With Graphics

What are Bornstein’s “Stream of Consciousness” Paintings?

 In the oriental, mystical, artistic tradition, painting as well as poetry can be used as vehicles to achieve enlightenment.

 

They can be analyzed by:
Mysticism, Metaphysics, Psychological, Sociological, Psychiatry, Neurochemistry, and DNA-Genome Sequencing.

Written April, 10, 2021

By Stephen Bornstein, 73 years old

With the benefit of 57 years of hindsight.

 

Bornstein started immersing himself in Indian-Tibetan cultural and art since he was a young man in 1962.

At the age of 14, Bornstein read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. It was practically a requirement among the Erasmus Hall High School’s exclusive “Beat” Clique that would become his life long friends. There was something in the book that deeply resonated with him. Perhaps his own face to face experience with death six years earlier, had made him open to the Buddhist philosophy. He particularly focused on the “life compression” event that occurs at the end of the book.

 
Hesse writes, after living a full life, Siddhartha grows old. Seeing his reflection in a pool of gently flowing river water, he suddenly realizes his whole life had been a dream. He sees all of the lives he ever lived, and finds himself young again, ready to live life anew with the wisdom of an old man. 

 

Is this Bornstein’s situation now?
 

After Hesse, he read the Bhagavad Gita. Many times. Along with his friends he read Watts, Kerouac, Ginsberg, and even read Allen’s Esquire magazine interview from India several times.

Short video of the Artist in California, 1965 with Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlofsky, Neil Cassidy, and Ken Kesey.

Meeting Allen Ginsberg, in 1964, himself newly returned after 18 months in India, only further coalesced Bornstein’s interests. He even started actively seeking to study at college in India by July 1966. A year before meeting Allen in person, he was already drawing Hindu deities. By meeting Allen, his interest expanded into Tibetan Buddhist studies.

Copying in a draftsman like manner Tibetan deities became part of the Artist’s repertoire. 

After Timothy Leary chose the “Tibetan book of the Dead” as the basis for his guide of the LSD experience, The Artist’s interests became tightly focused. Leary’s own book was boring and very difficult to read.  So, if nothing more then for his own use, the Artist, on a continuous scroll, decided to illustrate one.

Actual Bornstein scroll with 1927 translation of "Tibetan Book of the Dead".

The basis for the concept of “Flow of Consciousness” or streaming illustrations comes from the Tibetan tradition in which the artist visualizes the deities of his own eventual “after death experience” and therefore strengthens himself for his own death and rebirth.

Actual image from the scroll , exhorting the deceased to Ignore his own “Karmic” visions.

The Tibetan book of the Dead are the spoken instructions for the deceased to ignore his own karmic apparitions that are appearing before him in order to dissuade him from achieving enlightenment and be forced by the Karmic winds to rebirth.

The repeated message in the book are exhortations that the deceased apparitions’ are sent as part of his own mind and have no reality and should be ignored. That simply by knowing them and recognizing them and not being affected by them you can achieve nirvana.

This can be achieved simply by hearing (and acting on) the readings of the book during the 14 day passage called the “Bardo” between life, death and rebirth.

Mysticism
On a purely mystical level that’s what the Artist’s stream of consciousness paintings are trying to achieve. By preparing himself for the after death state, so that he will recognize these personally created apparitions as reflections of his own mind.

Actual cloth “Tanka” painting from the scroll displaying Artist’s own mystical visions.

And therefore the Artist will be able to achieve enlightenment in the after death “Bardo State”. That is what the illustrations of the apparitions in the scroll are meant to communicate.

This is following the Traditional Tibetan painting’s mystical visionary style. The “tankas” (cloth hangings) are customarily burned after the artist finishes them. These creations are meant only for the artist's own edification by confronting his particular apparitions that he will encounter in the bardo state. While still alive, the Artist, on a purely mystical level, will recognize the forces in his own life and see the “Karmic Winds” of the scroll as the “Forces of Habit” and all its consequences.

Metaphysical
On the metaphysical level these paintings point to the very question of our perception of what is reality?

Actual cloth “Tanka” painting from the scroll.

 

Buddhism basically believes that the entire universe is created out of our own consciousness. That there is absolutely no objective reality other than our own mind.

Does that mean that without a belief in reincarnation, are we simply here and cognitive for this one particular existence?

This leads to an equally vexing question. The continuing enigma, that there may be “no ghost in the machine” at all. The very process of consciousness itself may be just a simple biological act.

Could it be, that after the body ceases to exist there is no eternal soul that reincarnates into other bodies in an eternity of transmigration throughout the animal kingdom? 

These paintings may represent images migrating from the lower levels of our own subconscious where all reality itself is fabricated by our minds.

If not, then who else occupies our mind with us?

The Kabbalah teaches an alternative explanation called “Gilgul Nesahamot”, the transmigration of the soul (Neshema). Here one of three souls, while still retaining its own identity, transmigrates from one form to another for a limited amount of time.

Are we really carrying with us an entire community of pre-existences?

What is the human brain? Just an amalgam of nerves or is there a ghost in the machine?
 

Is there a spirit or soul that is eternal and may experience infinite reincarnations since the beginning of time? Do we transmigrate, go up and down the chain of animal existence?

Aside from the religious, there are ethical concerns raised. Like "Universal Karmic Justice", there are a host of other metaphysical concerns that are addressed in the treatise.

 

 

The main question also arises: Is reality nothing more then Streaming Consciousness?

 

 

Psychologically
Here, the stakes couldn’t be higher, with the “Nature vs Nurture” debate at its very core. 

 

The decades old, Jung vs Freud debate about nature versus nurture continues to this day with much fervor. The very future of the LGBTQ issue and effective treatment of addiction lie in its resolution.

Carl Jung was still a Sigmund Freud confidant, when he wrote the introduction to the 1927 Evan Wentz translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Jung believed that the book described the very structure of the human mind, its multilevels of consciousness, and the basic operating system of the brain itself. He believed that beneath the Tibetan mystical symbolism lay universal archetypes that all Homo Sapiens possessed.

Jung as a scientist, could not comment on the more mystical aspects of the book or the reincarnation aspect of the metaphysical structure of the Tibetan religious system.

However just before rebirth, the departed soul sees their parents to be, copulating, and develops either a desire or aversion to either of the two parents. This is something Freud believed develops as a toddler and completely post-natal. In fact, he believed that this post birth sexual development played an intrinsic part of his school of psychiatry.

Eventually, because of his beliefs, Jung broke with Freud and postulated; that “nature” has as much to do with human mental development as post natal experiences referred to as “nurture”.

 

Are we nothing more than hardwired universal archetypes that Jung proposed? Do Bornstein’s paintings perhaps identify those ancient visionary forces?

 

Or are we simply an amalgam of neurotic fears and repressed sexual desires from our Freudian childhoods. Do Bornstein’s paintings then become watercolor reflections of  his own very 1950’s Brooklyn Jewish upbringing?

The Jung-Freud debate about nature versus nurture continues to this day with deep religious undertones.

Psychiatry
The affects of psychotropic drugs on the human mind has become the basis for modern psychiatry.  In many cases it now appears that Psychiatry has abandoned traditional analysis for a quick chemical solution. In the 1960’s The psychiatric toolbox was a lot simpler than today.

LSD was a hope for the future and its effects were being explored by several university scientific study groups. It was assumed that the drug would give a normal person the symptoms of schizophrenia. Even architects were taking it so they could better design mental hospitals.

Traditional psychoanalysis would ask, what is the deeper meaning of images that Bornstein keeps seeing? What messages are they sending?

Or, can we only see in them the impact of drugs on Bornstein‘s mind? Are they like a psychedelic inspired Rorschach Test?  Can one possibly learn what makes him tick by interpreting his inner most visions?

Sociology
Does a person’s subconscious reflect their social and racial background? 

 

Painting while in Mexico. With “Mayan” inspired visions.

Or is there such a thing as a universal archetype? Is there strictly a Tibetan subconscious?

 

 Kabbalistic illustration depicting the soul's rise to the seventh heaven using power of ecstatic prayer.

A page from Artist’s “Kabbalah sketch book, showing both Buddha and the Burning Bush.

 

Are there special visions from a Jewish subconscious? Do modern Mexicans see Mayan visions?

 

How do physical surroundings or immersive study determine the impact of that culture on the nature of the individual’s particular visions?

Studying Bornstein’s work reveal a active attempt to synthesize various cultural influences on his visions. Obviously, cultural and sexual inclinations and unique imagery contribute to each individual’s own visions

Living in Mexico, living with a former rabbinical scholar, exposed the artist to influences that impacted the visions and became reflected in his art. It was only natural that he would synthesize traditional Tibetan styles with his own painting techniques.

Later he was exposed to the mystical traditions of the Kabbalah through his friend and mentor, Jerry Zalmen Jofen, a knowledgeable Kabbalist.

Two minute clip from Zalmen Jofen’s “Rituals & Demonstrations”, showing the rhythmic, mystical, ecstatic, Hasidic chanting displayed for the delight of the chosen spiritual leader, their “Zadik”, the late Lubavitcher Rabbi.

 

Neurochemistry
A great deal has happened in this field since 1964, when the Artist began experimenting with psychedelics while developing his own painting style. 

The two began to blend to the point that it became impossible to separate his Psychedelic visions and his own non-drug imagination. His talent as an artist became challenged to productively apply this new mental state that he was experiencing. Not unlike Allen Ginsberg or Aldos Huxley, who used their intellectual skills to come to terms with the expanded realty they were also confronting.

DNA - Genome chemistry
This field was a distant dream in the 1960s. 

 

Jung’s whole philosophy was based on similarities in human cultures that could not of had physical contact. Like the Hopi Indians and the Tibetans whose cultures display similar linguistics and religious symbolism. This led to the creation of his universal archetypes.

Bornstein’s Tibetan-Kabbalah illustration showing the true nature of the spiral-double helix shaped energy path within the human body and two intersection points.

 

However, we now know from DNA-Genome Sequencing, the actual paths of Homosapien "prehistoric" migration patterns.
 

In defense of Jung, these routes that the ancient travelers took occurred many tens of thousands of years before these early 6,000 year old "Historic Period" cultures that we now study even developed. 

 

When viewing Bornstein‘s work are we seeing remnants of the actual Genome memories that has silently transmitted humanity’s secrets for millennia?

This letter, recently found, sent to Indian Colleges in April, 1965 mentions Bornstein's use of oriental philosophies in his art.

Does it also serves as the "life compression event" from Siddartha's life in Hesse's book?

 

 

See "Artwork" Page for samples of more art.