Victor Shamas's Blog
November 1, 2017
Big News!
There is much to report:
*The launch date for Deep Creativity: Inside the Creative Mystery is March 6, but the book is already available in electronic form, and print copies can be purchased here: http://www.victorshamas.com/deep-crea...
*My blog posts have been generating quite a bit of interest and reposts, including two recent ones on intuition: http://www.victorshamas.com/blog
*My work has been getting extensive coverage the past few weeks. Links are available here, along with a list of upcoming tour dates:
http://www.victorshamas.com/media.html
*I have a series of new videos on Deep Creativity, which can be found on my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/vastucson
*The launch date for Deep Creativity: Inside the Creative Mystery is March 6, but the book is already available in electronic form, and print copies can be purchased here: http://www.victorshamas.com/deep-crea...
*My blog posts have been generating quite a bit of interest and reposts, including two recent ones on intuition: http://www.victorshamas.com/blog
*My work has been getting extensive coverage the past few weeks. Links are available here, along with a list of upcoming tour dates:
http://www.victorshamas.com/media.html
*I have a series of new videos on Deep Creativity, which can be found on my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/vastucson
September 6, 2017
Slow Grace
I have a new blog post on my website, entitled "Slow Grace." It tells the story of my 30-year journey to unravel the mysteries of Deep Creativity. http://www.victorshamas.com/blog
August 2, 2017
The Psychology of Being
In 1962, Abraham Maslow wrote one of his classic works, Toward a Psychology of Being. A half century later, his vision is coming to fruition. A number of psychologists have picked up where Maslow left out, and I am honored to count myself among them.
When you read my work, you will see that the notion of pure being is a common theme. American psychology has been marked by three major stages. For much of the 20th Century, it was dominated by the behaviorists, who emphasized doing over all else. With the advent of the cognitive revolution, doing gave way to thinking as the central focus of psychological research. This led gradually to the predominance of neuroscience, which prioritizes the physiological basis of doing and thinking.
Now, a new era in psychology is taking shape. The rise of positive psychology, in particular, indicates that researchers are becoming increasingly interested in being: feeling, sensation, and experience. This is just the first step in the development of a true psychology of being, which recognizes what I call the "primacy of phenomenology": everything we think and do is driven by our experience.
Maslow understood the importance of peak experiences, specifically, as a driving force in human psychology. There is a type of peak experience which is about being rather than doing. This is the experience of being fully alive (EBFA), which transcends space, time, and even the concept of self. The EBFA lies at the core of the creative process. Part of the reason psychology has made limited headway in understanding this process is that it has focused more on thinking and doing as opposed to being. When we draw our attention towards the EBFA, as I have in my soon-to-be released book, Deep Creativity: Inside the Creative Mystery, we gain important new perspectives on the nature of creativity.
I will have much more to say on these topics in the weeks and months ahead, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts, as well. For more information, please visit my other blog: http://www.victorshamas.com/blog
When you read my work, you will see that the notion of pure being is a common theme. American psychology has been marked by three major stages. For much of the 20th Century, it was dominated by the behaviorists, who emphasized doing over all else. With the advent of the cognitive revolution, doing gave way to thinking as the central focus of psychological research. This led gradually to the predominance of neuroscience, which prioritizes the physiological basis of doing and thinking.
Now, a new era in psychology is taking shape. The rise of positive psychology, in particular, indicates that researchers are becoming increasingly interested in being: feeling, sensation, and experience. This is just the first step in the development of a true psychology of being, which recognizes what I call the "primacy of phenomenology": everything we think and do is driven by our experience.
Maslow understood the importance of peak experiences, specifically, as a driving force in human psychology. There is a type of peak experience which is about being rather than doing. This is the experience of being fully alive (EBFA), which transcends space, time, and even the concept of self. The EBFA lies at the core of the creative process. Part of the reason psychology has made limited headway in understanding this process is that it has focused more on thinking and doing as opposed to being. When we draw our attention towards the EBFA, as I have in my soon-to-be released book, Deep Creativity: Inside the Creative Mystery, we gain important new perspectives on the nature of creativity.
I will have much more to say on these topics in the weeks and months ahead, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts, as well. For more information, please visit my other blog: http://www.victorshamas.com/blog
