"Stein wanted to separate language from the yoke of "having to say something." Modern literature, she announced, must admit its limits. Nothing can e… - Jonah Lehrer

The world is more random than we can imagine. That's what our emotions can't understand.

Every creative story is different. And every creative story is the same. There was nothing. Now there is something. It's almost like magic.

In fact, even fleeting feelings of delight can lead to dramatic increases in creativity. After watching a short, humorous video — Beeman uses a clip of Robin Williams doing standup — subjects have significantly more epiphanies, at least when compared with those who were shown scary or boring videos. Because positive moods allow us to relax, we focus less on the troubling world and more on these remote associations. Another ideal moment for insights, according to Beeman and John Kounios, is the early morning, shortly after waking up. The drowsy brain is unwound and disorganized, open to all sorts of unconventional ideas. The right hemisphere is also unusually active.