The Closed Eye Open is an art & literature website that was started as an exploration of the many forms of self-expression. Our main goal is to feature work from a wide range of people that may not necessarily connect with other publications. Pieces that are weird, unconventional, or even experimental may very well fit with what we’re going for.
We welcome everyone who has interest in creative expression, from established writers & artists, to those in academic disciplines, to those who may be new to the world of sharing their work with a larger audience.
We’re interested in a multi-disciplinary approach. Whether your own interest in expression stems from a scientific background, a spiritual tradition, a liberal arts discipline, or an intrinsic desire to investigate your own subjective world, you have a place here. We would like to explore the creative output of anyone who has spent time with the big questions–whether those questions are on the grand cosmic scale, are more focused on the human condition, or are grounded in personal and practical concerns.
Below, we’ve placed some favorite quotes that may give you an insight into our sensibilities.
The Doors of Perception
“[The artist’s] perception is not limited to what is biologically or socially useful. A little of the knowledge belonging to Mind at Large oozes past the reducing valve of brain and ego, into his consciousness. It is a knowledge of the intrinsic significance of every existent.”
Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences
“If we lose our sense of the mysterious, or the numinous, if we lose our sense of awe, of humility, of being struck dumb, if we lose our sense of good fortune, then we hve lost a very real and basic human capacity and are diminished thereby.”
“The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego-consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness extends.”
“The more veiled becomes the outside world, steadily losing in color, tone and passions, the more urgently the inner world calls us.”
Housekeeping
“For why do our thoughts turn to some gesture of a hand, the fall of a sleeve, some corner of a room on a particular anonymous afternoon, even when we are asleep, and even when we are so old that our thoughts have abandoned other business? What are all these fragments for, if not to be knit up finally?”
“By observing natural scientific discoveries through a perception deepened by meditation, we can develop a new awareness of reality. This awareness could become the bedrock of a spirituality that is not based on the dogmas of a given religion, but on insights into a higher and deeper meaning. I am referring to the ability to recognize, to read, and to understand the firsthand revelations.”
“Everything beautiful has a mark of eternity.”
Varieties of Religious Experience
“It is that our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.
We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation.
No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to regard them is the question—for they are so discontinuous with ordinary consciousness. Yet they may determine attitudes though they cannot furnish formulas, and open a region though they fail to give a map. At any rate, they forbid a premature closing of our accounts with reality.”
“Mechanists consider mind to be a part of the body, but that is a mistake…. The brain breathes mind like the lungs breathe air.”
The World’s Religions
“Genuine creation…comes when the more abundant resources of the subliminal self are somehow tapped. But for this to happen a certain dissociation from the surface self is needed. The conscious mind must relax, stop standing in its own light, let go.”
“Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together.”
“There are many ways to be free. One of them is to transcend reality by imagination.”
“Societies in decline have no use for visionaries.”
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.”
The Book
“In knowing the world we humanize it, and if, as we discover it, we are astonished at its dimensions and its complexity, we should be just as astonished that we have the brains to perceive it.”
Editor
Daniel A. Morgan is a writer and professor of American Literature. He has studied the work of Don DeLillo, Marilynne Robinson, and Aldous Huxley, among other 20th century writers. Bringing together insights from other disciplines, his current work draws connections among literature, Eastern philosophy, and the psychedelic experience.
Editor: Writing
Maya Highland is a life-long writer who has previously worked in independent publishing. Her current project involves a combination of old/found photography and narrative storytelling.
Editor: Art & Poetry
Aaron Lelito is a visual artist and editor in chief of the art & literature website Wild Roof Journal. A selection his photography and digital art can be found at aaronlelito.com.
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