Creativity

I had an interesting thought, just now.

See, a friend of mine linked me this song, and when I was listening to it I noticed that a large part of the beat and other portions matched up perfectly to another song I'd heard from a completely separate artist. I don't think it was stolen.

It's entirely possible they both "created" the same thing. Just with each not knowing the other did so. But that means these two people had exactly the same thought at some point in time. Two different brains having the same think.

Weird, huh? It's been shown now that people can actually pick up on what other people are thinking, sometimes completely by accident. Happens to me all the time. I'll get a song stuck in my head, and my mother will start singing it for no reason. It's like, weak mind reading. My brother might come up with an idea for a game and then five years later, it's on the market.

So how does this happen? My example is a bit understandable given the proximity of theta wave transmitter and receiver, but my brother's, and the musicians'? Not so much. These people are great distances away from each other, and sometimes, the thoughts occur years apart. It's a little far fetched to think they both just happened to have the exact same thought, given all of the random thoughts and variables that can occur in just one human brain, let alone two.

So consider THIS.

What if all creative product is drawn from a universal unseen source? Think of it as a fountain, but the water never gets polluted. It's just collecting and generating ideals, with mankind contributing and borrowing without ever realizing it.

Or maybe this? Every thought, creating a wave to possibly be intercepted at some point, is permanent? These thoughts continue to bounce around the planet's atmosphere and perhaps even into space for all of eternity, perhaps! Ever walk into a some place, or somewhere, and suddenly feel nervous or happy for no apparent reason? Maybe that's why? Trapped thoughts, fluttering about the air, weedling their way into your head?

So, generate some thoughts! What do you think? Any other ideas?

I'm not going to get that deep into this, I'd just like to say it's extremely common to write something and have it turned out to me similar, even nearly identical to something else already in existence. It's happened to me numerous times, where I've written something and then LATER heard a song and then noticed what has happened. More often than not I keep mine because I wrote it without knowledge of the other song's existence.

As for the "pool" of creativity, I'd disagree and just say it's a matter of the way the human brain works. We all think in similar patterns so it's not unlikely to create something already in existence. Especially when you take into account how long music, art, literature, and whatever else you want to include has been around.

What about the pre-existing thought interference idea? :3

You're getting into some territory that I like, and know a little something about. Granted, pretty much everything about this is hypothesized and theorized, so it's a great debate topic.

In reading about the human psyche, one of my favorite psychologists was always Carl Jung. His theories revolved around the idea that everyone was connected in some underlying way, and he named this the "collective unconscious". He used it in dealing with dreams, creativity, and even some paranormal activity. This theory was set up in "archetypes", which were physical representations of elements of the human subconscious. For example, people associate birds with flight, so in a dream, a bird could represent flight, wanting to break free, and other things.

Another theory that Jung had, (which is my favorite) was "synchronicity". This is basically a fancy word for a coincidence that has meaning. Like you said, Arrow, two people doing or thinking the same thing in tandem. These seemingly random occurrences are actually happening on a subconscious level, and we are "psychic antennae" of sorts, picking them up in tandem.

Very interesting stuff.

YES! I forgot all about him, which...makes me look real smart, I'm sure. That's what I was referring to though!

Also, birds representing flight. Great example, good path for this topic to start down. Thoughts, concepts, being personified  in physical form. Almost like muses, but without purposefully trying to affect humanity.

I am really liking the second idea I had in the first post, right now. I might use that in something...

This thread has made me contemplative. Must be all the weedling waves.

I don't buy it, but I'll ask questions anyway:

How would geniuses fit into this? Do they have special channels into the creative pool?

For instance: Beethoven. He fairly consistently produced brilliant works, so if there is a "pool" of creativity, how come he was able to consistently draw from it fantastic pieces that others could not or did not?

I think, while I don't actually believe this,

That the higher IQ and the stronger brain/thought power brought with it opens more channels to this said pool, allowing more creativity to come together and cluster into one export of physical creativity.

Okay, i am a cultural japan addict, so please forgive me for saying this.

The japanese people use thousands of kanjis, and no one person knows them all (probably.)

What if the pool was written in kanjis, and people with a higher IQ could read more of them?

This reminds me of a thought i had a while ago: what if people got ideas from a higher power?

Actually, that's exactly the thought you had. Further evidence to the theory, I suppose.

I just had another thought: What if people with a higher IQ care more? what if most people just unconciously tap into it, but some people strive to go farther into the pool of thought? What if it just depends on who you are and HOW you think?

Holy shit, i didn't buy into any of this at first, but the more you talk about such things the more they seem probable, no?

I think your creativity in music can be shared with other people, but I'm not all into psychology. In my opinion, certain people have certain tastes for different things, music included. I read on another forum once that the smarter you are, the more you appreciate melodies in music. People who aren't quite up there turn to flat out noise, but that's not always true, I found out. I like metal, alt, melodic hardcore, hardcore, rock, punk, celtic, some country, and one rap-ish song.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that we'll create different things based on our tastes, and maybe those two songwriters shared similar tastes in music. I dunno, maybe I'm wrong. It's just my opinion.

To clarify, the Jungian concept of synchronicity doesn't involve "psychic antenna," though I do suppose the "pool of ideas" theory is a nice illustration. Jungian synchronicity is when events that seem too well put together are actually "coincidences." A great modern times example of this is the "Dark Side of the Rainbow" phenomenon. (That could be a discussion in itself.) Jung claimed in that the same way that human biology is overall similar with minor tweaks across the human race, so was the mind (especially the unconscious) greatly similar. Synchronicity occurs when two individuals create, inspired by the same complex (what he called archetypes) and the idea, pattern, rhythm, etc. of the two creations sync. The collective unconscious has often been understood as a telepathic link between all individuals, which it is not (at least in C.G. Jung's own theory). It is simply the extremely similar, universal unconscious that each person is equipped with. To be clear, just as humans have 46 chromosomes, they also have the collective unconscious.

Now the "pool of ideas" theory would be closer to Jung's words. Jung describes a dream in his autobiography where he talked with a senex with kingfisher wings in the Greek Underworld. The old man taught Jung volumes about the unconscious and Jung at one point expressed that he was so excited to publish his new ideas. The senex then took him into a room where birds were flying about and said that Jung wouldn't claim to have created these birds, he would have claimed to find them. Jung agreed. The senex said that ideas where the same way, one does not create them, he finds them.

Indeed the word invent, is from the latin invenire meaning "to come upon."

Just to clarify, when I said psychic antennae, I was referring to the theory of humans picking up on these signals from somewhere simultaneously. So I'm pretty sure it's valid.

Just to clarify, when I said psychic antennae, I was referring to the theory of humans picking up on these signals from somewhere simultaneously. So I'm pretty sure it's valid.

Oh, I see what you mean. Antennae tuned to the unconscious.

Exactly. I can see how the intent could've been muddled though.