Home (ego death and self-control cybernetics)

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Altered-State Lyrics

General site for Rush lyrics:

http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/Albums.htm

Almost all Rush albums have many songs that have dense allusions to mystic altered-state phenomena. I primarily cover early Rush albums, when they were originally exploring this approach - Caress of Steel through Grace Under Pressure .

I have not yet indicated which are the stronger, or "leading" allusions and which are weaker, "following" allusions. The strategy in this sort of analysis must be to brainstorm and overshoot. It is best to think of an excess of mystic-state interpretations, and then later pick the best ones.

My primary purpose with these annotations is not to explain the surface layer of meanings, which is evident during the normal state of cognition. That would be valuable, but my emphasis is on the occluded layer of meanings, the layer that is revealed during the dissociative state of cognition. These two layers are distinct, even if interdependent. I acknowledge the surface layer of meanings, but emphasize the occluded layer. It is clear enough that on the surface, "Bastille Day" is about the French Revolution, "Countdown" is about a rocket take-off, "Red Barchetta" is about a car, "No One at the Bridge" is about a ship, "Cygnus X-1" is about a black hole, and "The Body Electric" is about an android. Those are elementary explanations -- perhaps needed, but of little interest. Those meanings should be instantly obvious to anyone who is paying any attention at all. I am assuming that such analyses have already been taken care of.

Perhaps I should take the time to spell out the surface meanings as well as the occluded allusions, offering this site as the first complete and adequate explanation of Rush lyrics in general. Analyses which are limited to just the surface layer are shallow and have little to offer. I do need to take another look at the couple of books which attempt to explain Rush lyrics -- but I already looked at them and saw nothing more than "Song A is about B, song C is about D", and so on. Such interpretations are shallow because they are too easily satisfied; as soon as the first meaning is determined, the analysis is declared complete. I do discuss the surface layer in some cases, such as when it involves the philosophy of egoism. The "layer" idea applies better to some songs than others.

These are some of the best places to start reading:

The Fountain of Lamneth, particularly No One at the Bridge

The Body Electric

Chemistry

Cygnus X-1 Book One --- The Voyage

Freewill

The Twilight Zone

Discovery

Cygnus X-1 Book II: Hemispheres

Red Barchetta

Limelight

The Camera Eye

Vital Signs

In the Rush newsgroup, someone wrote "Does anyone know what the hell this guy [egodeath.com] is talking about??"

Richard wrote "Well, as a matter of fact I do. But then again, I am altered even as I type this. Thank you [egodeath.com] for your post and the link; I have been looking for just this kind of information for quite some time. Thanks." -- ElectRick, trippin' for the night

>What exactly is the point of all your nonsensical discussions regarding the lyrics of Rush?

>...

>I've read more of your discussion about Rush lyrics and have concluded that you're either very intelligent or you're an idiot with a psychology book in front of you and you're using as many psychology buzzwords as possible to put forth the illusion that you're intelligent!

The status of my intelligence is not directly relevant to this subject.

It is widely thought that Rush is a philosophy/mysticism band, but a crucial point for understanding the nature of this "philosophy" and "mysticism" is that it is *acid*-mysticism.

The lyrics are crafted to lend themselves particularly well to carrying subtle double-entendres alluding to common experiences of the LSD mystic altered state. The result is a language of hidden reference, a systematic, definable scheme of encoding and decoding of meaning. The acid lyricist writes while on LSD, subtlely phrasing things in a way that suggests common LSD experiences and perceptions. These allusions are not recognized except by listeners who are also in the LSD mystic altered state. For example, "sea spray blurs my vision, the waves roll by so fast, save my ship of freedom, I'm lashed helpless to the mast" are publically understood to simply tell a story of a sea voyage and a storm. But for those on LSD, the rather odd or arbitrary phrasings are seen as referring, with a perfect fit (perfect beyond the possibility of coincidence), to the common LSD experiences of perceptual waving and of loss of the sense of free will.

Ego death is the most interesting phenomena in human experiencing and warrants such research and explanation as my site puts forth.

There is no need for psychology buzzwords and high intelligence to experience and explain this. Just a familiarity with Rush lyrics and common altered-state experiences.

See Rush as an acid-mysticism group for much more explanation.

-- Unit One

Different Stages shows Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson being hauled away from the concert hall in a straightjacket, by orderlies wearing white. Compare the cover of 5150, by Van Halen, showing the band in straightjackets. These album covers both refer to the psychotomimetic effects of LSD.

unitOne@egodeath.com

The Holland version of this album cover shows an eagle, representing liberty of the individual. The regular cover shows an owl (representing being awake during an all-night trip). I am surprised the owl does not have large pupils.

(Lee, Lifeson, Peart)

[This is pro-egoism as opposed to collectivism and an altruism which condemns the value of the individual who gives to others. Contrast with later songs that dwell on the problematic nature of ego and egoic self-control. For more information, see Ego strengthening vs. ego transcendence.]

Know your place in life is where you want to be

Don't let them tell you that you owe it all to me

Keep on looking forward; no use in looking 'round

Hold your head above the ground and they won't bring you down

Anthem of the heart and anthem of the mind

A funeral dirge for eyes gone blind

We marvel after those who sought

New wonders in the world, wonders in the world,

Wonders in the world they wrought.

Live for yourself -- there's no one else

More worth living for

Begging hands and bleeding hearts will

Only cry out for more [compare Cinderella Man, in which "he held up his riches to challenge the hungry"]

Well, I know they've always told you

Selfishness was wrong

Yet it was for me, not you, I

Came to write this song [here is a declaration of selfishness and a refusal of the morality of altruisim (feeling one is morally obliged to hold oneself down to altruistically help others)]

(Peart, Lifeson)

[This song presages many themes that appear in "Bastille Day".]

Ten score years ago, defeat the kingly foe [search "king"] ["kingly foe" would be either the dragonesque inner ego as false controller-agent, or a control-agent who controls the Ground of Being which gives rise to our every act of will and act of personal control]

A wondrous dream came into being

Tame the trackless waste, no virgin land left chaste [exploration and mapping of mystic state; consciousness researchers as Magellan's]

All shining eyes, but never seeing [search "shining" and "shining eyes"; it's a repeated motif for dilated eyes in altered state]

Beneath the noble birth [allusion to kingship repeated later in Bastille Day; search "king"]

Between the proudest words [the Ground of Being that produces the delusion of egoic power eventually reveals the impotence of ego]

Behind the beauty, crack appear

Once, with heads held high

They sang out to the sky

Why do their shadows bow in fear? [ego-bowing theme repeated later in Bastille Day, search "bow"]

The guns replace the plow, facades are tarnished now [possible allusion to transgressive sacrifice and loss of moral-control stabilizer in the dissociative state]

The principles have been betrayed [which principles? consider freedom, inner personal government, cybernetics principles]

The dreams's gone stale, but still, let hope prevail [compare staleness of the quest in Fountain of Lamneth]

History's debt won't be repaid [search "history"]

(Lee, Lifeson, Peart)

[premonitions of the battle theme of The Necromancer]

The tomb of Hades, lit by flickering torchlight

The nether world is gathered in the glare

Prince By-Tor takes the cavern to the north light

The sign of Eth is rising in the air.

By-Tor, knight of darkness, [note that in the song "The Necromancer", "Prince By-Tor" is the champion, the savior, the good guy and rescuer.]

Centurion of evil, devil's prince. [By-Tor here too is a prince - but a prince of the devil.]

Across the River Styx, out of the lamplight [in ego death, cross river styx into hades]

His nemesis is waiting at the gate

The Snow Dog, ermine glowing in the damp night

Coal-black eyes shimmering with hate. [allusion to dilated pupils]

By-Tor and the Snow Dog

Square for battle, let the fray begin.

The battle's over and the dust is clearing

Disciples of the Snow Dog sound the knell

Rejoicing echoes as the dawn is nearing

By-Tor in defeat retreats to Hell

Snow Dog is victorious

The land of the Overworld is saved again.

(Lee, Peart)

["Fly by night" means a trip (LSD session) during the entire night]

Why try? I know why

This feeling inside me says it's time I was gone [ego disappearance]

Clear head, new life ahead [rebirth]

I want to be king now, not just one more pawn [king ego, puppethood; but actually one goes from feeling as a king to feeling as a puppet, in mystic altered state]

Fly by night away from here [trip (LSD session) during the entire night]

Change my life again

Fly by night, goodbye my dear [disappearance of ego]

My ship isn't coming and I just can't pretend [search "ship"]

Moonrise, thoughtful eyes

Staring back at me from the window beside [ecstasis (standing beside oneself), dilated eyes, pure awareness is a higher vantage point to observe the mechanics of ego-cognition]

No fright or hindsight [fear of loss of control]

Leaving behind that empty feeling inside [ego disappearance]

Start a new chapter, I find what I'm after

Is changing every day.

The change of a season's enough of a reason

To want to get away

Quiet and pensive, my thoughts apprehensive [apprehend/fear insights about illusory nature of self-control]

The hours drift away

Leaving my homeland, playing a lone hand

My life begins today

Back cover art -- conditionally animated

When the viewer is tripping on LSD, the album art (4 sq. ft. total) becomes animated, moving about; moving pictures.

caressbkcover.jpg

September 1975

(04:37) Bastille Day

(03:37) I Think I'm Going Bald

(04:08) Lakeside Park

(12:30) The Necromancer

I. Into Darkness (4:12)

II. Under The Shadow (4:25)

III. Return of the Prince (3:52)

(19:59) The Fountain of Lamneth

I. In the Valley (4:18)

II. Didacts and Narpets (1:00)

III. No One at the Bridge (4:19)

IV. Panacea (3:14)

V. Bacchus Plateau (3:13)

VI. The Fountain (3:49)

_Caress of Steel_ is the most awe-inspiring album, because it is the peak source of inspiration and impetus to the following albums. The most important and noteworthy song from a historical and developmental standpoint is "No One at the Bridge".

Which is the greatest and most worthy song on _Caress of Steel_? While "Bastille Day" and "The Necromancer" deal with the apprehension of mystic ego death, the first does so in the form of a warning or prophecy, and the second does so in the form of a highly metaphorical adventure fantasy. Only "No One at the Bridge" deals directly with the peak experience of needing a divine rescuer. It's an appropriately doom-laden song describing the first strong encounters with the self-destruction of the twisted logic of self-control. All later descriptions of such encounters are less engaged, lacking the immediacy of Discovery. "The Twilight Zone", "Freewill", "The Enemy Within", and "The Body Electric" are spoken from a stance which is so accustomed to the fatal loss of the ego's power of will, that these later songs are sung as safe and secure echoes of the original blast, which built up momentum on _Fly by Night_, but exploded on _Caress of Steel_. The subsequent albums were reflections and echoes of that highest blast of inspiration and forceful moment of revision of the egoic worldview, the blast which is unmistakably represented by "No One at the Bridge".

Acid allusions and philosophy of self-control cybernetics in Caress of Steel

The cask of '43 is an acid double-entendre, an allusion to LSD. Albert Hofmann discovered and synthesized LSD in 1943 in Basil, Switzerland and Sandoz Labs. To "draw another goblet" is to conduct another LSD session of grappling with self-guidance power.

_Caress of Steel_ is packed with allusions to altered state phenomena:

o "take a piece of my mind"

o the waves roll by so fast (waves of perceptual distortion)

o save my ship of freedom, I'm tied helpless to the mast (freedom of will becomes experienced as cancelled or impotent)

o my gaze is caught and I am held helpless mesmerized (or some such) -- an allusion to the loss of power of self-steering, and sense of being trapped in a vortex that leads inexorably to ego-death. This is *the* Zen feeling -- the controlling-ego homunculus is caught in its own trap of logic.

o The entire story of the necromancer -- about being controlled externally and experiencing your will as being out of your own control. "Stripped of will and soul"

This is a standard LSD experience. This theme would hardly occur to an unexperienced lyrist.

o The loss of the ability for self-steering in "No One at the Bridge" (detailed in my long Rand, Satanism, Rush posting).

The extremely artistic melancholy of manic depression is another standard effect of LSD - recall Hendrix's song "Manic Depression" on the important acid rock album, _Are You Experienced?_

While "everyone has their own interpretation" sounds fine and democratic, I am the only person who *has* and puts forth a *highly structured*, explicit, and definite interpretation... I am the only one who claims that there *is* a single, definite, underlying theme: Rush lyrics are, above all, double-entendres and allusions to the highest human experiences: the standard, mystic altered-state phenomena, that naturally connect to the core of religion, philosophy, and psychology.

These lyrics are open to interpretation, but there is a dimension or layer of the lyrics that contains a *definite* allusion. This is a brilliant mastery of meaning, the way the lyrics are simultaneously about the surface topic, *and* are generally, poetically open, *and* -- I'm pointing out -- share a consistent theme. These 3 strands of interpretation are distinct and separable - each can stand on its own.

This suggests a system or philosophy of interpreting poetry. The ancient Greeks felt that the highest artform is music, meaning music with lyrics. I agree, and Rush is unsurpassed in the height of their lyrical achievement - their cleverness of encoding layers of meaning that reveal themselves, some layers more freely than others.

The experience of ego death is a temporary experience, a passage that can happen in multiple LSD sessions. There is also ego death on a longer term -- actually a lasting ego transcendence. "Ego death" is a very transitory experience.

Technically, "ego transcendence" is a more robust, accurate term than "ego death" -- and the word "suspension" is really good. A lot of this terminology is a matter of usage and definition. Many people talk about "ego death" and LSD is certainly experienced as a kind of death -- people talk about "feeling like I was dying". There is the Grateful Dead with all their skeleton imagery. There is crossing the river styx. In rites of pasage, the immature self dies and the more mature self is born.

From Rush: Caress of Steel: Bastille Day:

See THEM bow their heads to DIE

As we would BOW as they rode by

And WE're marching to Bastille Day

La guillotine will claim her bloody prize

Sing, oh choirs of cacophony

The king has KNEELED

To let his kingdom rise

The "king" here is king ego -- the false, illusory aspect of the ego-agent.

As the aristocratic kings died, so will ego bow, kneel, and die, as an illusory cybernetic controller/governor residing inside the mind, during an LSD session.

>but enough to (hopefully) leave the person with enough of an insight into the nature of the ego so that they can see their way more clearly even when without lsd, thereby making it easier and easier to eat lsd, as the ego is 'softened' thru repeated experience.

The ego "dies" as far as no longer being the unchallenged center of personal identity. The ego becomes more like a tool and an identity token, rather than one's true identity. The ego becomes as a tool of the mind.

After ego death, the new mind, or new ego, is different in some essential way from the old ego. The new ego is a more sophisticated, more well-understood ego, that is more differentiated from all the other activities of the mind. Ego death and ego transcendence can be thought of a simply a better understanding of the real nature of the ego -- such as seeing the way in which ego has *always* been an illusion. This can be subtle -- the ego is not entirely an illusion; it *sort of* exists. In the mystic state of dissociative cognition, the ego is re-perceived, and re-conceptualized. This is usually impossible, during the normal state of cognition, because deeply locked-in patterns of thought prevent the mind from examining the ego.

I have never heard someone claim to be born into a new "ego". They ususally say something like "I died to the old self to be born as a new, true Self". Ego is, by convention, demonized -- except by egotists, who usually do not have any insight about mystic experiencing or transpersonal psychology.

>What's usually referred to as "ego" in ego-death isn't the Freudian ego, it's the self-conscious narcissistic narrative, according to some who are experienced in Zen ... I find this compatible with my own "ego death" psychedelic experiences, it's not loss of self so much as loss of the "selfish self". "Zen and the Brain" explains it in detail.

Language about the sense in which ego exists and does not exist is very subtle.

I was glad to see that new book, Zen and the Brain.

I am concerned with the maximum effects of LSD, such as the sum of the following experience:

2 hits (200 mics) 200 times

5 hits (500 mics) 50 times

10 hits (1000 mics) 10 times

Take about 400 mics, and hold out your fingers -- are they shaking, in small distinct rapid vibrating motion, noticeably more than usual?

The black hole takes control away from the empty illusion of the inner homunculus who is the source and controller of the will and self-control. Another place where the double-inverse pentagram appears is the sleeve of Farewell to Kings. The cover on that album shows a puppet king. Kings actually were thought of as puppets, of the divine will. Whoever ends up king, must have been divinely fated to be given that power. The king's power, though, was thought of as deriving from the god of Fate, master of the future and all time.

Who is this king that dies in this new Bastille Day we have? In the Enlightenment, political and rational enlightenment hands the reins to the individual, and eliminates the metaphysical political system of a hierarchy of control flowing down from God, through the kings, and finally to the serfs (the lowest slaves in the giant master-slave hierarchy). Now we enjoy autonomy -- or perhaps we enjoy a *direct* master-slave relationship to god, rather than a circuitous hierarchical master-slave relationship to the omnipotence of the god who is the master of eternity. The mystic point of view shows a new appearance of the landscape of metaphysics, time, and self-control: the power of the autonomous self of modernity is seen as a confusion and illusion of the mind, and the source of one's will appears to be the world shaped as a block-universe with the time-axis frozen. One's will, at any point in the past, present, or future, appears to be floating eternally, pre-given at every point in time. This is the revealing of the hidden secret of self-government: apparently, according to altered-statte perception and the accompanying rational mental-model, it does stand to reason and perception that oneself cannot be the *ultimate* source of one's actions. It looks as though I am not my own ultimate self-controller. All my own power melts as I become a slave under the power of Fate and time, grovelling before my one true master, the god of Fate, the god of the future.

Words and music by Lee, Lifeson, and Peart

Ooh, there's no bread, let 'em eat cake

There's no end to what they'll take

Flaunt the fruits of noble birth

Wash the salt into the earth

But they're marching to Bastille Day.

La guillotine will claim her bloody prize.

Free the dungeons of the innocent [sinlessness as all responsibility is recognized as owned by Ground of Being]

The king will kneel

And let his kingdom rise.

Ooh, blood stained velvet, dirty lace, [search "blood", "crimson"] [white appears dirty smudged during altered state]

naked fear on every face [terror of loss of control in ego death]

See them bow their heads to die [in ego death, many feel forced to bow to the Ground of Being or divine higher control level, or underlying control level, acknowledging its priority of power over the ego]

As we would bow as they rode by

And we're marching to Bastille Day [*we* will die as governors just as did the kings]

La guillotine will claim her bloody prize [flaming sword cuts off ego's head when one grasps cybernetic Truth]

Sing, oh choirs of cacophony

The king has kneeled [ego has died to let the power of the Ground of Being be recognized]

To let his kingdom rise.

Lessons taught but never learned [search "Lesson", as in the song by that name on 2112]

All around us anger burns

Guide the future by the past [as kings-as-governors died, so shall egos-as-governors die]

Long ago the mould was cast

For they marched up to Bastille Day

La guillotine claimed her bloody prize

Hear the echoes of the centuries

power isn't all that money buys. [money to buy LSD (thousand 10 cent wonders) appears to enable greater personal control via metaprogramming the mind, but instead, leaves one metaphysically powerless and helpless]

Words and music by Lee, Lifeson, and Peart

I looked in the mirror today; [altered mind as mirror]

my eyes just didn't seem so bright. [can hear "my I"] [the "I" construct isn't very smart; it's largely an illusion and a logical impossibility]

I've lost a few more hairs. [directs attention above the head] [this could very well be a joke about the myth of LSD causing chromosome damage: "I've lost a few more heirs]

I think I'm going bald,

I think I'm going bald.

Seems like only yesterday

We would sit and talk of dreams all night, [trip all night]

Dreams of youth and simple truths. [allusion to fountain of youth, fountain of Lamneth]

Now we're all so involved,

So involved with life.

I walk down vanity fair, [allusion to dominance of ego-consciousness]

Memory lane ev'rywhere [all mental constructs and memory retrieval seen as alike]

Wall Stree shuffles there, [perceptual waviness in altered state - walls and streets shuffle]

Dressed in flowing hair.

Once we loved the flowers,

Now we ask the price of the land.

Once we would take water,

But now it must be wine. [wine = lsd, as in "Cask of '43"]

Now we've been and now we've seen [our ego been transcended, seen Truth]

What price peace of mind. [search "peace"]

Take a piece of my mind. [allusion to psychotomimetic, and concretization/fragmentation of mental construct processing]

My life is slipping away. [allusion to ego death]

I'm aging every day.

But even when I'm grey,

I'll still be grey my way. [even in a state of transcending personal existence, retain personal uniqueness]

(Lakeside Park is in St. Catharine's, on Lake Ontario, in Canada. May 24th is Victoria Day, commemorating Queen Victoria's birthday.)

Words and music by Lee, Lifeson, and Peart

Midway hawkers calling "Try your luck with me." [luck, fatalism, risk of LSD, gamble of trying to purchase real LSD] [search "luck"]

Merry-go-round wheezing same old melody. [whirling theme]

A thousand ten-cent wonders, who could ask for more. [higher in the LSD distribution chain you can buy 1000 hits for $100 - each hit is 10 cents]

A pocketful of silver, the key to heaven's door. [= LSD, search "key" - Twilight Zone: use the key, unlock the door, see what your fate might have in store]

Lakeside Park, willows in the breeze. [no breeze needed to make trees appear to move, with waving perception]

Lakeside Park, so many memories. [memory flood of LSD]

Laughing rides, midway lights, [flashes of bright light]

Shining stars on summer nights.

Days of barefoot freedom, racing with the waves, [search "wave" - waving perception]

Nights of starlit secrets, crackling driftwood flames, [inner secrets revealed]

Drinking by the lighthouse, smoking on the pier, [consider drinking "wine" and smoking THC]

Still, we saw the magic was fading every year. [compare depression of Fountain of Lamneth]

Everyone would gather on the twenty fourth of May, [what day is this?]

Sitting in the sand to watch the fireworks display.

Dancing fires on the beach, singing songs together,

Though it's just a memory, some memories last forever. [timelessness]

Words and music by Lee, Lifeson, and Peart

As grey traces of dawn tinge the eastern sky, the three travelers, men of Willow Dale, emerge from the forest shadow. Fording the River Dawn, they turn south, journeying into the dark and forbidding lands of the Necromancer. Even now the intensity of his dread power can be felt, weakening the body and saddening the heart. Ultimately they will become empty, mindless spectres, stripped of will and soul. Only their thirst for freedom gives them hunger for vengeance...

[altered state themes in this story include: night voyage, remote cybernetic control of oneself by dispassionate higher-power controller, frightfulnes of being controlled by a higher level of power, ego emptiness, loss of egoic stable thinking, loss of control over one's own will, insight about illusory nature of metaphysical freedom.]

Silence shrouds the forest

as the birds announce the dawn.

Three trav'llers ford the river

and southward journey on.

The road is lined with peril,

and the air is charged with fear.

The shadow of his nearness

weighs like iron tears. [search "tears", as in the song "Fountain of Lamneth" and song "Tears"]

Shreds of black cloud loom in overcast skies; the Necromancer keeps watch with his magic prism eyes. [blurring during dissociative state, like "glass onion" or Donovan's "crystal spectacles".] He views all his lands [compare Biblical phrase "the kingdom of God is all around you, but you don't see it"] and is already aware of the three helpless invaders trapped in his lair... [being caught helplessly in a trap is a common theme of the LSD peak, as is feeling like a trespasser into the dominion of the gods/controllers/fates when one rises too high in consciousness]

Brooding in the tower, [non-compassionate higher-level all-powerful control agent]

watching o'er his land,

holding ev'ry creature,

helplessly they stand. [helplessness]

Gaze into his prisms, [altered-state perceptual blurring, compare "sea spray blurs my vision"]

knowing they are near.

Lead them to the dungeons.

Spectres numb with fear,

they bow defeated. [search "bow"] [defeat of ego power during ego death]

Enter the Champion. Prince By-Tor appears to battle for freedom from chains of long years. The spell has been broken...the Dark Lands are bright, the Wraith of the Necromancer soars away... in the night.

Stealthily attacking,

By-Tor slays his foe.

The men are free to run now

from labyrinths below. [altered-state navigation of the labyrinth of strange loop of egoic control and ego-agency]

Wraith of the Necromancer

shadows through the sky;

another land to darken

with evil prism eye. [note singular here, unlike above; think 3rd eye] [this song calls omnipotent God evil though all-powerful; implies that By-Tor is victorious. But, in terms of Christian symbology, it's not clear if By-Tor is Jesus the substitute sacrifice savior, or Satan the good ego as against God or against a bad demiurge, or Michael the Archangel. In the song "By-Tor And The Snow Dog", By-Tor was the bad guy, defeated by Snow-Dog. We could say that Jesus buys us control-power from God, so that God and egos are co-rulers, co-cybernetic-power wielders, co-governors -- thus a rescuer-figure purchases virtual freedom/power for the ego, despite the nonreality or illusory nature of ego as control-agent.]

Words and music by Lee, Lifeson, and Peart

Alex Lifeson (1983 interview): "Ged and Neil wrote the lyrics for The Fountain of Lamneth, and he thought it would be kind of nice to try to incorporate a very loose concept in it by having a starting point and ending point which would go from the beginning of side 2 [to] the end of side 2 and it would be one complete story, but broken up, so that it could be individual songs that, unless you look closely, wouldn't necessarily relate to each other."

Psychedelic birth/rebirth drawing reminescent of the Caress of Steel artwork

I am born;

I am me.

I am new. [rebirth in altered state]

I am free. [remember that freedom is as problematic as it is central and cherished; search "free"]

Look at me; [in altered state, awareness, mind, and self are separated so you can look at the me-construct]

I am young.

Sight unseen;

life unsung.

My eyes have just been opened,

and they're open very wide. [dilated pupils][to do: link to "open eyes" list in rushacid.htm]

Images around me

don't identify inside. [memory associations dissolved/suspended]

Just one blur I recognize,

the one that soothes and feeds.

My way of life is easy,

and as simple are my needs.

Yet my eyes are drawn toward

the mountain in the east. [drawn to mystic insight]

Fascinates and captivates; [forcefully captures attention]

gives my heart no peace.

The mountain holds the sunrise

in the prison of the night,

till bursting forth from rocky chains,

the valley floods with light.

Living one long sunrise, [at end of all-night trip]

for to me all things are new. [rebirth, sense of new Creation]

I've never watched the sky grow pale, [at end of all-night trip]

or strolled through fields of dew.

I do not know of dust to dust.

I live from breath to breath. [intense fear during peaking, holding on to ego desperately moment-to-moment]

I live to climb that mountain

to the Fountain of Lamneth. [live to explore mystic altered state]

[title stands for teachers and parents.]

Listen!

["Listen!" is an injunction to now prepare to be taught the greatest truths, by the mystic altered state.]

[search "listen"]

[You didn't listen again, to *this* lesson in *this* important, key song: THERE IS NO CYBERNETIC GOVERNOR AGENT AT THE CONTROLS running your mind and actions; ego is only epiphenomal, with all its actions completely originating from the Ground of Being rather than truly originating from the creative power of the ego-agent.]

The highest philosophy song ever written is "No One at the Bridge". Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" is just a typical New Age expression of mystic "knowledge" in that it is non-rational, and has no distinct, explicable meaning. But even the *title* of "No One at the Bridge" is packed full of specific insights about the nature of self-control cybernetics.

Crying back to consciousness, [once more, in the altered state]

the coldness grips my skin. [tingles and nervous chills of meditation]

The sky is pitching violently, [altered state perception]

Drawn by shrieking winds

Seaspray blurs my vision [blurred vision of altered state]

The waves roll by so fast [loose perceptual cognition of altered state]

Save my ship of freedom [freedom becomes amplified to instability]

I'm lashed, helpless, to the mast [experience of helplessness]

Remembering when first I held

the wheel in my own hands, [self-control steersmanship, augmented]

I took the helm so eagerly

and sailed for distant lands [pushing the boundaries]

But now the sea's too heavy. [heavy problems of controlling freedom arise]

And I just don't understand,why must my crew desert me [my self who controls, is seen as partly illusory]

when I need a guiding hand? [I *need* an ego in my head to steer myself]

Call out for direction [my guidance systems are all suspended]

and there's no one there to steer [there's no one in me to give birth to will]

Shout out for salvation [kneel and pray to god-of-Fate to save me from freedom]

but there's no one there to hear [no god appears]

Cry out supplication [grovel slave-like, humbly, contritely, desperately]

for the maelstrom is near [the whirlpool vortex of self-control breakdown]

Scream out desperation [in deepest jeopardy]

but no one cares to hear [there is no god out there who cares to save me]

The whiteness of confusion

is unfolding from my mind.

I stare around in wonder.

Have I left my life behind. [ego disappearance]

I catch the scent of ambergris

And turn my head, surprised.

My gaze is caught and held and I

am helpless, mesmerized. [powerless to resist the strange attractor of ego-death insight]

Panacea, liquid grace.

Oh, let me touch your gentle face.

Enchantment falls around me

and I know I cannot leave. [helplessness]

Here's a meaning for my life, [problem of meaning - search "meaning"]

a shelter from the storm.

Pacify my troubles with

her body, soft and warm.

Naked in our unity, [unity consciousness]

a smile for ev'ry tear. [search "tears", as in the song "Fountain of Lamneth"]

Gentle hands that promise me

comfort through the years.

Yet I know I must be gone [ego disappearance]

before the light of dawn. [trip through the night]

Panacea, passion pure.

I can't resist your gentle lure. [powerless to resist Attractor]

My heart will lie beside you,

and my wandering body grieve. [body perceived as unreal]

[Bacchus is another name for Dionysus, the god of intoxication and transgression of the restraints of Reason. This is manic intoxication with psychedelics; wine was just a general purpose carrier and preservative base for all sorts of substances. Wine historically and more interestingly can be conceived of as an alcoholic suspension of something. After being frequently and intensely intoxicated with LSD, depression is a common result.]

Another endless day.

Silhouettes of grey.

Another glass of wine. [another LSD session]

Drink with eyes that shine. [dilated eyes, flushed face] [to do: link to "open eyes" list in rushacid.htm]

To days

without that chill at morning.

Long nights, [tripping]

time out of mind. [psychotomimetic, out of the egoic mind mode]

Draw another goblet [another LSD dose]

from the cask of '43. [LSD, discovered in 1943]

[Here is what some goblets of wine from the cask of '43 look like. This is 25 hits, each of the squares contains nominally 100 micrograms. 5 of these hits would make a suitably strong dose to produce the full-fledged classic experience of ego death, feeling like a cognitive puppet completely led around and produced in total by the universal process.]

Crimson, misty mem'ry, [search "crimson", = life blood of ego] [perceptual blurring, acute perception of cognition as present memory re-constructing]

hazy glimpse of me. [ego disappearance. LSD perceptual blurring]

Give me back my wonder. [after understanding ego death, no more challenge in life]

I've something more to give.

I guess it doesn't matter.

There's not much more to,

not much more to live.

Another foggy dawn. [blurred perception, near end of LSD session]

The mountain almost gone. [mystic allusion to "then there is no mountain"]

Another doubtful fear. [search "fear"]

The road is not so clear.

My soul

grows ever weary,

and the end

is ever near.

Look the mist is rising,

and the sun is peeking through. [the trip is peaking]

See the steps grow lighter

as I reach their final few.

Hear the dancing waters;

I must be drawing near.

Feel, my heart is pounding [erratic heartbeat]

with embattled hope and fear.

The key, the end, the answer, [key = LSD dose = cybernetic loop understanding]

stripped of their disguise. [hidden/revealed theme]

Still it's all confusion,

and tears spring to my eyes. [search "tears", as in the song "Tears"]

Though I've reached a signpost;

it's really not the end. [what to do in life now?]

Like old Sol behind the mountain,

I'll be coming up again. [will have many more LSD sessions to re-experience these insights]

Now at last I fall before

The Fountain of Lamneth.

I thought I would be singing,

but I'm tired, out of breath. [suspended breath and energy of LSD session]

Many journeys end here, [Even so near the beginning of his lyrics career, Peart has already completed the highest journey; his life's quest has already come to its end; how could there be anything more to do?]

but the secret's told the same.

Life is just the candle,

and a dream must give it flame.

I'm in motion.

I am still. [changelessness, frozen time]

I am crying.

I am still.

I'm together.

I'm apart. [cognitive dissociation, fragmentation of accustomed mental constructs]

I'm forever

at the start.

Still, I am.

>Where did Neil come up with these ideas in 2112? In the book in the cd, there is a little excerpt about 2112, by a woman.

All the Rush fans online but me are more or less mystified by it, and finds no overarching theme that fits. Shrugging, they say "who dares to try to understand the Gods?" But Rush are no gods, just one more who's searching for a world that ought to be, an explorer at the forefront of a community of leading, modern mystics.

As far as the place of ego and Ayn Rand's Objectivism, ego is a transitional stage in the development of human consciousness over history. When divine kings ruled, people did not have egos in the sense that we are fully accustomed to. They did not have our feeling of being entirely self-sufficient, sovereign steersmen of our own destiny. Rush, and other groups, are devoted to building up and affirming this freedom and sovereign power of the ego. And yet, they build it up as a platform from which we can explore the things beyond the separate ego -- the experience of mystic unity and nonduality.

This is an attitude of affirming the ego in order to transcend it.

Many people think that LSD is the most fascinating discovery of the 20th century, of all time. Unfortunately the government and fearful people have made it illegal and have demonized drugs. This attitude of crushing the fountainhead of philosophical inspiration is extremely depressing to those who have had the privilege of experiencing it, the key that unlocks the door to the higher dimension where time and space collide and there is no escape from the Truth about our freedom. There's no one around [in your head, no homunculus-controller (see Minsky's _Society of Mind_)], you've just become his brand-new toy [helpless against what your fate might have in store] -- and no escape, no place to hide!

Here is "the key to Heaven's door"; Rush tells us to "Use the key, unlock the door":

Above: LSD-soaked blotter paper with a chemical diagram of the LSD molecule. The browning of the paper indicates it does contain LSD molecules, is not fresh, but is probably still potent.

"I learned to... turn the keys."

Lennon in Help: "Now I find I've changed my mind, and opened up the doors."

It is well-known that Rush is a pot-positive band (see Passage to Bangkok and "burning pot" in Chemistry), but less well known that they are more of an acid-positive band. The highest use of pot is 3 hours into a trip.

This is where Neil came up with all these ideas.

Truth is false, and logic lost, now the fourth dimension is crossed.

Rush personally invites you to

Use the key, unlock the door

You won't get wise, with the sleep still in your eyes

"For you -- the Truth."

2112 album lyrics by Neil Peart

"With acknowledgement to the genius of Ayn Rand"

The Naked Guy alludes to our psychological state in the Garden of Eden, when we "knew not" the moral system of constraints, of the guidance-system of good and evil. Before the egoic mental system, there was innocence of good and evil; during the egoic phase, the mental principles of morality reined and guided us; and finally, after (or beyond) the ego, after mystic enlightenment, there is again the innocence of good and evil, or nakedness. (This is just some preliminary associations; of course there are many issues I can't touch upon in this posting.)

Who is the king overthrown in the Enlightenment of the double-inverse pentagram? It is King Ego.

References:

A few of the many other songs by Rush alluding to ego death, fate, breakdown of freedom/self-control:

Bastille Day (on _Caress of Steel_)

The Enemy Within (on _Grace under Pressure_)

The Body Electric (on _Grace under Pressure_)

Books:

The Ominous Parallels - "A brilliant study of America today - and the ominous parallels with the chaos of Pre-Hitler Germany" - the Ayn Rand library - by Leonard Peikoff - 1982 (certainly the most gripping book of the Ayn Rand library).

The New Satanists - Linda Blood - 1994. Compares Satanism and Nazism. Examines power-motives of Satanists and the strategy of transgressing one's own deepest moral constraints.

Full front cover of 2112 (28 KB)

The rock album 2112 by Rush (1976) shows only a Red upright pentagram-in-a-circle floating on black water, on the front cover. It's a fold-out album. On the inside, it shows a naked guy apprehending this same symbol. So Rush has been through some kind of experience resonating with Satanism. The inside cover says "with acknowledgement to the genius of Ayn Rand." What, then, is the connection between Satanism and Ayn Rand's philosophy? Both of them promote the individual ego. But Rush highlights the apprehensive encounter with a satanic power turned upside-down, an encounter that happens through technology and logic. This encounter involves a discovery that is rejected by the established priesthood as a destructive toy, a toy that has some relationship to electric guitar.

[to do: link to Rock: Pentagram Symbology]

The rock album 2112 by Rush (1976) shows only a Red upright [double-inverted] pentagram-in-a-circle floating on black water, on the front cover. On the inside, it shows a naked guy apprehending this same symbol.

Ozzy Osbourne, a Christian, does a comparable inversion of symbols on the front and back covers of _Diary of a Madman_ (1981). On the front, you can see the entire upside-down cross on the wall of his sorceror's pad, with a psychotic Ozzy on rampage. On the back cover, after the crazy Ozzy entity has "died", the reborn Ozzy is standing, blocking the view of the bottom of the cross, so that the remaining visible portion appears as a smaller, but upright, cross. This album chronicles Ozzy's psychedelic Discovery, belief, paralysis, struggles for self-mastery, and finally, a despairing madness of the ego which he now knows to be a lie, in some sense. The back cover shows him reborn in white with the upright cross above his head, so that he is standing under the cross. "Under the cross," by the way, can mean being buried in the grave or "dead in Christ".

The star is a Satanic power symbol, inverted/negated. It is also a symbol of a collective power seeking to control all.

I don't necessarily believe anything that Neal says -- he is a premiere bullshitter and bluffer. He obscures the meanings of the lyrics and symbols in order to protect the puzzle characteristic of the Rush lyrics, so that the game of discovery and unfolding of meaning may continue.

The theory that the star strictly refers to collectivism fails to address the fact that the pentagram in a circle, when inverted, symbolizes the worship of Satanic power. The symbol used in 2112 then takes on, in some altered form, the meanings which have already been established for the symbol of Satanism. That is how symbolism works, especially when the two symbols are so blatantly close. It is absurd to just dismiss the associations already built up around the colors red and black, and the star-in-a-circle, as having no relevance whatsoever.

The philosophy of Satanism shares some elements with objectivism -- namely, egoism. The idea of turning the logic of Satanism upside-down, setting the power of ego and freedom against itself, has great explanatory potential. Also I think it captures the essence of the naked guy much better to say that he is "apprehending" this power, not that he is simply in fear. Ego-power is logically problematic, as is freedom. "Look up to see a giant boy, you've just become his brand new toy. And no escape, no place to hide, here where time and space collide."

The problems with Satanism is that the ego, as conventionally conceived, is logically self-contradictory -- it is misconceived and an unstable foundation for human thought. Also, Satanism is succeptible to becoming lopsided, chaotic, and unbalanced, turning into a dominance-and-submission power relationship. I haven't seen a real explanation of why that is, but there is evidence of this tendency. Thus, Nazism becomes a bedfellow of Satanism.

The Red Star symbolizes *all* of the following:

Political collectivism as a power that *generally* oppresses the individual

Authoritarian denial of our *specific* freedom to use the psychedelic discovery, in the name of protecting people or society - the state jails individuals for supposedly jeopardizing the stability of society

Inversion of ego-power and the logic of freedom, apprehended in the altered state

Geddy on the man/star symbol: Geddy Lee (1983 interview): "Hugh Syme designed that. Once he received the lyrics for 2112 and heard some of the music and know what the album was, sortof, what direction the album was going, and he designed the graphics to go along with it and he came up with the design. It sorta comes to us to sort of stand for individualism, sorta man against the masses."

Neil Peart on the symbol: Neil Peart (Creem 1982): "All it means is the abstract man against the mass. The red star symbolizes any collectivist mentality."

This "individual against the masses" can represent the tripping philosopher against the straight, unthinking philistines who would jail the philosopher.

Are there decent sources to read about Peart? Most rock biographies are shallow and fail to truly interpret lyrics. They are gullible and stop at the first, superficial, and obvious layer of meaning, as though the artists have no deeper ideas and meanings to communicate. They slip over the surface and fail to penetrate.

The pentagram appears on several Rush album sleeves and we're debating the meaning of this. The pentagram is red, on a black background (colors associated with Satanism). It has a circle. There is a naked guy standing in a pose of apprehension (but not exactly fear). The pentagram has 1 point up, which I've referred to as "double-inverted" as though it is a negation of the inverted pentagram of Satanism. Rush has publically claimed that this symbol refers to the threat of collectivism that crushes individual freedom.

The 1-point up pentagram is used by Rush as a symbol of the inversion of the satanesque *ego*, an inversion that happens in mystic enlightenment. In short, it represents ego death, the hanged man, in Rush's symbology.

Ayn Rand portrays collectivism as requiring the greatest people to put themselves down and literally live not for themselves, but for *the average* and downtrodden people. "Just think about the average -- what use have *they* for you?" -- what use do ordinary plain dull masses have, for the ultimate insights and ecstatic terrors of high experiencing? The sacred hidden knowledge revealed in the rites of Eleusis, and so also available by drinking "the milk of paradise" "from the cask of '43" (Rush), is of no *use*, no utility, for the mass of society -- in fact, it dangerously destabilizes society and "must therefore" be repressed, denied, as the temple Father grounds that precious instrument of transcendent knowledge into splinters beneath his feet, in the name of protecting the contented life of the average.

Rush has an album-side against the spirit of your argument. Compare these and listen again:

A drug user online wrote "Hard drugs such as speed, XTC, PCP, heroin, coke, etc. truly are for the experimental individual. However these drugs DO ruin a vast amount of lives. As such, and as they don't seem to have any medical benefit, I personally think they don't have a responsible place in our society."

Beware of what you are thinking! Your words are the same as the evil priests in 2112. Neil Peart, lyricist of Rush, wrote the following, as the famous words of the small-minded, evil cultural authorities:

... "The massive grey walls of the Temples rise from the heart of every Federation city. I have always been awed by them, to think that every single facet of every life is regulated and directed from within! Our books, our music, our work and play are all looked after by the benevolent wisdom of the priests..."

We work together common sons

Never need to wonder how or why.

Look around this world we made

Equality our stock in trade

Come and join the Brotherhood of Man

Oh what a nice contented world

[The individualist protagonist seeking realization of self and truth says: ]

I watched in shock and horror as Father Brown ground my precious instrument to splinters beneath his feet...

Yes, we know it's nothing new

It's just a waste of time

Don't annoy us further

We have our work to do.

Just think about the average

What use have they for you?

Another toy [the discovery that is offered] will help destroy

The elder race of man

Forget about your silly whim

It doesn't fit the plan. [plan of the benevolent rulers for the collectivist good]

[The individualist protagonist seeking realization of self and truth says: ]

I see the works of gifted hands

That grace this strange and wondrous land

I see the hand of man arise

With hungry mind and open eyes [to do: link to "open eyes" list in rushacid.htm]

I can no longer live under the control of the Federation, but there is no other place to go.

The government, in the name of the good of the average person, takes the position:

LSD is just for the experimental individual, not for the average man. LSD ruins a vast amount of lives, whether or not this is from long-term psysiological effects; and LSD doesn't seem to have any medical benefit. Therefore, LSD does not have a place in our society, and should be unavailable. This unavailability means that LSD must be illegal, which means that people should be put in jail for using it. LSD is useless and detrimental to the average man, therefore, the inquisitive individual should be put in jail for using it.

The above is precisely the position of the actual "priests" who made LSD illegal in the U.S. on October 6, 1966 -- 32 years ago. For 32 years, the rulers of the U.S., in the name of the benefit of the Average, have been jailing and ruining LSD users, including advanced acid mystics, philosophers, and consciousness explorers like the lyricist of the great Rush albums.

And the meek shall inherit the earth. [Ultimately, the no-free-will worldmodel remains standing, while free-will thinking is doomed to collapse in the light of mystic insight and mystic-state experiencing.]

... "The massive grey walls of the Temples rise from the heart of every

Federation city. I have always been awed by them, to think that every single

facet of every life is regulated and directed from within! Our books, our

music, our work and play are all looked after by the benevolent wisdom of the

priests..."

We've taken care of everything

The words you hear the songs you sing

The pictures that give pleasure to you eyes. [this is a cognitive-puppethood description; the stream of cognition is pre-set and given to you by the Ground of Being]

It's one for all and all for one

We work together common sons

Never need to wonder how or why.

We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx

Our great computers fill the hallowed halls.

We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx

All the gifts of life are held within our walls.

Look around this world we made

Equality our stock in trade

Come and join the Brotherhood of Man

Oh what a nice contented world

Let the banners be unfurled

Hold the Red Star proudly high in hand.

We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx

Our great computers fill the hallowed halls.

We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx

All the gifts of life are held within our walls.

The aspiring individual, Anonymous, wants the share "the toy" he found with the priests of the establishment temples. "The toy" refers to "the guitar", which was one thing that destroyed the "elder race" (that's us, 20th century).

But of course the album 2112 and "the discovery" is not about a mere guitar. It's actually about the discovery of the most potent source of philosophical, moral, and religious experiencing. A source, a toy, so potent that it has the potential of destroying our race. A toy that doesn't fit the establishment plan of a placid peace, contentment, and equality under the benevolent guidance of the temple priests.

The lyrics on the back cover were not included in the 2112 lyrics I posted from the lyrics web, and they should have been. They include the following:

... the surviving planets were banded together under the Red Star of the Solar Federation. ... I believed what I was told, I thought it was a good life, I thought I was happy. Then I found something that changed it all...." -- Anonymous, 2112

Notice the reference to the Red Star. But especially, notice "Then I found something that changed it all," which hardly could refer to a mere electric guitar. Actually it refers to a chemical trigger that forcefully confronts the mind, will, and self-control, with the highest philosophical, moral, and religious questions, as well as the most intense aesthetic experiences of terror and beauty. It is not so much the discovery of freedom, as it is the full understanding of the nature and implications of freedom.

"I lie awake, staring out at the bleakness of Megadon. City and sky become one, merging into a single plane, a vast sea of unbroken grey. The Twin Moons, just two pale orbs as they trace their way across the steely sky. I used to think I had a pretty good life here, just plugging into my machine for the day, then watching Templevision or reading a Temple Paper in the evening.

My friend Jon always said it was nicer here than under the atmospheric domes of the Outer Planets. We have had peace since 2062, when the surviving planets were banded together under the Red Star of the Solar Federation. The less fortunate gave us a few new moons.

I believed what I was told, I thought it was a good life, I thought I was happy. Then I found something [LSD, electric guitar, individual consciousness] that changed it all..."

-- Anonymous, 2112

... "Behind my beloved waterfall, [= altered-state perceptual waving]

in the little room that was hidden beneath

the cave, I found it. I brushed away the dust of the years, and picked it up,

holding it reverently in my hands. I had no idea what it might be, but it was

beautiful" ...

... "I learned to lay my fingers across the wires, and to turn the keys [search "key" - key = LSD dose = cybernetic Truth]

to make

them sound differently. As I struck the wires with my other hand, I produced

my first harmonious sounds, and soon my own music! How different it could be

from the music of the Temples! I can't wait to tell the priests about it! ..." [my cybernetic insight is a very different approach than conventional religion -- one that succeeds at producing enlightenment and transcendent understanding of moral agency]

What can this strange device be?

When I touch it, it gives forth a sound

It's got wires that vibrate and give music

What can this thing be that I found?

See how it sings like a sad heart

And joyously screams out its pain

Sounds that build high like a mountain

Or notes that fall gently like rain.

I can't wait to share this new wonder

The people will all see its light

Let them all make their own music [let us each experience mystic insight directly and gain understanding through direct personal experience]

The Priests praise my name on this night.

... "In the sudden silence as I finished playing, I looked up to a circle of

grim, expressionless faces. Father Brown rose to his feet, and his somnolent

voice echoed throughout the silent Temple Hall." ...

... "Instead of the grateful joy that I expected, they were words of quiet

rejection! Instead of praise, sullen dismissal. I watched in shock and horror

as Father Brown ground my precious instrument to splinters beneath his feet..."

I know it's most unusual

To come before you so

But I've found an ancient miracle

I thought that you should know

Listen to my music

And hear what it can do

There's something here as strong as life

I know that it will reach you.

Yes, we know it's nothing new

It's just a waste of time

We have no need for ancient ways

The world is doing fine

Another toy will help destroy

The elder race of man

Forget about your silly whim

It doesn't fit the plan.

I can't believe you're saying

These things just can't be true

Our world could use this beauty

Just think what we might do.

Listen to my music

And hear what it can do

There's something here as strong as life

I know that it will reach you.

Don't annoy us further

We have our work to do.

Just think about the average

What use have they for you? [average people have no need for exploring mystic altered state, so it shall be illegal]

Another toy will help destroy

The elder race of man

Forget about your silly whim

It doesn't fit the plan.

... "I guess it was a dream, but even now it all seems so vivid to me. [post-trip, trip seems as a dream]

Clearly

yet I see the beckoning hand of the oracle as he stood at the summit of the

staircase" ...

... "I see still the incredible beauty of the sculptured cities [search "city"/"cities"; in Hemispheres, building cities is later called insufficient motivation in life] and the pure

spirit of man revealed in the lives and works of this world. I was overwhelmed

by both wonder and understanding [overwhelming insights of altered state] as I saw a completely different way to life, a

way that had been crushed by the Federation long ago. I saw now how

meaningless life had become with the loss of all these things ..." [contrast "Fountain of Lamneth" -- life is meaningless and unchallenging after reaching enlightenment through tripping, *because there is no more challenge* -- here the complaint is different: desire for LSD as the very effective key to highest revelation, but it's illegal due to the "needs of the average"]

I wandered home though the silent streets

And fell into a fitfull sleep

Escape to realms beyond the night

Dream can't you show me the light?

I stand atop a spiral stair [mystic-state allusion]

An oracle confronts me there

He leads me on light years away

Through astral nights, galactic days

I see the works of gifted hands

That grace this strange and wondrous land

I see the hand of man arise

With hungry mind and open eyes [see how the highest, most advanced members of society, who want to use LSD, are held down due to the "needs of the average"]

They left the planet long ago

The elder race still learn and grow

Their power grows with purpose strong

To claim the home where they belong

Oh, to tear the Temples down...

Oh, to change..

... "I have not left this cave for days now, it has become my last refuge in my

total despair. [I just want to trip all the time and study mystic cybernetic phenomena] I have only the music of the waterfall [perceptual waviness of altered state] to comfort me now. I

can no longer live under the control of the Federation, [theme of wanting release from external control] but there is no other

place to go. My last hope is that with my death I may pass into the world of

my dream, and know peace at last."

The sleep is still in my eyes

The dream is still in my head

I heave a sigh and sadly smile

And lie a while in bed

I wish that it might come to pass

Not fade like all my dreams

Just think of what my life might be

In a world like I have seen

I don't think I can carry on

Carry on this cold and empty life

Oh...noo. [suicidal despair -- it is surprising to find this *defeat* of the Individual in Rush lyrics.]

My spirits are low in the depths of despair [mystic altered state causes synthetic manic-depression]

My lifeblood spills over.. [search "blood"]

Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation

Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation

Attention all Planets of the Solar Federation

We have assumed control. [We have incorrectly *assumed* that we ever had control, as egoic controller agents.] [theme of radical shift of control-center in altered state - ambiguous if Individuals or collectivist Priests/governors have won]

We have assumed control.

We have assumed control.

Lyrics by Neil Peart

[About marijuana, which is a companion drug for LSD. Compare song "Chemistry", including "burning p-hotter"]

Our first stop is in Bogota

To check Columbian fields

The natives smile and pass along

A sample of their yield

Sweet Jamaican pipe dreams

Golden Acapulco nights

Then Morocco, and the East,

Fly by morning light

We're on the train to Bangkok

Aboard the Thailand Express

We'll hit the stops along the way

We only stop for the best

Wreathed in smoke in Lebanon

We burn the midnight oil

The fragrance of Afghanistan

Rewards a long day's toil

Pulling into Katmandu

Smoke rings fill the air

Perfumed by a Nepal night

The Express gets you there

Lyrics by Neil Peart

A pleasant faced man steps up to greet you

He smiles and says he's pleased to meet you

Beneath his hat the strangeness lies

Take it off, he's got three eyes [3rd eye of perception, to see our hidden nature; refers to mystic dissociative state. (Twilight Zone episode "Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?" http://fusionanomaly.net/twilightzone.html)

Truth is false and logic lost [Egoic logic contains error, now corrected]

Now the fourth dimension is crossed [especially, time is seen as frozen]

You have entered the Twilight Zone

Beyond this world strange things are known [they *are* known, though strange]

Use the key, unlock the door [the potent chemical key] [search for "key"; occurs several times - "the key to heaven's door", "I learned to turn the keys"]

See what your fate might have in store [experience of Fatalism]

Come explore your dreams' creation [world and self experienced as constructs]

Enter this world of imagination [world of illusion-like mental constructs]

You wake up lost in an empty town ['wake up' mystically] [scene empty of self] (TZ pilot episode "Where Is Everybody?")

Wondering why no one else is around ['no one' lives in the homunuclus-illusion]

Look up to see a giant boy [yourself-across-time, or satan or god] (TZ episode "Stopover In A Quiet Town" has a giant girl)

You've just become his brand new toy [sense of being a puppet]

And no escape, no place to hide [sense of entrapment, robbed of feeling of power]

Here where Time and Space collide [dissolution of ego boundaries into spacetime] [compare phrase "In between time" in the song "Between the Wheels"]

[How to learn lessons from the mind itelf - independently of authorities.]

You know we've told you before

But you didn't hear us then

So you still question why

You didn't listen again [this says, "go back and inspect the song "No One at the Bridge very closely"; the shout of "Listen!" introduces that song]

*When* could Rush possibly have told us anything before this album? In the albums before 2112:

1. _Rush_

2. _Fly by Night_

3. _Caress of Steel_

1. The album _Rush_ couldn't count, because it's not a messsage-oriented album and the word "we" couldn't apply, as Neil wasn't included in the album Rush.

2. _Fly by Night_ has many allusions to mystic phenomena. This is part of the pointing, the telling, that Lessons refers to. I feel that this album was not quite mature though, as a vehicle for intelligibly communicating the mystic phenomena.

3. _Caress of Steel_ also has many expressions alluding to the standard altered state experiences. Most of all, in the song "No One at the Bridge", which is possibly the best high philosophy song ever written, as it deals with the helpless confrontation of fate that cancels the power of the self-controlling, cybernetic steersman.

The mind can be its own teacher of higher knowledge. Every so often in history, meditators throw off the writings and the authorized teachers, in order to study their own mind directly. "The lessons come from within your own head, not through authorities."

In Lessons, Rush tells us especially clearly, the Lessons (referred to in the song Lessons on 2112). This is the lesson of the cancellation of egoic, Satanic autonomy.

The Lessons are taught on a heavy sea of blurred vision with waves rolling by (No One at the Bridge), as the ship of freedom is pulled toward the vortex of enlightenment and the helmsman cries out supplication to the god of Fate, in an empty sky of doom. In this episode, the Satanic pentagram of self-will turns upside-down, as the logic of ego's system of autonomy, power, will, freedom, and reason, inflates itself to the point of exposing its inner contradictions in a logical explosion of self-deconstruction, "in a final flash of glory, never more to witness the night" (Cygnus X-1). Cygnus X-1 is about a foolishly daring trip to the black hole that takes control and shatters oneself.

Lyrics by Alex Lifeson

Sweet memories

Flashing very quickly by [in mystic state, memories are recognized as present mental constructs rapidly presented to present pure awareness]

Reminding me [that all experiencing is in the form of mental constructs presented to awareness]

and giving me a reason why [remembering altered state cognition] [gives a reason to go on living; see end of Fountain of Lamneth]

I know that

My goal is more than a thought

I'll be there

When I teach what I've been taught [taught by the mystic state]

You know we've told you before [in our previous 2 acid-rock albums] ["we've told you before" is important: it establishes that the mystic-state encoding system is understood and owned not just by a single band member, but by all three]

But you didn't hear us then [you didn't pick up allusions to the alt-state]

So you still question why

You didn't listen again ["listen" is a direct reference to the important song No One at the Bridge, which was introduced on the previous album by shouting "LISTEN!!!"] [the standard state doesn't pick up on the encoded signals; decoding requires the mystic altered state] [for those who *did* listen to and understand "No One at the Bridge", they understand this criticism to be aimed at the inexperienced mass of listeners, rather than the experienced few]

Sweet memories I never thought it would be like this [it's surprising]

Reminding me Just how close I came to missing

I know that This is the way for me to go [the mystic altered state is the way for the ego to go away, to disappear, to die]

You'll be there When you know what I know [it's a place any mind can know] [you will be gone when you have mystic knowledge as I do] And I Know [I have knowledge of cybernetic Truth; I am enlightened]

You know we've told you before [in No One at the Bridge, especially]

But you didn't hear us then

So you still question why [why we phrase things as we do. If you were Experienced, you would understand, rather than question, the phrasing]

You didn't listen again

Lyrics by Geddy Lee

All of the seasons

And all of the days

All of the reasons

Why I've felt this way

So long

So long

Then lost in that feeling

I looked in your eyes

I noticed emotion

And that you had cried

For me

I can see

What would touch me deeper

Tears that fall from eyes

That only cry?

Would it touch you deeper

Than tears that fall from eyes

That know why? [tears of enlightened, revelation state] [search "tears", as in the song "Fountain of Lamneth"]

A lifetime of questions

Tears on your cheek

I tasted the answers [eat LSD dose; compare "spit it out" - "don't swallow the poison"]

And my body was weak

For you

The truth [love for Cybernetic Truth]

Lyrics by Neil Peart

Waiting for the winds of change

To sweep the clouds away

Waiting for the rainbow's end

To cast its gold your way

Countless ways

You pass the days

Waiting for someone to call [come?]

And turn your world around [common mystic "whirling" theme]

Looking for an answer to

The question you have found [see "the key, the end, the answer"; LSD or the mystic state is the answer, the key, to the question. The question is the ego (egoic control power) as a puzzle to be solved]

Looking for

An open door ["use the key, unlock the door"] [the door is an open one if you have "the key to heaven's door"]

You don't get something for nothing

You don't get freedom for free [you must abandon metaphysical freedom to know truth and have the only true freedom of Indivdual power you can have]

You won't get wise [won't become enlightened]

With the sleep still in your eyes ["sleep" = lack of altered-state experience and understanding of cybernetic truth]

No matter what your dreams might be [no matter how you conceive of the ego or apply it to pursuit of goals, you will never understand the true nature of ego's existence without awakening via mystic-state experience]

What you own is your own kingdom [search "king" and control - complex theme]

What you do is your own glory

What you love is your own power [power is a complex theme] [egoic thinking loves the apparent power of the ego, "your own power"]

What you live is your own story

In your head is the answer [the solution to the cybernetic puzzle is discovered in the mind in altered-state introspection] [also consider head = controllership/goverorship, can be severed as in Bastille Day]

Let it guide you along [the key, the altered state, is the Teacher and Guide]

Let your heart be the anchor [in the altered state one desperately needs an anchor to stabilize self-control and steersmanship; compassion is the anchor against destructive (even sacrificial) transgression]

And the beat of your own song

Neil's statement is pregnant with subtle meaning: "We also began a series of puns with that album, in that the King is a puppet King. There have been a lot of criticisms of the Throne over the past couple of decades as being a heritage that we really can't disregard, but certainly don't take as seriously as we used to."

Translation: "Throne" refers to ego as cybernetic steersman, a purely self-directing sovereign agent. Popular culture and schools of spirituality have criticized the ego, from the 50s Zen movement through the 60s pscyhedelics movement and ensuing New Age spirituality movement, but we really can't just dismiss this necessary mental construct. After experiencing ego death, the ego does remain, but it is no longer taken as a literal reality.

This cover shows a puppet king with strings ascending into the heavens. Compare the cover of Metallica's album Master of Puppets (the acknowledgements of those liner notes include Rush), which shows a graveyard with puppet strings attached to each headstone. During the peak of a full-intensity LSD session, a common experience is to feel oneself to be a helpless puppet of the universal process. Compare also the song Little Dolls by Ozzy Osbourne from Diary of a Madman. These albums all have LSD themes and puppet or doll themes. The doll theme also occurs in the song Twilight Zone (Rush: 2112 album).

The Death of King Ego

In the liner notes of the album Different Stages, one clipping is a newspaper ad for the Farewell to Kings tour. It shows a skull wearing a crown. This is a reference to ego death triggered through LSD. It uses the same skull imagery as seen often in the Grateful Dead, but with the added concept of the death specifically of the king -- that is, the death of kingship. This is essentially synonymous with the puppet-king concept shown on the cover of the album A Farewell to Kings. The "king" is our sense of independent governorship or cybernetic steersmanship. On LSD, one perceives, very commonly, that one's power of origination is largely illusory. One may create and originate thoughts and acts of will, but this is seen as merely subservient, 2nd-order origination. The ego, or oneself, is not a prime mover; it is merely a mover which is moved. You will do what the universal process forces you to do, what it has determined and pre-set that you shall do. All preordained, king ego finds himself as a prisoner in chains, a victim of fate -- a slave of fate. The king/slave relationship is seen in the Crucifixion as well. This is the highest realm of philosophy, the philosophy of ego death and self-motion, free will and virtual (not actual) moral agency.

Cover of A Farewell to Kings (38KB)

When they turn the pages of history

When these days have passed long ago

Will they read of us with sadness

For the seeds that we let grow

We turned our gaze

From the castles in the distance

Eyes cast down

On the path of least resistance

Cities full of hatred

Fear and lies

Withered hearts

And cruel tormented eyes

Scheming demons

Dressed in kingly guise

Beating down the multitude

And scoffing at the wise

The hypocrites are slandering

The sacred halls of Truth

Ancient nobles showering

Their bitterness on youth

Can't we find

The minds that made us stong

Can't we learn

To feel what's right and wrong

Cities full of hatred

Fear and lies

Withered hearts

And cruel, tormented eyes

Scheming demons

Dressed in kingly guise [ego is demon-illusion acting as king] [search "king"]

Beating down the multitude

And scoffing at the wise

Can't we raise our eyes

And make a start

Can't we find the minds

To lead us closer to the Heart

"To seek the sacred river Alph

To walk the caves of ice

To break my fast on honey dew

And drink the milk of paradise..."

I had heard the whispered tales

Of immortality

The deepest mystery

From an ancient book. I took a clue

I scaled the frozen mountain tops

Of eastern lands unknown [explored the mystic altered state]

Time and Man alone

Searching for the lost --- Xanadu

Xanadu --- To stand within The Pleasure Dome

Decreed by Kubla Khan

To taste anew the fruits of life

The last immortal man

To find the sacred river Alph

To walk the caves of ice

Oh, I will dine on honey dew

And drink the milk of Paradise

A thousand years have come and gone

But time has passed me by

Stars stopped in the sky

Frozen in an everlasting view [time-freezing in altered state]

Waiting for the world to end [common apocalypse theme of altered state]

Weary of the night [exhausting all-night battle/tripping]

Praying for the light [search "pray", "supplication"]

Prison of the lost --- Xanadu [search "prison"]

Xanadu --- Held within The Pleasure Dome

Decreed by Kubla Khan

To taste my bitter triumph

As a mad immortal man

Nevermore shall I return

Escape these caves of ice

For I have dined on honey dew

And drunk the milk of Paradise

And the men who hold high places

Must be the ones to start

To mould a new reality

Closer to the Heart

The Blacksmith and the Artist

Reflect it in their art

Forge their creativity

Closer to the Heart

Philosophers and Ploughmen

Each must know his part

To sow a new mentality

Closer to the Heart

You can be the Captain

and I will draw the Chart

Sailing into destiny [fatalism]

Closer to the Heart [realizing Cybernetic Truth crucially demands nonviolence, non-transgression of convention moral actions]

A modest man from Mandrake

Travelled rich to the city

He had a need to discover

A use for his newly-found wealth [surprise: he doesn't "use" it by giving it away; he ends up "holding it up as a challenge to the hungry"]

Because he was human

Because he had goodness

Because he was moral [morality = challenging the hungry to better themselves and gain money on their own power]

They called him insane [morality is logically unfounded]

Delusions of grandeur

Visions of splendour

A manic depressive [search "depress", "despair"] [synthetic manic-depression of altered state]

He walks in the rain

Eyes wide open [pupil dilation]

Heart undefended

Innocence untarnished

Cinderella Man

Doing what you can

They can't understand

What it means

Cinderella Man

Hang on to your plans

Try as they might

They cannot steal your dreams

In the betrayal of his love he awakened

To face a world of cold reality

And a look in the eyes of the hungry

Awakened him to what he could do

He held up his riches

To challenge the hungry [complex wording - he does not give them his money, he holds it out as a challenge and inspiration to them]

Purposeful motion

For one so insane

They tried to fight him

Just couldn't beat him [Rand's architect who wins]

This manic depressive

Who walks in the rain

When the dragons grow too mighty

To slay with pen or sword

I grow weary of the battle [search "battle"]

And the storm I walk toward ["toward storm" = drawn toward the maelstrom strange attractor of mystic ego death]

When all around is madness [= psychotomimetic aspect of LSD, perceptual waving]

And there's no safe port in view [danger of loss of control on LSD during cybernetic transcendence of control systems]

I long to turn my path homeward

To stop awhile with you

When life becomes so barren

And as cold as winter skies

There's a beacon in the darkness

In a distant pair of eyes

In vain to search for order

In vain to search for truth

But these things can still be given

our love has shown me proof

From the Rush FAQ: Cygnus X-1 is the name given to an X-ray source in the constellation of Cygnus, believed to be a black hole. For a more detailed explanation, check issue 567 of TNMS, available via anonymous ftp from syrinx.umd.edu in the rush/digest directory. [to do: excerpt here]

Note the irregular heartbeat at the end. Turn the balance all to one side, turn down the treble, and turn up the bass. An irregular heartbeat is a signature physiological effect of LSD. In this context of the question of what happens after passing through the black hole, the answer is "life but..." ego death in life, with allusion to heart attack and death. He's still alive, but a doctor might say he might be dying of a heart attack. Heart palpitations - Whose heartbeat is at the end of the Rush album "Farewell to Kings", at the end of the song "Cygnus XI", in one channel?

The following clip is the end of Cygnus X-1 - heart palpitations as in heavy LSD use. Recorded mono from left channel only, boosted bass, increased volume at start and end.

Uneven heartbeat (79 KB) (16 Kbps) High compression works well for this clip since the treble is rolled off anyway. The .wma extension on this super-compressed file is added to please WinAmp 2.21, otherwise the signal is uneven. You can try renaming the file if necessary.

587 KB (128 Kbps), straightforward mp3 file extension

Heartbeat chart from Cygnus X-1 -- 30 KB, mono from left channel only, boosted bass, increased volume at start and end

55 heart beats in 37 seconds. That's 90 beats per minute. This heartbeat is fast and uneven, sometimes pausing.

The reason that this is important is that Cygnus XI is about mystic ego death during an intense LSD trip. The heartbeat is erratic, as happens 2/3 of the way through an intense trip when using a strong dose such as 1000 milligrams (10 hits). Whoever's heartbeat that is, that person is an expert LSD user in the latter portion of a high-dosage session. I expect that it is Peart's heartbeat, because he is the mystic lyricist and must have great experience and poise enough to think of this and capture it, whereas the others in and around the group might not.

This erratic heartbeat is almost never mentioned in the research literature -- it is subtle and only known to a few, intense-dosage LSD users. On the other hand, LSD users often think they are going to die, and one reason for this -- though they forget it later -- is that breathing becomes so shallow it seems to stop completely (think of the bodily tricks of the Indian gurus) and that the heart races and then halts, erratically. It is quite reasonable to call the ambulance when your breathing halts and your heart is very erratic, palpitating in a (benign) heart attack. But the experienced tripper knows that these physiological effects are sacred and normal and associated with the ego death and ego-transcendence state, the mystic state of cognition. I need to write more about these two layers. I always write about the mystic state of *cognition* but I would capture the experience much more realistically and vividly if I dwelled more on the accompanying *physiological* effects of the altered state.

Hugh Syme (Creem, 1983): "Permanent Waves is the result of a conversation which I had with Neil out at his home in the country. We spoke all evening about Rush growing up, and how we were going to do these EKG readings of each member as they were recording. We were going to tape their temples and chests and have real heartbeats of them while they were playing. So Permanent Waves was going to be a technical statement, and we were going to treat that with red and gold foil, and do a nice study in design- as opposed to a photographic thing. "I walked out and, in the doorway, said 'Wait! Let's try something with Donna Reed, with her permanent Toni hairdo, and have her walking out of a tidal wave situation.'

In the constellation of Cygnus

There lurks a mysterious, invisible force

The Black Hole

Of Cygnus X-1 [strange-attractor of insight about the nature of control; dawning ego-death insight]

Six Stars of the Northern Cross

In mourning for their sister's loss

In a final flash of glory

Nevermore to grace the night...

Invisible

To telescopic eye

Infinity

The star that would not die

All who dare

To cross her course

Are swallowed by

A fearsome force [ego disappears and control is recognized to emanate from Ground of Being rather than originating from ego-as-governor/creator]

Through the void

To be destroyed

Or is there something more? [do I die when my ego dies, or is there more?]

Atomized --- at the core [cognitive dis-integration/fragmentation]

Or through the Astral Door --- [through the Door of the altered state]

To soar...

I set a course just east of Lyra

And northwest of Pegasus

Flew into the light of Deneb

Sailed across the Milky Way

On my ship, the 'Rocinante'

Wheeling through the galaxies,

Headed for the heart of Cygnus

Headlong into mystery

The x-ray is her siren song [seeing through the normally solid-seeming ego and cognitive layer, acts as a strange attractor; this attractor like the sirens' singing leads to crash the ego, leads to ego-death]

My ship cannot resist her long [search "ship" as in the key song "No One at the Bridge"] [ego's power is helpless to resist being trumped and taken over by the power of the Ground of Being that is the controller and creator of the ego, of every act and thought and act of will that the ego normally seems to originate]

Nearer to my deadly goal [the control singularity vortex and its ego death]

Until the Black Hole

Gains control...

Eye in vortex (75 KB)

Spinning, whirling, [common altered-state theme of whirling]

Still descending

Like a spiral sea, [search "spiral" as in 2112]

Unending

Sound and fury

Drowns my heart

Every nerve

Is torn apart.... [dis-integration and fragmentation of mental constructs in the loose cognitive binding state]

[irregular heartbeat from heavy LSD dose] [indicates that after the flaming sword of ego death, personal existence yet remains/continues]

To be continued

[Continued immdiately below in Cygnus X-1 Book Two: Hemispheres.]

Nerve network space vortex (358KB jpg)

This album-side is a cautionary rebuttal of Rand as an unbalanced thinker.

[Continued from immediately above, Cygnus X-1 Book One: The Voyage.]

When our weary world was young

The struggle of the ancients was begun.

The gods of Love and Reason

Sought alone to rule the fate of Man. [search "fate", "destin"]

[concern with fatedness. Fatalism is making a major comeback in contemporary metaphysics, as people finally understand what exactly the position entails -- it's much harder to refute than determinism, as it makes fewer assertions about *how* the future is preset.]

They battled through the ages,

But still neither force would yield.

The people were divided,

Every soul a battlefield.



[Apollo = Rand, reason, order, ego, ordinary state of consciousness, mundane normalcy and security]

"I bring truth and understanding,

I bring wit and wisdom fair,

Precious gifts beyond compare.

We can build a world of wonder,

I can make you all aware.

I will find you food and shelter,

Show you fire to keep you warm

Through the endless winter storms.

You can live in grace and comfort

In the world that you transform."

The people were delighted

Coming forth to claim their prize

They ran to build their cities

And converse among the wise.

But one day the streets fell silent,

Yet they knew not what was wrong.

The urge to build these fine things

Seemed not to be so strong.

[So much for Fountainhead - building skyscrapers does not fulfill the whole needs of the human psyche.]

The wise men were consulted,

And the Bridge of Death was crossed

In quest of Dionysus,

To find out what they had lost.

[As a solution to the emptiness of egoic rational existence, people took Kykeon in the Greek mysteries at Eleusis, or took LSD in other forms. This brought ego death and took them across the river Styx.]



[Dionysus = intoxication, LSD, enthusiasm, excitement, intoxicated frenzy, revelation, radical freedom, transcendent concerns.]

"I bring love to give you solace

In the darkness of the night,

In the Heart's eternal light.

You need only trust your feelings;

Only love can steer you right.

I bring laughter, I bring music,

I bring joy and I bring tears. [search "tears", as in the song "Fountain of Lamneth" and song "Tears"]

I will soothe your primal fears.

Throw off those chains of reason

And your prison disappears."

[Dionysus fulfills the half of the psyche that starves to death in the dull prison-world of the Randian ego.]

The cities were abandoned,

And the forests echoed song.

They danced and lived as brothers;

They knew love could not be wrong.

But the winter fell upon them

And it caught them unprepared,

Bringing wolves and cold starvation,

And the hearts of men despaired.

[Egoic rationality without transcendence is a wasteland. But intoxication and freedom and transcendence without Reason and order cannot sustain life or pleasure.]



[The battle of transcendence vs. ego, experienced in the self-battle at the peak of tripping.]

The Universe divided

As the Heart and Mind collided,

With the people left unguided

For so many troubled years.

In a cloud of doubts and fears,

Their world was torn asunder into hollow Hemispheres.

[Rand's reason/ego, without transcendence, is hollow and not sustenance. Transcendence or tripping, without reason and order, is similarly hollow and empty of worth.]

Some fought themselves, some fought each other.

[How do you fight yourself? The battle of self-control at the peak of tripping, which exposes the governorship of the ego-agent as an illusion that cannot even govern itself. "Every muscle tense to fight the enemy within."]

Most just followed one another,

Lost and aimless like their brothers,

For their hearts were so unclear,

[Like the 60s boomers with their vague Revolution.]

And the truth could not appear.

Their spirits were divided into blinded Hemispheres.

[There it is. Rand's spirit, her "genius"/jinn, is blind. Reason without transcendence is blind and cannot fulfill the real breadth of human needs.]

Some who did not fight

Brought tales of old to light.

[These would be the mystic advanced meditators and trippers of old, explorers of the astral plane, the transcendent level of cognition and higher altered-state experiencing.]

My Rocinante' sailed by night

On her final flight.

[Here we have another vessel like Ozzy's "ship upon the shore/shelf", and the ship of loss-of-helmsman-power in "No One at the Bridge".]

To the heart of Cygnus' fearsome force

We set our course.

[Taking ten hits of LSD, sets us upon a collision course with higher truth, to bring reason to full fruition in transcendent knowledge about the illusory nature of ego.]

Spiralled through that timeless space

To this immortal place.

[The sense of time (and space) stops, ego death is now, physical death seems infinitely removed.]

I have memory and awareness,

But I have no shape or form.

[Body unreality in schizophrenia, mystic state, or LSD altered state.]

As a disembodied spirit,

[Common mystic perception; time and space and body are experienced as equivalent concrete illusions -- all just mental constructs.]

I am dead and yet unborn.

[Ego death - there never was an ego-entity, to be born or die.]

I have passed into Olympus

As was told in tales of old,

To the city of Immortals,

Marble white and purest gold.

[Marble: the concretization of perceptual constructs. Shifting shadows and details. Heavenly bright white and gold are from pure-awareness-feedback.]

I see the gods in battle rage on high,

[Rand would not talk of seeing gods.]

Thunderbolts across the sky.

[Thunderbolt = psychoactive mushrooms after a storm, and psychedelics in general. Here is a picture of LSD-soaked blotter representing the chemical ego-death experience as a lightning bolt inside the mind:]

I cannot move, I cannot hide,

[Common LSD and mystic themes. Loss of control-power, feeling of being monitored by a higher awareness, from inside.]

I feel a silent scream begin inside.

[Compare Ride the Lightning lyrics.]

Then all at once the chaos ceased.

A stillness fell, of sound and peace.

The warriors felt my silent cry

And stayed their struggle, mystified.

["Mysti-fied." The immense, panicked struggle of self-control over itself stops suddenly.]

Apollo was atonished; [Rand would be astonished, reason is astonished by higher Truth about the ego construct and its relation to personal power.]

Dionysus thought me mad.

[Interesting wording: he "thought me mad". It is possible to "think yourself (into becoming like) mad." LSD is a psychotomimetic, mystic insight overlaps with the insights of the schizophrenic.]

But they heard my story further,

And they wondered, and were sad.

[There is a profound sadness to revelation, to the full blossoming of comprehension of our true nature.]

Looking down from Olympus

On a world of doubt and fear,

Its surface splintered

Into sorry Hemispheres.

They sat a while in silence,

Then they turned at last to me.

"We will call you Cygnus,

The god of Balance you shall be."

[Not the god of Ego -- but the god of Balance, as opposed to Rand's gross imbalance and ignorant condemnation of transcendent knowledge.]

We can walk our road together

If our goals are all the same.

We can run alone and free

If we pursue a different aim.

Let the truth of love be lighted,

Let the love of truth shine clear.

Sensibility, armed with sense and liberty,

[Freedom and liberty are portrayed as only *part* of the equation.]

With the Heart and Mind united in a single perfect Sphere.

[This is nothing like an ode to Rand's ego-only, reason-only philosophy, which has a little about art but only to support reason, and actively rejects all forms of mysticism and religion as empty of any value.]

A boy alone, so far from home,

Endless rooftops from my window.

I felt the gloom of empty rooms

On rainy afternoons.

Sometimes, in confusion,

I felt so lost and disillusioned,

Innocence gave me confidence

To go up against reality.

[The innocent tripper attempts to control himself and secure his power. When he ultimately fails and becomes fully rationally enlightened, he has innocently, accidentally achieved that comprehension which millenia of philosophers have attempted and failed.]

All the same, we take our chances,

Laughed at by Time,

[In the LSD peak, you are killed and trumped by time. Time and the future do not move, therefore freedom and personal power are fatally compromised.]

Tricked by Circumstances.

Plus ca change,

Plus c'est la meme chose,

The more that things change,

The more they stay the same.

[Change does not change; change is stationary. Change is permanent and relative and pre-existing, just an effect or appearance.]

Now I've gained some understanding

Of the only world that we see.

Things that I once dreamed of

Have become reality.

These walls that still surround me

Still contain the same old me,

Just one more who's searching for a world that ought to be.



[How mass culture works to cripple the highest achievers. How the little frightened minds would prevent even the inspired thinkers and scientists from exploring LSD.]

There is unrest in the forest,

There is trouble with the trees,

For the maples want more sunlight

And the oaks ignore their pleas.

The trouble with the maples,

(And they're quite convinced the're right)

They say the oaks are just too lofty

And they grab up all the light.

But the oaks can't help their feelings

If they like the way they're made.

And they wonder why the maples

Can't be happy in their shade.

So the maples formed a union

And demanded equal rights.

"These oaks are just too greedy;

We will make them give us light."

Now there's no more oak oppression,

For they passed a noble law,

And the trees are all kept equal

By hatchet, axe, and saw.

(instrumental)

1. Buenas Noches, Mein Froinds!

2. To sleep, perchance to dream...

3. Strangiato Theme

4. A Lerxst in Wonderland

5. Monsters!

6. Danforth and Pape

7. The Waltz of the Shreves

8. Never turn your back on a Monster!

9. Monsters! (Reprise)

10. Strangiato Theme (Reprise)

11. A Farewell to Things

[self-indulgence, Alice in Wonderland, dreaming, strangeness, monsters, perceiving unreality of things/objects while tripping, and the death of kings as the death of the inner egoic governors/controllers - not exactly Rand territory.]

Neil Peart (Sounds, April 1980): "The woman on the cover is really a symbol of us. If you think that's sexist in a negative way -- well, it's really looking at ourselves so I don't think it can be. The idea is her perfect imperturbability in the face of all this chaos. In that she represents us. "In the basic sense, all that cover picture means is forging on regardless, being completely uninvolved with all the chaos and ridiculous nonsense that's going on around us. Plus she represents the spirit of music and the spirit of radio, a symbol of perfect integrity and truth and beauty and..."

Consider "Grace Under Pressure" -- same idea. How to retain poise during ego death and the psychotimemetic state, without freaking out?

Begin the day with a friendly voice,

A companion unobtrusive

Plays the song that's so elusive

And the magic music makes your morning mood.

Off on your way, hit the open road,

There is magic at your fingers

For the Spirit ever lingers,

Undemanding contact in your happy solitude.

Invisible airwaves crackle with life

Bright antenna bristle with the energy

Emotional feedback on timeless wavelength

Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free

All this machinery making modern music

Can still be open-hearted.

Not so coldly charted, it's really just a question

Of your honesty, yeah, your honesty.

One likes to believe in the freedom of music,

But glittering prizes and endless compromises

Shatter the illusion of integrity.

For the words of the profits were written on the studio wall,

Concert hall

And echoes with the sounds of salesmen. [can be heard as "sailsmen", alluding to No One at the Bridge. ego death is the disappearance of cybernetic steersmanship]

Geddy Lee ("Rockline", Dec 4 1989): "The song is about freedom of choice and free will, and you believing in what you decide you believe in." [but are you forced to reach your belief?] In "Freewill" which lyrics are correct (the ones on the album sleeve or the ones Geddy sings)? Neil Peart (Rush Backstage Club newsletter, December 1985): "That's a funny question. I've had a few lately from people who are so sure that what they hear is correct, that they disbelieve what I've put in the lyric sheets! Imagine! People have quoted me whole verses of what they hear, as opposed to what's printed, sure that they are right and the cover (me) is wrong. Scary stuff, these egocentric individuals. [notice "ego" mention] I assure you, other than perhaps dropping an "and" or a "but," we take great care to make the lyric sheets accurate." [that is disingenuous - they often sing their lyrics so as to be heard differently than printed; for example, "burning pot" hidden in "burning hotter".]

The Song Freewill Is about Transcending, not Denying, Determinism

This is a profoundly ambiguous song just as pre-enlightenment naive freewill only appears to be the same as post-enlightenment transcendent freedom. Naive freewill is ignorant of determinism; enlightened freedom magically and miraculously transcends cosmic determinism, thus Christian ideas such as "in regeneration, you become a slave of God/Jesus instead of a slave of the devil".

The song Free Will by Rush must be read as a mystic-state problematization of naive free will -- it was written after the lyricist was intimately familiar with the intense mystic-state experience of no-free-will, so Free Will is a post-determinism or transcendence-of-determinism song, not advocacy of naive freewill as the noninitiates among the Rush fans assume.

After all, 3/4 of the verses in the song Free Will clearly state and express and assert the classic determinist position: A planet of playthings, we dance on the strings, of powers we cannot perceive.

But *in the face of this* mystic-state realization -- not in denial of it -- the mind is transcendently reset from outside of its own controllership resources, one "becomes truly free" per mysticism, as opposed to one's former asleep dream and naive assumption that one was free.

The song Freewill is not just only merely ironic; higher than that, it is divinely transcendent (magical, miraculous, supernatural). The divinely transcendent (magical, miraculous, supernatural) also appears in the song The Body Electric: "Bows its head and prays to the (compassionate) mother of all machines, mother of all machines."

The song Freewill has a predominant percentage of lines asserting determinism or cosmic determinism, contrasted against a brief and out-of-nowhere declaration of choosing free will.

I have defined the 'pre-trans fallacy' with respect to freewill: naive freewill is to be contrasted with transcendent freewill. One moves from ignorance (freewill assumption) to knowledge of the natural (that is, the experien