Saturday 10 April 2004

Pic of the day: It is pretty obvious that this superheroine must have some kind of gravity-defying power, at least as far as her mammaries are concerned... Really, I did not order those endowments in particular, they are the game's idea of "muscular" body for women. (Screenshot from City of Heroes.)

Spontaneous creativity

I have been accused of being so open-minded that my brain might fall out. And yet there is a fairly long list of "fringe" stuff that many people believe in and I don't. This applies especially to various hypnosis-induced stuff, from recovered memories to earlier lives to alien abductions.

The reason why I am a skeptic is my experience that the brain has awesome creative powers. Or perhaps it is the human spirit that has these powers and the brain is just a channel. If so, it is the left half that channels this, surprisingly, according to studies of split brain patients. Many people think the right half of the brain is the artistic one, and this may be the case for painting, sculpture etc. But in making stories, coming up with explanations etc, the left half rules supreme. I am kinda living proof as well, as I am one of the most consistently right-handed (and thus left-brained) humans alive without any actual surgery or visible deformity. On Desmond Morris' handedness test (in one of his later books, probably Manwatching) I scored 10 out of 10 right hand, which is pretty extreme. Also I cannot draw or paint or even dance, not even if my happiness depends on it. But I spontaneously create characters, societies, entire worlds.

Character creation in City of Heroes is one such opportunity. It is rather astounding. I may create a throw-away character just to test out a special power combination. But when I come so far as to making his (or her) visual appearance, there is the risk that suddenly a character may leap out at me. Suddenly I kinda "recognize" the character; and as if remembering, I can call up lots of details about him and the background that shaped him. As long as I keep focusing on it, it just continues to expand, faster than I could possibly put it into words.

***

Take for instance the character in today's picture. Poltergirl is a mutant with limited mastery of gravity and kinetic energy. Despite her name she is actually 23 years old, but her mutant power manifested when she was 14. Her parents, who were not aware of mutant genes in the family, thought it was a poltergeist and tried in vain to get it exorcized from the house. Things just kept floating and moving about, and at 17 she was finally diagnosed as a mutant. Because she got started so late, she has had a hard time mastering her powers. (That, and she's kinda lazy I guess.)

I just knew that she must have those golden-green spots. The dark gray background was simply chosen to make the best out of the spots. And you just don't argue with her about her uniform. She is pretty strong-willed. On the other hand, she has a good sense of humor and a pretty relaxed attitude about things she doesn't take a personal interest in. It's kinda one or another. Either she has a strong opinion or none at all.

Anna is most close to her mother, and also looks similar (apart from the green hair and green freckles - her mother is a yellowish blonde). She would probably tell me about her love life as well if I did not pointedly avoid the topic. I am sooo not going to dabble in romance for my female characters! Even I have my limits...

***

These "instant" characters seem similar to what happens in my dreams sometimes. In those dreams, I am a completely different person. That person has his own history that is not connected to mine, he (or rarely she) has his own family, friends, work ... it is like a cut-out piece from a complete life. While in the dream I can remember things from that life, but as soon as I wake up I can never again access any memories except those I for some reason thought about while in the dream.

I think this is the same process. And I think it is this creative process that lets people remember past lives, or even highly improbable events in this life. But of course I can never prove it. Then again, you cannot prove there isn't really a world full of superheroes somewhere out there ... right? ^_^