CREATIVITY

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For Elysium's Passage Blog Posts, go to www.elysiumspassage.com     
For URL list go to https://digitalbloggers.com/articles/elysiumspassage 

  

CREATIVITY

Are you creative? I hope so, but do you think you could live your life more creatively? I think most of us could if only we could break out of all our old modalities and routines. So, what causes us to hold back by falling into the same old conventions, social expectations and protocols?

But first, let’s ask; what is creativity? The following are a few definitions from various dictionaries.

cre·a·tiv·i·ty/noun
ˌkrēāˈtivədē/

·  The use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of artistic work.

·  The ability to produce or use original and unusual ideas

·  Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something somehow new and somehow valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible or a physical object

·  The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.


Okay, that’s fine… no big surprises here.

In this post, I’d like to examine the nature of creativity and what we mean by creativity. It seems we all think we know what the word means on the surface, but I’d like to go a bit deeper and explore in practical terms how we can be more creative.

To be creative, one has to go outside the box, paint-by-numbers approach, or, as the last definition states: “to transcend.” But what does that mean and how do we do it?

Let’s ask, what do we feel when we’re creating something new? Exhilarated, free, forward-looking, fulfilled, artistic… what else?

I think most of us might agree that we are never more fully human than while we’re giving expression to something inside wishing to be acknowledged, manifested and loved. It’s empowering to bring a part of ourselves into outward existence. This is why the creative are often among those most alive, happy and imaginative.    

Van Gogh, cleverly stated: I dream my painting, I paint my dream.

For him, it all started with the dream. Or we might say, an imaginative vision… or perhaps even an epiphany. It’s whatever is seen in the mind’s eyes that we wish to manifest.

Unfortunately, few seemed to appreciate Van Gogh's creations, and so he became tormented and suicidal. When culture rejected his brilliant creations, he felt they rejected the essence of his being. In expressing the brilliance he offered the world, his genius remained unappreciated. What could be sadder?

 

 

But back to us. It’s often not clear what our creations might look like before they are completed. It’s like entering a portal that has opened without knowing what to expect on the other side. That’s why we wish to give form to what wants to come into existence that we might know what it is. And in admiring what we have created, we, in a sense, love and admire ourselves.

However, once we proceed through the portal there could be any number of ups and downs, detours, refinements or even complete changes in our course direction. What’s important is that we continue to wherever this light of inspiration leads or we’ll never know what we could have brought to life.

To help illustrate this, I’d like to share my most significant creative endeavour. It all started out as little more than just an inkling to journal some of my ideas, however, I had no idea where it might take me. Prior to this, I often expressed my creativity by making things with my hands, often related to woodwork such as building furniture, landscaping, etc. 

It’s a long story on how this all came about, but, if interested, you can read about it in another post. https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/how-it-came  

Once I began, ideas started to flow as I wrote several hundred pages of meandering thoughts that often were unrelated. As an aside, I had read a lot of quality literature for much of my life after receiving degrees in English and Philosophy. Still, I had never given much expression to what I had taken in for so many years, other than in certain discussion groups.

However, much of my writing seemed rather heavy and cumbersome, basically written to and for me. I thought, should I ever wish to turn this writing into a published book, no one would want to read it because it might be too dense. Still, I thought it had good content, just that it probably wasn't expressed well enough to interest the reading public.

Then, one evening, I asked my ‘muses’ to give me some illustrations and humour to make the concepts more clear and interesting. But the next day, I felt inspired to illustrate something I was trying to express. Before I knew it, that illustration turned into an intriguing allegory. Then this allegory turned into someone’s dream, and without even thinking about it, this someone all of sudden came alive. Next thing I knew and was writing a novel about his life. It felt a bit shocking at first since I had never thought about writing a novel before, and yet here I was doing it.

It was exciting to be creating a whole new world for myself and my characters. Over the next weeks and months, hundreds of pages began to flow out of my imagination, without knowing what would happen next. The plot unfolded in a way I could never have contrived. It was as if ‘it’ was writing itself, which is a rather common experience for novelists. For me, it was giving an expression to my creativity at its finest.

After about a year, I had written over 600 pages of intriguing fantasy, philosophy, romance, spirituality and adventure. Even though I was still working as a commercial real estate agent, I would sometimes find myself writing for 15 hours, not able to go to bed because I couldn’t wait to find what might happen next.

It literally took over my life, and so I had to quit working in real estate so I could pursue my passion. No longer was I earning a living, but it didn’t matter, I was doing what I loved.

After a couple more years of creative writing, the real work of refining, revision, editing and proofing began. But even with this, I found many opportunities to embellish the novels with creative expression, humour and side adventures.

Now, almost seven years later, I’m almost ready to publish the first four novels of the Elysium’s Passage series, and hopefully the next two sometime by mid-2021. Despite a few pauses of several months along the way, it’s been an exhilarating ride. I can hardly wait to begin the last book since much of it has already been written in my mind as the story impatiently calls out to give form to what it has to say.

What I hoped to illustrate in communicating my creative writing experiences is how inspiration comes after we begin. That’s what creates. It occurs in the process of creation, not before and not after. Had I not begun to journal random thoughts, the story would never have emerged, and I would never have been able to enter into this alternate universe that still fascinates me.

The other point I would make is that once your creativity gets traction, it doesn’t want to stop. What we put out there, we receive in more inspiration that we might continue with more and more; never-ending creations. It keeps creating more of its own good vibe that sustains us to perfect our work, as we create evermore.

But first, before we start, we need to find in a happy place for our soul so it can create. Once we put our troubles aside, the creative process is able to do the rest. If we begin with an attitude of gratitude and appreciation, we will have a foundation to build upon.

That’s because creation is an expression of love. In fact, when you think about it, we are conceived and created as an expression of love. So, whatever you envision in your mind’s imagination, and believe in, you can create it as an expression of love; be it a garden, a business, a poem, a song, a cake, an equation, or a book.

If you have the inspiration, your creation will unfold in your mind as it aligns with your mind’s frequency to materialize in whatever form you wish to mould. Some call this the Law of Attraction.

We are never more fully human than when we create since we’re all co-creators, created in the image of the Creator. And so, it’s in our essence-nature… what it means to be gods. The more we create, the more we bring heaven down to earth. As the English poet William Blake once wrote in a poem: Eternity is in love with the creations of time.

There are several posts on this blog site that might prove inspirational in establishing a creative matrix. 
 
Raise Your Vibe https://digitalbloggers.com/book-reviews/a-higher-vibe  
Sowing Happy Seeds of Gratitude https://digitalbloggers.com/book-reviews/sowing-happy-seeds-of-gratitude    
Let Your Light Shine https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/let-your-light-shine   
A Higher Vision https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/a-vision-a-call   

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To give further consideration to what creativity might mean, I have selected the following dialogue excerpts from certain novels in my, yet unpublished, Elysium’s Passage novel series.

‘Creativity is a fractal of infinite possibilities of expansion. It cannot be understood in the sequence of scientific or religious terms, since all creation unfolds what remains enfolded, not in time, but in eternity.’

‘Creation is not an event, so much as an enfolding and unfolding within the loving embrace of Alpha and Omega. Outwardly, creation seems to occur in the explicit domain of manifestation, but in the implicate universe, it remains latent in the void of infinite possibilities. All and nothingness, at once, existing as one, proceeding outwardly and then back again, endlessly and seamlessly.’

‘And is this not the way life should be,’ Mo asked, ‘with much joy and happiness? Every fantasy you’ve ever had on earth is still waiting for fulfilment in Elysium. Every act of creativity is waiting to be expressed, just as every gift given is waiting to be received.’

 

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Of course, there is much more to this topic of creativity, so I have included the following quotes by luminaries of our contemporary culture. There is much worth considering in these quotes, which could easily turn into a book if examined in more detail    

Eric Fromm
“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”

Maya Angelou
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

Criss Jami
“Create with the heart; build with the mind”

Brené Brown
“The only unique contribution that we will ever make in this world will be born of our creativity.”

Pablo Picasso
“Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.”

Derek Landy
“Doors are for people with no imagination.”

John Steinbeck 
“Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.”

Arthur Koestler 
“Creative activity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.”

Scarlett Thomas 
“Routine kills creative thought.”

Charles Mingus
“Making the simple complicated is commonplace. Making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

John Maynard Keynes
“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.”

Albert Einstein
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. Creativity is contagious. Pass it on."

Charlie Peacock
“It's not just about creativity. It's about the person you're becoming while you're creating.”

Osho
“Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.”

Dr Seuss
“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

Scott Adams
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”

Vincent Van Gogh
“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.”
 
Pablo Picasso
“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.”

Anaïs Nin
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

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SUMMARY OF ELYSIUM'S PASSAGE

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The ELYSIUM'S PASSAGE novel series is a seven-book narration about a young British philosopher named James Phillips who finds himself living in an altered state of reality while still remaining on earth.  

After experiencing a near-fatal fall while climbing to the summit of a remote mountain in the Andes, James awakens in a new dimension. He soon encounters two mysterious beings who provide him with a very different perspective on the nature of his existence. Over the next year, before his body recovers from the coma, he is challenged to re-examine his understanding about life’s meaning and purpose far beyond anything he previously believed or could believe.

An engaging and sometime surreal adventure with intimations of impending romance, the narrative explores the most important questions about life, death, reality and our ultimate destiny. 

The Plains of Elysium (Champs-Élysées) was described by Homer, Hesiod, Virgil and many other poets as the paradisiac afterlife realm reserved for heroes. As the title suggests, this is about a journey through a passage that leads towards Elysium’s exciting realm of existence.

Read a sample press review at https://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/05/prweb15515775.htm 


  
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The following comments are excerpts from among the first readers including a number of Amazon five star reviews. To read the full reviews, go to READER REVIEWS on www.elysiumspassage.com or directly at https://digitalbloggers.com/arts-and-entertainment/reader-reviews

"A delightful mix of fantasy, reality, conjecture and humour; Mr Meyers draws the reader into the story with a gentle narrative that captures the imagination, leaving one anxious to get to the next page drawing you into his exceptional world.”

"Quietly, gently, and without imposition, the Author unfolds the pages, creating an intricate, interlocking bridge spanning the chasm between mind and heart. Renewing, refreshing, restoring. In my bereavement, it was vigil and light…"

“Excellently written with an exceedingly deep understanding of this world and the next. The characters are very well written and engaging. I can't wait to complete this book!"

“Takes the reader on both a philosophical and spiritual journey, a journey that at times is both disquieting and tranquil. James, a British Philosopher can be irreverent and caustic, traits that should have left me cringing, but instead made me laugh out loud. Elysium’s Passage is a fun, enlightening and remarkable book.”

“This is a masterful fantasy, becoming a real possibility, as the reader is drawn into the story. The Summit leaves you anxious for the next book in the series, yet also leaves you totally satisfied with the world you have just visited. Genius! An exciting, yet calming, experience that is not to be missed."

"There was hardly a page on which I did not find at least one sentence worthy of hi-lighting for future reference. In addition, I thoroughly enjoyed the main character, James, whose personality and passionate verbal exchanges with the other characters, kept me coming back for more. I am reading the book for a second time while I wait for the next one in this series to be made available."

 “N.G. Meyers has clearly put a great deal of research and thought into what the afterlife may look like and I like his perspective. It’s an altogether welcoming and exciting vision. The book gives one a great deal to think about and a reassuring confidence that the end of our lives is truly the beginning of life in the next. I highly recommend it."

"I am really enjoying your book, it’s fantastic! It is so incredible and diversified that I can’t really explain it to other people, so what I say is just read this book. Thank you so much for the blessings that you’ve given the world!"

“The humour interjected into a serious discussion makes me laugh out loud. Totally unexpected....l may be in the presence of at least a master, if not a genius. A fair ride into reality... seeking that which is unseen, yet absolutely real.”

“An engaging story of adventure embracing man's deepest desire to search for meaning and purpose, N.G. Meyers takes the reader on an adventurous thought-provoking journey. This book has substance. It is a perfect blend of adventure and fantasy combined with spiritual philosophy. It ignited my imagination. The author magically weaves a good story laced with wit and humour together with deep philosophical wisdom. This book has it all!”

“An evolution in thought is triggered by many fresh philosophical themes which could inspire readers to re-think their reality and former ideologies that have dictated their lives… the author fires readers’ imaginations to view what could be possible when spirit vacates the body.”

“This is the book spiritual seekers have been waiting for. For me, it granted a great read as well as increased inspiration to live every day with a heightened sense of purpose. I highly recommend it.

“The Summit is capable of hooking readers and luring them to search for Book 2 to discover more about Dr. Philip’s surreal trek into the mysterious unknown universe. This thick book is well worth the read and to share…”

“Mind-blowing statements and speculation (‘…everyone is a non-physical thought form conceived in the Mind of God, preserved for all eternity because God’s thoughts never die…’). Many will find Meyers’ journey up the Mountain intriguing—and possibly even life-changing.” (BLUEINK REVIEW)

“In its effort to grapple with fundamental questions about the meaning of life, it raises questions that have echoed throughout the ages, including about where we come from, where we are going, who we are.”  (CLARION REVIEW)

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CONTACT INFORMATION & SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
 

EMAIL: nmeyers@shaw.ca       

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/elysiumspassage/ Elysium's Passage Novel Series Elysium's Passage Group page, Elysium's Passage Author's page 

TWITTER: Elysium's Passage

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/meyersneil/      

PINTEREST: https://www.pinterest.ca/neilmeyers/      

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-meyers     

YOUTUBE: YouTube: Elysium Passage   

For more blog postings click: https://digitalbloggers.com/articles/elysiumspassage      

AMAZON: Elysium's Passage: The Summit and is now available: www.amazon.com   www.amazon.ca     or via www.elysiumspassage.com      

 

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PENDING PUBLICATION OF ELYSIUM’S PASSAGE SERIES

                                          Amazon in 2024

 

THE ASCENT: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

THE SUMMIT: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

QUANTUM LEAPS: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

SURREAL ADVENTURES: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

MYSTICAL ROMANCE: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

THE ELIXIR: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

THE RETURN: Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage

 

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1. The Ascent is the first novel in the Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage that’s foundational to everything that happens in the following narratives that embark on an adventure that will surprise and delight the reader like no other book.

It all begins with an extreme adventure of climbing a remote and challenging mountain somewhere in the Andean Mountains. Just as James, the protagonist, is about to reach the mountain summit, he falls into an abyss that leaves him in a coma for almost a year.

After being airlifted by a forestry helicopter and flown back to London, where his body remains for almost a year. Eventually, he learns it was not him but his body that was rescued. Several days later, without understanding what happened, he continues to climb to the summit in an alternate dimension of higher consciousness.

Fortuitously, he meets two adventurers on the summit ridge who are no longer of this world. After that, his surreal life leads him to several new adventures in the subsequent chronicles that include a rich mix of adventure, romance, and fantasy, along with profound discussions of philosophy, spirituality and the afterlife.

 
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2. The  Summit, the second novel in the Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage, carries on where James, the narrator and protagonist, is taught more about a multidimensional reality that he finds difficult to comprehend.

Not only does he find he’s not as clever as he imagined, but his off-world companions on the summit demonstrate that much of what he believed about life was not just parochial but wrong. At first, he finds this difficult to comprehend since their teachings are contrary to his limited understanding of non-material reality.

After being tricked into teleporting off a ledge where he was trapped, James becomes aware of the new reality that makes him capable of far more adventures than could have ever been experienced previously in his physical body back home.

Now, if only he would win over the only woman in this life who matters, the nurse on the other side of the veil, who continually demonstrates her unconditional love toward his healing.

Warning: This book may also open the reader’s eyes to a much vaster reality than most might be aware. As with the other Chronicles, there are discussions of philosophy, the spiritual afterlife and what might seem like fantasy.

 
 

3. Quantum Leaps is the third novel in Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage, where James, the philosopher-protagonist, teleports back to London to visit his body and make contact with the special nurse taking care of it in his absence. Immediately, he feels an inexplicable spiritual bond with her for reasons he remains unaware of.

Now aroused by a renewed interest in matters of love, the beginnings of a relationship begin to emerge as he attempts to reach across the chasm of their worlds. But it’s not until the fifth novel, Mystical Romance, that he encounters her in a way that he finds difficult to believe.

However, before that can happen, there is much about his failed relationships that must be resolved before he is ready to move forward in his new life in Elysium’s Passage. It is during this time he christens his comatose body as the fall guy since it took the fall for him down the abyss so he could learn the lessons he’s now learning.

That will be the next focus of his life, where in his next Surreal Adventures, he is given virtual lessons to release many of his past beliefs about life.

 
 

4. Surreal Adventures is the fourth novel in the Chronicles of Elysium’s Passage, which finds James, the protagonist and narrator, escorted by his companions to a remote South Pacific Island, where he is left to reflect on what he’s learned.

During the next forty days, he battles the demons of his past as he works through some rather painful issues from his early youth. Here, in a tropical storm, he encounters an eery suspended spectre of the one he loved yet still resents for abandoning him as a child.

After this, he achieves peace of mind and is ready to return to his lodge to join his off-world companions on the Andes summit. However, just when it seemed things couldn’t get any stranger, a sixteenth-century sea captain sails his ancient ‘ghost’ ship onto the beach. Together, they sail off on a mystical ocean voyage to a couple of virtual islands supposedly in the South Pacific, where he witnesses and, at times, participates in several important life lessons.

Near the end, these encounters help prepare him for a new challenge within the interior of a mountain, where he falls deep into a dark tomb of fear. After being rescued by a mysterious stranger wielding his Excaliber, he continues on to where his life is about to be transformed in the following chronicle, Mystical Romance.

 
 

5. Mystical Romance is the fifth chronicle in Elysium’s Passage, which will surprise the reader with a romantic twist of how love is expressed in higher realms. From this lofty perspective, everything about intimacy is understood as within, so without.

After escaping his tomb, James, the narrator and protagonist, makes his way through a maze of tunnels until he arrives at a large oak door, which he opens with the golden key he had been given. There, he steps into Elysium’s Passage’s Great Hall, where his life and recent achievements are celebrated now that his eyes have been opened to perceive a fascinating interior world of wonderment… and romance.

To say more might risk diminishing the multitude of delightful surprises as circumstances begin to open to The Elixir, where James is about to re-enter his earthly body’s existence.

 
 

6. The Elixir is the sixth chronicle of the Elysium’s Passage series that prepares James, the narrator-protagonist, to awaken and return to his body in London. Before that can happen, however, his off-worlder friend presents a mysterious equation enshrouded with a light code frequency that will stimulate multidimensional DNA strands within him.

Much of this narration is centred in London, where his nurse unknowingly becomes involved in how the Elixir’s equation finds its way from a taxi cab driver to higher echelons of science. There are many twists in how she unwittingly brings the Elixir to the attention of mathematicians and physicists, after which they eventually discover how to code the equation into a laser ray to stimulate his fall-guy body into full consciousness.

Ostensibly a new Adam, he is destined to return humanity to a higher multidimensional existence. How this happens is filled with intrigue, as is his shocking return to his earthly body.

 
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7. The Return is the seventh and last chronicle in the series where James, the narrator and protagonist, has re-emerged from Elysium’s Passage as he readjusts to life in the third dimension. Many of the events experienced in the previous novels are tied together in an exciting, fast-moving, action-packed narrative over several countries.

 At first, it seems all memories have been lost, with his fall guy’s brain not being aware of what happened to him while in his coma. As a consequence, it takes a while for him to be convinced he had been out of his earthly body for almost a year.

Through some rather unexpected events and evidence, along with his girlfriend’s urging, he is brought to an awareness of much of what occurred. It takes a while for his mind to catch up with the changes made in his heart during his stay in the alternate realm. But after experiencing several harsh realities, he discovers what he became within while out of his body. Gradually, he comes to understand the many challenges that lie ahead for him in fulfilling his future mission on Earth.

This book is filled with adventure, romance and personal intrigue that ties together all six previous narratives of the Elysium’s Passage series.