A-Wake! Part Two

"Now, were was I?"

"Spirituality and success... 
That's literally what you natter about all the time. 
So, I guess it couldn't be far from this." 

Paul's ironic words made me realise that I must've been talking on that subject for ages. For a split second Paul managed to make me feel embarrassed.

"Just pulling your leg.
You were saying about the success of Wake Me Up."

Paul had been a perfect English gentleman until then. He'd invited me to visit Dewsbury and was playing cicerone. He'd been patiently listening to my considerations on Wake. Then I asked him to take a pic of me while I struck a pose reading Revenge Wears Prada. 





A few shots later, when I'm finally happy, with the angle and background of the pic, I forgot where exactly I'd interrupted my line of thought.






I was actually offering a possible explanation to such a strange combination of words and lines in Wake Me Up. I had Revenge Wears Prada in hands because I was showing Paul that the title would sound quite odd if not for the title of the previous book The Devil Wears Prada. Revenge, collocated with Wears Prada, gets its coherence of meaning when considered by the reference to The Devil; then, one automatically gets that the Devil, Miranda Pristley, who had her buttons pushed all the way in the previous novel, now personifies the will of revenge. Similarly, once we consider the original references to the choice of words in Wake, we do understand their meaning under another light.

And whilst the music video sheds a helpful light to the meaning of the words in Wake, the words actually precede the video. 

So, in terms of coherence and meaning, the words in Wake should be self sufficient.

Even if the first lines don't seem to follow a logic connection, we tend to complete the meaning. How's that a beating heart can be used as a mean to guide some one who is feeling [his] way through the darkness?


A guiding dog, the arms and hands, a stick; all these would be more appropriate material. But we, naturally, complete the meaning with our life experience. The composer refers to the heart of the person who is feeling the way. Beating heart is used as synonym to / metaphor of intuition. This is an authentic interpretation.

These two lines (and whole song), however, gain new colours when

we realise that they seem to refer back to words and ideas from

American texts on Law of Attraction.

The Science of Getting Rich by

Wallace Wattles (1910).

The Secret 

of Ages by 

Robert Collier

(1926).

The words in Wake refer to a journey dreamed by someone young; judging by the words of admonition such journey seems to be too great to be accomplished. He/she is faced with a daunting prospect. But the young person seems to be sure of him/herself because he/she knows something that others don't.

The person knows how to be guided by a beating heart in order to feel his/her way through the darkness. 

Beating heart, rather than a metaphor, is used here as a metonym to the subconscious mind. In Secret of Ages, the first reference to the biological organ heart is made to explain how powerful and all-knowing is the subconscious mind.

"The subconscious mind is a distinct entity. It occupies the whole human body, and, when not opposed in any way, it has absolute control over all the functions, conditions, and sensations of the body. (...) Nutrition, waste, all secretion and excretions, the action of the heart in the circulation of the blood... are positively under the complete control of the subconscious mind."

The notion of feeling (not seeing) a way through the darkness is introduced just 7 lines below the reference to the action of the heart. "And more, it (the subconscious) can see without the use of physical eyes. It perceives by intuition."

Nowadays, mostly everyone is used to the expression trust your heart as a metaphor to intuition. But trust your heart may have once sounded in the past just as strange as trust your lungs or trust your bowels may sound today. Even so, these expressions are equally based in the metonym 'organ functions for the subconscious'.

"Your conscious mind may slumber. (...) But your subconscious mind works on, keeping your heart and lungs, your arteries and glands ever on the job."

According to precepts explained in Science and Secret, the subconscious mind is just part of some greater intelligence - called Formless Stuff (Science) and Universal Mind (Secret) - that controls the laws of nature and some events of reality. So, besides controlling all the complex functions of the body, our subconscious mind serves as a link of communication with this greater intelligence. That's how humans have the power to accomplish even the most impossible endeavours. This leads us to the following lines of Wake.

I can't tell where 

the journey will end

But I know where to start

These lines, it seems, refer to a precept of Law of Attraction that is explicitly explained in Science.

"I recall now the case of one student (...). He was (...) living in a rented house, and having only what he earned from day to day; and he could not grasp that all wealth was his. So, (...) he decided that he might reasonably ask [using the power of his subconscious mind] for a new rug for the floor of his best room. (...) he obtained these things in a few months. (...) He went through the house in which he lived, and planned all the improvements he would like to make in it. (...) [He continued] moving toward what he wanted, and he owns the house now."

I can't tell where the journey will end diverges from the precept preached in these books that one 'must form a clear mental picture of what you want'. Still, I know where to start seems to refer to the initial image that one has to form and achieve to go for the greater picture. Also, it seems authentic to interpret that I can't tell where the journey will end expresses irony, since the line I know where to start actually conveys certainty and a definite purpose.

Irony is actually all over the following words; it's a response against the admonition of those who doubt that he/she is able to accomplish the journey.

They say I'm caught up in a dream

Well life will pass me by if I don't open my eyes

Well that's fine by me

Irony is also a sign that he/ she isn't shaken by opinions of doubters.

Irony is, perhaps, used as more than just a reaction. 

It's conveys observance to precepts of Law of Attraction.

This is what Science says about doubt.

"If doubt comes to you, cast it aside as a sin."

Think and Grow Rich

by Napoleon Hill (1938)...

...is another work that approach the precepts of LOA. It has a lot more to say about the matter of admonition.

"The majority of people who fail (...) are, generally, easily influenced by the opinions of others."

"If you are influenced by the opinions of others, you will have no desire of your own."

"Close friends and relatives, (...) often handicap one through opinions."

It goes on...

The great success of Wake may have nothing to do with its subtle message of spirituality and success. It may just please the public as some other meaningless songs do. Its references to texts on Law of Attraction seem evident though. And perhaps the success Avicii is enjoying is a result of his own mastery of the precepts of LOAttraction.

If the intersection of words and ideas between Wake and the texts mentioned above isn't sufficient to substantiate their connection, then the association between Avicii and the American soul singer Aloe Blacc should do.

One of Blacc's first hits is called Shine Through; it contains words like

"Do you know that you have a soul

And it's worth more than gold.

Open your mind (...) And you will find treasures."

The message here is clearly one of spirituality and success (wealth);
and such topics are undeniably the focus of LOAttraction.

Hopefully, after this much consideration, I managed to establish two points: the words in Wake fit the category of strangeness and the words in Wake depicts a message of spirituality and success.

Wake doesn't end here, but that's enough for now. 

I'll continue with these considerations in A-Wake! Part Three.

Please, continue coming back.

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