TANGIBLE

What if there were a machine that could produce thoughts? And plant it in your psyche to create your aha moment?

Exactly a year ago, Dr. Ben had invited me for breakfast. 

Dr. Ben had taught me in college and post-retirement she settled down to give life to several of her abstract ideas. She was a brilliant combination of science and spirituality, who could simply weave magic combining her intuition, mind, and emotions. She had been my mentor ever since I graduated from college. She was now nearing seventy.

Over breakfast, we recalled some fond memories. And then we got to discuss her weird projects. She lightened up every time someone called her a weirdo.

Like every time we met, she had something intriguing to show to me. This time she asked me if I were interested to try her brainchild Bullet.

That's how I had the most surreal yet fortunate experience of being the first subject of Dr. Ben's bizarre experiment.

She led me to her lab and pointed to a machine that looked like a small printer, and asked, "Is there something you are struggling to understand? Maybe some issue, or some insights for a general understanding you would like?"

Oh yes! It was self-love. For the longest time, I thought self-love was a myth. That it was a word invented to save people who had no one else to love; and a better substitute to the word selfishness. But recently I have intuitively believed in this concept and my heart wanted to embody it, but my mind wasn't convinced yet. 

How could love for myself affect every external aspect of my life?

So she asked me to close my eyes and with the equipment on board, we were ready to begin. Control shifted to that little box. It felt like I was playing a video game with my eyes closed. 

And then I could notice something like a bullet. That got shot into a closed tangible area, a few feet away from me that felt like a fluid with several droplets. 

For the next five seconds, the bullet navigated itself through this mini world and stopped suddenly, and the trail on which it landed started glowing as if a pathway were lit with little bright bulbs. And that next second, I could feel compassion and love for myself. Whoa!

Dr. Ben turns off the machine and says with a smile," Congratulations! Operation complete! How do you feel now?" 

I was left baffled. 

She understood that I needed help to fathom what just happened. So she went on, "To put it in simple terms, this genie box can produce thoughts."

"Produce what?!" 

"Yes, you heard it right. It can produce THOUGHTS."

"What do you mean by producing thoughts?! There's no dearth of thoughts in our minds!" I exclaimed. " And they are neither something like toffees that you can make in a factory nor like tomatoes that you can pluck out of some plant!"

She laughed and responded thoughtfully, "Well that's what we just did! I will come to the details in a moment. But first, tell me how you feel!"

I was impatient to pause and introspect, after listening to what Dr. Ben's machine could do. What had it just done to my mind?!

She was quick to understand my concern, " Don't worry, you are and were in safe hands. Let me help you demystify this now.

So this genie box does two things:

1. It creates a replica or a sandbox model of your mind.

The machine reads your mind, captures its infinite space of intangible thoughts, and transforms it into a finite space of tangible thoughts.

So within this finite model, which I call the sandbox, thoughts are tangible entities. Yes, they have a form and they can be perceived by the human senses. Because this has a form, it gets easier to manipulate it.

2. It creates the exact thought that would result in your lightbulb moment.

The other important function of the machine is to create a thought which is exclusive to how your mind works. Now, this is the Bullet thought - in your case, it was the thought of the image of a circle. The machine shoots it into the sandbox, which is essentially planting the thought in your psyche.

Now for any active issue in your mind, there is exactly one pathway in the sandbox. The machine spots the pathway right when Bullet is being generated. The Bullet is shot into the sandbox, aiming to land on the right pathway. 

And it should land there exactly within ten seconds. If for any reason, the time limit crosses ten seconds, Bullet lands in your psyche but remains just any other thought in your awareness.  

Once Bullet lands on the right pathway within ten seconds, your lightbulb moment kicks into your system. You are equipped with an understanding of the insight and it embodies into you with no effort from your end. That was when you saw those little bulbs glowing to celebrate the win!

That was about the machine. Now how is it different from talking to people to get the right advice or insights?

You could talk to a friend, see a post, or seek explicit guidance to get the right insights. But the insight remains a random idea unless it gets embodied in you. So when does it get embodied in you? You can't control that, can you? 

You would see the same quote on Facebook multiple times, but suddenly when it comes through one person in a certain tone in a certain manner, it just gets CLICKED! There's chance involved in that case, and Bullet reduces that.

You were lucky enough to get the job done in five seconds! I am happy for you!"

Well, I was happy for myself too, but that was loads of information for me. I had to retreat to reflect. As I got up to leave, Dr. Ben stopped me. 

"How did the image of a circle convince you that self-love is indeed important?"

Dr. Ben had fallen in love with and married an international fashionista. I was always perplexed about their relationship because despite being exotic it only blossomed more with time. Naturally, when I was on the verge of breaking up with my long time partner, I went to seek her advice. She said that the problem was very clearly visible to her and that it was because I didn't love myself first. She would question me, "How would you offer love to another person if you couldn't love yourself?" That sounded cliche at that point. It just couldn't sink in no matter how hard I tried. 

True, different people have different sources of inspiration, but no doubt she wanted to know more about how the image of a circle could finally convince me. 

This time I responded with the newfound wisdom Bullet had sowed in me, "The key to constructing a circle - the center of the circle lies inside of it. Love begins within."