Often the necessary condition of the “artistic” character, convinced of profound and ineluctable transformations, prophesies over art, regressing to an altered perception of “Self.” This precedes and heralds the appearance of the missing Art. The cause lies in the contrast between a convinced inner inspiration, and a narrative of the same returned by contingency, which the subject does not recognize and accept.
From the work of Joseph Conti’s Parallel Lives.
In human health subjected to the influence of atmospheric causes, the chosen men were pleased to regard and consider art, marveling over it above manner and reckoning themselves to be enlightened and infinite, as well of grandeur as of majesty and loveliness. From time immemorial it has been held for certain that atmospheric vicissitudes exert a dominion over the health of the artistic man, and this belief is founded on the observation that many artists of various ages, of dissimilar constitution, with different habits, and in different places, go at the same time subject to the same chimera: the Art phantom.
With what profound wisdom such a beautiful system is fabricated, those with sense in their heads will see; it is evidenced by the voices of the sufferers of the Phantom Art who remain in a salutary fear although they have in their favor the literal texts of the true traditions. The thing is very true, and I too had some examples of it, when I began to speculate. Seeming to me, therefore, this phenomenon to be quite extraordinary and evident, I began to examine with the utmost diligence the factual circumstances accompanying it, and finally assured myself, that in the same atmosphere the triggering principles actually subsist.
This chimera was made clear in my youthful essay “Emotional States and Atmospheric Feelings,” allor when I observed that under certain states of the atmosphere and at certain seasons of the year, certain peculiar disorders arise in the animal machine of artistic man. While, however, most of the community thinks that the changes in the additions from hot to cold, from wet to dry, should mainly be attributed to the aforesaid disorders, I assert that in the artist it is the paroxysmal variations in the resilient state that are the real causes of such disorders.
Here in brief is the evidence for the anomalous perception of Phantom Art. It is a mental process, which nothing shares with madness, whereby thought represents the artistic substance as if it still existed or as if a memory of it still lingers. In itself it does not cause sudden suffering, but a feeling of vivid excitement. The pain then of Phantom Art occurs maximally if the artist presents a condition of daily inspiration. Above all else, however, as is the case with almost all artists who of their art are convincedly excellent advocates, it occurs that they deceive themselves when they believe in their expression to be truthfully sympathetic to concrete necessary instances, elevated to the dignity and degree of knowledge.
Now to recite the many things in one, and end this concept, let us set our minds to the consequence that from the narrated truths for itself emerges why the proverbial man needs memory. The feeling of Phantom Art is intense awareness of a missed though necessary and authentic art, sometimes accompanied by mild paresthesias. Frequently, artists feel only a part of the missing Art, often the coveted achievement of consensus, the last phantom sensation to disappear. It is as if paroxysmal electrical activity facilitates perception in such men reputed to be now geniuses now idds. In such abasement, then arises the verbal spell of the Numinous, which by liberating the unexpressed artistic concepts inflames them with the infinite conviction of the otherworldly.
Various treatments, such as simultaneous exercises of metaphor, the percussion of inspiration, and the use of certain machines to reduce the overpowering creative impulse can bring benefit and relief. Among the remedies, vegetomineral water and local tepid bath are very useful in the period of maximum inflammation. The sensation of Phantom Art is not perilous; however, artists, without thinking about it, often try to stand up with both legs and fall, especially when they wake up during the night to go to the bathroom.
Some passages are taken from: “Observations on the casual and periodical influence of particular states of the atmosphere ec, – Observations over the casual é periodical influence of the particular states of the atmosphere on human health and diseases, notably Insanity , with a roster of Authors: by Thomas Forster ec, ec.: Second Edition . та. London 1919.” and freely repurposed following the exoskeleton technique proper to Lar.
