The Hughes readings were interesting. I had to read it in the library, since my book has not yet arrived from Amazon, so I am stuck with only my notes to reference. I can't wait for the book to arrive so I have more of an opportunity to study the material. The mailman should be arriving shortly, so maybe today will be my lucky day.

One of the quotes I noted from Hughes, Chapter 1, was this, “creativity is about the use of imagination to transmute the inner world into external reality......extends beyond the arts, sciences and philosophy. For it involves the organization of everyday subjective experience as well as of imaginative material, and thus include the whole of life.” I have always viewed myself as a very un-creative person. I do not draw, paint, play an instrument, write music, or do anything that is the typical "creative". My husband is the creative one in our relationship, or at least that's always what we say. Reading that quote, though, makes me view creativity a little bit differently. Though my creativity isn't manifested in a book, a painting, or a piece of music, I think that in my own ways, I think I can view myself as sort of creative. I take my "inner world" - my thoughts, my feelings, etc, and I put those into what I DO. Can that be considered creative too? Does creativity always have to result in someTHING being produced? I'm going to have think some more about that throughout the semester. Maybe my charity work, or my running, or the way I run the house, can be considered creative? Or do I run into a problem with the whole idea of creativity needing to be accepted and validated by others?

Another point of his that I am wondering about........"divergent reasoning is the intellectual ability to bring together two quite different sets of facts or ideas so as to form a new and meaningful synthesis. Convergent thinking is the intellectual ability to logically evaluate, analyze and choose the best idea from a selection and work it into external reality." I hope that throughout our discussions of altered states of consciousness, we talk about this. I'm wondering if these types of reasoning are both achievable in altered states of consciousness. I have a hard time imaging that convergent thinking would be possible in an altered state, brought on by drug use.


In Chapter 3, Hughes talks about the awakening or development of un/under-utilized senses while in an altered state. This is an intriguing point. I suppose this would be applicable to what shamans do, perhaps? I definitely don't know enough about that, but I'm sure I will soon, since one of our books is all on Shamanism!! During these types of experiences, he says that there is increased right-brain activity, which emphasizes the more creative, non-verbal.

I found the Tart reading interesting, because I never really broke down consciousness as he did. The way he talks about stabilizing a system makes so much sense, and really is simplistic. It's amazing that so much of that occurs daily, hourly, even second-by-second, and we think nothing of it. Yet, at the same time, we can force ourselves to do one of more of these stabilizations when we feel it's necessary. There are times when I don't want to think about something, so I throw myself, heart and soul, into another activity. For example, when I was going through the decline of my marriage, I was often overcome with the negativity that accompanies such a situation. I needed a diversion, so I started focusing on running. I ran my butt off, and kept my mind occupied in other ways, keeping my focus OFF of the negative. It certainly helped. I laughed when I thought about an application for the negative stabilization. I was running on the Appalachian Trail yesterday, and I was completely absorbed in my thinking......too much so.....I became fairly oblivious to what I was doing. What I would have given for a bird to chirp or for something to "wake me up" out of that oblivian. Instead, my "correction" came in the manner of an ill-placed footfall, resulting in a total face-plant into the trail. I truly miss the chunk of flesh that is gone from my hand, and could do without the bruises and cuts on my legs.