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 Neurolinguistic Codified Mind Expansion (How a Well-Rounded Musical Diet Can Make You Smarter)  by Troy Palmer

My first serious collage, "The Fight Goes On". there are various dualities throughout the piece, as well as false idol worship of a wooden puppet (and Tommy Lee's tattooed arm going up the kiester of the idolator... more puppetry "symbolism") - Troy Palmer

 

When I was in the first grade, I began to take a great interest in mythology and cyphers. It was my first introduction to playing with language and personality archetypes. In retrospect, it's no wonder I would become fascinated with the power of music as a tool in communication and raiding the spirit. The fundamental concept is miraculous enough: an idea that starts out as an electromagnetic signal in the brain, subsequently arranged in an order pleasing to the individual personality who began the sequence and transferred it into acoustic energy to be birthed into the physical world and shared with fellow humans. Those who would hear this acoustic interpretation would then take it in and break it back down into electromagnetic impulses. If this translation appealed to the complex set of characteristics/energies that make up the receiver's personality, then it would not only translate as "music to their ears", but create an emotional response ranging from pleasant to transcendent.

An additional benefit- be it conscious or completely subconscious- is that they were learning anywhere from a slightly new dialect to a previously unrecognized language of harmonics, tonal patterns, rhythmic foundations, etc. In essence, they were seeing the world from the eyes/ perspective of another, whose life experiences and fundamental thinking process could be completely different from what they've personally experienced before.

When you see advertisement campaigns from such groups as The Save The Music Foundation, who claim their work helps students learn at a much higher rate and adjust better to The World around them, they are absolutely on the money. They may have a different way of explaining the why's and wherefore's, but that's part of the multifaceted beauty of it all. We're dealing with a very flexible "science" that needs room and breadth to explore its full potential.

Let me try to warm it up and personalize it. As I mentioned before, I showed an early love/disposition for playing with the building blocks of interpersonal communication, as well as a desire to express my sometimes overwhelming inner world of iconography/images and strong emotional reactions by breaking them down into the more manageable sections that something like Greek, Norse or Egyptian mythology provided (as well as relating to these feelings in a seemingly more basic "elemental" context).

 

My musical education started with my parents, who introduced me as early as memory serves to the range of expression provided throughout The 60's, from the simple sweet escapism of Herman's Hermits, early Beatles, or the mostly-feelgood vibrations of The Mamas & The Papas (a gently propagandist view of the human condition, or a focused meditation on our kinder aspects?), to a wilder, more mischievous but relatively harmless aspect/archetype displayed in early Rolling Stones, The Who & Nuggets-style garage bands exploring the boundaries of the era's social conventions in place of fun-lovin' personal freedom like The Count Five ("Psychotic Reaction"), Paul Revere & The Raiders ("Just Like Me", "Kicks"), The Syndicate of Sound ("Little Girl"), The Other Half ("Mr. Pharmacist"), The Thirteenth Floor Elevators ("Levitation"), Pretty Things ("Walking Through My Dreams"), The Creation ("How Does It Feel to Feel?"), and the like. By the time I settled into artists like The Doors and The Beatles, my senses reorganized themselves and I saw The World in lush overlays of fantastic images and stories.

By the time I was ten, I passed out very briefly due to pinching a nerve in my neck. For about ten seconds, I was overcome by what sounded like sped up xylophone music with a cascading shimmer. I'll never forget that sound, which I imagine is still eternally playing on some ether frequency. I'm sure it played an important role in what kind of music I would seek out soon enough (a few close friends have suggested that I heard The Music of The Spheres that day, or at least an aspect).

I was on the cusp of changing my dreamlife and perceptions of The Waking World with the psychic soundscapes of Chrome, The Virgin Prunes, Severed Heads, Cocteau Twins, The Residents and many other artists who tapped into the centers of my brain that created effects as vivid in my young 12-13 year old mind long before any external chemical modification.


This is definitely unfinished and has been for months, but I think it may serve even in its current state to possibly stimulate some ideas, as Blake Hall has encouraged me to do. I hadn't yet begun to write about one of my favorite aspects- how multiple minds in a band unify and focus on one idea, creating something with multiple layers and subconscious elements of each musician involved where once there was nothing. How it affects memories or otherwise modifies/ distorts the senses.

 

Maybe someone else would like to take the ball as it currently is and run with it, adding their ideas/ perceptions/ experience to the subject. I'm sure I won't be the only one interested in what you think. We've all become fascinated and passionate about music to the point where it's an intrinsic part of our lives. As I'm writing these final lines, I think I'm less concerned right now in writing a personal treatise on the subject and more curious about how others- my fellow music lovers, my peers- have related to music's deeper implications in their lives & meditations.

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