Touching the Invisible
There are many secrets to life. Being artistic and creative allows us to tap into the unseen powers of the universe. As artists of any kind we tap into a way of being that allows us to reach outside of the confines of the three-dimensional world. Artists somehow know how to shift their perceptions, their way of feeling inside of their body, and adapt a wavelike sensation inside of them to tap into that other inspirational world.
This shift in perception can be felt as an internal vibrancy, becoming more present in oneself as a current that is invisible, rising, pulsating, connecting us to a larger greater field of What - Is.
When people ask me when I started getting in touch with that OTHER way of being, and when it was that I started being in touch with an invisible current, I have to answer that it came to me in stages.
First comes to mind a friend of our family who played guitar and sang songs, who inspired me. So I started to learn how to play guitar at age ten and started composing my own songs at age twelve: Songs of social protest, as was popular in the 70’s.
I was always drawn to introspection, loving to write, to draw and to journal. Even to this date, I recall the moments for my inspiration which were my walks through the wheat fields and the woods, which I took by myself as a teenager often. There I practiced sensing the energy of nature. I remember noticing seeing and feeling the fields of life that existed between the trees in the forest. Most people would only see the trees, but I started watching the languid light wash through the trees, or across the wheat fields in the autumn evenings of sunlight.
Perception for artists and inspiration starts at the intersecting points of being conscious and yet touching into the ephemeral. Staying aware and awake at that special moment when we start to expand or even float. Artists learn how to shift from the left side of the brain to the right side of the brain, using a different way of perceiving reality. This allows the artist as well as the mystic to ascend to the ever-expanding ocean of heightened state of frequencies. This was something that I began to practice in my teenage years, in those years I spent walking silently in nature. I believe this essential quietness, which expands beyond the horizon of the palpable, was and still is the basis for artistic expression in me and truly for everyone.
Later on, through hours of meditation, I learned how to navigate and to reach into higher and finer world of frequencies. I would say at this point, that the closer I come to the point of the eternal Oneness, the greater my inspiration, the greater my ability to creatively interactive interface with time space at large.
Not only is art for me an expression such as poetry, writing books, music or painting. Artistic, creative living for me has become a whole-body experience, realizing now that my entire REALITY has become the CANVAS on which I paint with my CONSCIOUSNESS.
In my early teenage years, music and art gave me a way to express this wavelike motion that I longed to occupy, and loved so well. From these inner, expanded dimension I had insights that were beyond my years. This expanded inner way of being gave me a depth of feeling and enriched my life beyond normal ideas of pleasure.
The quest to explore these inner creative dimensions lead me to go beyond the confines of our modern-day perception which mostly utilize a linear type of perception, by focusing our five senses on the objective world, rather than the multi-dimensional senses being directed towards our subjective and inner dimensions.
I love sitting within a circle of friends, or alone and take time to notice all that is beautiful. Simply noticing the cool tiles under my feet in the hot sunshine, to see the leaves wave in the wind, to notice the impeccable beauty of a flower, to feel the breeze of air touch my skin, this becoming mindful to the beauty in the moment moves me to become: aware of seeing, aware of all that is beautiful, and it moves me from seeing a thing to feeling gratitude. Eventually it moves me to the inside, to feel beauty in so many more ways and forms.
The path of creativity in my teenage years led me onto the path of meditation. Turning inward, quieting my mind and eventually learning to see outside of the proverbial cave of Plato, when I had learned to accustom my perceptions to the lofty worlds of the world of Ideas, the world of creative IS-ness, I realized that it is our CONSCIOUSNESS, which is the ARTIST.
Playing flute or the harp, which I took up in my 20’s, and still continue to this day, has allowed me a way of expressing that ephemeral inner dimension, and transporting visions of the infinite to those who have ears to hear. When I playing music, I am transported to a larger universe, where my soul shows me levels of reality that escape the rational mind.
Through writing, first in my journals in my teenage years, and all of the many endless letters to my Beloveds, and later on in my 30’s, then in my early adult years, writing books, I have been able to express my insights about the power of the inner dimensions, and I feel, have been able to help people access the creative power hidden within their subconscious mind – the non-literal mind – to reshape their inner landscape in order to create a more beautiful outside landscape in their lives.
Writing is at once a tool to share and inspire as well as a tool to give color to that which remained wordless and silent, but that which is fully and alive, which I experience in the many hours of inner listening to the cosmos.
In my teenage years I keenly became aware of the desire to be artistic as well as to teach access to these creative realms. Art to me was a way and a tool at once. As. words, as well as music, became a tool which transported myself as well as the reader or listener to a higher ground.
However, all of the forms of art which I have pursued in my life, developed as an expression out of the wellspring of my inner silence.
It is when we allow ourselves to revel in stillness, which takes us on an upward spiraling journey to touch the heavens and eventually the face of God, if we go deep enough, that inspires us and truly gives us the artistic power that then touches those who seek inspiration from the art that we deliver.
Most people are caught in a 9 to 5 routine, having followed the dictate of our society to remain focused on that which is visible and palpable. They appear to rely on the other 20% of civilization to tap into the unseen – those who allow themselves deep moments of silence, and who practice the capacity to shift into another world with a wavelike perception – from where they can bring back morsels of inspiration, which then reminds the other 80% of the population of the eternal with themselves.
Artistic expression shifts the artists’ and the viewer alike from a particle perception, a linear mind-set to a wave-like perception.
Artists and the mystics alike live within a more fluid world. Because of the many facets and many layers and levels to be found in this upward journey, that which is expressed is equally manifold. There are many levels and ways of expressing art and being artistic, just like there are many layers of heaven.
Art, to me now, is related to touching the invisible, to touching the face of God, the Alpha and the Omega, the source of all it is – the One. To experience this inner stillness and then to express those states, in order to inspire others to take the journey back home is my greatest joy.
Art comes out of the stillness and imbues us with authenticity. So in order to create, I first ascend to that inner most point of reality that I can reach. Some may call it soul, some may call it God; some may call it simply – stillness.
The nature of my creative mind then desires to move this inspiration into form and dress it into clothes, in order to share this upward motion with others.
Being artistic is highly related to being a mystic to me. Art is a way towards discovering and expressing that which is divine. •2013
Written exclusively for “The Soul of the American Actor.”
ILONA SELKE International author, seminar leader, lecturer, and musician, she has inspired thousands of people to co-create reality, to discover the power of a spiritual mind in a practical way, and to live and manifest their dreams. Ms. Selke teaches seminars bi-annually in Germany and Switzerland, and annually in Florida, Bali, and on Hawaii in German and English. She has also taught seminars in: America, Australia, India, England, France, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Bali. Born in the Himalayas to German parents, she was raised the first three years in Afghanistan speaking Persian and German and moved to Germany at the age of three. She moved to the U.S. at twenty for her studies in philosophy and comparative religion, where she met her husband. Don Paris, Ph.D. Ms. Selke continued her studies extensively in body-centered psychotherapy, Hakomi, Holodynamics, Radionics and alternative healing. She and her husband are co-founders and directors of Living From Vision®, teaching personal growth seminars for the development of holographic problem transformation, and spiritualizing relationships. They also have a body of international teachers for the Living from Vision® course, translated into four languages, which is being taught worldwide. Together with her husband, they have built an inspirational Seminar Retreat Center on the Northshore of Bali called Shangri-la, as well as an additional Spa, also called Shangri-la in Ubud. To complement their dolphin research, they own a Dolphin watch boat in Key West that offers people to observe and study dolphins in the wild. Since 1991, Ms. Selke and Mr. Paris have studied the lives of dolphins in their natural habitats throughout the world. Through their natural skills, dolphins exchanged telepathic messages with her. This forms the basis for her book, Wisdom of the Dolphins and her third book Dolphins, Love & Destiny. Both books tell about inspiring adventures about dolphins and their key message to humanity: using our imagination to build a better world and to become multi-dimensional beings. Her book, Alin learns to use His Imagination, a children’s book, is very well loved among parents and therapists for its therapeutic value. Her CD’s include In One We Are,” “Himalayan Soul,” “Mantras of Shangri-La,” “The Best of Mind Journey Music” with Don Paris, Ms. Selke’s first name means radiant and her family name can be traced to the Celtic myth about selkies, sea-dwelling mammals, usually a seal but sometimes a dolphin, capable of shape shifting into a human. In one legend, a selkie changes into a beautiful woman and has children with a man. Their children were able to see into the future and communicate telepathically with animals. One wonders then at her own history and calling. In Australian aborigine mysticism it is believed that one is one’s name. For Ms. Selke this certainly seems very close to the truth. www.Ilonaselke.com, (360)-387-5713, internationally (360)-387-5713
