Term Paper on "Religion Color and Sound"

Quoted Instructions for "Religion Color and Sound" Assignment:

Consider the selections we have read from the Renaissance *****s (Kepler, etc.), Inayat Khan, Aldous Huxley, and Faber Birren. Then, write a 3 to 5 page essay answering the following question: why do you think altered perceptions of color and sound occur so frequently and play such a prominent role in mystical experiences? In other words, what role do these perceptions play in the process of "discovery" that mystics go through? You may treat color and sound separately, or as two interconnected forms of perception. Feel free as always to add your own thoughts and theories, but make sure you discuss the readings first! As with the last topic, you do not have to use the Renaissance *****s as a "focus text" - so long as you use at least any three of the four readings.

(1) Consider the concept of harmony as a metaphor for the mystic goal. To what extent can spiritual harmony be understood through visual or aural harmony? Do the different *****s have similar understandings of what harmony is, or do they mean different things by it?

(2) Consider the idea of proportion as a metaphor for the "true" world that mystics seek to discover. Why do you think some *****s are conerned with mysticism as the discovery of hidden proportions? Which of the *****s has a theory of mystical harmony that is not based on proportionality, and do you yourselfthink this is possible?

(3) Consider Huxley's claim that his mystical expericence was not visionary in the sense of that of Blake, Swedenborg, etc. What does it mean for him to have a mystical perception that is not visionary?

(4) Consider the idea that color and sound are more conducive to mystical experience because they are non-representational forms of perception? To what extent do you think this is true, and why? Is there a better explanation for why color and sound are different from other forms of perception in terms of the mystical experience?

As long as your essay (a) has a coherent and overarching thesis and (b) makes good use of the sources, feel free to discuss this issue in whatever way you like. Remember: There are no "correct" conclusions or points of view. Be creative and have fun!

my notes

KEPLER

• Synesthesia- being able to hear color and see sound.

• Music is pleasing because it correspond to harmony

• Harmony is 1-whne things work together, 2-whn opposites blend together, 3- Balance, 4-mutual understanding.

• Harmony can be use for color and sound at the same time.

• Balance and function- function is about survival.

• Harmony is not a state of survival; it is a state of being in balance.

• Harmony in music is whatever sounds good.

• A human cannot be a judge of absolute balance, because they are searching for their own balance (only their own).

• Music is- 1- sound that pleases, 2-balanced sound, 3- structured, 4- control.

• Is music based on individual will or by nature?

• What is the function of divinity in how we hear music?

• Music can be experienced by the body.

• Music is mathematical.

• Music is physical

• Music is mathematical because of rhythm, because of frequency.

• Kepler is responsible for the development of astronomy.

• According to Plato- Harmony come from the body.

• According to Socrates- people want to get more pleasure and less pain. People are not only looking for individual pleasure, but for harmony (some people don’t exceed an amount of food to keep the body in harmony).

• According to Kepler People don’t look at their individual pleasure but for the harmony in society.

• Musical pleasure is simply the reflection of natural proportions.

• The same element for musical pleasure is the same for everyone.

• 1- Pleasure of humans and beasts (everything that happens inside happens outside), 2-movement of planets, 3-metereological phenomena.

• Are there mystical relationships to sound, to times of day?

• Everything that is based on a pattern can be explained by mathematics.

• Ear-------idea objective proportion-----music.

• The ear can only appreciate the beauty of music if both the ear and music are ordered according to universal proportions

• Music is a universal language- everyone could relate to it, it does not preside in a single individual.

• According to Kepler, what explains harmony is mathematical.

• Music is Universal/objective-1- there is no possibility of translation, 2-mathematical.

• Talking about music in an objective way.

• Music have to always emerge from the center.

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HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN

• Music is called the Divine Art according to Khan, because it does not create pictures in our minds, it does not create images in our head. There is invisibility.

• Music is not mimetic (copying life).

• A painter copy life.

• Words suggest something from reality.

• Anything that does not copy life according to khan is music. Anything that is not mimetic.

• There is a connection between music and life. There is a mystical link among them.

• Some people thing that music has to do with some type of emotion in their life.

• Music expresses beauty because it describes the beloved (God).

• The beloved is invisible because you fall in love with something that is beyond the physical.

• Music is both the source and the goal of life.

• The basis of beauty, music and love is movement- moving from one note to the other.

• Beauty (in terms of movement) – is what makes you imagine something beyond the physical (there is a beauty behind beauty).

• Music excel even religion, it is superior to religion.

• Anthropomorphism

• Music does not reflect our world; we don’t need music to live.

• Music is unique; there is no difference between learning the art and enjoying the art. There is no rule in what to follow next- there is a non-duality of music.

• To appreciate music is to be part of it.

HUXLEY

• When the doors of perception are cleansed (something has to be removed) thing will appear as they truly are.

• Example of a vase of Flowers- each flower is important simply because they exist, each flower is unique.

• Flowers breathing- he feel life is in continuity with the flowers.

• Hallucination and reality- he is fighting hallucination.

• Spatial relationships do not change, but they lose importance.

• He lost the idea of time line.

• Dualities- 1- no impairment- “thinking straight” 2- intensity of vision without hallucination (intensification of color), 3-the will is impaired ( he is able to find his is-ness, art is for beginners), 4- loss of the inner/outer divide in perception ( he looks at the flower, and he feels he is becoming the flower).

• According to CD Broad- what perception is, is to eliminate all that you are not looking at. For us to see, we should funnel (filter) everything that we are not looking at.

• Huxley calls “mind at large”- the mind that is open to pure perception, not filtering. Looking at things as they are.

• According to Huxley – non-representational, non-mimetic

• According to Zeihner; a mystical experience has to have content.

• Everything that is mystical already exists.

• In order to have a mystical experience, you have to not follow rules. Get away.

• Non-visionary- transported to another world, seeing reality as being intensify of reality.

• There is no way of defining color.

• Clothing- it exists as pure imagination not connected with reality- it is non-representational.

• Clothing can be a form of style

• Music is universal because it has some kind of human content.

FABER BIRREN

• We eliminate whatever we are not looking for. There is no reason of seeing other things. “you are not seeing me if you are looking for me.”

• When the doors of perception are cleansed, we see less.

• When we are on drugs (mushroom) colors are clearer.

• Mind- at- large makes aesthetic associations that are not practical connected with reality.

• Proportionality (Kepler)- according to Kepler, if music is an individual thing, we cannot understand it.

• The only way according to Kepler to understand it is to hear it in the same proportion.

• Color is universal because is proportional.

• According to Inoyat Khan- music is a universal language.

• Music is not representational- the beloved (you only love something when you transcend what you see).

• There is nothing in the world of vision that can’t be copy.

• According to Khan; there is an invisible world.

• Music is universal because it is shared.

• According to Khan, music comes form love.

• Color is being put as a fixed relationship according to Huxley. Black is associated with hatred. Red is associated with love, with anger. Green with compassion. Blue with noble ideal.