Somebody Help!

[Angrboda]

I was originally going to post something in concurrence with the opinions expressed here already, but something made me hold back. I would say definitely read about religion, the more you know, and all that rot. However, as a recent thread has reminded me (well, informed me, more correctly), our reactions to music aren't rational in the same way as our reactions to other things are. When someone insults a band or music you like, there is a tendency to feel insulted and hurt, to engage the shame circuits. Why this happens is not entirely clear to me (though I haven't read the research). I attended a Unitarian Universalist church for a time, and I always felt creeped out when singing the hymns; it was like I felt dirty and vulnerable. It's hard to explain. I had a theory, granted purely pulled from thin air, that ritual causes our brain's critical faculties to be put on standby, allowing otherwise objectionable material to go straight to the belief centers without passing Go. I don't believe that literally, but I have to wonder if music affects us in ways that speech and writing do not, ways that we aren't exactly conscious of. (Last night, I was thinking of how songbirds have to learn the proper song for their species, and if I recall correctly, if they don't learn it during their 'critical period', or learn it wrong, they won't be able to successfully mate. And I wonder how this intersects with the human capacity for language and music, the evolution of which I suspect is largely uncharted. I also recall that people tend to fixate on the music they listened to at a certain stage of their development (adolescence), and why I like certain music that others hate. A lot of questions for which I have no answers.)

I'd say that, like the old joke about the doctor, "If it hurts when you do this..." then don't do that.

I doubt the music will turn you onto the dark side, but then I tend to trust my intuition when it throws up a red flag, even if I don't know the reason. But then, I'm not a rational person, so I'm used to depending on my intuition. That act may be as scary to you as listening to Christian music....