Being wrong In lateral thinking one does not mind being wrong on the way to a solution because it may be necessary to go through a wrong area in order to get to a position from which the correct path is visible. PO is an escort that allows one to move through the wrong area. PO does not make things right but it switches attention from why something is wrong to how it may be useful. In effect Po implies, I know this is wrong but I am going to put things this way in order to see where it leads me.' In considering the problem of keeping the windscreen of a car free from dirt and water someone suggested that cars ought to be driven backwards since the back window was always much easier to see out of than the front window. In itself this is obviously nonsense since if one was going backwards that window would get just as dirty as the ordinary windscreen. Nevertheless the sug-gestion, Why not drive backwards' can lead on to such other ideas as indirect vision systems or some way of protecting the windscreen from head on exposure to mud and water. In this example PO would be used in the following way. Some one would suggest driving backwards and this would be met with the response, That's nonsense, because ..? The reply to this would be, Po why not drive backwards? The purpose of po would be to delay judgement - to hold the idea in mind for a few mo ments in order to see what could arise from it instead of diss missing it at once. • Holding function In addition to protecting an idea which is obviously wrong Fo can be used to protect an idea from judgement. In this case the idea has not already been judged but is about to be subjected to critical analysis. PO is used to delay this. This function of PO is rather similar to its use for the introduction of a random stimu-lus. An ordinary remark or idea in the course of a discussion is turned by the use of po into a catalyst. Used in such circumstances PO indicates: Let's not bother to analyse whether this is right or wrong - let us just see what ideas it will lead to.' PO could be used by the person offering the idea or it could be used by anyone else. Thus if an evaluation of the idea was started someone could simply interject, Po ..? This would mean, Let's hold off evaluation for the moment.'

• Construction In school geometry a problem is often made easier to solve by adding some additional lines to the original figure. This process is similar to that involved in the story of the lawyer whose task it was to divide up eleven horses among three sons so that one of them got half of the horses, another got a quarter, and the third son got one sixth. What he did was to lend his own horse to the sons and then divided the twelve horses up, giving the first son six, the second three and the third two. He then took his own horse back again. Here po is used to add something to the problem or to change it in some other way. Changing the problem in this way can lead to new lines of development, new ways of looking at it. The purpose of changing the problem is not to rephrase it or put it in a better way but to alter it and see what happens next. For instance in considering the efficiency of the police in dealing with crime one might say, Po why not employ one-armed policemen?' Changing the problem in this way by adding the factor of 'one-armed policemen' would focus attention on the possible advantages of being one-armed and especially on the need to use brain and organization rather than muscle power.

Summary There are many other ways in which po can be used but the occasions listed above are enough to illustrate the first function of PO. This first function is quite simply to allow one to say anything one likes. PO allows one to arrange information in any way whatsoever. There need be no justification at all for such arrangement except PO.

Po two and two make five. Po water flows uphill if it is coloured green. Po lateral thinking is a waste of time. Po men have souls and women have not. Po it takes a lifetime to unlearn what has been learned in education.

The first function of po is to shift attention from the meaning of a statement and the reason for making it to the effect of the statement. With PO one looks forwards instead of backwards. Because any arrangement of information can lead on to other arrangements a statement can be very useful as a stimulus no matter how nonsensical it is in itself. And by being nonsensical one can arrange information in a way that is different from the established patterns - and so increase the chance of a permanent restructuring. With vertical thinking one is not allowed to do any of this. With vertical thinking one looks backwards at the reason for a statement, at the justification, at the meaning. The statement, Po water flows uphill if it is coloured green' is ridiculous but it could lead on to such ideas as: Why should the green colour make a difference? Why should adding colour make a difference? Is there anything one could add to water to make it flow uphill? In fact there is. If one adds a very small amount of a special plastic then the water acts as a solid/liquid to such an extent that if you start pouring water out of a jug and then hold the jug upright the water will continue to siphon out, climbing up the side of the jug, flowing over the rim and down the outer side. PO as a device allows one to use information in this way which is completely different from the ordinary use of information. One could use information in this way without Po but one would still be using the lateral concept which is incorporated in PO. The convenience of PO as an actual language device is that it clearly indicates that information is being used in this special way. With. out such an indication there would be confusion as the listener would not know what was going on. A Po type statement inserted into an ordinary vertical thinking discussion without the use of po would lead the listeners to suppose that the speaker was mad, lying, mistaken, stupid, ignorant or facetious. Apart from the inconvenience of being the recipient of such judgements there is the danger of being taken seriously. For instance, Po the house is on fire' is rather different from The house is on fire. Furthermore if one does not use PO then the information is not used as a stimulus in the lateral manner. The second function of PO: challenging old arrangements of information The basic function of mind is to create patterns. The memory surface of mind organizes information into patterns. Or rather it allows information to organize itself into patterns.* The effect is just the same as if the mind picked things out of the environment and put them together to give patterns. Once formed these patterns become ever more firmly established because they direct attention. The effectiveness of mind depends entirely on the crea-tion, the recognition and the use of patterns. The patterns have to be permanent to be of any use. Yet the patterns are not neces. sarily the only way of putting together the information contained in them - or even the best. The patterns are determined by the time of arrival of the information or by preceding patterns that have been accepted entire.

The second function of po is to challenge these established pat-terns. PO is used as a freeing device to free one from the fixity of established ideas, labels, divisions, categories and classifications.

The way PO is used can be summarized under the following headings:

• To challenge the arrogance of established patterns.
• To question the validity of established patterns.
• To disrupt established patterns and liberate information that can come together to give new patterns.
• To rescue information trapped by the pigeonholes of labels and classifications. To encourage the search for alternative arrangements of the information.
• Never a judgement

As suggested before, PO is never used as a judgement device. PO is never used to indicate whether an arrangement of information is right or wrong. PO is never used to indicate whether an arrange. ment of information is likely or unlikely or whether it is the best available at the moment. PO is a device to bring about an arrange ment or rearrangement of information not a device to judge the new arrangements or condemn the old ones.

PO implies, That may be the best way of looking at things or putting the information together. That may even turn out to be the only way. But let us look around for other ways.' With vertical thinking one is not allowed to challenge an idea unless one can show why it is wrong or else provide an alterna-tive. If one provides an alternative one must somehow show why this alternative is preferable to the original idea as well as proving that the alternative is sound. With po one has to do none of these things. One challenges the established order without necessarily being able to offer anything in its place or even to show any deficiency.

Judgement usually asks for justification of an idea. Justification of why an arrangement of information should be accepted. One wants to know why something has been put together in a certain way. With Po the emphasis is shifted away from this why to ‘where to'. One accepts the need to rearrange information in new ways. One takes a new arrangement and instead of trying to see where it has come from and whether it is justified one sees where it leads to - what effect it can have.

• The response to PO The challenge of po is not met by a fierce defence of why the established idea is indeed the best possible way of putting things together because PO does not attack an idea. Po is a challenge to try and think of other ways. The challenge of po is met by generating different ways of looking at the situation. The more ways one can generate the more clearly it may be shown that the original idea was indeed the best one but that is no reason for refusing to try and generate other ways. If in generating these alternative ways a new and better way of looking at things turns up then that can only be a good thing. Even if the old idea is only altered slightly that is still a good thing. Even the possibility that there might be another way of looking at things is useful in itself in so far as it lessens the rigidity of the old idea and makes it more easily changed when change is due.

• Challenging cliché patterns Any pattern that is at all useful is a cliché. The more useful it is the more of a cliché it tends to become. And the more of a cliché it is the more useful it may become. Po can be used to challenge any cliché. Po not only challenges the way concepts are arranged into patterns but the very concepts themselves. One always tends to think of clichés as arrangements of concepts but that the con cepts themselves must be accepted as the building blocks of thought and so must themselves remain unaltered. Po freedom' challenges the very concept of freedom not the value or purpose of freedom. 'Po punishment challenges the very concept of punishment not the circumstances under which it is used or the purpose for which it is used. As suggested above it is the useful concepts that need challenging most. The less useful concepts are likely to be under perpetual challenge and reformation. But the usefulness of a useful concept protects it. • Focusing Since the cliché may refer to a particular concept or a phrase or to the whole idea it is helpful if one is specific about what is being challenged by PO. In order to do this one would repeat what is being challenged but preface it with Po. 'It is the function of education to train the mind and to pass on to it the knowledge of ages.' To this one might reply: Po, train the mind' or Po the knowledge of ages,' or even just Po train" Used in this way PO can act as a focusing device to direct attention to some concept that is always taken for granted because there are other concepts which seem more open to reexamina-tion. • Alternatives There are times when it is reasonable to try and find other ways of looking at a situation. This happens when the current approach is not satisfactory. PO is used as a demand to generate alternatives even when it is quite unreasonable. One goes on generating alternatives right up to the point of absurdity - and beyond. Since there is no good reason for generating alternatives under these circumstances one needs the artificial stimulus of Fo which is a device that works outside of reason. 'It is spring and the bird is on the wing.' No. The wing is on the bird.' Po. The bird and the wing both happen to be going along in the same direction.' Used in this way po is an invitation (or a demand) to generate alternative arrangements of the information. It is also used to justify those alternative arrangements by making it clear that they are offered as alternative arrangements and not necessarily better arrangements or even justified ones.

Anti-arrogance

One of the most valuable functions of PO is as an anti-arrogance device. Po is a reminder of the behaviour of the memory surface of mind. po is a reminder that a particular arrangement of information which seems inevitable may yet have come about in an arbitrary fashion. Po is a reminder that the illusion of certainty may be useful but that it cannot be absolute. Po is a reminder that certainty about a particular arrangement of information can never exclude the possibility of there being another arrangement. PO challenges dogmatism and absolutism. Po challenges the arrogance of any absolute statement or judgement or point of view. Used in this way PO does not imply that the statement is wrong. It does not even imply that the person using po has doubts about the statement let alone justified doubts. All po implies is that the statement is being made with a degree of arrogance that is not justified under any circumstances. PO implies the following: You may be right and your logic may be faultless. Nevertheless you are starting from perceptions that are arbitrary and you are using concepts that are arbitrary since both are derived from your own individual experience or the general experience of a particular "culture". There are also the limitations of the information processing system of mind. You may be right within a particular context or using particular com-cepts but these are not absolute.' PO used in this fashion is never intended to introduce so much doubt that an idea becomes unusable. Po is never directed at an idea itself but only at the arrogance surrounding it - at the exclusion of other possibilities.