I think most will agree that the creative process in essentially a mystical one that defies explanation. I believe that creativity is a uniquely human characteristic that is inherently spiritual in its origins. Therefore, I believe it appropriate to investigate the spiritual connection of creativity and offer one description of that connection.
In Some, Baha'i scripture contains an interesting of the methods of acquing knowledge, which I take as highly pertinent to the basis of creativity. It enumerates the following four methods of acquiring knowledge:
This is the means of acquiring knowledge perceivable to the five material senses. This is the most basic means available to us and to animals.
This is the means of acquiring knowledge which has been collected and passed down to us by others who have gone before us. It allows us to acquire more knowledge than can be directly accumulated through the direct experience of a single individual. This is the predominant means of acquiring knowledge for human beings, who are almost entirely dependent upon what we are taught; it occupies a very limited role for animals, where it is entirely confined to techniques for acquiring food.
This is the means of acquiring knowledge which is not perceivable to the senses and is a manifestation of a capacity unique. "From the realm of the invisible and hidden", reason is able to uncover knowledge hidden within what the senses perceive and bring it ["to the plane of the visible" http:/www.darrenhiebert.comeBahaihtmlsaq.html#p144]. Whereas the senses perceive that the sun moves across the sky, reason reveals that the earth rotates while the sun remains at rest. It is through reason that scientific discoveries are made.
This is the means of acquiring knowledge that did not previously exist in the material world and which cannot be acquired through any of the above methods. Inspiration is derived through the divine connection of the human soul with the spiritual world, and it is through this spiritual connection that the ["arts and wonders of the world are made manifest" http:/www.darrenhiebert.comeBahaihtmlgwb.html#p157].
Upon reflection of the above, it is my belief that creativity is a product of inspiration, as it is defined above, which implies that creative pursuits are inherently spiritual in their nature, in that they utilize the spiritual capacity of our being, irrespective of whether one defines themselves by the vague term "spiritual". Creativity has eluded all attempts to understand it as a material process, or teach it as a learned, process-oriented, skill.