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COMPLETION &

wALLAS'S fOUR sTAGES OF cREATIVITY

By Philip Johncock

Introduction

This essay introduces a theory of “completion.” Completion begins with a creative impulse and progresses through to its final destination, which is an indication of closure.  This essay views completion from a context of Graham Wallas’s four stages of creativity: preparation, incubation, illumination and verification.

First, a personal experience will be used to introduce the concept of completion.  Then, a brief history and overview of the development of Wallas’s stages will provide a context for expanding the concept.  For each of the four phases, a definition, example, and purpose will be provided along a person (contemporary or historical) who embodies that stage.  For example, Tiger Woods and Jean Houston will be used to illustrate the preparation phase, followed by Ludwig van Beethoven (incubation), Albert Einstein (illumination) and Charles Darwin (verification).  Finally, to maximize the benefits of each phase, suggestions are provided from literature and personal experience.

Even without empirical evidence in his time, Wallas’s 4-stage process has received widespread interdisciplinary interest (Rothenberg and Hausman 69).  The stages are intuitively appealing, in part due to the Janusian marriage of conscious and unconscious aspects of the human psyche.  Before focusing on conscious and unconscious processes though, let us begin with a brief look at the genesis of the concept of completion.

Completion

The concept of completion will be illustrated through a personal experience.  Two years ago, a client approached me.  “You are a genius completer,” she said.  “Would you be willing to teach me how to be a better completer?”  Thoughts of projects that I have completed in the past came immediately to mind: language learning programs for immigrants, books, CD’s, a documentary film on my grandfather.  Then came another thought: “Well, doesn’t everyone know how to complete?”  She laughed, “No.  In fact, I think most people are more like me.”  The next thought was something like “If I am a completer …” “A genius completer,” she interrupted. 

“Thank you,” I replied facetiously.  “If I am a genius completer, I don’t even know how it is that I do what I do.”  “You taught us in the genius course,” she said, “that when you do something so effortlessly that you can’t even say how it is that you do what you do, that is a good indicator that what you are doing is your unique talent.  That’s one definition of genius, remember?”  She was right.  Now, the trick would be for me to put into words or “name” my genius of completing. 

In our first sessions, I theorized that “completion is a continuum with a creative impulse on one end and its fulfillment on the other.”  Everything in the middle is either a movement in the direction initiated by the impulse or an interruption.  We experimented by exploring impulses and systems in her life to see where movements started by impulses were still in motion or where they were interrupted. 

We started by examining what was immediately observable: her breathing pattern.  Her exhale had a life-death quality for her that was peppered with thoughts of guilt and hard work.  “If you could recreate your experience of completion in any other way than being hard work, how would that look?” I asked. “I would like to be surprised by how things get completed and not work so hard.”  “You want to be surprised,” I restated.  “Yes,” she said excited and glowing. 

My client’s journey to understand completion had begun.  By focusing on the incomplete pattern of her breathing and a complete overhaul of her experience of completion, she was well on her way.  Coincidently, today I received a newsletter from this client.  I was delighted to see that she included a section on completion tips.

Creative impulses are surprising surges of energy.  When they happen, we have a multitude of responses.  Over the years, I learned to follow each one through to wherever it might lead me.  Of course, I can follow every single impulse and not get anything else done.  I have done that.  Nonetheless, even following every impulse, albeit off track, ultimately leads to discernment through a feedback loop that connects consequences and actions with impulse.  In this respect, there is no such thing as a bad impulse. 

The process of creativity represents putting curious attention on and energy in the direction initiated by creative impulses.  It starts by noticing a creative impulse when it occurs.  Let me use a personal example to illustrate the process.  A year ago, the word “belong” popped into my mind when I first woke up one morning.  The moment of waking up is often a prime time for creative impulses to occur for me.  The next impulse was to pick up my guitar, followed by discovering chords to match music playing in my head, and finding a rhythm.  A light bulb moment happened (illumination) when I connected the word “belong” and the music with a story I had learned about Buckminster Fuller.  The completion of this impulse (its fulfillment) was a typed up story and song with chords.  To illustrate the final completion, let us look at the first part of the story.

In 1927, at the age of 32, Fuller stood on the shores of his future, desperate, bankrupt, and jobless.  His first child had died, and he decided to leave his wife and a newborn child.  Standing on the banks of Lake Michigan, he was willing to throw himself into the freezing waters, prepared to give up his life, ready to commit suicide.

Song

The universe, it whispers

Calling out to him

But he’s blind, he doesn’t see the call.

The money’s gone, the water’s cold

He might as well jump in

Give up his life, the pain of it all.

The story continues.  Suddenly, a realization overtook him.  For the first time in a long time, a glimpse of hope appeared.  In a miraculous change of events, he understood with great clarity that his life did not belong to him.  He became aware that his life belonged instead to the larger universe.  How dare he take a life that didn’t belong to him.

Song

He belongs

How dare he takes a life that’s not his own

He belongs

How dare he think he’s living all alone.

The story-song describes Fuller’s unique life purpose that he claims emerged around the time of this experience.  He put into action his life purpose by completing one project at a time.  At this point, I stop the story-song to emphasize Fuller’s approach to completion: he focused on only one project at a time.  When he was finished one project, he would move on to the next project.  The rhythm of the music speeds up as I mention a few of his many accomplishments including the invention of the geodesic dome, 25 U.S. patents, 28 books, and 47 honorary doctorate degrees. 

The story-song is an example of following an impulse.  It happened first thing in the morning and finished an hour-and-a-half later with a draft of a story-song typed up.

Having introduced briefly the conception of completion and an example of moving from creative impulse (the word “belong”) through to completion (the story-song), let us turn our attention to Graham Wallas.  Wallas’s four stages of creativity can be used to further expand the theory of completion.  To provide a context for Wallas’s theory, let us look at the history and a brief overview of his four stages of creativity.

Wallas’s Four Stages of Creativity

Graham Wallas (1858-1932), an English social psychologist and educator, was interested in impulse completion for such things as thoughts, ideas, and inventions that led to great discoveries.  He used the analogy of “trains” to represent the progression of cognition.  The “flash” of insight or “click” (of the illumination stage) happens when one train of associations reaches its final docking station successfully.  Wallas claims that in theory a successful train is “preceded by a series of tentative and unsuccessful trains” (73).  Multiple trains of thought veer off in different directions in search of finding the final neurological synapse docking station in our brains.  Trips of “unsuccessful trains of association” (those that go off in a direction other than the final one) may last “from a few seconds to several hours” or even longer (73).  For example, in writing the introduction for this essay, I launched two unsuccessful trains lasting approximately four hours total before I found a third with the right fit for me.  The previous two were generally good.  However, the third ran smoothly with little effort or jerky motions.

Wallas based the first three stages - preparation, incubation and illumination - on the work of the German physician Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (1821-1894).  Wallas translated von Helmholtz’s teachings into English in 1926 (Weiner 90).  Von Helmholtz, along with the German physiologist Ernst Wilhem von Brücke, viewed the living organism as a dynamic system to which laws of chemistry and physics apply.  This was a radical view at in the 1870s.  Brücke was Sigmund Freud’s supervisor when Sigmund was a promising, first-year medical student at the University of Vienna.  Their psychodynamics was the foundation to Freud's dynamic psychology of the mind and its relation to the unconscious.  This point is intriguing because two of Wallas’s stages are conscious (preparation and verification) and two are unconscious (incubation and illumination).

Wallas was inspired by Helmholtz.  When Helmholtz spoke in 1891 at a banquet on his seventieth birthday, Helmholtz addressed his most important discoveries.  He described how “his most important thoughts had come to him.  He said that after previous investigation of the problem ‘in all directions … happy ideas come unexpectedly without effort, like an inspiration.  … they have never come to me when my mind was fatigued, or when I was at my working table.  … They came readily during the slow ascent of wooded hills on a sunny day’” (69-70). 

Wallas uses Helmholtz’s example to illustrate the first three stages.  First, he “investigated (the problem) … in all directions” (preparation). Second, he was walking up a hill and not consciously thinking about the problem (incubation).  Third, a “happy idea” emerged (illumination).  Wallas added the fourth stage “verification” which will be described later in the discussion of that stage.  With this brief history and overview in mind, we proceed with a more detailed description of each stage. 

Stage 1: Preparation

The preparation phase is defined as “consciously” taking action to create a foundation of support for creative impulses that emerge.  For example, you may decide that you love music and pick up the guitar at an early age.  It may be a short-term or long-term commitment whereby you learn the craft.  This may involve investigation, study, research, questioning, and sustained motivation.  Other examples could be small ones like thinking ahead to prepare a meal for the next day (as is the case for me tomorrow) or larger like discovering one’s unique talents in the world. 

An example of the latter can be found in the professional life of psychologist Gay Hendricks.  At age four, Hendricks set up a large cardboard box at his grandparents with a door and window cut out.  He rode his new tricycle given to him for his recent birthday, hopped off and walked through the door of his office.  A sign above it read, “Now open ‘problems’.”  He was not interested in medical problems, though.  He was not that kind of doctor.  He had a special kind of expertise that helped people feel better inside and helped them get along better.  Creative impulses that emerged during his childhood play pointed toward the target of pursuing a career in psychology.  Further training and degrees in psychology prepared him professionally to match his childhood passion.  He received his license and degree (two completion points) to be a psychotherapist and college professor so that he could address and research psychological and relational problems professionally (Hendricks & Johncock).

            The purpose of the preparation phase is to “become well-grounded in your field, mastering its basic techniques until they are second nature” (Austin 186).  This may require training and education, formal or informal, as well as “studying, thinking, searching for answers, asking people” (Piirto 41).  In basketball, I once heard Hall of Fame Coach John Wooden suggest that “getting prepared is the most important thing.”  In leadership theory, Heifetz argues that leaders can prepare by creating a “base from which to speak to hard issues without being ignored or cast out altogether” (186).  In grant writing, 83% of the eighty experts in one survey agreed that preparation includes the following steps: develop an idea into a fundable plan, research potential funders, and customize a proposal to meet funder specifications and guidelines (Johncock).  In a distance education doctoral program, preparation includes reading skills, critical thinking and writing, typing, Internet and computer knowledge, and financial planning (i.e., for tuition, books, travel expenses, etc.).  The completion point is the degree. 

Two people who embody the preparation phase are golfer Tiger Woods and author Jean Houston.  As we have seen with the Hendricks example above, career preparation can often include childhood passion and genius.  Woods was not even out of his crib before he got interested in golf.  At six months, he started imitating his father’s swing.  At age 2, he putted with Bob Hope on the Mike Douglas Show.  At age 3, he shot a 48 for nine holes.  He was featured in Golf Digest at age 5.  Not only did Woods start young.  He has maintained a high level of performance and excitement for the game.  He is one of the most prepared golfers in the world (mentally, physically and spiritually).  In his own words, “I refuse to let anyone outwork me.  That’s the reason I log so much time on the practice range.  Beside, hard work is the only way to maintain a competitive edge.”  Two documents allude to Wood’s preparation genius.  First, on one of the Wheaties breakfast cereal boxes, you will find Wood’s photo and the words: “dedication, preparation, and achievement.”  Second, the Tiger Woods Foundation works with 9-12 graders to match mentors to students with career interest like aerospace, communications, digital manufacturing, robotics, universal science or engineering; his program is referred to as a form of “career preparation.”  In addition to preparation, Woods unarguably has one of the most admired, easeful swings in golf, one indication of his completion skill.

Jean Houston embodies the preparation stage by challenging herself daily.  She was a student of anthropologist Margaret Mead.  As part of her tutelage, Mead gave her weekly tasks, like “I want a twenty-to-thirty page report from you by the end of this week on the latest research on stress.”  Prior to being around Mead, Houston thought doing something like this was impossible.  Somehow under Mead’s watchful eye, though, she completed assignments like this in record time.  This preparation contributed to Houston’s ability to research and write over 200 400-page manuscripts, which focus on her many diverse interests and serve as the foundation for her Mystery School lectures and many books.  She also prepares and delivers other talks, teaches a summer institute, conducts 3-day seminars, and provides training for the United Nations (many in far away countries).  She also answers mail, makes calls, writes prefaces for books, conducts radio interviews, participates in other media projects, volunteers, is amazingly available for people she meets, and keeps her husband and dogs happy at home, being the family cook. 

How does Houston complete so much?  She confides, “I get up very early, live in accelerated time, avoid self-consciousness (which takes up an awful lot of time and energy) and worry about what others will think, and let myself be sponsored by an image of what I want to create or achieve that day, that week, that month, or that year.  Having a friendly support system also helps immensely.”  Both Woods and Houston are genius completers.  They prepare themselves in ways that realize their full creative potential.

To maximize the benefits of the preparation stage, Tharp suggests making daily rituals of preparation.  These “arm us with confidence and self-reliance” (20) that are invaluable for the creative journey.  For example, Tharp claims that the “ritual of asking ‘What’s in it for me?’ … will keep you focused on your goals” (20). 

Realize that fears and distractions can get in your way of creativity.  Tharp recommends a useful ritual: basically, she stares-down her greatest fears like a “boxer looking his opponent right in the eye before a bout” (32).  In this way, Tharp claims that she is not paralyzed by fears nor does she shut down her creative impulses.  By putting the biggest distractions in their proper place, it increases resolve and independence.  Go on a diet for “your creative health” (32).  Identify the major distractions that invade your creative life and do without them for a week.  “It’s liberating, forcing you to rely on your own ability rather than your customary crutches” (28).

Finally, establish rituals that build up your “tolerance for solitude” (30) with a purpose.  In essence, “you’re seeking thoughts from the unconscious (incubation), and trying to tease them forward until you can latch onto them.  Get engaged with … (an) idea, play with it, push it around.  … You’re not alone anymore; your idea is your companion” (31). 

Personally, to prepare myself, I create daily rituals; prepare my mind, body and spirit; and address incompletions (tie up loose ends).  For daily rituals, I have post-it notes next to my bed, on my desk, and in the car.  When a significant idea or thought pops up, I jot it down, then file the post-in note in a folder.  I have four 4-drawer filing cabinets, many 3-ring binders to organize my projects, and two computers (a goal of mine is to simplify and go electronic, as much as possible).  When I make agreements with others around creative ideas, I put a “tickler” in my Palm Pilot to remind me when to take the next step.   I spend time around healthy completers so I do not experience excessive energy drains.

I prepare my body, mind and spirit for high quality, creative impulses.  I prepare my body through a healthy diet, drinking lots of water, practicing Bikram Yoga four times a week, dancing, and stretching.  I prepare my mind by enrolling in a doctoral program, writing articles and books, reading articles and books, doing active mediations (with physical activity prior to being silent), and through appreciative and positive thinking.  I prepare my spirit through studying various spiritual traditions, such as Native American, Egyptian, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Zen, even Christian (my parent’s tradition).

I address incomplete impulses in my life (i.e., around agreements, projects, communications, relationships, financial affairs, and even in my body).  I take action steps as soon as possible to complete anything incomplete.  I look for interruptions and distractions of creative impulses.  When I do, I free up energy that is otherwise leaking or tied up in the incompletions.  Interestingly, the more I complete, the more creative ideas emerge and the more energy I have. 

A completion training program consists of practices and systems that guide learners to explore impulses, manage energy cycles, generate support, and take action.  Exploring impulses includes trusting impulses, noticing authentic and inauthentic impulses, identifying and handling interruptions, grieving thwarted dreams and abrupt departures and playing with jackets of judgment.  Managing energy cycles consists of closing the gap, using body-centered anchors, understanding organic cycles, feelings, and creating feedback loops.  Generating support takes into consideration strengthening friendships, moving beyond fear, charting progress, creating transition rituals, finding mentors, visualizing, and celebrating.  Taking action incorporates learning to walk, baby steps, running, resting, adding a “by when”, and generating fun.  Nothing builds self-confidence and self-esteem better than completing and the sense of accomplishment and healthy pride that goes along with the experience.

Stage 2: Incubation

            The incubation phase is defined as involuntarily allowing creative impulses, issues or problems to gestate in the womb of the unconscious mind.  In this phase, Wallas states that “we do not voluntarily or consciously think on a particular problem” (71).  In addition, it is possible that a “series of unconscious and involuntary …  mental events may take place” (71).  This may include “voluntary abstention from conscious thought on any particular problem.” It could involve working on other problems or “relaxing from all conscious mental work” altogether (71).   According to physicist Freeman Dyson, Shakespeare was known to have been idle between creative periods of his plays, and “people who keep themselves busy all the time are generally not creative.  So I am not ashamed of being idle” (Austin 98-99).

            The purpose of the incubation phase is to tap into the power of the unconscious mind.  Piirto suggests that “the problem (or impulse) is percolating silently through the mind and body” (64).  Incubation requires the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness.  Incubation happens when we daydream (Austin 162), make Freudian slips (Rothenberg and Hausman 104-106), sleep, exercise, shower (one of my favorites), dream, mindlessly do daily tasks like brushing our teeth or driving a car.  For example, Kary Mullis came up with his Nobel-Prize winning idea while “driving up to Mendocino and thinking about an experiment … I designed a system in my mind. …  That was the eureka point. … by putting the triphosphates (DNA building blocks) in there myself, I could do this process over and over and amplify the DNA.  I slammed on the brakes and stopped by the side of the road to calculate it out.  … A couple miles down the road I stopped again.  I realized I could use these … oligonucleotides (short pieces of DNA) to get the enzymes to reproduce as big a piece as I wanted to” (Piirto 65). 

            Csikszentmihalyi calls incubation a mysterious time.  “The evidence for incubation,” he claims, “comes from reports of discoveries in which the creator becomes puzzled by an issue and remembers coming to a sudden insight into the nature of a problem, but does not remember any intermediate conscious mental steps” (98).  What happens in the ‘dark’ spaces of incubation “defies ordinary analysis and evokes the original mystery shrouding the work of genius” (98).

Rothenberg refers to incubation as unearthing the mystique of the unconscious.  Adopting Freud’s concept of the repressed unconscious, he argues that “creative writings and works of art seem perfused with unconscious content such as Oedipus complexes, anima and animus, or sexual and aggressive symbolism” (48).  “Also, elements in the unconscious have a diffuse and controlling effect by virtue of being kept out of awareness.  These elements exert a consistent and potentially broad affect on conscious thought and behavior precisely because they remain unconscious” (51).

            A person who embodies the incubation phase is musical genius Ludwig van Beethoven.  Amazingly, Beethoven composed music even after he was completely deaf.  Starting in his twenties, Beethoven gradually relied on the underground vibrations of sound to be one of his primary sensory tools of his creative genius.  He listened below surface level hearing where most people are.  In addition, Beethoven kept extensive notes, as well as conversation notebooks with others, containing discussions about music and other issues.  Then, he would review themes of his music over time.  Themes and settings might take decades to germinate into masterpieces.

Take, for example, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  The fourth and final movement of the Ninth Symphony was based on Friedrich Shiller’s “Ode to Joy,” which Beethoven may have been encountered over thirty years prior.  According to Schwarm Glesner, “evidence suggests that Beethoven may have set the text to music as early as 1792” with revisions “made in 1808 and 1811, when Beethoven’s notebooks include remarks to himself concerning possible settings for the familiar text.”   Some musical themes and settings like this incubated for decades.

            Regarding the study of completion, Beethoven is an example of someone whose sensory impulse (his sensory perception) came to an end before its time.  Instead of being immobilized by his loss, though, he honed his ability to perceive vibrations.  He continued composing in spite of his handicap.  He found a creative solution which allowed the creative impulse of composing music to continue, even when the regular sensory perception train went out of commission.

To maximize the benefits of the incubation stage, it is important to realize that time is needed after a problem is posed.  Do something different for a while.  Find creative ways to tap into the unconscious.  First, time is needed.  “Experiments have shown that if people are given a problem and told to solve it right away, they solve it less successfully than if they are given the problem and told to go away and think about it” (Piirto 65).  Wallas illustrates this with the following example: “A well-known academic psychologist …, who was also a preacher, told me that he found by experience that his Sunday sermon was much better if he posed the problem on Monday, than if he did so later in the week, although he might give the same number of hours of conscious work to it in each case” (Rothenberg and Hausman 72). 

Second, do something different.  According to Austin, incubation is what happens when sooner or later, you run out of ideas.  “If you then persist with intensity …, you will become frustrated by your lack of progress.  Relax at this point.  Let go.  Free the problem to ‘go underground.’  Set it aside to be worked over at all levels of consciousness.  … other diverse interests will provide a refreshing change of pace, give you a breather while you incubate the first problem …” (187).  You can help this process along by getting involved with “passive activities, such as listening to music, that help you relax, unfocus your thinking, and loosen up your free associations” (187).  He also advises seeking out “good comedy” (187).

Finally, master the power of the unconscious.  Since incubation is an unconscious phase, discover unique ways to tap into the mysterious power of the unconscious.  Find creative ways to make incubation times (i.e., dreams, walks in nature, drives, focus on other problems or projects, exercise) work to your advantage.  Declare your intentions (for your day, project, year, etc.) and drop them into the fertile soil of the unconscious mind.  Let go of the outcome of how and when seeds will sprout after germination.  Like Beethoven, Mead, and Leonardo da Vinci, become an avid note taker.  This will help move the incubation period along more quickly by making associations and documenting wonderings, associations, and insights, which is the next stage: illumination.
 

Stage 3: Illumination

            Illumination, like incubation, is an unconscious process.  It is defined as a momentary glimpse of inspiration, elucidation or revelation.  Wallas calls this the “instantaneous ‘flash’” or “click” that happens as the result of the “the final and successful train of association.  Sometimes the successful train seems to consist of a single leap of association, or as successive leaps which are so rapid as to be almost instantaneous” (Rothenberg and Hausman 72-73).  It is the “aha!” or “eureka!” moment, when the “light bulb goes off.”  It can be smaller as with the “hmmm” accompanied with a sigh indicating that a student resonates with a concept.  It can be larger like an instant of enlightenment claimed by the Buddha and other mystics.  According to Piirto, “the most famous image of insight is the image of Archimedes rising from the bathtub, saying ‘Aha!’ and running down the street naked after he discovered the principle of the displacement of water” (64). 

Another bathtub flash of illumination was the discovery of a technique to release birth trauma.  In the 1960s and 1970s, Leonard Orr frequently traveled, teaching others that their thoughts actually influenced the external world (a concept of the New Thought tradition established by Ernest Holmes).  He found himself spending more and more time in the bathtub, usually for hours each day.  Then, something happened.  Suddenly, he had flashes of memories of being born or in the womb.  These images led to the conception of the technique of rebirthing.

            The purpose of the illumination phase is to get a glimpse of the “basic structure of the problem we are working on” (Piirto 64).  Csikszentmihalyi writes that “insight presumably occurs when a subconscious connection between ideas fits so well that it is forced to pop out into awareness, like a cork held underwater breaking out into the air after it is released” (104).

            A person who embodies the illumination phase is Albert Einstein.  In 1907, he had “what he called ‘the happiest thought of my life’” while writing an essay for the Year-book of Radioactivity and Electronics (Rothenberg 14).  He had been “trying to modify Isaac Newton’s classical theory of gravitation so that it could be encompassed within a broad relativity principle (he had already developed).  He struggled for many years because he lacked a specific physical basis for bringing together Newton’s theory and his own special (relativity) theory” (14).

            Contemplating how to reconcile Newton’s theory with his own, he had the following Janusian realization: “For an observer in free fall from a roof of a house, there exists, during his fall, no gravitational field … in his immediate vicinity.  If the observer releases any objects (like a set of keys), they will remain, relative to him, in a state of rest.  The (falling) observer is therefore justified in considering his state as one of ‘rest’” (Rothenberg 15).  “Einstein had consciously concluded that a person falling from the roof of a house was both in motion and at rest at the same time.  The hypothesis was illogical and contradictory in structure, but it possessed a superior logic and salience that brought Newtonian physics and his own into the same overall conceptual scheme” (15).  Rothenberg argues that Einstein’s illumination is the “key to the most far-reaching scientific breakthrough of the twentieth century: the general theory of relativity” (14).

To maximize the benefits of the illumination stage, Austin suggests that a “relaxed, well-slept mind generates more innovative ideas.  Get enough sleep.  Stay alert for the intuitions that flicker in from the margins of consciousness, especially during the phase of reverie after awakening.  Major insights can be unforgettable, but they are rare.  Most other flashes of insight are of lesser intensity, and they can vanish quickly unless you immediately write them down.  Don’t worry if you daydream up a new approach that appears farfetched; jot the essence of it down.  It may lead on to still another idea that will turn out to be much better” (187-188).  As noted earlier, note taking is one method to track how one successful train can lead to another successful train of even greater significance.

In our discussion of completing creative impulses, illumination is the experience of the train of thoughts connecting to the happy docks in our brains.  While it is tempting to stop here and celebrate our “aha moment,” there is still work to be done.  For an insight to have greater impact in the external world, it must past through a verification phase.

Stage 4: Verification

            The verification stage is conscious, like preparation.  It is defined as testing the insight or solution that sprung forth in the illumination stage. Wallas added the fourth stage “verification” to Helmholtz’s first three when he became aware of the mockery and resistance to new mathematical findings (illumination) that were “at odds with traditional notions” during his time (Weiner 90).  It is not enough for scientists or creative individuals to have a brilliant idea.  According to Shekerjian, to be successful in having ideas be more widely received, creative individuals must “bridge the gap between what the culture will tolerate and the innovator’s vision” (verification) (54). 

Wallas illustrates this by referring to Henri Poincaré who in his book Science and Method describes how his mathematical discoveries followed the first three stages but were subsequently followed “by a period of Verification, in which both the validity of the idea, and the idea itself was reduced to exact form” (70).  Scientists replicate experiments to validate their previous findings.  In the realm of completion, the verification stage serves to add credibility and validity to wider audiences. 

            A person who embodies the verification phase is Charles Darwin.  He first sketched out his ideas on the theory of evolution in 1844 but did not expose them to a larger audience until over 10 years later.  “Darwin himself had anticipated public hostility to his work (churches viewed evolution as blasphemy) and reflected in his notebooks how persecuted earlier scientists had been.  He therefore hesitated for a decade before presenting his theory publicly” (Weiner 85). 

The purpose of the verification phase is design experiments to “verify your hunch, but also to shake it, to prove yourself wrong” (Austin 188).  To maximize the benefits of the verification stage, Austin suggests that you “insert enough controls into the experiment so that you won’t fool yourself in your enthusiasm for the alluring new idea.  No matter what you think you have verified, some others will not agree.   Listen to them.  Swallow your pride.  Put the resulting energies to work to prove your thesis correct one hundred percent.  Even if your insight is valid, plan to spend at least three times as long as may seem necessary in order to prove it so” (188).

To maximize benefits, manufacturers use verification practices to flush out new markets, identify market trends, assess consumer needs, modify new products, and field test new products.  They employ Research and Development (R&D) departments and use techniques like focus groups, needs assessments, and feasibility studies.

Conclusion

Scientists and artists, experts and novices, professionals and hobbyists, even parents and children, alike, have creative impulses.  Creativity, thusly, can be viewed with big “C” glasses such as looking at the accomplishments and lives of geniuses like Beethoven, Einstein or Darwin.  Creativity can also be seen through small “c” glasses as in watching novices like an eight year old wanting to play the guitar, a teenager sowing her first gown from the image she received in a dream, or a mother fulfilling her life-long wish to learn how to make animal balloons.  Viewed through both lenses, everyone is creative (Csikszentmihalyi), and everyone (barring some sort of impulse-deficiency) has creative impulses. 

Most human evolution starts with creative impulses of our parents: sexual ones.  Most of us progress from egg and sperm to thinking adult by passing through various developmental stages (i.e., fetus, newborn, infant, youth, young adult, etc.).  Likewise, creative impulses, Wallas argues, follows a unique progression signposted by key stages. 

In this essay, the concept of completion and following impulses through to completion was introduced.  Wallas’s four stages of creativity – preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification – were analyzed.  Examples of people who embody stages were provided, along with the purpose of stages and ways to maximize their inherent power.  The first and last phases are largely within our conscious control.  The second and third are largely unconscious.  However, it appears that an individual can also tap into the power of the unconscious to move the creative process along and serve as conscious train conductor to facilitate creative impulses in reaching their final destination, resulting in “aha” moments and acceptance from wider audiences.

Copyright © 2007 Philip Johncock

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References

Austin, J. (2003). Chase, chance and creativity: The lucky art of novelty. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: HarperCollins.

Heifetz, R. A. (1998). Leadership without easy answers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Hendricks, G. & Johncock, P. (2005). Genius course online.  Sparks, NV: GeniusCourse.net.

Johncock, P. (2003).  Dream-making to billions: Grant writing tips from the experts.  Sparks, NV: 4Grants.Net.

Rothenberg, A. & Hausman, C. (1976). The creativity question. Durham: Duke University Press.

Rothenberg, A. (1990). Creativity and madness. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Piirto, J. (2004). Understanding creativity. Scottsdale, AZ: Great Potential Press.

Pope, R. (2005). Creativity: Theory, history, practice. London: Routledge.

Schwarm Glesner, E. (2007). Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No.9, Op.125 "Choral”. Retrieved November 14, 2007, from http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/beethoven_sym9.html

Shekerjian, D. (1990). Uncommon genius: How great ideas are born. New York: Penguin Books. 

Tharp, T. (2003). The creative habit: Learn it and use it for life. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Weiner, R. (2000). Creativity and beyond: Culture, values and change. Albany: SUNY Press.

Woods, T. (2007). Be Honest: Where does your game need help? Retrieved November 14, 2007, from http://www.tigerwoods.com/news/printstory.asp?iNewsid=465391

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