What does Rosetta Stoned mean?

Tool: Rosetta Stoned Meaning

Album cover for Rosetta Stoned album cover
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Rosetta Stoned Lyrics

ROSETTA STONED

All righty then... picture this if you will...
10 to 2 am, X, yogi DMT, and a box of krispy kreme's in my "need to know" pose just outside of area 51, contemplating the whole chosen people thingy when just then a flaming...

  1. anonymous
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    Nov 11th 2008 !⃝

    "the rosetta stone had three languages right? and he's on dmt, x, and lsd right? so he's stoned on three drugs"

    you literally blew my mind. You are absolutely right in my opinion. This song has got to be about expanding your mind. Look at the possibilities, that is what tool is trying to tell us. Ancient times are not much different than today. Of course we got more technology [or do we?] and tangible things, but drugs have not changed. Wasn't it matthew that said he saw a burning bush? Maybe he was just imagining it? Maybe by taking DMT, your mind is literally expanded enough to experience the 4th dimension [or 5th, 6th, 7th, possibly?]. NASA scientists have preliminarly proved [hypothesis] more than 3 dimensions exist in our reality. The idea is that we can not interact with higher dimensions, because we exist in a 3 dimensional space. But of course we can interact with the 1st and 2nd dimensions because we are of a higer order than those two. Interaction with the 4th dimension [theroized] is possible of course when the higher dimensions interact with us [possibly alien abduction?? which would explain the whole, able to manipulate our dimentional time and space.] But just maybe DMT is the link. And just maybe I blew my own mind right there. Um, am i crazy to patent my idea right there? or do i need to put the bong down? lol....

  2. anonymous
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    Nov 11th 2008 !⃝

    "And for the purpose on the album, it serves as an introduction to the last two songs. The next two songs are the "message" that was given to the story-teller by the alien. If you leave out the whole "sunkist and sudafed" and "god damn. Shit the bed" part, the last thing said is "I don't even know where to begin..." which is how many stories start... And the next two songs are all about how we have evolved and how we have become warlike. The message is, we need to stop. Its madness, and if we don't end it, we will be ended, most likely by our own hand.
    Thank you for your time and attention... I hope it was worth it."

    I endorse this message. Um this was like a 500ft grand slam out of the park. Couldn't have even began to state it as well as this guy.

  3. anonymous
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    Oct 10th 2008 !⃝

    To the people saying this song regards the use of acid, nowhere in the lyrics is there one reference to use of acid. In fact, this song is about the experience one goes through when they take the chemical DMT, which is the most intense drug known to man. This song describes what a DMT trip is. You leave your body, and the universe and communicate with strange beings. They will tell you of a profound "truth" that all mankind must learn about. After the experience you try to write it all down but find that, like a dream(because the chemical DMT is produced in small amounts in your brain while you dream. So ingesting larger amounts of it causes you to have highly vivid dreams) you can't excatly remember what the "being" said to you. I know this because I have experienced a DMT "trip" before and this is very similar to my experience. I also know that the members in Tool all have heavily experimented with DMT. So to all of you people saying that the song is about and Acid trip... Go do your research before acting like you know what you're talking about.

  4. anonymous
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    Sep 18th 2008 !⃝

    Faaip De Oiad (Which means the voice of God by the way) - "What we think of as aliens are extra dimensional beings..."

    Rosetta Stoned - "DMT...Then the X-File Being...E Mother Fucking T!"

    DMT is said to be the chemical gate way to other dimensions. And there are numerous cases of people seeing these same exact alien beings while taking DMT.

    My opinion?

    DMT is released into your body during REM sleep. Have you ever noticed that external stimuli can effect your dream? Such as the TV (See You Auntie...C U On T...V, Eye on the TV) being or music being played.

    Imagine that there are radio waves being sent through the air that you can only perceive or hear while under the effects of DMT. (You had better listen!) And that because of the effects of this substance, it's creating a dreamlike effect, you come to believe what's taking place. It becomes your reality. Just like when you're having a really weird dream, but it makes since to you while your dreaming until you wake up and realize that it made no sense at all. Same thing here. So we get a bunch of stories and accounts about alien abduction. Because the Illuminati (The Illuminated Ones) are trying to set up a one world government. What better way to accomplish this than to have millions of people believe in things like evolution and galactic psychic abilities and then have space aliens (a grand hallucination designed to fool the entire world) appear and show people the light and path to freedom! They come in and offer ways of a peaceful government through their grand technology! But lo and behold! This is the New World Order! The one world government. And because everyone is living in a "perfect" dream world no one will challenge anything and they will be completely unaware of this. Hence the words of Christ (The Light of the World) keep on the watch and STAY AWAKE that the thief might not break in and steal your outer garment that you might walk naked and people see your shamefulness! Those who oppose will simply be removed and a fabrication will come forth so that those who accept will not suspect anything bad happening.

    PS

    Maynard is MAJORLY into conspiracy theories.

    And on the TOOL website there was a newletter posted around the time of this albums release...I believe after they published the lyrics to it...

    Hold up...think about that for a moment...

    HE FUCKING PUBLISHED THE LYRICS TO ROSETTA STONED ON THE OFFICIAL TOOL WEBSITE?!?!? WTF?

    Anyways...in said news letter there is mention of "the hand writting on the wall" which is a reference to the bible book of Daniel in which Babylon receives a message about it's being destroyed and handed over, which that night it takes place.

    And of course...in the book of Revelation Babylon the Great is called the great city that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth...that is the figurative city of the Illuminati and more clearly the Vatican.

    The End.

  5. anonymous
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    Sep 14th 2008 !⃝

    This song is so great because it puts the exact setting for this whole story. "10 to 2 A.M. box of crispy creams." obviously a cop when all of a sudden something splits the sky. Some E.T. alien thing is checking him out and finally gives him his purpose "THE MESSAGE" I haven't quite figured it all out yet I'm hoping in some song a possible link to it.

  6. anonymous
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    Sep 9th 2008 !⃝

    Maybe this refers to the few enlightened individuals who know the future of the human race is coming soon with the New World Order and Planet X and how all those who try to enlighten others of this truth is labeled as crazy and nobody opens their minds and prejudges them as crazy without looking into the fact of the matter

  7. anonymous
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    Aug 6th 2008 !⃝

    This song is obviously about a DMT trip taken when the user was high on ectasy and lsd. The fact that he keeps mentioning meeting aliens telling him they have a message for him is very characteristic of DMT trips. The user is ripped from his body and blasted into another reality where strange beings reside and welcome the traveler trying to show them things. Read about Terence McKenna's trips with DMT, it's all there. When he says "This is so real" , being in the DMT space does seem very real.

    What is also interesting that maybe you didn't know, DMT is present in our pineal glands in small amounts, they do not know what it's for but theorize that people who report being abducted by aliens probably just had some DMT leak into their system from within their own heads.

  8. Omegaman
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    Jul 29th 2008 !⃝

    Maynard has outwardly spoken of his hate for the Idolization of Rock/Pop stars, thus I believe, (Now take a deep breathe here)
    Maynard has become the very thing that he hates, people have taken his word as gospel and he is being idolized by many. This song to me is either, and I’m prepared to back this up:
    1. This is his ironic sense of hummer (we all know he has one) to make us all run for our notebooks and pens to try and interpret a song which is just a LSD trip (Blame Hoffman).

    OR

    2. Maynard uses decidedly simple language and expressions (well for Maynard anyway). The song (Lyrically) has no direction or focus, (considering his lyrics have become more and more composed and focused over the albums, compare part of me to 46 and two and then to Lateralus, they all follow a similar idea but become more in depth, again more focused) the key to listening to this song is not like, for example jimmy (where the clue is in the inaudible whisperings) but purely in the title and in the first few verses. “Blame Hoffman” and “Rosetta Stoned” they are one song and keep this in mind because I’ll come back to this in a minute. He starts of setting himself up as a person who thinks of himself as “cool” or intelligent, “in my need to know pose” (remembering that pose is also another word for façade) which to me is a good simile for humanity as a general. We all think of ourselves as the highest most intelligent beings, however when faced with real intelligence, real truth all we can do is hope that “Uncle Martin doesn’t notice that I’ve pissed my fucking pants”. In a way this is a double simile in that we think of rock stars and musicians are more intelligent than we, but the reality is that they are just (my interpretation from the lyrics, not my personal point of view) stoned hicks who “didn’t even graduate fucking high school”. In the same way this can be applied to the human race, that we all think of our selves as something more, something better. But at the end of the day humanity is (as a general) stupid. People (as a general) are stupid. I think this song is purely just a way of Maynard taking the piss. because at the end of the day, every Tool fan thinks of them selves as some thing better, some kind of higher elite (myself included) but we are all just conforming too, conforming to non-conformity.
    Look I know that this is going to offend a lot of fans, but just take the time to read it and “think for yourselves”. We know that Maynard hates false martyrs, Eulogy, and now he has been thrust into being one by OTGs. “this light is not my own” interesting, find the song hay. Any idol (religious, cultural, or any other) always has the same argument, with the same result. PEOPLE FOCUS TOO MUCH ON THE MESSENGER AND FORGET THE MESSAGE. Every Tool fan I know (and I include myself in this) believes that Tools’ music is some thing more that it has some deeper truth, or meaning. BUT how many of you are out there trying to improve yourselves, trying to live the message. ZERO.

    So in conclusion I personally think that the song is again just taking the piss. We should all stop taking and analyzing, and start living.
    Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.

  9. anonymous
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    Jul 6th 2008 !⃝

    I don't feel like reading through all these comments
    but one person was talking about the song "Blame Hoffman".
    Albert Hoffman invented LSD
    just wanted to clear that up for you
    someone probably already wrote that but oh welll

  10. anonymous
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    Jun 27th 2008 !⃝

    All of your all interpretations are wrong. This song is simply relating to what he is "seeing" by using his third eye. The third eye follows a theory that there are subtleties that can't be seen with our normal eyes.

    Amongst others, it is the organ for illumination, the unveiled eye of the soul, through which light and illumination comes into the mind, and thus the entire lower life becomes irradiated. It is also the organ through which pours the directing energy which streams out from the conscious creating adept to the instruments of service, his thought-forms.

    The third eye is the director of energy or force. It is the eye of the inner vision, and he who has opened it can direct and control the energy of matter, see all things in the Eternal Now, and therefore be in touch with causes more than with effects.

    With this song, he is explaining what he saw. A rumor has it that Maynard uses drugs to enhance his third eye, but I don't believe it because he is so intelligent. Go to youtube and type in his name and observe his thinking. It's amazing.

    So really, with "Third Eye" being the song that talks about how the third eye is there, this song is talking about what he saw using his third eye. When you actually get to see through your third eye, when you pry it open, apparently it's magnificent.

  11. anonymous
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    Jun 24th 2008 !⃝

    I have been reading a lot of what every body is interpreting out of this song I beleive that this story is actually about dr. Hoffman who first used dmt on his patients. I think that in the intro one of the patient he gave the dmt to is coming down, so he is asking him questions to see how the drug has affected him.as for the rest of the story, it is just the hallucination the poor guy got from being given the drug and by the story it sounds like he got a lot of it. as for when he woke up and started talking he was just retelling his story then slowly started forgetting it. I have friends who do heavy drug like this and they always tell me about the crazy things that happen to them even if they never even left the room.

  12. Burial
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    Jun 19th 2008 !⃝

    This Song to me and I'm sure others who have been in such a situation, is whilst on LSD, Maynard I believe has slipped out of his regular ways tripping wise, and gone further then he has ever been, and in doing this he has had a life defining trip, where I believe he has seen and talked to this alien, and he really has been warned and told he is the chosen one,.. I really feel it is a massive LSD trip, not a bad one as such just so fucking huge that he never knew his own mind could go that far... questioning if he is actually dead, taking into account my own experiences of such a thing, even the guitar, and drums and bass, characterize and compliment the lyrics if you will, its as if they all know what Maynard's feeling , also the rhythm is how your head reacts whilst in a bad trip as such.

    Not wanting to be alone and hoping that people will believe him is so relevant to the meaning of the song, meaning that even though his close friends say yes.. I believe every word, it is no consolidation to Maynard because he has witnessed such things that even though they understand and agree with him , Maynard's had such an experience that unless each of us go there ourselves, we will never truly understand what he truly felt that faithful night.

    Peace.

  13. anonymous
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    Jun 12th 2008 !⃝

    DMT is the drug they talk about. listen to this song on it and it will mess with you and seem like it's vvverrrrrryyy long. ;) go Maynard.

  14. Junoblue
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    May 31st 2008 !⃝

    Everything here I've read so far is good. How 'bout this: it's a joke and the punch line is: "But I forgot my pen, typical"

  15. anonymous
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    May 12th 2008 !⃝

    I think saying it's about drugs at all is a total cop out. it seems to me that the song isn't really taking the whole alien thing seriously either with the ET spooning reference. The title of the song reveals a lot, because the rosetta stone translated languages for us, the song is translating on a skewed level "stoned." So basically this person is aiming for a higher purpose, and the anticipation and excitement of it has got them shitting them selves... a lot. aliens and crazy images are just a metaphor for higher purpose.




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