Dr. Nicola Holt

Dr Holt is a lecturer in psychology at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Following an MSc in Consciousness Studies and Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool JM University, Nicola conducted doctoral research at the University of Northampton, exploring the relationship between creativity and both altered states of consciousness and psi. Her subsequent post-doctoral work was varied, and included experimental work on schizotypy, paranormal belief, creativity and attentional disinhibition (funded by the Bial Foundation), as well as research using conversational analysis to assess the dynamics of the stream of consciousness (with Robin Wooffitt at the University of York). Broadly speaking, she is interested in individual differences in conscious experience, which encompasses work on creativity, personality, anomalous experiences and parapsychology.

Creativity, anomalous experiences and mental health
Nicola J. Holt, University of the West of England, Bristol,

"One fine summer evening I was returning by the last omnibus ...through the deserted streets of the metropolis, which are at other times so full of life. I fell into a reverie and lo! the atoms were gambolling before my eyes ... I saw how, frequently two smaller atoms united to form a pair, how larger, how a larger one embraced two smaller ones; how still larger ones kept hold of three or even four of the smaller, whilst the whole kept whirling in a giddy dance ... I spent part of the night putting on paper at least sketches of these dream forms." (Kekulé, 1865, cited in Hoffman, 1989, p. 113). Such anecdotes, involving an anomalous experience as part of the creative process, are well known. In this paper I will evaluate the empirical evidence for an association between creativity and anomalous experiences, including hallucinations, paranormal and mystical experiences. Models that might be useful in explaining this putative connection will then be examined, for example, 'medical models', 'trait models' and 'transpersonal models'.