Living Inside the Shell
This is a lengthy, self-indulgent post. Move along.
The following are lyrics to "Living Inside the Shell," a song played during the credits to "Ghost Inside the Shell SAC 2nd Gig." It is sung by Steve Conte. I do not know the lyricist at the moment, but copyrights belong to the Japanese production in question and artists relevant, a lengthy list to be sure.
Roaming in between the worlds of sleep and awake
Seems so far away from where I've been and unsure but not afraid
Entrusting -- my soul -- I know I must be taken to see the world that is
Not so far from now
Imaginations come and sweep the shores of my mind
Letting it be, visions pass, and emotions arise--
Letting them go, and beyond are doors I've never seen, open one by one
(Wake up and show the light)
I hear a voice, hear a voice calling out to me
(Wake up the time is right)
Look inside, see the light now ever holding you
All the truth is all you need to make of your reality, it's right here
Look deep within your shell
Finding out a galaxy of planets and stars within me
Listening to each of them singing the same silent melody
I've never seen such beauty in possibility -- no speck of doubt or fear
(Wake up and show the light)
I hear a voice, hear a voice calling out to me
(Wake up the time is right)
I see inside, see the light now ever holding me
All the truth, all I need to make of this reality (it's inside)
The beauty within the shell
(Wake up and show the light)
I hear a voice, hear a voice calling out to me
(Wake up the time is right)
I see inside, see the light now ever holding me
All the truth, all I need to make of this reality, it's inside
Right here within the shell
The sand glass starts for another time's beginning from within
Cotton fields, mama's arms are gently unfolding me into the new...
(Wake up and show the light, wake up the time is right)
[Reading]
Here from behind my sight, my thoughts my mind
Show the light
The time is right
And from the depth within show the balance
Of outer and inner harmony
Mind and heart, soul and spirit are undivided
Here's my true strength and beauty lies
We'll see this before us with our own eyes
We'll see, with our own eyes... LOVE
(Wake up and show the light)
I hear a voice, hear a voice calling out to me
(Wake up the time is right)
I see inside, see the light now ever holding you
All the truth (all the truth), all I need (all i need) to make of this reality (it's inside)
The beauty within the shell
(Deep within the shell, within the shell)
(Wake up and show the light)
I hear a voice, hear a voice calling out to me
(Wake up the time is right)
I see inside, see the light now ever holding me
All the truth (all the truth), all I need (all i need) to make of this reality it's inside
right here within the shell
(Wake up and show the light)
I hear a voice calling out to me
(Wake up the time is right)
I see inside the light now holding me
All the truth, all I need to make of this reality
(It's inside, all within the shell, all within the shell)
(Wake up and show the light, wake up the time is right)
For you unfamiliar with Ghost in the Shell, it's a cyberpunk future set in a post-WWIV Japan, where consciousness can be transplanted into androids and robots, making society a mix of cyborgs and "fully prosthetic" people who are as commonplace as not. Because the wars cyberized a lot of people, ex-military are easy to spot by certain prosthetic upgrades, and rich people easy to spot by their perfect prosthetic bodies. Only the poor look like the diseased, warty, disheveled, unwashed, unkempt, blemished masses they are.
Therefore, there's a buzzword "ghost" that represents the gestalt personality/lifeforce/experience/memory/emotional response/et al - likely a substitute term for "soul" making it more technical and less metaphysical, for it's a nearly-tangible thing in this world. People are connected to the network (never called the "Internet," btw), and cyberspace is represented as avatars and a Gibson-like set of 3-dimensional shapes, spheres, cylinders, discs, roads, etc., interconnected by a mesh of glowing paths and curiously complicated display screens and information displays are used between people (why put information in a trapezoid?). Mis-step here however, and you can physically be affected - the interface plugs at the back of your skull where the wires are plugged in (haven't they considered some brain cage induction method safer?) heat up, spark, and maybe burn out - taking you with it. (US would have never safety approved this design - but apparently it's an Imperial government, and split also into a part Russian territory. Boy, did they get that wrong!)
Point is, you may live in a shell of many sorts in this world - therefore the multi-layered message of these lyrics. It speaks to those in human fleshy "shells" as well as those inside prosthetic cyberbrain shells, and even those fully cyberized whose consciousness is borne only by the net itself (e.g. an AI) where the shell is the servers. The focus of 2nd Gig was about "Individual 11" who were apparently another "Stand Alone Complex" (SAC) that were triggered into action by some unknown stimulus. This may be their song.
Too bad their acts upon awakening were terrorist acts done in order to further the seditionist agenda of someone trying to secure independence of the Chinese refugees in Japan, which was a smokescreen for... well, you'd have to watch the series to see how it all unravels.
OK, I explained all this really to drive home the concept of a "shell" and its multi-layered meaning in the lyrics, and what "waking up" may mean to someone in a shell, like waking out of a cyberspace dive, or out of a cyberbrain lock, or break a back-hack, or just wake up out of bed. Or maybe activate your Individual 11 file...?
First verse: Dreaming of a near future, unsure but not afraid - this is definitely how many visionaries start their sermons. They commit their very soul to be given a vision.
2nd: Soon the doors of imagination open. New visions come, new sights.
3rd: The revelation. A voice calls out, showing him the light (of being?) inside, all the truth, all needed to make of this reality, telling him it is right there (is it cyberspace? subjective reality? dreams?) - The beauty within his (any) shell.
4th: Perhaps the most personally relevant to me, the vision of how each of us contains within our own cosmos, all the cells themselves and atoms within singing the same silent melody. In any case, seeing any such "beauty in possibility" would usually strike awe, but here it is described "without a speck of doubt or fear," making it another sort of accepting, knowing experience - like knowledge beyond knowing.
5th: Repeat of 3rd, with an exception that it is now internalized. The chorus however asserts "it's inside" his shell.
6th: Repeat of 5th, except main singer says "it's inside."
7th: Time starts again - a reboot? The imagery is consistent with dreams, yet could be how a cyberbrain might process the function, or a concussion might process, as well as a dream.
8th: Just the chorus beckons to wake up, show the light (rise and shine!), the time is right (for Individual 11?)
The reading: This may be a quotation from the Individual 11 manuscript. It repeats most of the verse above, still adding the conclusion: LOVE. This is the conclusion of what many religions state when you have harmony of inner and outer spirit, that it flows naturally.
Outer and inner harmony - often a zen and other religious goal, Japanese, Buddhist and multi-culturally relevant imagery - something most of us wish for, a truer definition of peace is hard to define.
10th: Same as 5th, with extra chorus echoing more verse, apparently pulling the main voice awake. Note however the shift in phrasing, the speaker is evangelizing to YOU.
11th: Same as 10th, but back to self again.
12th: The most abbreviated version of 3rd verse, with the chorus speaking most of the mind echoes. Perhaps this is what makes the song the most haunting, as softly spoken lyrics often soak into the conscious lots deeper than loud messages.
13th: Fade with only chorus, again speaking to the sleepers...
There's a very alluring concept about cyberspace, having been born more or less by William Gibson and visualized by many cinematically from TRON onwards. GitS is yet another dystopian vision, but still something people long for, because it promises a form of immortality - prosthetic upgrades and cyberbrains, actually being able to replace your brain with another machine that can do the job and still be "you." As your "ghost" can live inside another "shell."
Waking up is something I went through - in a process known as the "est training," one of the great money-making cult schemes of Werner Erhard (look up on Wiki). I don't feel very awakened or alert or enlightened today. The est-holes would say "I'm back in my head," or in GitS parlance, I'm in my human shell, autistic mode.
I do have something to share about it however, the lightness of being really is unbearable. It has to be shared lest you explode from within. All the truth, all you need to make this reality - is right inside the shell. Just look deep within. <3
The following are lyrics to "Living Inside the Shell," a song played during the credits to "Ghost Inside the Shell SAC 2nd Gig." It is sung by Steve Conte. I do not know the lyricist at the moment, but copyrights belong to the Japanese production in question and artists relevant, a lengthy list to be sure.
Roaming in between the worlds of sleep and awake
Seems so far away from where I've been and unsure but not afraid
Entrusting -- my soul -- I know I must be taken to see the world that is
Not so far from now
Imaginations come and sweep the shores of my mind
Letting it be, visions pass, and emotions arise--
Letting them go, and beyond are doors I've never seen, open one by one
(Wake up and show the light)
I hear a voice, hear a voice calling out to me
(Wake up the time is right)
Look inside, see the light now ever holding you
All the truth is all you need to make of your reality, it's right here
Look deep within your shell
Finding out a galaxy of planets and stars within me
Listening to each of them singing the same silent melody
I've never seen such beauty in possibility -- no speck of doubt or fear
(Wake up and show the light)
I hear a voice, hear a voice calling out to me
(Wake up the time is right)
I see inside, see the light now ever holding me
All the truth, all I need to make of this reality (it's inside)
The beauty within the shell
(Wake up and show the light)
I hear a voice, hear a voice calling out to me
(Wake up the time is right)
I see inside, see the light now ever holding me
All the truth, all I need to make of this reality, it's inside
Right here within the shell
The sand glass starts for another time's beginning from within
Cotton fields, mama's arms are gently unfolding me into the new...
(Wake up and show the light, wake up the time is right)
[Reading]
Here from behind my sight, my thoughts my mind
Show the light
The time is right
And from the depth within show the balance
Of outer and inner harmony
Mind and heart, soul and spirit are undivided
Here's my true strength and beauty lies
We'll see this before us with our own eyes
We'll see, with our own eyes... LOVE
(Wake up and show the light)
I hear a voice, hear a voice calling out to me
(Wake up the time is right)
I see inside, see the light now ever holding you
All the truth (all the truth), all I need (all i need) to make of this reality (it's inside)
The beauty within the shell
(Deep within the shell, within the shell)
(Wake up and show the light)
I hear a voice, hear a voice calling out to me
(Wake up the time is right)
I see inside, see the light now ever holding me
All the truth (all the truth), all I need (all i need) to make of this reality it's inside
right here within the shell
(Wake up and show the light)
I hear a voice calling out to me
(Wake up the time is right)
I see inside the light now holding me
All the truth, all I need to make of this reality
(It's inside, all within the shell, all within the shell)
(Wake up and show the light, wake up the time is right)
For you unfamiliar with Ghost in the Shell, it's a cyberpunk future set in a post-WWIV Japan, where consciousness can be transplanted into androids and robots, making society a mix of cyborgs and "fully prosthetic" people who are as commonplace as not. Because the wars cyberized a lot of people, ex-military are easy to spot by certain prosthetic upgrades, and rich people easy to spot by their perfect prosthetic bodies. Only the poor look like the diseased, warty, disheveled, unwashed, unkempt, blemished masses they are.
Therefore, there's a buzzword "ghost" that represents the gestalt personality/lifeforce/experience/memory/emotional response/et al - likely a substitute term for "soul" making it more technical and less metaphysical, for it's a nearly-tangible thing in this world. People are connected to the network (never called the "Internet," btw), and cyberspace is represented as avatars and a Gibson-like set of 3-dimensional shapes, spheres, cylinders, discs, roads, etc., interconnected by a mesh of glowing paths and curiously complicated display screens and information displays are used between people (why put information in a trapezoid?). Mis-step here however, and you can physically be affected - the interface plugs at the back of your skull where the wires are plugged in (haven't they considered some brain cage induction method safer?) heat up, spark, and maybe burn out - taking you with it. (US would have never safety approved this design - but apparently it's an Imperial government, and split also into a part Russian territory. Boy, did they get that wrong!)
Point is, you may live in a shell of many sorts in this world - therefore the multi-layered message of these lyrics. It speaks to those in human fleshy "shells" as well as those inside prosthetic cyberbrain shells, and even those fully cyberized whose consciousness is borne only by the net itself (e.g. an AI) where the shell is the servers. The focus of 2nd Gig was about "Individual 11" who were apparently another "Stand Alone Complex" (SAC) that were triggered into action by some unknown stimulus. This may be their song.
Too bad their acts upon awakening were terrorist acts done in order to further the seditionist agenda of someone trying to secure independence of the Chinese refugees in Japan, which was a smokescreen for... well, you'd have to watch the series to see how it all unravels.
OK, I explained all this really to drive home the concept of a "shell" and its multi-layered meaning in the lyrics, and what "waking up" may mean to someone in a shell, like waking out of a cyberspace dive, or out of a cyberbrain lock, or break a back-hack, or just wake up out of bed. Or maybe activate your Individual 11 file...?
First verse: Dreaming of a near future, unsure but not afraid - this is definitely how many visionaries start their sermons. They commit their very soul to be given a vision.
2nd: Soon the doors of imagination open. New visions come, new sights.
3rd: The revelation. A voice calls out, showing him the light (of being?) inside, all the truth, all needed to make of this reality, telling him it is right there (is it cyberspace? subjective reality? dreams?) - The beauty within his (any) shell.
4th: Perhaps the most personally relevant to me, the vision of how each of us contains within our own cosmos, all the cells themselves and atoms within singing the same silent melody. In any case, seeing any such "beauty in possibility" would usually strike awe, but here it is described "without a speck of doubt or fear," making it another sort of accepting, knowing experience - like knowledge beyond knowing.
5th: Repeat of 3rd, with an exception that it is now internalized. The chorus however asserts "it's inside" his shell.
6th: Repeat of 5th, except main singer says "it's inside."
7th: Time starts again - a reboot? The imagery is consistent with dreams, yet could be how a cyberbrain might process the function, or a concussion might process, as well as a dream.
8th: Just the chorus beckons to wake up, show the light (rise and shine!), the time is right (for Individual 11?)
The reading: This may be a quotation from the Individual 11 manuscript. It repeats most of the verse above, still adding the conclusion: LOVE. This is the conclusion of what many religions state when you have harmony of inner and outer spirit, that it flows naturally.
Outer and inner harmony - often a zen and other religious goal, Japanese, Buddhist and multi-culturally relevant imagery - something most of us wish for, a truer definition of peace is hard to define.
10th: Same as 5th, with extra chorus echoing more verse, apparently pulling the main voice awake. Note however the shift in phrasing, the speaker is evangelizing to YOU.
11th: Same as 10th, but back to self again.
12th: The most abbreviated version of 3rd verse, with the chorus speaking most of the mind echoes. Perhaps this is what makes the song the most haunting, as softly spoken lyrics often soak into the conscious lots deeper than loud messages.
13th: Fade with only chorus, again speaking to the sleepers...
There's a very alluring concept about cyberspace, having been born more or less by William Gibson and visualized by many cinematically from TRON onwards. GitS is yet another dystopian vision, but still something people long for, because it promises a form of immortality - prosthetic upgrades and cyberbrains, actually being able to replace your brain with another machine that can do the job and still be "you." As your "ghost" can live inside another "shell."
Waking up is something I went through - in a process known as the "est training," one of the great money-making cult schemes of Werner Erhard (look up on Wiki). I don't feel very awakened or alert or enlightened today. The est-holes would say "I'm back in my head," or in GitS parlance, I'm in my human shell, autistic mode.
I do have something to share about it however, the lightness of being really is unbearable. It has to be shared lest you explode from within. All the truth, all you need to make this reality - is right inside the shell. Just look deep within. <3