Mind's Mirrors

Mind's Mirrors reflects on (no pun intended) the human that finds no value or meaning in what is external to itself. In search of sustenance, it turns its field of view inwards and worships and consumes itself from the inside out, eventually leading to the conclusion that the only thing real and valuable is what is inside. From here, it eats away at itself until nothing remains.

To eclipse the golden mirror, the human recognizes that the internal self and external world are both one and the same, and no longer distinguishes the two from one another.

I think this song is about the paradoxical choice of whether existance matters

I listened to this whole album all the way through a couple of days ago, it was pretty epic, and it wouldnt be the same without this song

Consciousness appears to be an external window but is really an internal mirror. We look into the universe; we look into ourselves.

"I once described the computer as a second self, a mirror of mind. Now the metaphor no longer goes far enough." (Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, page 16).

I don't know if Tomas or Mårten (as they wrote all Catch 33 lyrics, supposedly) are familiar at all with the work of the aforementioned woman, but once I read her description of the terminal machine, my view on this track changed in a radical manner: the robotic voice -matched melodically to Sum's ending- says it all. And it makes complete sense when you think calmly about the contradictions involved in the use of this powerful tool (much better analyzed in Turkle's books): loner people having hundreds or thousands of deplorable social connections with complete strangers that don't really care about each other, devices chaining humanity up with unstoppable, useless entertainment flows, easy access to sensitive private data, etc., when everyone tends to ignore the dark side of the "golden mirror" and speaks loudly and only about the benefits; "The paradox unseen".

I seriously doubt that someone would come to read this, but you and me absolutely know how easy it is to get lost into the screen for hours without convincing reasons to do so, disguising in multiple alter egos, avoiding the issues that TRULY matter; "To live through ones own shadow, mute and blinded, is to really see".

Anyway -and ironically-, I just threw my two binary code cents here, wasting considerable time editing them the least worst possible way, and nothing else. Last but not least, the lesser time (please forgive me if I'm gramatically wrong) you spend in front of a computer/cellphone/tablet/, the better: "Eclipse the golden mirror... and the reflection is set free".

I personally feel that you guys are close but not quite there. I feel that this song is about people who get so caught up in what they think they should be, or what people want them to be, that they lose who they really are. Like peer pressure, they have a group of friends so they begin to like and dress and act similar to those people.

"The feeding frenzy of my starving soul, gnawing voraciously at the bones the exo-skeletal patchwork protecting my own reflection within."

This person or people in general start to eat away at what they are replacing it with what they think it should be, thus protecting there own reflection within.

"The twin and same"

The new personality, but the same person

"Engaged in the mirror act of chewing away at the shell of my attacking self. The paradox unseen."

The attacking self being the new self, but this person has become so caught up in what they "should be" that they dont even realize that it is happening thus the paradox unseen.

"Treacherous this deceit, to make no choice matter."

The new self betraying ones real self making no choice matter because you are making choices for this new self, not making choices for you or what your true self wants, making choices you feel that others would approve of.

"To have and yet lose yourself until finally all reasons why are forgotten. To live through ones own shadow."

You are you, but this new pseudo self and it gets to the point that you don't know why you are even doing what you are doing or like what you like, you are living through your shadow.

"Mute and blinded is to really see. Eclipse the golden mirror and the reflection is set free."

Being unchanged by your surroundings is how you should really be, that when you can eclipse this fake self that you look at when looking in a mirror then your reflection can be set free, you can be yourself even though you like certain people and certain things, you just need to smash the mirror your mind has made itself (or eclipse it making no reflection at all) and your true self will be set free.

This is just how i feel about this song, and honestly i have dealt with this problem and noticed it in my own life, hard thing to overcome, but you just need to know who you are and stay true to yourself. 8D cheers

These lyrics make me think of my experience with Christianity. The paradox of trying to die to self and live thru Christ. The "golden mirror" of God that for so many becomes a source of psychogical confusion and dissociation. I had to eclipse this (I.e. deconvert) so that the reflection (made in his image) could be free. It's about the trap of the super ego. The narcisstic god complex. Why is the album called catch THIRTYTHREE (the age that Jesus was crucified.

We know Meshuggah's views on religion aren't favorable but I think it gets dismissed as simple lack of belief, when it's clear from so many of their songs that a main theme of their music is exploring the psychological harm of SPECIFICALLY Christianity.

The whole album Chaosphere is an image of the narcissistic aspects of Christianity. (I refuse to call it the "fsith"

Fucking great song.

for a long time, i've been trying to find a band as enlightened and rhythmically complex as Tool. i think i've finally stopped loooking. i downloaded catch thirtythree a couple of days ago, and this song is absolutely amazing. i totally agree with sigvatr on the meaning of the song.

i think this song might be a set of instructions... like third eye, by tool, it seems to be a kind of riddle. i'm going to listen to this on my next trip, i'll see what i find.

I managed to understand what this song is about today. This segment of Catch 33 seems to be about multiple personality disorder. "The exo-skeletal patchwork protecting my own reflection within" shows that the reflection (or one of the personalities) is contained in an external shell when one personality is active. "The twin insane engaged in the mirrored act of chewing away" This shows that the two personalities are conflicting with one another in a self-destructive manner. "To have and yet lose yourself until finally all reasons why are forgotten" represents how a person with MPD can be conscious but have one personality being dormant and when the active personality reverts to a dormant state, and the dormant personality regains control, the dormant personality is unable to recollect what happened while the other personality was active. "To live through one's own shadow" is another way of describing the dormant personality. "Eclipse the golden mirror and the reflection is set free." The use of the word golden here may indicate that there is hope for one of the personalities.