Moments of clarity
by eagleandserpent
It’s always as intriguing to come up with ideas between sleeping and being awake. Given the abstraction capabilities of the human mind, one can not but wonder the role of consciousness on the creativity of ideas one gets. I’ve gotten many of my personally most captivating thoughts either just about to wake up or fall asleep. This is, of course, not to speak of a collection of much much fuzzier moments…
Taking the notion of ‘consciousness being sleep guided by the senses’ seriously, what are the consequences? Instead of trying to deliberately come up with theories of creativity, should we rather concentrate on sleeping more, spending more time with the activities and people that enrich our lives and finding meaning in subtleties? It might be too radical to the industries of knowledge (management consulting among others) to start selling ‘insights emerging from laid-backedness’, but on a more personal level, should we start to be just a bit more greedy in this sense?
Also, in terms of much serious matters–such as ‘decision making’– should one more readily rely on one’s gut instead of seemingly-sophisticated-but-helplessly-bogus models?
In other words, ‘avant-garde art’ or ‘serious science’?!
Eagle and serpent 
Well, I think that those who cannot use their intuition properly need models etc. for back up. Sounds harsh, but all theories and models and categories are just tools to understand bits of the emerging reality. Therefore I think that intuition is the key to reality based decision making, which (by the way) (in my experience) usually is faster and more correct than decisions relying on theories. Cost efficiency?! More sleeping, relaxation and perhaps even meditation -> more creativity and efficiency in action? More happiness in everyday life? So let’s sleep 🙂
One artist friend of mine said years ago, that working as we now know it, is to be in past tense. But he wasn’t sure how the future of labour will be. Could/should we cite Plato and borrow his thought of people always striving for what is good? Happiness is good for people? Happy people work better? (I’m not quite sure what the conclusion is…)
But back to your question about avant-garde art and serious science… Quantum physicists speak about everything being energy. I don’t know very much of their writings but I have an experience to share. I was listening a lecture, that was held by a Swedish artist. He was speaking about creativity and different themes/feelings/difficulties artists face while painting. I was just drawing my own stuff, those pages were my “notes”. After the class we had private meetings with the teacher, when he commented our paintings. I showed him my “notes”. He started laughing. I was a bit surprised! He explained to me: just before he had come to the lecture he had been talking with a quantum physicist. This scientist had told him about super nodes (super strings? I am not sure about the term) and he had also shown him some kind of sketch/picture. And now I gave him my “notes”, and I had sketched exactly those super-stuff-nodes he had just seen.
So what is the explanation?
Well, interestingly enough, gut feeling based decision making is strongly on the move! Anyone interested should take a look for example here.
Of Plato… Personally, I’d like to give the categories of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ simply away. Them being inevitably and completely either self-preservation or social construction, I don’t see how we could ‘learn’ anything from anything by calling it names. Moreover, Plato along with the other classical philosophers were colonialists of thought, transcending everything they thought to encompass all forms of life…
I’m not the person to speak of quantum physics, but interestingly enough I’ve spent some time discussing these issues with people who have studied them a lot. Many of them are self-proclaimed realists, but still talk about non-observables with such certainty that one cannot distinguish their metaphysics from that of the Vatican. Now surely, this is blasphemy!
To sleep, perchance to gain creative insight?
“The development of mathematical insight, the knack for discovering novel solutions to mathematical problems, might be one of the most erudite forms of learning that we can hope to achieve. However, Wagner and his colleague now report that a night of sleep after being exposed to a class of mathematical problems more than doubles the likelihood of discovering just such a novel solution.”
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VH9-4C47TGS-3&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1136635801&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=32ae507e0bc555aac1f9c71a193b0907
What a link! Found it also as a pdf (in case anyone interested)… Thank you!
Merely concentrating on “sleeping more” will not bring you any bursts of creative ideas or insights. When you are asleep, your brain is in the “Delta” state (i.e. your brainwave frequency equals 4 cps). This state of consciousness is associated with no thinking, and the primary aim of this is state is one of healing, regeneration, and rejuvenation.
However, as rightly pointed out here, the most captivating thoughts tend to occur either when you are about to fall asleep or about to wake up. So, essentially what we are talking about is the “Theta” state of consciousness.
It is a proven fact that when your brain is in the “Theta” state (i.e. 4-7 cps), you will gain access to insights and experience bursts of creative ideas – or “Moments of Clarity” to use eagleandserpent’s words.
Simply put, the lower your brainwave cps, the more effectively you are able to enter your subconscious, and you will find that your awareness is turned toward subjective experience. This is down to the fact that the “Theta” state of consciousness is associated with right-brain thinking – as opposed to the “Beta” state in which we waste most of our time “searching” for creative solutions and coming up with “seemingly-sophisticated-but-helplessly-bogus models”.
The key (and difficulty!) lies in finding a way to remain conscious while in the Theta state. As Akuro pointed out, Meditation is one possible way forward. People who have not undergone any form of meditative mind training will tend to fall asleep only a few seconds after getting into Theta state, hence limiting their “moments of clarity” to these few seconds.
Also, for those who DO believe in Quantum Physics – the Theta state is the key state for “reality creation” and manifestation.
About meditation… I have understood that the ability to meditate is at least partially based on the level of consciousness the person has. That those with “low level of development” cannot stay awake very long times. As Athene suggested, meditation helps meditating. But tell me, if you know: is it possible to measure the level of consciousness? Or, is it meaningful/sensible?
Intriguing empirical pin-downs, Athene. Maybe one could devote one’s ‘full’ consciousness to administrative tasks, production of documents, sending emails–deliberately (uh) leaving room for new ideas emerging from the fuzzy border-areas of our minds?
I’m just inclined to guess that most members of the ‘rational choice’ school won’t see it fruitful to be in the periphery, but instead view it as a no man’s land, negating the advancements of ‘real and serious’ science.
Despite some developments, I’d say meditation is still rather unforeseen and understudied practice in the fields of decision-making and organisational creativity studies. Maybe otherwise in the future?
In case you have some links, Athene, I’d be interested in seeing some empirical papers about the points you mentioned.
To the measurability issue of consciousness, I’ve understood that it can be done using brain scans (which show the differences of activity across different areas, or should I say ‘volumes’?). However, I’d not push any serious scientific definitions with this conception…
Akuro – If with “Level of Consciousness” you are referring to “brain states” (and I am not sure that you are!), then Yes, this is measurable via an Electroencephalograph. So if you are looking to scientifically establish how many cycles per second your brainwaves are completing, and thus determine whether you are in a Beta, Alpha, Theta or Delta state – this IS possible.
Is it meaningful / sensible? I believe not. If what you are looking to achieve through Meditation are the infamous “Moments of Clarity”, “Inner Peace”, and the ability to “consciously create your own reality”, then you must leave the Ego-driven Human mind out of this, which seeks to categorize, label and impose rules on any perceived sensation. If your mind is trained, the “Moment of Clarity” will come, regardless of what the Electroencephalograph tells you. And when it comes, you’ll know.
And by the way, the same goes for the “Gut Feeling” that eagleandserpent refers to. “Intuition”, or “Gut Feeling”, is a response of the body when you are truly present in any given situation, as opposed to simply “reacting” in a manner pre-conditioned by the Ego. So to answer eagleandserpent’s question, my personal opinion is: If in doubt, rely on your gut feeling (i.e. your body’s intelligence)!
Eagleandserpent – as a matter of fact, doing administrative tasks that are repetitious and boring in their nature will readily allow us to elapse into a “Theta” state. Take the example of somebody driving on the freeway, who cannot recall the last 5 miles. Or somebody running on a treadmill for half an hour. It is often in the midst of an undertaking of very repetitive nature that one will experience a “moment of clarity”.
Ha! I definitely agree on the point of following one’s gut! The notion also opens interesting avenues of the role of our (bodily) intuitions to the fabrics of ‘knowledge’ many of us are weaving… Probably it could be said that omitting the holistic view of human beings is an echo from the many times debunked mind-body dualism? Enter Merleau-Ponty…
Athene, I buy your point(s) about driving and running. However, I was going more for tasks that are boring yes, but at the same time requiring our presence and attention, take sending an administrative email for instance (at least I read it quite carefully through to avoid misunderstandings and the like). At least personally I’m more inclined to feeling nausea rather than any creative leaps when immersed into this!
Upon writing a play i 2008, I did quite a bit of research on intuition, gut-feeling and “intuitive knowledge”. Intuition, – “gut feeling”, is not a bodily reaction, and has got nothing to do with your body´s intelligence, but with your brain. The effect of the brain reaction however, is bodily, and perceptible. Intuition is the phenomenon that one experiences when the massive loads of information that we -unconsciously – percieve, recieve and store in our brain, suddenly and momentaneously is made accessible to us. This information is being stored as marginalised in the peripheria of our consciuosness, tangering the unconscious, and hence, apparently unconsciuos to us. The sensoric experience when this occurs obviously is manifested as bodily, we “feel” the access when the streaming of the marginalised knowledge is percieved because it releases hormons – endorphines (and sometimes also adrenalin).. This happens many times during a day, but most often the majority of us will not be accessible to this sensation of “something else going on”. We are not trained in exposing our selves (literally) to this. We are trained to efficiently ignore it. However, via meditation, gardening, running, free swimming, sex, and other activites where we deliberately set our brain mode in alpha – to a relaxation mode – we can train to be more sensitive to the stream of the marginalised information. Going further in to theta (really deep relaxation), one can experience an extreme sensation of presence, yet have no sense of (clock) time. One hour can feel like one minute. People in extreme professionas are often undertaking training to learn how to access alpha and theta state really quick – you don´t have to meditate for hours, one deep breath can actually be enough to shift mode, once you have the “keys”. Same goes for hypno-therapy, where one very quickly can access the state of really deep relaxation, yet being fully awake, concentrated and conscious. Intelligence professionals are trained in this, among others. They hardly sit down to meditate when out on a mission, but have learned how to access all the information they have stored in the outskirts of counsciousness, to bring it together and make sense. Thus, there is almost always an element of counscious (rationallised) sensemaking involved at one point. Artist in different fields report to more often than other people experience the state of “intuition” and moments of clarity, and very often NOT when they are working on a piece, but when doing something completely else. A nowegian film director (Erik Poppe) just gave a seminar where he revealed that he “cracked the code” for his most famous and prize awarded movie (The invisible) when he was out one sunday with his son, kite running. After days with struggling with the opening -and-ending scenes, he just suddenly saw the scenes, knew the images, the angle of the camera, the colurs, the music. Suddenly, everything came together – NOT while sitting at the desk, trying to be clever.
And I don´t think Hemingway did not know what he was doing when he made his studio in his home outside Havana, Cuba. With the view to the horizons from his desk, I guess it was impossible for him NOT to write. Another norwegian poet (Kolbein Falkeid) once told me how he can go through months with no clues about how to take a text further, Then suddenly, when out by the sea side, he will know, the words will come to him, the music will flow. Also, we know that when we experience something as beautiful, or as pleasure, our sensoric system is able to be fully operational cause we are in a state of relaxation and not stress, where we produce endorphines. In stress, we shut down our senses to operate on a scarce level (bad audio recognition, tunnell sight,weakened tactile), where we produce stress hormons. In other words, when stressing and trying to be clever heads, we are limiting our capability of experiencing intuition, we are narrowing our minds, weakening our ability to be free spirits of mind, castrating our souls. All this because we by deliberately trying to find the right answers, deny our selves access to our richest source of knowledge and wisdom. On the sofa, watching garbage TV, you are in the right (alpha) mode, but in the wrong place. Your senses are opened, but just to be polluted with poison (which is why TV-watching for children is such a powerful and potentially dangerous activity, because they recieve all impressions without filtering, being in a total state of alpha).
So yes. More kite running. More moments of free streaming while going for a walk. More enjoying a glass in front of the fireplace, indulging in inspiring conversations – Yes to more of everything everywhere where thoughts and souls freely are invited and welcomed to wander, explore and stretch.
Maria – agree on all points, except on “Intuition, – “gut feeling”, is not a bodily reaction, and has got nothing to do with your body´s intelligence, but with your brain“.
The way I see it, the brain IS part of the body, and hence intuition IS a bodily reaction. I do not distinguish between brain and body. I DO, however, distinguish between the “conscious mind” and the body.
The “conscious mind” is the brain in its form we most know and use it: dominated by the Ego, rational and logical. In this form, the brain has nothing to do with Intuition.
The beauty about Intuition is that it precisely cancels out this “conscious mind”. Intuition brings together our higher mind, our five senses, and experiences stored in the SUBconscious mind. Based on these stiumuli, the organ called “BRAIN” will trigger an intuitive response. However, this doesn’t make Intuition any less bodily.
A & M, to me you seem to agree on the bodily nature of our intuitions. At least I agree with both, brain being part of the body, on the other hand our experiences heavily influenced by the whole thing.
Maybe I do too much sports, or take it too seriously, since in those situations I tend not to be very creative, but instead in a conscious mode of learning. I constantly catch myself thinking “what now?”–being inevitably and helplessly late. This got me really think, maybe I should start a new training habit of ‘forgetting’?
Moreover, I tend to get most of my literary ideas when I’m ‘on the move’, that is, simply walking around the city. This is, most importantly, with my notebook and a black ballpoint in my pocket, not about to do anything specific (going for a coffee or something, still having to get out of my flat).
This might be a fallacy, but it seems that I’m almost afraid of getting new ideas without the means to document them with me.
Another wonderful, and probably the most rewarding mode of coming up with novelty for me is simply to play around with thoughts with sensitive, insightful and enriching people!
Entering the never ending discourse on philosophy of mind …hello Descartes…
Athene – I follow you in what you point out, but do not agree, as your definition of brain/body is a contradiction in terms. Of course one cannot argue against the brain being part of the body, if referring to the brain as composited of physical atoms which the larger body would not function without. And I don´t disagree in viewing intuition and gut feeling as a bodily phenomenon, given the distinction “brain as an organ is a part of the body as a whole organism”. As long as both the conscious AND unconscious are cognitive and neurobiological/chemical/physical processes observable as phenomenons IN the brain, the notion of one being driven by the rational logic and the other not, does not make one of them more or less connected to the body. Subconscious or underlying knowledge is hence just as bodily defined as as the Following your logic, both are bodily responses, beings characterised by different cognitive +++ chain reactions in the brain (primary) AND the (rest of the )body (secundary).What we do know is that wherever the noble metal of this thing called consciousnes/unconsciousnes might be deposited in our body(brain inclusive) the recognition of either of them is not possible without the organ called brain and its triggering functions.
My point is that both the less (un)conscious and the fully conscious knowledge is accessible to us and we can train to excel in how to access the state/mode where everything comes together so as to experience the beautiful blend of rich knowledge at its best. Talking about bodily intelligence versus non-bodily intelligence will quite surely make many brainy guys leave the room – while there is no reason to. I don´t believe the distinction is fruitful in this context. If referring to bodily knowledge as tacit, embodied knowledge, “mute knowledge” (common term in anthropology), the distinction os of course unavoidable.
Talking about the experience of flow attached to the practice of routine work in every day life, the subject is richly elaborated in the works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his followers. Barbara Fredrickson and Jane Dutton have done excellent work and writings on this, taking the concept much further in an (not pseudo) academic format. Whether we can experience flow (inspiration, creativity) in performing these task much depends upon the level of intrinsic motivation. Hence, today we are not only saying hello Descartes, but also hello Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky and Kafka.
@Eagleandserpent : There is currently research being done on the value of working outside work-defined spaces (egos 2009). Many people tend to report that htey expereince their most inspired and creative moments (of clarity and insights) when NOT in their office. My collegue has the same nitions as you refer to, bringing his notebook for a stroll down town, often to the city hall by the fiord, sitting with a coffee and just enjoying the view, the small ferries coming and going, and then fresh ideas will start popping like pop corn in his body and brain (by the way, Therese Amabile define creatvity as a body & brain business) 🙂
Now this is getting very interesting. On the other hand, I’m kind of ambivalent as I can see some consultants already moving with instrumental motives. In one or more ways this boils down to our conceptions of life, value and what we like doing.
Nietzsche also has his famous quote on this walking business. It’s all too interesting, however, why many organisations still a) assign people physical spaces against their wishes and work profile, b) give them hard time not being physically available. Maybe there’s a valuable interplay of cubicle infrastructure, power and pre-engineered notion of ‘efficiency’.
Or perhaps it’s just another manifestation of libido administrandi?
To Eagle and Maria: I also enjoy going out with my sketch book 🙂 It has been my only “counter player” lately since I haven’t been (lately) “blessed” with “playing around with thoughts with sensitive, insightful and enriching people”. I think that sketching and writing new ideas is very important because when we see them, they kind of get more flesh around their bones. So we send a approving signal to ourselves/our intuition, which is encouraging although not all ideas and insights are to be masterpieces 🙂
As you can see, my texts are mainly lacking links to literary. So my thoughts are based on my own experiments with creativity and consciousness.
To Serpent: Meditation can also be done walking. The point is to keep the meditative state also in movement. This feels a bit different than the flow or there is something else mixed with the flow, which makes it more than just the flow. I think this would help you doing sports. Do you know the feeling “as walking on the razor blade”? (always awake-always ready-what ever comes to you)
To Athene: Do you mean that Intuition is even higher than our higher mind? Are you referring to the concept of Inspiration, which means (at least I’ve undesrtood it to mean) ‘from God’?
So is intuition lower than inspiration and if this is the case, what is inspiration in your opinion?
Akuro, the more embarrassing to us having to resort to literature, if you don’t have to! 😉 I totally agree with you and Friedrich (the only Western zen-master)–to me walking is being with myself, guess one could find meditative aspects from the regularity of one’s breathing, paces and slowly moving landscapes…
To the sports stuff, I see my problem to lie in the lack of initiative, not so much in not being alert or prepared… Maybe it’s just my way of fighting, but I have to consciously tell myself to start trying new stuff. So I’m lacking one side of Bruce’s philosophy. Guess it’s sheer laziness!
One meditation-killer could be our false teleology of always having to be ‘going somewhere’! A basso with the protestant ethics and experience-production!
Hi Akuro. Quite frankly it has never occurred to me to rank the notions of “Intuition” and “Inspiration” in accordance with any hierarchical order. This is something the Egoic mind tries to do in order to remain in control. Both Intuition and Inspiration arise from beyond the mind. They are concepts that need to be felt rather than understood mentally. As such, I don’t think that defining and ranking them in an abstract manner is possible, nor is it necessary.
With “Higher Mind” I am not referring to Inspiration. Instead, I am referring to the part of you that is left over after the mental image of who you are, i.e. the Ego, is stripped away. This includes any defining factor you use to describe yourself, such as: a mother, a brother, a son, a businesswoman, a musician, a rich person, a short person, a fat person…. Take this away, and you got the “real you”, the part of you that does not suffer from “compulsive thinking” and “mind domination”.
Inspiration, the way I understand it, is a positive influence on you in any given situation. This influence through external stimuli can take place consciously or subconsciously. It can be God for one person, a person for another, a song, a book, a walk, a smell for another. Personally, I would not limit the notion of “Inspiration” to God alone.
Eagleandserpent – What I now have to say might come as a huge shock to you. In addition to Fritz, there actually IS another Western Zen Master. His name is Eckhart.
Building on your “false theology of always having to go somewhere”, Eckhart would say to this: “To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your identity and future for your fulfillment”.
Ha! My tautological comment was answered despite misreading! Teleology is a fancy word meaning goal-orientedness. Definitely need to look into Eckhart…
…Just looking–and what a frightful chap he was! Christian, Neoplatonist, Dominican… Uuh! Or are we talking about the same person?
http://www.eckharttolle.com/home/
@akuro: “I think that sketching and writing new ideas is very important because when we see them, they kind of get more flesh around their bones. So we send a approving signal to ourselves/our intuition, which is encouraging although not all ideas and insights are to be masterpieces”. Thank you! So neatly put and yes – so true! After this, I have nothing more to add. No need turning to books to define moments of clarity. Just turn to akuro 🙂 (and to come up with one really birlliant idea one will hvae to mess around with mushy ones as well – that´s part of the game,and very much a critical ingridient in the process of creating).
@athene: As for referring to Tolle asa new Western Zen Master, I don´t see very much new stuff in his widely promoted writings and teachings. Places like India are packed with “new masters” like Tolle, wrapping a blend of old, very well known stuff in seemingly new wrapping, seducing crowds of followers. That does not make it new, nor does it make Tolle to a new western zen master. However, leading people to whorship him as one, he has made his millions.
Thank you Maria! 🙂
I have also been a bit surprised about Tolle’s success, since he does not really add anything new… But perhaps his texts are easier to the Western people?
On Tolle: Another(s) moment of clarity: http://andsaywedid.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/for-whom-the-eckhart-tolles/
Awh, now wasn’t this “Eckhart-Bashing” just so predictable….
Maria & Akuro – What you’re saying is absolutely right. A lot of his teachings are based on Buddhism, Taoism and various other forms of ancient Eastern thinking. But then again, I do not recall ever portraying him as a “NEW” Western Zen Master?!
To many people “in the West” he is a Zen Master nonetheless. Personally, I think his work is inspiring and easily accessible to people who have NOT devoted large parts of their lives to reading and studying philosophy.
Be it that his texts are “simple”, or that he manages to “seduce crowds of followers” – fact is, he has done a good job at awakening a philosophical and spiritual interest in many people other than the elite group of academics and intellectuals. Many of which, as a consequence, went on to read more original and ancient work.
The fact that he’s made Millions in the process – well, good for him. Let’s not let our Egos get in the way here, as Eckhart would say. 🙂
Yeah, I agree Athene. I do not envy him. And I guess, we always have room for another prophet 🙂
But earlier, you meant this Eckhart, not the one Eagleandserpent found in Wikipedia? Because I’ve heard that this Christian monk master Eckhart has also been vivid in his texts. But I haven’t read his book(s).
Well those popularisations of classical pieces can be informative, well-written and inspiring, there seems to be a consensus on that. I’m personally not very impressed of for instance Gladwell’s work (or at least I’m not calling them his). On the other hand, the only one I’ve read is the Tipping Point. These issues are without doubt reported more precisely in the relevant academic literature.
I recall, correct me if wrongly, that even Buddha said: “Don’t believe what I’ve said, test it untill you see if I was right!”
Then, I don’t agree with you that only “physical activity itself leads to creativity”. I think that both you and Eagleandserpent are right. In my experience, creativity needs the most leisure time and playfull attitude, not excessive walking/running. Thou, I have to admit that I haven’t read Murakami’s book, yet 🙂