One sees rightly
only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye. [1]
Creativity is an
innate ability that everyone has within himself. It is a gift that has been offered
by nature and by our chromosomes. Everyone has some peculiarities that lead him
to engage in a particular form of creativity. Some people have the gift of a
musical ear, others have a beautiful voice, some people excel in math or in
language, others have a passion for design, yet others delight the palates
inventing new recipes. We can say that creativity exists in each one in
different ways. We can add that creativity may be aided by an awareness to
possess potentially unique skills. Family, education, the activities we do in our
spare time, or just randomness may help us in this awareness. The more our
senses are alive and active, the greater is our capacity for creativity
because, as Salvador Dali stated (1904-1989) “inspiration is everywhere, you
just have to have your eyes open and your mind ready to receive”. To develop
new ideas we have to be in the flow of life, with senses wide awake, watching,
talking, touching, feeling, tasting. Then we reflect and we let our imagination
rework it, with inspiration and intellectual freedom. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
argued that “chance favors the prepared mind”. Thinking to approach the truth,
creating and innovating, without being supported by a range of knowledge that
supports the research, is to pretend that the innovative idea comes out of
nowhere. Imagine a myriad of circuits created by our genetic heritage, and
gradually changed by experiences, sensations and stimuli from the environment
around us. In the midst of these maps is enclosed our creativity, our ability
to adapt, processing and discovering new perspectives, solutions and visions.
In fact, in the functioning of the brain are still many dark areas. There are
so many challenges in the way of knowledge of this amazing and complex organ
that, despite making up only two percent of the total mass of our body
represents approximately twenty percent of the total energy consumption. In
science, to make progress, you must know, question and develop theories that
innovate and give new life to a tireless search that proceeds to the knowledge
of human capabilities, the surrounding environment and the universe space-time.
A universe that attimes baffles because of its size and its mysteries, but
gives a lot of charge and many stimuli to human intelligence trying to search
for the truth that escapes and shows only fragments of it. Currently research
on the neuropsychological bases of creativity does not give definitive answers
and no one can say with confidence that our creativity passes only through synaptic
pathways of the billions of neurons in our brain.
Creativity and
spirituality are the essence of man, so fragile and yet capable of rising to
sublime heights in music, literature, architecture, sculpture and painting, in
the knowledge of the human body and the universe around it. On the topics of
brain maps and spirituality we will investigate in the next chapters to try to
better understand how they interface with creativity. Imagine being a
successful bartender and wanting to create a cocktail of creativity. How could
it be born? It would take a variable mix of genetic heritage, environmental
inputs, intellectual honesty, curiosity, spontaneity, imagination and optimism;
shake well to mix all the ingredients and taste. We cannot guarantee the result
because to be successful you must have had the right insight and obtain the consent
of the public that often comes after a long time. Similar mechanisms revolve
around creativity, the ideas that bounce around in the mind, break up, overlap,
repeat and in this way traditional ideas are transformed into different and original
associations to form that magical cocktail that gives rise to novelty.
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[1] Antoine de
Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943.
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