Edison Sux!

Nikola Tesla may not be as famous or as popular as Thomas Edison among those in the scientific community, and we’re not saying that Thomas Edison was not a genius, but many of those who know the full story would insist that
Nikola Tesla’s genius was on a much higher‑level than that of Thomas
Edison. Nikola Tesla may not have been as good of a businessman as Edison
and many of his other acquaintances, but Tesla’s humanitarian outlook
and ingenious vision of the future laid the groundwork for almost all of
modern society. In fact, without Nikola Tesla much of today’s technology would not even exist!

Nikola Tesla was born on July 9, 1856 in Croatia to a father who was a Serbian Orthodox priest. Tesla was the genius responsible for alternating current, among many more of our great technological advances.

This particular article won’t go in depth into Nikola Tesla’s biography, but rather will help us to better understand the creative thinking process used by the great Nikola Tesla.

Anyone who knows much about Nikola Tesla knows that he created most of his inventions without the use of extensive notes and blueprints, but instead by using visualization he would see an invention from its beginning through to its completion in his mind alone before he ever stepped a foot inside of his lab to create it.

Tesla’s visualization process

“Before I put a sketch on paper, the whole idea is worked out mentally. In my mind I change the construction, make improvements, and even operate
the device. Without ever having drawn a sketch I can give the measurements
of all parts to workmen, and when completed all these parts will fit, just as certainly as though I had made the actual drawings.  It is immaterial to me whether I run my machine in my mind or test it in my shop. The inventions I have conceived in this way have always worked. In thirty years there has not been a single exception. My first electric motor, the vacuum wireless light, my turbine engine and many other devices have all been developed in exactly this way.”

Though there is evidence that Nikola Tesla already had a natural ability to
visualize certain things well at an early age, he reveals through his autobiography that he, to some extent, developed these incredible visualization abilities himself through regular mental exercise and training. In the beginning he said that the images he tried to control would flitter away, but through practice they remained under his control, and became as real to him as waking life. He even went so far as to say that people he imagined were as real and as dear to him as anybody in the real world.

Using visualization

We may not ever be as good at visualizing as Nikola Tesla was, but like Tesla we can improve our own visualization skills through regular exercises.

Using Visualization - Exercise 1:

Sit down, close your eyes and imagine you’re holding a lemon. You can feel its weight, its texture, its waxy smooth skin. Imagine you are seeing it clearly in your hand, turning it around to see it from all sides, while you feel it in your hands. You bring it to your nose and smell it. Now, you slice it
open and take a small piece of the lemon and bite down on it . . .the lemon juice fills your mouth and you taste the sourness vividly.

You may find your mouth watering after this exercise. This is a good sign. It is your minds conditioned reaction to eating a lemon. Your unconscious mind already can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s visualized.

Using Visualization - Exercise 2:

It’s interesting to note that Nikola Tesla also had an eidetic (or photographic) memory, further attesting to the fact that Nikola Tesla was very strong visual thinker.

In this exercise, get a white piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Now draw and color in a dark circle or triangle onto the paper. With your eyes open, try staring at the shape for about 20 to 30 seconds, then close your eyes and imagine it just as you had seen it on paper. Feel free to open your eyes and
look again at the drawing when your mental image of it flitters away or
alters itself in some way.

Right away you may only be able to do this for a few seconds before the picture starts fading. But with practice, the image will become stronger and you’ll be able to hold it for longer periods of time. Eventually, you may want to try using and controlling three-dimensional shapes with your minds eye, or maybe more increasingly complex pictures.

Again, it’s interesting to note these exercises also require and improve your
concentration ability. Nikola Tesla himself invented separate exercises to improve his ability to concentrate for longer periods of time.  Visualization and concentration go hand-in-hand.