1 Jun 2021
Van James | Spiritual Experiences, Art and Nurturance
Van James is an international advocate for the arts and a guest tutor at numerous teacher training colleges and Steiner-Waldorf schools. He is a council member of the Visual Art Section of North America, a mentor for the Academy of Himalayan Arts and Child Development, and a former long-time teaching artist at the Honolulu Waldorf School.
Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction
1:00 - Who is Van James?
1:55 - What is something most people don't know about Van?
4:19 - Powerful Spiritual experiences that changed Van’s life
11:55 - How Van uses Art as a pathway to Spiritual experiences
14:00 - Insights from Van’s Spiritual Experiences
17:48 - What is ‘Spirituality' and why is it important?
27:10 - Development of Technology, Art & Religion: Thinking, Feeling & Willing
34:21 - How to holistically nurture children? Finding a balance between Head, Heart & Hand
39:23 - The challenges with modern-day Universities
42:50 - The shift we need in modern society - how to nurture ourselves and those around us?
Mentioned during the Conversation:
Shamans: Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner who is believed to interact with a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct these spirits or spiritual energies into the physical world, for healing or another purpose.
Rudolf Steiner: Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published philosophical works including The Philosophy of Freedom. He is the founder of anthroposophy and Waldorf education and medical systems around the world.
William Blake: William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.
Emanuel Swedenborg: Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian theologian, scientist, philosopher, and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell. Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist - https://swedenborg.com/
Edgar Cayce: Edgar Cayce was an American clairvoyant who claimed to channel from his higher self. Cayce's sessions occurred during a trance state when he would fall asleep. His friend Al Layne, his wife, and later his secretary Gladys Davis Turner, would record his words.
LSD, Peyote, Mescaline: are typically classified as Psychedelic drugs (https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-psychedelics-22075), also known as hallucinogenic drugs or simply hallucinogens, which are a group of substances that are usually used recreationally to change and enhance sensory perceptions, thought processes, and energy levels, and to facilitate spiritual experiences. Psychedelics have also been used experimentally to mimic psychosis and to exert mind control, although they have not been found to be particularly effective in doing either. They were used in psychotherapy in the 1960s, but this was halted for mainly political reasons until quite recently. Psychological research has since revived the use of psychedelics in experimental psychological treatment. The use of hallucinogens goes back centuries in many cultures, and some are still used in religious ceremonies.
Confucius: Confucius was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who was traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages.
