[MD] Strawberry Fields Forever

[Ant McWatt]

Ant McWatt stated earlier this month:

"It’s not a popular sentiment in this relatively repressive, conservative 
era but some rock groups such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd composed music to 
be specifically taken with recreational drugs such as psychedelics.  An 
analogy might be the difference between watching the “Wizard of Oz” on a 
black and white TV and watching it on a colour set.  You can always watch 
the black and white section on a colour TV, however you can’t watch the 
colour segment on a black and white TV without losing much of the fantasy 
element that the colour set provides.  I have been told that psychedelics 
provide a far greater degree of Dynamic freedom in what Kant termed the “the 
harmonious free play of the faculties”; there is a whole aesthetic realm 
above and beyond Mozart's imagination.  The infinite number of Dynamic 
possibilities is awe-inspiring especially when taking account the way 
recording technology is developing and expanding."

Platt Holden remarked February 14th:

>It takes drugs to access a "whole aesthetic realm above Mozart's 
>imagination?"
>Now there's a concept that puts a culture into a decline, as exemplified by 
>the
>decline of the hippie movement -- a moral revolution that failed.

Ant McWatt comments:

Platt,

In the sense that everyone isn’t a hippy (such as yourself) your sentiment 
about the hippie revolution is true.   However, if you remember, I also 
mentioned the McCarthy era of the 1950s last month.  It strikes me that some 
type of static-Dynamic process in the West has been occurring (at least) 
since the 1920s where the general culture veers towards freedom in one era 
(say the 1920s and 1960s) and then veers towards conservatism in another 
(1950s and 1980s).  I think ZMM and LILA propose a balance between the two 
extremes where Dynamic development and static responsibility are contained 
in a wider framework.   (The fact that the MOQ has attracted people who on 
the face of it seem to have little in common (culturally) such as yourself 
and Gavin Gee-Clough indicates that this has worked to some extent).

When I wrote “that psychedelics provide a far greater degree of Dynamic 
freedom in what Kant termed the ‘the harmonious free play of the faculties’; 
there is a whole aesthetic realm above and beyond Mozart's imagination” I 
had in mind Albert Hofmann’s realisation that there is a Dynamic shift 
(towards the Godhead) in aesthetic perception under the influence of 
psychedelics.  As Hoffman describes in the following:

“The receiver is thereby tuned into another wavelength than that 
corresponding to normal, everyday reality. Since the endless variety and 
diversity of the universe correspond to infinitely many different 
wavelengths, depending on the adjustment of the receiver, many different 
realities, including the respective ego, can become conscious. These 
different realities, more correctly designated as different aspects of the 
reality, are not mutually exclusive but are complementary, and form together 
a portion of the all-encompassing, timeless, transcendental reality, in 
which even the unimpeachable core of self-consciousness, which has the power 
to record the different egos, is located.”

“The true importance of LSD and related hallucinogens lies in their capacity 
to shift the wavelength setting of the receiving ‘self,’ and thereby to 
evoke alterations in reality consciousness. This ability to allow different, 
new pictures of reality to arise, this truly cosmogonic power, makes the 
cultish worship of hallucinogenic plants as sacred drugs understandable… In 
an auspicious case, the new ego feels blissfully united with the objects of 
the outer world and consequently also with its fellow beings. This 
experience of deep oneness with the exterior world can even intensify to a 
feeling of the self being one with the universe. This condition of cosmic 
consciousness, which under favorable conditions can be evoked by LSD or by 
another hallucinogen… is analogous to spontaneous religious enlightenment, 
with the unio mystica… a reality is experienced that exposes a gleam of the 
transcendental reality, in which universe and self, sender and receiver, are 
one.”

Albert Hofmann “LSD - My Problem Child”, Chapter 11, ‘LSD Experience and 
Reality’ found at:

http://www.psychedelic-library.org/child.htm

As I showed on this Discussion group last year, the fundamentals of the MOQ 
only became apparent to Pirsig when he took peyote.   Maybe someone else 
would have appeared in fifty years time with similar ideas but it would have 
meant our intellectual evolution would have been retarded (to a small 
extent).  As regards aesthetic development, compare the Beatles’ song “She 
Loves You” (which I never listen to, btw) with “Strawberry Fields Forever” 
which they recorded just over three years later.  The aesthetic development 
that LSD catalysed in the group between 1963 and 1966 is tremendous 
(whatever you may think of their 1965-70 work in sound imagery and 
manipulation compared to the "straight" recordings of Mozart).  Now I’m not 
stating that the MOQ is THE answer or LSD or anything else by itself.  The 
point is, if used wisely in conjunction with each other, such things can 
improve the world we live in at a faster pace.  If the Western media is to 
be believed (and that's a BIG if), we may not have the luxury of time seeing 
how things are going globally (no thanks to the obsession with oil fields - 
rather than Strawberry Fields! - of the Bush-Bin Ladens and their misguided 
supporters such as Blair).

Then again maybe it’s just the interest in mass hypnotism, the unknown, 
meditation, psychedelics, mysticism, political comedy, foreign cultures and 
a university education, which is confusing my mind  and I should just listen 
to good ol’ Rush and the folks at Fox News.

As they know what Quality is and, as such, shouldn't be questioned, should 
they?

Best wishes,

Anthony


“My view is that being a hippie is a matter of accepting a universal belief 
system that transcends the social, political, and moral norms of any 
established structure, be it a class, church, or government.  Each of these 
powerful institutions has its own agenda for controlling, even enslaving 
people. Each has to defend itself when threatened by real or imagined 
enemies. So we see though history a parade of endless conflicts with country 
vs. country, religion vs. religion, class vs. class. After millennia of war 
and strife, in which uncounted millions have suffered, we have yet to rise 
above our petty differences.”  (Skip Stone, www.hippy.com/hippyway.htm)


"Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see"

Lennon-McCartney, "Strawberry Fields Forever", November 1966.


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