Entheogenic Creativity: Shamanism and Entheogens in the Visionary Art of Alex Grey

To identify, starting with an aesthetic and philosophical analysis, the presence of elements coming from shamanism in the artworks of Alex Grey. To evidence, through a descriptive methodology, the relation of reciprocity stablished between visionary culture and shamanic traditions. To explain how entheogens, or sacred plants that awaken the consciousness of the inner divinity, are instruments which favours the creative process of artist. To clarify in what measure, extraordinary states of perception, such as dream and ecstasy, lead Grey to consider creative action from the perspective of mystical experience. To elucidate in which form, entheogenic mysticism and artistic activity, when correlated, are capable of propitiating a radical transformation in the structures of society and in the worldview of individuals.  To demonstrate, on the basis of a vast theoretical background, the indispensability of including and expanding, in the sphere of higher studies, the discussion of shamanistic religiosity in alignment with visionary art and contemporary philosophy.