Spontaneous Painting: Creating the Symbol Journey

By Susan Bello Ph.D

The new scientific paradigm based on the primacy of consciousness is here and the question in everybodys mind is how we access quantum consciousness and its causal power. The artist/author Susan Bello gives us a wonderful and powerful method: spontaneous painting. It is really very enjoyable and is a suitable vehicle for all people who are young at heart and like to play. I recommend this method and this book very highly.
Amit Goswami,
quantum physicist and author of The Self-Aware Universe;
God Is Not Dead; and the upcoming Quantum Creativity: Think Quantum, Be Creative

This is a truly brilliant and significant book - merits joyful reading and treasuring.
Prof. Dr. Ervin Lszl,
Founder of Club Budapest; Chancellor-Designate of the newly formed GlobalShift University;
author of over 80 books, including The Creative Cosmos: A Unified Science of Matter, Life and Mind.

The symbol is a universal resource which nature has bestowed upon us to evolve human consciousness. It embodies energy of pure potentiality that lives in a dormant state in our Unconscious. The process of Spontaneous Painting unleashes this powerful life force within. Each persons unique potential, Authentic and Higher Self, life direction and Innate Authentic Multiple Intelligences flow forth through the brushstroke onto the paper. No artistic training is necessary. Once our symbols are expressed, a transformative process is activated that initiates behavioral change. Our symbols begin to direct us from within.
Our Authentic Self is a core energetic configuration that is like no one elses. Each one of us is a unique individual with special gifts, passions and a life purpose. Our Higher Self embodies such states as love, inner wisdom, centeredness, joy and compassion. The key to creating a new paradigm is to develop these constructive expressions of consciousness in each planetary citizen for personal and social transformation.
Symbols express in the form of images. Why are images used to transmit this energy? Images are the primal universal language of humankind. The fact that the ability to make images has been with us since the beginning of time suggests it may possess an important survival function of which we are not yet aware.
The name The I.am.I TM Method of Spontaneous Painting was chosen to honor our Innate Authentic Multiple Intelligences, hence the acronym I.am.ITM. These intelligences include our: emotional, creative, intuitive, imaginative, symbolic, spiritual, visual and kinesthetic ways of knowing. All of these intelligences are developed during The I.am.I Method. Although we are born with these intelligences and the ability to paint spontaneously, education has focused mainly on the rational intellect and on how to paint the external and not the internal landscape, a vast resource of inner wisdom.
Part One of this book is an autobiographical summary of the experiences that led the author to develop The I.am.ITM Method of Spontaneous Painting. The paintings in Part Two document her empirical experimentation with Spontaneous Painting, sourced from the authority of her soul. Part Three is an academic exploration and a theoretical and scholarly documentation of the psychological and quantum states of mind that can be experienced during the Spontaneous Painting Process.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Jun 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781452553320

Susan Bello Ph.D

Dr. Susan Bello Ph.D. is an evolutionary awakener and the creator of The I.am.ITM Method of Spontaneous Painting. She teaches it at universities and holistic centers in the USA and Brazil. Dr. Bello is a licensed art therapist, group therapist, adjunct professor, consciousness researcher, artist and the director and founder of The Organization for the Arts & Whole Brain Learning. She has published two books about The I.am.I Method of Spontaneous Painting.

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Copyright © 2013 Susan Bello Ph.D.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Cover design. Ramara Bello, www.tetradesigns.net

ISBN: 978-1-4525-5333-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-5332-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012909997

Balboa Press rev. date: 7/01/2013

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Contents

Other Works By Susan Bello Ph.D

Endorsements

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Language Terms

Preface

Part One

Part Two

Introduction

My Two Thousand - Year - Old Woman

Portals To Inner Light

Embryo Studies

The Ritual Of Dismemberment

And Torture

Descent To The Depths, Spirit Rising

The Ritual Of Destruction, Burning In The Fire

Destructuring Personal And

Ancestral History

Authentic Self Emerging

The Divine Child With Crutches

O Novo Caminho

(The New Way)

The Mãe Terra Series –

Mother Earth

Divine Marriage

The Offering

Adam And Eve

Part Three

The Origins Of Art

The Universal Self And The Symbol

Our Authentic Self And Higher Self

Conscious Choice: Core Limiting Beliefs (Clb) Or The New Nucleus

Dimensions Of Mind Beyond Ego-Logical Thought: Altered States Of Consciousness (Asc)

Art For Personal And Social Transformation

Epilogue

A One-Year Facilitator Training Program In The I.Am.Itm Method Of Spontaneous Painting

Glossary

Endnotes

About The Author

Speaking Opportunities

Other Works by Susan Bello Ph.D

Publications: Pintando Sua Alma:

MÉTODO DE DESENVOLVIMENTO DA

PERSONALIDADE CRIATIVA

(Painting Your Soul: A method to develop the Creative Personality)

3rd Edition WAK editor, Rio de Janeiro 2007

Short Video Documentary

SPONTANEOUS PAINTING Beyond Rational Intelligence –

Directed by Spiro Carras, Cinenoesis

Can be viewed at: https://vimeo.com/14976996

With Portuguese Subtitles: http://vimeo.com/41954190

With gratitude

to my parents

Max and Hilda T. Mintz,

for their love and enduring support,

especially when they did not

understand what I was doing.

Endorsements

The first half of this book is an autobiography extraordinaire! Dr. Bello engagingly demonstrates, through decoding the beautiful plates of her own art work done in Brasilia over a seven year period, how the process of spontaneous painting both expressed and impelled her own personal transformation. The second half of the book explains in more rational form the I.am.I™ Method of Spontaneous Painting process that she discovered through this artwork, and has spent her life developing and teaching since that earlier period of creative expression. I believe this method opens a doorway that allows each of us to express our inner divine nature in our unique way, and contributes to creating a culture of peace on the planet. I high commend Dr. Bello for this amazing discovery and contribution, and invite you to read the book and learn more about this very natural and effective process for achieving personal transformation.

–Dr. Frances Delahanty, Associate Professor of Psychology, Director of the Peace & Justice Studies Program, Pace University, Pleasantville, NY

Susan Bello presents us with a book that everyone should have had access to somewhere along the line of their intellectual and psychological formation- the earlier the better. Why? Because she presents us in clear and accessible language, with the actual and natural processes and powers of artistic creativity. Processes and powers that ought to be everyone’s birthright. Now, well illustrated by her own work, Bello brings to any one desirous of greater and deeper expression through art and throughout their life, the means to do so.

–Peter London, Chancellor Professor Emeritus, the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and author of, No More Secondhand Art; Drawing Closer to Nature.

Dr. Bello’s work is evolutionary, revolutionary and perfect for these times! Spontaneous Painting-Creating the Symbol Journey, is a treasure chest of Ideas and paintings that lead to healing, harmony and whole brain living. Susan Bello is an artist at life itself and this is truly a masterpiece and a gift to humanity.

–Jan Phillips, author of, No Ordinary Time; The Art of Original Thinking; Marry Your Muse; Divining the Body; GOD is at Eye Level; Making Peace.

I believe that not listening to my inner critic and just painting what I feel allowed me to be free, to actually be ME!

–Marilyn, student teacher at Adelphi University

Logical and Linear thinking alone are no longer sufficient in a world where routine work can be outsourced or automated. That’s why Dr. Bello’s work in Art Education combined with Whole Brain Learning and the Innate Authentic Multiple Intelligences, I.am.I™, is so important. It balances the cognitive skills of left and right brain thinking and helps create full fledged human beings who can flourish in the new world of work.

–Daniel Pink, author of, A Whole New Mind; Drive; The Adventures of Johnny Bunko.

At a moment in history when human cloning is questioned and intellectual cloning is fostered, Dr. Susan Bello wakes us up to the reality of multiple ways of thinking and learning. She teaches us how to become creative by using our mind to its large potential. Her methods help us to develop a complete personality using talents and inner resources we had ignored for many years. The result is an increase in consciousness as individuals who are part of a marvelous and mysterious whole, who enjoy total living!

–Dr. Daniel Araoz, Ed.D. ABPP, NCPsyA, Professor, Long Island University, and author of The New Hypnosis; Reengineering Yourself; and The Symptom is Not the Whole Story: Psychoanalysis for Non-Psychoanalysts.

Susan Bello is one of those rare individuals who demonstrate a capacity to be equally proficient in scholarly articulation and in spontaneous painting. She has been under instruction from many gifted teachers in this country, India and Brazil, in both art and the psychology of the creative world. She has felt deeply motivated to help introduce into western culture the feminine ways of knowing, to renew the meaning of art for spiritual healing.

–John Weir Perry, Jungian psychoanalyst and author of Far Side of Madness; Lord of the Four Quarters; Trials of the Visionary Mind; Roots of Renewal in Myth and Madness.

A pioneer on the frontiers of consciousness, Susan Bello has developed a creative methodology to release Unconscious emotions while expanding intuitive intelligence. Her visionary work will inspire generations to come.

–Laurie Nadel, Ph.D. author of, Sixth Sense: Unlocking Your Ultimate Mind Power.

Many books on the individuation process crossed my desk for review when I was chief librarian at the C.G. Jung Center of NYC. I was particularly impressed and moved by this manuscript of Dr. Susan Bello about a woman’s journey toward individuation. It is that rare piece of work that combines in-depth scholarship with a down-to-earth approach including artwork by the author that is visually profound and provocative.

–Michele McKee, Retired Chief Librarian, Kristin Mann Library, C.G.Jung Institute, NYC

This class was unlike any I have ever taken. I never bonded so quickly with my fellow students. I learned more about myself and feel that Dr. Bello changed a little bit about each one of us.

–student teacher at Adelphi University, NY

Perhaps the most important principle that I learned in this class and that I intend to use in my own classroom is the principle that the classroom should be a safe place to explore creativity. I intend to adapt the principles that I learned in the Spontaneous Painting class by assigning the writing of creative stories and essays, and encouraging students to find inner meaning in the stories they write. I will help students develop empathy for each other and honor the fact that everyone is entitled to have feelings whether or not we agree with the expression of those feelings.

–Anita Mirecki, English Educator

It is a critical time to merge multidisciplinary arts and sciences, integral learning and peace education curriculums for the evolutionary journey of personal and societal consciousness. The I.am.I™ Method can help each individual begin with themselves, cultivating peace and creativity inside, and sharing it with others for the betterment of humanity.

–Georgina Galanis : Creativity Catalyst, Sacred Activist, United Nations ~

Global Movement for the Culture of Peace (GMCoP.org ) and nycpeacemuseum.org

It is this consecrating of our individual selves to some greater enterprise, one that is aligned with the well being of the planet as a whole, that I take to be the crucial challenge to human creativity at this moment in our history. It is my hope to extend the definition of creativity so that increasingly, not only artists, but all of us believe in our capability as co-creators of our own lives. And, that we shape our lives to correspond to our heart’s desires and unique talents. In today’s world where value is measured by the gold standard we need to cherish our inner gold.

Susan Bello

Foreword

I came to know Susan Bello because of our mutual interest in developing the potentials inherent in human consciousness. We meet for the first time in Brasilia, Brazil in 1988, at the inauguration of the Holistic University, UNIPAZ (formerly Cidade da Paz). Since then I have supported her work utilizing art as a healing tool that can extend beyond the individual to help structure a new worldview or paradigm. Specifically this tool could be applied in art education as a means to develop what Dr. Bello has termed our Innate Authentic Multiple Intelligences, including intuition and the use of metaphors and symbols. The Innate Authentic Multiple Intelligences include ways of knowing based on emotions, creativity, intuition, imagination, spirituality, and symbolism—both visual and kinesthetic.

For me, art can be described as the attempt of human beings to represent their experience as vividly and passionately as they can, in performance, e.g., dance, poetry, storytelling, music, theater, or in media, e.g., paint, clay, stone, concrete, print, film, video.

The paintings depicted in this monograph document Dr. Bello’s exploration into her Unconscious during the course of her studies at The Union Institute (between 1988 and 1991). I was one of the advisors on her doctoral committee and witnessed the evolution of her ideas and her profound shamanistic journey as it unfolded through the production of her spontaneous symbolic images. These experiences inspired her to study, research, create, and teach The I.am.I™ Method of Spontaneous Painting.

Based on her own painting process as well as her observing thousands of students creating spontaneous paintings in Brazil and the United States for over two decades, she proposes that symbols represent a form of energy that expresses spontaneously in the production of images, both internally and externally. Symbols are housed within images; they are images that evoke deeper meanings. Symbolic images may contain the unique potential of each individual and initiate the process Carl Jung identified as individuation, the development of a dormant innate Authentic Self. When individuals have the opportunity to unleash their hidden talents, to express their emotions in a safe environment, and to connect to their Authentic Self, a spiritual intelligence can develop.

The I.am.I™ Method integrates art education, various therapeutic practices in expressive art therapy, and aspects of Jungian analytic psychology, humanistic psychology and the philosophy implied by quantum physics. When these separate fields coalesce they form a new domain of knowledge that could be termed transpersonal art. Transpersonal art supports the growth of each individual’s innate potential as well as the potential of groups and even entire cultures.

So-called transpersonal experiences appear to transcend individual identities and self-concepts. The term spiritual refers to one’s focus on and/or reverence, openness, and connectedness to something of significance believed to be beyond one’s full understanding and/or individual existence. Transpersonal art, therefore, is transcendent in nature and contains many spiritual elements, the form depending on one’s belief system and surrounding culture.

As a pioneer in transpersonal art and its capacity for evoking the spiritual potentials of individuals and societies, Dr. Bello’s I.am.I™ Method reintroduces age-old intelligences that are innate to humankind. In doing so, she has evoked insights and practices used by shamans, those socially designated practitioners who deliberately alter their consciousness to obtain information or exert influence in ways useful to their social group. Shamans still practice their sacred technologies in the remote rain forests and grasslands of Brazil, the country where Dr. Bello has incubated and actualized the ideas that are presented in this book. For over 25 years she has empowered groups of men and women who attended her classes throughout Brazil, and helped them find new direction for their lives.

One of Dr. Bello’s visions, to introduce a new