How to be a Creativity Genius?

Aleister Crowley's Energized Enthusiasm

2009-08-06T18:55:00.001-07:00

Aleister Crowley's extended essay developing the idea of creativity -- and genius -- as a sexual phenomenon. Combines vital ideas from his own Thelemic philosophy with yoga and sex magick to create a remarkable synthesis.

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365 Ways to a Stronger You: Balance Your Human Life with Helping Others as a World Server

2009-08-05T17:06:00.001-07:00

"Why did I write this book?" Here's the inside scoop from author Rose Rosetree: When I do healing sessions for clients, I've noticed that certain groups of people are especially drawn to my work: 1. Spiritually-oriented people who are finally ready to claim their own human lives -- the specific goal of this book! 2. Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) who have found hope that their human lives could be stable, fulfilling, and rewarding, not only sensitive. 3. Empaths, already studying specific techniques for Empath Empowerment . Yet they need a little more personal, common-sense help to grow fully into… their own human lives. 4. Ex-cult members, or others who realize they have been extremely influenced by authority figures, gurus, religious leaders or others. They want to keep the good. They also have a burning desire to… grow more deeply into their own human lives. 5. East-Meets-West people, first- or second-generation Asian-Americans – or clients who live in Japan, India, China, Philippines, etc. yet somehow have found me and my work. I salute you courageous souls who are leaders at making this important synthesis of consciousness. If you are an East-Meets-West person, you were raised to be aware of others, thoughtful, polite, etc., and now you are struggling to keep this great part of their heritage but also learn to think for yourself, speak up for yourself, in short… to grow more deeply into your own human life. Gee, why might I attract such people? Maybe it helps that I am: • A lifelong spiritual seeker • An HSP who was among the first to write a magazine review about Dr. Elaine Aron's pioneering work • A late bloomer (Does first pregnancy at 42 give a clue?) • Someone who was involved in a cult for 17 years, then successfully exited. (Ask any expert on deprogramming and you'll find that making a full break is not the same thing as physically moving away from having contact with a cult.) • A first-generation American on my father's side (both grandparents German) and second-generation American on my mother's side (Lithuanian grandpa, British grandma). • A Westerner who has, since childhood, loved spiritual practices from the East, I might perhaps even be considered East-Meets-West person. (As this Kindle edition goes to press, I am getting ready for trip #8 to Japan, teaching workshops and doing sessions. Last week I signed my fifth foreign-rights book contract for India.) Into this book I crammed the best of what I had learned by then. About all these specialties. About life. About the work I have done in the emerging field of Deeper Perception. It is the most personal book I have written. I hope it reaches you right where you live, along with my very best wishes. And now a word from the publisher... Start your 365 days of empowerment today! Some days, this book brings fresh ideas to enhance skills you already have, like prayer and affirmations. Other days, easy-to-learn techniques activate your hidden gifts for deeper perception. Don't expect any two days to be alike. What remains constant is the author's respect for you as a conscious co-creator: Your creativity, courage and wisdom, the unique gifts of your soul. Rose Rosetree helps you to find the kind of joy that can make any day a holiday. And this book is a perfect gift for any holiday – whether officially a special occasion or that day you celebrate "just because." LOOKING FOR A TRUE PIONEER IN THE MIND-BODY-SPIRIT FIELD? Rose Rosetree has published the following books – not only the first in their field but also definitive works, sometimes copied but never equaled: BECOMING A SKILLED EMPATH. Empowered by Empathy, the first how-to book in English – maybe any language – for helping empaths to become skilled. (Rosetree's system is also trademarked, Empath Empowerment™.) CUTTING CORDS OF ATTACHMENT. Cut Cords of Attachment: Heal Yourse

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The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness

2009-08-04T17:23:00.001-07:00

The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness is for people specifically interested in creative processes—writers, artists, composers, teachers, thinkers . . . Discussed are psychological factors that both block and trigger creative production. Techniques are suggested for unleashing creative work as well as unblocking it.

Who we most deeply are is mirrored in our artistic work. Our need for mirroring simultaneously attracts us to and repels us from our creative callings and relationships. It is one of life's great dilemmas.

Artist's block and lover's block flow from the same pool. Often, we fear deeply the very thing needed to create original art, to experience intimate relationships and to live authentic lives: we are frightened by the impulse to be fully revealed to ourselves, and to others, as this most often entails exposing the unacceptable shadowy aspects of our humanity and risking rejection.

Mirrors in all their manifold guises permit us to safely see and experience ourselves in reflection and become better acquainted with the rejected, ostracized aspects of our personalities. Creative work is one of the few places where we can truly express and witness lost aspects of our authentic selves.

Within us a treasure beckons. This is what we spend our lives pursuing. What slows and distracts us is not the object we long for, but where we search. To find this precious gem, we must eventually return to our own creative spirits.

Topics explored in THE CREATIVE SOUL include:

* OPPOSITES AND CREATIVITY
* THE CREATIVE INSTINCT
* OUR UNIQUE IDENTITY
* SOME ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY
* SOME PREREQUISITES OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS
* LA PETITE MORT
* GIVING VOICE TO THE MANY LIVES WITHIN
* DREAMS AND ACTIVE IMAGINATION AS TRIGGERS TO CREATIVITY
* CREATIVITY AS AN INNER PARENT
* CREATIVITY WITHIN BOUNDS
* THE CREATIVE GAP
* THE POWER OF SMALL
* CREATIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE
* ART AND THE QUEST FOR WHOLENESS
* THERAPY AS ART
* FEAR OF SELF-REVELATION BLOCKS CREATIVITY
* INTIMACY AND CREATIVITY
* THE IMPORTANCE OF MIRRORING
* CREATIVITY, GUILT, AND SELF-DEVELOPMENT
* CREATIVITY AND LONELINESS
* LIFE AND THE TENSION OF OPPOSITES

Lawrence Staples has a Ph.D. in psychology; his special areas of interest are the problems of midlife, guilt, and creativity. Dr. Staples is a diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich, Switzerland, and also holds AB and MBA degrees from Harvard. In addition to The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness, Lawrence is author of the popular book Guilt with a Twist: The Promethean Way.

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LIFE IN THE FAST BRAIN: Keeping Up With Gifted Minds

2009-08-03T18:18:00.001-07:00

Life in the Fast Brain-Keeping Up with Gifted Minds is the second Karen Isaacson book about life in a gifted family. Her first book, Raisin' Brains, introduced us to her highly intelligent brood. The author's dry, signature style continues to amuse and entertain readers in the sequel. She refers to all friends and family members with quirky monikers such as Rupert, Magnolia, Petunia, and Gabby. A handy family tree at the beginning of the book helps us to keep track of all the quirky characters.

Isaacson writes, "Intense people don't just enjoy things, they become enamored. They take their relationships with ideas, with objects, or with hobbies to the next level." She illustrates this well with stories about things such as her teenage son's passion for duct tape clothing and jewelry. Worn shoes were sealed with duct tape and eventually metamorphosed into duct tape boots. Another child, at eight years old, had a scheme for making money. He got creative and made sock puppets and took the door to door to sell. Of course this doesn't sound so unusual, until you read that he swiped virtually every sock in the house, and left his entire family with cold toes!

Life in the Fast Brain also includes the story of young Eugene, who helped his preschool director out by catching up the office filing, and six year old Imogene, who was concerned about the dangers of hydrogenated oils in fast food. I particularly liked the tale of the boy who designed a Rube Goldberg type machine to wake himself in the morning- it was supposed to drop a marble on his head! There's something sure to make you smile, wince in sympathy, or nod in agreement on virtually every page.

Gifted kids can be very challenging to raise, and Karen Isaacson encourages us to stop taking everything too seriously. Laughter is great medicine, and her humor is a great way to ease the burden of coping with gifted kids who make nearly every experience extraordinary.

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Experiments Never Fail: A Guide for the Bored, Unappreciated and Underpaid

2009-08-02T19:00:00.001-07:00

Lovable Max Elmore is back with time-tested wisdom: "True achievement is something better than it has to be." His simple message is: Right here, right now, you can stop living an ordinary life. In today's rapidly changing world, ambition and goal-setting are not enough. (Everyone else is rolling those dice already.) Far more essential is an understanding of the randomness of achievement. In Experiments Never Fail, to help you win the "achievement lottery," Dale Dauten has completely rewritten the book, The Max Strategy, updating it and adding a new creativity tool called "Instant Brains." By the end of the book you will be a lightning rod for new ideas, going beyond problems to the anti-problem and beyond failures to the anti-failure.

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How to Think Like Einstein: Simple Ways to Break the Rules and Discover Your Hidden Genius

2009-08-01T17:24:00.001-07:00

Just like other reviewers, I started to like the book very much. Toward the middle of the book Scott Thorpe goes off on very impractical solutions. I couldnt finish reading the book, but I didnt learn alot about thinking "outside the box." I would not recommend this book, however, it may just be wrong in my opinion.

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Strong Imagination: Madness, Creativity and Human Nature

2009-07-31T18:06:00.001-07:00

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.
- _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, William Shakespeare.

_Strong Imagination: Madness, Creativity, and Human Nature_ by anthropologist Daniel Nettle is a fascinating account of the intertwining relationship between madness (mental illness), creativity, and human nature all linked together through the notion of "strong imagination". As the author points out, "strong imagination" was recognized by William Shakespeare who noted three things about it: that it is an inherent aspect of human nature, that it is highly developed in madness and creativity, and that it may be associated with love or sexual attraction. The author also states later in the book that what he means by madness is really "psychosis", "the state where the sufferer passes beyond the bounds of reality, intelligibility, and rationality as defined by the bulk of society". Psychosis is mostly seen in the more extreme forms of depression, manic depression, and schizophrenia (formerly known as "dementia praecox"). The author also brings up a fourth category: the "schizoaffective" (shading between depression and/or mania and schizophrenia), although the usefulness of these categories remains a matter of some debate. Of course the very notion of mental illness and psychosis remains extremely controversial, and the author must spend a great deal of the earlier parts of this book defining exactly what he means, answering possible objections, and ultimately defending his viewpoint that mental illness is a brain disorder and results from either a chemical imbalance in the brain, an "organic" disturbance, or an atrophy in certain parts of the brain. The author also contends that medication that works on neurotransmitters in the brain (in particular antidepressants such as Prozac for minor and major depression, lithium for manic depression, and anti-psychotics for schizophrenia) dampens the effects of mood swings and may be useful for alleviating thought disorder, psychosis, or the so-called positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Furthermore, the author contends that tendencies towards psychosis (or affective disorder) are hereditary. All of this of course remains extremely controversial.

The author begins by showing what he means by "strong imagination" and its interaction with madness, especially in his comparisons of Shakespeare's plays and the bizarre delusions of an apparently schizophrenic man, Mr. Matthews, in Eighteenth century London who believed that a "gang of seven" was plotting against him and devised all sorts of explanations for their nefarious schemes. The author next explains what he means by psychosis. Important distinctions arise at this point, first between the outdated categories of neurosis (minor mental complaint) and psychosis, and secondly between two forms of psychosis (organic and functional). The distinction between organic and functional psychosis highlights two different methods of understanding mental illness (one rooted in dualism between mind and body and the other rooted in biological materialism). The author highlights some of the earlier means of treating mental illness that were rooted in this dualistic understanding, including psychotherapy and mentioning in particular Freud. The alternative approach was to treat mental illness as a form of brain disorder (and this is the dominant approach today), and thus a search for appropriate medications began. Other more radical thinkers such as Thomas Szasz have argued that mental illness does not exist at all, and that the mentally ill merely have different or unpopular beliefs, comparing schizophrenics to conscientious objectors and separatists. While there is some truth in Szasz's arguments, they ultimately rest on a misunderstanding of the concept of disease and the resulting social implications that we should not attempt to treat schizophrenics or the severely depressed are horrendous and cruel. A second distinction arises between "nature and nurture". The nature position having its roots in Galton for example, contended that mental illness was a hereditary disease and biological in nature. The nurture position which was defended by Freud, but also in a particularly extreme form by R. D. Laing, contended that mental illness arose as a result of family difficulties (or was the only rational response to the inherent contradictions of modern capitalist society) and particularly blamed the mother for them. The author will contend that the nature position has largely been vindicated and provides much evidence to show this. The author next turns his attention to manic depression and schizophrenia, attempting to show how these disorders arise and the biological basis for them. The author contends that it is useful to think of manic depression and schizophrenia as two separate entities (though the separation is fuzzy and this remains a controversial point). The author also contends that manic depressive moods (in particular the high moods of hypomania) are particularly inducive to creative work. The author also contends that schizophrenic thinking (the thought disorder of psychosis) is also inducive to creative thinking. The author proposes two distinct personality dimensions (thymotypy and schizotypy) to indicate individuals who are prone to psychosis but who may also be particularly creative. The author shows how many creative geniuses of eminence (particularly in the creative arts, though I suspect also in mathematics and philosophy) had these traits. The author also shows how these traits might have been selected for evolutionarily. Here he discusses not only their role in modern societies, but also their role in "primitive" cultures, emphasizing for example the role of shaman and bard. The author contends that the creative process may have been selected for in a similar manner to the way the peacock's beautiful tail was selected for, as part of sexual selection. The author also considers the possibility that mental illness is increasing in modern civilization. Finally, the author explains the need for creative individuals to "keep sane" and not seek out psychosis, because though thymotypy and schizotypy may be indicative of creative tendencies, outright psychosis largely interferes with creative work.

This book offers a fascinating study of the relationship between madness and creative thinking as part of "strong imagination". The author's theories are certainly interesting and backed up with much evidence to support them. As someone who has experienced both mental illness (manic depression including some psychosis) and highly creative states, I found this book to be particularly insightful.

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The Creativity Question

2009-07-30T17:32:00.001-07:00

This collection of essays brings psychiatric and philosophical authority to the discussion of an important topic - creativity. From a psychiatric perspective creativity is essential to understand for mental and health reasons. The ability of individuals to function normally in a society is a creative endeavor and hence of interest to psychologists. Philosophers value creativity for its own sake as only they can do, but also "in order to identify and nurture creative talent. The problem is that "the task of gaining knowledge about creativity is very difficult .... Creativity is quite complex" (p. 5).

The first selection of essays characterizes creativity. Some define creativity as the possession of geniuses; others say everyone is practically creative. Still others would say creativity is time-variant and God's gift bestowed upon the chosen few. With such diversity, there is bound to be a good deal of general disagreement and contradiction" (p. ). The selection outlines these disagreements and contradictions, and is followed by four other chapters of varying lengths. Each chapter has a separate introduction of it own. Specifically Chapter 1 focuses on the works that have had a profound "influence on the entire intellectual tradition of Western civilization" (p. 27). These include among others Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Galton, and Freud. These authors did not develop theories of creativity, but everyone of them had something important to say. As an example, for Plato creativity is inspiration; for Aristotle it is the art of making things happen; and creativity is inherited ingenuity for Galton.

Chapter 2 of the book describes aspects of the creative process. The authors of these selections are VIPs of the literary world: Edgar Poe, Graham Wallace, Kath Patrick, Abe Maslow, and their likes. Their descriptions "document and define the phases and qualities of the creative process or the characteristics of creative persons" (p. 55). There is strong unanimity that the creator is just as importance to the process as the creation.

The role of science after all is to clarify. What the creator does, and whether or not his or her creation is important is ultimately meaningful to the consumer if and only if it can be explained or if and only if it predicts something of essence. Chapter 3 is about the forms and scopes of explanations, and what these suggest about creativity. The individual selections in this chapter are very contentious.

The fourth chapter looks at explanations with a microscopic view. Except for B.F. Skinner and Bill Gordon, the authors of the selections in Chapter 4 are unfamiliar to me - but this only shows my ignorance. The essays by Ravenna Helson (gender and creativity) and Herbert Crovitz (computers and creativity) are superb.

The last chapter presents "alternative approaches to creativity". Almost all the essays in the chapter "reject (sic) the assumption that creativity can be fully subjected to deterministic explanations, tacit or explicit. According to them, creative activity eludes both regularities ... and any unbroken complex of necessary connections" (p. 280). This is the challenge each writer responds to. Again the topics range from rejection of deterministic creativity, creativity as a rational activity, to creativity as an expressed intuition and conscious attention to activities like art.

The book clearly puts in the reader's hands an enormous amount of seminal works on creativity. For some of us this book may not have substitutes. Individual papers are all classics. However, I could not help the feeling that the strength of the book was log-normally distributed - rising rapidly through Chapter 2, peaking round Chapter 3, and falling at a decreasing rate thereafter. Even so, I still recommend the book.

Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465

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LOVE the Real Da Vinci CODE: Maximizing Your Creative Genius, Health, and Wealth Through Divine Communion

2009-07-29T17:50:00.001-07:00

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Project Mind: The Conscious Conquest of Man and Matter Through Accelerated Thought

2009-07-28T17:33:00.001-07:00

The following is Dr. Peter Lowentrout's review of the book Project Mind by T.Kun. This review appeared in the Vol. 6, No. 1, 1995 issue of "Utopian Studies" the international, interdisciplinary journal of The Society for Utopian Studies (SUS).

PROJECT MIND: THE CONSCIOUS CONQUEST OF MAN & MATTER THROUGH ACCELERATED THOUGHT, pseudonymously written by T.Kun, is a prospectus for "Project Mind," a "utopian...think tank." With the publication of this book, Kun intends to recruit "those who wish, with their whole selves, to radically transform for the best what we presently call 'reality'." Kun believes that scientific and cultural progress has thus far been driven by "the Eureka experience," brief moments of brilliant insight. The achievement of "Accelerated Thought" in Project Mind, however, will provide a sustained creative vision that will "establish an ongoing link with higher consciousness, producing a powerful cosmic current channeled through human essence from a higher dimension to fuel the transformatory breakthrough science of the future." This new science engendered by Accelerated Thought "will, within a few years, produce such material abundance that the pursuit of material wealth will lose all meaning." Material deprivation and suffering will disappear from the world along with the "greed, envy, sloth, vice and depravity" induced in us by overindulgence and the adversarial competition characteristic of capitalism. We will quickly come to see that "existence is 99.99% spiritual and only 0.01% physical and that we are all brothers in the spirit."

Accelerated Thought, the achievement of which is crucial to Kun's proposed Project Mind, is "a process driven by essential desire whereby the infinite intelligence latent in man finds expression through the rapid revelation of natural and cosmic secrets." Candidates for Accelerated Thought and Project Mind will be deeply creative people who are "if not leaders in their technical specialities, at least highly conversant in some discipline or field of inquiry." They will be people whose adult integrity and strength are "built upon the act of heroic courage in childhood to say 'the emperor is naked,' and who sustained their belief in utopian vision...." Using "special psychological techniques, environmental aids and sophisticated computerization," providing for the material needs and financial obligations of its participants, Project Mind will encourage the development of Accelerated Thought through a bootstrapping process grounded in our "essential individuality" and driven by will and desire. Accelerated Thought, Kun asserts, is "the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy."

If Kun might seem rather vague concerning the exact nature of Accelerated Thought, it might be worth noticing that mystical texts are seldom "how-to" books of the spirit. "The Cloud of Unknowing," Teresa of Avila's "The Way of Perfection," John of the Cross's "Living Flame of Love": even when mystics tentatively point out the Way, much necessarily escapes the text. In attempting to treat the ineffable, something of central importance always eludes words and must be communicated, as Master Huang Po had it, in a direct "transmission of mind," that is, in the direct impact of one's whole person upon that of another.

Kun's utopian mystical project has an interesting originality, but it is not without its antecedents. Accelerated Thought is not unlike Karma Yoga, with it's emphasis upon vigorous and right action in the world made ever more effective through the spiritual benefits that redound from that action. Kun's "Eureka experiences" and "Accelerated Thought" are akin to Maslow's notions of peak and plateau experiences, though the ontology implicit in Maslow's work is pallid in comparison to Kun's. The notion of a coming vanguard of spiritual athletes who will widen the paths into the sacred for the rest of us to trod can be seen in many thinkers in traditional religious communities from Aurobindo to Teilhard and is a belief common to many newly formed religious movements sensitive to historical process. The expectation that profound and wonderful changes will be quickly wrought in the world with the inbreaking of the sacred is a nearly universal religious motif; Kun's startlingly optimistic expectation of such change, for instance, is reminiscent of that found in the early Society of Friends' doctrine of the Lamb's War.

It is often the case that the bald presentation of an author's ideas makes them seem silly and inadequate. Kun's own presentation of his ideas is neither however, and Project Mind is clearly written and well-argued. Within the charmed circle of its own initial assumptions, Project Mind makes good sense. Time will quickly show those assumptions to be either true or false, but if Project Mind goes the way of the Lamb's War, it will still have been a robust expression of that yearning for and striving after a better world that shows us at our very best.

Kun's work is recommended for consideration as an ancillary text in courses on utopian thought and literature. Scholars who are interested in following the development of Project Mind can contact the newly established Project Mind Foundation at 8 Mevo Hamaavak, French Hill, Jerusalem 97877, Israel. (email: marshlu@vms.huji.ac.il)

Dr. Peter Lowentrout
California State University - Long Beach
Utopian Studies Journal

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You Don't Have to be a Genius to be Ingenious: A Fun-Filled Storybook for Helping People Enhance their Creative Skills

2009-07-27T18:04:00.001-07:00

This unique little book is easy to read and very worthwhile. Each chapter is a little business story - a sort of parable. Don't be decieved by the author's "Aw shucks" style, his book clearly demonstrates how things really are accomplished in business and ordinary life. It deals with creativity, teamwork, projects, goal setting and making things happen. I read lots of business books, and after a few days I'm lucky to remember one or two key points. This book I finished a month ago and still remember ten or twelve of its lessons.

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Voyage into Creativity: The Modern Kunstlerroman (Studies in European Thought)

2009-07-26T19:04:00.001-07:00

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Divine Madness: Ten Stories of Creative Struggle

2009-07-25T17:53:00.001-07:00

Poorly Written, January 25, 2006
Being a "doctor" does not necessarily make one a good writer, which is the case here. The subject matter is intriguing for sure, but the author here does nothing to elevate the subject matter beyond what is already quite well-known. What is surprising and a little unsettling however, in regards to having this written by a "doctor" is the continued use of expressions like "she wasn't quite right in the head" and the complete lack of medical insight, and more importantly, respect. There is also a general disrespect for women-- or rather "girls"-- as the author prefers to call them. Some of the facts are completely incorrect, and one wonders who the fact checkers and editors on this project are. The psychiatric and medical credibility of the author is nill, as well as the ability to write well. It is up for debate within which of these two trades he is most lacking in skill, ability, talent or integrity.

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The Gifted Adult: A Revolutionary Guide for Liberating Everyday Genius(tm)

2009-07-24T18:13:00.001-07:00

"Of course you're different. You're intense, complex, and driven because you're gifted." ~ Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, Psy.D. from "The Gifted Adult"

"The Gifted Adult." This may be a book that you missed despite the fact that it is read by many people all over the world. I still can't remember how I discovered it but I'm thrilled I did. And, I think you're going to love it.

If you're even reading this review, odds are you're one of the millions of "Everyday Geniuses®" out there (she counts 20 million in the US alone) looking to most fully and authentically give their gifts to the world... but, unfortunately, too often feeling a sense of purpose that is not quite being fulfilled.

That sound vaguely familiar? If so, I HIGHLY recommend the book. It was a life changer when I first read it several years ago and it's been refreshing to re-read it after quite a bit of growth--reflecting on the seeds planted by the book that have now taken firm root in my life.

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How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day

2009-07-23T17:58:00.001-07:00

I read the book and then listened to the audio book. I learned a lot from both. They explain in an interesting way Leonardo da Vinci's life and the way he approached his many different kinds of activities from painting to various scientific research such as the human anatomy, the flight of birds and attempts to invent and design things such as a helicopter and various machines. Many books about Leonardo da Vinci focus on his paintings. By contrast this one explains many of his other talents and qualities. The author Michael J. Gelb has categorized da Vinci's thinking method into several principles and explains the lessons derived from these principles and how anyone who wants to be effective and successful in life can apply them.

There are several types of thinking and sense development exercises. I found especially the stream of conciousness exercises useful in improving the effectiveness of my thinking in tackling daily problems. No doubt Leonardo da Vinci was a genius who was a great thinker with a lot of wisdom, had a multidimensional and creative thinking approach with diverse interests and activities. He is very interesting to analyze and to derive lessons from. However, it seems to me that the author has presented many of the usual advice given by life coaches as the Leonardo da Vinci method of thinking. For example he explains very clearly Tony Buzan's mind maps and how to apply them. He mentions Tony Buzan's name as he explains them. He talks about the importance of and how to set long term goals, to find a purpose in life and to become aware of our values ; all very important and useful information. There is no doubt that the author has studied Leonardo carefully and knows a lot about him.However, I doubt that Leonardo da Vinci used any thinking methods similar to Tony Buzan's mind maps or the Smart method of setting goals in life. He was a careful observer and a great thinker yes, but the thinking methods presented in this book can not be claimed to say that this is how Leonardo was thinking too. They are important thinking tools that we read in various books and listen to in seminars of life coaches and leading authorities on effective thinking such as Tony Buzan and Edward de Bono but they can not be attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. The various thinking methods explained in the book are very effective and useful but I wish they had not been marketed as : " Leonardo used to think like this too ". It is not very convincing.

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The Price of Greatness: Resolving the Creativity and Madness Controversy

2009-07-22T18:38:00.001-07:00

Great book that the author poured heart and soul into through ten years of research. He states in the Preface that he spent this time investigating the link between mental illness and exceptional creative achievement. However, it's also about the characteristics--life histories, personality traits, etc--of people who achieve historical eminence in general. What are the characteristics of those who achieve the highest level of eminence? I'll name just two of them and not spoil the rest of it for you: the personality trait of contrariness, and the tendency to be a loner. What's most impressive about this book is the sheer volume of biographical information that the author read through in order to write this. He read extensively on about 1000 eminent people who lived in the 20th century, and then summarized the information in a concise and highly readable fashion. Overall, a great read for anyone remotely interested in the subjects of creativity, mental illness, and high achievement, as well as their relationship to one another. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.

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Your Inner Genius: A Spiritual Journey in Releasing Your Special Gifts For Mankind

2009-07-21T17:29:00.001-07:00

When we have evolved sufficiently to look beyond the everyday scramble for basic needs and material adornments, we become simply as a channel for the great pool of creativity ~ which is the universe itself ~ to flow into the presence of mankind. This explains our reason for being: It is to unlock and release that amazing treasure that is only ours to offer to the world! It is hence, the most sacred, most meaningful contribution that we can ever make, and it flows effortlessly from within us when the time is right.

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Discover Your Genius: How to Think Like History's Ten Most Revolutionary Minds

2009-07-20T17:27:00.001-07:00

There are many good books with research based studies on how to improve your IQ or creativity on the market. Unfortunately, this book isn't one of them. Most of the exercises just seemed like silly stuff the author thought up on his own without any testing or research to prove the exercises actually work. For example, in the chapter on Columbus, one of the exercises is to get the tub with your sweetie, splash around and try to chart new waters in your relationship. For another example, the chapter on Plato recommends inviting guests to come to a toga party, dressed as ancient Greeks, and to bring their favorite poems and essays about love. Well, I suppose it is possible that might be a good way to improve a person's creativity, however I suspect a more likely outcome from the toga party idea would be to get someone get kicked off his bowling team, shunned at the next Rotary meeting and removed from any Scout leadership positions.

Instead of this book I would recommend The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. It is more of a research based book and written rather formally, but it actually has practical, research based factors on what it takes to make people experts in their fields. Tips from this book include the findings that experts are made and not born (with the exception of some sports) and that expertise is usually associated with years of experience that include deliberate practice (practice with continual feedback).

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Ignite the Genius Within: Discover Your Full Potential

2009-07-19T17:40:00.001-07:00

I have never seen a book of this kind. It goes directly to the reader's experience and allows for the unfolding of new potentials and awareness in a way that is unique, immediate and like having a personal session. Because this book is experiential, each person will come away with their own individual experience that furthers their personal growth and development. A much needed addition to the body of "self help" literature, this book taps into the brilliance of our unconscious to make profound changes at a deep level. I have used the book myself and found that I was able to shift from an agitated state to a feeling of calm and control within a few minutes. This shift lasted for several days, and I still go back to that image and feeling when I am starting to become overwhelmed again. The Biolateral Sound Recordings used with the images in the book are a brilliant way to focus the reader in on their own wisdom and authenticity. Utilizing Ignite the Genius Within, we put on the headphones, gaze at the image and allow our own inner process to facilitate us in an organic process, which I personally find more helpful than a guided imagery that leads me. This book gives an internal orienting point, and then allows the reader to access and follow their own inner guidance. I will be using Ignite the Genius Within with clients in my private practice of therapy in individual and group settings and will recommend this book not only to clients, but also to friends and family. I have a feeling that this will be my "gift of choice" this holiday season!

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How to Be a Creative Genius (in five minutes or less)

2009-07-18T18:02:00.001-07:00

The following review is posted on my blog at www.InnovativeEconomy.com

I suppose it only makes sense that if you are going to write a book on how to be a genius in five minutes or less, you should also write the book in a manner that fits the title. So when I picked up my copy at the bookstore, the impact began before I even had the cover opened, and then magnified when I started to read it.

Gary's book, "How To Be A Creative Genius (in five minutes or less)" is a great catch-you-off-guard book. If you are a literal thinker ready to take step-by-step procedures from the book and execute your genius, forget it. It isn't there. If you measure the value of a book by dividing the price you paid by the number of pages, prepare to be frustrated. The book isn't expensive (I paid $14.95 at Barnes & Noble) but its is small and short. However, if you expect someone who claims they can teach you to be a genius to do something that signifies their own qualification to be the teacher, the book `experience' will teach you as much as the words on the page.

The book is loaded with sarcasm. If you miss that early on, you'll go way off into the weeds regarding what he is saying. If you get that part right, it is easy to follow. Gary distills some profound truths into short cogent stories or examples that really stick in the mind and confront the heart in a gentle yet direct way. The premise of Gary's approach is that the genius is already inside you - he doesn't put it there, he helps you awaken it yourself and connect to it. To do this, he must confront the assumptions, beliefs and habits and that suppress the genius within you. Like the best pediatrician who can perform a procedure without the child even knowing it, Gary's approach causes you to confront those inhibitors through his whimsical fashion. By the time you realize what he is doing, he has already done it. It is truly a fun approach.

I read the book last week and it has been on my desk ever since. I find myself referring to certain vignettes and then remembering them when I'm far away from my desk doing things that have nothing to do with work.

One of my favorite qualities of the book is how Gary uses true stories of great geniuses to make the point his point, and how these points make the geniuses more human and real. I also really liked how it made me look in the mirror in a real way, not just once but pretty much every day since I read the book.

This is not just a book, it is an experience. If you are in a rut or a literal thinker, prepare to cock your head to the side like a confused puppy before the wisdom of what he has done hits you. That is part of the value of the book, not a sign that it's the wrong book for you. The more you cock your head to the side, the more you need this book.

It's a great read for entrepreneurs so I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to stoke up the creativity in a fun way.

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Crafting Creativity: 52 Brilliant Ideas for Awakening the Artistic Genius within

2009-07-17T17:19:00.001-07:00

Remember when you were a child, and would happily spend hours creating a collage to present to your mum and dad? Children are often happiest when left alone with creative materials - they let their imagination take over and come up with some wonderful ideas. But as we grow up, we often lose touch with our creative side as 'real' life takes over and we find we have no time to do the washing up, let alone sit down and create something beautiful just for its own sake. Creativity doesn't just fade away though, and increasingly people are turning back to their favourite childhood arts and crafts skills in order to relax and rediscover themselves. "Crafting Creativity" is the perfect handbook for anyone looking to expand or re-awaken their creative side, and is packed with inspiring ideas and advice for creating something really special, whatever you're into - the only limits to what you can create are those in your imagination! Simply brilliant.

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Autism and Creativity: Is There a Link between Autism in Men and Exceptional Ability?

2009-07-16T18:30:00.001-07:00

This book postulates a relationship between creativity and autism. This is a potentially interesting idea. There have been suggestions and some evidence that creativity is linked to tendencies to a variety of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia (see the work of Gordon Claridge) and bipolar disorder (see the work of Kay Jamison). The hypothesis that it might also be related to autistic tendencies is certainly worth examining.

However, this book has several serious flaws that ruin it. The first is that it seems to ignore the notion of a personality spectrum, which is central to most theories of a relationship between creativity and psychiatric or neurological abnormality. Those who suggest a relationship between creativity and schizophrenia, for example, do not suggest that most creative people actually have schizophrenia, but that there is a continuous spectrum of liability to schizophrenia and that highly creative people tend to be further than most people along this spectrum. It is quite possible, and at least worth testing, that they also tend to be further than most people along the spectrum of liability to autism. However, Fitzgerald is not suggesting this. He is suggesting that many creative people actually had autism or Asperger syndrome as a definite diagnostic category. While it's possible that some did, extending the diagnosis to so many people is very questionable, unless one is to make the definition of 'autism' far more elastic than it usually is. If any eccentricity or social awkwardness is to be classed as 'autism' - as it sometimes seems to be here - then 'autism' begins to lose its meaning.

Secondly, just as the definition of autism is fudged, so is the definition of creativity. While it is probably impossible to get a definition that everyone will agree on, this book seems at times to equate it with eminence: a serious problem. For example, it is questionable whether even strong political supporters of Sir Keith Joseph would have described him as exceptionally creative in any of the usual senses.

Thirdly, the author ignores the difficulty of diagnosing people whom he has never met, and about whom the evidence is often imperfect. He selects biographical items that fit his theory, and ignores other aspects of the situation. For example, his discussion of the mathematician Ramanujan totally ignores the cultural differences that could have made this Indian mathematician behave unusually in the context of Cambridge University norms of the 1930s.

Fourthly, and most seriously, the author's zeal for a diagnostic category often lead him simply to try to portray his chosen characters in as pathological a light as possible: sometimes with very little relation to the characteristics of Asperger syndrome. This results in a very gossippy, 'tabloid science' style, which has quite negative implications both for the subjects of his biography, and indeed for people with Asperger syndrome. The references to Hitler are particularly offensive in this context. Hitler, who was able to mesmerize and manipulate others with frightening effectiveness, would appear to be at quite the opposite end of the spectrum from what is usually diagnosed as autism/ Asperger syndrome. These references, and the generally negative tone of the biographies, run contrary to what may have been the author's aim to portray the positive side of autism and eccentricity.

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The Genius Engine: Where Memory, Reason, Passion, Violence, and Creativity Intersect in the Human Brain

2009-07-15T17:12:00.001-07:00

This is a well-written and engaging book, yet it is also a little frustrating.

Kathleen Stein is a distinguished science writer and here she tries to unlock some of the secrets of the prefrontal cortex for a general audience. The prefrontal cortex is one of the most recently developed regions of the primate brain, and it is most highly developed in humans, where it is involved in planning, reasoning, working memory and the control of behavior and our internal landscape.

The book is the fruit of some detailed research and interviews with some of the experts working in the field of frontal lobe function.

The book begins with three pages of diagrams, followed by an "Introduction," and six chapters:
1. Memory: The DNA of Consciousness
2. Reason: Logic, Laughter, and Looking Within
3. Passion: In Cold Blood?
4. Violence: Morality and the Minds of the Killers
5. Creativity: Art as a Window into the Brain
6. Silicon Minds: The Rise of Machine Genius

These chapters are followed by some notes and a good index.

I have written before that I only review books that I really like: my reviews form a part of my "recommended reading" lists for classes and workshops. This book is well written, the author has done her research and had the help of some luminaries in the frontal lobe firmament. So why "only" four stars?

I do like the book, but it is not the easiest read, and I say that as a specialist! Unless you are someone who can construct three-dimensional maps in your head, it is difficult to see how all the regions of the brain hang together.

The second point is more subtle and has to do with what we call "neo-phrenology." Phrenology is an old and discredited art or measuring the bumps on the head to try and deduce a person's character and personality. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it re-emerged in a new guise: cognitive and emotional faculties started to be "localized" to certain regions of the brain. This piece of brain would "do" something, while another piece would have another job. With certain important exceptions, this idea is fundamentally flawed: many regions are specialized to perform certain tasks, but they also function as parts of larger systems and circuits. The prefrontal cortex is a good example of this concept. It has many specialized functions, but can also be recruited to contribute to other activities that may require more cognitive horsepower. Another example if the idea that people are "left-brained" or "right-brained." This is fine as a metaphor, but not as a neurological reality. Unless the connections between the cerebral hemispheres are severed, the two sides of the brain usually act together.

One of the problems with the old brain lesion studies was this: it is hard to try and work out what regions of the brain by looking at the consequences of injuries that often affect large portions of the brain, and secondly to then attribute a function to the damaged regions. If I remove the spark plugs from your car, and a passerby who knows nothing about cars notices that the wheels of the car are no longer turning, it would be easy to come to the conclusion that the spark plugs are directly responsible for the motion of the wheels.

The third point is that there is growing evidence that the prefrontal cortex may be susceptible to functional and even anatomical growth and change: trying to describe it is like trying to hold quicksilver in your hand. This region of the brain has developed during recorded history and is probably continuing to develop at this moment.

The attempt to be readable has produced a worthy book that does not quite hit the mark. The prefrontal cortex is a unique series of circuits, but is it best not to perpetuate the idea that we can localize complex neurological and psychological activities to discrete regions of the brain.

That being said, this is one of the best books for the general public on a tantalizing set of systems in the brain.

Richard G. Petty, MD, author of Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life

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The Five Faces of Genius: Creative Thinking Styles to Succeed at Work

2009-07-14T17:31:00.001-07:00

But so are most books of this type. The book's best feature is a nice combination of detail with theory. There are lots of exercises and a generally cheery "you can do it!" tone. That's good, but the book's recurring emphasis on developing multi-modal approaches to problem-solving is better (i.e., creativity means trying approaches you're not as familiar with). Concluding sections on interacting with people of dominant types that differ from you, and how to sell your ideas to them, is probably worth the cover price alone.
The author loves examples. These examples are not always correct (salons peaked in the 1700s, not the "seventeenth century" to cite one of more than a dozen examples), nor do they fit as neatly into their creative categories as the author supposes. In part, though, the reader comes to see this as the unique characteristics of a certain creative style--seeing this and making allowance for it is good practice for the rest of the book. After all, true creativity is aware of variant creative modes, especially in colleagues or even competitors.
The morning after skimming the entire book I began to experiment with some of its suggestions. Within two hours I had come up with a metaphor that will solve one of the most intractable process problems for my company--an idea that literally took my breath away, on something I'd been struggling with for months. I put a lot of work in; this book didn't give me any answers. But in a sense it reminded me of the answer, or gave me ideas about how and where to look for the answer. I was a college football player already, to use a metaphor, and this was a long look at a pro playbook. It won't work unless you're playing college ball; if you're a top pro player, you should look at something more advanced. But if you want to develop a basis of creative talent, this'll help.

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Genius: History of an Idea

2009-07-13T17:46:00.001-07:00

This book explores the history of the idea of genius from its origins in classical antiquity to its deconstruction in postmodernist criticism. Focusing mainly on the creative arts, the book examines certain key points in the development of the idea, and also addresses the problem of what constitutes genius in specific subject areas. Experts in different fields have contributed chapters on literature, art, music, mathematics, philosophy and psychiatry to produce a volume that illuminates an abiding obsession throughout the history of European culture. The contributors to this volume show how the ancient image of the inspired poet and the Renaissance conception of the divino artista both anticipate later notions of genius, developed into the 18th century around the central figures of Homer, Shakespeare and Goethe. Romantic definitions of genius are analyzed, as are the implications of Nietzsche's pronouncements on 'human greatness'. The historic conjunction of genius and madness is explored from the early belief in divine possession through the Renaissance notion of melancholy to the age of psychoanalysis.

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The Genius Symbols: Your Portal to Creativity, Imagination and Innovation

2009-07-12T19:21:00.001-07:00

Dr Silvia Hartmann defines what it means to be a true genius and proposes that this is a basic human right, rather than an accident of birth. In this paradigm shifting work which is the result of nearly five decades of research and testing, The Genius Symbols are introduced. These are 23 unique symbols which form an alphabet for conscious communication with the energy mind, allowing the user to ask questions directly, receive answers, and refine these answers further to produce a breakthrough innovation, inspiration and invention that will manifest correctly in reality. It contains instructions and samples for use in personal development, art, science, therapy and how to use with children to teach life skills of active intelligence, lateral problem solving and creative thought.

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Creativity in Science: Chance, Logic, Genius, and Zeitgeist

2009-07-11T19:14:00.001-07:00

Simonton, Dean Keith. "Creativity in Science: Chance, Logic, Genius, and Zeitgeist." Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK: 2004.

This book is essentially an extended academic paper supporting this professor's argument for the causes of and correlations with creativity in science. The main idea of the book is that creativity in science is a function of chance, logic, genius, and zeitgeist. Simonton argues that the other 3 are included under the heading of chance. This is a very interesting idea because the conventional wisdom is that genius is the principal player in scientific creativity, and many would not be happy with suggestions otherwise.
The main theory proposed by Simonton is that creative genius is simply a product of random and possibly unrelated ideas being combined in an interesting way through the combinatorial process. Simonton then makes a series of assumptions. From his theory and the assumptions, he concludes the existence of the equal-odds rule, which has been supported by empirical data. The equal-odds rule says that the average publication of any particular scientist does not have any statistically different chance of having more of an impact than any other scientist's average publication. In other words, those scientists who create publications with the most impact, also create publications with the least impact, and when great publications that make a huge impact are created, it is just a result of "trying" enough times. This is an indication that chance plays a larger role in scientific creativity than previously theorized.
This book is filled with interesting quotes. One of my favorites is from a famous physicist named Bohr speaking about another theory. He says, "we are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough." This is an example of the kind of traits present in creative scientific people. The chart on the next page summarizes Simonton's findings in relation to the development, birth order, and disposition of creative minds in a concise way. As you may notice from the figure, Simonton also makes distinctions between artistic and scientific creativity. He argues that since logic is a requirement for all scientific creativity, and a detriment to most artistic creativity, these two types of creativity are very different. In addition, it is interesting to note that if a certain scientist never existed, their work would be replaced eventually be something similar, while this is not true for artists. He also argues that there is a stronger correlation in artistic creativity, with psychopathology, unconventional development, and other aspects on the figure below that lead to more random inputs in the combinatorial process.

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Igniting Your Genius: The Startling Fusion of Creativity, Curiosity, Intellect, Passion, and Awe

2009-07-10T17:14:00.001-07:00

Would you like to ignite the inquisitive nature of your students? Igniting You Genius is designed to help any learner explore creativity and imagination through original questions. By examining unconsciously held worldviews, students, teachers, and administrators will break out of their reticence to think outside of the box. An excellent resource to use for organizational retreats or to locate meeting icebreakers, this is the tool for tackling any situation demanding an expansion of learning horizons.

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Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration

2009-07-09T18:41:00.001-07:00

Ever thought that the Wright Brothers invented the airplane? Or that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, James Watt invented the steam engine, John Logie Baird did likewise for television and Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin (all from Scotland, by the way, the land of genius)? Sir Isaac Newton invented the calculus. Right! C.S. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia entirely from the spark of genius from within? Well, after reading this book you will see that these various stories of geniuses inventing things single-handedly, while warding off the depredations of jealous and rival others, are all myths, perpetuated by the believers in the importance of the individual and the notion that creativity can reside only within the single person.

This book makes a strong case for the view that inventions are, more likely than not, the outcome of collaboration or at least the use by individuals of information provided by a web of informants, friends, rivals, students, writers and a further miscellany of people, who provide the wherewithal that the "inventor" can use at the right time and the right place.

This book fulfils three purposes. The first is that it provides a free flowing and exciting account of how we think about the process of creativity. We can understand that how people produce the ideas and actions that lead to great works of art, scientific breakthroughs and the technology that we have all become so dependent upon in everyday living , have progressed from attempts to understand the thought processes of the lone genius to the realisation that creativity stems from teams of co-workers and collaborative webs of participants. As someone whose early research was concerned with the associative processes underlying creativity within the individual and who later worked through an understanding of the dynamics of group interaction to see the potential of collaboration, I can vouch that this book provides a good primer of work in the area and it does so with flair and humour.

The second is that it gives, in Part 2, a set of puzzles and tasks that can be used by individuals, but more importantly groups and organizations, to experience the insight that alerts them to the possibility of creative collaboration and which can also enhance that creativity. It is a primer and also a training manual.

The third benefit of reading this book is that it provides a series of case studies of successful modern companies that have benefited society through creative collaboration and many organizations, large and small, can take courage from these stories and consider breaking out of their current structures and practices and try the new.

A central premise of the book is that creativity and problem solving are dependent upon the utilisation of knowledge, distributed most effectively across many people and not only resident within an individual. This has always been the premise upon which the idea that distributed knowledge should be superior to individual knowledge. The problem until recently has been that the barriers to the sharing of knowledge have been difficult to overcome and groups of people share more than knowledge; they share inhibitions and past experiences which prevent the utilisation of knowledge that comes from other people. This book, like several others that have been recently published, is based upon the notion that with the internet and the development of network theory, the sharing and utilisation of knowledge have become more democratic and practical.

Sawyer looks at the literature on group problem solving and creativity in this light, and looks at what is emerging in work on webs of collaboration and networks of associations. There are many thoughts on how the utilisation of networks can facilitate thinking and problem solving and chapters 8 and 9 repay close attention and are rewarding.

As a social psychologist, however,one can take a more critical position. While Sawyer does acknowledge that there are lots of conditions that will produce quite the opposite state of affairs, he does not give this material much room. Individuals in many settings are far superior to groups in the quality of thinking that they produce. One can add countless examples of studies where it can be demonstrated that, in fact, groups are "dangerous to your mental health". Sawyer's book is one of several which have appeared recently with the same message. It is, however, more accessible than James Surowiecki's "The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many are Smarter than the Few", and more balanced in its presentation of contrary evidence than Howe's "Crowdsourcing: How the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business". It is as optimistic as Sunstein's "Infotopia: How many minds produce knowledge" and one should not perhaps "rain on the parade" too liberally. But it would be foolish to take the contents of this book and apply the nostrums will-nilly to the all the tasks all organizations have to face. Like most insights which are used to generate formulae for practice, in this book, as in many others written today,one has to add "it depends" as a limiting statement after most observations and inferences.

Sawyer does add another important ingredient which does differentiate the book from these others,however, a set of core ideas concerned with the creative process that can be simply stated here and which can give a foretaste for the book. The first set of concepts stems from the idea of "flow", the notion that, when we are engaged in a task which entirely occupies our talents and we are concentrating on achieving our goal, we can attain a new state of consciousness where past, present and future seem to merge into one and we are almost outside of the environment. Sawyer applies this idea of individual consciousness to the experience we can attain within a successful operating group.

"Flow" in a group can be created when there at least five conditions in existence simultaneously. The group must have a clear goal, in the case of the dynamic tertiary education organization, a goal of solving specific problems within that environment. The group members must engage with each other completely, that is they demonstrate "close listening" where members are totally open to the ideas and suggestions of others, with no preconceptions. They are also concentrating only on the task, excluding intruding and distracting tasks and messages. They are given autonomy to address the task and have accepted that responsibility, and they subsume their own egos to the group, so that no one individual has individual leadership responsibility. If these conditions can be achieved, then the group is in a state of readiness to address the problems innovatively and to achieve novel solutions of high quality.

Of course, the achievement of this state of group consciousness is not easy and cannot be guaranteed, even if many of the conditions are in place. The group members need themselves to be skilled and knowledgeable, able to contribute and respond to others. But many people can report having experienced this state. Sawyer, while a psychologist, really formulated his ideas from his experience as a jazz musician, where collaboration and improvisation by the band members must predate the demonstration to the audience of a successful performance. If you are a musician or have played group sports, then you may well have experienced "flow" at some level, even if it has not been as an elite. The metaphor of music collaboration and sport makes an interesting comparison with the metaphor of the organisation as a military team prevalent today.

Setting aside any provisos, however, in the spirit of engaging creatively with an issue or problem, this book should be studied in the context in which it is written, to be seen as a creative solution to a pervasive issue in organisational behaviour. As a "Beginner's Guide" to the tribulations of group and organisational problem solving, this book on Group Genius, is certainly worth reading and studying. For an organization which has several teams, sometimes with goals and modes of operation which appear different, but which are, however, all seeking to achieve an overall goal within a particularly constrained market, this would be a good start to achieve a consensus that is, at the same time and perhaps somewhat paradoxically, creative.
Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce KnowledgeThe Wisdom of CrowdsCrowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business

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Creativity And The Mind: Discovering The Genius Within

2009-07-08T17:40:00.001-07:00

Three PhD's whose specialty is cognitive pyschology put together a summary in 1995 of research on creativity. It makes very interesting reading because this cognitive research approach can control variables and determine what are the actual causal factors that lead to creating great ideas or products.

It easy to read and contains lots of good footnotes and discussion about what makes a practical good idea. I would have given the book a 5 if it had organized and discussed the techniques more. I had to work hard to pull out and organize their main recommended techniques. However, I'm glad I bought the book.

This book is recommended for those who want a background on creativity from researchers... and that is somewhat easy to read. If you are looking for a list of creativity techniques to immediately apply, you might find this book to be interesting but not enough of a cookbook... although they do offer some great ideas. Many of the ideas were proposed by others, but these authors show some of the research behind why they work.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

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Thinking like a genius: eight strategies used by the supercreative, from Aristotle and Leonardo to Einstein and Edison.: An article from: The Futurist

2009-07-07T17:06:00.001-07:00

Thinking like a genius: eight strategies used by the supercreative, from Aristotle and Leonardo to Einstein and Edison.: An article from: The Futurist
~ Michael Michalko

Like the author's two wonderful books on creativity, this article is very well written.

If you own &/or have read any of Michael Michalko's 'Thinkertoys' &/or 'Cracking Creativity', then I reckon there is no point for you to acquire &/or read this article. The things he talks about in this article can be found in his two books.

My rating of 5 here applies to the author's two books, both of which have already been reviewed by me on amazon website.

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The psychology of creativity and genius: reflections on Shakespeare and the Oxfordian challenge.: An article from: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology

2009-07-06T17:57:00.001-07:00

This digital document is an article from Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, published by Institute for Evolutionary Psychology on August 1, 2004. The length of the article is 3720 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The psychology of creativity and genius: reflections on Shakespeare and the Oxfordian challenge.
Author: Kevin Simpson
Publication: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 2004
Publisher: Institute for Evolutionary Psychology
Volume: 25 Issue: 3-4 Page: 146(8)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Stimulated!: Habits to Spark Your Creative Genius at Work

2009-07-05T17:37:00.001-07:00

Being a deep spiritual person, I have never felt that science and spirituality needed to be utterly segregated. In Leo Kim's book, Healing The Rift, there is an harmonious blending and finally a making of peace that enjoins the two. Kim has a passion for searching and finding answers to life's most challenging questions.After a twenty-five year spiritual quest, Kim has
found that there is a blending of mind and spirit, a higher purpose and always hope. Don't fail to enter into the experience of Healing The Rift. Excellent!Healing the Rift: Merging Science and Spirituality

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Genius and the Mind: Studies of Creativity and Temperament

2009-07-04T18:49:00.001-07:00

What is genius? Are there easily identifiable personality traits associated with giftedness? What is the link between intense creativity and madness? These are just some of the questions explored in Genius and the Mind. With historical studies of some of the most famous creative people, this exciting book considers the nature of creativity and genius from a psychological standpoint. Chapters, written by leading researchers in the study of genius, span the range of approaches used to understand the subject--from discussions of the role of genes in giftedness to the importance of social context in defining and acknowledging creativity. Mozart's precocity, Byron's mania, Shakespeares literary brilliance, personalities of the Italian Renaissance painters, and the psychoses of many celebrated writers are all discussed, making this a fascinating text for anyone with an interest in the psychology of genius and geniuses, as well as for students and researchers in the field.

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Insights of Genius: Imagery and Creativity in Science and Art

2009-07-03T18:45:00.001-07:00

if you have not yet read this book then please dont becasue it is a complete waste of time. is there no limit to how arrogant a writer can get, the flow is incoherent, consatntly skipping from one subject matter to another without ever clearly explaning any of them. Also related is Einstien and Picasso another Miler book not worth reading at all. This book he claims is the deinitive work on Einstien, but it is not much more than a uncomplete biography which would not even cover the facts needed for a GCSE project. Waste of time! he talks about creativity, no where is it seen in any of these two books

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Genius, Creativity, and Leadership: Histriometric Inquiries

2009-07-02T17:47:00.001-07:00

Dean Keith Simonton examines uncommon people; those creators and leaders whose impact on their own and later times has been so great that they deserve the label "genius." A simultaneous look at creativity and leadership is itself uncommon, and the comparison shows that when creators and leaders act at genius levels they have many similarities. What it is that causes them to stand out above others? Is it family background, education, intelligence, the nature of the times in which they live? Is there a peak age for creativity?

Simonton believes that if we subject the lives of the eminent to scientific analysis we may be able to discover general laws of history and social behavior. To do this he defines a discipline called historiometry. He begins with an explanation of the method: choosing a unit of analysis, be it individual philosophers, historic land battles, or classical melodies; defining and calculating the crucial variables; and teasing out with advanced statistical analysis the most probable causal connections in the data.

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Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity

2009-07-01T17:23:00.001-07:00

Simonton has written an excellent book--and a thorough one at that. He has been careful in studying and thinking about all the possible sources and influences going into the make-up of a genius, including a consideration of social context.

But the book is not just commendable as an objective overview of genius. One of its joys is that Simonton occasionally (perhaps unknowingly) provides some practical wisdom. At one point, Simonton writes, "[g]iven that the solution requires the ability to look at the problem in an original way, the individual must attain a more relaxed state to allow low-probability associations a reasonable chance to emerge." That useful bit of advice made it into my notes. It's not that someone could automatically turn into a genius by following such advice. But if such strategies work for geniuses solving their problems, then the same strategies should also work on other (albeit lower) levels.

I do have a couple of criticisms.

First, the book is highly biased to science--as against the arts. To be sure, Simonton includes much commentary on the arts, and I suppose that he intended the book to be categorically targeted at genius in general, whether in science or the arts. But it's clear that Simonton's own experience and background research is concentrated on science. As an example, even though the book includes some very high praise for Shakespeare (who is my own nomination for unparalleled genius), Simonton relies on indirect evidence for that genius: what others have said about him and how often Shakespeare's work has been adapted by other artists. But Simonton himself seems immune to the magic of Shakespeare. It would guess it unlikely that Simonton ever once read through "Hamlet" and declared "genius!" at the end. At one point, Simonton quotes Darwin: "I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me." Simonton's feelings may not be very different. But perhaps my criticism is unfair. The number of products created by the geniuses of the world is multitudinous, and one researcher could never be expected to be acquainted with them all.

Second, I was never persuaded by the book's central argument: the Darwinism of creative genius. The argument's main point is that a creative genius develops many ideas, selects some, develops those further, and so on in a sort of evolutionary cycle. The idea certainly has some merit, especially in the sciences. But in "Origins of Genius," the idea never seems proved. In fact, in my eyes, Simonton's Darwinism served primarily as a structure to hang the rest of the book on--sort of like a chair on which a sheet is hanging. The proponent proclaims the underlying structure of the sheet to be chair-like; but the suspicion of an observer is that the sheet is only looking like a chair because that is what it is hanging on.

Further, regarding Darwinism, I have personally found many artistic works of genius to have a sort of universal quality: as if the work had existed since eternity and will always exist. The work stands as a universal symbol, whose value lies partly in its presentational whole. The maker did not so much as create the work as he discovered it. Something similar happens in mathematics and the sciences, when the final product is noteworthy for its simplicity. But contrasting with that are evolutionary processes, which can be complicated and messy. Evolution certainly has resulted in the human eyeball--not as some perfect organ, but rather as an adaptive, functional organ. There is something incongruous between messy evolution and perfect creative products. It's not that I think that Darwinism is wrong here--rather that it merely provides one perspective, and a limited one at that.

But my criticisms should not be taken as a recommendation against the book. One of its assets is that it makes you think through your own ideas on genius.

P.S. Simonton has an article in the "Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research." This excellent 20-page article, entitled "Creativity and Genius," is an abbreviated version of some of the ideas in this book.

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Genius: The Natural History of Creativity (Problems in the Behavioural Sciences)

2009-07-01T00:30:00.001-07:00

As no one has reviewed this book, I will do so even though I didn't buy it from Amazon. The book is not the most exciting read ever. It reads very much like a psychology research book. The message behing it all is what's important. Eysenck gives the Minesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventory to creative geniuses and his findings are the following:
1) Geniuses average on the top 15% of the population in all psychopathological scales.
2) Geniuses are always on the top of the Ego Strenght scale.
His argument is that it may be the fact that they believe that they are geniuses that make them so.
It's a good book. I gave it to my brother once as a Christmas present. I'm sure Eysenck would appreciate the extra income.

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Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius

2009-06-30T06:05:00.001-07:00

If every person in the world had a copy of this book, the world will be a much better place. Sounds cliche, but that's the best way to put it.

Whether you're an aspiring scientist waiting to nail that revolutionary invention, a business tycoon contemplating about a new product or an ordinary person looking for more creative ways to do things in the house - this book is for you. It allows you to unlock the hidden human potential for novel ideas.

A lot of things make this an excellent read - it starts by kicking each chapter off with teasers that try to determine how creatively you would respond to a given scenario. Most of the time, you will fail to come up with a good idea. He then proceeds to break down each concept by introducing you to key principles and real-life examples. If you analyze them thoroughly, the concepts presented in the book seem to boil down to timeless proverbs. However, what makes this book so special is in the way it goes on to give you very concise and detailed instructions on how to implement the principles. These are the things that will extract out your creative juices.

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