Alex Grey and Ken Wilber explore an integral approach to art, how visionary and spiritual art can plant a seed of liberation in the mind of the viewer, and how one can recognize and anchor that realization in one's own life.

Who:  Alex Grey, a renowned visionary and spiritual artist and author of The Mission of Art, and   Ken Wilber, the founder of Integral Institute and author of Integral Spirituality.  In the foreword to The Mission of Art, Ken stated: "Alex Grey might be the most significant artist alive."

Summary:  Alex and Ken begin the conversation by discussing a question that's fundamental to the success of any visionary and spiritual artist: how do you "plant a seed of liberation" in the mind of the viewer?  If you are interested in getting to know your own higher dimension of being, seeking out this kind of transcendental art can be one important practice in your own integral life—and if you have some kind of understanding of what's happening when a piece of art pops you into a higher state of consciousness, the more likely that realization is going to "stick," and stay with you longer.

What Alex has had the good fortune to discover, and the skill to express, is that portraying—as he puts it—"transcendental light in relationship with the body" is a very effective way to help people resonate with a piece of transformative art.  As Ken goes on to mention, all states of consciousness are supported by their corresponding bodies, and by depicting some of the higher and more refined bodies, Alex has been able to elicit and anchor some of the higher and more refined states of consciousness in viewers. 

An example from more traditional sacred art helps make clear what all of this actually means: when Christian artists paint halos around the heads of saints, they are depicting a subtle-body aspect of a saint's higher state of consciousness—and if you gaze upon the image of a saint long enough, you may start to feel saintly yourself.  What's extraordinary about Alex's work is that he has taken this general concept and brought it into the modern world, always drinking deeply from the world's wisdom traditions, but then expressing those visionary insights with astonishing creativity, detail, and clarity.

What follows is an in-depth discussion—carried over from Part 3 of this dialogue—of how entheogens (psychedelics) have played a pivotal role in Alex's development as an artist.  One reason we are always eager to explore this topic with Alex is that he is one of the very few people who have, over a lifetime of experience, used these powerful substances in a genuinely responsible and growth-oriented manner.  Entheogens are a controversial topic in spiritual practice, but experiential evidence from various practitioners suggests that use can have a powerful impact on one's spiritual perspective.  Whether one is personally interested in using entheogens on one's own path or not, this is an extremely enlightening part of the dialogue, simply because this topic is so rarely spoken about in a healthy, rational, and transparent manner.

Why Integral?:  An Integral Approach is important because it gives us a framework for understanding the relationship between visionary art and integral art, and how such artwork can help one grow and transform. 

The three major states of consciousness (waking, dreaming, deep sleep) are supported by the three bodies (gross-nirmanakaya, subtle-samboghakaya, causal-dharmakaya, with the nondual- svabhavikakaya"holding" all the others).  But separate from both states and bodies are what Vedanta calls sheaths of consciousness, which are similar to chakras and also to the developmental structures discovered by the West. All of these are structures in consciousness to which one must develop through the necessary stages of unfolding—and you cannot skip these stages.  (For more on this topic and how it relates to art, see Part 2 of this dialogue, "Two Kinds of Higher.")

Regarding entheogens, or any kind of substance that can "cleanse the doors of perception," it is almost always the case that these items, if used at all (and it's not a choice we can or would advocate), are used for their value in providing peak ("peek") experiences that reveal profound and non-ordinary states of consciousness—yet they are not one's primary access point for spiritual experience.  In this series of dialogues with Alex, you'll notice that he'll often skip an entire decade when talking about important experiences in his life where entheogens were involved.  The rest of the time, he engages in his own integral life practice, including regular meditation, attention to diet, being a committed family man, an engaged member of his community, an avid reader, and so on. 

To learn more about how you can start your own integral life practice, we recommend the Integral Life Practice Starter Kit, which is the most complete, comprehensive, and easy to use introduction to developing and nurturing your own integral life.     

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To find out why Ken said "Alex Grey might be the most significant artist alive," check out Part 1, to learn more about states, structures, and bodies, check out Part 2, and to explore in more detail the role entheogens have played in Alex's art, check out Part 3.