Title: Think Like A Molecule: Seeking Inspiration in the Structures of Thought
Author: Chuck Champlin
Publisher: Authors Press
ISBN: 1643144669
Pages: 126
Genre: Memoir / Philosophy
Reviewed by: David Allen
Hollywood Book Reviews
Author Chuck Champlin shares his best information from a lifetime devoted to learning, observation, creating, and teaching. In the process, he’s given us a personal roadmap to the structure and function of our minds.
Champlin puts it like this: “…our thoughts can be actualized. At the simplest level, we say, “I have an idea”; then we act, and some version of what we imagined comes alive in the world, or, the most elaborate systems are imagined, like FedEx, or YouTube. We are agents of future change.”
He observes that life, and the mind of man, have created something new in the history of the Universe: namely, the Universe thinking about itself, taking action upon, and thus transforming itself. Champlin does not rule out the possibility of intelligent aliens or some other Higher Power. Miracles of scope and scale fascinate him. Witness his awe-inspired descriptions of the “million atoms” lined up side-by-side that comprise a hair, and his articulate, and contagious, declarations of wonder regarding the billions and billions of stars twinkling away out there…
Speaking of stars, twinkling, and ‘pixie dust’: Champlin, a former executive at Walt Disney, seized upon the Twinkle as a metaphor, memory jolt, and rubric for assorting and classifying information. (Twinkles appear in Cinderella and a number of other major animated features from Disney.)
Twinkles are inspirational mental mnemonics that have worked for the author. Champlin shares his creative odyssey with us; his descriptions of the ‘preconscious’ and ‘unconscious’ mind are ultimately functional, since they are blueprints, actual working plans, for accessing the universes without and within in order to achieve serenity and success. Champlin’s book follows in the creative heroic tradition of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.
Think Like A Molecule succeeds on many levels. It is a compelling, and an ultimately honest, read. The author’s truth – that he finds continual wonder in the myriad mysteries of nature and the cosmos – is amply served up with loads of exceedingly well-written supporting evidence.
Evident in the mix is a systems engineering, beehive, or ultimately participatory (because ‘molecular’) mentality; this is the stuff of Henri Bergson’s participation mystique. Merriment, discovery and moments of joy suffuse this memoir. The book is well worth the read; the author’s stated intention is to share information, wisdom and insight – and he roundly succeeds.