“The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable… Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow… You will have created something.”
Vonnegut had a gift for saying the unsayable without dressing it up. He wasn’t interested in prestige, polish, or perfection. He was interested in survival—emotional, spiritual, human survival.
This quote is not about becoming an artist. It’s about staying alive inside your own life.
And for mystics, sensitives, clairvoyants, and mediums, this distinction matters deeply.
Because intuitive people don’t suffer from a lack of talent. They suffer from a lack of permission—permission to express, to feel, to create without monetizing or justifying it.
At Art of the Seer Academy, we see this constantly: people who are deeply intuitive but starved of an expressive outlet. People who have learned to contain themselves instead of letting Spirit move through them and animate their desires and vision.
Vonnegut is reminding us that creation is not optional for the soul.
Art as a Human Function, Not a Career Path
Vonnegut pushes back hard against the idea that art’s value lies in productivity or income. He reframes artmaking as a biological necessity—something humans do to metabolize experience.
This is exactly how psychic practice functions.
Clairvoyant meditation, mediumship, intuitive writing, energetic healing—these are more than just “side hustles.” They are how sensitives process the density of the world.
Without expression, intuition stagnates.
Without movement, energy calcifies.
Without creativity, Spirit goes quiet.
You don’t practice to be impressive. You practice to stay inhabited.
Why “Doing It Badly” Is Spiritually Correct
Vonnegut’s insistence that you sing badly, write lousy poems, dance awkwardly is a direct affront to perfectionism—the very trait that shuts down intuition.
Mystics often freeze their gifts because they fear being wrong. But Spirit does not require accuracy to move.
It requires willingness.
In our training spaces, students are encouraged to read imperfectly, speak what they see without polishing it, let images arrive unfinished, and trust certainty. This is not sloppiness—it is openness.
Perfectionism is a control strategy. Intuition flourishes in the soil of permission.
Creation as Energy Circulation
Vonnegut’s phrase “making life more bearable” is quietly profound. He understood that human experience generates more feeling than the psyche can hold without outlets.
Psychic training makes this explicit: Energy that is not expressed becomes internalized punishment or pressure.
Pressure becomes anxiety.
Anxiety becomes shutdown or overwhelm.
Creative acts—writing, speaking, reading energy, telling stories—allow energy to circulate. When students say, “I feel lighter after class,” this is why.
They didn’t learn something. They moved something.
Weekly Practitioner Exchange: 30-Minute Reading & Healing
One of the truly magical things about our community is that since we share a commitment to the same tools, techniques, and practice container, it’s easy to reach out to each other and create your own reading and healing exchanges. Using this post as inspiration, find a partner to work with - perhaps someone you know from a current or previous class, or post in the peer-to-peer group to find someone new!
The Setup: Pair up with a reading partner this week. Set your space, work your matching pictures, and look at the following specific energies in each other’s space.
The Reading Topics: We are looking at the energy of Creative Permission vs. Perfectionism.
The Audit (Looking at the Block): Look at where the readee is holding the energy of "withholding." Specifically: Where have they withheld creative expression because they decided it wasn’t “useful,” “productive,” or “good enough”? What age or time period is this energy from?
The Relief (Looking at the Resource): Look at the readee’s current spiritual or artistic practices. Which specific elements of their practice are actually helping them "metabolize" their life experience and making it bearable? Validate these colors and vibrations.
The Shift (Looking at the Potential): Look at the energy of "Outcome-Free Creation." How would the readee’s relationship with their own Spirit shift if they created something this week with zero attachment to the result?
The Vision (The Healing Step): Look at the vibration of "Aliveness." What would it look like for this person to create simply because they are alive? Look at them creating without purpose, without perfection, and without needing to be "right."
Healing Focus: End the session by giving the readee a healing on their creative channels. Help them move out any "critics" or "editors" that are sitting in their space, so they can run their own creative energy more clearly.
One Small Step: A Solo Micro-Action
If you can’t make it to a reading exchange this week, or if you just need immediate relief from perfectionism, try this:
Write one sentence that is entirely true, but grammatically incorrect. Or, hum one distinct note that resonates in your chest for 30 seconds.
Prove to your nervous system that the world does not end when you break the rules of "good" performance.
The Reward is Internal Vonnegut promises an “enormous reward,” and he’s right—but it’s not external. The reward is feeling less alone inside yourself, inhabiting your body more fully, and remembering that you are a participant in life, not a bystander.
Tell us in the comments: What is one creative thing you love doing, even if you do it "badly"?
An intuitive guide and spiritual educator with a practice spanning over two decades in a variety of modalities, William FitzRoy is the founder of the Art of the Seer, a premier destination for spiritual growth and development established in 2015. William believes that psychic tools and spiritual awareness is a practice available to everyone, and he has dedicated his career to demystifying the "unseen" for practical, everyday empowerment in the new new age.
While he is sought after for his insightful and cathartic readings and healings—available online or in-person at his Downtown Chicago studio—William’s true passion lies in mentorship. He facilitates dynamic teaching containers for students ready to master Embodiment Meditation, Clairvoyance, and Mediumship. From curious beginners to seasoned advanced students looking for a fresh perspective and new techniques for their toolkit, William provides the experiences, structure, and support needed to turn any sensitivity into a superpower.
