Home (theory of the ego death and rebirth experience)
Encoding/Decoding of Mystic-State Themes in Rock Lyrics
Contents
Acid Rock lyrics: remote cueing
across verses
The single-meaning fallacy in
lyrics interpretation
Lyrics: focus on the theory of interpretation
Politics, religious experience, &
acid-mystic encryption
Recognizing lyrical allusions to
the mystic altered state
Selecting Bands to Analyze. Entheogen-induced egodeath
Lyrics: sufficient scope of
examples
Rain = Reign: Double-hearing as
Work within Paradigm
Song Lyrics: Encoding/Decoding
Sound perception in the altered
state
Early in
this discussion group I posted an analysis of Bohemian Rhapsody -- very heavy
ego-death/acid mysticism allusions. I
consider Queen one of the groups that has a full grasp of the entheogen rock
religion, but prefers to write isolated songs focusing on that subject.
Rush, as a
philosophy group ought, chooses to allude to the subject more consistently or
relentlessly throughout their albums, particularly their classic-era albums
Caress of Steel through Grace Under Pressure (mid-1970s to mid-1980s).
Black
Sabbath treated LSD religion as a substantial but not emphasized portion of
their drug-alluding Heavy Rock scope -- Ozzy's first two solo albums, however,
emphasized LSD, according to my interpretation. I have heard that LSD was used routinely by many bands as part of
lyric writing; I suspect that was a trick of the trade, used for albums such as
one by the Cars.
There is a
distribution of acid-mysticism allusions at the level of a band, an album, a
song, or a verse -- at any level there may be a high density of allusions. One technique is to insert a verse dense
with allusions into a song that otherwise is innocent of such allusions. Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls, Cheap
Trick's Way of the World. This verse is
a key suggesting reading the remaining lyrics in their mystical sense, though
the other lyrics are not themselves filled with dense allusions.
That is
like a mundane-state, ordinary song about flying in airplanes, with the middle
verse switching to overtly double-coded meaning such as "a trip so high,
visions before my eye", which would then switch the meaning of the other
lyrics too. This is the theory or
principle of remote cueing. Suppose
only half of the verses in Caress of Steel are, considered in isolation,
clearly entheogenic, and the other verses are no more entheogenic than any
straight lyrics would randomly happen to be.
Yet
considered as a whole, the entire album and all its lyrics would demand to be
interpreted entheogenically, even the average verses, due to the presence in
the package of the strongly entheogenic verses. This formula makes great sense, more so than proposing, say, an
entire album with just one verse meant to be heard in its entheogenic sense,
because if the listener is in a 12-hour altered-state session, the mind will be
in the encoding/decoding state for all of the verses, not just for one
song.
Album-oriented
rock started as trip soundtrack rock.
Single-oriented acid rock was impractical, because LSD lasts 12 hours,
while a pop-sike single lasts only 3-1/2 minutes.
In
addition to double-entendres in lyrical words, and altered-state musical
sounds, there are hybrids, such as double-speak mumbling or double-tracked
vocals singing two different but similar sounding words together.
One of the
most inventive and brilliant sonic allusions to LSD ever is the uneven
heartbeat (heart palpitations) at the end of the space-trip song Cygnus
X-1. This sound is a total givaway
communicating the presence of LSD, but only to those who are real veterans who
have made a serious and sustained study of the subject.
What about
this -- would you call it lyric, or music?
In the song "Flying High Again", Ozzy sings "Never heard
a thing I said", then ping-ponged is the pseudo-delayed "said"
echoed twice, but it's actually the word "dead": "Never heard a
thing I said (dead, dead)." The
song "Chemistry" by Rush uses strategic mumbled words often.
Probably
the deservedly most famous sonic allusion to LSD-triggered ego death is the
orchestral build-up, twice, at the end of the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper, in
the song A Day in the Life, which perfectly captures the orgasm-like timing of
the ego-death realization buildup.
The end of
Cygnus X-1 is Rush's exact equivalent to the build-up in Day in the Life, so
that we could say Cygnus X-1 is Rush's "A Day in the Life".
S.A.T.O.
could be expanded as Sailing the Acid Trip Ocean. These are the initials to his wife, Sharon's, full name.
I need to
clarify the single-meaning fallacy.
People say that the Rush song Chemistry is about consciousness and
relationships, and "therefore" can't be about LSD. Red Barchetta is about a car and
"therefore" can't be about LSD phenomena and insights. Such thinkers have flunked Poetry 101. The fact that S.A.T.O. is Sharon's initials
is an important and valuable contribution to studying Ozzy lyrics, but by no
means shuts out other additional expansions.
In this particular song (lyrics by Bob Dylan), I don't see clearly allusions to the phenomena of the mystic altered state. I'd like to see your analysis.
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22all+along+the+watchtower%22+dylan+hendrix
The posting rules of this discussion group *require* that any posting of lyrics be accompanied by indications of how the lyrics deliberately allude to the phenomena of the mystic altered state. I have only occasionally broken this rule in my own posts.
I believe that All Along the Watchtower, penned by Dylan, *not* Hendrix, has *no* direct, deliberate allusions to the mystic altered state. I also believe some other songs discussed here have no such allusions -- but the other postings are better because they provide an attempt to justify the interpretation.
This group must not become a dumping ground for "lyrics I like" or "lyrics I find trippy". It needs to stay focused on interpretation and especially on the theory of interpretation: how specifically can a panel of judges evaluate whether or not a song or verse deliberately alludes to the phenomena of the mystic altered state? A major factor is to look at the broad context of a verse inside a song inside an album inside a group's work inside the Rock culture of their era and cultural milieu.
Against the careless unreflective assumptions of many fans, a verse such as in the Rush song Twilight Zone has strong context of the mystic altered state; a case can be made that the album, the surrounding albums by the group, and the group's genre and similar groups within the era of the mid-1970s, is firmly based in the mystic altered state. As far as I know, Queen has much less of a sure basis in the mystic altered state, and yet, the Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody is certainly a model of dense allusions to the mystic altered state.
I have not studied Queen lyrics or Freddy Mercury lyrics much, so my view on their overall status is tentative. Neither have I seriously studied Michael Jackson. One must dig in and seriously investigate: this need was proven by my research into the Beatles' song "Help!": a careless assessment says it was written too early to have mystic altered state allusions, but a serious investigation reveals that it has perfect timing assuming heavy use of the mystic state after the initiation of John Lennon at Michael Hollingshead's place some months before writing the song -- assuming that Lennon immediately took to heavy use of the mystic altered state.
A principle of esoteric mysticism-religion is the idea that higher knowledge is reflected all throughout the world -- but the whole issue in lyrics interpretation is how to judge whether a song contains deliberate and conscious allusions to higher experiential insight, or only accidental allusions. Looking for high density of such allusions helps, but if one is hell-bent on seeing high density allusions, literally every word and phrase of every song ever written has either accidental or deliberate allusions to the mystic altered state. Allusions are everywhere, but the entire problem is how to differentiate between accidental versus deliberate allusions to mystic experiencing.
There is, in principle, no reason why Pop music genre such as Michael Jackson should lack the authentic muse of mystic state experiencing and allusions to it. There *are* reasons to expect higher incidence of such allusions in Heavy Rock. Heavy Rock is inherently more mystic-state grounded than Pop music, because in this culture of the late 20th Century, musical heaviness and the intense mystic altered state both are driven by seeking and maximizing intensity.
A focus on mystic state allusions in popular music should be centered in Heavy Rock, expanding outward from that center. I use a trilogy of albums to represent the heart and representative ground zero of mystic allusions in Heavy Rock:
o Diary of a Madman, by the Ozzy Osbourne band, lyrics written by bassist Bob Daisley
http://www.google.com/search?q=Bob+Daisley
o Ride the Lightning, by Metallica, including bassist Cliff Burton
o Caress of Steel, by Rush
Acid-encoded
mystic lyrics have two basic layers of meaning: the surface layer, and the
allusions to acid mystic cognitive phenomena.
This is
how a song about the shuttle launch is also about (alludes to) the acid mystic
phenomena. The demonstrable presence of
a non-acid surface meaning in no way prevents a song from also containing dense
allusions pointing to mystic acid phenomena.
So it's utterly futile and misses the game -- it's literalism -- to
insist that "the discovery is of an electric guitar" or
"subdivisions is about suburban alienation", as though that's some
sort of hidden revelation.
Of course
the track Discovery is "about an electric guitar"; what could be more
explicitly stated? That's the surface
meaning and is not a matter of revelation, debate, or contention -- that's the
blatantly given starting point. Jesus
deconstructor Robert Price helped his wife write just such a shallow, literal,
superficial analysis of all this band's lyrics, utterly missing the entire altered-state
layer.
People
assume, without considering any other possibility, that a song must have a
single meaning; "it means M, therefore it *can't* be about acid" --
but the point isn't whether the song is about the surface meaning M *or*
"about acid"; rather, the question is whether the song that's about
meaning M on the surface is worded carefully so that it also contains dense
deliberate allusions, phrasing choices in expressing surface meaning M, that
are designed to flash and point to mystic state phenomena to that listener who
is in a loose cognitive state and is on the alert for such pointers and
signals.
Some
albums such as Queen's News of the World do have isolated songs about acid
phenomena: the song Sheer Heart Attack.
The album Signals might seem that way, if you consider only the song
Chemistry to have allusions to the phenomena of the acid mystic state. However, that album is the opposite: all the
songs *except one* (Losing It) have dense allusions to acid mysticism.
The live
album Exit Stage Left: the title alludes to ego death -- the suspension of the
separate-self/freewill sense, and its permanent logical overthrow. The back cover shows the slack puppet king,
who I call "King Ego", from the cover of the album Farewell to Kings,
sitting on a crate stenciled with the large number 43 and the RUSH logo in a
trippy 1970s typeface.
This crate
is akin to a cask, alluding to the Cask of '43 mentioned in the song Bacchus
Plateau on the album Caress of Steel.
Here are the lines that mention the cask of '43, with my existing
analysis:
_____
Another
endless day.
Silhouettes
of grey.
Another
glass of wine. [another LSD session]
Drink
with eyes that shine. [dilated eyes, flushed face]
To days
without
that chill at morning.
Long
nights, [tripping]
time out
of mind. [psychotomimetic, out of the egoic mind mode]
Draw
another goblet [another LSD dose]
from the
cask of '43. [LSD, discovered in 1943]
Crimson,
misty mem'ry, [search "crimson", = life blood of ego] [perceptual
blurring, acute perception of cognition as present memory re-constructing]
hazy
glimpse of me. [ego disappearance. LSD perceptual blurring]
_____
Rock
musicians have always valued LSD, because it gives intense experiences to write
about and allude to, and provides an insider language, a cult for those in the
know, a member's club for the Experienced, adds the transcendent dimension
turning mere entertainment into a vehicle of divinity, and through loose
cognition, releases the Muse, providing a rush of improvisation and innovation
ability.
These
benefits of LSD are well-known to electric guitarists; it's an open trade
secret like placing an equalizer effects pedal before preamp distortion rather
than after -- but these benefits are much less well-known to drummers. Drummer/lyricist Neil Peart is the notable
exception; he is an acid-inspired drummer: the Jimi Hendrix and the Eddie Van
Halen of drums.
It's
little use to ask Rush whether they are largely an Acid Rock group. Due to the conditions of prohibition, they
have every reason not to be forthright about this; it would only be a
liability. Why should they rock the
boat? The audience In the Know doesn't
need them to confirm what's already obvious, and the audience who is oblivious
is doing fine and buying the albums and concert tickets. Why risk alienating anyone?
There's
also the mystique advantage; mystery religions have always liked the idea of
things being hidden and later revealed.
Rush hides, the acid state reveals -- and I explicitly, systematically
reveal. It's a viable arrangement.
This mode
of decoding/analysis is common in religious myth, the mystery-religions,
heretical thought, and esoteric Christianity.
As long as the upper class of aristocrats, clergy, and drug warriors is
intent on controlling and restricting mystic and forbidden knowledge, mystics have
had to become encoders and decoders.
Acid Rock lyric encoding is just one more manifestation of the
relationship between political power and direct religious experience.
>hey
look its not liek that ....ive used drugs before...and its bs what they say
first of all its not soul detration what they do is at this gay webpage is take
the last s in timless and say its part of old mkaken it sound like soul and
attraction with the echo semi sounds like detraction but even when i sung these
jsut me ..it sounded like soul detraction the fact is that you poeple try to
find stuff that doesnt exist because u belive u are of a higher class and can
read between the lines better then the rest of us i mean come on THAT DUDE JUST
FIGURED OUT CARRES OF STEEL MENT THE GILLOTENE IN BASTILLE DAY *Sorry for my spellin*...these guys arent
that smart lol
An
enginere wroet me and sadi thta of coures no professionla enginere woudl waset
expensiev studoi resourcse on insertign specila effecst in the musci to provied
encodde cluse alludign 2 the phenomean of teh mystci alterde staet. Btu thas't wyh thta so-callde
"enginere" ist'n a *greta*, *inspirde* enginere. WHTA A POSRE!!!!. Whta cna u sya to suhc innocenst?
There are
two paradigms on this subject: either such acid-lyric encoding is rare as ice
in hell, or so common that it's standard.
It took me all too long to make the journey from assuming the former, to
the latter, so that now I speak of High Classic Rock, which *is* acid rock,
which I take in the broad sense to naturally and logically include all other
entheogens and altered states too, just as Amanita in the broad sense stands
for the entire unofficial tradition including Mary John Magdalene as the
Beloved Disciple, entheogens as the true Eucharistic sacrament, esoteric
Christianity as the only non-heretical kind of Christianity, mythic-only
Christ, real religion as experiential primary religious experiencing, and so
on.
When you
recognize and discern the density of acid-mystic double-entendres even in some
Cars, Devo, and Cheap Trick albums and songs -- *but not others* -- then you
finally come to respect just how deeply acid rock is the authentic
mystery-religion of the late 20th Century.
Thank you
very much for confirming what I have concluded, that acid-rock double-entendres
are *far* more common among the most inspired Rock than the uninitiated could
ever imagine. I'm no longer mainly
interested in discovering more confirmation of this, nor of convincing anyone.
From here
on out, the best confirmation and convincingness anyway lies in my new main
goal of acid-mystic study: *theorizing*; we have now collected enough data and
evidence about myth, art, and entheogens to *theorize*, which is required to
allow everything, data and insights and various traditions, to fall into
place. The higher paradigm framework
forms, and the incoming streams of data fit in with a new configuration,
strengthening the framework further.
alt.drugs.psychedelics,alt.drugs,alt.drugs.hard
Rush:
Passage to Bangkok (cannabis)
http://www.egodeath.com/rushlyrics.htm#xtocid22938
Rush:
Bacchus Plateau (LSD)
http://www.egodeath.com/rushlyrics.htm#xtocid22923
Rush:
Chemistry (LSD)
http://www.egodeath.com/rushlyrics.htm#xtocid22988
Most
acid-inspired Heavy Rock songs are actually about drug *experiencing* rather
than mentioning the drugs themselves.
The lyrics of such songs allude to and describe drug experiences without
explicitly naming the drugs that trigger the experiences.
The
predominant reason that the assumption of the presence of drugs is kept
implicit and hidden is that these drugs are illicit, illegal, and taboo. To fly under the radar of prohibition, the
artists and listeners use an encoding/decoding scheme.
To the
uninitiated (those who are not in the know), the lyrics are abstract,
whimsical, artistic. To those in the
know, the lyrics serve to characterize and celebrate the drug experiences.
This
covert encoding applies much more to lyrical than instrumental music, thus more
to Rock than Electronica even though recently Electronica has been more
faithful to the true gospel of the Holy Spirit than Rock has been.
Rock
lyrics alluding to mystic dissociative phenomena
http://www.egodeath.com/acidlyrics.htm
>I have
just been reading your interpretation of Rush lyrics and with respect most are
way off mark.
>I
simply disagree that any lyrics are alluding to LSD
etc...."Witchhunt" which you say is about the "drugs war"
is about the evils of racism, xenophobia etc and has absolutely nothing to do
with LSD, it's blatantly clear from the lyrics.
>Rush
are probably one of the cleanest living bands in rock and always have
been,drugs have never been on there agenda.
What is
your position regarding the song Passage to Bangkok? You didn't address that, but should have. Without addressing it, your message lacks
credibility.
http://www.egodeath.com/rushlyrics.htm#xtocid22938
Do you
have any evidence that Peart and Rush in the 70s were clean, rather than heavy
drug users? I have a lot of lyrical
evidence that Peart was intimately familiar with the phenomena that occur in
the mystic altered state. With no
evidence, your assertion is a preconception, an empty opinion, carrying no
weight and possessing no ability to persuade.
If you are
not familiar with the phenomena of the mystic altered state and are not
familiar with the mystery religions and Hellenistic thinking, you are in a poor
position to evaluate whether the themes and wording in Rush lyrics include
allusions to the phenomena that are common in the mystic altered state.
>Granted
you may have some good points,but there is some big difference between the
heady 70s and the eighties onwards and anyone who has followed Rush for a long
time (as I have since I was 12) knows that the guys are wonderful,caring,family
minded guys with a great sense of fun.
>Many
of their lyrics in recent times have been about issues like personal ambition
and life in general and about internationalism. The lyrics of Rush have been inspirational
to a great many people who have no truck with LSD or anything else of that ilk.
The guys are consummate musicians who have always put the music first and never
went for the whole Rock scene and all the associated baggage,this has been
recorded many times in biographies and in Fanzines.
>You
are way off mark and its very sad that you make such a superb band look like a
group of drug addicts when they have NEVER been anything like that.
You have
not explained how your points supposedly disprove Rush's repeated use of
LSD. I will spell out your implied
reasoning to see how compelling it is.
>Rush
are wonderful, caring, family minded guys with a great sense of fun. Therefore they must not have been LSD
enthusiasts or acid mystics, because LSD users are not wonderful, caring,
family minded guys, and they do not have a great sense of fun.
>Many
of their lyrics in recent times have been about issues like personal ambition
and life in general and about internationalism. Therefore the lyrics do not contain allusions to LSD phenomena or
acid mysticism, because lyrics can only contain a single level of meaning.
>The
lyrics of Rush have been inspirational to a great many people who have no truck
with LSD or anything else of that ilk.
Therefore the lyrics do not contain deliberate allusions to LSD
phenomena, because songs cannot be inspirational to non-LSD users while still
having elements that are intended for listeners in the altered state.
>The
guys are consummate musicians who have always put the music first. Therefore they have not used LSD repeatedly,
because people who put the music first must avoid using LSD.
>As
documented in biographies and in Fanzines, they never went for the whole Rock
scene and all the associated baggage.
Therefore they have not used LSD, because rejecting the common Rock
lifestyle means avoiding taking LSD.
>You
make a superb band look like a group of drug addicts when they have never been
anything like that.
Your
arguments are weak indeed, as well as ignorant, narrow-minded, prejudiced, and
jam-packed full of preconceptions. It's
not really thinking, but rather, superficial, unexamined, assumed
associations. So I see what kind of
critical thinking is needed to reject the hypothesis I put forward. You don't know anything at all about LSD,
evidently, except pop-culture and propaganda.
I'd be surprised if you knew anything about the Greek mystery-religions
and the Hellenistic myths.
What can I
say to the ignorant children, except, I'm glad that I can introduce them to the
world of higher thought for the first time.
I receive
dismissals and concurring emails.
Neither the 'for' nor 'against' emails have any real intellectual
content, and they contain no evidence that either party has ever read any books
on philosophy, mystic/religious experiencing, or entheogens.
I should
upload the arguments and organize them, then request further replies that take
the arguments into account. This way,
the responsibility falls on me as organizer of information.
I should
also write a list of recommended books and links for people who are unfamiliar
with the research in such areas. These
do not prove my position, but provide more adequate grounds on which to debate
my thesis.
o Mystery-religion studies, Greek mythology
webpages
o Books about theory of mystic experiencing
o Books about altered-state phenomena
o Books about the entheogenic theory of the
origin of religion.
o Books about Rush, acid rock, and progressive
rock (I've already uploaded the start of one prog rock book that says loud and
clear on page 1, psychedelic rock begat prog rock).
If you
read these kinds of materials and *then* still disagreed with me, we'd be
prepared for a meaningful, informed debate.
The Peart interviews I've seen have not supported my thesis, and I would
like to collect Rush articles and interviews to search them for evidence to
support my thesis. If I heard from
someone who was well-read and also experienced with altered states, I would
consider that to be a significant challenge to my thesis, rather than a
dismissal by someone who is unqualified to compare altered-state experiences to
these lyrics and judge the thesis.
I have
never received a 'for' or 'against' email from anyone who was well-read *and*
experienced with the altered state.
However, I have spoken with someone in the entheogen community who was a
spiritual adult in close contact with youth culture during the 1970s, who
assured me that Rush are indeed acid-mysticism artists, as is rather obvious
when examining the Caress of Steel vinyl-album cover including the lyrics and
photos.
It strains
credibility to hold up this vinyl-album cover and deny that the album is acid
mysticism. The full-size, fold-out
album cover all but screams out "acid ego-death" in large, undulating
letters, if you know anything about entheogens, psychedelics, and religious
experiencing. Side 2, an integrated
"concept" album-side, is the greatest example of philosophy meeting
entheogens in Rock lyrics. It covers
ego-death and rebirth, the astonishing experience of loss of control in mystic
experiencing, and existential issues following the ego-death experience. A true work of art.
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Venue/9123/portboy.html
Neil
wrote:
>My
next drumming appearance was at the Lakeport High School variety show. With Don
Brunt on piano and Don Tees on sax, we were the Eternal Triangle, and we
practiced nights at the school. (Don Brunt would drive us home in his Dad's '65
Pontiac, usually with a detour out to Middle Road, where he could get it up to
a hundred). For the variety show we played a couple of songs, including one
original which was titled LSD Forever (as if we had any idea -- the only drug
we knew anything about was Export A!). My first public drum solo was a success,
and I will never forget how I glowed with the praise from the other kids in the
show (including, I've always remembered, Paul Kennedy, who has done well for
himself on CBC Radio).
____________________
>>Rush,
in their early days, did perform a song called "Bad Boy" which
stated:
"You
flipped your dog on acid, and now he's flippin' on his bed."
>... it
was written by Larry Williams, not Neil.
____________________
http://www.r-u-s-h.com/nmsmirror.com/HTML/books/book_rush3.html
'Hemispheres'
was released in October 1978, and by the time December rolled round it had
already gone gold in the States.
'Hemispheres'
was probably Rush's most ambitious album to date. It was originally inspired by
a book called 'Powers Of Mind' written by Adam Smith. Neil Peart explained that
Smith was a researcher who studied the occult and various other kinds of
philosophies, tried LSD, transcendental meditation and so on.
Smith
devotes one chapter in his book to the division of the brain into hemispheres -
Apollo being the right hand side of the brain and Dionysius the left.
Side one
of 'Hemispheres' is devoted to the further adventures of Cygnus, the character
who was last seen in 'A Fare well To Kings', plummeting through a Black Hole in
his spaceship Rocinante.
Says Peart
who, of course, wrote the Iyrics for the album: "The world he Ieaves is
being ruled over by two gods who represent opposing forces - Apollo and
Dionysius. Apollo champions the force of reason and rationale and Dionysius
champions the force of instinct and intuition.
____________________
Neil
wrote:
>Personal
experience in China and Africa has proven that the most vivid and bizarre
dreams are created under these conditions, far beyond the wildest
hallucinations of any "mind-expanding" drug. My advice to those
substance-abusers who seek cheap thrills and momentary elevation by way of
addictive and messy chemical concoctions, "Stop wasting your time and
money -- try dysentery instead."
Neil
betrays himself by speaking with such authority in comparing a certain dreaming
state to "any 'mind-expanding' drug". He makes the comparison based
on "personal experience". He takes the stance of one who is in a
position to offer advice to chemical users. His put-downs of the chemicals
sound insincere -- he puts them down as a person who has experience with those
things he is presumably rejecting.
My main
concern is not whether Peart frequently combined LSD and drumming. The issue is
whether he deliberately intended many lyrical turns of phrase to allude to the
phenomena of the mystic altered state.
I have never
asserted that LSD is the only way to bring about the mystic state. Your
position is weak, if you have to resort to refuting assertions I didn't make,
instead of trying to refute my actual position. My interpretation of Rush
lyrics remains fully viable.
First let
us agree on reasonable things.
o Passage
to Bangkok is undeniably a celebration of THD. So don't waste our time with any
blind, knee-jerk assumptions about Rush being morally clean and drug-free. If
you take five seconds to investigate, if you have any investigative ability at
all, you have to admit this before even entering the LSD debate. If you assert
that Rush was drug-free, you are in frank denial and there is no sense in
trying to debate with you -- you've disqualified yourself as a man of reason.
o Rush
likely has experience with LSD. The two master drugs of the 60s and 70s were
cannabis and LSD. Rush loved the first (cannabis), and Peart loved philosophy,
art, and spirituality, and was aware of LSD to the point of playing a song
named "LSD Forever". If early Rush played "Bad Boy" written
by Larry Williams, about "flipping on acid", we have at least
pop-culture LSD influences entering the band from multiple angles. Rush was a
major heavy-rock band of the 70s. It would be more difficult to believe that
they did *not* have some amount of LSD experience.
So, we
know Rush loved cannabis and we are justified in assuming they were familiar
with LSD to some degree.
Two
questions remain:
o Just how
much did Peart do LSD? I suggest that he sometimes used it weekly, in the
mid-1970s, based on its half-week tolerance cycle, and the mention of "I
commit my weekly crime", "on Sundays I elude the Eyes".
o Even if
we find that Peart used LSD weekly, how can we assert that he intended the
lyrics to refer to the phenomena of the LSD state of cognition? The scientific
and intuitive evidence is in the lyrics, for those who have truly studied the
perceptual and experiential phenomena of the mystic altered state.
Allusions
to LSD phenomena in this song include "vanished time", and "I
fire up the willing engine", "wind in my hair/head, shifting and
drifting", "adrenaline surge", "sunlight on chrome, blur of
the landscape, every nerve aware" (compare "every nerve is torn
apart" in Cygnus X-1), "I spin around... shrieking",
"Straining the limits of machine and man" (compare Body Electric's
"guidance systems breakdown").
Don't
believe what Peart says, whether he says he did or didn't do lots of LSD, or
did or did not intend the lyrics to allude to LSD perceptions and experiences.
The proof is in your own comparison of your own knowledge of LSD perceptions
and experiences to your own careful reading of the phrases in the lyrics.
Stereotyped
pop-culture assumptions about psychedelics won't do us any good when
investigating how Rush alludes to LSD phenomena. They are not an ordinary band
and they do not reference LSD phenomena in the ordinary way of other bands.
When we
list the distinctive LSD phenomena and search for matching phrases in Rush
lyrics, there are more matches per album than with any other band, especially
in Fly by Night through Grace Under Pressure, with Caress of Steel being the
most thoroughly acid-devoted album and a complete and sufficient expression of
acid-mystic philosophy.
The issue
is not whether Rush is superficially psychedelic-style music. The issue is, is
there an intensely high frequency of the lyrical phrases matching with the
distinctive common altered-state phenomena, so that reason forces us to
conclude that it has been reasonably proven that the lyrics are intended to
allude to the phenomena of acid mysticism.
Very
little is understood today about the mystic altered state. Acid rock is the
authentic mystery religion of our time.
____________________
>I
remember seeing a mid 70's concert video where Alex stuck out his tongue to the
camera and he had a hit of blotter on it.
Was this a
bootleg video, or an official video?
Lots of
bands have lots of acid-inspired lyrics.
It's the norm for Classic Rock in general. I've focused on the surprising bands, not the obvious ones.
>One
request when considering another rock album to discuss. My all-time profound
musical anchor and navigation tool is Jimi Hendrix's "Electric
Ladyland". Other honorable mentions include Ten Years After's
"Cricklewood Green" , Led Zeppelin 1, and Miles Davis "Bitches
Brew".
It is
unclear how much more time I should spend highlighting the double-entendres
that allude to the mystic altered-state phenomena in High Classic Rock
lyrics. I have provided more than
enough material to begin a more or less exhaustive research project.
I am
waiting for the lyrics of yesterday's new Rush album, Vapor Trails, to appear
online. The few lyrics I've seen so far
contain altered-state double-entendres at a high density. For example:
Like the
rat in a maze who says
"Watch
me choose my own direction"
Are you
under the illusion
The path
is winding your way?
The Rush
newsgroup is surprised to see the song Freewill supposedly contradicted, and is
surprised to see Satanic Occult devil-worship -- that is, a Tarot card of the
hanged man. The amazing thing is,
everyone's wondering the meaning of showing "the Tarot" on the album,
but no one is discussing the picture in front of their blind faces: what is the
meaning of the hanged man in particular, rather than the Tarot overall?
They are
unable to see "an upside-down hanged man" because the only thing
their rutted and un-mythic, uninitiated thinking is able to perceive is "a
Tarot card". Explaining this
particular instance of God-forsaken Satanic occult paganism is a a trivial
exercise for the reader in the egodeath discussion group who have read my
treatment of the upside down pentagram as a symbol of no-self-will (no goatish,
willful freewillist thinking), equivalent to crucifixion on a double-inverted
cross.
The
upside-down pentagram on the cover of 2112:
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000001ESF
and on the
cover of All The World's a Stage: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000001ESH.
Ozzy's
crucifixion on his double-inverted cross on the back of the Diary of a Madman
cover: the back of http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000063DIR.
Comparable
to my focus on Christianity despite my study of all religions, there are good
reasons to focus on Rush despite my study of all mystic altered state Rock
lyric writers. As a theorist, it is an
efficient approach: focus on an exemplary particular, in conjunction with a
sweeping study of the genre. Actually
it's more like a pyramid defined by 3 levels of scope:
1.
Christianity (main focus)
2.
Hellenistic mystery-cults, Judaism, Zoroastrianism
3. All
religions & all myth
1. Rush
lyrics (focusing on most songs from 5 or 6 particular albums)
2.
Mainstream acid-oriented Heavy Rock albums or hit songs (High Classic Rock;
Diary of a Madman, Ride the Lightning, Somewhere in Time, Bohemian Rhapsody)
3.
Entheogen-oriented double-entendres in 20th-century music (Beatles, Cars, Devo,
Talking Heads)
Note about
spoken words from the album 2112:
Before
initiation: We have assumed control
After
initiation: And the meek shall inherit the Earth.
Interesting
acid-rock group name and album title: Blind Faith.
>A
rainbow is commonly associated with visionary plants
Q: When
are white clouds green and pink?
The theory
I've systematized is not difficult, and I have trouble understanding when
discussion group members and moderators say my writing is unclear. I must respect their reports of their
experience, that they experience my writing as unclear -- but it must be that
the perceived unclarity is due to paradigm difference. How much clearer can one be, than what is in
my .sig, for example? Religion is
purely metaphorical, being allusion to visionary-plant states, inducing
awareness of no-free-will -- please explain what phrase is so unclear.
I just
don't see where the unclarity is. Truth
is not that hard to grasp, and not that hard to systematize. I think people are just being dense, poor
readers, and past a certain point, *no one* could write clearly enough for such
poor readers. I write in plain and
simple language all the time, but some people are just too dense, too lazy, too
something to comprehend my perfectly clear and direct writing.
I am glad
to see multiple people proving that they have actually *read* the words I post,
and understand them, and can do further work within the paradigm the
systematization of which I have discovered and labored to demonstrate.
I don't know
offhand whether I previously recognized or wrote about the 'rain'/'reign'
connection, double-hearing or allusion.
One thing that needs to be mentioned in addition to Merker's above
points is the visual distortion tie-in, as in "looking through a waterfall"
or being "underwater".
There's a relatively full treatment of this visual distortion as 'water'
theme in Robert Thorne's Marihuana: The Burning Bush of Moses, which is one of
the most mystical-scholarship informed books on entheogens.
One reason
the snake is considered wise is that it undulates -- wriggles -- like visual
distortion.
Is the
mystic climax the experience of determinism, or of prayer for miraculous rescue
from it, from outside the system of cosmic determinism? I suppose this is arbitrary, but certainly
magic, miracle, and compassionate deities are popular enough in advanced
mysticism to defend the latter position.
And any beginning mystic can have a climactic experience of overwhelming
determinism (stealing away personal control stability and agency) long before
the need is encountered for truly transcendent rescue from outside the
system.
This is an
area for research and discussion among a community who are all operating within
the entheogen-determinism paradigm.
>-----Original
Message-----
>From:
stemmer02
>ALWAYS
you hear "rain" in a rock song substitute "reign".
>It can
be also cleverly combined like in:
>"rain
falls on every one " [The Smashing Pumpkins]
>"the
same old rain"
>In the
mystic altered state threre is easily conceived an image of Reign falling *just
like* phsical Rain [on every one!!] If you stand directly beneath Father Sky
(without (psychic/physical) Protection) you are bound to have "rain/Reign
falling on you". Note clever double meaning: REIGNS falls on every one {mystic
meaning): Everybody is subject to fate and is utterly dependent on it. Thus
Reign="Your Divinly Given Will" falls (=metaphorically image) on
everyone ("Comes To You As To Us All"). Also "the same old
rain" indicates the timeless dimension of experiencing determinism and all
of life being recognized as coming from the same timeless source /dimension.
>[Hammer
To Fall, Queen]
Rich or
poor or famous
For your
truth it's all the same (oh no oh no)
Lock
your door the rain is pouring
Through
your window pane (oh no)
Baby now
your struggle's all in vain
>Here
another example for Rain = Reign. In the mystic state one struggles for control
= Reign over one's self. The problem arises that the Reign is perceived as
laying outside oneself. The Reign is *seen* as coming *through* your window
pane (=eyes=windows of perception) *from outside*. The "Lock you
door" refers to the struggle that's "all in vain": the
egoic-logic can't escape its inbuilt deadly insight of its own ill-logic and
must destroy and reformat.
>There
are heaps of similar occurences in dozens of rock songs. I hereby claim to be
the first discoverer of this hidden meaning of rock mysticism who openly
publishes about it. The rain=reign theme is one of not *too many* key themes
which have to be grasped to understand what "Rock'n'RoLl" is about:
insight into hidden determinism brought up by visionary plants. Rock'n'Roll
itself refers to the wiggling and wriggling one acts out when being in high
transcendent cogntivi modus. Also it describes the tides of perception when
mystified: Insight into Cosmic Determinism (the "Rock") alternates
with phases of conventional-ego-pereception. These tides become more and more
aggressive/shorter like sexual climax with the peak being the overwhelming
orgasmic experience of Cosmic Determinism.
>-It
comes to you as to us all
>--We're
just waiting
>---For
the hammer to fall
>(C)
Merker
Merker
wrote (paraphrased):
>>Always
when you hear "rain" in a Rock song, substitute
"reign". It can be also
cleverly combined like in "rain falls on every one", "the same
old rain". In the mystic altered
state there is easily conceived an image of Reign falling *just like* physical
Rain: on everyone. If you stand
directly beneath Father Sky (without (psychic/physical) Protection) you are bound
to have "rain/Reign falling on you".
>>Note
the clever double meaning: reign falls on every one; mystic meaning: everybody
is subject to fate and is utterly dependent on it. Thus Reign = "Your
Divinly Given Will" falls (=metaphorical image) on everyone ("Comes
To You As To Us All").
I doubt I
thought of or wrote about that rain = reign in acid-rock lyrics: rain, and
reign, but not rain=reign.
http://www.google.com/search?q=reign+site:egodeath.com&as_qdr=all&filter=0
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/egodeath/messagesearch?query=reign
"There's
no swimming in the heavy water
No singing
in the acid rain"
>All
these songs are all saying the same thing, aren't they?
I agree
that those songs have a high density of strong candidates for allusions to
entheogenic mystic-state cognition. A
year ago, people's suggestions were almost always off the mark -- lacking a
high occurrence of the standard key metaphors.
Once you know the code, it's an easy breakthrough.
Follow the
command in the song The Body Electric: "change the mode -- crack the
code". It really didn't take me
any time at all. When was the very
first time I discovered the deliberate encoding of loosecog allusions? Probably around 1994 with the Rush album
Caress of Steel. Everyone knows that
60s Rock was "about psychedelics".
But to
find just how extensive was the use of systematic code of double-entendres and
allusions, I had to actually survey many lyrics looking not for direct words
about psychedelics, but rather, *indirect*, *coded* words. The Byrds' Eight Miles High -- they were
forced to claim it was about flying and not psychoactives. And Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was
explained as an arbitrary whimsical picture by a child.
How much
were the alchemists *forced* to innovate and create a coding scheme? How much were Catholic mystics *forced* to
use obscure and emotional sounding language?
How much are Christ-myth scholars forced to write obvious nonsense like
"people must have had different constitutions in late antiquity such that
mere wine produced intense psychoactive effects"?
>It's
just that one ineffable verse (uni-verse) in it's myriad manifestations. We
should do an experiment with a Britney Spears song and try to find the hidden
god's signature in the lyrics. The blueprint. The pattern.
Britney
Spears' lyrics contain too few candidates per inch, for lyrical allusions to
the mystic cognitive state. However,
she does run the site http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm -- Britney's Guide to
Semiconductor Physics. It's possible
she could investigate the debate between Copenhagenists and hidden variables
theorists, then have insights into how adopting a deterministic model is the
clearest, simplest, most sensible spacetime model, though it kills the power of
the ego.
The
Beatles' 1965 album _Rubber Soul_ was a nice transitional point where the songs
were supposedly pop relationship songs, but used phrasings that were chosen to
allude to the altered state, as first done in the song Help! written in early
1965, shortly after John Lennon's first visit with Michael Hollingshead.
Lennon's
his first experiences almost immediately resulted in a song with full,
complete, and strong use of the altered-state lyric encoding technique --
because nothing could be more natural than to, as Spacemen 3 put it, "take
drugs to make music to take drugs to".
It's a no-brainer of an idea to
write lyrics that reflect the overloaded meaning dynamics that occur,
and expect these lyrics to sound innocent or arbitrary to the listener in the
default state of cognition, but to be recognized when that same listener is in
the matching loosecog state.
White
noise is interesting -- much is happening in it. White noise becomes a string of objects floating in spacetime
Home (theory of the ego death and rebirth experience)