Although we are imperfect mortals, we do manage to create some pretty astounding things. Take, for instance, that artificial island at Dubai, shaped like a palm tree. Or the Taj Mahal in India with its white splendour. And closer to home, the intricate crochet work done by our grandmothers, now sitting in a drawer somewhere. No, not our Grans, but rather the focus of their fingers: those fine circles and squares of love.

While pondering our theme, Handmade, I wondered about our marvellous creations (and the less wonderful ones) being a work of our hands, but where do ideas actually germinate?

With neuroscience advancing rapidly over the past decades, the experts have pinpointed which parts of our brains come up with concepts and which parts bring our ideas to fruition. We have been wired by a Mastermind! What a pity we sometimes get in the way of a good idea by squashing it without allowing it to ripen organically.

Rachel Barr, a Scottish neuroscientist writing for Big Think on Substack, refers to our “rhythm of reckless creation and careful revision”. She has pinpointed the areas of the brain where creation, and later revision, take place. She agrees with Scott Dickers’s model of how creativity is sparked. He calls it the Clown and the Editor. The Clown forms messy ideas and the Editor tidies them up.

Barr has pinpointed the two characters’ real, measurable neural networks: “The default mode network (DMN) is the Clown or dream factory. It recruits cortical midline structures, like the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate, to let thoughts drift. The executive control network (ECN) is the pragmatic adult in the room, the Editor that marshals frontoparietal systems in pursuit of internal goals and strategic planning.” 

The two areas of the brain do not fire at the same time. Barr says creativity, at the network level, is about passing the baton at the right moment. We should allow time to mull over a topic or idea and in good time the executive will take over to refine it. The best of us will manage this hand-over more flexibly and fluently. “What sets proficient creatives apart is dexterity in switching between these modes.”

American novelist Ernest Hemingway is known for having said “Write drunk, edit sober!” It seems he and others intuitively knew what has now been proven with neuroscience.

Our mistakes and half-baked jobs are what make us human and endearing to others. So when we feel the flutter of excitement about a creative project emerging from within, we can now know that our medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate are the origin. We must give them time to grow ideas.

The next question to ponder is whether that sweet spot is the resident seat of the Holy Spirit?