The 18th-century German playwright and poet Friedrich Schiller referred to the “observer at the doors of the mind,” the one who inspects new ideas with suspicion and judges them too critically. If these ideas do not conform to the accepted norm or are too unconventional, the Observer often encourages us to discard them. Being unconventional is often unacceptable, which in turn encourages criticism. And none of us like criticism. Therefore, we can sometimes find ourselves trying to get into a mold that we are not entirely comfortable with. And imprisoned in this mold we could move forward automatically, accepting without challenge what our information systems (the media) throw at us and forgetting the wonderfully creative creatures that we are.

When the creative mind is “driving,” it is as if the Watcher at the gates has been killed or temporarily fired as ideas rush like huge waves crashing against the shore. However, most of the time, our Watcher is there to censor these ideas, calling us insane or absurd for even considering them. Likewise, the Watcher is vibrating our conditioning in front of our eyes. A conditioning reinforced by an exponential increase and accessibility to the media 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This can inhibit us from changing our thinking or expressing something so that others do not judge it a little “out of the ordinary” or just plain crazy.

And our Watcher conspires with other Watchers to make us conform to what we are told to be the benefit of society as a whole. But is it? Or is it a type of brainwashing? Who benefits from our stifling our creativity? To be original you have to push yourself against the crowd. Therefore, today’s pioneers are always considered eccentric or even crazy by the society in general. Hence the cliche narrative of the inventor as “wacky professor.” Vegetarianism was once considered strange. As was any model of reality that did not understand the Newtonian paradigm of a mechanistic universe (with or without an energy that theists would call God at the head). With a growing understanding of quantum realities among the general public, this mechanistic paradigm is fortunately now growing interest in our spiritual selves outside of formal structures. However, the pioneers who were at the birth of this change were considered abnormal from the beginning. The eccentrics of today are indeed the pioneers of tomorrow. And as eccentrics they suffered their fair share of ridicule.

However, changes and changes are inevitable (“nothing stays the same”), but most of us do not want to be on the prow of that ship that pushes it into unknown waters. To be at the bow of the ship is to commit to killing the observer at the doors of the mind. Most of us want to be safe and let other people take the risks. Risk equates to insecurity (financial, emotional, professional, even spiritual), so great efforts are required to change paradigms and great efforts to change your own model of reality. The world of storytelling and drama (my chosen profession) is no exception to this. Drama producers and editors are on trend (“Where do we find the next Harry Potter?” Is the battle cry) and, as you can see by looking at listings for London’s West End theaters, the Current trend is the musical theater played by taking the role of walking like an outcast. It is too risky for most people who have financial commitments to buck the trends. People follow trends, they don’t usually oppose them, so they become trends. After all, being fashionable is simply copying or following someone / something else. The television industry is even worse. “Accept what has been shown to work” is the maxim. This is why the heavy diet of reality shows is making us culturally obese. But to do what everyone else does or think as everyone else thinks just for the sake of doing it (without examination or consideration) is to deny the opportunity for your creativity to be elevated by killing the Watcher. (Without examination or consideration is the key phrase here. Obviously it would be desirable for everyone to think the same about cruelty, for example, that it was reprehensible.) Anyone who has ever done personal development work knows how difficult it is to change your own personal belief system, whether it serves them or not. “Killing the Watcher at the doors of the mind” is one way to begin to make that change.

Kalil Gilbran says that “your pain is only the pain of the breaking of the shell of your understanding” and, although it is painful, it is the pain of rebirth. And the nativity is creativity. To be creative you have to be prepared to offend and anger (not deliberately provoke, which is something else), to outrage people who are still installed in their familiar shell. Since creativity involves growth, you may need to come out of your own shell no matter how much others want to stay in theirs. And it is the breaking of that shell that is an act that “kills the observer.”

I have organized many workshops over the years designed to help participants open up their creative selves. I am constantly amazed at how difficult it is for some people to get out of their self-created prisons that we call comfort zones. But comfort zones are safety blankets, they are where we know we can survive, so it is perfectly understandable. However, it doesn’t help you move on.

But the writer / artist who relies on his art for a living might protest that he knows the market and that the market will not use these new ideas. You know what you want and you don’t want to change. Well, it will change, no matter how slow the change, so why not be up there as one of the pioneers? Drama on metaphysical questions is not so uncommon now. When I approached major television organizations with these kinds of ideas twenty years ago, they showed me the door as if it were the bodily representation of a bad smell. But we have to eat, the artists cry. Well, quite a lot. And if you depend on your creativity for your livelihood, perhaps, like Kenneth Toomey in Anthony Burgess’s wonderful “Earthly Powers”, write nonsense for the money and “Kill the Watcher” for his art.

And if you practice your art just for your spiritual food, I suggest you Kill the Watcher anyway, just for the fun of it. In the second part I will tell you how I did it. Nothing mysterious, automatic writing actually.