The Nature and Function of the Hypnagogic State by Andreas Mavromatis Thesis submitted to the ...

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HYPNAGOGIA
The Nature Function the Hypnagogic
and of State
by
Andreas Mavromatis
Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology,
Brunel University, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
1983
January
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13
CHAPTER
CREATIVITY:
Hypnagogia has been to the
related creative process
in by Maury (1857,
varying ways a number of writers. p.
164) "the ideas in hypna-
spoke of spontaneous generation of
Gurney (1885) "an immense high
gogia, and of amount of
Greenwood (1894) that in hypnago-
creative work". remarked
the faculties "lifted into higher
gia all mental are a
range of freedom". Crichton-Browne (1895) speaking of
dreamy in them the
mental states general compared with
"flights Myers (1903) talked "a
of genius". of general
heightening faculty" in hypnagogia. Arnold-Forster
of
(1921, 149)
that "at the to
p. noted such moments answer
difficult
flash into Sartre
some question... the
may mind".
(1978, 47)
p. referred to hypnagogic "an
mentation as ent-
irely
new way of thinking". A from Novalis
quotation
(Begouin 1939, p. 210) reads: "To dream and altogether not
to dream. This synthesis is the operation of the genius,
by both
which activities
are mutually reinforced".
Varendonck (1921)
reported that he had his
conceived
most original contributions to just before falling
science
Problem in hypnagogia
asleep. solving has been
also repor-
ted by Kekule (Japp 1878), W. Scott (Beveridge 1950,
pp.
73-74), Poincare (1913), Stanford (1977), Edison (Bernd
1978), Hadamard, Einstein, Brindley (Koestler 1981,
pp.
116-117,183,211). To these be the 'informa-
must added
tional' cases referred to in the chapter on 'Psi', that
is, the has to
cases where subject a sudden solution a pro-
blem is 'warned' impending danger.
or about an
Marsh (1906) found that literary
most artistic and
creative people were at their best in early morning and
Green
late Green (1970) Green
evening, and et al and and
indivi-
(1978)
pointed out that many outstanding creative
duals have that their insights were asso-
reported greatest
(Miller
hypnagogic imagery. Poems
ciated with reverie and
1906; Prince 1952; Moss 1970; Coleridge: Koestler 1981),
stories for (Caldwell: Stearn 1973), and whole
novels
(Leader been
novels 1973: by Panati 1975) have
cited
-310-
311
in the hypnagogic-hypnopompic state. M. Twain,
conceived
1911),
E. A. Poe, R. L. Stevenson (Hollingworth L. Carroll
(Panati 1975), Max Ernst (1952), Wagner Bradbury
and
(McKellar 1957) C. Lamb T. de Quincey (McKellar
and and
1979b) known to have hypnagogic imagery
are used as source
Melville (1961) in his 'Moby Dick' describes
material.
tactile hypnagogic to Ishmael,
a experience as occurring
the in the (see Schneck 1977 for
one of characters novel
imag-
discussion). Emily Bronte describes hypnagogic
also
in 'Vill-
in 'Wuthering Heights', Charlotte Bronte
ery and
ette' describes what she calls an opium vision which she
taking
personally experienced not as a result of opium -
she denied ever having taken any but as the outcome of
-
having thought about it on numerous occasions before sleep:
"emer-
"The itself", (1963, 141),
McKellar
vision p. reports,
in
the
ged on one occasion after waking up morning".
Brahms (Abell 1964, 19-21), Puccini Wagner
pp. and
(Gowan 1976) described hypnagogiclike trances
as states
they had their famous Keats
wherein created compositions.
had judging by his 'Ode to
probably similar experiences
"a
Nightingale' the description
a which opens with of
drowsy the lines:
numbness" and closes with
Was it dream?
a vision, or a waking
Fled is that do I
music: wake or sleep?
-
The be the Spanish Be"cquer
same may also said of poet who,
in his "I did but
one of poems, wrote: not sleep wandered
in that limbo the
where objects change shape, mysterious
tracts that from (quoted by Lewin
separate
waking sleep"
1969, 116). Of the besides Ernst
p.
modern painters,
already referred to, Dali is known for his use of a
well
hypnagogic both
method of relaxation as a means of relax-
inspiration. His full hypna-
ation and paintings are of
gogic imagery and one of them bears the title: "Dream
caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate one
before Similarly, Oster (1966) has
second waking up". pro-
duced based his hypnagogic
a number of paintings on
phosphenes.
hypna-
Edison is said to have made extensive use of
(1978)
ideas. Bernd
gogia as a means of arriving at new
312
that
reports
Edison to hard in his
used work very research at
-
beta, the faster brain frequencies. Then
wave when
he would reach a 'sticking point' he would take one
his famous 'cat He doze in his
of naps'. would off
favourite holding balls in the
chair, steel palms of
his hands. As he fall driting into
would asleep
-
his lower, letting the
alpha arms would relax and
-
balls fall into the floor. The
pans on noise would
Edison, he
wake and very often would awaken with an
idea to his
continue with project.
(Bernd 1978, 28-29).
pp.
Bernd follows the the "what
above report with question:
this have done if he had known how to
might genius use
levels falling to
alpha consciously without asleep get
there? " (p. 29). Attempts to have
answer such a question
involved the to brain
relating of creativity alphoid waves
and hypnagogia. Elmer Green and his co-workers A. Green
and D. Walters have directed their
attention specifically
to this
problem.
Using autogenic feedback techniques, they have set
"to
the
out study general processes, conditions, and con-
tents during deep
of consciousness
a state of reverie.
This combination of reverie and awareness seems to be an
(though
ingredient
essential maybe not sufficient) of crea-
tivity" (Green, Green Walters 1970, 21). They drew
and p.
to the following
attention considerations:
(a) the link between
existence of a or relationship
in the brain
alpha-and-theta-rhythms wave and reverie-
and-hypnagogic-imagery, and to (b) the existence of
link
between
a or relationship
reverie-and-hypnagogic-
imagery
and creativity. It be inferred from the
can
juxtaposition
above that the
areas of alpha-and-theta-
rhythms and creativity may indeed overlap, and that
in
training the
production and control of alpha-and-
theta-rhythms
may make possible an enhancement of
in individuals is
creativity whose potential yet
unrealized.
(Green 1970, 11-12).
et al pp.
Earlier they "hypnagogic-like imagery" the
on speak of as
for
"sine qua non of creativity many outstanding people"
(p. 10). They define "reverie" "a inward-turned
as state of
internal (p. 10, 3)
abstract attention or scanning" note
their the term "hypnagogic-
and explain use of qualifying
like" instead hypnagogic "because
were
of our subjects
313
trying to than to
remain awake rather go sleep" (p. 12,
note
6).
In "a
pilot studies with professor of physics,
a
psychiatrist, and a psychologist, all of whom are uniquely
individualistic,
in
creative, and successful their
respec-
tive vocations" (p. 12, 4). Green his
note and co-workers
reported that their demonstrated "an
subjects
unusually
high
percentage of 6-8/ Hertz waves in their EEG
records
during
periods of deep reverie" (p. 12). Two of them showed
long trains
theta in
of hypnagogic-
waves conjunction with
like imagery "which
they said was customary in their inter-
nal scanning experience" whilst the third managed to lower
his
alpha rhythm to 8.3 Hertz "during 1-minute trials
and
reported this imageless
as a preliminary mind-quieting
in
stage moving toward deeper (p. 12).
a state of reverie"
In follows
what I the
shall examine general concept
of creativity
and point out what are thought to be the nec-
essary and sufficient for
conditions creative activity.
I
shall present cases inspiration
of and creativity occur-
in the hypnagogic-hypnopompic
ring
that
state and argue
the latter
contains some, and sometimes all, of the nece-
for
ssary and sufficient conditions the
emergence of crea-
tivity. I
shall also relate schizophrenia to
creativity
and argue that the state of hypnagogia is their
natural
meeting place, so to speak, and that the study of the lat-
ter throw light
can on both of the former. I
shall main-
tain that the
necessary for
and sufficient conditions
to be discussed
creativity functions loosening
are of the
boundaries
of ego which is defining feature hypnagogia.
a of
The literature
be divided
on creativity
may roughly
into the following
areas characterized by different
res-
earch orientations:
(1): Personality
traits, identified
abilities,
and attitudes
314
in individuals (e. Meier 1939;
creative Wilson
g.,
et al
1953; Angyal 1956; Barron 1958,1963; Lowenfeld 1958;
Whiting 1958; Hilgard 1959; Fromm 1959; Rogers 1959;
Guilford 1959,1962; Maslow 1968; Drevdahl
Cattell
and
1958; Mooney 1956;
Mooney Razik 1967;
Abdel-Salan 1963).
and
(2): Research into
the
creative process per se. This may
be divided into
sub-groups again characterized by theore-
tical
orientations suggested by evidential Hallman
reports.
(1967) has identified
three They
such areas.
are:
(2a):
Creativity
(e.
as a series of chronological stages g.
Dewey 1910;
Wallas 1926; Rossman 1931; Poincare 1913;
Montmasson 1931;
Patrick 1937; Spender 1946; Hutchinson
1939,1949;
Ghiselin 1952; Vinacke 1952; Hadamard 1954;
Arnold 1959).
This is by Wallas's (1926)
view exemplified
incubation,
preparation, inspiration,
evaluation stages.
(2b): Creativity
"an interchange
as
of energy among vertical
layers
of psychological "as the
systems", e. g., primary
and secondary
processes, the the
autistic and reality adju-
sted, unconscious mechanisms and unconscious deliberation,
free
bound
and
energies, ten-
gestalt-free and articulating
dencies" (Hallman 1967,
17).
Besides Freud (1959),
p. other
proponents of such view include Schneider 1950; Ehrenzweig
1953;
Maslow 1959;
Murray 1959).
(2c):
Creativity
as types of thinking distinct
which are
from
non-creative ones. Thus, is inte-
creative
mentation
grating, synthesizing, relational, fusing disparate
of
elements. Hallman (1967, 18)
p. summarizes this
examples of
"Spearman
view: (1931)
to
refers thinking the
creative as
education of correlates; Vinacke (1952), imagination
as
than
rather voluntary,
rational Bartlett (1958)
operations;
divergent
as autistic thinking distinguished from
as closed
Bruner's book
systems. On Knowing (1962) the
makes same
distinction".
(3): Training for
creativity, by 'synetics' (e.
e. g., g.,
Gordon 1961), 'brain-storming'
(e. Parnes 1962; Osborn
g.,
1963).
(4): Studying
creativity through hypnosis (e. Krippner
g.,
1964; MacKinnon 1964).
(5): Creativity in (e. Mearns 1925; Getzels
education g.,
315
Jackson 1962; MacKinnon 1962; Torrance 1962;
and Parnes
1963; Cattel 1968).
Hallman (1967) has identified five for
criteria
crea-
(a)
tivity: (ß) (y)
connectedness,
nonrationality, origi-
(b)
nality, openness, (E) self-actualization. These he
to be the
considers necessary and sufficient conditions
of creativity. I shall examine them below and argue that,
with certain qualifications in respect to (y) (C) these
and
features in hypnagogia.
are present
Connectedness 'actualized'
and metaphors:
The Hallman
criterion of connectedness, which, as
points out, employs the category of relation as a principle
isolates
of explanation the
and relation of similitude
its basic feature,
as has been by
proposed a number of
described it
workers who
variously as combinatorial acti-
vity (Bruner 1962), fusion (McKellar 1957),
unexpected con-
from
nections resulting
unconscious symbolic activity
(Kubie 1958),
is
compositional
activity whose outcome a
new object, experience image (Murray 1959),
or new config-
(Ghiselin
urations 1952; Arnold 1959).
Hallman (p. 19) that "connectedness
argues comprises
relationships which are neither symmetrical nor transitive;
that is, the
newly created connections as wholes are not
to the being
equivalent parts Neither
connected. side of
the implies
equation validly the for the
other, relation-
is
inferential
ship neither it is
nor causal; rather, meta-
transformational".
phoric and
The feature
of connectedness in is to be
creativity
found in
all areas of human intell-
activity: perceptual,
imaginative.
ectual,
In respect to hypnagogia it is the
encountered as
fusion (i)
form
of relatively relevant components to a com-
in Galton's (1883)
posite, as and Katz's (1948) photographs
(ii) disparate belonging to
and apparently elements ent-
irely different The
matrices. mechanisms of this activity
be in the "contrary imagina-
may present waking state as
tions" divergent thinking (Hudson 1968) but the
or quality
316
fusions in hypnagogia is (Leroy 1933;
of considered unique
Rapaport 1967a).
In to (i) there the
regards are numerous reports of
hypnagogic images
experiences which contain unrecognizable
whose parts are, nonetheless, recognized as belonging to
imaginative being 'like'
past perceptual or experiences, as
but dimensions;
something already experienced with added
that is, in Hallman, "the
agreement with newly created con-
to the being
nections as wholes are not equivalent parts
A in here is that Miller's
connected". case point of
(1906).
She how
relates one night she experienced and wrote
hypnagogic drama "Chiwantopel". Lying in bed
a she called
"[I] had the that
with closed eyes, she writes, sensation
I was waiting for something to happen. Then I felt a great
I impassive (p. 48).
relaxation and remained as as possible"
There followed the familiar hypnagogic "lines,
mosaic of
sparks and spirals of light... [and]... a kaleidoscopic
fragmented
and review of recent trivial events. Then came
impression
the that to be
something was about communicated
to me". There appeared the figure Inca,
of an complete
head-dress,
with who bore the name of "Chi-wan-to-pel",
which Miller heard spelled out syllable by syllable. Round
this character raged a battle and the cries of "wa-ma, wa-
ma" were heard. There followed other scenes, and the little
drama Chiwantopel's dying
ended with monologue which was
delivered in English for the last
except words which were:
"Ja-ni-wa-ma, Ja-ni-wa-ma"
for "You
and stood will under-
(p. 50).
stand"
Miller
attempts to her by
explain experiences refer-
to
ence previous wakeful believes
ones which she probably
provided the various elements that eventually came together
(fused, in hypnagogia
combined) and unfolded as a new,
drama. Although does to
self-contained she not attempt
the the Inca-like "wa-ma"
explain genesis of neologisms
"Ja-ni-wa-ma"
that"Chi-wan-to-pel"
and she suggests
have been the lines
may subconsciously constructed along
"Po-po-cat-a-pel" American
of a central volcano whose name
familiar Other
she was with. elements were also condensed
317
before in
and rearranged unconsciously emerging their
new
form during her hypnagogic But, impor-
experience. more
tant, she explains that during the days before this exper-
ience "had been for inspiration, for
she searching
an orig-
inal idea" (p. 51) "mosaic"
that this the
and was outcome
distant brought together by this
of and recent experiences
Interestingly, Miller's this
need. explanations of and
her hypnagogic
other of experiences were given out as an
interpretations
argument against possible spiritualistic
of such events. This, and the presence of neologisms,
clearly point both to the close relationship that may be
between
seen as existing psi, schizophrenia, and creativity
to the fact that hypnagogia the
and constitutes meeting
the frame
place, or general of mind, wherein such states
may naturally make their appearance.
Koestler (1981, 167) that Coleridge's
p. suggests
"Kubla
Khan" "in intense day-dream hypna-
originated an or
gogic state... some intermediary kind of 'waking dream'".
Coleridge himself
that
noted
Ideas images
and exist in the twilight realms of con-
sciousness, that half-being, that
shadowy state of
nascent existence in the twilight imagination
of and
just
the
on vestibule of consciousness, a confluence
of our recollections through
which we establish a
it
centre, as were, a sort of nucleus in [this) reser-
the
voir of soul.
(cited by Gerard 1946, 481).
p.
Moreover, Coleridge (1952, 84-85)
that
pp. also stated prior
to having the Kubla Khan "in the ima-
experience
which all
before him
ges rose up things", he had been
as reading
'Purcha's Pilgrimage'
Khan Kubla's
where palace and stately
described.
garden were Thus, to borrow Lowes's in
words
analysing another of Coleridge's 'The Ancient Mari-
poems,
this hypnagogic "facts int-
ner', on occasion which sank at
ervals out of conscious recollection drew together beneath
the through
surface almost chemical affinities of common
Beneath the lie... innumerable blendings
elements.... poem
fusings impressions, brought below the level
and of about
(cited by Gerard 1946,
of conscious mental processes" p.
481).
An to Miller's Coleridge's but
experience similar and
318
is described by
the hypnopompic end also one
occurring at
(1952) She writes:
Prince's subjects.
of
four in
between three
time and
I
woke suddenly some
the morning. I was perfectly wide awake and conscious
of my surroundings but for a short time - perhaps two
I this
or three minutes could not move, and saw
-I
I as such.
vision which recognized
1952, 204).
(Prince
p.
depicted
The "extraordinarily clear" a
vision which was
tender love between a man and a woman set against
scene
that
The she
"a subject notes
sort of rosy atmosphere".
the
did at the moment of seeing
not experience any emotion
In
that it down, in verse, at once.
vision and she wrote
had
and
the next morning she read over what she written
She
the presented
"was the language and rhythm".
amazed at
it Again, as
the poem to Prince exactly as was written.
in Miller's case, the subject notes:
I had been trying
For two three days
or previously
deal
to had been reading a good
write some verses, and
in I had also
I had been thinking rhythm.
of poetry.
been strain
under considerable nervous and emotional
facts
for little time in to the por-
some reference
in
trayed the
verse.
(Prince 1952, 206).
p.
Time
Einstein's basic insight into the relativity of
he bed. And,
came to him early one morning as got out of
Koestler (1981, p. 183) remarks, that sudden moment of
as
truth had been preceded by ten years of contemplation on
intense
the Likewise Hadamard's (1954) long and
subject.
He
in hypnopompic illumination.
thinking
culminated a
writes:
for its
One is I abs-
phenomenon certain and can vouch
immediate
the appearance
olute certainty: sudden and
of a solution at the very moment of sudden awakening.
On being very abruptly awakened by an external noise,
long for to me at once
a solution searched appeared
the slightest instant of reflection on my
without
have
fact to struck
the was remarkable enough
part
-
direc-
in different
and quite a
me unforgettably -
tried
tion from any of those which I had previously
follow.
to
(Hadamard: 1981, 116-
by Koestler pp.
quoted
7).
1897, 11-
Lamberton (Newbold pp.
In
a similar manner,
"bogged"
had
that
13) the of a problem
solution
achieved
it.
intense thinking over
him after two weeks of analytic