Observations placeholder
Nicholle, Charles - The nature of blue sky thinking
Identifier
014494
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Hadamard, incidentally, did not agree with Nicholle that it was an 'accident', but Nicholle actually meant it had nothing to do with the subconscious and everything to do with going outside oneself.
They were both right in their own way, as it is through the subconscious functions that one then goes out of oneself to discover things in the spiritual realm.
Nicholle certainly knew his symbolism his choice of words is perfect. Illumination.
A description of the experience
An Essay on the Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field – Jacques Hadamard
Quoting Nicolle
The inventor does not know prudence nor its junior sister, slowness. He does not sound the ground nor quibble. He at once jumps into the unexplored domain and by this sole act, he conquers it.
By a streak of lighting, the hitherto obscure problem, which no ordinary feeble lamp would have revealed, is at once flooded with light.
It is like a creation.
Contrary to progressive acquirements, such an act owes nothing to logic or to reason.
The act of discovery is 'an accident'.