The Wandering Mind

by Michael C Corballis

  As we all know from attending a boring lecture, trying to listen to a symphony after a heavy meal, or simply trying to sleep on the plane, the mind can wander quite freely without the influence of drugs. Even undirected wandering can stimulate creativity indirectly, through what is known as ‘incubation’, in which ideas are developed while one is thinking of something else. This has even been demonstrated experimentally. People were given the task of inventing unusual uses for familiar objects, a task commonly used as a measure of creativity. After working on this for a short time, most of them were given a break. During the break, some engaged in a task demanding of memory, some in an undemanding task, and some simply sat quietly without doing anything. When the creativity task resumed, those who performed the undemanding task performed best, probably because their minds wandered; other research has shown that undemanding tasks are most likely to induce mind-wandering, more likely even than doing nothing. If you’re seeking inspiration, it seems a good idea to take a break and do something undemanding, like washing the dishes or watching a light TV show. Or perhaps knitting, which could explain why Agatha’s Christie’s Miss Marple, a compulsive knitter, was able to solve murder mysteries. Maybe Agatha Christie was herself a compulsive knitter, which is why she was able to create the murder mysteries in the first place.

  An unnamed physicist is said to have told the German psychologist Wolfgang Köhler: ‘We often talk about the three Bs, the Bus, the Bath, and the Bed. That is where the great discoveries are made in our science.’4 He or she was perhaps alluding to Poincaré’s mathematical inspiration that came to him as he stepped onto a bus, as well as to Archimedes’ famous ‘Eureka!’ discovery that the water rose when he was in the bath. As for the bed, dreams can sometimes lead to creative moments, but inspiration is perhaps more likely when we can’t sleep, instead allowing our minds to wander while we’re conscious enough to snare any insights. Perhaps one could add a fourth B, the boardroom, which provides an almost perfect environment for creative mind-wandering and incubation. And then there’s boredom itself. The Nobel Prizewinning poet Joseph Brodsky once declared: ‘Boredom is your window on the properties of time that one tends to ignore to the likely peril of one’s mental equilibrium. It is your window on time’s infinity. Once this window opens, don’t try to shut it; on the contrary, throw it wide open.’

  However you choose to wander, do not be discouraged into thinking that it is a waste of time. Of course, teacher was not always wrong—there are occasions when we need to attend in order to learn or finish some job. But nature also designed us to dream, to escape the channels that confine us. Remember from Chapter 1 the study by Jonathan Schooler and his associates on the frequency with which people zoned out while reading War and Peace? Well, those whose minds wandered most scored best on various measures of creativity. If the teacher or the board chairman catches you looking out the window when important matters are under discussion, you can explain that you are simply opening the doors of creativity.

  And if your mind occasionally wandered while reading this book, I hope it took you into territory that was stimulating, creative—and above all happy.

  References

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  Chapter 8: Hallucinations

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  Chapter 9: The Creativity of the Wandering Mind

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