Rock n Roll will kill your soul Mahavishnu Swami ISKCON Mayapur Hare Krishna Hare Rama

Rock n' Roll will kill your soul

By LORRAINE EATON The Virginia-Pilot

Teen proves hard rock's bad for you

SUFFOLK, Va. - Your mom was right. Rock 'n' roll really does rot your brain. That's according to David Merrell, a 16-year-old Nansemond River High School student whose science experiment supports what parents have been saying for years: Hard rock taints the brain - well, at least the brains of mice.

Using 72 male laboratory mice, a stopwatch, a 5- by 3-foot maze and the music of Mozart and Anthrax, David worked with an Old Dominion University statistician to establish that hard rock impedes learning. In the process, the rising junior captured top honors in regional and state science fairs and earned accolades from the Navy and the CIA.

"Don't let your kids listen to hard rock music," he said. "I think it has a major negative effect." To prove his point, David assembled three separate groups of 24 mice: a control group, a hard rock group, and a classical group. To ensure scientific validity, each white mouse weighed between 15 and 20 grams, was 4 to 6 weeks old and was bred to ensure no genetic abnormalities existed. The mice spent the first week getting used to their controlled environment in David's parent's basement. They received measured feedings and 12 hours of light each day. Each mouse navigated the maze to establish the base time of about 10 minutes. Then David started piping in music 10 hours a day. The control group navigated without music. He put each mouse through the maze three times a week for three weeks.

The results: The control group shaved five minutes from its original time. The mice that navigated the maze with Mozart knocked 8 1/2 minutes off their time. But the group listening to hard rock bumped through the maze, dazed and confused, taking an average of 30 minutes, tripling the amount of time it previously took to complete the maze. Most noticeably, the hard rock mice didn't sniff the air to find the trails of others that came before them. "It was like the music dulled their senses," David said. "It shows point-blank that hard rock has a negative effect all around. I can't think of a positive effect that hard rock has" on learning.

In fact, David thinks that the negative effects go well beyond learning. During the four-month experiment David housed each mouse in separate aquariums. That's because last year, for a similar project, he kept each group together. The results were horrific. "I had to cut my project short because all the hard rock mice killed each other," David said.

David's awards include first place in the behavioral science division at the Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair and the Tidewater Science Fair. He also won Northern Virginia Community College's Veterinary Technology Award and accolades from the Newport News Art Commission, the Science and Humanitarian Symposium at James Madison University, the Navy, and the CIA.

SOUND...THE VEDIC VIEWPOINT

From the darkness of false ego, the first of the five elements, namely the sky, is generated. Its subtle form is the quality of sound, exactly as the seer is in relationship with the seen.

PURPORT
The five elements, namely sky, air, fire, water and earth, are all but different qualities of the darkness of false ego. This means that the false ego in the sum total form of mahat-tattva is generated from the marginal potency of the Lord, and due to this false ego of lording it over the material creation, ingredients are generated for the false enjoyment of the living being. The living being is practically the dominating factor over the material elements as the enjoyer, though the background is the Supreme Lord. Factually, save and except the Lord, no one can be called the enjoyer, but the living entity falsely desires to become the enjoyer. This is the origin of false ego. When the bewildered living being desires this, the shadow elements are generated by the will of the Lord, and the living entities are allowed to run after them as after a phantasmagoria.

It is said that first the tan-matra sound is created and then the sky, and in this verse it is confirmed that actually it is so, but sound is the subtle form of the sky, and the distinction is like that between the seer and the seen. The sound is the representation of the actual object, as the sound produced speaking of the object gives an idea of the description of the object. Therefore sound is the subtle characteristic of the object. Similarly, sound representation of the Lord, in terms of His characteristics, is the complete form of the Lord, as was seen by Vasudeva and Maharaja Dasaratha, the fathers of Lord Krishna and Lord Rama. The sound representation of the Lord is nondifferent from the Lord Himself because the Lord and His representation in sound are absolute knowledge. Lord Caitanya has instructed us that in the holy name of the Lord, as sound representation of the Lord, all the potencies of the Lord are invested. Thus one can immediately enjoy the association of the Lord by the pure vibration of the sound representation of His holy name, and the concept of the Lord is immediately manifested before the pure devotee. A pure devotee, therefore, is not aloof from the Lord even for a moment. The holy name of the Lord, as recommended in the sastras- Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Räma, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare- may therefore be constantly chanted by the devotee aspiring to be constantly in touch with the Supreme Lord. One who is thus able to associate with the Lord is sure to be delivered from the darkness of the created world, which is a product of false ego (tamasi ma jyotir gama).

- Srimad Bhagavatam 2:5:25

It is stated in the Vedanta-sutra that sound is the origin of all objects of material possession and that by sound one can also dissolve this material existence. Anavrttih sabdat means "liberation by sound." The entire material manifestation began from sound, and sound can also end material entanglement, if it has a particular potency. The particular sound capable of doing this is the transcendental vibration Hare Krishna. Our entanglement in material affairs has begun from material sound. Now we must purify that sound in spiritual understanding. There is sound in the spiritual world also. If we approach that sound, then our spiritual life begins, and the other requirements for spiritual advancement can be supplied. We have to understand very clearly that sound is the beginning of the creation of all material objects for our sense gratification. Similarly, if sound is purified, our spiritual necessities also are produced from sound.

- Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.26.32

COMMENT BY DINA-DAYADRA DASA (UK):

If they played the maha mantra to a group of mice they might end up dancing ecstatically and weeping tears of devotion, offering each other gifts of half
nibbled cheese, revealing their micey minds in confidence and losing their reproductive drive... that would be far out, maybe we should spiritualise the experiment ???