anonymous April 4th, 2007 04:04AM  
"over thinking over analyzing separates the body from the mind, withering my intuition leaving opportunities behind"
means that analyzing everything separates but when you follow your intuition your mind and body are acting as one. "true will unassuaged of purpose, and delivered from lust of result..." or something along that line Crowley said.

anonymous April 9th, 2007 02:42AM  
i find it amusing that you guys are missing the most significant part of the song, the breakdown.

with my feet apon the ground,
i lose myself between the sound,
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,
whatever will bewilder me,
following our will and when we,
may just go where no ones been ,
we'll ride the spiral till the end and may just go where no ones been,
spiral out, keep going

if you don't understand that you are missing the entire meaning of the song

toolman7070 April 12th, 2007 02:46PM  
Absolutely incredible song....one of Tool's top 5 in my opinion. The Fibonacci sequence in the vocals and drums are insane. Who thinks of that kind of shit when writing a song? (Maynard and Danny I guess) I am completely blown away by the way this song feeds itself until it explodes at the end "Sprial Out. Keep Going" I do not feel it is about drugs, but tend to agree more with the Astral theory.
"Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must
Feed my will to feel my moment, drawing way outside the lines " Thinking outside the box and going with the moment is what comes to mind...I am in awe is all else I can say.

anonymous May 9th, 2007 08:15PM  
I think this song is a metaphor of some kind! It could be about anything! So many different things it could mean. Thats what Maynard does. Creates Metaphoric songs and leaves us thinking of what it could mean.

"Drawn Outside the Lines of Reason" means thinking outside of reality.

"push the envelope, watch it bend" means doing whatever you want in your imagination.

The song is all about knowing reality from imagination and what is possible.

SO MANY THINGS IT COULD MEAN PEOPLE!

anonymous May 20th, 2007 11:53PM  
Everyone have experienced dmt. while you sleep, this song is no doubtedly one of the best, anyone who has listened to it in the way it was constituted to be listened to, anyone who has listened to it, not just because it has a good beat or rhythm,but really soaked it up like a sponge for what it really is meant to be, has been caught in a state of such inspiration, and learned something about themselves. If you meditate or have found yourself in a state were you start to see life and creation in a way that it has never been seen through your eyes before or have ever had moments were you realize how complex and structured everything is, whether you were on psilocybin, ergot fungus,dmt, lsa or not anything at all you have felt what Maynard and the gang felt while constructing this song. basically if and when you realize how many absolutely phenomenal things are going on around you that you can't for sure explain, and when you see things that you don't consciously give much thought to because your so conditioned, when you are seeing and experiencing them the path and structure of things on a bigger view, then you have if you have felt this, and it may or may not have been when you heard this song. this is when you have experienced the energy that created this song

anonymous June 25th, 2007 01:59AM  
I think the song means that sometimes we try too hard to perceive things, even to the extent to where we can just believe a bunch of nonsense because we get too much too fast.
"Overthinking
Overanalyzing
Separates the body from the mind
Withering my intuition
Leaving 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"


In conclusion this may seriously be the greatest song ever created from layout to musicality to lyrics. I know all Tool songs seem to be perfected in those aspects but "Lateralus" by far goes to the max as far as completion. This song and this album my be the most complete duo I have ever heard.

anonymous June 25th, 2007 10:57PM  
In my opinion this song is more simple than everyone is making it. I'm not going to sit here and research every little complexity that makes this song as thought provoking as it is, but rather take a step back and look at it as the big musical orgasm it is.

Anyone that has meditated for long enough to achieve any sort of desired result would probably agree:

"Over thinking, over analyzing separate the body from the mind"

This is where the song gets heavy, and the message presents itself. You would have to meditate to understand, but for those of you who don't, an excellent meditation technique is to pick one thing and "over analyze" it, that is, to think about it until you let go of any thought and achieve what many people describe as "inner peace" or "oneness". It is my belief that "separating the body from the mind" is just another way of saying this.

I have heard others talking about how they believe this has something to do with astral projection, but I haven't achieved any mental state that meditation doesn't provide with many attempts at astral projection.

... Then again, maybe I'm "in my infancy" XD

anonymous August 1st, 2007 05:46AM  
Alright. Personally I thought the song was about mending the schism in your brain "right side left side" considering people are usually one sided. The reason this is my interpretation is because the lines that are most important in my opinion are "stop thinking stop analyzing" because your missing the other half of the music. Try not listening to just the lyrics just because you like maynard:) danny and adam (and JUSTIN) are there too. Make of it what you will I may just be a moron XD!

anonymous August 6th, 2007 12:59PM  
Did you know that the branches of a tree grow in the fibonacci sequence? If you look at a tree from the base up, the lowest branch is directly in line with the next lowest. The sequence of branches matching up with the height of the branches forms a spiral and the number of branches between each that line up are the fibonacci sequence.


That's messed up

anonymous September 25th, 2007 11:03AM  
I think it's about learning, overcoming your ignorance and constant development of one' inner self (or one's mind).
What is reality? How did we come found ourselves right here, right now, at this moment?

anonymous October 17th, 2007 09:05PM  
I don't know much, but I do know that black and white are the first colors you see when you are born. Your cones don't develop until later on.

IINickKII October 19th, 2007 11:02PM  
Let me begin by saying that to get the true meaning of what I am saying you will have to open up and listen. Not just to words which I say, but what society is crying out for and obviously the lyrics. My vocabulary is not large enough to describe what goes through my head when I hear this song. Nonetheless, this is only my interpretation, and I don't want to limit anyone to think that this is the only way the song is meant to be "heard"
First off, the song title is separated into two words: Lateral
and US
This word is talking about the world in general
Second, the fibnocci sequence (which I didn't think about till I read it by earlier post) could be a metaphor for a great deal of effort but not moving forward. (this might be jibberish right now but I will explain)
I think its better to describe this song in basic form then back up with hard evidence from the lyrics and society. Its mainly about what society COULD BE and what IT IS NOW. If you haven't noticed, the world today is filled with rape, murder, drugs and division between races, spiritual beliefs even within our own borders we bicker on how our government should be run. Conflicts are fought daily. In Africa children are not so much drafted as threatened with killing their families if they don't join the army. Then they kill them anyway because an angry soldier is a good soldier. But the biggest conflict is between certain religions and how they interpret god's will.
If all these things are destroying the things we love, cherish and believe in how will we expand? We can't. Some of you may not be convinced that if we end all world hunger, wars, troubles then we still will not be able to flourish as human beings, rather than americans or canadians or chinese. But heres some food for thought; about 5,000 years ago there was a civilization called the the egyptians (kind of a coinkadink seeing that I am taking history now) and they were able to live in relative peace because they were secluded from everyone else. They were surrounded by mountains and desert and a huge sea. It was very difficult for them to be attacked. They also had everything that they needed; the Nile to provide water and fresh soil to provide three crops a year. An eden if you will. They were able to maintain their empire for over 3,000 years and live in peace. The artwork from that period was astonishing. And one of the seven wonders of the world(maybe two) the pyramid of Giza and the Sphinx. My point being that if we were able to live in peace and get along, what are the possibilities?
But Lateralus is not a song about war or how shitty society is. It's about hope. The thought that even though we hate each other for numerous and odd reasons, we may be able to get past our differences and live in a world where we feast on each other's intellect; learn from mistakes and assist others when in need. Just think about how great of a world it would be without conflict. Where we can create something and not have it destroyed. Where we don't "spiral" -we expand and grow.
This is not all I am going to say. I am tired right now and another 1,000 words on comparing the lyrics to modern society seems like an everest to me. I will prob have another post in an week or two.

Jenno November 2nd, 2007 11:09PM  
I'm new to tool but when I heard this song I totally connected... when Maynard sings overthinking overanalyzing I felt like I understood what he was saying in my experiencit means and he also says withering my intuition.... That when we overthink and overanalyze we take ourselves out of our emotion I think subconciously also because we feel we are incapable of dealing with the emotion or the choice not necessarily body...we need our thoughts but also our "gut" = intuition to take us where we need to go or to the next level as others say... I think he is saying if we spend our lives living in our heads then we miss the important shit... I think he is also sending a powerful message that we are capable of changing these habits.... don't know if that made any sense to anyone else but it does in my perception of the song anyway

anonymous November 24th, 2007 11:58AM  
For me... Id say it is about coming to grow and understand your reality and realise your perceptions and expanding your mind and coming to know a higher power.. Simply the journey of life. Fibbonacci sequence is linked repeatedly to nature and could be considered gods building blocks. He speaks about learning new colors from infancy 'black then white are all I see in my infancy, red and yellow then came to be,' it all appears to be about growing and understanding. 'Swing on the spiral down, power, divinity... etc' that sequence of lyrics I believe is still talking about our lives spiraling out of control and to ride it out... It may take us to new places (it may just go where no ones been)
. Fantastic song, highly original.

nostromo January 15th, 2008 08:08PM  
I think this song is talking about how when you are young the world is black and white. Good and Evil. There are no shades of gray. Then as you get older you are influenced by other things. Other opinions start to change the way you see things. You start to look for more meaning in basic ideas. You are "withering you intuition". You start to listen to what the world around you is saying and stop listening to yourself. You draw ideas and opinions from "way outside the lines." but you miss the core idea because you are looking for deeper meanings. You spiral farther away from yourself and loose your own ideas and don't follow your own instincts anymore. We want to believe that there is a deeper meaning to it all and if we keep riding the spiral then we might just get there. But there is no end to the spiral it is our own vanity that makes us think that we can somehow figure it all out.

anonymous January 15th, 2008 08:25PM  
Embracing the unknown allows a sense of spiritual freedom when the individual lets go of the boundaries that confine and searches for his own spirituality. this is indicated in the line "to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human," it shows a desire to exist in the realm of God but still be a human able to understand the meaning and purpose of life. The spiral in the case of this song probably means a progressive increase to the desired state of being.

hypurr January 24th, 2008 09:00AM  
I've been studying the aspects and possibilities of the 2012 Winter Solstice prophecies..I found an interesting site:
http://www.mendhak.com/prophecy/38/mitar-tarabich-the-serbian-prophet.aspx

If you look under Mitar's predictions you'll see "black, white, red and yellow" (not a common significance of these 4 colors together)
The lyrics seem to pertain to exploring the idea of a new birth of mankind.

Maybe I'm reading too far into it..
Just my thoughts on it.

anonymous April 17th, 2008 04:23PM  
Tool IS the best Band and Group that was ever made/joined together..
This is just a Assignment I had to do in school and I really admire their hard work and words of wisdom, well maybe not..TOTAL WISDOM.

Lateralus
Words by: Maynard James Keenan

Black then white are, all I see in my infancy.
Red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
Lets me see.

(Meaning: I think it means that when your young, your perspective on life is simple, you don’t HAVE to worry about things that are advance, not yet anyways. “black then white are, all I see in my infancy: this means, like I said before, simple (black and white) and then “red and yellow came to be, REACHING out to me”: this part means, speaking in a metaphorically way, the ‘red and yellow’ are all the problems, and the thing you don’t have to worry about when your young, but when you grow to be older, they come out like hands. REACHING OUT TO YOU. ‘lets me see’ : this is simple, thinking “outside the box” will send your mind to places you haven’t “seen” or noticed before, it lets you “see”.)

As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
drawn beyond the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.

(picture this, there’s a borderline right?, and then you start thinking beyond that line, so you start to realize and explore things most people haven’t seen or thought about, “Push the envelope.” Is sort of a saying meaning to do things your not really supposed to do, being a rebel when it comes to thinking and finding things out for yourself. And to ‘Watch it bend’ means to see how far you can go before the consequences arrive and start happening.)

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.

(Whole stanza: To over think and over analyze on things, that you might say you need to work on or what to accomplish in life, and by OVER thinking about it, keeps you from taking those chances…instead you’d be stuck there “thinking about it” rather than acting on them.)

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 thru to these infinite possibilities.
(Now that ‘he’ thinks out side the ‘lines’ its ‘beckoning’ him to look thru those possibilities.)
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
drawn outside the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
(Now he’s out there, pushing the limit, seeing how far he can go.)

Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition leaving 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.
(he wants to live life to its fullest, and have it not pretty and perfect, ‘random’, experience ‘whatever may come’)
(I embrace myyy
desire to 2x)
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, to
swing on the spiral, to
(this whole stanza says that he wants to experience those things, and feel or react to them, cause that’s how you find yourself, through moments in time, the things that you go through, the bad…the good, it makes who You are…and in some of them, you learn…make decisions, decisions that could make you or break you.)

Swing on the spiral of
our divinity and
still be a humannnnnnnnn
(A metaphor to how we humans work, how our ‘divinity’ works. what makes us so special)

With my feet upon the ground I move myself between the sounds and open
wide to suck it in.
(You could probably guess what this means yourself, but we humans are bound to want to have someone else to do it for us.<< what I JUST said was not the meaning of the song/poem but a test for yourself, to make your mind think alittle << This part of the song means: ”with his feet upon the ground” he’s accepting the things that come to him, he’s reacting to them…and learning from them by listening. Like Jimmy Hendrix once said “intelligence speaks, wisdom listens”… (You can find this quote in Ms. Trebings room above the chalkboard.))

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.
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. 4x)
(Means: if you accept those things that you come across in life you may just go “where no one’s been”)

anonymous May 2nd, 2008 03:48PM  
I see this song as an explanation of the creative process. black and white as the skeleton to the painting you're creating or the basic idea for a story or stanza you're going to write... Then come the colors and shades to build around it. when creating art of any kind you need your instincts and heart more than anything else.... when you over think (over analyze) you become unconfident and skeptical about the work and it begins to lose its genuineness and originality. when creating anything you also have to push the envelope and the boundaries to obtain something special and unique. The verse starting with 'i embrace my desire' orders you to immerse yourself in your work. feel connected and let it take you over totally. fathom the power of your mind, witness the beauty of your creation, bathe in the fountain of your creativity and will to explore... you swing on the spiral when you get started and it begins to flow almost faster than you can register and you can feel dizzy when you're done like a roller coaster.

i have no idea if this was the intended meaning but it certainly works for me. I honestly never read the lyrics closely until one day I was working on a painting for a class and this song happened to be on an iTunes playlist I was listening to. I felt like I totally understood the purpose and direction of the song, and now I listen to it frequently before I paint, sketch, or write anything.

wordup June 11th, 2008 07:11PM  
This song is about humans playing God by trying to clone humans. The spiral is DNA. Swinging on the spiral of divinity (creating life) yet being human.