Altered states of consciousness

Not to promote the drugged lifestyle, but sleep deprivation and a Grolsch beer before putting on headphones and playing a song with serious stereophonic separation, while focusing very closely into the iTunes Visualizer can really, really cause you to momentarily lose your local grasp of stuff. Since entertainment is supposed to do exactly that, and the effect is over when the song ends, it's harmless.

I have no idea if this is common for everyone, or if it's like those damnable stereographic puzzles that only some people can see. Based upon what I saw when I worked off-duty security at a rave once, I suspect that it's a pretty common phenomenon, but lots of kids seem to think that they need a heavy dose of Ecstasy to make it work.

The aforementioned "Starship Trooper", at the instrumental about 3/4 of the way through, does it nicely. I suspect that The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" would do it. Countless others. Maybe Penguin Cafe Orchestra pieces.

Music has often been claimed to transcend the listener. I'm pretty visual. If I can get the visuals to match the aural, and both are particularly good, something occasionally happens for a few seconds. It's a nice diversion. I can't make this music, and I can't make the video to accompany it. I've seen dancers that could do the latter, and have known musicians that could probably do the former.

Heh. But then again, I was impressed as a kid when they arranged the lights at the skating rink to be in sync with the music. . .