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Creative self hypnosis by
Robert Genn Being
curious, I adapted techniques used in recent experiments with students
at the Architectural Foundation in London, England. Here's
the plan: Key
words floated down like snowflakes--waterfall, river, lake, shoreline,
counter-light. Using a standard self-hypnotic system, I was soon in
dreamland. I
longed for my garden "lazel"--a horizontal lounge-easel--impossible to
use out there in this interminable January rain. It
wasn't raining inside, and I drifted to a mountain springtime and lay
among alpine flowers. With a
pile of ready canvases and a bulging palette, I loaded a brush and
started stroking--slowly, thoughtfully. I transferred my total hypnotic
focus to my brush-tip. In
close-up, I let myself be mesmerized by its actions and drawn in by the
love and wonder of it. The new, dreamy me had strokes of surprising
variety and flamboyance. Moving
from one canvas to another, I worked my processes, always going back to
the tip of my brush. Motifs materialized and evolved. Much was
automatic. Very little was cancelled. I kept
my mantra, "What could be?" The hour-hand flew around the clock. I was
up on a creative stage and at one time I was even in front of an
audience. When Dorothy finally barked out the window at the bird-feeder
squirrel, I had the distinct feeling that I was some sort of a rooster. The
telephone had been unplugged, and so was I. Its
use as a creative tool is less clear. In the English experiment, all
the architects reported some "improvement in creativity." Looking
back, my work was pretty "standard," but there were a couple that may
have been above average that day. From The Robert Genn Twice-Weekly Letter
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