The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a classic example of what can happen when over confident people think they can make short cuts when dealing with natural laws and principles. Had engineers respected the irrevocable nature of these laws and principles the present catastrophe would not have happened.

(I have several highly visible 3-D signs around my office that remind me, “Don’t do stupid stuff”).

That BP engineers and management have not succeeded in stopping the oil leak tells me that, whatever they are doing, they’re doing it wrong.

If my experience as a professional problem solver tells me anything, it’s that BP engineers are focusing too much on the problem and not enough on a solution. This is just the opposite of what their focus should be. Not only because I have proven my unique scientific approach to the benefit of a widely diverse clientele for more than 50 years but because Dr. Einstein and other thinkers throughout history have reminded us, “You cannot solve a problem from within the same consciousness that created it.” BP doesn’t need more of the technological “expertise” that caused the problem, they need to reject their expertise and be responsive to new IDEAS.

There is a creative process that will meet any need, solve any problem and meet any goal or objective. There is virtually no adverse situation or circumstance that cannot be resolved by the proper application of natural laws and principles; “the creative and controlling forces of the universe.” (Webster)

(A logical continuity of these natural laws and principles is outlined in my book, “The Science of LIVING BETTER FOREVER.”)

In all recorded history nothing was ever accomplished, no need was ever met and no problem was ever solved that didn’t begin with an IDEA. The right idea can change the world. Ideas do not originate in the finite world of technology and limitation. They are revealed to the receptive thought of one trained in how to access them.

Perhaps we can all learn a lesson from a company that had a vat of liquid filled with a lot of loose material suspended in it on the first floor of their building. They needed to transfer just the liquid into a vat on the second floor.

No problem. All they had to do was to pump it up, right? Wrong! The solid debris fouled up the pump. Pump experts were consulted and new pumps were installed with similar clogging results. It was then decided that what they needed was a better filtering system to remove the debris before it got to the pumps. Various filter designs were tested but they, too, became clogged. The company’s management was convinced they had a serious filter/pump problem that was not only insurmountable but costly.

The solution to their “impossible” situation lay, not in addressing it as a filter/pump problem, but in seeing it as a need to transfer clean liquid from point A to point B. What they really needed was to reject the usual engineering approach (that didn’t work!) and find a new IDEA that would. They needed a new creative approach.

“Creativity” is defined by Webster as, “The ability to be productive through imaginative skills.” (notice he makes no reference to technology or skilled training, just the imagination) and “productive,” “to establish results, benefits and profits.”

A new, unorthodox system was developed and implemented that involve neither pumps nor filters. A conveyor belt affixed with sponges was cycled through the lower vat, absorbing just the liquid, and conveyed to the second floor where the clean liquid was simply wrung out. Problem solved.

Two axioms come into play:

1. The longer a person (technician) works in a given field the less likely he will come up with a creative idea. Familiarity can thwart expansive thinking.

2. History proves that the greatest creative contributions are made through a mind not too fully packed with existing knowledge or the awareness of past failure. New ideas usually come from sources outside the organization.

There are lots of ways to plug up a pipe. To date, all the “obvious” technological approaches have failed. As in the case of our pump / filter scenario, the solution will most likely be a radical departure from the “obvious” engineering approach and come from OUTSIDE the organization. There are thousands of people with ideas on how to solve the problem (myself included). In my opinion, BP needs to publicize an open channel to accept these ideas, set up submission parameters and a mechanism for objective evaluation

There is already more technical expertise than needed (axiom 1). What they need now is the uncluttered simplicity of a good outside ideas and concepts (axiom 2). Working together, the engineers can put the nuts and bolds of practicality to viable innovative submissions.

Traditionally, organization is the enemy of innovation and tends to retreat into an “N. I. H. (Not Invented Here) mode to defend themselves against anything that might challenge their technological mindset. But the enormity of the Gulf crisis demands an impersonal cooperative effort. The time has come to start thinking and forget all the reasons why past attempts have failed.

When all else fails, INNOVATE!

Today, scholars are armed with the so much proven data, it’s inconceivable to me how they can completely ignore or overlook the basic natural laws and principles of nature and believe that they include some means by which they can destroy themselves. Not only is it scientifically impossible, it is irrational.

Voltaire said that “it is dangerous to be right in matters on which the accepted authorities are wrong.” If that be the case, all our physics books are obsolete. The basic laws and principles that control and govern the universe are completely impersonal and are no more subject to debate than the fact that “4” belongs at the end of “2 + 2.”  Natural laws work simply because they exist. They do so without any help from you or me. They are scientific in that they are “the operation of laws and facts subject to proof…not speculation, conjecture or any assumption without proof.” (Webster)

The intelligence of today has replaced the relative ignorance of days gone by. I’ve lived through lots of “predictions of doom.” I’m still around so they had to be “speculation and conjecture.” The current projection for “the end of times” is in the year 2012. Apparently, most modern day “scientists” cannot accept the fact that there is no matter universe to be destroyed! I can accept the caveat that phrases our annihilation as, “the end of the world as we know it.”

If we really think about it, the only thing that can be destroyed is ignorance. My “world” of last week has been “destroyed” because what I didn’t know then, I do know now.

On Jan. 1, 2013, we will celebrate another New Year. Trust me!

Here we go again.  More disturbing economic times and predictions of more to come, mortgage foreclosures, unemployment at a critical stage and  more talk about  “bailouts”.  All this is being supported by super big numbers like billions, hundreds or even a thousand billion; even a million million, which is a trillion.  These numbers are mind-boggling and cannot be fully comprehended within our puny human minds.  They are not “things”, they are CONCEPTS, which Webster defines as “mental images apart from an object (dollars)”. 

Let’s face it, there is no way you or I are going to personally influence the bailout plans of the economic gurus in Washington. But you and I CAN do something about it.

Washington economists are busy with their bailout plans based on abstract concepts, not reality.    The reality is, as Dr. Einstein told us, “No problem can be solved from within the same consciousness that create it.  We must learn to see the world anew”.

To see the world anew, means that we you and I, personally, must reject the “idea” of lack and limitation and supplant it with the idea of its opposite: infinity.

 “Infinity”, by definition, is “that which is limitless, boundless, endless and greater than any pre-assigned finite value however great” (Webster).  “…greater than any pre-assigned finite value (dollars) however great”!

Anything finite is simply the unawareness or ignorance of that which is infinite.  The universe is infinite: “The whole body of things observed or assumed including the whole without limit or exception and accruing everywhere”(Webster).  Infinity and limitation cannot coexist because they are opposites, which are defined by Webster as “elements that are so far apart and diverse as to be totally irreconcilable one to the other”.  Where one is true, the other must be false.

This understanding doesn’t take place “out there” in a world defined by limited parameters and self-destructive characteristics.  You can experience nothing outside your own personal conscious awareness.  To change your experience you must change the focus and conviction of your thinking.

This will establish the proper mindset which Webster tells us, is “a mental attitude that determine and influences events and circumstances”… that which is the substance of everything that comprises our individual life experiences.

I know how abstract and impractical this sounds, it is an unorthodox, radical departure from the norm.  But lest you think this is some abstract fantasy of a guy living in never-never land, let me assure you that I have proven these truths personally and as a professional problem solver and creative consultant to a widely diverse client base for more than 50 years. 

By diligently adhering to these principles and expecting the unexpected, you will find the events and circumstances of your life experiences adjusting in such a way that whatever is needed will appear in some, often unexpected, natural way.  You will find yourself in the right place at the right time under the right circumstances.  The events and circumstances of your experience will unfold as naturally as the sun rises in the morning because you will have yielded yourself to natural laws and principles (defined by Webster as, “the creative and controlling forces of the universe”.)  You will experience these laws and principles in proportion to your disciplined adherence to them and

your total rejection of any concept that would challenge them.

The integrity of these “controlling forces of the universe” cannot be successfully challenged, denied, circumvented, circumvented or modified.  They are in full operation right here, right now.  The need only be recognized and accepted.  It is the law.

Adherence to these principles has been a way of life for my wife and me for more than 50 years.  For example, in seemingly miraculous ways we could not possibly anticipated, we were removed from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.  We lost everything but found that whatever was needed was supplied in the form of lodging, clothes, money, the right steps to take at the right time, transportation and a new home in New England.  We  experienced new harmonious “events and circumstances” beyond anything we could possibly have imagined.

You, personally, cannot go to Washington and “bail out” those who, by adhering to false principles, have created chaos.  But you can bail yourself out of any discordant situation by separating yourself from adverse outside influences, setting your own standards and yielding control to the universe whose sole purpose is to sustain and maintain its, and your, unchallenged balance and well being independent of any “outside” influences. 

As difficult as it may be, we must depart from tradition procedures that don‘t work and “see the world anew” based on proven scientific principles that do work. This approach is bound to provoke questions that demand answers. 

These are trying times and nobody should be victimized by world events.   Freedom is

as natural to you as wet is to water; it is the law!  You have a personal obligation get the right answers and prove this for yourself.  You will be under no obligation if you feel you would benefit by contacting me and letting me answer any questions you might have.

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The world thrives on one crisis after another.  When one crisis has run its course, news people come up others to take its place.  This is as predictable as the sunrise.

This kind of “news” brings out all the gurus, self-appointed “experts”, analysts and “preachers of doom” only too willing to share their views on any given subject.  However articulate they may be, seldom, if ever, do they offer any viable solution to the problem.  And if they do, it is immediately challenged with hostility and rejection.

Is there a real solution?  Of course there is!  It has been articulated by serious thinkers throughout history but nobody is listening.   In more recent times, it has been presented by Dr. Einstein when he noted that, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.  We must learn to see the world anew”.

Every problem, every crisis, every conflict, whether personal, professional, corporate, national or international can only be resolved by this self-evident rule. However difficult it may seem, the law demands that we see the troubled world from a completely opposite point of view.  The opposite of chaos, turmoil and discord is harmony, balance and perpetual well being.

Where does all this take place?  Think about it.  The only PLACE it can occur is in your conscious awareness.  Your experiences take place within you; they are not a “something” that occurs externally “out there” somewhere.  This is your “mindset” which, by definition, “determines and influences events and circumstances” (Webster).

This new, opposite world is embodied in the universe, which is defined by Webster as,

“The whole body of things observed or assumed; including the whole without limit or exception; accruing everywhere”.  There is no room for chaos, confusion or conflict here!

QUESTION: The infinite universe, being the only reality, wherein does this “thing” they call a “crisis” come from?

ANSWER:  It doesn’t come from anywhere; it is merely the unawareness or absence of the answer.  It can have no more real existence than a counterfeit dollar bill can have without there being a genuine dollar bill to be a counterfeit of.

What is termed a “crisis” is only the absence or unawareness of the answer.  It is an illusory, misinterpretation of the harmony and balance already in full operation in the universe of which we are an inexorable part.  In reality, the only way we can experience this illusory “thing” they call a crisis is to accept it as real.  To the degree that we can separate ourselves from it and identify ourselves with the “controlling forces of the universe without limit or exception”,  can we prove it in the “events and circumstances” that comprise our life experiences.

This is more than a nice comfortable philosophical, abstract or academic statement.  It is the LAW!  “Law” is defined by Webster as, “A rule or principle that always works and is enforced by a governing authority”.

Living up here in New Hampshire this time of year, I observe the operation of the laws governing the universe every day as the trees change their colors.  I note, too, that the operation of these laws and principles, “the creative and controlling forces of the universe” (Webster), are no more influenced or directed by any man-made “laws”, legislation or government regulation than the sunrise.

All I can do is to be an impersonal observer of the perfect, uninterrupted rhythm of the universe.  From this perspective, all the utterances of the “bad news pundits” have no more power or authority over my world than the belief that 2 + 2 = 6.

Its completeness was my completeness.  Its perfection was my perfection.  Its harmony and balance was my harmony and balance.  How could it be otherwise?  The infinite nature of the universe rendered any implied challenge as being an absolute impossibility.

In view of these inevitable facts (“Something that has actual existence; a piece of evidence having objective reality” Webster) I need never have any concern for my well-being, which is maintained by the natural perfection of an all-inclusive, infinite universe of which I am an integral part.

Then I turned on the news. It presented pictures of a world in conflict, violence, corruption, political unrest and predictions of hard times at all levels of business and personal life.  Where did this world come from?

I am reminded of a peaceful evening my wife and I were enjoying in New Orleans when it was interrupted by my spotting a giant cockroach on the floor. We experienced an immediate reaction: shock, excitement, an adrenaline rush and a sense of urgency to do something about it.

I immediately took on the role of a “great hunter” and ran to get the can of Raid.  As I cautiously approached my “enemy”, I noticed that it was not a cockroach at all but was only a leaf that had been tracked in from the garden.  We were immediately healed of all our traumas and anxieties. Peace was restored as soon as we recognized the truth of the situation.

Where did the cockroach go?   It didn’t “go” anywhere because it wasn’t a real “something” in the first place!

When your peace, harmony and balance seem to be interrupted by any adverse situation that sends you into a defensive frame of  mind and suggests that you must attack the problem, remember it has no more reality than my cockroach and will “disappear” just as readily when you recognize it for what it is…. or isn’t.

They say that most of us, sooner of later, will experience major events in our lives at least once. These “major” events:

1. come upon us suddenly

2. are not anticipated

3. have a traumatic effect on us

4. are life altering

FYI, I have related our experiences in articles in this site:

“How I Beat Hurricane Katrina”

“Disaster Survival”

The entire tone of this blog site focuses on how to keep the events and circumstances of your life in perspective so that you remain in control under all circumstances. They are worthy of frequent review. Particularly now.

Today, there is the threat of other hurricanes in the area that have a probability of making landfall along the Gulf coast. If you’re one in this area, take it from my wife and me: listen to the evacuation orders and heed them. Hurricanes are not to be taken lightly. I still have family down there who went through both Katrina and Rita. When it comes to taking the necessary precautions, I have a slogan worth heeding: “Don’t do stupid stuff”.

Again: Review my other blog articles, keep your mind open to the message and you’ll be OK.