“Reality cannot be described statistically- it lends itself much more to the way of understanding one might have of the arts. Of poetry, and dance…” ---David Bohm.
Let’s assume Mr. Bohm is right. One of the foremost theoretical physicists of our time is telling us something both interesting and important. If we want to comprehend our reality as fully as possible, we should engage in the arts. We should develop our availability to the ephemeral and liquid nature of our existence.
Painting, drawing, singing, writing of any nature, poetry, novels, lyrics, plays, screenplays. Performance; acting, directing, conducting, dancing, choreography, music. These are actions through which the energy of the universe can move. Swimming, running, and rock climbing are too, but for now we’re talking about the arts and the artistic mind.
There is a saying, ”God can’t drive a parked car.” I like that saying because it reminds us that we, the living, are the wheels of divinity on Earth. I believe all life forms are, but right now I’m talking about us humans. If full creative potential is to be made manifest through and within the human experience, we must move the resistance, paralysis, fear, judgment, or disinterest that can settle into our ways of being. That is, we must use intentional action to transform these life-stopping patterns. Make them move. Once in motion, this energy is converted to fuel. It’s just like priming a pump. The motion will draw out the restrictive energies and the human instrument will begin to hum with life. The creative energy that, by nature, is in us begins to inform our perceptions. In this state we can begin to comprehend the reality Bohm speaks of. Our ability to comprehend is a huge piece of our potential. It expands with us as we grow. By expanding our artistic mind we can better perceive the full scope of how we are related to everything in the universe.
Why bother? Maybe the reality I perceive is enough for me. Maybe I don’t need any more than I have already. Lucky for me, my life has taught me otherwise. Nearly forty years in theatre has opened me up. I take in more than I ever dreamed possible. I care more deeply, with a greater capacity for being with other people. I believe I have become a better person.
Why do we have to work at this? Aren’t we perfect the way nature made us? Who knows, really? The Sioux say, “There are many ways of knowing.” I like that. It means I don’t have to comprehend things the way you do. It also means that I don’t have to make anyone see things the way I do in order for us to be friends or work well together, or to respect each other as acquaintances. Nature is complex and so are we.
The problem is we’ve been conditioned away from our natural state. Nature did not give us just a left brain only. Nature gave us a brain with two hemispheres and a corpus collosum. Why? Why does nature create each living form the way it does? Survival.
Perhaps Bohm is telling us that we need the arts and the artistic mind not just to express or entertain ourselves, but to be able to perceive our true environment more fully and clearly and therefore survive as a species.
That gives weight to the subject of right brain function. If we look at existing world cultures as a selection to choose from rather than absolutes that have been imposed upon us, then we might see modern cultural blueprints with more clear seeing eyes. We might see the things that are built into our cultural patterns that are not good for our holistic wellbeing. We might help each other keep alert to the pitfalls of our own human nature.
I believe humankind’s creative intelligence has the capacity to lift modernity out of the spiritual morass that exists today. I believe the better we comprehend the true nature of our reality the more empowered we will be to effect positive change. Fear and greed need not drive the great force of human consciousness.
Who are we? What are we? Why do we come together? What really moves us? Don’t you want to know? I do. I keep writing, I keep teaching, directing, acting, and meditating with friends. Every time I engage with another human being I find out more about what being human is all about. It’s so much more than me. I can’t know how you see it, feel it, and touch it, if I’m focused inside my own head with no curiosity for what’s inside yours. I have to find a way to see you. I mean really see you. See your inner light shine out through you in your own unique way.
There are many settings and processes in which we can see each other more truly. We write; we share our words and thus our thoughts and our hearts. We dance, we sing, we perform together. We rehearse together and delve deeply together into the lives of the characters. We see it the same or we see it differently, it doesn’t matter. We find out something about each other.
The twelfth century Sufi poet, Rumi, said in one of his poems, “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing or rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” That field is anywhere in the human heart where there is space for more than one. That dimension of the heart expands through the arts. In all these forms of expression there is an implied invitation, “Please come into my world. Come see what I see.” There is no wrong or right there is just the invitation. We must go to that space if we are to know our wholeness. We must fortify our humanness. There is a way that each of us will do it. Let us be witness for one another.
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