simple teaching stories called parables, as well as the more complex creation stories of mythology, give us powerful imagery. Our imaginative responses to these pictures generate abundant additional images, all richly symbolic. This is one way soul speaks to us. The passkey is receptivity. If we can be open to this divine flow and reflect on the meanings it presents to us, the inner life is greatly enriched.
“It is then that we have found the lost coin. All the sweeping and searching is more than worth the prize. Let us call in the neighbors and rejoice.
Creative Thought Magazine—January 1996 141
Questions to Ponder
1.What is Young saying about the power of mythic stories?
2.What connections is he making between spirituality and creativity?
3.What do the coin and the lighting of the lamp represent?
141Jonathan Young, “The Lost Coin,” Center for Story and Symbol, January 1996: retrieved November 3, 2007, from http://www.folkstory.com.
3
The Process: Synthesis+Energy= Synergy
Definitions
Creative: adj. 1. Having the ability or power to create: Human beings are creative animals. 2. Productive; creating. 3. Characterized by originality or expressiveness; creating: creative writing. [Middle English createn from Latin, creare, creat-; Indo-European root ker-, to grow]
Synthesis: n. 1.a. the combining of separate elements or substances to form a coherent whole. b. the complex whole so formed. [Latin, collection, from Greek sunthesis, from sunthethenai, to put together]
Energy: n. 1. The capacity for work or vigorous activity; vigor, power. See synonyms at strength. 2a. Exertion of vigor or power; a project requiring a great deal of time and energy. b. Vitality and intensity of expression: a speech delivered with energy and emotion. [French, énergie, from Late Latin energia, from energeia, from energos, active: en-in, at; ergon, work.]
Synergy: n. 1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual efforts. 2. Cooperative interaction among groups . . . that creates an enhanced combined effect. [From Greek sunesis, union, cooperation, from Greek sunergos, working together.]
Integral Creativity, the focus of this book, is based on Ken Wilber’s AQAL system. But what does the title mean? What is Creative Synergy?
It is “the interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual efforts” in creating something new that is “trying to happen” or “trying to express itself”142 through you. In this chapter we will examine it as cooperation with “The Force.” Later we will see that it can also be the cooperation of different parts of the self (Chapters 5-6), elements of the work (Chapters 9-11), or individuals with a group (Chapters 7-8, 12-13). It is also revealed in the operation of universal forces across domains (Chapter 9) and exemplifies field theory, which Einstein believed to be “‘the greatest’” of all contributions to science.143
How did I get the name Creative Synergy? In the 1980s it came to me as the title of a book or consulting practice. In 1999 my new husband said it had come to him as the name for a consulting or publishing business. Later I stumbled upon Stephen Covey using the term. He applies it to the synergistic reaction of people cooperating in some endeavor.144 In the course of writing this book, I found myself exploring this usage of the term as well (Chapters 7-8, 12-13). But I began by conceiving it as cooperation with “The Force”: the gems vibrating in tune to the strings of Indra’s Net in a synthesis that is more than the sum of its parts. By now in the twenty-first century, “synergy” has almost become a buzzword.
To activate a synergy with the web, you must concentrate. You are cooperating, synthesizing forces to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. This cooperation is not passive but dynamic. Swami Kriyananda explains, “Will power is the key to awakening energy. Yogananda used to say, ‘The greater the will, the greater the flow of energy.’”145 Only with energetic concentration on the Unified Field of All Things can you bring into being what is trying to happen. What follows is a ten-step method to facilitate the process.
A Ten-Step Process
1.Immerse yourself in the formulas of your craft.
You have to put in your apprenticeship. The Beatles practiced in tacky venues and sweated seven-hour nights in Hamburg before they burst onto the popular music scene. Mozart produced juvenilia before he created his masterpieces. Michelangelo apprenticed briefly to a sculptor with lesser talent.146 You have to learn, even internalize, the formulas of your craft before you can let go of your ego, contact the Unified Field, and cooperate as a co-creator of some work. The process entails not passive surrender but alert receptivity, and the field uses your preparation to find the formulas for expression.
Weisberg cites a number of studies establishing the importance of knowledge and practice. Hayes, for instance, was interested in the amount of “preparation” necessary for a creative breakthrough. When he investigated the careers of seventy-six composers, he discovered that among five hundred masterworks, only three had been composed before the tenth year, and those had been created a year or two before.147 Mozart himself, the archetype of the prodigy, composed his first significant work, Piano Concerto 9 (K.271), in 1777, more than ten years after he began composing.148
In his investigation of 131 painters, Hayes discovered a similar pattern. An apprenticeship of least six years preceded a sudden six-year spurt of productivity, followed by
