the creative mind
from a comment I received in my last posting:
….the creative mind fascinates me. It would be interesting to see a glimpse inside your thoughts to know why you choose some of the images you post. OK, that may be a little scary at times, but intriguing.
For all minds everywhere, that’s scary, yes. Intriguing, definitely.
As I have aged, trying to grasp a deeper understanding of the mind - and particularly the creative mind - has become a rich, delicious, and unendingly baffling tumble down the rabbit hole. The search has led me into a spiritual practice with which I resonate completely; it has cemented some previously-assumed notions into crystal clarity and thrown others into Max-Escher-esque paradoxes. Above all, it has shown me how precious little I really know about much of anything.
Most people wander through their first two decades of life learning how to figure out what they’re going to do with themselves, who they’re going to be. I never once experienced that quandry. My earliest memories are about music. For some reason I have yet to understand, I knew-beyond-knowing that I was in this life to create music. Never once was it a question or an uncertainty.
Believe me, I am no prodigy. That’s not what I’m talking about. I was just born to do music, literally. All through my life pieces have fallen into place to pave the way for me to do what I do. And why me? Lots of people are “born to do music” and never seem to land the connections, move into the right positions to let their musical selves flourish. For that, dear ones, I have no answer, nor do I expect to find one.
Almost everyone to whom I’ve shown Alex Grey’s extraordinary artwork gets a bit squeamish.
painting, 1998 • Alex Grey
In all his works, he shows the physical, mental, and spiritual forces in play. In the above painting, divine inspiration flows into the mind of the artist; representations of influential masters look on; demons of self-doubt are kept at bay; and the all-creative Universal Mother projects herself through the senses, emotions, and heart of the creator.
To be honest, that’s what it’s like for me. (Except the see-through skin; not so much that.) There has never been a time - not ever - when I did not intrinsically know how to step into that ‘zone’ where the unlimited sources of creative ideas reside. Yeah, okay, that’s haute woo-woo. I can’t explain it better than that. It’s not like I’m “plugging into” a disconnected source; I believe all of us are always plugged into it. We’re hardwired.
Recently, I was stunned and awed by a TED presentation given by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor in which she describes in detail her personal experiences living through a major stroke. It completely hooked me. I downloaded and read her book, even more fascinated. I picked up and perused Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia.
Of course, all this delving into brain-speak produces 100 times more questions than it provides answers.
The right hemisphere is the Now; the fluid, experiential, sensory-based mind. The left hemisphere is the Past and the Future; the linear, logical, order-creating mind. And somehow, creativity is born from the combination of the two.
Holy. Shit. I don’t know how it works. I don’t know why it works. I don’t know what makes a dull-gray, three-pound lump of gnarly tissue in our heads act as it does. And the I is in there somewhere.
Friends, I canNOT wrap my brain around that.