Tuesday, January 29th, 2008, progressive-rock band The Mars Volta (http://www.themarsvolta.com) released an album entitled, "Bedlam in Goliath." The album was inspired by the alleged discovery and subsequent experimentation with a ouija-style talking board which they dubbed "The Soothsayer." Details are available on the Wikipedia site, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedlam_in_Goliath, and also on The Mars Volta's website.
What follows are some notes written to a friend who, after having a few listens to the album, asked me, "So what are they singing about?"
What I get from what I’ve read and the lyrics is that there are three spirits attached to the board – they can all express themselves as individuals, but a fourth figure emerges, which is a complex of all three – or perhaps, not so much the three of them, but the essence of the relationship between them (other characters also appear – “Patience Worth,” “Mr. Mugs,” “Tourniquet Man” - perhaps different facets of the relationship). The composite voice, dubbed “Goliath” is described as being starved – as one lyrics goes “What have you brought for my appetite?” What Goliath seems to hunger for is manifestation in the material plane - Goliath wants to be incarnated again. The band is fascinated by this, and strings him along – not giving Goliath what Goliath wants, but enough attention to keep the interaction going. Besides, Goliath has the story to tell, the story of the love triangle – a story which becomes more detailed and more complex – so Goliath tries to draw the band in deeper and deeper by elaborating on the story, hoping to pull them in and get from them what Goliath wants. The band wants the story, they want the details, they want to continue the experimentation and communication, but they don’t want to give in to Goliath’s demands. So Goliath starts to get impatient, and that’s what causes the ill events to start happening to the band. “It’s only a matter of folding time and space / before I become your epidemic” is Goliath threatening the band to do his bidding. The guitarist, Omar, was once asked in an interview about the sorts of decisions he makes regarding the bands musical direction. His response was something to the extent of, “I just keep listening to the spirits that are guiding me and continue to do what they tell me.” Cedric, the singer, is a conflicted Catholic – appearing to have given up entirely on the silly superstitiousness of Christianity – except for the fact that he can’t stop singing about it.
I think the connection between the Soothsayer and the Christian imagery in the album artwork (the artwork has several details from the passion of Christ) has something to do with this conflict between awareness of the spiritual world and the refusal of Christianity – sort of a “well, like it or not, Cedric, certain things are happening on the other side of the curtain – you couldn’t deal with it when you didn’t see it, you were perpetually haunted the “superstitions” of others. Now a situation has arisen in which you are forced to acknowledge certain phenomenon, that which was once concealed behind the curtain is emerging on this side of manifestation. What are you going to do? How are you going to be?”
I had a silly idea about writing a phony psychiatric article very scientifically explaining how anyone who believes global warming is a myth conconcted by a liberal conspiracy camp is clinically neurotic. To dismiss the evidence that has been presented by this point in history is simply not possible for a sane mind.
I sort of feel the same way about the other side of the curtain. By the turn of the century, if you still believed in God, you were pretty behind the times – really, God had been dead for some time at that point – the notion itself had already become rather passé. But now, at the dawn of the new millennium, what with the theory of relativity, quantum theory, the proliferation of holistic thinking and holistic approaches to living and being…I’m actually somewhat surprised when I meet people who seem to be sort of “with it” and are still talking about religion like communists, that tiresome “Religion is the opiate of the masses” sort of talk. Really, now – that was a 19th century revelation – no one cares about religion anymore – the real issue now is spirituality – and not whether such a thing as the other side of the curtain exists – but what the other side of the curtain is all about (and ultimately, what this side of the curtain is all about, and how they relate.) It’s not that there’s nothing valuable about doubt or skepticism – it’s just that it’s an exercise, and at some point, there’s nothing left to gain, whereas when we accept that the other side of the curtain exists, a whole new realm of possibility opens up. One of the things I’m very fond of saying – that I can say actually constitutes part of my personal philosophy of life and being, is: The possibility of choice is that which is the essence of our existence. Even if the choice is illusory. I have found that in my own life, the refutation of the Divine has presented less possibility, less choice than otherwise. Others feel that to accept the possibility of the Divine is necessarily to deny free will, which is to limit (if not outright deny) the possibility of choice. Ultimately, it’s not something that’s determined by the structure of the universe, but by our own minds, our own conditionings, our own pretenses. I could never crawl into the smaller cage of Western Rationalism ever again. That’s like an aneurysm, it’s like restricting myself to only the left half of my brain. And to be existing in the material plane in 2008 and meeting people who at first seem to know what’s going on, yet still aren’t operating on this frequency surprises me. How many years after Galileo before it was somewhat embarrassing to get into a conversation with someone, only to discover that they still believed the world was flat?
“So Cedric, how’s it going to be?” Courting spirits – spirits which turned out to be malicious – forced the entire band to exercise free will. Previously, the existence of the spiritual world precluded the possibility of free will. Now, with the Soothsayer entering the picture, the existence of the spiritual world necessitated a particular type of exercise of free will – and by this necessitated exercise, provided an experiential proof either of the existence of free will or the benefit of operating under the pretense of free will, whether there exists a curtain, whether there is indeed another world behind the curtain, whether will is truly free or whether it is not.
So that, in a nutshell, is my take on what is happening, what they are singing about, on “Bedlam in Goliath.”
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