Before the beat there was the pulse. The pulse is cosmic in origin, the emanation of eternity that is forever being reproduced in time as the now or moment in existence. Man and woman at the early phase of evolution were spiritual beings who experienced the nature of the earth as a unified body of sense, expanding and contracting on the cosmic pulse of life. What would later externalise as musical composition was a facet of this sublime echo of eternity: the timeless score of reality which musicians and performers unconsciously endeavour to replicate.
As the past became a psychic impediment to the spiritual flow between the principle of Man and the cosmic pulse, life on earth began a strange metamorphosis. Human beings became entrenched as physical bodies, no longer able to withdraw into the inner harmony of life but stranded in a divided and alien existence. When the pulse faded from the collective consciousness, a more urgent and progressive rhythm emerged that was consonant with the new world order and developing human nature. The beat manifested through the organ of the heart as the physical reproduction in time of the cosmic pulse.
To compensate for what was felt to be missing, primitive man looked to nature to invoke the original sense of oneness with the earth. He awarded special significance to sacred creatures, whose gestures and shapes were replicated in ceremonial dances and rituals. Shamans or witch doctors utilised the percussive beat to invoke a deeper communion with the nature spirits. They discovered the beat had strange and magical effects that made the body move and could alter the perception of the mind to provide a bridge between the sensory and psychic worlds. Later this practice became corrupted by the force of human nature and used as a means to manipulate others by psychic magic and illusion. When the magic began to wane, human sacrifice became necessary to achieve the same effects as before. The beat became progressively hard, invoking powerful unconscious forces within the body that were sexually charged and aggressive. Man was no longer in charge of the beat – it had begun to possess him.
The beat of the drum was used for millennia as a psychological weapon in warfare to bolster courage in the soldiers and strike terror in the heart of the enemy. As the civilising process became predominant in human evolution, the creative aspect of music and the first songs began to emerge. The first musical compositions were played on primitive instruments as homage to the spirit of the earth, and later as tributes to deities in religious ceremonies. Before anything was written down, music and poetic verse was the means in which the traditions and customs of the past were communicated to successive generations. It was also an opportunity to sing of love and the virtues of man and woman. The musicians were the original troubadours whose songs were a faint echo of the cosmic pulse and kept the people in touch with the romance of life. As music evolved it was observed that certain notes in an interval or sequence could invoke feelings of either sadness or joy. Today, any song or composition able to stir the emotions is likely to find an eager and appreciative audience. Music can act as a palliative to the stresses and strains of modern living, and for some people it’s the lifeblood of their very existence.
Musical trends and styles follow the customs of the times and can provide an insight into the broader perspective of any era. The key to modern music’s popularity is its sheer diversity where just about anything goes. The influence of music is now endemic, and in our modern culture the beat has become even more predominant. You can hear it in a passing motor car with the bass booming so loud you wonder how the driver isn’t deafened! Restaurants play music to subliminally influence diners to eat more quickly, while news broadcasters drum up the beat as a background to the headlines in order to stoke up the emotional ambience of the viewers. There’s nothing wrong with the beat as long as there’s an awareness of its hypnotic pull towards psychic possession. At a broader level the beat is a facet of the global sexual self that now possesses the world. Indeed, as performances become more sexually explicit (with dance and stage routines resembling a good night at Sodom and Gomorrah!) the psychic entity is manifesting in an evermore visceral representations of the loss of humanity’s virtue.
However, there’s a distinguishing factor that elevates certain musical compositions and songs to a creative level that transcends the normal listening experience. Occasionally, gifted composers and performers are quoted as saying that their most inspirational work comes through without effort from another place, and in effect they are a vehicle for the creative idea to externalise. It’s sometimes observed that a performance that was exceptional appeared to be playing independently of any personal interpretation. When this happens in a live concert, or is captured on a recording, the beat has merged with the pulse; and all that remains is the pure creativity of the moment.
When music emerged in the original East, the master musicians were able to invoke this spiritual aspect at the heart of all musical expression. In fact all music at this early phase of human culture was devotional and played in reverence to the sacred sound of eternity. The effect on the players and on the audience was to invoke the muse of music, which unified not just the sense of hearing but all of the senses simultaneously. The music of the East directs the listener inwards on a wave of sound to participate in the creative source. Western music is projective in essence and directs the listener outwards on the beat as an emotional response to an artist’s performance. Music heard through just the sense of hearing must have a beat in which to project its presence through the matter of the sensory world. The cosmic pulse is not limited to the senses but can enter existence and withdraw at will without affecting its sublime state of reality. Even the finest works of Beethoven or Mozart are rendered inconsequential in death or unconsciousness.
Both East and West have now merged into a fusion of global musical culture where just about anything goes. The muse, however, has not disappeared and still surfaces, whether at the opera house, stadium or through a singer at the local pub. The cosmic pulse is the pause behind the beat – an interval of space that transcends time, but is forever now as the song of life in existence.
A way of life without money is impossible in this epoch of human evolution. From an early age we’re taught to revere its god-like quality to provide virtually anything that the heart desires. To be comfortably off without any financial worries is indeed a privilege, and can reduce many of the irritations and difficulties that arise from being financially challenged. When it’s a struggle to make ends meet it’s not surprising that many people wish their fortunes would dramatically change with a lotto win or something to instantly transform the life.
The great escape is the biggest break-out of all time. The escapees have never been brought to justice and, except in rare instances of self-surrender, continue to be at large in the world. It is the human race that has escaped from reality, transfixed by the massed hypnosis of hope for a better world tomorrow. At a planetary level, the great escape of humanity has externalised as a field of conflict and disharmony that now encircles the earth. Global warming, greenhouse gases and the pollution of the seas and rivers are all symptoms of the negative condition of the planet. It’s no surprise that humanity is looking to escape into space to create a new Eden in some distant constellation. But what is it that we are so desperate to escape from?
Social media is playing a pivotal role in shaping the next evolutionary phase of human culture. The internet and the vast network of social media sites that connect the majority of the world’s population represent a unique shift within the human psyche. In this new epoch, death will no longer be an imposition and the way will be open to cosmic participation as an immortal state of being. The difficulty is the impediment of dead past that has solidified as a stratum of past ignorance around the simplicity of the earth. Each person registers a portion of this as the burden of living, either as emotional negativity or the hardships that all must confront in one way or another. The purpose of life is to make this unconscious layer of human suffering more conscious and so contribute to the greater good beyond the personal drives and desires. Social media and the worldwide web is the material representation of the psychic system of life after death and, more ominously, the external means in which humanity will be made to confront the truth of its own making.
Art is the impulse to replicate the mystery of woman and the beauty of the female principle. As the drive for creative expression, art is fundamentally a male-induced phenomenon and why the great masters of art have been predominately male. Artistry, however, combines both male and female principles and is the essence of what the ancient Greeks intuited as mimesis, the fluidity of eternal ideas being imitated or physically reproduced in the sensory world. An example of art and artistry is clearly visible when comparing the hard structural art of medieval Christian churches with the sensual artistry in mosques and mosaics of the Islamic faith.
In recent years pornography has emerged from the shadows of its seedy past to be a mainstream industry, now freely available to anyone with a mobile phone or computer. The human race has become hooked on porn with virtually no knowledge of its subconscious effects and the terrible price it exerts on an unsuspecting world. What is perhaps most alarming in the modern era is the widespread exposure of pornography to young children and teenagers. A recent survey in the UK disclosed severe behavioural problems associated with porn, and the escalation of sexual assault and rape at schools. ‘Sexting’, a modern phenomenon that involves sending explicit sexual content through social media, is now a common practice with children as well as adults.
Depression arises from being in a body in a loveless world. So you could say that everyone in the human condition is depressed; or they must pass through the depressed condition of humanity to reach the other side to be free. There are various levels of depression, ranging from what is thought to be ‘normal’ to the severe forms of the condition that afflict so many people.
Unidentified flying objects were first sighted en masse in the 1940’s and widely reported by pilots on bomber raids during the Second World War. The strange lights that glowed mysteriously around their aircraft were given the name of “foo fighters” by the Americans and were thought initially to be a special weapon developed by the Nazis. Since then UFOs have been witnessed by thousands of people, many of whom are respected for their common sense and practicality, such as policemen, pilots, servicemen and air traffic controllers. Encounters vary from mysterious lights hovering in the sky to menacing alien abductions. The theories of the origin of these UFOs are as imaginative and diverse as any science fiction story. But so far science has yet to come up with a logical explanation of the phenomenon of flying saucers and the perplexing question of extra-terrestrial life.