LITERATURE + LECTURES

The Jung Center of Houston presents Creativity and the Mystery of Healing - The Power of the Creative Spirit.  Renowned musician and author Stephen Nachmanovitch (pictured) explores the endless creative possibilities of play in this presentation (with Jung Center Director Jerry Ruhl) and workshop, sponsored with St. John's School.

Lecture/Performance: Dreams: Improvisation in Life and Music
Friday, April 23
Join us for an unforgettable evening as acclaimed violinist and author Stephen Nachmanovitch and Jungian psychologist Jerry Ruhl explore the meaning and imaginative possibilities of dreams. Dreams have been called the royal road to the unconscious. We will discover the creative and healing possibilities of essential dream motifs, including houses, death, flying, paralysis, and being chased. As we focus on each motif, Stephen will create musical improvisations on the viola d'amare for these experiences of the night, and we will learn useful dream tools to help us appreciate and listen to the wisdom of the dream.

Workshop: Trusting Creativity, Nourishing Community
Saturday, April 24
How does creative expression - even the most solitary, seemingly private act - change and enrich our communities? Most creative acts do not end in products that would win prizes or awards. But all still carry some spiritual essence of communication, and even those that are never seen by others change us in ways that deepen our capacity to communicate and engage with others.

Through lecture, discussion, and activities, we will experience the vital importance of creative play in our lives. Play is a divine quality that we can bring to anything, an attitude and a presence rather than a defined activity. To be vibrantly alive in the moment we need to be alert to the power of limits and mistakes and to trust our own inherent ability to create. And we need to embrace not only the personally healing potential of creativity, but also the ways in which it is necessary for the growth and enduring health of the communities that sustain us.

Stephen Nachmanovitch performs and teaches internationally as an improvisational violinist, and at the intersections of music, dance, theater, and multimedia arts. He is the author of Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art (Penguin, 1990). Born in 1950, he studied at Harvard and the University of California, where he earned a Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness for an exploration of William Blake. His mentor was the anthropologist and philosopher Gregory Bateson. He has taught and lectured widely, in the United States and abroad, on creativity and the spiritual underpinnings of art.

Jerry Ruhl, PhD, is executive director of The Jung Center and a Jungian psychologist in private practice. With Robert A. Johnson, he is the author of three books, including Living Your Unlived Life.