Blog 5

BLoG 5

As I begin my journey through the Hughes’s book, I am thankful we began the course reading The Field. There were several key topics mentioned in Altered States that The Field also touched on, and that is how I am going to begin this blog-- pulling out some of the connections/disconnections I found.

First of all, I must say I was thoroughly impressed with the pages devoted to the definition of creativity. “Novelty is the defining characteristic of the creative act”….. “begins as an imaginative construct and ends as an external object”…. all creativity has a destructive component, since the mold has to be broken in order to make something new… (speaking of creativity) clearly there is a connection insofar as tall these states exist outside ordinary consciousness (11-12)”. After reading and pondering over Hughes’s definition of creativity, I began feeling like my initial definition of creativity (posted on Angel at the beginning of the semester) really needs some tweaking!! The first couple pages had some great ideas about creativity, and though I don’t think anyone can ever produce a perfect definition of “creativity”, the beginning chapter really opened my mind to the different angles, reasonings, and components that all contribute to creativity as a whole.

“A practicing shaman must always keep the support of the community, and has to perform n order to move and impress them. The shaman’s routine is part séance, part spectacle, and wholly performance (21)”. Doesn’t this sound like the chapter 7 in The Field that talked about the Indians of the Amazon, and how the “dreamer” is the vessel for the dream, and the vessel for a collective notion? The shamans reminded me of the specific dreamers of the Amazon. The shamans are highly regarded in their society, and expected to perform and give insights of the supernatural to their people, just as the dreamers were to give insight and guidance to their people about the rest of the universe—“the shaman’s vocation is to use his or her powers for the benefits of the community”. This is interesting to me, and for most, so different from our own personal connections with society. This connectedness is unfamiliar to us.

In sharp contrast, Altered States totally defines the brain and memory different from The Field. Altered States says the brain is the controller of functions such as attention, consciousness, sleep, memory, imagination, thought, and creative ability. This made me pause for a moment! Prior to The Field I never would have paused at this assertion, because this is what is always taught, but because I have read and understand an alternative to this common belief, I am choosing not to entirely agree with that sentence. I think a lot of functions do happen within the brain, but I think The Field has a key role too. I think it is neat now that we, as a class, have an understanding of alternative views, we can start to discern things for ourselves, such WhAt Is “the brain”.

Lastly, there was a part in the chapter that reminded me of Danny’s painting. “Images, ideas, and even entire works of art have been brought back from the dream state with great creative effect (48)”. When I read this I immediately thought of the painting Danny shared, I find it interesting that there is a possibility of creativity stemming from unusual dreams if we allow it.