Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
Red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
Lets me see.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
Drawn beyond the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.

Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must
Feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines.

Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
Red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
Lets me see there is so much more
And beckons me to look through to these infinite possibilities.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
Drawn outside the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.

Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition leaving all these opportunities behind.

Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.
Reaching out to embrace the random.
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come.

I embrace my desire to
Feel the rhythm, to feel connected
Enough to step aside and weep like a widow
To feel inspired, to fathom the power,
To witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain,
To swing on the spiral
Of our divinity and still be a human.

With my feet upon the ground I lose myself
Between the sounds and open wide to suck it in,
I feel it move across my skin.
I'm reaching up and reaching out,
I'm reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me.
And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been.
We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been.

Spiral out. Keep going, going



Lyrics submitted by Everlong, edited by swiftau, ouzts12

Track duration: 04:17

"Lateralus" as written by Maynard James Keenan, Adam Jones, Daniel Carey, Justin Chancellor

Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Lateralus song meanings
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  • +1
    Song Meaning:I think this song is about how if you think too much you lose touch with your intuition, emotional and spiritual side. This song has helped me alot. I wrote an essay about how it compares to the book "The Master and His Emissary", which is about how in Western society we overuse the right hemisphere of our brains (the logical side) at the expense of our left hemisphere (the emotional and spiritual side). Here's my interpretation.

    "Black then white are all I see in my infancy": I saw things in a simple, inaccurate way, thanks partly to my society favouring the use of the right hemisphere of the brain.
    "Red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me, lets me see": I began to see subtlety and complexity in life after I began to use my left hemisphere more.

    "As below so above and beyond I Imagine": a reference the Hermetic philosophy, patterns we notice on Earth can be extrapolated to apply to higher dimensions
    "Drawn beyond the lines of reason ...": Rational thinking has its own limits, for example logic can't justify the use of logic or give you a purpose for living. Life with only logic is empty, cold and meaningless.

    "Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind": Over use of the right hemisphere of the brain weakens your connection to the left hemisphere.
    "Withering my intuition": If you can't use your left hemisphere then you don't have access to intuition and creativity.
    "And I must feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines": Will power probably comes from the left hemisphere, it is the "Master" and the right hemisphere is its "Emissary" because only the left hemisphere can answer the question "Why?", to the right hemisphere everything is just a task to complete.

    "There is so much more, and beckons me to look through to these infinite possibilities": There's alot of life experience I'm missing out on by not using my left hemisphere enough.

    "Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.": Staying in the same old thinking patterns isn't going to lead me to new experiences.
    "Reaching out to embrace the random. Reaching out to embrace whatever may come.": Emotions, intuition and new experiences are random, I have to be okay with that if I want to live life to the fullest.

    And the rest of the song is how he feels once he has embraced his left hemisphere, his life feels more meaningful and less monotonous.
    Flag turtledudeon April 25, 2013   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:As many others previously stated, I also believe this song is about an ascendance into a form of divinity from the shackles and restrictions of the physical universe to something far more spectacular. This could be anything from unlocking parts of the mind previously blocked off to consciousness that shed everything about everything into a new light to a sort of Faith-based epiphany, whether it is finding God or disproving God is up to the listener. To me the underlining message is to keep expanding. Don't be content with what you already know. Instead keep spiraling into new and broader areas.
    Flag AmericanaFUBARon January 16, 2013   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:Anyone ever think about astral projection with this song. When having an OBE, I first just see black and white before i see anything else. Also using the lyrics "I loose my self between the sounds" you actually can tell when your about to go because you hear a vibrating loud noise. You also have to "Reach up and reach out" to actually get yourself out of your body. I know it may sound crazy if you don't believe in astral projection because I was a skeptic to at first until I did it. You actually spiral out of your body almost and the possibilities are endless you can keep going. Great song and it's keep me going along even when i didn't want too. Like I've told people before, you think the Bible awakens your spirit, listen to Lateralus by Tool and you can be inspired to be more spiritual then anything a book could give you.
    Flag Spiralz253on December 01, 2012   Link
  • +4
    General Comment:Black, white, red and green are the colours given by Buddhists for the 4 directions of their spiritual world. Black and white represent our realm, basically good vs evil, green and yellow are the higher and lower realms, gods vs demons (give them what names you will).

    Understand that and read the rest of the song and its message will become alot clearer.
    Flag Mundion June 22, 2012   Link
  • +3
    My Interpretation:This song is a description of a mystical experience.

    "Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
    Red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
    Lets me see."
    As infants, we are only capable of seeing black and white before we become capable of seeing color. Likewise, as we mature spiritually we become capable of perceiving different aspects of reality that were previously completely unknown and unimaginable to us. A mystical experience is so alien to the everyday experiences of most people that describing it analogous to describing color to a colorblind person. Even if they can intellectually understand it, they can never truly "know" color without direct experience. Neither can anyone truly "know" divinity with a mere intellectual understanding of it.

    "As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
    Drawn beyond the lines of reason.
    Push the envelope. Watch it bend."
    In esoteric traditions "As above, so below" is an extremely famous phrase referring to the concept that the microcosm of the human is a representation of the macrocosm of the universe and vice versa; therefore through understanding one you understand the other. This is not a concept that can be rationally understood, hence it is "drawn beyond the lines of reason." It can only be accurately perceived when the rational mind is pushed to its breaking point, when it can be transcended.

    "Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
    Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must
    Feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines."
    The rational mind can only exist in a dualistic world, i.e. a world where subject and object, or the knower and the known, are separated. This duality is an illusion that is fooling the narrator, who must strengthen his will to see through the illusion.

    "Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.
    Reaching out to embrace the random.
    Reaching out to embrace whatever may come."
    It takes a tremendous amount of willpower to cross the line from duality to unity. The individual never really knows what to expect when their ego becomes purified and they can perceive the infinite.

    "I embrace my desire to
    Feel the rhythm, to feel connected
    Enough to step aside and weep like a widow
    To feel inspired, to fathom the power,
    To witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain,
    To swing on the spiral
    Of our divinity and still be a human."
    This is the desire for liberation from the chains of worldly existence, or to experience the Mystical unity of the universe. The joy of this unity is enough to make the narrator cry. "The power," "the beauty," "the fountain," and "the spiral" are descriptions of divinity. "The fountain" probably refers to the fountain of life, while spirals are filled with esoteric significance relating to the golden ratio and DNA.

    "With my feet upon the ground I lose myself
    Between the sounds and open wide to suck it in,
    I feel it move across my skin.
    I'm reaching up and reaching out,
    I'm reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me.
    And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been.
    We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been."
    After this mystical experience, the narrator's desire to reach even further into to fabric of reality is intensified and they assert their intention to continue their spiritual evolution to its conclusion.
    Flag sadhakaon June 16, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I don't know if it's been mentioned yet,but the fibonacci sequence is all over this song youtube.com/…

    the opening verse for example count the syllables:

    black (1)
    then (1)
    white are(2)
    all I see (3)
    in my infancy (5)
    red and yellow then cam to be (8)
    reaching out to me (5)
    let's me see (3)
    Flag butterflyprincess37on May 12, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Very intricate song, not sure how Tool can be bothered incorporating all this into their songs. I found the song was amazing even before I knew about the Fibonacci connection, the Golden Spiral thing and all that.
    Flag nashie889on March 08, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:Just a thought... when he says embrace the random or whatever will bewilder me, by random I think he means just that. The universe is entirely random as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle shows. We need to stop trying to make sense of everything around us and just take it for what it is, random, embrace it and take anything that will give us interest. The lyrics here are very simple, there really isn't much to decode here. In nature we find patterns that are notice primarily by our subconscious. The golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence are two of those constants found in nature. We really live our lives by what we consider beautiful but the universe is really random. We find patterns in the randomness creating a paradox. The paradox is really only in our minds, so don't over analyze and over think it. Simply embrace the spiral and when you've transcended into the divinity of our humanity let it go. Keep going and spiral out. Keep going.
    Flag mechoman444on January 02, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:As of most Tool songs this one is open to interpretation. But to me this song explains as "black and white" as a religion. And as he gave up the religion he could see "red and yellow". Now he realizes that to evolve, religion is useless. And what he can accomplish without this burden of a religion is endless. Basically he is saying do what you do, and don't let your "religion" hold you back because the opprotunities are endless. But again, this is open to interpretation.
    Flag elite11on December 30, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:An awakening.
    Flag hurshletson December 26, 2011   Link

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