Creativity Revealed: Discovering the Source of Inspiration

by Scott Jeffrey, David R. Hawkins (Foreword)

Whether you realized the subtle revolution or not, you have become a citizen of The Creative Age. Look around. You are surrounded by, and chances are you have even become, one of them the Creative Professional who thinks for a living. They are the modern-day Socrates; the contemporary DaVincis immersed in an amalgamation of commerce, ideas and information. They are business executives, marketers, technologists, educators, designers, managers, small business owners, organizational leaders, psychologists, writers, speakers, coaches and consultants. They are us. And, just as the inhabitants of the Industrial Age sought to expand their knowledge of innovation and transportation to capitalize on and contribute to society, we too must tap the sources of creativity that exist within us if we indeed, hope not only to survive but exponentially thrive in this, The Creative Age. Today's challenge is Are we prepared to unpack the true source of creativity and dive into the real reasons some people seem more creative than others? Better yet, if we aren t highly creative, are we willing to adopt an understanding that will allow us to prosper and labor equally along side today s Knowledge Workers? Author and mind voyager Scott Jeffrey personally escorts us through contemporary and relevant research into the nature of consciousness and offers think tools designed to amplify our thoughts and awaken our creativity.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

295 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2008

Reviews

[Tandava Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scott Jeffrey is a student/disciple of David Hawkins, who I know of though I'm not familiar with his work. But is seems to be pretty thoroughly based in Sanatan Dharma, which is great, with a rather academic slant to it (probably at least partly because he's trying to make it more accessible than "woo-woo").

So that's a great start, and I appreciated a lot of the work he put into explaining background stuff about thoughts and consciousness. Hawkins' Map of Consciousness was also very intriguing, though I wish he'd explained more about how to do the calibration. I can sort of imagine doing it on an individual with muscle testing, but I don't know how he sorts it out for organizations, countries, deceased persons, etc. It would have helped to have not just been flinging these numbers at us assuming we'd accept them as-is.

I was a bit disappointed when we got to the part about actual creativity, though. On the one hand, I agree with his description, in that it does seem to be accurate to the way creativity usually happens to us. But it's frustrating that he still has such a hand-wavy part in the middle that we can't look at any closer. (There's literally an unnumbered step in his process, titled "have a moment of inspiration.")

I'll be clear that what I wanted here was not something he promised, so one can only ding him so much for it. But Paramhansa Yogananda was once famously asked if one can receive inspiration at will. His response was basically: "Yep, watch this -- " and he dictated a poem. Now, perhaps he's still going through all the steps that Jeffrey outlines, but just condensed somehow. But that story has a much different feel to it than Jeffrey's process which still leaves us feeling like we're at the mercy of inspiration, even if we get all the conditions right.

I like that he applied creativity very broadly, to work, life, etc., and not just "art." But I also would have appreciated a walkthrough of his processes in something other than the one "problem solving" context he described, something like a musical composition or a painting. Some of the steps would manifest very differently in different sorts of situations.

So anyway, I was expecting rather more from this book (especially as the actual main content in the ebook version at least ended at 50% through the file, with the rest taken up by appendices, notes, index, etc.). But for as far as it goes, it's very good.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using the work of David Dawson's Map of Human Consciousness, Jeffrey offers an inspiring look at the path of creativity. My wife discovered this books several years back and shared it with me. We still refer to it and just today, I was able to discuss it with another interested reader. Highly recommend. Only 5 stars bc, as with many books of this nature, the 2nd half lags a bit, but Jeffrey offers more than enough in the first 3/4 to compensate.