Sense of Soul - Journey into Sound

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

Back on Sense of Soul for his third appearance is Mike Fiorito. He is an Adjunct Professor of English at City Tech (CUNY), he’s a freelance journalist and award winning author of several books: For All We Know, Mescalito Riding His White Horse, Falling from Trees, The Hated Ones, Sleeping with Fishes, Call Me Guido, Freud’s Haberdashery Habits, and Hallucinating Huxley.  He joined Shanna to share the journey of his newest book, UFO Symphonic-Journeys into Sound, which is currently available for preorder and will be published February 1st, 2025. This book explores the language of music and its relationship to the mystery of existence. UFO Symphonic investigates how the symbolic language of music, of sound, interfaces with the collective unconscious. And with the symbolism of dreams, leading us, at times, into the realm of high strangeness. Through a series of personal accounts and experiencer stories, UFO Symphonic takes the reader on a journey into the impossible. https://mikefiorito.com/ follow his journey on IG @mike3fio Visit www.senseofsoulpodcast.com

Today on Sense of Soul, I have three-peat guest mike perito mike is an author and a freelance journalist he joined me years ago to share his book mascalito riding his white horse about the legendary bluegrass musician peter rowan This book received the 2024 Independent Press Distinguished Favorite Award in Spirituality. Then he joined us just last year for his book about UFO encounters for all we know. And today he's joining us to tell us about his newest book, UFO Symphonic Journeys into Sound, where he explores the language of music and its relationship to the mystery of existence. This book investigates how the symbolic language of music, of sound, interfaces with the collective unconsciousness and the symbolism of dreams leading us, at times, into the realm of high strangeness. Through a series of personal accounts and experiencer stories, UFO Symphonic takes the reader on a journey into the impossible.

And I can't wait to have my friend with us today. He is such an amazing guy. If you haven't listened to his prior episodes, I highly suggest you do. But please welcome Mike. Hey, Shanna, how are you? I'm good. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Excited to talk to you today about this.

Yeah, yeah. It's super exciting. It's funny because it's at this place where, you know, you've done all the work, the book is done, but really it's just begun. This is where the book actually begins. It's a tremendous amount of work to give birth to a book, especially a book like this, which is an experiencer book. So I have my stories, but I also incorporated other people's stories. They came in in various ways. I either interviewed people, so I had to transcribe the interview. But how are you? What's happening with you?

How's life? You know, there's, I mean, I can't not be honest. And just, yeah, there's just, it just seems like there's a lot of transitions. There's a lot of big, there's like heaviness in a lot of people's lives. And not necessarily in mine directly, but those around me, listeners have been reaching out. Yeah, there's a lot of turmoil like just in the country in the world well we're at a weird inflection point where you know personally just you know i mean i realize everybody has different opinions but it's it's this upending

feeling of like where are we going as a country you know've been in bad places. I mean, this country has been built on shoddy foundations with genocide and with slavery. While all of that is true, there's always been this thing of hope that we can hang, we can kind of aspire. Even Martin Luther King said, justice has its arc is long. Something, it leans towards justice.

I forget what the exact phrase is, but there was always this hope that we could use the promise of the system to demand more freedom, more justice, even in the face of all the shit that we see having gone down. Right now, it's like, I don't know. I not too sure you know that's the problem there's this instability right and it doesn't feel safe and when you don't feel safe then fear is you know an ugly monster yeah and so i for myself you know i've really learned through this podcast that it's more of that individual sovereignty and peace i need to let it go and just really focus on my own i have all of the same problems as everyone else but yet i'm always trying to help everybody else so it's you know it's often pain is it opens you to empathy. So I've been teaching English composition at the City University of New York, which has been fun.

And I taught the parable of the sower by Octavia Butler. She was a black woman writer in the 90s. Well, she was writing before that. Kind of science fiction, actually, really. It's a dystopian novel. Great writer. I'm surprised she's not read more because it's on par with any of the dystopian novels, Orwell's and Huxley's. And in some ways, it's even more because there's more emotion in it. And the character has what's called hyper-empathy. And so she feels things. She sees a dog get killed and she feels that pain, you know, human suffering.

But in a way, it's her strength, too. It's her like burden, but it's her strength. So it reminded me what you said reminded me of that. Those who feel are we're subject to more pain, that porousness. We're refuge for some people, I think. I mean, I'm not a saint by any means, but I do a lot. I tell my son, I'm like, am I a butler? You know where the orange juice is.

Can you go get it? Oh, I probably get. Yeah, all kinds of stuff. Yeah. My mom's assistant. I mean, it's just, yeah. I also feel what's outside of me even, right? Everything that's going on in the world. I'm definitely an empath. And I cannot forget that I once was an unhealthy one where I took on the physical symptoms of other people so much that my symptoms were

this long when I went to the doctor. And they just said, we don't have an answer for all that. So it's fibromyalgia. You know, I learned to protect myself. I need to do that right now. I think it's important time to probably dig into my toolbox and remember that. And I remember one time my therapist had told me years ago, oftentimes I see people in here because everyone around them is the one that really needs therapy, but it's the one person

in here that's getting it. Right. That took actually said, you know, yeah, it's funny you say that, but you do this show and, you know, I see your lovely smiling face. I see your posts and you bring a lot of joy and beauty, you know, people that do the work, the people that you bring on, like myself, they're honored to be a part in that ring, in that circle of people. So you do a great thing. And it's, I know it's not thing. And I know it's not easy. So I know it's not easy. You have to prepare. There's a lot of logistics. This doesn't just flip a switch and boom, it happens. Yeah. But I do enjoy it. And it's uplifting for me every day or whenever I get to sit with people like you and all my guests. And so this definitely helps me, if anything. So yeah. I mean, I knew I was going to sit with you today and have a great conversation about encounters and

paranormal, and that just got me excited. Awesome. Awesome. Now, I don't think I ever write a book that meets everyone's expectations. So I tend to kind of, I just, I think my brain is, when things go in my brain, it usually makes a left turn, goes upside down, gets inside out, and then comes out reassembled. So, you know, I had that said about my last book, For All We Know, someone wrote and said, I have read many many alien books this is not like one of those and not for the better because they had a an ingredient list of what is in an alien book an expectation right and i didn't provide that because you know at the end of the day i'm telling stories i i didn't put anyone's story i didn didn't say, tell me this. Some people wrote notes to me.

Some people I interviewed and I captured it in transcriptions. But I just said, can you tell me a story that relates to music that doesn't make rational sense? So it should have something that there's the impossible that occurred, and it's related to music, which is a really broad net to cast. So in my journey learning about Sophia, I had come across King David's story and how a prophet and like a king's man goes to David's house, and David's just a shepherd boy, and he plays the lyre. And then he ends up going to live with King Saul so he could play his lyre. So he plays for King Saul, and there would be like this bubble of protection is what I was

imagining, and it would summon all of these negative energies from Saul. And so I did a little research on the lyre, and I found out that really the tones of the lyre were solfeggio tones. That's interesting. Yeah. That's very interesting. That's a beautiful story, and I really don't know it, I have to say. So solfeggio, it's a kind of Italian tradition of teaching music. So in the solfeggio method, you sing the music before you play it. It's an Italian method, solfeggio, it's an Italian word. And I had written something previously because I've done a lot of music

writing. I'm a music journalist and I've just done a lot of music writing and I'm deeply interested. But if you sing, do you play an instrument? I don't remember I have lots of instruments I played flute as a child I like the flute, I'll just play this I also love the drums My daughter plays the violin and I love the violin

I love orchestra So that's beautiful So you play the flute, you study music And I love the violin. I love orchestra. So that's beautiful. And so you play the flute. You've studied music. Sometimes people, when they're practicing music, they'll get into the instrumentation part, and they don't know the song. And if you don't know the song, first of all, you should read the words. You should know the words.

And when you know the words and you know the melody, you connect with it emotionally. And then you can do the technical parts. But if it's just technical, then something is not there. I mean, we love singers. They're not always the best singers. There's something particular. There's something unique, there's emotion, there's connection, there's something in a way, it's almost their imperfection that we love. Some of my favorite singers, it's not because of the precision of, I mean, some are because they're so precise, but there's that blunted, that's something just very human that we connect with. So that Solfeggio thing, could you tell me more about that? Because I'm curious. I'm curious to know. I should have put this in the book. You know, what's really interesting is what you just said is my daughter, she's a natural. Some are just naturals. This is their gift. She can hear, I mean, she's 12, but she can hear music

and she can perform it. You can do this on any instrument. She can do this. And she doesn't realize it's a gift. She thinks like everyone should be able to do that. But a lot of times, Kinsley is going around humming, humming all the time. Or even when she's listening back, like she just had an orchestra performance and they were so good. And she said, I can never hear it because I'm in it. So listening back and the whole time she was humming it, like there is like this vibration or this sound. I think that's interesting because even though there's no words to it, so she wasn't singing it, but she was humming it and feeling it in her body.

And she's always humming. But King David's story, I thought it was very magical, that story. And I think it's been overlooked and I'd never heard it either. But it really stood out to me because I was like, wow, it's those different tones, that frequency, right? That are putting this vibration of energy in your field. And obviously, it was doing something magical. I mean, he would have never become King David had he not had this gift. This was a very special tool. And I looked back even further. So, there's this, there was the layers of ore, like UR, and one was found in like a king's grave in mythology mercury had a had a liar all of this historical art and i looked and there was a lot of people depicted

with these liars i think people have missed these frequencies and these tones yeah yeah and i you know that i i can imagine especially mean, let's say even now, if you have a lyre or an instrument, you hear it live, it's profound, it's powerful. But imagine before you had radio, before you could go see music, you're in these places, you're in a remote place. The lyre must be just absolutely magical, just transforming the way that stories were told you know bards sung stories and so they sometimes accompany with a liar and you know there must have been so captivating to hear you know mythologies or you know epic tales um i can only i can only imagine i do want to go back to humming though for a sec, because in the research I did for UFO Symphonic, you know, the thing about ufology is you have to study everything.

You find yourself studying mythology, folklore, science. I studied, in this case, you know, I had to look, read books on musicology. All the cultures. Yeah, all the cultures. I mean, then it's an anthropology. There are anthropological parts in this book. But the interesting thing, humming, that I discovered, first of all, humming, when you hum, it actually cuts off the thinking part of your brain. And so when people hum, when they're in imperiled or in danger, it's actually a solving thing.

It's healing. I found the vibration, you know, oh yeah is a home what i found interesting in my research is that it seems as if so i looked into books in musicology in the history of the origins of music which no one can tell you definitively but it appears as if humans sang before they spoke words. Wow. So there was music. We sang music. Maybe they were just to communicate. Let's say you're in a place where people are separated by distance or you need to be able to communicate to project your voice. Also, interestingly, that primates,

so gorillas have humming songs when they eat. And they have favorite foods. They have special songs. So that humming thing, make sure your daughter does that all the time. It's something so primal, this humming thing. Supposedly, I was reading something that singing and humming, it has this effect on your brain. And there was one article I read that it has a physiological function to kind of improve, to kind of cleanse your brain. And it makes sense. It makes a lot of sense. I mean, meditation does that. I learned in my investigation and research, and I didn't know

this before. I'd heard of it, but I didn't know it to the extent. But using things like HemiSync. So the Monroe Institute, Robert Monroe created, I think with other people, created HemiSync, which is you put on a headset. I've tried it. It's very powerful. And you have two frequencies. They're different. And they kind of create this warble effect. And what it does is it kind of puts you into a trance state. I found myself, you go into the hypnagogic kind of pre-dream state. If you stay with it, you'll go farther. But it doesn't end there. It doesn't, you know, think of the many ways that music is used for ritual. I went on a San Pedro ritual, and it was a Colombian shaman. My wife and I went,

and it was very powerful. And it was it was very emotional really where it took you and yes you have these kind of mild visions it's an alkaloid San Pedro kind of akin to mescaline but you know people hear these words and they and I understand people may cringe or say drugs it's not drugs these are sacred plants I love what Terrence McKenna said. Don't believe the gurus. Trust the plants. If you read accounts and the shamans and accounts of people that have gone to these ceremonies, the plants speak to people. Yeah. I'll tell you a story about humming.

This is so interesting. So me and my youngest daughter, Kinsley, I have four kids, but she's always involved in all my paranormal experiences. Me and my cousin, we went to the Myrtles Plantation. It's in Louisiana. It's one of the most haunted places known. And as I'm there, I found myself alone. And I'm walking down this path outside of the house and I'm in these live oaks. Okay. I mean, they're magical. And I'm recording because how beautiful my walk is. And all of a sudden I'm humming something and it is a specific tune that I've never heard before. I don't even realize I'm doing this quite yet. I mean, I can still remember it now, the tune. So we're playing it back and I'm like, what am I humming? But when you said that,

when you hum, like your mind kind of goes blank. I felt that way. I felt like I was in this very ethereal space. So here's the thing that happened probably about five years ago. And not long ago, I was watching. So Mother Cabrini, I have like a real connection to Mother Cabrini because she has a connection with New Orleans and she has a connection with New York, but she also has a connection with Colorado. We have a huge shrine here and I'm watching. And I'm listening to the movie because I'm also doing dishes and cooking and all this. And all of a sudden in the movie, I hear this humming and I stopped immediately. I was like, what is this? I stopped the movie. I had to go and find out who made this. It's humming, but it was my humming.

It was familiar. It was the humming from the Myrtles. So I find out and I find it on YouTube. I find the soundtrack. And do you know the name of the song was called The Divine Feminine? And it was all these years in between that I have been connecting with the divine feminine and researching Sophia and all that. Wow, it's profound. It was that melody. Melody. And it's not even a melody that I have to still, it's just amazing. It's crazy. So that could have been a kind of story.

You know, the stories that I got from people were completely divergent. Some of them were, in a sense, you could say prosaic. In other words, OK, yeah, OK, that's somewhere really profound. There was one woman that she was an epidemiologist. And she said she began to get messages through song. She began to get communications through songs. She began to get communications through songs. She would get these intense feelings. And one of the things that I thought was interesting, and it didn't come in one way, it could come through a song.

She connects songs like a constellation of events. And she has crystals that she connects to those songs and she has these sort of associations, correspondences. But she said her porch became a kind of spaceship and she would go on the porch and it would take her to places. And she said she would experience visitors coming to her as well. And these visitors would ask her to sing and she said she experienced visitors coming to her as well. And these visitors would ask her to sing. And she said, I don't have a good voice. She said, I really don't have a good voice.

But I would sing these songs for the healing purposes of people elsewhere. Just really profound and interesting. And her whole life, she was an epidemiologist for X amount of years stopped all that her life took a pivot and she went in this direction and i met her through a series of connections so someone said oh yeah leanne has a story she has a special relationship to music and of course as a music journalist you know i talked to musicians i didn't want this to be like Bon Jovi's story about some – it wasn't the celebrity of the artist. It was more the story itself. There was one story where, I'll briefly tell, a dear friend – he's become a very dear friend – his partner passed away from cancer young. And she was a phenomenal fiddle violin player, fiddle player,

really, bluegrass music. She played with all of the luminaries in that world. Anyway, there's a whole really emotional and beautiful story that leads up to it. I'm going to fast forward. He's with a friend of ours who's a very famous bluegrass musician, Peter Rowan. And they're at Frank's house. And Peter, who's a very talented musician, songwriter, he looks over and he sees this box. And he says to Frank, what's that? And he goes, oh, that's Sue's flute. It's never played, though.

And Peter says, oh, may I look at it? So he takes the box. He opens it. And then Frank starts to tell Peter at it? So he takes the box. He opens it. And then Frank starts to tell Peter about this song that he wants to write. So he's telling him this long folktale story about there's an infidelity in a marriage, and then there's revenge. So he's telling this story. Pete acts like he's just playing the flute. He's like tootling on the flute.

Not really paying attention, it seems. Playing the flute, though. He goes, you know, after some time, he says, OK, I have the melody. Here's the first verse. Write this down. So Frank frantically gets his iPhone out because he can't keep up. He records it. They record the song.

They use Frank's chorus line. They put the flute down. It doesn't play again. It just won't play. It's as if Sue came through in that flute, brought it to life, and the flute played. No, just for that. Just for that. And then it just went poof, and it just is dormant.

And they didn't even really talk about it. Frank said, you know, we didn't really talk about it. We just, just one of those things. They were so, probably they were so excited about the song itself. And what I found is a lot of the stories had to do, even though they had paranormal aspects to them, they often had to do with grief or with something like that. There was deep emotion.

Music has that ability to, it's beyond our explanation. We cannot describe it. Music can take you back. I was listening the other day and I just got really welled up with emotion. It has that power. We hear music at the biggest ceremonies of our lives, weddings, funerals, marches, graduations, and that music has an effect. when you hear that graduation song and you see your child go to get that graduation certificate you're welled up with tears yeah and so there's this ineffability of music that to me is

is related to you know I've talked to lots of people about this there's something in music I think it's multi-layered there's message in music some of it is not even message that's content it's just beyond your ability to explain what you're feeling gosh that also reminds me of like in my research of my ancestry, in the slaves. I mean, they would kind of moan and hum throughout their day, and it would turn into song. Right. And oftentimes that song, I read in my English composition class that I taught this fall. So in the narrative of Frederick Douglass, slaves would sing

songs. First of all, they would hide what they were saying sometimes. Frederick Douglass said some of the white people would say, oh, that was such a nice song. That was so lovely. It was such a pretty song. But really, they were songs of tremendous pain. But they would have to bury the message in there you you couldn't come right out it had to be coded and layered you know when you hear that throughout music you hear a lot of you know blues songs from the delta you know oftentimes there's sometimes it's sexual too so they're kind of they'll hide the meeting yeah you know because you you don't want to get slapped in the face by the minister or something. But you can bury messages in music.

I mean, they could even be used strategically to provide information. I mean, lots of sacred music. I just connected with Stephen Halpern, and he probably since the 80s and maybe even earlier has been making sacred music and he makes music for you know for healing he uses certain you know frequencies certain megahertz to achieve a certain goal and in my research I went to there was a gong yoga so using gongs. And gongs that are made with different notes. And they have different purposes. But you hear.

You know, this washes over you. It's just incredibly powerful. Chimes. Oh, I just got one of these guys. It's a moon bolt. Cool. Yeah, I have one over here. You sort of, it goes.

Very powerful. I went to a, it was a bowl therapy, singing bowls. And so he used different bowls and chimes. And, you know, I remember I rushed to the session because it was in Manhattan. And I, you know, get there and you're in New York City. Get out of my way. I'm on my way to yoga. Get out of here. And I get there and I go to lie down and I'm thinking, I'm never going to calm down. But the bull, he was hitting the bulls. He's an expert at what he does. And also talking meditation over that, you cannot help but be taken along

on a journey and that journey can take you i i heard voices and kind of personalities of beings and you know they kind of pop up and it's like little dramas play out interesting yeah i mean robert monroe said that he was speaking to beings who were giving him instructions for the human race. I've never heard that they actually have figured out how to put some device on a plant and see what the plant sings or the frequency. There's communication. Yeah. Everything actually has a frequency, even rocks. I mean, the universe is busy. There's crickets, there's

wind whooshing around, there's leaves fluttering. Everything is kind of crackling and sparkling with sound. So that's the stuff that really drew me. In our music, we create music to, I don't want to say artificially, but to create structure. Because that's what music, when humans make it, it's structured noise, if you want to call it that. But I compare it to the music we make is like a building. But nature, right? Does nature make things like a building? No, nature makes things like mountains and gurgling brooks and oceans and trees.

We can't make that yet. Maybe that's a path down the road. And I'm not saying that we artificially make it, but when we become better connected to the environment, to the world, to this this planet when we realize that We are it and it is us That we are the same. There's a word. I think the Apache word for mind is the same word for land So we in the Western world and you know that I'm using a generalization, but we tend to cut ourselves off We objectify, In the Bible, it was made for us. It was made for our dominion to sort of lord over it, which is completely antithetical to First Nations' view of the environment.

I mean, let's think of it. The water you drink, the food you eat, everything comes from, is enriched by, is grown from the soil and the sun that the earth is benefited from. We are that soil. We are that sun. We are those plants. We are those animals. of it, but I'm not out there necessarily. I'm not living in the woods and I'm creating a lot of waste and perpetuating the problems that are engulfing, actually at this time especially, are inflaming our relationship with the earth. It's almost like we're a disease to the earth, but perhaps there's a path out. Perhaps there's a road out. And I think listening in general, any kind of listening. Yeah.

You and I are both bird people. We've talked about this. Yes, exactly. Yeah. You know, every morning that's my ritual is I sit outside and it is like a symphony, you know,

sometimes it's like five different types of bird. And it is like a symphony. You know, sometimes it's like five different types of birds, and it is like a symphony. Or if you've ever been in Louisiana, I remember one time I tried to go outside to meditate, and I was like, what the hell? You know, there were so many cicadas and all that. But what was interesting is they were moving. It was like different trees, or they knew what to do.

It was insane. It was. There's order in it. There's really order, seemingly. It was magical. I say in the book that when you listen to the bird sounds, when you listen to chirping and you listen to that symphony, that maybe there's some physics in there. There's some magical science in there that holds the key to understanding ourselves, to understanding the universe.

Is that far-fetched? I don't think so. I don't think so. The shamans of the Amazon, they use songs to, I don't know how to say it. I don't know if it's the correct pronunciation, but Icaros, Icaros. So there's songs and the songs are, in a way, they take you on a profound journey. They sing the songs. These are very practiced songs.

They're very sacred. But that happens to us too. You listen to music, you go on a journey. The best music takes you on a journey. You feel this arc of a narrative and your imagination, you probably, we're not even aware of it. It's just taking us on to someplace else or to some imagined experience or something. All I've done is I've just scratched the surface. This is a deep well, and I hope it seems like I've talked to people and they go, yeah, yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. That's something we should look into.

So I'm not the first person to explore this, but I would say exploring it in the context of the paranormal and the UFO phenomena, it's, you know, I'm not a brag statement. It's something that it should be investigated further. And all I've done is knock on the door. Okay. So I'm sure you've heard of this, especially in your research, but here in Colorado, and I don't remember what show it was on. I just thought it was me for the longest time. But I was hearing a tone outside, just in the air here, in the wind. And I thought it was just a coincidence at first. Then I started opening up the window and listening. And it was a specific tone.

And it was the same one every night, right? But sometimes just, I'd say at least once a week, if I could sit outside, I will hear tones and different vibrations. And I'm like, is it a plane? Is it a car? Is it someone's house alarm? I'm trying to figure it out, but this happens a lot. And then I saw on a show that this was happening a lot in other places in Colorado. And oftentimes they were accompanied by some sort of UFO in the sky. Yeah, I have read stuff about that as well. And also there are sounds occurring all the time.

But we may not, of course, we just don't hear them there are sounds occurring whether it's machine sounds droning sounds that are happening that we're not aware of i mean if i just stop right now yeah you know you can almost hear i mean the the whole universe is abuzz with sound kind of beaming there are people that gave me accounts where and there it's often is the case that when they had a ufo experience it was accompanied by i'm paraphrasing but the most beautiful gorgeous symphony music i've ever heard this kind of angelic choir and i think that's one of the chapters i think i called it but this kind of waterfall of gorgeous music that i think we can all that music can be as varied as as there is music but i think of things

like renaissance church music it has that kind of high that kind of uh. I studied the Hagia Sophia has a very unique acoustic or the way it was built, you know, in Turkey. And they did a reenactment there in New York, trying to do this to mimic, you know, what you would hear. And it was,

in fact, I used to sit with that and meditate yeah during my journey you know of sofia and connecting with that and it was powerful i would transcend i it. Whatever our associations are with church, I love churches. I love going to churches. Churches designed, you know, the stained glass mirrors, windows, not mirrors, the smells. True. The beautiful architecture, the geometries, you know. And then they start talking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would be happy just hearing the music, you know, as opposed to being lectured to about something moralistically. But just hearing the music, just listening to the chant. And we went to, it's in the book as well, we went to York in England, York Cathedral. And, wow, we just happened to be there on the Ascension Day. And there was an even song, they call it. So it's basically a prayer song. And it was just beautiful. Even my son, he was gripped by it.

And there was a procession of people walks in. And you have men, women, younger people, older people, different voices. And all of those different voices doing a different harmony part. And it was just so magical. Like, you know, you just watch this sea of sound kind of wash up over you. And you can't help but be in this place and just be transfixed by you're on a spaceship. You are going somewhere else. You are convening with other beings. I mean, if you imagine a small village and there's this big,

gigantic church that's built with these beautiful geometries and flying buttresses and everything, this is the spaceship of your time. This is how you go places. Even like the names of God, right? The Yod, He, Vod, He. I mean, her talks, they did every name of God, they chant it. And you're right. I can see how, especially like the Hebrew language is very like when spoken for myself, when I speak it, I chant it almost. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Or Latin, when I speak it, I chant it almost. Yeah. Or Latin, when you hear it.

Oh, I love that. I mean, pretty much any language when it comes down to it. And especially when we go from speaking to poetry. Poetry has a different... We're in a sacred place now. And when you elevate it further with music, you're on your way into journeys into sound. And that's why I called it Journeys into Sound, by the way, because I realized it's not just about music. It's not just music. It's sound.

And sound has this transportive quality universally throughout all cultures. And listen to the sounds, listen to each other. It's interesting also, I've had many people who've had near-death experiences and many of them, like I had on Eben Alexander, talk about this sound that they heard on the other side. I mean, this is very common. And I almost think that when I think about David's story, or if I think about the drumming, calling in the ancestors, you're like summoning, you know, this energy to you. Maybe even like you said, maybe you don't even know you're doing it. Yeah.

You're dialing up something for sure. Yeah. And something will come. What's funny is that you have your straight-laced types. I don't believe in that kind of stuff. I'm a science guy. Meanwhile, they're listening to music. They're wrapped, caught up.

Their favorite stuff is fantasy movies and things. We kind of want to deny those things as if, oh, they're just dreams. They're just imaginings. Those are real things. Those are real things. Those are real things. When we dream things, we can make them manifest. When we desire things, we can call them into being. And often that's accompanied with music, ritual.

You know what? Stevie Nicks. Love Stevie Nicks. I mean, she's like my goddess. I could never clean my house without her. It's great music to listen X. Yeah. He's like my goddess. I could never clean my house without her. It's great music to listen to, yeah. But, you know, I mean, there is certain music for mood, you know? Right, absolutely.

And it does have to do with the words, too. But I could do without the words, even. Yeah. I mean, we can hear music and not know the words and connect to it very deeply. Oh, I'm saying the wrong words all the time. My kids make fun of me. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I remember that song.

If you remember Toto, hold the line. Love isn't always on time. And my brother was singing for the line, for the line. I was saying, what is that? I was saying for the life, you know,

it's, if it takes you there, it takes you there. But, um, it's hold the line. That's the title of the song. My sister and I laughed because my brother never did the song.

The words, the songs. Never. I'm, I'm like known for this in the house like i said at the beginning you take it in my brain takes things in it does a left turn goes upside down comes inside out comes up into broken bits that don't resemble anything like what went in so okay one of my favorite like remastered songs right is, is The Sound of Silence.

Is it by Simon and Garfunkel or someone different? No, it's by someone different. It is the most powerful song I have ever listened to in my life. In fact, you have to listen to it. It is one of the most powerful songs. It's like a different song. I'm going to find it. I'm going to find it. All you have to look up is the sound of silence and it'll show up. It's by Disturbed. By Disturbed. Okay. I am telling you this song. I mean mean I am taken

I don't even know where I go and sometimes I'll just hit repeat repeat repeat because whatever wherever it's taking me is this very vulnerable and like humble

place and I just feel so connected to everything. And it's ironically called The Sound of Silence. Well, it's interesting how you know the song, Jimi Hendrix, All Along the Watchtower, which is such a beautiful song. And that solo, all of that. And it's a Dylan song.

Bob Dylan wrote the song. And when you hear Bob Dylan's version, it was on his album, John Wesley Harding. And it sounds, it's so monotone. It's very, no reason to get excited. The thief he kind of spoke. I like that. Thanks. But it's very muted and then dylan said no no no hendrix took that song and like a lotus just opened it up and uh that's the

song that's it's his song really i just wrote it that's what he says i think you'll you'll connect with that same thing i will I will definitely check it out. You know, it's that power. Like, what is it? Right? Like, we're reacting. I react with every sense. You know, I'm just completely stimulated.

I mean, it is that thing. It's like mythology that, you know, music sort of points us to somewhere. But exactly where it's, but exactly where it's different for everyone, and we don't know where it is. And I truly believe that understanding that contains a very powerful mystery of our existence, our experience, because it's so moving, it's so evocative, it's so important. We often overlook it, but there's something in there. If we dig deeper, that connects to the unknowable, to the mystery and the paranormal is wrapped up in mystery. As UFOs, we can't seem to get

good pictures. It's like we're looking at ourselves. In the reading that I've done and the research that I've done, that's where I've come to. I realize that people have experiences of craft, of you can knock on that metal. But it seems to be both physical and psychic. It seems to be, it's like you're in a hall of mirrors and this whole trickster aspect to it that we just can't wrap our hands around it um it slips through it you know it's like a dream you wake up and say well i had well was it a dream people often say i'm not sure it felt real as this experience i'm having now in that world and in way, I think there's something to be learned from following that mystery, from delving into that mystery.

And maybe what we learn is unknowable and untranslatable. And it's just something, it's a feeling. That unknowable, that unknowable that unknowable so i don't know how i came to it but i found this song it was called calling um i think i was probably just looking like how you know ideas of calling on spirits but i found the song calling on spirits and i listened to it and i was i remember i was doing the dishes again geez all my stories around dishes. But my oldest son comes up who loves music. He comes up.

He's like, that is a really good beat. I'm like, I know. I don't know what it is. I don't know what they're saying. It's not in English. And what it was, it was a yogi band. And the guy's name was Sean Johnson and the Wild Lotus, which I released one of his album called Mystery on my podcast years ago. But one thing he told me, and I'll never, ever forget it.

So he's got a very jazzy yogi band. He's from New Orleans. So if you can only imagine. But if it's not in your native tongue and you're singing it, you won't reject it. So if you're saying like, God is love, love is God, and in Sanskrit or whatever, you won't reject it, right? You will, you're just receiving it. My soul knows. It goes right past your thinking brain, part of your mind, and right to your feeling, which is, you know,

rationality is important. We need it for life. We need it to just go about our day. But there's this whole other bigger consciousness that is way beyond what we as human beings can rationally derive and explain. I mean, the phenomena that occurs, these things that happen these impossible things that people experience but you can't rationally explain it but they happen and it's in that other realm that you know river that connects us to that bigger consciousness the collective unconsciousness the the collective unconscious the kashuk records whatever it is, this deeper,

bigger sentience that includes us, but it's not only us. Music takes us there. It's that little paddle boat we take out to paddle our canoe. And when we get out there, it's like, whoa, look at those stars. Look at that. Definitely are leaving. No, it's funny that I just thought about another experience. I had to listen to it. He let me listen to it before it was released. And I was going to bed listening to this stuff. That's so cool.

And I didn't know what I was saying. I didn't know what was happening. And one song is a Celtic. So it's yogi music, but it's of all cultures too. And he's chanting Bridget. And I'm like, who theity with Bridget, but it started from that song and that chant. I mean, it's all very amazing and mystical. And I have to tell you something interesting. Bridget, since you mentioned it. Yeah. So the UFO Symphonic will publish on the February 1st or 2nd, which is St. Bridget's Day.

And that was by purpose. So one of my friends, I said, do you have any suggestions? And he said, why not St. Bridget's Day? In bulk. So whatever day, I forget if it's 1st or 2nd. Yeah, it moves from that to that because where we are. Because it's lunar, maybe, right? But wow.

And there we bring it back to that. Isn't that phenomenal, though? That's interesting. Yeah, you see? Because it's all connected in some way. And it's held together by divine frequencies and vibrations. It's some kind of fungal mycorrhizal web that connects us. I mean, you and I probably can't even remember how we know each other.

It's like through the strands of threads of connections that just sort of have woven through us and into us, through us and beyond us. And here we are. Well, you're my kind of person. UFOs and music mean yes. Well, you're my kind of person too. It's always fun to have just unrehearsed, improvised discussion, which is fun. I mean, why not? Yeah. I can't wait to actually get my hands on this book, to be honest with you, because it sounds like it'll take you on a journey.

Thank you, Mike, for coming on and sharing again. And you just keep on getting these books out. It's amazing. I aim for quantity, not quality. No, just kidding. But thank you so much. It's always so fun to talk to you and to be in touch. And it makes me happy to be here and just to shoot the breeze,

have this fun conversation. So thank you so much. Where can everybody get UFO Symphonic Journeys into Sound? You can get it anywhere, certainly online because it's available. It goes through Ingram, which is the, I guess is the distributor that sends to all book online services. It's here sporadically, here and there at bookstores. I can't really tell, but any bookstore could order it for you.

You could also go to my website, mikefiorito.com, if anyone has questions or sometimes I do have a little bit of an inventory of books, but they've been flying out the door too. Yeah. And I bet you also like to hear people's experiences. Absolutely. So there's another project looming on the horizon. I think I'm going to take a breath because I need to. But yeah, experiencer stories are very important. I don't modify them. I just take them in and present them as they're told to me. I may have, you know, after a chapter that talks about them, but I don't interpret them. I feel like that's not my place to do. But thank you, Shanna, as always. Great to see you. Great to speak to you.

All right. Thanks, Mike. my place to do. But thank you, Shanna, as always, great to see you. Great to speak to you. All right. Thanks, Mike. Sense of Soul. Thanks for listening to Sense of Soul Podcast. And thanks to our special guest. If you want more of Sense of Soul, check out my website at senseofsoulpodcast.com. It's time to wake up.