Musical themes from the universal reservoir, Arthur Farwell, composer

[inavalan]

In Mr. Farwell's own words his first experience of induced intuition was as follows:

• "In 1913, I received commissions for the composition of music for a series of pageant dramas. I knew that to do this extensive work against a time schedule I should have to operate in a very different way from the occasional necessity of waiting about, or straining, for musical ideas.
   
  In thinking about the task before me I conceived, in a half-fanciful way, that the universe must contain somewhere or somehow all the musical ideas which had never yet been thought of and written down.
  
  I believed that if I could find the right means of access to this universal store, I could put my hand at once on any musical themes I needed. To attempt this I thought of a "place of music," where the universe concentrated all these ideas, and where they could be had on application. I imagined a great assemblage of all possible means of producing music, a universal orchestra, including all instruments, and a chorus. Thus I gave the "universe" the chance to produce and play for me any theme I needed, on any instrument or instruments.
  
  I watched the musical equipment of the universal store I had created, intently out of a dreamy state of my own, with closed eyes, keeping out of my mind every thought except the one on which I had concentrated. It required only a moment before the appropriate theme spoke out from the appropriate instrument or instruments, apparently wholly by its own volition, and absolutely without any effort of composition on my part. At once I found myself spontaneously released from the dream-state, and went to work in the ordinary way, developing the theme which the "universe" had so promptly and generously given me. This process I repeated for months, obtaining immediately, and in rapid succession, the themes I required, which always fitted precisely my expressed need.
  
  In the light of later knowledge, I know now that I could scarcely have taken, however naively, a better means of setting the law of intuition in operation for the purpose in hand."

[inavalan]

At the time he first learned how to compose music by turning on his own intuition whenever he needed it, Mr. Farwell thought that he had merely found a new kind of musical power. But, he wrote:

• "••• a significant experience of 1921 jolted me out of this misconception, and made me realize that the solution of reason-baffling problems in any field or direction of thought could be obtained by this same procedure. On the occasion to which I refer, I was faced with the necessity of making an extremely difficult decision. It was a question of continuing to accept a violently unjust and seemingly intolerable condition involving myself and a group of colleagues who were financially dependent upon me; it might end in our all being thrown out and falsely discredited, or it might "blow up" the whole enterprise in which we were involved, and throw the discredit upon those to whom we believed it to belong.
  
  This decision was all the more difficult because of the gratifying, idealistic "front" which this enterprise was presenting to the public. I felt that if I closeted myself and sat down to reason it out to the end, reason would give me the true answer as to what to do.
  
  Instead, no matter how desperately I reasoned for one decision or the other, I was still left wholly without any conviction as to the course I ought to pursue.
  
  What did happen was that in excluding everything from the mind except this one question and this one mental activity concerning it, I fell unwittingly into a state of deep abstraction. To my sudden astonishment a luminous hand came vividly before me out of the darkness (and it was broad daylight at the time) holding a cup, from which it threw out some exceedingly pure water as if to show me that it was clean, and which it then presented to my lips. I was instantly wide "awake," still sitting bolt upright in my chair, although I had not actually been asleep. It was as if I had been answered by the command, "Drink this cup which has been handed to you - it is clean." The meaning was obvious to me. I must continue to accept the unhappy situation. My feeling was one of absolute conviction and complete assent. Reason had failed, but intuition had given me the answer. But here it was a visual instead of a musical answer.
  
  Now another question at once beset me. How could an enterprise filled with such injustice, and with the various forms of degradation which I had observed, be clean? The answer which I had just received had come in an accidental manner - I had set out to get a reason and had landed upon an intuition. Why, then, could not one purposefully ask such a question, put oneself in the same abstracted mental condition, and receive the answer?
  
  I immediately asked, "How, then, would the Spirit which sees the truth see this enterprise in which I am so disagreeably bound up?" With this question vividly in my mind, I imitated the condition in which I had accidentally found myself a moment before.
  
  Suddenly there appeared to my "inner eye," as before, a sharply defined image, of unimaginable beauty despite its elements of horror. It consisted of a perfect crystal sphere, inside of which were many figures in glowing colors. Those above were of a beautiful and celestial nature, with blue and violet predominating; those below, in yellow, red, and orange tones, were gross and lewd, participating in brutal and orgiastic scenes. Between were figures of intermediate character, in browns and greens. Everything within the sphere appeared as if boiling, giving the impression of something changing or evolving.
  
  I was instantly "awake.'' I understood at once that if I disrupted the enterprise, that is, broke the crystal sphere, I would destroy the good together with the bad. To do this was scarcely my privilege or responsibility. These indications I followed, and all came out well in the end.
  
  My procedure in the second instance had been identical with that earlier employed in obtaining musical themes - the definite questioning, the state of abstraction, and the answer. Musical-problem intuition and life-problem intuition were, then, identical in principle. I was merely setting the law of intuition to work under a different particular set of conditions.
  
  I have continued to use this direct procedure for twenty years in the solution of difficult problems of life beyond the power of my reasoning faculty to answer, with highly successful and often astonishing results. There are times of tiredness or nervousness when the proper mental condition cannot be obtained.
  
  But in any event one must cultivate those forms of intuitive manifestation which are most spontaneous and natural to himself, and never attempt to force himself to the particular procedure and results of others."

[Deb]

This reminds me of Jane's Psychic Library (described in Psychic Politics, I think). I can imagine there would also be a library of music. One of art. There's also Jorge Luis Borges' "The Library of Babel" and the Akashic Records. The universe as a source of unending information, we just need to learn how to tap into it.

I've been working on Jane's autobiography and I have to say it's very poorly written. She couldn't spell for beans, it's disjointed, almost feels contrived. I'm sure there were a lot of emotions fighting her, and it appears to be a first draft, so there's that. But the other day I had the impression that her bio was coming from her ego-brain, where the other books she wrote came from the inner self. The difference between her published books and this one—it's hard to believe it's the same person's writings.

"He first saw this library from the inside last Wednesday. He was simultaneously himself here in this living room, watching the image of himself in a library room, and he was the self in the library. Period. Before him he saw a wall of books, and the self in the living room suddenly knew that his purpose here in this reality was to re-create some of those books. He knew that he was working at both levels. The unknown and the known realities merged, clicked in, and were seen as the opposite sides of each other."
—UR2 Section 4: Session 715 October 28, 1974

"The library is valid, and in the most legitimate of terms; far more important, for example, than a physical library."
—TPS3 Session 718 (Deleted Portion) November 6, 1974