07-21-2010, 04:06 PM
I realized that this post has a narrow focus about a much bigger idea. Moderators, can I get the name of the thread changed to: "Musical intuition discovers the Law of One"?
I realize that this particular type of bouncy pop music is an acquired taste for some, which is fine. Let me expand to the larger theme that spans genres.
Many musicians will say that they used their own ingenuity or thinking skills to come up with their music. But there are also many musicians who will say that the music seemed to already exist, ready for someone to play it. They simply tuned in this existing music.
Now I feel that Stephen Crumbacher might have tuned in to the Law of One, as an unwitting channel. Stephen repeatedly said that his goal was to have a fun metaphor that would help people understand the love of Jesus, leading them to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, highest force of light and love in the universe, guiding light of their life. All this according to standard interpretations in the mainstream of evangelical Christianity.
I don't have any problems with that, but I wonder if Stephen's unconscious actually accomplished something much bigger than his conscious mind can recognize. If you use his Escape album as a metaphor for Billy Graham style preaching, it's a huge stretch to make it fit. With some convoluted twisting, it's just barely a 50% overlap with what Stephen's church leaders discuss. Yet if you start with the Ra books, it's something like a 95%+ match immediately, taking it in the most straightforward interpretation possible.
Remember this album was released only two years after the Ra series finished. In 80's pop/rock music, record albums were usually recorded about a year before release (to leave time for master editing, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing). And songs were usually written some time before recording (to leave time for arrangements, rehearsals, setting up synthesizer sounds, etc.). Tracing it backward, the Ra-compatible song ideas might have been percolating in Stephen's case right about the same time as the Ra contact was in its final months, thousands of miles away on the other side of the country.
There are some musicians who obviously try to connect to Cosmic Consciousness in metaphysical meanderings... Jon Anderson of Yes is a great example. Yet here is someone whose goal was to provide a modern-day parable about the Bible, and yet his parable is all about what was even more of an obscure, fringe part of society than today.
If this topic still doesn't catch anyone's fancy that's fine, but I hope that this expanded view may resonate.
I realize that this particular type of bouncy pop music is an acquired taste for some, which is fine. Let me expand to the larger theme that spans genres.
Many musicians will say that they used their own ingenuity or thinking skills to come up with their music. But there are also many musicians who will say that the music seemed to already exist, ready for someone to play it. They simply tuned in this existing music.
Now I feel that Stephen Crumbacher might have tuned in to the Law of One, as an unwitting channel. Stephen repeatedly said that his goal was to have a fun metaphor that would help people understand the love of Jesus, leading them to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, highest force of light and love in the universe, guiding light of their life. All this according to standard interpretations in the mainstream of evangelical Christianity.
I don't have any problems with that, but I wonder if Stephen's unconscious actually accomplished something much bigger than his conscious mind can recognize. If you use his Escape album as a metaphor for Billy Graham style preaching, it's a huge stretch to make it fit. With some convoluted twisting, it's just barely a 50% overlap with what Stephen's church leaders discuss. Yet if you start with the Ra books, it's something like a 95%+ match immediately, taking it in the most straightforward interpretation possible.
Remember this album was released only two years after the Ra series finished. In 80's pop/rock music, record albums were usually recorded about a year before release (to leave time for master editing, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing). And songs were usually written some time before recording (to leave time for arrangements, rehearsals, setting up synthesizer sounds, etc.). Tracing it backward, the Ra-compatible song ideas might have been percolating in Stephen's case right about the same time as the Ra contact was in its final months, thousands of miles away on the other side of the country.
There are some musicians who obviously try to connect to Cosmic Consciousness in metaphysical meanderings... Jon Anderson of Yes is a great example. Yet here is someone whose goal was to provide a modern-day parable about the Bible, and yet his parable is all about what was even more of an obscure, fringe part of society than today.
If this topic still doesn't catch anyone's fancy that's fine, but I hope that this expanded view may resonate.