In this article, I discuss how ideas, especially good ones, can be pulled into our conscious awareness through retroactive decision-making to benefit creative processes. I bring together various threads that have led me to this line of thinking. Furthermore, I will discuss my experiences with remote viewing and my interest in quantum physics, which are relevant to these ideas. I also share my experiences of teaching various techniques to my students in workshops in Finland and Estonia. Finally, I conclude this article with how I apply the described ideas in my work and what my findings are.

Let me start with defining retroactive-decision making:
Retroactive decision-making means you make a choice informed by future outcomes of potential choices. For instance, one might decide which option is optimal after observing the consequences of each potential choice in the future, using that foresight to guide their current decision-making process.

But how do we define ‘idea’ and ‘good idea’? During my thinking and later in my workshops, I have used these general notions about how I see ‘ideas’, and ‘good ideas’.

Idea
an idea is a mental concept or thought that represents a potential course of action, solution, or creative notion

Good idea
a good idea is a mental concept or thought that represents a practical, effective, and beneficial course of action, solution, or creative notion

The main difference between an ‘idea’ and a ‘good idea’ is that a good idea adds value, is beneficial or has a positive impact.

Next, I need to define what I mean by conscious awareness. Note that ‘conscious’ is written in lower case in contrary to when I use Consciousness. Julia Mossbridge gives a useful description of conscious awareness, and here is my interpretation:

Conscious awareness
The state in which an individual is aware of their thoughts, feelings, and surroundings is known as conscious awareness. This involves a level of self-reflection and the ability to report one’s experiences.

As an artist, I am striving for various goals in my process: I am eager to learn techniques to improve my ability to express myself, and I aim to depict topics that occupy my mind and are beneficial for others to know about. I aspire to reach the right people and create something that generates interest, enthusiasm, or other positive effects in them. My thinking is that if I would know, through sensing or feeling, which idea is a good idea, my chances to satisfy my future audience increase.

In other words, if I can project myself into the future and perceive which of my envisioned creations resonate positively with others, I gain clarity on where to direct my creative efforts. Through my practice in Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV), I’ve learned to navigate between what I call “subtle data streams” and my conscious awareness. These subtle data streams refer to the non-physical information accessible beyond our immediate senses or conventional understanding. By alternating between these streams and my conscious mind, I can receive this subtle information, interpret it through mental processes like imagery or words, and then allow more data to flow in. This iterative process is crucial, as it prevents my conscious mind from imposing biases or wishful thinking onto the insights I receive.

Daz Smith and the late Ingo Swann, two psychics, artists and remote viewers I appreciate, would perhaps describe remote viewing like this:

Controlled Remote Viewing
Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV) is a structured, scientifically derived method, as defined by Daz Smith, used to access and describe information about distant places, events, and targets, employing disciplined protocols and specific steps. It involves a mental process, as described by Ingo Swann, allowing a person to perceive and describe details using extrasensory perception (ESP) abilities, often facilitated by a specific protocol to ensure accuracy and consistency.

In our perceived reality, which I dub ‘Life on Earth’, we experience that a cause creates an effect. Within this reality, a cause precedes its effect, and this order suggests a chronological order. In other words, ‘I do this and then that happens’. Cause and effect typically includes space, a spatial proximity. Sometimes the effect is close to the cause, sometimes more far away. The same for time, as some cause creates an effect far ahead in time.

Time and space are linked through the speed of light, which defines how fast something can travel from point A to point B within our perceived reality. Imagine that shooting a laser beam, a beam of light, is the fastest technology we have. Now, if we aim this laser from Earth at the Moon, we know the distance between Earth and the Moon and can measure how long it takes for the laser beam to arrive at the Moon. This experiment demonstrates that it takes time for the laser to reach the Moon. The fundamental principle here is that nothing can exceed the speed of light, highlighting its role as the ultimate speed limit in the universe.

However, in quantum physics, scientists have observed phenomena that defy our everyday understanding of space and time. At the quantum level, particles exhibit behaviours such as superposition, where they can exist in multiple states simultaneously, and entanglement, where particles can instantaneously influence each other regardless of distance. Additionally, the uncertainty principle dictates that we cannot precisely know both the position and momentum of a particle at the same time, challenging our intuitive grasp of cause and effect. These characteristics of the quantum world suggest a reality where the conventional notions of space and time do not apply in the same straightforward manner as they do in our macroscopic world.

Quantum level
The quantum level is the world of tiny particles, like electrons and photons, where the rules of physics are different from what we see every day. At this level, particles can act like both waves and particles, have specific energy levels, and we can’t know their exact position and speed at the same time. Particles can be in multiple states at once until measured, can instantly affect each other no matter the distance, and their behaviour is based on probabilities, not certainties.

When I read about quantum physics, I ‘see’ what happens at that very tiny level, as a kind of membrane. To put it perhaps more clear, at that level we see where our perceived reality begins to morph into the Larger Consciousness System, or Consciousness. When I speak of receiving subtle data, I speak of data entering our conscious awareness at that level.

As mentioned above, in CRV a remote viewer receives data about a target, but what does this mean in practice? Here below, I lay out the steps that are generally part of a remote viewing protocol. I leave out ‘Controlled’ as there are many remote viewing protocols, each with their own following and perceived advantages and disadvantages.

The remote viewing process
Participants should have materials such as pen and paper. A tasker presents the target and keeps it secret from the viewer, who remains blind to the target and unaware of what they are supposed to discover. Even a tasker might be unknown of what the target is and receives it from a third party, like a customer. Often, the viewer only receives a code, like an 8-digit number, by email and then the instructions to start. The viewer then focuses on the target without knowing its details, typically achieving this state through one of the many modalities that bring one into a meditative state. They start by collecting data that initially consists of broad notions, such as ‘I see land’ or ‘I sense water’, focusing on high-level qualities of the target. As the session progresses, the data becomes more detailed, gradually forming a clearer picture. The data is recorded in the form of glyphs, words, concepts, drawings, or similar visual or oral expressions. Each step of the process is chronologically recorded by the viewer, starting with broad descriptions and ending with enough data to present a detailed description of the target.

During this process, a viewer’s conscious awareness might want to jump in and tell what the target must be for sure: ‘it is the Eiffel Tower!’. A good viewer is trained and disciplined to put these interjections of the ego mind aside, this is called an AOL or Analytical Overlay. It refers to the process where the conscious mind interferes with the remote viewing session by imposing preconceived ideas, thoughts, or interpretations onto the data being perceived. AOL can lead to inaccuracies in remote viewing data, so it’s important for viewers to recognize and set aside any analytical thoughts during a session.

But… an AOL could also be spot-on and occur at the beginning of a remote viewing session. Even better, an AOL could enter one’s conscious awareness as a ‘thought out of the blue’ before the remote viewing session has even started. So, without getting the assignment from the tasker through mail, and without going through the rigorous steps as laid out above, one could receive the answer? This begs the question, what breaks the cause and effect sequence, the effect happens before the cause, mentioned above?

In 2016, I had the opportunity to give a workshop on enhancing creativity at Aalto University in the sculpture-making department. This workshop was brief, but it allowed me to gauge the interest of the teaching personnel and students in a form of remote viewing, without explicitly calling it that. We did some exercises that showed enough promise for the school to invite me back the following year. In the subsequent year, the workshop was titled ‘Ajatus‘ which means “idea” in Finnish. My objective was to provide an overview of my perspective on the workings of reality and how it can be utilized to generate ideas.

The results during this workshop were very promising, although confusing to some. How is it possible to receive correct information about photos randomly chosen after the exercise is over? I have repeated similar exercises in Estonia at various institutions, including the Art Academy and the business school. The main takeaway is that untrained people can tap into a future event if they can postpone judgment about whether it works or not. A neutral stance gives the best chance of success. Strong believers (without practice and experience) who think this works, as well as the narrow-minded debunkers who believe it does not work, scored the worst.

Could there be a similarity between receiving this answer before the question being asked, and an intuition, or inspiration? And does the practice of a form of remote viewing enhance this intuition? These are some of the questions I work on in my research. These are some of the questions I explore in my research. I have observed that practising entering a relaxed, non-thinking state makes me more susceptible to subtle signals. It is not so much that these subtle signals were not present before, but rather, during a more meditative state, they are less overwhelmed by mental chatter.

My techniques for achieving a meditative or contemplative state have evolved from using binaural beats to listening to music I enjoy while working. Over the same period of about five years, I also focused on being more authentic and began painting again after a 25-year hiatus. In short, there have been too many changes happening during this time for me to pinpoint which change causes which effect. That having been said, a few factors seem to correlate strongly to creating work that I find worthwhile, the future will tell if others find this too.

That having been said, a few things seem to help me create work that I find worthwhile:

• Being Relaxed: Establishing a routine of listening to beautiful music helps calm my mind, allowing previously suppressed thoughts to come to the forefront and inspire new ideas. For instance, I’ve noticed that sometimes I can get worked up about events in the world or my personal life, although less frequently over time. During these periods of feeling irritated or dissatisfied, my creativity noticeably declines. I can’t force myself to be creative, but engaging in activities I enjoy, such as listening to beautiful music, naturally restores my creative flow.
• Being Authentic: Being true to myself in my work and life enables me to express things I truly care about. By doing so, I find more inner appreciation for what I do, which strengthens my drive to continue. It sets off a positive cycle: the more authentic I am, the more confidence and energy I gain, which fuels my journey towards greater authenticity. I believe in a process where I move from acknowledging my secret life—those hidden aspects influenced by shame, guilt, or societal norms—through my private life, a safer environment for exploring my true self, to ultimately integrating these truths into my public persona. Carl Jung’s concept of the shadow illuminates this journey, suggesting that embracing and integrating these hidden aspects of ourselves is essential for personal growth and authenticity
• Learning and Teaching: Teaching and learning new techniques, such as in workshops, help me maintain fresh creative thinking. Interacting with students on these fringe topics keeps me engaged and informed about the latest research developments. The same principle applies to listening to and conversing with people in general. I’m less concerned with being right and more interested in ensuring my opinions and world-view are understood without immediate criticism.
• Trying New Things: Being willing to experiment and not worrying too much about immediate results encourages me to explore and discover new things. As I work hard on becoming increasingly authentic, I also uncover the shadows within me—the things lurking in the dark. Many of these become a great source of inspiration, such as ‘Pretention‘ from the series ‘The Seven Sins’.