Song 18 of 26 - From the Corner of My Eye

The eighteenth of the 26 songs is called "From the Corner of My Eye". Scroll down below the following videos for the lyrics and a brief discussion of how this song ties into the project. A blog post which lists all 26 songs, including 1 video for each song can be found by clicking here.



A direct link to the above video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyP5jxFe5Po



A direct link to the above video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f8IBDXv_xI


A direct link to the above video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34A8mfxtzu0


FROM THE CORNER OF MY EYE
words and music (c) by Rob Bryanton (SOCAN)
From the corner of my eye, I saw it
Thought I caught a glimpse at the edge of sight
Just a tiny inkling
Very hard to see
A flutter like a thousand wings in flight

In a corner of my mind, I questioned
How could there be more than this world of ours
Just a trick of vision
Disorder of the mind?
A pattern of tiny twirling stars
At the corner of my eye

From the corner of my eye
I saw the dance and spin
Of other worlds within
Such a mystery
From the corner of my eye
Hidden in the folds
Those other worlds untold
How can it be

In a corner of my heart, I felt it
There’s so many worlds that we cannot see
Just around a corner
Hard for us to turn
Angels dancing endlessly
At the corner of our eyes

From the corner of my eye
I saw the dance and spin
Of other worlds within
Such a mystery
From the corner of my eye
Hidden in the folds
Those other worlds untold
How can it be

One of the most commonly posed criticisms of any theory of reality involving higher dimensions or parallel universes is that they are invisible to us, inaccessible, decoherent to our current wavefunction. While scientific research continues that might finally give us provable evidence of higher dimensions (with the Large Hadron Collider currently receiving attention for that possibility), could there be other things about our current perceptions that are actually giving us hints of the fifth-dimensional probability space our fourth-dimensional line of time is being constructed from? Here are a couple of sections from my book where I get into the ideas behind this song:

Here is a useful saying in discussions of life and consciousness: “that which ceases to change ceases to exist”. When the brain processes input from the auditory nerve, it tends to reject any continuous noises which do not change–like, for instance, the noise of the air molecules in the room banging into each other, or the sound of an air conditioner. In other words, for our consciousness, the noises (or smells, or continuous aches and pains, and so on) which cease to change, will cease to exist because the brain stops them from being considered for processing. When we listen back to the tape recording, we are hearing what’s really in the room, without the phase reversed noise cancellation the brain uses to remove those continuous noises. Now, when the internal mechanisms of the ear are damaged, usually through exposure to excessive sound levels, we end up with an imbalance, where the brain is correcting for frequencies that are no longer coming in. This manifests itself as tinnitus, or “ringing of the ears”. It turns out that the ringing we hear is not from the ears, but from the brain itself, as it attempts to cancel out particular frequencies that are no longer coming in from the auditory nerve.

This is an example of how the brain is processing a huge amount of data, while our conscious minds are completely unaware of the process. It is only when things are not functioning normally that we start to see evidence of what’s going on “behind the curtain”.

...Nothing ever really happens in the tenth dimension, because as soon as anything “tries to”, it immediately collapses out a reality in the dimensions below which we, as quantum observers, are witness to.

What would it feel like to have the brain not efficiently processing the quantum data that we are suggesting it is also having to deal with? Could it be that the loss of peripheral vision that happens when people are tired or sick is a function of the brain looking down the long tunnel of coming quantum timelines and not having time to provide all of the visual data currently coming in? Could the experience of an ocular migraine–where the vision becomes overlaid with fast-rotating little dots and circles, or fluttering vibrations (often triggered by stress or overwork)–actually be a glimpse into this behind-the-scenes processing of quantum indeterminacy that the brain is doing?

There are drugs which seers and mystics have used to trigger visions which they claimed showed them the secrets of the universe. Could such drugs as peyote or LSD offer ways of opening doors into the quantum nature of reality, revealing the fluid nature of time to those who partake? And systematic re-ordering of the senses as a pathway to enlightenment need not be drug-induced either: chanting, drumbeats, meditation, exercise, and many other repetitive actions are often touted as a way for the seeker to find a different plane. Could that plane be outside of our limited fourth dimension?

There are also perceptual effects that some people describe as having occurred only the first time they ingest a particular drug or go through a particular first experience. Could the minor hallucinations some people experience with their first marijuana high be a glimpse of the swirling eddies that represent their near-future realities spinning off from their current moment, reminiscent of the shapes on a three-dimensional paisley fabric? Could the spots before the eyes and light-headedness of the “first cigarette” that some people describe, and which they then spend decades trying and failing to re-create be more than just a side effect of lowered oxygen supply to the brain, and actually be a perception of their possible futures that are now being cut off by their decision to smoke? Could part of the exhilaration and heightened sense of their surroundings that some persons experience the first time they successfully achieve a particular physical task be because of their connection to new physical futures that are now possible for them because of their reaching this particular milestone?

Hopefully you are reading these blog entries in order. If not, please keep in mind that all of the above is part of the overarching discussion of how Information Equals Reality, and that absolutely everything about our reality can ultimately be thought of as patterns within that information. Hopefully, those of you who have worked through these songs one after the other are now feeling comfortable with thinking about our universe (and all other possible/impossible universes within the multiverse) in those terms.

Here are some other blog entries that touch upon ideas connected to this song:
Tuning Into Reality
Constructive Interference
Music and the Dance of Creativity
Boredom and Consciousness Part Three

Next song: 19 of 26 - Positive Vibes