ExTReMe FrEAk
02-16-2005, 06:27 PM
46&2: Self Evolution
After reading Steven Caddy’s interpretation of the song Forty Six & 2, and after reading what he had wrote about Jungian psychology and Frissell’s theory of evolution, I found a story hidden in Ænima.
First, let’s get the Jungian psychology information out of the way.
| Anima/Animus. In Jungian psychology, the anima refers to personality traits regarded as feminine that are often repressed into the unconscious of males, while the animus refers to traits regarded as masculine that are often repressed into the unconsciousness of females. Although suppressed from conscious awareness, the anima/animus influences our behavior in powerful ways. In most individuals, it is projected onto people of the opposite sex and accounts for the experience of falling in love with someone we hardly know. As the unconscious pole of the self, the counter-ego represented by the anima/animus can also be a guide to one’s own unconscious realm. It is often experienced as the guiding female (if you’re male) or male (if you’re female) presence in dreams. |
| The Shadow. In Carl Jung’s personality theory, the ego represents the individual’s sense of personal self. The sense of personal identity is purchased, however, at the expense of certain tendencies that are rejected as ‘not-self’. According to Jung, these rejected traits come together as a kind of unconscious ‘counter-ego’ which he termed the shadow. We may become unduly anxious or irritated when in an environment or around a person that in some way reminds us of repressed aspects of our self. If a person has rejected his or her own sex drive, for example, that person may feel irrational fear or anger around an overtly sexual individual. The shadow may appear as a person in one’s dreams, usually as an individual of the same sex. Of all the archetypes, the shadow is the most powerful and potentially the most dangerous. It represents everything about ourselves that we fear and despise. |
Now that we are through that, I will continue by explaining Fressell’s theory.
| In his book, Frissell proposes that humans must evolve to take advantage of their collective consciousness. An integral part of that evolution is the addition of two new chromosomes to our genetic construct. Modern humans make use of 22 normal chromosomal pairs, with 2 sex chromosomes (44 & 2), so the next evolutionary jump ought to take us to 46 & 2.
Basic research into chromosomal development shows that more doesn’t equate to better, or more highly evolved – some primates already have 46 & 2 chromosomes, rabbits have almost 100. Frissell’s theory is fundamentally flawed.
So why make use of it? Although Frissell’s ideas about human development are wrong, exploring them for a little while as though they aren’t gives us an opportunity to see things differently, to consider things from a new angle, and perhaps learn something we would otherwise miss, and in that way his ideas are still valuable. |
| That is all the information you need to know to follow these interpretations. Before I layout the interpretations, I want to bring a few things to your attention.
The track order for this story is Third Eye, jimmy, Pushit, Stinkfist, H., and Forty Six & 2. This could be a coincidence, but the total time of these tracks together is 46:29. However, I would like believe this is intentional.
Here is what the story is about. A man in a lucid dream discovers himself and his shadow. To further evolve himself, he becomes one with his shadow. The rest will be summed up in the interpretations, which I will go into now. |
| Third Eye. In the beginning of this song the main character is falling asleep. Once he falls asleep, while his subconscious mind manipulates the sound of his heart beat into music, he begins a lucid dream. The first thing he encounters in this dream is his anima, which is also his shadow (“Dreaming of that face again”). At this point, our main character is experiencing a little fear (as anyone would when encountering their anima), which would explain the warmth and joy his anima is experiencing (considering it is his non-self). Because of this fear, he begins wavering in and out of sleep.
The second image he sees is himself as a child in a repressed memory of his childhood. In fear of this, he tries to run away, but won’t allow himself to. With his fear pushed to one side, he now understands that he needs to bring resolution to whatever happened to him at this time of his life. |
| jimmy. Our main character watches as the memory plays out before him. A very dramatic event had occurred, an event powerful enough that he had left a part of himself with it. This part of him had been, and still is, calling to him, begging to be found once again (This part of him is represented by the child). Once he has found this part of himself, relief rushes over the child (“Where the hell have you been?”). Having found resolution to events of this time in his life, the child becomes a part of him once again. This completes his conscious self, healing him spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically. |
| Pushit. Now that our main character is whole once again, so is his shadow. Because of the massive changes that both the man and his shadow had undergone, his lucid dream brings the two of them into each other’s presence.
Having overcome a childhood drama, he and his shadow both have a mutual interest in each other. While exploring each other, they realize they are both of one mind in the same being. Both the shadow and the man think of merging together to create one being, to evolve. They both realize that if they did become one being, they would both die in the creation of the mind of this new being. Both of them feel the need to evolve, but neither wants to accept death. The two opposites strive to have dominance of this new being, but then realize for this evolution to work, there is no other possibility but death to both of them. |
| Stinkfist. Both the man and his shadow decide their deaths would be fitting for this new being. They start to come together, and the man becomes very anxious and resistant, while the shadow becomes calm and accepting. As the man resists his shadow, the shadow tries to calm the man with reason. As you get further into this song, the man comes closer to caving in to the shadow’s words. The end result of this song being the shadow and the man beginning their transformation. |
| H. Now the man and his shadow are going through a metamorphosis, slowly dieing and becoming one. The snake in this song represents the man’s fear of death, hoping to convince that man that it isn’t too late to turn back. The blood in this song represents the man’s will to change, begging him to continue what has started. As the snake tries to persuade the man, the man continues to merge with his shadow. The more he merges with the shadow, the blood gains more influence than the snake. The man speaks to his shadow, expressing how he never wants to turn back, and that he wants to be with the shadow. Upon his decision, the snake dies, and that man’s will to change overcomes his fear of death. |
| Forty Six & 2. With both the death of the man and his shadow coming so near, thoughts and memories flash through what remains of his mind. Although dedicated to the transformation, he thinks of what he would be like if he had never met his shadow. He feels chaos and insecurity as he takes his last thoughts, but does not stop the transformation.
He begins pondering why he hadn’t done this sooner, why it’s taken him so long. What in his life had been so important that he had been holding on to it all this time? The metamorphosis speeds up as he lets go of remaining pieces of his mind. He realizes that though he will die, he will still exist when he is reborn into this new mind. His last thoughts before he and his shadow had fully transformed (thus evolving himself) had been anticipation of this complete being (“Forty Six and 2 are just ahead of me”) |
Keep in mind there are thousands of ways each song can be interpreted, and there could be thousands of ways this story can be interpreted. I do hope that you enjoyed my interpretations and the story they told. I also hope you find your own meaning to these songs and not just what you have read about other’s thoughts on them.
**NOTE**: I am not sure whether or not the Jungian psychology or Fressell theory is correct or accurate, but all the interpretations are written with them in mind. Please don’t bother correcting me on these.
After reading Steven Caddy’s interpretation of the song Forty Six & 2, and after reading what he had wrote about Jungian psychology and Frissell’s theory of evolution, I found a story hidden in Ænima.
First, let’s get the Jungian psychology information out of the way.
| Anima/Animus. In Jungian psychology, the anima refers to personality traits regarded as feminine that are often repressed into the unconscious of males, while the animus refers to traits regarded as masculine that are often repressed into the unconsciousness of females. Although suppressed from conscious awareness, the anima/animus influences our behavior in powerful ways. In most individuals, it is projected onto people of the opposite sex and accounts for the experience of falling in love with someone we hardly know. As the unconscious pole of the self, the counter-ego represented by the anima/animus can also be a guide to one’s own unconscious realm. It is often experienced as the guiding female (if you’re male) or male (if you’re female) presence in dreams. |
| The Shadow. In Carl Jung’s personality theory, the ego represents the individual’s sense of personal self. The sense of personal identity is purchased, however, at the expense of certain tendencies that are rejected as ‘not-self’. According to Jung, these rejected traits come together as a kind of unconscious ‘counter-ego’ which he termed the shadow. We may become unduly anxious or irritated when in an environment or around a person that in some way reminds us of repressed aspects of our self. If a person has rejected his or her own sex drive, for example, that person may feel irrational fear or anger around an overtly sexual individual. The shadow may appear as a person in one’s dreams, usually as an individual of the same sex. Of all the archetypes, the shadow is the most powerful and potentially the most dangerous. It represents everything about ourselves that we fear and despise. |
Now that we are through that, I will continue by explaining Fressell’s theory.
| In his book, Frissell proposes that humans must evolve to take advantage of their collective consciousness. An integral part of that evolution is the addition of two new chromosomes to our genetic construct. Modern humans make use of 22 normal chromosomal pairs, with 2 sex chromosomes (44 & 2), so the next evolutionary jump ought to take us to 46 & 2.
Basic research into chromosomal development shows that more doesn’t equate to better, or more highly evolved – some primates already have 46 & 2 chromosomes, rabbits have almost 100. Frissell’s theory is fundamentally flawed.
So why make use of it? Although Frissell’s ideas about human development are wrong, exploring them for a little while as though they aren’t gives us an opportunity to see things differently, to consider things from a new angle, and perhaps learn something we would otherwise miss, and in that way his ideas are still valuable. |
| That is all the information you need to know to follow these interpretations. Before I layout the interpretations, I want to bring a few things to your attention.
The track order for this story is Third Eye, jimmy, Pushit, Stinkfist, H., and Forty Six & 2. This could be a coincidence, but the total time of these tracks together is 46:29. However, I would like believe this is intentional.
Here is what the story is about. A man in a lucid dream discovers himself and his shadow. To further evolve himself, he becomes one with his shadow. The rest will be summed up in the interpretations, which I will go into now. |
| Third Eye. In the beginning of this song the main character is falling asleep. Once he falls asleep, while his subconscious mind manipulates the sound of his heart beat into music, he begins a lucid dream. The first thing he encounters in this dream is his anima, which is also his shadow (“Dreaming of that face again”). At this point, our main character is experiencing a little fear (as anyone would when encountering their anima), which would explain the warmth and joy his anima is experiencing (considering it is his non-self). Because of this fear, he begins wavering in and out of sleep.
The second image he sees is himself as a child in a repressed memory of his childhood. In fear of this, he tries to run away, but won’t allow himself to. With his fear pushed to one side, he now understands that he needs to bring resolution to whatever happened to him at this time of his life. |
| jimmy. Our main character watches as the memory plays out before him. A very dramatic event had occurred, an event powerful enough that he had left a part of himself with it. This part of him had been, and still is, calling to him, begging to be found once again (This part of him is represented by the child). Once he has found this part of himself, relief rushes over the child (“Where the hell have you been?”). Having found resolution to events of this time in his life, the child becomes a part of him once again. This completes his conscious self, healing him spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically. |
| Pushit. Now that our main character is whole once again, so is his shadow. Because of the massive changes that both the man and his shadow had undergone, his lucid dream brings the two of them into each other’s presence.
Having overcome a childhood drama, he and his shadow both have a mutual interest in each other. While exploring each other, they realize they are both of one mind in the same being. Both the shadow and the man think of merging together to create one being, to evolve. They both realize that if they did become one being, they would both die in the creation of the mind of this new being. Both of them feel the need to evolve, but neither wants to accept death. The two opposites strive to have dominance of this new being, but then realize for this evolution to work, there is no other possibility but death to both of them. |
| Stinkfist. Both the man and his shadow decide their deaths would be fitting for this new being. They start to come together, and the man becomes very anxious and resistant, while the shadow becomes calm and accepting. As the man resists his shadow, the shadow tries to calm the man with reason. As you get further into this song, the man comes closer to caving in to the shadow’s words. The end result of this song being the shadow and the man beginning their transformation. |
| H. Now the man and his shadow are going through a metamorphosis, slowly dieing and becoming one. The snake in this song represents the man’s fear of death, hoping to convince that man that it isn’t too late to turn back. The blood in this song represents the man’s will to change, begging him to continue what has started. As the snake tries to persuade the man, the man continues to merge with his shadow. The more he merges with the shadow, the blood gains more influence than the snake. The man speaks to his shadow, expressing how he never wants to turn back, and that he wants to be with the shadow. Upon his decision, the snake dies, and that man’s will to change overcomes his fear of death. |
| Forty Six & 2. With both the death of the man and his shadow coming so near, thoughts and memories flash through what remains of his mind. Although dedicated to the transformation, he thinks of what he would be like if he had never met his shadow. He feels chaos and insecurity as he takes his last thoughts, but does not stop the transformation.
He begins pondering why he hadn’t done this sooner, why it’s taken him so long. What in his life had been so important that he had been holding on to it all this time? The metamorphosis speeds up as he lets go of remaining pieces of his mind. He realizes that though he will die, he will still exist when he is reborn into this new mind. His last thoughts before he and his shadow had fully transformed (thus evolving himself) had been anticipation of this complete being (“Forty Six and 2 are just ahead of me”) |
Keep in mind there are thousands of ways each song can be interpreted, and there could be thousands of ways this story can be interpreted. I do hope that you enjoyed my interpretations and the story they told. I also hope you find your own meaning to these songs and not just what you have read about other’s thoughts on them.
**NOTE**: I am not sure whether or not the Jungian psychology or Fressell theory is correct or accurate, but all the interpretations are written with them in mind. Please don’t bother correcting me on these.