Growing up, I was a passionate hip-hop fan. I once even declared, “Hip hop is my life,” which later became an inside joke between my friends and I–considering that, after all, Iam a privileged, White, suburban American Jew. But although I listen to other genres far more than I do hip-hop these days–mainly jazz, in fact–the culture is still a part of my self-makeup.
And one of my favorite aspects of hip-hop culture is the name used to describe avid us fans: “Heads.” After the early-adopter use, it then expanded to include more than just fans–for example, the volume of people at a show: “There were mad Heads last night.” (“Mad,” in case you didn’t know, means “a lot of” in my generation’s vernacular.)
The term has also since expanded beyond the sphere of the hip-hop community. I’ve heard it used at jazz shows, and even at regular old house parties. But there’s something about the original connotation of the word “Head” that I absolutely love–if you’re a Head, then you’re passionate, you’re knowledgeable, and, yes, you live for the art and the culture.
Now, on this blog, I want to propose a further expansion and modification of the term: Spirit Head. If you’re a Spirit Head, it means you love and live for music that expresses Spirit–music that pushes a creative edge, that transmits depth, that calls you to someplace new. If you’re a Spirit Head, it means you recognize and appreciate the role that music specifically, and art generally, plays in the upliftment of humanity and evolution of our consciousness and culture.
But this blog won’t just be about music. “Spirit Heads” also refers to a new kind of spiritual awakening that I and my fellow evolutionaries at EnlightenNext are quite busy with: namely, the recognition that we live in an evolutionary cosmos that’s goingsomewhere, and that’s not separate from who we are at the core. When we awaken to Spirit’s evolutionary directionality–where it’s heading–we discover a source of inspiration, confidence, and meaning that is unparalleled and almost unknown in our culture today.
So I’ll also be writing–and inviting guests to write–about this new spiritual path, practice, and perspective that we call Evolutionary Enlightenment as well. And, of course, it helps that my Guru, Andrew Cohen, is also a jazz-rock fusion drummer–so, in this part of the noosphere, it all tends to be one thing!
I hope you enjoy what we explore here, and I’m excited to start what I hope is a fruitful, satisfying, and evolutionary journey for each of us Spirit Heads out there.
