Blog 9

This weeks readings (at least ch. 11) remind me of one of my favorite authors. Not in the content so much as it is a look at how creativity comes to be but stories about ways of getting there and reaching into something greater than yourself. Of feeling connected and insync with the world around you and how that can lead you to all varieties of fanciful thoughts. The author of which I speak is Paulo Cohelo. You may or may not have heard of one of his books "The Alchemist" but I really do recommend to every person who can read to take time with his works.
His writings touch on the different ways that people can get intouch with their spirituality- which is a form of altered consciousness. Anyways... I will drop this and get on to my point.
I am sorry to say but I find Hughes to be incredibly hard to digest at times. It is not that his content is hard to understand or anything like that. It is just so dry I tend to loose focus.
That being said, I found this weeks reading to be interesting in that it takes a mixed bag of ideas about consciousness and creativity and throws them all together. There is a touch of the scientific that I found to be a good connection (at least in my mind) to the Field... I read that part about brain damage being able to show a new "life" of sorts in another part of the brain and how it can affect an individual in an artistic way that they previously did not show talent. This got me thinking about the idea of the brain as an antenna and not the memory storage device itself... I think that this is only partly believable. If damage to the brain can have an external affect on an individual, which it does, that shows that the organ itself has its own selfsufficient capablitites... What I think could connect the two(because I do strongly believe in the concept of a social or connected conscious), it the idea that the brain has certain areas that are more receptive to different wavelengths than others. It is a symbiotic relationship of sorts which puts equal emphasis on both components. That would help (me at least) to understand the ability of the brain to share a consciousness of sorts with others, but still find life after injury and even new talents, now that the dominant receptors are dead, leaving room for some of the lesser channels to come in picture perfect.
Back to what I said about Paulo Cohelo. Different paths. Whirling Dervishes, Meditation, Quests, Icons, Etc. It all brings us to a state outside of our normal understanding and enlightens us to different views and knowledges. What we intend to do with those knowledges and experiences all depend on our motives, and that is something that he talks about in his stories that I found related to what we were reading. I found it interesting to explore the idea of WHY people choose to experience altered states. What is their motovation. Then I got to thinking about what my motivation would be and I think more than anything I would like to find solid proof of my beliefs. I am fascinated by the different manifestations of thought, religion, belief, personalities... I would want to look at other states in order to gain a better understanding of how to relate or communicate with the world around me.
Thats about it.

Hannah