Where does Inspiration come from?

What I would call insights come from within. But are there mysteries of a more general sort, shared across a Collective Unconscious?

 

“The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it Intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.”

– Albert Einstein

 

“Intuition is perception via the unconscious that brings forth ideas, images, new possibilities and ways out of blocked situations.”

– Carl Jung


We are in some ways multiple people, with more than one mind. Our brains have two hemispheres, and modules in each of those two sides that do different things. One side of our brain is very good at talking, and the other not so much.

 

“When the two brain hemispheres are compared, the right seems particularly important in the visual and performing arts. Numerous studies on normals, neurosurgical patients, and brain-injured people reveal that the right hemisphere is generally dominant for recognizing and identifying natural and nonverbal sounds. It is better at appreciating depth perception; maintaining a sense of body image; producing dreams during REM sleep; and appreciating and expressing the emotion aroused by music and the visual arts. Finally, the right hemisphere is specialized for perceiving emotional expression in others and generating it in oneself.” 

From The Modular Brain, by Richard M Restak, Page 163 

 

“Without this playing with fantasy, no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.”

– Carl Jung



Images are a way to bring your whole self – your more emotional, less verbal aspects, into the discussion you have with yourself on important matters.