my personal interpretation (essay length. sorry.)

[The Pharoah]

Hi, everyone. this is what this song means to me, verse by verse. If I'm way off, oh well. Also, the lyrics, which i assume you guys know or can look up, are taken in snipets.
Overall, I see this song as a human growing, learning and wanting to explore his environment and world.
"Black and white then red and yellow"- I see this part being about: at first, the person is young and sees his/her future as clear cut as black and white, but eventually realizes how many fascinating options he/she has. Red and yellow (and orange, which is obviously a mix of the two) are the most vibrant and exciting colors.
"As below, so above and beyond, I imagine, drawn beyond the lines of reason. Push the envelope. Watch it bend."- This part seems to be that he/she is imagining more and more possiblilities (drawn beyond... push the envolope...) and then coming to find many of these possiblilities to be realities (watch it bend).
"overthinking...seperates boday from the mind...missing opportunites..." - I see this as the person wanting to reach out to these new possiblilities/realities, but due to our human nature, he/she dwells on the possible consequences and never takes these risks or seizes the opportunities.
"lets me see... beckons me... infinite possiblilities" - more of the same. The person wants to reach out and connect with others, find new opportunities and find new lines of communication.
"cross the line... embrace the random..." - The person here just wants to experiance more, live everything he/she can before his/her short life winds down. He/she wants to face his/her fear of putting themself out there to connect, rendering him/her vulnerable.
"feel the rhythm... feel connected... fathom the power..." i just want to point out that i found these lyrics on this bridge incredibly insightful/though-provoking, and ill be damned if i can sum up the genuis these few lines express. Anyways, I see the person here again, wanting anything but loneliness, wanting to meet new people, be involved with more circles of all kinds of people and activities, and just understand the reasons we are here on Earth. To experience everything possible (to be godlike) and yet, be able to connect with fellow humans. (swing the spiral on our divinity and still be human).
"I lose myself... [I] open wide... I feel it.. I'm reaching..." - I see this part of the song to represent the discovery and the actually living of a new, intrigueing experience, or maybe connecting to something new and exciting. The person is achieving his goal and finding what he has been searching for all this time.
"I'm followin our will... go where no one's been" - This I feel relates this persons struggle to the rest of us, showing that we all have this feeling, the yearning to connect to whatever else is out there.
"spiral out, keep going." - Im not too sure of the significance of the sprial. maybe the DNA double helix spiral, relating our humanity, or something. Other than that, I see this final lyric as showing that this desire to extend yourself to new things, whether or not it comes easy to you. doesn't end once you satisfy it once, but rather grows more intense.
One thing I can relate this to is the movie "The Matrix." If you've seen this (and you should see it), I relate this desire-to-connect feeling in the song to Neo looking for something, not knowing what it is, his whole life, knowing that there is something out there looking for him.
There you go, thats mine interpretation. Let me know what you think.
-AJ, The Pharoah

[Smokin joe]

Good stuff...

maybe spiral out means go to out. Spirals just get larger since they never cross themselves. So maybe it means to just go out, do what you have to do.

joe

[lat3ralis]

I agree with what has been said and I think lateralus is the ultimate song of inspiration. I'd like to extent on the final statement, "spiral out, keep going"...

I think this is saying that you never reach your potential, because once you achieve your goals, you re-evaluate and set more goals, you keep exploring you potential. I think the spiral refers to a desire to constantly reach your potential (as a human), this spiral is endless. Once you achieve the kind of inspiration emphasised in this song, you can "ride the spiral to the end" and realise that almost anything is possible and you "may just go where no one's been".

I love this song and it is my favourite song off the album, I think this song is very inspirational and is akin to all the possibilities that we have endured as humans (including medical research, space travel etc).

Push the envelope, watch it bend ...

lat3ralis

[Smokin joe]

i find myself reading the analyzation of this song and feeling a lot of irony. The line: "overthinking, overanalyzing, separates the body from the mind..." I mean, we're doing just that... Makes you wonder

joe

[The Pharoah]

I agree Joe, I felt that irony as I was writing that. I felt "guilty" of over-analyzing, but I think they were using these lines in a different context. I think Tool wants us to read into their lyrics and find personal meanings. I believe that they mean over-analyzing negative aspects of situations that we may encounter in life can be mentally and physically unhealthy. If you don't agree with me here, let me know your thoughts.
-AJ

[sundryan]

I hardly see coming up with a personal meaning of a song as overanalyzing. It's just simply analyzing. If he were to dwell on the song for days and days trying to come up with a perfect interpretation, I would consider that overanalyzing.

[Karf]

That's the way I think about over-analysing, Sundryan. If you attempt to think, contimplate something, thats a good, positive thing. Thinking about it longer, and longer. Reaching out, feeling connected. Seperating the body from the mind may not be a bad thing indeed.

[Brokenelevator]

I never saw the line "overthinking, overanalyzing separates the body from the mind" as a BAD thing, personally. I mean, I know typically any word that stars with "over" is a bad thing, meaning an excess of something, but...isn't separating your mind from your body a good thing? Isn't freeing yourself from the constraints of your fleshly perspective a good thing in many ways? Not that your fleshly perspective isn't valuable. But if you want to go beyond your own humanity and reach for what's beyond...You've got to spiral out. That's what the whole song is about, it seems to me.

So if you DO overthink or overanalyze...don't worry....all you're doing is forcing your brain to WORK and LOOK OUTSIDE THE BOX, in more than just one prescribed way....and that's something that all Tool fans tend to agree is a good thing.

[4degreeswarmer]

Originally posted by The Pharoah

"Black and white then red and yellow"- I see this part being about: at first, the person is young and sees his/her future as clear cut as black and white, but eventually realizes how many fascinating options he/she has. Red and yellow (and orange, which is obviously a mix of the two) are the most vibrant and exciting colors.

i actually interpretted this line as slightly different.
as a child you are innocent. your mind comprehends things only in black and white. good and evil. happy and sad. there is no questioning at all because, well, ignorance is bliss. but later on, as life progresses and settles upon the individual, the line between black and white is diminished. there is no true good, there is no true evil. no true happiness, no true sadness. life itself has become the question that had never been asked before.

[The Pharoah]

I'd like to thank you all for letting me know how you feel about my interp. I agree with you, sundryan, I guess I just felt I was "over" analyzing because of the length of the post. And also, thanks to 4 degrees. I like your thoughts on those lines. I still am not sure about them myself, so any thoughs on them are welcome. thanks.
-AJ