Survival of Bodily Death The Many Faces of Creativity
When reflecting on the topic, Esalen staff representative Virginia Bing pointed out that Esalen is a center designed for and oriented toward encouraging people to open up to their own creativity, their own automatisms. At its best, Esalen enables people to let go of resistance so that the Subliminal Self can break through our habitual defenses and barriers to express more clearly. As psychiatrists, Bruce Greyson and Jim Tucker concurred that the current climate in their field encourages doctors to pathologize what may be latent creativity in their patients. In particular, aggressively medicating people to help them cope with their symptoms may simultaneously be numbing their creative automatisms that are wanting to come forth. Both Greyson and Tucker mentioned the double-edged nature of Prozac, which both helps people live better lives but can also deaden them to their own deeper selves. Greyson suggested that the common social image of doctors as quick-fix healers needs to be broadened and re-visioned. Doctors in the future may be viewed as facilitators not only of healing but of creativity as well. Lastly, John Cleese and Adam Crabtree discussed the importance of trance states in creativity. According to Crabtree, a trance involves concentrating on a single topic, idea, or even person with a single-minded focus. For example, many athletes enter into situational trances to enhance their performance. John Cleese emphasized the importance of creating specific times for creativity. Creative breakthroughs usually come from people who make the time and space to enter into a daily trance state that allows the Subliminal Self to come forth. |
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