Methods of Discovery and Creation

     From my personal experience and my observations of others, I believe there are four main categories of methods for coming up with creative ideas.

    Where do brilliant ideas come from? Where do scientific insights come from? Where do the primary elements of soulful and penetrating art come from?

    From my personal experience and from my observation, these are the main categories, and the main methods within each category, for making insightful discoveries and producing great art.

A. Then Man Himself:
    The man discovers things using logic, knowledge, and figuring it out. He makes discoveries through experimentation and observation. It often comes by seeing patterns and correlations after years of study. Note that this is where the general concept of studying or practicing a topic for 10 years becomes an asset.
    Many of my discoveries have come through seeing patterns. If you study a topic long enough you start to see correlations. Similarly, you study a topic long enough and you work with it in various ways long enough, then you get a deeper understanding. You start to see logic issues: “this traditional explanation doesn’t make sense…it must be something else”. And then you proceed to figure out what the real answer is.

B. From the Spirits:

    This includes getting general inspiration from a Muse. This also includes getting specific fully formed ideas (including visuals or sound) from the spirit world.

    Note also that studying and practicing a topic for many years becomes an asset here. This is because the spiritual world will not show you something unless you have a reasonable ability to understand what is being shown to you.
 

    I do believe that some of my discoveries have come from the spirit world. Three discoveries in particular. Plus a few more which I am not yet ready to share. The way I know these came from Spirit is because the ideas came from nowhere. They just came.
    On the other hand, if I didn't have years experience with the topic I would not have been able to understand what was being shown. Without my experiences as author and educator, I would not have been able to express it. Therefore all these aspects work together. 

    Also some of my poetry was inspired by Muse. And one in particular they weren’t letting it pass through my head: “really, write this down. Really”. And the visuals for that poem were very clear in my head.

C. Man Accessing Spiritual Realm:

    This includes subconscious discoveries and special intuition. In this case the man accesses information he cannot see directly. It is not his conscious mind or logic, nor it is a spiritual being who is giving him the idea. The man is coming up with the discoveries, yet he is doing it in unusual ways. It is his intuition, which is an indirect method of accessing subtle information.

    Note that many of my scientific discoveries have come through my scientific intuition. And I have learned to trust my scientific intuition. There have been cases where my scientific intuition has been proven correct.

D. Trial and Error or Mistakes - with Ability to Recognize Benefits:

    This applies to men who like to tinker and play around (with equipment, with music, with art media, or with ideas). This also applies to mistakes (an accidental mixture, the object melted). The method is overall haphazard, but the genius exists in recognizing the great idea…then expanding on it and developing it.

   

   In addition to the above four, there is a 5^th method, which can be used to supplement and enhance the other four: collaboration and discussion.

E. Collaboration and Discussion

    Through collaboration, individual creators can share ideas. They can offer new ideas which build off a previous idea, or they can help refine ideas. The net result is a final product which may be greater than what either individual would have created on his own. 
    Similarly, discussion stimulates ideas, and perfects the theories proposed by either person.
    The methods of discussion and collaboration also allow each person to learn more, thus providing more ideas or possibilities to work with. This prompts each individual into additional creativity, resulting in better ideas, more refined solutions, more sophisticated art, and more innovative products.

Summary Thoughts

    These are the broad categories, and the main sub-methods within each category, of where brilliant ideas may come from.

    Most of these methods come from personal experience. This is supplemented with observation of other people, and noticing things in biographies of specific famous people.
    Thus, one method created this idea, another method created that idea, and a third method created a third idea. The basic answer to “where did you get the idea for this” is “all of the above” or “it depends”.

    Note that this list is brief and to the point. There are many details involved in each method. There are many specifics in each method. These will be discussed periodically in other blogs.

    I am thinking of talking about my discoveries, my creations, and discussing how each one came about. You will then see that insights and creative ideas don’t just come from one source, but can come from any of the above methods.

 

 

Opticks (Newton) – Acquiring a Copy of the Book "Opticks"

I recently acquired a copy of the book “Opticks” by Isaac Newton.

Because of my strong interest in electromagnetic energy, and because of all the discoveries I have made, I wanted to read the insights from the brilliant mind of Newton.

I heard mention of the book before, and I knew of the title, but I knew little more about it. I had read that Newton discussed diffraction, interference, and reflection in this book. I also heard that his main view was that of particles (“corpuscles”), but also had to come to terms with some type of wave motion (“undulation”).

So I went out in search of the book. I have discovered that this book is actually a something of a rarity.

First note that this book is not that common. My library did not have it, so I got it from an interlibrary loan. This means a library anywhere in Texas.

It is a great system. Usually a book will come from the Austin library system, or Dallas. But this time, the book came from…Brazosport Junior College Library! Wow. What an unexpected place to find a copy of the book. Again, for such a “great work”, it is not that available.

Coincidentally, the Preface to the book essentially says the same thing – that copies of this book are not that common.

Let’s start with the date. The copyright of this book is 1931. The actual book is a reprint of the 1931 edition, published in 1952.

Now let’s get to the Preface. Let me say that the Preface is very well written. The author of the preface, Bernard Cohen, has a lot to say about the book, and its place in history. I have learned a lot from his Preface.

But for now, my point is the rarity of the book “Opticks”. On the very first page of the preface, Bernard Cohen writes:

“….the Opticks remained out of print for a century and a half, until about two decades ago, while the Principia was constantly being reprinted”.

Therefore for much of history, the book Opticks was a rarity. From 1760 to 1910, the book Opticks remained out of print.

And Cohen's statement was made in 1931. My copy of the book is from 1952. And this copy was found in a Junior College in one of the smaller cities in this great state. (This town isn't even a suburb, but exists about an hour south of Houston...all the way at the edge of the state).

This book is a famous work on the nature of light (mostly on diffraction, reflection, and interference), and mostly based on experimental observations. Yet despite the famous author (Newton) and this being the first major work on light, the book itself is not that common.

Similarly, it seems that only a few people – those like me who are most interested – will have actually read this book. (And I am not sure that I will be able to get through the whole book myself).

Now I have my copy of this book. It will take me a long time to read, and along the way I will share some of what I have learned.