Buddy
The Living Force
In a recent post, I made reference to the idea of rewiring the brain as a result of a certain type of music-related investigation. If I may, I'd like to elaborate on this a little in case anyone can benefit from my experience.
Many years ago I realized that some of the most beautiful religious hymns and certain commercial jingles were actually co-opted from the original compositions of brilliant musicians in the Baroque/Classical/Romantic periods in history. I was deeply saddened and disappointed. This was the only kind of music that inspired and enriched me and allowed me some fleeting sense of a deeper connection with reality. I came to believe that classical musical appreciation had been ruined for me. I couldn't accept that the particular music that I enjoyed so much had been so nominalized and marginalized and reduced to selling cheap commercial products and used for the purpose of institutionalizing profound epistemological/ontological errors such as what we find in religion.
My response to all that was to let it go. I could no longer enjoy some music because once I was familiar with lyrics, my meanings for those messages would get reinforced and I simply chose not to allow that.
What I chose instead was to seek out instrumentals I was unfamiliar with and make a collection of those I could enjoy, although that was not always as satisfying.
Having gone through an important learning process recently, I decided to experiment. Here is some of what I've discovered:
First, I obtained the contemporary version(s) of a particular piece of old music I want to enjoy so I can have the lyrics available. Then I go through the song word by word, excluding the simple parts of speech. I examine, as critically as possible, each concept and the way it is expressed. For each word I ask questions like "What is/are the referent(s)?" What is this based on, where did that come from, deconstructing the various ideas/elements/words/concepts all the way to my personal neuron patterns (my personal meanings) and trying to see if something is either fradulent or isomorphic in it's relationship to something which can actually be determined to exist in the objective universe. At the end of this process, there can be little or nothing coherent left of any of the previous thoughts, meanings or emotional connections to the song.
Secondly, I research the actual musical piece in question and gather answers to some relevant questions. Who was the original author?, What was his/her life span?, What time period de he live in?, What was going on in his life?, What was the cultural backdrop?, What were the world events at the time?, What was he thinking?, Why did he write it?, What was he trying to express?, What was his inspiration?, What is the structure/harmonics of the piece?, and on and on. What I'm getting at is the way of viewing, understanding and appreciating the music within it's own context. The process is like mapping out the actual elements of the context in your mind so that my understanding has a one-to-one relationship to that which actually exists.
Third, I listen to the music while reading all the relevant information I gathered about the piece in question. And I do it again and again, as often as desired. This is more re-wiring. I'm overwriting previous listening experiences with new ones, conscious of the whole context. Over time, every time I enjoy the music, I can recall/re-experience the reality context of the music and fully enjoy it with no problems at all.
Fourth, I revisit the original issue or subject to see how much I've changed/grown. It's interesting to trace one's path of development from fear/illusion within a background of ignorance to a more mature, broader understanding that started from ground zero.
Finally, looking at the issue from a broader context involving both STS and STO dynamics, I notice that my current outlook on the subject matter is completely inverted from its starting point. Now, instead of experiencing emotions related to "what's been done to de-value" major works of art, I see it as a major coup for STO. We know that the masses of humanity are esoterically and inductively asleep in ritual/mechanical-based, rule-following, blame-avoiding mode. We're also aware of that knee-jerk tendency to lash out and 'lesson-teach' when anything novel induces withdrawal stress in people. We also know that STO is constrained to operate within parameters that respect freewill. Coercion of any kind is not an option for STO; but, it's not necessary either. What's going on is probing, testing, experimenting. Putting something in the individual and collective perceptual environment. Those who are anywhere close to being ready to awaken can have something to focus on and to help draw them out if they so choose.
Looking at it from this point of view, anything that's universally/objectively valid and valuable is simply being recognized, co-opted, usurped, stolen for other purposes - and this can be likened to seeding a hostile territory where the potential exists for something of value to take root and eventually bear fruit for purposes that benefit the universe.
Is this not the overall, general pattern of alchemical transformation applied in a very narrow context?
I think so, and I'm open to new information from feedback.
All there is, is lessons.
-fwiw
Many years ago I realized that some of the most beautiful religious hymns and certain commercial jingles were actually co-opted from the original compositions of brilliant musicians in the Baroque/Classical/Romantic periods in history. I was deeply saddened and disappointed. This was the only kind of music that inspired and enriched me and allowed me some fleeting sense of a deeper connection with reality. I came to believe that classical musical appreciation had been ruined for me. I couldn't accept that the particular music that I enjoyed so much had been so nominalized and marginalized and reduced to selling cheap commercial products and used for the purpose of institutionalizing profound epistemological/ontological errors such as what we find in religion.
My response to all that was to let it go. I could no longer enjoy some music because once I was familiar with lyrics, my meanings for those messages would get reinforced and I simply chose not to allow that.
What I chose instead was to seek out instrumentals I was unfamiliar with and make a collection of those I could enjoy, although that was not always as satisfying.
Having gone through an important learning process recently, I decided to experiment. Here is some of what I've discovered:
First, I obtained the contemporary version(s) of a particular piece of old music I want to enjoy so I can have the lyrics available. Then I go through the song word by word, excluding the simple parts of speech. I examine, as critically as possible, each concept and the way it is expressed. For each word I ask questions like "What is/are the referent(s)?" What is this based on, where did that come from, deconstructing the various ideas/elements/words/concepts all the way to my personal neuron patterns (my personal meanings) and trying to see if something is either fradulent or isomorphic in it's relationship to something which can actually be determined to exist in the objective universe. At the end of this process, there can be little or nothing coherent left of any of the previous thoughts, meanings or emotional connections to the song.
Secondly, I research the actual musical piece in question and gather answers to some relevant questions. Who was the original author?, What was his/her life span?, What time period de he live in?, What was going on in his life?, What was the cultural backdrop?, What were the world events at the time?, What was he thinking?, Why did he write it?, What was he trying to express?, What was his inspiration?, What is the structure/harmonics of the piece?, and on and on. What I'm getting at is the way of viewing, understanding and appreciating the music within it's own context. The process is like mapping out the actual elements of the context in your mind so that my understanding has a one-to-one relationship to that which actually exists.
Third, I listen to the music while reading all the relevant information I gathered about the piece in question. And I do it again and again, as often as desired. This is more re-wiring. I'm overwriting previous listening experiences with new ones, conscious of the whole context. Over time, every time I enjoy the music, I can recall/re-experience the reality context of the music and fully enjoy it with no problems at all.
Fourth, I revisit the original issue or subject to see how much I've changed/grown. It's interesting to trace one's path of development from fear/illusion within a background of ignorance to a more mature, broader understanding that started from ground zero.
Finally, looking at the issue from a broader context involving both STS and STO dynamics, I notice that my current outlook on the subject matter is completely inverted from its starting point. Now, instead of experiencing emotions related to "what's been done to de-value" major works of art, I see it as a major coup for STO. We know that the masses of humanity are esoterically and inductively asleep in ritual/mechanical-based, rule-following, blame-avoiding mode. We're also aware of that knee-jerk tendency to lash out and 'lesson-teach' when anything novel induces withdrawal stress in people. We also know that STO is constrained to operate within parameters that respect freewill. Coercion of any kind is not an option for STO; but, it's not necessary either. What's going on is probing, testing, experimenting. Putting something in the individual and collective perceptual environment. Those who are anywhere close to being ready to awaken can have something to focus on and to help draw them out if they so choose.
Looking at it from this point of view, anything that's universally/objectively valid and valuable is simply being recognized, co-opted, usurped, stolen for other purposes - and this can be likened to seeding a hostile territory where the potential exists for something of value to take root and eventually bear fruit for purposes that benefit the universe.
Is this not the overall, general pattern of alchemical transformation applied in a very narrow context?
I think so, and I'm open to new information from feedback.
All there is, is lessons.
-fwiw
