A fundamental source of energy that is often overlooked or denigrated is the unconscious mind, chaos, randomness, surrealism, and magic. The tunnel focus of our rational mind cannot integrate the vastness of reality, and so it labels most of it as "stuff we can ignore". Many of our problems can be traced to an overly rationalistic thinking that prioritizes efficiency and productivity. Art is one of our main tools for unlocking this vast reservoir of energy. Artists are able to suspend their rational mind long enough to sense what is out there in the vast ocean of the unconscious. The foraging of the artist doesn't even look like creativity. Jenny O'Dell calls this the dark matter of creative work. Peter Atkins uses the 2nd law of thermodynamics to explain how chaos can lead to new order: ![[Peter Atkins - The Second Law, why worse can be better]] Here are some guides to breaking out of the hallucination of the rational mind: - William Blake - John Higgs - Embodiment - Polyvagal theory - Iain McGilchrist - The Flattening graphic novel. - Lynda Barry's Syllabus - Jung's theories of image and energy - Psychedelics - Dreams [[Ernest Hartmann's Contemporary Theory of Dreaming]] - [[apophenia]]