Herbalisation as an aid to music appreciation. I think we can all agree that smoking a bowl (or a j, or doing a bong hit) vastly increases one's aesthetic enjoyment of music. For me, as a non-theist, I would have to say that being pleasantly high and listening to good music is one of my chief sources of what one could call "spiritual fulfillment".
I listen to a lot of different music while high, and I have to say that there are a few types of music that are my favourites to listen to in such a state. Techno and classical, for their complexity, intricate layering, and logical, mathematical stucture. Jazz for the improvisation and melodic and rhythmic intricacy. And jazz takes on a different dimension in an altered state of consciuosness. Sitting in my living room, with Dolby surround turned on and the music flowing through a decent set of Bose speakers, I can hear things like Miles blowing spit out of his horn, Mingus' fingers on the strings of his bass...close my eyes, and I'm there. And even though I am, as I said, a non-theist, I can really only describe something like that as a religious experience. |