Abstract
The turn from figurative art to the depiction of internal experiences opened the door for artists to represent anomalous experiences and ostensible psi phenomena. Various studies have described how Abstract art was influenced by Occultism, but there were other important influences. They include scientific theories of the ether and hypergeometric dimensions, the development of technological advances showing the reality of unseen electromagnetic waves and wireless communicationat a distance, Spiritualism, and the inception of psychical research. This paper focuses on how psi phenomena, research, and theory, o!en in conjunction with the other influences, have been an important topic and source of inspiration in various modern and contemporary movements including Surrealism and Abstract and Conceptual art. (Less)
Highlights
The turn from figurative art to the depiction of internal experiences opened the door for artists to represent anomalous experiences and ostensible psi phenomena
To help carify this issue, I will distinguish the domain of psi research from the only partly overlapping area of Occultism, with which it has been conflated in art history
That the latter are “subjective” is suggested by controlled psi experiments, in which artists tend to perform significantly better than chance and better than individuals who are not artists or do not follow mental disciplines such as meditation (Baptista et al, 2015)
Summary
Parallel to these discussions and discoveries mentioned was the idea that a substance, the (luminiferous) ether, originally proposed by Newton, permeated the whole universe and was present in space and throughout matter; it was the conduit through which light and unseen waves or vibrations, as well as telepathic communications, were transmitted according to some scientists at the time (Noakes, 2019; Rousseau, 2015). One of the foremost historians of the links between science, Occultism, and art at the turn of last century, Linda Dalrymple Henderson (e.g., 2002, 2014), considers the ideas of ether and of the fourth dimension intellectual foundations for various artistic movements of the time, including Abstract Art, Cubism, and Futurism She mentions distinguished scientists who supported the notion of ether, including Nobel prizewinner physicist J. The important QM theoretician David Bohm wrote that the world of experienceable time and space occurs in the explicate order of the universe, but underlying it there is an implicate order or guiding field that is non-local and non-temporal, and which might explain psi phenomena (Bohm, 1986) Another distinguished theoretical physicist, Bernard d’Espagnat (1979, 2006), concluded that, consistent with the ideas of transcendentalists thinkers, there is a “veiled reality” that pervades the universe and interacts with consciousness (for more examples of physicists supporting the possibility of psi phenomena and a brief discussion of these ideas in the context of consciousness and psi research see Cardeña, 2018). The proposal of an interconnected universe remains in contention, even though the notion of an ethereal substance has been abandoned
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
