The Creative Process in the Individual

CHAPTER I

THE STARTING-POINT

It is an old saying that "Order is Heaven's First Law," and like many other

old sayings it contains a much deeper philosophy than appears immediately

on the surface. Getting things into a better order is the great secret of

progress, and we are now able to fly through the air, not because the laws

of Nature have altered, but because we have learnt to arrange things in the

right order to produce this result--the things themselves had existed from

the beginning of the world, but what was wanting was the introduction of a

Personal Factor which, by an intelligent perception of the possibilities

contained in the laws of Nature, should be able to bring into working

reality ideas which previous generations would have laughed at as the

absurd fancies of an unbalanced mind. The lesson to be learnt from the

practical aviation of the present day is that of the triumph of principle

over precedent, of the working out of an _idea_ to its logical conclusions

in spite of the accumulated testimony of all past experience to the

contrary; and with such a notable example before us can we say that it is

futile to enquire whether by the same method we may not unlock still more

important secrets and gain some knowledge of the unseen causes which are at

the back of external and visible conditions, and then by bringing these

unseen causes into a better order make practical working realities of

possibilities which at present seem but fantastic dreams? It is at least

worth while taking a preliminary canter over the course, and this is all

that this little volume professes to attempt; yet this may be sufficient to

show the lay of the ground.

Now the first thing in any investigation is to have some idea of what you

are looking for--to have at least some notion of the general direction in

which to go--just as you would not go up a tree to find fish though you

would for birds' eggs. Well, the general direction in which we all want to

go is that of getting more out of Life than we have ever got out of it--we

want to be more alive in ourselves and to get all sorts of improved

conditions in our environment. However happily any of us may be

circumstanced we can all conceive something still better, or at any rate we

should like to make our present good permanent; and since we shall find as

our studies advance that the prospect of increasing possibilities keeps

opening out more and more widely before us, we may say that what we are in

search of is the secret of getting more out of Life in a continually

progressive degree. This means that what we are looking for is something

personal, and that it is to be obtained by producing conditions which do

not yet exist; in other words it is nothing less than the exercise of a

certain creative power in the sphere of our own particular world. So, then,

what we want is to introduce our own Personal Factor into the realm of

unseen causes. This is a big thing, and if it is possible at all it must be

by some sequence of cause and effect, and this sequence it is our object to

discover. The law of Cause and Effect is one we can never get away from,

but by carefully following it up we may find that it will lead us further

than we had anticipated.

Now, the first thing to observe is that if _we_ can succeed in finding out

such a sequence of cause and effect as the one we are in search of,

somebody else may find out the same creative secret also; and then, by the

hypothesis of the case, we should both be armed with an infallible power,

and if we wanted to employ this power against each other we should be

landed in the "impasse" of a conflict between two powers each of which was

irresistible. Consequently it follows that the first principle of this

power must be Harmony. It cannot be antagonizing itself from different

centers--in other words its operation in a simultaneous order at every

point is the first necessity of its being. What we are in search of, then,

is a sequence of cause and effect so universal in its nature as to include

harmoniously all possible variations of individual expression. This primary

necessity of the Law for which we are seeking should be carefully borne in

mind, for it is obvious that any sequence which transgresses this primary

essential must be contrary to the very nature of the Law itself, and

consequently cannot be conducting us to the exercise of true creative

power.