Appendix 1: Structures of Organizations
Appendix 2: Alternative Exercises
Acknowledgments
Like any other creator, I couldn’t have completed this project without help. My first thanks go to my husband and creative partner, Dr. Jack Clemes, who endured months of solitary days while I was secluded in my study and immersed in this project. Without his help I couldn’t have completed this book in any sort of timely fashion. He did the household chores, built a special bookshelf for my materials, and supplied crucial creative backup with fresh ideas and perspectives on the book as a whole.
My next thanks go to my two main creative boosters, the pair who have cheered me on and believed in me for over sixty years: my parents, Harry and Gloria Paine. I especially thank my father, who made many suggestions that enriched the content appreciably. Next, I’d like to thank Dr. Steve Pronchick, an engineering professor at the Cal State Maritime Academy, who agreed to peruse three chapters of my original draft. Because Steve is a fine writer with impeccable scientific and engineering credentials, as well as a cultivated reader with broad tastes and acute intelligence, I knew I could trust him to provide a vital additional perspective. It is Steve who suggested that I consult the work of Roger Penrose, who proved a vital source.
Next, I would like to thank the library staff at Cal State Maritime Academy, especially Fran Fraser, Mark Stackpole, and Jean Walker, who went out of their way to find obscure journal articles through interlibrary loan. In addition, I’d like to thank science professors Jim Wheeler and Lloyd Kitazono for their remarks on symmetry and Professors Tuuli Messer-Bookman, Peter Hayes, and Jim Buckley for their discussion of teamwork in Marine Transportation. Finally, I would like to thank Cal State Maritime itself for approving a sabbatical so that I could work on this book and the wonderful folks at A.R.E. Press, especially copy editor Stephanie Pope and Director Cassie McQuagge.
Preface
The Mystery of Creativity
This book explores the mystery of creativity: the why, the what, and the how. We will trace some of its manifestations in the fields of science, spirituality, literature, the arts, engineering, psychology, business, sports, and philosophy—as well as traditions both Eastern and Western.
What makes this book different is its focus on synergy—the interactive synthesis of many parts and wholes. Ken Wilber (after Arthur Koestler’s nomenclature) calls such units holons: they can be whole in and of themselves but are also parts of larger wholes. So math and literature are both whole fields, but they are usually parts of a college education. Your background is a whole, but it is also only a part of you, and in itself it is composed of many parts, such as your reading, your experiences, and your synthesized ideas about life.
Organization of the Book
The first three chapters establish a theoretical framework.
Chapter 1 and 2, while dissecting the paradoxes involved in the study of creativity, indicate how some thinkers have viewed it from ancient times to the present. Particularly germane is the notion of the universe as a great thought, a web of interrelated ideas and possibilities, available to those who know how to access it. This concept may seem controversial but is by no means new—sources ancient and modern, Eastern and Western will be cited to document it.
Chapter 3 outlines the ten-step process that you can use to activate Creative Synergy. You immerse yourself in the formulas of your craft, then activate the flow state, center your awareness, relate to the center of what is trying to happen through you, and let the inspiration flow. You also allow for incubation, synchronicity, and feedback to support the process. For this method I am deeply indebted to Swami Kriyananda (a.k.a. Donald Walters).
Chapter 4 summarizes the Integral Operating System of Ken Wilber. If you find the ideas a bit dense and the descriptions a bit confusing, feel free to skip this chapter. Wilber’s system is complex, developed over the course of many books and articles as well as many years of deep thought and prolific writing. The ideas in this chapter will be explained in greater depth later since his system will provide the structure that organizes Chapters 5-13.
Chapters 5-13 provide the practical application of Creative Synergy to the individual, the work, the artistic community, and the domain. The organizational framework is Ken Wilber’s Integral Operating System: “5 elements” that provide a “comprehensive map of human potentials.”1 For the first aspect, Wilber divides a square into four equal quadrants: the I or sense of individual self (subjective singular), the we or sense of community (subjective plural), the it or artifact (objective singular), and the its or organizing system (objective plural). (See Figure 2, Chapter 4.) These four universal categories, derived from the pronoun systems of “all major languages,” classify a culture’s art, morals, and science, “the Beautiful, the Good, and the True.”2 The next two aspects, lines and levels, are components of developmental stage theory. Human beings mature through various lines of development, some of the most famous of which are psychosexual (Freud), psychosocial (Erikson), cognitive (Piaget), and moral (Kohlberg and Gilligan). While progressing through these lines, people advance to various levels or stages. Because each line develops separately, maturation is uneven: someone with a highly developed intellect may have immature social skills. Two other aspects are states and types. All human beings fluctuate among various states of consciousness, the most familiar of which are waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. Also recognized have been differences between masculine and feminine viewpoints.3
Using this system, Chapters 5-13 take a walk around the square of Wilber’s 4 quadrants. Chapter 5 addresses the individual creator, the I as a filter or influence on the idea coming from the Great Thought. Chapter 6 explains the uses and abuses of ego, a self-awareness that both supports and blocks creativity. Chapters 7-8
