A Painting by Austin Osman Spare
With all the talk lately about “The Secret” and the “power of positive thinking,” I thought that I would offer up this quote from Austin Osman Spare:
“A bat first grew wings and of the proper kind, by its desire being organic enough to reach the sub-consciousness. If its desire had been conscious, it would have had to wait until it could have done so by the same means as ourselves, i.e., by machinery”
If the description of evolution seems somewhat fanciful, the sentiment expressed is nonetheless accurate.
Conscious positive thinking only makes us more self-conscious. If we tell ourselves that we are smart and successful, another voice tells us that we are stupid failures.
To really change, to evolve, it is necessary to reach deeper parts of ourselves, whether through symbolism (as Spare recommends) or through some other technique that deeply affects the senses and emotions.