Stewart Lane Music

Composer Performer Cultural Activist

Fields Of Mars

release date

Photography and artwork by Chico

Notes

When I began writing these songs, I realized they were expressing what I would best describe as my ‘quantum’ experiences. My first spontaneous out-of-body experience (OBE) happened when I was young. I often found these experiences disorienting and unsettling. When the discomfort became overwhelming, they stopped. Years later, however, they returned, and this time, I found that I could relax into them.

WAR IN HEAVEN?, FIELDS OF MARS, and SCENES AT SEA are songs that describe these experiences. TIMELESS and JEWEL reflect the state of consciousness that allows me to have OBEs and lucid dreams*. Sadly, there are people who, in a sense, are casualties of having ‘quantum perception.’ They cannot integrate their experiences into conventional society. And because society often cannot understand the relevance of such perceptions—unless they’re rendered into something more palatable, like art (which can then be dismissed as ‘abstract’ or ‘surreal’)—such individuals often drift to the fringes of the world, experiencing pain and isolation. Many of them become trapped in the ‘homelessness cycle.’

EXILE and ALL THE SLEEPING BEAUTIES directly explore this conundrum. Meanwhile, JUMP captures the dilemma of a person at a pivotal moment: Do they jump off a roof or take a leap of faith? Do they give up or press on with renewed vigor? Do they continue doing things the same way—or approach life with a new heart and mind? Any of these choices requires tremendous courage.

Now, we arrive at why quantum perception is so vital. We are vibratory beings, composed of atoms and more—just like the entire universe. Everything is vibrating, either connecting or repelling. The world we live in is magical. It’s only when we try to fit ourselves into narrow definitions, allow ‘rationality’ to drain all joy from life, and focus solely on our or others' limitations, that we fail to notice the magic around us.

Our thoughts interact with the quantum world. When we envision the kind of world we want to live in, we give energy and momentum to our desires, enabling them to take shape and manifest. By the same principle, focusing on what’s wrong or the hopelessness of any situation has the same effect. In this way, we always have a choice. New research in neuroscience shows that there’s a direct link between positive thinking, feeling good, and having a healthy, robust immune system. This insight became particularly clear to me while writing FOR THE BIRDS and I SEE MONSTERS.

One of the greatest gifts of our humanity is our ability to imagine. Let’s put that gift to work—let’s imagine the future world we desire, give it our focus, give it our attention. Let us be and be love.

Stewart

*Note: I don’t particularly like the term ‘lucid dreams’ because these experiences feel far more vivid and real, not dream-like at all.

Listen

I recently came across the headline of an online article: "Parallel worlds exist and interact with our world, say physicists." The piece highlighted the "Many Interacting Worlds hypothesis," a theory that suggests alternate or parallel universes are constantly interacting with our own. As an attempt to explain the fantastical nature of quantum reality, it tries to address why the reality we perceive through our physical senses doesn’t actually reveal the true nature of things.

For people like me, however, quantum theories are just another (albeit more palatable to conventional Western thinking) attempt to explain something we’ve already experienced directly. From my earliest childhood, I recall interacting with beings that others around me didn’t seem to perceive. These beings were as real to me as anyone else, but I remember being puzzled that others couldn’t see them. They explained that this was simply how things were, but they enjoyed playing with the people who could see them. Over time, my interest in them shifted, and they became less prominent in my life. Sometimes they would disappear for long periods, only to return in different forms. As I grew older, it became harder to make contact, and I found myself missing them at times.

A pattern began to emerge: when I felt stressed, unhappy, or overly focused on problems, my world seemed to shrink to accommodate only those concerns. I lost my broader perspective, and my ability to interact with a ‘wider reality’ diminished or completely disappeared. This was disconcerting because I had recognized that my most creative moments—particularly when writing music or composing songs—relied heavily on this connection. Without it, whatever I tried to create felt forced, as though I was pushing against a strong current.

Eventually, I understood that maintaining my inner equilibrium was the key to staying connected with that wider reality. No matter what was happening in the ‘real world,’ it was essential to keep that balance if I wanted to maintain the connection. As a child, I felt unable to talk about this with anyone. But as an adult, my path began to cross with others who had similar experiences. I realized that many, if not most, people have them to varying degrees. Yet because these experiences are anomalous and don’t fit into the narrow definition of reality, many people overlook or ignore them.

So how do you establish a connection to this ‘quantum multiverse’? It’s simpler than you might think: by plugging back into your pre-installed ‘quantum perception.’ People have been doing this for millennia. And the formula is easy to share: Be yourself. Be with yourself. Celebrate others being themselves and allow them to be with themselves. Daydream. Be creative. Take risks. Embrace the unfamiliar. Enjoy the challenge and the journey. Breathe consciously. Focus on what matters to you and ignore what doesn’t. Play. And above all, love.

For those of you who don’t need quantum theories to know you have the ability to interact with other realities, you’re probably already doing this. For those who don’t, but would like to, this is a good place to start.

The very narrow definition of reality: Go to school, adapt yourself to fit in, endure the monotony, get a job, find a life partner, procreate, shop, pay taxes, own property, go on vacation, see life as uncertain and full of dangers, stare in horror at the daily onslaught of awful news, feel powerless, get frustrated by ineffective governments full of people who also feel powerless, rarely rise to the occasion, make little difference, complain, and eventually die.