Maybe ideas float around our combined consciousness, as a species, to be received by those with the best antennae! We are radio stations, attuned to pick up the frequencies of ideas. When I was very young, as a singer-songwriter in the UK, I had the chance to work with Tommy Boyce, the songwriter who had some terrific hits with the Monkees in the seventies.  He nailed it for me. He said, “In the middle of the night, if I get a song idea or lyric, I better get my butt out of bed and write it down, or it will go back up the chimney and come down Paul McCartney’s chimney.”

Has anyone read Dan Brown’s Secret of Secrets? Its a fun fast-paced thriller, but he manages to introduce this idea to larger audience. Secret of Secrets

If this interests you, check out the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS).  Very interesting site and it includes supporting research.