The Way of the Gong™

This is sort of a part 2 to last week's blog… This Fluid Universe Recent scientific experiments have shown that, on a quantum level, our own thoughts and expectations can influence the outcome of experiments. Science has also shown that the placebo effect is real. Patients given a placebo drug, believing it was the actual drug, report the same positive results as those given the actual drug. There is also a lot of scientific speculation as to the nature of alternate/parallel Universes/realities. Some people speculate that we could each be living multiple lives in different realities, and that these may crossover and affect each other. Others speculate that we could actually be living in some sort of Matrix like reality. EnlightenmentAs Breaking Through Many ancient religious texts talk about the illusionary nature of the Universe and that the idea of enlightenment is one of breaking through that illusion. We are also told that we can create our lives as we want to. A...

If you hang out on Facebook with the same group of people I do, the the chances are that you were involved in, or at least aware of and read through, a recent massive posting & multiple threads about the Planet Gongs, their tunings, Hans Cousto, and whether any of this is right, wrong, or even matters. A selection of planets The Plan Of The Planets To keep it brief, the main topics talked about were how could 2 different Planet Gongs have their specific tunings, which had a certain variance between them. This lead to asking whether the Planet Gong tunings were legit. This further evolved into how did Hans Cousto derive them? Various mathematical formulas were tossed around and much was made of how some of the Gongs don't even have the correct tunings.  This all lead to bringing in the mythology that lies behind the Planet Gongs, like Chiron being the wounded healer, Jupiter being about expansion, or Venus embodying the feminine aspect. Many ideas and strong opinions ...

Everyone is always going on about old instruments and how they sound better. While it's true that some old instruments can age gracefully over time and yield up beautiful sounds, that's not always the case. I have played and heard enough old instruments that weren't really made all that well and didn't really sound that great. I think part of this belief in older instruments being better is our strong sense of nostalgia. We humans love to wax on poetic about the good old days. And in the case of musical instruments, we like to think that there is some sort of mystical properties contained in older instruments, or their connection to the craftsman who labored over making them, or even the past musicians who played them. I must admit that I have some very old instruments that I feel this sort of connection to. I have some verifiably very old bells, Gongs, cymbals, and drums. They sound fantastic. They also have a great aged look. But these were all hand picked by me b...