HAS MUSIC ever sneaked up on you and changed the way your view life?

by Terry 39 Replies latest jw experiences

  • Terry
    Terry


    Wow Terry-

    This thread topic reminds of the topic of discussion with most of my fellow musicians! As one who lived music, I did have alot to say but it all got too wordy. I'll just respond with a 'Yes'...



    I think people don't THINK about music. It won't kill the music to think about it.

    For example:

    Life is NOW. Now connected to the next NOW. The rest is memory (the past) or hope (the future).

    Music is the only artform that ONLY exists in time. You have to jump into the flow to experience it and BE ONE with the wave that carries you.................someplace...................................else in time.

    Music is Time Travel+plus.............................experiencing yourself (like an orgasm) in a way that is ONLY MEANINGFUL AS EXPERIENCE.

    Music is not a conceptual thought; but, rather a conceptual experience of self-experience.

    Does that sound convoluted?

    The "otherness" of music somehow connects with you personally and emotionally without conveying any information other than: THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE FEELING AT THIS INSTANT.

    You must surrender to music as you surrender to sex in order to experience the seizure of a fleeting moment of brain death/rebirth.

    But, now I'm waxing poetic and that simply won't do.

    T.

  • Terry
    Terry
    As you know, I am a firm believer in the value of logic, and data, but I think there is more to us than just the concrete (after all ,,, nothing is really concrete, is it? is a table really a table? no, it is just our perception that makes it a table).

    What??? (Incredulous)

    I must be hearing wrong (if reading a word can make a "sound" in the head).

    Let me just ask one question unequivocally.

    Is a table there if nobody sees it?

    Or, do you think we assemble the universe by our attention?

    I'm trying to determine if you are rational or a mystic.

    Thanks,

    Terry

  • Terry
    Terry
    Terry,

    There is nothing more that I care to add, as I feel that further explanation would be an exercise in futility. If we ever meet in person, I would love to talk about it, but I really don't feel it would work in this format

    Evasion.

    Tsk tsk.

    Okay, I'll respect your reply.

    T.

  • Terry
    Terry


    I suppose it would not hurt anything to give an example of a piece of music that took the top of my head off.

    CHARLES IVES' THE UNANSWERED QUESTION.

    This piece of music represents the vast universe of swirling astronomy and chaotic particles on a journey beyond comprehension. The trumpet sounds; barely penetrating the opacity of sound around it. Four notes. They represent life crying out for reason; for logic; for answers to existence: WHY ARE WE HERE?

    The "reply" of the universe indifferent, impassive and ineluctable...it continues as before.

    Once again the trumpet questions: WHY ARE WE HERE?

    I won't give it all away.

    It struck me dumb when I first heard it and it gives me goose bumps just thinking about experiencing it as music.

    That is what I meant by music "sneaking up on you and changing your life". When I heard it I "got it".

    My thinking took a turn.

    T.

  • PaulJ
    PaulJ

    Good music makes me happy. It can put me in a good mood if I am in a bad mood.

    It makes me sing and tap my feet and sometimes it makes me pick my baby daughter up and dance around the room with her.

    Sometimes, when no one is looking it makes me play invisible instruments.

    If its really good it will make me spend £10 buying the CD.

    Music is cool.

  • Terry
    Terry
    Good music makes me happy. It can put me in a good mood if I am in a bad mood

    The human trait above all others: the ability and willingness to alter one's consciousness through external stimuli!

    And, with music, no syringes or zig-zags are needed and you don't have to wash out your shot glass or pick up the cans afterward.

    T.

  • DanTheMan
    DanTheMan
    i brought up data because there is not concrete data in music, that would change one's view. however, i do think that books can change a persons view, because there is data in the book. the data strung together makes information. we apply the information to our "view" and it becomes knowledge. i personally don't think music can do this, and i'm not saying that you do say that.

    I don't know. Let's take a serious and sober 19th century German who has never questioned the existence of God and the rightness of his Lutheran faith. Now let's expose him to some music written by a contemporary of his but possessing an entirely different outlook: Wagner. If our Lutheran is not affected by the music in any way, then he will likely continue on his previous course. But if the music *is* moving to him, I think that he is changed forever. So while there was no data transmitted, I think that the music has changed him in such a way that the prism through which he interprets his past and future experiences has been altered, in effect changing the way he views things.

    I know that the hardcore rationalists hate to hear talk about things like artists being the mystical reflectors of the collective unconscious and things like that, but I'm a true believer. :)

  • BlackSwan of Memphis
    BlackSwan of Memphis

    Well......

    Years back when I still lived with my mom and dad, my mom didn't always like my choice of music. I guess it was, in her opinion, demonic.

    Particular song in question was off of Loreena McKennit's The Visit. Now, Loreena McKennit's stuff tends to explore other cultures and belief systems.

    Being a good kid, I complied with my mom and didn't listen to that song for several years..... until one day.....

    After I decided that I was just NOT going back to the kh, I decided to play the damn song again to see if my cd player would start flying around the house. (hehe)

    It didn't.

    Point being

    Hearing that song again, really hearing it, listening to the words and the music, made me see, that what I had been afraid of for so long was more built up in my mind, then what really was.

    I think a better way to explain it is to say, watch The Village.

    What we create in our mind as monsters and demons, are just that, our creations.

    Up until then, I had not stopped to look outside of what I was comfortable with and really look at all the hundreds (thousands, millions etc.) of possibilites that exist.

    Not sure if that's what you're looking for, but that's my experience with music.

    Peace and Blessings

    BlackSwan

  • Terry
    Terry
    What we create in our mind as monsters and demons, are just that, our creations.

    Up until then, I had not stopped to look outside of what I was comfortable with and really look at all the hundreds (thousands, millions etc.) of possibilites that exist.

    Not sure if that's what you're looking for, but that's my experience with music.

    Yes, that's exactly what I'm looking for.

    I can remember when I was in Prison over the "neutrality issue" and the theme from Rosemary's Baby would come on the radio; I'd have to change the station for fear of allowing demonic influences to reach me!

    Now, just writing those words make me want to kick my own ass.

    What a nitwit.

    How can we allow ourselves to accept such a baseless idea and let it control our life?

    Well, one day---years later, I listened to the lullabye and thought it quite lovely. Period. No demons infesting the atmosphere entered the room to make my guts into garters. Nothing. Just a sweet little lullabye. That's all.

    It gave me quite a feeling of stupidity that I had avoided it in the first place.

    Terry

  • myelaine
    myelaine

    I've always liked to listen to the blues, but it took Angela Strehli to bring it home, if you know what I mean.

    michelle

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