Experiments with Text

For the past two weeks I've been playing around with text and making collages and paper sculptures which are currently in various stages of completion. I've been using collage to explore the idea of compulsion and obsession and how it can be expressed visually and just to, you know, examine how being inside of compulsion actually feels when it's a conscious pursuit. Anyway, here's one of the texts I've been playing with. I've also become quite enamored with Robert Parkeharrison's work. The text comes from this paper: Positive Emotions, Spirituality and the Practice of Psychiatry by George E. Vaillant. This is why I love being a grad student: access to a massive data base for dramaturgy. Because sometimes Google isn't enough.

Book of Life, Robert Parkeharrison

Items from Robert Cloningerís (1994) Scale of Self-Transcendence has allowed neuroscientists and geneticists to demonstrate that neural experience of spiritual experience is in part genetic (Hamer, 2004; Eaves, 1999) and that spiritual experience becomes visible with brain-imaging studies (Newberg and DíAquilli, 2001). Representative items from the Cloninger scale include the following: #3 I often feel that I am a part of the spiritual force on which all life depends. #5 Sometimes I feel so connected to nature that everything seems to be part of one living organism. #8 Sometimes I feel a spiritual connection to other people that I cannot express in words. #12 I have had personal experiences in which I felt in contact with a divine and wonderful spiritual power. #13IhavehadmomentsofgreatjoyinwhichIsuddenlyhadacleardeepfeelingofonenesswithallthatexists. These same statements could describe the experiences in deep meditation (Benson, 1996), in childbirth, in temporal lobe epilepsy (Dewhurst and Beard, 1970) and in near-death experiences (van Lommel et al., 2001). In part, they are catalyzed by limbic oxytocin and endorphins. By reducing neocortical inhibition, meditation stimulates the limbic system from the outside in (Newberg and Iversen, 2003). Temporal lobe epilepsy and endorphin-driven near-death experiences stimulate the limbic system from the inside out. But Cloningerís spiritual statements are also common reflections of the unselfish attachment Items from Robert Cloningerís (1994) Scale of Self-Transcendence has allowed neuroscientists and geneticists to demonstrate that neural experience of spiritual experience is in part genetic (Hamer, 2004; Eaves, 1999) and that spiritual experience becomes visible with brain-imaging studies (Newberg and DíAquilli, 2001).Representative items from the Cloninger scale include the following: #3 I often feel that I am a part of the spiritual force on which all life depends. #5 Sometimes I feel so connected to nature that everything seems to be part of one living organism. #8 Sometimes I feel a spiritual connection to other people that I cannot express in words. #12 I have hadpersonal experiences in which I felt in contact with a divine and wonderful spiritual power. #13 IhavehadmomentsofgreatjoyinwhichIsuddenlyhadacleardeepfeeling of oneness with all that exists. These same statements could describe the experiences in deep meditation (Benson, 1996), in childbirth, in temporal lobe epilepsy (Dewhurst and Beard, 1970) and in near-death experiences (van Lommel et al., 2001). In part, they are catalyzed by limbic oxytocin and endorphins. By reducing neocortical inhibition, meditation stimulates the limbic system from the outside in (Newberg and Iversen, 2003). Temporal lobe epilepsy and endorphin-driven near-death experiences stimulate the limbic system from the inside out. But Cloningerís spiritual statements are also common reflections of the unselfish attachment Items from Robert Cloningerís (1994) Scale of Self-Transcendence has allowed neuroscientists and geneticists to demonstrate that neural experience of spiritual experience is in part genetic (Hamer, 2004; Eaves, 1999) and that spiritual experience becomes visible with brain-imaging studies (Newberg and DíAquilli, 2001). Representative items from the Cloninger scale include the following: #3 I often feel that I am a part of the spiritual force on which all life depends. #5 Sometimes I feel so connected to nature that everything seems to be part of one living organism. #8 Sometimes I feel a spiritual connection to other people that I cannot express in words. #12 I have had personal experiences in which I felt in contact with a divine and wonderful spiritual power. #13 IhavehadmomentsofgreatjoyinwhichIsuddenlyhadacleardeepfeelingofonenesswithallthatexists. These same statements could describe the experiences in deep meditation (Benson, 1996), in childbirth, in temporal lobe epilepsy (Dewhurst and Beard, 1970) and in near-death experiences (van Lommel et al., 2001). In part, they are catalyzed by limbic oxytocin and endorphins. By reducing neocortical inhibition, meditation stimulates the limbic system from the outside in (Newberg and Iversen, 2003). Temporal lobe epilepsy and endorphin-driven near-death experiences stimulate the limbic system from the inside out. But Cloningerís spiritual statements are also common reflections of the unselfish attachment Items from Robert Cloningerís (1994) Scale of Self-Transcendence has allowed neuroscientists and geneticists to demonstrate that neural experience of spiritual experience is in part genetic (Hamer, 2004; Eaves, 1999) and that spiritual experience becomes visible with brain-imaging studies (Newberg and DíAquilli, 2001). Representative items from the Cloninger scale include the following: #3 I often feel that I am a part of the spiritual force on which all life depends. #5 Sometimes I feel so connected to nature that everything seems to be part of one living organism. #8 Sometimes I feel a spiritual connection to other people that I cannot express in words. #12 I have had personal experiences in which I felt in contact with a divine and wonderful spiritual power. #13 IhavehadmomentsofgreatjoyinwhichI suddenlyhadaclear deepfeelingofonenesswithallthatexists.These same statements could describe the experiences in deep meditation (Benson, 1996), in childbirth, in temporal lobe epilepsy (Dewhurst and Beard, 1970) and in near-death experiences (van Lommel et al., 2001). In part, they are catalyzed by limbic oxytocin and endorphins. By reducing neocortical inhibition, meditation stimulates the limbic system from the outside in (Newberg and Iversen, 2003). Temporal lobe epilepsy and endorphin-driven near-death experiences stimulate the limbic system from the inside out. But Cloningerís spiritual statements are also common Items from Robert Cloningerís (1994)