Ok just a theory but I believe Parabol is about Creation and Parabola is about the ascending to something more.
In this post ill just focus on parabola as im kinda fuzzy on Parabol with the tubby creators.
Well the video clip starts out with a primitive looking tricky which seems to be in robes, he represents an intelligent species such as ours, as in intelligent as on the brink of enlightenment but not quite there.
Tricky breaking the stone seemed to me a symbolism of him breaking natures rule and becoming more than nature expected him to, like humans becoming more than primitive monkeys and building complex tools. The innocent pulsating faced animal follows tricky, like normal animals co-incide with humans.
Next it cuts to the sterile interior, a natural looking tree like structure, tricky is now in a suit and seems to have become more sophisticated, and now i believe he represents something similar to a current scientific man trying to ascend through science instead of religion.
He studies the tree like structure and admires it, the innocent animal creature walks freely through the tree.
Tricky walks up to what seems to be a glass divider, and now im kind of fuzzy on this but I beleive it might represent isolation, meditation or maybe study, he lays his head in it and it seems that be becomes better aware, (what looks to be a symmetrical scene of a seed sprouting fills the screen.) its as if from meditation or study he has become closer to ascending. Its definately some sort of process of the mind. The creature looks on from the tree as tricky separates himself from the rest of the world in his glass divider.
Next he discovers the floating orb and I think this signifies the discovery of the simplest atoms,he touches it, manipulates it, the atom then becomes more and more complex, helium, litium beryllium, so forth. The little creature looks on as if in worrisome awe.
Tricky then looks out the window, reminising about how simpler things were when he simply followed nature (the actual things out the window look like a microscopic picture of hair connected to scalp.) and things werent so complex with him trying to be better than he was.
He looks down to the little creature with a smile, but quickly the atom has become much more complex than tricky can handle and is now out of control. I believe this atom could *possibly* be uranium, can tell, anyways the atom kills the innocent animal creature, making tricky angry at himself for creating the complex creation in the name of ascending.
In a symbolic act he takes off his shirt which represents him being a scientific style man and screams at the atom, showing his anger.
Picking up the little creature he then dissects it , trying to learn something out of the innocent creatures death, maybe something about ascending, maybe how he can bring the innocent thing back to life.
Clearly finished with his scientific life he walks outside back into nature, although still in the background is the dangerous atom lurking , following tricky, at this point we assume tricky has stopped with the thought of becoming something more.
Next he picks up a natural leaf and it bursts into some sort of religious energy, he has found ascention in nature, it has been there the whole time. The all seeing flaming eyes crawl up his legs and you can see his nervous system, next represented as different coloured flowers the mystical eye opens up his chakras, starting with base and stomach, then the one located in the solar plexus controlling will, then the heart chakra, both eyes intertwining and focusing on this point, then the chakra in the throat, then it burrows into his forehead, opening his third eye, and finally his crown chakra.
I cant really tell if the finding ascention through nature means the taking of psychedelics grown in nature to ascend but the ideas of the third eye and psychedelics has always been in tool works.
At this point he sees all knows all loves all, he has truly ascended into what he wanted, he then fades away into the grid being truly satisfied, but as he fades it is kind of sad, all the grid looks the same, as if other species have done the same, and tricky has just become another to fade away into the background, as if ascending just made him fade away to nothing.
Thats just my take on it, I thought with the name parabola, a parabola being symmetric, and having so much scientific application, and science mostly being concerned with ascending our standings as humans.
As einstein said "Religion without Science is Blind, Science without religion is lame."
that interpretation made the most sense of any i have ever read. Really nice work... how did you come to figure this out, what was your thought process?
well oddly enough I see myself trying to ascend like the character tricky in the video clip, i read alot into new scientific information, physics is easily one of the most interesting subjects, then again im also into a lot of metaphysics and philosophy, and ive also been reading into a lot of alternate theories of reality.
Recently ive been putting some thought into trying acid for its psychedelic purposes to find out a bit about myself, but i hear there are a lot of dangers accompaying it.
Tool play a great deal of good music, and their lyrics reminds me that we live in a complex universe (mostly their stuff from lateralus.). Most of it also reminds me of the absurdity of the human race and culture.
hmm, you remind me of myself pre May 15th. Something that may help you/warn you about talking that trip would be to really study the lyrics of Reflection. There are some dark and 'lonely at the top' themes in there. If you want I could share my experiences/advice with you through private messaging, just drop me a line anytime.
Thanks greg thats much apprieciated, still, i feel we all have so much potential for ascending, the human race that is, with all our current knowledge, technology and theology we all have so much potential to be better, it just seems everyone would prefer to turn towards enthropy than to make their bodies, minds and spirit better, all the resources are here, its just no one wants to be more.
The idea behind the trip was to try it once, and learn a little bit more about myself through altered perception, and hopefully have something positive come from it.
if any of you lot use msn messenger im usually available at [email protected] if anyone wants to wax intellectual, til then,
Greg, what would studying the lyrics of Reflection help one with having a "good trip" and "learning how to swim"? Please share with us all :)
Exactly, it has nothing to do with a good trip. if you want a good trip, do it with close friends and go outside. do it in the morning on a beautiful day in the park and go camping, and drink at the night so you fall asleep. if you want the other than do it alone on hte night of the lunar eclipse and label your calendar 'armageddon' then come back to your place and listen to lateralus in the fetal position.
there is no ascension because there is no direction. if you watch the very end of parabola again, you'll notice the vast maze of interconnected lines, which, i think is the most used interpretation of this, indicates the oneness and connectedness of everything. now that "maze" will obviously have no top, bottom, side, end, corner, etc. it just exists. there is no ascension involved. only realization. no one is seperate, it only appears that way. the only thing left to do is fully realize the truth of this.
this, of course, is all speculation.
well, that's my two cents. i like your interpretation of the video. seems to work in my mind.
P.S. i suggest you read up on the "SETH material"... truthful or not, offers some neat ideas and concepts, and definitely makes you think.
just a thought about parabol, feeding of of your interpretations, titan:
i see these guys as some sort of secret society, the white men in suits that are running the show. they gather to view this dude with the apple, and upon cutting it open, see the truth and ascention present in nature, which totally fucks them up and ultimately kills them.
as for the light on the guys finger, its comparable to the end of the video with the large flaming eye on tricky's hand, but much less. perhaps he is aware of the enlightenment but refuses to submit to it.
anyway, its probably the best music video ever made for my money, and im quite confident that Adam Jones is a good enough artist to attribute meaning and intentionality to virtually every aspect of his films. perhaps ill ask him.
__________________ I can't live the button-down life like you. I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles. Sure, I might offend a few of the bluenoses with my cocky stride and musky odors -- oh, I'll never be the darling of the so-called "City Fathers" who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about "What's to be done with this Andy DV?"
hey all, havent been here in a while but I watched the parabol/a video clip a second time and noticed something else which is fairly important on the enterpretation of the clip. Lets hope Adam intended it and its not just my overanalysing.
You'll notice from the beginning that the whole thing is seen a safe frame, as if your viewing it from a safe window or even in a certain context maybe, well this frame stays throughout the video clip seperating the real world from this abstract interpretation, but as tricky ascends the frame moves away, as if this part can only be seen outside of the frame, that it is beyond any parameter man can put on it, you can't experience this with the frame as the entire point of this clip is evolving and whats a better way to evolve than beyond the human frame of mind.
Ah chriscartoonkid I think ive misused the word ascention, what I mean is a type of evolution beyond the human confines of the body, and your right in the way that it does not have any exact direction.
I like your ideas on the men behind the scenes andy, except I disagree on them killing themselves, it looks like they are creating the new world from themselves, spitting out the black gunk and opening the new world from it, like I said im still not positive on this one enough to make any solid statements.
And on a tangent andy, do you know any other films Adam has made in the past that might be interesting or one might be able to get a hold of? oh and if you get around to asking him tell him I said hi ;)
i was hoping id get to ask him about his videos on the toolarmy chat but it was too crazy in there. oh well.
i do not know of any videos that adam jones has made other than the TOOL videos. he did work in movie sfx before TOOL - Predator, T2, etc., but nothing that else that has been released publicly. id bet anything that there are others since ive read him say that cinema is his favorite thing to do. id keep my eye on www.adamjones.tv and hope he puts some stuff up there.
__________________ I can't live the button-down life like you. I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles. Sure, I might offend a few of the bluenoses with my cocky stride and musky odors -- oh, I'll never be the darling of the so-called "City Fathers" who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about "What's to be done with this Andy DV?"
