Creativity and Consciousness

The Second Annual Transpersonal Research Colloquium (TRC) was held in Northampton, UK on September 15-16, 2016. This document is the final program with presenters abstracts, bios, and contact information. For further information, see www.transpersonalresearchnetwork.com.

A discussion of the vibration mechanics behind the advent of consciousness of many sentient souls interacting with one another has been presented. It is emphasized that consciousness vibration is the most important phenomenon triggering and spearheading what we commonly refer to as organic ‘life.’ A brief account of the phenomenon of collective (unity) consciousness has been explicated, with more details being deferred to the publication of a companion paper on the subject matter. It is elucidated that the power of consciousness is not just confined to creationism or the necessity of ensuring the longevity of what has been created by a single being; consciousness is superpositional in nature, which means, it may be accentuated through the vibrations of the mind of many sentient beings who resonate harmoniously and synchronously with one another. In this respect, consciousness of one sentient being influences the consciousness of one or many other individuals. This is indeed, how we form the matrix of our reality. Moreover, consciousness has the propensity of multiplying or expanding, which is why the Prime Creator has only demanded one endeavor from all sentient beings, which is to strive to expand their consciousness. Thus, we are all potentially ‘consciousness generators.’ Accordingly, a discussion of the parameter of ‘consciousness expansibility coefficient’ introduced by the author before has been given, herein. It is explicated that the natural frequency of conscious vibration is proportional to the square root of the consciousness expansibility coefficient. In fact, the consciousness expansibility coefficient of a sentient soul describes a trait (or quality) of the soul that is analogous to the ‘stiffness’ of an elastic helical spring that could be loaded with life’s karmic forces. In this respect, it epitomizes the resilience of the soul to be able to withhold such forces. Moreover, it describes the capability of a sentient being to acquire more spiritual education, thus adding to the frequency of its consciousness. Clearly, the more resilient the soul of the conscious being is, the more propensity it has for enlightenment and ‘consciousness expansibility,’ without being prone to instability or buckling, falling out of Light. However, unlike the stiffness characteristic of a non-sentient material or being that acts as a ‘sink,’ it always undergoes a ‘conservative’ operation in which it never dissipates energy as long as the sentient being is allowed to experience life within a Tri-Wave or an open loop of free energetic dispensation as it is usually supplied by the progenitor God-SOURCE. The structure of the soul is so resilient that it can absorb and transform the residual inelastic karmic energies stored WITHIN, ensuring full recoverability. More specifically, a resilient sentient is capable of redeeming all its accumulated residual internal karmic energy stored WITHIN, through clearing and cleansing at a later date, without any eventual possibility of damage or degradation. This is in concert with what the author has introduced as the concept of ‘sentient vibration’ by way of a ‘conservative’ energetic transformation through returning to its initial equilibrium state of vibration in which it preserves its state of consciousness expansibility or natural frequency of consciousness. But, if the entity excessively expands away from its original equilibrium state (referred to as the Zero-Point Field), it may have to permanently shift its position from the initial Zero-Point Energetic Field (‘Neural Network of God,’ which also signifies the open loop or the energetic fountain supply provided by the God-SOURCE). This way, it behaves as a helical spring undergoing inelastic deformation, expanding away from the open loop energetic supply of God and eventually separating itself from the God-SOURCE (referred to as becoming ‘fallen’), changing to a non-sentient (non-organic) being.  And, the clearing and cleansing of the soul’s emotional body of the accumulated residual inelastic karma culminates in effectively restoring its diminished consciousness expansibility, and thus, its frequency of consciousness. It may even lead to effectively raising its natural frequency to its full potential, being capable to Ascend, permanently shifting its anchored equilibrium (domicile) state to a higher dimension. It is then said that the soul undergoes syntropy (consciousness expansion), effectively increasing its propinquity with respect to the SOURCE.  This is referred to as the state of ‘positive karma’ as opposed to ‘negative karma,’ a scenario in which the soul through the expenditure of entropic energies begins to deflect away from the God-SOURCE (diminishing its propinquity), effectively leading to reducing its consciousness expansibility and natural frequency of consciousness vibration. And, through syntropic energetic experience one eventually undergoes ‘Ascension’ through sequentially transmigrating its consciousness and anchoring itself to the higher (more inner) dimensions of consciousness. Note that the soul constitution (matter-antimatter), however, remains virtually constant. Thus, for all practical purposes, the natural frequency of the soul is determined by its extent of consciousness expansibility coefficient, which could constantly change. Ascension occurs when the body becomes crystalline, being comprised of a perfect structure without the presence of any defects or the possibility of ever developing any, rendering the body to become ageless. And, mathematically, crystallinity is synonymous with raising the ‘consciousness expansibility coefficient.’ And, with increasing consciousness expansibility coefficient, one becomes multidimensional, capable of exploring even higher dimensional realms of consciousness, with the dynamic position of equilibrium about which one usually vibrates being shifted higher or deeper in innerspace, gaining more propinquity with respect to the SOURCE. And, all this demands impeccability and gaining spiritual mastery. Since the prime directive specifies consciousness expansion, it is incumbent on the soul to acquire experiential endeavors that culminate in overall contraction to, versus deflection from, the SOURCE. And, this means positive karma, procured through creational endeavors and through benevolence and application of the principles of compassion and unconditional love and effectively having reverence for the provisions of the Law of One. Another aspect of consciousness expansibility is triggered through awareness and interaction of souls with one another in which one Soul Aspect acts as the Beacon of Light, spiritually awakening and enlightening its other Soul Aspects. Accordingly, the consciousness of a sentient being affects the consciousness of all other sentient beings, provided that they become aware of each other’s presence. Accordingly, the author has introduced a new parameter dubbed as the ‘consciousness expansibility linkage coefficient k_ij’, when the consciousness of one sentient entity i is envisaged to affect the state of consciousness of the sentient being j. Finally, equations are presented herein that describe the overall natural frequency and consciousness expansibility of a collective.

In this talk the question " What is coming home? " will be addressed. In our modern, multifaceted and complex world, it is easy to feel a sense of estrangement and alienation from anything we might call a home within. But where is there such an inner home? What have we lost, and what are we searching to find? Where do we actually arrive, when we " arrive " ? By contrast, a sense of " arriving home " and a concomitant sense of belonging are generally associated with a feeling of ease. These questions can appear in many different forms, but whatever shape they may take: the search for a homecoming is more than a naïve desire. When exemplars of stories about home from the world cultures were reviewed and intertwined with insights and understandings gained from guiding individual quests and listening to collective stories, a core theme emerged: Coming home as an experience of diving into the innermost intimacy deep within the multiple layers of exploring consciousness-or, to put it in a more spiritual context, as a quest for God, the Divine Feminine, the Cosmos and a tapping into the Sacred. When we consider that since the dawn of languages we have been asking ourselves about this particular place its importance to all of us becomes apparent. Drawing on the concept of interconnectedness, it is intended to show how the intimacy of in-depth consciousness exploration mirrors the inner and outer ecologies, individually and collectively, in the quest for the Sacred. Arriving home can then be seen as a place of embodied understanding where being and knowing merge with each other, and become co-creatively one. Concluding remarks will refer to a homecoming that takes place right here in the midst of life, and how it links our everyday existence with the Sacred, making simple things the true teachers of our heart. It is a call for a coming home on many different levels, leading to a sense of being present in the moment and taking radical responsibility for transformation and social change—in support of the evolutionary process towards the wholeness of the earth in harmony with humanity.

You may have noticed in recent Presidential politics a form of rhetoric that speaks of paths—a path to the Presidency or the nomination, etc. This rhetoric is speaking of a path to a possible future—its possibility shaping the present actions of the aspiring candidate (e.g. where to hold rallies, campaign, or sell TV ads, etc.) In the case of Bernie Sanders, that path narrowed to zero.
In this follow-up essay to Wrath of Love, I also want to speak of a path to a possible future—a path that is narrowing to zero. The stakes are much higher than a Presidential election! Although we cannot predict the final contours of this future, I do claim that it is a future whose core is love. The narrowing path requires an encounter with ineluctable death, precisely when our culture at this time is most obsessed with eliminating suffering and death. Necessity and terror collide!
This alternate future brings fresh perceptions of the things of the world. Most central is the perception (not abstract idea) of wounded being and the imminent end of organic life as one and the same “thing”.

This article describes my experience working and living as a volunteer in a house for homeless children in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Through my relationship with the children I explore and discover the importance of the physical contact, the creative play and the healing boundaries. Finally I recognize that help is always mutual; to help always means that I am helped too.

Ese articulo describe mi experience trabajando y viviendo como voluntaria en un hogar para chicos de la calle en Buenos Aires, Argentina. En mi relación con los chicos puedo explorar y descubrir la importancia del contacto fisico, del juego creativo y de los limites sanadores. Como conclusión, puedo reconocer que la ayuda siempre es mutua; cuando ayudo siempre hay una dimensión que tambien soy ayudada.

Reproductive Learning is an umbrella term for a form of education based on rote memorization and reproduction of existing knowledge. It reproduces the content, process, social structures, power relations, and
individuals that conform to what are perceived to be societal needs and norms, mostly derived from the need to train workers at various levels of expertise. It is often the result if not the actual goal of educational
approaches centered on testing, assessment, and where the acquisition of existing information and conceptual frameworks is central.

NIETZSCHE AND THE PROBLEM OF SUBJECTIVITY
Edited by João Constâncio, Maria João Mayer Branco and Bartholomew Ryan
Published by de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston: 2015

Nietzsche's critique of the modern subject is often presented as a radical break with modern philosophy and associated with the so-called ‘death of the subject’ in 20th century philosophy. But Nietzsche claimed to be a ‘psychologist’ who was trying to open up the path for ‘new versions and sophistications of the soul hypothesis.’ Although there is no doubt that Nietzsche gave expression to a fundamental crisis of the modern conception of subjectivity (both from a theoretical and from a practical-existential perspective), it is open to debate whether he wanted to abandon the very idea of subjectivity or only to pose the problem of subjectivity in new terms.

The volume includes 26 articles by top Nietzsche scholars. The chapters in Part I, “Tradition and Context”, deal with the relationship between Nietzsche's views on subjectivity and modern philosophy, as well as with the late 19th century context in which his thought emerged; Part II, “The Crisis of the Subject”, examines the impact of Nietzsche's critique of the subject on 20th century philosophy, from Freud to Heidegger to Dennett, but also in such authors as Deleuze, Foucault, Derrida, or Luhmann; Part III, “Current Debates - From Embodiment and Consciousness to Agency”, shows that the way in which Nietzsche engaged with such themes as the self, agency, consciousness, embodiment and self-knowledge makes his thought highly relevant for philosophy today, especially for philosophy of mind and ethics.

Übersetzung eines Literaturauszuges (zusammengestellt von Manfred Bundschuh) aus:                                                                                              Humberto R. Maturana: Biologie der Sprache - Die Erkenntnistheorie der Realität                                                 
In Müller George A. und Lenneberg Elisabeth - Psychologie und Biologie des Denkens - Essays in Gedenken an Eric Lenneberg. 

1. Welche Prozesse müssen in einem Organismus ablaufen, um einen
sprachlichen Bereich mit einem anderen Organismus einzurichten ?
2. Welche Prozesse laufen in einer sprachlichen Interaktion ab, die
einem Organismus - uns - erlauben, Ereignisse zu beschreiben und
vorherzusagen, die er erleben kann ?
Erkenntnistheorie
Ich benutze folgende erkenntnistheoretische Prämissen, um die Sprache
zu charakterisieren, die ich verwende.

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF -- TOC and book intro in downloadable .pdf] 

"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it." --John Steinbeck Scientific research confirms what people have always known: answers, ideas, and inspiration do come to us in dreams. Harvard psychologist and world-renowned dream specialist Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., offers this rich collection of examples of how the world's most creative practitioners in art, music, film, science, literature and other fields have used the revelations of their dream life to inform their work. Dr. Barrett offers insights showing us how to encourage lucid, meaningful dreaming, and how to apply the meanings of our dreams to solving problems--from the everyday to the extraordinary. This is the stuff dreams are made of. In the visual arts, Jasper Johns couldn't find his unique artistic vision until he dreamed it in the form of a large American flag. Salvador Dali and his colleagues built the startling new genre of surrealism out of dreams. Kubla Kahn dreamed the design for his stately pleasure dome; thousands of years later, Lucy Davis, chief architect at a major firm, continues the tradition of dreaming designs into life in her extraordinary buildings. Film is a fertile avenue for dreams: "Twice I have transferred dreams to film exactly as I had dreamed them," confides director Ingmar Bergman, as have Federico Fellini, Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Altman, and John Sayles. From Mary Shelley's terrible nightmare, which became Frankenstein, to Stephen King's haunting dream as a little boy, which led to his first bestseller, countless writers have consulted the Committee. Musicians from Beethoven to Billy Joel and Paul McCartney have whistled the Committee's tunes. In science, physiologist Otto Loewi dreamed the medical experiment that earned him the Nobel Prize. In sports, Marion Jones dreamed she'd broken a world record, then brought the dream to life. Gandhi translated his dream of resistance into a movement that changed the world. Since Freud, we take it for granted that our dreams reflect our past. In The Committee of Sleep, Barrett reveals how dreams can also tell us about our future potential--and how to reach it.

Creative Inquiry frames learning and education as a larger manifestation
of the creative impulse rather than as the fundamentally instrumental acquisition, retention, and reproduction of information, or Reproductive Learning.
Montuori, A. (2011). Creative inquiry. In N. M. Seel (Ed.), The encyclopedia of the sciences of learning. Heidelberg: Springer.

Flow, an optimal state for study, training and creativity, is often linked with the concept of The Zone, an ideal state for elite performance. Are these two states identical, or how might they differ?  Does it matter, which name we use? See more at www.TheFlow.Zone

In this first of two parts, I’m considering the similarities between Flow and The Zone, as two of the many different manifestations of Hypnotic trance. I’m arguing for very careful use of language, but not for the sake of a more rigorous theoretical discussion. The narrow definitions of some terms are highly contentious, so I’m deliberately accepting broad definitions in order to sidestep those theoretical debates. But I suggest that precise choice of terminology is vital, for utterly practical reasons.

This writing appears as Appendix I in my book, Transitions in Consciousness from an African American Perspective: Original Essays in Psycho-Historical Context.  The book was published in 2004.  Appendix I is a comprehensive Timeline of African American Life, focused on Five Historical Time Frames For African American Life, with Consciousness Transition Themes and Examples of Historical Events.  The five time frames are: 1517-1863 (6 Themes)--The Beginning of Slavery in the New World Up to The Onset of a Civil War and The Emancipation of Slaves; 1863-1896 (4 Themes)--Resistance to the End of the Civil War and the Force of the Reconstruction Era Up to Early Popularized African American Cultural Influences; 1896-1929 (5 Themes)--Creative Tension of Two Ideologies for Black Progress: Vocational Education vs. College-Trained Leadership Up to The Second Black Nationalist Movement; 1929-1954 (4 Themes)—The Condoning of a Segregated American Lifestyle and the Treatment of African Americans As “Objects” By the U. S. Government Up To Challenges To U. S. Segregated Cultural Life Through Music, Art, Publications, Inventions, Sports, and Civic Symbols; 1954-2002 (Themes)—The Struggle of the Civil Rights Movement, Sit-In Movement, and Freedom Rides to Promote the Ideas of Freedom, Desegregation, and Full Equality for African Americans Up to The Struggle to Shift Race-Related Consciousness and to Urge Cultural Transformations By Infusing African American Cultural Influences and a Search for the Meaning of Race and Ethnicity Into The Mainstream Via The Mediums of Music, Dance, Film, Television, Publications, Sports, and Civic Symbols.  Even though the Time Line ends at 2002, the Themes are very instructive for understanding what is happening in today’s reality (2017) regarding race relations in the United States.  The Themes mirror how the mind, body, and spirit has been dealt with in the United States over time in regard to the phenomenon of race.

Pioneering creativity researcher Frank Barron developed a complex, systemic, ecological vision of creativity. In this book chapter from Barron's Festschrift, I explore the implications of Barron's vision, and connect it to recent developments in the systems sciences.

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF
-- TOC and book summary in downloadable .pdf] 
According to the poet Elias Canetti, "All the things one has forgotten / scream for help in dreams." To the ancient Egyptians they were prophecies, and in world folklore they have often marked visitations from the dead. For Freud they were expressions of "wish fulfillment," and for Jung, symbolic representations of mythical archetypes. Although there is still much disagreement about the significance and function of dreams, they seem to serve as a barometer of current mind and body states.

In this volume, Deirdre Barrett brings together the study of dreams and the psychology of trauma. She has called on a distinguished group of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers--among them Rosalind Cartwright, Robert J. Lifton, and Oliver Sacks--to consider how trauma shapes dreaming and what the dreaming mind might reveal about trauma. The book focuses on catastrophic events, such as combat, political torture, natural disasters, and rape. The lasting effects of childhood trauma, such as sexual abuse or severe burns, on personality formation, the nature of memories of early trauma, and the development of defenses related to amnesia and dissociation are all considered. The book also takes up trauma and adult dreams, including Vietnam veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Holocaust survivors and perpetrators, rape victims, and firestorm survivors. Finally, this volume concludes with a look at the potential "traumas of normal life," such as divorce, bereavement, and life-threatening illness, and the role of dreams in working through normal grief and loss.

Taken together, these diverse perspectives illuminate the universal and the particular effects of traumatic experience. For physicians and clinicians, determining the etiology of nightmares offers valuable diagnostic and therapeutic insights for individual treatment. This book provides a way of juxtaposing the research in the separate fields of trauma and dreams, and learning from their discoveries.

This writing, "Creative Community Policing Initiatives in Columbia, South Carolina," appears as Chapter 4 in Dennis Stevens' edited book, Policing and Community Partnerships.  To meet the public safety needs of increasingly diverse neighborhoods in cities across the nation, creative and innovative community policing initiatives seem to be required to curb and to prevent crimes and related problems and to bridge the gap between the police and citizens through community involvement in policing activities. Community policing is guided by the values of building partnerships, people helping people, and community organizing. In this light, community policing initiatives in Columbia, South Carolina, are characterized by the concept of "shared responsibility." In this chapter, therefore, the creative and innovative community policing initiatives in Columbia, South Carolina, are examined. This discussion thus focuses on questions as they relate to the community initiatives of the Columbia Police Department and the City of Columbia, South Carolina.

[Punitive] perspectives on artistic education and aesthetic knowing in classrooms void of creative expression. And how to get it back.
(A critique and response to the question:
What impact would art education have on creative cognition in both students’ ability to problem solve and on teachers’ ability to teach with passion as co-learners?)

This study investigated the relationship between openness to experience, conscientiousness and optimism in students' academic work among senior secondary school student in university Demonstration Secondary School UDSS – Uniport. Openness to experience and conscientiousness were the independent variables while optimism in students' academic work was the dependent variable two research questions and two corresponding hypotheses guided the study. Correlational research design was adopted. A sample of four hundred 400 students was drawn from the population using simple random sampling techniques. Data was collected using two instruments namely. Personality Traits Assessment Scale (PTAS) and optimism in Students Academic Work Assessment Scale (OSAWAS) multiple regression and Pearson Product Moment Correlation were used to answer the research question while ANOVA and t-test associated with multiple regression were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that openness to experience and conscientiousness had showed a positive significant relationship with optimism in students' academic work. " ased on the findings, appropriate recommendations were made. Keywords: personality traits (openness to experience, and conscientiousness) optimism and students' academic

My theme is ‘life-writing’, understood as the shaping of one's life through the contemplation of values, although this activity is mostly unreflective. To become an art so that one's life can be shaped in greater accord with clearly held values, this process must become reflective. These values have an inescapably ethical dimension, because as we necessarily poetize our surrounding world, we contribute to our personal and communal ethos the character that arises from the culturally shaping power of guiding ideals. Even the immoralist cultivates life within an ethos where obscure feelings connect with some thing or other, whereby certain aims will then appear more valuable than others.

To understand how we cannot help but shape our lives according to dimly or clearly intuited values, I compare Coleridge’s primary imagination, the ‘shaping spirit’ ‘necessary for all human perception’ with Kant’s ‘blind though indispensible function of the soul, without which we would have no cognition at all, yet of which we are scarcely ever conscious’. With Coleridge, we find in imagination an impulse to connect profound but obscure presentiments and ideas with our surroundings. This impulse propels great art and everyday aesthetics alike. Whether we pursue merely what attracts us, or seek value beyond this, all lives are freely shaped, without excuses, as the existentialists say, but not always in the most pellucid consciousness. Our choices inevitably engage us in the poetic art of life-writing. Cast in medias res, we necessarily improvise. But this is no argument against lives being moral-aesthetic works, spontaneous compositions in value.

Just a few decades ago, intuition was a dirty word in objective reductionist science every bit as much as mind and consciousness were absent from psychological studies. However, a crack began to appear in the stone façade of the scientific worldview by about 1970. Things began to slowly change in all of the sciences, but nowhere as much as in physics which had always been the stalwart and mainstay of the logic based disciplines of science. It is safe to say that mind was virtually lost after the first decade of the Second Scientific Revolution and science did not begin to regain consciousness until the 1970s. In other words, objective science and the non-scientific subjectivism of non-scientific disciplines seemed to be approaching a more common worldview if not merging together in the form of mystical thought and physics, just those two disciplines that claim the final word on our experiential interpretation of reality.  When this union of opposites finally happens, something new will appear - the MYSPHYT (pronounced misfit), literally a person who combines the conceptual methods of the MYStic and the PHYsicisT to further human knowledge. Although this article was written two decades ago and first published a few years later, it is more relevant today than ever before, which seems to verify the theory of the emerging MYSPHYT.

Pressures of globalisation such as the focus on the growth of productive economies, consumerism, and long work-hours have fragmented cultural beliefs and practices worldwide. Devaluation of deeply held soulful, creative, and nature-based practices in the dominant neoliberal capitalist discourse has challenged the way cultural and spiritual wellbeing are lived. Instead of being completely subsumed into the neoliberal global discourse, local responses incorporating global themes are emerging in the form of the “neo-tribal” festival experience. Although festivals have primarily been seen as places of consumption, this misunderstands the drive to participate in a festival experience. This article investigates a women’s arts and ecology festival held in The Blue Mountains, Australia, where members of the local community celebrate the return of spring. Findings suggest that this festival was a site for reclaiming a localized sense of connectedness, where participants reclaimed what was sacred to them. I will argue that consumerism is secondary to the desire for a sacred synergy of connectedness at this festival where critical creative action challenges the neoliberal and patriarchal discourses in the negotiation of global culture.

The two most powerful words in the English language, and for that matter in any language, are “Yes” and “No.”  They literally create different realities.  Saying, “Yes,” to a person, event, circumstance, or experience literally points us, and our consciousness, in one direction, and saying “No” to that same person, event, circumstance, or experience literally points us, and our consciousness, in another direction.  Therein lies the power of “Yes” and “No.”  The point of our power, therefore, is in the present—at the point of saying “Yes” and “No”.  Here I want to place emphasis on making that point of power more conscious.

Résumé:
La modélisation et l'application méthodique d'un processus créatif connait un développement exponentiel. La créativité comme compétence semble aujourd'hui être un facteur de réussite incontournable, quel que soit le domaine observé. Similairement, la pratique du coaching comme posture spécifique d'accompagnement se diffuse, descendant la pyramide sociale en tant que réponse pertinente à nos besoins croissants d'évolution professionnelle et personnelle. Cette étude vise à établir des ponts entre la créativité et le coaching. Au travers d'une revue de littérature, elle retrace les grandes lignes de leurs évolutions respectives, expliquant ce qui les caractérise, et cherche à mettre en évidence des facteurs de succès communs à ces deux domaines. Sur cette base, une problématique de recherche est formulée afin de comprendre ce que peut faire un coach pour stimuler la créativité de son client. Pour tenter d'y répondre, huit catégories de gestes de coach font l'objet d'une analyse statistique au travers de l'observation d'une séance de coaching. Les données obtenues sont cohérentes avec la revue de la littérature, et apportent des éléments de réponse pertinents à la problématique. Enfin, les compétences acquises et les points de vigilance relevés lors du stage pratique universitaire sont présentés dans une perspective de développement professionnel.

Mots clés: créativité, coaching, alliance, pensée divergente, pensée latérale, Creative Problem Solving, processus, ouverture, suspension du jugement.


Summary:
The modelisation and methodical use of the creative process sees exponential development. Creativity as a competence appears to be an unescapable factor of today's success, whatever field is observed. Similarly, coaching as a specific accompaniment posture is spreading down the social pyramid, providing a valid response to our increasing needs for professional and personal growth. This study aims at setting bridges between creativity and coaching. Through a review of literature, it draws the main lines of their respective evolutions, making clear what characterizes them and seeking to elicit success factors these two fields have in common. On this basis, a research problem is formulated to understand what a coach can do to stimulate his client's creativity. To attempt answering this, eight categories of coaching skills are statistically analyzed through the observation of a coaching session. The collected data is consistent with the review of literature, and provides valid elements of response to the problem. Finally, the skills learned and watch-points detected during the university practicum are presented in a professional development perspective.

Keywords: creativity, coaching, alliance, divergent thinking, lateral thinking, Creative Problem Solving, process, openness, suspension of judgment.

The unconscious mind tends to disregard negations in its processing of semantic meaning. Therefore, messages containing negated concepts can ironically prime mental representations and evaluations that are opposite to those intended. We hypothesized that the subtle presentation of a negated concept (e.g., “no smoking”) would activate ironic motivational orientations as well. We tested this hypothesis in a public health context. Smokers viewed photographs in which no-smoking signs were either inconspicuously embedded (prime) or edited out (control). Primed smokers showed amplified automatic approach tendencies toward smoking-related stimuli, but not toward smoking-unrelated stimuli. Since passive priming effects generally serve to facilitate forms of action, not inhibit them, anti-smoking and other public health campaigns may ironically increase the very behaviors they seek to reduce.

It is not possible to speak of a single systems approach. There are rather of a number of systems approaches, each loosely drawing on different aspects of a family composed mainly of, general system theory, cybernetics, information theory, chaos theory, and complexity theory. Systems approaches have been used in most of the social sciences, particularly sociology and management, but their use has extended into the arts and humanities.Creativity researchers have used systems approaches drawing on very different sources and in very different ways. The main focus has been to highlight creativity as a phenomenon that occurs in the context of multiple systems, and therefore involves a network of interactions.

This paper presents a discussion of the Japanese philosophical, aesthetic attitude known as Wabi Sabi.  Tracing the history of Wabi Sabi from ancient times to the modern day this paper examines the tea ceremony in Japan, the production of handmade pottery, and the Zen way of artistic creation.  Intermixed I offer a view of my artistic development and personal evolution of consciousness as I have come to understand them through the lens of Wabi Sabi.

This essay forms the theoretical part of my investigation of an automatically produced, surreal, self-portrait watercolour painting, one of my few scattered attempts at painting. Recently, I’ve been lucky enough to have practiced watercolour painting using the automatic technique, whilst studying Psychoanalysis and Art theory at Birkbeck College. I have studied psychoanalytic psychology for several years there, and am currently in psychoanalytic treatment, of which this self-portrait is playing an integral part. Here then, bringing together artistic practice, psychoanalytic theory and analysis, I am continuing a creative psychoanalytic therapeutic process of looking into an automatically produced self-portrait. This essay gives me the opportunity to record my learning experiences of the automatic approach to watercolour painting, as well as record psychoanalytic insights about my healing process. I hope it illustrates how an individual brings their unconscious, as well as their conscious awareness, to a psychoanalyst and to artistic practice..........

The author describes the philosophical and empirical aspects of an intuitive inquiry that explored 24 individuals’ (ages 30-80) mental images and creative expression in response to selected mystical poetry through a three-step procedure named Imaginal Resonance. Participants’ imaginal encounters with the poems inspired transpersonal awareness of spiritual freedom—a participatory, co-creative experience of self-awareness beyond personal concerns. Intuitive examination of the data and a hermeneutic analysis uncovered participants’ symbolic expressions of qualities such as awakening, personal development, introversion, expansion, connection, and liberation. Imaginal resonance facilitated a temporary glimpse of spiritual freedom, which was soon hindered by reasoning, questioning, commentary, comparison, anticipation, and judgment of the imagery and the experience as a whole. While the memory of the creative imagery lingered, the immediate experience of spiritual freedom diminished considerably with the return to discursive thought.

Die Studie unternimmt den Versuch einer Gesamtdarstellung von Denken und Dichten des vielgestaltigen Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935). Anhand der Leitbegriffe des Bewußtseins und der Erzählungen wird der gegenwärtig wohl bekannteste portugiesische Autor im geistes- und literaturgeschichtlichen Kontext seiner Zeit betrachtet. Dabei werden die literarischen wie auch die bisher wenig bekannten theoretischen Werkteile nicht nur interpretiert, sondern auch beschrieben. Die Betrachtung seiner Faustfragmente schließt einen Abriß der Stoffgeschichte ein, in die Pessoa sowie die modernen Bearbeitungen Thomas Manns und Paul Valérys eingeordnet werden. Die heteronymische und Bewußtseinskunst Pessoas werden sodann mit ausgewählten Texten Carl Einsteins, Luigi Pirandellos und James Joyces verglichen bzw. kontrapunktiert. Ziel der Arbeit ist es, Pessoa als einen Genotyp der Moderne zu etablieren und seine ästhetischen Bewußtseinsstrukturen faßbar zu machen.

Celebrity and fame can have detrimental effects for poems as for individuals. Poems cherished by 'ordinary people,' - and I could add Robert Browning's 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' to this number - arouse the suspicions of experts with a low view of public taste. Much depends on what wealth of significance lies deep in individual words.
Further reading:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/julian-scutts/the-emergence-of-the-poetic-wanderer-in-the-age-of-goethe/ebook/product-23196066.html

http://www.lulu.com/shop/julian-scutts/in-pursuit-of-verbal-clues-detected-in-the-body-of-literature/paperback/product-23751148.html

http://www.lulu.com/shop/julian-scutts/the-word-in-poetry-and-its-contexts/paperback/product-23135212.html

Can academia be a place where engage our creativity and experience the joy of inquiry?
I reflect on my educational experiences as a starting point for an exploration of the way that education can be a joyful process if framed as an opportunity for what I call "creative inquiry." I outline some dimensions of an attitude of creative inquiry, focusing on Wonder, Passion, Hope, and Conviviality. I then explore a number of different metaphors for inquiry and the way they can frame our attitude and evoke different moods.