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Creative Isolation
Numerous profound aesthetic experiences,
and moments of creative illumination, insight, or revelation
have occurred in circumstances in which sensory input has
been reduced in some way. We know stories of artists or
scientists whose sudden creative intuitions or revelations
have come to them in the confines of the "artist's garret"
or while staring into the fireplace or walking on the beach
with attention turned inward. In fact, one the essential
elements of all creative thought is concentration gained
through some sort of restriction of sensory
stimulation.
Theta Brain Waves and
Creativity
The Greens and other researchers have
remarked that many great discoveries have resulted from
hypnagogic imagery experienced in theta state. The chemist
Friedrich Kekule, for example, vividly described his state
of "reverie" in which he suddenly saw a mental image of
atoms forming a chain, and of snakes biting their tales;
subsequent discovery that organic compounds occur in occur
in closed rings has been describes as " the most brilliant
piece of prediction to be found the whole range of organic
chemistry." There are countless stories of such moments of
inspiration and creativity occurring when the thinker is
nodding off to sleep, or gazing into the sky, or wandering
lonely as a cloud. Virtually all of them speak of the
drowsiness, the physical relaxation, the vivid imagery
appearing unexpectedly, that mark them as examples of the
theta state. The tank cannot make geniuses of us all, but
its ability to put us into a theta state suggests that it
can be a valuable aid in promoting creativity.
Visualization and Creativity
Researchers in the field of mental
imagery now believe that about 15 percent of all people "
visualizers" who experience virtually constant, vivid mental
imagery; another 15 percent of the population are
"verbalizers," operating mostly (but not entirely) in a
world of words and verbal thoughts, ideas, and structures.
The remaining 70 percent lie on a spectrum between these two
types. Tests made from the earliest days of infancy through
adulthood show that males are consistently superior to
females show a similar distribution of verbalizers and
visualizers. Studies show that high visualizers breathe more
regularly than they normally do when doing spatial tasks
that require visualization. Write Gordon Rattray Taylor
cites studies showing that "high imagers are more relaxed,
more creative, more mature, more flexible than lower
imagers...We have a clue in the fact that absence of imagery
is correlated with stronger defences against
impulse."
As for the value of imagery, aside from
the life-enhancing qualities of visualization and the
relaxed physical state that seems to accompany it, there are
definite practical advantages. Many studies have shown
clearly that visual imagery is associated with the ability
remember to remember: The stronger your mental imagery, the
less effort you will need to take in and commit to memory an
idea or event. People with "super memories" are able to
perform their feats through mental images. With words,
linked end to end like box cars, we can understand only in
linear fashion, one bit at a time, while with imagery we can
assimilate and entire scene, event, or complex relationship.
Visualization is also a crucial element of creativity; by
"seeing" things which have never been, or visualizing events
before they have taken place, we can truly invent the
future, just as we can invent a work of art or a new
machine. History is studded with stories of creative
geniuses who first encountered their reality-changing ideas
in the form of visions, or mental images.
Professor Thomas Taylor of Texas A &
M recently conducted a fascinating test of the effects of
floating on learning and thinking. Taylor had tested subject
groups to see which were visualizers and which were
verbalizers, and concluded; " when the same learning records
are analyzed on the basis of persons who are basically '
visualizers' verses those who are primarily'
conceptualizers' ( non-visual thinkers), a greater degree of
learning occurred in the visual then in the non-visual
group. " Taylor also noted that the float group appeared to
visualize better than the non-float group, and produced
scignificantly higher amounts of theta waves, which are
known to be associated with stron mental imagery.
The floatation tank is the optimal
environment for visualization because the relaxation it
ensures is so profound that the brain soon begins to
generate an unprecedented amount of very slow, strong,
rythmical theta waves, which are associated with vivid,
lifelike hynagogic images. All the methods of visualization
used throughout history - the yogi's and monk's relaxed
motionless lotus posture, the shaman's drug-induced catonia
- have emphasized that a state of deep relaxation is
essential to successful visualization. In the tank, deep
relaxation and strong mental imagery come spontaneously and
effortlessly.
© Michael Hutchinson "The
Book Of Floating"
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