The method, based on the hypnagic state, sought to transcend the world of reason to capture sleep, make it its own and turn it into art. The genius of surrealism created what he called “photographs of hand-painted dreams”, worlds in strange moments, terrifying but hypnotic panoramas, which still fascinate us today.
Perhaps many people see Salvador Dalí as an eccentric man, difficult to understand; sometimes delusional, sometimes controversial and always exaggerated; However, there was a meticulous and infallible technique that allowed her to capture his deepest emotions and bring them to light; he was an explorer of the psyche, a psychonaut who had never needed drugs to achieve creativity. ecstasy because his mind was, without a doubt, the best stimulant.
- “The real painter is the one who is able to paint extraordinary scenes in the middle of an empty desert.
- Is the real painter able to patiently paint a pear surrounded by the whirlwind of history?Salvador Dalí?.
Today we are eyed by the method used by Dala to immerse itself in the private and infinite oceans of the dream world, his technique has already been described as ‘Vertical Hypnagic Nap’ and applies even in many groups of designers and publicists to get better ideas, remove filters from the universe of reason and train the mind to make it freer , more receptive?
Look at the work upstairs for a moment. It’s the “dream of a bee flying around a grenade for a second before waking up. “The simple title already gives us a small clue about Dala’s famous method of creating his works. However, on this screen, he wanted to demonstrate something else he learned by reading Freud: many of our dreams are stimulated by sounds, smells or an external presence, such as the sound of this bee that surrounds us while we sleep.
He usually naps and every time he did he took a spoon, his method, his magic and his ritual were as follows: after eating he would sit in an armchair, hold the spoon and leave. a plate on the ground, his nap lasted only a few minutes because the goal was not to sleep, but to reach the hypnagic state, and when he fell asleep he knew that the spoon would fall out of his hands and that the sound of hitting the plate would instantly wake him up. That’s what he wanted.
This technique allowed him to navigate between sleep and awakening, in this unusual ocean from which emerged the most amazing beings, the strangest creatures in the unconscious world, an intermediate space that he visits every afternoon for a few minutes to enjoy this moment where the mind is more fluid and associative than ever.
Dala’s method, based on the attainment of the hypnagic state, was not discovered by him, nor unknown to science, psychology and, above all, the art world. Out of curiosity, we can say that Lewis Carroll has also achieved something similar. in your writing routine, when to read?And especially “Alice Behind the Mirror,” we soon realized that Carroll was also using a kind of narrative and purely dreamlike images.
He also created a wake-up routine before falling asleep: next to his chair, he had a notebook where he immediately recorded every image that came to mind, as the fisherman on a raft had managed to reach the river in his subconscious world. The hypnagic state has this curious ability. Here are some of its features:
However, when they wake up, these images are diluted and completely forgotten; unless, of course, we follow a strategy similar to the Dala method.
It is very likely that at this time, some people will be captivated by this hypnagic state that Dalo has reached during his naps, however, we must keep in mind that it is not easy to get to and enjoy this particular phase of sleep. Salvador Dalí was an experienced psychonaut in this twilight world of the subconscious and, therefore, it is difficult to reach its height.
However, we can also achieve a very similar effect with meditation, in order to catalyze and thus improve the creative process. This is what David Lynch, another genius of the subconscious and the dream, says in his book “In Search of the Great Fish. “
Meditation suppresses external sounds and harmonizes thoughts, thus, by mastering technique, we will give way to a more vivid and free mental flow, where we will reach this dimension almost always veiled by that busy spirit that characterizes us, that takes us away from our essences, our intuitions and our inner wonders.
While the method was not new, it did know how to give it an exclusive and incomparable use, so if we want to increase our creativity, just let us be a little freer, a little more children, without forgetting to put a curious look. our exterior and another deep in the mind, where incredible ideas and thoughts reside. ?