Hidden Nature: An Interview
Melissa Schaeffer: What is the aura of something hidden?
John C. Morris: The aura of something hidden…is…at first seems like a paradox because you think of it as visualizing an aura and visualizing something’s aura or someone’s aura. So if it’s hidden it seems like you can’t visualize it…yet…you could also say that a hidden aura is something that resembles a soul because it’s almost…if you think of an aura as a personal glow and then a hidden aura as an internal glow…that could be interpreted as a soul.
MS: Is the fern for us? Does it beckon to us, enchanting, giving shelter?
JCM: Yes, I do feel the fern beckons to us and enchants us…that being said, the fern represents Titania, who is the queen of the faeries, and it…sort of represents her bower, which is very personal and intimate…to her.
MS: Is magic necessary? Or is it extra to amuse and give meaning? How can meaning be extra?
JCM: At first thought magic does…I do…conceive of magic as being extra. I also think of it inspiring the imagination…and dreams…which are an essential part of peoples’ experience. So at first, I would say magic does seem extra but then the meaning and inspiration that it inspires is essential.
MS: Is meaning what holds us to a place? That we become that place, that character, those characters, together?
JCM: Yes, I do believe that meaning…is that, represents that, and does that.
MS: Do we hide ourselves to be purely ourselves?
JCM: Yes, we do hide ourselves to be purely ourselves…because…if it’s you with yourself, there’s no explanation necessary…to anyone else.
MS: Without mirrors to reflect, without energy to balance, without confusion of what is brought by whom, or projected, or a response or a catalyst of another, without the drama of interrelating, what is the essence of being?
JCM: The essence of being is listening to your heart.
MS: If energy is all energy, why does it feel so different? Is perception and meaning what changes?
JCM: Yes, I feel energy is pure in and of itself, yet the way that it’s experienced and the way that it’s…manifested and the way that it’s viewed by humans…affects its nature.
MS: Is the water in the stem that was once rain, that was once cloud, that was once ocean the hidden transformation?
JCM: Yes…that does resonate.
MS: Is our hidden nature transformed by our story, by their story? Is the witness changed?
JCM: I think our hidden nature is transformed by our story…and I think the witness can be changed…by it.
MS: Who is the witness?
JCM: The witness is the viewer.
MS: Is the fern for us?
JCM: I don’t think the fern is for us, the fern is for nature…but we as viewers witness it.
MS: Is the fern her?
JCM: The fern is…the fern is her.
MS: Is the world made and formed so that we may tell stories through memories of it?
JCM: The world…the world was formed in and of itself and our experience of it and witnessing of it leads to stories…but the world wasn’t created for us, I don’t believe.
MS: Is there anything else you would like me to ask you in this moment?
JCM: Why Bolinas?
