Visionary Art
Luke Brown
“Luke Brown is an intrepid explorer, part of a new generation of visionaries reconstructing the templates of culture as we know it. His art speaks of the spiritual mysteries in the human imagination.
Mystical experiences, dreams, medicine journeys, and channeled lucid dialogues with the source of creativity itself, seem to guide and be guided by the colorful symmetries and living surfaces of his art. Much of his work emerges from a graceful synthesis of digital and painting mediums. Developing his work through mix and remix technologies, Luke is constantly redefining his style as a spiritual medium for growth. He is intent on mapping his hyper-spatial experiences with utmost accuracy, with whichever medium seems best suited, as a form of multidimensional cartography.” (http://spectraleyes.com/bio.html)
- Apotheosis By Luke Brown. Multi-media.
Apotheosis is a Greek word meaning the glorification of the subject to a divine level. This concept is similar to the practice of becoming the deity, embodying a divine energy for a time. In this type of transpersonal experience the person transcends the material and individual self and the divine reality becomes them, frequently when this occurs one experiences an archetypal image, energy, or dimension. These dimensions are shown in Hindu and Buddhist art as multi-armed deities of all flavors. Brown shows an abstracted figure whose hands are in a mudra (sacred hand position), the heart chakra is a luminous white light unfolding in crystalline sacred geometries of love and bliss. The crown chakra at the top of the head expands and opens and leads the experiencer into another hyper-spacial dimension. The dimension looks organic, vivid prismic reality filled with some intelligent and consciousness forms seen here as eyes imbedded in the mystic architecture.
He frequently uses Buddhist and Hindu symbols and motifs in his work showing his personal interest in spiritual practice and culture. Many individuals find that the Asian spiritual traditions offer great benefits to exploring the inner realities and for many mediation is the primary practice. Artists like Luke Brown use artistic expression as a form of meditation and spiritual practice. For Luke Brown and others the most vivid, important experiences come from years of regular dedicated spiritual practice. These years of experience often peak in intensity with the introduction of visionary compounds and plants at special times with healing and spiritual intention.
In Foxymethoxy he titles the painting after a psychedelic substance, a relatively new chemical developed by Alexander “Sasha” Theodore Shulgin. This chemical is similar in molecular structure to other psychedelics and produces powerful and detailed inner visions which can last for up to 20 or more hours. Currently there are no studies in medical science exploring the physical responses, healing potentials, or the spiritual potential of this substance. Luke Brown calls into question the validity of the total ban on legal use of this substance using his beautiful depiction of the visions created by this substance. He is with the emerging global call for freedom to explore inner realities using plants and chemicals to stimulate spiritualism, creativity and cultivate psychological healing. The visionary art movement as a whole agrees that acceptance of extraordinary states of consciousness through visionary plants, chemical and spiritual practices are an essential part of being a holistic person and that this inner exploration leads to profound vision, creative novelty, and spiritual insight.
- Salvia Divinorum By Luke Brown. Multi-media
The image above titled Salvia Divinorum shows an incredible picture of nature and the archetype of the mother. Salvia Divinorum is an entheogen (producing the divine) also known as the diviner’s sage and has been used for hundreds of years by the Mezatec people of Mexico as a sacred sacrament in ceremony and ritual. They use it to call forth divine information from the spirit world. They would put the fresh leaves between the cheek and gums to experience vivid visions, communicate with the spirit world and travel to other dimensions of being. This other dimension of being is called the transpersonal realm in modern psychology. Authors, poets, philosophers, mystics, musicians and more have attempted to describe this realm but cannot to their satisfaction because it is far beyond description.
Luke Brown truly is a pioneer “mapping of hyer-spatial experiences” which transpersonal psychology has described in their research with non-ordinary states of consciousness. This image seems inspired by the overwhelming psychedelic vision catalyzed by smoking the leaf of Salvia Divinorum. In research individuals consuming Salvia report that they were transported into another dimension and often lose contact completely with their body, the material and mental worlds they know of. They enter into the transpersonal dimension, the spirit world, the divine reality, another dimension of being. Visionary artists like Luke Brown return to the body ten minutes after inhaling the smoke and spend years depicting their visions from that brief encounter. Salvia Divinorum is now a schedule one drug in the USA and can no longer be used legally for spiritual exploration, consciousness exploration and artistic inspiration despite its centuries of use and the many responsible users who view the plant as a spiritual teacher leading them to better understand the true nature of reality.
Crystal Forest uses the theme of the transfiguration of Christ. The transfiguration was when Christ ascended to heaven for the second time in a mystical white light. In Luke Browns work the portal below reminiscent of the crown chakra activated through the dancing around the central fire. The transfigured figure represents the astral or spiritual self-emerging from the physical body by exiting the crown chakra into a crystalline net of being, transformed and transfigured into the divine light, the ultimate sacrifice.
Many of Luke Browns works show intelligent beings of a multi-dimensional nature. This experience of communication or identification with an astral, spiritual or other dimensional being is reported frequently among psychedelic therapy clients when they move into the transpersonal states of consciousness. In shamanism these beings are spirit guides, ancestor, deities and other forms of spiritual beings. Luke Brown seems to suggest he has encountered this domain and experiences it as both identification with the divine and communication with the divine through direct contact and unity consciousness.
This picture shows the kundalini energy bursting forth and sending the spirit into subtle levels of consciousness and transpersonal experience. The page is covered in a mosaic of Sanskrit prayers showing the foundation of spiritual blessings and prayer.
Links to Luke Brown content:
Transpersonal Spirit 
very cool