I actually already posted this as a response to a thread that I realized was very old.  So sorry for the double post but I think its a pretty important topic to discuss, and I thought a new thread might help with some responses. 

First I want to say that the beauty of this music is that a million differnt people can listen to it and get a million differnt meanings out of it.  You cant just put it in a box like you can with other music and say “yep, thats what it means, thats what its about and thats all it will ever be about.”  But still my ego must try…

The music is great, weve covered that, now lets talk about what it means! What is the story that they are trying to tell us with Nothing Lasts but Nothing is Lost?  The more I listen to this the message becomes more and more obvious to me, but I would like to hear other peoples’ interpretations as well. 

I think its about the perpetual cycle of life and death that we are all caught in right now, or Samsara.  Nothing Lasts, we all die sooner or later, But Nothing is Lost, we are reincarnated.  It could mean so many differnt things on so many different levels.  It could be talking about your actual physical body dieing and being reborn, it could also be talking about the Ego death that so many people experience on high doses of psychadelics.  Its about the cycle of life, and that cycle applies on every differnt level.  Really we are dieieng and being reborn right now, our cells are constantly dieing and being regenerated.  I heard somewhere that every 7? years we are basically a completely new person, all of our cells have been regenerated.  It also shows you that life is a paradox, its hard to make sense of it with our limited human brains. 
Its not just the title of the cd that makes me think this is what its about of course, I think the songs specifically point to this.  In a nut shell I think Nothing Lasts is when you are dieing, or think you are.  You will notice the whole feeling of the music changes, the mood changes after Nothing is Lost, it goes into “When Shall I Be Free?” - When i shall cease to be of course!  Then it goes to Stamen of the Shamen, reincarnation, or the start of it.  Then there is a crazy time lapse/ warp in Connisuer of Hallucinations, Terrence talks about how nothing is lost again, like he did earlier in the cd, it sounds like you are going back in time, like its rewinding, and then you are thrown right back into the thick of it.  Its like it goes back to intensity that it had before nothing lasts, before you died.  Its a cycle, and i have been stuck in this crazy cycle (or at least a micro cosm of it) while I’m in an altered state.  Its almost impossible to explain so Im really hoping others have experienced it as well so i can get some help in explaining this.  The best way i can explain it is kinda how the movie Waking Life goes (wich is sampled in the first song).  Its like your in a crazy dream, and then you wake up, and your releived at first, but then you realize that you have woken up into another dream, and then you wake up again into yet another dream, and it kinda starts to feel like you are going to be tripping forever.  I think this is a microcosm to the way life works. 

I havnent even heard this cd the way its supposed to be heard yet (in an altered state) so Im sure I will understand it better when i get a chance to do that.  What I’ve been doing in the meantime to really give it my full attention is listening to it like I’m meditating.  Light some candles, burn some sage, and other choice herbs, get my best pair of headphones and forget anything else exists.  Also i feel like for some reason when i move to the music or dance to it (even if im sitting down) it helps me understand it better as well. 

Anyway, as you can see this CD is blowing my mind!  It is so deep, visionary, channeled directly from the source.  So yea the music is great but what does it mean to you?

Tokapelli - 26 July 2011 03:45 AM

Anyway, as you can see this CD is blowing my mind!  It is so deep, visionary, channeled directly from the source.

You my friend are Shpongled! And definitely are already listening to it in the righteous manner. Psychedelics definitely can take you higher though Haha!

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with your notion of how nothing is lost, tying into reincarnation. I truly agree with the law of equivalent exchange that was so recognized within alchemy, way back in the day. Meaning that anything ever made had the same value of all that it was comprised of, that to gain one great thing; a number of things has to be lost, that everything happens for a reason, but most importantly, that all energy is all recycled.

I’m one spiritual dude so I’ll go ahead and say that every being does in fact have a soul, to connect our mind body and spirit together. So when our physical body finally reaches the state of perishment, the corpse is not the only thing to go back through the earth. The corpse will for sure return to earth, but with it, the spirit to rejuvenate all; in order to earn the chance to grow again.

I really dug that movie “Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” The part I loved the most though was when the traveler’s finally reached Magrathea, and they are targeted by 2 really badass missiles. When they are finally almost hit, they hit the ‘Improbability Drive’ which warps the missiles into two different objects. One was morphed into a great huge whale which falls to his imminent death, being so high in the sky. The other missile had been transformed into a pot of petunias, just some flowers, but some wise ones at that. I remember that the author gave a hilarious description of what each of them thought as they fell to hit the ground. The whale went through this crazy mind set, learning everything before he fell to his death, but all the pot of petunias thought was “Oh no, not again!” Which must have meant that at one point within the total spirituous lifespan of that pot of flowers, it had fallen to it’s death, at least once before.

This was amazing to me because the author obviously, but indirectly stated and backed up this statement which Shpongle has revealed in the lyrics you’ve just told out. Nothing Lasts but Nothing is Lost. It’s all just one big circle of life who’s energy is within constant motion.

And that’s why I’m not afraid of death! or the apocalypse! or the big 2012 hysteria or of anything! Cause when all the shit finally hits the fan, and everyone loses their heads in chaos and terror, you’ll find me in peace, ready to go and grow again. And that doesn’t even go so far as to say that our chance to grow will only ever be limited to a chance given to us on this planet by mother earth, for the spirit of you and I will surely outlive this galaxy, this one bright star in this ever expanding universe.

So, Nothing Lasts but Nothing is Lost, until the end of time.

Nothing lasts but nothing is lost.  The statement creates the philosophy of that which you wish to discuss. And this is a limiting factor.  So really, there is no thinking around it.  Once you base your view off of this then that is all it is.  There is nothing more.  That’s what I feel from this. I don’t feel that it has any meaning but more of a reason.  You see, by giving the audience a cyclic line like this, you instill deep thought within them. This could be the whole point behind the music. And it leads to exactly this.  What does it mean to you?  That is the beauty behind it all.  William Blake could have known this.  Shpongle could have this in mind.  They surely knew that no matter how they intended things to be understood in their material that it would be misconstrued by the many and varying masses that follow the material.
So…my view…it’s simply here to entertain as a notion and perhaps a truth.  It tells you to think but doesn’t tell you what to think and this is a good thing. I simply can’t reach further than this: No matter how much more there is, there is still nothing more.

great reading here. I agree with all of the above. x

I am really enjoying reading everyone’s opinions on the background and meaning of this timeless album.  This IS, without a doubt, my absolutely favorite album ever made and I love listening and coming up with ideas on the CD’s concepts.  I plan to come back on the forum later tonight (when I have more time), but in short, here are a few of my ideas:

-Overall, I think the album is the concept of a powerful psychedelic experience.  From the album title to the song titles to the nuances in the music, it makes complete sense to me.

-The returning themes in the album (which I noticed upon repeat listens) suggest that the traveler is ‘stuck’ in a loop, not unlike what is susceptible when one is in an altered state…

-Something REALLY interesting: I think that Simon could have possibly arranged and “timed” the songs to go along with the listener, had they taken a psychedelic substance before listening to this album.  In other words, I think that this album is probably (but not necessarily) meant to be listened to on a trip and that the songs are in the correct order and contain sounds and nuances that occur at a point on the album that will respectfully appear and accompany the listener at the right time in their experience.

Might be kind of a stretch, but after my first time ever hearing this album (it was an intense experience indeed…), this has always kind of been in the back of my mind. 

Let me know what you all think!

^ yea i totally agree with that.  In my opinion this kind of music is deffinitely made to be listened to in an altered state.  Its still enjoyable when your not tripping but its almost impossible to actually understand it, almost.  I havnt even heard this cd in an altered state yet but i feel like im starting to understand it to some degree by just listening to it like im meditating basically, and getting as stoned as possible, lol. 
The fist psychadelic music that i ever really got into (besides floyd and all the old school stuff) was Ozric Tentacles.  They are unreal, they are one with the plant that is for sure.  Well anyway i listened to the same cd almost everyday for a year or more, i knew every sound in that cd, i had it memorized. i believe it was Erpland.  Then one night I listened to it on some mushroom tea, and it was like I had never even heard it before.  It really sounded like completely different music, it was pretty crazy.  That was when i knew that this music was visionary. 
 
This type of music guides my trip, like the icaros that shamans in south america use to guide their ayahuasca experiences. 
“The returning themes in the album (which I noticed upon repeat listens) suggest that the traveler is ‘stuck’ in a loop, not unlike what is susceptible when one is in an altered state…”
-for sure! Thats what i was trying to explain, the samples from the movie “Waking Life” in the first song support this too, thats what that movie is about.  Its about a kid in a dream, that wakes up into another dream, and then into another dream, just going deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.  I have felt like this while in an altered state for sure, and it can get kinda scary, you lose all sense of time and start to feel like your going to be stuck there forever.  I think this is a microcosm to life on all aspects, like Tool says, a dream within a dream (i forget what song). 

If you havent seen the movie “Waking Life” i would put it at the top of your to do list.  For a movie that doesnt even have a specific reference to psychadelics, its the most psychadelic movie ive ever seen. 

Another interesting movie is Enter the Void.  It’s about a guy who dies and sort of wanders around the bardo realm before being born again.  Very interesting movie and it is shot from a first person viewpoint.  The main character also has some DMT trips although he doesn’t really ‘breakthrough’ just sort of trips out.

Anyways, an interesting movie and sort of a similar theme as what is being discussed in this thread.

^ that movie is NUTS!!!  ive never seen anything like it, they way they do it in first person perspective really draws you into it, makes you feel like you are experiencing the movie not just watching it.  The part when he is remembering his childhood (*this might be a spoiler, so if you havnt seen this movie dont read ahead it could ruin the emotion, maybe not i dont know, but if you havnt seen the movie dont risk it)

anyway, the part where hes remembering his childhood, sitting in the car with his sister and hes in that head on collision where his parents die scared the shit out of me! almost literally!  Its kindof a hard movie to watch.  I wish they would have done a full breakthru on the dmt part, although that would almost impossible to put in film.  It kinda made me think, maybe the fact that he died just after smoking the dmt is not a coincidence, like the trip is tied to real life events that might seem unrelated from the outside looking in.  I think this movie kinda made my girlfriend afraid of phsychadelics. 
It reminds me of a very scary experince i had a few months ago with some Bridgessi, nobody died thank god but things went horribly wrong, my girlfriend really freaked out and fell off of a balcony, ran out the front door of my friends house at 2am topless and screaming at the top of her lungs, bleeding from her face.  Anyway, I went after her of course, knowing that i was more than likely going to jail.  I flagged a cop down (never thought i would do that lol) he called an ambulance for her, (about $10,000 in hospital bills later she was ok) and arrested me, you know, just protecting and serving right? lol

Anyway, the part that reminds me of Enter the Void is that on the way to jail, i had this crazy feeling like something was going to go wrong.  I told the cop multiple times to slow down, it seemed like he was hauling ass, he responded “im going 5 over the speed limit, is that ‘hauling ass?’(in the usual smart ass cop tone) .  It wasnt 5 minutes after he said that there was a head on collision about 12 inches away from my face!  We were so close that it took me a few minutes to realize that we werent part of the crash.  The cop swereved to avoid the collision, so sharply that i smacked my head on the window pretty good.  It was a small 2 door blazer and a car, each going about 40 mph, literally the point of impact was just outside the passenger window, im not exagerrating when i say it was about 12 inches from my face.  The cars looked like shredded pop cans on the road, the 2 drivers (both drunk as hell) and the passenger that was in the car got out, looking like straight up zombies, covered in blood, huge lacerations on their faces.  It was really a miracle that nobody died.  Now from the outside looking in, these would be 2 unfortunate events that are totally unrelated, but i KNEW somethign was going to happen.  That sounds crazy i know, whats even crazier is that somehow i get the feeling that i created these events with my mind, like the mescaline took down my mental walls and truly exposed the scary power of my thoughts.  Anyway, that night was truly fucked up, it was hell, literally.