The Art of Prescience

prescience

The dictionary definition of the word prescience implies it is somehow possible receive fore-knowledge ahead of when things have actually happened.

We can ’see’ this more clearly when we insert a simple hyphen to get “pre-science”.

It could explain how Leonardo da Vinci was able to sketch helicopters and parachutes. Many other scientists and visionaries seem to receive their insights in visions or even dreams.

Newton ’got’ gravity in a split second and took the rest of his life working out the maths of apples falling to earth. The chemist Kekulé dreamt of a snake eating its own tail and then made the intuitive leap to work out the ring structure of the benzene ring which lead to the basis of all organic chemistry.

For mere mortals, making giant leaps of scientific discovery may not be high on our daily To Do lists. However if we are involved in the creative industries, being able to see the ’near-future’ could have its uses. We could ’see’ what is is we need to create, be it the title and words for a book or the scope and shape of a client’s marketing campaign. If you work in the financial sector, knowing what to invest in is obviously useful. Note that there are reasons why we can’t simply get the lottery numbers.

But how do you go about getting into the state where such flashes of insight pop in?

Well the key lies in learning how to enter the meditative state at will – ideally with your eyes open. What then happens is that time and ’The Now’ softens and we find it easier to resonate with both the past and future versions of ’Us’. Rupert Sheldrake describes the mechanism whereby this occurs in his wonderful theories called morphic resonance. By quietening the conscious mind and that inner chatter, past memories become more accessible as do ‘future memories’.

The diagram below shows how an author can tune into the words they have yet to write. If our conscious mind is active, it blocks the flow.

Tuning into Your Future Self

If you don’t know how to meditate and can’t make your mind go blank, help is at hand.

The Manage Your Time with Mindfulness ecourse is designed not only to show you how to stretch time by changing the speed of your thoughts but also how to tune into ‘future memories’.

Frequently Bought Together

There are many proud moments in an author’s career like when you finish your first draft, when the first copy of your book arrives in the post or when you get your first review.

I was on Amazon this morning and I felt a pang of pride I simply have to share with you and it’s seeing that Amazon are listing that my three non-fiction books as being “Frequently Bought Together”.

Now I’ve no idea how many people have to do this before the Amazon algorithm kicks in – it might just be one!! It is however a significant milestone in any author’s strategy.

In the best selling author John Locke’s book, How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months, his advice is not to even attempt this with one book.

So my advice to all authors is this :

1. If you are just starting out – think how you can write a series – publishers and readers alike will love you for it

2. If you have written one book and want to sell more copies – write at least two more

3. If your book is out in print only, make sure it’s available for the Kindle too (as it can be then read on all devices)

Note that your books don’t have to be published with the same publisher or a linked sequence of titles – it’s best if they follow a particular theme or logical progression though …

For example, my books flow like this:

Blocks – clear barriers to creativity

Flavours of Thought – understand not all thoughts are the same

Light Bulb Moments – tune into a special class of thoughts that take you on amazing leaps of imagination and creativity

P.S. the fourth book is being crafted right now and it extends the thoughts in these three to a whole other level … watch this space and I can’t wait until Amazon list all four as being Frequently Bought Together 😉

Afterword in 2013 – here is that book Planes of Being and another I didn’t even plan to write called This We Know

P.P.S. Not even two years after I wrote this blog, I find Amazon recommending not just three but five of my books to people via emailfrequentlyBought