Olaf Stapledon (1886 – 1950)
British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.
Little by little, it came about, as so often before, that the Star Maker outgrew his creature. ...Once more he sank into deep meditation. Once more the creative urge possessed him. Of the many creations which followed... in most respects they lay beyond my mental reach. ...Thus all their most vital novelty escaped me.
To say that the cosmos was expanding is equally to say that its members were contracting. The ultimate centers of power, each at first coincident... themselves generated the cosmical space by their disengagement from each other.
This kind of internal "telepathic" intercourse, which was to serve me in all my wanderings, was at first difficult, innefective, and painful. But in time I came to be able to live through the experiences of my host with vividness and accuracy, while yet preserving my own individuality, my own critical intelligence, my own desires and fears. Only when the other had come to realize my presence within him could he, by a special act of volition, keep particular thoughts secret from me.
It seemed to me that I now saw the Star Maker in two aspects: as the spirit's particular creative mood that had given rise to me, the cosmos; and also, most dreadfully, as something incomparably greater than creativity, namely as the eternally achieved perfection of the absolute spirit. Barren, barren and trivial are these words. But not barren the experience.