Mystical experience and the emergence of creativity

Abstract

Since the turn of the century, mystic researchers have pointed to the similarities between mystics on the one hand, and artists, poets, mathematicians, musicians, in short, all those who are involved in creative activity. One common denominator, using the terminology of the day, is a state of inspiration, a sort of creative ecstasy, an immediate insight of some form. However, the question of what psychological processes can activate "inspiration" seemed to be unanswerable. The word inspiration says something of the suddenness and unexpectedness of the creative process. This process can be understood as a daily phenomenon, albeit on a lower level of intensity. A crucial question is whether there exists a common model for understanding the similarities which many researchers have hinted at, between religious and profane creativity. This question is intimately linked with another extremely central but little discussed problem within mystic research: with which psychological concepts should one describe the special knowledge and experiences which mystics say they have? Various researchers believe that the experience of the suprahuman cannot occur via "ordinary perceptive processes", via the senses, but only immediately, intuitively. It therefore seems clear that mystic research, if it is to progress, is in need of a model for different (un)conscious perceptual and cognitive processes including insight into how they are activated.