What is an Ideality? 

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The ideality is an idealized imaginal point which serves as a universal reference for what one wants to achieve, or what the purpose of an idea is - without any limitations. An ideality should be something which is true in all universes, or in all conditions, which means it must transcend the limitations of space or time. Finding an ideality requires abandoning the practical mind, and trying to engage with the limits of the imagination. What would you ideally achieve, if there was no obstacle or roadblock? The ideality is only limited by the contrast spectrum we've identified so far, and if an ideality doesn't fit on the existing contrast spectrum, then don't be afraid to adjust the contrast spectrum to suit the ideality. 

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A vision statement is the lingual expression of an imaginal ideality, but an ideality can also be expressed via vision boards, artwork, music or any other creative medium which is able to express the possibilities of our imagination. 

 

The philosophy of direction

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In the first stage we outlined the point 0, the point of origin and inspiration. The second stage contextualized your idea in its first dimension of space; the one dimensional space of opposites. This third stage will explore the idea in the second dimension, which will require mapping the idea to a Y axis that will intersect with the X axis. This gives the idea a direction that extends out from its foundation in one dimensional space. Think of it as a point being extended out from the line that was explored in the previous stage. 

 

This also gives us an opportunity to fuse multiple types of ideas together, e.g. if our idea is flying to get somewhere fast, we can map an intersection between flying, and getting somewhere fast.

 

How to choose a direction

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Here we recommend reading "the visionary" path to understand where to find inspiration for a direction. Direction can be taken from a second proposition, if one was discovered in while exploring your idea's first principles. If there was no second proposition discovered while exploring the first principles in the inspiration stage, then you can find an ideal direction and apply it here; i.e. if you wanted to find valuable ideas for AI applications you could make the X axis AI, and then use the path of "the visionary" to determine the ideal direction which will then become your Y axis. 

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Ultimately the way the idea is broken up between X and Y axis, will determine the scope and ambitions of the project, and will be based on your requirements. In the flying example we've used previously, we could also have made flying the X axis and then introduced passengers as the Y axis if we wanted to embody the spirit of flying passengers. The only rule is that the X axis should always be the necessary condition, i.e the primary theme of the idea, while the Y axis is the sufficient condition, i.e. a sub category of the necessary condition in the X axis.  

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In the contrast stage we determined that the axiom that described our flying concept was lift, with flying on one end of the spectrum and falling on the other. Now we are going to create an axiom which describes getting somewhere fast the same way we created the X axis. We could describe getting somewhere fast with a Y axis of controllability; an increase in controllability is correlated with getting somewhere fast and a decrease to controllability is correlated to it's opposite of not being able to get anywhere intentionally - therefore it is logically sound. With these 2 axis created we can also create a vision which embodies the the first 3 stages, and will be used as the reference for creating the concept in stages 4 - 6.  

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Enchanting the direction

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To give the newly fused properties a sense of life, and meaning you can relate to, you need to populate to use the X and Y labels to create a table and populate the table with example ideas. The more examples, the better you will be able to interface with the essence of the idea.  If it's an experimental or very niche area, and there aren't many ideas to populate the table, then we recommend getting creative with analogies.

 

For instance let's use an example X label of animism, and a Y axis of business idea development models (this is the labels we used for creating this model). There doesn't seem to be many existing examples of this, so instead of exploring animism in business models, we will explore animism expressed in other forms, i.e. in yoga practice or psychology. So then we populate our Y axis as if it were an analogy to something that does exist - this way we still have an idea for other directions of the X axis via analogy. 

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The more time invested in this process of enchanting the 2 dimensions with attention and focus, the easier the next stages will become as the imagination will be aligned with the essence of the idea. Think of this as a calibration task, where attention in the exploration of the idea is synonymous with calibrating yourself to the ideas' mode of communication. 

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Grasping a vision 

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With our stages completed we can start forming a sense for the vision of our idea. The vision is a feeling we have when we look at the populated 2 dimensional representation of your idea. We recommend reading the "Mediator" archetype to understand further how you can create a vision from the accumulation of experience over the first 3 stages, and how to balance the requirements between the contrast and the ideality. 

 

The vision statement needs to reflect the aggregated sense that has culminated to this point ; it needs to be an accessible form of the ideas' universal purpose. The vision should be created with the same principles used to discover the axis labels, and the first principles of the inspiration. So the vision needs to be an expression of the first principles and the combined labels for the X and Y axis. We will demonstrate this with the flight example: 

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First Principles: Flying to get somewhere fast

X Axis: Lift (+ve = Fly, -ve = Fall)

Y Axis: Controllability/ (+ve = intentional direction, -ve = unintentional direction)

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The vision of the idea needs to be the sum of all of these universal variables. So the simple form of the vision would be: 

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Lift and controllability

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This doesn't quite yet meet the accessibility requirements of having something that is easy to grasp and communicate. But it is sufficient for being used to inspire the form of the concept that will be explored in stages 4-6. The vision can be padded out at a later stage once we understand the specific mode of lift and controllability, what is being lifted and controlled, how the lift and control will be expressed as a function of going somewhere fast, and the almost infinite possible other parameters that might be revealed in latter stages as universally necessary to achieve our initial inspiration of flying to get somewhere fast. The hard rule to creating a vision is that it cannot be reduced anymore without influencing the necessary functions or parameters that fulfill its requirements to achieve the original inspiration.

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To express the vision in a more accessible manner we have a few options, and these  can also be used as inspiration for starting to ideate how the concept will form: 

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1. An object that can lift and has controllability

2. An object that can lift and control another object

3. A form that easily lifts and is easily controlled

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With these ideas, and assuming we hadn't already invented flight, you can already see how the concept is shaping up just by merit of having explored the necessary functions and first principles of our original inspiration.

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If you'd like help with finding a direction, finding analogous ideas to your chosen direction, help with grasping or articulating the vision, then don't hesitate to reach out! Even if you just want to explore the topics with us, we welcome all feedback and opportunities for discussion. 

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