From: Crosby_M (CrosbyM@po1.cpi.bls.gov)
Date: Wed Dec 18 1996 - 16:24:21 MST
Roderick A. Carder-Russell:
<What affect does music have on the experience? [snip] It's affects
on the delta/theta/alpha/beta system? Singing. Chanting. Oxygen
deprivation? Aldous Huxley, in "Heaven and Hell", states the reason
for singing in religion, all of the repetitive speach, is to deprive
the individual of oxygen, inducing visions of god, which are nothing
more than hallucinations.>
Perhaps Huxley was thinking of Buddhist monks chanting all day long,
which implies that meditation as well as the mental focus it brings is
simply a hallucination due to oxygen deprivation? The ecstatic states
reportedly achieved by sufis, yogis, etc. (not to mention David Musick
;-) must, then, be nothing more than hallucinations, shamefully
allowing the celebrants to escape, even briefly, from the true reality
of oppression and eventual death?
Chris Hind:
<Avoid churches at all cost! They deprive the brain of oxygen! :)>
Yes ... "Just Say No!" Gospel singers must be so deprived of oxygen
that they're just 'falling all over each other' because they can't
stand up, they're losing all their energy. (Other musicians must
surely be damaging their health as well.)
More seriously, songs sung in churches these days are rather brief.
The only threat to rational reality that such sing-alongs pose (on
their own) is to cause a group of people to breath in unison and feel
a shared emotion. This, of course, must be a hallucination since the
congregation will soon disolve and the individuals will soon be
struggling to survive against the fittest back out in the hard, cruel
world.
Notions of personal responsibility, the ethic of "do unto others as
you would have others do unto you", the desire to create a better
future, the foolish notion of 'an everlasting life', or a meaning to
life, or the spirit of thankfulness, these candies must be denied to
the masses so that they can spend their time seeking them the proper
way, through the gospel of science (all sales clerks please gather at
the front of the store for our daily readings from Kant &
Wittgenstein).
Mark
(Doesn't 'believe' in God, or have much use for Faith, but
occasionally enjoys church for the people-watching and group-singing
opportunities, sometimes inspirational stories, the ambiance of light
spaciously streaming through colorful windows, and those rare moments
of delta/theta/alpha high. BTW, perhaps I was just fortunate that
demons and warnings about Hell were not part of my childhood religious
experience. Mostly I remember stories about Jesus, this charismatic
guy who wanted to empower people. The only negative was having to
dress up and miss watching The Three Stooges on television :-)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:35:54 MST