I love The Doors and I am a huge fan of Jim Morrison’s writing, but I have to admit that some of what was posthumously published as “poetry” is really nothing more than the scribbled thoughts of someone who was way too stoned for his own good. Much of what is in Wilderness Volume 1: The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison falls into this category. The following poem, though, is one of the better pieces in the collection.
I can make the earth stop in
its tracks. I made the
blue cars go away.I can make myself invisible or small.
I can become gigantic & reach the
farthest things. I can change
the course of nature.
I can place myself anywhere in
space or time.
I can summon the dead.
I can perceive events on other worlds,
in my deepest inner mind,
& in the minds of others.I can
I am
On one level, Morrison is expressing how his music and poetry has the power to influence the world around him. Art has the ability to speak directly to another person’s subconscious mind. It is also an expression of the artist’s inner thoughts and being. Through the sharing of music and poetry, people are able to catch glimpses of their inner selves, something that is very difficult to achieve by ordinary interaction.
But I think Jim is tapping in to something deeper and more arcane here, whether consciously or by accident. Thought is energy, and when directed and focused, that energy can affect the world around us. The latest discoveries in physics support this. Every one of us has the ability to initiate change using our minds. In addition, shifts in consciousness allow us to perceive other dimensions. In states of heightened awareness, we can tap into the collective unconscious and connect with the thoughts of others, living or dead. Morrison is expressing this power in the poem, a power that not only he has, but which all of us have, whether we are aware of that ability or not. And to become aware of that power, all one needs to do is open the “Doors of Perception.”
Stuff Jeff Reads 
Just as the Sun has entered Sagittarius – the mind has no limits, indeed.
Well put, Monika. Thanks for your comment!
Forgot to add that he was a Sagittarius and my long-time high school crush.
🙂
Hi Jeff. I hope you don’t mind, but I reprinted your post on http://www.jimmorrisonproject.com/entry/2013/11/power-by-jim-morrison
No problem. Glad you liked it. Cheers!
Reblogged this on Earthpages.org.
Nice analysis. You might want to check out the Doors movie, if you haven’t seen it yet. I watched it for free on Hoopla. 🙂
I reblogged this at earthpages.org. Thanks for your generosity.
Oh yeah, I’ve watched it several times. I was also fortunate enough to visit Jim’s grave in Paris. It was a great experience. Thanks for the reblog. Enjoy the rest of the weekend 🙂
A quote from Ray Manzerek’s autobiography of his time with the Doors, really had an impact on me. He said something along the lines of, “once those Doors of Perception were opened there’s no closing them.” And I remember feeling a sense of relief that it wasn’t necessary to keep taking LSD. One of the great criticisms of the sixties acid culture was that it frequently advocated a kind of wholesale obliteration of the ego, perhaps based on a too literal interpretation of Tibetan Buddhist ideas. Indigenous wisdom regarding hallucinagenic substances is that frequently states that the obliteration of ego through powerful artificial substances can be way too destructive to the conciousness and that natural plants are much more effective and safe.
Thanks for your comment, Lee. Manzerek was making an allusion to the writings of William Blake, who coined the phrase “Doors of Perception,” although it was later used by Aldous Huxley as the title for his book. While I agree with what you say, I would take it a step further. Power plants can be just as destructive to consciousness, and Castaneda warns about dependence on plants to shift consciousness. The best and safest way is through meditation, although it is the most difficult path, but let’s face it, the difficult paths are the most rewarding.
Cheers!
Thank you for sharing that insight. Yes I agree. I have never read Castaneda, but I have a feeling I should though. I base this purely on first hand experience. Meditation, yoga and or various kinds of intense creative endeavor, such as dancing, music-making or art, have been the best way for me. I did experiment a lot in my youth but I was clueless, and lacked the developed spiritual awareness to properly integrate my experiences. Integration occurred much later and was at times a deeply painful experience of soul retrieval. I would never seek to trivialize or over-romanticize the use of any mind-altering substances, of course, but under the proper expert guidance perhaps my experience would have been much different. In hindsight though, I have realized that mind-altering substances of any kind are not so necessary or even realistic, and yes, some more recent advocates have approached the issue of such plant substances, with much the same overzealousness as any of the sixties counterculture gurus did with LSD. To a man with a hammer, every problem is a nail! And I believe the misguided idea of some kind of instantaneous awakening via plants, without putting in the hard spiritual yards day to day, can play into the hands of the quick-fix mentality of modern society.