Radioactive - Imagine Dragons

Hello my fellow Mystics ! Before we start I'd like to say many thanks to any of you who have followed me on Twitter (@mystmodmus) !

I'm conscious that in the first two proper posts on this blog (allegedly about modern music), the songs I've looked at were released 14yrs ago (Reverence) and 5yrs ago (Black and Gold). I'd say its about time to look at a song currently in the charts!

Imagine Dragons are a Las Vegas based band who were formed in 2008 but really broke-out in 2012. As of today their latest song, Radioactive, has spent 22 weeks on the UK chart and is currently at #13 - which is nice! As with most of the songs we'll look at on this blog, first and foremost I like the song for its music and it has at least two really catchy hooks. The lyrics are certainly open to interpretation but I'll give you my read below, and the video is plain bonkers and definitely worthy of its own analysis ! Best of all the band play it live with real passion.

1. I'm waking up to ash and dust
2. I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust
3. I'm breathing in the chemicals

4. I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus
5. This is it, the apocalypse
Whoa

6. I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones
7. Enough to make my systems blow
8. Welcome to the new age, to the new age
    Welcome to the new age, to the new age
9. Whoa, I'm radioactive, radioactive
    Whoa, I'm radioactive, radioactive

10. I raise my flags, don my clothes
11. It's a revolution, I suppose
12. We're painted red to fit right in
Whoa

I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus
This is it, the apocalypse
Whoa

I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones
Enough to make my systems blow
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
Whoa, I'm radioactive, radioactive
Whoa, I'm radioactive, radioactive

13. All systems go, the sun hasn't died
14. Deep in my bones, straight from inside

I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones
Enough to make my systems blow
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
Whoa, I'm radioactive, radioactive
Whoa, I'm radioactive, radioactive

First of all - important to respect what the songwriter wants us to think it means !
This is what I think:

1. Waking from sleep each morning we face the transition from a dreamland to the physical reality of ash, dust, the seemingly irreversible increase in entropy in this universe

2. We are caught-up in this fall and can be made to feel like automatons - just machines with no free will ("We live in Newtonian world governed by Einsteinian physics, ruled by Frankenstein logic" - David Russell)

3. Not only a statement of fact (the air is made of chemicals!) but possibly a reference to the chemtrail conspiracy ?

4. Through meditation, research and opening your eyes to the evidence of what is really going on vs what we're told is really going on, its possible for everyone to recognise their own divinity. It takes practice and training but the mind habits that were your prison can be adjusted to provide your transport to freedom and enlightenment ("deluded people don't realise that their own mind is the buddha - they keep searching outside" - Gautama Buddha; "Behold ! The Kingdom of God is within you" - KJV Luke 17:21)

5. In contrast to popular understanding the actual meaning of apocalypse is not the end of the world ! It is actually a disclosure of knowledge, hidden from humanity in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e., a lifting of the veil or revelation

6. When the veil is lifted there can be no doubting it ! You feel it in the core of your being !

7. Some people can find this mind-blowing !

8. As you "wake-up" its like being reborn, or the start of a new age. Many attached to the "New-Age" movement believe this process is effectively logarithmic and that we are on the verge of appreciating a global consciousnes at the dawn of the new age of Aquarius. Those who experience the divine first-hand see the Godhead in everyone and know how close everyone is to this revelation. See Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth

9. I'm ALIVE !!  "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter" - Yoda; "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience" - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. . Its also a statement of scientific fact !

10. I feel different and I want everyone to feel that revelation too, but day to day life still goes on ! "Before enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment chop wood, carry water" - Zen Proverb

11. It is a revolution - but not violent - and not what you might expect it to feel like !

12. To me this looks like a very cool play on a Dante's Inferno quotation "we are they who painted the world scarlet with sins." Often the enlightened buddha's of the ages are rejected, accused of the worst sins (blasphemy, solipsism, believing that you are God) and murdered. MUCH more of that topic to come in future posts !

13. Once you feel the awakening happening go for it ! The sun is still here / the son is still here. Again - MUCH more of that to come in furture posts . . .

14. The experience has not come from without but from within.
“I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Him not.
I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was there.
I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not.
With set purpose I fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found there only 'anqa's habitation.
Then I directed my search to the Kaaba, the resort of old and young; God was not there even.
Turning to philosophy I inquired about him from ibn Sina but found Him not within his range.
I fared then to the scene of the Prophet's experience of a great divine manifestation only a "two bow-lengths' distance from him" but God was not there even in that exalted court.
Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him; He was nowhere else.” - Rumi

Black and Gold - Sam Sparro

Apologies to anyone out there in the ether who has actually been waiting for my next post. As of August 2013 I'm going to have alot more time on my hands and will be able to commit more to updating this blog much more often than once per year !! An update every two weeks will be my target to start with and I also plan to be active on Twitter and other social media.

In the meantime, lets change the pace a little bit from the classic "Reverence" of the last post. I've long been amazed by the sheer breadth of musical genres that have been influenced by mysticism but before we launch into our first thrash metal example - lets take a look at what I would classify as regular pop music.

Sam Sparro was raised in a musical and gospel loving family. Its therefore not too surprising that his biggest career hit has a strong message. First of all - I LOVE this song - Black and Gold - just for its rhythm, melodies and groove. The fact that there is a great message of revelation and theophany in the beauty of the natural world is a great bonus. Others have argued that its a lyrical defence of non-Darwinian theories on the origin of species. I don't see that particularly, but it does strike me as a critique on scientific materialism. More importantly for me its a love song to the universal spirit and also a love song of devotion to a fellow human lover.

If the fish swam out of the ocean
And grew legs and they started walking
And the apes climbed down from the trees
And grew tall and they started talking

And the stars fell out of the sky
And my tears rolled into the ocean
And now I'm looking for a reason why
You even set my world into motion

'Cause if you're not really here
Then the stars don't even matter
Now I'm filled to the top with fear
That it's all just a bunch of matter

'Cause if you're not really here
Then I don't want to be either
I wanna be next to you
Black and gold, black and gold, black and gold

I look up into the night sky
And see a thousand eyes staring back
And all around these golden beacons
I see nothing but black

I feel a weight of something beyond them
I don't see what I can feel
If vision is the only validation
Then most of my life isn't real

'Cause if you're not really here
Then the stars don't even matter
Now I'm filled to the top with fear
But it's all just a bunch of matter

'Cause if you're not really here
Then I don't want to be either
I wanna be next to you
Black and gold, black and gold, black and gold
I wanna be next to you
Black and gold, black and gold, black and gold

'Cause if you're not really here
Then the stars don't even matter
Now I'm filled to the top with fear
But it's all just a bunch of matter

'Cause if you're not really here
Then I don't want to be either
I wanna be next to you
Black and gold, black and gold, black and gold

******************************************

The first two verses ask the question: if Darwinian evolution is true why do people need God to set the big bang off and get the whole show going? A simplistic God of the Gaps theology does not stand-up to any substantial critical thinking. The spirit is immanent in all:

"God sleeps in the rock

Dreams in the plants

Stirs in the animals

And awakens in Man"

- Old Sufi Proverb

The line "and my tears rolled into the ocean" is a lovely emotional reference to the long established use of water as metaphor for many aspects of mystical experience:

"In the spritual marriage, the union is like what we have when rain falls from the sky into a river or fount; all is water, for the rain that fell from heaven cannot be divided or seperated from the water of the river" - Teresa of Avila

"The best of man is like water, Which benefits all things, and does not contend with them, Which flows in places that others disdain, Where it is in harmony with the Way" Tao Te Ching v8

"Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water, Yet nothing can better overcome the hard and strong" Tao Te Ching v78

Then the chorus (starting: 'Cause if you're not really here) tackles the question of the true reality of materialism. First of all the choice of "here" rather than "there" is really important. "you're" is referring to God and he needs to be "here" in space and time - not somewhere over "there"!!

The word play of "the stars don't even matter" is wonderful. The word "matter" being derived from the same root that gives us words such as: materialsm, metre, measure; but also the same root as Maya, Mary, mother, meaning etc. On top of that there is the other meaning of  "matter" as something being important. If the spirit does not exist then how can a physical reality be percieved?

In the second part of the chorus I'm particularly touched by the line: "'Cause if you're not really here, Then I don't want to be either, I wanna be next to you". To me its a hope that the universe is not just a cold, physical reality and nor is it just pure spirit - it has to be inseperably both. Its time to cleave the Cartesian Split and recognise the unity of the whole universe: spiritual and physical. Layering over that meaning, the fact that Sam is gay gives the line "I wanna be next to you" added resonance. Many gay people have at best been rejected, and in many cases persecuted, by many churches and religions. I'm convinced that God / the Universe doesn't have sexual preferences for the human species!