Music: My Religion, My Drug.

I have spent several weeks where I incessantly devoted every waking minute of my spare time to deep reflection and proactive meditation upon the role music plays in my life and spirituality. The effects of this time of thought have manifested themselves both physically and mentally; on Friday I had a friend ask me why I have been so 'down' over the past few weeks.
After two weeks of intensive self-conversation and deliberation, I have uncovered the role that music has on myself. While I cannot expect anybody else to share my point of view, I thought I'd share my viewpoints with you.

Over these past two weeks, I have mostly been listening to dark-ambient artist Lustmord. His work is exceptionally thought-provoking and has aided me in my search for the meaning and purpose of musical endeavors. Those of you who know me well will already know that music plays an exceptionally important part in my life. I believe that it can cleanse the mind, provide solace and companionship, and even carry a profound message to those who listen to it.
I myself feel a profound physical effect whenever I listen to certain types of music. These would typically fall into the "art-rock" or "avant-garde" genres. A good example would be the work of rock-band Tool, especially their album Lateralus. The complex drumming bases itself on geometric precision and structure, invoking a sort of ritual which enables the listener to further open their consciousness and receive the message that is being transmitted through the combinations of overlapping time signatures and rhythm. The songs on this album hold a significant spiritual message, and promote a feeling of peace and complacency within the listener.
Lustmord, mentioned earlier, tends to slip into the darker domains of the human psyche. The song that I'm listening to at the moment, Black Star, consists of minimalist cries; which sound as if they're perpetuated by some sort of Tibetan horn. This constant drone is occasionally broken up by primitive, animalistic screams. The extensive use of ultra-sound also provokes a deep feeling of unease and worry in the listener. Lustmord is exceptionally adept at exploiting the different reactions and stimuli the brain has when faced with such an onslaught of sound, hence the reason his work has been the primary source of inspiration for my conceptions.
A special mention should also go to the Japanese group Acid Mothers Temple who have dedicated their work to taking the listener on a journey. It was founding member Kawabata Makoto's words that first inspired me to study the role and purpose of music:

"Music, for me, is neither something that I create, nor a form of self-expression. All kinds of sounds exist everywhere around us, and my performances solely consist of picking up these sounds, like a radio tuner, and playing them so that people can hear them."

He is of course right. Music is just sound. But how does it have such a profound effect on people? Music has influenced whole generations; people have fought to it, fucked to it, played to it... Music makes your heart race, music is there when God is not. Find not solace in an imaginary higher power. Embrace that which is there, that which you can see, hear and feel.
Oh, how I envy those people with synesthesia. To be able to see the music for what it is would be... tantric.

Music; my religion, my drug. You've saved my mind and body on oh, so many occasions. I surrender myself to you.

I Think What God Meant to Say...

So, earlier on Shiv passed me this link detailing the recent child abuse and polygamy scandal going on in a small Church in Eldorado, Texas.
The story is pretty damn worrying, apparently a member of the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS for posterities sake) tipped off the police about the alleged child abuse going on there. The authorities then raided the compound and took the children into protective custody along with their mothers, many of who were married to the same man because the church is a part of the Mormon religion.
A little background: the FLDS is one of the largest sects of Mormon practitioners today, with around 10,000 members. It split from the mainstream Mormon organization (the LDS) when the LDS decided to denounce polygamous marriage, seeing as it's against state and federal laws in the United States. The church itself is run by a man named William E. Jessop, but before him it was run by Warren Jeffs, who had been on the run from the FBI before he was arrested in September of 2007 and found guilty for two counts of rape.

The raid was carried out after the police got a call from someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl who had been sexually abused by members of the Church. Without further ado, the police raided the church only to discover that they could not find the person who placed the call. So where was the girl? Truth is one Rozita Swinton had placed the call and impersonated a 16 year old. She was later arrested for false reporting to the authorities. Nevertheless, the police and child-protection agencies searched the compound and concluded that the children "had been abused or were in danger of being abused in the future". The children are now in State custody until it is decided where they will go. The control of the Church has now been given back to the FLDS.

The Waco Siege of 1994 has now become synonymous with the concept of fundamentalist Christianity. I am of course talking about the infamous siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas that lasted for 51 days and ended in the compound catching fire, leaving around 80 dead. The first thing I thought after reading the source article above was that we could have very nearly seen another Waco.
The Waco siege was exceptionally badly planned, and one could even say it was rushed. But when you take a look at the Branch Davidian beliefs, it becomes evident that the whole siege could have been easily avoided.
Interestingly enough, David Koresh said it best himself during the siege in a recorded tape he sent out:

You guys could have arrested me when I was running down the path outside of the compound, when I was buying groceries... so why did you have to choose now?

The documentaries "Waco: A New Revelation" and "Waco, Rules of Engagement" explain that the Branch Davidians viewed the ATF siege as a sign of the "end times", as many of the things that they saw colluded to their scripture's descriptions of Armageddon. For them, the American government was viewed as the tyrannical kingdom of Babylon, who would strike against the righteous (I.E. the Branch Davidians). They would do this with chariots of fire, which were interpreted as the tanks used during the siege.

Anyways, I'm going off on a slight tangent here. I'm saying that had the authorities not better prepared for their raid of the Mormon church, it could have all gone horribly wrong. And this is what annoys me with Christianity today; the Bible is so loosely interpreted (usually deliberately), so that the various offshoots of the religion can point at any scripture they choose and say "this is the word of God, he's telling us to do this!", even if it means going out there and killing everyone with an automatic weapon. It also apparently doesn't matter if your interpretation of the bible contradicts every other sect out there. This makes it incredibly easy to start your own branch of Christianity.
For example:

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

John I, 5:14-15

This means that God is that rich uncle you know who's always trying to buy your love and affection. Ask and ye shall recieve. One positive side, is that it also makes things very easy if you want to piss off your average fundie who claims to know the Bible off by heart. Why not challenge their interpretation of the Bible with your own? As long as you come up with logical arguments to support your theory, what's stopping you?

Peace out ;P

Holy Religious Herpes, Batman!

My views on religion have changed drastically over the years, as have my personal and political philosophies. Since I hit puberty, I've gone through several 'phases' where I chose to obsess about something or other to do with religion, such as ghosts, the possibility of life after death and the existence of God. I was brought up as a staunchant atheist by my parents, but I've had the exceptionally good fortune of both my parents turning to me at an early age and saying to me "You believe what you want to believe". Nevertheless, I have always had quite an unorthodox religious environment. While it's less prominent now (but still active), my father has a personal religion that takes inspiration from various occult practices, and incorporates the concept of Egyptian lore into his personal beliefs. While I myself don't really understand his beliefs completely, I'll never forget his main 'speech' to me when ever we discuss religion in general:

I personally believe that we all 'tap into' the cosmic force by exercising our various beliefs and rituals.

Those aren't his exact words, but it's about the gist of it. Pretty profound stuff for a 38 year old ex-teacher from Hull.
My mother on the other hand, who was brought up in a radical socialist background, is a strict atheist. Nevertheless, she finds Christianity to be an interesting religion, and enjoys reading the Holy Bible. As you can imagine, she and my father clash quite often concerning religious views. They discuss it frequently and are always in disaccord with each-other. Then again, such is life.

This unique environment has helped ensure that I have not converted to an organized religion, and indeed am still unsure about how the world works. I have therefore built up a personal philosophy. Please note that this is subject to change in accordance to personal experience. I may become a Scientologist yet.
Anyways, I guess you could call me Agnostic. I truly don't know whether or not there is a higher power, or whether we're all just here for a ride. I don't know if there's life after death, but I believe in a few principles that I try to shape my life and morals around. I wouldn't really call it a religion or anything like that, but some of it does fall into spirituality, I guess.

The Gospel According To James

1. Music is the key to better understanding the world around us. Music is perhaps the ultimate art medium; it is able to provoke and express emotion in such a pure way. Music can make us happy, sad, angry, humored... Therefore it is beneficial for the soul and your mind to build up an eclectic taste in music. This permits oneself to better understand certain cultures and also helps to better balance oneself psychologically.
2. Anything you do that deliberately hurts somebody either physically or emotionally will come back to bite you on the ass. This ranges from talking about someone behind their back, to getting in a fight with somebody. "Wouldn't it be nice if everyone was nice"? Well, yes it would. It would indeed. So try to be nice to people, else it might come back to you in ways you can't even imagine.
3. All humans are created equal, it is simply their own personal actions and society that creates inequality. The physical aspects of a person do not matter, it is their mind you should be interested in. I also believe that people such as terrorists, rapists, murderers and the like are not "born evil" or born with some psychological defect that gives them a predisposition to violence and pain. I believe it is through fault of their own or through the fault of society that they become who they are today. This is not an excuse for their behavior, by the way.
4. We are all hypocrites. We can try to live according to our principles, but somewhere across the line we will all fail our personal philosophy, whether it's intentional or not. The same applies to criticizing someone over trivial matters.
5. Nobody knows what happens after we die; the only way to experience that is by dying. Of course, this isn't advocating suicide, on the contrary. This is further explained in my next point
6. We (as in each individual) are only here once. Life is a unique experience for each person, and we should all try to live a long a fruitful life where we develop a sense of understanding and compassion towards our fellow man.

So there you have it, in a nutshell. Of course, I don't expect people to agree with me or advocate my point of view. Figure it out for yourself.

Live Long & Prosper
James