I am an American artist, painting symbols from the unconscious mind […],’ writes Bess, ‘and have recently started integrating the work […]. The source of my work comes from the vision which has occurred right before I go to sleep.’

Bess’s description of pre-dream visions is noteworthy. The artist may have been partially influenced by the writings of Jung’s colleague, Herbert Silberer, whose Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism (published in English in 1917) mentions self-induced hypnagogia as a means for tapping into the latent content of the psyche. From the letter we can see that Bess has already moved beyond the suggestions provided by Silberer and has taken his visions seriously enough to treat them as more than daydream autosymbolism; they are now guides for spiritual advice waiting to be sought out.