“You can hypnotize people with music, and when you get them at their weakest point, you can preach into their subconscious whatever you want to say.” – Jimi Hendrix Music is a powerful tool. It can be used to aid us in altering or elevating our consciousness. It can be used to create an atmosphere or set the mood. It can be used to convey powerful messages and emotions. Ask almost anyone, anywhere on the planet and they will agree that music is a powerful tool. Music has long been in the toolboxes of the shamans, the mystics, the alchemists, the philosophers, and the religious institutions. The psychedelic revolution of the 60’s and 70’s was fueled by music and revolved around it. Music has been employed on the battlefield and in war. Music has been used to torture inmates and frighten them. The truth of the power of music is very, very clear. So then, what does this mean for the Initiate or the spiritual seeker? Firstly, it means that we can add a weapon to our arsenal. However, possibly the most important thing the spiritual seeker can do in regards to music is choose it wisely. Remember, what you put in your head is what you get back out. o fully understand that, a sufficient understanding of neuroplasticity is required. Neuroplasticity is the process that alters your brain’s neural synapses and pathways according to environmental, behavioral, and neural changes. Basically, your brain creates pathways of information according to your lifestyle. Just like a trail through a field, the more you use a pathway, the clearer that pathway becomes and the easier it is to move down it. This occurs hand in hand with synaptic pruning – the brain’s way of deleting unnecessary neural connections that you no longer use. This all depends on your life experiences and the frequency of your use of these pathways. Again, the more you use it the clearer a path becomes. This is how your brain fine tunes itself to think about the things you deal with most often more quickly. This is how your brain develops itself to respond faster and faster to your demands. It is for this reason that ‘practice makes perfect’. The more you do something, the more you think about a topic, the more you focus on a certain thing the quicker your brain becomes at it. If this is still a bit of a fuzzy topic, think of it from an electrical standpoint. The brain is essentially just a bunch of electrical signals and chemical interactions. Electricity always takes the path of least resistance. If your brain keeps building the path and making the path easier, it literally becomes the path of least resistance allowing your brain to fire electricity down said path at a faster rate. So then, when it is said that you get out what you put in, it really is deeper than a cliché. How does this tie back in to music? Well, if it isn’t obvious, the topics that your music discusses fuels this neuroplasticity. The more you listen to music about certain topics, the quicker and more accustomed to that line of thinking your brain becomes. If your music discusses materialism and bad relationships, your brain becomes literally hardwired to those topics. The more you listen, the more your brain continues to improve these pathways and let the information flow more quickly. If you listen to music about positive things or success, your brain becomes attuned to such things. This is the vital, crucial importance of music to the Initiate or to those that seek enlightenment and illumination. Be selective in your music. In today’s Western culture, it is quite normal to listen to music without ever examining the lyrics. We let the radios play everywhere, all day long. In restaurants, in elevators, in cars, in trains, in subways, even while we pump gas there is music playing. Usually, it is popular music and usually popular music is devoid of any significant lyrical content. Popular music is almost always about bad relationships, loose morality, irresponsible behavior, lack of personal responsibility, drug addictions, alcoholism, violence, and MATERIALISM. Are these topics what the spiritual person should be putting in their brains? Are these the pathways that we should be cultivating in our minds? Probably not. Now, I do not want to seem high and mighty. We are in this world but not of it. However, that does not mean that we need to shut out the world around us and be a music snob or anything like that. There is no reason to worry or fret if you find yourself in a place with disagreeable popular music or music that is discussing things you are not interested in. The occasional exposure will not calcify your pineal or prevent you from reaching your goals. You may even enjoy popular music upon occasion. You may enjoy gangster rap or death metal. You may even like country-pop. That is fine. It is okay to enjoy yourself but do not become absorbed by it. Do not allow yourself to become fixated on the topics of popular music. To further recognize the importance of music and how it can greatly influence our minds, let’s continue observing popular music. Is it not strange to you that many popular musical artists use occult symbolism in their art? Is it not strange that esoteric concepts are discussed plainly in popular music with increasing frequency? Take a look below this paragraph and you can see the evidence for yourself. Why would so many artists use similar symbols and discuss similar ideas? To the conspiracy theorist that thinks they know what direction this is going, no…we are not about to discuss the tired and misunderstood thing that is The Illuminati. That is a subject for another time. The reasoning behind the persistence of occult knowledge in popular culture is explained simply. These artists have an understanding of the power of music and they use it for their purposes or possibly for the purposes of the highest bidder. These artists understand that if they can instill their idea in you that they can create culture. One has only to look at our Western society to see the huge impact popular music has on our fads and trends. Musical artists set the trends for everything from fashion to technology. They encourage us to buy shoes and clothes. They sing about fancy cars and big houses. They rap about making lots of money and abusing others to do it. They make music glorifying apathy and carelessness. They decide what charities are popular and what causes we should fight for. They stand behind political viewpoints and sway millions. Some would argue that musicians simply make music about the culture they are targeting but I submit to you the idea that many of them are out to sway culture with their music. Now, that leaves one more thing to discuss. What exactly is good music? If so many of these artists are using their music for negative reasons and cultural conditioning, are there others fighting against those efforts? Absolutely. There are huge artists that fight the messages of the mainstream music media. Music is powerful but it is not limited to only the corrupt and morally deficient. Of course there are those that use their music to rise to a position of power and then spread positive messages and knowledge. No one can decide for you what you should put in your head. However, each of us can examine the music we listen to and be honest with ourselves if it is doing us harm or good. What pathways are we creating in our brains with the music we surround ourselves with? What is the message of the music we find ourselves attracted to. That can be a huge window into ourselves.
In the end, just as with all things music needs to be thought about from many angles. Be honest with yourself and make choices that reflect the direction you want to travel in. Influence the pathways that you wish to and neglect those that you no longer want to travel.
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March 2017
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