Show Notes
Can you really channel creativity on command through your subconscious?
My guest, James McCrae, is a poet, author, and artist behind the WordsAreVibrations project. His take on creativity as channeling reshaped how I think about the creative process.
The opening question I ask him is what it actually feels like to have that many people experience something you posted without a strategy behind it. His answer sets up the rest of the conversation.
We get into the subconscious as a portal, why the conscious mind is like a hard drive and the subconscious is the internet, and how the collective unconscious explains why the same ideas surface around the world at once.
James talks about art as the soil where new mythology gets planted, memes as the smallest unit of a cultural idea, and why politics and culture are downstream of the artists willing to sit still long enough to receive something real.
The cult of seriousness comes up, along with why stillness terrifies most people, AI as a tool rather than the artist, the trap of vanity metrics, and how personal reinvention actually works when the old version of you stops fitting.
Press play if you have been avoiding the thing you know you should be creating.
You’ll learn:
[0:00] Introduction
[3:14] Creativity as widening access to the subconscious
[8:23] What blocks people from their own intuition
[13:06] Why life is not a problem to solve
[16:45] Terence McKenna and the acceleration of human novelty
[24:09] Memes as the smallest unit of a spreading idea
[31:29] The danger of justifying atrocities for your own team
[41:24] Creativity as a way to reinvent your whole life
[47:30] Why stillness is something people are desperate to avoid
[54:14] The surrender that let grace bring the poetry back
[1:07:29] Vanity metrics feel like cocaine
[1:16:05] Whether the best art really comes from heartbreak
Resources Mentioned:
Allen Ginsberg | Website
Find more from James:
James McCrae | Website | Instagram | Substack
Instructions Before Visiting Earth | Poem
Find more from Ste:
Ste Lane | Instagram
Radical Health Radio | Instagram | YouTube
Heart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | X | YouTube
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