Pink Floyd Dark Side of Moon and Wizard of Oz synchronicity

Found this on internet. This is my first post here even I'm regular reader of Cassiopaea from 1999.
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Synchronicity with The Wizard of Oz

Main article: Dark Side of the Rainbow

When the album is played simultaneously with the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, images from the film occasionally appear to synchronise with the music and lyrics. This effect has been nicknamed "Dark Side of the Rainbow" or "Dark Side of Oz" by fans. It is said that the album can be replayed almost three times during the course of the movie, with new synchronicities at each repeat. Band members (particularly David Gilmour) have repeatedly denied that the album was intentionally made to synchronise with The Wizard of Oz in this way. From a technical standpoint, when the album was recorded in 1972, this would have been extremely difficult using the equipment available. However, many of those who have seen it report that the synchronicity is striking. Pre-synchronised versions are available as bootleg recordings, sometimes using a 5.1 surround sound mix of the album.

Even assuming correct synchronisation, the similarities between screen and sound are usually subtle: during the song "Breathe", the line "balanced on the biggest wave" is sung as Dorothy balances on the rail of a pig pen going on to then say "race towards an early grave" as Dorothy falls into the Pig Pen. At other times, the matches are uncanny: the opening sound effect of "Money" (the first song on the second side of the original LP release) is heard just as Dorothy opens the door into Munchkin Land (this is also the transition of the movie from the black & white segment into colour). A website entitled Dark Side of the Rainbow is dedicated to providing information on this synchronisation.
contiunue...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Side_of_the_Rainbow

http://members.cox.net/stegokitty/dsotr_pages/dsotr.htm
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Cs wrote:
07-18-98
Q: (L) Now, frivolous question number one: Do you guys like Pink Floyd?
A: "Like" is a bit off base.
Q: (L) What would be more 'on base?'
A: Absorb. We are Pink Floyd, and all other facets of your higher consciousness.
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Would like to hear your thouths about this.

Yeah you can actually buy the movie with the sound added in, however i find it more fun to do it the old fashioned way.

I have heard off and on about this connection for years - always from the folk that were big into LSD, I guess you're supposed to start the album after the third lion roar. Personally, I've always been afraid of that album "dark side of the moon", and have never been into acid, but considering the link with LSD to certain things - or even the stuff about the dark side of the moon - shruggs. To date, that pink floyd album is the only album by any artist that filled me with - er, horror? I don't know what the word is, it bugged me, and not because of the music - it was always something I could never put my finger on. Likewise since the connection was pointed out by folk I knew in high school that were big into acid - well it just made it creepier. It was like a secret cult of acid junkies that needed to warp the message of the wizard of oz, by playing and album that already made me uncomfortable and taking hallucinogens to boot - and though there are certainly unusual links between that album and the wizard of oz - they only seemed to make it darker insofar as I could see, but for the folk that dropped acid and then watched it, well I simply cannot imagine what they got out of it, and then of course as cyre pointed out one can now buy the movie that way - think about it - how warped is that? From my point of view now it almost seems like a version of self-imposed greenbauming, or worse.

Weird, that album only fills me with love for that album.

I did a TV show recently with many spinoffs of L Frank Baum and his pseudonyms (how many music videos feature Oompa Loompas? Who was Sam Steele?)

The Dark Side Of The Moon synchronization works very patchily, as it is (in my view) coincidental.

AlexLex said:

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Cs wrote:
07-18-98
Q: (L) Now, frivolous question number one: Do you guys like Pink Floyd?
A: "Like" is a bit off base.
Q: (L) What would be more 'on base?'
A: Absorb. We are Pink Floyd, and all other facets of your higher consciousness.
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Would like to hear your thouths about this.

Click to expand...

Thank you for this transcript. I had never gone through this Cs material.

This higher consciousness thing help me understand something better.

When I was younger I remember having lond discussions with my friends about Pink Floyd. Opinions were very extreme. On one side people said :
"whoooaaa Pink Floyd is unique"
"their music brings you so far away and in such wonderful places"
" it's so deep"

on the other side people were saying :
"it is not music"
"I don't feel anything when I listen to it"
"it is noise"
"there is no life in it"

Here is my 2c assumption : maybe that the ones who could feel Pink Floyd music were somehow able to connect positively to their higher consciousness while the others couldn't connect or connected in a discumfurtable way.

The way I see it, Pink Floyd is very much associated with the
drug culture, and people choose the drug of their choice when
listening to it, be it LSD, 'shrooms, PCP, pot, alcohol(?), and
so on.

I have listened to PF and observed other people and noted that
those not under the influence of drugs would say... "What's
so special about this album?", and yet those under the influence
would say: "Whoa! Far out!!!" Those extremely under influence
would trip out so far on the edge that the outcome can go either
way: they may have a very good experience or a horrible experience
depending on their state of mind and the drug consumed.

As I can recall it, PF (the dark side of the moon) connocts a very
dreamy or wispy state of mind and your reality is quite altered
(when under the influence) but what you personally see, depends
wholly on what you want to see: either a fairyland or perhaps a
very dark and negative place that is very frightning. Again, the
bottom line here is, that it all depends on your state of mind, your
mood, your environment, and of what drugs you have consumed.

OSIT.

dant said:

The way I see it, Pink Floyd is very much associated with the
drug culture, and people choose the drug of their choice when
listening to it, be it LSD, 'shrooms, PCP, pot, alcohol(?), and
so on.

I have listened to PF and observed other people and noted that
those not under the influence of drugs would say... "What's
so special about this album?", and yet those under the influence
would say: "Whoa! Far out!!!" Those extremely under influence
would trip out so far on the edge that the outcome can go either
way: they may have a very good experience or a horrible experience
depending on their state of mind and the drug consumed.

As I can recall it, PF (the dark side of the moon) connocts a very
dreamy or wispy state of mind and your reality is quite altered
(when under the influence) but what you personally see, depends
wholly on what you want to see: either a fairyland or perhaps a
very dark and negative place that is very frightning. Again, the
bottom line here is, that it all depends on your state of mind, your
mood, your environment, and of what drugs you have consumed.

OSIT.

Click to expand...

I saw Pink Floyd in concert once, in Houston, during their Pulse tour. It was a great experience, their shows are very visual, which I was definitely looking forward to. One interesting thing happened to make the show more notable: The show was at Rice Stadium, which is an open air place (e.g. no roof). During the show storm clouds were building. Then roughly 2/3 through the show when they started to play Time, the usual tick-tock and gongs starting going off during the song intro. Lightening started flashing and thunder started to crack and the thunder was basically in perfect "time" with the gongs. Then it started to rain. After playing some of the song (in the rain no less) David Gilmour stopped before finishing and announced that the lightening was too dangerous and he apologized for having to end the concert early. So everyone started to file out of the stadium. And the rain and thunder stopped right about then too -- by the time we walked to the car it was finished.

Best concert I ever went to.

dant said:

I have listened to PF and observed other people and noted that
those not under the influence of drugs would say... "What's
so special about this album?", and yet those under the influence
would say: "Whoa! Far out!!!" Those extremely under influence
would trip out so far on the edge that the outcome can go either
way: they may have a very good experience or a horrible experience
depending on their state of mind and the drug consumed.

OSIT.

Click to expand...

That may be your experience but I can personally attest to the fact that it does not require the ingestion of any kind of chemical substance to really appreciate this album. What makes it such a good album is the way it works as an ensemble, both musically and in terms of the themes and lyrics. Musically I don't consider PF to be absolute genius like I do some other artists, but I do think they are MASTER 'mood-scapers' and creators of emotional energy, and Gilmour is just an amazing guitarist compositionally. I think the album has struck so many people in this emotional sense and that is the origin of its reputation, drugs simply enhance this for those that choose to use them.

Ben said:

That may be your experience but I can personally attest to the fact that it does not require the ingestion of any kind of chemical substance to really appreciate this album.

Click to expand...

I totally agree Ben. I hear PF on the radio every day and, completely sober, I really get into it. I don't think one needs to be in any altered state to really appreciate it.

Ben said:

[snip]... I think the album has struck so many people in this emotional sense
and that is the origin of its reputation, drugs simply enhance this for those
that choose to use them.

Click to expand...

Since I do not do drugs, I noted and observed others just as you quoted above
that many people, at least from my vantage point, do get themselves into altered
states by chemical means (alcohol, pot, LSD, etc.) to get the maximum experience,
whatever it is they are seeking for themselves.

I am not saying that everyone in the planet tries to get themselves into altered states
(by chemical means) every time music is involved but I am saying that there are certain
bands for which many do and PF is not the only band that supplies the genre which
encourages altered states to get the experience. Everyone is different and chooses
their own path.

Again as I personally remember it, PF was one of many major groups, and specifically
TDSOTM was the music of choice for the nighttime (altered states) excursions.

Personally, I enjoyed PF's music and TDSOTM and it helped put me to asleep - since
it is wispy and dreamy, but most importantly soft, quiet, slow music. Of course for me,
lyrics did not come into play due to my severe hearing loss and again, I used no drugs .

But aside from all of this, I am sure that history demonstrates, that many cultures around
the planet does tie music and altered states together - and I often wonder if it was done to
enhance their psyhic powers or for religious reasons or yet for reasons unknown to us -
from shamans, to medicine men, and others?

Coincidence? I think not.

beau said:

Ben said:

That may be your experience but I can personally attest to the fact that it does not require the ingestion of any kind of chemical substance to really appreciate this album.

Click to expand...

I totally agree Ben. I hear PF on the radio every day and, completely sober, I really get into it. I don't think one needs to be in any altered state to really appreciate it.

Click to expand...

Thirded. I've currently got "Delicate Sound of Thunder" (the live double) playing in my CD player in the car at the moment. I really like the message in many of their songs - "The Turning Away", "Dogs of War", "High Hopes", "What do you Want from Me?" and of course, "Wish You Were Here".... great stuff.

Ryan said:

I totally agree Ben. I hear PF on the radio every day and, completely sober, I really get into it. I don't think one needs to be in any altered state to really appreciate it.

Click to expand...

I agree too.

Some PF songs parts are particularly "stricking" (IMO). I 've tried to find one example :
the first part of Echoes (00:00 -> 01:51) - Here it's synchronized with "2001, Space Odyssey"
http://video.google.fr/videoplay?docid=3191211059169801591

While researching this Echoes video, I also found this videoclip about Karl Rove, Irak War and one more beautiful song by Pink Floyd.
http://www.gofish.com/userVideoPlayer.gfp?gfid=30-1038355

My favourites are 'Time', 'High Hopes' and 'When the Tigers Broke Free' from the Wall movie.

Hi Alex and all,
This is an interesting thread. I had never heard about the "Dark side of the Rainbow", so it is an interesting find for me, thanks.

Also I find the excerpted transcript you posted interesting.
Particularly this sentence.

A: Absorb. We are Pink Floyd, and all other facets of your higher consciousness.

Click to expand...

"and all other facets of your higher consciousness."

This statement really makes me wonder about how humans are most of the time 'picking up' and 'transmitting' thought waves, at some level. And therefore some of us while trying to create art, are really channelling something by tapping into a 'stream' of creativity, the way that many artists do. This is funny, because this is in fact what I am trying to achieve at this moment in my life. To be able to tap into a 'stream' of creative thought waves, and add my own creative thought wave and channel, art that can speak to people on a deeper level. This is a thought that came to me while I read the excerpt.

I do have some thoughts regarding PF as well. I love PF's music. My favourite songs are "Off the Wall", and "Hey you". I am one of the people who really didn't understand the Pink Floyd movie though. I watched it once and, I could not sit through to the end, especially past the self mutilating scene. I understood that they had an opinion (especially with what they were trying to convey in the movie), but I understood their opinion much better without the graphic video of The Wall. I think that The Wall is just for certain people. Different people respond differently to it. I have friends who really love the video and really understand it, but I'm not one of them. I do enjoy their albums though.
Oh... and I was sober while I watched the movie.

Nina