Interactions Between Records and James

            Placed in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood, there is a record shop, that explicitly only sells used records. The name of the used record store is A1 Records. I found myself walking through the store and looking through stacks upon stacks records. Pulling them out individually to listen to the music that lay in their grooves. New York has a rich history of cultivating music within its borders and this record store facilitates this cultivation. Some of the greatest musician trace their origin back to New York.

            William James lists four qualities that are present in all mystical experiences. The case can be made that many religious experiences take place when listening music. Those four qualities are ineffability, noetic quality, transiency, and passivity. A1 Records nurtures these mystical experiences via there available record players. By serving people as a seller of records, A1 Records is selling mysticism. William James states, “I think that personal religious experience has its root and center in mystical states of consciousness” (379). Music lies at the center of personal religious experience. In an age of individuality, and a city that emphasizes it, everybody has their own personal interaction with religion. In an intimately connected way, every person has their own personal connection with music; the connection is what A1 Records facilitates.

The first quality that James describes is ineffability: “The subject of it immediately says that it defies expression that no adequate report of its contents can be given words” (380). Out of the four qualities this is the hardest to justify. Many music critics make their living off of describing the music they listen to. However, the rhythmic quality can never be completely described with words. When a Muslim girl reads the Quran in a rhythmic way, there is a quality to her speech that can never be put into words. This indescribable nature of rhythm allows for some of the best qualities of music to be present. James even states, “One must have musical ears to know the value of a symphony” (380). James agrees that part of what allows for people to understand the timeless value of music is its indescribable nature.

The next quality William James looks at is the Noetic Quality of mystical experiences. “Although so similar to states of feeling, mystical states seem to those who experience them to be also states of knowledge. They are states of insight into depths of truth unplumbed by the discursive intellect” (380). James believes that when one truly is immersed in a mystical experience they receive a personal enlightenment. Anyone that has felt a personal connection with an artist, album or even just a song would agree that the first time they heard that music they felt that they had experienced beauty during that listen.

James believes that the two qualities above are implicit in a mystical experience but that transiency and passivity are found in most religious experiences. James explains transiency. “Mystical states cannot be sustained for long” (381). An implicit aspect of music is that the song will eventually end. Although, it may repeated several times the first listen to an especially special piece of music is when I would argue would mystical experience occurs. Using James’ first example of déjà vu, he and I are in agreement. When one experiences déjà vu, this sensation is temporary but it is memorable because of the sensations experienced during the time when it was experienced.   

James finishes his description by informing the reader how passivity is connected to mystical experiences. “When the characteristic sort of consciousness once has set in, the mystic feels as if his own will were in abeyance, and indeed sometimes as if he were grasped and held by a superior power” (381). The obvious way to show passivity is when you notice your foot tapping the beat of a song or dancing subconsciously to music. It occurs because you feel a lack of control over your limbs and the rhythms and vibrations seize control over you. This feeling overcoming you is similar to the feeling that John experienced in Church in Go Tell it on the Mountain, when God overcame him because at its core, passivity is a loss of control. James calls it a superior power, which doesn’t seem like a good way of describing music. However, that is the perfect way to describe music. That is the best way to describe anything passive because it is inherently a superior power if it takes over us.