Richard Feynman and His Technique
In the past I’ve mentioned possibly a couple of times the work of Richard Feynman as a theoretical physicist. Feynman is particularly known for his work in quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics and the Nobel Prize he received for Physics in 1965.
One thing that Feynman gave us was Feynman Diagrams, which are a visual representation of the complex mathematical equations related to behaviour of subatomic particles. These diagrams were also the inspiration for me to create my own Theory of Telepathic Interaction, which uses my own ideograms to visually represent probable telepathic interaction. I always found it quite surprising how clarity can be found in visual representation.
I could probably rattle on all day about the other things Feynman achieved, but alas time is against me. However it is important to mention something I have learnt from the ‘Great Explainer’ himself (well via the internet and books anyway) and that’s something called the Feynman Technique.
Fundamentally, the Feynman Technique tells us that we learn better by teaching someone else a topic in simple terms, which in turn will highlight any areas of the topic you lack knowledge. Feynman wrapped this technique up into a pleasant little four steps, each of which enables you to understand the topic more deeply and also better retain the information.
The Feynman Technique
- Write down the title of your chosen topic and then write down all you know about it.
- Explain the topic in simple terms and language.
- Identify the problem areas, then go back to the sources to review them. Find the information to explain the topic fully.
- Pinpoint any complicated terms and challenge yourself to simplify them. Connect facts to strengthen your understanding.
Pretty straight forward right?
The other thing that I throw into the mix whilst using this technique is one I will mention a number of times perhaps. That is, think about it from a child’s point of view, because they will always ask ‘why?’ That way you will constantly seek the explanations and information to be able to answer ‘why’ at every point.
Investigating with the Feynman Technique
Now you have the basics of the Feynman Technique hopefully understood we need to apply them to our paranormal investigations. This is actually something which should be fairly straight forward and may even be something you’re already doing.
Let’s take each point and apply them if we can.
First up, Feynman tells us to ‘write down the title and all we know about that topic’, which would be straight forward if we were talking about say the investigation of a location. However for this example I am going to apply the technique to a paranormal event during an investigation. So, first step is to write down the paranormal event that has occurred and all we know about it.
Second step is to ‘explain it in simple terms and language’. So, for this we ensure that our explanation of the paranormal event remains simple and isn’t littered with various complex terms or theory. We simply explain it in a straight forward manner as it occurred.
The third step is to ‘identify problem areas, go back and review’. In order to apply this to our paranormal event we simply read through what we have written and look for two things; 1) explainable elements, and 2) unexplainable elements. This basically means dividing into normal and paranormal. However we shouldn’t stop there. We now need to find supportive information for that which we believe is explainable, which shouldn’t be hard as there should be science behind it. We do similar for the unexplained elements, but we are now associating possible theory and ideas, then looking for the information to back it up.
The fourth step is quite simple, we look through what we have and then look to simplify it. Reduce the complexities down to simple explanation.
Remember through the whole process to continuously ask ‘why’ just like a child would. As this should help drive down those complexities.
Why Use This Approach
The reason for using this approach is to assist us in achieving two things really in my opinion. Firstly, to ensure that we are gathering lots of information on a paranormal event or investigation. Secondly, to refine and simplify that information into form that may help us to understand the paranormal event or investigation better. Perhaps even to help identify the source of the activity.
In case you missed it, I used ‘why’ too!
Ashley Knibb 
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