Creativity and Chaos in Waking and Dreaming States

2020

Increasing evidence suggests that altered states of consciousness (ASC) are associated with both positive and negative effects on components of creative performance, and convergent and divergent thinking in particular. We provide a metacontrol framework that allows characterizing factors that induce ASC in terms of their general impact on the information processing style of problem solvers. We discuss behavioral and neuronal findings from three areas that reflect strong connections between ASC and the underlying effects on metacontrol on the one hand and components of creativity on the other hand: drug-induced ASC, meditation-induced ASC, and hallucinations. While more, and especially more systematic research is needed, we identify a general trend, suggesting that factors that induce ASC are likely to alter the metacontrol state by biasing it toward either persistence, which is beneficial for convergent thinking and other persistence-heavy operations, or flexibility, which is benefi...

In medias res

Dream reality and artist-created virtual reality, combined with the reality we perceive as physical, form three realities of human experience. Taking this into account, primary senses seem incomplete without extrasensory senses, which allow access to higher states of consciousness. Artists sometimes use those states as the source of creativity, inspiration, and ideas.The real-time neurofeedback shows brainwave activity in the theta frequency range in a creativity-related Hypnagogic state. Alpha and delta frequencies are also creativity-related. Alpha is observed during the inspiration stage of creative thinking, while theta occurs during transcendental meditation and deep sleep. Neurofeedback is also used to create works of art. Higher states of consciousness-inducing techniques include dream machines, mind machines, binaural beats, hallucinogenic drugs, and most advantageous – float tanks. Holistic methods like meditation, hypnotherapy, and energy healing are also helpful. Meditati...

Psychopathology, 2020

Since ancient philosophy, extraordinary creativity is associated with mental disorders, emotional and cognitive destabilization, and melancholia. We here summarize the results of empirical and narrative studies and analyze the most prominent case of a highly creative person who suffered from dysthymia and major depression with suicidality. Here-by, we focus on the interaction of different phases of the creative process with “bipolar” personality traits. Finally, we offer an interdisciplinary interpretation of the creative dia- lectics between order and chaos. The results show that se- vere psychopathology inhibits creativity. Mild and moderate disorders can inspire and motivate creative work but are only leading to new and useful solutions when creators suc- ceed in transforming their emotional instability and cogni- tive incoherence into stable and coherent forms. The cultural idea that creativity emerges in dialectical processes between order and chaos, is also to be found in the psychologic interplay of coherence and incoherence, and in neuro-scientific models of the dynamics between tightening and loosening of neuronal structures. Consequences are drawn for the psychotherapeutic treatment of persons striving for creativity.

Frontiers in Psychology, 2015

Dissociative symptoms have been related to higher rapid eye movement sleep density, a sleep phase during which hyperassociativity may occur. This may enhance artistic creativity during the day. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a creative photo contest to explore the relation between dissociation, sleep, and creativity. During the contest, participants (N = 72) took one photo per day for five consecutive days, based on specific daily themes (consisting of single words) and the instruction to take as creative a photo as possible each day. Furthermore, they completed daily measures of state dissociation and a short sleep diary. The photos and their captions were ranked by two professional photographers and two clinical psychologists based on creativity, originality, bizarreness, and quality. We expected that dissociative people would rank higher in the contest compared with low-dissociative participants, and that the most original photos would be taken on days when the participants scored highest on acute dissociation. We found that acute dissociation predicted a higher ranking on creativity. Poorer sleep quality and fewer hours of sleep predicted more bizarreness in the photos and captions. None of the trait measures could predict creativity. In sum, acute dissociation related to enhanced creativity. These findings contribute to our understanding of dissociative symptomatology.

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2015

Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, 2002

Kahn, D., Krippner, S., & Combs, A. (2002). Dreaming as a function of chaos-like stochastic processes in the self-organizing brain. Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, 6(4), 311-322. This paper argues that dream experiences owe both their structure and meaning to stochastic self-organizing properties of the brain during sleep. Several lines of evidence support the notion that the dreaming brain can be understood as a process system that exhibits chaos-like stochastic properties that are highly sensitive to internal influences. This sensitivity is due, first, to the fact that the dreaming brain gates out external input, thus operating without the stabilizing influences of waking feedback. Second, the pre-frontal cortex in both REM and non-REM (NREM) sleep is only minimally activated, thus the brain operates with weakened volition, reduced logic, and diminished self-reflection. Third, there is a reduction of neuromodulatory inhibition during sleep, which is most pronounced during REM sleep, allowing the brain to respond to minute internal stimulation. Finally, the REM sleeping brain is subject to powerful intermittent cholinergic PGO activity that may provide vigorous stimulation for complex dream activity. Taken in overview, this conception of dreaming offers a common meeting ground for brain-based studies of dreaming and psychological dream theory.

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2001

T he authors begin by drawing attention to the problem of the transition from the biological to the psychic, noting that Freud himself, with his background in the neurosciences, grappled with it throughout his career. Certain recent paradigms more commonly applied to the natural sciences, such as in particular chaos and complexity theory, can in their view prove fruitful in psychoanalysis too, and it is shown how these notions are inherent in some of Freud's conceptions. T he unconscious is stated to operate like a neural network, performing the kind of parallel processing used in the computing of highly complex situations, whereas the conscious mind is sequential. Dreams, in the authors' opinion, are organisers of the mind, imparting order to the turbulence of the underlying wishes and unconscious fantasies and structuring them through the dream work. T hrough dreams, the structured linearity of conscious thought can emerge out of the non-linear chaos of the drives. T he dream's navel can be seen as the chaotic link, or interface, between the unconscious wish, which constitutes an attractor, and the conscious thought. T he attractor may be visualised as having an hourglass or clepsydra shape, the narrow section being the dream's navel, and, being the same at any scale of observation, has the property of fractality. Anyone who hopes to learn the noble game of chess from books will soon discover that only the openings and end-games admit of an exhaustive systematic presentation and that the infinite variety of moves which develop after the opening defy any such description (Freud, 1913, p. 123).

Nature and Science of Sleep, 2020

A higher creative potential has been reported in narcoleptic patients and linked to lucid dreaming. The aim of the present study was to explore the role of narcolepsy symptoms (presence and severity) in predicting creativity. Patients and Methods: Sixty-six consecutive type 1 narcolepsy patients (mean age 38.62 ± 17.05, 31 females) took part in this study. Creative achievement in different life domains and creative beliefs were assessed by a self-reported questionnaire and a scale measuring the creative self, respectively; creative performance was measured through a divergent thinking test (generation of alternative original solutions to an open problem). Results: We found a key effect of hypnagogic hallucinations in modulating creative behaviour. We therefore tested at first whether hypnagogic hallucinations could interact with specific mental states associated with creativity and in particular mind wandering, a factor associated with both creative performance and achievement. Secondly, we verified if hypnagogic hallucinations could influence the definition of creative identity in type 1 narcolepsy patients, which in turn could predict their creative achievement and creative performance. Results showed that spontaneous mind wandering influenced creative achievement through a moderation effect of sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations. Moreover, sleep paralysis and hypnagogic hallucinations indirectly influenced, through creative identity, both creative achievement and performance (fluency score). Conclusion: Our results highlight the role of hypnagogic hallucinations in triggering the process of mind wandering which leads to greater creative success. In addition, this symptom affects creative identity in narcolepsy, leading in turn to higher creative success and creative potential of narcoleptic patients.

NeuroQuantology, 2012

Basic dynamical concepts relevant to human creativity include those of stability, instability, bifurcations, and self-organization.

2018