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Artistic expression offers self-indulgent permission for virtually mythical living. Anyone can broadcast their own reality. We now provide our own content rather than passively consume predigested media pablum and disinformation. Lack of talent or inability to play is no disqualifier; particpants are nominated and elected by themselves only. We may give wildly different names to these substructural alters than those from the normal classifications of art. Our multitudinous personae are cyborg hybrids spawned in hidden hothouses.

The artist is perhaps the main contemporary exponent of the chaotic/creative edge, especially those comitted to performance, underground, transgressive, sexual art or culture jamming. The thread of sexuality is woven through the whole cultural history of art. When order becomes too rigid, atavistic forces of entropy arise to dissolve that outworn system back into chaos for creative restructuring. This is nature’s way. And the artist’s way. Artists open us to radically new environmenments here and now.

Art gives form to the apparitions of our imaginations, and one of the most imaginative is the erotic form, expression of the erotic impulse, or raw libido. Both art and eroticism are forms of the epitome of human life, expressions of insight and deep feeling. Sexuality is one way of inducing ecstatic states that alter perception dramatically. It is simultaneously and paradoxically ordinary yet extraordinary. It embodies the very essence of dramatic tension, a finite act with infinite repercussions. Beyond this we find elements of complexity, death, spirituality and science, and most importantly the intellectual interwoven.

In Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan conjectured, "If men were able to be convinced that art is precise advance knowledge of how to cope with the psychic and social consequences of the next technology, would they all become artists? Or would they begin a careful translation of new art forms into social navigation charts? I am curious to know what would happen if art were suddenly seen for what it is, namely, exact information of how to rearrange one's psyche in order to anticipate the next blow from our own extended faculties."

Artists are the chaotic attractors of the social field. While conventional artists may enjoy great favor, the ‘strange attractors,’ including leading edge and extreme artists have a special role as catalysts in contemporary life. Artists have always drawn others beyond the limits of their ordinary awareness, confronting them with another reality -- mysterious, paranormal, occult and clandestine worlds -- initiating them into worlds of profound meaning without conventional boundaries.

The artistic life is a chaotic arc of inspiration upon inspiration, following the Muse. Artists walk what for others is ‘the road not taken" (chaos theory's bifurcation or forking of the way) sometimes going "where angels fear to tread." Their charismatic influence pulls others into their orbits, and the small effect of one personality potentially spreads its influence over the world, sometimes over history. It is a matter of applying leverage at the most strategic point to pump up small forces into macroscopic effects. The history of art is one of the richest threads of our cultural heritage.

ART AS META-SYN: Art can be therapeutic, both in the process of creation and for the viewer who reacts from personal associations. Art bares the soul, and provides a container for unbridled self-expression. High synergy is a differentiating characteristic of the nonagressive and secure. Beyond synergy is negentropy, the flow of creative connection. Symbolic art has both an emotional and cognitive content. Metaphysical art draws on the multicultural iconography, not only of the globe, but of the Beyond. At its best it embodies and reveal the indomitable human Spirit.

Any depth psychologist or therapist knows that the stories they hear from most of their clients fall into very few, quite typical tales. What we need are bigger stories to guide us in our complex world. We can enlarge our perspective from the individual to the global through “bigger stories”, such as those from our wisdom traditions.

Mythopoesis means literally, "myth-making," the natural expression of the visionary wisdom inborn to the human species (Lash, et al). It is a creative act of story-telling or narration, by which human beings "track" their experience and orient themselves to the cosmos at large.

Metahistory is a guiding narrative for human potential, rather than an interpretation of events. The cross-cultural metastory of the human species is an overarching view of past, present, and future. It opens a path toward participation in a story that leads beyond history, a mythos to guide the species.