Blog 3

After spending the evening teaching a studio class on surrealist applications for writers and artists, I finally made it home to read The Field. I was a bit disappointed to find Chapter 8 was familiar to anyone who has ever spent a day watching the History Channel or has seen the movie Suspect Zero. The Field has been great in explaining new concepts, but I felt that this week's reading was a bit devoid of anything out of the ordinary.

Chapter 7 contained one topic I would like to discuss: "voodoo effects." What many people don't realize is that in most mystical traditions where curses are present, one of the most important aspects of the spell is to NOT tell the person against whom you are working. Psychologists have tried to make the case that spells work because the targeted person also believes and that when they are told somebody has cursed them, they find themselves constantly suspicious which eventually leads to a form of depression with elements of paranoia, an unhealthy situation, making them susceptible to many "normal" things. As I mentioned before, the problem with the theory is that it leaves out one of the fundamentals of the curse, secrecy.

I have been studying many traditions including Vodou for a few years now, actually going down to New Orleans to visit such places as the Voodoo Museum. One thing that remains consistent, is that many people genuinely believe in it. Amusingly some of the people who are most afraid of curses are average "Christian" Americans who have no real experience with Vodou or any other tradition for that matter. Part of it is Hollywood and the other part is likely deeply rooted in our minds. Why else are children, who are often sheltered from horror movies, genuinely afraid of the boogie man?

The part where McTaggart describes children as being in a permanent hallucination made me laugh at first. A Wiccan author I've read actually describes one of the best ways to get into a mindset perfect for psychic work, is to basically take on a childlike mentality: doing fun things and playing as one had done as a child. In some ways it makes sense. As an artist I've often wished I could get my childhood imagination back. I was an only child living in a rural area, my best friend had to be my imagination and nature itself.

For me Chapter 9 was the one chapter that did expose me to fresh ideas. For awhile I've been pondering the relationship between myself and time. Many have said that time is an illusion, but as anyone who has spotted a gray hair or only has gray hair knows, we do feel its effects. I had a problem with the chapter in being able to control the past. I believe that it is possible to know the essence of the future, but I have a tough time believing that you can undo what has been done. It completely destroys the belief that the past shapes who we are today. Granted, everything except the present is only as vivid as a remembered dream, so it is possible to say that we exist in a moment, but to say that our past can be changed sounds delusional at best. Again as we've all existed in cultures that have some concept of time, it could perhaps be one of those norms that we have to shake.

I've been considering for awhile writing a piece in which somebody is confined to place without any clocks and no way to tell night from day. What would an existence be like where you had nothing from which to form a perception of time?

"...Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need...of some...strangers hand
In a...desperate land..."
-Jim Morrison, from "The End"