Inspiration – forskellige typer af inspiration

Magnificent inspiration

In the light of the inspirations of the great thinkers and artists, it is clear that my own experience is only a flickering flame. Assagioli says that Mendelssohn began to compose when he was five. Haydn when he was four and Mozart when he was three. At that age the conscious personality is not yet formed, so it cannot under any circumstances be the producer. It must be something greater that almost penetrates the consciousness from within. Mozart’s compositions, for example, entered his consciousness complete, without need for further processing. It was simply a matter of writing down the impression as he perceived it.

The writer George Sand describes Chopin’s creation as “spontaneous, miraculous, he found it without seeking it, without expecting it. It came down completely in a sublime flash.” The great naturalist Buffon said: “It is like receiving a mild electric shock that hits you in the head and in the stomach, as well as taking control of your heart. This is the moment of genius.” The writer Larmartine said: “It is not I who think, but the ideas that think in me.” The chemist Kekule tells how he suddenly saw atoms dancing before his eyes, which made it possible to formulate his atomic group theory while walking around on the top floor of a London bus. The examples of inspiration are numerous and significant.

The source of inspiration

From a mystical perspective, the source of inspiration can come from many inner planes and levels. Transpersonal psychology would simply describe them as contact with transpersonal layers of consciousness. The “higher sources” the more extensive the inspiration will be. It must be clear that the inspiration that led to the formulation of the concepts of “liberty, equality and fraternity”, which have shaped significant parts of Western civilization, comes from higher levels than much so-called artistic inspiration, which has a more limited influence.

The experience of inspiration

What often characterizes both inspiration and other contacts with the transpersonal layers of consciousness is the spontaneous downpour of higher impressions that lead to some form of activity – artistic creativity, scientific discoveries, or impulses for heroic action. The impressions may come down in raw form, processed, or completely finished, as is often the case in the world of music.

It is worth noting that, for example, brilliant artists do not have to be particularly exceptional personalities in ethical and moral terms. What they often express is a form of sublime specialization within a certain area that creates a fantastic ability, but which does not affect the rest of the behavior, which may be quite mediocre. It is of course obvious to include reincarnation and past lives, as the periods in which the specialization in question took place. Although this is outside the scope of psychosynthesis and transpersonal psychology, it is obvious to explore such reflections, because how else do you explain Mozart’s genius at such an early age?

The inspiratory phase

It is rare that inspiration and creative creation work so smoothly as in Mozart’s case. Creativity often has an element of fertilization or conception in the same way as the creation of a physical body. This is followed by a gestation that can be unproblematic or extremely painful for the genius to experience, although this is not necessarily the case. Often the genius believes that he is suffering from a creative block and uses stimulants to push the inspiration through, which is very unfortunate, since in that case he does not get in touch with the higher planes. The final stage is the birth and appearance of the idea, the true inspiration and the product. This phase, like the physical birth, can be an easy or very complicated process. Conception can be triggered by: 1) External physical stimuli, 2) Internal accumulated psychological forces and 3) Internal telepathic impressions from the collective unconscious. These three forms of inspiration are elaborated more clearly in the following:

Inspiration from external physical stimuli

Sometimes the element of conception can be an external influence that suddenly triggers the imagination and evokes deep emotions that enable the superconscious creativity to be initiated. Assagioli says that the author Alessandro Manzoni wrote his ode “The Fifth of May” when the news of Napoleon’s death reached him. This impulse (conception) strongly influenced his psychological life (pregnancy), and led to the inspiration and creation (birth) of his ode.

Assagioli gives another amusing example: The composer Gioacchino Rossini composed some of the most joyful scenes in his opera The Barber of Seville while he was angry. Rossini was known to be extremely lazy, and as a result his productions were always late. In the case of the performance of this opera, he had produced almost nothing when the day for the work to be delivered approached. The producer, knowing that Rossini was both greedy and lazy, locked him in a room and forbade him to receive food until a certain number of pages were finished. As a result, Rossini wrote in his bed, which he often did in a state of anger and agitation, and then threw the finished pages out the window, where scribes awaited their arrival so that they could then be copied.

Inspiration from accumulated psychological forces

Often the triggering impulse is an internal event in connection with a major psychological crisis or internal dynamic state. Because the internal state cannot find external expression, it is sublimated into a creative process of creation. The German poet Heine puts it this way: “I extract my modest songs from my great pain”. The composer Wagner described his Tristan and Isolde as “a monument to my love that never found satisfaction”.

Inspiration from inner telepathic impressions

Several writers have the experience that their creations write themselves. Dickens experienced that Mrs. Camp, reportedly his greatest creation, spoke to him, usually when he was in church and in a voice that was commanding. The French playwright De Curel experienced that his characters came alive in his mind and spoke and moved freely. It was like seeing it in a dream. In this phase he did not create himself but simply recreated what he saw and experienced.