Lucid Improvisations: Part I

continued

An imager can, for instance, invite a wind to enter a scene that has been stuck on replay. All of a sudden, seeing enlightening action stirring in the image, the imager feels new energy welling up inside, breaking through the shell of confusion and inaction. Through getting in touch with the full range of nature’s energies represented in our inner motion pictures, imagers feel their own energy ranges expanding. They gain a sense of continuity and coherence they may never have expected to experience. And they learn where the gushers of their energies are, so they can go directly to the source of their greatest powers.

By continually staging reunions with creation, Lucid Improvisations give us access to far more and deeper powers than we usually reach for. Instead of visualizing our best performance, for instance, we may ask Shiva, or some other god, to show us what he or she would do, and thus get a divine modeling of how we can improve our act.

Reunion With Creation

Lucid Improvisations let us live with ourselves and each other at the inner light level where our imaginations, instead of being haunted, become playgrounds for a reeducation in creation, in fluent self-education and self-healing, and in being natural.

On these playgrounds we rediscover Eden, seeing it as a real and necessary place that is very much alive within us; a place each one of us can turn to, even in distress, to restore contact with the natural states of healthy and happy energy which structure and animate our being.

By getting back in touch with this vast natural abundance of energies, we feel more at ease and at home with ourselves, and are more inclined to share our energies with others, easily overcoming self-consciousness and inhibitions in order to join in this helpful atmosphere.

Eco means home. The true inner ecology of consciousness is an ecology of abundance, not scarcity; of flow, not blocks; of withholding giving way to presence. Through getting in touch with each other at this level – "where we really live" – we overcome our senses of inadequacy and low self-esteem. We come to know and share those parts of us that are free as a bird, easygoing as a breeze, mighty as an oak, fluent as a running stream.

Even in stroke or cancer wards or prisons, where people are experiencing massive deprivation, Lucid Improvisations give people's true selves occasion to come alive in ways not thought possible, simply by sharing deep experiences of nature. Teaching eidetic imaging in a hospital stroke ward I saw a man who initially appeared entirely rigid becoming vibrantly alive as he saw a sunflower, to everyone’s great surprise.

Remembering this a short poem of William Butler Yeats comes to mind: “All things hang like a drop of dew upon a blade of grass.” It now brings to mind the moment I saw a ray of sunlight strike a dewdrop in the understory of some dark woods out my window. At that moment I felt that ray mirrored a phenomenon in me. Today, ten years later, I feel a great starry delight touched off in me as I look into this image again.

Knowing that such reservoirs of light and liveliness are embedded in us, and experiencing the many natural parallels between nature and human nature, restores our living relationship with what we're made of. Looking beyond sun baths, we find the sun striking deep chords in us, chords that not only light up our interiors at the moment, but also store reverberations that will stir and flower the next moment we need them to.

Through experiencing the depths of nature in our depths, we regain a roothold in earth that gives us a sense of having the resilience of saplings, the stability of oaks, and the reach in time of sequoias. Without becoming clearly aware of our deep rooting in the manifold organization of time, our efforts are slipshod. I just heard the new director of a major opera company say that music gives us the sense of time we're losing in our rage against time. He would find eidetic imaging a staunch ally in restoring biologically sound and historically true time perspectives. Through it we can still our beings sufficiently to let the most profoundly intelligent, comprehensive and creative level of our imagination reach out, through its whole universe of holographically related images, bringing to light just the image that meets a deep need at the moment.

In the supreme moments when such perfectly understanding eidetic images come to us of our own accord, we roundly appreciate the unheralded heroism that these images display so brilliantly. We grasp their ability to continually form alloys eidetically, surreal hybrid images that bring strength out in areas where we felt doomed to remain weak. Seeing this in action I could finally understand why artists strive to be original. This combining impetus is like that of a vine tendril reaching for it's next station in life, a nearby branch to curl onto. But an eidetic tendril will fetch as far as it has to, and curl around surprising limbs, in order to form the arch currently in the making. In those reaches lucid improvisors discover our neglected healing genius, and our strengths.

The Healing Function Of Originality

I never fathomed the clamor for originality, in part because I never felt that I or anyone else really had much choice to be other than original. Given the peculiarities of my mother's and my own progressive school education, and my lack of experience with any conventions sufficient to hold our family together or in one place, I felt stuck with my own originality for sure. Furthermore any focus on originality seemed all too frequently to be accompanied by repellant arrogance or egocentricity.

Only as eidetic imaging kept revealing the healing function of originality, showing how it brought about dramatic healing in my own and other people's images, could I see that originality is indeed due deep reverence. During Lucid Improvisations participants see over and over again that a spark of originality shining out from one person's imagery soon forges another gleaming link in our grasp of universality, instead of leaving the person who had the striking image isolated in merely personal uniqueness.

For instance, doing Lucid Improvisations from a poem I just wrote, in which I speak of slipping my hand over a man's biceps, and getting a lift up some stone steps as a result, my sense of my poem was vastly enhanced when a man, in his empathy image, slipped his hand over God's arm and got a strong lift out of this move.

What bridges these sparks of originality can build! as soon as we're willing to let go of our tight grip on egotistical self-fulfillment, and move over to the compassionate realm of fulfilling the larger Self that we can now more clearly see ourselves as parts of. Why not? We have nothing to lose and plenty to gain by moving in this direction, including good health and good spirits.

Outgrowing What's Holding Us Back

Lucid Improvisations stage occasions for outgrowth. Each new episode is showing someone a new act he or she is at the ready to perform, an act that can release him from some debilitating habit, weakness or deficiency he used to think he was stuck with. Sharing in such outgrowths, Lucid Improvisors move beyond the rutted routines we are heir to, and enjoy entering the free range of consciousness that lets our cohesive intelligence reach out through the luminous holographic universe for just those images that can form just the alloys we need to see in place. 

Instead of seeking hit or miss reactions and insight from others who have no way of seeing what's really going on in their private worlds, lucid improvisors are evolving a growing picture of our mutually illuminating and transformational inner landscapes. They are seeing exactly where they can see eye to eye with each other, and where exactly – as well as why – other people's scenes go dark for them and they part company. Seeing with such clarity how the mutually illuminating facets of our imagery mingle and coalesce yields thrilling experiences that expand our sense of compassion by leaps and bounds. It also let us see through the ignorance of how projection and transference work and the blindness of narcissism that leave us futilely coping with many violent states of confusion.

Lucid Improvisations keep striking the dewdrops otherwise hanging in obscurity in the dark woods of consciousness, giving us direct experience of our own and each other's inner lights at work.

Outgrowing the habitual sense that what's new is dangerous, lucid improvisors enjoy the salubrious thrill of having new lights playing upon and through them as they become ever truer to themselves and each other at the same time.

The meticulousness of Ahsen's approach, which shows us how to become true to all the subtleties of our being, frees up our natural impetus to be original in ways that enable us to continuously meet our unique needs and realize our distinct capabilities at every turn. The growing strength we experience results entirely from the fact that we are not replaying preconceived or superficial ideas because we are instead concentrated on feeling out what's new and tapping into the root systems and fine hair roots that support and energize our vital, growing being.

Restoring this level of common sense to his or her awareness enhances any individual's sense of stability, capability and promise, whatever his age or field. It fills the empty cup many of us think we should keep drinking from, even while it deprives us of any awareness of the workings of the vast realm of nature within us, leaving not only us but nature at a loss and more and more at the mercy of ill winds.

Knowing dramatically the extent to which we're made of and can live in alliance with forces of nature gives us the wherewithal to stand up in defense of nature and human nature. Realizing these natural expanses within us we can see our way into a future that is not the current nightmare of shattered and shattering dreams.

We have not seen the healthy future that is built into us biologically because we have not known to look into and dwell on the eidetic depths of imagination. We are, instead, trained to overlook these inner resources, to brush by them, or grasp them only fleetingly. Hearing a man recite rap, and seeing that keeping up with the enforced tempo meant that the power of his images kept escaping him, I asked him to choose one of the images of his poem and dwell on it eidetically. He found that so satisfying that he said it gave him hope. 

Looking into our clear depths methodically, and dwelling on them as Ahsen would have us do, we see how heroically the tendrils of our newly released originality reach out to resolve issues and heal that which is divided within us. It becomes clear that a healthy grasp of our naturally improvisatory imaginations is essential to public and global health.

I conduct Lucid Improvisations to bring this new perspective out into the light, and move improvisatory arts from the sidelines to center in art curricula so that we can start putting a purely healthy and healing view of imagination on the map.  The current news that people are now afraid to buy toys for children this Christmas because over 80 % of the toys are from China, and thus highly likely to contain toxic lead, highlights the extent to which we continue to allow the dark, deficient sides of our minds to overrule us as we keep the perfectly natural, healthy, underlying sides of ourselves hidden away.

The more we lose touch educationally, medically and creatively with the pure depths in consciousness where healthy natural parallels are in action, the more we live at a loss, having little but our anxiety, our angst, our anguish – from the Latin root angustus meaning narrow – and our emptiness to go on.

Noticing The Disconnect

In an interview in Film Comment, Gus Van Sant said that he is surprised that no one noticed the space represented in his new movie, Elephants, which his interviewer Amy Taubin describes as “a meditation on the Columbine massacre and other similar incidents.” Having commented repeatedly in the interview that none of the explanations of the event account for it, Van Sant went on (italics mine): “The way I thought the film is supposed to work is that it leaves a space for you to bring to mind everything you know about the event. It doesn’t give you an answer. There’s no one-stop solution. And if you think there’s an answer you can isolate – maybe it’s video games, maybe it’s the parents – then that lets you think that the problem is somewhere else and that you aren’t part of it. And that’s a mistake, because we all are part of it. But I find it interesting that there’s one thing no one has mentioned about the film. The thing you’re actually watching all the time is a dislocation and a nonconnection. It’s visible, it’s in the representation. The connections aren’t there between the students or between the students and the authority figures. It’s all askew and whacked out. I tend to think our life is like that, and that’s why I think the answers lie within us.”

Restoring Our Connections

Lucid Improvisations fill those growing gaps — or abysses — in our consciousness and society that Van Sant describes. The plane of inner motion pictures within us provides the answers Van Sant points to. These eidetic images enable us to step right out of our fragmented and alienated states, where a viable sense of authority is lacking, and climb back into the naturally structured universe, discovering all the members of our extended family tree. These images also let us shoot the rapids of our newfound watershed of inner lights. This reorients us to our most vital self-images, those that are personally, socially and ecologically supportive. Through bringing our full vitality into play during Lucid Improvisations we see how true public health is possible.

Soul Tone

Lucid Improvisations take us to that level of imagination where the inner strength I call soul tone lives, a level where our important connections are still growing, and the fresh air of inspiration that is good for our health still circulates. Ahsen's discovery that certain images move our bodies lets us realize that soul tone can be developed with practice just as body and muscle and voice tone are.

A Lucid Improvisations ensemble of two or more imagers fosters soul tone, bringing our natural wellsprings of creativity into play in exhilarating and exalted ways. Soul tone is something we all have in us. It comes shining out in the stroke ward as brightly as it does in third grade or in prison, bringing out a surprisingly animated sense of rapport in any group.

Black Elk called the type of images I am speaking of “thunder beings.” Nelson Mandela said we are more afraid of our own innermost powers than of anything else. Now that we can gradually come to look them squarely in the eye eidetically – instead of keeping an evasive distance from them and thus making monsters of them in our ignorance of them –  we can befriend the powers of our imagination, no matter how powerful they seem at first, and realize that they become the gifts of our imagination as soon as we let them release their healing powers.

As we pay proper attention to them they reveal that their mission within us is to come to our rescue and let separated parts of our being come back together; not to “go wild” in any scary sense. We also see that what does drive us wild is ignoring and being dismissive of these gifts and powers, instead of letting them reveal all our budding capabilities that are bursting to show off within us.

Just as one may be simultaneously pleased and horrified upon drawing a note out of a violin or clarinet for the first time, so many people feel surprised, even startled, when they first allow themselves to become the instrument of the creative forces of nature they've been trained to cut off. They may feel embarrassed and self-conscious about being as free and bold as adorable children. But, with some imaging practice, they become more and more at home with the tremendous promise and excitement of growing interaction. Discovering deeper roots, and eventually the central taproot that gives a person a deep hold on and confidence in themselves and their soul tone, eidetic imagers may even reach a point where nothing is too wild for them. Instead of living in fear of going out of control, they know they have their fingers on their own controls, and live with an artist's growing sense of being in clear command of his or her powers.  

Transformational Action

Lucid Improvisations dramatize our ability to get up out of couch potatodom and come down out of the grandstands. They put us on our feet, revealing the up-and-at-'em, cooperative sides of our nature. Each participant's images improvise on the images of others in the ensemble in much the same way that jazz musicians spontaneously play off of each other's tones, rhythms and harmonies.

The uniqueness of each contribution sheds new light into everyone's awareness of the universal structures and dynamics that are holding the groups’ interaction together. Each person is all there – hands, arms, mind, eyebrows, imagination, ankles, knees, spirit going into the mix of action together – centering on what's deeply at issue in the scene being shared. This generates transformational action along with a profoundly enjoyable sense of mutual suspense and anticipation as members of the ensemble see pleasantly surprising new sides of themselves showing up, like stars coming out of many depths. A richly rewarding working partnership develops, establishing profound communal communication that is transformational for each individual and for the group as a whole. These experiences show us, unforgetably, our true potential for lucid and harmonious understanding and collaboration, as well as for developing art forms that bring our vast unused capacity for effective compassion to light.

The Beauty Of It Is Practical

Lucid improvisors experience the real beauty of this social and imagery interaction as they feel its practical results. When not being thrilled by some new feat of their own that has gotten them over a hurdle or out of hot water, lucid improvisors can be as excited as proud parents on the sidelines seeing their fellow improvisors triumphing over their challenges. With each new move made during a Lucid Improvisation some or all of the participants are making a move in the right direction, a move that is actually bringing about a change, a change someone may have long felt the need for without ever being able to find an effective prompt before.

In gaining deep, clear and growing new perspectives from our own and each other’s inner lives, we also develop the practical skill of seeing where the other guy is coming from. We can thus more accurately imagine and understand the internal situations that are impelling and compelling other people to act and react as they do. This skill proves useful to all of us, at any age, not only in personal and professional relationships, but also in learning, personal growth, creativity and performance.

The flowering of self-realizations becomes kaleidoscopic during Lucid Improvisations as everyone’s image enactment becomes part of a moving mandala in which each person is united with others through mutual illumination. We are making poetry together, poetry live, in action, while sharing an excitement such as athletes enjoy when they are in the zone, and jazz musicians enjoy when they are really swinging or grooving.

A Vast New Source Of Inspiration

A comment made by Rachel Carson, whose scientific writing opened some eyes to the devastating influences of pesticides, puts our neglected sense of poetry in proper perspective. She said, “If there is poetry in my work, it is not because I put it there. It is because I could not write truthfully about the world without it.” As I see it – with the root meaning of poet, from the Latin poeta and the Greek poietes, meaning maker, in mind –the more Lucid Improvisations enable our poetic understanding of life to come into play, the more we can be true – faithful – to our real underlying sense of life, and the more we are able to act with a clear grasp of the whole, infinitely creative truth.

I’ve devoted much of my life to writing poetry, but I never felt the excitement, satisfaction and joy that I feel now in doing Lucid Improvisations with others, achieving full expression in interaction, letting the entire spectrum of profound insight shine out of everyday scenes. During Lucid Improvisation I often see everyone enjoying a sense of relief as this clear seeing is clearing our heads and hearts, our bodies and souls. Freed of confusions, we are happy to open up to new influences and feel deeply inspired to make needed changes.

An infinity of profoundly creative activities and powerful performances can evolve from the newly animating perspectives that our inner motion pictures bring out within us. People in all walks of life – in business, in school, in the professions, or in tough circumstances – find that these moving images help develop insightful, expressive, creative, interactive and helpful capabilities all at once.

Through eidetic imaging artists in all genres can see the inner workings of imagination playing out dramatically, revealing the fluency and clarity of our underlying inner motion pictures at work like inner light clockworks within us. They can experience and borrow from supremely effective eidetic special effects, and see how to employ them more reliably. As filmmakers, dramatists, story writers, designers, actors or dancers, they can plumb the depths of motives and character development far more clearly than previously possible.

            > Continued LUCID IMPROVISATIONS: PART II

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