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