–       How do you define “spirituality”?

• I believe that spirituality is the belief in a greater being, separate from humanity. To me, this being could take on many forms. I do not believe that spirituality must mean that there is even a God to worship. Spirituality could mean that a person simply believes that each person has a spirit, or an entity that is timeless and lives on beyond that person’s life on earth.  I consider myself a spiritual person, because I believe there is a higher power and a greater reason beyond evolution and natural selection that has lead to humans being on earth.

–        Does spirituality differ from religion?

• In my opinion, spirituality and religion are different. I believe that being religious is the adherence to a specific set of beliefs and values that a group of people shares. For example, Catholicism is a religion that has values and customs that differ from the Mormon religion, but all of these people are also spiritual. As stated previously, I think that spirituality is the mere belief in a higher power, or God. I would not consider myself religious because I do not adhere to a specific religion or practice the customs of a certain religion, although I would consider myself to be spiritual.

–       How do you define “creativity”?

• To me, creativity is the ability to think “outside the box” and to put these ideas into a unique form. For example, I think that musicians are creative because they are able to take their thoughts and feelings on various subjects and form them into unique melodies. I would also consider an inventor to be creative when they come up with a new idea that makes a task easier or faster. I would consider the CEO of a company to be creative when they inspire their employees to work hard because they love their jobs. I think that creativity comes in many forms and is a main factor in a society’s future success.

–       What is the source of creativity?

• I believe that the main sources of creativity are inspiration and knowledge. For a musician to come up with a new song, I believe that they must be inspired by a certain subject and feel that this subject is important enough to be given more thought. In addition, they must have knowledge about their subject, whether this knowledge is their own personal feelings or instead, the massive social implication that this certain subject has. An inventor must be inspired by his world to create something that changes that world and he must also have knowledge about what currently exists so that he or she can create something unique. A CEO must be knowledgeable about the current state and morale of his or her employees. With this knowledge, the CEO then must believe that this does or does not need to change in order to be inspired to take action and improve working conditions.

I enjoyed the reading this week, because I tend to see myself as a spiritual person, but not necessarily religious. I believe in a higher power, but do not belong to any specific organized religion. I found the beginning of the reading, where the author, Grey, described a close encounter with the death of his loved ones to be very emotionally compelling, as I’m sure many of us have great fears of something similar happening. The author then draws us into the spiritual aspect of art by first saying that there are

“three eyes of knowing: the eye of flesh sees the ‘outer’ realm of material objects; the eye of reason sees symbolically, drawing distinctions and making conceptual relationships; and the mystic eye of contemplation sees the luminous transcendental realms. Artists need to be able to see on each level in order to bring technical beauty, archetypal beauty, and spiritual beauty to their work,” (Grey, 73)

I had never thought about art in this way before, something that requires that an artist look and see through many different angles. I have believed that artistic individuals tend to see aesthetically pleasing features more easily than others or that they are able to draw these features out of seemingly uninteresting situations. I have wished that I had this ability, but perhaps now I could if I were to try to look at the world through new eyes.

Grey then made another point that I found very interesting. He stated that looking at and observing a work of art are different from seeing deeply and actually understanding that work of art. He explains,

“In order to experience art fully viewers must go through a mini ego death by placing themselves in the inspired mind of the artists, who themselves are out of their minds and only acting as channels of creative spirit…To understand is to see through the rough image made by the artist’s hand and recognize the transcendental archetype that is the empowering source behind the image,” (Grey, 74).

I understand the author’s point in this instance, for I always try to place myself in an artist’s shoes when I am looking at a work of art. I even do this when I am listening to music. I always listen to the words and try to understand what the artist’s original meaning was. Songs always become more meaningful to me in the end when I feel that I can understand what the artist hoped to convey. I feel that I could become even better at doing this, however, because many times when I feel that I understand the author’s message, I try to relate it to my life and do not fully remove myself from my ego or go through the full “mini ego death” as described by Grey.

Another section of this reading that I found to be incredibly interesting was when the author described a dream he had where he was in a hallucinogenic state. Later, the author took the drug DMT and found himself in this exact same state that he was in in his dream. These two experiences lead the author to decide to paint the experience and to later display it for the public. Grey states,

“Art is the transmission of states of being. Viewers appreciate art because they resonate with those states of being. No matter what state of being is expressed in a work of art, universal creative spirit is the prime mover behind all art media,” (Grey, 79).

I found the description of this experience to be extremely interesting. My initial thought that the author must have been seeing through his mystic eye of contemplation during this time. In addition, I thought that this must have been the description of the artist’s spiritual experience that is brought into his art. I found this very interesting because I didn’t picture using a drug as a spiritual experience, but perhaps this is because I have never used drugs and cannot relate. Finally, when Grey stated that “viewers appreciate art because they resonate with those states of being,” my question was answered. I fully felt I did not fully appreciate Grey’s painting simply because I couldn’t relate to it. This does not mean that I don’t appreciate the artistic technique, hard work, and emotional labor put into this work of art, however, I feel that I cannot see what it truly means. Finally, this statement answered an assertion that I made previously in this response. I stated that I felt that I could become better at looking at experiencing the “ego death” and looking at art removed of my personal biases. But I now think that this may not be what the author intended to mean. Perhaps he meant that people must first look at art in a state where they are removed from personal biases in order to understand the artist’s intention, but then they must resonate with the art to fully appreciate it.

Grey, A. (2001). Art as Spiritual Practice. The Mission of Art (1st ed., pp. 205-233). Boston & London: Shambhala.