Neuroscience and Karma

Author(s): Jethalal S Zaveri, Mahendramuni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 99

Knowing, Learning, Memory, Intelligence
61
Creative Intellect
Creativity is man's most precious ability. Creative insights require seemingly opposite ways of thinking - intuition and logic, fantasy and craftsmanship, inspiration and perspiration. For outstanding scientific discoveries, gift of fantasy has greater significance than rational, analytic thinking. On the other hand, artists must also be rational, besides baving inspiration and fantasy, for transforming banal into the sublime.
According to one theory, creativity has four stages; (i) preparation (ii) incubation (iii) illumination and (iv) verification. The creative act, however, does not always bappen in such neat sequence of steps.
Regardless of the sequence of stages, the preparation and verification stages tap the logical, verbal strengths of the left hemisphere while the other two -- the heart of the creative process - use the gifts of the intuitive right hemisphere. In the division of labour between the two hemispheres, one-half of the personality emotes and dictates, while the other half listens and notates. Free from the shackles of verbal thougbt, the right hemisphere's ability to think in visual and auditory images, is crucial to artistic creativity. Nor is it less important for scientific creativity. In fact, combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in all productive thoughts
Beyond a certain level of tested intelligence, there seems to be little relationsbip between IQ and creativity. At once self-centred and self-critical, creative people are as contradictory as their creative acts. They are intensely observant but thrive on complexity and confusion. In the words of a researcher', they are both "crazier and saner than the average person". While Socrates believed that "No one without a touch of the muse's madness will enter into the temple of art", today creativity is regarded as a sign of mental health. The integration of left and right hemispheres' thinking in creative activity produces a sense of psychological wholeness.
1. Frank Barron.