Critical listening and altered states
Musical absorption is being in altered states of consciousness. As I posted above in the words of AI. "In essence, musical absorption is a fascinating phenomenon where music can profoundly alter an individual’s state of consciousness, creating a unique blend of heightened attention, emotional response, and a sense of being transported to another realm. " |
I keep it simple... after dinner and after my tubes have warmed up for an hour or so, I will indulge in a shot of good vodka, gin or bourbon. Then I will warm up the vaporizer and take about 3-4 hits of cannabis... it's been my routine for 50+ years. After around one hour of listening, enjoying the music, letting it take me places deep in my heart and soul, I turn it down and begin using that inspiration to play my guitar. I will play for about an hour and will go back to listening to my music collection again for around 15 minutes. After that, I shut everything down and take my dog out for a walk on the trails. At 73 years old, my *boring* daily routine is actually very fulfilling. ;-) |
@hilde45 specifically connects altered states with evaluation of sonics, rather than "relaxation". Your characterization of absorption would seem to suggest these are incompatible. This is what I don’t understand. I certainly can't fully give myself up to the music while simultaneously engaging in critical analysis. Perhaps others can. |
First: all is a question here about "attention" as in a focus centered state (details), or in a surrounding encompassing mode(whole) and in a relaxed moving balance state between these 2 polarities (whole and detail).
Second : a critical listening of sound can suddenly appear because out of the perfect optimal balance between modes of attention, something stress our sense and perception of the optimal relation between sound as acoustic experience and music as pure meaning; a disturbed attention focus suddenly critically on sound, forgetting musical meaning (the meaning of Bruckner last 5th symphony for example as a perfect image of near death we can see with our mind eyes if something dont disturb our concentration of attention)
Third: Ecstasy, an altered state of mind as meaning perception through an optimal balance between sound manifestation of the music content cannot exist in a critical mode of attention focussing unilaterally on some negative acoustic aspect of the sound vehicle.
Four: this is why i said that an optimal acoustic control of the system /room/ears help us to reach an altered state of perception through this optimal balance where we can forget at the ultimate limit everything save pure meanings expressed as the unity of sound and music as ONE meaning...
a remark : Attention can be "divided" or can work in two modes simultaneously, only in the "state of flow" when consciousness is relaxed and work out of any stress. Then yes i can listen critically in an altered state at the express condition to be out of any kind of stress, acoustic stress or any other... If not i enter in state where i lose the "flow state" of meaningful perception... Each perception can be a creative act, a stress, or a boring process by habit, or a loss of control in a way or another with some substances...
In a simpler way : if the system/room is optimal for our ears/brain we enter in an altered state, a musical ecstasy.. If not, we need a beer to forget our imperfect acoustic experience...Or we need another acoustics experiment around an acoustic concept to improve the system/room... If i am happy with my system it is already an altered uncritical state of satisfaction (in spite of my consciousness of my gear limitation because the system work optimally)
and to this question :
The answer is no. I cannot evaluate my system stoned as a rock, or drunk and drunken. Why ? Because acoustics critical analysis is like thinking and seeing with his ears, i cannot when my mind is darken by the fumes... |
