Lateralus

This is my favorite song. It has a totally different concept of “the golden mean”, to the one most people have. To explain this, first you need to find the Fibonacci sequence in this song. The way Maynard (the vocalist) sings some versus of this song fits in so well with the Fibonacci sequence, that it could not just be a coincidence. When listening to the song, if you count the Syllables in each line as he sings them, you get a paten like this…

1 Black
1 Then
2 white are,
3 all I see
5 in my infancy.
8 Red and yellow then came to be,
5 reaching out to me.
3 Lets me see.
2 there is
1 so
1 much
2 more and
3 beckons me
5 to look thru to these
8 infinite possibilities.
13 As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
8 drawn outside the lines of reason.
5 Push the envelope.
3 Watch it bend.

The Fibonacci sequence starts with 1 and 1. You than add the second number to the first and you get 2. You then add 2 and 1 and get 3. You then add 3 and 2 and get 5. You than add5 and 3 and you get 8. ect ect… the numbers keep getting bigger and bigger. There is no limit to how far this sequence can go. If you follow the sequence far enough, you will get the number 987. This is Important. The time signature for this song is 9/8 8/8 7/8, repeating. If you graph the Fibonacci sequence, you get a spiral starting at 1, and spiraling outwards from the center, it has no end point so it just keeps going. This spiral is often found in nature.

The Golden mean spiral, on the other hand is defined by the number phi. Which is 1. 61803399. At first glance the two spirals look almost the same. On closer inspection, you will notice that the golden mean spiral spins at a slightly different ratio to the Fibonacci spiral. Also, where the Fibonacci spiral has a defined starting point, the golden mean spiral does not. It spirals in getting smaller and smaller, and out getting bigger and bigger, forever.

So how do all These spiral relate to the song? Well if you wore to draw the Fibonacci spiral, and the golden mean spiral on the same graph you would see that at first The to spirals are quite different, but as they grow the Fibonacci spiral will spin closer and closer to the path of the golden mean spiral. Its almost like the Fibonacci spiral is trying to imitate the golden mean spiral. Eventually they become so close that they join and become the same spiral. If you say that the golden mean spiral is a metaphor for your higher self, your subconscious, your ultimate state of mind, a paragon of existence, a higher thing / being, or ( insert your own idea here).

And say that the Fibonacci spiral is a metaphor for your conscious self, your conscious mind, your physical body, man kind. Or (insert you own idea here).Now if you take those metaphors and apply them to the explanation above you get: “(insert golden mean metaphor meaning here) is the all perfect eternal paragon of life, that has no beginning and no end, and keeps spiraling out and bettering its self, and (insert Fibonacci metaphor meaning here) is you, who has a starting point (birth) spiraling out trying to imitate the golden mean, and becoming more and more like it, until you become part of it and keep spiraling out”

With this concept in mind read the lyrics.