Enhancingcreativity1

Creativity is one of the most wonderful and fascinating aspects of human individuality. The diversity of expression of the creative force that wells within and around us is creative in itself, and truly endless. Today we have a deeper insight of the creative process, and more importantly, we have ways of encouraging and enhancing this process. Just as one can get clearer and more varied signals from a radio set by properly tuning it, so we too can get better and sharper creative insight by tuning up what is effectively our own interface with the creative force of life - the mind. More specifically, certain parts of the mind, and the way we use them.

Trying to describe the mind in a few sentences is like trying to capture a rainforest on an oil canvas or photograph. It has been said that if the mind were so simple that we could understand it, we would be too simple to do so! My favourite analogy for the mind is the famous Jungian-Freudian iceberg. An iceberg floats on the ocean such that all we see above the surface is a mere tip. Lurking below is the vast bulk of the iceberg. Our mind is the same. The part of the mind that we can perceive is the conscious mind, yet there is a vast bulk that we cannot directly experience or perceive, and this is the unconscious.

Any artist or composer will immediately relate to the statement that true creativity emerges from within the psyche, that part of the ‘iceberg’ below the surface of conscious awareness. While we need the conscious mind to form, depict, paint or compose that creative impulse into something expressible, it is our unconscious that is in tune with creativity, just like the receiving mechanism of that radio.

Why is it that some people seem to be more creative than others? The answer may lie in just how well we develop the communication between the conscious and unconscious aspects of our mind, and the relationship we cultivate between the two. This can be affected by various factors, not least of which are the perceptual filters and belief systems that one may have been conditioned with since birth. The good news is that we know a bit more how this works today, and we can actually use ways to encourage and stimulate a healthy creative process. Some of these methods are well substantiated. They draw on ancient knowledge and techniques which were used by geniuses, inventors and mystics since ages ago. One system which has been streamlined with modern scientific knowledge and moulded to provide a practical and workable way of enhancing creativity, is the Mindscape method.

Mindscape is presented as a weekend workshop that has been taught successfully around the world to audiences ranging from general public to specialized groups, such as artists, sportspeople and executives of top multi-national corporations. Essentially, Mindscape enables the participant to be able to access the powerful creative and intuitive faculties of the mind, and use them at will. It also provides various other interesting uses, as we shall mention. Mindscape recognizes that there are different states of mind. We are all familiar with the experience of trying to come up with creative thought or perhaps solve a problem, and how one day the ideas seem to fly readily, yet on another day or a different moment, we may seem to be totally blocked. The most likely cause of this is the mental state we are in at the time. This state is dependent on the frequency of our brainwaves at the time, and can in fact be measured using EEG equipment. Research has shown that the best state for conscious creative and intuitive work is what is known as the alpha state. Unfortunately, most people only enter alpha before going to sleep or while relaxing on a beach, and are not trained to do it consciously. Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, is recorded as having experimented to find a way of accessing this state. His favourite method involved doing his creative thinking while sitting in his armchair in front of a fire. The downside was that he kept falling asleep! His solution was to hold metal ball bearings in his hand which would drop noisily onto the wooden floor if he dozed, promptly waking him up so he could then start again! Thankfully, today we have more streamlined and effective ways of achieving the same effect. Mindscape teaches an easy visualization technique by which one can access this state of alpha, which means that the participant can, anytime and anywhere, enter a state at which his/her creativity and intuition are at their best. This is very useful whether one is composing a work of art, putting together a marketing campaign, solving a problem, chairing an important business meeting or running a 500m race. I myself have used this technique extensively in my own creative work throughout the years. As a stage magician in years past, I would not only use Mindscape to come up with ideas for my act, but also draw on the faculties of the inner mind for a special type of rehearsal. In my subsequent career as a creative writer in the advertising industry, I also used these methods regularly to come up with ideas and scripts for campaigns. My work in both the magic and advertising fields received awards for originality.

Another aspect of the Mindscape technique involves harmonizing left and right brain thinking. Left and right brain here refers not so much to actual physical hemispheres of the brain, but to brain functions. In this materialistic and ‘logical’ world, most of us have been brought up with a highly developed left brain logical function, and this at the gross expense of the right creative and intuitive function. This is why so many people claim they are not creative, and may think they find it hard to be. It is also the reason why we are often daunted by the idea of drawing on intuition in our life, alongside logic. Optimum creativity calls for the ability to use both sides of the brain as and when needed. Mozart, for instance, is well known for composing music while playing billiards. Today we can understand that by deliberately occupying the logical side of his mind with billiards, his wildly creative right side could function less inhibited. The Mindscape method enhances our natural ability to listen to our intuition, and to harness our creativity.