Home > Travel > Songs  

Letters: write to:  letters@drdriving.org

See also: Music and Driving ||  Gender and Driving: Men, Women || Cars and Romance || Students Analyze Love Songs

	Enter your search terms
	Web DrDriving.org

   Songs About Driving Cars  
on Roads and Highways

 

	Enter your search terms
	Web DrDriving.org

 

 

---

 

 

Song Lyrics (3)	Spiritual Meaning (correspondences)
Deep Purple "Highway Star" I love it and I need it I seed it Eight cylinders all mine Alright hold on tight I'm a highway star	Eight cylinders all mine Alright hold on tight I'm a highway star ================================= I am good at what I love to do.
Doobie Brothers "Rockin' Down the Highway" Got those highway blues, can't you hear my motor runnin' Flyin' down the road with my foot on the floor All the way in town they can hear me comin'.	Got those highway blues, can't you hear my motor runnin' Flyin' down the road with my foot on the floor ================================= When I'm in the mood for fun I don't want to be bound by restrictions and principles.
Doobie Brothers "Take Me to The Highway" I need another point of view Someplace I've never seen Keepin' my eyes wide open Goin' where I've never been So take me to the highway Take me far from here.	Goin' where I've never been So take me to the highway Take me far from here. ================================= I'm tired of being who I am. I want to be somebody else.
Doobie Brothers "Travelin' Man" I'm a travelin' man Nothin' left behind me but the road I'm a travelin' man Won't you share the load.	I'm a travelin' man Won't you share the load. ================================= The good life comes from cooperation and teamwork, not competition and hostility.
The Doors "Cars Hiss By My Window" The cars hiss by my window Like the waves down on the beach.	The cars hiss by my window Like the waves down on the beach. ================================= To understand reality our thinking must be based on truths.
The Doors "The Hitchhiker" Thoughts in time and out of season The Hitchhiker Stood by the side of the road And leveled his thumb In the calm calculus of reason.	The Hitchhiker Stood by the side of the road And leveled his thumb ================================= It has become fashionable nowadays to shop around for a philosophy of life.
The Doors "L.A. Woman" Drivin' down your freeways Midnite alleys roam Cops in cars, the topless bars Never saw a woman... So alone, so alone.	Drivin' down your freeways Midnite alleys roam Never saw a woman... So alone, so alone. ================================= We can enjoy being foolish and taking risks, but they will not bring us happiness.
The Doors "Roadhouse Blues" Keep your eyes on the road Your hands upon the wheel. Yeah, we're going to the roadhouse, Gonna have a real good-time.	Keep your eyes on the road Your hands upon the wheel. Yeah, we're going to the roadhouse, Gonna have a real good-time. ================================= It's OK to look for happiness in life, but it can only be attained by honoring our principles.
The Doors "The End" Ride the King's highway, baby Weird scenes inside the gold mine Ride the highway west, baby.	Ride the King's highway, baby ================================= Focus on truth and you'll understand everything you want to know.
Drive-By Truckers "Days of Graduation" But this night he banked the curve just a little too hard and that 442 went airborne, Hit a telephone pole and split in two.	But this night he banked the curve just a little too hard and that 442 went airborne, Hit a telephone pole and split in two. =================================

 

 

Song Lyrics (4)	Spiritual Meaning (correspondences)
Drive-By Truckers "Plastic Flowers on the Highway" My community service had me working for the county Cutting grass on the off-ramps and medians and such. Every quarter-mile or so, stands a brand new reminder Another traffic death in town. Something new to cut around.	Cutting grass on the off-ramps and medians and such. Every quarter-mile or so, stands a brand new reminder Another traffic death in town. Something new to cut around. ================================= When we become callous and uncaring towards others, we are hurting what is good in ourselves
Bob Dylan "Highway 51" Highway 51 runs right by my baby's door. If I don't get the gal I'm loving, Won't go down Highway 51 no more.	If I don't get the gal I'm loving, Won't go down Highway 51 no more. =================================
Steve Earle "Nowhere Road" I been down this road just searchin' for the end It don't go nowhere, it just brings you back again.	I been down this road just searchin' for the end It don't go nowhere, it just brings you back again. =================================
Steve Earle "N.Y.C." He was standing on the highway Somewhere way out in the sticks, Guitar across his shoulder like a 30 ought six. He was staring in my head lights When I came around the bend Climbed up on my shotgun side And told me with a grin I'm goin to New York City.	He was standing on the highway He was staring in my head lights When I came around the bend =================================
Fastball "Nowhere Ride" So take it to the highway Head back and open wide Step right up and take a nowhere ride.	So take it to the highway Head back and open wide Step right up and take a nowhere ride. =================================
John Fogerty "Hot Rod Heart" Ooh, let's go ridin' Cruisin' down the open road. We can put the top down Listen to the radio. Big ol' Buick and a big ol' sky, Wheels on fire And I'll tell you why I got a hot rod heart.	Ooh, let's go ridin' Cruisin' down the open road. Wheels on fire I got a hot rod heart. =================================
Dan Fogelberg "Mountain Pass" Well, I'm runnin' down this mountain pass at midnight; Those truckers, they all flash their lights at me. This highway ain't the very best companion, 'cause I know there's somewhere else I'd rather be.	Well, I'm runnin' down this mountain pass at midnight; Those truckers, they all flash their lights at me. This highway ain't the very best companion, ================================= When we're cynical, uncaring, without hope We deny our faith, knowing we shouldn't.
Sue Foley "Highwayside" By the highwayside There's no one left to take your place As your engine burns You stand alone and fan the flames. You won't find no satisfaction, Your heart's a roadside attraction, You're gonna break down by the highwayside again.	There's no one left to take your place As your engine burns Your heart's a roadside attraction, You're gonna break down by the highwayside again. ================================= Rebelling against our principles will make us unhappy.
Fountains of Wayne "Sink to the Bottom" Cars on the highway, planes in the air Everyone else is going somewhere But I'm going nowhere, getting there too I might as well just sink down with you.	Cars on the highway, planes in the air Everyone else is going somewhere But I'm going nowhere, getting there too ================================= I've got everything figured out, but this one thing. It's keeping me in agony.
Fountains of Wayne "The Valley of Malls" It's bumper touching bumper on the motorway The sun is in the sky just now But the road is grey.	It's bumper touching bumper on the motorway The sun is in the sky just now But the road is grey. ================================= The conflicts we crerate in our mind make us unproductive and unsuccessful. We know what we need to do, but we don't have the will to do it.
Nanci Griffith "Brave Companion of the Road" The cafes and bars are closed the Christmas lights are veiled in snow. Tell me, where are you going? My brave companion of the road.	The cafes and bars are closed. Tell me, where are you going? My brave companion of the road. ================================= People have good traits and bad. When the good traits hide, the bad ones take control.

 

 

	Enter your search terms
	Web DrDriving.org

More Song Lyrics below

From: Road Rage and Aggressive Driving by Leon James and Diane Nahl

CHAPTER 12: DREAM CARS AND DRIVING REALITIES

In the Driver's Image

What do we look for in a car? One 1986 report describes an experiment to discover hidden or unconscious motives for buying certain kinds of cars.¹ The researchers compared responses to what people liked about cars, first in a normal state, and then in a hypnotized state. Their answers were revealingly different. In the normal state people mentioned pragmatic things that are ordinarily important to car owners--price, reliability, comfort, and appearance. In the hypnotized state they spoke of the liberating sense of freedom that motoring brings and the sense of exhilaration that comes from driving fast. Precautions like wearing seat-belts were dismissed as timid and unnecessary. They imagined that driving in busy traffic is a pleasant and interesting experience. All drivers were perceived as friendly "beings of power" controlling wonderful machines in beautiful highway settings. The cars they were driving in their imagination were dream cars--ultrafast, amphibious, and powerful, with luxury features. Of course, none of these people actually drove cars like this and they didn't see many drivers that behave like those in their idealized imagination. Could it be that people drive in their imagination more than on the real road? Some psychiatrists believe that our fantasies are driven by unfulfilled desires. According to Freud, every fantasy contains the fulfillment of a wish. An idealized image of ourselves in cars "improves" the unsatisfactory reality.

Car commercials appeal to unfulfilled fantasies of distinction, uniqueness, independence, and superiority. The implied message is: Own this particular car and you'll have these desired qualities. Buyers are influenced by such commercials because cars confer a special social identity on their owners. Self-witnessing reports of drivers frequently reveal that they correlate the car's appearance with its driver. When they see a luxurious or unusual car, in their mind its owner also takes on these characteristics--rich, educated, competent, good looking, and well dressed. Old and unattractive cars had unkempt, lazy, unreliable owners who made driving blunders. Though their expectations were not necessarily met, drivers continued to perceive car and owner in this way.

A cover story in Psychology Today recognizes that people have revered cars for a century, and there's no "slowing down our ongoing love affair with the car."² The automobile has radically altered the way we live and build our homes, and is certainly one of the most significant objects of our age. Ego and self-image are intertwined with a sense of control and power expressed in the names manufacturers give to their models: Jaguar, Cougar, Eagle, Mustang, Blazer, Wrangler, Taurus, Viper, Cobra, Range Rover, Explorer. Car ads use words that describe cars in terms that evoke human drama and emotion: impulse, wild, spirit, dream, passion. Marketing appeals to our sense of ultimate attainment when the car in the ad is described as "beyond unique" or "supra distinctive" or "ultra knockout." This is not simply a male preoccupation with power and dominance. Kate Culkin writes in Ladies, Start Your Engines: Women Writers on Cars and the Road³

Speeding down I-80 in my El Camino, I am the most powerful woman in the world. Look out plastic import, I think, take that, puny sports car; if push comes to shove, I'll crush you without a second thought. Eating with one hand, steering with the other, I realize women with big American cars don't need self-assertiveness training--a V-8 engine would empower anyone, male or female.

Back in the 1930s there was a popular stage song that went⁴

I'm wild about horns on automobiles that go 'Ta ta ta ta ' 'Ta ta ta ta'

Thirty-five bucks I'm glad I saved my dough to buy one

To be in style you ought to try one

For Sirens or Klaxons, the girls never fall

But I get attention when they hear that call

I'm wild about horns on automobiles that go 'Ta ta ta ta ta ta ta'

Many songs featuring the romance of cars and driving have made it to the top of the music charts. Songs like Hey Little Cobra, Hitchin' A Ride, Car Wash, Mercedes Boy, and Pink Cadillac celebrate taking pride in your vehicle, feelings of superiority in speed and horsepower, independence, partying, and a freewheeling lifestyle.

Automobile poetry and nicknames for cars reflect the enthusiasm people feel for their cars, but there may be a down side when these mental images are internalized and used as symbols of how we should be driving and how we should perceive other cars and their drivers in relation to ourselves. According to the world portrayed by automobile ads the car we drive must be super-charged with power and a competitive spirit. Commercials portray the new car that's "just for you" zipping around corners, climbing rugged country hills, flying through water, and zooming up palace staircases. A new car is sold as a status symbol, an extension of the self, competitive, exclusive. The car is portrayed as a home, fort, or castle; tank or missile; dream machine; great for getaway and escape.

A computer game called Road Rage is described using metaphors of power and excitement as "a hair-raising drive at fantastic speed." The exaggerated way we normally talk and think about cars, fueled by super-charged automobile ads, could contribute to the current negative culture on highways by encouraging and romanticizing status competition, aggressiveness, hostility, envy, intolerance and disrespect for other drivers. A heightened sense of emotional territoriality which some ads promote, draws drivers into a me-against-them attitude that could lower the threshold for aggressive driving. While helping drivers with road rage containment and recovery, we have noticed a strong resistance to adopting a more supportive or prosocial driving style. Many of us who have grown up in the car culture have developed a subconscious fear of looking like wimps on the road. We owners are supposed to think and feel in superlative terms. The extreme has become the norm. This has become a deep-seated cultural value. This dramatic inner outlook unknowingly influences how people feel behind the wheel, what thoughts they have when driving, and how they treat each other on the road.

In and of itself, the passion for beautiful, high-performance cars doesn't require a high-handed attitude of disrespect toward other drivers. A love of cars can be compatible with supportive driving. Motorists who take car ownership and driving seriously stay knowledgeable about technical details, performance, and safety. They feel deeply about the importance of doing the right thing, whether it's buying, maintenance, or handling on the road. If they see a dirty, shabby looking car, they feel the owner is neglecting or mistreating the vehicle. In an important sense they're on the right side because many accidents are caused by drivers who are insufficiently caring or alert to problems with their cars. The problem starts when "being right" turns into "being righteous." The self-image game has then gone too far. We predict that as more people become involved in lifelong driver self-improvement the symbols of excellence in the marketing world will turn to supportive driving portrayals.

Driving Music

Music has become an integral part of the driving experience. Sound systems are the most popular accessory, and drivers often spend hundreds of dollars on good ones. Drivers are affected by music, carefully selecting types that have the desired effect for them, and avoiding others. For some, music is used to create a loud interior environment

Personally I like Fear Factory. Gets you in a wickedly hyped up mood (not road rage) and lets you concentrate on driving like never before, also keeps you awake on those long drives. (Young man)

I don't know about going on a drive and listening to Dark Side of the Moon, too many quiet bits. (Middle aged woman)

For me it's the Delicate Sound of Thunder (Comfortably Numb version) turned up to about 20 going through a good ten-speaker system. Of course it sucks when you've only got a six minute drive to get somewhere, and are forced to sit outside your mates' house for the last minute with the stereo that loud because it's sacrilege to turn it down or off before it finishes. (Young man)

You can't go past a bit of ZZ Top to get you in the driving mood. (Young man)

However, not everyone wants music to influence them while driving

For a few months I didn't have the money to replace my broken car radio. I was saving for a Blaupunkt. So for awhile, I drove a cappela, so to speak. Strangely, I grew to like not having a car radio. When I finally saved enough money to buy a radio, I didn't. I enjoyed the sounds of silence. My daily commute became intellectually interesting. I started thinking about all sorts of things about my personal philosophy. I realized that the lack of a car radio had liberated me. All along I believed the music coming from the little speakers in the door set me free. Now I realize that it was limiting me. (Young man)

I got caught speeding twice in my life and both of the times it was because I was listening to the music in my car and did not realize how fast I was going. When my favorite music comes out, I just lose myself! On a different day, I was driving and realized that the music was off. It was a bit of surprise because I was so calm and relaxed that it was almost like I was meditating. So I recommend that you sometimes stop listening to the music in your car. It's really different! (Young man)

One of our correspondents sent us a school report in which she showed that her teenaged friends took longer to apply the brake when a sign came up while driving to loud music. They responded to signs faster when there was no loud music playing.⁴

Contrary to common belief, music may not immunize drivers from feeling enraged during routine traffic events

There was no traffic. Everyone was signaling. I was happy. On the way, I even noticed that I was singing. It was weird because I came to a realization that when I drove, I usually only sing during slow songs and not the fast songs. There happened to be a stalled car on the far right shoulder lane. When the cars began to break to "rubberneck", I became enraged, and I started swearing and cussing to the cars in front of me for slowing down. I even remember pretending that my handbrake was a machine gun and I "shot" all the cars in front of me. (Young man)

Music has the power to calm or excite, to sooth or to inflame. If listening to music works to ease aggressive thoughts and feelings while driving, for some it can be an effective preventive agent. If drivers choose provocative music that encourages aggressive thinking, it may exaggerate emotional reactions in routine incidents.

(...)

Managing in the New World of Driving

We haven't achieved the jet cars portrayed in science fiction movies and television, but there are experimental flying car models available today. Robert Fulton designed a flying car in 1946, but Moulton (Molt) Taylor is known in the U.S. as the father of the flying automobile. He developed the modern Aerocar in the 1950's and since then other inventors have developed the Cafly, the Jetcar, and the Air Car among others. Enthusiasts predict that flying automobiles will enter the market by the year 2005. Driving has taken on new meaning as an interactive, multi-tasking operation that involves piloting a heavy, moving communication platform or mobile office, complete with dashboard dining and backseat multi-media. The new technologies in cars may contribute to motorists' bubble-environment mentality. Inevitably, cars will continue to evolve technologically, integrating functions that permit drivers to communicate and work on the road at a distance. The wise course to take is to acknowledge that drivers require training in these new technologies, in fact, each gadget requires a training process.

It has not yet entered the consciousness of the automotive world that specific training is needed for using devices such as cell phones, email, GPS communications, and map reading, etc.while driving and dasboard dining. But because people need to learn the new and ever more complex skills of "driving informatics," in the near future training will take a prominent role because of its impact on safety.¹⁶ This new driving information literacy encompasses the ever-widening definition of what we do in and have to understand about cars: transportation, automotive repair, insurance, travel, communication, eating, grooming, reading, entertainment, work, education, and social relations among motorists and with police, truckers, passengers, pedestrians, and cyclists. Driving informatics represents the integration of the complexity of our intellectual, financial, and moral investments in the grand driving enterprise.

In this new world of driving, motorists face increasing "commuting stress"¹⁷ The stressful consequences of daily commutes include

·        increased production of gastric acid

·        increased risk for gastrointestinal disorders

·        increased production of "fight or flight" hormones

·        reduced blood supply to the brain

·        lowered immune response for several hours

·        increased blood pressure

·        higher heart rate

A recent poll reports that 49 percent feel some or a lot of anxiety sitting in traffic, 35 percent somewhat or very overwhelmed, and 51percent feel some or a lot of stress in traffic.¹⁸ People think it's just the congestion and delays, but most stress is due to aggressive and incompetent driving, exacerbated by the increasing pressure to multitask in vehicles. Since our driving environment will continue to increase in complexity, the real solution to combating commuting stress lies chiefly with the individual. Aggressive driving is a cultural habit learned from parents and reinforced by TV. It is ingrained in our personality and character through the culture of disrespect, the argument culture, and the culture of entitlement. It is exposed in traffic congestion. Traffic congestion does not cause disrespect, it merely presents plenty of opportunities for expressing displeasure. Congestion and construction would not lead to driver stress in a supportive and community oriented highway atmosphere. The cultural inheritance of aggressive driving and road rage is spreading with each new generation. This generational inheritance can be checked if an entire generation of drivers declares itself against highway cynicism, and collectively adopts and supports new norms of civility on roads.

Notes for Chapter 12

1.      Marsh, P., & Colleft, P., Driving Passion: The Psychology of the Car (London: Jolmathan Cape, 1986).

2.      Psychology Today, 1987, p.16-24.

3.      Elinor Nauen, Editor, Ladies, Start Your Engines : Women Writers on Cars and the Road.

4.      Words and music by Clarence Gaskill, "I'm Wild About Horns on Automobiles" www.lib.duke.edu/music/asl/Gaskill__Im_wild_about_horns.html 

5.      Susan Strick, Music Effects on Drivers' Reaction Times, 2000, http://aloha.net/~dyc/misc/music_strick_report.html

6.      Bob Muessig, Dashboard dining, 1999, www.rvsafety.com/dashboar.htm

7.      NPD Group, http://www.npd.com/

8.      James McKnight and A. Scott McKnight, "The Effect of Cellular Phone Use Upon Driver Attention" (National Public Services Research Institute, 1991) http://www.aaafts.org/Text/research/cell/cell0toc.htm

9.      Leonard P. Stavisky, New York State Senate News Brief, 1999, http://www.sendem.com/carphone.html

10.  Zdnet.com, 1999, www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2226314,00.html

11.  TechWeb.com, 1999, www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990115S0003

12.  Washington Post, August 1999, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/aug99/gm10.htm

13. Traffic Engineering and Control, No. 21, Issue 11, pp. 545-550.

14. The Mobility Study at Texas A&M University, 1998, mobility.tamu.edu

15.  National Motorists Association, http://www.motorists.org/

16.  Diane Nahl and Leon James, What is Driving Informatics, 1998.

17.  Aggressive driving. Encyclopedia of Stress (Allyn and Bacon, 1999).

18.  Kensington Stress and Technology in the Workplace Survey, PC Computing, December 1999. p. 38.

The above is from:  Road Rage and Aggressive Driving by Leon James and Diane Nahl

	Enter your search terms
	Web DrDriving.org

See also: Music and Driving ||  Gender and Driving: Men, Women || Cars and Romance ||  Students Analyze Love

 Songs

Go back to Song Lyrics Part A above   ||   Back to Introduction: Part 1 above 

Introduction: Part 2

From:  http://songs.dance-lyrics.com/T-songs-lyrics/the_cars/drive.html

Artist/Band: The Cars

you can't go on thinking nothing's wrong
who's gonna drive you home tonight
who's gonna hold you down when you shake
who's gonna come around when you break

What does it mean for the artist to say "who's gonna drive you home tonight" when it is in the context of "who's gonna come around when you break"? The expression "to drive home tonight" (physical meaning) corresponds to "escape from emotional agony" (spiritual meaning). The expression "when you break" (physical meaning) corresponds to "losing emotional balance," while the expression "coming around" (physical meaning) corresponds to "support and encouragement" (spiritual meaning). "Driving" corresponds to mental activity and "home" corresponds to peace and emotional balance or stability.

What is the spiritual meaning of something? What is spiritual?

This was discussed in Part 1, but to recapitulate: spiritual meanings refer to our mental life in the higher levels of the human mind called the spiritual mind. The spiritual content in the spiritual mind contrasts with the natural content which is located in the natural mind. For instance, a "car" physical object and meaning) is the natural content in our natural mind of some spiritual content in the spiritual mind. If you could be conscious in your spiritual mind, as Swedenborg was, you could be sitting somewhere with your mental body, thinking about what's the right thing to do about some issue in which you are involved. You would then notice that there are cars and trucks in the surrounding area, coming and going, reflecting by correspondence the natural equivalent of your spiritual ruminations.

But even though we cannot be conscious of our spiritual thoughts we can know in our natural mind what kind of thoughts occur in the spiritual mind and what are the contents. In the analysis of song lyrics about driving cars on roads we notice first the literal meaning, whose content is physical or natural. The artists are talking about certain types of cars, about going fast or being stuck in traffic, about chrome. and engine power, and going places or going nowhere. The words describing these images and events just pop into our head as we write or talk about cars in our lives, in movies, in history. These spontaneous expressions of our thoughts and feelings about cars must be produced by something!

What is that?

Our human mental anatomy is located in our mental body which is in eternity. That is where "we" really and actually live, in our feelings, thoughts, and sensations. That is our life because that is our experiencing. We are born into that life of eternity because we are created to be mental beings of eternity. But the first portion of our existence is dual. A physical body in time and space is attached to our mental body in eternity. The two bodies cannot be together directly since one is physical in time while the other is mental in eternity. There must therefore be laws of correspondence between the world of time and the world of eternity. These are the laws of creation, existence and reality, of God's truth and rational order. These are the scientific laws of cause-effect that binds the two worlds together.

These scientific laws of correspondence between the spiritual world of eternity and the natural world of time are familiar to each human being.  All human beings are born on an earth and appear to themselves to live in the physical world. We are conscious of the operations going on in our natural mind -- to some extent, but we are not conscious of the operations going on in our spiritual mind. And yet, whatever we feel, think, or sensate in our natural mind through the physical body, is tied by correspondence to whatever we are feeling, thinking, and sensating in our spiritual mind thr5ough the mental body (also called the spirit body).

By studying and discovering genuine correspondences we are entering the content of our spiritual mind.

The spiritual meaning that we extract from the song lyrics about cars and drivers, hitchhikers and passengers, gives us a doorway into the world of eternity, what our life will be like after we are resuscitated in our spiritual mind in eternity, just a few hours following the loss of connection with the physical body, a process known as dying. Since Swedenborg was a dual citizen he was able to be present with his dying friends or relatives in his natural mind (through the physical body), but also in his spiritual mind in eternity.

He was therefore able to be present to someone as they lose consciousness in dying, and be present when that person awakens or gains conscious awareness in the spiritual mind. He could talk to the person in the dying process on earth and he could talk to the person in the afterlife. In one situation he was talking to a neighbor who had died while he was attending his funeral. The man was astounded when he heard from Swedenborg that his wife and relatives were bereaved and thinking of him as lifeless in the grave.

The most illuminating and detailed information we have about the afterlife of eternity is given in the spiritual sense of Sacred Scripture. Almost nothing is revealed about the details of life in eternity when we read Sacred Scripture in its literal sense and don't allow ourselves to explore its spiritual meaning. But when we discover correspondences we are able to read Sacred Scripture through the veil of natural meaning in which it is written down and shrouded. This is a necessary consequence of the laws of correspondences by which spiritual and natural content in the mind, and in the world, must correspond to each other. God constantly communicates with humanity, with each individual human mind. We only see the natural correspondence (physical meaning) to this spiritual message or information (spiritual meaning).

But God wants us to be interested in the spiritual meaning because it is needed for our well being and development. By being interested in the spiritual content corresponding to all that we think and feel, we are mapping our our eternity, thus, preparing for our heaven or hell. For 27 years Swedenborg interviewed thousands of people who have just been resuscitated from many cultures and countries. He followed their choices and lives as their natural mind and memories were slowly becoming inactive, and as they explored for the first time what was the content of their spiritual mind.

Some expressed surprise at what they discovered about themselves. When their conscious awareness was living in the natural mind attached to the physical body on earth (thus, before they passed on), they thought of themselves as fairly decent people, cooperative citizens, and friendly neighbor. But now they felt that this was a lie, a feigned appearance to be able to get by, to be socially successful. They hated the idea of being nice and decent, which they now saw as weak and stupid. Once this self-discovery is made, there are rapid changes in the person's character, personality, and environment in which the see themselves live. They seek out like minded companions and together they constitute a society of hell. Many details are provided in Swedenborg's carefully recorded daily diary.

But the reverse would also happen. Some people who thought of themselves as unworthy and selfish when thinking in the natural mind with physical content, discovered in their spiritual mind something totally different. They realized that they had been of a good will and attitude towards others, desirous within themselves of being fair, tolerant, compassionate, and helpful. They had hated cruelty and deception. As soon as they discovered this about their spiritual mind they saw themselves elevated or raised to the highest level of their mind called the celestial consciousness or heaven. There they form eternal societies with one another, each society specializing or focusing especially on one particular virtue or trait. The numberless societies of heaven in eternity are interconnected beautifully in the shape of the human body, each society being located in a region of the body that corresponds to their special virtue or trait. The societies in the "heart" have a different character than the societies in the lungs, etc. Please read the Writings of Swedenborg for  all the details.

So from all these considerations we can see that it is important for us to map out what is in eternity, and we do this by the method of correspondences.

As explained briefly before, the human mind has a lower level called the "natural mind" and a higher level called the "spiritual mind." Both levels of the mind involve three mental organs. Our feelings are operations in the affective organ. Our thoughts are operations in our cognitive organ. Our sensations and motor expressions are operations of our sensorimotor organ. These three mental organs function in the natural mind and in the spiritual mind, but not in the same way.

Our feelings or motives ( = affective operations) have the power to manage our thoughts ( = cognitive operations).

In other words our feelings or motives dictate and select the sequence of our thoughts, not the other way round. 

Both the natural and the spiritual minds work in a similar way but we are not equally conscious of them. We are well aware of the thoughts in our natural mind, and less aware of our feelings there. But we are only slightly aware of the thoughts in our spiritual mind (cognitive organ), and even less aware of the feelings there (affective organ).

The content of our thoughts in the natural mind consist of all the things we know from the physical world around us. But the content of our spiritual mind has to do with the mental world of eternity where our spiritual mind is functioning.

During the dying process we lose connection with the physical body and the world of time.

The natural mind then becomes quiescent or unconscious, along with its ideas and memories based on physical content. Instead we become fully conscious in our spiritual mind.

This changeover process takes about 30 hours and is sometimes called "resuscitation of the spirit." When we awaken in our spiritual mind we proceed with our mental life in endless eternity. Our spiritual mind has its own immortal and indestructible mental body in which we can move around and enjoy the sensations and pleasures far more intensely and purely than was possible while experiencing these sensations in our natural mind.

When we are born we begin life as dual citizens. In our natural mind and consciousness it seems to us that we are as if in the physical world. This idea is strengthened by being educated in the negative bias mode of science that denies the afterlife of eternity and the independent existence of the mind. But after resuscitation we are conscious in our spiritual mind and we realize that we exist in the mental world of eternity, not in time and space. This is also known to many people as the "afterlife of the spiritual world."

Everything we do in our natural mind through the physical body has a counterpart or correspondence to something we do in our spiritual mind through our mental body (or "spirit body"). What we do in our mental body we express in our physical body. This relationship between the natural mind and the spiritual mind is called correspondence. The natural world is in correspondence to the spiritual world. Time is correspondence with eternity.

When writers and artists are under inspiration they become conscious of operations going on in their spiritual mind. These can be feelings, thoughts, visions, understandings, perceptions. They attempt to write this down in words and to translate it into music. What they write down is called the literal meaning of events in the natural world of cars, roads, highways, stop signs, truck stops, bars, passengers, hotels. These physical events described by the meaning of the natural mind form the content by the literal meaning of the verses. But these natural meanings occurred to the writer or speaker only because of the operations in their spiritual mind. The content of these spiritual operations in the spiritual mind corresponds to the content of the operations in the natural mind that is based on physical content.

By reconstructing or extracting the spiritual sense of the literal verses we can share the spiritual insights the artists had when under inspiration and moved by the desire to know truth and understand reality.

One may ask: Why do the song writers write about cars on roads instead of about thoughts and feelings?

One reason is that they may not be fully aware of the spiritual thoughts and significance of what they are thinking and feeling in the spiritual mind, and so they try to describe it by corresponding thoughts and feelings having to do with the experiencing of cars in their lives in the physical and social world of community and relationships. Another reason might be that people don't want to hear about spiritual meanings, thoughts, and feelings. If the lyrics were written in a spiritual content people would not relate to them with emotion and passion and the seemingly endless desire of fans for repetition. It's better for the communication process to talk about driving cars on highways in many different ways and in diverse episodes and moods, so that listeners and fans can experience the spiritual reaction in themselves, even though they cannot describe its content in words. The benefit is in the experiencing.

Spiritual meanings always involve something about good and truth, about intending something good or bad, or about thinking something true or false.

Good is a general idea that has many sub-components. Under the general idea of good there are sub-components that everyone is already familiar with:

• good (vs. bad or evil), spiritual heat
• love and altruism (vs. love of self)
• ability (vs. inability)
• character (good and bad traits)
• virtue (loyalty, fidelity, sincerity, prude