Dr. Marcel Vogel. (2)
* "The Closet-Birdwoman."
* The Creative Modes.
* Adolescence.
* The First Three Stages of Evolution of Consciousness.
* The Sleeper Stage.
* Inspirational Mode.
* Expressive Mode.
* The Seeker Stage.
* "The Seeker Awakens."
* "The Pharaoh."
* Creative Arts as a Journey of Self-Discovery.
* Transcending the Limits of Self.
* First Enlightenment Stage.
* A Watercolor Painting in Progress.
The Closet-Birdwoman
New Ulm, Minnesota, 1937: I'm five and a half years old, and I've been locked in this closet to "calm down", she said. I'm not afraid of the dark and there’s plenty of room in the closet; only a few of Mama's evening gowns and a jacket hang above me. But I’m holding my breath; another door is opening at the back of the closet. I’m so afraid. I wanna get out of here, but I'm even more scared to go out the new door because of what I see there. With both hands over my eyes, I hunker down in the corner of the closet. I don't like this__ it's scary. I peek out between my fingers, just in case any of those "things" out there try to get me.
It's almost dark out there__ lightning bolts crack down and across the sky, shooting out of big black clouds. Everything is grey, white and black. The thunder never stops rumbling and crashing__ it hurts my ears. The wind screams, breaks off huge trees and pulls others up by the roots. Dirt and big things fly through the air. The ground shakes, too, humping up in places or breaking open like big monsters are trying to break through. Black smoke is coming out of the far-off mountains, and people and animals are running and screaming everywhere. They don't know where to go because it's like this everywhere you look. What awful thing is happening?
Then, right in front of me, I see big strong animals pulling wagons with wooden wheels. Beside them walk little black men in black suits and hats, carrying whips and clubs. Some of them have beards. I'm afraid of these men in black; I've known them somewhere before__ and they’re mean. Then I see the wagons have bars like the circus wagons that held lions, tigers or gorillas when Daddy took us to the circus. There we saw a big tent and animals in cages. Those men had whips too, but they wore pretty, shiny suits and only cracked the whips to tell the animals when to do their tricks. They never hit them. And the circus wagons had bright colors and pictures on them, and some had bells or music.
But these wagons are dark with bars made from tree branches, and they only creak and groan. I shiver when I see what’s inside the wagons. They're not animals__ and they're not people either__ but parts of both. Some have tails or horns. Others have feet like horses or goats and some have big heads or fur on their bodies. What can they be?
One wagon starts to cross the rocky stream, but the animals are scared of the storm and the shaky ground, and they start to run. The wheels hit a rock and the wagon tips over and breaks open as the Things inside shriek and scream even louder. They crawl out of the wagon, falling over each other as they run. The men in black yell and try to catch them, but the men are afraid, too, and don't know where to go either. The wind, hail, shaking ground and lightning get stronger. People can hardly stand up, and many fall down like they’re hurt real bad.
One of the Things from the wagon runs towards me. I've forgotten all about the closet__ it’s like I’m hiding in some bushes__ so I duck down even farther. I don't want this strange thing to see me. She is flapping her arms and running right for me. I get even more scared when I see what she looks like up close__ sort of like a big bird, but almost as tall as Mama. Her feet and legs are like a bird's__ long and real skinny with skin like a snake__ and her feet are just big claws. Boy, she sure can run on them! Her head has almost no hair and she has great big pretty eyes, but her nose and mouth are like a duck's bill that opens and closes, opens and closes, as she squawks and screams at the same time. Her neck is real long and real thin, too, and the rest of her body is like a fat duck or a chicken. Anyway, it's covered with people skin except at the back where some white feathers stick out of her tail.
Worst of all are her short, pudgy arms__ or are they arms? They have no elbows and are shorter than people arms. She flaps them up and down like wings as she squawks and screams. Now she's closer to me, I can see tiny hands at the ends of those short arms and they have white feathers on them, too.
Who is she? What is she? I'm so scared now, I squeeze my eyes tight and try to hide behind the clothes in the closet. Oh, if she finds me, it'll be the worst thing! I don't think she'd hurt me, but if she gets too close, I'll have to remember something__ something very, very bad. And I don't want to. I start to feel dizzy and I put my head down on my knees as the doorway at the back of the closet slowly fades away, and everything goes black.
Next thing I know, Daddy’s opening the closet door. He’s real mad about my being locked in there, but he thinks I've been asleep, so he laughs and says, "That's my girl. I'm glad you weren't afraid. You just sensibly went to sleep and took a little nap!" So I'm safe again. Or am I?
A few weeks after this Closet-Birdwoman, 5th Dimensional encounter, I ask Mama and Daddy what movie we went to where this story happened. I thought it was a movie because it was all black, white and gray, as were most cartoons and newsreels in the 1930's. Mama and Daddy laughed, "Why, we'd never take you to a movie like that!" they said; "It must have been a dream." It was true__ we seldom went to movies, unless it was "The Wizard of Oz" or "Snow White", but I screamed so when I saw the witch with Snow White that I had to be taken out of the theater.
As the years passed, every time I recalled the birdwoman creature my fear intensified. I kept bringing it up, and my parents would get more and more upset, insisting it was only a dream. But it haunted me. When I reached puberty, I decided maybe I really had slept in the closet and dreamed it all. But the Birdwoman image lingered on. What was that all about?
One hot summer afternoon when I was twelve, reading alone in the cool basement rec room, I closed my eyes and let the dream-movie flicker through my mind one last time. When the bird-woman appeared, she looked right into my eyes and I gasped aloud with a terror greater than I’d ever felt before. And then I knew __I knew why I was so afraid__ it was not a movie__ it was not a dream__ it was a real memory!
Recalling this incident as an adult, I knew I’d touched something ancient and powerful from deep within our racial memories. If humans experienced this catastrophe and this tampering with human bodies in the past, does it mean we will again? If so, is there some way to prevent it? Is this why I came here now? To help prepare ourselves in case it happesn again? Could we create a different future? This mystical encounter triggered compassion and empathy within me, opened me to a love of Nature and Mother Earth, and further enforced my need to develop some sort of self-security__ although, against what, I couldn’t say. It also awakened the first hint of a force deep within, relentlessly impulsing me through the years, keeping me ever eager to find the truth about the Birdwoman and the terrible catastrophies.
The Creative Modes.
The First Step towards Creating From the Future is the understanding of the two primary Modes of Creativity: Inspiration and Expression. We need both to create well on this planet. Many people are expressing through art, science, business or sports, yet not necessarily pulling Inspiration from a higher source. On the other hand, there are persons continually contacting ingenious ideas, but never bringing them into useful form. Not everyone needs to become an artist, but we all need to understand how the Creative Process works. The two primary Modes of the Creative Process are "Inspiration" and "Expression". The Inspirational-Receiving Mode, is like inhaling a creative breath, while the Expressive-Projecting Mode, exhales its creative manifestation.
Our Passion for creating is strongest in childhood when we’re still fully connected with the Creative Force Field. Our personal connecton with that Force originates in the lowest subtle energy center in our bodies. (Figure 2). That Force is meant to move upwards through these seven energy centers as life evolves, enabling us to create in higher states of consciousness. At puberty, these energies focus in the reproductive organs. Some creative energy remains in each cell, but most will then gather in the second, the Sacral energy center at adolescence.
We need creativity in our lives. We are all artists__ perhaps not musicians, writers, painters, dancers, or inventors__ but we all have that same inner drive urging us toward a collective human destiny. The Creative Process, when developed and applied, enriches our days, develops imagination, introduces pattern recognition, teaches novel problem-solving and offers broader perspectives about life. In my workshops, I never met anyone who was unable to create in some way. Together, we humans have been birthing something remarkable since the beginning of time and space.
Adolescence
Adolescence is the best time to learn about the Creative Process as it signifies a point of transformation in human development. Normally, until primary school age, children dwell mostly in the higher sense realms. It's only when family, church, school and society program us into traditional or mainstream beliefs that we forget how to “be with Spirit”. Elementary students love to draw, color or mold clay, but around ages nine, ten or eleven, they become trapped in the materialistic viewpoint__ they want everything they create to “look real”. They begin judging their art work by that photographic standard. They draw or model the same subjects repeatedly, and if they lack the necessary discipline or passion, or don’t quickly realize their high expectations, they stop making art.
At the adolescent stage, we become able to create on a material level__ i.e., flesh and blood babies__ through the second, reproductive center. Teenagers haven’t yet become as perceptually biased as adults, and their newly-released hormones are ripe for creative tasks, readily directed toward expressions beyond sex or violence. Sadly, in our society, most adults have been “stuck” at this intensely emotional, adolescent level, never having matured sexually, mentally, emotionally or spiritually beyond a materialistic view of life's purposes. Typically, still adolescent as adults in our western culture, we think we know it all. We think that because we "can" use amazing new material technologies, we have a divine right to "do it" without considering the consequences. Most of us under-estimate the powers of adolescence. Hitler knew its power when he indoctrinated teenage boys for his Nazi Youth Corps.
Few parents realize that passion experienced through creative arts is an option to sexual activity.We now overlook much of the tremendous physical, energetic and creative growth potential during teenage years. With artistic, sports or inventive activities, we have safer outlets for that sexual drive which many youths and adults, too, find so difficult to control or direct. Violence is escalating among young people because we haven’t taught them how else to channel their creative energies. Their only choice in dealing with difficult, dangerous situations is to flee or to fight__ to resort to the conflict and violence they’ve witnessed for years from TV, movies and gaming. They become either paranoid or numbed due to all the brutality they’ve seen, and know no other way to handle difficult situations.
The Sleeper Stage
The first three stages of Evolutionary Consciousness are "The "Sleeper", "The Seeker" and "First Enlightenment." At the Sleeper Stage , we are ignorant of a side to life we’ve somehow missed. When we become disgusted with current life situations, we start looking for new directions, better priorities. We then become Seekers. The inner creative urges challenge us to reach for something intangible that we've felt missing. We become aware of that mysterious Creative Force flowing within us, connecting all life everywhere, and we want to find out more about it. It is imperative to keep this Force flowing strongly through youngsters because in our society, public education, institutions and mass media are controlled by corporate-political-religious factions whose bottom lines are to make us obey, work harder, produce more and pay more. Then we must sell what we've made, or buy something, use it, discard it and repeat the process over and over, leaving no time for inner reflection or creativity.
So how do we instill creative habits in the minds of growing children? (See Archives ). Through the regular practice of fine arts, we trigger the creative drive to rise to the third energy center, the solar plexus. While creating through this center, innovative ideas have been uncovered by practicing artists throughout the centuries.We may then gain increased satisfaction with our artistic productions because we’re less dependent on making the artwork look physically "real”, and more interested in "expressing" what we're about. Pablo Picasso said, “Painting isn’t an aesthetic operation; it’s a form of magic designed as mediator between the strange hostile outer world and us; a way of seizing power by giving form to our terrors as well as our desires.”
The Inspirational Mode.
Of the two hundred artists interviewed for this text, 45% began making art in childhood and youth when motivated by parents, relatives or teachers. Another 15% took classes from local teachers in adulthood. One painter first volunteered as a 4-H art leader, then found that after the rush of creating on her own, she couldn’t stop. My uncle Bill was inspired by a fellow Marine’s art books and drawings while on Iwo Jima in WWII. He made a career out of art, first as a teacher at Los Alamos, NM where he also translated scientists' papers into lay language to be printed in scientific journals for the California, Jet Propulsion Lab. He eventually became Art Director for the Pasadena City College. At age 90, he still wrote books on quantum physics and creativity.
Creative athletes__ particularly those who were also teachers or coaches__ enjoyed comparing their skills with those of others’ and finding the highest and best in self. One expressed joy in performing well as an individual while integrating his personal uniqueness with team work. Several artists garnered ideas through their dreams. One received during regular meditation. A coach and teacher would “hear” a word or two upon waking in the morning, or while out jogging__ the words later proveingto be keys unlocking a new project he’d planned. He also, like five percent of the practicing artists, connected with ideas while watching or listening to other people, then adapting those ideas to his own current needs. Several individuals intuited while in the shower. One even admitted getting her best notions in the bathroom, seated on “the porcelain throne”, and imagining words formed by the "tinkles".
We all, artists or not, need to keep replenishing ourselves from inspirational sources, firing ourselves up through the physical senses as well as through stimulating interests. Happy memories, music, breathing exercises, time spent in nature, poetry, prayer, yoga or tai chi, even fasting a day or two, can re-energize us to access other-dimensional truths.. Sometimes a musician can renew her receptivity by viewing sculptures; a blocked writer might dance or swim, a burned-out entrepreneur build sand castles on the beach.
The Expressive Mode.
What is received through Inspiration begs to be Expressed. Two thirds of those interviewed preferred to work alone. Athletes, actors, dancers and some musicians, of course, usually innovated wiith groups. Painting or drawing while traveling near home or around the world satisfied those with the means to do so. A weaver, a teacher, a pharmacist and a phy-ed coach solved problems during repetitious outdoor physical activities like swimming, bicycling or jogging.
Asked what part of creative activities brought them joy, most artists said it was presenting their creative ideas to the world. They enjoyed the action more than the outcome; the process, rather than the product, was the more satisfying. Seeing their skills improve delighted many, but some enjoyed dreaming up new works more than producing them.
Creative Arts activities can foster peak consciousness experiences. The interviewees’ unique discoveries about creating were as varied and individualized as their personalities. Statements included, “How we think about a subject has a deeply profound affect on the outcome,” and, “Each design or form produced is a mirror of the artist’s consciousness at a given time and place, a metaphor for what we are projecting to others.” A writer-illustrator said, “I was amazed to see I could create a whole new world in my mind, reproduce it on canvas or paper, and by varying shape, color and value, change it completely, time after time.” Other artists related, “How fast time sped by while creating surprised me. Then, after completing the work, I was awed that this should come out of me.” and, “I began to perceive how many objects in a particular location contained variations of the same color, which served to interrelate everything.” And, “True art is an open and complete expression of Love.”
Blocks arise when we maintain attachment to outcome. Passion in any type of work enables us to surmount inhibitions and keep reaching beyond past accomplishments. We must desensitize ourselves to criticism and find happiness in doing something utterly our own. Striving to surmount creative challenges, we frequently trigger peak experiences from within ourselves, inspiring us to express freely and courageously. While in these loftier states of mind, we may at times consciously link with the Creative Force itself. Challenges for participating artisans were as unique and varied as their individual artworks. (See Archives for "Blocks &Challenges)
The Seeker Awakens.
Creative Arts awaken the "Sleeper" and propel him into the "Seeker" Stage of Consciousness Evolution. The Seeker investigates the hidden side of life. Soon he becomes aware of a secret Inner Life and passionately desires it, eventually entering the First Enlightenment Stage. People at spiritual seminars and metaphysical conferences like to share stories of how they got their first "pop”__ the unusual event that triggered their electrifying awakenings. Classic triggers are an incredible coincidence, a severe blow to the head, an accident or serious illness, a lucid dream, an intense mental shock, a vivid vision or even being in a coma.
First Enlightenment Stage episodes (Near Death, Bi-Location, Out-of-Body-Experiences, etc.... accessed in higher dimensional states) can point an individual towards her life purposes. In 1965-66, the planets Pluto and Uranus aligned three times in the zodiac sign of Virgo. The first world satellite communications system linked all people on the planet, the first "Star Trek" TV series began, and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis rose. Virgo and the Sixth House of an astrological birth chart deal with everyday duties and responsibilities, and the left-brained mental and health habits. On spiritual levels, it can also introduce one to The Path of Discipleship. The summer of 1966, my progressed Moon moved into Virgo and my 6th House, presenting an opportunity to examine my belief system and move beyond a "Sunday-school" God. I got my "first pop" since my childhood inter-dimensional visit.
When ill ,I faint and fall face down on a hardwood floor, producing a mild concussion and cracking all four, front upper teeth. Months later, one of those teeth abcesses, but we can’t find a dentist over the long Fourth of July weekend. By the time I do see a dentist, I’m half out of my head from three days of pain and no food or sleep.
Tuesday morning, as the dentist examines the tooth,I relax under the novocaine, sigh and close my eyes. Next thing I know, I’m floating near the ceiling, looking down on my body in the chair below where the dentist and his assistant work over it. A silver cord stretches down to my physical body’s solar plexus. A long tunnel with a light at the far end opens before me, and I float through it to exit at a place where everything appears in shades of red and black__ like infrared photography. Six or seven elongated beings of light hover there; very tall and humanoid in form. With only heads with eyes and arms, but no feet, they glow like lighted smoke or fog.
As feelings of overwhelming sacredness, ecstasy and love wash over me, I feel I"ve "Come Home at Last" and recognize these beings as kindred souls from an ancient past. We reach out our arms and hug each other. But they say, "It’s too soon. You must go back. You have more work to do.”
“But I like it here; I don’t want to go back!” I cry out. Yet, even as I speak, I feel the silver cord reeling me back into the tunnel. A few moments later, I’m again in the dentist’s chair. Hal is here. They called the doctor, claiming I died in the chair, having no pulse, no breathing. My jeans are wet; my bladder has emptied.
The doctor diagnoses a touch of blood poisoning and sends me home to rest, eat a little light food and drink plenty of water. I do so, but am so terribly angry over having to come back after experiencing that incredible love and estacy on the “other side”, that I can’t even talk about it. People wouldn’t believe it anyway__ I’m not sure I do. Back at work two days later, I’m fine.
This uncanny experience completely shatters my belief system. It’s my wake-up call. Now I know there is life after death, I know there are other "realms" to life, and the familiarity of the light beings opens me to the idea of reincarnation. Years later, Dr. Raymond Moody writes about similar events and I realize I’ve had a classic Near-Death-Experience (NDE). My life is forever changed. I no longer fear death. My self-security project is advancing.
But what did the light beings mean about it being “too soon”? And what is this “more work” I have to do? I’m already caring for a home, a husband, three teenagers, managing a collection agency, and painting or giving classes several nights a week. Isn’t that enough “work”, for crying out loud?
The Pharaoh.
Often after a First Enlightenment, other -dimensional visits, extremely vivid dreams or meditations can further point the individual towards her life mission.
I’m touring a huge art museum with a group of strangers. We stroll from room to room__ high ceilinged, musty, dimly lit enclosures opening to still more rooms. Each wall holds one huge painting in an elaborate gold frame with an ornate, antique chest or table sitting beneath it. I wander ahead of the group until, alone in a softly-lit room, I’m surprised to see a small, bald-headed man in a tan business suit. He watches me closely until I walk over and say, “You look very familiar__ have we met at an art show or gallery somewhere?” He does not answer. Suddenly, I blurt out: “Oh, now I know__ you used to be the Pharaoh!”
At these words, his appearance changes: he now wears sandals and a short white tunic with a colorful, wide circular collar encrusted with jewels. One hand holds a small scepter-like object with turban-shaped ends, and the other, an Egyptian ankh. But most curious of all are his head and face__ his facial features have now all scrunched down into the lower third or quarter of his head, making his hairless cranium appear even larger and more bulbous. Around his huge forehead he wears a band of gold and gems, with a large crystal centered just above the space between his eyebrows. The man is startled when I recognize him, and as we hear the tour group nearing, he glances into the next, completely darkened room. “Come with me”, he whispers, “There’s something you need to know.” Without hesitation, I follow him into the blackness.
But I am not to hear his message, for I’m awakened by two large, black dogs fighting outside the bedroom window. I try to go back to sleep and reconnect with this dream-vision, but I cannot.
Next afternoon, while I meditate on the encounter's significance, the doorbell rings. “I saw your paintings on display at the bank and felt I just had to meet you,” says a strange woman. She introduces herself as my new neighbor, Jane, and states, “I’ve just returned from two years in Egypt.” I hardly know whether to laugh, scream or run, but I take a deep breath and invite her inside. We soon become good friends, sharing interests in the arts, ancient cultures and spiritual matters. And many years later, I recognize the little man in the tan suit in the dream__ It's Edgar Cayce__ and the Pharaoh was him as "Ra Ta" in very ancient Egypt.
Creativity as a Journey of Self-Discovery
It is the Inspirational Mode’s nature to be expressed as clearly and fully as possible. By observing what and how we create, we unmask ourselves as a one-of-a-kind person. The Creative Force expresses through us Earthlings in nearly seven billion, uniquely varied forms. Few people develop a personality so individualized, they can give themselves complete permission to express their mind and heart in uninhibited ways. Art helps us achieve this.
It’s not important what form our work is taking, but from what state of mind we are working. It’s not what we do, but how we do it that makes a difference. We must uncover what works for us and what doesn’t and record it. Keep a Journal. Recognize how each of us delightfully differs from others and let ourselves be a bit silly now and then. Art is a safe way to express our uniqueness.
Unlike many fields, the art world allows each of us to choose the direction in which we wish to travel. Living every day in search of only pleasure and “happiness" leaves us always wanting more of the same, leading only toward a never-satisfied thirst for still more stimulation or sensationalism. Better, instead, to purposely choose experiences that bring self-discovery, personal growth, expanded awareness, greater health. peace and loving service to others. There must be balance as we structure things artfully. Fun and play get the energy flowing, but direction keeps us on target.
Transcending the Limits of Self.
One of the challenges for an artist who has painted for many years is that of becoming so adept that she can virtually “do it with her eyes closed”. She has learned all the tricks to tame her painting medium, learned even to expertly overcome “unhappy accidents" and to force the artistic performance to bend to her personal will. When this stage is reached, there are seldom any unexpected events or crises arising to provoke a rush of creative surprise, or to challenge us with unique problem-solving experiences. We no longer explore__ or evolve.
To overcome this stagnant and boring condition, the painter may purposely contrive challenges or manipulate accidents. He may dampen the entire sheet of paper and spray or scatter color across its surface using hands, sticks, rags, brush tips or even fly-swatters, as he flings pigment in a completely abandoned manner. Some watercolorists will work awhile on a painting, then flip it over and deliberately smear its surface upon the table top, or drag cardboard edges across it causing unexpected fusions of color, strange shapes, lines and textures to appear in the wet paint. They deliberately and randomly distort the paintings' surface. New, surpisingly creative resolutions birth from their Inner, Inspirational Self.
When the Intellect takes over again, something beautiful must be Expressed out of that chaos, offering major opportunities. For this type of person, exploring, innovating, discovering and resolving are far more meaningful and exciting than following safe formulas toward a standard acceptable result. Creativity demands the courage to risk. When we are able to approach life from the perspectives of both non-defensiveness and harmlessness, we are more comfortable with our personal insecurities, more willing to investigate the shadows of our inexperience and explore the unknown roads ahead.
First Enlightenment Stage
At the First Enlightenment Stage, our greatest strengths are an Independence from mainstream mindsets and rigid dogmas. In order to be more original, painters try to release from habitual techniques and patterns that compromise surprise in their work__ from the stiff, “this is how you paint a rose”, or “this is how to paint a sky" type of approach__ or the use of trite color formulas, or "this is what wins prizes at the exhibition", for example. The unfamiliar can be frustrating, even scary. But to the brave, Change is an important element of both creativity and spirituality. As watercolorists create, they are always asking themselves: “Is there another way to express this idea?” or, “How can I change my approach again and discover something new?” These attitudes work well in all phases of life.
An Artist Paints a Watercolor
People seriously involved in fine arts and crafts recognize that the Inspirational Mode of the Creative Process requires a highly developed Intuition, and the Expressive Mode demands a clear and focused Intellect. A painting can begin from either Mode, but as the work progresses, these two creative skills__Intuition and Intellect__ must both play off against and balance each other.
First, the painter decides what she wants to express in the painting, using the Intellectual Mode to keep her clear and focused on that Intention. The work in progress is continually re-examined to discover what is necessary and what is not. Then the Intuitive Mode takes over, often entering another dimension of life to image a way to change it to something that feels better. What First Enlightened artists communicate through their work is closer to the heart’s inner senses than to the brain’s logical perceptions. With the Intuitive approach, our emotional and sensitive reactions to the developing artwork produce the desired effect. “Feeling one’s way through” describes this spontaneous activity.
Mature artists' Intellectual-logical choices are based on knowledge gained through years of study and experience; then they act from Intuitive-gut instincts in complete defiance of accepted rules. Watercolor, because of its nature to creep across the paper on its own, is a particularly unstable and hard-to-control medium. Whenever risky techniques produce a successful result, the painter can say she’s had a “happy accident”. As she paints, the artist repeatedly changes the outcome of the painting by deciding when to allow the medium do what it wants__ letting the painting materials show her how they want to be, or when and how to empower it to perform even more dramatically, thereby allowing Creative Force to self-organize the painting. It has to FEEL good before she moves on to the next step.
The artist’s personality is revealed as she paints. She quickly discovers whether her Intellectual-logical mind or her Intuitive-feeling nature dominates. This she does by Observing which mode she scurries to for safety when the work begins to get out of hand. The timing of when to use logic and Intellect and when to go with emotion and Intuition is exquisite, and may require tremendous energy to keep switching modes as the painting evolves.
While painting outdoors, the First Enlightened artist senses the landscape through her heart, invoking Oneness with her subject. If she paints aspen trees, she imagines herself to be an aspen tree, holding inner conversations with other trees, with wind, water, birds or insects, feeling the warmth of the sun, the wetness of the rain and the rhythms of the wind as it rustles the leaves. Just sitting there, drinking in the atmosphere and savoring the site with both physical and sensitive faculties, helps her select which elements to include, to exclude, or to emphasize in the artwork. She chooses appropriate techniques and re-arranges shapes, lines, colors, textures and values until they more accurately portray the true spirit of what she both sees and feels.
Once the conscious Intellectual choices are made, leaving no important decisions to be thought out during the painting process, the painter can let all her energy and excitement about the subject flow directly from her heart through her brush onto the paper. She is now free to engage in the rhythm of "the dance" between Intellect and Intuition. Her paintbrush becomes a magic wand. As the painting nears completion, her physical movements slow down, and she drops into the Intellectual Mode to place a few precise finishing strokes or glazes to intellectually reinforce or refine her evolving vision.
After we create, we need feedback on how well we’re doing. Without constructive feedback, it’s harder to remain concentrated on our creative journey. Feedback can come from inside or from outside of self. By studying the works of both old and modern masters, reviewing our own endeavors across recent years, and examining our work with a detached perspective when it’s exhibited beside the works of others, we come to know intuitively what makes for a good poetic, artistic, symphonic, economic, inventive, athletic or interpretive Creative Process.
A successful outcome is not the primary purpose of a Spiritual or Creative Process: it is the seeking, the striving, the Joyful, Loving Interaction between self, materials and environment. Like a passion-play performed only once__ the very act of creating __The Journey to a Higher Dimension__ is the supreme work of art.
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Chapter 1: Credits
(2) Vogel, Dr. Marcel. Psychic Research Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 6, Nov-Dec. 1989.
(5) CNN Headline News , 12/6/00.
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