Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
Red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
Lets me see.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
Drawn beyond the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.

Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must
Feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines.

Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
Red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
Lets me see there is so much more
And beckons me to look through to these infinite possibilities.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
Drawn outside the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.

Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition leaving all these opportunities behind.

Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.
Reaching out to embrace the random.
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come.

Come embrace my desire to, come embrace my desire to,
Feel the rhythm, to feel connected
Enough to step aside and weep like a widow
To feel inspired, to fathom the power,
To witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain,
To swing on the spiral, to swing on the spiral, swing on the spiral.
Of our divinity and still be a human.

With my feet upon the ground I lose myself
Between the sounds and open wide to suck it in,
I feel it move across my skin.
I'm reaching up and reaching out,
I'm reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me.
And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been.
We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been.

Spiral out. Keep going, going


Lyrics submitted by Everlong, edited by swiftau, ouzts12, GiselleFreude17

Lateralus song meanings
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  • +8
    General Comment

    This is one of the most brilliant songs ever written. Like a complex novel, it operates on many levels, but the central theme of the song is evolution, both personal and on the grand scale. First we'll examine the music itself. Note that in the beginning the background beats/rhythms sound almost like a bubbling swamp, which is the source of life. As the song progresses, those rhythms become more tribal, then more mechanical, till near the end we hear what sounds like robots in a factory. Thus, the music is about the evolution of the human species to the point where we are either replaced by machines or become machines ourselves.

    Now, the lyrics reinforce this theme on a few ways. The song starts out: "Black then white are all I see in my infancy, red and yellow then came to be reaching out to me, let's me see." On a very literal level this is exactly how vision evolves in each human. Babies see in black and white, with their ability to distinguish colors arising as they age. But this is also true of the human species in a philosophical and spiritual sense. Edward O. Wilson has written about how the most primitive tribes have words only for black and white; the next most advanced tribes have words for red and yellow, on up to the point where we recognize there is a near infinite color spectrum, which the most advanced cultures recognize. Thus, the most morally developed beings recognize that issues can never be easily divided into black and white; that's much too simplistic. There are, of course, people who still see moral issues in black and white, but they are throwbacks to our primitive heritage. So as technology advances, if we do not evolve morally too, we lose our connection to nature more and more and become little more than machines. Computers too view things in simplistic black and white terms (or bits and bytes if you prefer).

    Thus, in that context the song is about personal growth--spiritually, morally, and philosophically speaking. when Maynard sings about pushing the envelope, he is saying that he is attempting to push beyond the 2-dimensional mores and prudish religious nonsense that still holds us back as a culture. True spiritual growth cannot come from without; it must come from within, and no one else can define what is right or wrong for you. In that sense this sing is kind of a companion piece to Hermann Hesse's novel 'Demian.'

    As the song approaches its denouement, Maynard approaches something on the order of mystical ecstasy and again the music reinforces the lyrics. Note how the pitch of Maynard's voice, moving up and down rhythmically, compliments the "spiral out" he's singing about. He leaves the rest ambiguous. What lies beyond the simplistic black & white world we live in? Who knows? But the point is, we must push ahead anyway, no matter what, because the alternative is that we're no better than the machines we build to labor for us. We MUST stop looking at the world as if it can be divided into easy categories. The truth is never that simple. We may not like what we find as we move on; nevertheless, we advance or we die, spiritually speaking.

    Starwatcher23on December 18, 2011   Link

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