Music as a narrative

[Buddy]

I've experienced the audible noise thing before, where I hear tones or motors or noise coming from my head and if I pay attention to it it eventually stops, leaving me in an awkwardly peaceful silence.

The price of high sensitivity is high susceptibility to noise.

And "noise" is being used here to include all known background "measurable and sensed quanta" thus far discovered in certain areas of research - especially of the brain and its subcomponents from the neocortex to the cerebellum and also including other areas of the nervous system.

Although there seems to be no single text to show the complete case for that statement, the puzzle pieces that lead to that observation are available and distributed over a wide area that encompasses a broad range of neuro-typical and neuro-exceptional studies in the field of neuroscience.

In fact, so far, according to Terrence J. Sejnowski, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, we know that one of the chief sources of noise in the brain occurs at synapses where a chemical neurotransmitter is used to signal between neurons. As well, quantal fluctuations at synapses is just one of several sources of noise in the entirety of the nervous system.

An important question that's been asked since 1981 is: how is the brain even able to function reliably with so much intrinsic variability? To date, at least we might have a finger on a reason why the question hasn't been answered satisfactorily yet: some "reliability of the brain" studies still use a digital computer model of the brain, while many brain studies are switching to more analog or quantum scenarios.

Long story short,

...three features - stochastic variability, spontaneous activity, and correlated electrical events-lead to a view of the brain that is probabilistic rather than deterministic, inherently distributed rather than local, and dynamic rather than static. Unfortunately, our experience with probablistic, distributed, dynamic systems is limited. Even simple examples and models would help us grasp the brain's complexity.

Source: 24 page pdf _http://psych.stanford.edu/~jlm/pdfs/Sejnowski81HintonAnderson.pdf

More and more data seems to be just leading me closer to a realization that, yes, Man is 'mechanical' in that his mechanistic expression is mostly a static, linear-associative, conditioned and preemptive set of mental, social and biological patterns, but these patterns overlay a beautiful, dynamic and spontaneously creative being.

So, my personal reflections on these phenomena and yours and everyone's input regarding how you experience all this complexity internally is very interesting.

 

[monotonic]

The recent Cassiopaean session has reminded me of this thread:

http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=38693

Q: (L) ... Okay, let's go back to this other topic here. A forum member writes:

Music is such a powerful medium. Powerful in that it accesses the imagination, the mind and the emotions and the body - all the lower centers, for sure. Thus it is no wonder that the PTB would seek to use this medium to their advantage since manipulation, by any means, is their middle name. If they go to such great lengths to control mainstream media news, TV programming, and movies, certainly the music industry is not immune to their manipulation and control. This should be self-evident by now, I would think.

Perhaps because music can access the emotions directly (and thus bypass the rational mind), dive into the sub-conscious mind, AND influence the body, I believe it provides a fertile ground for 4th way self-observation and study. One of the things Gurdjieff said early on as relayed by Ouspenski in “In Search of the Miraculous”, was that we are subject to a series of 'likes' and 'don't likes' by all the little I's: petty, subjective, egoistic tastes (my words). Certainly music is a vast playground for subjective likes and dislikes. Furthermore, it could be argued that what and who we like or dislike may even be reflective of our state of development, awareness and being.

(L) Does a person's taste in music reflect their state of awareness, development, and being?

A: Yes, more or less, though there is a range of preferences at various "levels".

Q: (L) Okay, next question:

Does a person's taste in music reflect their personal aim in life?

A: It can be strongly affected if only subconsciously.

Q: (L) Okay:

What is more important in determining a song’s value: the lyrics or the sound/mood/feeling?

A: The sound opens the door for the lyrics to enter for good or ill.

Q: (L) Does that mean that a song that sounds really horrible and mechanical and like somebody just beating on a pot or clanging on the hood of their car or something, and if that's the kind of music the person likes, but it also has good lyrics, then that's okay?

A: Not exactly. The sound can open gates at - or of - different levels and parts of the internal makeup.

...

(L) Obviously we need to be paying much closer attention to our musical tastes, and analyzing what it is about songs that we like. And obviously, we need to pay a lot more attention to what we listen to in the background. But that means I'm safe since I only listen to old classic rock like Bob Seger, whose music is the best! [laughter]

A: Yes. Goodbye.

END OF SESSION

A friend recently recommended the movie Nightcrawler as a depiction of a sociopath. What struck me is that the screenplay itself didn't glorify his actions, but the soundtrack seemed glorifying, which was totally out of step with what was being shown. It makes me think about how, as they say, young children don't remember everything you do but they remember how you made them feel. Well if a child or child-like person watches this movie, they might not understand what is going on but they may associate the central character with virtue simply because of the tone of the soundtrack. To me this feels remarkably similar to how paramoralism is used by pathologicals to make their victims believe their insane, cruel worldview.

 

[anartist]

...I've realized that sometimes the narrative takes on a musical nature. It is fully spontaneous, and each time it is like I am having that thought for the first time. Although as I understand, if any moment does not seem like the first of that moment, then it is because you have anticipated it.

My experiences tell me that the mind can take on music symbolically and use it like a language. I feel music is like a narrative. It could be that that is how the adaptive unconscious processes music.

I've noticed sometimes I seem to think in symbols. For instance when I am in deep thought and I think of someone taking on a perspective, the corresponding visualization is that of a person pulling a loop over their head, like you would a necklace. From my perspective, putting on a shirt or a necklace or putting my head through a window is a similar sensation to when I try to shift my perspective in thought. Ultimately the visualizations and impressions seem to have the purpose of linking together so that long thoughts can be developed and maintained. The impressions are like puzzle pieces and each one is created by the adaptive unconscious to serve as a flexible, dependable link in the chain. I don't think this happened on it's own; I think it is the result of my effort to think past the limitations of my working memory. The synesthetic nature of some of these impressions may indicate that I am drawing on multiple parts of my brain.

There appear to be caveats to this process. The symbolic process needs to be translated to language. When the symbols aren't constantly informed by language and don't have the linguistic feedback loop to guide them, they take on a life of their own and what follows, in my experience, is basically a dream, often without images. In other cases, it's the familiar experience of finishing your thought but not really understanding what you were just thinking. It seems like you have "forgotten" what you were going to say, or that you don't know how to say it. My understanding is that people just aren't aware of this layer of thought and the impressions pass by unnoticed. The impressions dissolve very quickly when not in use, and because they don't link directly with language they don't stick in memory/associate very well. We learn from a young age that what isn't a word doesn't exist, so these "sub-verbal" thoughts fall by the wayside. They are after all very slippery and not easy to study, and don't bring instant gratification or even the promise of future utility. For a child who's well being hinges on pleasing their parents, instant results are favored and anything that slows that down is considered deadly. Anticipation instead becomes the way of life.

I think these experiences started after I started practicing breathing exercises and relaxation exercises before sleep, which increased my awareness of the transition to dreaming as well as my dream recall. I had some lucid dreams as well.

I think being able to control thoughts at this level has improved the way I think and increased my capacity. I am also better able to pay attention to other things while thinking. I can have longer, more nuanced thoughts before forgetting or becoming confused. I am not as easily distracted and can think easier while in pain.

So, how does this look to you? What is your perspective? Where am I wrong?

This is a little off topic, but when I was reading the part I bolded above I was struck by the similarity of this experience to my experience during EE, especially during the Meditation (though sometimes with the Beatha also). Talking with other EE practitioners a common phrase is 'micro dream', it feels as if someone/you are thinking or communicating or 'dreaming' (hence micro dream) but without being aware of it, or having some kind of split awareness because I am listening to Laura guide us through the meditation at the same time as this experience occurs. Then I find I snap out of it and I am fully present and doing the Meditation. Then it happens again, and again. Perhaps it is the symbols, symbolic thinking that is in action here. I wonder at the background music, and the music of Laura's voice, enhances this symbolic communication. A clue perhaps is in your practicing breathing and meditation brought this state on. I wonder if you have similar experiences doing the EE program?

 

[MusicMan]

Just to to turn this thread on its head for a second, and consider "narrative as music":

When I was in the Navy (early 70's) there was a communications system named Piccolo, which generated a unique tone for each ASCII character.
Listening to it was hilarious.

Piccolo Communications

From Wikipedia
_https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_frequency-shift_keying

"Multiple frequency-shift keying.
..Piccolo was the original MFSK mode, developed for British government communications by Harold Robin, Donald Bailey and Denis Ralphs of the Diplomatic Wireless Service (DWS), a branch of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. It was first used in 1962 [2] and presented to the IEE in 1963. The current specification "Piccolo Mark IV" is still in limited use by the UK government, mainly for point-to-point military radio communications."

It was peculiarly suited to communicating across the equator.

 

[monotonic]

This is a little off topic, but when I was reading the part I bolded above I was struck by the similarity of this experience to my experience during EE, especially during the Meditation (though sometimes with the Beatha also). Talking with other EE practitioners a common phrase is 'micro dream', it feels as if someone/you are thinking or communicating or 'dreaming' (hence micro dream) but without being aware of it, or having some kind of split awareness because I am listening to Laura guide us through the meditation at the same time as this experience occurs. Then I find I snap out of it and I am fully present and doing the Meditation. Then it happens again, and again. Perhaps it is the symbols, symbolic thinking that is in action here. I wonder at the background music, and the music of Laura's voice, enhances this symbolic communication. A clue perhaps is in your practicing breathing and meditation brought this state on. I wonder if you have similar experiences doing the EE program?

I think at the time I was having these experiences, I was pretty much constantly on the verge of mental breakdown, which has made me question how much of my observations could be the result of mental imbalances. They might seem like revelatory experiences on reading, but really I was only barely staying afloat. Add to that that I was having extreme brain fog and insomnia issues at this time. If not for the extreme mental difficulty, there would have been no need to concentrate hard enough to make these observations. It's like if you deprived someone of sleep for several days, and then told them they could sleep only after they were able to solve math problems correctly with no errors. I was driven to figure out how to work with the brain I had because it was all I had. Most of my effort since then has gone towards getting out of that state with diet and lifestyle, so I haven't had many similar experiences since then.