| The
last line here is a particular mystery, and commentators tell us that
no sensible, meaningful translation has even been given, one of them describing
it as a "hopelessly corrupt verse”.
The
Creative Mood
When we are deeply engrossed, we sometimes suddenly come back to reality
and think "Oh, I got carried away!", and it is a similar situation
that Solomon is depicting here by the lover coming in his chariot to fetch
the girl, and carry her away so that they can be together, into the altered
state of consciousness known as the creative mood.
One modern translation offers the probably more accurate rendering in
which the girl’s desire magically transports her to bed with her
lover. In either case, what Solomon is describing is the process by which
creative individuals access the “creative mood”, the mental
state in which their work begins to flow – a state attained by quiet
contemplation of creative work in progress, and what has been accomplished
so far, as typified by the girl gazing at the plants as they bud, blossom,
and bloom.
Flow
This would appear to be the mood described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
as: "Flow — the state in which people are so involved in an
activity that nothing else seems to matter, the experience itself is so
enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake
of doing it", and perhaps by actors and others as being “in
the zone”.
How
to Access the Creative Mood
Musicians may find it easier to access the creative mood because of the
emotion of the music they have composed so far as they re-play it, but
even scientists, engineers, and business people also find that there is
a mood appropriate to their projects, one that can bring tears to their
eyes as they contemplate the beauty of the insights so far received and
developed.
Sometimes
Its Takes Time
One top comedy writer and best-selling novelist said in a TV interview
that he has to sit at his word processor for an hour and sometimes two
hours before he gets into the right mood, and his creativity starts to
flow. Similarly, Charles Dickens sometimes sat for hours staring out of
the window, day-dreaming and doodling to get into the right mood, the
mood that Beethoven called his "raptus".
The
Mozart Experience
In a letter to a friend, Mozart gave the following insight into his working
method :"When I am entirely alone and of good cheer — say traveling
in a carriage or walking after a good meal or during the night when I
cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most
abundantly . . . how they come I do not know and I cannot force them."
(Mozart, letter to a friend).
Using
Poetry and Music to Access the Mood
Engineering genius Nikola Tesla, inventor of the alternating current dynamo
and the only scientist ever to refuse a Nobel Prize, had a habit of reciting
poetry by Goethe to help him attain the creative mood.
In his autobiography, Tesla described the creative state as follows: "It
was a mental state of happiness about as complete as I have ever known
in life. Ideas came in an uninterrupted stream and my only difficulty
was to hold them fast. The pieces of apparatus I conceived were to me
absolutely real in every detail, even to the minutest marks and signs
of wear".
Cultivate
the Mood
In “The Courage to Create”, psychologist Rollo May says: "The
artist must cultivate this mood, wait for it, and seek to stimulate it,
sometimes by gazing at their paints or even brushing random patterns on
the canvas . . . sparked by the artist’s encountering the brilliant
colours on the palette or the inviting white roughness of the canvas .
. . It is a waiting for the birthing process to begin to move" (The
Courage to Create).
Portrait painter Emma Sergeant, quoted in a Sunday Times supplement on
creativity, confirms Rollo May’s comment, saying: "Some people
don’t understand it takes hours to get yourself into a trance-like
state where you are producing stuff".
An
Attitude of Prayer
Henri Matisse described the mood as follows: "It’s just that
I put myself in the state of mind of what I’m working on. I don’t
know whether I believe in God or not . . . But the essential thing is
to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer".
The
Atmosphere of the Laboratory
Creativity is of major importance in science, and Madame Curie, who discovered
radium and several other elements, wrote that during that productive period
she and her husband lived in “single preoccupation as if in a dream
. . . peace and meditation, which is the true atmosphere of the laboratory
. . . this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained”.
Nobel
prize biologist Barbara McClintock described here microscope work with
chromosomes as follows: I found the more I worked on them, the bigger
they got . . . I was down there . . . I was part of the system . . . these
were my friends . . . you forget yourself. The main thing is you forget
yourself”.
A
Machine Code Writer
In “The Soul of a New Machine”, computer engineer Carl Alsing
described his experience of the mood as follows: “Writing microcode
is like nothing else in my life. For days there’s nothing coming
out. The empty yellow pad sits in front of me . . . finally it starts
to come. I feel good. That feeds it, and finally I get into a mental state
where I am a microcode writing machine”.
Musical
Moods
Frederic Seaman, in “ John Lennon, Living on Borrowed Time”
describes how John Lennon wrote his songs, saying: "John took great
care in crafting the lyrics . . . He sat at the piano in the living room
before lunch or dinner and played until he sank into a deep, trance-like
state where the missing words just came to him from ‘above’.
He explained that the trick was to allow the mind to go blank."
Richard Wagner described his experience as follows: "In that trance-like
condition, which is the prerequisite of all true creative effort, I feel
that I am one with this vibrating Force , that is omniscient, and that
I can draw upon it to an extent that is limited only by my own capacity
to do so" .
The
Tennyson Technique
Alfred Lord Tennyson, regarded by many as the greatest British poet, learned
at an early age to access a relaxed state by repeating his name over and
over, just as today some people use a mantra — a word or sound repeated
to aid relaxation, coming from a Sanskrit word meaning "instrument
of thought".
Tennyson
described his creative state of mind as “a kind of waking trance
I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood, when I have been all alone”,
a mood in which his individuality “seemed to dissolve and fade away
into boundless being! . . . There is no delusion in this matter! It is
no nebulous ecstasy, but a state of transcendent wonder associated with
absolute clearness of mind.!’ "
In "The Varieties of Religious Experience", psychologist William
James says that Tennyson’s experience is actually very common, but
perhaps not commonly spoken of. It simply means that the mind is capable
of switching off the mundane matters of the day and attaining a natural
relaxed, creative state.
Shakespeare’s
Genius
Perhaps William Shakespeare is describing his own experience in “A
Midsummer Night’s Dream” when he has a character saying: "The
poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to
earth, from earth to heaven; and, as imagination bodies forth the forms
of things unknown, the poet’s pen turns them to shapes, and gives
to airy nothing a local habitation and a name." |