Awake or Asleep?

Waking Sleeping Evolution

We are introducing the KGOD and Norton Street music as a powerful means to spark or trigger a waking state moment, but how will someone know for sure that this momentary flash of waking state has indeed been triggered?

How can you tell if you’re awake?

Ah. That’s the key question. If we’re going to say the music can trigger a moment of waking, the listener needs some way to distinguish that from “I liked that bit,” “I got emotional,” “I spaced out,” or “that was weird.”

I think the obvious course is to not to you what they’re supposed to experience. That concept would clearly contaminate the experiment. Instead, I offer things to look for afterward, looking back at it from a distance of a few seconds.

A genuine little waking flash, as we’re using the term, meaning “The Waking State”, might be recognized in yourself by several features:

There is a sudden change of viewpoint. A moment before, you’re completely inside the thought, emotion, music, situation. Suddenly you’re aware that you are here, experiencing it.
The automatic machinery becomes visible. You may notice the thought that’s running, the posture you’re sitting in, the expression on your face, the emotion underway—as though you caught the machine in operation.
The world gets oddly immediate. Not necessarily mystical or dramatic. The room may simply seem unusually there. Sounds are sounds. Objects are objects. You’re present.
There can be a tiny discontinuity. Something like, “Oh!” You realize that a fraction of a second earlier you weren’t aware in quite this way.
Time changes character. Instead of being carried along by the sequence of thoughts, there’s briefly just this.
Choice appears. This may be the strongest practical test. Something automatic was about to continue—and suddenly it doesn’t have to. You can continue it, or not.

And interestingly, the flash itself might be extremely unimpressive. That’s important. People expecting enlightenment, bliss, visions, vibrations, cosmic understanding, etc., could completely overlook the useful event.

It might amount to nothing more than:

“Oh. I’m here.”

Then one second later, they’re gone.

First you notice after the event, then during the event, and then, withpractice, eventually before the event, where you still have the power to change things.

The music isn’t necessarily intended to put somebody into a permanent altered state. It’s attempting to interrupt the script long enough for the listener to notice that there is a script—and that they are present while it’s running.

I’d build a very simple experiment around the KGOD and NORTON STREET albums.

Before listening, don’t try to wake up. Don’t concentrate especially hard. Don’t hunt for an experience. Just listen. Afterward, ask yourself:

Was there any single instant during the playing of that piece when I suddenly became aware that “I” was listening?

Not aware of the music. Aware of “I”, listening to the music.

If the answer was “yes”, then ask:

What was happening immediately before the change?
What changed?
How long did it last?
What made me realize it had ended?

That last question is sneaky and potentially very productive. Because if you can recognize that the state ended, you’ve already begun learning the difference between the two states.

And there’s our experimental program.

Play the same piece tomorrow. Don’t try to reproduce yesterday’s experience. See whether something happens, and don’t stress if it doesn’t work every time. It’s like poker or blackjack — you can’t win every hand.

Try another Norton Street version. Same words, different musical treatment. Does one trigger it more reliably? The same? Different?

Try ordinary favorite music as a control. Try playing Norton Street in the background, while doing something else.

Try it lying down with eyes closed and try to visualize the action.

Try sitting upright.

Eventually you could actually start accumulating data: which tracks or albums produce the greatest number of flashes?

What makes this different from other methods of waking?

That question could lead us to something much more interesting than merely saying “this music wakes you up.” We’re teaching people to recognize for themselves what we mean by waking up, and to recognize the signs and symptoms of the waking state.

And I think that’s essential. Otherwise we’ve given them just another belief.

The immediate event is something the person can actually observe: I was running automatically; for a moment I became present and aware of myself being here. That’s experiential and testable by the participant.

Then comes the teaching or working hypothesis: a deliberately produced waking-state moment has value to the being itself. It isn’t merely an interesting state of consciousness that appears and disappears. Something from that moment is retained.

So you could picture it almost as:

waking moment → small gain → waking moment → small gain → waking moment → small gain

The waking states themselves may last only seconds or a fraction of a second. But the gains are cumulative.

That’s where the idea of an increase in the level of Essential Self becomes useful. We’re not claiming that somebody listens to an album Tuesday afternoon and becomes permanently awake as a result. We’re saying that repeated genuine moments of presence constitute a kind of exercise and nourishment—for the Essential Self.

If one is harmonious, one can develop.

And there’s a lovely practical consequence: duration may not be the important variable. Frequency may be.

Ten genuine single-second waking moments scattered through a day might conceivably be more useful than sitting for an hour trying desperately to achieve and maintain some special state.

That also gives the music a very sensible job. The music isn’t the transformation. It’s the alarm clock.

It produces—or attempts to produce—the interruption. The listener does the important part by recognizing the interruption and, eventually, learning to produce it deliberately.

We can confidently invite people to observe the momentary state change. The simple fact that these moments accumulate and raise the “level of essential self” is eventually revealed in the individual’s higher actions and they ascend to positions of responsibility.

That’s where all this “What is the Great Work?” gets really interesting.

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Hey, here’s the Bardo bus now!

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