The Holotropic Art™ is the art which is the result of transpersonal experiences and which can transpose the beholder into states of overconsciousness. (Edi Apostu, Ph.D. / 2006)
The holotropic art has to be looked upon through the point of view of creation, approached starting from its connections with the philosophy of mentalities, the science of religions, the transpersonal psychology and the psychology of imagination.
The connection between transpersonal and art can be identified in any hystorical period as long as they reproduce ideas that are connected to the sphere of imagination, of some ”realities beyond” on the human level.
The artist is, to a smaller or larger extent, inspired, through different modalities, by different creation energies, and following the consumption of natural psychostimulents (coffee, alcohol, tobacco, different halucinogenous mushrooms or herbs, etc.) or synthesis substances, following the practising of religious, magic, chamanic techiques as incantations, prayers, meditations of different types, total fasting, intendded dehydration etc., or by combining the consumption of psychoactive substances with the practising of these different techniques, the artist is capable to create. Also, we consider that all those representations in the art works of the ”notions” that are connected to the religious side, no matter the period or the geographical areas are coming from, no matter the style or artistic trend, can be integrated in the transpersonal dimentions which can affect an artistic creation.
In other words, the holotropic art is a type of art which is ”inspired”, realized as following authentic extatic experiences, as well as an art that can induce modified consciousness states to the watcher,or, in ideal cases, it connectes its two characteristics managing by its qualities to ”accumulate” in order to have effects on the psychic of the admirer.
Art, as a trasposion of religion in concrete representations of transpersonal concepts, has the part of giving the world aspects (imaginary or not) of some transhuman ”realities”, ”beyond” the perceptions that the human can have because of normal senses, which are connected also to some extrasenzorial perception of some subjects who have superior abilities and, through this they can ”see” the reality in its assembly.
Ones of these ”hypersensitve” manage to ”see” the reality without using ”helpers”, they are considered ”destiny’s favourites” to whom the divinity reveals to naturally. They are atributted with special, miraculous powers and are considered saints, prophets, illuminated ones, etc. Others, though, make use in their actions of different auxiliary methods like practising one or more ”spiritual techniques” as: total fasting, intended dehydration, self flagellation or flagellation, prayers, meditations, incantations, consumption of halucinogene substances etc., all having as a common goal the reaching of extatic states, of trance, through which the adept is able to realize the union of its own consciousness with the divine, cosmic one, union which, once it is realized gives the possibility to discover the truth and make it known to the whole humankind.
Apparently a part over the arts is also played by the psychoactive substances over the human psychic – analysis which is made thorough the medicine and psychiatry, without making any apology or encouraging the consumption of such substances –, only by the observation of some artists during the creation act and their connection to different modalities of artistic ”inspiration”. Referring to narcotics, the human, in its cultural and civilization evolution, ever since the homo sapiens times, no matter the geographical area in which it lived its life, discovered the effects of some natural substances that provoke changes into the psychological state of mind and which were considered, during time, connectives between the human and divinity, between the eartly-ephmeral and the eternal-celestial ones.
As concerning the psychoactive substances, we clearly mention that we do not agree with their consumption without a medical recommandation, on the contrary, we totally disapprove the abusive consumption of this type of substances, that can cause serious mental damages, states of partial of total clinical insanity and, in some cases, the death of the consumer.
As starting points of identification we mention the holotropic art proposes a development and a promotion of the authentic cultural phenomena which have real values, a re-orientation of the watcher and the consummer towards a type of art that take account of the ”aesthetic common sense”, a re-education of the artist – who is equally part as the receptive public, in the degradation or, on the contrary, in the revolutionazing and the re-orientation of art, having an ethic and moral responsibility in the cultural approach which is equal to those who are art passionate or to any member of the society. We also talk about a orientation of all these towards an ideatic perfection of cultural expression, symilar to the notion of the Renaissance homo universalis, an elargement of the creative and artistic vision, an expantion of the boundaries of knowledge to all the levels that the human, as an intelligent creature, is conscious of.
Under the conditions of cultural backing up of the present, the holotropic art can look like having utopic and pretentious ideals. This might be possible. Large trends of the humankind, which would propose the reaching of symilar objectives failed. Or maybe not. Even if the nowadays society is not a perfect reflection of the ideatic concepts of the big phylosophers, of the great people of the past, their remarkable ideas were assimilated and reflect, to a smaller or larger extent, into the society of the present which is part of the intelectual or physical effort of those brilliant minds that emited ideas of genious.
It is the ”duty” of the great thinkers or of the illuminated ones, of those who have an elevated level of consciousness to do everything that stays in their power to raise the degree of perception and receptions of the people surrounding them. For a person that possesses a real level of intelligence it is a proper gesture that takes into account the nobless of the soul to wish to destroy the veil of ignorance from the consciousness of their mates and to raise them to their level, or to push them forward, in order to reach higher, superiour achievements.