Here's what students of The Open Mind are saying:
What a wonderful place this book has taken me to, where I can become habitual with the breaking of habits, to be coming out of the box I never belonged in, to grow up finally into who I have always been!
Janice, college administrator.
This has brought me to the awareness that there is no blame. No small thing! There are only a series of journeys and now I know that I have the full capacity inside me to choose to make mine great!
George, counselor of disadvantaged youth
How do I explain how wonderful it is to be given my true self back from under the heavy lid of definitions and limitations others placed on top of me! I feel as if I'm no longer trying to go homeI have come home at last!
Jan, Stock broker
I don't believe in angels, but I did I'd swear one sent me this book. I was ready to quit my job the day I found this by accident in the store. I doled out a chapter at a time over the next ten days, wanting to digest it well. I found myself asking all new questions of myself and others and noticing things I never noticed before. After reading the , I find myself asking each morning, Am I living to the fullest I am capable of?
Karen, political advisor
I'm stunned. I don't know exactly what I will do with the things I learned from this book, but I know that I can never again underestimate or undervalue the wisdom that is mine again!
Terri, counselor
I understand now, after reading this, what I always knew in my heart about my children, but what my mind was afraid to believethat they, that we all, have unique and discernible gifts that the world needs.
Marjorie, parent
How could any of us stay in a relationship with anyone without knowing the information in this book?
Mason, mediator
Using these teachings, every single hurtle and point of fear I have had to deal with in working on a film set has been dissolved. I know now how to truly collaborate with others whose minds work differently.
Etain, actress
I've found I don't have to try to get through walls anymore, because I know how to find doors.
Michelle, nurse
I find myself communicating differently, relating to people differently, understanding myself in new ways. I feel healthier than I ever have before!
Cathy, weight loss program instructor
Knowing these perceptual patterns makes sense of other people without confining or over-simplifying them. It leaves me curious rather than confused or shut down.
Susan, banker
I have options now to deal with the issues in my life that I never thought of. I don't always have to verbalize and talk myself into corners.
Leslie, dancer
I finally realize that other people understand things in different ways than I do because of the way their minds work. I now know very practical ways to connect with them that I never thought of before.
George, contractor
I've learned how to think with my eyes and my hands. I re-learned what I knew as a childhow to have a limber mind.
Jerry, therapist
Now I know how to draw passion into my life, how to give it shape and time to form.
Ivan, business executive
This approach illuminates a fundamental dimension of human energy which creates understanding, compassion and more effective communication.
Cindy, zoologist
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
York Beach, ME
With offices at
368 Congress Street
Boston, MA 02210
www.redwheelweiser.com
Copyright 1996 by Dawna Markova, Ph.D.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser. Reviewers may quote brief passages.
ISBN: 1-57324-064-8
Cover Design: Nita Ybarra Design
Cover Illustration: Rind, 1996 M.C. Escher/Cordon ArtBaamHolland. All Rights Reserved.
Author Photo: Hollie Noble
Interior Design: Jennifer Brontsema
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Markova, Dawna, 1942
[Art of the possible]
The open mind: exploring the 6 patterns of natural intelligence / Dawna Markova.
p. cm.
Originally published: Art of the possible. Emeryville, Calif.: Conari Press, 1991.
Includes biographical references and index.
ISBN 1-57324-064-8 (trade paper)
1. Thought and thinking. 2. Learning, Psychology of. 3. Interpersonal communication. I. Title.
BF441.M28 1996
153.4dc20 96-27359
Printed in the United States of America
03 04 05 DR 10 9 8 7 6 5
My grandmother had a small carved walnut box on her bureau. Inside was a handful of dirt. When I asked her where it came from, she would only say, Home. As far as I know, she carried it with her for over eighty years. When she came to this country, she sprinkled a pinch of the contents beneath her feet to make a friend of alien ground.
This book contains the seeds that have sprouted in that handful of dirt. They have waited in the dark, blanketed by various silences and hesitations. They have been watered with many tears and fertilized by the people and experiences who were my teachers. I offer them now to your light.
May what came to me as seed be passed on to you as flower.
May it all blossom: the book,
the person writing the book,
the persons reading the book.
May you also pass it on, pass it on to others as fruit.
CHAPTER 1
LEARNING IS DISCOVERING THAT SOMETHING IS POSSIBLE
and you know how to look and learn, then the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either that key or the door to open, except yourself.
J. Krishnamurti
To be educated is not so much to be taught as it is to be awakened to who you really are. This chapter invites you to open to the journey.
From My Heart to Yours
The ancient Greeks believed the location of the human mind was in the heart. They reasoned that since the mind was essential, it must inhabit the most vital of all organs. Wounds to the head were not always deadly, but wounds to the heart were. They assumed, therefore, the mind must live in the heart.
If my heart could do my thinking would my brain begin to feel?
Van Morrison
A friend of mine who is Chinese points to the center of her chest whenever she says, my mind. She tells me this gesture is common in her culture.
Although we know new blood is constantly flowing through the chambers of our heart, renewing our entire system, once we are adults we assume the capacities of our minds are fixed. We close ourselves off to a myriad of possibilities: I'm just not an articulate person. Or, I'm a left-brained kind of a guy. But what if we could open our minds to an inflow of new ideas about what we are capable of doing, knowing and being?
I want to bring you into a comfortable kinship with the open mind of your heart. Hopefully, as a result of reading this book, you will begin to trust yourself and to know the world in new ways. I'd like to think that your curiosity will rekindle into an alive, available resource, and that the barriers you have createdthe hard, solid crust that keeps the rest of the world out and you isolated withinwill soften into boundaries that define your own space and allow a fundamental intimacy with others.
People Learn in Different Ways
This book invites you to learn how you learn. It will not tell you how smart you are, but it will help you discover HOW you are smart. It is written as an operator's manual for adults who are attempting to grow up as they grow older, for adolescents who are about to get their license to drive their minds on their own, for teachers, care givers, and lovers. It is written for anyone who defines himself or herself as a learner, or who has difficulties with recall, organization, or absorption of information and experience. It is for those of us who keepgetting stuck in communication gaps when what we are attempting to create is a means of getting through, a meeting place where minds can touch. It is for eagles who are tired of living in cages as if they were chickens.