🎸 Opening the Doors of Perception
SOL LUCKMANIt’s hardly surprising that one of the most iconic and bestselling musician biographies of all time, and the first (of a veritable “Spanish Caravan”) written about the Doors front man Jim Morrison, was titled NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE.The lyric is a line from “Five to One,” a perennial fan favorite penned by Morrison but credited officially to the Doors—and it has stuck in my mind (as it has in countless others over more than half a century since its 1968 release) like a splinter, to reference the movie THE MATRIX that also figures prominently in this book.When I was living in Paris in the early 1990s, I became obsessed with Morrison, and not just his music but his often macabre poetry as well. This was shortly after the release of Oliver Stone’s uber provocative rock biopic that put to shame all other rock biopics, THE DOORS.As a birthday present, my girlfriend gave me a bilingual copy of THE LORDS & THE NEW CREATURES, Morrison’s first volume of poetry replete with dark meditations on sex, celebrity, drugs, and (of course) death.While riding the Metro, sitting on the steps of Montmartre and sipping espresso at cafés, I found myself reading it alternately in English and the French translation to capture more and more nuances of Morrison’s cryptic, multilayered thought.Jim had died in Paris and was buried in the city’s famously lovely necropolis, Père Lachaise Cemetery. His grave—which once featured a stone bust with his big hippy hair made by a Croatian sculptor and stolen in 1988—was, and still is, a literal shrine to many tourists, fans and hipster locals making rock ‘n’ roll pilgrimages from near and far.Practically as controversial in death as in life, ever since his untimely demise in 1971 that rocked the rock world, Morrison has lingered in a sort of public half-life.Simultaneously, he has been an inspiration for counterculture and music lovers; a nuisance for Parisians fed up with the incessant drinking, smoking and carousing that have turned his grave into an eternal party; and a would-be prodigal son to his home country, where a Florida politician bizarrely (and unsuccessfully) sought to have Jim’s final resting place relocated to his birthplace, the Space Coast!My girlfriend—call her Kate—and I regularly visited Morrison’s final resting place, and often partook in the festivities, which I must admit were exemplary displays of Dionysian behavior … if inevitably a regretted hangover source.Filled with more cemeteries, church crypts and bone-lined Catacombs than you could shake a Gauloise at, Paris invited an ongoing meditation on the afterlife. Like HARRY POTTER’s Myrtle without the moaning, I regularly found myself contemplating the seeming inevitability of death.And then one overcast Parisian winter afternoon half a decade later, when I was back in town visiting a new girlfriend, while standing in front of Morrison’s grave strewn with flowers and cigarette butts yet again as if no time had elapsed and nothing had changed, the doors of my perception (hat tip to William Blake and Aldous Huxley) suddenly burst wide open when a still small voice inside me asked this simply disarming question:“Does no one here get out alive?”Copyright © Sol Luckman. All Rights Reserved.💥 BOOK DESCRIPTION 💥RIP … Death?Longevity’s overrated. Live forever instead.In this deep dive into inner alchemy, shamanism and energy medicine, bestselling author and renowned sound healer Sol Luckman addresses mortality head-on ... and shares a nondogmatic solution to this “problem” that will shock and inspire you!You don’t need to create your inner Philosopher’s Stone and “get out of here alive” to benefit massively from the author’s wisdom.You don’t even have to practice the potent techniques he teaches for recovering energy, erasing trauma, and restoring mind-body-spirit health.Uniquely and elegantly, this book will upgrade your life in the here and now by empowering you to …• Simplify your existence• Digital-detox your mind• Maximize the power of silence• Procrastinate your way to creativity• Connect with the superpower of your uniqueness• Establish a beneficial relationship with your shadow &• Follow your bliss on your own Hero’s Journey to wholeness and authenticity This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit solluckman.substack.com/subscribe
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