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John
Coltrane as a catalyst for spiritual revelation
in focused psychedelic experiences |
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The main purpose of this page is to examine the deeply
spiritual and cleansing "Coltrane Revelation"
experiences reported by many listeners on
psychedelics (and also many who were not
tripping, yet due to whatever circumstances were in a
sufficiently open state) where his saxophone sound becomes
like another form of communication - alternately described
as:
"a spiritual voice" - "a 'natural
harmonic language'
communicating spiritual ideals and lessons" -or-
is heard in sections as ~ "time-transcending"
- "ultra-futuristic"
"vastly alien-seeming"
- "infinite"
- "geometrical or hyper-dimensional"
"ancient" - "divinely inspired"
- "spiritually channeled" - "Kundalini
energy"
-or- "the
Holy Spirit, 'speaking in tongues thru the saxophone'
"
•
(mp3) Early
Coltrane, 1961 337k - Runtime; 0:49
• (mp3)
Late-Period 1966 1.8 meg - Runtime; 4:39
• (mp3)
Late-Period 1967 1.1 meg - Runtime; 2:45
• (mp3)
Late-Period 1967 555k - Runtime; 2:22
Regardless of the quasi-religious language used to describe
the experience about twice a year a full-scale debate
rages on the "Life and works of John Coltrane"
Listserv discussion group about whether Coltrane tripped
on LSD, if it affected his music or personal beliefs,
and if he was somehow 'relapsing' from his 1958
commitment to God to live a more pure and spiritual lifestyle.
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Firstly,
it is abundantly clear that trane did indeed trip,
probably a number of times between late 1964 and 67.
To anyone with firsthand experience of a full-scale
psychedelic trip the question "did
it influence his music" is meaningless!! At the
dosage level popular in the 1960's it was just about
impossible not to have an earth-shatteringly profound
experience.
I have little doubt that the "reminder"
of God's Omniscience that Coltrane mentions in the
liner notes to A Love Supreme was his first
LSD trip in late '64.
Upon returning from an inner voyage on LSD
in 1965, the master of the tenor saxophone and spiritual
truthseeker reported that "I
perceived the inter-relationship of all life forms."
this quote and others about
Trane's LSD use (it was actually still legal at the
time) are attributed to un-named quartet members and
friends in more than one Coltrane biography, including:
Ascension
: John Coltrane and His Quest
Spirit Catcher :The Life and Art of
John Coltrane ;
John Coltrane: His Life and Music
Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History
of LSD
I
especially want to examine the relationship to South
American shamanic practices involving psychedelics
and "spiritual songs" which are made to
be "seen" more than heard, was
Trane becoming a "Psychedelic Shaman"?
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"That's
one of the records I would hear walking through the
Haight on a spring night, all over town."
- Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead
on Coltrane's 'a Love Supreme'
"I took LSD and listened
to Coltrane a lot;
a lot of people did."
-Sam Andrew Guitarist and founding
member of (Janis Joplin's) Big Brother and the
Holding Company
"I
wanted to learn why I was so fascinated with Coltrane
and that Sky-Church music, as Jimi [Hendrix]
called it.
So I got together with Alice Coltrane [pianist,
harpist, yoga master and former wife of John],
and I found out why she writes, and how she writes
those celestial strings. It's important for guitarists
to listen to her and Pharaoh Sanders.[tenor
saxophonist]"
~ Carlos Santana mentions
Jimi Hendrix's interest
in Coltrane's music in a way indicating Hendrix considered
it Holy ["Sky-Church music"]
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Basic
Idea
 Trane's
Late-Period works are often rejected by many
critics and listeners who simply don't like it or
'don't get it' beyond the late 1964 material. They
know Trane was an intelligent, masterful and deliberate
individual and are at a loss to explain this seemingly
chaotic music.
and I have found that MANY of the people
I know who are appreciative of his late period works,
and consider them a pinnacle of musical and spiritual
achievement happen to be the ones familiar with psychedelics
or have listened to trane while tripping.
so perhaps - Coltrane was playing 'psychedelic
music' which is most clearly experienced
in a mental state similar to the psychedelic consciousness
context from which it flowed.
Hypothesis: Coltrane's 'Late-Period'
works are inaccessible to many people because they
are most effectively 'understood' in a psychedelic
mindset involving time-dilation, emotional openness
and synaesthesia.
Example: Many of Trane's late period works
are incredibly dense. WAY more rapid than most listeners
are ready to apprehend, and containing interlaced
multi-octave lines, they are most commonly described
in terms of shape or texture. This is appropriate
because on
LSD sounds are seen as images &
subjective time slows down (to an Extraordinary
degree) while ... simultaneously, the 'Pattern
comprehension and tracking' abilities of the
mind are greatly expanded, providing greater ease
in examining detailed or highly compressed information.
The
Proof? Just try it .... in a peaceful setting
.... May you be lucky enough to share in this great
and secret blessing. Take a moderate dose of LSD or
Mushrooms & listen to; Newport
1963, A Love Supreme, First Meditations, Meditations,
Sun-Ship, Live in Seattle, Interstellar Space or Expression.
- maybe in a dimly lit room with a comfortable pair
of quality headphones & you'll see what i mean
.... he was playing from and for a very open
state of consciousness ;)
“...[Coltrane] had a pair of binoculars and, back in San Francisco, during the intermission from his playing at the Jazz Workshop, we'd walk ten blocks to a field down by the freeway, and he'd start looking at the stars. He knew where the Milky Way was, and everything.
Coltrane looked at the sky, the stars, scrutinizing the night for a long moment of infinity as if to discover the secrets of the universe, a universe that appeared to trouble him with its complexity, its power and its unknown dimensions...After a while, we climbed back up, slowly and always in silence, the slope to Broadway, I to recover my corner and continue to listen feverishly; Coltrane to anxiously reclaim his saxophones and his work of research, his mysterious quest....”
Louis-Victor Mialy
[remembering an event from September 1961]) |
|
 John
Coltrane is
Doctor Recommended
TRIP MUSIC!
Click Here to learn
more ...
Terrence
McKenna notes that,
"The pro-psychedelic plant position is clearly
an anti-drug position.
Drug dependencies are the result of habitual,
unexamined and obsessive behavior;
these are precisely the tendencies
that the psychedelics mitigate."
Another fact worth considering is that reading Medical
journals
(or even the DEA website) will disclose that Psychedelic
compounds
and plants are all classified as Counter-Addictive,
(meaning that
the effects of the drug itself discourage repeated
indiscriminate use.)
There is a huge difference between advocating
responsible psychedelic plant use for medical reasons,
spiritual reasons or for inspiration, and advocating
uncontrolled drug abuse. |
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