Net of Being

by Alex Grey, Allyson Grey (Primary Contributor)

How Alex Grey’s visionary art is evolving the cultural body through icons of interconnectedness

• Includes over 200 reproductions of Grey’s artwork

• Contains spectacular photos of Grey’s collaboration with the cult band TOOL plus his worldwide live-painting performances

• Offers Grey’s reflections on how art evolves consciousness with a new symbology of the Networked Self

• Winner of the 2013 Nautilus Silver Book Award in Photography and Art

Revealing the interwoven energies of body and soul, love and spirit that illuminate the core of each being, Alex Grey’s mystic paintings articulate the realms of consciousness encountered during visits to entheogenic heaven worlds. His painting Net of Being --inspired by a blazing vision of an infinite grid of Godheads during an ayahuasca journey--has reached millions as the cover and interior of the band TOOL’s Grammy award–winning triple-platinum album, 10,000 Days . Net of Being is one of many images Grey has created that have resulted in a chain reaction of uses--from apparel and jewelry to tattoos and music videos--embedding these iconic works into our culture’s living Net of Being.

The book explores how the mystical experience expressed in Alex Grey’s work opens a new understanding of our shared consciousness and unveils the deep influence art can have on cultural evolution. The narrative progresses through a successive expansion of identity--from the self, to self and beloved, to self and community, world spirit, and cosmic consciousness, where bodies are transparent to galactic energies. Presenting over 200 images, including many never-before-reproduced paintings as well as masterworks such as St. Albert and the LSD Revelation Revolution and Godself , the book also documents performance art, live-painting on stage throughout the world, and the “social sculpture” called CoSM, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, that Grey cofounded with his wife and creative collaborator, artist Allyson Grey.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Collections, Spirituality

208 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2012

About the author

Alex Grey was born in Columbus, Ohio on November 29, 1953 (Sagittarius), the middle child of a gentle middle-class couple. His father was a graphic designer and encouraged his son’s drawing ability. Young Alex would collect insects and dead animals from the suburban neighborhood and bury them in the back yard. The themes of death and transcendence weave throughout his artworks, from the earliest drawings to later performances, paintings and sculpture. Alex went to the Columbus College of Art and Design on full scholarship from 1971-3. Grey dropped out of art school and painted billboards for Columbus Outdoor Advertising, 1973-4. Grey then moved to Boston to study with and work as studio assistant for conceptual artist, Jay Jaroslav, at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1974-5. At the Museum School, Alex met his life-long partner, the artist, Allyson Rymland Grey. At their meeting in 1975, an entheogenically induced mystical experience transformed his agnostic existentialism to a radical transcendentalism. The Grey couple continued to take “sacramental journeys” on LSD. For five years, Alex worked in the Anatomy department at Harvard Medical School preparing cadavers for dissection while he studied the body on his own. He later worked for Dr. Herbert Benson and Dr. Joan Borysenko as a research technologist at Harvard’s department of Mind/Body Medicine, conducting scientific experiments to investigate subtle healing energies. Alex’s anatomical training prepared him for painting the Sacred Mirrors (see below) and for working as a medical illustrator. Doctors at Harvard saw images of his Sacred Mirrors, and hired Alex for illustration work.

Grey instructed Artistic Anatomy and Figure Sculpture for ten years at New York University, and has taught the Visionary Art Intensive and other art workshops with Allyson at The New York Open Center, Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, the California Institute of Integral Studies and Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. The couple now teach MAGI workshops (Mystic Artists Guild International) at CoSM in Wappinger, New York. In 1972 Grey began a series of art actions that bear resemblance to rites of passage, in that they present stages of a developing psyche. The approximately fifty performance rites, conducted over the last thirty years move through transformations from an egocentric to more sociocentric and increasingly worldcentric and theocentric identity. In a major performance entitled WorldSpirit, spoken word poetry in musical collaboration with Kenji Williams was released in 2004 as a DVD.

Grey’s unique series of 21 life-sized paintings, the Sacred Mirrors, take the viewer on a journey toward their own divine nature by examining, in detail, the body, mind, and spirit. The Sacred Mirrors, present the physical and subtle anatomy of an individual in the context of cosmic, biological and technological evolution. Begun in 1979, the series took a period of ten years to complete. It was during this period that Alex developed depictions of the human body that “x-ray” the multiple layers of reality, and reveal the interplay of anatomical and spiritual forces. After painting the Sacred Mirrors, he applied this multidimensional perspective to such archetypal human experiences as praying, meditation, kissing, copulating, pregnancy, birth, nursing and dying. Grey’s recent work explores the subject of consciousness from the perspective of “universal beings” whose bodies are grids of fire, eyes and infinite galactic swirls.

Renowned healers Olga Worral and Rosalyn Bruyere express appreciation for the skillful portrayal of clairvoyant vision his paintings of translucent glowing bodies. Countless teachers and spiritual leaders, including Deepak Choprah, incorporate Alex’s art in their power point presentations. Grey’s paintings have been featured in venues as diverse as the album art of TOOL, SCI, the Beastie Boys and Nirvana, Time and Newsweek magazines, the Discovery Chan

Reviews

[Daniel Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of phenomenal visionary artwork but, as with most works of a psychedelic nature, it includes delusional New Age philosophies which judge the non-dualist worldview (that modern science shows us) to be nihilistic. Grey is a marvellous artist but it is a shame that he had to invoke the supernatural to give psychedelic experiences and life in general any meaning.

[Aspen McClain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful art. Lots of spiritual mumbo jumbo, but that’s what you get when you read Alex Grey.

[Thomas Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d long admired this book on Amazon, but had a hard time pulling the trigger because of the cost. In the end it was well worth it, not just for the large full color reproductions of Grey’s incredible mystical art, but for the stories he told and the way he talked about his art and what it means. Even though it’s an art book, I read it cover to cover, learning more about the young Alex Grey and his wonderful partnership with his wife Allyson. Reading his words helped me to think more not only about his art, but about all art. I was fortunate enough to visit Alex’s camp at Burning Man and see him paint live. I was most impressed by his tub after tub of paint supplies. I’ve had his buddha painting on my wall for years, but this book really inspired me to visit his gallery in upstate New York. It sounds like quite a hike, but it’s definitely on my list of things to check out.

[Tiare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found this book on a coffee table at a place I was staying at. I loved reading the descriptions of his paintings and getting a little more insight into his art. Apparently he’s an icon of his days. But I was busy raising my children Mormon back then lol.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

some of the most amazing art ever ... lotta neat (goofy) ideas too if you're into that fun

[Noah Beckage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of ecstatic visionary art. Not sure if I'm on board with the religion the Grey's have founded, though. Fascinating nonetheless.

[Komal Patel-Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

So so beautiful and uplifting

[W.L. Bolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the artwork and the narrative of this book; I thought that its biggest limitation is that the one-faith/transcendental philosophy espoused is very much a product of its time. I feel like there are a lot of artists and authors from the 70s/early 80s who are all on the same wavelength with jargon and experience, so at times the story/screed of the book could be dense and hard to get through without rereading.

I picked this up on a bit of a whim but was pleasantly surprised by the experience of reading it and some of the details of Grey's life and religious experiences as well as CoSM. While I've seen Grey's work, I didn't know very much about him. His work is definitely something I'll be exploring more in the future.