make connections to things it already “knows” and then to “file”
the experiences accordingly. Oscar Wilde wittily enshrined this tru-
ism when he said, “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimagi-
native.” But it was Edward de Bono who observed, some 30 years
ago:Insight, creativity and humor are so elusive because the mind is so efficient.
The mind functions to create patterns out of its surroundings. As the pat-
terns are used they become ever more firmly established.
In other words, we become set in our ways, unwilling to think about
something in a different way. It was as result of this that De Bono
developed the technique now widely known as lateral thinking,
some examples of which you will explore in this chapter.
There is a real sense in which, when it comes to releasing our
creativity, we have to unlearn much of what we have picked up in
our lives to date. We need to rethink what is meant by being
creative and to find out the best way of creating the conditions in
which we can learn to think more creatively.
There is one area of brain science that is particularly interest-
ing with regard to creativity and learning. It is known as the “state
of flow.” Many of you will have had an experience of flow, when you
are so caught up in a task that time ceases to matter. Perhaps you
found this state when you were wholly engaged in writing some-
thing, or painting, or decorating, or involved in a soul-searching dis-
cussion. Or, perhaps you achieved it when you were deep in thought,
or meditating, or jogging, with your mind able to reach deep inside
itself as you pound along. The idea of the state of flow was first
described by American scientist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. You may
also have heard this kind of experience referred to as being in the
“alpha state.”
The brain chemistry behind this idea is reasonably straight-
forward. Essentially, your brain runs at four different “speeds.” You
could think of it as four different gears in a car. The speeds are in
fact different brain waves, called alpha, beta, theta, and delta. Your
brain “transmits” different electrical impulses depending on what it
is doing. If you were to measure these with something called anHarnessing Your Creativity 145