Lucid
Art and Hyperspace Lucidity
Fariba Bogzaran1
This
article explores non-representational, multidimensional lucid dreaming and its
parallel imagery in modern art paintings. Developed from a series of successive
qualitative experiments on art and lucid dreaming, the study brings together
phenomenological and narrative approaches to reveal a relationship between
imagery in a particular lucid dream experience (Hyperspace Lucidity) and a particular type of modern art painting (Lucid Art). This article attempts to
open new dialogues for investigation of the interconnection between the
dreaming mind and art.
KEY WORDS: lucid dream, modern art, spirituality, hyperspace
1 Correspondence should be directed to Fariba
Bogzaran, Graduate School for Holistic
Studies, John F, Kennedy University, 12 Altarinda Road,
Orinda CA 94563
INTRODUCTION
This
article addresses the connection between Lucid
Art, a special category of visual art, and hyperspace lucidity, a subset of experience in lucid dreams.
Drawing from my experience and from on-going interdisciplinary studies that I
have conducted, I will discuss important parallels between the two. My general thesis is that Lucid Art,
previously referred to as “inner world painting” (Bogzaran, 1996), even though
not necessarily "dream art" per se, offers us a visual representation
of particular kinetic, non-representational, light-filled and numinous dream
experiences that are otherwise difficult to describe. The implication is that
Lucid Art as a mode of inquiry can play an important role in informing us about
dreams.
My
interest in hyperspace lucidity started as a result of a series of impactful
lucid dreams in the early 1980s. I have been compelled, as an artist and
researcher, to study and express these lucid dream experiences. Similar types of transcendental and
spiritual dreams have been observed and discussed by others, notably Tart
(1969, 1991), Sparrow (1976), Garfield (1979), Gillespie (1986), Gackenbach
(1989), LaBerge (1985, 1990), Hunt (1989, 1991) and Bulkeley (2000). Although I assume that these dreams are
relatively rare, they tend to be highly transformative. Attempting to express
their sheer luminosity and multidimensionality has tested and expanded my
creative abilities.
While
researching and exploring these impactful hyperspace lucid dreams, I
encountered what I call Lucid Art paintings, whose imagery was similar to that
of hyperspace lucidity. These
paintings, which I saw in a book, Creation,
were not directly dream-related art and were referred to as “inner world
paintings” (Onslow Ford, 1978). Inner
world paintings were developed out of two historical movements that seek the
expression and exploration of the unconscious in art: Surrealism and Dynaton.
Since
my recognition of inner world paintings and hyperspace lucidity in 1989, I have
been in dialogue with many pioneer inner world painters, in particular Gordon
Onslow Ford, to explore the relationship between the two. Although the term “lucid” was not in his
vocabulary and he has not recalled lucid dreams, he was intrigued with this
connection. In some ways Lucid Art
brought our life’s work together. In an
attempt to define Lucid Art, we collaborated word by word on its poetic
meaning: "Lucid Art is the convergence of the universal creative force
expressed in a spontaneous work of art that elicits in the viewer a sudden
awakening of an aspect of the inner worlds" (Bogzaran & Onslow Ford,
2001).
Lucid
Art explores impersonal and subtle energies of different layers of the inner
worlds through mindful creation, highly rooted in contemplative philosophy and
practice, fostering a systematic yet spontaneous creative flow. This state of
flow allows the artist to bring forth images from the depth of the unconscious. Poetically, one can say that Lucid Art is
the meeting of the visible and the invisible, the known and the unknown, the
conscious and unconscious.
If
the surrealists were seeking to explore the personal unconscious, lucid artists
seek to explore impersonal collective consciousness. Lucid Artdeals with
the personal transformation of the artist. Ken Wilber gives a definition of a
similar direction in art that represents transcendelia: “First, the development or growth of the
artist’s own soul, right up to the point of union with universal Spirit and
transcendence of the separate self or individual ego; and second, the artist’s
depiction/expression of his spiritual dimension, particularly in such a way as
to evoke similar spiritual insights on the part of the observers.” (Wilber,
210, 1990)
IMAGES IN
HYPERSPACE LUCID DREAMS
Lucid
dreaming -- dreams in which we know we are dreaming (van Eeden, 1913) -- opens
the dreamer to a vast range of potential visual experiences, including
hyperspace lucidity, which deals mostly with non-representational,
multi-dimensional and subtle energies.
To describe the imagery of hyperspace lucidity is somewhat challenging,
as there are few outer references to these inner images.
Hyperspace
lucidity can also have the quality of transcendent experience. In hyperspace lucidity the spatial dimension
of the experience is often characterized by shifts from the regular narrative
of the dream to transformation of the space and form to disintegration of the
known images into non-figurative forms and particles. This transformation can happen suddenly or gradually. These
experiences can also be seen in dreams, meditation, waking visions, hypnagogic
imagery (Tart, 1969; Hearne, 1978; Gackenbach, 1978), Kundalini openings
(Garfield, 1979; Metzner, 1986), and drug induced experiences, such as with
ayahuasca (Metzner, 1999; Shanon, 2002).
Particular
images are reported in non-representational experiences in lucid dreams,
including abstract imagery, mathematical equations, concentric circles, light
dots, light phenomena, and oscillating lines, followed by a sense of “awe” and
“spiritual opening” (Bogzaran, 1990). In his diamond model, Harry Hunt refers
to similar states in lucid dreams under the rubric of "archetypal, mandala
and white light" (Hunt, 1989).
Many
researchers have reported similar experiences.
George Gillespie (1986) has experimented with a variety of lucid dreams
and transpersonal experiences. His
experiences include: light patterns, with color and movement, and "disks
of light." (Disks of light often
appear in the shape of a moon or planet, stationary or moving.) Gillespie also describes his encounters with
“the light," which he claims appears to him only in lucid dreams. Often it appears while he is in darkness or
when he is in some religious activity.
The experience of "the light," according to Gillespie, is a
moment of bliss and joy. Gillespie has
developed a sixteen-category model for describing light in lucid dreams
(Gillespie, 1991).
Linda
Magallón has reported imageless lucid dreams in which there are no symbols or
imagery. She writes, "This
'undifferentiated area' is that part of the dream universe in which all
awareness of the self as body or special entity leaves. It is also characterized by peace, silence,
and absence of visual stimuli." These imageless dreams can be empty,
filled with "nothing," or they can be part of a deeply involved
spiritual experience (Magallón, 1991).
Kenneth
Moss described a "vortex phenomenon" in lucid dreaming. The experience of whirling through a vortex
has been reported in altered states, drug-induced hallucinations, and artistic
works. Moss separates his experiments
in dream induction into three categories: "field acceleration," where
he accelerates his body movements and whirls through a vortex; "field accent," where he enlarges
the visual elements, which brings the dreamer into close connection with these
elements (e.g., becoming one with a cloud through the vortex); and "field
involution," in which he gathers the visual field inward to create the
vortex (Moss 1991). Moss claims that
the vortex shape appears in many forms:
"tunnels, funnels, spirals, cones, star fields, kaleidoscopic fields,
geometric patterns, lattices, cobwebs, spectral arrays, entoptic patterns and
light rays" (Moss, 1991, 50).
Moss’s
categories of vortex phenomena can be seen in hyperspace lucidity. A personal
example illustrates the phenomenology of these dreams. In this prolonged
hypnagogic experience I became lucid:
“Hyperspace
Hypnagogia” (1994)
“I begin whirling
through a vortex and speed upward. As I
start to move I hear a sound starting with a low pitch. The faster I whirl the higher the pitch
becomes. I whirl so fast that I
transform into the shape of a vertical line.
I am being lifted upward at the same time the sound is at its highest
pitch. I go straight vertically and
shoot up like a rocket in the inner space. Suddenly ‘I,’ the line, burst into
‘light dots’ dispersing in all directions in space with absolute Silence. The dots move away from each other at a very
slow pace, keeping a gravitational distance from one another. My consciousness is there, but my body is
shattered into pieces of dot/energy in a vast space. I wonder how I can get back to my body. As soon as I have this thought, my will, like a magnet, brings
all the pieces together. Then I find
myself whirling back and hear the same high-pitched sound. I begin to feel my body as the speed slows
down and the pitch becomes lower.”
My
personal experience and experiments in hyperspace lucidity and also the reports
of many lucid dreamers show that a shift in dream content typically occurs
during the dream experience, following this general pattern: from narrative
dreams to lucid dreaming to abstract imagery and then hyperspace lucidity.
Gackenbach
and Bosveld (1989) interviewed a long-term practitioner of Transcendental
Meditation who also suggested a stage-like process moving from lucidity to
witnessing in dreams. He noticed that
often the body is floating in the air in the dream, or else the body disappears
in the intensity of the experience and only consciousness remains. This
experience begins with the dreamer's becoming conscious of dreaming and viewing
the images as something outside the self, and proceeds to recognizing that the
images are inside the dreamer.
The
last stage is the entrance into a transcendental state, or what is referred to
as pure consciousness. In this state, the interviewee claimed that
one encounters forms that one has not seen in non-lucid dreams. "They will be much more abstract and
have no sensory aspects to them, no boundedness to them. One experiences
oneself to be a part of a tremendous composite of relationships"
(Gackenbach & Bosveld, 1989, 184).
By composite of relationships he means a sense of knowing that there is
a connection between him and the entities he is encountering. "There are no ways to gauge motion by;
it is just expansiveness. There are no
objects to measure it. The
expansiveness is one of light -- like the light of awareness" (Gackenbach
& Bosveld, 1989, 185).
A Dream Of Hyperspace Lucidity
To
illustrate this stage-like process and its visual forms moving from narrative
dream to lucidity and hyperspace lucidity, I will report another impactful
lucid dream. The dream not only
appeared to me as a significant confirmation of my work on the
multi-dimensional aspects of the mind, but also had a strong noetic
aspect. It helped me to perceive the
subtle imageries of the inner worlds.
After this lucid dream, I became sensitized to paintings depicting
“spaces” similar to those I had experienced in my lucid dream.
This
lucid dream occurred after several months of voluntary isolation, at a time of
deep and sustained involvement with the transpersonal and spiritual dimensions
of lucid dreaming. The lucid dream followed an incubation of experiencing the
Divine. Although I have had thematically comparable dreams, both before and
since this experience, this dream stands out in some significant ways for its
richness and complexity. I considered
it a “big dream,” as it marked a definite shift in my way of being in the
world. I have previously reported this
dream (Bogzaran, 1990); here I will share only the portion that relates to
hyperspace, with new commentary in italics.
“Unfolding
Universe” (Inverness,
California, 1987, age 29)
… Looking over a panoramic forest, I
see a hawk swirling above.
The landscape seems very similar to the place I am living
As the hawk comes closer to me it turns into a hummingbird,
smiling at me.
(Narrative dream,
familiar space, pre-lucidity)
I smile back and at the same time I know this must be a
dream. (Lucid)
I start imitating the hummingbird by flapping my arms and
soon start to fly.
(Participating and
interacting with the dream environment)
I am exhilarated and as I am in the air, I remember my
intention
(Carried a task in
lucid dream)
Should I write my thesis on lucidity and the Divine?
(Surrendering to
answer, immediate response)
Suddenly I see a dot of purple-green color expanding in the
sky.
(I no longer
remember flying or seeing my body, but am witnessing the changes)
It keeps getting bigger, filling the landscape,
Changing into different rings of colors.
It appears to be
rings but they are not solid. They are
like the circle around the moon.
(The familiar
space is shifting; I am entering a new space)
The space is so vast, beyond my visual capacity.
As the rings become closer they change into particles of
light dots,
moving extremely fast, creating light lines that cover
everywhere.
Strong energy starts to move inside me.
(I do not see my
dreambody but I feel it going through vibrations and shifts)
What seems to be my dreambody transforms into the particles
of light.
(There is consciousness
but the "I" disappears)
Consciousness is
very clear, yet no personal consciousness, desire or will is present.
(In a state of
total surrender)
This state is one of absolute serenity.
Somehow there part
of me knows that my consciousness is in everything that I see but yet there is
no "I" to see! But there is an awareness of vast spaces and purpose.
Eventually
everything seems to slow down with an inner hum as if time and space are
swollen into infinity. Here there is no
movement, time or space, but an incredible stillness.
(The experience
was similar to the experience of Void or pure consciousness where there was a
sense of being one with the creative force of the universe. There was a sense
that to hold this stillness I must risk dying (some aspect of me dying), yet
because there was no "I," there was no emotion or capacity to make a
decision. Holding on to this space did not depend on me somehow but on the
level of my practice prior to the
experience. As much as the experience
felt complete in its totality, it also felt like a threshold for another entire
level of awareness. It seemed there is
no imagery, just blackness: yet the blackness was pregnant with the unknown)
I stay in this state for what feels like eternity….
Moving Back To The Known
Eventually I become aware of the particles slowly change
into a night sky….
Entering Into The Second Hyperspace Lucidity
The planets change into transparent spheres with light
shining from within. Spheres transform
into something like halos (hard to describe
the imagery) covering the infinity. So much is happening at the same
time. There is multiple imagery with
multiple awareness.
(multidimensional
spaces)
I now know that I am becoming a witness to different layers
of the Universe.
Suddenly everything turns black. (This blackness was
qualitatively different than the first one.
If the first one was a state of pregnancy, this blackness was a state of
birthing)
I don't see
anything, I don't feel anything.
while nothing is happening, everything happens….
(Lost a sense of
time, space for awhile but something was working through my consciousness as if
I was dying and at the same time being born)
I could
not write or talk about the experience for almost a year. I tried to paint it, but I felt inadequate
to create images coming anywhere close to what I had experienced. How could I paint such a complex
visual-spatial dimension?
Inner
worldpainting (now referred to as
Lucid Art)was the art that came
closest to capturing this phenomenon of hyperspace lucidity. Of course, other
artistic media such as film, animation and music have invoked similar imagery,
but here I focus only on the medium of painting.
DREAM ART, LUCID ART
Visual art that attempts to
represent or illustrate dreams often tends to depict the narrative and symbolic
aspect of the dreaming mind; for example, Giorgio de Chirico, Double Dream of Spring (1915);
Delvaux, Appel de La Nuit (1938);
Valentine Hugo, Reve du 21 Décember 1929
(1929); Bogzaran, Conscious Dreaming (1982);
Dorothy Rossi, New Perspective of the
World (1995). This type of dream
art is studied in depth in a book by Gamwell (2000), who archived an impressive
number of "dream artists" together with surrealists and artists who
capture dream-like images.
The expression of the unconscious
in painting can be seen as a form of inquiry in visual language. The painter
becomes the researcher, the explorer who looks inside rather than relying on
outside events. A brief overview of the history of dream-related art in the
past 100 years and the shifting perception from outer to inner will provide an
essential ground to reflect on the development of Lucid Art.
In
the early 1900's, Picasso and Braque challenged the viewer to see many sides of
object at the same time. Cubist
painting suggests a different relationship to time and space. Perceived images are no longer
representative of an external perspective.
The subject matter seems unimportant; Braque and Picasso often talked
about suppression of the subject. This
"abandonment of subject" was a new idea, as they experimented in
seeing the external subject as illusion and finding a way to discover and
express internal reality. "Cubism
was able to create a new continuum of space-light in which light and shade are
no longer illusionist means, but are integrated in the plastic matter like the
polarity of graphic rhythms and color rhythms; the appearance of objects being
no longer an end but only a point of departure" (Paalen, 1944, 6).
The painter
Giorgio de Chirico's early work (1911-1917) explored dream-like scenes, a
symbolic narration that continued from one canvas to the next as if the artist
were haunted by a recurrent dream. In
his paintings, we no longer observe the painting of a person dreaming about a dream image; the painting is the dream image (Bogzaran,
1990). This point of departure was
inspirational and influenced the Surrealist idea of looking into the enigmatic
world of dreams. As André Breton, the
founder of the Surrealist movement clearly stated: "I believe in the
future resolution of the two states of dreams and reality into a sort of
absolute reality or surreality” (1924, 14). Breton was aware of lucid dreaming
and had knowledge of the work of Marquis d’Harvey Saint-Denys (1982). In Communicating
Vessels (1933), Breton reflects on Saint-Denys' exploration of lucid
dreaming, which compelled him to question the nature of reality and wonder
about the nature of the unconscious.
There
was great interest in mysticism, the occult and dreams among the Surrealists, but
little exploration of lucid dreaming and the imagery of the
non-representational aspect of dreaming within the group. Paintings were focused on the personal
symbolic and mythic realms. Such images can be seen in the paintings of Victor
Brauner, Leonora Carrington, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Leonor Fini, René
Magritte, Jean Miro, Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Varo, and other surrealists.
A subset of the surrealist group
was interested in metaphysics, Carl Jung, and Ouspensky's work on the Fourth
Dimension. They attempted to capture images beyond personal symbolic dream
images. Among these artists were Yves Tanguy, Wolfgang Paalen, Roberto Matta and
Gordon Onslow Ford. This group sought possibilities of transcending the personal
and moving into transpersonal dimensions of the inner worlds. The development of
Lucid Art grew out of the study and work of these painters.
“All forms as
they are represented graphically are the resultant of the adaptation of
internal energies in movement to the obstacles created by the milieu. The morphology of spiral motion, osmotic
growths, and periodical precipitation indicates the line and form of the
meetings of bodies that do not mix” (Matta, 1938)
Matta
insisted that “If we are not using poetry, we are repeating ourselves”
(1993). His early (30s and 40s) and
later (80s and 90s) paintings deal with the structural frameworks of the inner
worlds. In his spatial paintings the
elements seem to be in a state of movement alternating between the very fast or
the very slow.
From 1937-1938, the youngest members of the surrealist
group in Paris, Matta and Onslow Ford, spent months studying, dialoguing and
creating images that moved beyond symbolic personal dreams to explore the
impersonal aspect of the inner worlds.
"The
inner-worlds include all the wonders that are sometimes called 'indescribable'
(too fast to talk about) or 'beyond understanding' (too fast to think
about). Those with experience in
meditation speak of the nature of the inner-worlds as being "empty"
or "void," and as being formless.
On the canvas, for the painter, emptiness becomes a space that is full,
and formlessness is manifest in structure and form." (Onslow Ford, 1978, 63)
For
Paalen, art was no longer a representation of what we see, but an important act
of self-knowledge. "No work of art
can be universal in the sense in which a scientific formula is universal, but art is universal to the extent to which
it is primordial expression”(1951). Art does not belong only to the field of
aesthetics but to a realm that brings forth images of the
"impossible," the mystery.
"Our pictures are objects for that active meditation ... a state of
self-transcending awareness, which is not escape from reality, because it is an
intuitive participation in the formative potentialities of reality."
(Paalen, 1951, 26)
Abstract
Expressionist painters such as Mark Rothko, Piet Mondrian, Richard
Pousette-Dart, and Sam Francis, and other painters such as Mark Toby, also
sought to explore the inner worlds by abstracting the subjective out of their
paintings. This
abstraction of the subjective to arrive at the impersonal and
non-representational dates back as far as 70,000 years. In a recent discovery
in South Africa, archaeologist Christopher Henshilwood and his team found pieces
of ochre engraved with patterns that researchers believe “depict abstract
concepts -- unlike literal pictures of animals and hunters usually found in
caves” (2002). Non-representational
images related to inner worlds can also be seen in ancient Chinese, Persian,
Islamic, Celtic and native arts. The breakthrough
exhibition “The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Paintings” (Tuchman, 1986) gathered
many modern artists whose paintings expressed the spiritual in
non-representational forms.
Gordon
Onslow Ford’s theory of “line, circle, dot” gives us insight into how this
pioneer inner world painter arrived at images similar to hyperspace
lucidity. While studying Asian
philosophy and metaphysics in 1951, he became aware that the simple marks
"line, circle, dot" constitute the seed that leads to the inner-worlds. He began experimenting with spontaneous paintings and discovered
that the fastest painting always took the form of lines, circles, and
dots.
It
took ten years of experimentation and years of contemplation to realize that,
as he increased the speed of lines in painting, he allowed himself to be in the
moment without thinking. He created
images that were "faster than thought.” He called this "Painting in
the Instant.” The "Instant" is that moment of creation in which the
Mind is totally present to the act of creation. He states: “The new world is a place of no dimension. It transcends the interchangeability of
microcosm and macrocosm.... Boundaries
of space and time only exist at the distance of thought. In the instant there are no boundaries,
space-time found is space-time occupied. The way to get into the new world in
words is through poetry.” (Onslow Ford, 1964, 49)
Figure 1. Onslow Ford, "Calligraphy Getting Faster 1" (1986) 3' x 18'
acrylic on board
Onslow Ford refers to the painting of dream imagery as
depiction of “poetic vision” in which “the unconscious is expressed
symbolically in known images”(1978. P.35). In his cosmology, there exist
in the inner worlds definite steps of unfoldment. The painter moves from the known to the unknown, and "brings
back" images of the unknown, the invisible (1978).
Onslow
Ford became convinced that the inner world is as real as the outer world. He
called this direction in art "Inner Realism." By that time he had explored the inner
worlds through painting for fifty years. He wrote: “The inner-worlds that
underlie dreams are invisible and intangible, but they exert powerful
influence. They are ignored on pain of
becoming disillusioned with life -- the more the inner worlds are ignored, the
more they surprise, shock and astound when they assert themselves” (1980, 21).
Twenty
years later he updated his statement on Inner-Realism:
“In
spontaneous painting the Mind acts directly through the hand of the painter to
the painting and never-seen-before images appear. The painter, as a separate
individual, becomes an instrument of the Mind Shared by All, the creative
spirit of the cosmos.... The principle preoccupation of Inner Realism is to
express the nature of an Inner World as directly as possible from the Open
Mind.” (Onslow Ford, 2001)
Onslow
Ford’s painting, writings and theory of line circle dot offer a connection
between the phenomena of the inner world and art. In his elaborate explanation of the stages of the inner world
(1978), this connection from narrative dream to hyperspace lucidity is easily
detected. According to Onslow Ford, if
we slow the line we have a tendency to depict known and recognizable images; as
we speed the line to its fastest capacity, the three elements “line, circle,
dot” appear. On several
occasions, I have replicated the experience of speeding up the painting with
art students. Results are inevitable:
if we speed the drawing to its maximum speed, we inevitably end up with
straight lines, circle or dots. In the transition from narrative symbolic
imagery in dreams to hyperspace, a transformation of images occurs at high
speed or in an instant. The known
images transform into lines, concentric circles, dot patterns and other
non-representational imagery (Bogzaran, 1996).
Figure 2. Onslow Ford, "Calligraphy Getting Faster 2" (1986) 3' x 18' acrylic on
board
The
evolutionary sequence of cubism, surrealism, abstract expressionism and inner
realism reveals art as a way of knowing and a new way of seeing. If we construe art as a form of knowing,
and, in some sense, a method of research -- that is, a qualitative and systematic
inquiry seeking to express the inner phenomena -- then perhaps art can be an
essential vehicle to study the mind.
EXPERIMENTATION,
EXPLORATION, OBSERVATIONS AND VIEWERS' RESPONSE
Looking
at the connection between hyperspace lucidity and Lucid Art, I have been
experimenting with viewers' response to assess how other lucid dreamers,
artists and art lovers in general react to inner world paintings, here called
Lucid Art paintings. These experiments
and observations present qualitative evidence of the connections between Lucid
Art and hyperspace lucidity. I relied on self-selected viewers, and used
phenomenological methods (Kidd &
Kidd, 1990) well suited to the study of art and dreams. While these phenomenology is better apt to
capture subtle meaning and the detailed contours of experience, the nature of
studies are exploratory and descriptive rather than explanatory.
Charles
Tart suggests that “because various phenomena of consciousness have powerful
affects on science, personal life, values and culture, they must be studied in
their own right, especially the effects of altered states of consciousness
(ASC),” and he proposes “using the state-specific perceptions and logics of
these states to form a variety of state-specific, complementary sciences that
will expand our understanding of both consciousness and world" (Tart,
1998, 1).
The
use of phenomenological methods to collect descriptions of dreams can be seen
as a particular instantiation of state-specific science. A parallel runs between the various states
of creativity encountered in Lucid Art and hyperspace lucidity. Both forms of inquiry necessitate a
surrendering to the process that gives rise to spontaneous acts of creation.
In a series of three different
investigations, I have tried to convey how asking
people to carefully describe their responses when they surrender to the viewing
experience can reveal the relationship between art and dreams. These experiments took place in a period of
eight years following my own recognition of a Lucid Art painting and my
experience of hyperspace lucidity in 1989.
In
the first investigation, I collected interviews from four known inner-world
painters (John Anderson, Roberto Matta, Lee Mullican and Gordon Onslow Ford)
and four experienced and published lucid dreamers (Daryle Hewitt, Patricia
Keelin, Ken Kelzer, and Eric Snyder).
The lucid dreamers were selected based on the reports of
transpersonal/hyperspace experiences in lucid dreams (Bogzaran, 1989). Slides
from the four artists were shown to the lucid dreamers mixed with narrative
dream art and symbolic dream imagery.
The lucid dreamers recognized the Lucid Art painters’ images as
familiar. According to them, the spaces
depicted in the paintings had strong correspondence with their non-figurative
spiritual experiences in lucid dreams.
The experience of hyperspace in their lucid dreams was accompanied by
themes of letting go of control and opening to mystery. They conveyed visual themes in their interview
by describing experience of light, energy lines, transparent circles, vast
space, white light dots, spheres and spirals, and dreambody transformation
(Bogzaran, 1996).
In
the second investigation, seven long-time lucid dreamers and meditators were
selected for a studio visit of Lucid Art painters. Six paintings from different lucid artists were selected and
participants were asked to contemplate each painting separately for 15 to 30
minutes and write about their experiences. A total of 10 paintings were shown
and 51 descriptions of different paintings were collected. (All participants
were encouraged to write about three main paintings and had the option of their
choice with the other paintings).
The
following are some of the descriptions from participants contemplating one
Lucid Art painting by John Anderson, “Creation in Love.” (For more Lucid Art images, see
www.lucidart.org)
* " This is a still life
version of the images that came into my dream at the moment I said: ‘this is a
dream.’ I experienced four or five different images of this sort -- each one
was moving and pulsating. I can begin to imagine the shapes moving around in
the painting, whirling, pulsating, vibrating, moving across the field, in and
out of the depth of field. In my dream
my body and image became one and I experienced the energy visible in the images
as physical energy in my dreambody right through my waking body." (M.J.,
1997)
* "The red tracks and golden
bursts are familiar hypnagogic images for me. The sense of pulsating movement.
I feel as my body energy relaxes into sleep.
It is a language of universal consciousness … it is pulling one into
infinity of the inner universe. It is
the hypnagogic state, opening into the unconscious dream mind….” (M.F., 1997)
* "This painting reminds me so
much of one lucid dream I had in which I asked to experience the divine. What came to me was the same sense of lights
and cloud-like shapes, moving, twisting, reforming. I entered the shapes and saw within the same bursts the infinite
starry sky." (M.F., 1997)
* "I dreamed of a being called
Galactika which looks in some ways similar to this painting. The painting
struck me immediately by its size and I felt a pressure or energy pulsing
through my heart. I hear a pulse and
experience the painting as if it is moving and full of life. I recognize the forms as something
internally familiar to me." (E.S., 1997)
* "Overwhelming sense of
familiarity. I know this world(s) from
my inner seeing. In those moments when
I seem to go ‘beyond’ the normal I see beings of formless shapes -- all/each
unique colors, boundaries floating, changing, carrying a distinctness of each
being but fluid and changing." (R.S., 1997)
The group
shared their experiences after the writings. Some of the paintings clearly
invoked recollections of non-iconic experiences in lucid dreaming, deep
meditation and visions. After
contemplating one painting for a length of time, participants commented that
they felt the painting became alive as if it was a ground for a new experience. The descriptions of their experiences were
very similar to those of spiritual and transpersonal experiences in dreaming,
including feelings of vibration in the body, tingling and pulsating, and
feelings of one’s heart opening.
The
third investigation took place during an art exhibition I organized called
“Through the Light” (1997). This study
engaged the public at large to respond to Lucid Art images. I did not
self-select the participants, as I wondered if these Lucid Art paintings elicit
similar experiences to those in hyperspace lucidity or meditation.
Six
paintings from the previous study and several other paintings from the same
artists were selected for the exhibition.
The viewing public was encouraged to choose one or two paintings in the
exhibit, spend some time contemplating them and write about their experiences.
A total of twenty-nine people participated.
Forty-two viewing responses were collected, including the following:
* "The sense is very similar to
the images we see on closing our eyes to go to sleep. The effect seems hypnotic, and I feel the sensation emanating
from the painting as I stare at it, calling me out of normal waking state of
awareness, into world beyond." (A.B., 1997)
* "… exploring, pulsating
through the universe the thoughts and emotions of creation, coming together in
harmonic vibration accelerating specific frequency and vibration flowing
without knowing the confinement of time or space or destruction. The same patterns emerging through and being
expressed in multi-dimensions. The same patterns creating light and sound at
varying intensity….” (M.D.R, 1997)
* "I had a dream that revealed
to me the hidden truth. I saw my image
permeated with golden iridescent light -- within and without. As I was continuing to observe, everything
around me had the same light, every little detail in the phenomenon world. This painting reminds me of my dream where I
can see a shape but the focus is on the light in and out. Things are not solid as they seem in an ordinary
way -- particles dance and it is all made of this mysterious light.” (B.R., 1997)
* "Pure electric Vibration. The
electric pulse of my mind captured" (V.B., 1997)
* "I feel I am moving into the
space of the painting -- sucked in rather -- at the speed of light. I am this
inner world to explore everything is moving and vibrating. The black spaces are portals to other worlds
of tremendous silence and vibration. My heart rate increases. The top of my head tingles." (N.L,
1997)
Similar themes emerged from the
descriptions of the viewers. The paintings invoked
forgotten dreams. Some participants experienced vibration in their body and
heard music. The sense of being
overwhelmed by the presence of the paintings was common and inevitably viewers
wrote in poetic writing. Many reported
the paintings reminded them of experiences of hypnagogic imagery, dreams, and
lucid dreams, and the imagery described was similar to hyperspace lucidity.
DISCUSSION
In this
article I’ve made an attempt to connect Lucid Art and hyperspace lucidity by
giving personal examples and reporting many years of experiments and
observations. I have argued for a
connection between the creative inquiry in paintings, dreams and
phenomenology. The more I explored
these two areas by experiencing hyperspace lucidity and expressing myself as a
lucid artist, the more my writing has tended towards poetic expression.
I
addressed Lucid Art as a way of knowing -- a methodology of inquiring into the
dreaming mind. I suggested art is a
mode of expressing subtle and unexplored aspects of the lucid mind. By
describing and using exploratory experiments, the study became an art itself
and as “a viewer,” you are also invited to draw your own meaning.
As
Surrealists expressed the “unconscious,” Lucid Art painters express “the flow
of consciousness.” Lucid Art can be the ground for articulation of subtle inner
experiences that are otherwise labeled ineffable. Many lucid dreamers, once exposed to these paintings, could
articulate their experience in hyperspace lucidity with more clarity and in
more details (Bogzaran, 1996).
Based on
my own experiences as a painter and numerous interviews with other Lucid Art
painters (e.g. J. Anderson, B. Blunk, R. Bowman, M. Hamel, R. Matta, L.
Mullican, G. Onslow Ford, and J. Wright), I have noticed similar intentions in
our paintings. These intentions are: to
explore the non-figurative dimensions of the inner worlds; to express the
universal mind-the creative force of the universe; to be open to mystery; to be
in harmony with the spirit of nature; to create works mindfully; to surrender to
the process of creation. For some of
the artists the intention is also to transcend the personal.
Although
this research on Lucid Art and hyperspace lucidity brings together two
seemingly obscure aspects of art and dreaming, it encourages us to look deeper
into subtle experiences and images in both art and dreaming. It is in this connection of inner
experiences and inner world art that a new form of art is being suggested --
Lucid Art. This type of art arises
from the “eye of contemplation” which Wilber suggests “discloses the spiritual,
transcendental, and transpersonal world”(Wilber, 201, 1990).
Lucid Art
is a direct exploration of the subtle mapping of non-representational images of
the inner worlds and it also deals with a much larger question about the nature
of reality. As Wolfgang Paalen wrote
half a century ago: "Art, in order
to be great, has to deal with something greater than art—and that something
greater can not be less any longer than a wider comprehension of reality"
(Paalen, 1951, 21). Lucid Art can give
us a possible vehicle to express the depths of the mind.
Wilber
pronounced years ago that “The next great movement in Western art lies waiting
to be born” (Wilber, 214, 1990). Perhaps Lucid Art is that movement that brings
the unconscious to consciousness, elicits spiritual insights to the viewer,
evokes forgotten dreams and brings the feeling of openness, awe and ecstasy
similar to transcendent and spiritual experiences.
I believe
consciousness is a continuum of waking, dreaming and creating. My hope in this essay is to open further
dialogue on the interconnectedness of the dreaming mind, waking mind and
creative mind. Future explorations into
the unknown territories of the mind will bring us closer to unraveling the
mystery of dreaming and creation.
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