SynTAROTis

Predicting A-ha!

Insight is that A-ha! moment when something suddenly makes sense; when the problem is solved; the moment when the light-bulb appears over the cartoon character's head. But did you know that our eyes show insight has struck before we consciously notice it?

Researchers tracked the eye movements of participants while they played a game. The game had an optimal strategy, but the players had to figure it out for themselves from feedback they received.

They had to press a button the moment they decided on a particular strategy. (That is, when they had an A-ha! moment and suddenly realized what the answer is.)

By following the players' eyes, the researchers found a specific pattern of eye movement and pupil dilation in those participants about to reach the optimal answer.

The astonishing thing is, the researchers could predict when a participant was about to have an epiphany. The researchers saw the betraying pattern in the participants' eyes before the participants themselves had known they had the answer (i.e. pressed the button). A part of their brain had figured it out before they became consciously aware of the insight.

The eye pattern points to sudden insight, not an answer reached by learning over time what the correct strategy is.

It seems the brain pieces together bits and pieces of the puzzle beyond our conscious awareness. Only when some critical mass is reached, does the conscious brain take note and we have a sudden insight.

Sources

Chen, W. J., & Krajbich, I. (2017). Computational modeling of epiphany learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(18), 4637. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618161114

Ohio State University. (2017, April 17). Aha! Watching people as they are struck by sudden insight. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 17, 2019 from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170417154847.htm

Natural inspiration 9

Fly like a bird

From Greek mythology comes the tale of Icarus, son of Daedalus, who sought to escape King Minos by flying from the island of Crete with wings made of feathers held together by wax. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, but as boys often do, Icarus disregarded his father’s warning, the wax in his wings melted, and Icarus plunged into the sea and drowned.

Science has gone well beyond flapping wings made of feathers glued together, but now they are studying bird feathers to find out how birds fly. For example, the underside of a feather can capture air for lift, while the top of the feather can block air out when gravity needs to take over.

By 3D-printing structures that mimic the properties of feathers, the researchers found that the barbules—the small hook-like structures that connect feather barbs—are spaced within 8 to 16 micrometres of one another, suggesting that spacing is an essential property for flight.

From this research, scientists hope to engineer new materials for aerospace use.

Feather-like adhesives

And talking about feathers: have you noticed, if you run a hand along the barbs of a feather, the feather “unzips” itself, then almost miraculously pulls itself back together? Scientists are now looking into using this zipping mechanism of feathers as a model for new adhesives. The focus is on the barbules, to model an adhesive that could be stronger than velcro.

Photo credit: Irene Lasus/StockSnap

Sources

Sullivan, T.N., Meyers, M.A., and Arzt, E. (2019). Scaling of bird wings and feathers for efficient flight. Science Advances, 5(1) eaat4269. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aat4269.

University of California—San Diego. (2019, January 16). Feathers: Better than Velcro? Engineers detail bird feather properties that could lead to better adhesives (and aerospace materials). ScienceDaily. Retrieved 29 January 2019 from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190116150632.htm.

Oysters inspire new, stronger polymers

Oyster shells are a composite material with extraordinary mechanical properties, including high strength and resilience. Inspired by the shells, scientists have developed a technique to build composite materials that may improve the mechanical and potentially other physical properties of commercial plastic materials.

About 75 per cent of commercially used polymers is semicrystalline, with low mechanic strength.

The technique changes the crystallization speed of a polymer initially well mixed with nanoparticles, controlling how the nanoparticles self-assemble into structures at three very different lengths. This multiscale ordering can make the base material almost an order of magnitude stiffer, while retaining the desired deformability and lightweight behaviour of the polymeric materials.

These materials can be used in automobiles, protective coatings, food/beverage packaging, and even new materials and functional devices that can be used in structural applications such as buildings, but with the ability to monitor their health in situ.

Photo credit: pixabay

Sources

Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science. (2017, June 7). Oyster shells inspire new method to make superstrong, flexible polymers: Columbia Engineering technique could lead to stronger composite materials used in commercial products, opening the way for their use in structural applications. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170607085517.htm.

Zhao, D., Gimenez-Pinto, V., Jimenez, A.M., Zhao, L., et al. (2017). Tunable multiscale nanoparticle ordering by polymer crystallization. ACS Central Science. DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.7b00157.

Elephant trunk as a model for robot hands

The elephant trunk can serve as a model for the design of robotic hands or grippers.

Elephants can pick up a variety of objects, varying in material and quantity, with their trunks. According to the researchers, it is difficult to develop a gripper that is flexible enough to pick up object ranging from a single pen, a pile of pens, carrot cubes, piles of wheat bran, or a cube of jelly (Jell-O).

Elephant trunks, which lack bones, form kinks or joints to compress small pieces of food into a bite-sized mass. The scientists are measuring the force an elephant applies to piles of food, and imaging the shape of the trunk when the elephant is grabbing various objects.

Data suggest that an elephant applies more force when attempting to pick up a pile of small particles. It seems counterintuitive for the elephant to put more weight on something it is trying to pick up, but when the elephant pushes down on the food, because the food is particulate, it is squeezed. The more tightly the food is compressed, the more likely it is that the friction between the particles will be enough to allow the elephant to pick it up.

Photo credit: Thomas Gehrke Elephant Noir via photopin (license)

Sources

Rochester Institute of Technology. (2018, October 24). Elephant trunks form joints to pick up small objects; research could translate to robotics. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181024163616.htm.

Wu, J., Zhao, Y, Zhang, Y., et al. (2018). Elephant trunks form joints to squeeze together small objects. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 15(147). 20180377. DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2018.0377.

More on the science of nature

Nature is replete with examples of problems solved efficiently. More examples can be found in Natural inspiration, Natural inspiration 2, Natural inspiration 3, Natural inspiration 4, Natural inspiration 5, Natural inspiration 6, Natural inspiration 7, and Natural inspiration 8.

Magic square: Three things for the new year

January can be an unpleasant month: back to work, study, or school, resolutions broken, financial difficulties, and more. Here is a spread that lets you reflect on the good things and what to do next to make your dreams come true.

It is one of my 'magic square' spreads. (Here are the others: From worry to peace, I want, I have, I need, I deserve, and two variations here and here.)

The spread is not as complicated as it looks. Simply read the cards that the legend below the image directs you to.

(If you are new to tarot reading, look at the very brief introduction to card reading in Journaling prompts.)

The 'magic' of the magic square spreads lies in the perspective shift you have to make when you read cards that you have already read (1, 3, 5, 7, and 9) in a different mind-set. It transforms the spread into a creative exercise where you look at the cards from a different angle.

 

Cards 1, 2, and 3: Three things that gave life meaning in 2018.

Cards 4, 5, and 6: Three things you are grateful for right now.

Cards 7, 8, and 9: Three things you are looking forward to in 2019.

Cards 1, 5, and 9: Three things you have learned.

Cards 3, 5, and 7: Three things that will bring you closer to your dreams.

More creative with ADHD

Adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tend to excel at creativity. They are more flexible in tasks that require inventing something entirely new, and less likely to rely on examples and previous knowledge. These are advantages in fields such as marketing, design, technology, and computer engineering.

A new study at the University of Michigan recruited a group of college students with and without ADHD. They were tested on creativity tasks such as the imagination task, alien fruit. In this task, participants must come up with fictional fruit that might exist on other planets, and are different from any fruit known to exist on earth.

Students without ADHD tended to model their fruit on existing fruit; but participants with ADHD were more likely to invent original ‘alien fruit’ that differ significantly from known fruit.

In a second task, participants had to create labels for new products in three categories without copying the examples provided. The ADHD group created labels that were unique and not similar to the examples provided, compared to the non-ADHD group.

These tasks showed that people with ADHD might be more flexible in their thinking, and more innovative, compared to people without ADHD. Whereas those with ADHD may struggle in many types of job, they should be an excellent fit in creative fields.

Sources

Pedersen, T. (10 October 2018). Adults with ADHD tend to excel at creative originality. Psychcentral.com. Retrieved 8 November 2018 from https://psychcentral.com/news/2018/10/10/adults-with-adhd-tend-to-excel-at-creative-originality/139380.html.

University of Michigan. (9 October 2018). Thinking outside the box: Adults with ADHD not constrained in creativity. Retrieved 8 November 2018 from https://news.umich.edu/thinking-outside-the-box-adults-with-adhd-not-constrained-in-creativity/.

White, H.A. (30 September 2018). Thinking “outside the box”: Unconstrained creative generation in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Creative behavior. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1002/jocb.382.

Can magic mushrooms make you more creative?

Psychedelic psychotropics

Can magic mushrooms make you more creative?

At an event organized by the Psychedelic Society of the Netherlands, participants were asked to perform three creativity tests. Afterwards, the volunteers were given 0.37 g of dried magic truffles. The idea was to take just enough of the substance to heighten mental activity and create a feeling of calm energy, but not enough to hallucinate.

When they were tested for creativity again, the results were significant: a minute amount of truffles allowed participants to create more out-of-the-box solutions for a problem, providing preliminary support for the assumption that minuscule amounts of these drugs improve divergent thinking (thinking up many solutions).

The scientists also found an improvement in convergent thinking; that is, increased performance on a task that requires the convergence on a single correct or best solution.

This study was published in Psychopharmacology.

There is more

Several other studies suggest that low-dose psychedelics have potential benefits.

The Lancet reported that the symptoms of a group of depression treatment-resistant participants improved when they were given psilocybin (magic mushroom) along with supportive therapy.

At the University of Zurich, researchers found that psilocybin inhibits the brain's limbic system, an area associated with controlling emotions and instinctual urges. By slowing the amygdala, the drug repressed negative emotions in patients and improved their moods.

A Johns Hopkins University study suggests that magic truffles could weaken nicotine addiction and help smokers quit.

A study published in PNAS found that the compound inhibits not only the limbic system, but also the prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. These are areas associated with personality expression, filtering stimuli intake, and intrinsic control. The slowing of these areas could explain why psilocybins, in high enough dosages, leads to hallucinations and a feeling of oneness with the world.

In a Time interview, Robin Carhart-Harris, lead author of the PNAS study, said the study implies that a much of our brain activity is dedicated to keeping the world stable, ordinary, familiar, and unsurprising. "It shuts off this ruminating area and allows the mind to work more freely."

Preliminary studies

However, don't start looking for a local dealer yet! These studies have severe limitations, including small sample size, no control group, no control for the placebo effect, and not looking at long-term effects. These are therefore only preliminary studies, and much work must be done to confirm these results.

Sources in order of mention

Dickinson, K. (29 October 2018). Microdosing magic truffles makes you more creative, new study finds. Big Think. Retrieved 6 November 2018 from https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/magic-truffles-increase-creativity.

Prochazkova, L., Lippelt, P., Colzato, L.S., Kuchar, M. Sjoerds, Z., and Hommel, B. (2018). Exploring the effect of microdosing psychedelics on creativity in an open-label natural setting. Psychopharmacology. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1007/s00213-018-5049-7.

Mithoefer, M.C., Grob, C.S., and Brewerton, T.D. (5 April 2016). Novel psychopharmacological therapies for psychiatric disorders: psilocybin and MDMA. The Lancet. DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00576-3.

Kraehenmann, R., Preller, K.H., Scheidegger, T.P., Bosch, OlG., Seifritz, E., and Vollenweider, F.S. (2014). Psilocybin-induced decrease in amygdala reactivity correlates with enhanced positive mood in healthy volunteers. Biological Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2014.04.010.

Khazan, O. (17 June 2016). Live every day like you're on mushrooms. The Atlantic. Retrieved 6 November 2018 from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/live-like-youre-on-mushrooms/487286/.

Carhart-Harris, R.L., Erritzoe, D., Williams, T. et al. (2012). Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(6). 2138-2143. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1119598109.

Natural inspiration 8

Nature is an incredibly useful source of inspiration. Whenever you have a problem that is difficult to solve, try to find where nature has already solved a similar problem, and adapt the solution to yours. Previous examples on SynTAROTis can be found in Natural inspiration, Natural inspiration 2, Natural inspiration 3, Natural inspiration 4, Natural inspiration 5, Natural inspiration 6, and Natural inspiration 7. Here are three more examples:

Spider glue

The problem: In wet or highly humid conditions, glue and the surface it is supposed to stick to, become … unglued. For example, paint peels away from walls as a slippery layer of water forms between the surface and the glue. Another example is bandages separating from the skin in the bath or swimming pool.

This layer of water—known as interfacial water—is a significant problem for the developers of commercial, synthetic glues.

The solution: spider glue.

The sticky glue that coats the silk threads of spider webs is one of the strongest materials found in nature. The glue is a hydrogel, meaning it is full of water. One would think spiders would find it difficult to catch prey, especially in humid conditions. However, this glue is one of the most effective biological adhesives in nature.

The glue consists of three elements: two specialized glycoproteins (a collection of low molecular mass organic and inorganic compounds, or LMMCs), and water.

The LMMCs are hygroscopic (water attracting), acting as primary binding agents to the surface. The LMMCs move water away from the boundary between the glue and the surface, keeping the glue soft and tacky enough to stick to the surface.

Glycoprotein-based glues have been identified in several other biological types of glue, for example in fungi, algae, diatoms, sea stars, sticklebacks, and English ivy.

The research is being done at the University of Akron’s Biomimicry Research Innovation Center, which specializes in emulating biological forms, processes, patterns and systems to solve technical challenges.

Sources

Singla, S., Amarpuri, G., Dhopatkar, N. Blackledge, T.A., and Dhinojwala, A. (2018). Hygroscopic compounds in spider aggregate glue remove interfacial water to maintain adhesion in humid conditions. Nature Communications, 9(1). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04263-z

University of Akron. (2018, June 5). Spider glue research resolves sticky problem: The way spider glues function in humid conditions provides clues for better commercial adhesives. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 8, 2018 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180605120816.htm

Spider silk

The problem: Metal plates are often inserted to repair broken load-bearing bones, such as those in the leg. The problem is that some metals leach ions into the surrounding tissue, causing inflammation and irritation. Metals are also very stiff: if a metal plate bears too much load in the leg, the new bone may grow back weaker and be vulnerable to fracture.

The solution: spider silk.

Silk fibroin is a protein found in the silk fibres spun by spiders and moths. It is known for its toughness and tensile strength. It is also biodegradable.

Researchers at the University of Connecticut have succeeded in making a dense, biodegradable composite of silk fibres that is strong and stiff, yet not so much so that it would inhibit dense bone growth. It is flexible, which will allow patients to retain their natural range of motion and mobility while the bone heals.

This composite starts to degrade after a year, with no surgery required to remove it.

Silk fibroin is already used in medical sutures and tissue engineering because of its strength and biodegradability.

Sources

Heimbach, B., Tonyali, B.,  Zhang, D., and Wei, M. (2018). High performance resorbable composites for load-bearing bone fixation devices. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 81:(1). DOI: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2018.01.031

University of Connecticut. (2018, April 19). Spider silk key to new bone-fixing composite. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 8, 2018 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180419130915.htm

Octopus skin

The problem: Controlling soft material to form a particular shape.

The solution: octopus skin.

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a material with a stretchable surface and a programmable 3D texture. Like octopus skin, on which the material is modelled, these properties allow the material to "camouflage" itself by changing its colour, shape, and texture.

The material initially has a flat surface, but can be morphed into three-dimensional ones on demand. This quality can be compared to inflating a balloon to, for example, a box shape.

A cephalopod changes its shape to blend into its surroundings. It does this by activating its papillae--protuberances that are controlled by erector muscles under the skin. The new material mimics this property by combining two materials: a fibre mesh, embedded in a silicone elastomer.

This method is known as Circumferentially Constrained and Radially Stretched Elastomer (CCOARSE). A patent is in the works, and the scientists say it a simple process that could fit a range of applications. MIlitary camouflage is one example. In robotics, a part of the robot could be inflated to carry out a particular task. The material can also be transported in a flat state, and inflated into the desired shape on arrival.

Wikipedia has a video showing an octopus moving and changing its colour, shape and texture, at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Octopus.ogv.

Sources

Fleischman, T. (2017, 12 October 2017). Octopus inspired 3-D texture morphing project. Cornell University. Retrieved 8 October from https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2017/10/octopus-inspires-3-d-texture-morphing-project

O'Callaghan, J. (2017, 13 October). This weird shape-shifting 3D material is inspired by octopus skin. IFLScience. Retrieved 8 October 2018 from https://www.iflscience.com/technology/this-weird-shapeshifting-3d-material-is-inspired-by-octopus-skin/

 

Creativity and sleep

Sleep and creativity have long been associated. Paul McCartney composed "Yesterday" in a dream. Robert Louis Stevenson came up with the idea for Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in a dream. Mary Shelley (Frankenstein) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge ("Kubla Khan") were both inspired to write their masterpieces in a dream. Friedrich August Kekulé solved the problem of the structure of benzene in a dream. Otto Loewi dreamed a way to confirm his theory of cell communication by means of neurotransmitters.

But how are sleep and creativity linked?

We cycle through phases of rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep during the night.

Up to now, there has been a debate about the role the two phases of sleep play in creativity.

A new paper argues that both phases of sleep play crucial roles in creativity in different, but complementary, ways. It is the alternation of REM and non-REM sleep that sets the stage for creative thought.

Creativity depends on the reorganization of existing knowledge in new configurations. We can solve problems when we find unexpected links between known information.

Penny Lewis, a professor at the Cardiff University School of Psychology, explains: "Suppose I give you a creativity puzzle where you have all the information you need to solve it, but you can't, because you're stuck. You could think of that as you've got all the memories that you need already, but you need to restructure them--make links between memories that you weren't linking, integrate things that you weren't integrating."

During sleep, memories are captured and replayed during non-REM sleep. These reruns of events consolidate and strengthen newly formed memories, integrating them into existing knowledge.

The new model proposes that non-REM sleep helps us organize this information into useful categories.

During REM sleep, on the other hand, the researchers believe that the brain replays stored memories in any combination, regardless of whether they are similar. It is thus during this phase of sleep that we can see beyond those categories to discover unexpected connections.

As an illustration, professor Lewis refers to Ernest Rutherford's discovery of the structure of an atom. Rutherford connected two seemingly unconnected things: an atom and the solar system. In the model that Lewis and her co-authors created, had Rutherford solved this problem in his sleep, his knowledge of atoms and solar systems would have been categorized into different schemas during non-REM sleep. Then, during REM sleep, his memories of atoms could have been replayed along with the randomly activated memory of the solar system. The accidental association would have triggered his insight into the structure of an atom.

Sleep does not always solve problems, but it creates a space that creativity experts call incubation: a period during which a problem is set aside for a few hours, a nap, or a good night's rest. It is known that such a period of incubation brings you back to the problem in a fresh state of mind, and sometimes you do have the solution. However, incubation is only fruitful when you have spent a good deal of time and energy on a problem, really worked on a solution.

What can we take away from this? Keep a notepad and pen nearby when you go to sleep. And if you have any pressing problems that you have tried to solve unsuccessfully, go through the information you have about it just before sleep. This gives the unconscious mind the best chance to solve the problem.

Sources

Cell Press. (2018, May 15). How REM and non-REM sleep may work together to help us solve problems. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 2, 2018, from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180515113629.htm

Lewis, P.A, Knoblich, G, & Poe, G. (2018). How memory replay in sleep boosts creative problem-solving. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22(6), DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2018.03.009

Sleep and creativity (n.d.). Retrieved 11 September 2018 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_and_creativity

The filter spread

The most effective learning is learning from experience.

The best use we can make of such learning is to apply the lessons to the rest of our lives, and to the good of others.

Ideally, lessons learned from experience should lead to change.

If this sounds like reflection—yes it is! I wrote in another post: "Reflection is a deliberate and purposeful, imaginative and analytical exploration of events.... Research suggests that reflection, done constructively, leads to personal growth ...."

As we know, a tarot reading explores events from various angles until understanding is achieved. Here is a spread in the form of a funnel with six filters. The experience is 'poured' into the top, filtered through the cards, and the lesson(s) extracted at the bottom.

 

1. (The top four cards) Describe the event as thoroughly as you can.
2. (The second row of three cards) What effect did this event have on you, others around you, and the situation?
3. (The third row of two cards) What did you learn from this experience?
4. How can you best use what you have learned?
5. Commit yourself to use what you have learned.
6. What is the next action that you can take?

I based this spread on work done in 'adventure education,' in which experience takes place through various 'adventures' undertaken by the learners (Gass & Stevens, 2007). These adventures, if thoroughly explored, should lead to change when the learner internalizes knowledge gained.

The authors model this process on the idea of a funnel filter. The experience is 'poured' into the top, then filtered through a succession of questions until change is 'extracted.' The filters in this model (see image below) are review; recall & remember; affect & effect; summation; application; and commitment. By the end of this process, the learner should thoroughly understand the material and be able to apply it in the workplace.

The filter model is an expansion of the three questions asked by Terry Barton: What? So what? Now what?

In my spread, the questions correspond to What? (card 1), So what? (cards 2 and 3), and Now what? (Cards 4 to 6).

Sources

Borton, T. (1970). Applying the process approach. In In reach touch and teach: Student concerns and process education (pp. 93–105). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Gass, M. A., & Stevens, C. A. (2007). Facilitating the adventure process. In D. Pouty, J. Panicucci, & R. Collinson (Eds.), Adventure education: Theory and applications (pp. 101–123). IL: Human Kinetics.

Put the kettle on!

Increasing your creativity should be a fun process, but have you considered tea?

Actually, it might not be tea itself that enhances creativity, but the positive mood it induces.

Having already established that tea improves performance on the Remote Associates Test (which enhances insight thinking, or the “A-ha!” experience), scientists have now concentrated on divergent creativity (the kind that produces options, such as various ways to use a brick).

In a “names for a restaurant” test, participants who drank tea in the 10 minutes before the test suggested more, and more creative, ideas than those who had drunk water.

For other, rather frivolous, creativity enhancers, look at How to be more creative, Creative awe, Creative curiosity, Sarcasm makes you more creative, and Zap your creativity.

These are all fun suggestions, and worth a try, but ideally they should be replicated (redone successfully) before we can take them too seriously.

In The principles of creativity, I have compiled a list of things of which some had been researched, and some are recommendations that have been part of the creative world almost since its (modern) inception in the 1950s.

Source

Huang, Y., Choe, Y., Lee, S., Wang, E., Wu, Y., & Wang, L. (2018). Drinking tea improves the performance of divergent creativity. Food Quality and Preference, 66, 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2017.12.014 (Open access article)

Creative awe

One area of creativity research receiving much attention is how to evoke creativity.

I have made a list of activities (updated with new information) believed to provoke creativity. Here is a new one:

Awe enhances creativity.

Researchers found that awe affects fundamental creative thinking components, namely fluency (how many ideas are thought up), flexibility (how varied are the ideas), and elaboration (how detailed are the ideas).

Awe is that intense feeling of being overwhelmed by reverence, admiration, and even fear, caused by a grand, sublime, and powerful experience (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/awe?s=t).

What evokes awe is intensely personal. Examples include the experience of being with God or being one with the universe, the birth of a baby, an unexpectedly magnificent view, watching the stars through a powerful telescope, or being in the presence of someone venerated (such as Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu, or the Dalai Lama).

Researchers speculate that awe challenges and expands the mind. People often feel their world view is enlarged by the experience. In this frame of mind, it is easier to process new information and to find original connections among ideas, objects, and concepts. That is, think creatively.

The experience of awe is complex, and not easy to evoke in a research laboratory. In this study, scientists used virtual reality (VR) to evoke acute emotions in half the participants. The rest of the participants viewed an ordinary scene, not intended to evoke awe.

Then, the participants' creativity was tested using the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT).

Participants who underwent the awe-inducing experience showed noticeably enhanced levels of creativity, compared with control groups.

How valid are these findings? Ideally, this study should be replicated (redone successfully with similar results), and with more participants.

Meanwhile, I'll add awe to the list of creativity enhancers, with the caveat that the finding is tentative, and needs to be repeated.

Source

Chirico, A., Glaveanu, V. P., Cipresso, P., Riva, G., & Gaggioli, A. (2018). Awe enhances creative thinking: an experimental study. Creativity Research Journal, 30(2), 123–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2018.1446491