Thanks again Schmidtalex, if you consider prayer meditation then I certainly do. But I am interested in learning more about the practices of the mystics. I'm currently reading Sogyal Rinpoche's book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and I know he gets into meditation a lot, so I may learn something there.

Regarding those ah ha moments of genius, I really enjoyed the discussion on that in Irreducible Mind. Here is where the filter theory of the brain and the idea of accessing the universal consciousness really makes some sense. In the case of genius, or the moments of deep insight whether by scientist or mystic, its interesting to think of it as some having a more open connection to that universal consciousness than others. I do think meditation (and prayer) is an avenue.