The primitive madman and creativity

Walsh introduces the concept of shamanic evolution; the viewpoint that this belief has gone from devilization to medicalization to idealization. These stages helped explain how this mystical notion has been perceived, and in Westernized thinking, I felt as if I fell into the middle category - seeing shamans as healers of their communities. I can't say that I completely understood HOW shamans healed their ailing members, especially after watching the film of the Peruvian tribe, but I was willing to accept that they somehow did. It could have simply been the power of suggestion, "I say you're healed so you are", or perhaps there was some sort of mysticism involved that westernized minds are blinded from. Just when I was about jump on board with the latter reason, Walsh informs his reader of the many tricks that Shamans play in efforts to "heal". Spitting up worms and feathers that were secretly placed in the shaman's mouth BEFORE a healing ritual? What a crock! Maybe it is because of such trickery that I am blinded from seeing anything beyond. I get that the purpose behind such trickery is to "bolster faith and inspire a placebo response" (117). But if shamans are so talented and spiritually gifted, do they need to really rely on trickery? Walsh - you had me until Part IV, I've returned to my skeptical ways.

I recall the seven intelligences that Hughes discusses from a former psych class. I don't remember the naturalist intelligence, but it makes sense. Initially I would have considered interpersonal and intrapersonal the two extreme opposites out of the seven, but possibly nature is another opposite of intrapersonal. Instead of an awareness within one's internal environment, this is an awareness of one's external environment.

I loved Hughes' description of the irrational, "the language of imagination" (84). Creative concepts that we come up with are irrational until put to external form. "But irrational messages lose content when translated into words, and often become unacceptable" (84). As explained, when these concepts are left to be encoded by the recipient, the irrational is maintained. I guess this to be in any medium that does not use words to convey the message. I know personally, I gather more rational concepts from words than I do from artwork, for example. Interpreting something written, I can usually figure out underlying concepts (whether these concepts are what the creator intended or not is a different story). Sometimes when I look at a painting, for example, I don't always get it, and it does seem to be an irrational creation.