Blog 5

Blog 5
I think that my perception of these chapters is weakened by the conditions of the environment in which I read the book. I admit fully that I waited until the last minute to read it and being surrounded by a bunch of people checking their facebooks did not help either. That being said… I really felt overwhelmed by the sheer expanse of ideas and aspects of creativity and consciousness covered in these 4 chapters to write a decent blog about it all. One of the main themes that I found to be the most interesting to me and seemed to be threaded throughout the four chapters is that in order to access our inner creativity, (which we all possess) we need to be able to let go of our hold on reality for a bit.
There is a great saying out there that “there is a fine line between Genius and Madness” and I agree with it fully.
It seems to me that, in order for us to create, explore, understand or think outside of the doldrums of everyday existence… to take ourselves off of the auto-pilot function that pretty much gets us through our daily routines, we have to encounter madness in some form or another. It also seems that that interaction with alternate consciousness, in the pursuit of creativity can have a very negative effect on us in this reality. It can also come with some very negative labels which can effect our interpersonal relationships and our sense of belonging and acceptance.
If we are able to access the abyss of creativity on our own, to the extent that is genius, we are labeled as crazy, unstable, unattached, etc.
If we find exterior means of accessing the alternative consciousness we are labeled as druggies or weak and unable to deal with reality.
These are a bit on the harsh side of the spectrum, but realities none-the-less.
I find it a bit ironic that, in order to find oneself in an altered state, in an attempt to connect with or be in tune with the greater world of thought and creativity, one has to almost cut themselves off from the comforts of their surroundings. This can be permanent, temporary, drug induced or figuratively. Insert proper descriptive word for level of separation here.
To finish up, I think it is funny that, while in real life we shun the idea of insanity or drug use or whatever other mind-altering state that people find themselves in, we praise the products that come out of that state of mind.
My fiancé and I have this argument all the time. I am a real lover of the music of the doors, the Beatles (later years), Jimi Hendricks, Bob Dylan, etc. and I recognize that it was their brushes with an alternative world that led them to be as creative and expressive as they were. I applaud their actions for the sake of adding such genius to our cultural understanding. He on the other hand, once he learns that the work was a product of creativity brought about, undoubtedly by drugs or other mind altering methods is immediately turned off from it, simply for its illegal/immoral connotations. This to me is a tragedy, that we desire the products of brilliance, but condemn the methods by which this brilliance is created.

Hannah