Bath Tub of Invention
Back to the future
Dr. Emmett Brown was in the bathroom standing on the toilet trying to hang a clock when it all happened. First he was knocked out cold when he slipped and bumped his head. Then an idea came to him in a vision.
Dr. Brown sketched out what he saw and years later he understood it as the flux compressor. This Eureka allowed Emmett Brown to send objects through time using flux energy.
This is 1980's science fiction but the point I want to pay attention to is where Emmet Brown was when he made his Eureka discovery. Emmet Brown was in the bathroom when he discovered the flux capacitor.
The bathroom is a dangerous place and he could have slipped and fell and died in the bathroom, but it also contains a plethora of ideas.
What makes the bathroom the starting place of epiphany?
First, the water rushing over our body creates a rush of dopamine from our brain. Just like when you run or listen to good music. This feel good chemical opens the flow of the brain. The NIH did a study of showers and dopamine .
Next, the shower relaxes us. There are no constraints of clothes or worries. All the dirty things of the world seem to go down the drain leaving us fresh and relaxed.
When we are in the relaxed state of mind our thoughts go a little deeper than normal. We begin to make insightful connections we wouldn't make if we were less relaxed.
It's like we get out of tune to get in tune. The same thing happens when we have had a couple drinks. We get in a relaxed state and ideas we wouldn't have thought of before come gushing out. The creativity juices begin to flow and we see the world in a new perspective.
Finally, In the shower we are distracted. All those things we concentrate on all day are gone away and our brain opens up deeply allowing the subconcious an opportunity to do its work and arise to the surface. The ideas are not solved analytically, but creativly just sizzling in the shower. The mind is let go and relaxed, dopamine is released and then the idea comes, "Eureka!"
Today not many people say, "Eureka". Perhaps it is too many syllables. So as @calumam has mentioned previously when people today have an epiphany they quickly refer to a four letter word. It is an "Oh, Fu*K!" experiece.
A lot of things happened in the shower in history. The flux capacitor is just the beginning.
Most likely the word Eureka was first spoken buoyantly in a bathtub.
Alfred Hitchcock's movie Psycho took advantage of the relaxed state of the shower to create an amazing tension and suspense in those watching the classic horror "psycho". Because our guard is down, the bathroom may be the most dangerous place in the house, but it is also the place many have sprung with creativity.
Anton Schindler wrote in his biography of Beethoven explaining that Beethoven did really enjoy his baths.
he would stand in great deshabille at his washstand and pour large pitchers of water over his hands, bellowing up and down the scale or sometimes humming loudly to himself. Then he would stride around his room with rolling or staring eyes, jot something down, then resume his pouring of water and loud singing.
Beethoven was not the only musician inspired in the bathroom. Paul Simon says in a 1984 interview with Playboy that he was inspired to write Sounds of Silence after some time in the bathroom. He would close the door with the lights out and run the water and just listen. He brought his guitar in the bathroom and played along. 1984 Playboy Interview Archive
Benjamin Franklin the great inventor and statesman loved his baths. He even loved air baths where he would sit in the air for a certain amount of time and dry off in the breeze. In fact as America's first diplomat to France, Franklin brought a bathtub back to America with him and introduced the bathtub to American households.
It's been hot all morning and I really need "a Eureka", I mean "a shower". Just like everybody else, the shower cools me down and dopamine is dope.
It just hits me, Eureka! I need lunch. I have a couple eggs and some spinach and tomatoes. I'm making an omelet. Oh, Eureka!! It's going to be delicious.
Eureka can be found in the slightest epiphany. If we listen we can hear the voices of creativity and new ideas. We can use what we have to make this a better world. And we can enjoy spinach omelets.
Very nice post @mineopoly
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Have you tried getting stoned and sitting in the shower until the hot water runs out? I used to do it about once a week and had shitloads of good ideas but forgot them, so I got a divers whiteboard to take notes and draw freaky shit
When I first read this I was not as think as you stoned I was. Then I really thought you make your whiteass driver sit at your bathtub and take notes.
Now I can see it was diver's whiteboard you bought. That is a good idea.
And I never remember showering stoned, just drinking and taking a walk. The flow of ideas also comes when walking.
My most creative thoughts hits me when i am taking a shat! No dopamine, just oozing smell of my dump knocking some sense into me.
I just take a shower one of these days. It could help...i guess
I guess you are just saying it like it is. I laughed reading your comment and then I realized it might not be that easy to take a shower if environmental issues continue to heat up in the near future. Then again it might not be that easy to shit either.
I could have went either way but the heat was unbearable today. I had to go showerside. There is just not enough written evidence of people who came up with great ideas on the shitter.
Now as I write this comment I realize my mistake...
At first I thought it was because I spelled @calumam with two "l"s but then I realized the whole thing could be scraped. I should have just spend 1000 words talking about taking a shit. (No joke)
It was a close call. Shit would have been an original winner.
Oh no! This is the reason I often feel refreshed and ready to engage better after having my bath..... 😁
Do you think, the cartoon, SpongeBob SquarePants is acted with water scenes because of the dopamine you talked about?
Yes @edystringz,
A shower is one of the most refreshing feelings there is. A lot of my best thinking goes on there. Maybe psychologically this goes back to the child in the womb.
That was a good question about SpongeBob.
The dopamine effect is proven when splashing cold water. Maybe just thinking about it can produce dopamine. Thin that case we get excited to see SpongeBob Square Pants.
It's a dream!
Finally you evil genius, you manage to finally get this one out hahaha, lovely. Well, I'm most creative early in the morning and in the midnight and even if this wasn't stated in the post, it feels like finding a recipe for writer's block or better still, creators block. In essence, I do feel that you took a very different approach to this one. Well done, it was actually very lovely.
Thank you for your encouraging words @josediccus,
People have more creative spurts at night because the brain is half asleep. Last night I woke up to a mosquito and although I was bit I had a lucid dream and a stream of ideas. There is a strange balance between productivity and relaxed state.
I needed to relax more on this one. I tried too hard. That's the big mistake I made. Too much thinking fries the brain.
It is the heat and the humidity. I don't know if I will make it through next week, but just one day at a time. If I had to write this one over I would make it super simple.^^
I write most of my stuff either late at night or in the small hours of the morning. That state between awake and asleep is alluring. An incredible article @mineopoly . As I was reading it I was picturing myself taking a shower and everything that I sense and feel during the experience and thereafter and you are so right! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Well done.
@magic8ball, do you still work?