Extended Illumination

June 7th, 2006 Fred McVittie Posted in Creativity, Illumination, Light |

The individual creative process is usually described as having a number of relatively distinct phases involving both conscious and non-conscious processes. Most models of creativity include a stage often referred to as ‘illumination’. This is the ‘Eureka’, or ‘light bulb’ stage and is understood ontologically as a moment of breakthrough or transition. This illumination stage does not typically have duration or internal structure, but rather marks a boundary between a stage before the creative insight emerges, and the stage immediately after. The facility for creative behaviour can be greatly enhanced by extending the liminal ‘moment’ of illumination such that it becomes a more sustained mode of consciousness, a form of awareness in which one is ‘primed’ in such a way that creative breakthroughs are potentiated. (1)

The desired state is pre-conceptual and is characterised by the absence of a specific object of focussed attention, combined with a heightened general sense of significance and meaningfulness. When one is inhabiting this mode of consciousness, in addition to a greater facility for creative behaviour, one is likely to experience a number of other characteristic symptoms;

• A greater awareness of coincidences and synchronicities (and often a greater attribution of significance to these coincidences)
• An increased sensitivity to ‘luck’, good or bad
• More frequent experience of synaesthesia
• Heightened intuitive feelings about others (a feeling of good or bad ‘vibes’)
• More frequent deja vu and jamais vu experiences
• Better recall of dreams
• Increased apophenia and pareidolia
• Increased visits from the ‘library angel’ (coming across exactly the book you need at the most fortuitous time)

It should be noted, that there may be no real significance in any of these phenomena, and the ‘information’ about the world offered by such symptoms cannot necessarily be regarded as valid. It is most likely that these seemingly meaningful events are simply artefacts of the process, useful for confiming the presence of a particular mode of consciousness related to creativity, but not insights in their own right.

1. This state has been likened to the ‘aura’ which precedes the onset of certain types of epileptic seizure, immediately prior to the ‘kindling’ which marks the onset of the seizure itself.