Gong Essay for "Death as a Fact of Life"

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share with everyone an essay I wrote on "Gong" for my religion course, "Death as a Fact of Life", a course on spirituality, religion, death, life and all else in discussion.

Life as a Fact of Death

Brian Travers

            This essay is inspired by years of interest in the topics of spirituality, life, death, philosophy, and my being a very strong musical hobbyist.   I have chosen to research this specific topic in the hopes of furthering my understanding of these ideals, how they are presented through music and art, and a chance at sharing them with others.  The content herein is vast, deeply insightful and has been overall a very pleasurable, important and exciting experience in learning and understanding.  I hope I have and may continue to further my knowledge on this subject matter, and that you, the reader, may be intrigued, inspired or just simply interested in the views presented here.

            I actually began my research into the entire mystery of life, death and spirituality very early in my life, around the age of twelve or so.  Perhaps not with the full intent of actually researching anything, I found myself thinking long and hard in awe and wonderment to what, at the time, was a stunningly fresh bit of say, “food for thought”.  I never quite fell into any category of religious faith although I was built up on grounds of Christianity to which I still base many ideals and morals on in my life.  So, I was left with a good bit of freedom in my questioning things; slowly stepping out of the young frivolity of childhood and becoming more and more intrigued by these enormous mysteries.  “What happens when I die?” I would ask, and even more so, “What does life mean for us, me? What is the purpose, meaning…what exactly is going on here?” and so forth.  These questions run through the minds of, if I can assume with fair certainty, all human beings on this planet at some point.  A truly beautiful, wondrous, albeit sometimes frustrating, experience it has been to engulf myself in this idea and questioning.  Being given the opportunity to actually research this has been something of a revelation of its own.  Although I have indeed thought about this for years, to enforce upon myself a written, research driven explanation is to come to a brand new knowledge in itself.  The ideals put forth here, for which I have researched thoroughly, have become more so than ever the fundamentals for the way of life that I have chosen to pursue.  Putting that content into written word has become all the more meaningful for portrayal and understanding.  This I have done with full respect and regard for the beliefs of others, and with a strong construct of these beliefs; spiritual, religious and all else.

“Now if you want to know just how to tune into the vibes of the planet, nobody else can tell you, everybody got there own way to do it” –

(Eat That Phonebook Coda – Angel’s Egg)

            The focus of this text is on a scarcely known band whose music encompassed an entire cultural belief on ideas of spirituality, “God”, life, death, and passionately insightful answers to the aforementioned questions of my teenage years.  This culture entails the life and times of the Hippy scene of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in America as well as the rest of the world.  This band is the center of my research on this enticingly deep topic; this band is simply known as Gong; a progressive rock band born out of France in and around 1967, finding their “sound” and legacy in the city of Canterbury in South East England.  This city would give birth to a cluster of bands involved in similar styles of psychedelically driven jazz and musical innovation, including The Soft Machine, Caravan, Egg and Matching Mole to name a few.  “Progressive Rock” is a genre of music which truly found itself in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.  The genre, at its base, includes musicians interested in fresh musical ideas and innovations. Another essential descriptive element of progressive rock is that it contains a vast array of other musical genres jumbled together to create unique and often inventive sounds.  Most all bands in Canterbury at this time were involved in progressive music and would often interconnect with one another.  The history of Gong and the Canterbury scene is extremely vast and lengthy, but giving a brief explanation is quite important to support their strong connection to the culture and beliefs of the time.

Gong was formed by guitarist Daevid Allen, an Australian musician turned French residing hippy commune member with a fiendish love for impoverished, musical, drug, love and peace driven lifestyles.  Co-founding the band was key fellow hippy member Gilli Smyth who, alongside Daevid, remains a strong element in the band to this day for her inventive “space whispers” and poetry.  The two would later meet with sax and flute player Didier Malherbe who would also become and remain an outstanding part of the band.  A few respectively insignificant affiliates, regarding the entire repertoire of the band’s legacy, were also involved in early recordings and sessions.  Essentially, the original combination of Daevid and Gilli would be the basis for bringing an entirely unique experience of musical insight to the world, or at least to their fan base. The band would later gather some ingeniously talented musicians of the time, a feverish cult following, and an incredibly deep artistic insight into life, death, and spirituality through a loving, peaceful and often humorous method.  Coming off as almost hazardous to the average Joe, perhaps equipped with blinders and ear plugs, the sound and experience that was “Gong” embodied the Hippy conceptions for an entire way of living and believing, and they did it with sheer style and outrageous attitude.

“To pass beyond the countless worlds
The eternal wheel
The ceaseless tides of selves
Ever passing away before our eyes...” –

(Other Side of the Sky – Angel’s Egg)

            Author Rick Strassman, M.D., wrote an incredibly insightful book entitled “DMT: The Spirit Molecule” in which he studies a psychedelic drug, DMT, on volunteer patients in an effort to understand near death experience, the human pineal gland, psychological themes and mystical experiences.  DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is a naturally occurring, short term yet extremely potent and powerful psychedelic found in the blood-brain barrier of all human beings, and other living creatures alike.  The aformentioned pineal gland is a quite mysterious gland in the center of our brains presumably responsible for near death experience, or other mystical concepts.  This gland is referred to as a third eye by various religions and spiritual thinkers, and even comes equipped with a retina and cornea in some reptiles.  It is interesting to note that the Ancient Greeks belived it to be our connection to the “Realms of Thought”.  This third eye, as mentioned previously, is what the Switch Doctor opens for all of the humans at the end of the “Radio Gnome Invisible” trilogy.  Doctor Strassman studied the effects of this drug administered intravaneously, and found some stunning results sure to give anyone goosebumps.  The similarities between explanations of experiences, drug and non-drug induced, are the real shocking aspects of the results.  For example, an explanation of a near death experience being a spitting image of a DMT experience, in short.  Strassman ultimately draws the conclusion that DMT is a sort of “spirit molecule” and our connection to the soul, or spirit.  Testing has been done in the past with other psychedelics as well,  and there are a few strong groups always attempting to gain the ability to do further testing on these currently illegal drugs.  The 1960’s LSD work of Oscar Janiger, M.D., was recently published in “LSD: Spirituality and the Creative Process” and illustrates some similair themes to the DMT research but with a stronger focus on creativity testing in music and art.  Although there are countless books on these substances, the important idea here is to understand their importance to the hippes, and especially Gong and their message.  Psychedelics were assumed to have opened the minds of all who took them, give a greater insight into life and were assumed possibly reflective, at times, of death or birth.  Another book providing foundation for hippy fundamentals is the classic “The Doors of Perception” by Aldous Huxley.  The books insight into a mescaline experience, taken by Aldous himself, helped influence the minds of many people on thinking “outside the box”.  The psychedelic experience became of great interest after this and would support heavy changes in mass outlook on spirituality and religion.  These drugs have found a large home in indiginous cultures throughout the world for ages as well.  Their role in these cultures is extremely important to the beliefs and customs involved.  Many of them entheogenically utilize psychedelics to connect with other worlds/realms of thought, experience religious or spiritual fulfilment, and as healing agents for physical or mental ailments.  All of  this was and still is a strong part of the hippy ideology, and a primary reason for the actual birth of the hippy youth, open minded thought, and breaking away from disagreeable conformist attitudes.  It is also a very strong part of the “Radio Gnome Invisible” trilogy, of course, and now some deserving insight into that subject matter!

            The trilogy is made up of three albums;  “The Flying Teapot” (1973), “Angel’s Egg” (1973), and “YOU” (1974).  We find throughout this trilogy, ultimately, a strive for peace and harmony for all human beings and Zero, as well as all of us, can achieve this.  The entire story is pretty elaborate and involves a lot of little moments and scenes that even the biggest fan could get lost or forget some bits and pieces.  Rather than focusing on the story bits, gathering the moments of insight into the whole belief system is more efficient.  We find the most references to belief in “Angel’s Egg” and “YOU”, the last two albums of the trilogy.  “Flying Teapot” is really an introduction to the whole tieing together of Daevid’s earlier ideas to create this trilogy.  There is a more “spacey” sound found throughout these albums as well, all adding to the great message of it all.  “Angel’s Egg” kicks off lyrically with a strike at organized religion with Zero exclaiming “…I'm so sick of God and these bishops that talk of divinity” in the second track, “Sold to the Highest Buddha”.  The lyrics here show an even stronger emphasis on spirituality vs. organized religious belief than ever before.  The Planet Gong apparently has no room for corruption of its ideals, and seems to be shunning here certain historical paths of Catholicism.  Taken from the eighth track, “Oily Way”, Gong shows their hippy views on peace with “Time for the end of…Hate! War! Death!”, and their disdain for the capitalistic world in “You big daddy in your big sick city, gotta choose to loose your games now”.  All of this referenced on previous albums, but now coming out in full force and in perfect harmony with an elaborate storyline.  The fictitious “planet” that is the Planet Gong is meant to be a sort of utopia, where peace and love reign constantly, possibly residing on the dark side of the moon.  This is truly set forth by “Love Is How You Make It”, the twelfth track on the album.  This song basically encompasses the band’s ideas that love can save humanity, while also helping one cope with all of life’s questions and problems. 

“Everything you give to share…when you come together, then you’re one with lovers everywhere, everywhere...” –

(Love Is How You Make It – Angel’s Egg)

            The ideas taken in by the band on “love” are very reflective of Christian ethics, to use a close example.  The teachings of Jesus Christ involve very much the same basic morale of the hippy movement.  The strong sense of love and understanding brings us to “YOU”, and the idea that we are all as one, one in the same person, and to love and help one another always, friend or foe.  “YOU” is the last album in the trilogy and probably the band’s most popular and most widely respected work.  The album finishes the story of Zero, and has an all surrounding foundation that is “everyone is everybody else”.  This philosophy is born out of the belief that we are all human beings under one same mystery of life, and we are born into this life pure of mental corruption or experience.  Due to this freedom in birth, we should not subject one another to criticisms or attacks, but rather help one another in a sense of strong compassion.  Ideas on compassion held through Gong’s lyrics are all very reflective of Christian ethics and Jesus Christ’s early teachings as well.  Also leaning towards Daevid’s ideas on cycling births and death, or reincarnation, many times he references “being” other people.  This again is trying to evoke the idea that we are all one in the same boat, and if we can learn this we can find peace in full understanding and love.  Other bands of the time regarded this idea whole heartedly, with one Barclay James Harvest entitling their fifth album “Everyone is Everybody Else” in 1974.  That album made a great attempt at conveying this idea and emitting heavy feelings of compassion and love.  In the final track on “YOU” entitled “You Never Blow Yr Trip Forever”, the last words of the trilogy, “You are I or I am You” show this philosophy in full form.