Lateral thinking is a term coined by Edward de Bono, a Maltese psychologist, physician and writer. It first appeared in the title of his book The Use of Lateral Thinking, published in 1967. De Bono defines lateral thinking as methods of thinking concerned with changing concepts and perception. Lateral thinking is about reasoning that is not immediately obvious and about ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.

Techniques that apply lateral thinking to problems are characterized by the shifting of thinking patterns, away from entrenched or predictable thinking to new or unexpected ideas. A new idea that is the result of lateral thinking is not always a helpful one, but when a good idea is discovered in this way it is usually obvious in hindsight, which is a feature lateral thinking shares with a joke.

Edward de Bono points out that the term problem solving implies that there is a problem to respond to and that it can be resolved. That eliminates situations where there is no problem or a problem exists that cannot be resolved. It is logical to think about making a good situation, that has no problems, into a better situation. Sometimes a problem cannot be solved by removing its cause. Lateral thinking can be used to help in solving problems but can also be used for much more.

We may need to solve some problems not by removing the cause but by designing the way forward even if the cause remains in place. – Edward de Bono

Critical thinking is primarily concerned with judging the truth value of statements and seeking errors. Lateral thinking is more concerned with the movement value of statements and ideas. A person would use lateral thinking when they want to move from one known idea to creating new ideas. It can also be put as, critical thinking is like a post-mortem while lateral thinking is like diagnosis.

Lateral Thinking Puzzles are also known as Situation puzzles. They are strange situations where puzzlers are given a limited amount of information and then have to ask questions of a quizmaster who can only answer yes or no. The general principles that apply when tackling lateral thinking puzzles are to check all assumptions, to remain open-minded and to be creative in questioning. The leading authors of books of Lateral Thinking Puzzles are Paul Sloane and Des MacHale who have written a series of books published by Sterling Publishing.

Here are some fun lateral thinking questions:

There is a man who lives on the top floor of a very tall building. Every day he gets the elevator down to the ground floor to leave the building to go to work. Upon returning from work though, he can only travel half of the distance up riding in the elevator and has to walk the rest of the way up unless it’s raining! How can this be?

Mel Colly stared through the dirty soot smeared window on the 26th floor of the office tower. Overcome with depression he slid the window open and jumped through it. After he landed he was completely unhurt. Since there was nothing to cushion his fall or slow his descent, how could he have survived?

There was a hotel where the visitors complained about the slow moving elevator and how long they had to wait for it to come. It became so severe that the manager was asked to do something about it. If you were the manager what would you suggest?

And here are the fun lateral thinking answers:

The man is very, very short and can only reach halfway up the elevator buttons (assuming the levels of the buttons designating floors increases from bottom to top). However, if it is raining then he will have his umbrella with him and can press the higher buttons using it. Alternatively, the man’s daily job finishes in this very building halfway up, except when it’s raining. Perhaps he’s a security guard who makes rounds floor by floor in the morning and watches a security monitor in the afternoon, except when it’s raining. It never said he takes the elevator before walking, just that he does both.

Mel Colly was so sick and tired of window washing, he opened the window and jumped inside. Alternatively, Mel’s office was in another building, on the first floor, and he was looking at the 26th-floor window of another tower. The window in the second sentence then refers to that of Mel’s office, not the 26th-floor one. Mel could also have had a balcony.

Most of us would come up with ideal answers to call the elevator service center and ask them to send someone to fix it. Warn the visitors about it. Change the system. Lateral thinking applied, a consultant advised the hotel to fix mirrors next to the elevators. This would cause people to be busy looking at themselves in the mirror and adjusting their dress, hair and may be watching someone else in the mirror. They would not feel the wait. This actually worked for the hotel, and they did not receive complaints anymore.

Stoicism, a school of philosophy, was founded in Athens in the early third century. It concerns the active relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom, and the belief that it is virtuous to maintain a will that is in accord with nature. The Stoics presented their philosophy as a way of life, and they thought that the best indication of an individual’s philosophy was not what a person said but how they behaved.

According to the Stoics, the senses are constantly receiving sensations as pulsations which pass from objects through the senses to the mind, where they leave behind an impression. The mind has the ability to approve or reject an impression, to enable it to distinguish a representation of reality which is true from one which is false. Some impressions can be assented to immediately, but others can only achieve varying degrees of approval which can be labelled belief or opinion.

Stoics believe in the universe as a material reasoning, substance known as God or Nature, which they divided into two classes, the active and the passive. The passive substance is matter, which was interpreted as a substance ready for any use, but sure to remain unemployed if no one set it in motion.

The active substance, which could be called Fate, is an intelligent aether or primordial fire, which acts on the passive matter. The universe itself is God and the universal outpouring of its soul. It is this world’s guiding principle, operating in mind and reason, together with the common nature of things and the totality which embraces all existence.

Everything is subject to the laws of Fate, for the Universe acts only according to its own nature, and the nature of the passive matter which it governs. The souls of people and animals are emanations from this primordial fire, and are likewise subject to Fate.

A distinctive feature of Stoicism is its cosmopolitanism. All people are manifestations of the one universal spirit and should, according to the Stoics, live in brotherly love and readily help one another. Each human being is primarily a citizen of his own commonwealth, but is also a member of the great city of gods and men, where of the political city is only a copy. This sentiment echoes that of Socrates, who said “I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”

They held that external differences such as rank and wealth are of no importance in social relationships. Thus, before the rise of Christianity, Stoics advocated the brotherhood of humanity and the natural equality of all human beings. Stoicism became the most influential school of the Greco–Roman world, and produced a number of remarkable writers and personalities.

The Stoics provided a unified account of the world, consisting of formal logic, non dualistic physics and naturalistic ethics. Of these, they emphasized ethics as the main focus of human knowledge, though their logical theories were to be of more interest for many later philosophers.

Stoicism teaches the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions. The philosophy holds that becoming a clear and unbiased thinker allows one to understand the universe. A primary aspect of Stoicism involves improving the individual’s ethical and moral well-being.

The Stoics believed in the certainty of knowledge, which can be attained through the use of reason. Truth can be distinguished from fallacy, even if in practice only an approximation can be made. 

Discordianism is a modern religion centered on the idea that chaos is as important as order. It was founded in 1959 with the publication of its principal text, the Principia Discordia. There is some division as to whether it should be regarded as a parody religion, and if so to what degree. It has been called Zen for roundeyes, based on similarities with absurdist interpretations of the Rinzai school.

Discordianism recognizes chaos, discord, and dissent as valid and desirable qualities, in contrast with most religions which idealize harmony and order. Eris, the Greek mythological goddess of discord, has become the matron deity of the religion.

It is difficult to estimate the number of followers and correctly identify Discordian groups. There is an encouragement to form schisms and cabals. Additionally, few adherents hold Discordianism as their only or primary faith.

Many practicing Discordians believe that humanity suffers from the curse of taking itself too seriously and thus needs to be saved from this grave outlook on life. Thus the Discordians seek to reverse the curse by teaching people to laugh at themselves and their problems and lives. This, the Discordians believe, would solve most of the problems of the world.

The Principia Discordia often hints that Discordianism was founded as a dialectic antithesis to more popular religions based on order, although the rhetoric throughout the book describes chaos as a much more underlying impulse of the universe. This may have been done with the intention of merely balancing out the creative forces of order and disorder, but the focus is certainly on the more disorderly aspects of the world. At times the forces of order are even vilified.

The very idea of a Discordian organization is something of a paradox. Nevertheless, some structure is indicated in Principia Discordia. The most general group, presumably including all Discordians and potentially others, is The Discordian Society, whose definition has no meaning. Within the society are sects of Discordianism, each under the direction of an Episkopos, translated as overseer from Greek, and source of the English bishop and episcopal.

Discordians who do not form their own sects, whether they belong to someone else’s sect or not, make up the Legion of Dynamic Discord, and may be referred to as Legionnaires. Would be Discordians are told in the Principia Discordia that it is hard to describe Discordianism as a religion because Discordians do not have any specific beliefs or dogma that would set them apart from the practitioners of other religions.

The Principia Discordia was written by Malaclypse The Younger, an alias of Greg Hill. This book contains many references to an earlier source, The Honest Book of Truth. From the quotations, it seems to be arranged like the Bible, consisting of verses grouped into chapters grouped into books grouped into the Honest Book of Truth itself.

The Principia Discordia includes a large portion of a chapter of The Book of Explanations which recounts how the Honest Book of Truth was revealed to Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst. It may be worth noting that the tale of the discovery of the Honest Book of Truth contains many similarities to the tale of the discovery of the Book of Mormon, and that Thornley had been a Mormon. It also includes part of the next chapter, telling how the Honest Book of Truth was acquired by a garbage collector, who refused to return it.

In April 2006, the first edition of the Principia Discordia was recovered from the John F. Kennedy archives. This contains Malaclypse the Younger’s long sought for Myth of Ichabod, more commonly known as The Myth of Starbuck. According to the first edition, this originally appeared in Summa Universalia.

While Discordianism is separate from modern neopaganism, a number of neopagans have incorporated elements of Discordianism into their beliefs. In addition, Neopagan author Margot Adler discussed Discordianism in her book, Drawing Down the Moon, while religious authority J. Gordon Melton lists Discordianism among various Neopagan groups in his Encyclopedia Of American Religions. Melton claims to have excommunicated all other Discordians, based on the fact that he is a Discordian Pope. Since every man, woman and child is considered a Discordian Pope, they then de-excommunicated themselves and each other.

According to various Indian religions and philosophies, Dharma is the correct understanding of reality. Dharma is present as a central concept, that is used in order to explain higher truth or ultimate reality.

The word Dharma literally translates as that which upholds or supports, and is generally translated into English as “law”. But throughout the history of Indian philosophy, it has governed ideas about the proper conduct of living, ideas that are upheld by the laws of the universe.

A power that lies behind nature and which keeps everything in balance was a natural forerunner to the idea of Dharma. The Upanishads saw Dharma as the universal principle of law, order, harmony, and all truth, acting as the regulatory moral principle of the universe.

The word dharma literally translates as that which upholds or supports, and is generally translated into English as law. Throughout the history of Indian philosophy, it has governed ideas about the proper conduct of living, ideas that are upheld by the laws of the universe.

In Jainism, Dharma is natural. It is the nature of the soul to be free, thus for the soul the Dharma is beyond worldly. However, the nature of the body is to seek self preservation and be engaged in pleasures.

For many Buddhists, Dharma most often means the body of teachings expounded by the Buddha. The word is also used in Buddhist phenomenology as a term roughly equivalent to phenomenon, a basic unit of existence or experience.

Buddhists hold that they will attain the greatest peace and happiness through the practice of their Dharma. Each person is therefore fully responsible to engage in their practice and commitment. Buddhist philosophers would later question whether the Dharmas, as momentary elements of consciousness, truly have a separate existence of their own.

For Sikhs, the word Dharma means the path of righteousness. Thus is stated:

The path of the faithful shall never be blocked. The faithful do not follow empty religious rituals. The faithful are firmly bound to the Dharma. Only one who has faith comes to know such a state of mind.

The Taizé Community is an ecumenical Christian monastic order in Taizé, Burgundy, France. The founder , Brother Roger, was born in Switzerland in 1915. After studying theology in in Strasbourg and Lausanne he searched in France for a suitable location to found a religous community. The derelict rural village of Taizé, near the Abbey of Cluny, was chosen. The hamlet was just a few kilometres from the demarcation line separating unoccupied France from the Nazi occupied zone. The Community sheltered many refugees, including Jews, at considerable risk to Brother Roger, who had to flee to Switzerland at one point to avoid arrest by theGestapo. When France was liberated the Community also worked with German prisoners of war.

Taizé has spawned a unique style of worship music that reflects the meditative nature of the community. The music emphasises simple phrases, usually lines from Psalms or other pieces of Scripture, repeated and sometimes also sung in canon. The repetition is intended to aid meditation and prayer. Much of the Taizé community music was conceived and composed by Jacques Berthier. Berthier, who studied at the César Frank School in Paris, had an extraordinary ability to write truly functional music that could be sung in more than twenty languages on a wide variety of instruments ranging from guitar and keyboard to full orchestra. 

The community, though Western European in origin, seeks to welcome people and traditions from across the globe. This internationalism is reflected by the music and prayers where songs are sung in many languages and increasingly include chants and icons from the Eastern Orthodox tradition. 

At the heart of Taizé there is a passion for the church. That is why the community has never wanted to create a movement or organization centred on itself, but rather to send the young back from the youth meetings to their local church, group or community, to undertake with many others a pilgrimage of trust on earth. In many places across the world, ecumenical prayers using music from Taizé are organised by people, young and old, who have been in touch with the community. These times of prayer are varied and are integrated in appropriate ways into the life of the local church.

Since the late 1950s, the Taizé community has become an important destination for Christian pilgrimage with the number of visitors ranging from a few hundred to several thousand during summer vacations, with the week of Easter being an exception with a peak of more than 5,000 people. The weekly international youth meetings, primarily for young adults between 17 and 30 years of age, are the community’s priority.

Helped by its music the teachings of the Taizé Community have spread through Western Europe, and into the United States. The annual New Year meetings, which are attended by tens of thousands of young people, have been hosted by most leading European cities including former communist countries. The 90 year old Brother Roger was killed in August 2005 when an apparently mentally-disturbed Romanian woman stabbed him during evening prayer at Taizé. 

In 1991, the asteroid 100033 Taizé was named in honour of the community.

Theologians and philosophers have ascribed a number of attributes to God, including omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, perfect goodness, divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has been described as incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable being existent. These attributes were all claimed to varying degrees by the early Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars.

Many medieval philosophers developed arguments for the existence of God, while attempting to comprehend the precise implications of God’s attributes. Reconciling some of those attributes generated important philosophical problems and debates. For example, God’s omniscience implies that God knows how free agents will choose to act. If God does know this, their apparent free will might be illusory, or foreknowledge does not imply predestination, and if God does not know it, God is not omniscient.

The last centuries of philosophy have seen vigorous questions regarding the arguments for God’s existence raised by such philosophers as Immanuel Kant, David Hume and Antony Flew, although Kant held that the argument from morality was valid. The theist response has been either to contend, like Alvin Plantinga, that faith is properly basic, or to take, like Richard Swinburne, the evidentialist position. Some theists agree that none of the arguments for God’s existence are compelling, but argue that faith is not a product of reason, but requires risk. There would be no risk, they say, if the arguments for God’s existence were as solid as the laws of logic, a position summed up by Pascal as “The heart has reasons which reason knows not of.”

Most major religions hold God not as a metaphor, but a being that influences our day-to-day existences. Many believers allow for the existence of other, less powerful spiritual beings, and give them names such as angels, saints, djinni, demons, and devas.

Through the present moment we have access to the power of life itself, that which has traditionally been called God. As soon as we turn away form it, God ceases to be a reality in our lives, and all we are left with is the mental concept of God, which some people believe in and others deny. Even belief in God is only a poor substitute for the living reality of God manifesting every moment of our lives.

Our minds reveal themselves as essentially formless when we go deeper into them. They become a doorway into inner space. Although inner space has no form, it is intensely alive. That empty space is life in its fullness, the unmanifested source out of which all manifestation flows. The traditional word for that source is God.

So when we think we can sense our thoughts, that is a misperception created by our minds. What is really happening is that the consciousness that appears as the mind is becoming conscious of itself. When we no longer confuse who we are with a temporary form of ourselves, then the dimension of the limitless and the eternal can express itself through us and guide us. At each moment, we can sense the presence of inner space, which really means we can sense our own presence within the presence of God.