This article reports a qualitative research study of the experience of inspiration in ordinary persons. Results gleaned from analysis of 70 in-depth interviews suggest that this phenomenon is a significant and distinct epistemic event that many people experience. As such, this evidence may help to shift the center of gravity of knowing away from the exclusivity of a narrow form of rational empiricism. Although inspiration cannot be willed, it may be cultivated. Experiences described as the absence of inspiration seem to correspond to common mental health complaints.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Arieti, S.
(1976). Creativity: The magic synthesis. New York: Basic Books.
2.
Assiagioli, R.
(1965). Psychosynthesis. New York: Penguin.
3.
Assiagioli, R.
(1973). The act of will. New York: Penguin.
4.
Blake, W.
(1986). A memorable fancy. In J. Bronowski (Ed.), Poems and letters. Middlesex, England: Penguin.
5.
Biela, A.
, & Tobacyk, J. (1987). Self-transcendence in the agoralgathering: A case of Pope John Paul II's visit to Poland. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 27(4), pp. 390-405.
6.
Bowra, C. M.
(1955). Inspiration and poetry. London: MacMillan.
7.
Bucke, R. M.
(1969). Cosmic consciousness: A study in the evolution of the human mind (2nd ed.). New York: Dutton.
8.
Chadwick, N. K.
(1942). Poetry and prophecy. Cambridge, MA: University Press.
9.
Cytowic, R. E.
(1995). Synesthesia: Phenomenology and neuropsychology; a review of current knowledge. Psyche:An Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Consciousness [On-line serial], 2(10).
10.
Eliade, M.
(1964). Shamanism: Archaic techniques of ecstasy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
11.
Flier, L.
(1995). Demystifying mysticism: Finding a developmental relationship between different ways of knowing. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 27(2), pp. 131-152.
12.
Frieden, K.
(1985). Genius and monologue. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
13.
Gilligan, C.
(1982). In a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
14.
Goodman, F. D.
(1988). Ecstasy, ritual, and alternate reality: Religion in a pluralistic world. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
15.
Goodman, F. D.
(1990). Where the spirits ride the wind: Trance journeys and other ecstatic experiences. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
16.
Harding, A. J.
(1985) Coleridge and the inspired word. Kingston/Montreal: McGill/Queens University Press.
17.
Harmon, W.
, & Rheingold, H. (1984) Higher creativity: Liberating the unconscious for breakthrough insights. Los Angeles: Tarcher.
18.
Harner, M.
(1980). The way of the shaman. New York: Harper & Row.
19.
Hart, T. R.
(1993). An exploration of the experience and its role in healthy functioning. Dissertation Abstracts International, 54(02B), p. 1077-1077.
20.
Hart, T. R.
(1995). Ethical choice in a postmodern world: Cognition, consciousness and contact. In M. J. LaFountain (Ed.), Postmodern ethics (pp. 131-158). Carrollton: West Georgia College.
21.
Heschel, A. J.
(1962). The prophets. New York: Harper & Row.
22.
Hymer, S.
(1990). On inspiration. The Psychotherapy Patient, 6(3/4), 17-38.
23.
James, W.
(1990). Varieties of religious experience (2nd ed.). New York: Vintage.
24.
Kelly, G. A.
(1955). The psychology of personal constructs. New York: Norton.
25.
Kohak, E.
(1984). The embers and the stars: A philosophical inquiry into the moral sense of nature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
26.
Kohut, H.
(1980). Two Letters. In A. Goldberg (Ed.), Advances in selfpsychology (pp. 449-469). New York: International Universities Press.
27.
Krippner, S.
(1972). The plateau experience: A. H. Maslow and others. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 4, 107-120.
28.
Larson, S.
(1976). The shaman's doorway. New York: Station Hill.
29.
Laski, M.
(1961). Ecstasy: A study of some secular and religious experiences. London: Cresset.
30.
Lyotard, J. F.
(1984). The post-modern condition: A report on knowledge (G. Bennington & B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
31.
Maslow, A.
(1962). Toward a psychology of being. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
32.
Maslow, A.
(1971). The farther reaches of human nature. New York: Penguin
33.
Maslow, A.
(1983). Religion, values and peak experience. New York: Penguin.
34.
May, G.
(1982). Will and spirit. New York: Harper & Row.
35.
May, R.
(1975). The courage to create. New York: Bantam.
36.
Merleau-Ponty, M.
(1962/1945). The phenomenology ofperception (C. Smith, Trans.). New York: Humanities Press.
37.
Montuori, A.
, & Purser, R. E. (1995). Decontructing the lone genius myth: Toward a contextual view of creativity. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 35(3), 69-112.
38.
Ommaya, A. K.
(in press). Neurobiology of emotion and the evolution of mind. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis.
39.
Panzarella, R.
(1980). The phenomenology of aesthetic peak experiences. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 2(1), 69-85.
40.
Perry, J. W.
(1974). The far side of madness. Berkeley: University of California Press.
41.
Plato
(1962). Ion (W.R.M. Lamb, Trans.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
42.
Raymond, G. E.
(1908). The psychology of inspiration. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
43.
Richards, R.
(1996). Does the lone genius ride again? Chaos, creativity and community. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 36(2), 44-60.
44.
Tart, C.
(1990). Extending mindfulness to everyday life. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 30(1), 81-106.
45.
Underhill, E.
(1960). Mysticism. New York: Meridian.
46.
Vogt, K. D.
(1987). Vision and revision: The concept of inspiration in Thomas Mann's fiction. New York: Peter Lang.
47.
Walsh, R.
(1990). The spirit of shamanism. New York: Putnam.
48.
Walsh, R.
(1995). Phenomenological mapping: a method for describing and comparing states of consciousness. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 27(1), 25-56.
49.
Wilber, K.
(1981). Up from Eden. New York: Routledge.
50.
Wilber, K.
(1995). Sex, ecology, spirituality. The spirit of evolution. Boston: Shambhala.
51.
Williams, M. E.
(1982). Inspiration in Milton and Keats. Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble.
