Conclusion

A theme in the examples presented here is creativity as both a search for self and a search for the sacred. We have seen that the creative process involves connecting with one's inner self, that is, finding and expressing one's inner voice. One might ask, What is it about creative expression that promotes finding one's voice? Earlier I suggested that both creativity and mysticism involve the paradoxical co-existence of "I" and "not-I." In Milner's work (1950), for example, we saw that art can be seen in terms of its capacity for fusing, or con-fusing subject and object and then making a new division of these. Mystical experience, moreover, involves an undoing of the split into subject and object that is the basis of logical thinking. As stated, for Milner the importance of creativity and mysticism alike is that they undo the overfixed separation of self and other, self and universe, caused by tyranny of the conscious mind.

In addition, the work of Mahler demonstrated that self consciousness and self absorption are the two polarities with which we move, with varying ease and in varying degrees. We live in the tension between self and other, connection and separateness, the entirety of our lives. Creative expression, I have suggested, is a vehicle for negotiating this dialectic between self and other, and in this capacity it serves a healing role.

In the above sections we observed that creativity at times allows for a new notion of self to emerge, even a different identity. Flo, for example, used art to

Spirituality and Creativity: Theory and Practice 53

recreate herself at the time of her father's death. Hildegard's visions allowed her to express a suppressed self in a patriarchal world. Frida tried to make sense of her suffering in the context of her gender and culture. In each case, the self is understood in relation to a larger community. Sometimes creativity expresses less "I" and more "not I," or merging with a larger whole, as we found in the mystical experiences recounted by Wuthnow, e.g., the playwright who had an experience of cosmic consciousness that led him to write plays promoting social change. Einstein's music gave him insights into the theory of relativity - a cosmic order or order beyond the individual "I." Finally, dance can also express the merging of "I" and "not I," for through body-centered mysticism the dancer can sense being part of a larger life force.

In sum, creativity can loosen the hold on a fixed "I," help one negotiate a different "I," facilitate temporary loss of "I," assist one in regaining a suppressed "I." Finally, the sacred dimension within art, as Viladesau has suggested, can be understood in a number of ways, among them explicitly or implicitly. As Pargament has pointed out, the sacred can be found in the self: e.g., virtues, a divine spark, a soul. In attempting to know God or the cosmos, it seems, we are attempting to know ourselves. Creative expression, as a means of striving towards something beyond the moment, of expressing deep emotion, and of exploring spiritual questions such as the meaning of suffering, is one such medium for both self and sacred knowledge. As such, creative expression is also a source of hope, a subject to which we now turn.