Demon Muse

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Posts Tagged muse

You and Your Inner Neanderthal, or The Muse in the Cerebellum (Theology, Psychology, Neurology – Part 3.2)

Jul 25

Posted by Matt Cardin in Creativity and Consciousness | 3 Comments

This article continues the search for a possible biological basis of the muse experience, as explored in Part One, Part Two, and Part 3.1. The final paragraph of the previous article serves as the perfect lead-in to this one, so I’ll quote it in full and let it serve as a preface: “To summarize: The deep source of creativity truly feels to the ego like an independent and autonomous force or presence. Since the pineal gland is or may be centrally involved in the production of entity encounters, dreams, visions, and other experiences that display that same quality of intra-psychic autonomy as, and stand as first cousins to, the muse experience, and since psychedelics in general, including DMT, are so deeply associated with the stimulation of creativity, the pineal gland is worth considering as a possible biological locus of the muse.”

In addition to serving as a possible muse-location in its own right, the pineal gland transitions us to our next speculative/interpretive “lens” via its relationship to the cerebellum. Let’s allow the late Stan Gooch (1932-2010), psychologist and paranormal theorist extraordinaire, to launch the discussion:

[W]e have two brains: the cerebrum (the front brain) and the cerebellum (the back brain). The ancestor of all mammals had two pairs of eyes—one pair on top of the head and connected to the cerebellum. The second pair was in the front of the head and connected to the cerebrum. Originally, the cerebellum was the main brain. But in the course of time the pair of eyes on top of the head fused together and sank down into the skull to form what is today called the pineal gland, which is still actually light sensitive (of course the pineal gland is the “third eye” of ancient Hindu mysticism). Now the cerebrum and its pair of front eyes became the main brain. But when did you ever hear these astonishing evolutionary facts discussed? The pineal is located directly above the cerebellum, whose name is Latin for “little brain.” This is a structure beneath the forebrain.[1]

Although this passage touches on matters that we’ve already looked at in the previous section, it effectively slams us into the subject rather than easing us into it, and requires some backtracking to set the stage for explaining the cerebellar muse hypothesis—that is, the idea that the muse is located in, or perhaps simply is, the cerebellum — which was the proprietary theoretical creation of Gooch himself. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: brain, cerebellum, daimon, muse, stan gooch

Third Eyes and Unknown Entities: Mysteries of the Pineal Gland (Theology, Psychology, Neurology – Part 3.1)

Jul 12

Posted by Matt Cardin in Creativity and Consciousness | 7 Comments

Although this article can stand alone, it will mean more if you read Part One and Part Two first. Also note that I decided to publish this part of the “Theology, Psychology, Neurology” series in separate sections, hence the “3.1″ in the title. Future installments/sections will discuss other possible biological locations for the muse experience; see “Next Up” at the end of this article.

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Introduction

From the previous post‘s focus on the experiences of Aleister Crowley, Timothy Leary, and Robert Anton Wilson in contacting or being contacted by a “higher intelligence,” we now turn to the question of the daimonic muse’s neurological aspect, to wit: When we feel as if we’re being guided and inspired in creative work by an independent, external force or presence, what’s going on in our body, and more specifically, in our brain? What are the neurological aspects of the experience of the demon muse? And how does this contribute to answering, or at least informing, our overarching question about its ontological status?

By way of continuity, we can note that in their respective ways Crowley, Leary, and Wilson were all deeply interested in the workings of the human nervous system. In fact, the veritable explosion of new interest over the past couple of decades in what are now commonly called the “neural correlates of consciousness” — the brain states corresponding to subjective experiences — directly fulfills Wilson’s oft-expressed wish for a widespread cultural recognition of our real epistemological predicament vis-à-vis the neural basis of all our knowledge,[1] which is, he maintained, an aggregation of impressionistic takes on a wildly rich and diverse primary reality by a multiplicity of nervous systems that experience fundamentally different worlds because they are “tuned” to different experiential wavelengths. For him, as well as for Leary and Crowley, the question of creative inspiration and the question of its neurological component were inseparable.

Basically, what we’re asking here is 1) whether and where the muse experience might be located in the brain or, more broadly, the body, and 2) how this might contribute to our understanding of what this experience “really is.” Several possibilities commend themselves immediately to our attention. Some of them involve the new knowledge made available to us by the two technologies propelling today’s functional neuroimaging wave, positron emission tomography (PET) scans and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Others hail from different lines of inquiry. Collectively, they form a series of “lenses” through which to focus our question and gain a multipoint perspective on it. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: dmt, muse, pineal gland, Psychedelics, rick strassman

In Search of Higher Intelligence: Aleister Crowley, Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson (Theology, Psychology Neurology – Part Two)

May 23

Posted by Matt Cardin in Creativity and Consciousness, Creativity and Society, Tapping the Creative Unconscious | 14 Comments

NOTE: It’s tempting to begin with an exclamation like “And we’re back!” For the past several months, Demon Muse has been on hiatus as I’ve done some necessary clarifying and recharging in communion with my creative source. If you’re a long-time reader, I thank you sincerely for your patience, and for the expressions of ongoing interest that some of you have sent me. If you’re new to Demon Muse, then I hope you’ll enjoy and profit from this ongoing exploration of the theory and practice of inspired creativity, and will add your voice to the conversation in each post’s comment section. In particular, you may find it worth your while to explore the Course in Demonic Creativity, which organizes this blog’s “backbone posts” into a coherent course of self-study in the art of creativity as a muse-driven or daimon-driven pursuit. (For an even more easily accessible and portable presentation, look for an ebook version later this year.)

Be advised that the present post inaugurates a new format that will include 1) occasionally longer articles with endnotes and 2) a drastic reduction in the number of in-text links. For a rationale concerning the second part, see “Experiments in delinkification” by Nicholas Carr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” and its book-length expansion, The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. Also see “To link or not to link? That is the question” at The Economist and “The Hyperlink War” at the Barnes & Noble Review. Or do a Google search for hyperlinks + distraction. For a rationale concerning the first part: Endnotes keep a reader engaged in the same text instead of leading attention away.

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Image: ConsciousnessTo review, in the opening post of this series I raised the question of whether the personification of the creative force that we’ve been pursuing here at Demon Muse is “really real.” Is the muse, the daimon, the personal genius — that gravitational center of our creative energy and identity — truly a separate being/force/entity with an independent, autonomous existence? Or are such words and the experience to which they refer simply convenient metaphors for the unconscious mind? The first thing we discover when we truly begin to consider the issue in depth is that arriving at a viable answer will not be, and cannot be, as straightforward a matter as it might first appear. All of our attempts run us into immediate difficulties, because whichever side we try to choose, we find we’re automatically skirting important issues and begging crucial questions. Hence, the value of reviewing some of the various ways in which intelligent individuals have understood the experience of guidance and communication from a muse-like source.

Of all the myriad strands in the cultural conversation about this issue, it would be hard to identify a more pertinent — or fascinating (and entertaining) — one than the line of influence connecting 20th-century occultist Aleister Crowley to psychedelic guru Timothy Leary to counterculture novelist-philosopher and “guerilla ontologist” Robert Anton Wilson. The dividing line between objective and subjective interpretations of the experience of external-seeming communication from an invisible source is highlighted not only in their individual stories but in the plotline that connects them. In particular, Wilson’s final “resting point” in terms of a belief system to encompass the whole thing is helpful and instructive in our search for the muse’s ontological status, and can prove a helpful tonic for dogmatism, because what he ended up with was more of an anti-belief system that highlights and hinges on the irreducible indeterminacy of any possible answer.

By way of a warning: Prepare for high weirdness! What follows is a strange story. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: Aleister Crowley, daemon, Holy Guardian Angel, Magick, muse, Occultism, Psychedelics, Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, unconscious mind

Theology, Psychology, Neurology: Is the Muse Real? (Part One)

Aug 30

Posted by Matt Cardin in Creativity and Consciousness, Creativity and Society | 8 Comments

Image: Angel of FateAn ever-increasing segment of the population is becoming aware of and interested in the muse-based or genius-based model of creativity. More and more people are discovering the idea that creativity can rightly and fruitfully be viewed as an external or independent force that influences and works through a person in the manner of the classical muse, that divine spirit — or, for the ancient Greeks, the several divine spirits — whose function is to whisper inspiration directly into the human mind and soul.

And this all leads, eventually, to a crucial question: What exactly are we talking about? Is it more correct to say that creativity really is an independent and autonomous force, or that it can be viewed as such?

In short, is the muse real? Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: Elizabeth Gilbert, francis bacon, leigh schmidt, muse, religion, the enlightenment, unconscious mind

Seven Perspectives on Living with a Muse

Aug 16

Posted by Matt Cardin in Dealing with Creative Block, Tapping the Creative Unconscious, Techniques for Enhancing Creativity | No Comments

Image: L'Artiste et sa MuseIn your life as a muse-driven writer, there’s a great deal of help and gratification, not to mention pure pleasure, to be gained from reading the accounts of other artists who have consciously experienced their creativity to some degree as an autonomous force, entity, or process. Equally valuable are statements of general creative principles that have been abstracted from such accounts. Learning the various ways in which writers have conceived, related to, and referred to their inner collaborators can go a long way toward helping you to clarify your relationship with your own muse or genius. And of course such statements often shade into speculations about the general meaning and purpose of human life, both individually and collectively — a subject that’s always worth considering.

You’ll find quotes to this effect scattered throughout the library of articles housed here at Demon Muse. Right now, to reinforce the point, here are a few more. By way of a disclaimer, please note that not all of the individuals quoted below make explicit mention of the muse, daimon, or genius. Some of them might well quibble with the use of such terminology. But all talk about the ins and outs, both practical and philosophical, of living and working with the realization that creativity comes to us as a seemingly autonomous force that demands an attitude not of control, but of relationship and respect. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: creative process, creativity, daimon, don delillo, george blair-west, james lee burke, lisa a riley, maxie van roye, muse, robert louis stevenson, Steven Pressfield

When the Muse Becomes Monstrous: The Demonic Modern History of the West

Aug 2

Posted by Matt Cardin in Creativity and Consciousness, Creativity and Society | No Comments

Image: Solitude - Dark MuseThis isn’t even close to what I originally intended when I sat down to write this week’s post, but it’s what came out. As always, such occurrences make for a nice illustration of the main point around here (which, as you’ll note, is conveniently restated in the first couple of sentences below.)

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Abandoning the muse: from the Renaissance to Freud

The muse model of creativity, a.k.a. the daemonic or genius-based model, holds that it’s eminently reasonable and helpful to regard creativity as an independent force that emerges through you, as opposed to a quality or power that you possess or a mere feat that you’re able to perform. This ancient model of creativity is also a model of consciousness in general. It’s a model of the nature and status of the conscious self within the wider context of psychological life as a whole, human life in general, and the world at large.

As such, it underwent a drastic change over the course of several recent centuries in the West, beginning with the Renaissance and culminating in the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment and the 19th-century Age of Science (the latter of which, as we can now see in retrospect, might be more accurately termed the Age of Scientism). This was a period of enormous and energetic change in fundamental cultural understandings of what it means to be human, so the idea of the muse couldn’t help but be affected. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: A.M. Rosenthal, Age of Enlightenment, creativity, daimon, demon, Frankenstein, Freud, genius, genocide, horror, kierkegaard, Mary Shelley, monsters, muse, Nazis, Nietzsche, ray bradbury, Renaissance, Romantics, scientism, World War II

The Secret to Writing Is Writing: A Conversation with John Langan

Jul 26

Posted by Matt Cardin in Interviews, Techniques for Enhancing Creativity | 2 Comments

This is the second in the Demon Muse series of conversations with notable writers and artists about their experiences of the creative process. The first was with T.M. Wright. In this latest installment, I talk with horror writer and SUNY writing instructor John Langan.

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Photo: John Langan

John Langan

I’m almost inclined to preface the following conversation with a blatantly hyperbolic claim, to wit: If you haven’t heard of John Langan, then you soon will. That’s how strongly I feel about the quality and importance of the man’s writing. And although it’s true that he may, like many horror writers, end up being known not to a general audience but only to those who actively seek out such stories, this doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have a mainstream breakthrough. Because he’s writing some really stunning stuff.

I first heard of John maybe five or six years ago when a friend, the fantasy and horror artist Jason Van Hollander, directed me to John’s story “On Skua Island,” which had been published in 2001 in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I found out somewhere, maybe from Jason, that John is a creative writing teacher at SUNY New Paltz. He also teaches classes in gothic fiction and film. This interested me greatly.

In keeping with my usual mercurial reading habits (dictated by weird inner pressures and impulses that I’ll never manage to map out), I examined the story, found it hugely exciting, and then put off reading it for several years. When I finally did read it, I was positively enraptured by its thoroughly delicious deployment of classic supernatural-horrific literary tropes — all of them used quite consciously — in the service of a really fine and wholly original tale.

This was in 2009, only a few months after John’s first book, the fiction collection Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters, had been published (in December 2008) to an enthusiastic reception that included a starred review in Publishers Weekly. The book consists of five stories that demonstrate more of what the author had demonstrated in “On Skua Island,” which is included in its contents. I read it  and was again enraptured.

Then John’s first novel, House of Windows — a thoroughly literary exploration of the haunted house theme, as played against the family curse theme, as played out in a parable about the power of language, as played out in the lives of two career academics — came out in late 2009. I reviewed it for Dead Reckonings. Here’s a snippet of what I said: “House of Windows is a scarifyingly assured debut. It’s one of those wonderful books where you realize only a few pages in that you can relax into it and trust yourself fully to the author, since he obviously knows what he’s doing.” A host of other critics and reviewers agreed.

The story continues: His work has now been featured in editor Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 2, and editor Paula Guran’s The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror. He has been a judge for the Shirley Jackson Awards for the past three years. Most interesting of all — to a person like me, at least — he’s currently working on a Ph.D. through the CUNY Graduate Center, with his dissertation to be titled Lovecraft’s Progeny. It offers “a consideration of Lovecraft’s influence on Fritz Leiber, Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Thomas Ligotti, and Caitlin Kiernan.”

Somewhere along the way, I became Internet acquaintances with John, and that led to my inviting him to sit down in virtual space for an interview. Well, that, and the fact that his stories were pinging right and left on some of the major themes that I’ve pursued here at Demon Muse: the question of creative inspiration’s true nature, the experience of being dominated by autonomous psychic forces, and so on. I wanted to ask John about the origin of these strands in his work, and about his interesting fusion of academic themes with supernatural ones, and about the implications of these things not only for his own literary creative life but for the creative lives of anybody else who might benefit from hearing what he’s learned.

So that’s what I did. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: creative process, creative writing, d.h. lawrence, daimon, flannery o'connor, genius, h.p. lovecraft, horror, john langan, muse, shirley jackson awards, stephen king, suny, supernatural, the magazine of fantasy & science fiction

Muse, Daimon, and Creativity Links for 7-22-10

Jul 22

Posted by Matt Cardin in Creativity and Society, Techniques for Enhancing Creativity | No Comments

Honoring the Creative Process

Insights from creativity expert Eric Maisel about the need for persistence and courage in pursuing creative work and the need for trusting the process itself by recognizing and accepting that you will indeed make messes and mistakes — which will prove in the end to have been necessary.

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The Key to ‘Inception’: It’s a Movie about Making Movies – The Awl – July 21, 2010

Is Inception a movie about the creative process? A parable about the artistic danger of being so uncritically addicted to your muse that you follow her into a black pit of solipsism?

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Christopher Nolan Never Created a ‘Bible’ for Inception – MTV – July 16, 2010

Director Christopher Nolan on the creative artistic experience of conceiving and realizing the world of the movie: “You feel like you’re uncovering something that already exists” Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: christopher nolan, creative process, dreams, eric maisel, inception, john daido, mozart, muse, rod dreher, zen

To Thine Own Daemonic Self Be True

Jul 12

Posted by Matt Cardin in Techniques for Enhancing Creativity | No Comments

Flickr: GothicaI grew up in an Independent Christian Church, one of those conservative evangelical Protestant congregations that represent the right-leaning doctrinal divergence of some Restoration Movement churches from the über-liberal Disciples of Christ denomination circa the early and middle parts of the 20th century. One of the mottos of my childhood church, which I learned directly from the lips of my father, is this: “Where the scriptures speak, we speak; where the scriptures are silent, we are silent.”

Anybody who scents in this saying a close analog to the muse/daemon/genius-based approach to artistic creativity is surely onto something. As I said in a past post (“Embrace Your Creative Demon’s Rhythm, Part 2“), in a discussion of how important it is to find your natural creative condition, you simply can’t know your innate creative rhythm — occasional, erratic, or prolific — until you actually do the work of finding out who you are by making friends with your daemonic genius, and then by approaching your work openly and experimentally in order to discover the pace and volume at which your creativity wants to emerge. I illustrated this with examples, excerpts, and insights from the lives and works of  Philip Larkin, Alice Flaherty, Joe Hill, Amy Lowell, and Victoria Nelson.

Here I present a few more examples to illustrate the point — which, to repeat, is that there’s a wide variation among people in how their creative demons consent to being accessed and how their muses consent to being courted. The crucial thing is to get in touch, and then to stay in touch, with your own demon muse, so that when your it speaks, you speak, and when it’s silent, you remain silent.

But bear in mind that this doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be writing the whole time. This is not a contradiction but a subtle distinction. For more such seeming contradictions, wade into the following choppy sea of advice from well-known authors. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: Christianity, daemon, dani shapiro, discipline, flannery o'connor, gayle brandeis, jurgen wolff, muse, stephen king, Steven Pressfield

Advice for Writers: Dig Deep into Your Passion

Jun 30

Posted by Matt Cardin in Dealing with Creative Block, Techniques for Enhancing Creativity | No Comments

I’ve just been interviewed by a publisher of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction for a feature at their blog. Along with questions about my writing career — how I got hooked up with Ash-Tree Press for Divinations of the Deep and Mythos Books for Dark Awakenings, how I came to my overriding focus on the combination of horror with religion and spirituality, what my writing process is like, etc. — the interviewer asked me if I had any advice for aspiring writers.

It was only after I had answered the question that I realized I had ramped up into a state of heady intensity as I tried to distill my best advice to writers into the span of a few sentences. Since I know this type of thing is of interest to Demon Muse’s audience, I figured I’d reprint it here, with a few slight expansions.

Here’s what I said: Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: advice, daimon, dark awakenings, divinations of the deep, muse, publishing, ray bradbury, unconscious mind, writing

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