“There is a difference between one and another hour of life in their authority and subsequent effect. Our faith comes in moments; our vice is habitual. Yet is there a depth in those brief moments, which constrains us to ascribe more reality to them than to all other experiences . For this reason, the argument, which is always forthcoming to silence those who conceive extaordinary hopes of man, namely, the appeal to experience, is forever invalid and vain. A mightier hope abolishes despair. We give up the past to the objector, and yet we hope… We grant that human life is mean; but how did we find out that it was mean? What is the ground of this uneasiness of ours, of this old discontent? … The most exact calculator has no prescience that somewhat incalculable may not baulk the very next moment.” (from the essay “The Over-Soul”, published in Emerson’s first Essay series, 1841)
For my part, especially in terms of music, it was extraordinary moments of “authority” that I experienced at performances under special circumstances – both others’ and my own – that began to give me solid data, internally, of the existence of other worlds – or of, shall we say, layers and levels to reality-so-called – that have had a magnificent “subsequent effect”. It is the continuation of that awakening, some 40-odd years ago now, that pushes me forward still to present music-meditation-concerts at the present time. If you’re in or near Portland, I hope you can join us for the pursuit of “Experiences in Synchronicity” Sunday 3/30/14 at 3 pm, at the Portland Piano Company, Portland, Oregon. Admission is free – donations to support these events are gratefully appreciated.
David Salminen 
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