by Tom Evans | Apr 8, 2011 | Scribing
So I’ve had an iPad for the best part of a year now and loads of people have asked how I use it and what I’m using it for.
Or if it’s just a bit of a toy?
Well I’ve discovered using this new type of tablet (and watch this space for the clones) ushers in a whole modus operandi.
In short, it’s brilliant – especially for writers, designers, entrepreneurs, inventors and creatives. I would struggle to go back to using a laptop.
This new way of working merits the introduction of a new word – iPadivity.
noun [n] :
1. the phenomenon of increased creativity and productivity when using an iPad – and activity while doing the same
2. the generation of new ideas using an iPad
3. profitability from generating and using iPad apps
Now I have to say everything I’ve been able to do I could do with a combination of iPhone or laptop. Some of it admittedly even with paper and pen. While the iPhone scores on portability, it lacks screen real estate and typing is slow (this whole blog incidentally was written at speed using the iPad on screen keyboard).
The laptop is just so much heavier and I have always felt a bit nerdy to get out on a commute and certainly in a coffee shop. It also takes too long to boot if you just want to do something quickly and acts as a barrier in a business meeting. The 3G enabled iPad delivers a useful synthesis of both devices which is better than both – plus I have to say it looks cool !!
This Mind Map tells the story of what I am using it for … of course generated on the iPad as were all the graphics in this blog.
The first iPadivity gain is really good use of “dead time” – those times in the day when you would have been waiting for something can now be used to process email, do a tweet or two and check out news or write a blog.
The second iPadivity benefit is being able to read, listen to or watch pretty much anything – either online, in iTunes or your own archive.
The third iPadivity capability, and to me the most important, is being able to write stuff. Here the lightness and specific functionality of the apps comes into its own. For example, before writing each chapter of my new book, I’ve taken a hint from artist Cat Bennett and I am drawing using Brushes an image that encapsulates the concepts I am about to write about.
I am working to a master Mind Map structure for the whole book but I’ve also started mapping each chapter before eventually writing it in Pages.
This has lead me down several new avenues I simply wouldn’t have explored.
Now could I do this on the laptop or desktop – absolutely – but not when the Muse takes me – and certainly not with as much ease and FUN !!
Add to all of this, the ability to browse on a whim for research and dip into the brilliant Wikipanion app, my iPadivity is probably up 400-500% of where it was less than a year ago.
I’ve also used the iPad in several client sessions. Again, its unobtrusiveness is the key. It’s like having a paper notebook but where you can email the notes instantly. In the sessions I did last week, this included a colour-coded Mind Map of actions arising and a wireframe for an iPad app I am designing, using iMockup.
This of course points to an amazing iPadivity – the ability to encapsulate your knowledge and wisdom in an iPad app which you can share with other and generate profitability from … watch this space !!
So if you’ve got an iPad or an iPad2 or another type of tablet device, or are getting one, I’d be interested in your thoughts ….
by Tom Evans | Apr 7, 2011 | Scribing
Writing an article on knowledge is potentially a difficult task. It makes you ask the question what do you know and even what qualifies the writer to write knowingly.
You have to ask yourself questions like who is doing the knowing and how do you know that you know? For example, you may think you know what is true and right in your head but your gut might tell you it’s wrong. Your heart might not be in it and there may a whisper of doubt sneaking into the back of your mind.
This train of thought also brings into question where the knowing sits. Is it in our cognitive centres, in the very water of our cellular structures or somewhere even more ethereal?
What makes the whole subject even more difficult still is that ‘we know’ there are degrees of knowingness. During the Iraqi conflict, Donald Rumsfeld, the then US Defense Secretary, was caught prevaricating as there were things he knew that he’d rather not share with others. Nonetheless, inadvertently, he gave us a really useful framework for understanding the modern world in his infamous “known knowns” speech.
There’s obviously the stuff we know we know – the Known Knowns – at least that is until we find out whatever we thought we knew, we didn’t know that well after all. I get the Word of the Day from Dictionary.com every day and keep finding words I thought I knew the meaning of actually mean something else.
There’s stuff we know we don’t know – the Known Unknowns – like where we really came from, how come we are self-aware and why toast always seems to fall butter-side down.
There’s a weird category of Unknown Knowns – these are things we know but didn’t know we knew – like someone really likes you but you are just not quite fully aware of it yet.
Finally there are the Unknown Unknowns – these manifest as the Fear of the Unknown. They are the demons that stop us in our tracks. If we don’t stick our heads above the parapet to have a look, we can’t be harmed.
If this isn’t bad enough, what you think you know can get turned on its head in an instant. The ancients knew the Earth was round but in the Dark Ages we were taught it was flat. We now know its round yet everyone uses a map which is flat.
Knowing is altered by perspective. For example, if you add another dimension to the mix, literally, what is curved space and surfaces in a 3-D universe are flat sheets in 4-D. We can see in a 2-D Flatland that the ‘flat people’ could jump up. If they did this, to another ‘Flatander’ they would disappear.
So stating we absolutely know something to be true is inadvisable. All we can ever know is that we don’t know everything. Furthermore, as soon as we know something, there is inevitably something else to learn.
Claircogniscence
Traditionally knowledge has become a left-brained activity based the output from the Scientific Method which runs like this:
- Observe something
- Make a prediction based upon what is observed
- Observe or measure something else against the new prediction
- Make it into a Law – like the Laws of Gravity or Thermodynamics
This is fine until the Laws break down.
A more intuitive basis to work on is tuning into our innate claircogniscence. This a ‘knowing’ version of clairvoyance, clairaudience or clairsentience. The source of the knowing can be from any of our chakra points – normally gut, heart, 3rd eye or crown but also the alpha and omega chakras outside our bodies.
Incidentally, don’t ask me how I know all of this. I just do and I have complete faith that what I am imparting here is knowledge that will appeal to readers of the resulting article.
Claircogniscence is more than just knowing. It’s also an inner sense that it’s OK to know in itself and there is no need to share or even prove what you know. In healing and therapy, it is the most useful tool as you can instantly get a sense of issues and how to treat them.
It’s also a vital part of the creative process. You just know what you are writing, painting or composing is just perfect. You are connected both with your Muse and your audience. You are in flow – and you Know It. It is the progenitor of the most desirable output for the search for knowledge – that of gnosis.
Gnosis
Gnosis is the result of unquestioned claircogniscence and requires no qualification – it just is. The best examples end up being koans, aphorisms or maxims.
These are stories, questions or statements the meaning of which is not best understood by the application rational thinking but may be accessible through intuition. They just feel right.
Examples range from a Zen Koan that gives us an Known Unknown by asking an incisive question like:
“What is your face before your mother and father were born?”
– to one of Hippocrates’ sublime aphorisms that, on first hearing, begets the Unknown Known:
“Life is short, and Art long; the crisis fleeting; experience perilous, and decision difficult.”
– to the pithy and witty Known Known maxims that are the stuff of urban myths such as:
“In an autocracy, one person has his way; in an aristocracy, a few people have their way; in a democracy, no one has his way.”
These kind of statements are just right; we feel it in our water. They are incontestable and don’t lend them to analysis unless you are feeling particularly fastidious.
True gnosis though more traditionally applies to a spiritual knowing.
What’s important here though is that gnosis is something which is personal. For example, it’s said that there are 33 paths of spiritual awakening. Now I don’t know if it’s true there are 33, there could be more or less. What I do know is that as soon as the path or the type of awakening is defined and proclaimed to be “The Way”, we have slipped from gnosis to dogma. All I know for sure is the path and way that I am following seems to be working for me but that I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone else.
Once you assume a dogmatic position, the acquisition of new knowledge becomes difficult and we are closed off from the next level of awakening.
I’ll leave you with one of my favourite “knowings” from the mind that was Chief Seattle –
“This we know. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. All things are connected. This we know.”
by Tom Evans | Apr 5, 2011 | Scribing
Rachel Willis, CEO and insightful editor of Lightworker Magazine posed a little problem for me recently to submit an article about a subject I realised I write little about.
Namely Love …
I took the decision to ‘channel’ it raw and this is what came out …
by Tom Evans | Apr 3, 2011 | Scribing
When we click on a link, we don’t give it a second thought – especially these days when we are presented with 100’s if not 1000’s of potential hyperlinks each day.
Links nowadays are not limited to those on web sites or in email newsletters. They abound in Twitter tweets and on Facebook Walls.
Knowing how and why people click on one link as opposed to another is of course of interest to the person who posted the link. Indeed understanding how we interact with any text is important for any writer.
Here’s a typical sequence of events:
1. About a second before we are consciously aware of anything, our right brain is continually filtering information before presenting it to our left brain for further processing and analysis. This is known as whole brain filtering.
2. To get past the gatekeeper of the right brain, which works holistically, we have to write content which matches patterns the right brain will light up to. Example might include:
- Keywords – e.g. Video, ebook, iPad, your favourite football team/author/pop group
- Rhymes
- Fun & puns
- Freebies
- Double takes
- e.g. If I had written Triple Take, the right brain would inform the left that there is something new it doesn’t understand that needs analysis
3. Once the left brain is presented the information, it analyses it further with criteria like – is it a con or a spam and is it something to deal with now or park for later? If the former, the motor commands to our arm and hand muscles to click on the link are issued.
4. When we then look at the destination page the whole process is repeated for the opening paragraph – or the image or first few seconds of the audio or video – and then so on for all subsequent content until we meet another link that we follow.
5. So our right brain analyses the whole and our left, the detail.
As for the Google search engine, both have to match otherwise our spam filter kicks in. For example, if we thought we were on a page containing a freebie but it becomes clear the point of the page is to sell you something, you will soon go elsewhere. Long sales pages try and subvert this process by beating the left brain into submission.
“OK,” it says, “I didn’t want to buy anything but it was $5000 and I can get it for only $20 today only.
“The overruled right brain screaming, “They saw you coming.”
6. For best results, the message needs to be completely congruent say from from initial Tweet, to blog title right through the body text to the final call to action.
7. If you have read this far, you will be approaching the call to action – yes, this blog is a soft selling page. Do you feel conned? I hope not as this blog contains some useful free information.
by Tom Evans | Apr 2, 2011 | Scribing
I am thrilled and extremely honoured to be able to contribute to the 1st issue of Inspire – a new free magazine from of the amazing WeCollaborate community.
My belief is that there is only a recession if you want there to be one – by bringing inspiration to the workplace, you literally breathe new life into it.
… you can read my article and other erudite thoughts from some amazing writers in the mag here.
by Tom Evans | Mar 29, 2011 | Scribing
I am often asked by both new and experienced authors how you go about protecting your books in the digital age.
In these days when you can blog a story or submit an ebook direct to the Amazon Kindle Store, the Apple iBookstore or to one of many aggregator sites like Issuu, Lulu, BookBuzzr and Smashwords, what’s to stop anyone stealing and copying your work illegally?
If you submit your novel to a author community site like Authonomy, what’s to stop someone stealing your idea and writing their own book on the subject?
Well if you think about it … not a lot and it’s not much different from how it has been since Caxton invented the printing press.
If you produce a printed book, there is nothing to stop anyone photocopying it. How many times have you borrowed a book and read it and not paid the author or the publisher a penny? How many times did you not give it back?
For digital products, you can add password and enable DRM protection but there is nothing to stop someone telling someone else the password. Even if the digital rights management is tied down to a particular device as it is for Kindles, iPhones and iPads, there is nothing to stop people other than the purchaser enjoying the work.
I am sure when you write your book, you didn’t do it in isolation of any influences from other authors, friends, colleagues or teachers.
By far the best way by far to protect your work is to look at your behaviour and modify it so it’s karmically balanced.
Now I am not trying to preach here or be holier than thou – this is just good common sense and politeness and I too have fallen foul of not playing by the karmic rule book.
My seven top tips for karmic rights protection
1. Don’t run the fear your work will be copied
2. If you use a quote or concept from another writer, give them some credit in a Thanks section of your work or, at least, list their book in references
3. Be open to your payback coming back in another form other than the sale of your books
4. Don’t steal another writer’s work
5. If you like a book you borrowed, buy a copy or buy another book from the same writer
6. Give loads of stuff away for free
7. Be thankful for everything you receive
_________________________________________________
– just think what it would be like to live & breathe in a world that worked to these principles, it’s within our grasp & starts with each one of us today
p.s. if you ‘breach’ the spirit of KRM, you will find others will ‘steal’ from you
by Tom Evans | Mar 28, 2011 | Scribing
Soulwave is a short story extracted from my forthcoming novel.
At only 7000 words long, you can read the whole book in a single commute on your iPhone or Kindle.
Soulwave is a future-history – that is something that might just happen It has happened to the Earth in the past and will undoubtedly happen again – we just can’t say when. It makes any fears about global warming seem trivial.
Although the message seems terminal, the story is really about how life propagates around the Universe that we are just one small part of. It will make you realise that we are only alive on this planet at this time by the slimmest of coincidences. Our planet and solar system are very special and we should cherish them and look after them.
Soulwave is completely free for the iPhone so why not download it today and I’d be so grateful for your feedback here and in the iTunes store.
Note that it’s also available for the Amazon Kindle and Kindle readers for PC, Mac, Blackberry, Android etc but Amazon don’t seem to be allowing UK authors to add free stuff yet so I’ve made it as cheap as they let me.
by Tom Evans | Mar 27, 2011 | Scribing
If you have an important message you want to share with the world, how do you go about it?
The answer lies in writing a literary Trojan Horse using metaphor and story telling. The acknowledged masters in this art I strive to emulate are Paulo Coelho and Deepak Chopra.
The secular and the cynic might shy away from the Mind, Body, Spirit section of a bookstore – be it online or in the High Street.Sometimes this is for good reason as the writing can be inaccessible or a little preachy. Spirituality in general can also be ethereal in nature with no tangible real world benefits.
Let me share how I’ve been going about it.
When I wrote my first book, 100 Years of Ermintrude, I was told that I was channelling my work. My first reaction was to say, “Don’t be stupid, I’m not a medium.”
When I looked into it some more, I discovered channelling is really just getting your conscious mind out of the way so another form of consciousness can come through. The external consciousness may well be a dear departed spirit but can also be your guide, fairies at the bottom of the garden or even your Future-Self. I even teach how to do it now on my workshops and show how you can even channel the chair you are sitting on.
It turns out to be a great way to access your Creative Muse and is essentially what all the literary, artistic and musical greats have done down the years.
So when I wrote my first non-fiction book, I thought it would be a good idea to write about channelling but to open up the ideas to a new audience – to all writers and creatives. The book turned out to be ostensibly about writer’s block – it is even simply called Blocks – and was published by a non-MBS publisher.
By writing about things that stop your Muse coming through, you cannot help but touch on topics that would appear in a book on channelling such as the collective consciousness, higher self, karma, the importance of breath and even the food you eat.
It even promotes, without mentioning it explicitly, the practice of active channelling where the author is in the loop and adding value and context. The book though doesn’t appear in the MBS section.
For my next trick, I had the idea that it would be great to introduce a new audience to the magic and wisdom of the Major Arcana of the Tarot.
So I wrote Flavours of Thought which explains the essence of each key in simple contemporary language with no baggage. Furthermore it shows how triplets of cards can be combined into recipes to tackle many common and real world issues and opportunities.
In some ways, it’s a book of spells but without the baggage of any arcane ritual.
I managed to pull this off without mentioning the word Tarot once. The references are all there for those who want to learn more.
My latest work published by O-books in 2011 is ostensibly about how to have light bulb moments on demand.
Guess what though? It’s really a book on how to prepare for ascension into the new awakened consciousness and merged mind. It is written to be read by business people, entrepreneurs and scientists as well as the spiritual awakened. By reading the book and following the exercises, you will raise your vibration and become a transceiver for the Light. I don’t of course use this type of language in the book.
Of course, you will also have loads of blindly good ideas you can use in your personal and business life and learn how to have the on demand and not at random!
The common themes of the work is to fabricate real world applications from spiritual practices. I call it making the esoteric into the exoteric – that is taking the unknown, occult and hidden into the known and understood.
I should also mention that each book was simultaneously published in print and for the Kindle, iPhone and iPad. They are also augmented by audio tracks to help get the reader into the perfect state of consciousness. I also merge words, video and audio into Enhanced Edition books and ecourses too.
Has this overall tactic worked you may ask?
Well the results for me have been the opening of new doors, new business opportunities and dialogues with those that have been searching for answers but want them delivered in a contemporary context.
There’s a number of new authors who are now happily writing and being published with a new and strong connection with their Muse. I find that spiritually aware businesses approach me and we can use spiritual practices such as channelling, timeline entanglement and manifestation in the board room … as well as the odd bit of magic.
This particular ‘horse’ is now riding on to the next project … the emergence synthesis of a new mode of consciousness, being and doing. I may choose to write the next book though with gloves off.
Related Links:
The Myth of the Trojan Horse
Blocks: The Enlightened Way to Clear Writer’s Block
Flavours of Thought: Recipes for Fresh Thinking
The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments
by Tom Evans | Mar 24, 2011 | Scribing
Available June 2011
The first review for this book from the editor at O-books said, “This book is quite simply brilliant.”
This is kind of expected as tapping into our innate brilliance is what this book is all about and, most specifically, how to do it simply.
The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments is an interactive, educational and entertaining guide on how to have ideas on demand. In it I explain how the mind works (and doesn’t work) so you that you can experience inspirations about anything pretty much any time you like.
Light bulb moments don’t have to be random.
You will learn the secrets to Whole Brain and Whole Mind Thinking, the importance of the breath and how to reconnect with your vestigial minds and the superconsciousness. Find out where ideas come from and why most thoughts aren’t necessarily your own.
Reading this book will quite possibly change your world by helping you spot serendipities, making you luckier and even healthier and wealthier.
List of Contents
Part 1: The Art
1: What is a Light Bulb Moment?
2: What stops Light Bulb Moments?
3: Maps in Your Mind
4: The Devil on Your Shoulder
5: Re-minding yourself
6: Collective Thoughts
7: The In-Spirational Breath
8: Ordering your Dreams
9: Flavours of Thought
Part 2: The Science
10: The Cascade of Creativity
11: Getting in Sync
12: The Importance of Grounding
13: The Chasm
14: The Wisdom of Growds
15: Managing Ego
16: The Future’s Bright
17: Magic Moments
18: A Whole New Mind
For more insight of how this book is being received, here’s the early endorsements:
“Creativity is one of the mind’s most mysterious processes, long thought to come and go of its own volition. But in this insightful book, Tom Evans unlocks some of the mystery and he shows that this isn’t the case. This is an insightful book which uncovers some of the mind’s mysterious creative processes. Tom Evans shows us how we can create the right conditions which enable insight and inspiration to arise, so that don’t just have to wait for them. A very practical and accessible guide to uncovering your mind’s potential.” Steve Taylor, Author of Waking From Sleep and Making Time
“Tom Evans shows how everyone in a team can be encouraged to have light bulb moments which can be used throughout the entire product life cycle”
Mike Southon, Financial Times columnist and best-selling business author
“What a wonderful tool and resource for tapping into our creative muse anytime, anyplace. Written in an accessible style this book is for anyone who wants to take an idea from inspiration to manifestation.”
Davina MacKail, Author of The Dream Whisperer
“Like Tom himself, ‘The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments’ works powerfully and effectively on many levels; it is well-written, inspiring,practical and like a breath of fresh air for the heart and mind. If you put into practice only a fraction of the rich resources on offer in this book, you will transform your own life, and quite possibly that of many others, too. Read, digest, do – and be sure to send a copy to everyone you care about.”
Christine Miller MA FRSA, Editor of ReSource Magazine & ‘Secret Garden of the Soul’
“A very nifty little book for Entrepreneurs wanting to learn how to harness the power of our ideas. It’s arty, scientific and magical and much, much more useful and inspiring than Dragon’s Den!” Judith Morgan, Entrepreneur, www.JudithMorgan.com
