In this video, we're going to talk about

how to become more creative on demand.

We usually think of creativity as this

random flash of inspiration. But if you

work in a creative field, you can't wait

for the inspiration to show up. There

has to be some kind of repeatable

process. So today, we're going to break

down the science behind creativity and

give you a framework you can actually

use when you're feeling stuck. Deep

dives and practical frameworks are the

kinds of things that we love to do on

memberships. And this year for World

Mental Health Day, we're giving this one

away for free. If y'all like it, we've

got many more on our website, so you can

check out the link in the description

below to learn more. Let's get into it.

If Dr. K can't perceive you, are you

real? I don't know, man. I don't know.

So, welcome to another Healthy Gamer GG

stream. My name is Dr. Alo Kenoja. Just

a reminder that nothing we discuss on

stream today is intended to be taken as

medical advice. Everything is for

educational and entertainment purposes

only. If y'all have a medical concern or

question, please go see a licensed

professional. Today we are going to talk

about the science and spirituality,

right? Because I can't just do science

because that's no fun. The science of

creativity. So today's lecture is going

to be I hope very useful. And here's the

reason why we want to be creative,

right? So creativity is like really

important. If you look at something like

if you pull CEOs, there was a poll that

was done I think by IBM. So they asked

something like 300 CEOs from like

Fortune 500 companies or something like

that. you know what do you think is the

most important aspect of being a CEO and

65% of people of CEOs that were pulled

said that creativity and innovation is

like one of the most important things I

don't remember the precise details of

the statistic so we sort of know that

like in the business world right

everyone's talking about like innovation

and even if we look at things like you

know in the artistic world forget about

the business world if if you're an

author or a painter or something like

that creativity becomes incredibly

important there your job is basically to

be creative. But it's not just in those

two realms, right? So if you're looking

at your life and you are stuck in some

way, if we look at the nature of

stuckness, what is that? That means that

you don't know how to solve a particular

problem that you're facing. So

creativity becomes incredibly important

for self-development. Creativity is

crucial. It's crucial to your

professional success. It's crucial

whether you're an artist or a business

person. Crucial to your personal

development. The problem is how do you

be creative?

Right? How do you be creative? Do you

just sit there and you go, "Oh, like

today I'm going to be creative." That

doesn't work. If y'all listen to like

podcasts and stuff related to creative

pursuits or business pursuits, right?

So, one of the biggest challenges is

that people don't know how to turn on

creativity. And if we look at it

historically, there's like, you know, a

group of people like if you look at like

ancient Greece, I think, you know, they

developed this term called genius. And

this idea of genius is that creativity

isn't something that you do that it

infects you. So some outside force comes

into you gives you this spurt of

creativity or this like revelation of

understanding like there's this kind of

aha moment that happens that then leaves

you right so like these people I forget

if it was Rome ancient Rome or ancient

Greece but they sort of like discovered

that or they noticed observed that

creativity is not something that can be

like consistently duplicated and at the

same time there are absolutely

professions where we require consistent

duplication of creativity. So today,

what we're going to do is we're actually

going to teach y'all how to consistently

be creative. We're going to break down

creativity into its components because

this is another great example of there

is a ton of excellent research on

creativity. The problem is that this

research has not like for whatever

reason it's not as sexy as dopamine. So

it hasn't translated into common

awareness. So we can break down

creativity from a neuroscience

perspective. We can look at studies on

you know trials where people will try to

foster creativity. So there's a really

great group of researchers who study

these are psychologists who study

creativity and what they did is develop

a paradigm to enhance creativity in

their students. So we're going to look

at some of these things. We're going to

understand exactly what the components

or not exactly but approximately what

the components of creativity are from a

couple of different angles and then you

can actually like implement very

concrete changes to be consistently more

creative in life. Okay, so that's what

we're going to cover today and I don't

know if this kind of makes sense but

like we know there are things that you

can do because some people out there are

consistently creative, right? So you'll

have people who are like successful

authors and this is the challenge is

that everyone who tries to be an author

struggles with creativity but some

people in their struggles through some

amount of random chance or introspection

or whatever figure out the formula and

the majority of people don't figure out

the formula. So today what we're going

to do is we're going to share that

formula with you so that y'all can

duplicate it. The first thing to

understand is that there are a couple of

different kinds of creativity. If I'm

over here

and I'm faced with an obstacle. Okay, I

don't know what this extra line is. That

is just going to be maybe not the best.

So there are two kinds of creativity.

The first is kind of what we call

convergent thinking which is like how do

I bypass this problem, right? So how do

I kind of go through it? And then

there's something else called divergent

thinking. So if we sort of think about

creativity, there is this problem which

I can kind of directly solve or maybe I

don't need to solve this problem. I can

go around this way and I can end up

doing this. Right? So the first kind of

thing I know this this is going to be

somewhat abstract but we'll get through

this. So what we sort of know is that

like if you're faced with a problem you

can kind of like you know bypass the

problem which involves a creative

solution or you can like solve the

problem. So this is the first big

divergence in creativity. These two

kinds of creativity are different and

we'll teach you how to do both. So what

do we need? What does research tell us

that we need in order to become

creative? So this is what's really

interesting. There are actually like

some studies that show what the

requirements of creativity are. So how

do we foster creativity? So the first

thing is we need an apparatus for

semantic manipulation. So what does this

mean? So if we look at like I want to be

creative, right? I need I want to be

more creative. So if you look at people

who are consistently creative versus

people who are not consistently

creative, one of the biggest differences

is the group that is creative has some

kind of modeling that helps them

understand and sematically break apart

what they're dealing with. So I'll give

you all a couple of examples. Okay? So

let's say you have two authors or forget

about authors, let's talk about

psychotherapy. So in psychotherapy like

there are some people who will have a

problem, right? So they'll have like I'm

lazy. So this is like laziness is a good

example of something that is not like a

semantic apparatus. There's no pieces of

laziness. There's no components of

laziness. There's no like you know I'm

lazy. It's just binary. So how do you

solve that problem? There's no there's

nothing to play around with. There's

nothing to manipulate, right? There's

it's just binary. It's just either

you're lazy or you're not lazy. Now on

the flip side if we understand that

laziness is not like just one thing but

it's made up of lots of components then

we have some kind of model of laziness

right so if we have a model of laziness

then we can say okay like I can adjust

this thing over here laziness is a

combination of motivation it's a

combination of conditioning it's a

combination of emotional activation it's

a combination of like you know

physiologic states so if I start to

understand if I start to develop an

apparatus or a model of what I am

dealing with. It fosters solutions. So

if you look at like you know creative

pursuits if you want to become an author

like sure you can just sit down and

start writing but if you look at like c

certain things like there's this great

uh you know writer's workshop at the

University of Iowa which is pretty

famous. It's like University of Iowa's

creative writing workshop and many of

the very successful authors of our time

people who write films and TV and novels

and things like that they've gone

through that workshop. there's some kind

of methodology and what is that

methodology that methodology is teaching

people a semantic apparatus right so

they say like we'll say like okay if you

want to write a novel I have an idea for

novel great but if you understand

there's character there's plot there's

foreshadowing there's dramatic irony

like all this crap that we learn in

English class that we get bored out of

our brains for once you understand all

of those components it gives your brain

a way to break apart this abstract ract

thing into different pieces. Right? So

if you're like an artist like you're a

painter, there's a concept of shadow and

lighting and there's a concept of

foreground and background. So if we look

at like someone who is an accomplished

at creativity and someone who is not

accomplished at creativity, the first

thing that we will see is that one

person has a sophisticated apparatus or

system of modeling their problem and the

other person does not. So for example I

mean even if we and we we'll get to some

of the neuroscience that becomes

important but I also see this in finance

right so finance is a lot about modeling

because modeling is a way of

manipulating information and breaking

apart information into its component

parts so this is the first requirement

for essentially creative solutions now

this is not the same as like insight and

intuition all that stuff we'll get to

that later but even if we look at this

lecture right what am I doing I'm trying

to say okay there's this aspect of

creativity is not one thing. There are

two different aspects of creativity.

There are different components of it and

how do they all fit together? So, I'm

trying to equip y'all with like a

semantic model for creativity, right?

So, you need some kind of workable

system. That's number one. The second

thing that's kind of related to that is

that if you are trying to solve a

problem, the second thing that we need

is a way to articulate our problems. So,

this becomes really important. So that

kind of goes back to the laziness

example, but we need a way of defining

our problems or challenges. So a couple

years ago, I still sort of do this work

a little bit here or there, but I was

working with an esports team, right? So

if like an esports team is losing, like

what's the solution to that? Winning.

But how do you win? Right? So that's a

creative problem-solving issue. Like how

do you win? In order to understand how

you win, you have to diagnose and be

able to articulate the problem of

losing. Why are you losing? So this is

also something that we spend, you know,

50% of our training as medical doctors

is in diagnosis. And diagnosing a

problem, I say this all the time, you

know, good diagnosis precedes good

treatment. You have to understand what a

problem is in order to fix it. My car

doesn't go from point A to point B.

Well, why is that? Do you have a flat

tire? Is your engine not working? Is

your steering wheel unplugged? Did you

not turn the car on? Right. So, this is

the second thing that we need, and it's

kind of related to a model, but it's not

technically the same. I hope hopefully

this kind of makes sense. I'm going to

just check in with chat. Do you all

understand the difference between these

two things? The two things are related,

but you need a way to articulate your

problems. So, you need language that

captures the sophistication of your

problem. So, I'm lazy, right? And I I

see this a lot. And if you guys, so like

this is the really cool thing about

this. If you look at people who complain

about things on the internet, I have

this problem. What you will almost

always find is a lack of articulation of

a problem, a lack of diagnosing their

problem. They'll say, "Oh, like if you

go to the like the incel crowd, for

example, they'll say like, I can't get

laid." Like what's the problem? They'll

come up with some very very complex

system which is not actually like an

articulation of the problem. They'll

come up with all these hypotheses,

right? Oh, like I can't get laid because

my jaw is too small or this happens or

this happens. And it's not just insults.

I'm not trying to bash them. You can

take a look at anyone who's complaining.

Oh, like why do people always dump me?

Why do I always get ghosted? What you'll

discover is that there is a very, very,

very poor understanding of articulating

what their problem is. And this is why

things like coaching or therapy are

effective. This is why we can help

people because most people look for

solutions, but they don't understand

their problem. And then if you help them

understand their problem, the solution

becomes more emergent kind of on its

own. One of the most common things that

we see in coaching, which really

stresses a lot of the coaches out, is

they'll come in like, you know, week

four, five, six of working with a client

and they're like, "The client has all

these problems, all these problems, all

these problems. I don't know how to fix

this. I don't know how to fix this. I

don't know how to fix this." And we tell

them, "Just keep doing what you're

doing. You'll be surprised." Come week

seven, week eight, week nine, people are

like, "Yeah, I don't know what my

clients are doing. Like things seem to

be getting better." And the coach has a

second crisis of confidence because the

client is getting better, but I didn't

do anything. I'm not fixing any of their

problems. Now, what value do I bring to

the table? So, helping someone

understand their problems will help them

move forward. Hey, if y'all want to

learn a little bit more, by all means,

watch another YouTube video. If you guys

are actually interested in finding the

practical tools to change on your own,

that's where memberships comes in. And

if y'all are interested in getting some

help or achieving a particular milestone

4 weeks, 8 weeks or 12 weeks [music]

from now, check out coaching. So if

y'all are interested, check out the link

in the description below.

And I if you guys want to just pay

attention, right? So look at anywhere

where someone is complaining about a

problem on the internet, what you will

find is a very poor system of diagnosis.

And people think they're diagnosing a

problem, but what they'll what they'll

say is they'll offer hypothesis. That's

not diagnosis. my problem is this

because but they're not really looking

at that more critically. Okay, so the

second thing that we need is the ability

to articulate our problems, right? We

need a way to understand what our

creative blocks are. Now, the third

thing that we're going to talk about are

is broadly speaking inputs. But if I am

trying to be creative, creativity in

some part comes from this apparatus of

me, right? So like it comes out of me in

some way. If I'm trying to be creative,

it sounds so simple, but it's it's

important to understand this. So now if

it's if creativity is coming out of you,

what determines what comes out of you? A

big part of that is what goes in. So one

of my um I I took a a writing class and

I had an amazing teacher many years ago

and one of the things that they told me

is that the solution to writer's block

is to read more. So if we sort of think

about creation, right? If I want to make

a video game, what determines the video

game that I want to make? It's the video

games that I play. If I want to be an

author, what determines what kind of

books I want to write? The books that I

read. So, one of the huge problems that

I see in people who are creatively stuck

is that their inputs are insufficient.

So, the the broad way to think about

this is that, and we'll get into more

detail in neuroscience in a second, but

like if my brain wants to produce a

creative output, it has some it needs to

process some information, right? That

creative idea has to come from somewhere

in our brain. Maybe not, but let's just

assume that for a moment. And so how

does the brain generate ideas? The brain

generates ideas based on like sensory

input and learning and things like that.

So often times what I'll find is that

you know people who are creatively stuck

are not getting the right kind of inputs

and playing a video game can be a

certain amount of input but playing like

you know a particular video game for

10,000 hours is not the same creative

input as like studying different video

games, right? So there's different kinds

of inputs that will lead to other kinds

of outputs. So really good examples of

this are like, you know, if you're if

you're trying to write a book, you can

read books, that's a part of it. But

then if you listen to authors talking

about, you know, their favorite books on

a podcast or you listen to your favorite

authors as they talk on podcasts, there

are different kinds of inputs that are

necessary because our brain needs to

manipulate some information to

creatively produce something. And if you

look at what creativity oftentimes is,

it is a patching together of old ideas

in a new form. Which means that the

value of the product that you put out

depends on the pieces that you're

patching together in a new way. Which

means that if I want to enhance my

creativity, I need to give my brain more

building blocks to reassemble. Does that

make sense? So these are the three basic

things that we need. Okay? We need some

system of modeling. We need some system

of articulating our problems or some

kind of building some way to describe

what the different pieces are and to be

able to rearrange them. And generally

speaking, we need to feed our brain.

There is a diet for creativity and that

is the right kind of inputs. Now let's

talk about neuroscience. Now hold on a

second. People are saying no idea is

original. Hold on. [laughter]

We'll wait till the end of the lecture.

We're not we're not there yet. So now we

talk about neuroscience. Where does

creativity come from in the brain? So

let's look at a couple of basic things.

So now we're going to talk about

neuroscience of creativity. So first

thing is that creativity comes from

everywhere. So what do I mean by this?

So if you look at studies like fMRI

studies, PET scans, even things like

EEG, what we know is that there isn't

like one part of the brain that makes

creativity. That generally speaking, all

parts of the brain are going to be

active. So some studies even say that if

you look at someone who's engaged in a

creative process and someone who is

engaged in a creative process, let's say

this is creative, this is non-creative,

that generally speaking, all of the

brain is working in both situations. So

there is not one circuit of creativity.

Now that being said, there are

differences between there are

differential levels of activity. So on

the one hand we need our whole brain for

creativity and on the other hand we have

evidence that optimizing some parts of

our brain will lead to better

creativity. So I'll give you all an

example. There's a really interesting

study that looked at brains of creative

versus non-creative people. So there are

ways to assess that. There's like a

creativity questionnaire for example.

And this study is something where they

say okay how many words can you think of

that start with the letters F A and S?

And what they found is that creative

people when they asked them this task,

how many words can you think of that

start with the letters F, A, and S,

non-creative people have more activity

in the left hemisphere and creative

people have more activity in the right

hemisphere. So the higher your

creativity is, they saw more activity on

the right side. So let's talk about this

for a second. See, when you're faced

with a problem, the left hemisphere is

focused on language broadly and the

right hemisphere is more emotional and

also more creative. So there are

different ways at arriving at this

solution. So your brain can activate in

different ways. So the people who are

going through in the left hemisphere are

trying to solve the task. They're trying

to execute the action. They're not being

creative. They're just running through

all the words that they know, right?

It's like running an algorithm. And the

people who are more creative, they're

using a different part of their brain. I

don't know exactly how, but we know that

there's some kind of difference between

left hemisphere and right hemisphere

when it comes to creativity. So this is

just a piece of data that I'm sharing

with you. Now this isn't very

functionally useful yet. We'll get to

that in a second. So now we're going to

move on. So these are kind of the two

general principles which we sort of know

about creativity. The first is that

every part of the brain is involved. And

the second is that the right hemisphere

does seem to be associated with

creativity. And what I mean by that is

that if you're faced with a task, you

can solve that task in a deliberate

noncreative way or you can try to come

up with a new solution, a different way

of thinking about it, and that's what we

call creativity. Now, the third thing

that we're going to talk about is the

most important part of the brain for

creativity. Can anyone guess what it is?

Yeah, man. Damn, dude. You guys are

good. Frontal loes. [laughter]

Okay, so frontal loes are indeed the

most important part for creativity.

Let's understand why. So frontal loes

are by the way like so first thing is

our frontal loes is what makes us human.

So if we look at like you know does a

squirrel create art maybe maybe there's

something I mean there are animals that

make art of forms right? So they're

they're animals that will make nests to

attract mates right so there's an

artistic quality even in animals but if

we look at what separates which part of

our brain as humans is the most

different from other animals it's the

frontal loes. And what we're going to do

is we're going to go through four

different cognitive abilities that come

from the frontal loes that if you

practice these cognitive abilities, your

capacity to be creative will be

objectively increased. So let's start

with the first thing

task switching and cognitive

flexibility. This is why I love being a

psychiatrist. So when patients have

schizophrenia or sometimes you see this

in in people on the autism spectrum or

in some cases of dementia, they can have

this problem called peververation. So, a

good example of let me see if I can show

y'all. Okay, so here is a copy of

something called the mocha. So, this is

the Montreal cognitive assessment. It's

a test that we use in psychiatry to

assess someone's capacity for cognition.

And if I have a patient, so this is a

visual spatial test where I explain the

rules are you're going to move from one

number to the next letter to the next

number to the next letter. So, what do

you all think? So, one goes to a and a

goes to two. What is the next thing in

the sequence? Can y'all guess what the

next thing in the sequence is? B. Very

good. And what comes next? What comes

after B? Three. Very good. Right. So

some people are saying C. Three. Right.

And what comes after three? C. Very

good. Okay. This is a cognitive test

that we do. Right. So one goes to A,

then we go two, then we go B, then we go

three, then we go C. So if you take

someone who has dementia or

schizophrenia, what they will do is

this. They'll go like that. or they'll

go one into a into two into three into

four into five. So this is called

proveration. So proveration is when we

get stuck in a particular mode of

thought and we just move down this one

track. So I I don't know if this kind of

makes sense but like in order to do this

properly does this kind of make sense?

Like this is like cognitively a little

bit intense. Like it's not super hard

but you have to think about it. Does

that kind of make sense? It's not

automatic. It's like okay like what

comes is it two? Is it three? It's not

necessarily very hard but it like it's

not automatic. So your brain has to like

generate a pattern and try to figure

things out. So in proveration we

basically will be like stuck in one mode

of thinking. So sometimes you know when

I when I work with people who have

schizophrenia they will proceverate a

lot or even in cases of like mania with

psychosis they are stuck on one thought.

The FBI is chasing me. The FBI is

chasing me. The FBI is chasing me. The

FBI is chasing me. They literally cannot

be cognitively flexible. So if we look

at what is creativity, creativity is

operating in a new way, right? So if if

I have a problem and I try to fix that

problem in one way, let's say that

people don't like me. So what I'm going

to do is buy them things because friends

buy gifts. So I'm going to start buying

people things. And I buy a lot of people

a lot of things. I buy them multiple

things. I buy them things every week. I

get them gifts for Valentine's Day, for

my birthday. For my birthday, I get them

a gift. For their birthday, I get them a

gift. I just buy them things, buy them

things, buy them things, buy them

things. And what you will discover is

that if you are stuck in a particular

mode of action, it doesn't work. So what

do you need to do to be able to make

friends? You need to change your way of

thinking. You need cognitive

flexibility. That's what a creative

solution is. It's a new way of

approaching an old problem. Cognitive

flexibility comes from the frontal loes.

Is also the only thing that is

associated with rank in League of

Legends. So that's really cool. I don't

know if you guys remember the study that

I showed many years ago, but you know

there's a great study that shows that

your rank in video games is dependent on

one cognitive variable and that is your

cognitive flexibility. So when I get

hard stuck at bronze, am I able to

change my way of thinking so that I can

rise to silver and then I have to change

my way of thinking to rise to gold. And

what you will find once again you it's

beautiful how how you can see this on

the internet if you look at people who

are complaining of being hard stuck at a

particular rank. What you will find is

that they're not cognitively flexible at

all. They are quite perverative in their

thinking. That doesn't work. This

doesn't work. This is OP. This is not

OP. Is this what happens? It's forced

50% win rate. They cannot change their

way of thinking. So cognitive

flexibility is incredibly important. How

do we increase our cognitive

flexibility? There are lots of things

that we'll get to it later, but one of

the key things, one of the simplest ways

to increase our cognitive flexibility is

something called task switching. So, if

you all have talked to people who are

authors or listen to authors, what

they'll say is you should write a rough

draft. You know, write a whole rough

draft and then Stephen King says this.

So, he says stick it in a drawer for 6

months. Don't even think about it. Don't

look at it. Don't edit it. Don't do

anything. Leave it alone. And what we

find is when you come back to it, you

approach it with fresh eyes. You were

able to see it in a new way. So one of

the things that we know there's studies

from like business and things like that

on task switching. And so one of the

things that enhances creativity is if

you do a task you move to something else

and then you come back to it. Something

about that process refreshes your mode

of thinking, right? So you're not when

you're in a problem. I don't know if

this kind of makes sense, but like even

if you look at video games, right? So if

I'm in a video game and I'm losing a

match, it's hard for me to see the

solution in the match. If I come back 2

days later and I watch the replay, it's

like, "Holy crap, why did I keep doing

this? This was idiotic." So task

switching, moving, literally just moving

away from the task for some amount of

time and then coming back to the task

will enhance your creativity. That is

the simplest way to increase cognitive

flexibility. Simplest because it's like

effortless like you don't have to try

hard to do it. You just come back to the

problem later. Second thing that we're

going to talk about working memory. So

what does this mean? If we look at

another aspect of creativity, right? So,

if I want to create something, let's say

I want to make a work of art and I'm

making the work of art. I saw a really

great example of someone who's like

splattering paint and made a thing of

New York City on on some short form

content recently. You have to be able to

in your mind hold something in there,

right? So, you have to be able to

visualize this thing over here, this

thing over here, this thing over here,

this thing over here, how these things

fit together. And so your working memory

becomes really important because it's

like how much can you hold in your mind

in terms of the creative solution. So as

we enhance so you can think about

working memory is the RAM of our brain.

So as working memory goes up then our

creativity will increase. So there are a

couple of things that we can do to

enhance working memory. The first is

that we can use external tools. An

example of something that JK Rowling did

when she was writing Harry Potter,

right? Right. I know JK Rowling is still

don't like her because of her views on

trans or whatever. I'm not talking about

that. So what we kind of see is that

like she used this tool of you know the

plot. So the title of her chapter I

think this is when she was writing it.

What's happening in the plot? What is

happening in the prophecy? What is

happening in the hall of prophecy? What

the DA is doing? What's happening over

here? What Hagrid is doing. So we use an

external tool to enhance our working

memory. So I use this. Okay. So in order

to put together the lecture I need some

I can externalize because I can't hold

everything in my head. So what I can do

is use some kind of external tool to put

some things over there and then my

working memory gets enhanced. The second

big enhancer of working memory is

actually cleansing debuff from our

working memory. So if my brain only has

so much working memory depending on what

is weighing me down. If I'm stressed

about my relationship, if I'm worried

about paying my bills, I don't know if

this kind of makes sense, but like my

brain only occupies can have only so

much stuff going on. So, if there is a

part of my brain that is subconsciously

worried about this or worried about this

or worried about this, then it becomes

very hard for me to be creative. Now,

there are some caveats to that. There's

some situations, we'll get to that in a

little bit. There are some situations

where an immense amount of stress will

foster a creative solution. But

generally speaking, if we're talking

about it from a working memory

standpoint, if you are worried about

other crap, it is going to be very hard

to be creative because the amount of

things that your your brain can hold is

reduced. So I'll give you all a simple

example of working memory. So I have two

hands. So if I'm like if I'm trying to

draw but I'm holding all these things in

my hands. I'm worried about my job and

I'm worried about my relationship and I

have I have to pick up this stuff from

the grocery store. It's hard for me to

draw if my hands are full. So, when you

have lots of problems that you're

worried about, your brain is full of

those problems. It doesn't have hands to

be able to build things and do the work

that it needs to do. So, we need to

support our working memory by using the

right external tools. That's somewhat of

an individual process. You have to

figure out what works for you. And you

need to unbburden your mind. And if your

mind is unburdened then it's resources

are free for creative work. Next thing

okay so there's working memory. Okay.

Third thing that we're going to talk

about is sustained attention. So there's

a difference between creative impulses

and creative expression. And if you want

to creatively express, right? If you

want to succeed at making something then

you need to be able to sustain your

attention on a problem for an extended

period of time. So if we think about an

artist who makes a work of art, their

attention is focused on that work of art

for an extended period of time. An

author who is is working on something is

focused on it for an extended period of

time. And if we look at people who you

know have created something versus

people who have ideas, what's the

difference? It is the capacity to

sustain your attention. This is the most

important thing. Right? So when we talk

about this in Dr. case guide. For

example, discipline is the ability to

hold a thought in your head for an

extended period of time. So today I I

want to go to the gym. I think about

going to the gym. The next day I don't

think about going to the gym. The next

day I think about going to the gym. The

next day I don't think about going to

the gym. Or the thought pops up in my

mind, but what do I do with that

thought? I push it away. Or my thought

shifts to social media. My thought

shifts to video games. So as you

increase your capacity to sustain your

attention on one thing I'm going to

write. So if you guys have tried to

create a process, you kind of know what

this is like, right? So in my case,

let's use the example of writing. So

when I sit down to write a lecture, I

start to write a lecture for 5 minutes,

10 minutes, it starts to become hard.

And when it becomes hard, my mind starts

to wander. If I alt tab, if I open up

Reddit, if I load up a video game, then

my I can't sustain my attention on this

thing. And then I'm done. and I lose. I

did 10 minutes of work and then 3 hours

of playing pubs. GG, get wrecked. So, I

need to be able to sustain my attention

on a project that is required for

creative expression. This is why a lot

of people have ideas and never do

anything with them because they can't

sustain their attention. You think about

it when it's interesting to you and the

moment that it stops being interesting

to you or the moment that it becomes

hard for you to implement, your

attention wanders to somewhere else. So

if you can stare at a blank page until

you start writing and if that staring

involves eight hours you will be

creative. This is why we also get and

this is what I think is so cool is if we

look at a lot of creative advice what we

find is that people who offer creative

advice have figured out these

neuroscientific principles. This is why

people will do things like create a

habit around their work ethic. So this

is how you create you improve your

sustained attention. Right? So people

will say like if your job is to be an

author, you should like get dressed for

work. You sit down at your at your work

desk, you get dressed for work, you

create some form of habit. What is the

purpose of creating a habit? A habit

facilitates sustained attention. We use

this all the time as well in terms of

like you know being a medical doctor. If

people have insomnia, one of the first

things that we tell them is don't do

anything in your bed except for sleep or

have sex. Don't read in bed. Don't watch

stuff. Don't bring your tablet to bed.

Don't bring your laptop to bed. Don't

work in bed. Just do this thing in bed.

So, one very good way to build sustained

attention or support your sustained

attention is to have a place that your

brain automatically associates with a

task. I'm going to sit down at my laptop

and I'm going to stare at this blank

page until I've written for 1 hour or

600 words, whatever the whatever you

want to do. Second thing that you can do

to improve sustained attention is

meditate. By the way, meditation helps

for all this crap and we'll get to the

spiritual stuff later. So you have to be

able to focus to be able to hold all the

pieces in your mind for whatever you're

working on. Next thing that we're going

to talk about is another aspect of the

frontal loes which is the judgment of

propriety. So your frontal loes are what

give us context dependent motivation. So

my favorite example of this is picking

your nose. A lot of people pick their

noses. Very few of them do it in public.

So if you think about which part of your

brain tells you that it is okay to do

something in one situation and not okay

to do it in another situation, that part

of your brain is your frontal lobe,

right? That's what your frontal loes do.

They tell you if you're at home alone,

baby, go for it. excavate that

you know? Go to town, right? And

we're we're by the way, we're supposed

to pick our noses from an evolutionary

standpoint. There are hygiene problems

with it. Sure. But there's a reason why

I've never met a human being whose

finger does not fit in their nose. Never

met a human being. It's biologically

designed that way. We're supposed to I

mean, that's why you have these little

nails. It's good for scraping that crap

out, right? The dried stuff. It's really

important. There's hygienic problems

with it, right? So, you can transmit

infections and things like that. So, I I

think you should, you know, you can

clean out your nose and then wash your

hands. That's good. Or use a tissue,

handkerchief, whatever. So, why does

this become important for creativity?

So, if I'm like working on a creative

project, does this belong here? Right?

Am I going to take the Netflix approach?

I'm going to make a show about a

government conspiracy. And then what I'm

going to do is sprinkle in a lesbian sex

scene at a random time. The

appropriateness of something in a

creative process. What goes where? Where

this is becomes critical. You know, do

we want to inject the sex scene here or

do we want to inject the sex scene here?

Is this the part where the character has

their coming of age conflict or does the

coming of age conflict happen later?

What goes where? If I'm making a

painting, is this is this tree in this

spot okay or not okay? Right? And this

also happens in places like product

development. So [clears throat] in

product development, okay, like how many

people should we have in this

advertisement? Should we have four

people or three people? Is this too many

people in the advertisement or too few

people in the advertisement? Should we

use these colors or those colors? See,

deciding what is appropriate is critical

for creative expression. And that part

comes from your frontal loes. Whether

something fits is proper. So, if you

look at something like the Mona Lisa, I

don't see what the big deal is

personally, but that's neither here nor

there. But a bunch of people are like,

"Oh my god, it's perfect. That slight

smile." Right? So, Da Vinci is

sitting there and he's like, "I need

like a 2.5% smile, not a 5% smile, not a

1% smile, not a 0% smile. I need this

particular thing." And you can hear it

in music, too. Like, when does the bass

drop, right? I love this song by the

Lonely Island. I don't know if you'all

have heard this song. Have you all heard

the song about when does the B like

there's something about a bass dropping

in Lonely Island? Well, the bass never

drops, right? They just they just keep

on like the bass never drops. When is

the bass supposed to drop? And it's

beautiful, right? So, if you look at

like if you listen to music, it's like

the artist is like, how far can I push

the bass before it drops? And if I push

it the right amount, then it's going to

be satisfying. If I can make it a little

bit more tense, then it'll be more

satisfying. But if I wait too long, it's

like it's not it's like too long and it

ruins the music. So if you guys want to

know like if like the best test of

understanding, you know, the

appropriateness of something, right?

This is what this is what the frontal

loes do. They context dependent

motivation. What's okay and what's not

okay. Listen to that song and you'll

hate it. You'll hate it. It's so

unsatisfying. And the beautiful thing is

that the people who designed that song,

they figured out how to piss you off the

best. It's creatively brilliant. So you

must support this part of your brain.

Frontal loes are key. Okay. And these

are the components of it, right? So like

is this appropriate or not appropriate?

A great question to ask. Now next thing

that we're going to talk about is the

subconscious or unconscious. So this is

another huge part of creativity. We're

not going to go into too much detail

here. So there's another there's a

there's a bunch of research about

incubation. So you know Stephen King

sort of alludes to this, right? He says

when you stick it in a drawer, come back

in 6 months. So this is the cool thing.

Our brain does a lot of work for us. It

does processing unconsciously,

subconsciously. This is why we also talk

about inputs because we've already sort

of given y'all like the how to utilize

this, right? So, when I say inputs are

critical for creativity, why? Because we

need to feed our subconscious. And the

subconscious will put things together.

It's running all these calculations all

the time. And if you want to be

creative, you must give your

subconscious time to act because it's

going to put together all kinds of

combinations, permutations, things like

that. And then it will float things to

your consciousness. So what does this

mean? Give it time to act. So recognize

that creativity requires an incubation

period. And even if we look at like what

do we call these startup hubs in places

like universities, right? So I was lucky

enough to do some work at the MIT

incubator, the BEu incubator. Healthy

gamer, by the way, was like the Boston

University incubator was critical for a

healthy gamer. I don't know about

critical, but it was helpful, let's say.

Right? So we know that like this

creative work requires incubation. So

you need to give your unconscious time

to work. How do we do that? So we've

already said you need inputs, right? So

if you want to make a story or make a a

work of art, you need intentional

inputs. Just feed it. play this game,

play this game, listen to this lecture

on video game development. It's not just

doing the same thing. It's not one input

a thousand times. It is multiple inputs.

That's number one. Second thing is you

need time for incubation, right? So what

like if we look at incubation like the

technical definition of it, what is it?

It's substrate and time. Those are the

two things that are required for

incubation. Now time is kind of an

interesting component because this is

where there's some practical stuff we're

going to leave. Now we have to

extrapolate from science. So this is

where I think it's like so Stephen King

says leave it in a drawer for 6 months.

What I say is that you need time for

processing. So when I read something I

will then go for a walk. This kind of

also comes back to working memory where

incubation requires empty working

memory. So if I'm stressed about a

problem I can't incubate. We need our

brain to run on idle for subconscious

work. So this is why a lot of

subconscious processing happens while we

sleep. And we know this. There's studies

that show that short-term memory is

consolidated to long-term memory while

we sleep. That's where things get laid

down, processed, connected. So, give

yourself, if you're trying to be

creative, you need to give yourself time

for incubation. You absolutely need good

sleep. Critical. Give yourself time. Go

for a walk. Spend time with yourself.

This is why often times, you know,

you'll have people like, you know, the

dude who wrote uh who was it? Uh guy who

wrote Walden, was it Frost? I forget.

Thorough. Thank you. Frost is poetry. So

like thorough like had to go out into

the woods and like think about you know

whatever the Thank you chat.

Right. So you need time for incubation.

You need time for subconscious

processing. Now the the challenge here

is that we can facilitate it but we

don't really know how the subconscious

works. We don't really know how the

processing works. It kind of happens on

its own. We just know that you need the

input. You need the substrate and you

need the time. And if you give it those

two things that's important, right?

That'll be sufficient. I think I'm sure

there are ways to optimize that process.

I was not able to find a very clear idea

of how to do that except for

spirituality which we'll talk about at

the end. Another thing just to give you

all a quick tidbit. So there have been

studies that show that mind wandering is

conducive to creativity, right? So like

when people like when their mind wanders

like if I'm working on a project and my

mind wanders, it somehow helps me solve

the problem. Like I there's just studies

that show that. So that probably has

some amount of cognitive flexibility,

right? We're task switching some. So

there's some of that component, but I

think mind wandering has something to do

with subconscious processing as well.

Now, we don't want to wander too much,

right? So we we don't want to wander and

never come back to the point. We want to

wander and then we want to come back. So

it's probably something about around

cognitive flexibility, but that seems to

be important for subconscious

processing. So if you get distracted

during creative work, that's okay. You

just need to come back to it. So periods

of breaks and periods of sustained

attention, that's probably what the

formula looks like. Next thing we're

going to talk about, now we're going to

get a little bit technical again. Okay.

Next thing we're going to do is if we

look at creativity, some studies on

neuroscience have basically said that

there are four neural networks that

result in creativity. And there are

these four networks are combinations of

two variables. There's the deliberate

and the spontaneous variable and the

cognitive and the emotional variable. So

what we're going to do is give y'all

examples of what these kinds of

creativity are. These are different

kinds of creativity. Okay. So let's

start with the first one which is

cognitive and deliberate. So sometimes

when we're approaching a problem we can

be deliberate like what is you know if y

= mx + b what is the slope given 4 = I

don't know 2 + 0 right like what is the

slope in this equation? So I'm using my

cognitive technique and I'm being

deliberate. This is basically linear

problem solving. Now what is an example

of deliberate emotional creativity?

Psychotherapy is a great example of

this. So, we're gonna show up one hour a

week and we're going to focus on your

emotions to try to have some kind of

breakthrough, right? And over here, we

want a solution or an answer. How do I

solve this problem? These are both

deliberate modes of acting. And we can

do a deliberate cognitive act and we can

do a deliberate emotional act. Emotional

processing, trauma processing,

psychotherapy, great great examples of

deliberate emotional work. Sometimes

we'll also do deliberate emotional work

in places like retreats, right? So if

you have like a writer's retreat or an

artist's retreat, that can be deliberate

emotional work. Next thing now, now

comes the the stuff that we think of as

creativity. So when we think about

creativity, we usually think about

spontaneous stuff. So this is my

favorite. Hit by a ton of bricks. This

is spontaneous cognitive. So it's like

when you do this, oh my god, I cannot

believe that I forgot. That's what it

is. I never realized. Holy crap, this

guy was a spy all along. Holy crap.

Spontaneous cognitive. It is an aha

moment. The experience is you get hit by

a ton of bricks. And then we have

spontaneous emotional. So this is

usually like inspired art. So I think um

if you guys have ever read Kubla, I

forget who the author is. I think this

is the one, right? So in Xanadu did

Kubla Khan go down to a sunless sea or

something like that. But sometimes we'll

have this nonsensical

spontaneous revelation. And these

particular researchers on creativity

call that spontaneous and emotional.

Okay. So there are four kinds of

networks that involve creativity. There

is the cognitive domain, the emotional

domain, the deliberate domain and the

spontaneous domain. And if we sort of

think about problem solving or not not

if we think about creativity that means

different things depending on each of

those domains. Okay. So like if I'm

trying to be creative, I can do that in

terms of problem solving. I can have a

deliberate cognitive process where I try

to arrive at a solution. I can have a

deliberate emotional process where I

have a breakthrough. I can have a

spontaneous cognitive experience of

creativity where I'm like, "Oh my god."

That usually comes after subconscious

processing or I can have an emotional

and spontaneous process. And so if

you're trying to be creative, I think

it's helpful to think about these

dimensions, right? Which kind of

creativity do I need? The good news is

that the stuff that we've talked about

will facilitate all of these. So if you

have enough inputs, you can be a good

deliberate problem solver. If you have a

good system of semantics, if you have a

good model and then you stew on it for a

while, if you read enough poetry and you

go on enough walks, you'll wake up one

day and so you'll be inspired to write

something. So this is just another

framework to kind of look at, share with

y'all. The next dimension we need to

talk about. This is really important. So

this is where a lot of creativity

becomes difficult. So why is it hard to

be let's say an artist? So this is where

you can have the creative impulse,

right? So I can have a great idea for a

video game. But what is the difference

between a great idea for a video game

and making a video game? There is a

system of expression that the brain

requires a high level of skill to take

an idea and make it a reality. This is

where a lot of people fall short. If I

want to write a novel, I need to be a

good author. I need to understand word

smithing. If I want to be a painter, I

need some amount of technical skill.

Even in terms of entrepreneurship, if I

have an idea for a business, turning

that idea into a reality requires a very

practical skill. So if you want to be

creative, you have to level up your

expressive capability, right? So you

have this idea over here and then your

brain has to translate that idea, that

creative impulse into something in the

real world. And so the more that you

level up that skill, the better you will

be at being creative. This is the hard

work of creativity. This is not

neuroscience or you know habit or

anything like that. This is just the

nuts and bolts of you have to learn how

to code if you want to make a video

game. The better you get at coding the

better your video game will be. The

better you get at being an art like you

know painting the better your art will

be. The more of a wordssmith you become

the better of a novelist you will be.

So, if you want to be creative, I would

strongly recommend you focus on these

skills in a very, very concrete way. And

generally speaking, I think like Malcolm

Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule is like a

good start. So 10,000 hours is like a

good ballpark. I know there's lots of

criticism against it and things like

that, but if you look at something like

residency, residency is 10,000 hours.

Usually, it's like 60 to 80 hours a week

for 4 years. So residency for

psychiatrists is about 13,000 hours

ballpark, right? So most residencies are

in that ballpark as I mean, some some

are way longer. Like surgery is like 5

years, internal medicine is three,

pediatrics is three, but it's somewhere

around the 10,000 hour mark or more, 15.

So that's where like if you all want to

be creative, you have to grind. Like

there's no way around it. And to

understand why you need to grind, it's

not enough to have an idea. Your brain

literally needs the capacity to

translate that idea into a reality.

Okay, let's try to summarize. Is chat

GPT a threat to creativity? I think it

can be. We'll talk about that in the the

Q&A. It's a good question. So now let's

understand creativity from a spiritual

perspective. Right? So that there's this

concept of genius which is not that it's

not coming from you. So if we look at

this dimension of spontaneous creativity

whether cognitive or emotional it is not

a deliberate process. You can't do it

right. You can't sit down and say boom

I'm going to have a revelation today.

Can't do that. The revelation is

something that happens to you. Now there

are different theories around this. We

presented a neuroscience perspective. I

think that that is somewhat true. But

the neuroscience perspective doesn't

explain where the spontaneity comes

from. It just categorizes that there is

some spontaneous thing. It can be

cognitive or it can be emotional. So now

we go off the rails. So I think that

this observation that humans had a

couple thousand years ago that genius is

something that happens to you has a

[clears throat] lot of utility. So I

once had a a professor who I took a

great class and the class was on

basically a review of Nobel Prizewinning

experiments in physiology and biology.

So all we did in the class every week we

looked at one experiment that won

someone a Nobel Prize. Great class. And

the big takeaway from the class is that

true creativity is not creating

something. It is seeing things as they

truly are. So if you want to win a Nobel

Prize in biology or potentially physics

or any scientific discipline, all you

need to do is see the world the way it

is instead of seeing the way seeing the

world the way that people think it is.

So creativity comes from a removal of

conditioning. Creativity comes from

unfiltered perception. And the more we

remove our mental conditioning, the more

creative we will become. Right? So if we

sort of think about it is easier to

plagiarize. It is easier to copy someone

else's story than it is to make your

own. So making your own story means to a

certain degree removing all of the

conditioning that you have. And if we

think about creativity also from the

perspective, let's forget about art for

a second. Let's talk about problem

solving. So when I work with people who

are for example thinking about going

through divorce, like patients of mine

who are like I'm thinking about getting

a divorce. I think my partner has been

unfaithful or my partner has been

unfaithful. When I talk to them, what I

tend to see is that there were lots of

signals that things are moving in the

wrong direction. But because of their

conditioning, they were not able to see

those signals. Their prior cognitive

biases influenced the data that they

were receiving instead of letting the

data shape their thinking. This is what

happens in science. This is why not

everyone wins a Nobel Prize because most

scientists are standing on the shoulders

of giants. They're operating from the

conditioning of all of the past instead

of being able to see things on their

own. So now we get to yoga. So if you

want to be creative, remove kishta.

Kishta means coloring. There's a whole

lecture on it in the membership side. So

you guys should watch that lecture comes

critical here. So if you want to make

something new, see the whole world is

new all the time. There's a new state of

being in the world. State of being that

has never existed before. The problem is

that we keep on carrying the old

forward. I have emotional baggage. This

makes it hard for me to exist in a

relationship today. It's hard for me to

forgive. I hold on to resentment. Right?

So, it's it's this coloring that we

bring with us that makes it hard for us

to see things as they are. And when we

see things as they are, then creativity

will flow. So, we should remove our

conditioning. We've given you all a set

of, you know, we've talked a lot about

glitch this. I'll refer you all to that

lecture. There's a whole lecture on it,

right? But if you want to from a more

practical sense, you know, look at

something with fresh eyes, then you'll

be able to see it for what it is. Even

if you're thinking about going back to

Stephen King's analogy of like sticking

something in a drawer for 6 months and

then approach it with fresh eyes, what

are you doing? You're removing the

conditioning of the creative process.

You're approaching it fresh. And the

more freshly you approach things, the

more creative you will be. Because

remember, what is creativity from a

problem solving perspective? It is a new

way of looking at things. It is

cognitive flexibility. Conditioning and

cognitive flexibility are opposites. So

klishta and reducing our klishta being

able to purify our perception without

association will give us the greatest

amount of cognitive flexibility. So

y'all may have experienced this when

people make a judgment about you and

then even if you change it's so

frustrating. So when I work with

patients who struggle with addiction,

right? So, they've been judged as

addicts and then they start to get sober

and then I forget to pick you up from

the airport and immediately the first

thing that happens is you say, "Oh, you

you're drinking again, aren't

you?" You get judged based on all of

these past actions, which in a sense is

fair. Let's be honest, right? It's not

crazy for them to think that, but it can

feel really hard. This person isn't able

to see you in your current form. They

are only able to see you in your past

form, and it hurts a lot. On the flip

side, what is what's the awesome way to

deal with it? It's to be able to see

people as they are. Okay, you've been an

addict in the past. You're still an

alcoholic, whatever, but you're sober

now and I can acknowledge I can see you

for what you are today. So, cognitive

flex removal of glisha is the fastest

way to increase cognitive flexibility

because then you are approaching each

moment as brand new, bringing nothing

from the past. Now, people may like say

like but you know, I'm not saying being

ignorant. I'm saying perceiving. This is

not about knowledge that is not at your

fingertips. It is about perceiving each

situation precisely the way that it is.

And if we think about creative problem

solving, what's the problem? The problem

is we are not able to see the situation

as it is. We are seeing a biased version

of the situation based on our own

gishas. Gisha means coloring. It means

what we add to something. So if I have a

history of my parents were abusive and

when they felt guilty they gave me gifts

and I'm dating someone and they give me

a gift. This could set off alarm bells

in my mind. Gifts are dangerous. This is

klisha. It is what I am adding to the

equation. And when people have a lot of

klisha it's very hard to deal with them

because they constantly project onto

you. You're not doing anything wrong but

they're projecting. I see all this stuff

like all the time. Dating is such a mess

because of unfiltered gisha. Everyone is

projecting so much crap onto you that

it's impossible to like have a

conversation with a human being where

you get judged for being you. They're

like, "Oh, you didn't message me in the

morning. That means that you're going to

ghost me later." They like make all

these associations which aren't fair. If

you're trying to solve a problem, remove

all your conditioning and look at it

with fresh eyes. Now, last thing that

we're going to talk about is where does

creativity truly come from? I'm talking

about the spontaneous creativity. So I

think it is at minimum a useful model

and at best true to think of creativity

as divine inspiration or maybe

transcendental let's say inspiration

transcendental or divine you can take

your pick but the key thing is that

there is something beyond the normal

system of human from which the brightest

creativity arises now I've given y'all

if you guys don't like that idea totally

fine that's what the rest of the lecture

is about right so I've hopefully made a

very convincing case that what I'm about

to say now could be completely false

which is the point and just because I

made a convincing case that what I'm

about to say is maybe false doesn't mean

that what I'm about to say is false

there's just a limit to our

understanding of creativity and I think

it's functionally useful to think about

inspiration as coming beyond us if it's

useful for you so if we sort of think

about this aha moment and we think about

this concept of genius the key thing

here is that you can't create it it is

separate even the neuroscientists agree

There's deliberate creativity and

there's spontaneous creativity. These

two things are fundamentally different.

So it can be maybe evoked, maybe caught,

but it can't be created. There is a form

of deliberate creativity, but this is a

different ballgame. It's

phenomenologically different, apples and

oranges. So I tend to hold to the

metaphysical worldview that there is a

cosmic consciousness that is all

knowing. It's not really the right word,

but best way to describe it. So all

knowledge comes from there. And as you

tap into that thing, the amount of like

your subjective experience of knowledge

will increase. So you all can check out

Dr. K's guide and like look at Vidya

versus Neon. Like I've talked about this

in other places. I think I talked about

there's a membership lecture about this

too. So you guys can look at that kind

of stuff where I lay out the arguments

in a you know more complete way. But

there's a couple of key pieces which

I'll share right now. The first is that

anytime you know something, so if I'm

reading a book and I read let's say like

an algebra textbook, I don't understand

the algebra, I don't understand the

algebra. Third time I read it, something

clicks within me. All knowing is

clicking. If you pay attention to

yourself, you will never learn something

that is not clicking. There's a click.

Prior to the click, you didn't know it.

Post click, you do know it. And even if

you forget something, it's really

fascinating. You can pay attention to

your internal state. When you forget

something and then you relearn it,

there's a click again. That's the

subjective experience of it in in my

experience. Something clicks and then

you know it. So that click is a

connection is a conduit to Brahman. And

so these creative inspiration, so

artists do this, right? They they go

looking for it. They're like, I hope it

happens. I hope it happens. I hope it

happens. And that's why a lot of artists

will use drugs. So now I'm going to make

an argument against the Brahman. But

it's sort of like this is a level of

cognitive flexibility. So if we use

drugs, right, if we get high or drink or

use psychedelics and then we try to do

some kind of creative process, it's

because our brain is forming connections

in a new way. So it's making some kind

of cognitive flexibility, but they're

chasing that transcendental something.

So in my experience, the more that we

connect to whatever that is, now that

doesn't mean it's real. This could be an

analog, and I know I'm getting a bit

philosophical. This this could just be a

subjective experience of something

that's going on entirely in our brain.

No Brahman exists, no cosmic

consciousness exists. The methodologies

are the same. I happen to think that

this is correct, that we connect to

something greater than ourselves. And a

lot of artists will do that as well.

They'll sort of hunt for inspiration,

right? They hunt for this weird thing

where there's this spontaneous

revelation. Now, the reason that I think

that this is true is because there are a

set of practices which foster this

creativity which allow you to roll the

dice but in a very favorable way. It's

like creative inspiration is like a d20

roll and there are things that you can

do, right? So, you have to to hit a

creative inspiration, you need you need

a 20 on a d20 roll. That's normally very

hard. happens for most people 5% of the

time. There's a set of practices that

can give you like a plus 10. That's what

we're going to talk about now. Now,

whether this is all happening in the

brain and subconsciously or whatever,

like could be or it's some divine

inspiration. Who the knows the

reason. Anyway, we don't have to get too

much into it. If you guys want, you can

ask why I believe that it's one instead

of the other. So, a couple of simple

practices. The first is the removal of

gisha, which we know absolutely maps on

to cognitive flexibility. So, that's

great. Second thing is agna chakra,

third eye. So third eye practices

cultivate our capacity for intuition.

Now what is intuition? It is spontaneous

knowledge, right? That's what we call

intuition. It's intuition without a is

knowledge without a deliberate process.

So on the differential diagnosis of

where does intuition come from?

Subconscious is number one. God is

number two or transcendental is number

two. Let's not use the word God. Comes

from something beyond us that we are

connected to or it comes from dormant

parts of us. Key thing is that it comes

from some place that is not clearly

known to us or easily known to us.

That's really all we know. And then

where is that place? Is it within me in

something that I can't see or is it

something outside of me? So Agna chakra

practices thrata is really good right

vom you guys can check out Dr. K's

guide. I forget if it's um I think the

ADHD guide has a lot of focusing

practices which are ignoriented. Trauma

guide has some of those. So as you open

up your agna chakra your creativity will

increase drastically. The third thing

that we're going to talk about is

Saraswati yandra. This is the saraswati

yantra. We'll talk about why this is. So

this is a yantra. It's usually in this

pattern. There are some deviations of

it. So this is a saraswati yantra.

Ideally if you guys want to use one of

these yantras the most ideal form is for

you to be initiated into a yantra

practice by tantric guru. Second best is

that you can do trataka on a yantra

without initiation. Now the yantra

should not be electronic. So I would get

a physical copy. Painting is better than

printed. Painted by someone who is

spiritually adept is better than painted

by an artist. Painting yourself is

really good. Drawing yourself. So if you

create the entra, that's good. That's

like the hierarchy. And you can do and

thrata on a Sarasati yantra. Now what is

this Saraswati thing? So Saraswati is

regarded as a Hindu goddess. But I think

that I think the term religion doesn't

apply well to Hinduism. See the very

concept the word religion the definition

of religion comes from a western

substrate like when we say like so

people will ask you know how do I

convert to Hinduism so in the word

conversion is implied that there are two

groups of people the people within the

tribe and the people outside of the

tribe that very concept which religion

do you believe in the the idea that a

religion is something that you believe

in or don't believe in that's western

the karmic religions aren't like that.

You don't need to believe in Buddhism.

You don't need to believe in Hinduism.

So this idea that religion is like

something that you were a part of or

something that you were not a part of is

found in the Abrahamic religions. So if

you look at like shamanism from Native

Americans or you look at Shinto or you

look at Hinduism or you look at

Buddhism, they don't have this idea like

you can't convert to Shinto. Maybe you

can, I don't know, but you can't convert

to shamanism. It's not like you're, you

know, like like that idea of like

there's the Jews and the Gentiles,

there's the Christians and the

non-Christians, there's the Muslims and

the heathens, right? That those concepts

of us versus them. You are part of this

group or a part of that group is a is a

product of western religion or Abrahamic

religions. So what is Saraswati? So

Saraswati is the personification of a

creative force. So if you guys go back

to the weird stuff part two, remember

that there are these like weird

oscillations and these oscillations form

the building blocks of the universe. In

the Hindu gods and goddesses, you can

worship them fine. There's a deific

portion of Hinduism as well, but

Hinduism is both simultaneously

atheistic, monotheistic, and

polytheistic. We don't even believe that

that's a contradiction, which like the

western people will be like, "How can

you be atheistic and believe in God at

the same time?" Hindus are like, "Yeah,

you can totally do that. It's totally

fine. Don't worry about it. It's like

not a contradiction. So there's c

certain assumptions that we make about

religion that are really rooted in this

western concept. If you ask me, Dr. K,

are you an atheist? I'd say sure. Dr. K,

do you believe in God? Sure. Are you a

Hindu? Sure. Are you a polytheist? Sure.

I'm fine with all of us. You may say,

how does that make sense? And then we

can have a conversation. I'll explain to

you why what how that works and then

we'll see how that's not it's not a

contradiction for me. So saraswati is

the particular oscillation that

facilitates creativity. So there are

certain bee mantras associated with

saraswati. There are certain yantras and

symbols that are associated with

sarasati. Remember that the those um I

forget what the discipline is called but

there are certain vibratory oscillations

that correlate with physical patterns.

That's what we're talking about. So

there is a sarasati energy which has a

certain vibratory pattern has a certain

oscillation in like the deep essence of

the universe. If y'all have watched all

of our lectures, you understand what I'm

talking about. And I'm not going to

sound crazy. If you haven't watched all

the other lectures, what I'm going to

talk about now sounds completely insane,

which is like completely fair, right?

So, I'm sharing with y'all something

that I think is helpful for you to

experiment with if you feel like it. So,

for the sake of completeness, I am

valuing completeness and what I believe

to be true over verifiability and even

respect. Like, I'm not here to win your

respect. I'm here to try to share what I

understand. And if that loses respect,

that's okay. I'm making a judgment. I

thought a lot about this. And it's like

if you guys want to think I'm crazy,

fine. I think the benefit outweighs the

horn. So there is a certain vibratory

oscillation that is embodied as

saraswati. Has a certain yantra

associated. It has a certain mantra

associated with it. And so if you do

tratika or meditate upon a saraswati

yantra, then it will facilitate the

creative pro process. I believe this to

be true. Now there are two layers of

this truth. One is that from a

scientific perspective, this will

probably be true. But it will be true

for the same reason that any kind of

meditation or mindfulness technique will

be true. So it's not that Sarasati is

special. It's just that if we meditate

upon a yantra, we are activating our

frontal loes. We are enhancing our

sustained attention at a minimum.

Hopefully things like our working memory

and all kinds of other stuff, right? So

we're just boosting the frontal loes.

There's scientific evidence of that. But

whether you do Sarasati or you do

whatever doesn't matter from a

scientific perspective. Now I believe

that these different meditative

techniques activate our brain in

different ways. So there is another

middle layer of Saraswati stuff working

that has nothing to do with accepting

the metaphysics of Saraswati energy or

whatever the It is simply that

5,000 years ago, a group of yogis were

able to activate different parts of

their brain using different meditative

techniques and they essentially

developed a huristic system that is not

real but that they tried to map on

they've discovered okay if you do

thratika it activates this part of the

brain that leads to greater intuition.

If you do narish pranayam it balances

your sympathetic and parasympathetic

nervous system and activates your vag

nerve. So we're going to call that

cooling. We're going to call that a

different kind of energy. So they

developed this weird complex

mythological system that maps onto a

biological very real system. So there's

satiantra will help you because it's

meditation and all meditation is the

same. Then there's this middle level of

mythology is false but somehow maps onto

a biological reality. And then there's

the third one which is something about

this is actually true. So I think part

one is definitely true. Part two is

probably true. And there's plenty of

evidence over that. If y'all are curious

about that, there's a great paper by

Silverswag on the SART framework of

meditation. And we know from some

studies on meditation that mantra

meditation is qualitatively different,

neurologically different from non-mantra

meditation. And there are very few

studies that look at specific mantras

and their specific effects. We just

haven't gotten there yet. So saraswati

energy can be cultivated by meditating

upon a saraswati yantra. The next thing

and now we really cross over into

religion. So there's the yantra stuff

which is pretty secular in a sense,

right? So you can say it's a part of a

religious tradition. Fair enough. But

I'm not asking you to believe in

anything. You just do the practice on

this randomass diagram. And Sarosi

doesn't care whether you believe in her

or not. It is like an accessing of a

primordial atheistic energy that is in a

particular veilance. The last thing that

you can do and the reason I share this

is because I found it to be helpful is

actually cross over into worship. So you

can like pray to Saraswati, get an idol

to Saraswati, you can go worship at a

temple. Now I'm not asking y'all to

convert to Hinduism. There's some

scientific evidence that especially when

it comes to the creative process

divesting yourself of ego and I think

that's the main mechanism here sort of

right. So if you like go and it doesn't

matter it can't doesn't even need to be

Sarasati. If you go and you say universe

Sarasati Jesus Allah you know bore

spirit whatever if you say hey I can't

do this on my own and I need your help.

Can you help me create this thing? This

is what's really interesting. If you

look at surrender, these aspects of

surrender and dissolution of ego happen

from a worshipping angle. Right? So when

you say I can't do this on my own, you

unburden yourself some. You remove your

ego from the equation. And if you think

about what is the largest glisha, what

is the biggest thing that gets in the

way of our creative process? It is our

ego. When you write a story that you're

excited about, what stops you from

continuing to write the story? You look

at it and you're like, "This is trash. I

have produced trash. I have produced

I do not want to be a writer.

I want to be a good writer. And so then