Thinking Outside the Box: What is the Box and How Did it Get There?
-By George Pransky, Ph.D.

If you want to think outside the box, you might entertain the following questions. What is the box anyway? What is the box made of? Where is this box? Who made these boxes? What is in the box? And, of course, what is outside the box?

If the most common thinking had a voice, I think it would answer those questions like so. The box is the current reality, the way things are right now. It's the conventions, the powers that be, the way things have always been done. What is it made of? It is made of reality! The box is made of rules, regulations, standard operating procedures, history, all those ways of doing things that people respect as "the right way" or "the only way." Who made these boxes? The box was made by society, organizations, the most common thinking. Outside the box is beyond this reality.

I suggest that the box exists within a six-inch area between our two ears. It isn't made of "reality," as it appears to be. It is made of thought. Those thoughts might appear to be real to the individual who thinks them, but only because that individual has lost sight of the illusory nature of thought. When that individual remembers that thought is only made to look real through consciousness, the box will suddenly appear to be constructed by thought alone.

Who made the box? The box was just created this very moment by that person who sees the box. That box would not exist but for momentary creation by the generic box builder-the thinker. When the person's mind is clear of those thoughts, the box suddenly disappears. It no longer exists.
It is no wonder that people respect clearing their minds when they want to think outside the box. People go to retreats and use all kinds of techniques to prepare to think outside the box. They think they are getting outside the box when in fact they are simply refraining from creating the box in the first place.

Why are children so creative and fresh? It's not that they don't think outside the box. They don't have any boxes outside of which to think! Children don't think that their thoughts are necessarily real or right. They don't think their limited experience qualifies them to think that their thoughts are "real" and right. They are therefore in no danger of creating a box within their own minds. When they lose sight of the arbitrary, subjective nature of thought, that is when they begin to create boxes within their minds and then have to learn how to think outside these boxes.

When thought is seen as real, as "objective reality," it takes on a life of its own. It becomes a box. If you chain an elephant's leg to a stake, the elephant will first attempt to escape, but will eventually accept the reality of the restriction. If you remove the chain from the stake, the elephant will still feel confined, as it feels the chain around its leg. What is restricting the elephant now? It isn't the chain. It is thought. It is the thought of the chain.

At one time, Madison Avenue wouldn't mention a competitor by name in an ad because, it was thought, that competitor would be getting free advertising. Advertising students and new ad agency employees were taught this limitation, this restriction that they viewed as a real part of the advertising world. Their thinking would not go in that direction. Their thinking was locked in a box.
Avis mentioned Hertz in their We-Try-Harder ad, even noting that Hertz had the primary place in the rental market. Now advertisers feel free to mention competitive products to their advantage. The thinking changed, and then the industry changed. Someone at Avis asked, "Who says we can't mention a competitors name?" When that person tracked it down, that restriction turned out to be a mere thought!

What exactly is in the box and what is outside the box? The box is filled with all that is known in the form of thought. Outside the box is the unknown or, more accurately, the soon-to-be known through insight.

Our thinking comes from a place that has no limitation, no boxes, no restrictions. Our thinking is by nature creative, responsive and infinitely intelligent. If we know that our thinking comes from the deepest source of life, we can live with freedom of thought. We can thumb our nose at the known, and look to the unknown for new thought wrapped in inspiration. Every time we clear our minds and look with humility for the new, we are said to be thinking outside the box.

Ultimately, there is no box but rather the illusion of a box created by our own thoughts. In essence, to try to think outside the box is like trying to win at shadow boxing. We create the illusion of a box and then we try to think outside that illusory box. Ultimately, we need only see that the box never existed in the first place, and we can live outside the box.