"Sickness will surely take the mind where minds can't usually go." Tommy, the Sixth Sense, and Enlightenment

It's probably a trite opening at this point,

A monk meditating in half-lotus position
1854

but I never believed in the sixth sense.
I still don't believe in the weird energy
philosophies, the idea that you actually know
when somebody's looking at you, and
you aren't just being paranoid. The closest
I ever came to experiencing something
akin to the "sixth sense" was after I
started meditating daily. Meditation can
evoke altered states of consciousness,
and I can't exactly describe the warm
feeling and loss of sense of self
that comes with meditation. When you
come out of it, you feel like you've taken a
long nap, and feel calm, awake, and aware.

Speaking of awakening, I wanted to talk about

one of my favorite albums: Tommy by the Who

(1969). The story is of a boy, whose father was

presumed missing in WWI. His mother moved on

to a new relationship, but Tommy's father returns, 

and Tommy sees him kill his mother's lover

in a mirror. After this, he is told 

"You didn't hear it, you didn't see it

You never heard it not a word of it

You won't say nothing to no one

Never tell a soul, what you know is the truth."

After this, he is stricken with psychosomatic

blindness, deafness, and muteness.

His sensory experiences, driven by amorphous "vibrations", are manifested in his mind as music, and he is told in a vision that he will "learn all he should know" over the course of his "amazing journey". His parents try a range of increasingly desperate measures to try to pull their son from his affliction, including faith healing, and bringing him to a prostitute who uses acid and sex as a tool for "enlightenment". Eventually, a doctor reveals that his problem is psychological, as his senses technically work. Observing how Tommy stares at himself in the mirror, the doctor concludes that it must have something to do with his mental block. 

Finally, in frustration, his mother breaks 

Unenlightened idiot in a mirror

the mirror, freeing Tommy in an 

enlightening experience. Having 

become famous while he was still 

disabled for playing pinball, people 

flock to Tommy, to listen to his 

teachings, and to seek enlightenment. 

The movement grows; 

Tommy gradually takes on more of 

a messianic role, and something of 

a religion begins to develop. Hoping 

to lead his followers to enlightenment, 

Tommy tells them that drugs, alcohol, 

and things of this world are distractions 

from enlightenment, which makes some 

of his followers begin to murmur in discontent. When they are given earplugs, eyeshades, and gags, and brought to pinball machines. They are frustrated that this experience, which doesn't translate from what Tommy felt, is not what they thought it would be. They turn on Tommy, and abandon him and his philosophy. 

I was reading The Spell of the Sensuous, and I instantly knew what I wanted to write about for my blog post when I came across this quote, which I believe we talked about in class: “...when I wake up one morning to find that a week-long illness has subsided and that my strength has returned, the world, when I step outside, fairly sparkles with energy and activity…” Without having been truly afflicted like Tommy, his followers were not able to appreciate the fullness of the transition between sickness and wellness, between darkness and enlightenment. It seems that something of the sixth sense is required for any kind of enlightenment.