News Flash: Artists are Crazy!

Some relevant Crazy Wisdom from Terrence McKenna:

Every so often, a study is released claiming that creative personalities are more likely to be 'mentally ill'.

I've posted about the very unique qualities of artistic minds before:

"Artists are Sexy & Crazy"

I also saw this recent article about - "the unusual and sometimes bizarre thought processes associated with mental illness to fuel creativity."

"Creative Minds:
The Links Between
Mental Illness and Creativity"

This is like saying- "Engineers tend to have overly-analytical minds!" ...It's not really that shocking of a connection.

All artists need to be at least a little crazy. It's called "thinking outside the box." Commercial designers like me create for mainstream consumption, but an unfettered mind allows a wider variety of ideas to take form during the creative process.

Qualities that we now consider to be mental disturbance in modern society have, in fact, often been held in awe by members of many cultures around the world. Creative forces, such as artisans & shamans, have been held in high esteem throughout history despite their 'unconventional' personalities. This is because they bring forth novel possibilities into the world that cannot be conjured with 'conventional' thinking.

I have a book, The Shaman, by Piers Vitebsky that is full of fascinating material. However, most of the techniques & anecdotes about these important visionary healers would be considered absolutely wacky by Western standards.

Of course, sometimes crazy really is just crazy which is just craaazy.