Unlock your Creative Genius

David Engwicht

Every human has 9 creative geniuses living in their head — evolved over millions of years. Those people labeled geniuses simply let the creative geniuses in their head run free. The rest of us inhibit our genius with chains of our own making.

This is a very short synopsis of my unpublished book on creativity that proposes a new theory of creativity.
 
The central thesis:

— The human brain is a product of the creative drive within nature (however one chooses to name this 'drive').

— The primary function of the human brain is to extend this creative drive within nature — the same drive which produced the brain in the first place. In other words, the human brain is primarily a 'creativity machine'.

— At different times in the history of the earth, nature has been more prolific in its creativity than at other times. There have been periods of intense innovation followed by stagnation or periods of mass extinction.

— It is environmental conditions which determines the creative output of nature. There are at least six environmental factors that must be present to maximize the creativity of nature: diversity, chaos (or disorder), edge territory, paradox, natural selection, and passion.

— If the brain is the product of the creative drive of nature, and designed to continue that process, it is reasonable to assume that the same environmental conditions that maximize creativity in nature will maximize creativity in the human brain.

— The environment which enables or inhibits our brain's inherent creativity is our 'thinking environment' or 'mental stance' towards the six environmental conditions necessary to maximize creativity: diversity, chaos, edge territory, paradox, natural selection and passion.

— Unlocking creativity has very little to do with learning new 'mental tricks' (the focus of most literature on creativity). It is more about unleashing your inherent creative abilities by removing self-imposed and culturally-imposed restrictions. These restrictions are forged by our relationship with the elements that are necessary to maximize creativity.

— The brain is its own worst enemy. Through its inherent creative ability, it coverts chaos or disorder into systems of order. But these systems of order destroy the very environmental conditions which maximize the creative abilities of the brain, particularly diversity, chaos, edge territory , paradox, and passion.

— Over millions of years of evolution, the brain has developed a range of mechanisms to balance this tendency to over-ordering — mechanisms that reintroduce the chaotic: dreaming, emotions, fantasy, play, sensuality and 'spirituality'. These 'non-rational' activities of the brain are essential to the creative process.

— The brain organizes memories and experiences into internal 'personas' (for example, our memories of childhood form the basis of our Child persona, which every adult carries in their head till death). There are a range of 'universal personas' which everyone carries in their head. Some of these are a result of the evolutionary process and some a result of personal history. I haveidentified nine of these 'universal personas' that I consider have evolved to preserves one or more of the environmental factors necessary to maximize creativity. For convenience (and being careful not to give rise to a new 'creativity fundamentalism') I call these: The Dreamer, The Storyteller, The Jester, The Mystic, The Sensual One, The Marginal Person, The Child, The Critical Parent and The Wise One. Each of these is an internal creative genius because they are the embodiment of one or more of the environmental conditions that maximize the creative potential of our brain.

— A strong indicator of the environment in which our brain is operating is our relationship to these universal personas (both personally and as a society). Take 'edge territory' for example. All creativity takes place at the meeting point between different worlds. As an individual (and as a community), being caught between different worlds or being 'on the fringe' results in us feeling marginalized. These feelings live on in our head and form our Marginal Person persona (just as our memories of childhood live on and form our Child persona). There are two broad ways we can relate to our internal Marginal Person. Because our marginal experiences were painful, we may lock these experiences up in the basement and become determined to never experience those feelings again. Our marginal experiences therefore become a drive to conformity and away from the 'edge' where all creativity takes place. Alternatively, we may draw on these experiences of surviving on the edge to give us the courage to keep living there. Our relationship to our Marginal Person is therefore a barometer of the amount of 'edge territory' that our brain has to work with.

— One way of changing your 'mental stance' to diversity, chaos, edge territory, paradox, natural selection and passion is to change your relationship with the creative geniuses that live in your head (as each personifies and preserves one or more of these environmental conditions needed for creativity).

— This is not an intellectual journey but an emotional journey. For example, we may be alienated from our Marginal Person because they represent pain and suffering. Changing our relationship with these painful experiences is in itself a highly creative act. We must tell a different story about these experiences. We must transform our most chaotic and painful experiences into our most valuable assets… the clay from which we fashion our creative products.

— Changing our relationship to our inner creative geniuses requires a series of ongoing, concrete actions, just as rebuilding a relationship with an estranged friend requires a series of ongoing, concrete actions. An intellectual insight, act of will or one-off action will not change the relationship. For example, changing the relationship to the Child within requires that you learn to play again. This requires deliberate choices to do playful things. It may also mean honoring the children that you meet. It may even mean buying yourself a kid's story book.

Designing your own program to unlock your creative genius

The new book will have a series of activities that will help you build a healthier relationship with the creative geniuses in your head. However, in the meantime, you can start your own process of unlocking your creative genius.

1. Describe (written or visual) your current relationship to the following internal parts of yourself: The Dreamer, The Storyteller, The Jester, The Mystic, The Sensual One, The Marginal Person, The Child, The Critical Parent and The Wise One. Don't think you have failed if you feel like some of these inner characters are distant, faceless strangers.

2. Identify those that you have the most distant or difficult relationship with.

3. You may focus on building your relationship with one of these at a time or work on a number at once. To build the relationship, list some activities that would help build your relationship with this genius. For example, if you want to build a relationship with your Jester, you may wear odd socks to work, or get on public transport in a brightly colored outfit, or throw a dinner party in their honor.

4. You may find it helpful to find ways of expressing your changing relationship with these geniuses… discuss it with a friend, write letters to your inner geniuses, make masks of their faces, find people that personify this genius for you and spend time with them.

Please send us your words or images describing your relationship to your inner geniuses. Also send us the actions and rituals that you have found useful in building your relationship with these geniuses. Tell us if you have discovered other universal personas. We will consider publishing your material here as a way of helping others build their relationship with their own inner genius.

Why Creativity is a Community Process

— It was argued above that our mental stance towards diversity, chaos, edge-territory, paradox, natural selection and passion will either inhibit or enable the inherent creative abilities of our mind. However, our mental stance is shaped to a large extent by the mental stance (culture) of the society in which we live.

— Even if the individual can rise above the mental stance of their community, the community creates social and physical environments that impact on the creativity of the individual.

— The inhibitors to creativity are not just in the mental stance of our society, but also built into our houses, our streets, our parks, and our public places. Everything we build — from our individual house to large cities — contains a 'body language' that tells us about our mental stance. For example, if as a society we see childhood as a transition phase to adulthood and we believe that play and fantasy is something that we 'outgrow', then we will build cities that segregate the play of children from the serious work environments of the adults. We will remove play from streets (because it impedes adults doing serious work) and create specialized play areas. Every minute detail of urban design determines whether the creative geniuses in our minds are welcomed or excluded from participation in city life. For example, the orientation of public seating either encourages or inhibits people-watching, an activity loved by the Storyteller in our head.

— The presence of people evokes in us the Storyteller. The presence of water welcomes the Mystic and Child. Art welcomes the Dreamer, Sensual One and Jester. Seating welcomes the Old Wise One. The best of urban spaces encourage all creative geniuses to interact simultaneously. It is out of this interaction that the richest creativity emerges.

Our minds as 'public space'

— Current attitudes to intellectual property see creativity as the solitary activity of one mind.

— However, the theory of creativity outlined above argues that creativity is a process of one organism interacting with their entire environment. For example, one of the six key environmental conditions necessary for creativity is edge territory — a meeting point between different worlds. Creative action is the result of the 'collision' between two or more worlds, not the result of a unilateral action of one player. There can be no creative action in our mind without interaction with other minds and our entire cultural setting.

— The larger community is constantly making 'investments' in our creative ability — formal education, public seating to promote people watching, walking trails so we can interact with nature, casual conversations in which street wisdom is shared, etc. The creative products that this stimuli provokes are therefore 'owned' by the wider community. In one aspect, our minds are part of the 'community commons' — a resource to enrich the entire community.

— The privatization of this 'community commons' (through current attitudes to 'intellectual property') reduces the creative potential of the entire community.

For a more in-depth discussion of the role of the built environment in the creative potential of communities see the article Creating Creative Cities.