September 17, 2003
Shamanic. Imaginal. Numinal. All words having something to do with experiences of the mind and body, the understanding of which is more related to creative psychological analysis than logical, empirical examination. All experiences that have little to do with external sensory adventures and more to do with the capacity of the mind to create another reality.
Back in the 1940s, when I was a severely asthmatic only child confined to bed for long periods of time, the radio offered me escape through imagination. Let’s Pretend. Ellery Queen. Inner Sanctum. Lights Out. The Whistler. The Green Hornet. I would lie there with my eyes closed and let myself be transported into the other realities created by those radio voices.
Back somewhere in my old weblog, I posted an excerpt from an article I wrote that was published in Volume 25, Number 1, Spring 1990 of Voices: the Arts and Science of Psychotherapy. The theme for that issue was "Psychotherapy and the Mythic Journey."
I am used to the company of shadows. One I remember from earliest times, when as a child afflicted with serious bouts of asthma, I spend long lonely weeks with only my radio, my books, and my paper and pencils to distract me from the boredom and isolation of my sheltered life. Restricted from the physical play that would connect me to the outside world, I learn to reach into the dark places behind my eyes for the companions and the adventures that are denied me out in the streets. I use my imagination to give some satisfying form to the loneliness that accompanies me always, like some sad and shadowy muse. Over the several early school years during which my illness rules, that Shadow becomes my guide to colorful inner lives of my own choosing – worlds of willful princesses and warrior queens, of dark erotic forces and fierce exotic songs. Rather than fear the dark realms into which my shadow leads me, I learn to trust it magical power to help me build the paths I need to find my way out of my sterile room, from the careful and ordinary family with whom I still feel an outsider, a changeling. As I grow older and the asthma subsides, the Shadow that has become my knowing guide continues to assert its presence through my writing and through my interest in things magical and mythic.
Today’s kids are bombarded with visual images created by others that graphically illustrate the stories designed to lure them into other realities. Their eyes, wide open, are fed all the images they are able to devour. Their own private numinal imaginations (which need closed eyes to germinate) have almost no time or space to emerge.
Part of who I am today is because of radio – of those times when, eyes closed and mind open, I would spend hours creating other realities inside my own head, guided by distant voices and imaginal yearnings.
Combine that experience with a college education where I learned about the origins of the creative arts (theater, music, poetry, visual art) as ritualistic attempts to communicate with the “Unknown” (gods, forces of nature etc.), and a job in which I advocated for the practice of using the creative arts to reach kids not interested in learning in general, and you have someone who is convinced of the fundamental psychological magic inherent in the process of creating artifacts, poetry, and performances. Alchemy. Ritual. Shamanism. Guided Imagery. Active Imagination. Expressive Arts Therapy. In my life, it all began with the magic of radio.
And it continues with the magic of blogging.
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Old Comments (7)
myrln on 17 Sep 2003
And I can tell you the radio magic still works. I have a box of tapes of various old radio shows and a box of cds of "The Shadow." The images still form in the mind, a world you create yourself out of the audible clues of words and sound effects. Better still, radio let you move about; you didn't need to be glued to a chair for the visuals. Those you carried around -- weightlessly -- with you.
Elaine on 17 Sep 2003
OOOh. The Shadow. How could I leave him out! Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. Oh yeah! That was a "leave the night-light on" one.
Tom Shugart on 18 Sep 2003
Great post, Elaine! You're bang on about the magic of radio. It's one of the best things about being our age--having had our childhood during the glory days of the medium. Three other shows besides the ones you mention spring to mind--more appealing to males, no doubt: The Lone Ranger(who could forget the wonderful theme music? Probably my first exposure to classical music); Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy; and Gangbusters.
Elaine on 18 Sep 2003
Oh yes, I listed to those too. It definitely was a boy's world on radio back then, wasn't it. So I had to balance it out by reading all the Nancy Drew books.
myrln on 18 Sep 2003
Of which: Turner Classic Movies the other night ran a series of Nancy Drew movies featuring Bonita Granville as Nancy.
Elaine on 19 Sep 2003
Funny you should mention that, since I forgot to. I taped them!
ED KIENZLER on 08 Nov 2003
I HAVE TO LET YOU KNOW THAT WHO I AM TODAY IS ALSO BECAUSE OF OLD TIME RADIO!! I HAVE BEEN COLLECTING OTR SINCE 1984 AND HAVE BEEN A FAN SINCE 1970(I'M 43!) YES,OTR IS ALIVE AND WELL HERE IN THE 21ST CENTURY(JUST ASK ALL 2000 OF MY RADIO SHOWS!!)IMAGINATION INDEED!!