Floor Sample, by Julia Cameron

 

Floor Sample, Julia Cameron

This is the autobiography of Julia Cameron, author of the popular book, The Artist's Way. As an artist, I have read her book, and thought it would do me some good to read about the author. First of all, I had no idea she had been married to the famous director Martin Scorcese. I also learned a lot of other stuff reading this---she was a journalist, a screenwriter, she has written plays and musicals, and other books. She was an alcoholic and drug addict and struggled a long time with it, and she talks about how even when she became, and stayed sober, how there was that desire for just one drink. 

She also suffered from mental illness. She would be fine for a while and then go off the deep end into crazy behavior and need to be put on medication and be watched closely until she regained her sanity. This happened multiple times.

She talks about how she came about creating The Artist's Way with her second husband, as well as other books.

I also learned that she also messes with the occult--seances, automatic writing, praying to the deceased, and more. 

This is the thing that has always bothered me about The Artist's Way. There's nothing wrong with doing a brain dump on three pages of paper each morning. But I always felt that to her, it could have involved automatic writing, which is allowing spirits or some paranormal being to speak through you and control your writing.

When I started listening to the Artist's Way Podcast, I became alarmed, when it got to her other books, she encouraged artists to create little gods or idols to symbolize something important to them, and to pray to them....as well as praying to the dead and waiting for them to guide them. To talk to your dead relatives. It was at that point I stopped listening to the podcast. As a believer in Christ, that goes way over the line of what is acceptable. 

I am glad I read this book, it answered a lot of questions as to what the author believes and accepts. It was interesting to read about the struggles she went through in her life with addiction and mental illness, and was amazing how many different achievements she had, simply because when she wanted to do something, she went for it. It was a very interesting book, and if you have ever read The Artist's Way, you might be interested in this. 

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