The Mystery of Effortless Creativity

Source: flickr/MikeyStrikes

Leonard Cohen told a story about meeting Bob Dylan for coffee in Paris in the mid-1980s. Dylan asked Cohen how long it took to write his song "Hallelujah." Cohen answered, ‘Two years,’ although he later admitted that was a lie. He was slightly embarrassed because it actually took five years. Then Cohen praised a recent song of Dylan’s (I And I, from the Infidels album) and asked him how long it had taken him to write. Dylan replied, ‘15 minutes.'

Creativity is unpredictable. Sometimes it comes easily, while sometimes it stubbornly refuses to flow. A musician can fumble at their guitar or piano for hours, searching for an interesting melody or chord sequence, but nothing comes through. On another occasion, they might pick up a guitar and immediately find their fingers picking out a beautiful new melody.

If we are lucky, creativity is spontaneous and effortless. Ideas enter our minds involuntarily. A musician might not be playing an instrument, while a poet may not be at their computer or carrying a notebook. They might be on the verge of sleep, driving or taking out the rubbish. Writing a song or a poem might be far from their minds. But an idea suddenly emerges, like a gift from an unknown admirer.

Ideas from Nowhere

Many classical musicians have described such moments of spontaneous and effortless creativity. When Mozart was asked how he composed music, he replied that he didn’t compose it - he just heard it in his head and wrote it down. He described how his musical ideas ‘flow best and most abundantly’ when he was alone ‘traveling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep… Whence and how they come, I know not, nor can I force them.’ Similarly, Tchaikovsky described how the idea for a composition usually came ‘suddenly and unexpectedly… It takes root with extraordinary force and rapidity, shoots up through the earth, puts forth branches and leaves, and finally blossoms.’

This applies to science too. Some of the most significant theories and inventions have come unbidden and without warning. Isaac Newton described how the ‘notion of gravitation came into his mind’ when he sat ‘in contemplative mood’ and saw an apple fall from a tree. (The apple didn’t actually fall on him, as is popularly believed.) James Watt solved the problem of loss of heat in steam engines while walking in a park, an idea which powered the industrial revolution. ‘I had not walked further than the golf house when the whole thing was arranged in my mind,’ Watt wrote.

Such spontaneous creativity is probably the origin of the concept of the muse. In ancient Greece, the muses were real beings, goddesses who dwelt on Mount Olympus alongside the other Gods. Every poet or artist relied on them for inspiration and invoked them at the beginning of creative endeavours. In fact, there were nine muses, covering all areas of creativity, from dance and music to history and poetry. Now, of course, we use the concept of the muse metaphorically and locate the source of inspiration within ourselves.

In my view, spontaneity and ease are hallmarks of genius. You could rightfully argue that a song like "Hallelujah" is a work of genius too. Paul Simon is another songwriter who works slowly and fastidiously but has produced some songs of genius. However, I would guess even here, the germs of songs arrive quickly, and then the writers spend a long time developing the original ideas. I don’t know for sure, but I would guess that the original idea for "Hallelujah" – the melody, the chords and perhaps an initial phrase or two – came to Leonard Cohen quickly, before he spent years perfecting the lyrics.

Relaxation and Meditation

Although it is largely mysterious, spontaneous creativity is certainly associated with relaxation. It often occurs during daydreaming, meditation or the ‘hypnagogic’ state just prior to falling asleep. In fact, the hypnagogic state is one of the richest sources of creative inspiration—many great discoveries and inventions have emerged during this state.

The concept of coordinate geometry suddenly occurred to Rene Descartes when he was half-asleep in bed, watching a fly buzz around the room. Similarly, the physicist Nils Bohr effectively "won" the Noble Prize while unconscious. Drifting off to sleep, he dreamt he saw the nucleus of the atom, with the electrons spinning around it, just like our solar system with the sun and planets – and in this way he ‘discovered’ the structure of the atom.

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Relaxation means that our conscious mind is less active, with fewer associational thoughts. Our ego-boundaries become softer, which allows ideas to seep through from deeper levels – from the subconscious, or perhaps even the collective unconscious. It’s as if relaxation makes our minds permeable, and more open to inspiration.

So this suggests a strategy to encourage creativity: relax! Don’t try too hard. If you try to force your creativity, the results will most likely be uninspiring. But if you cultivate a state of relaxed alertness and wait patiently, there is a chance that ideas will flow through.

Meditation is an ideal way to do this. To return to the world of pop music, in 1968, the Beatles went on a meditation retreat in India, and came home just a few weeks later with around 30 new songs, the bulk of which made up that year's White Album. (John Lennon was most productive, with 14 songs in 7 weeks).

In other words, while spontaneous creativity is accidental, relaxation and meditation might make you more accident prone.