ingredients you must gather, classify and prepare. In addition to the material you provide to the subjective mind, the latter also draws upon its own large fund of associated and related material which it has stored on the subconscious levels but which you have seemingly forgotten. It may even go so far as to draw upon the material of the genetic memory, if it becomes sufficiently interested in the task and if it is adequately aroused by your strong desire and your confidence in its ability.

Interest is the force which holds the attention and directs the mind to creative achievement. It is aroused by fanning the flame of feeling. You must surround the subject with as much positive emotional power as possible. Constructive imagination will not work without it, so build up your interest from as many angles as you can.

The source from which powerful ideas come may also be thought of as deep within us. The greatest ideas arise from a profound level of wonder and awe, a level available to all humanity, but a level so deep that we are aware of it only rarely if at all. Even experienced writers, artists, and other creative thinkers feel a certain form of frustration, an in­tense loneliness, a sense of impossibility of achievement when they sit down to their work. This deep level is the place where they often get the exciting plot twist, the appealing character or the genuine surprise ending that marks fine and original writing.

Not only are your subconscious mental activities of im­mense power, but they are extremely sensitive at all times to suggestions from your moods. Think of what happens to someone with stage fright, or one who is so in love that he has no appetite. Right in your own experience you can see how interdependent these functions are with your emo­tions.

The creative thinker need not feel tense or frustrated in undertaking a new task if he knows how to give specific and direct instructions to the subconscious. It is much bet­ter to do this in a certain way, than to grope along hit or miss, and let it happen or not, either because of a slip in getting the message down, or for failure to establish contact for getting the answer up after the subconscious has it ready.

Bernard Baruch is one of the many who place strong reliance on the subconscious. He sees it as the author of those hunches which in a long and active life he has learned to trust. But Baruch does not adopt a passive attitude of waiting for ideas to be served up from within. He feeds his subconscious mind in order that it may supply his con­scious mind. The right condition for a good hunch, he says, is to get the facts together and put your intelligence to work on them at full speed. Then, all at once, you see the solution. Your subconscious has come up with it. But team­work had to be employed.

You should formulate in your conscious mind a clear idea of the mental task to be performed, and should reason out why such and such a course appears to be desirable. You should perceive it in general outline and also should form a clearly defined notion of just what task you wish to have accomplished—just what kind of work you want to be per­formed for you. Then bathe it in the emotion of strong desire, which is the driving force of the subconscious.

For reasons already given, it is wise to write down the plan you have devised, as well as each of the steps which must be carried out to bring it to completion. When this has been decided, definite tasks should be assigned to the subconscious to carry out for the forwarding of the plan. With this done, you will want to know the best method for turning these tasks over to your subconscious mind.

There is one rule that always holds true. You must give your problem to the subconscious in the form of definite assignments, and as we have seen, this can only be done successfully after you have assembled all the facts, figures, arguments and other information essential to the problem. The subconscious “cooking” process begins by first focusing the mind on this information long enough and intently enough to get it thoroughly “heated” with the best thinking we can give it consciously.

When this has been done, you should form a mental pic­ture of the thought material being lowered to the subcon­scious levels of your mind, just as though it were being dropped through a trap door. You then deliberately, posi­tively and earnestly, give the command to the subconscious to work out unknown factors. Tell it, directly and spe­cifically, for instance, “Please, Subconscious, analyze, or­ganize, and clarify this material. Add your special inspira­tion and send it back as soon as possible.”

You will probably remember occasions when you went to bed with some perplexing problem and awoke the next morning to have the answers “flash” into your mind. This is such a common occurrence that everyone often says, “Let me sleep on it first” when he is faced with making an im­portant decision.

When we are awake we depend almost entirely upon our thinking, conscious mind. Impressions are continually coming to us from without, via the senses. The conscious mind is in charge of voluntary actions, and most of our thinking is taken up in registering and interpreting the impressions that enter the mind from without. We are so engrossed with this “passing show” that it is almost impos­sible sufficiently to quiet the mind so that the subconscious can be consciously directed with any great degree of suc­cess.

Sleep, if correctly used, can be a great means of solving problems through the natural workings of psychic forces. This is a fact that has been recognized by wise men for thousands of years. In Ancient Egypt, “Sleep Temples” were built where adepts (highly skilled persons) could sleep unmolested and use their psychic powers.

In more recent times, we still find sleep associated with inspiration and the development of psychic or creative forces. Many great writers, composers and inventors have received their ideas while asleep.

The late Edgar Cayce, one of the world’s greatest psy­chics, was able to diagnose disease by going to sleep, even when the patient was thousands of miles away. When he was awake he knew practically nothing about medicine or anatomy, but when asleep he talked in such technical terms that sometimes the doctors had to resort to a medical dictionary to learn what he was talking about. Cayce could do this only when he was asleep.

Creative thinkers, famous scientists and artists have often solved difficult, intricate problems while asleep—problems that their waking intelligence was unable to disentangle. Mozart composed his opera The Magic Flute while asleep. Stevenson thought out Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in much the same way. Your mind, too, will do some of its best work while you are asleep, but only if you give careful attention to having the right prerequisite conditions.

Ordinarily, however, the subconscious does not take over the driver’s seat until the conscious mind relinquishes it. The only time the conscious mind completely relinquishes control is when it goes to sleep. Thus, in sleep, the subcon­scious is able to act on its own without interference, and sleep becomes the ideal physical and mental state for sub­conscious mentation.

However, since the suggestions are implanted by the con­scious mind, and the conscious mind is not active during sleep, the problem arises as to how suggestions can then be given. This is not as tricky as it seems. The conscious thoughts act as suggestions to the subconscious. The last thought held by the conscious mind before going to sleep will be the last suggestion received by the subconscious. Therefore before you go to bed you should have your sug­gestion worded in simple language and memorized, so that it will require no effort to repeat it. The conscious faculties will tend to remain awake if too much effort is required.

To get ideas while asleep, prepare your mind well for them. The mental bath is more necessary than the physical one. Cleanse away the rasping fears and worries and the discordant, discouraging influences that may have been at work during the day, and substitute for them, pleasant, cheerful, serene thoughts. Never take your worries to bed with you. Stay up with them as long as necessary. Pace the floor with them, take them out for a walk; go to the movies with them. Give them your companionship as long as you wish. But don’t take them to bed. There are special tech­niques for worrying effectively, but they positively do not include worrying in bed.

If you want to make the most of your sleeping hours, go to bed in a state of emotional serenity. Then calmly review the problem to be solved. To solve a problem, you have to organize all possible information about it. Then digest this information. This is a subconscious process, like digest­ing your food. You give your body the food and it does the rest. Similarly, give your mind the food and it does the work. Oddly enough, if you don’t give your mind a spe­cific job to do, it will work anyway, but without purpose; and the result is a confusion of senseless dreams.

While everyone should take advantage of the creative possibilities of sleep every night, it is obvious that it is not always possible to go to sleep every time there is an idea ready for subconscious activity. At the same time, relaxa­tion is important, and whether you really go to sleep or not, relaxation of the conscious mind is the only way that con­tact can be established with the subconscious.

It is typical of America that our people are so busy doing things that they do not pause to take stock of themselves, their thoughts, their goals. By not taking any time to be quiet, to meditate about their affairs and objectives, there is no opportunity for inner growth. And as a consequence, we cheat ourselves of many hours of recreation which in themselves add to the effectiveness of our thinking. For re­laxation is the key to the door of the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind works best when we are doing what we like best to do.

Inner growth, or soul growth, depends upon quiet, silence and peaceful contemplation. It then becomes possible to become aware of essentials and to see otherwise hidden values in passing scenes and situations.

We are far too prone to be “in a hurry” all the time. Of course we do not wish to be laggards, and continual alert­ness is necessary merely to keep up with ourselves. But there should be time made for lifting the pressure, the speedup, and taking time to survey calmly the whole hori­zon. A few moments of tranquility make up for much haste and hurry.

Therefore if the time is not opportune for going to sleep, do anything else that relaxes you. When Stevenson didn’t want to go to sleep to contact his “Brownies,” he played the flute. Einstein played the violin. United States presi­dents and judges often read detective stories. Business men play golf. Others go fishing, play bridge, and so on. Listen to music; read a book; go to a movie; it doesn’t matter what, so long as your mind is at rest or at least inactive as far as the particular problem or idea is concerned.

You may play chess with a friend, who will surely tax your mind, but in another field of activity. You may work out the solution of a mystery. You may do any kind of an intri­cate or complicated job, as long as it has nothing to do with your problem. Preferably it should be something pleas­ing to you, in which you do not feel hurried or tense in any way. Some idea searchers have the habit of dropping into an easy chair in their office for twenty or thirty minutes each day, picking up a book and forgetting all about busi­ness. One of these says, “I have never sat in that chair with any thought of developing an idea, but the minute my mind relaxes, ideas begin to develop of themselves.”

We don’t give ourselves half a chance. I know of at least one employer who fired a creative person for looking out of the window in a relaxed mood. He was one of the mil­lions who did not understand the idea-getting process. There is, then, a real necessity, of letting go when it comes to creative work. This letting go is a sort of surrender to the subconscious, allowing the subtle inner forces to take over.

When all these simple requirements have been met, as promised in the formula, something intangible will become tangible. There will be an increasing sense of victory, and your idea will positively come to you.