The Intuitives(46)

“This first illustration is an external multiview of the fan. As you can see, it shows us what the fan looks like, but only from the outside. We can see the front view here, and the side, and the top.” He pointed to each view in turn.

“Now,” he asked, “how much does this drawing help us to know how the fan works?”

“Hardly at all,” Kaitlyn said, frowning. “It only shows what the outside is supposed to look like. It doesn’t show us anything about the internal mechanism.”

“Good! Now, look at this one.”

He set the first drawing aside and pulled out a new one. This one was drawn at an angle showing part of the back of the fan, part of the right side, and part of the top all at once. Unlike the first print, which had been three separate drawings, this one showed a single view. In it, a significant piece of the back appeared to be missing, leaving the motor visible.

“Oh, hey, that’s neat!” Kaitlyn exclaimed. “You can see the motor right through the casing!”

“Yes!” Ammu agreed. “Very ‘neat’ indeed! This is a cut-away view, in which the mechanism is drawn as though some of the outer casing had been literally cut away. Now, how much does this one help us to know how the fan works?”

Kaitlyn frowned again and chewed at the inside of her cheek, thinking it over.

“It’s better,” she said finally, “but it still tells us more about how the motor sits inside the fan—like, where it goes—than it does about how the motor actually works.”

“Very good, Kaitlyn. I agree!” Ammu said, nodding his head, and Kaitlyn smiled at him. “Now, what about this one, hmm?”

With a bit of a flourish, Ammu unrolled a third diagram, and this time Kaitlyn caught her breath.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “That’s amazing!”

“This one,” Ammu said, smiling at her reaction, “is called an exploded-view drawing. It is called this, as you can see, because it is drawn as though the entire fan had been exploded apart, but with each of its pieces remaining completely intact, of course!”

Kaitlyn pored over the lines of the drawing, which showed every screw and bolt and wire suspended in midair, oriented properly relative to each other, but with a bit of space between each one, so that she could see from the drawing exactly how every single part fit together with every other one.

“It’s beautiful!” she exclaimed.

“Again, I agree,” Ammu said. “An illustration of this quality is, unfortunately, relatively rare. It takes great skill to represent the inner workings of a mechanical object in such a clear, and at the same time such a detailed, way.”

Kaitlyn couldn’t take her eyes off the drawing. It seemed as though someone had reached into her mind and drawn the exact way she saw the fan, without her ever having known that this was what she was seeing until it was right here, laid out in front of her.

“Now,” Ammu said, clearly sensing her excitement, “would you say that this drawing can help us understand how the fan works?”

“Obviously!” Kaitlyn answered immediately.

“Obviously,” Ammu agreed. “Good. Now that you have seen and understood this type of drawing for an object with which you are familiar, I would like to show you some more such drawings, to see whether you can identify them, OK?”

“Sure!” Kaitlyn said. She had been nervous at first about her time with Ammu, but now she was tingling with excitement as he unfurled another drawing.

“A car stereo!” she exclaimed without any hesitation.

“Good!” Ammu said. “And this one?”

“A computer printer!”

“Yes! And this one?”

“A cuckoo clock!” Kaitlyn said, laughing.

“Excellent!” Ammu exclaimed. “Yes! A cuckoo clock!”

Kaitlyn looked up at him with bright, shining eyes. She felt as though his drawings were opening up a whole new world. With drawings like these, she could do more than just fix things—she could build anything from scratch, absolutely anything at all.

“OK,” Ammu said, his expression growing more serious. “Next, I am going to show you several pictures of things, and I want you to see whether you can, in your mind, create for yourself a drawing like these for each one. Do not worry. There is no need to draw them on paper.” He laughed at her horrified expression, and then again at her relief over his reassurance. “I just want you to see them in your mind. Are you ready?”

“But how can I do that if I’ve never seen what’s inside it?” she asked.

“An excellent question! Your engineering skill is a pathway, as I have said. It is how your unconscious mind speaks to your conscious awareness. But what your unconscious mind knows, this is your special affinity. Clear your mind, and trust the insights that come to you. You know far more than you think.”

“OK,” Kaitlyn said. “I’ll try.” She took a deep breath and nodded, indicating that she was ready.

The first pictures were of simple things: a tape dispenser, a hand-held egg beater, a light bulb. With each new photo, Kaitlyn discovered that she could, in fact, see the diagram that corresponded to it. And the more she focused, the more embellished the plans became, adding various twists and swirls of light to indicate the movement of each part within the whole—and its essential purpose.