## ALTERNATIVE THINKING

The search of alternative ways of looking at things is not natural. The natural tendency of the mind is to become impressed by the most probable interpretation, and then to proceed from that. In order to overcome this natural tendency it is necessary to be deliberate and even artificial. One technique that seems deceptively simple is to predetermine the number of ways in which any situation can be looked at. The number may be three, five or more. Each problem that is encountered is then deliberately looked at in this number of ways. At first the process seems very artificial. Many of the interpretations that are manufactured to order seem quite absurd when compared with the natural and obvious interpretation. Yet no matter how absurd the forced interpretations may seem, the quota must be filled. In time and with practice it becomes less of an effort to find other ways of looking at situation, and these other ways seem very nearly as reasonable as the most obvious way.

Another useful technique is to turn upside down deliberately by consciously reversing some relationship. Instead of looking at the walls of a house as support for the roof, the walls may be considered as suspended from the roof. Instead of moving an aeroplane through the air so that the wings may build up lift, keep the body of the plane still and only move the wings through the air, as in a helicopter. Instead of assuming that the sun moves around the earth, assume that the earth moves round the sun. - Instead of something moving in a curve through space, assume that space itself is curved. To reverse or otherwise alter a relationship as in these three instances is easy, because wherever the direction is defined the opposite direction is, by implication, equally defined.