creative dilemmas

Creative Dilemmas: Clue Archive

1. What specific claims does Seth make about this concept? How many times is it stated, in which books, and does the wording change over time?

The material does not address this.

2. What mechanism does he provide?

The material does not address this.

3. Are there observable inferences or explicit predictions (including time, quantity, conditions)?

• Thought transmission necessarily produces creative distortion: the thought received by the receiver will not be an exact copy of the sender's original thought, but an approximation actually created by the receiver [early-sessions-4 §153].
• Thoughts are altered in the very attempt at transmission: the sender cannot detach a thought from its inner electronic system, the attempt to transmit itself automatically alters the thought, and this approximation is further altered by the receiver's actions [early-sessions-4 §153].
• Identical thoughts do not recur: a thought must terminate before it can be replaced by another, and the identical thought does not return; what returns is only a thought that appears similar but is in fact different, because no two actions are ever identical [early-sessions-3 §139].
• The creative dilemma itself is an action and is resolved in further action [early-sessions-4 §153].

4. Where does he say the science of his time went wrong, and in what direction should it look?

The material does not address this.

5. What experiments or exercises did he suggest? What did Jane and Rob actually do and observe at the time?

• Seth proposed that Jane and Rob could try various experiments on their own, calling them "homework," and said, "You can of course train your abilities in this way to a certain degree" [early-sessions-1 §12].

• Seth suggested that Jane perform "psychological time" exercises in the morning, noting that "twenty minutes should remain the maximum" [early-sessions-4 §156].

• When referring to Jane's exercises, Seth considered them "of exceptional benefit to him," and stated that "their spiritual benefits are more prominent than their physical benefits," emphasizing that "these exercises enabled him to detach, in a regular and disciplined manner, from the anxiety-provoking aspects of the ego" [early-sessions-6 §271].

• Seth also stated at the close of one session, "If you wish, you can conduct small experiments together in my absence" [early-sessions-2 §80].

• The introduction to Session 153 (May 10, 1965) records that Jane and Rob were both diligently performing "psychological time" experiments on a regular basis, and that "as Seth suggested, both made efforts to use the pendulum regularly" [early-sessions-4 §153]. This is recorded in the introduction to that session.

• In Session 12 of the Early Sessions (January 4, 1964), Jane and Rob attempted an experiment as Seth had suggested: they drew the curtains indoors, lit only a red Christmas light, placed a black triangular cloth on the table, both wore dark clothing, put Jane's wedding ring on the cloth, sat facing each other with hands flat, sometimes touching, and observed the ring—in silence, no results; they then replaced the ring with a brass West Point military insignia, turned off the light, and continued in darkness [early-sessions-1 §12].

• In the above experiment, Rob recorded that while sitting quietly with eyes closed, he "obtained a colored vision or hallucination," and said it might be part of the "Joseph series," intending to ask Seth about it [early-sessions-1 §12].

• During the experiment, Jane felt that her hands at times "seemed to disappear," that is, "she could no longer see them," yet she also observed the same phenomenon occurring with the metal insignia [early-sessions-1 §12].

• After a period of stillness with no results, Jane said that "some form of communication or conversation is a necessary condition for achieving results," whereupon Rob began asking random questions, and Jane spontaneously spoke in her normal voice, producing a narrative about "Sarah Wellington" (concerning a shoemaker's shop in England in 1748, and a scene involving death by burning), and the notes Rob took in the darkness turned out to be remarkably clear and complete [early-sessions-1 §12].

• In Session 80 of the Early Sessions (August 24, 1964), Rob recorded that on the return trip from vacation he conducted an "experiment of an expectancy nature": suggesting to his subconscious that the car would consume less oil; although he kept no precise record, upon arriving home he determined that the car had used at least two quarts less oil, and that on two occasions along the way gas station attendants said no oil was needed [early-sessions-2 §80]. Rob afterward wanted to ask Seth that evening whether this was correct, but that session was of the brief type, and Seth did not directly answer regarding this experiment [early-sessions-2 §80].

• The same session records that they had suspended psychological time practice since August 12; after the session ended, they tried some small experiments without results, except that when Jane said she might have achieved some result, Rob felt his familiar "tingling sensation" surge through him strongly [early-sessions-2 §80].

• In the introduction to Session 153 of the Early Sessions (May 10, 1965), Jane, in a half-asleep state in the early hours of Sunday, heard the phrase "twelve-o-five," spoken slowly and hoarsely in a male voice, as if outside her ear; it was later confirmed by pendulum to be merely "random telepathy" [early-sessions-4 §153].

• The same introduction also records that Jane, before dawn, found herself standing in gray-white smoke; she knew she was not dreaming, smelled smoke, considered herself an observer, but the experience was interrupted after she felt a surge of panic [early-sessions-4 §153].

• The same introduction further states that Jane's voice and speaking pace had changed during this period, and that in the previous session she had proceeded at a much slower pace—but this is not an independent assertion, rather an accompanying record; it also states that "Jane made efforts to resume regular psychological time experiments," likewise found in this session's introduction [early-sessions-4 §153].

6. What supplementary or contradictory material do other concepts in the corpus provide in relation to this concept?

Core statements regarding "creative dilemmas"

• Inner vitality desires to fully materialize itself, yet by its own nature cannot fully materialize—this is the "first creative dilemma," and its result is action [early-sessions-3 §138].
• Once action has formed itself, it tends by its nature to destroy identity, because action necessarily involves change, and any change appears to threaten identity—this is the "second creative dilemma"; identity must seek stability while action must seek change, which precisely creates an imbalance, and its byproduct is consciousness of self [early-sessions-3 §138].
• Consciousness of self attempts to separate from action, but the two are inseparable—this is the "third creative dilemma," and its result is ego consciousness [early-sessions-3 §138].
• Action itself can never be completed: each materialization of inner vitality adds to itself, making full materialization impossible—this is the "basic dilemma," from which all types of reality arise [early-sessions-3 §138].
• These three creative dilemmas represent three reality regions through which inner reality or inner vitality experiences itself [early-sessions-3 §138].
• A succession of creative dilemmas makes consciousness possible: consciousness is not an independent thing, but a dimension of action [early-sessions-3 §138].

Supplementary contributions from other concepts to "creative dilemmas"

• Identity depends on action, and action necessarily involves termination and change; if identity pursued complete stability it would instead destroy itself—this mutually corroborates the second dilemma [early-sessions-3 §139].
• In dreams the ego barely obstructs action; since identity depends on action, identity cannot achieve stability, because complete stability would destroy it [early-sessions-3 §139].
• Every action involves pulsation; one thought must terminate for another to appear, and all actions occur simultaneously in the "spacious present"—this supplements the attribute of action's "inability to be completed" [early-sessions-3 §139].
• Creativity is closely related to energy: "You are all fundamentally involved in one thing: learning to use energy creatively, discovering how much energy you can channel and what you can create"; this energy can be transformed into knowledge, and knowledge into behavior, which becomes a psychic adventure, and thus one begins to use consciousness correctly [early-sessions-9 §501].
• The ego possesses consciousness and uses it; "you" are not consciousness itself—this distinction supplements the discussion in the third dilemma of consciousness of self attempting to separate from action [early-sessions-9 §501].
• When mentioning the "initial creative dilemma," the material foreshadows: when one can ask where the "ego that uses consciousness" is located, there will be further explanations about the initial dilemma—this constitutes supplementary clarification of the basic dilemma [early-sessions-9 §501].
• Creativity may conflict with concepts of gender: social myths link art with "femininity," causing male artists to be regarded as having a creativity based on a feminine foundation; such concepts are at the root of many personal and national problems, involving concepts of power and creativity [mass-events §853].
• Creative people often bear the "unhappy myth"—being regarded as unable to face the world like others, with their peculiarities exaggerated, and creativity itself being said to lead to suicide or depression; this is the social reason why creativity is feared [mass-events §853].
• Ruburt does not trust the "spontaneous self," because he believes it is feminine and therefore more flawed than the masculine "spontaneous self"—this is a personal-level supplement to the fear of creativity [mass-events §853].

Contradictions or tensions in other concepts regarding "creative dilemmas"

• The third dilemma describes the attempt of consciousness of self to separate from action as "impossible," but Session 501 points out that "there will be an evident dilemma," and that this dilemma leads to further discovery, and the division between "you are the self that possesses and uses consciousness" and "you are not your consciousness" suggests that this dilemma has levels that can be transcended [early-sessions-9 §501].
• The material states that "consciousness is a dimension of action," while also saying "you are a self, the possessor of consciousness"—this constitutes a surface tension with "consciousness is not an independent thing" [early-sessions-3 §138, early-sessions-9 §501].

7. Questions Not Yet Asked

Appendix: Claim List (for Stage C)

id	Claim	Type	Source
creative-dilemmas-1	Thought transmission necessarily produces creative distortion; what the receiver obtains is not an exact copy but an approximation.	Mechanism description	early-sessions-4 §153
creative-dilemmas-2	Thoughts are altered in the very attempt at transmission; the sender cannot detach them from the inner electronic system, the attempt to transmit automatically alters the thought, and the receiver's actions further alter it.	Mechanism description	early-sessions-4 §153
creative-dilemmas-3	Identical thoughts never recur, because a thought must terminate before it can be replaced by another, and no two actions are ever identical.	Ontological assertion	early-sessions-3 §139
creative-dilemmas-4	The creative dilemma itself is an action and is resolved in further action.	Ontological assertion	early-sessions-4 §153
creative-dilemmas-5	The first creative dilemma is that inner vitality desires to fully materialize itself yet by its nature cannot fully materialize, and its result is action.	Ontological assertion	early-sessions-3 §138
creative-dilemmas-6	The second creative dilemma is that action tends to destroy identity; identity seeks stability while action seeks change, and the imbalance produces consciousness of self.	Ontological assertion	early-sessions-3 §138
creative-dilemmas-7	The third creative dilemma is that consciousness of self attempts to separate from action but cannot, and its result is ego consciousness.	Ontological assertion	early-sessions-3 §138
creative-dilemmas-8	Action itself can never be completed; each materialization of inner vitality adds to itself, making full materialization impossible—this is the basic dilemma.	Ontological assertion	early-sessions-3 §138
creative-dilemmas-9	A succession of creative dilemmas makes consciousness possible; consciousness is a dimension of action.	Ontological assertion	early-sessions-3 §138
creative-dilemmas-10	Identity depends on action; identity cannot achieve complete stability, because complete stability would destroy it.	Ontological assertion	early-sessions-3 §139
creative-dilemmas-11	Every action involves pulsation; one thought must terminate for another to appear, and all actions occur simultaneously in the spacious present.	Mechanism description	early-sessions-3 §139
creative-dilemmas-12	The ego possesses and uses consciousness; "you" are not consciousness itself.	Ontological assertion	early-sessions-9 §501