Are You Experienced?

Are You Experienced is the debut studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Released in 1967, the LP was an immediate critical and commercial success, and it is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. The album features Jimi Hendrix's innovative approach to songwriting and electric guitar playing which soon established a new direction in psychedelic and hard rock music.

The question "Are you experienced" was commonly interpreted as Hendrix asking if you have experienced drugs. He said that this song was not necessarily about drugs, but about being at peace with yourself. Guitar, bass, and drums were all played backward as part of the effects.

At Peace With Yourself

How in the hell does one go about finding peace within one's self?  Some people find it with drugs, some find it with alcohol, some find it with sex, some find it with faith and religion, some find it through meditating, and there are others who find it through working 18+ hours a week.

However, each of those ways is merely a crutch and a false sense of satisfaction that you have, in fact, found peace.

Peace can only be achieved through an inner awareness of self and how one's self interfaces and/or harmonizes with nature and the environment in which they currently exist.  Meditation can relax you and eliminate stress but it does not necessarily result in finding an inner awareness.

Achieving inner awareness oftentimes requires a lifetime of preparation.  Part of your preparation will come from acquiring all of the riches that life has to offer.  Part of the preparation will come from realizing that you must give all of those up.  Part of the preparation is learning how to void your mind and think of nothing at all...  thinking of nothing at all is not as easy as it sounds.  You cannot void your mind at a restaurant, a community center, or even at a beach resort as you stare out at the ocean waves coming into the shore.

Try thinking of nothing.

Close your eyes.

Plug your ears.

Put yourself inside a cardboard box an close the top.

OR...

lay in a pool of water on your back.

the water almost covers your face.

your body floats.

you disassociate yourself with time.

there is no movement of time.

YOU THINK OF NOTHING

But, the act of thinking of nothing means you are thinking of something...

Inner Awareness permeates your body without attraction

You experience the beginning and end of time

Your body no longer belongs to you

You move from one consciousness to another consciousness

You become united with the essence of life

You see inside your soul

You see inside your mind

You see inside your feelings and sensations even though you have none

You have nothing

You are nothing

You need nothing

You become nothing

You are inside the womb of your awareness seeing yourself as creation sees you

YOU ARE AT PEACE