What I Learned From Physicist David Bohm About Creativity

"True creativity begins where language ends." — David Bohm

In a world obsessed with innovation and creative thinking, we often reduce creativity to a set of techniques or a special talent possessed by a gifted few.

But what if creativity is something far more fundamental to reality itself?

Physicist and philosopher David Bohm offers us a profound alternative: creativity as a natural process that reflects the deeper order of the universe.

His perspective challenges us to think differently about what it means to be creative and how we might access our creative potential more fully.

The Implicate Order: Creativity's Hidden Source

For Bohm, creativity emerges from what he calls the "implicate order" — the deeper, hidden dimension of reality from which our explicit, observable world unfolds. Think of it like this:

Consider a river. The visible currents and patterns on the surface (the "explicate order") arise from complex movements beneath the surface (the "implicate order").

Similarly, creative ideas don't simply appear from nowhere — they emerge from deeper patterns in our consciousness that we may not be explicitly aware of.

This explains why creative insights often seem to arrive suddenly, after periods of incubation. Filmmaker David Lynch describes creative ideas as "catching big fish" — you need to go deeper to find the most powerful ones.

"Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper." — David Lynch

Seeing New Similarities and Differences

According to Bohm, true creativity involves perceiving fresh similarities and differences that were previously unnoticed, rather than just rearranging known elements.

When Einstein developed the theory of relativity, he didn't simply rearrange existing physics concepts — he perceived a fundamental similarity between acceleration and gravity that had never been noticed before.

This fresh perception led to a revolutionary new understanding of space and time.

In everyday creativity, this might look like a chef recognizing that certain flavor compounds in seemingly unrelated foods (like pineapples in tacos al pastor) could create unexpected but delicious combinations.

The creative insight comes from perceiving similarities that others miss.

As writer Marcel Proust eloquently observed:

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."

Free Play: Suspending Rigid Thinking

Creativity requires what Bohm calls a state of "free play" of thought — a suspension of rigid assumptions and categories that allows new perceptions to emerge.

The famous design company IDEO uses playful brainstorming techniques where participants are encouraged to offer wild ideas without judgment.

This suspension of critical evaluation creates a space where conventional limitations don't apply — much like children at play who can imagine a cardboard box as a spaceship, castle, or submarine without being constrained by "what a box is supposed to be."

Pixar's creative process also embodies this principle. Their "plussing" technique encourages team members to build on ideas without criticism, maintaining the state of free play that Bohm recognized as essential to creativity.

Artist Pablo Picasso captured this spirit perfectly when he said:

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."

The Creative Cycle: A Continuous Transformation

Bohm saw creativity as involving a cycle of perception, action, and feedback that continually transforms both the creator and what is being created.

Consider a novelist writing a story. The writer begins with an initial idea and starts writing (action). As the story develops, the writer perceives new possibilities and implications in what has been written (perception).

This leads to adjustments and new directions (feedback), which transform both the story and the writer's understanding of it. The final novel often differs significantly from the initial conception, demonstrating the transformative nature of the creative process.

This same cycle appears in scientific research, where experiments lead to unexpected results that transform the researcher's understanding, leading to new experiments and theories in a continuous creative evolution.

”The creative process involves a deep awareness of order, an awareness which is no limited to the order of the existing categories and fields of knowledge, but rather which is live to the possibility of new orders and which can therefore see the need for creative changes in the existing order.” Bohm adds.

Breaking Through Tacit Infrastructures

Perhaps most importantly, Bohm recognized that creativity is hindered by what he calls "tacit infrastructures of ideas" — hidden assumptions and thought patterns that limit our perception.

When Netflix first proposed streaming video content online, many industry executives were trapped in the tacit infrastructure that "quality video requires physical media."

This hidden assumption prevented them from seeing the creative possibility that Netflix perceived.

Cultivating Creativity in Our Daily Life

How can we apply Bohm's insights to become more creative in our daily lives?

1. Practice mindful awareness — Regular meditation and mindfulness practices can help us become aware of our tacit thought patterns and create space for fresh perception.

2. Embrace uncertainty — Creativity thrives in the space between knowing and not-knowing. Try approaching problems with genuine curiosity rather than rushing to solutions.

3. Eclecticism — Expose yourself to ideas and perspectives from different disciplines. Some of the most creative insights emerge at the intersections between fields.

4. Community — Bohm advocated for a special form of group dialogue where people suspend assumptions and think together. Regular participation in open, non-judgmental conversations can cultivate collective creativity.

5. Observe nature — Bohm saw nature as the ultimate creative process. Spending time observing natural patterns and processes can attune us to the deeper creative order he described.

Bohm's perspective reminds us that creativity isn't just a skill to be developed but a natural capacity to be uncovered by removing the blocks to our perception.

By understanding creativity as a fundamental process that connects us to the deeper order of reality, we open ourselves to more profound and transformative creative experiences.

”Creativity requires a state of no-mind. That means you are not seeking anything, you are just open, deeply interested, alert, and aware.” Bohm concludes.

“The essence of the creative state is the absence of rigid self-centered thought, and the presence of real awareness, sensitivity, curiosity.”

The main takeaway from reading Bohm’s work is the invitation to cultivate a child-like curiosity as a daily practice for creativity. As Elizabeth Gilbert expresses in her book Big Magic:

“A creative life is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.”

A journal question:

What am I pretending not to know?

Ready to build your brand or website through curiosity and play? Start your project!