3

Secret Influences of Music

27-37

"the soul rarely comes right out and tells us what to do.

{Carl G. Jung wrote in his Red Book that his Soul appeared visibly to his in his dreams, and therein indeed told him what to do.

Few of us are led to realize its plans by means of clear, inwardly stated, verbal commands."

As he furthermore wrote in his Red Book, he was clearly instructed, in a commanding manner, to found a "new religion" based on the doctrine that the dream-world is the divine world, and that dream-entities are deities to be worshipped.}

p. 27

"The soul guides us indirectly, by means of hidden or secret influences : a hunch, {obscure symbolism, nearly incompraehensible in} a dream ... . Sometimes the soul communicates with us in a more dramatic, though non verbal, way, escalating ... a peak, or some other type of mystical, experience. When composing, performing, or listening to music is the trigger ..., the result is a TME. ... Here are three instances of such guidance ... . In each case, I was deeply affected by a TME, and the direction of my later life was determined by its secret influence.

The first occurred ... when ... The music portrayed a ghostly dance in the graveyard after midnight, with Death playing an out-of-tune fiddle, and a xylophone that sounded like bones struck together. ...

p. 28

I was full of an indescribable feeling ... . ... I had just had my first TME. ... In retrospect, it seems that the great truth the soul wanted me to perceive ...

had little to do with ghosts and grveyards.

{cf., however, e.g., Bodish belief in "breath of the dead beings." ("LhB")}

The real message ... was that ... music ... was part of the soul's master plan ... .

p. 28

The second life-determining TME occurred when ... I'd read about ... mystical music ... . I became curious, and ...

p. 29

was determined to find out why this music had been described as mystical. I practiced listening ... . Without knowing what I was doing, I'd begun training myself in meditation. ...

I discovered that if I began to breathe deeply, in long slow breaths than paralleled the pace of the music, by the time the final ... chords were resounding ..., I would experience powerful orgasmic [!] waves pulsing from one end of my body to the other. ...

{This, the pran.a-yama of music, is evidently more efficacious than unsupported forms of pran.a-yama. It may be a guarded "secret" of the notoriously secretive yoga-tradition.}

Gradually, the idea dawned on me that ... I wanted to become a composer, a mystical composer".

{Perhaps it might have been aequally (or more) effective to have become a yoga-instructor, teaching the technique of pran.a-yama of music. There are already mystical composers of music a-plenty, but no instructors for pran.a-yama of music.}

p. 30

"The third life-changing TME ... . ... The prevaiing style at the U of I was ultradissonant {"dissonant" is a somewhat poor term for this music, which is entirely constructed out of chord-sequences}, based on

the twelve-tone method of composition (called dodecaphonicism or serialism)

{Surely, this system of 12 ought to be related to the divine 12-storey pagoda which, in Taoist microcosmic contemplation, is located in the throat ("NJT", p. 148b) "Because there are twelve rings overlapping one another in the trachea."}

originated earlier in the twentieth century by Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1971). This method of composition involves ... strict mathematical principles, which determine each note in a piece of music, and sometimes other musical characteristics, such as rhythm, volume, and instrumental tone color. ... .

While at the U of I, heard a piece written in ... new style by the American composer Joseph Schwantner (b. 1943)... of ... settings of haiku ... . ...

{Haiku is based on a 17-syllable pattern; it is the derived from Japan, whose capital To-kyo was formerly called Edo. The Edo (of the lower Niger) use a theology and divination-system based on a structure of 17; which is repraesented among the Yoruba sometimes by a system of 17 (calendrical), but more often of 16 (divinatory). There are 16 petals in the waterlily of the throat according to Kun.d.alini yoga originating with Kaula thology. (This, therefore, is how haiku is related to the 12-tone method : it is a matching of the Kaula microcosm with the Taoist microcosm.)}

When I discovered ... a new piece of his ..., Magabunda (Witchnomad), I wrote to the composer telling him how liberating his his music had been for me. ... The third movement ... had an effect on me unlike any other piece of contemporary music. Every time I listened to it, I was transfixed. ...

p. 31

Schwantner's music gave me a new direction to work in : ... to absorb what attracted me about it and forge my own. ... My soul used the TMEs that I continually experienced ... to help me to find my own personal style as a composer. These TMEs contributed directly to my process of self-actualization -- first, by showing me the way I needed to follow to realize myself as a composer; then, by giving me permission to follow that path."

p. 29

"I have little doubt that similar conversion experiences lie behind many musicians' determination to pursue music as a career. The secret influences that spark such conversions, TMEs, have their origin in the soul, and guide those of us who are musically inclined toward realizing the soul's master plan".

p. 32

"It often seemed as if my mind were thinking simultaneously on more than one level, just as the music was progressing, with its several superimposed melodic lines."

"For Scott, the secret influence that music exerts on us, both individually and as a society, has its origin ... in higher spiritual powers. ...

p. 33

Inspired composers, said Scott, are used as mediums by these higher spiritual powers, creating music that influences the spiritual ... and moral evolution of mankind. TMEs may occur in reaction {response} to the spiritual truths contained in music of this type.

Scott wrote of a "Hierarchy of Great Sages, Initiates, Adepts, known as the "Great White Lodge," which "exercises a mighty influence over the evolution of mankind." [Scott 1958, pp. 30-1] ...

According to David Tame [1994, p. 75], this hierarchy chooses certain great men and women -- among them poets and composers ... -- to be their vehicles. ...

Such a mission is chosen or assigned before the individual enters the world in a particular lifetime. Throughout that life, he'll be guided ... by the hierarchy, which trains him in ... the spiritual truths".

[p. 387, n. 3:5 : "The Great White Lodge and the Council of Overseers ... may just be ... the same ... . See chapter 18 of Otherwhere".]

{This "Great White Lodge" hath functions similar to those ascribed to the Taoist caelestial hierarchies of heaven-ascended adepts, such as in the White Paradise of Immortals in the Western Heaven.} {Cf. also the S.ufi divine assemblage of the Qut.b atop Mt. Lubnan ('White').}

p. 33

"masters of the Great White Lodge work with the devas to find the best approach to ... humanity's ... spiritual evolution. Scott's book was inspired by one such master, Koot Hoomi {more accurately transliterated /Kuthumi/} ..., who takes a great interest in the development of Western music. Master K. H. was available for consultation through the mediumship of Nelsa Chaplin ... . Skilled in improvising at the piano, Chaplin sometimes channeled the Master through her playing ... . ...

p. 34

Master K. H. was responsible fo the suggestion that led to Scott's writing his book about music. ... Scott asked questions {of K. H.}, made notes, wrote chapters, and then read them to Chaplin {occupied by K. H.}, who would then provide corrections in trance {while spirit-possessed by K. H.}. After Chaplin's death {ascension to heaven}, Scott found ... ways ... to live with a new woman who was able to channel the Master. In this way, Scott was able to produce a revised edition of the book, published twenty-five years later."

p. 34

According to "Scott (or Master K. H.) ..., the characteristics of the music form those of civilization."

"According to Scott, the maximum influence of music on a society's morals can take as long as a hundred years to develop. He attributed this time lag to the infrequency with which the musical works most likely to create such changes are played."

"Scott wrote that when the Polish ... composer Fre`de`ric Chopin (1810-1849) visited England, a book was written about him. A few years later

p. 35

the pre-Raphaelite painters came together."

{The pertinance of a Polish musician to western European painters might be that Renaissance (Rosicrucian and Unitarian/Universalist) movements in Lithuania-Poland could thus be connected with trends in Renaissance art in western Europe.}

"I believe in the influence of higher spiritual powers on contemporary culture; and I believe they can act on us, both individually and en masse".

p. 36

"I was impressed with his his track record {or is it Master K. H.'s track record?} in making predictions about the future of music toward the end of the {twentieth} century. Some of the things he wrote in his 1958 revision of Music : Its Secret Influence are eerily prescient. For example,

Scott predicted [1958, p. 200] ... healing music based on "etheric vision" and acting on the subtle bodies.

This is the aim of New-Age music, which began to develop some fifteen years later, in the 1970s.

Scott also predicted [1958, loc. cit.] that ... music would be created to correspond to "specific moods and emotional states."

Music therapy also came into its own toward the end of the twentieth century.

According to Scott's psychic sources, concerts would take place in semi-darkness, with projected lights that changed according to the musical content. [Scott 1958, p. 201]

Here we have a startling prevision of musically accompanied laser {or other radiative} light shows. ...

Scott went on to predict [1958, p. 202]: "Great floods of melody will be poured forth from the higher planes, to be translated into earthly sound by composers sensitive enough to apprehend them." ...

Ruth ... was receiving melodies from a fleet of spaceships ... . She was told that these melodies contained coded messages about ... existence ... beyond death."

4

Music to Aithereal Realms

38-47

p. 38

"Scott ... referred to ... deva music, which is inspired by higher spiritual beings, including nature spirits, angels, and archangels. ... Deva-inspired music ... takes people ... and gives them "a glimpse" of their "Higher" selves ... . ... Scott made a further distinction between "Deva-music" and "Buddhic music." ...

p. 39

In the conclusion of his book, Scott proclaimed [1958, p. 199] that

the great Initiates have vast and important plans for the musical future and we are authorized by Them to say that ... much more They will feel justified in making known. ...

Yet, by scouring Scott's book for clues and listening to the musical examples that he cites, I've not only discovered what he meant by deva-inspired and buddhic music, but also assembled his observations on the secret influences of music into a coherent and usable system, designed to help listeners achieve transcendent musical experiences on their own. ...

Music of the ethereal realms involves inspiration from higher planes of spiritual evolution beyond the human realm, including deva music and buddhic music. Such music provides illumination, mystical insight, and spiritual wisdom.

Many TMEs also include aspects of illumination, mystical insight, and spiritual wisdom. In order to achieve them, as listeners, performers, and composers, we need to know the ... music of the ... ethereal realms, ... that which stimulates our capacity for mystical experiences."

p. 40

"Scott's piece ... anticipates much New-Age music."

p. 41

"In deva music, "All is enchantingly indefinite, between the notes, varied, yet in a sense charmingly monotonous."" (Scott 1958, p. 128)

"Scott's ... characteristic of deva music : that it should sound improvised. The meter is irregular and constantly changing".

"According to Scott, Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was one of the first composers to write deva-inspired nature music. Nature music appears to be ... inspired by the nature-spirit variety of devas. [Scott 1958, p. 128]

Scott claimed [1958, p. 129] that nature spirits "know no passions or sorrows." Furthermore, "They sing, they dance, they bathe in the sun- or moon-beams, they mould the clouds into countless different shapes ... ." ...

p. 42

It seems that what music history textsbooks call musical impressionism roughly corresponds to Scott's category of deva-inspired nature music".

"Scott asserted that the Belgian ... composer Ce'sar Franck (1822-1890) was also inspired by devas -- although

seraphic ...

{In the To^rah, S`rapi^m are 6-winged fiery dragons.}

rather than the nature-spirit variety. ... Franck's music is often based on a single theme that reappears in different guises in each movement of the work. ... However, in the cyclical theme ..., an odd chord progression briefly hints of ... the ethereal element of Franck's music ... . ...

p. 43

As an unworldly man,

Franck's disdain[t] of fame and material things, his modest lifestyle, ... made him an ideal, though unknowing, pupil of Master K. H.

Scott stated [1958, p. 123] that Franck would appear in his next lifetime as an advanced initiate, gifted with "the ability to see, to hear, and to heal by super-physical means.""

p. 43

"According to Scott [1958, p. 98], Wagner "was the first to portray ... the Divine Love or what in certain schools of occultism is termed Buddhic." ... The first time I listened ..., I experienced a TME. ... But I felt ...

p. 44

beyond any I'd experienced ... : a sense of divine grace ... . Later in my research, I encountered Wagner's own description ... [Newman 1949, p. 127]. I was amazed ... :

Out of the clear blue ether of the sky ... there gradually emerges, ever more and more clearly, an angel host ... . As it approaches earth it pours out exquisite odours ... . The glory of the vision grows and grows ..., and the climax is reached ... in all its glorious reality, radiating fiery beams and shaking the soul with emotion."

"Now I'd identified an example of buddhic music, which had, just as Scott predicted, transported me to a higher spiritual plane".

"In listening to certain songs, especially those by Schubert, I could feel my heart opening. the feeling was surprisingly physical. My chest seemed to expand, as if there was {were} more room for containing my feelings.

Dance music -- for example, the numerous la:ndler (an ancestor of the waltz) ... by Schubert -- would lift my spirits. ...

Finally, there was ambient music ..., often played, for example, by massage therapists while they're working. ... such music ... elicited relaxation".

p. 46

"Gustav Mahler composes music of ... the ethereal realms. ... . ... his Eighth Symphony ... , which is a literal evocation of nature spirits ..., is an excellent example of ethereal music of the nature-spirit variety.

Scott claimed [1958, p. 132] that the Russian mystical composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) was "the greatest exponent of of Deva-music.""

"everything I've heard by the Irish New-Age ... songwriter Enya (b. 1961) sounds like the music of ethereal realms. ... .

p. 47

... the music that portrays Rivendell, the realm of the elves, has ... qualities that Scott attributed to ethereal music. Enya collaborated in the creation of this music, which goes under the title "The Council of Elrond." ["Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring"]

Another example of deva-inspired ethereal music, by ... John McLaughlin (b. 1942), is ... from the Mahavishnu Orchestra's 1971 album The Inner Mounting Flame".