Feelings of Music

An interesting question sprang up into my mind just the other day while I was listening to some music. It seems like a given fact that music can induce emotions within the listeners. However, combined with various packets dealing with metaphysics and some pieces of knowledge I had of the mind, I had quite a difficult time trying to figure out why we feel the way we feel when we listen to music.

So, the basic question boils out to this: Where do you think the emotions we get from listening to music come from?

Notice how the sound of nails scratching the blackboard can make everyone in the classroom just drop. Also notice how jazz music seems to appeal to a certain kinds of people while it repels the other ones. Why and how do you think the same genre, the same song can elicit different reactions?

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As said in class, we're all puzzle pieces of a bigger being; we all belong to a universal whole, so each of us has different tastes because it somehow complements each other. We all have different personalities and therefore different genres appeal to each of us; one song can be read in many ways because...even though we can all have different guesses about what it means and etc., the fact that it means something to us reflects the fact that it still resonates in all of us somehow, meaning that we're all part of a bigger whole. I guess. I don't know if that makes sense...someone reply?

I agree with Shawanne - it's kind of like we're all parts of the greater whole; we're like zigzag lines that, when you look at it from far enough, look straight. But I was thinking that if we're all part of the universal being, then why do we perceive music in different ways? Aren't we supposed to feel the underlying current of some kind of connection between all of us? If we're different pieces of the puzzle, are we all only parts of the universal being? So we somehow can have different perceptions for a piece of music? I know for one thing that the more classical music appeals more to me than many other genres out there, and the emotions just surface when you hear something really great. Then maybe we all resonate to different music styles, as we all resonate to different part of the universal being? I think I'm kind of confusing myself. @_@

Looking at the topic from a different perspective, I think it is our personalities and the emotions that we feel at the moment that influence the genre of music that we like and the ones that influnce us the most. The Law of Attraction states that "like attracts like," and so with this logic, when we are hyper and listen to dance music, we become more hyper because of the increasing concentration of a certain frequency of energy which is both already in us and is added to by the frequency of the music. As said in class, our emotions have a tremendous effect on our energy level, so maybe because we each have different emotions at different times that is why we respond differently to distinct genres of music. Yet what we are talking about is the emotions that generate from listening to the music rather than the one that is already there prior to the music, so perhaps it is the infinite possibilites in us that affect the emotions we each feel. Since we are all essentially made up of the same energy from the same collective unconsciousness, we all have the exact same infinite potential within and around us. But because, like Shawanne and Joanne said, we are each different individuals with unique talents, we are thus each intuned with some parts of the infintie potential more than we are others, and because of these individual personalities and diverse areas of expertise and the varying energy waves sorted out by the collective unsconciousness, the genre of music that creates the most emotional reaction in us is the one that we can relate to the most on a quantum level of varying wave frequencies.

OMG THERE'S PEOPLE :O/XD

The Law of Attraction states that "like attracts like," and so with this logic, when we are hyper and listen to dance music, we become more hyper because of the increasing concentration of a certain frequency of energy which is both already in us and is added to by the frequency of the music.

Ah.

...So it's sort of like positive feedback in a way? [/apbio]

Aren't we supposed to feel the underlying current of some kind of connection between all of us? If we're different pieces of the puzzle, are we all only parts of the universal being?

Hm. Maybe it's like what the packet said...(Quantum Shift, I think)...we can be one thing and another thing at the same time? So we could all be a part of the universal being, but at the same time we are the universal being. Ish. Anyways, that's my guess~ XD

Well, I guess its something to do with individuality. Just like everyone is unique, we are also unique in our way of responsing to certain stimulius. I think music is there to reflect the mood we are feeling...like it has to sinc with that vibration we are emmiting the moment we are listening to. In that packet last semester, there was this thing about how each of us are vibrating, and that there are different wavelengths of frequencies to that vibration?? Well, shouldn't themusic you like reflect that vibration in some way? And vice versa; the music also influences our own vibrations...but that influence music has depends on how far we let it. I mean, some people tend to listen to different music when they are happy or sad, to kinda match their mood, or to cheer them up~~ But shouldn't there be like an universal song that everyone likes/can relate to/feels the same about because we are the same at the essence level??

Hoo, boy, time to get specific.

I think music is there to reflect the mood we are feeling...like it has to sync with that vibration we are emitting the moment we are listening to.

So if an interpretation of music is dependent on the mood we are having, why is it that, as I said before, certain sounds have the same general effect on the listener? Referring now to sounds in general, why are there sounds that we all cringe to (nails on chalkboard, high pitched sound from speaker)? Playing around with the concept of frequency (soundwaves), doesn't that mean that if we listen to happy woo-hoo music when we're feeling down conflict and cancel out the mood? So isn't it correct to say that the emotions are conveyed through the soundwaves?

But shouldn't there be like an universal song that everyone likes/can relate to/feels the same about because we are the same at the essence level??

According to the "emotion conveyed through soundwaves" theory, there should be a universal song that everyone can relate to. However, if that is the case, shouldn't MTV awards be much easily given out? The thing is, music is subjective, to the point where two people can have vastly conflicting ideas on the same song. So what does that mean?

But because, like Shawanne and Joanne said, we are each different individuals with unique talents, we are thus each in tuned with some parts of the infinite potential more than we are others, and because of these individual personalities and diverse areas of expertise and the varying energy waves sorted out by the collective unconsciousness, the genre of music that creates the most emotional reaction in us is the one that we can relate to the most on a quantum level of varying wave frequencies.

I'll have to agree to the collective unconsciousness part. However, it still does not explain the "nails on chalkboard" question. If we are more in tuned with a certain part of the collective unconsciousness, doesn't that mean that some people will actually desire nails on chalkboard?

Hannah Park wrote: I think music is there to reflect the mood we are feeling...like it has to sinc with that vibration we are emmiting the moment we are listening to. In that packet last semester, there was this thing about how each of us are vibrating, and that there are different wavelengths of frequencies to that vibration?? Well, shouldn't themusic you like reflect that vibration in some way? And vice versa; the music also influences our own vibrations...but that influence music has depends on how far we let it. I mean, some people tend to listen to different music when they are happy or sad, to kinda match their mood, or to cheer them up~~ But shouldn't there be like an universal song that everyone likes/can relate to/feels the same about because we are the same at the essence level??

Hm, maybe the songs ARE universal, if you get what I mean. It's just that when we interpret the music, we all end up seeing the same song as different things, like the people who blindfold themselves and touch an elephant - they all end up classifying the elephant as different things. So maybe the emotions that we feel might not be what they think them to be? If you get what I mean.

So if an interpretation of music is dependent on the mood we are having, why is it that, as I said before, certain sounds have the same general effect on the listener? Referring now to sounds in general, why are there sounds that we all cringe to (nails on chalkboard, high pitched sound from speaker)?

...Maybe we have the same 'general' feel because we're all a part of the universal being? So even when we may have physical differences and may react somewhat differently to certain kinds of music, there's always something (like what you said, the nails on chalkboard thing) that causes all of us to react the same way. Hm. :O

I'll have to agree to the collective unconsciousness part. However, it still does not explain the "nails on chalkboard" question. If we are more in tuned with a certain part of the collective unconsciousness, doesn't that mean that some people will actually desire nails on chalkboard?

Maybe we just haven't found a person like that yet? There's endless possibilities~or there's what I just said.

...I'm confusing myself again -_-

Philly_CS wrote:
So if an interpretation of music is dependent on the mood we are having, why is it that, as I said before, certain sounds have the same general effect on the listener? Referring now to sounds in general, why are there sounds that we all cringe to (nails on chalkboard, high pitched sound from speaker)? Playing around with the concept of frequency (soundwaves), doesn't that mean that if we listen to happy woo-hoo music when we're feeling down conflict and cancel out the mood? So isn't it correct to say that the emotions are conveyed through the soundwaves?

According to the "emotion conveyed through soundwaves" theory, there should be a universal song that everyone can relate to. However, if that is the case, shouldn't MTV awards be much easily given out? The thing is, music is subjective, to the point where two people can have vastly conflicting ideas on the same song. So what does that mean?

Music IS subjective... Isn't it kind of like unlimited potential though? We can never expect the one moment to be the same as the other - there's always something different. Maybe there Isn't an universal song - all the songs make up the universal song because everything is "collective." The only way for music to be complete is for every note to be heard together... So maybe music is like our collective unconsciousness; every different piece is a part of the whole thing called "music". We just all interpret a different portion of music, and appreciate different aspects of it. If we're all parts of a whole, then maybe we show the qualities of a part, and we only appreciate the things that the "part" will appreciate. If you get what I mean.

According to the "emotion conveyed through soundwaves" theory, there should be a universal song that everyone can relate to. However, if that is the case, shouldn't MTV awards be much easily given out? The thing is, music is subjective, to the point where two people can have vastly conflicting ideas on the same song. So what does that mean?

So...can't it be both objective and subjective at the same time? There's this kind of picture (I don't know what it's called) in which there's like, a vase, and it's actually made up of two faces. Half of the people who see it think it's just a vase, the other half think it's two faces. So might we not be seeing the same thing, just differently? Like what Quantum Shift said, we are all energy particles and we are 'here' and 'not here' at the same time. So what does that mean? :O

Edit: ...You guys are posting so fast -.-;/XD

roarr i had a long reply to this, but then you guys all responded during the time that i spent to type it up that i've got to change my reply.
ok, so, i think we've realized that we are unique even though we have the being which is universal to all [just think of bio. each cell in a body consists of the same DNA, but each cell ends up having a different function because of different gene expression of the same DNA. what regulates this differential expression is something proey, vicky, and i were wondering, but that's a slightly different topic. hopefully someone will bring that up later on. or maybe kat/pro/henning did, havent really read theirs yet]
so now the question is instead of why we have different emotions to the same song, why do we have similar reactions to the same sound. is this when the universal being is expressed in [almost] everyone? because maybe there is someone out there that enjoys that nails on the chalkboard sound. great, then why is it universal here and not in other sounds?

Hm, maybe the songs ARE universal, if you get what I mean. It's just that when we interpret the music, we all end up seeing the same song as different things, like the people who blindfold themselves and touch an elephant - they all end up classifying the elephant as different things. So maybe the emotions that we feel might not be what they think them to be? If you get what I mean.

oo, i like this joey. so our different expressions are actually a filtered expression? for some reason, we arent able to see the whole that is expressed in the song and only the parts? then using your elephant parable, that means that adding up our individual thoughts of something like music might not even be close to what is truly being expressed? the whole is greater than the parts added together (or however that thing in bio went)?

So...can't it be both objective and subjective at the same time? There's this kind of picture (I don't know what it's called) in which there's like, a vase, and it's actually made up of two faces. Half of the people who see it think it's just a vase, the other half think it's two faces. So might we not be seeing the same thing, just differently? Like what Quantum Shift said, we are all energy particles and we are 'here' and 'not here' at the same time. So what does that mean? :O

oh wow shawanne. that's a good one. and YESH you guys are posting wayyy too fast. this is the 2nd time i've had to edit my post because of new replies. so i am posting NOW so i can first get what i want out and make new replies

Music IS subjective... Isn't it kind of like unlimited potential though? We can never expect the one moment to be the same as the other - there's always something different. Maybe there Isn't an universal song - all the songs make up the universal song because everything is "collective." The only way for music to be complete is for every note to be heard together... So maybe music is like our collective unconsciousness; every different piece is a part of the whole thing called "music". We just all interpret a different portion of music, and appreciate different aspects of it. If we're all parts of a whole, then maybe we show the qualities of a part, and we only appreciate the things that the "part" will appreciate. If you get what I mean. Very Happy

So what this means is...we're all staring at the same book, but reading different lines of it? Hmm :O. I like the last line ('cause it's the only thing that my fried brain can take in right now ;/DD8)...

ok, so, i think we've realized that we are unique even though we have the being which is universal to all [just think of bio. each cell in a body consists of the same DNA, but each cell ends up having a different function because of different gene expression of the same DNA. what regulates this differential expression is something proey, vicky, and i were wondering, but that's a slightly different topic. hopefully someone will bring that up later on. or maybe kat/pro/henning did, havent really read theirs yet]

:O! So maybe we all inherit the same thing [the universal being], but we only express parts of it? This means...maybe deep down there IS a part of us that appreciates a genre of music that outwardly we dislike, but that dislike is only...superficial? o.o; -is confused-ish-

So given six billion people and a given sound (I'm still going to using nails on blackboard). The discussion we've been having right now leads to the idea that music is just a part of the collective unconscious (Now, I'm defining music really loosely, to the point where any sound is music). Shouldn't there be a bigger percentage of people who enjoy nails on blackboard? Why is there a landslide victory for dislike against nails on blackboard versus enjoyment of NoB? Does that tell us something about the collective unconscious?

Another question that needs to be addressed: who is eliciting the feelings that we feel when listening to music? Is it the ego mind that, after its interpretation, tells us what we should feel, or is it the being that responds to the music in its pure form, or is it even the collective unconscious (limited by our ego minds) that responds to the music?

:O! So maybe we all inherit the same thing [the universal being], but we only express parts of it? This means...maybe deep down there IS a part of us that appreciates a genre of music that outwardly we dislike, but that dislike is only...superficial? o.o; -is confused-ish-

Now, why is dislike superficial? Don't you dislike the NailsOnBoard sound? Now who is disliking the sound, the ego mind or the being....or maybe even the collective unconscious?

Actually, Phil Wanda LIKES the sound of finger on chalkboards xD

Hmm. This topic has gained a lot of attention
I suppose our feelings elicits for a certain type of music is from our intuition as well as our experiences.
When we listen to nursery rhymes when we are young, we gain a sense of comfort from it, and that is a feeling that was not experienced before. We feel comforted, because our intuition is drawn to the rhythm of the sound. So, I suppose the intuition has a similar frequency to the nursery rhymes, because comfort radiates from the rhythm itself.
Then, we have different feelings for a specific type of music, because of our individuality, just as Emerson has stated in “Self-Reliance.” We are all different individuals, so when we listen to music, we have different preferences. Also, what we had experience may also affect our preferences, because, there is probably no way that someone who just got dumped to be able to listen to a happy song and sing along to it. Or maybe there is this song that portrays what you have felt, either hurt, excited, or whatnot. Our fondness for a particular type of music is our individuality; however, these different genres of music all come down to the elements of beat, rhythm, and anything else that makes up a song. I suppose music has its community just as well, so there is a different unit that forms the whole of the music.
I genuinely hope someone can comprehend this

-stares at Hannah- XDDD

Now, why is dislike superficial? Don't you dislike the NailsOnBoard sound? Now who is disliking the sound, the ego mind or the being....or maybe even the collective unconscious?

I /don't/ mean dislike is superficial, just that it's a superficial dislike. There's a difference... o.o/=.=;. But okay, moving on, which is it? If the ego dislikes it and the being doesn't (or vice versa), what does that mean?

...Will be edited later...

Philly_CS wrote:So given six billion people and a given sound (I'm still going to using nails on blackboard). The discussion we've been having right now leads to the idea that music is just a part of the collective unconscious (Now, I'm defining music really loosely, to the point where any sound is music). Shouldn't there be a bigger percentage of people who enjoy nails on blackboard? Why is there a landslide victory for dislike against nails on blackboard versus enjoyment of NoB? Does that tell us something about the collective unconscious?

Another question that needs to be addressed: who is eliciting the feelings that we feel when listening to music? Is it the ego mind that, after its interpretation, tells us what we should feel, or is it the being that responds to the music in its pure form, or is it even the collective unconscious (limited by our ego minds) that responds to the music?

:O! So maybe we all inherit the same thing [the universal being], but we only express parts of it? This means...maybe deep down there IS a part of us that appreciates a genre of music that outwardly we dislike, but that dislike is only...superficial? o.o; -is confused-ish-

Now, why is dislike superficial? Don't you dislike the NailsOnBoard sound? Now who is disliking the sound, the ego mind or the being....or maybe even the collective unconscious?

Nails on blackboard is painful. It hurts our eardrums and so technically our body tells us to shy away from it. Like if you get hit you don't like the feeling, so you associate pain -> getting hit -> dislike getting hit. And who said nails on blackboard is music? Lol.
What is eliciting the feelings is a problem I think all of us have thought about, though no one can really provide a completely concrete answer. We're all not sure what makes our feelings rise and ebb to the notes of a particularly beautiful piece. Maybe it's like an epiphany, you know that feeling? Most of the time it's a dawning realization, and music is something like that, I think. We respond to peaceful music, happy music, it's like having happy vibes. So who's responding to the music? If we're all related, then is the music a part of us? Like, a part of us responds to the music because we are all pieces of the whole? Because we're a part of the whole, we correspond to specific genres of music? So we might have overlapping interests, and that's why we feel emotions that are alike to other people, because the universal essence is the same throughout.

Hannah Park wrote:Actually, Phil Wanda LIKES the sound of finger on chalkboards xD

I am aware that some people actually like the sound (given the huge population), however, if every one of us have a different scope of the collective unconscious, then shouldn't there be more people that enjoy the sound of NailsOnBoard instead of just Wanda? According to, well, Candy, couldn't the scope be represented with a random number generator? Or can it not? Maybe the possibility of having a certain scope is lower than another part, but why is that?

ivy wrote:When we listen to nursery rhymes when we are young, we gain a sense of comfort from it, and that is a feeling that was not experienced before.

But where does the feeling come from? Does it come from the listener's comfort from knowing that someone is there to accompany him, or does it come from the being's reaction to the sound waves...or something else?

joannneee wrote:Because we're a part of the whole, we correspond to specific genres of music? So we might have overlapping interests, and that's why we feel emotions that are alike to other people, because the universal essence is the same throughout.

But don't we also have the intuition? That connection with the collective unconscious? Is that connection only used when willed, or will it also respond when we listen to music? Because we are all interconnected. We are all existing as one on the non-local domain. Joanne, you mentioned that some emotions might be common in people with overlapping interests. What is this interest you are referring to? Is the interest from our own being or is the interest projected onto us from the connection with the collective unconscious?

FINALLY I've managed to post without being cut in. XD

FINALLY I've managed to post without being cut in. XD

Thank the glitch. XD.

I am aware that some people actually like the sound (given the huge population), however, if every one of us have a different scope of the collective unconscious, then shouldn't there be more people that enjoy the sound of NailsOnBoard instead of just Wanda? According to, well, Candy, couldn't the scope be represented with a random number generator? Or can it not? Maybe the possibility of having a certain scope is lower than another part, but why is that?

That's the universe for you. XDD. Well...that's a good question [read as: I have no idea how to answer ]. Maybe (is this possible?) the universal being has its own preferences? Or is it the ego mind again? I dunno.

i didnt quite get everything that's above me, but i do have one question. what defines our preference? ivy, what defines comforting music? person A thinks song 1 is comforting, person B likes the song too, but person C doesnt think song 1 is really good. what happened there? does it go back to we're unique individuals with different personalities and this then leads to our different opinions/preferences? so then everyone's definition of comfort is different. what if i hate a certain nursey rhyme? i'm not getting the comforting feeling you do.

When listening to music, I believe that we all function innately and according to our deepest, most affected senses – these senses and their sensitivity can be greatly influenced and touched upon by various feelings that are generated by things such as experiences, thoughts spurred by experiences in the past, or simply just feelings that erupt once in a while out of nowhere. Perhaps this has something to do with the spontaneity of the being, along with the responsive of our minds – emotions that we feel are deeply etched in the most inner depths of our beings, the parts of ourselves that we might not have uncovered or explored yet. It is these parts of the inner being that generate the emotions, I think; music is only one of the instruments that entices (or sometimes provokes) these emotions to be withdrawn from the deepest essences of our beings.

I also find that experiences play a large role in defining the origin/source of the emotions that we feel when listening to or hearing music. Music is here, it is ever so present – it is not deceiving or misleading; it simply just is. Its property of straightforwardness and simplicity allows it to ultimately become the region of our connectivity with our surrounding environment and people. It is a universal element; we are connected, rather than diversified, by music. This actually creates a more profound “status” for music; the seeming simplicity with which it appeals to us is actually the source of subtle complexity, an intricacy which only helps us further investigate and comprehend our feelings, portions of our beings that commonly result from experiences.

This is just a small heads-up for my post, if anyone is interested. Because of the sheer gargantuan size of my post (it's almost at its sixth page on Microsoft word and has a good chance of reaching a seventh, possibly even eighth by tomorrow when I am planning on posting it, though after editing which fortunately or unfortunately - your pick - does not equate to decreasing it's length), I am most likely going to attempt to create my own topic for it. Whether I create the topic as a way for you guys to easily access or reference my post (which is more or less my whole stance on Phil's topic) or it becomes it's own discussion point really depends. Right now though, it's looking like the former is more plausible. From what I've read on this page though, it should touch on all of the topics and ideas raised so far. And then some.

I promise it won't be a boring read, although it is a long one. A book may or may not be written - Thanks for the idea Proey! (I'm only half-joking there.) I've got a good deal of YouTube links to songs in it so it'll engage your ears instead of just your mind, which is appropriate since we are discussing music.

Bottom line: Everybody read my little "essay" once I post it up! Make me feel good about myself.

I have a question about the questions asked above me: Do the different emotions or responses each individual has to the same genre of music or stimulus come from the ego-mind or do they emerge from the collective unconsciousness? In class, we said that the varying energy frequencies are regulated by the Supreme Being, so does that mean that our varying emotions come from the same source? Well, in A.P. Biology, we learned that each stimulus elicit a specific response in our bodies that manifests in the physical domain. So, even though the response we feel toward each genre of music may be inherently from the Supreme Being, the emotions we can sense are the physical manifestations of the effects of the different energy frequencies on our own energy. Thus, we feel energy on the nonlocal domain as a response to the various music frequencies and energy, and we feel emotions that disturb the universal peace that we should feel when connecting with essence—the feelings of anxiety, fear, doubt, and perhaps even excitement. Thus, emotions are kind of of the ego-mind because the comforting feelings we feel when we listen to lullabies or the feeling of getting all pumped up because of rock music often come from our past experiences with the music or the atmosphere we perceive around us.

these senses and their sensitivity can be greatly influenced and touched upon by various feelings that are generated by things such as experiences, thoughts spurred by experiences in the past, or simply just feelings that erupt once in a while out of nowhere.

In looking at this line of Angel’s reply, I think that my idea is very much supported. There are certain sounds and smells that can act as time machines and bring our minds back to particular, vivid memories in which the emotions were first created. So really, emotions are still founded on experiences and rooted in the physical domain, whereas the nonlocal response to diverse genres of music is a variation in energy levels.

It was discussed in class that when we are happy, we have more creative potential to create and more positive energy and power flowing through our bodies, and when we are sad or angry, we have less power and control because in our pessimistic attitude, we do not believe in ourselves. However, what if it were the other way around? Maybe the level of potential that one has is what affects a person's mood rather than the mood affects the potential. When we have a lot of potential, we can ultimately make ourselves feel secure and happy no matter what problems come shooting at us. So, now looking at what I have just written, I think there isn't a concrete cause and effect relationship but rather, a correlation. Emotions and degree of creative potential (power that one is accessing at the moment) have a bonded existence. One cannot exist without the other, and trying to classify the order in which they exist would be like asking which came first? The chicken or the egg? And that is a question that is so difficult to answer. Thus, I end by reiterating what I think and what we learned in class today that is quite relevant to the topic: Energy waves and frequencies are the form of response to different genres of music that happens in the quantum domain of information. Emotions is the more measurable and understandable response to music of the physical world. That seems to me like a paradox, so feel free to comment!

so, here is a part of the theory that i have heard of. we react to nursery rhymes because it reminds us of the sound of the mother's uterus. disturbing fact, but i suppose that might be a plausible theory, if we remember what it sounds like in mom's uterus. but, that's all parts of a theory, i might search it up later.

"Because we're a part of the whole, we correspond to specific genres of music? So we might have overlapping interests, and that's why we feel emotions that are alike to other people, because the universal essence is the same throughout."
as joanne has said, we are a part of the whole, but we are also individuals. i suppose this is a concept that corresponds to our own beings and the whole. a specific genre is just like an individual, and then compiling all the genres together, we get music as a general result.