‘Grokking’ falls into the category of gestalt psychology, where humans are able to see things as a whole despite apparent contradictions and ambiguities. One’s understanding of the situation is so good that it becomes a part of us. Its pattern is understood completely as a gestalt.

Gestalt psychology also covers things like eemergence, reification, multistability and invariance.

From Wikipedia:

Emergence

Emergence is demonstrated by the perception of the Dog Picture, which depicts a Dalmatian dog sniffing the ground in the shade of overhanging trees. The dog is not recognized by first identifying its parts (feet, ears, nose, tail, etc.), and then inferring the dog from those component parts. Instead, the dog is perceived as a whole, all at once. However, this is a description of what occurs in vision and not an explanation. Gestalt theory does not explain how the percept of a dog emerges.

Reification

Reification

Reification is the constructive or generative aspect of perception, by which the experienced percept contains more explicit spatial information than the sensory stimulus on which it is based.
For instance, a triangle will be perceived in picture A, although no triangle has actually been drawn. In pictures B and D the eye will recognize disparate shapes as “belonging” to a single shape, in C a complete three-dimensional shape is seen, where in actuality no such thing is drawn.
Reification can be explained by progress in the study of illusory contours, which are treated by the visual system as “real” contours.

Multistability

Multistability (or multistable perception) is the tendency of ambiguous perceptual experiences to pop back and forth unstably between two or more alternative interpretations. This is seen for example in the Necker cube, and in Rubin’s Figure / Vase illusion shown. Other examples include the ‘three-pronged widget’ and artist M. C. Escher’s artwork and the appearance of flashing marquee lights moving first one direction and then suddenly the other. Again, Gestalt does not explain how images appear multistable, only that they do.

Invariance

Invariance

Invariance is the property of perception whereby simple geometrical objects are recognized independent of rotation, translation, and scale; as well as several other variations such as elastic deformations, different lighting, and different component features. For example, the objects in A in the figure are all immediately recognized as the same basic shape, which are immediately distinguishable from the forms in B. They are even recognized despite perspective and elastic deformations as in C, and when depicted using different graphic elements as in D. Computational theories of vision, such as those by David Marr, have had more success in explaining how objects are classified.

Now what has this to do with Mind Mapping and Michael Jackson?

Mind Maps allow you to see the ‘whole picture’. If you memorise a Mind Map of a topic, you create the hooks for your brain to create memory associations. Your brain will automatically fill in the blanks and complete the picture, making it easier to recall detailed information, even if you only memorise the main branches.

When you think of Michael Jackson, what picture do you see in your Mind’s eye?

If you have a look at the following pictures, your brain will immediately know that it’s Michael Jackson, despite the radical changes. Your wonderful brain naturally builds the neural networks to associate the various pictures of him as being the same person.

The pattern is understood completely as a gestalt. i.e. you have Grokked it!

Whatever conclusion you come to, I recommend that you put down your dreams and desires onto a Mind Map.

If anything else, it will get you to document your dreams and get you to focus on them, increasing your chances of achieving them.

A few years ago, I visuallised having a forum where I can promote and teach Mind Maps. Today my website www.mindmaptutor.com reaches thousands of people all over the world and continues to grow from strength to strength.

The concept of a Vision Board

Recently, ‘The Secret’, a movie promising you health, wealth, success and happines promoted the use of a ‘Vision Board’.

In a nutshell, a Vision Board is a large board with pictures depicting what you would like to achieve in life.

When you surround yourself with images of who you want to become, what you want to have, where you want to live or vacation, your life changes to match those images and those desires.

This is called the ‘Law of Attraction’ by the popular psychologists. You attract to you what you think about most.

When you think about it, most people never pause long enough to ask themselves what they want. They just let life happen to them.

While the ‘Law of Attraction’ is a contentious subject, having a vision of where you want to be is definitely the common element among all motivational tools and motivational gurus.

Steven R. Covey, the author of the ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, states that everything is created twice; first in the mind of the creator and then in reality.

John Kehoe, in his book ‘Mind Power for children’, quotes a famous and well documented experiment conducted by psychologist Alan Richardson. A group of basketball players were divided into three groups and tested for their ability to score baskets.

• The first group went to the gym everyday to practice shooting
• The second group skipped practice altogether
• The third group also skipped the gym, but just practiced in their imagination

After a month, the three groups were tested again. The first group improved by 24 percent, the second group showed no improvement and the third group improved equally as much as the first group that had practiced for real!

He also quotes Arnold Schwarzenegger in his book ‘Mind Power into the 21st century’. Arnold is a successful real estate tycoon, movie star, five times winner of the Mr. Universe title and a successful politician. This is what Arnold has to say: ‘When I was very young, I visualised myself being and having what it is I wanted. Mentally I never had any doubts about it. Before I won my first Mr Universe, I walked around like I already owned it. The title was already mine. I had won it so many times in my head…’

John Assaraf, in ‘The Secret’ and in his book ‘The Answer’, states how he unpacked his vision board after being in storage for more than five years, only to find himself in the actual house that he had pasted on his vision board.

Christine Kane on her website quotes a similar example. She also has a free Ebook called ‘The complete guide to visionboards’.

For the cynic

I know that many of you are quite cynical reading this and probably rolling your eyes as you read. I am therefore proposing it as a vision board for those who ‘believe’ and as a focus tool for those who don’t.

Whether you believe in the ‘Law of attraction’ or not Mind Map ‘Vision Boards’, can help you stay focused on what you want to achieve and help you define your future.

As Winston Churchill said, ‘History will be kind to me, as I intend to write it’.

Why a Mind Map Vision Board

A Mind Map fully utilises the whole brain in its creation and use. It allows the imagination a free reign and allows the logical mind to organise and structure the imaginative process.

Without a Mind Map, the imaginative and creative person can be ‘out of control’ and not come up with something at all and the logical person will simply not be creative enough to explore possibilities.

A Mind Map is therefore the solution for both individuals.

How to create a vision board

A vision board is usually created by looking through magazines, newspapers, etc. and cutting or tearing out pictures and quotes that represent what you would like to achieve. It is the typical ‘picture says a thousand words’ story. You could also do this digitally in today’s world. Simply go to Google Images and search for the pictures you want.

I suggest that you create your Mind Map first, before you go to Google.

You could do your Mind Map electronically, or by hand. If you are going to do it by hand, I suggest you take a firm board that is larger than normal writing or typing paper and create a poster that could be hung on a wall or door.

‘Be’, ‘Do’, ‘Have’ – preparing to create your Vision Board

These three words are the keys to creating your vision board. Assume that money is no object and do a little dreaming.

Create a Mind Map with those three words as main branches. If you don’t know how to create a Mind Map, or don’t know what a Mind Map is, then read through some of the other articles on this site, www.mindmaptutor.com or do our free course at classes.mindmaptutor.com.

• On the ‘Be’ branch write down everything that you want to be in life
• On the ‘Do’ branch write down everything that you would like to do, or experience
• On the ‘Have’ branch, write down everything that you would like to have

I’ve added another branch to my Mind Map with my heroes and people I would like to meet.

Once you have done this, you can go about drawing your actual Mind Map Vision board.

Creating your Mind Map Vision Board

• Using the outcomes from your ‘Be’, ‘Do’, ‘Have’ exercise above to categorise your aspirations.
• From each category, write down the Key Words that describe those categories
• Make each branch a different colour
• Get pictures that support those Key Words and insert them on the branches

You now have a colourful, whole brain vision of what you would like to achieve in life.

Review regularly

It is recommended that you review your Mind Map vision board at least daily. It is actually better if you review it three times a day; in the morning when you get up, in the evening on going to bed and midday. In doing this, both your conscious and subconscious mind will be constantly focused on what you what to achieve.

Don’t worry about how you are going to achieve it. The ‘how’ will follow…

I’ll end with a quote by Napoleon Hill, the author of ‘Think and Grow Rich’: ‘Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve’.