Art by Norman E. Masters

GENIUS IS A DYNAMICALLY CREATIVE CONDITION in which the Ordinary is transcended and becomes the Extra-Ordinary. In the Genius state, a part or the whole of mundane routine Reality is experienced in an entirely novel way. This inspired re-framing of Reality was partial in the case of Nicolaus Copernicus -- who altered the earth-centered view of the world -- and total in the case of Wilhelm Reich who ushered in such a fundamental revolution in our understanding and experiencing of the Cosmos that it may well take centuries for it to become embodied fully in the Life of Humankind. Genius is a truly Divine quality. It transforms a given person into a god-like being -- a cosmic creator -- giving him or her no peace until the supremely ecstatic moment when the required appropriate form has been actualized in practice. The quality of Genius may be expressed through the truly creative composer of music or through the genuine poet or scientist or inventor or life-affirmative mystic and so on who, in the course of over-leaping the banal mediocrity of well trodden ways, pioneers a completely new and original path which eventually causes the repetitive themes of the uninspired conventional to be totally superseded. And, because it does tend to erode the well-worn grooves of the familiar and the accepted, the phenomenon of Genius is seldom welcomed and usually meets with negative attitudes from total indifference to outright hostility or even worse. Nevertheless, it is in and through Genius that real change of a local or a global character is initiated in human society. For Genius is the "3-M Midwife" that delivers those always unexpected psycho-social mutations which when amplified lifts Humankind out of the dull stupor of the spirit-shrinking humdrum into an eternal Spring-like domain full of fresh insights and living experience. So far as the coming Solar-Age is concerned: its emergence consists precisely of the development of a collective state of Planetary Genius -- transcending qualitatively the prevailing patriarchal/technocratic Present -- whose altogether new and highly appropriate embryonic Solar-Age Reality forms the true basis of our planet's Tomorrow.

~~ Michael Tobin

We solve our problems
Through new insights - - - - - 

Not via Intellect -- which is too clever
Not via fears and anxieties that cloud vision
But through innumerable small voices
Barely perceptible
That come to us like the chatter of young children
Happy contented children
Children at play
Children filled with wonder and excitement
At the splendour and promise of their whole new world

In these few words I have tried to describe what I believe is the most crucial ingredient for relating creatively and successfully to the world and its problems; namely, become a "void", an "ear that listens", someone who is tuned to receive his/her every thought, word and action from the infinitely higher -- and deeper -- creative source. It is a most wonderful and satisfying way of functioning, in which we commune in the tranquillity of our deepest being with the heart of All and Everything -- including the embryo of the future-as-yet-unborn. I made this the subject of my first book JOURNEYS OF NOTHING IN THE LAND OF EVERYTHING (Thorsons Publishers) and always make it a priority to teach my students in industrial and other settings to work from this foundation beyond the ego, its habits, anxieties and puny hunches. Much modern teaching and training makes an inner stillness a first priority, but then fails to connect with this for producing the actions that the silence could produce. The proper value of working silence -- over and above refreshment and revitalization -- is the clear recognition of what one must do and how it shall be done, to help solve the problems or extend frontiers creatively. Silence should bear fruits of creative action; and the more real and extensive the silence, the greater should this harvest be.

Whether or not our periods of silence and inner stillness have such a major value for us, and for our world, depends primarily upon the attitude with which we enter into silence. Certainly we must learn -- through the silence -- to receive our answers rather than try to construct them. But this does require the a priori stance of genuinely longing to be the person through whom a needed answer is recognized and is implemented. This is not egotism, it is a proper and healthy desire to be helpful.

Throughout this process, this same attitude of mature responsibility must be taken with respect to holding in check all of the lower tendencies within oneself, including those hinted at in my introductory lines. Working silence remains of minimal value unless and until it becomes fully integrated into the whole process of working and doing things. One needs to master the art of bringing the silence into each new moment, not as an escape from the world and its problems but rather as the means whereby the suspect instincts and strivings of one's "lower" nature lose their failings and destructiveness, and are increasingly metamorphosed to become valuable rather than detrimental.

~~Edward Matchett