The Cosmic Radio Station
I believe that the Fifth Symphony existed before Beethoven composed it. Maybe not note for note, but in some form that we would recognize if we could hear it.
The work existed on another plane of reality—the plane of potentiality.
Composers (who knows how many?) sat at their pianos and searched the aether for these divine measures. But only one found the frequency. Only Beethoven tuned in to the Cosmic Radio Station.
Beethoven brought the Fifth Symphony from the Plane of Potentiality to the Material Plane. His genius brought it into form, so you and I could hear it.
That’s work.
That’s the artist’s work.
P.S. This illustration is from an upcoming book, “THE DAILY PRESSFIELD.” More info to come as the date approaches (probably next year sometime.)
P.P.S. For our Roundtable Regulars on the Comments section (and those of us who love to read their brilliant back-and-forths) … that’s all still there in this new format. Just click on the COMMENT ON THIS POST button below.
P.P.P.S. In my demented mind, the Cosmic Radio Station is not some fanciful notion. I believe that some broadcast-like, frequency-based modality operates in much the same way as WLS in Chicago used to, when you could pick up its 50,000-watt channel on the AM radio in your Cadillac as you cruised across West Texas at three in the morning. We–the human race, that is–just haven’t developed the technology yet to tap into this Mystic Vibration. How fortunate for us that we all, and not just Beethoven, have that receiver built from birth into our own heads (or hearts.)
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Wow, Steven. Thanks for touching on such a positive anchor. As a kid growing up in South Carolina, during the 50s & 60s, listening to WLS/Chicago and disc jockey Dick Biondi seemed almost magical. I treasured my battery powered AM radio and took it with me everywhere. It was amazing to think I was listening to someone hundreds of miles away from my very small hometown. And, if you were listening to Biondi late at night, you had a sense that you were somehow connected to the music world and other kids around the country. A strong bond.
That’s how my husband fell in love with radio as a kid, Mac — and helped me fall in love with it (and him) thirty years ago.
More to the point of this post, one image I keep in my head all day is a knob on an old-style radio. I sit in the early-morning quiet, have my coffee, and select the cosmic station: “There’s something important you came to do here.” As the day goes on I notice that knob’s drifted to a dark station: “Who do you think you are? Besides SUCH a loser?”
I move the knob back, but I keep an eye on it!
For us growing up in Arizona, it was KOMA from Oklahoma City. I love your image, Maureen, of your radio dial drifting through the day. Can anyone who didn’t grow up with analog understand this image? Especially when we can get on the internet and listen to radio from anywhere in the world. Not the same is it? But, like everything, without the internet we wouldn’t be having these conversations every Wednesday. Something lost, something gained…
Thank you very much dear Steve,
it’s as if our works of art are not merely certain lines or notes but expressions of certain energies that flow in the universe freely and infinitely. We may feel the same or similar energy field flowing when Maximus the gladiator enters a battle, as when Lawrence of Arabia attacks the Turks -or when Aragorn denies the Ring of Power and closes it gently in the hands of the Hobbit, and Neo denies the Architect the choice (door) to save the world, rather he enters the door which leads to saving his unique friend and lover Trinity. Even similar energies, vibes of the Universe, can be expressed in very unique ways.
It is so difficult for architects as ourselves to uncover on our designs relatively new planes of energy or reality that exist in that sphere. Especially today, when billions of creations have already revealed many such planes of reality to all developed humanity. I feel that the movies, the series etc. all reveal the same things again and again, even with the same line of events, only with new beautiful sceneries and actors. We must work like builders too, trying to build without emotion -unless if we can hold on to that with no repercussions but with accuracy and relative perfection building every brick. I wonder, should an artist actually feel happy or full of emotions in the hours that they create? Is the answer similar to the question if builders should feel emotions and flows of energy when they lay out bricks? Maybe not. And if not, and we are only practical without emotions, can that have the same magic as if we were also emotional or is it plain flat? I can be a builder for thousands of hours, but the more I build, the more unemotional I seem to become. The first chapters of my book were flowing like water (the emotions and the discipline were married, not separated), while these two last ones block me like huge rocks, even walls, shutting my path to freedom. But there is and will surely be much more into that. Maybe expertise demands no emotions, or no great touches with those other planes of reality, but in truth they may prepare you to be able to handle those planes, not to miss them, when the time is right.
Many beautiful and strange questions arise.
I have yet to read the comment the last post too, I wish you and all friends my best and a great autumn <3
Hello Tolis,
It is true that there are billions of creations that have come before us, but we are each unique an have our own creations to share that are as unique as we are. Even if we travel the same ground as many have before us, it is our own journey that we are chronicling. And we have to share it. I know exactly how you feel right now, so close and yet those boulders in your path–and mine–mean we are close, so close to getting at the truth we are trying to tell. We have to think in 3 dimensions. Yes the boulder is in our path and moving it isn’t possible, but we can walk around it, or over it, or even burrow underneath it and that is part of the journey too. I’ve been stuck several times–more times than I can count–and each time found a way around because I started thinking not about the boulder but about how to get around it because I knew what was on the other side. It was there in my head and in my heart and needed to get there. And, each time, getting around it meant I got further into what I was trying to say and found new ways to say them that weren’t there before the boulder. You will get there too, Tolis. And, then, of course, there will be another boulder but that’s part of the journey, otherwise it would just be a walk in the park.
“I wonder, should an artist actually feel happy or full of emotions in the hours that they create?” I don’t know if we feel happy when we create but we feel joy, fulfillment if we are totally committed to it. Yes, we should be full of emotions. If we aren’t, if we’re just thinking and not feeling, we aren’t full committed and we won’t create in the way we should and what we create will not be fully real. As Steve has said, we have to finish big and that means committing with heart and head. The happiness comes afterward, I think, when we look back and see how far we’ve come past all those boulders.
Thank you for your beautiful comment Lin, and for commenting all these many people here!
What I feel about the boulder now, is that the way I choose (for now) to face/surpass it is to try to dig through it. It’s a so slow process! But there goes my energy, and I just follow although it got me “out of the quick road”. Steven said that the true artists are scared to death, so this can be a good sign as trying to dig the rock is really too hard, seems impossible.
I imagined at once your beautiful last thought: the happiness that comes afterward, when we look back and see how far we ‘ve gone. And I also hope that we find ways to create full of emotions! Seems to happen to me only seldomly these 2 last years.
P.s. I didn’t receive an email announcing Steve’s posts these two weeks. Did anyone else did?
And if you were listening, out in the wilds of Queens, to Jean Shepherd on WOR in New York, you knew for the first time that you were not alone. Excelsior!
Great post, and another book for us??? Awesome!!!
It’s a fascinating idea. Certainly there must be a sense in which, as Plato speculated, all knowledge and creations exists in potential, and isn’t it amazing that the cosmos is structured in such a way that it invites us to discover these.
This idea of The Source convenes with Elizabeth Gilbert’s notions of receiving an idea as if it is a ‘genius’, an independent spirit that inhabits and animates you, and which you might miss and another person catch. I certainly think that all the ambient information around and inside us, everything we’ve ever read or thought about, is churning away down there away from the light of consciousness, connecting and reconnecting with itself, and occasionally emerging into awareness.
I’m with Brian in that I also go straight to the blog long before receiving Steve’s email, so the format of the email doesn’t impact me. My comment on last week’s post somehow doesn’t seem to have been uploaded, but I was saying that I find the white-on-black jarring and harsh, like staring at a strobing light.
Brian, incidentally, please continue being yourself! You contribute more than you know.
Thank you Steve.
Thanks Peter, much appreciated. There were only 11 comments when I, like nearly every Wednesday for the past 7-10 years-went straight to the site for a different devotional than the rest of the week. Not quite as intimidating to post–and Tolis, you, Sam, Mia, Scott are all awake making comments.
Last week there were over 45 when I opened the post–and I did not recognize a single name nor post, felt like Bizarro Writing Wednesdays at first.
bsn
Oh, but we have developed some ways to access the cosmic radio station, some of us. You do it. Maybe we all do it somehow, some way, in those moments we manage to vaporize Resistance. That’s when the cosmic music and talk (without commercials!) comes through clearly. That’s when we are tuned into who we really are and into What Is, timeless, eternal Reality. Oh yes, we can do this if we want to do it. We have to want it first.
Dear Steven,
I love this. Thank you for the powerful visual.
I recently retired from active entrepreneurial duty in the hospitality and manufacturing world, and this post of yours hit home for several reasons. But, mainly, when I look back at the success realized, it was all because I listened to my Cosmic Radio Station and acted on the clear voice leading me to do what I needed next.
As I try and learn to write, I realize that I must tune in again. Thank you for the reminder.
I recently finished reading “Heat 2” by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner. As in the original 1995 movie that precedes it there is a character named Kelso, aka ‘the wizard in a wheelchair’ who spends his days hacking encrypted information like bank blueprints and alarm system passcodes and the location of high end safe deposit boxes. He sells this information to top-tier burglary crews. A character asks at one point “how does he get this stuff?” and the response is “how do I know? He pulls it out of the air, intercepts signal traffic, I dunno.” A person sitting alone in their house trying to mine (sometimes literal) gold out of nothing is a nice analogy for the creative life, I think.
I like the new email format, BTW!
Agreed Sam. I had a clear picture in my head as I read your post. I also like the idea of mining for gold.
bsn
Sam, Bruce, Mia, Peter, Yvonne, Nick, Tolios, Mac and fellow writing friends, you bring a little extra sparkle and shine to the light Steve sends. I love it. THANK YOU. Your carefully crafted considerations have built a respectful, interesting, caring online community, post by post. A digital burning man, if you will. Cheers!
Lucy,
A digital Burning Man! I love it. I think my wife might want to check what is in my morning coffee if I said I just visited a digital Burning Man though…
bsn
Thank you so much Lucy! And the light never shines as bright as if a great person like you puts it’s radiance into words <3
Thanks for this. The Mystic Vibration reference reminds me of Napoleon Hill. What a wonderful place for the philosophies to intersect. Ase’
If you choose, out of sloth or fear or resistance, not to tune into that channel, then you know deep in your heart you have spurned the Muse. And the price you pay for that is self-loathing, anger, and soul-devouring regret Or, as the Gospel of Thomas says:
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
Steve’s metaphor of the cosmic radio station is so perfect. When you happen to catch that whispering signal, you got to pull over and lunge for the dial.
Scott,
This summer I have been much more deliberate about capturing my thoughts–even talking into Evernote while walking the dogs at times if I happen to accidentally tune into the Cosmic Radio Station.
I wrote something about potential that eerily corresponds to your quote from the Gospel of Thomas–which is likely more evidence for Steven’s post. If I have the guts later today–I’ll post it.
bsn
Brian – I hope you post your quote about potential. / Scott
Scott–
FBOMB IT. Here it is. I talked this into my phone–I’ll try to edit all the mistakes/Siri grammatical errors–but need to do it quickly before I chicken out. I was thinking about our fundraising event which is running up and down stairs at this infamous high school in Tacoma. It is BRUTAL. People vomit every year. I LOVE IT. Both the race and that people vomit. That’s the kind of effort that is often required–and I respect anyone willing to push themselves that hard.
Ok, here is the quote/thought/possible social media marketing effort I was thinking about:
You have vast stores of potential inside of you. This potential is energy, it has the power to change. It is raw and unfinished, but will turn into something. It always does. This potential is dying to express itself in the world. There’s nothing it wants more than to come out in all it’s glory.
Potential manifests itself in only one of two possible ways: Greatness/Beauty/Brillance or disease.
There’s a hitch though. How to get this potential out of us. It is measured and exacting.
Simple but not easy. One only needs three ingredients: courage, endurance, and heat.
You must have the courage to show up. The courage to try. The courage to grow into who were designed to be. Created to be. Specifically.
Then we must endure. We must endure the heat. The process of smelting of the dross to get to our own intrinsic gold buried deep inside.
The heat and the pain are intense. Searing. Unforgiving. Without compassion–because they know their jobs. They are producing gold.
Most of us opt for cowardice over courage. Of the small minority who are courageous, many cannot endure the pain, they wince and pull away.
I understand these people. I am one of them, have been for vast stretches of my life. For them, their potential transmutes into disease: cancer, diabetes, depression, all isms, anger, judgment, blaming, blankets of self-righteous victim hood.
No one gets out of here alive. We can choose to die as a supernova with brilliant light expanding into the universe, or a dark and lonely black hole that sucks the life, joy, and beauty out of everything and everyone around us.
The choice is ours.
Let’s choose courage. Let’s choose endurance. Now turn up the heat.
Meet us at Unleashed at Stadium Bowl. There is a smelting factory on the stairs. Burn off some dross.
bsn
Glad you had the courage, Brian, that’s brilliant! and says it all.
Brian – that’s not just a statement, it’s a manifesto. A definite keeper. So glad you posted it. / Scott
Mystic vibration…that really resonated with me. Thanks for this post, Steve.
Love, love, love the idea of the Cosmic Radio Station and that everyone has the capability of tuning in. On a spiritual level, that’s so true. We’re so much more than these physical bodies we ride around in. Another wonderful post. Thank you!
Great post. I wonder about children who never having had a piano lesson can sit down at a piano and play Mozart. We label them as “prodigies” and leave it at that. But that doesn’t explain anything. Are they tapping into the cosmic radio station or maybe they have lived an earlier life when they learned those complex piano pieces?
Doug–this comment gave me chills. I’ve often wondered that about children that sing with the soul and pain of an adult with a past–WHERE do they get that?! More questions than answers…
That idea is a myth. No such child ever existed. The reality is that prodigies are always children who have a parent(s) who train them from a very early age. They get their 10,000 hours before they hit puberty. That’s why so many professionals also have professional parents in the same field. This idea that there’s some magic out there is, rather ironically, another form of resistence. Look at these entries on wiki for Beethoven: He was initially harshly and intensively taught by his father and With the involvement of the insomniac Pfeiffer [this was a teacher, he was sent to formal school at about 5 years old], there were irregular late-night sessions, with the young Beethoven being dragged from his bed to the keyboard. Beethoven’s grandfather was also a musician. He wasn’t the receiver of a some cosmic force, as cute as that sounds, he was created by meglomanics who begin drilling him before he was out of diapers.
Michael, that’s absolutely right. Objectively verifiable. Not that we should lend our agency to an authority, but Steve (and Shawn) has emphasized, and Steve has just published a book about this, that creativity is all about the blue collar work of getting your arse in the seat and putting in the hours. And even if a child were able to reproduce a piece of music on an instrument from hearing it, how much ‘creativity’ is engendered in that….?
This is one of my favorite posts by you Steve. A few days ago, I brought my blue tooth headphones into hospice to play hits from the 50s for my gram. She was comatose, but there is something about music that just made me feel like she could hear. Her demeanor changed. Her eyes popped open, even if they couldn’t see. When I played her a song she sang when she was just 17 on Pittsburgh Radio, I am 100% sure she felt it. We must feel it from the Cosmic Station where music begins. I think she was already halfway there…
She passed that night. Mourning doves cooing near the window. Beautiful memories for an amazing woman that encouraged me to sing. May we all tap into the Cosmic Radio Station with our creativity this week.
What a lovely thing to do, Kate! To be eased across by music you love. Sounds like the two of you were very close. I’m so sorry for your loss. Thanks for sharing this.
Thank you, Lin. I really appreciate that! I’m sorry I missed your reply. Her funeral is in two days. It’s hard to let go; we were very close.
Oh Kate, that’s amazing. How beautiful, and it was so kind and thoughtful of you. I wonder now if I should have done that for my mother a decade ago, when she was drugged up in her death bed. There was something though, that I would like to share, now that I remember it. A bit off-piste, but hey. She was on a hospital bed in the house where I grew up, with views of her beautiful garden filled with flowers. There was a moment – I was beside her, holding her hand – when she squeezed my hand, then she sat up and over a few seconds turning her head she seemed to peer out through the windows at her garden. She squeezed my hand a few more times. For many hours before that, sedated, she wasn’t responsive at all. A few hours later she passed on. I always wonder whether, with the painkillers, we and the nurses robbed her of the ability to communicate with us near the end (she had cancer), but who am I to say. Anyway.
I’m not sure this is an appropriate ad hoc post, given there’s no connection withe the idea of The Source. Still, it shows something of the unknowability of the human spirit.
That’s beautiful, Peter. A hospice nurse reassured me that the sense of touch and hearing is heightened. I have no doubt your mother heard and felt it all! My gram was also on a large cocktail of drugs, but when I played her song she sensed. Even if she didn’t, I have this moment in my memory with her.
I should add that I was with my mother when she passed away, not having left her side, nor hardly let go of her hand, for many hours.
Beautiful, Kate! This was not only a gift for your grandmother but also for you, because now that last day is wrapped in more than just sadness.
Thank you, Maureen! I agree. 🙂
Kate/Peter,
This was so beautiful to read this morning. Had some early appointments so left the house after reading your post about playing music for your mother–not having the time nor enough processing to respond appropriately.
We have run an animal rescue for the past 18 years, and an unintended consequence of this is becoming WAY more familiar with loss than we ever expected. Through the 20+ losses of dogs and cats we’ve experienced, I have learned to be much more present with our animals during their last days.
I was deeply moved by both of your accounts of presence during your gram’s and mother’s passing. That was so courageous and inspiring.
bsn
I wasn’t present when any of my relatives passed away. I wish I had been, but wasn’t possible. I have had been present when 2 of our cats passed, both in my arms. The first was my husband’s cat before we married and she let me know in no uncertain terms that I was the interloper. She was nice to me when he was around, but when he wasn’t I was her plaything (favorite trick: lie in wait on the stairs and bop me on the head when I passed by. not every time, left just enough time between strikes for me to not be wary.) The other was a lovely cat–No Fear Nikki–who purred so loud the vet couldn’t hear her heartbeat. Both died in my arms and they each looked up at me and touched my face just before passing. Incredible moment and one of the many things I’ve experienced in my life that have taught me to see the magic and mystery in all life. So painful to experience the passing but also a gift.
Hi Kate,
Deep sympathies for your grandma. Gosh, I can tell she heard the music you played her (thanks for that, by the way). When my sister was in a coma, someone told me to be careful what I said because even in a coma, patients can hear everything. And since music is the language which everyone can understand…you found a way to reach her again. I think it’s very possible the mourning doves were dispatched by their Creator to have the doves coo by her window.
I don’t know how long I’ve been signed up with Steven Pressfield, but I sure am glad I read my email today. Just think — I was able to meet another person with such a fine last name. LOL
Thanks for your encouragement.
Debb Stanton
Dear Kate, I am so sad that your gram left. I state that she didn’t go to emptiness, but to the cosmic radio station. She will always be with us all. She will always be there for you when you call her. I wish you ever more creativity and magic, even closer to that station <3
Beethoven is an interesting case. One wonders if the joy we feel listening to his compositions was worth the child abuse he suffered? He was being schooled at around 5 years old and had a formal (non-family) teacher at 10 years old (having giving his first public performance at about 7 years old). Think Michael Jackson….was the joy of listening to his music worth what was done to him? He had his childhood stripped away and was obviously abused in ways we cannot imagine. The recent film about Tanya Harding has a scene–it’s very poignant–she’s about 5 years old and the ice skating instructer tells her mother she’s too young. Does the mother listen? Of course no, the mother was driven to create a “prodigy,” a world champion–and she did. Tanya Harding, like Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, and thousands of others, had a parent(s) who forced them to become what they became. Probably many of these (maybe most) were ultimately happy with the decision (I mean they ended up rich and famous) but don’t for a second tell me that a 4 or 5 year old child choose that life. It was forced on them. No 4 or 5 year old child would choose to be dragged out of bed and forced to practice.
Yes, Michael, Beethoven had a terrible childhood but so did so many others in his time and in our own time. Beethoven’s teacher was sadistic, but Beethoven did have a choice as he aged to use what he was given, even in the most dreadful of circumstances, or turn his back. For every Beethoven or Mozart, or any great artist you could name, there were many more who turned their back on the Muse, who chose not to seek the Cosmic Frequency that Beethoven tuned into. When I was studying anthropology, we were lectured repeatedly that the Great Man theory was a myth. That if Einstein hadn’t come up with his theories, someone else would. And, if the ideas of quantum physicists are correct and we live in multiverses and every choice we make creates a branch into another reality, no doubt my profs were correct. But the point is that Einstein touched the Muse and Beethoven did and Mozart, and it we choose to take the risk, we can too. There are few as great as Beethoven and Mozart and Einstein, but in our own ways we can each touch the Muse and great things will happen and the ripples from what we create can touch others and that’s the point.
Lin,
I like your perspective on this. Michael makes some very astute points about the choice of 4-5 year old children and naming this as abusive–maybe.
I lost my father when I was 5 years old, and things deteriorated pretty rapidly after that. Who was to blame? My broken mother’s poor choice of a second husband? I did for years. God? I also blamed Him for years. My step dad? You bet–tons of blame I heaped upon him for decades.
Very recently I was able, with Divine Intervention IMHO, was able to see through all of it with gratitude. As I type this, I can feel my previous self cynically and angrily thinking this dude is smoking crack.
I’m not. Whether it has been an incredible cognitive jiu jitsu trick I did in my own thinking, or is it REAL–I don’t care. My anger is gone. Poof. Gone. Instead I have this deep feeling/understanding that it was instructive and unavoidable to become who I am today.
I could be too dualistic in my thinking–but I’m not sure creation of true beauty, insight, joy can come unbidden without pain, discomfort, suffering. Is it a toll? Pre-penance? Requisite ingredients into the mysterious cauldron of creation? I certainly do not know.
I do know, at least right now, that I’m grateful for my past, warts, tears, losses, suffering and all. It could also be a lack of imagination of who I could have been without my previous path–but the outcome I see from a gentle path is one of even greater hubris, greater insensitivity to others, and causing much greater pain to others.
bsn
Couldn’t agree more, Brian.
Thank you so much Brian, we forget the most important things. Here, the fact that every moment of our lives was an instantaneous infinity and full of the spectrum of the meanings of life.
คาสิโน ambbet คาสิโนออนไลน์ เว็บตรง ไม่ผ่านเอเย่นต์ บริการเกมคาสิโน สล็อต บาคาร่าสด ไฮโล รูเล็ต เกมยิงปลา เเละ เกมอื่นๆ มากกว่า 1000 เกม บริการค่ายเกมเดิมพันชั้นนำมากกว่า 30 ค่าย เว็บเดียวจบ ครบทุกบริการ เว็บพนันออนไลน์ที่เลือกที่มั่นคง เเละ คุ้มค่า สมัคร ambbet ฝาก 100รับ200 เเละ โปรโมชั่นอีกๆ เพียบ สมัครง่ายผ่านระบบอัตโนมัติ เพียงไม่กี่วินาที ยูสเดียวตลอดชีพ คุ้มค่าอย่างเเน่นอน.
I love your metaphor of the Cosmic Radio Station, but totally disagree with your statement “I believe that the Fifth Symphony existed before Beethoven composed it.” This is completely false. The two ideas are indeed mutually exclusive. No one but Beethoven could or would compose the 5th, 7th , 9th or any of his works. No one but Shakespeare could ever write Hamlet or Macbeth. No artist but Picasso could ever paint Guernica. No writer but Tolstoy could ever write War and Peace or Anna Karenina. The artist, certainly of high art, is the sine qua non of the art, the indispensable element of the composition. Did these works exist in a “plane of potentiality” before they were created. It’s plausible, but only for that particular artist, no other. But the idea of tapping into one’s own frequency does have merit. And it happens not by merely imagining something at the dinner table, but when seated at the piano bench or standing at the easel or sitting at the keyboard, doing the work of composing, painting or writing. Then miraculously, the Muse enters with her music tuned to your favorite channel and something called creativity takes place. The universal mind, the “collective unconscious” or the Cosmic Radio Station is at your service.
Thank you very much for the comment mr. Frank. I would argue that through other lenses both angles may be true. What I thought is that even if Beethoven or anyone else had done something different for a second while composing, say moving a hand to the left or to the right (which they didn’t, but If), they wouldn’t have created that exact work but something else, because everything in the world would have changed (it must be similar to the butterfly effect) and thus they would have taken a totally different route. So I can guess that every moment is affected both by the unique personality of a person and the whole universe’s rolling.
WLS – Wasn’t that the home of Dick Biondi? I seem to recall something about a song – On top of a pizza, all covered in cheese… – but my aging mind plays some tricks by now.
Been thinking about this off an on all morning, early afternoon.
I think so much of believe comes down to choice. My delight in my own rationality to explain things to myself or seek understanding, I have found, have left me unsettled and judgmental. Wary even. This also seems to coincide with my belief that my ‘brilliant ideas’ were wholly my own. I’ve been quite possessive of them over the years. Always ensured I qualified any discussion or testament about them with ‘MY program or MY idea or MY…’
The irony, when I really think about how/when any truly significant insight or idea I’ve had has hit me–what was I doing? They were never when I was thinking about myself or sitting there ‘grinding out’ a solution. Often they were on a walk, in the shower, or–a few times specifically–when I was leading Soldiers through an after action report. WE, the group in question, were talking out loud about how we performed something–and then I responded to a question/comment with a stream of consciousness burst about a different way to train.
I guess my point is that I was, at those times, tuned outwardly. I was trying my very best to push something forward for the good of others–and maybe I stumbled upon the right frequency. I got hit on the head. I could not possible know what I was going to say when I started talking–but the idea came from somewhere–and it wasn’t from me.
The idea that there is a Cosmic Radio Station, an infinite Field of Potentiality, Angels, Muses–something beyond the cold rationality, that while entertaining and helpful at times, can leave me feeling isolated and anxious.
I have decided to believe in the unverifiable. It isn’t rational, but settles me. I still enjoy solving problems, and do look at evidence for many decisions–but the really big stuff–I choose the ineffable.
bsn
Brian, you do really work on the thoughts and insights of Steven and all, thank you very much for that -it is a unique, invisible gift for all of us. I remember Brian Tracy saying, “you’d be insulted if you found out how little other people think about you, even the closest to you”.
I can also bet that those long hours of you thinking about the things that concerned you, were the Source that made those ideas pop up “seemingly” accidentally on a walk, at the shower or at whatever place. So I would resist judging those “seemingly more egoistic” tries of yours to comprehend, I think they are not such, they are just the path (which is inevitable in order to reach somewhere), and the destination is then revealed by itself when the time is right, like when a great new monument is revealed in Rome when you turn around every other corner of the city. I will use Steve’s thoughts now, let’s do our work diligently, and trust the Muse do her work with us! I guess all these aspects can only work together.
Brian you wrote “It isn’t rational, but settles me.”” That’s using the right brain, the non rational, intuitive mind, that is also the creative side of you. It’s all part of the creative process.
Brian, your manifest above about refining dross – just wow. Beautiful. (Note to self, I need to find a similar local challenge!) (And, side note, kudos for the continued openness after realizing there were far more readers here than suspected!)
On topic: Years ago I heard an interview with Carlos Santana that mirrored today’s post and comments. This is what I remember him saying (which may or may not have been what he actually said): as a musician he was not creating music; he was just a radio receiver. He would take enough drugs to be able to hear the music the universe is made of, and then merely allow it to play through him.
The internet isn’t confirming that quote, but here is an interview where he touches on the theme:
http://rockandrollgarage.com/carlos-santana-talks-about-the-drug-influence-in-music-citing-jimi-hendrix/ “That is the best kind of music that I heard from The Doors or anyone that I love because it’s not them anymore, it’s the universe being channeled through them.”
Granted he is talking about drugs here, he is clearly describing the same kind of thing that Sensei is talking about. That whole article is worthwhile. Isn’t this quote not right at home in this forum?
“Your spirit and your soul, they’re immutable, first of all, they cannot be messed with. It’s your ego, it gets your feelings hurt, you know? ‘You broke my heart or didn’t do this…’ It’s been 50 years, get over it. But your spirit and your soul, this is why I love musicians who I can just immediately hear the spirit and the soul taking over the heart, then the heart tells the mind, ‘Shhh, don’t think, get out of the way, and allow it to flow through you.”
Whoops, a couple typo’s/grammaro’s in that — very embarrassing in this audience! I was distracted…
I too believe in something like this. Rupert Sheldrake’s idea of morphic fields / morphic resonance seems to explore this in a more systematic manner, and while I think some of his work should be taken with a grain of salt, I do think there’s a lot of interesting food for thought too.
I said the songs that play in my dreams are from The Cosmic Radio Station. I don’t live in a building where I subconsciously hear music as I slept. I do think we are a sensitive bunch who are tuned into the subtleties around us. A line of poetry is a shooting star that whizzes by sprinkling creative cosmic dust.
Mr Pressfield,
I have read your biography and am very impressed with your zeal and talent for conveying ideas by written word.
I, at one time, felt a need to tell stories of what I have experienced in life, but after retirement I found myself filled with self doubt and fear of failure. What if I was just kidding myself.
When I read the stories that others have written, especially from well known authors like yourself, I feel like I could never get to this level of skill in the amount of time remaining in my life, so why try.
I know this is a defeatist attitude, but I just don’t know where to begin to train myself for any kind of coherent message in written form.
This is probably off topic from this thread, but how do I get started with stories that I have kept inside me since my youth? I am seventy two years old, but I want to tell stories from 60 or more years ago.
Sorry, it is not easy for me to write in English.
Gracias Steven !!! Espero cada miércoles con alegría para leerte.
Siempre novedoso, original y muy profundo.
Estoy ansioso de leer tu nuevo libro, y si es en español… Mucho Mejor !!!
Saludos.
I have recently found https://lmk88.com , Lisa K a prominent intuition teacher. She, like you, has been helping me tune into THE station. Thanks so much for all you do. I used the intuition station to guide me toward what my next new project. A video of you and Marie Forleo served as a synchronous confirmation. Now I am Putting My Ass there. I have really been enjoying your book too. Thanks Steve.
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Thank you for this post Steve! I think you wrote it just for me. I once started a story about the Cosmic Radio Station and I stopped. Why? Because I didn’t keep my butt is the chair, that’s why. I let self doubt creep in with resistance. I think this is a sign to go pick that story up again.
Hi Steve
I hope you remember me – we did an interview together about 18 years ago and I came to your home. It was a precious experience.
I love your thinking and philosophy. I now with many creative people and am fascinated by what happens when we – the willing human collaborators with inspiration – need then to work with producers and a team to make our idea/story/business exist in the world. Could you write a blog post about “production” – and how we can stay true to original ideas when so many other people can get involved with their own takes and agendas?
Thanks for all the wodnerful work you still do
I was fortunate enough to grow up on golf courses. My father played golf at Ohio State and played with Jack Nicklaus. Jack Grout was his coach. My father later became golf coach at Princeton (where professors thought he made too much money. Yes that ONE prof was a member of the golf club. Springdale G.C.) Later my father coached at the Naval Academy and was the head pro at their course. Sam Sneads nephew was on that team. So of course my father knew Gary Player. When my father was the Pro at Springdale in Princeton he owned a travel agency. He would sponsor golf pros from NY, NJ and PA to go to South Africa to play tournaments Gary Player put on. I got to go to South Africa with my father about 1973. MAGICAL! I also met one of Players sons at Champions Golf course and played 9 holes with him. I WAS very lucky growing up if not a little sheltered. I also played ice hockey and still do at 60! Since i have ALL of Jack Carrs books so far i am about to start collecting yours! GOD SPEED
Thanks Steve for this great job, I love the space station! And reading the comments under this post is like a separate art form!
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What a sweet gesture, Kate! to be carried along by your favorite music. drift boss seems like you two were very close. My condolences for your loss. I appreciate you sharing this.
If you don’t know his work, have a look at the sculptures of the late George Wyllie, his equilibrium spires which he started making in the 1980’s are a physical representation of connection with universal creative forces. At the start of my creative journey your books helped convince me that I was not delusional whilst I channeled his influence. https://georgewyllie.com/
Hi Steven. Just found this here and thought I’d let you know I’ve discussed this exact concept for a number of years now, and even released an album called ‘Cosmic Radio Station’ in 2015. An interview I did at the time features the following quote of mine: “[w]e were talking about the cosmic radio station, which is something you tune into to get creative inspiration.”. Anyway, just thought I’d let you know that I too love this concept, and it’s nice to know others are having similar ideas and thoughts. All the best, Mike.
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