Eileen’s work draws on the luminous, liminal, emergent and evolving qualities of consciousness, including the realms of spirit, the subconscious and psychedelia, particularly inspired by the element of water as consciousness and its connection to the liminal dream, spirit, sensory and sonic realms. From these depths, Eileen dreamed the Numinous Sonofield to give voice to the sacred space created when music, psychedelics and human consciousness come together.

JF: What is the Numinous Sonofield?

EH: It refers to the sea of sensations that we swim in as our consciousness gets altered and opens up and meets the intelligence of music. I truly believe that music has an intelligence that goes beyond all languages. Music resonates so deeply with water, which is why we are able to access that depth and range of feeling.

Numinous refers to the divine and sacred nature of the space.

Sonofield is the field of sound.

Music = water =consciousness

JF: How was this concept initially conceived?

EH: This all came tome one day when I was reviewing something that I had just painted – often I am not aware in the moment what I am painting, only after when I am able to reflect. I had been working with water, and realising that it had been a lifelong ally, talking to me, calling to me, for as long as I can remember. In that movement I really witnessed the synergy between that relationship and my relationship to water and how resonant they are. It is a gentle, graceful space of creativity and healing. I really wanted to create a space for this and to honour it.

JF: Can you describe more of this relationship between water, music, psychedelics?  

EH: Water goes through different states – liquid, gas, ice – as does our consciousness. The psychedelic journey is liquid, and is described as a sea of consciousness, and this relationship has been most potent to me on psychedelics when I have perceived music as water. In the DMT space I witnessed the architecture of music as a liquid flow state. When I listen to music in a non-altered state of consciousness it is a very embodied sensation, as if it is undulating within the sea of my body.

JF: What is your practice of creating within the Numinous Sonofield?

I have to be in a relaxed, meditative place in order to enter into an altered state for the work to come through me. It is a liminal, sensory, watery space of pure fluid consciousness – the Numinous Sonofield – and similar to the psychedelic experience, when what I call ‘the musical theatre of my consciousness’ opens up.I love using watercolours to give the paintings this misty, changing, evolving, emerging quality that consciousness has.

JF: How can we experience more of this space?

EH: By paying attention to those moments, those notes in music and experience where something profoundly moves us, it resonates and captivates us and take us into that space of timelessness.

David Abram talks about how we’ve placed too much pressure on romantic relationships because we’ve lost our relationship with nature, how we once had a complex language talking to spirits of nature, so it is about reclaiming that. When we interact and connect to nature, we spread that relational space further outward, and time gets taken out of the equation. There is a sweet spot when consciousness no longer attaches itself to physical reality. Working with the concept of Self draws us closer to this, and we can learn to integrate those the peace in those moments, or enlightened awareness experienced through psychedelics and altered states and effectively bring them back into our waking world, so that this sea of sensations can become part of our daily life.  Music and art is a direct practice and experience that supports the art of connection, of re-connecting to that space.Seeing the world through an artistic lens it is all colour and texture and sensation, so there is a fluidity that transcends barriers of perception.

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Artwork: Numinous Sonofield Collection by Eileen Hall