Way back in 1993, John A. Wood brought the Three Principles understanding to Perth. Whilst his Centre closed its doors, John continued with his life journey and recently released his book, ‘Possibility … a state of mind’. It is an autobiography, one that draws out his more recent insights.

Whilst I found it overly ‘wordy’ (but which was deliberate for those for whom his words maybe foreign), I enjoyed my reading of it, and found his thoughts ‘fresh’. John refers to the energy that flows through us – Life, or Thought. Human beings turn that energy into thinking, moment by moment by moment. For most of us, and for most of the time, we use memory to turn Thought into thinking. As thinking is the mediator of all experience, thinking crafted from memory creates the same quality of experience, over and over again. The alternative, the ‘road less travelled’, is to let go of memory, and instead be open to Possibility.

Unlike the Three Principles understanding, John distinguishes only between thinking created from memory …. or Possibility. Letting go of thinking from memory, includes letting go of gender, our past, ethnic origin, religion, work, achievements, etc. etc. etc. They are all irrelevant.

The fact that Thought can be sculpted using memory or open to Possibility explains why viewpoints and behaviours often narrow as we age.

In the 3 Principles understanding, insights are recognised as the mechanism for personal change, whether that be in the moment or over time. Seeing Thought as either manifested from memory or Possibility expands our understanding of insight and allows us to ‘see’ our thinking more upstream.

Perhaps his greatest clarity is around innocence and compassion. When we can ‘see’ both ourselves and others as either operating from memory or Possibility, this immediately changes our stance both to ourselves and others. If we are unaware of Possibility, then we are stuck with what we have always used – memory.

John has posed Possibility workshops as a way forward. Similar attempts to bridge the divides in humanity that emerged in the 80’s from people like Scott Peck and Robert Theobald held huge promise but unfortunately ran out of steam. Maybe John’s offering provides a missing piece of the puzzle.

He, I and others are scheduled to meet later this week. I look forward to …. Possibility.