Artist Spotlight, Volume 3: Shaun JaRell

Shaun JaRell is a recording artist and holds an M.A. (Master in Arts) in Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology from The Graduate Institute of Bethany, CT.  While completing the requirements for his M.A., Shaun researched the efficacy of a unique subset of hip-hop/pop music that functions as a substrate for exploring consciousness and mystical experience. The intention behind the music is shamanic in nature, that the production aspires to provide a modern interpretation of an ancient practice.  Shaun is passionate about raising awareness for the phenomenon of spiritually transformative experiences and their significance as relates to the human condition. Shaun has used his music as a way of documenting many series of mystical experience that have characterized his own life.  

Can you tell us more about the study of Consciousness and Transpersonal Psychology?  What does it mean and what led you to getting your master’s degree in this field?

Consciousness Studies is an emerging highly interdisciplinary field that focuses on the nature of spiritually transformative experiences and non-ordinary states of consciousness or perception and their significance in human development and well-being. The field of consciousness studies includes elements of traditional psychology, sociology, philosophy, neuroscience, quantum physics, art, biology, cognitive science, anthropology, autonomics and linguistics. Transpersonal psychology is the formal study of the inherently spiritual backdrop and cosmological context of the human experience, integrating the mystical and transcendent aspects of the human being within the framework of modern psychology. 

In her 2009 book Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the Spiritual Path, Mariana Caplan wrote:

"Transpersonal psychologists attempt to integrate timeless wisdom with modern Western psychology and translate spiritual principles into scientifically grounded, contemporary language. Transpersonal psychology addresses the full spectrum of human psychospiritual development—from our deepest wounds and needs to the existential crisis of the human being, to the most transcendent capacities of our consciousness."

The significance is that on the level of our consciousness our modern culture leaves an aspect of our inner development unattended to because the nature of our current way of life has not always encouraged the human being to flourish fully into a conscious awareness of its cosmic reality. An awareness that by its very nature could undermine a lot of the deeply entrenched systemic and societal inequities, injustices and ecological insensitivities that plague modern civilization. Human beings have a pre-personal aspect of their development, a personal aspect of their development, and a transpersonal aspect of their development, but human beings have gradually become acutely underdeveloped on the transpersonal level. There have always been select individuals over the course of human history who have had either glimpses or prolonged and eventually stable mystical states of transpersonal awareness. While always having been deeply transformed on some level by these transcendent experiences, some mystics would fall into permanent silence realizing the futility and inherent limitations of language to capture higher states of understanding while some spiritual figures made an attempt to transmit this experience to others through language, writing or at the higher levels through vibrational resonance, but even still these communications typically became lost in translation and obscured by the institutions of conventional religiosity. For whatever reason, I have always had an intensely inquisitive disposition and innate passion to seek and experience for myself what is “true” or “real” on a spiritual level and what exactly is behind or orchestrating the phenomenon of our lives as human beings. This powerful spiritual curiosity along with many inexplicable experiences, that may have been deemed extrasensory or metaphysical in nature, have been present within me and occurring to some degree ever since my very first memories of this current human life. Over time, as I grew more into a general disillusionment and discontent with my own level of awareness, this intense spiritual seeking culminated into a series of direct, first-hand experiences of a mystical nature and what I now would call non-ordinary states of consciousness, connectedness and understanding that have been some of the most profound and meaningful experiences of my life. These experiences were powerful enough to motivate me to want to study this phenomenon formally in order to make sense of and integrate these experiences through the academic context of a master’s program.

 How did music become your creative outlet for exploring spiritually transformative experiences?

Music has always been one of the primary sources of spiritual connection and healing in my life. Some of the most transcendent moments or times I have felt closest to something higher or deeper within myself were when I was moved by a piece of music or an artist’s vocal performance. I think having always had an affinity for music in this way it was only natural that at some point I began creating music of my own to give form to the colors, textures and themes of my own inner world. I also always had a lot of trouble expressing myself when I was growing up, due to some pubescent speech impediments as well as having had a lot of strange spiritual experiences early-on in life that were not always easy for me to talk about. It is possible that I began writing and recording songs as a way of literally and figuratively finding my own voice amidst the ocean of voices and thoughts from humanity’s past that we all inherit and inhabit. I was attempting to organize and either integrate or release the immense amounts of data that would churn throughout my consciousness. I realized that I could say anything and everything to the microphone and wouldn’t have to manage the feedback of another human being’s opinions, emotions or misunderstandings. Not to mention the ability to record and later revisit my own creative expressions began a process of inner renovation over the course of many years. My music became an audio diary through which I documented the tinkering and exploration of my inner world and the profound musings that were the result of this deep spiritual search that has been the primary theme of this life.

In tandem with our collaboration, you released the song “Simplicit” to complement your expression of spiritual experiences through music. Take us through the journey of how this song came to life and its message.

Simplicit is a single off my new album Primordial Taze. This song was created a few hours after we brought in the New Year of 2022. By this time Andrew and I had already coined the tagline “the simplicity of a deeper harmony” so this song coalesces a few entendre to play into this concept. It is a common theme in my music that I either create brand new words or repurpose existing words through phonetic or morphemic changes to tie in new meanings or perspectives. In the case of Simplicit, the word is meant to capture the zen buddhist idea of “beginner’s mind,” which is to retain an inner simplicity that is actively alert, alive and receptive to life without harboring too many preconceived notions or projections. One of the lyrics in Simplicit:

“It’s like I know what you’re thinking before you cause it’s implicit”

plays on the phonetic similarities of the word “simplicit” and the phrase “it’s implicit” to depict a relational dynamic. The idea is about being so in tune or in harmony with another person that you know implicitly what is going on within them, without the need for speaking and to be sensitive to and honoring such an awareness is “simplicit” or to be powerfully present, unassuming and receptive to another human being and their life experience. An alternative enfolded meaning behind Simplicit pivots into another important theory in the realm of consciousness studies and that is David Bohm’s Implicate Order:

“The theory of the Implicate Order contains an ultraholistic cosmic view; it connects everything with everything else. In principle, any individual element could reveal detailed information about every other element in the universe. The central underlying theme of Bohm’s theory is the unbroken wholeness of the totality of existence as an undivided flowing movement without borders. Things appear separate and distinguished in the explicate, but are enfolded, overlapping and hidden in the implicate. Bohm believes that this “hiddenness” may be reflective of a deeper dimension of reality. He maintains that space and time might actually be derived from an even level of objective reality. This reality he calls the Implicate Order. Within the Implicate Order everything is connected; and in theory, any individual element could reveal information about every other element in the universe. Bohm proposes a new order—the Implicate Order where everything is enfolded into everything. Bohm’s theory stresses that the cosmos is in a state of process and feedback that continuously recycles forward into a greater mode of being and consciousness.”

Bohm believes in a special cosmic interiority—the Implicate Order. Everything that is and will be in this cosmos is enfolded within the Implicate Order and there is a special cosmic movement that carries forth the process of enfoldment and unfoldment into the explicate order.”

The relevance of Bohm’s theory being the notion that our connections with others, our world and the force of our inner nature can foster deeper harmony within ourselves, thus invoking greater harmony in our surroundings and interactions. This theory also implies that each human being’s fullest potential is somehow encoded in their natural way of being. There is a powerful saying attributed to the Indian mystic, Swami Vivekananda:

“You see, no one can teach anybody. The teacher spoils everything by thinking that he is teaching. Thus Vedanta (one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy) says that within man is all knowledge-even in a boy it is so-and it requires only an awakening, and that much is the work of a teacher.”

This statement from Swami Vivekananda speaks directly to David Bohm’s theory of the Implicate Order and to be “Simplicit” is a way of holding an ample space in our interactions with others and how we show up in the world to foster this awakening in one another and unfold our fullest potential.

Eckhart Tolle is a mentor figure for you. How did you become familiar with Eckhart’s story and what are your main takeaways from his spiritual teachings?

Eckhart Tolle has been an immensely helpful reference point during my life process because the unfolding of our lives have a handful of commonalities. Eckhart had his most life-changing spiritual awakening when he was 29 years old, which is the age I am now. Eckhart is now 74 years old and he rose to world-renowned prominence as a spiritual teacher during the last two or so decades, for scope. Eckhart’s awakening also involved some visionary experiences where he intuitively perceived in a dream some best-selling books that were felt to be written by him in the future (implicate to explicate), but Eckhart said he had no conscious intentions  or plans to write any books. It took over a decade for any of these visions to materialize for Eckhart, but the fashion in which these things unfolded for him was fascinating and empowering for me. One of my most powerful awakenings occurred when I was 21 years old and involved a similar visionary experience where I intuitively perceived a great deal of music I saw that I would create (among many other things) and release commercially that would unbeknownst to me eventually amount to some sort of external success or impact, although I also had no intentions or plans of doing any of this at the time of the experience. I also had no sense of attachment to or ambition for these outcomes, but the perception of what was present in the “implicate order” of my life felt so clear that it never left me. I also felt unplugged from the energies that run our societal world, although more in tune with what seemed to be some finer energies that were also running through the totality of nature. Eckhart’s awakening was also characterized by a profound alienation from the ways and pace of the world that culminated in him dropping out of a PhD program he was in prior to his awakening, and he says he lost all ambition in the conventional sense, no longer motivated by his “person.” Eckhart was thought insane by his close friends and family but was simultaneously enmeshed in a deeply peaceful presence that began  emanating from within him and guiding his life. I won’t get into them all, but for the sake of this write-up piece these are only a few ways my experience has been uncannily alike Eckhart’s while also still being unique and ongoing. 

I first became exposed to Eckhart a short time after one of my most profound awakening experiences and listening to him speak I knew that I had found someone like me who also legitimized my experiences. It is very natural that one begins to question their sanity at the onset of mystical awakenings. The primary thing Eckhart represented was that this gentler, more methodical way of living that comes out of your consciousness is still a deeply impactful and far-reaching mode of existence even though it is a lot quieter and simpler than the grandiosity and opulence of our mainstream ways of life. It is natural that one who goes through an awakening of this magnitude may question their ability or even desire to participate in a world like ours where one feels so alienated or unable to conform to the norms imposed upon them, but Eckhart gave a sense of validity to these experiences and a more palpable sense of reality to my visionary experiences and the way my life was unfolding. My main takeaway from Eckhart’s teachings is about staying connected to the simplicity of our living body’s present moment and the ways in which our inflated psychosocial selves can interfere with the natural harmony of our living organism.

Walk us through your creative process for creating music.

The creative process for the music I’ve made has been such a spectrum of different approaches it would be hard to say that I have a rigid regimen that I follow each time. It is much more spontaneous. I’ve had multiple albums be created in the span of a few days and had other projects that were made over the span of a few months. It totally depends on the weather of my inner world--as far as the types of experiences and information I’m exposed to over that period and how that network of phenomena feeds on itself. Some creative ideas appear in the form of late-night epiphanies or full-on downloads wherein entire albums can feel as though they are downloaded or impressed into my consciousness in their entirety and then over time, sometimes only a few days, my body is able to flesh out those impressions into the music I am being presented internally. Other times the process is much more methodical and uncovered as bits and pieces of the creative ideas phase in increments. For example, my newest album Primordial Taze has been floating around in my consciousness for a few years as an idea but on the morning of January 23rd, 2022 (still before the album existed) I had a dream where I saw the album fully finished and released on digital streaming platforms and then less than three weeks later all the songs had been written, recorded, mixed and mastered – always to my own astonishment. There is no way I could take full credit for these creative explosions, but they sound very similar to the fashion in which Eckhart Tolle wrote his best-selling books that he had visions about years prior.

I have found that the most beautiful and enjoyable aspect of the creative process is the feeling of being in communication with other levels of my own consciousness and the Greater Consciousness and to witness the fulfilment of being at the mercy of an intelligence that is far beyond anything my conscious mind could ever take credit for. To perceive some implicate creative potential that emerges from within and flowers into the explicate. This creative experience, to feel as though I’m being used, guided and inspired by something Greater during the creative process has been one of the greatest joys I’ve known in this human life.

Shaun is also the editor for his best friend’s brand, Cooler Than Average, which provides a platform for people to tell their stories of adversity and triumph. Why did you get involved with Cooler Than Average and what are your goals with this platform?

Cooler Than Average is a brand that I assisted my best friend Deon Jones in creating because we both wanted to find another small way to give back. A lot of Deon and I’s conversations over the years have involved us holding space for one another to really contextualize the potentials and creative seeds we felt we carried inside of us and in what ways to give these things form. There is a famous quote by Maya Angelou that says, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Cooler Than Average was our offering to give as many people as were willing a platform to tell their stories of adversity, transformation, triumph, failure, and success in a way that could be shared with others. Deon and I would always discuss the power that exists in storytelling and how being exposed to a possibility through someone else’s story can sometimes be that extra glimmer of light someone needs, a lot like Eckart Tolle has been for me. If anything, through Cooler Than Average we hope to liberate as many people as possible from the agony of bearing an untold story inside themselves. We understand how important it is that as many people as possible feel seen, heard and held in the fullness of who they are and the life experiences that have felt most significant for them. 

What does “be open.” mean to you?

Be open. means to be alert, receptive and available to life – to abandon our preconceptions, assumptions and pretentions about things, people and situations so that we can be fully receptive and perceptive of the meaningful network of experience that makes up our lives. For me, being open. is also an act of radical self-love and rebellion in our overtly saturated world of grandiose celebrity-ism, capitalism and consumerism. Being open. means to reject the allure of inadequacy and to celebrate our ordinariness, to be fully present and attentive to the simplicity and immensity of what it means to be human. Never to allow the superficiality, excess and insatiability of the mainstream narrative hijack our ability to feel sincere gratitude for the blessings that are within and around us every moment of our lives.

Why does the open. mindset resonate with you?

The open. mindset resonates with me because I know that the most positive forces in the world sometimes function quietly and almost invisibly but create ripples that outlive the moment. open. strikes me as one of these powerful, quiet collectives that are doing their best to embody some of the highest qualities that a human being is capable of – simplicity, empathy, and an awareness that although we may feel we have lost our way – we can always reacquaint ourselves with the deeper harmony between our inner nature and outer world.