My duff modem has mysteriously un-duffed itself, so here we are again. I have been thinking back over peak experiences, and having a few, (not up to the Pirates, though). Those two musical experiences were both in the same hall, which may, or may not be relevant. I've been listening to Vaughan-Williams "Serenade to Music", and I think that if I were singing in it, or listening to it in the right place (not my car), there are parts of it which would induce the state. And, katlaughing, I think that what I am listening for when I form that conclusion, is the higher harmonics, as you suggest. But, as I said at the end of my last posting, I think that these experiences are much more available than often recognised. I had on ein the supermarket once, while praying about my sister's family (and there was no musak). I had one when I first swam out of my depth in Dover Harbour, and found that the lift of the sea was quite different, and there was a chop on the waves, with a glitter from the refracted sun. So I'm not surprised at Animaterra's comments. I think that the occupation of the brain so fully that conscious directed thought is suspended is part of it. Oddly, I found myself reading some passages about this sort of thing this weekend, in a Quaker magazine delivered to the base of my pending pile in February, and which I had not opened until this weekend.

This is from a writer called Mary Crago. "The Spirit also comes through when we forget ourselves completely as in art or music or in helping someone else, really listening and giving of ourselves only with love."

I'm ambidextrous, which probably means that I have left-handed brain organisation, but for heaven's sake, Llanfair, don't go suggesting that some people, identifiable by a genetic peculiarity, have a readier access to this sort of experience than others. Imagine the effect on those who don't. I read a series of books once in which the author suggested that characters with her invented capabilities found the experience of God easier than normal people, regardless of moral standing or attitude. Having read that, I started to side with the books' villains. The Spirit bloweth where it listeth. There's a song which may be relevant by Sidney Carter - "Catch the bird of heaven", I think. And, though I've let logic out, and tried to trap the thing in words - how else can we communicate - it is a wild, unpredictable occurrence, as Animaterra says, and we can be ready for it, do the many things which make us open to it, and rejoice in it when it happens. But not try and make rules around it.