Psychic Terrains: A Remote Viewing Study of Hilma af Klint’s The Paintings for the Temple, 2026 | Research Project
Hilma af Klint’s The Paintings for the Temple is a series of 193 paintings created between 1906 and 1915, commissioned by the spirit guide she identified as Amaliel. This project asks: Who or what is the intelligence and inspiration behind the series? Hilma af Klint was a Swedish artist and pioneer of abstraction whose spiritual and artistic practices were deeply intertwined. In her writings, she describes working with spirit guides: through her, alongside her, and in collaboration with her. Before beginning The Paintings for the Temple, she was a member of De Fem, a group of women who met regularly to conduct séances, practice automatic drawing and writing, and communicate with spiritual intelligences. Although af Klint created some of the earliest examples of abstraction in Western art, she kept much of this body of work from public view and stated that it should not be shown until at least twenty years after her death, believing the world was not yet ready to understand it. By bringing parapsychology and art into direct conversation, the project applies non-ordinary perception to art created through non-ordinary processes. Using artworks as targets, remote viewing may offer insight into psychic terrains including creative sources, embedded information, systems, and possible non-physical intelligences, expanding how we understand artistic processes and the forms of knowledge held within art. The project proposes psi-based methodologies as viable tools for artistic research and offers a framework that can complement and extend art historical analysis. Psychic Terrains is led by Sara Ludy, Principal Researcher, with Esther Hoflick serving as Co-Researcher.