Structures of consciousness and creativity: Opening the doors of perception.

Abstract

This I shall do by printing in the infernal method by corrosives, which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite which was hid.-William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Few people imagine that our everyday human experience is dependent on "structures of consciousness." Whereas the play of unalloyed consciousness is said to be "pure creativity" (Guenther, 1989, p. 229), in ordinary life it is often profoundly more limited. Particular "structures" of consciousness act like colored lenses through which pure consciousness is inflected. Both psychological and historical evidence indicate that human consciousness has existed as a series of such structures that continue into the present as multiple aspects of contemporary experience. Each gives birth to unique forms of creative expression.This chapter presents examples of such creativity as it arises spontaneously through the structures that unfold across individual development. A similar hypothetical landscape of unfolding structures characterizes the history of humankind. CREATIVITY AND THE EMPTY MINDThe term creative can be applied to any act, idea, or product that creates changes in an existing domain, or that transforms parts of an existing 131

Understanding creativity competency for organizational learning

“…All in all, although a uniform definition of creativity and wisdom still does not exist (Ardelt, 2005;Birren and Svensson, 2005;Bluck and Gluck, 2005;Kunzmann and Baltes, 2005;Takahashi and Overton, 2005), some recent researchers highlighted some essential propensities and traits of higher creative person, they are higher states of awareness and of purposes and meanings (e.g. Combs and Krippner, 2007;Richards, 2007b;Zausner, 2007); thinking differently and able to integrate their thinking (e.g. Runco, 2004a, b;Richards, 2006Richards, , 2007a; openness (e.g.…”

Subtle mind, open heart: Mike Arons remembered (1929-2008).

“…Creativity may then take us in some very interesting directions! Diverse and extraordinary experiences related to spirituality and creative individuals have been discussed from William James onward (e.g., Arons, 2007; Combs & Krippner, 2007; Barron, 1963; James, 1902/1982; Maslow, 1970; Miller & Cook-Greuter, 2000; Pritzker, 1999; Richards, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c; Serlin, 2007; Sundararajan & Averill, 2007; Whitehouse, 2005). For example, Roshi John Daido Loori (2004) from the Zen tradition tells us much about profound sources of creative vision and the Zen arts.…”