We live in the air and sunlight of the conscious mind. So when I wrote to you recently that the unconscious mind is an ocean, dark and deep, and that our conscious awareness is merely a sea journey on its surface, that metaphor was not chosen by accident.
Our relationship to the unconscious is precisely our relationship to water. Our bodies are mostly made of water. Likewise, our minds are mostly the unconscious. Like water, we need the unconscious by the cupful to survive. This is called “intuition.” But we can also drown in its depths, spiraling ever downward into phobias, obsession and depression.
Sleep, Art, Music and Romance are brief plunges into the unconscious that stimulate, cleanse and refresh us. But lurking ominously in its lower regions are Fear, Fixation and Gloom, the subaquatic sharks of the mind.
“Talent” is any natural ability to swim in the waters of the unconscious. One type of talent arranges notes and rhythms in a language of the unconscious called Music. Another type of talent arranges colors and lines in a language called Art. A third talent, Photography, is expressed through composition, juxtaposition, frameline magnetism and focus. And these are just a few examples of swimming in the unconscious, each one harnessing a different combination of Thought Particles in the mind.
Ask a talented person how they do what they do and they can rarely explain it – because talent is typically unconscious.
The Magical Worlds curriculum was created by carefully de-constructing what talented people do when they're feeling inspired. This allows us to chart the creative process with 20/20 hindsight. My goal is to give you the ability to do consciously what talented people do unconsciously.
Talent is a natural ability to swim in the depths of the unconscious.
But I'm going to teach you how to swim in the air.
Some people call it flying.
Roy H. Williams
A BOOK I PLAN TO READ – Those who have read J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye (1951) will remember Holden Caulfield as the tortured, sensitive 16 year-old that James Dean later imitated in the 1955 movie “Rebel Without a Cause.” I had just finished re-reading Catcher and laid it down beside me. It was time to email the Monday Morning Memo to the webmaster so that it could be uploaded for distribution. Impulsively, I typed the title of today's memo into Google.com to see if anyone else had ever written anything called, “Swimming in the Sky.” Obediently, Google told me of a novel written by Inman Majors called Swimming in Sky. Here's what the description said: “It's as if Holden Caulfield has grown up, but not been much changed, as if his intensity has become southern, rather than northeastern. Full of dazzling energy. I am moved by the clarity and tenderness with which Jason sees his inner world and his family.” The fact that I had just finished re-reading the story of Holden Caulfield was enough to convince me to buy the book at Amazon.com. Interesting coincidence, huh? The artwork that accompanies today's memo is from the cover, (Rene Magritte, 1965, The Connivance) – RHW