The Magical Muse of Inspiration

By Wayne Saalman

[Photo by Simon Zhu]

INSPIRATION IS UNIVERSAL. We all experience it and revel in it as we set about pursuing our own particular creative interests, the results of which are as varied as humanity itself. One person may be motivated to write a poem or a novel, while another feels a great urgency to compose a song, paint a picture, craft a particular piece of jewelry, create a high fashion line of designer clothing or model a space suit so efficacious that it will be worn on Mars someday. Still another may be inspired to invent a medical treatment or a technological device of such remarkable sophistication that it will eventually have the power to revolutionize the entire world as we know it.

The possibilities, in short, are limitless.

The question is: How and from where does this inspiration come to us?

Some say it is the “muse”; that it is a “still, small voice within” that generated the inspiration. Many have told how particular words, a beautiful melody or an idea was simply and inexplicably impressed upon the mind either straight out of the blue while the person was busy doing some utterly routine or mundane thing or in dream while the person was sleeping.

Jon Klimo in a book entitled, Psychics, Prophets and Mystics, gives us a brilliant, in-depth look at the phenomenon of “channeling” and tells us that an experience of the “muse” is essentially down to a person being what he calls an “open channel”. Klimo defines the experience as the, “Receiving of information from an unidentifiable source, experienced as self-transcendent and as coming from a dimension or level of reality other than the consensus reality, the physical, sensible world, or from one’s own psychological being or self, conscious or unconscious; this includes mystical experience, aspects of intuitive, creative, inspirational, and imaginative processes, but does not include the parapsychological processes of telepathically receiving material from other incarnate persons’ minds or clairvoyantly receiving from the physical environment.”

The word “unidentifiable” is highlighted in this definition in order to distinguish it from those experiences which people have where the person attributes the received information to “God”, “angels” or some discarnate entity that once lived on this earth and wishes to pass on knowledge from another dimension of life in a very direct manner. In this latter case, in other words, the being or entity claims to be a specific and, therefore identified, personage.

As a poet, novelist and songwriter, I have enjoyed the phenomenon of open channeling on many occasions over the years, especially with my two latest novels, Dragonfire Dreams and Crimson Firestorm Mars, and find the experience profoundly astonishing. Since the “source” is indeed unidentified, I can only wonder from whence it comes, who this source is and why it communicates with me as it does.

Never once, over the many decades in which I have had this experience, have I been able to identify this inspired source as being a particular entity or being. As a result, I have generally attributed the inspiration to “Mind-at-Large”, a phrase I first encountered in the writings of Aldous Huxley. To call this inspired source Mind-at-Large is a form of identification, but certainly not one with much specificity. Yet, the idea of my mind being connected with a larger, more universal mind seems logical and right to me.

Author Larry Dossey, a medical doctor with many in-depth works on healing and the power of the mind, writes in his book, One Mind that, “The concept of the One Mind is ancient, and it remains an honored belief in many wisdom traditions. The esoteric sides of all the major religions recognize that our individual consciousness is subsumed and nourished by an infinite, absolute, divine, and cosmic source and is ultimately one with it.”

While this assumption is a quantum leap of sorts, it does ring true if one pays close attention to the workings of one’s own mind, especially during moments of deep meditative contemplation. Indeed, what can occur is that one senses a numinous presence while in such a state.

Still, to sense a general presence is one thing and to receive a some specific train of thought or inspired piece of information which can truly astonish is another. It is easy to understand why many an artist or scientist who has been gifted in this manner quickly attributes the thought or inspirational piece to a “higher source”, some calling this source by a name, while most do not. In either case, there is a great sense of gratitude for receiving the thought or piece, as well there should be, for the person knows that he or she did not come up with it on his or her own.

The question in the wake of such an inspirational piece is why did it come through? Why did the source communicate at all? What is the purpose of this inspirational gift and for whose benefit was it delivered? Was it given only for the benefit of the particular writer, artist or designer or was it meant to be passed on to humanity as a whole? Does it have anything to do with the “spiritual” dimension or is “it” really just a latent psychological aspect of humanity’s potential for higher intelligence of an evolutionary nature?

Big questions.

Big questions for which countless scholars, scientists, artists and religious figures have offered an abundance of theories, leaving us with a variety of explanations, insights and possibilities to consider on the phenomenon, yet none are as provable or as absolute as we would like.

So what is the answer?

No one knows. What we do know is that this is a phenomenon that has been spoken about and written about for millenniums; that millions have experienced it and have said so, which means that it must be for real.

Therefore, at the very least, we can conclude that open channeling is an aspect of consensus reality that offers great hope to humanity, for we are being assisted by spiritual entities or, at the very least, by being connected to a vast spiritual domain of high intelligence that is ineffably greater than us and in which the One is in the Many and the Many are in the One.

Time and again, the result of this fantastic, unspeakably profound connection is that it has enriched humanity collectively and assisted us in our evolution in too many wonderful ways to count, which means that we are not as alone in the universe as it sometimes feels…

So be inspired. Be very inspired and pay extremely close attention to the whispering muse. You never know when it will speak.