Ecstatic States and Visionary Art: from Metaphysical Realms to Aesthetic Creation
Revista Cacto - Ciência Arte Comunicação em Transdisciplinaridade Online August 23, 2024 Jan Clefferson Costa de Freitas 2 citations
Expanded states of perception—whether psychedelic, spontaneous, or induced—are a generative source for visionary art. Drawing on Aldous Huxley's writings in Moksha and Laurence Caruana's Manifesto of Visionary Art, the article argues that such experiences allow artists to access transcendental realities. Key methods for immersion include creative writing, close reading, and phenomenological experimentation. The visionary universe draws on light, transfigurations, folklore, and religious imagery, as seen in the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, William Blake, and Gustave Moreau. Extraordinary conscious activities—ecstatic, oneiric, or hypnagogic—are indispensable for creating visionary art, especially in the contemporary period.