The Creative Observer

Since I am the dreamer, as Annelies calls me, I was asked to write how I see myself as being the creative observer. I remembered that I was always told by my dad to build castles in the sky, while looking at the clouds, since it stimulates the mind of the dreamer.

Today I know that is why daydreaming is crucial to the creative mind. Creativity is lost without an instinctive ability to access free-floating mental states.

The myth goes that creative people who day dream, or either by lying back and letting the muse come to them, or… forcing it out through hard work and lengthy trial and error, are the true artists. True or false? I think that in reality it is somewhere between the two — a combination of inspiration and evaluation, of being able to let an idea come to you and then crafting it into shape.

A classic story of creativity goes like this. …at some unpredictable moment the unconscious serves something up to you that is pretty well formed, and anecdotal evidence shows that the creative observers get their best ideas when they are off guard and least expect it.

In my research I learned that in the cognitive science of consciousness, there is a lot of interest in what people call the 'fringe of the mind', — the ability to be interested in ideas that are not yet fully formed. The creative observer has a more intimate relationship with the fringes of their own mind, and consequently are able to catch the glimpse of an idea as it flashes across the screen of their consciousness.

In order to be a creative observer you have to be able to 'catch' concepts as they come up from the unconscious. If we can't do that, then "our minds lie in us like fish in the pond of a man who cannot fish".

Creativity is mainly learnt. And while there is an element of nature involved, it predominantly comes down to nurture — a way of thinking that is either picked up from parents or the people around you. Timely encouragement of course plays its part, along with finding an area of interest that really gets under your skin. ( In my case the concept of immortality)

It is said that creative people do, however, intuitively know the value of alternating the rhythms of work;

This is a crucial flexibility of mind that demonstrates the way creative people, even during periods of intense activity, manage to create little holes for themselves where they will instinctively take the mini-breaks they need to let ideas come to them.

Time out feeds the quietness of mind that is essential to creativity.

Experiments have shown that creative people have different brain patterns when actively creative. I read that somewhere, but I do know that when I wrote my journals - The Astral Explorer and The Cosmic Traveller, recalling my dream time gave me the ability to be receptive to ideas and inspiration, and then to be able to focus and work on those ideas.

While most people are able to apply themselves to the elaboration phase, only a creative person is able to relax his or her mind enough to dream, and let things come to them during the inspiration phase. Part of the trick of creativity is being able to move backwards and forwards between these two states of mind. Creative thinking people intuitively know when it is right to be relaxed and open-minded and when it is time to be focused and concentrated. ( mmm. sometimes)

By encouraging people to relax, everyone can increase the number of ideas they come up with. Certain forms of meditation are effective as a means of learning how to enter a creative mental state —one that is relaxed and receptive but also awake and alert. That is why mind-drawing is so beneficial.

Essentially, creativity is all about learning to listen to the unconscious and being able to cultivate that relaxed and alert time that is typical of meditation and dreaming. Very creative people may be able to do this intuitively, but it is important to realize that we were all born with creative minds. Learn to listen to the whispers of the sub-conscious while the shouts of the mundane world go on around us.

We are after all the Creative Observer of our Own lives!