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ARTISTIC
MYSTICS
One
Voice From the Visionary Tribe
by
-------PHILIP RUBINOV JACOBSON
As much as I love to paint, something is always pushing down
from above. Some force greater than myself, and so I must
listen to that which is greater than I, like it or not, so
I find myself working on several new books along side my life
at the easel, and everything else that orbits around one's
daily existence. What follows is based on an excerpt, an elaborated
version of one of the 22 chapters found between the covers
of my forthcoming book: EYES OF THE
SOUL, Exploring Inspiration in Art. In actuality, the
title of this essay will be the same as the book I am currently
writing, but the following essay is explicitly created for
The Society of the Imagination and all for all who discover
the many stunning artists who are presented on-line here.
While science, following the unresting and inconstant stream
of the four-fold forms of reason and consequent, with each
end attained sees farther, and can never reach a final
goal nor attain full satisfaction, any more than by running
we can reach the place where the clouds touch the horizon;
art, on the contrary, is everywhere at its goal. For it plucks
the objects of its contemplation out of the stream of the
world's course, and has it isolated before it. And this particular
thong, which in that stream was a small perishing part, becomes
to art the representative of the whole, an equivalent of the
endless multitude in space and time. It therefore pauses at
this particular thing; the course of time stops; the relations
vanish for it; only the essential, the Idea, is its object.
We may, therefore, accurately define it as the way of viewing
things independent of the principle of sufficient reason,
in opposition to the way of viewing them which proceeds in
accordance with that principle, and which method of experience
is of science. This last method of considering things may
be compared to a line infinitely extended in a horizontal
direction, and the former to a vertical line, which cuts it
at any point. The method of viewing things which proceeds
in accordance with the principle of sufficient reason is the
rational method, and it alone is valid and of use in practical
life and in science. The method, which looks away from the
content of this principle, is the method of genius, which
is only valid and of use in art.
"The first is the method of Aristotle; the second
is, on the whole, that of Plato. The first is like the mighty
storm, that rushes along without beginning and without aim,
bending, agitating, and carrying away everything before it;
the second is like the silent sunbeam, that pierces through
the storm quite unaffected by it. The first is like the innumerable
showering drops of the waterfall, which, constantly changing,
never rest for an instant; the second is like the rainbow,
quietly resting on this raging torrent. Only through the pure
contemplation described above, which ends in the object, can
Ideas be comprehended; and the nature of "genius"
consists in the pre-eminent capacity for such contemplation."
1
SCHOPENHAUER
In
the art world today something has gone terribly wrong, just
as the world is becoming increasingly more vulgar and violent.
In looking for a truly inspirational art of the spirit, the
general public would likely discover that the mainstream art
scene is, more often than not, void of such work and that
artists employed by Spirit - seem to be in hiding, or maybe
exiled and in any event; they have become outsiders. Indeed,
the general American public, in particular, appear to be totally
UNAWARE OF AN ART THAT CAN UPLIFT THEM
TO HEIGHTS OF GLORY, INSPIRATION and AWARENESS. However,
such an art is not out of our reach, nor does it sit on a
pedestal high above our heads, nor our understanding and feelings. The
spiritually oriented artists or artistic mystics are trying
to come home to the Creative Mansion that houses all of us.
In this new book that I am writing, I am digging deeper into
the inner life, experience, expression and contributions of
the ARTISTIC MYSTIC and just
as importantly, our response to an integral art and the cosmological
mechanics, service and surrender involved for both the artist
and responder alike.
Although
no validation of the mystical, or the grand mystery of life
is really needed at all, at least I no longer need proof of
the existence of the mysterious forces at work in my own life,
and if you are already on this website and reading this, it
is likely that you too are no longer asking for proof of the
great ONE. However, I will not
stand by and let the art world deny, ignore and under-expose
an art of the Spirit that is very much alive in a Visionary
Tribe and that this vulgar world is in such great need of.
The world needs the inspiration that a higher and more integral
art offers. This tribe, this lineage that has always been
and always will be, is becoming re-membered now all over the
world, just beneath the surface of the business of art, that
dense and thick dark forest called the world of contemporary
art.
This visionary tribe goes back to the very fist markings found
in the caves of Altmira. The artist began as a shamanic-vessel,
expressing and guiding their family formed in Spirit through
Artistic Outward Expression. Today, this tribe is a worldwide
family phenomenon. It is time to "bust" the
"business of art", the scams and fast financial
fads, to stop the multitude from being deprived of an art
that has been virtually hidden from us, from our view and
from a valuable and transforming experience that it affords
within our essential nature. The nature of art is, as Plotinus
said, a service in seeking and expressing Beauty, Truth and
Goodness.
By
my mid-teen age years, the paintings I did guided my way,
where to go next, what to do and seek out. I confronted the
terrible darkness and deepest layers of mind through dream
states and astral journeys that happened of their own accord
and without my desire or will. I spent my teenage years to
early twenties exploring and moving through the darkest regions
of archetypal consciousness. At this tender age I also
became compelled to seek contact with other artists, with
scientists, sociologists, psychologists, people from all the
various wisdom traditions, atheists, communists, mystics and
spiritual teachers of a kindred spirit from around the globe.
As the decades passed, I continued that search and eventually
others began to seek contact with me. You do indeed receive
what you ask for and need. The answers came as I continued
to paint the questions. The essence of what was learned would
merge with the new questions and answers. As my friend Ken
Wilber would say, about an increasing awareness;
"everything transcends but includes all that has
come before."
This
dream of life, for me, is growing thinner and thinner, and
through an art combined with a continuing transpersonal practice,
the same effects would occur for anyone devoted to their own
chosen practice with a discipline that intentionally leads
to awakening. From the guidance of voices ands visions I have
experienced, I also added on to my agenda, the essential forming
of creative community. For nearly ten years, the form of that
has been in the annual summer seminars I organize around the
world, and will one day culminate in VILLA
VISIONARIA. The lack of a transpersonal belief system
precludes the sense of community that we all yearn for because
ego-bound people have difficulty forming a vital, sustainable
community, and thi! s can, indeed, include "artistic
mystics." This kind of creative community is notably
absent in our spiritually starved society. Neither God, nor
country - nor humanity, has the power to touch us to the core,
even the visionary must RESPOND
to the "call," for all that remains is that most
underrated entity of all, the individual soul and the freedom
of responsibility - and the responsibility of freedom.
The resulting research on this new book will be a kind of
epistemology of art in which both the external and internal
experiences of self-introspection and other creative mystics
are investigated and hopefully expressed in a poetic, and
I emphasize poetic, rather than pedantic or academic structure. I
believe it is extremely unlikely that a satisfactory and conclusive
summary on ìthe artist as mystic will be reached by
the human mind in its present state of development. After
all, the subject itself denotes an investigation of incredibly
mysterious forces at work, forces that are "timeless"
in nature and subtle energies that are ultimately ineffable.
Given that challenge, nonetheless, I believe new ground can
be established, offering information, affirmations and insights. Inspiration
is in itself, a mostly indefinable mystery but we can begin
to become familiar with it and open up to it, even welcome
it into the core of our daily lives, letting it fuse with
our every action.
My
first book, Drinking Lightning - Art, Creativity and Transformation,
built the foundation for EYES OF THE
SOUL and the hope of this next book is that it presents
an imprimatura for an art of the soul; souls connected to
God through an integral art. It is natural to feel curious
and elated about the universe in which we find ourselves and
the effort to satisfy our curiosity and desire to merge our
spirit with the great ONE, even
if it is never wholly successful, it is also never void of
satisfaction. So we are comforted, even inspired, by
those artists who have fashioned their lives after this.
If the book I am currently writing, ARTISTIC
MYSTICS, succeeds in communicating to its readers some
part of the satisfaction in which the world of art, inspiration
and the mystery of life has given to its author and compiler,
then it will not have been done in vain. Surely, if we
remember that our eyes are for seeing, not just for looking,
and keep to the task of seeking the unseen, veils are lifted
and clarity arrives.
So, what is an Artistic Mystic?
mys-tic (mis-tik)adj,1. Of hidden or symbolic meaning, especially
in religion, mystic ceremonies. 2. Inspiring a sense of mystery
and awe, mystic n. a person who seeks to obtain union with
God by spiritual contemplation and self-surrender. 2
Even
the world's most rare and enlightened beings were not born
into a life totally unaffected by the world around them. Heredity
and environment, two factors that the scientists of the body
and mind say that largely determine our characters, are beyond
our control. Certainly, we come into life as creatures unconscious
of the culture that supports us, and we lack, at least most
all of us, in childhood, an objective standpoint and skill,
which would enable us to evaluate it. There are many tools
that can enable us all to overcome the effects sustained in
childhood experiences of the culture and environment in which
we incarnated into. It is simply the pursuit of Beauty, Truth
and Goodness as first cited by Plotinus. For me, these three
factors of life derived from the insights of Plotinus, are
individual pursuits that are inevitably intertwined with community
and culture. In fact, I do not think an individual can pursue
any singled-out and isolated path of these Three Great Goals
of Life without at least stumbling upon "something"
of the others. I have cited many examples of the oneness of
Beauty, Truth and Goodness in my previous books, but here
we concentrate on Beauty, and art as an integral spiritual
practice to attain an enlightened awareness and a deeper connection
to God, or the One without a second.
So, what good does it do to be an artistic-mystic?
Ordinary vision is nothing more than the encounter of the
eye with the illusion of matter that strikes it. To live
and dwell only in the state of ordinary vision is like walking
around with snow on our heads, our imaginations frozen, our
intuition and soul on ice. To the creative ecstatic, an artistic
mystic that has awakened to the Reality of the Spiritual Imagination
behind the Illusion of Matter, the great Theater of the Visible
is not only arranged in the basin of Space - but is married
to Light and Love, the daughter of the Eternal, the son of
the Infinite.
In
contrast to this perspective in which art is a marriage, a
virtual fusion of matter and spirit, much of what we have
all seen in exhibitions at modern museums, organized by their
curators, boards, patrons and business associates is colored
by artistic-political agendas. From what I have read on contemporary
art by the íauthoritiesí and historians,
either intentionally, or simply out of pure ignorance, seems
to miss the point - the real mission of art. For arts noble
mission is to serve and inspire illumination in self and others
through an integrating and inherent living force that suspends
the mind, causing the ego to temporarily lose its grip on
its limited identification. I am speaking of an art that
leaves us momentarily breathless, and carries us to the depths
of our soul, or uplifts our spirits to lofty states in which
we are dignified as human beings.
In today's art world, trusting one's own response to what
one sees is wise. Here-in lies the challenge to expose a transparent
naked art of lies, fads, fashions and finance. After all,
if a painting is naked, that is, unadorned with spirit, then
it is easy to define "bad art" as simply: vacant
of feeling. I refuse to take a defensive position, my intention
is to reveal the Truth and allow Beauty to be exposed and
do her work on her own. In this time in which we live, it
seems Beauty has been locked in the closet and we must help
set her free for all to see. The shell game is over,
and no matter how many times the modern art world repeats
the game and reshuffles the show we win, because we can see
that the same pea is just hiding under a different shell.
In this new book I will address the aesthetic and perennial
questions regarding the artist enveloped in a mystical life. I
will continue to ask the questions. What sort of knowledge
do we have of the external world? How far can the claims
of self-experience reveal true worlds unlike we normally suppose
ourselves to inhabit? If the knowledge yielded by sensual
experience seems dubious, what other kinds of knowledge do
we have? Is the result of a mystical art, a real knowledge? Can
integral art be a parallel- expression to integral philosophy,
or religion, or physics and ask similar questions through
a counterpart - visual language? Is art useful, and if
so, in what ways?
When I meet a creative worker I sometimes ask, as I constantly
ask myself: What is your intention in art? Where does your
inspiration come from? What has influenced your work? And
how do you go about creating something? In addition, ancient-future
questions like; who am I? Where did I come from? Where
am I going? And....how does my work affect responders
and myself? . . .run like wheels through the highway of words
and images that provide a map and destination for the Visionary
Tribe. I begin fully aware that our sense organs, eyes, ears
or noses, is not that which actually knows, as that is consciousness,
the witness state behind the mind, that part of us that is
always awake but not thinking, that part of us that is a neutral
observer, never sleeps, and reports back to us what was seen
even while we were dreaming; the Witness State. On the
other side, and equally important, is the fact that our waking
state depends on the sense organs, which are the channels
through which knowledge of physical objects and therefore
art is conveyed to consciousness. In the pursuit of philosophy
and art, in searching to become stationed in illumination,
it is wise to exercise an especially liberated intelligence
in which the human mind is set free and the spirit can soar
to touch the feet of Beauty, Truth and Goodness.
Untrammeled by limitations of the temporal and the particular,
art recognizes no laws save those that govern its own reasoning,
or created reality. This disinterested activity in which
the quest of the freely functioning mind explores, is a tremendous
Good, it opens the doors of inspiration, and is among the
greatest experiences a human being can gain and enjoy. Art
is a noble skill, an offspring of the material mind of mortal
man, inspired by a cosmic loom that carries the fabric on
which the self, the small "i" weaves the patterns
of personal character with the Supreme Self, the capital "I"
and holds enduring values and spiritual expression. The
Visionary Tribe serves as humanities eyes of the soul. In
so far as the evolving being becomes permeated by Truth, Beauty,
and Goodness as the value-realization of an illumined - consciousness,
and this applies to each and every one of us, such a resultant
being can become a force of indestructible love. If a
soul does not seek eternal values and love, then mortal existence
is without meaning and life itself becomes an inescapable
and tragic illusion. The authentic artistic mystic works
for Love and in service to the One without a second, to Illumination,
to Illuminating the Mystery. A famous aphorism from the philosopher
Herbert Spencer is a definition of Deity that is wonderful:
"God is infinite intelligence, infinitely diversified
through infinite time and infinite space, manifesting through
an infinitude of ever-evolving individualities."
It
appears, on the surface at least, that the art movements over
the last ninety years have "almost" demystified
and deconstructed art and the creative process altogether. The
post modern era is devoid of any artistic standards. The
role of art has not been truly defined in our time, and so
many artists and students of art rarely gather anymore to
examine and discuss their "calling," nor do
they even see themselves as "being called." So many
of them are just not interested in a creative work of the
spirit. Not all, but most art schools systematically
indoctrinate aspiring young artists into the deconstructionist
absurdity promoted by the museums and art-market machineís "wheel
of fortune." For most, the creative outcome of artists
and the experience of responders is a dizzying ride, with
frequently shifting gears and no sense of direction or noble
intention. The destructive and disorienting effects of shallow
ëshock-valueí productions leave the masses lost
in a wilderness of contemporary art that just feels negative,
depressing, vacant and valueless. Indeed, I cannot count the
number of times I had walked out of a contemporary gallery
or museum and had felt drained, tired, disoriented, disappointed
and sad, instead of uplifted, energized and inspired.
Visionary-artists
restore a spiritual dignity and purpose to the practice of
making art. The art world today is a visual dumping ground
full of images of despair, fear, mechanized madness, decadence,
nonsense and noise. The art of our time seems to be self-mutilating,
often angry without reason, and only widens the gap and distrust
between creative workers and responders. The eye of the
artist has turned to the exterior, to the mundane and moneymaking
market place, aimless, and thus we have art that moves further
and further away from our true nature, our spirit. As
a result, we have an overload of art that is based on superficial
concepts, museums literally buying Manzonniís canned-shit
at $90,000 to $150,000 a pop, or simply mere decoration instead
of inspiration. It is an art that ends up commenting on itself,
or simply exhibits a vacancy of feeling, or, just feelings
like shit. We have a new generation of artists that are simply
"money snorters" and repeating artistic acts already
performed by the Dadaists 90 years ago, by Joseph Beuys and
the like, more than 50 years ago but at least in their time
some of them had something to say and did so in a creative
way. Art has become empty of spirit whereupon the creative
mystic is driven to restore its soul and uplift it from its
wretched and stinking apathy, its aimless anarchy, and its
utter lack of human feeling.
Creativity,
inspiration and mystical experiences are seemingly a mystery
because there is something paradoxical about it, something
that makes it difficult to see how it is even possible. How
it happens is indeed puzzling, but that it happens at all
is deeply mysterious. To define creativity psychologically,
as "the production of new ideas," is of some help
but falls gravely short. For how can novelty possibly be explained?
Either what preceded it was similar, in which case there is
no real novelty. Or there was nothing that preceded it, in
which case one cannot possibly understand how the novelty
could have ever arisen. A psychological explanation of creativity,
inspiration, "integral art" and especially a mystical
art - may be unachievable if we are speaking of merely the
mechanisms of the physical brain, contemplation or the characteristics
of personality. It is not even clear that there can possibly
be anything to explain, and yet, all of us have that "sneaky
suspicion," undeniably, that there is. However, explanations
must come from a variety of sources; the sciences, arts and
philosophies, the theologians and cosmologists, and of course,
the artists themselves, in order to begin to generate a truly
integral and unified theory. For now, the paradox persists.
Human
creativeness is a wonderfully big, mysterious and challenging
question, and in the realm of the mystic, a grand question
to address. Someone who claims that creativity can be scientifically
understood must therefore show in just what sense it is unpredictable,
and why this unpredictability does not anchor it firmly in
the depths of mystery. Many related problems concern just
how inspired a novelty has to be, to count it as creative.
There is novelty (and unpredictability) in randomness: so
is chaos as such creative? There is novelty in madness too;
what is the distinction between creativity and madness? What
about the recognition of novelty, and why is this realization
sometimes long delayed? And what of social acceptance: is
this relevant to creativity, and if so does it follow that
psychology alone (helped by neither the sociologists, nor
the history of ideas) can explain it? These queries inevitably
have a philosophical atmosphere about them, for they concern
not merely the "facts" about creativity but the
very concept itself. There are many intriguing questions about
creativity and inspiration--but many orbiting problems arise,
at least in part, because of conceptual difficulties in saying
what creativity is, what counts as creative and what sources
of inspiration exist. Such fact-based questions cannot be
completely answered while the conceptual paradox is raging.
However, by domesticating creativity and an artistís
mystical experience we can begin to tame the paradox.
Popular
beliefs about human creativity are implicitly influenced by
the paradoxical nature of the concept, and are highly pessimistic
about scienceís ability to explain it. Indeed, "pessimistic"
is perhaps the wrong word here. For many people revel in the
supposed inaccessibility of creativity to science. A widespread
view--I would call romantic--assumes that creativity, being
humanity's crowning glory, is not to be sullied by the reductionist
tentacles of scientific explanation. Its unintelligibility
is its splendor. Certainly, I may fall into this romantic
category at times, but welcome all manners of investigation
and the challenging of my views, if not my direct experiences
and the views of many others. The "romantic" view
is believed by many to be literally true, but is also rarely,
if ever, critically examined.
Tracing electronic signatures of brain activity to discover
inspiration does not explain its origination, no more than
if we looked at a painting and focused only on the signature
of the artist, while ignoring the whole picture. That may
be over simplifying, but in general, researchers on creativity
seem to focus on the product, or tail-end of the creative
process, when in fact, understanding its birth would be more
revealing. Certainly, if there is one lesson to be learned
from the most world-shaking events of the last one hundred
years, it is that new scientific knowledge discovered by one
or two people can quickly become the concern of everybody
on the planet. Revelations from artists, writers and philosophers
can also give us a profound shift in awareness. Discoveries
and events have occurred that have totally changed our perception
of reality and have helped build the world we live in today,
for better or for worse. It appears that we are in the middle
of yet another such transformation in our collective awareness.
This time, the subject is not the shape of the earth, nor
the decoding of DNA, or the discovery stem cells, or of a
new planet, a new bomb, anti-matter, or the energy at the
heart of atoms, but what might be called the most awesome
puzzle and mystery of all - the source of human creative power.
Because this emergent field of knowledge is intimately related
to our ideas about our own limits and abilities, the changes
in our personal lives and in our entire society could become
breakthrough experiences on a planetary level.
There
have been great leaps in understanding the creative process
that have been made by philosophers, artists, scientists,
researchers and scholars, and I have referred to and cited
many of them in my first two books. The best steps forward,
over the last thirty years have been in the study of creative
ìpatternsî observed and documented by such researchers
as Carl Rogers, Frank Barron, Willis Harmon, Howard Rheingold
and Silvano Arietti to mention only a few. Investigators from
many different fields--neuroscientists, psychologists, sociologists,
anthropologists, philosophers, computer scientists, educators,
and physicists--are putting together a new picture of human
capabilities, motivations, and inhibitions rega! rding the
human condition within the universe. The outline of this picture
is still hazy; grand unifying theories are lacking, and experimental
findings in many areas are fragmentary. But the fragments
are beginning to fit together and it is my sincere wish that
this next book would offer a raw matrix for a "general
unified theory" about art as a mystical and empirical
path of spirituality. This theory will rest on the assumption
that art, creativity and spirituality are ONE.
There may be many artists and/or writers on this subject that
will have another view entirely, and surely some will be equally
viable and valuable.
It
is my opinion, and in this I believe most would agree; that
the knowledge contributed by scientists, artists and writers,
therapists and yogis, shamans and historians, and the greatest
creative minds in history will more likely benefit the majority
of ordinary people who are not full-time scientists, mystics
or inspired artists. The ultimate beneficiaries will be executives,
politicians, accountants, homemakers and schoolchildren. When
the secrets of creativity and inspiration unfold, that were
formerly reserved for geniuses, the masterpiece of our collective
endeavors will not be a painting, musical composition or scientific
theorem, but a new way of life. John Gowan, a giant in the
field of creativity research, wrote an article in 1977 about
the implications of such collective-creative potentials, the
following is an excerpt from his article.
"About
9,000 years ago, prehistoric man was suddenly catapulted into
history as the result of an astonishing social discovery.
Previous to this, small bands of nomadic tribes had roamed
. . . Looking for game and gathering fruits and vegetables
wild. Then someone found out that if one domesticated animals
and plants, one could have a ready supply of food always at
hand . . .
Thus was agriculture and civilization born . . . Fortunately
we are on the brink of another momentous discovery, which
will have even greater impact on cultural and personal escalation.
Heretofore
we have harvested creativity wild. We have used as creative
only those persons who stubbornly remained so despite all
efforts of the family, religion, education, and politics to
grind it out of them. In the prosecution of this campaign,
men and women have been punished, flogged, silenced, imprisoned,
tortured, ostracized, and killed . . .
If
we learn to domesticate creativity--that is, to enhance rather
than deny it in our culture--we can increase the number of
creative persons in our midst by about four fold. That would
put the number and percent of such individuals over the "critical
mass" point. When this level is reached in our culture,
as it was in Periclean Athens . . . And our own Federalist
period, there is an escalation of creativity resulting and
civilization makes a great leap forward. We can have a golden
age of this type such as the world has never seen, and I am
convinced that it will occur early in the twenty-first century.
But we must make preparations now, and the society we save
will be our own." 3
If
we could accept, for the moment, that Gowan's statements are
true, then consider what your life and the condition of the
world could be like. The capacity for achieving fundamental
insights would not only be in the province of the genius,
but at the very least, would be a partially learned skill.
Profound experiences of inspiration formally reserved for
artists, scientists, philosophers and religious mystics would
be a meaningful part of anyone's life. The power of deep intuition
would not only be accessible as a source of guidance for individuals
but also for whole societies, and could even become a planetary
condition. Each individual would become much more than they
thought they could be, by simply stopping to believe otherwise.
If we can learn to cultivate creative capability and increase
our cultural creativity by fourfold, tenfold, a hundredfold
or a thousand fold, it would indisputably solve many of our
most pressing problems. However, if the dual-nature of the
human mind is not also guided by a spiritual power and wisdom
in this achievement, then such a breakthrough can equally
lead to destructive as well as constructive ends, as the conflicts
and genocides of this past century alone, demonstrate to us,
and continue as you read these words.
Creative
power is often generated and received in the strangest ways.
Breakthrough discoveries that in the long term have proved
to have great social value were often originally motivated
by personal interest or even the ferment of war, and history
indicates that some of the most beneficial creations of the
past were seen by contemporaries as evil, degenerate or socially
destructive. There seems to be only one certain consistency
here and that is the greater the novelty, originality, and
depth of the creative breakthrough--be it an idea, a work
of art, or a scientific discovery--the more likely it is to
be seen at first as false, evil, against God, foolish or simply
something to be ignored.
We have an unexplainable ability to see images, to experience
things as there and not there, all at once. This is the
essence of the image, the symbol. In art, for me, it is the
sense of what is not there that is more telling than what
is. Art is a more universal mode of language than is speech
that exists in a multitude of mutually unintelligible forms.
This is easily confirmed when you travel to foreign countries
or watch a foreign film. The language of art also has to be
acquired, but the language of art is not affected by the accidents
of history that mark off different modes of human speech.
The language of art is universal. The power of music in particular
to merge different individualities, even nations in a common
surrender, loyalty and inspiration, a power utilized in religion
and in warfare alike, testifies to the relative universality
of the language of art. The differences between English, Portuguese,
Hindi, German or Arabic speech create barriers that are submerged
when art speaks. A painting by Da Vinci, Delville or Dali
will evoke tremendous feeling or response in anyone from anywhere
and from any time. The word is ruled by time, space and place
- the image is timeless and everywhere all at once. It is
truly an integral and mystical language of the soul.
Creative mystics passively wait for inspirationís unpredictable
reappearance. We also know that without it we are cut off
from the source of our true nourishment, and everything we
make feels empty. Art is noble and will not associate
itself with the commonplace, and when it does turn its eyes
upon the common, the ordinary; it sees the sacred in or behind
it. It is the desire to express these intimate sensations
and mysterious events, which motivate the creative mystics
to share the uncommon, even the mystical, alongside the beauty
of the ordinary. In all cases, the artistic mystics embody
an essential feeling that serves as testimonies of a universal
language of color, space, light and form, of SACRED
IMAGES. Like in the secret doctrines of the ancients,
much of this artwork is concerned with the mysteries of life. This
is the work of the Visionary Tribe, which is preserved in
Spirit among a small band of initiated minds since the beginning
of the world. And like the Great Arcanum of old, these works
of art, through symbol, subtle aesthetic energies, allegory
or abstraction, also offer keys that unlock a treasure house
of artistic, philosophic, scientific and religious truths.
The true artistic mystic integrates his or her art within
a spiritual practice that casts aside the fallacies of dogma
and tenet, expresses Goodness, Beauty and Truth and is never
satisfied with anything substitute or counterfeit.
The
Old Testament story of the golden calf and the subsequent
prohibition against graven images not only fostered the iconoclastic
debate and its place in the unfolding of history, and subsequently,
art history, but also, inversely, inspired a backlash of revelation
through the spark of individuation, a communion through art,
self and Godhead. Yet art, the visual image, the sign,
the symbol, once and always the purest language of God, was
taken back by Moses, replaced and entrusted only to the priests
who in turn interpreted the laws, messages, secrets and prophecies
by means of the word, and kept the symbolic-image-knowledge
secret on the deeper levels. But the truth remains; the
limitation set in motion through history, swung back like
a pendulum, and eventually catalyzed the revealed sight of
what lies beyond the enclosure of our language-bound perception
and resulted in the gift of a "radical" art and
its prophetic moments of insight that unfolds the essential
art of the Invisible behind the Visible. Artists took
up the palette to swing the pendulum back to its sacred role,
a role of redemption. For century's artists have, unconsciously,
been on the path of redeeming the image. This redemption,
then, is at the heart of the mission of the visionary tribe,
of their core intention, and each in their own way, not only
of redeeming the image but using the power we have always
and already have, through artistic "unconcealment,"
realigning the soul of humanity; inspiring us all to turn
toward the highest.
Coming
back to Sinai and the Golden Calf, the "graven image,"
the mysteries of creativity are directly linked to creation
itself, this Old Testament story is behind the fate of the
image, and confined and sealed spiritual interpretation to
the medium of the word. Furthermore, the gradual descent
of the visual image into the bonds of language and history
parallels the journey of the soul as it descends into the
depths of matter from its origins in pure Spirit, then rises
upward once again, returning toward eventual union with the
primordial light. Such a model of development (expanded
on in my next book) is more illuminating to the true progression,
digression, regression and transgression of art than the endless
classification of contrasting styles and categories that we
call art history. The separation from the light was inevitable. Mediation
and alienation, the primal split of the fall, are divinely
inspired, and as the pendulum of consciousness swings back
and even more forward, it has also ignited the beginning of
creative individualized thought, expression and redemption
through a sacred art, the work of artistic mystics.
When
intuition meets expression it can sometimes open the gates
to Spirit, and yet another experience comes, creating a lightning-like
illumination, which can allow for a breakthrough in the insight
of a creative worker engaged in any field of endeavor. Part
of what this next book is meant to convey is a fuller explanation
of why those people who have these "breakthrough"
experiences are so excited and consider a study of the state
so valuable. In art it may be expressed in a spectral range
of styles from what I have called a Devotional Abstraction
to a Precision Mysticism. The various organized religions
and the belief systems they propagate are always based on
the words and acts of people who have experienced ecstatic,
or illumined states, and whom hundreds of millions of people
take very seriously. People believe the most fantastic stories
of beings walking on water, turning rivers into blood, levitating
above the ground, appearing to different people in different
places at the same time, talking with and seeing God, angels
and the spirits of prophets, healing the incurable and even
raising the dead. Yet society as a whole tends to look askance
at such experiences when it happens to one of their own, even
if on a level of only hearing a voice, music or having a rare
vision or visitation. Such claims are ignored, dismissed or
considered a sign of mental illness. After all, people making
such claims do not have any Mystical-Union Card identifying
themselves and their experiences as valid, but neither has
anyone else who came before them.
Some
people who have had mystical experiences can sound partially
crazy; they may go into trancelike reveries, jump up frantically
to record dreams, have so-called "hallucinations,"
see visions, and hear music, or voices. No one chooses to
be an artistic mystic of their own volition, and that they
serve these forces is indeed a rather strange, wonderful and
often difficult position. In their case, it is a "job"
they never applied for; they were "called." In their
childlike surrender they may be blessed by the grace of one
or more religious founders, prophets, or the "unknown"
and they may be given visions that bathe the artistic eyes
in what Ken Wilber has described in his Foreword to my first
book, as a "beauty to painful to pronounce." 4 And
so the creative mystics struggle to reify what they have seen,
felt and what has mixed with their blood. This is not to say
that the artistic mystics are potential founders of religions,
great seers, or prophets, not at all, but that they are sometimes
imprinted upon, when in an open state, or have experienced
the same sources of revelatory and inspiring forces on some
level. It is a source available to all, even "autistic"
mystics.
In exploring the subject, in both the realm of imagination,
and in the more subtle states involving outward visions, voices,
visitations, and ecstatic reverie, it is clear that in the
highest states of mystical ecstasy every object springs to
life and the whole of nature becomes alive. One incredible
living and feeling Ocean of Being connects the creative mystic
with every object in the universe. In my tiny opinion,
mystical ecstasy is not exactly an altered state of consciousness,
and yet it is certainly not ordinary either. It is not
normal human consciousness in a state of rapture, or intense
absorption in the contemplation of one object, or of quietude
in which the mind reflects only a serene and silent state
of awareness. It is, in no way, akin to the mental conditions
produced by LSD, Ayahuasca, nitrous oxide, crack cocaine,
psychoactive drugs or entheogens of any kind, hypnosis or
biofeedback or any other íinducedí method or
chemical reagent.
There is no class of books that has been preserved with such
love and care and regarded with such veneration as the gospels
of every faith. They are considered sacred because what they
deal with has been extremely rare and the subject they discuss
is unfamiliar to the discursive intellect. The teachings
contained in the various scriptures took time to spread, for
the seeds had to take root in the soil of the human mind.
This is the reason why scriptural teaching has persisted and
will continue to persist as long as the need exists in t!
he subconscious depths of the human psyche. It is only
in the genuine mystical experience that Revelation can occur. The
images, ideas, and the language used in revelatory states
are inspired. They emanate from a higher dimension of
consciousness, manifested only in an extremely limited number
of cases through the course of history. This fact has
been known for the past thousands of years. That is the reason
why the gospels of a faith are held to be sacrosanct. The
creative mystics, the artists, touch upon these lights of
truth, goodness and beauty and bring down subsets of revelatory
experience; a shadowy reflection, esthetic glimpses into the
divine.
Artistic Mysticism,is a direction involving the cultivation
of consciousness of the Presence of God, and is altogether
praiseworthy, but when such practices or experiences lead
to social isolation or culminate in religious fanaticism,
intellectual arrogance and exclusiveness, they are all but
reprehensible. Ecstatics must guard against such failings.
Due to the overwhelming nature of mystical ecstasy, the creative
mystic may shrink from the mundane world and shroud him or
herself into a cloiste red existence, or in a polarized fashion,
cushioning him/herself in a kind of armor in the surrounding
comforts of fame, pomp, glitter and glory, with a selected
circle of appointed and obsessive admirers. I think it is
also important, therefore, for the creative mystic to keep
an eye out on this tendency toward isolation in either form.
When we speak of painters, sculptors or writers, that is,
non-performing artists, it is obvious that their work requires
a somewhat cloistered existence already, so an effort must
be made to add contact with the world at large to cultivate
and maintain balance. My personal resolution has been in the
form of "seminars," but better defined as CREATIVE
COMMUNITY. It is somehow unnatural, somehow inhuman,
to allow prayer, meditation, or simply artistic engagement
to create a kind of "spiritual-isolation;" When
prayer or meditation becomes an aesthetic elixir that fuels
isolation, when it consists almost exclusively of a beautiful
and blissful contemplation of paradisiacal divinity, it loses
much of its socializing influence, its integral-loving essence
(to embrace, receive and give), and tends to isolate the practitioner. There
is a certain danger and loss of human integration and balance
with overly private praying, meditating and creating which
is balanced in the company of others, depending on the "company,"
of course, but that is also a choice and selection. It
is important now for artists everywhere to move toward creative
integration and contribution, to bring their visionary qualities
and potency into the mainstream. And it is equally important,
that the community at large engages, interacts and embraces
the offerings of the art! istic mystic. The world desperately
needs this infusion and integral relationship. All of the
"isolating factors" of the visionary-type of creative
worker are not falling entirely in his, or her own court,
much of this separation is due to the visionary being pushed
to the outside by their own cultural and artistic community
as well. The genuinely creative-opportunities made available
by the community and political forces to "visionary types"
are rare, and when they are available; they are almost always
already locked-in toward the conventional, acceptable and
the appropriate artists representing their own community-based
belief system. So such integration must be a dual-effort.
Altogether, too frequently that which the overwrought creative
mystic evaluates as divine inspiration is, at least in the
beginnings, simply the uprisings of his own deep mind. There
is a marked difference between Imagination, Pure Imagination,
Spiritual Imagination and Revelation. The contact of
the mortal mind with its indwelling spirit, while often cultivated
through a devoted meditation, seems to me, and in my little
experience, more frequently facilitated by wholehearted and
loving serv! ice to others, by unselfish giving to all creatures
in need, to using the power of a united creative force and
by no less, a total acceptance of when one is "called." What
I mean by called is a hit of spirit-filled lightning that
draws you to something, in this case, to art like a dog to
a bone, not unlike the calling of a devout Christian to the
priesthood. You have no choice and you must creatively express
and give back what was given. If you can find no way to meet
this artistic calling you die, first inwardly, and then totally.
But there must always be some way, or the "call"
would never have been made, and you never would have picked
up the phone.
When I think of the rare times I was blessed with an ecstatic
vision of great significance, it always came after a long
period of giving and always at a time when my frozen sense
of self and personal identity were suspended, or temporarily
forgotten. This sometimes happened while I was naked,
painting in my studio all alone in the sacred space I had
connected to, or during or after some financial or life-threatening
crisis, or major passage in my life. This also occurred in
very simple situations as well, but always when self-forgetfulness
was strong, like walking in a garden or forest in India, or
again naked to the world and wandering with a band of sadhus. I
say this because of the discovery, I made long ago, that revealed
a difference between what I would call a "religious ecstasy"
and what was "ecstatic inspiration," the latter
being a deeper and more genuine spiritual experience. I also
saw that we should not regard every vivid psycho-logic presentiment
and every intense emotional experience as a divine revelation,
or spiritual communication. Genuine spiritual ecstasies
are usually associated with great outward calmness and nearly
perfect emotional control and balance. True prophetic
vision is a superpsychologic presentiment. Such
visitations are not the same as a vision from religious fervor,
pseudo-chemical hallucinations, or hyper-sensorial ecstasies
from entheogens, although all of that may hold the promise
of quasi-revelations and transformative "states"
derived from a temporary experience. But it is simply not
the same, it is not as fine, or likely to affect the ëstagesí
of consciousness as purely as the natural evolution of the
soul.
Present day articles, documents and most new age books on
the subject of so-called altered states of consciousness only
confuse the issue of mystical ecstasy. What state of
mind are they actually trying to represent? If it is
mystical experience, most of them fall deplorably short of
the actual position. Mystical vision has nothing to do with
sorcery, magical happenings, weird adventures in the realm
of the paranormal, bizarre visionary experiences, electrifying
psychedelic panoramas or fant! asies of any kind. In
the genuinely illuminative state there is no clouding of the
intellect, no riot of colors, no encounters with weird or
bizarre scenes, but only an indescribable state of glory,
happiness and love, coupled with the direct experience of
an All Pervading Extended Consciousness, Divine Love or an
Almighty Omnipresent Cosmic Being and Truth, and this may
also include a profound and clean vision, auditory phenomena
or other esthetic events perfectly aligned to the particular
experience. The only sources that I have found to be
truly reliable about this state are the worldís religious
scriptures, the past and some contemporary writings of certain
philosophers and mystics, and the great works of certain genuine
visionary artists, scientists, musicians and poets.
Since "illuminated" consciousness, and not "altered"
consciousness, is the goal of human spiritual evolution, it
is of the utmost importance to make a distinction between
the works of mystics and the fanciful, highly colored or sensational
narratives of those who mistakenly believe that they have
the experience. The distinction is necessary to educate
readers and responders from mistaking one for the other. It
is also very necessary to protect the image of the true mystical
vision from distortion by the ambitious, or the dabbler, or
the uninformed. It does not matter if the wrong portrayal
is from a capable writer or that their book has sold in the
millions, it will die its own death if not based on the genuine
experience. Nature has her own methods for sifting true
from false. In the course of time the human mind itself rejects
what is not true, or is of lasting value to itself.
The mystical experience is unique, and of which most mystics
have described through the overwhelming impact it had on their
lives. The Cloud of Unknowing, a well known classic of spiritual
life, compares it to a beam of ghostly light, piercing the
cloud of unknowing that interposes between human and God. Augustine,
quoted by Eckhart, likens it to being struck by lightning,
when one hears inwardly the affirmation, "Truth,"
to put a seal of authenticity on the experience. St.
Paul fell in a swoon on the road to Damascus and Moses experienced
it as a fire in a bush that did not burn. Mohammed saw himself
carried on a winged horse, called Buraq, to the near Presence
of God, and the experience had an overwhelming effect on his
whole life. In one instant of Grace, Buddha realized that
he was enlightened, that he was awake. A long period
of life spent before that in austerity and religious practices
brought forth no result comparable to this flash of illumination,
this awakening from the sleep of appearances.
According to the papyri found in Egypt, Jesus is reported
to have said:
"Let him not who seeks cease until he finds, and
when he finds he shall be astonished. Astonished he shall
reach the Kingdom, and having reached the Kingdom he shall
rest."
One
of the Upanishads compares Brahman to an upraised thunderbolt
ruling all the elements of creation. The Sufi, Bullah
Shah sings,
"To ascend the gallows is the Pathway that leads
to the love of the Lord. If you desire to have His vision,
be ever prepared to wager your life for His sight."
The Bhagawad-Gita graphically describes the impact of the
vision in these lines:
"If the splendor of a thousand suns were to blaze
together, in the sky, that might resemble the glory of that
Mahatman. There, Pandava (Arjuna) beheld the whole universe,
divided into manifold parts, standing as one in the body of
the Deity of Deities. Then he, Arjuna, overwhelmed with
astonishment, his hair standing on end, bowed down his head
to the Shining One, and with joined palms spoke."
How can we explain the amazing psychological transformation
that brings unity to the multiplicity of the universe, shows
the One in All and All in One, or, in other words, the whole
universe contained in the One Almighty Source of All? So
far as I know, no rational explanation has been provided for
this vision covering all the facets of such experiences. It
has to be remembered that in mystical ecstasy the intellect
remains active. There is no blunting of the rational faculty. This
is repeat! edly mentioned in the Upanishads. Reason has
to be satisfied that the experience is not a delusion. This
means that the vision is real. But, then, how can we account
for it? Other questions arise. Why has mystical vision such
a powerful impact on the mind of the beholder that he often
becomes intoxicated with the love of God, prefers solitude
to even the most joyous company, renounces the ordinary pleasures
of life to revel in a delight before which all the pleasures
of the earth seem stale to him? What is there in this
experience that it often overcomes earthly desires and ambitions
and transmutes an individual into a passionate lover of God
and prepared to face the severest trials and tribulations,
agonizing torture and even death cheerfully for the sake of
the beloved?
In every case of illumination, mere visionary experience is
not sufficient. Certain objective signs to confirm it must
attend illumination. Our difficulty in explaining the
nature of mystical experience stems mainly from the fact that
we are not able to visualize a state of consciousness ësuperiorí
or, rather, hidden, from our own. It is like a child trying
to imagine the mind of an adult, more emphatically, like an
ant trying to imagine the state of mind of a musical or mathematical
genius and since ants most probably do not "imagine"
anything at all, this is obviously difficult. While all sentient
beings are equal, consciousness is not. We can understand
the position better if we suppose that consciousness has an
infinite series of gradations from the most strong to the
most dilute. This we can illustrate by treating our consciousness
as a faint glimmer shed by a spark of fire and comparing it
with the blinding glare on the gigantic surface of the sun. The
human eye cannot even bear the sight of this splendor. It
would be struck blind even when millions of miles away. Our
consciousness is an extremely dilute form of this splendor.
The state of mystical ecstasy is a momentary state of focused
consciousness without effort. That dilute form becomes one-pointed
and ONE-connected and super-concentrated. It
has an overwhelming impact on the mind. The visionary, for
the first time, perceives the all-surpassing Splendor of Cosmic
Intelligence. This is also the reason why intellect and conventional
science are both lost in the labyrinth of matter, for they
look at the universe, as it were, through a filtering glass.
The veil before our eyes is the creation of the senses. They
act and exercise only within a particular range. Areas beyond
that range are completely shut out from us. For instance,
we cannot perceive electromagnetic waves with any of our senses,
but only through instruments and devices designed for that
purpose. Even our instruments, at this stage, cannot predict
an earthquake, though some forms of life can sense, in advance,
the coming shockwaves.
A moth can smell its mate from even as far off as seven miles,
and a shark can smell blood two miles away. A bloodhound can
detect the scent of an absconding criminal for scores of miles
among thousands of other scents left by animals or human beings
that walk over the same path. Bees find their way by polarized
light imperceptible to human beings, and whales locate their
prey with sonar-echo thousands of feet below the surface of
the ocean. What worlds are hidden from us we cannot even imagine?
For all we know, our sensory equipment might be one set peculiar
to the earth out of millions operative on other planets and
other planes of creation in the universe.
Whereas this new book will go much deeper into all of this,
to sum up briefly here, mystical experience represents, in
my view, the activity of a luminous form of energy, which
bathes everything in its luster and contains within it, a
wisdom that transcends all thought and contemplation. I believe
that by a slow process of evolution this illuminated state
of mind, in course of time, could potentially become the natural
stage of every man and woman on earth. The current confusion
about the real nature of mystical experience rests on the
fact that there is no awarenes! s about the biological factors
responsible for this extraordinary state of cognition. As
soon as it is confirmed by experiment that a transformation
does occur in the brain as also in the machinery which fuels
the activity of thought, the speculations and controversies,
circling round the subject at present, will cease; giving
a new direction to the scientific investigation of the phenomenon.
The human mind may perform in response to the practice of
an art, meditation, or to so-called inspiration when it is
either sensitive to the uprisings of the subconscious or to
the stimulus, or "calling" of the superconscious.
In either case, the creative mystic must come to know the
difference between upheavals stemming from deep mind, a tap
of divine madness, a drug induced hallucination, a strike
of inspirational lightning, or a rare God-given moment of
divine ecstasy. In any of these cases it can appear to
the individual that such augmentations of consciousness are
more or less foreign. This is an important point for
anyone who undergoes such experiences, for at this stage one
can easily become either self-deluded or experience a degree
of self-actualization. I have learned the hard way to
tell the difference between an unrestrained mystical enthusiasm,
rampant religious ecstasy, and even bouts of madness and see
that they are not the credentials of a divinely inspired experience.
I am still learning.
How do we test the difference? How do we bring a litmus-eye
to the strange religious experiences of mysticism, ecstasy,
visions and inspiration? Well, besides an old and simple
question I ask in every situation; " . . .does it
have any love in it?" (If not, probably best to
stay away from it, run the other way). The final test is to
examine how "integrating" the experience was and
is. Did the vision or experience contribute to a better
state of health, physically, emotionally or mentally? Did
your love and appreciation for beauty, truth, and goodness
become enhanced? Were your social, moral and spiritual
values enhanced? Was your spiritual insight, your
God-consciousness expanded? Is your heart and compassion
more present in your day-to-day living while carrying out
your commonplace duties and routine mortal existence? Did
your egocentric behavior and view of the life become transformed
to a more world-centric one? Did you become, not only more
tolerant but inclusive, not only more accepting but more compassionate,
more theocentric? Did this experience have an effect on your
personal growth over a long period of time, running perhaps
for years? Did the state experienced affect your stage of
consciousness and not merely altering, temporarily, your usual
state of awareness?
Creative mystics tend to be less product-oriented than other
artistic types but that does not mean they are less prolific
or even successful on a financial level. Their ideas
and objects fountain forth from the spring of a laborless-labor;
an ease in making, where there is no effort, like side effects
rather than as a culmination of a creative process of the
will. Creative mystics live the relationship between
their personal heart and the flowing giant river of creativity. Like
the healer and shamanic types, the creative mystics tap into
the power of creation through the spiritual action of their
contemplative practice and the ethical employment of their
talents. They live free and creative lives, whether struggling,
or financially successful, they are "free." Finally,
they are free from even the fear of death because they have
seen and felt and known the light of the eternal, even if
but for a moment. If death is still a built-in fear, than
likely the vision or ecstasy they believe they had was not
genuine, but rather just an uprising from deep personal mind.
The fearless artistic mystic lives moment to moment in a present
that they flow with and enhance. Every moment they experience
is a part of their creative relationship to life and death,
and this may express itself as art, French onion soup, a Tantric
act of love, or a story told to a child. From any of
their actions great art may arise, but they will not be interested
in labeling it this, or that. They will remember small
details, exact quotes from a conversation held years before,
s! ensual observations of a new born baby bird, the blasting
light of a visitation from another realm, or washing dishes
while the sun bathed their face, rather than identifying themselves
with a grand culmination of an artistic product, painting,
play or museum devoted to themselves.
Their art is born from another realm that co-exists with all
the arts, all that is happening now, hence, they can be multi-skilled
and easily flow between a number of creative roles and activities
at the same time. They make wonderful interdisciplinary
artists, organizers, leaders and integrators, administrators
and performers, dancers and designers, painters, philosophers,
publishers and poets, sculptors and sky jumpers, architects
and archivists, writers and teachers, researchers, choreographers
and concert pianists ñ and could also be someone in
business, or working as a plumber, a "carpenter"
a homemaker, or simply a wandering yogi.
The ecstatic artist exclaims, indeed, we may all exclaim: I
am the Absolute, the smile and the sorrow, the lion and the
sparrow. We may each say: I am the stenching homeless
man you pretend not to see and the prisoner you executed,
the beautiful child who laughs and the old woman who died
next door. We are gazing out of every face; we are carved
out of the same ONE light. The
ecstatic experience can be a blissful intoxication of sorts,
but a crystal clear meteoric mad-flash of timeless loving
light. It is not manic or a form of pathology of any kind.
From it you walk away and remember that before this journey
you knew everything. That you spoke of yourself to yourself. Time
nor space, birth or death was not a condition. There was nothing
else to experience. Just a hint of memory comes, a slight
feeling if you will, that timeless eternity and ceaseless
bliss seemed boring, or at least, lacked awesome creativity. You
recall; that is you vaguely remember, creating an illusion,
a play of consciousness, to limit the spectrum of your perception. Now
whether as a painter or a plumber, you look out at the world
of forms from the ecstatic eyes of formlessness. You
see forever and afterwards you appear to yourself again as
disjointed, as separate from everything else: as a river,
a horse, as a mountain, or as your own cousin, friend or father. Yet,
there is also this inner drive, this push toward self-discovery
that returns you to remembrance. You awake and realize that
you are on a great pilgrimage that leads back to where you
started, to who and what you always were and are right now,
will always be and are always becoming.
© Philip Rubinov Jacobson
Dallas, Texas 5/28/05
1.Schopenhauer, ìThe World of Will and Idea, THIRD
BOOK, The World as Idea - Second Aspectî, p.38-39, The
Great Books Foundation, © 1966, Chicago, Illinois.
2. Oxford American Dictionary, Eugene Ehrlich, Stuart Berg
Flexner, Gorton Carruth, Joyce M. Hawkins, New York/Oxford,
© Oxford University Press, 1980. p. 440
3. Gowan, John C., ìSome Thoughts on the Development
of Creativity,î The Journal of Creative Behavior, vol.
11, no. 2, (1977).
4. Wilber, Ken, from his FOREWORD to DRINKING LIGHTNING ñ
Art, Creativity and Transformation, by Philip Rubinov Jacobson,
© 2000, Shambhala Publications, 1st edition, p.8
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