During the past three decades, our society has gradually been transformed from what was known as an industrial society to what we now call an information society, a knowledge society, or a media society. This rapid change has revolutionized our lives and presented new and greater demands for us to adapt to and live up to. Apart from the old requirements of good skills and high competence, now - according to employers, researchers, and politicians - we must also be creative in what we do at work, as well as in all other areas of our lives. Today, creativity is one of the most important and most sought-after qualities of productive people in our society.

This fact has generated a lot of interest in this subject, and there is a growing demand for courses and training programs from people who want to learn more about creativity and, specifically, how they can become more creative in their work and life. Those who look for books and courses in the subject often end up both confused and disappointed. There are many good books written about creativity, but they unfortunately present many different definitions of the subject and different meanings of its nature and origin, which seemingly depends on the context in which their version of creativity occurs. Many researchers and writers who have dealt with this topic during the past thirty years also often describe its origin and nature as something of a mystery that cannot be defined or analyzed in a scientific way.

Textbooks and handbooks on creativity mainly deal with the subject in a business or engineering environment and in relation to what they call lateral thinking or innovative thinking. This approach gives a too-narrow base for a universal explanation of the nature of creativity and for determining the general rules and conditions for human beings to bring about creativity in their work and life. This in turn makes it close to impossible to develop or design courses in creativity science that can be taught universally to students in schools, colleges and universities.

We have, therefore, written a textbook that presents a universally acceptable definition of creativity that comprehensively explains its origin and nature. It takes into account both the "knowledge part" which has been developed with the help of traditional scientific research methods, and the "belief part" the contents and function of which we now can more fully explain with the help of modern scientific analogies.

Creativity complements and enhances all that has been written about creativity for the past fifty years and it introduces a fundamental and universal base from which a much-needed further development of creativity science is possible. It also includes a universal, scientifically based life philosophy that everyone can accept and use regardless of religious, philosophical, ethnical, or ethical background. This makes it possible to introduce the subject creativity science as a part of school curricula on a global basis and on all education levels, from high schools to universities.

Einstein"s theory of relativity and the subsequent development of quantum physics present us with a new worldview that is very different from the one that is accessible through our normal five senses. This new knowledge has been used in the field of electronics and computer, digital, and media technology, etc., and it has resulted in a giant leap forward in our material development, changing our entire society in a fundamental way.

With respect to human development, however, we still have not universally utilized the new conditions and possibilities offered by the same modern science. Creativity will assist significantly in providing a foundation for the development of a new human science that will present a possibility for a leap in human development comparable to the materialistic one. The most effective way of starting this development is to introduce creativity science as a compulsory subject in all medium-level and higher educational programs.

In Creativity, we introduce a new, simple, and descriptive nomenclature in order to make this difficult topic easier to understand and to explain rather complex scientific concepts in a more comprehensible way. We present in a graphic and tabular form the Theory of Creativity - a human complement to the theory of relativity which, when applied, describes how we can generate creative actions (or CreActions, as we call them), and how we can practically use them at work as well as in all areas of our daily lives.

In part 1: Fundamental Creativity, we present a scientific explanation of creativity"s nature and origin - the "Theory of Creativity" Its theoretical and practical applications are discussed, as well as the limitations and conditions for its use.

In part 2: The CreActivation of Life and Work, we present basic ideas and suggestions for the application of the Theory of Creativity for real renewal and sustainable development of everyday life, working life, society, education, and spiritual life. We derived the word CreActivation from the word reactivation, with the meaning of "activation of a process that has stopped or slowed down" CreActivation is intended to mean, "to replace ordinary reaction with creative action." This part of the book can be used to encourage and inspire informal practical discussions about life and work wherever people meet: in study groups, classrooms, workplaces, board meetings, break rooms, etc.