Creativity: Is It All in The Mind? by Trevor Thorn

Creativity: Is It All in The Mind?

Anyone who occasionally visits my blog (http://crossandcosmos.blogspot.com) or who has followed my monthly entries on this blog will have realised I have an enthusiasm for seeking out places, situations or ideas that illustrate the greatness of God through science.

 

I get many of my ideas by reading the ‘New Scientist’, the subscription for which is Pam’s (my wife) annual  birthday present to me: an hugely enjoyed, repeating, weekly gift.

 

From my point of view, the sheer range of articles from, let’s say, palaeontology to those on  the latest space ventures, are rich seams. Recently there has been a lot of information about consciousness with many neuroscientists exploring how the brain works. 

 

To a writer/armchair scientist, one of the fascinations of these particular articles is to look for some insights as to how creativity arises in the brain and equally, why creativity can be so evasive at times.

 

Immediately the subject is mind-blowing! (please forgive the pun). The brain consists of around 86 million separate cells. Yes! Truly. In that quite compact cavity at the top and back of the head live nearly 100 million separate cells each playing their parts in your every action, every thought and every sparky idea you may have. Whilst sparky is not a scientific word here, it is particularly appropriate, for every activity in the brain is the product of the passage of electric currents. These currents zip around the brain awakening various parts of the brain to formulate whatever you need to do to function in every imaginable way.

 

That’s a lay-person’s description which preludes some really fascinating, more deeply buried information. The currents fire up cells –which are linked by spidery tendrils called synapses – and we have subjective experiences: these are the result of a ‘whirr of information processing in the brain’ (David Chalmers: New York University). What then is fascinating is that the movements of the currents around the brain activate quite different areas of the brain almost simultaneously. Then, ‘long story short’, a large number of different sensations are provoked by every transfer of information across the brain. 

 

New information comes to light, week after week, and Google is helping to create the most intricate map of the connections within the brain which is already showing up regions not hitherto identified, so we can expect frequent and maybe spectacular revelations about this most complex organ in the universe which resides in your and my head.

 

In this post, I have grossly over-simplified to try and make the complexity sound exciting because it is where our creativity germinates: the frontal lobes are where higher mental functions take place including creativity and the right brain seems to be where creativity springs from too. But as this takes place, all sorts of other parts of the brain will spring into action to make your thoughts your own and unique to you. It is just amazing.

 

Yes! Our brains are truly, truly amazing. They are an extraordinary gift and ‘God-given’ seems an entirely accurate description. Without our complex brain system, authors and artists could not function. 

 

And on a truly simple, practical note, if we value all of this, we need to take enormous care of our brains. A friend of mine who is a neurologist says if we ride a bike or a scooter or take part in skateboarding we must wear a helmet! This hugely complex and valuable source is not at this stage ever replaceable so each of our brains needs to be kept as safe as we reasonably can do.

 

Creatives particularly, please take note. Your thoughts and ideas are too precious to be wasted carelessly! Everything isin the mind but we still have big gaps in knowing just how.

 

And maybe in due course we will also better understand what gives rise to ‘writers’ block’!

 

If this post piques your interest, you might like to look at a more detailed but not over-complicated explanation which you can find at https://humanoriginproject.com/functional-areas-of-brain/