2016: Year Zero

I'm deciding to make a nice fresh clean start in 2016. First up, I'm dropping the Flat Earth hashtag. What was a genuine free-thinking investigation into the nature of the world we're living in is now morphing into something a bit more murky. I don't know where it's going so I think I'll just sidestep it all and continue doing my own thing. I'm starting to feel like the snake is eating its own tail to be honest.

Amusingly, I even recently heard the conspiracy researcher Thomas Sheridan claim that flat earthers are using binaural beats to brainwash people. Now I make songs with binaural beats, or at least I used to, and I even used them in a few of my early Flat Earth videos! To my knowledge I think I'm the only person to actually do this, in fact if you search 'Binaural Beats Flat Earth' on YouTube one of my videos pops up top of the list. So I guess I'm part of the psy-op - now I really do feel like I'm in it far too deep. I even described the music as mood and mind control on the Facebook page I created for it. Talk about being hoisted by your own petard xD

https://www.facebook.com/freckledmonkey/

For those unfamiliar a binaural beat is an auditory illusion that is created by putting two different pure tones into a listeners ears. For example, say a tone of 400hz is put in one ear and a tone of 405hz put in the other, the listener will perceive to hear a third tone of 5hz - the difference between the two. Some people believe that this third tone, effectively created by the brain, can then help move the brainwaves of the listener towards that frequency. Helping to induce a different mood.

Opinions vary about whether there is any real evidence for this actually working, however when I've listened to this type of music I've found it very useful in helping me relax. Then again, of course, this could simply be some type of placebo effect. Either way it's interesting though.

In fact, in many ways all music is about manipulating another person's mood or inducing a feeling in someone. Think of the catchy advertising jingle, or the pop song you can't get out of your head. Or how a happy song can make you feel happy, or a sad one make you feel sad :(

Or think about how you may start tapping your foot or bobbing your head automatically even though you're not consciously aware that there's even music playing in the background. Also think about how hypnotic shamanic rhythmic tribal drumming can be - whoever has the drum is in control.

In modern culture it's no different, only much more complex. I love most genres of music, but I especially admire the irresistible force of catchy pop music, especially the type that often gets labelled "Illuminati Pop Music" in the conspiracy world. That's normally the good stuff! - Rihanna, Beyonce, Lady Gaga. It has a candy-sweet addictiveness to it. Possibly even more so than what used to get labelled the "Devil's music" - Rock & Roll.

It's often said that the pen is mightier than the sword, it might be worth adding though that the guitar is mightier than the pen. I think I might continue on this theme of the power of music in 2016 actually. It might be a fitting replacement for Flat Earth, especially given that it overlaps quite neatly with mathematics and the so-called Music of the Spheres.

I'll leave this article with one of my Flat Earth videos from 2015. This one is possibly the only one that had any real merit. The rest were all a little bit crappy. It has birds, bees, UFOs, a David Icke sample ..and a binaural beat thrown in for good measure :p

Good luck in 2016 everyone :)