my interpretation

[pathological2]

This song, along with "Pushit" and "H." are the three ultimate squaring-off between songs. They are brilliant descriptions of this insane state of consiousness.

"Two times in" or "Just jumped in"
-I'm in the undertow for the second time tonight (to be later described).

"I've been struck dumb by a voice that
Speaks from deep beneath the endless water thats
Twice as clear as heaven and twice as loud as reason
It's deep and rich like silt on a riverbed and just as neverending"
-The voice is inside my head. It's the voice of my third eye. It's the voice that gives me revelation. It's the perspective inside me that is always there but I can only see when I access this reality with a certain substance. It's almost like a paralell reality or dimension or something.

"The current's mouth below me opens up around me
Suggests and beckons all while swallowing
Surrounds it and drowns it
Wipe me away"
-THIS IS THE DESCRIPTION OF THE UNDERTOW; THOSE LINES RIGHT THERE. I am in the reality receiving revelation but the battle has come. Now the monster destroys the castle I have built. It's such a good description - it literally opens up around me, surrounds my thoughts/ideas/me and drowns them. And I'm wiped away. I am now in on the monster's side, or possibly in the neutral place and have to begin again.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, you're saturating me"
-I'm in the undertow now (I wasn't before the current sucked me under). I'm being bombarded by negative lie revelation now. Tormented by negative reflection. So I tell the monster, shut up...YOU are saturating me. It's becoming me.

I got to go, I'll post the rest later.

[pathological2]

Ok, here's some more:

"But I'm so comfortable, comfortable"
-I'm alive when you're touching me, alive when you're shoving me down (same meaning). I'm comfortable in this crazy place. My feelings and thoughts change rapidly in this reality.

"I've been struck dumb by a voice that speaks from deep beneath the cold black water
that's half as high as heaven, half as clear as reason"
-I've become obsessed with coming to the third eye reality. It can be very good like in the first verse (before the undertow comes). But can also be bad like here. The feeling is cold and my thoughts are jumbled and confused and dark and negative.

"I'm back down in the undertow
I'm hopless and I'm awake caught in the undertow
I'll die in the undertow
There doesn't seem no other way out of the undertow
Euphoria"
-I'm back down in the undertow (I was hearing revelation but then the monster came and surrounded me, drowned the ideas, and I was wiped away). It's almost like all my ideas were on a chalkboard and the monster erased them all. Now I see the truth that He provides - it's a dark and negative reality. I'll die here (like in "eulogy"). The only way out is to remain lost in euphoria.

This whole song takes place in an altered state. This song is connected with "Flood". The "Flood" is an undertow.

[bluefire]

This song really reminds me of a herion like high. You know its killing you, but it feels so good. It feels so right, but you know in the back of your mind that its killing you inside - "Twice as high as heaven, twice as loud as reason". I agree that the song addresses that squaring off - do I break the cycle and expierience pain and grow, or do I die in my cloud of euphoria? That being said, I don't think the song is actually about herion. I do think the song is about addiction. I think this song takes place in the withdrawal period, the part where he is craving what he is addicted to. He is able to simulataneously think rationally and yet still have that unrational desire. "Im so comfortable" the desire speaking, "shut up, your saturating me" the rationale speaking.

Do I feed my desires, even though I know it ultimately leads to my demise?

[pathological2]

I am a recovering heroin addict, but I don't think this song is about addiction. I relate it more to being in the altered state of hallucinogenics. When I used heroin, there were no voices in my head really, everything was shut down. Acid, on the other hand, is a different story. It is there that I can experience the tornado with the phantom and the child.

[bluefire]

not actual voices...but the "voice" of desire. That hole that needs to be filled.

I dont see how being in the 3rd eye reality or whatever you call it causes you to be in the undertow. However, being a slave to your own addictions definantly makes you feel like your in the undertow.

[pathological2]

I obviously have a different definition of the undertow, and that's ok. I think it can be felt in kind of like a bad trip. You know, it kindo of keeps changing directions. You're pulled one way, then the other. I have me, then the devil, then I have me again, etc.

[searchforme]

yeah, i like your interpretation Path.

after really paying attention to this song a few years ago, and with a very minimal basis in philosophy, i understood this song to be describing a mystical experience, something completely indescribable, outside of reality. what i couldn't understand is why the speaker in this song felt so aggressive and resistant to such an experience, but as you described in your interpretation, suddenly becoming aware of such a completely opposite reality can really fuck with you, and you may not desire to become aware of it at all.

good stuff...
by the way, the theme of addiction was my intial interpretation of this song as well... but the experience described seems too beautiful and mind opening for simply feeding a fix at least in my mind. then again, i can understand how many people would view it that way, and that seems as valid as my interpration