Psychic Night

This was a feature that I wrote for January's edition of the Maldon and Burnham Standard, covering a psychic fair which was the first of its kind to be held.


Being in a room of psychics and spiritual healers would deter most people, but it takes a lot to scare me.

It’s all too easy to snub the work of clairvoyants, healers and alternative therapists as money making schemes.

We have seen the likes of Derek Acorah and Colin Fry, who have become celebrities in their own right, publishing autobiographies and how-to books and appearing in TV shows, but how are these spiritual therapists helping us improve our own lives?

I went to Afternoon for a Change event in Maldon's Town Hall which offered a number of relaxation workshops and demonstrations to help “ease body and mind“.

For a reasonably-priced £8 entry, you could get tarot card readings, massage, reiki healing and much much more, with all the proceeds going to Farleigh Hospice.

This was the first time Maldon has seen such an event take place, and organisers Wisdom 36 hope that the evening will be a success in years to come.

Jules Gibson, 44 of Little Baddow is a psychiatric nurse who deals with children with emotional problems. She spent three stressful weeks planning the event and explained why she got involved.

“Since being a qualified psychiatric nurse I've always seen how stress and emotional impact on the body are intrinsically linked,” she said.

Jules, who practices spiritual therapies, is also part of Buddhist Esoteric Meditation Centre in Little Baddow.

“I've always been interested in mediumship, clairvoyance, tarot card reading and meditation, it's always been a big part of my life.”

“London hospitals have now started employing people to be alternative therapists so I think there has been a massive shift in medicine.”

“We can have surgery and treatment, complimentary healing and therapies to help you get better quicker and it is well researched that if your mind and body are in harmony you heal much faster.”

Whether or not you believe in mediumship or holistic health, it seems to benefit many people dealing with emotional trauma.

Ruth Aiken from Mundon, who has been a medium for over 25 years, explained her reasons for becoming a professional clairvoyant.

“I've always been psychic ever since I was a child. What actually got me into professional mediumship was when my husband at the time died suddenly 27 years ago,” she said.

“I had a lot of phenomena happening at that point, so I went to a medium myself to see what was going on, he told me that I would be working as a medium as well, I thought I don't think so, but lo and behold.”

“I wouldn't have it any other way, it's not an easy job to do but you get so much reward from it and helping people through tough times.”


Amelia Altuna, a masseuse from Angel Cottage Holistic, a small family run therapy centre in Chelmsford believes the physical nature of her job helps people with emotional and spiritual blockages.

“There is a satisfaction in helping people, it's non invasive and extremely beneficial to helping the body to get back to a natural state. It also has spiritual functions too,” she said.

Jules believes events like Maldon‘s Afternoon for a Change will help people lead healthier lives, both physically and mentally.

“I think it benefits everyone, no matter if you just want to wander around and have a chat, whether you want massage or meditation that you've always wanted to try but been a bit too scared,” she said.

“You are giving money to charity and have to option to try lots of different things. It's a big win win for everyone.”


Nerissa’s Verdict

I’ve been known to dabble with tarot cards, Buddhist meditation and psychic workshops, but I still remain slightly sceptical about a stranger having the ability to relieve my emotion and stress in a matter of minutes, but I remained open minded nonetheless.

As soon as I walked through the door, Sam Whitwell, a chakra healer from Little Waltham approached me with a pack of cards. I picked one out which read 'follow your true feelings', which seemed a little too vague to hold any meaning for me. Sam offered me a chakra healing, which I happily accepted. She sat me down on a chair and placed her hands a few inches above my head and shoulders.
Admittedly I found it difficult to switch off with the noise and bustle of the room, but after about five minutes I began to feel incredibly relaxed and like my head was floating away from my body. When the session was over, Sam told me I had a lot of activity around my head, no surprise there! And that the spirits “wanted to open me up”. She also told me that I jolted when her hands were near the heart chakra, meaning I had a lot of emotional issues to deal with. Spiritual messages aside, the therapy did make me feel so relaxed that I had trouble keeping my balance as I got up and walked around the room!

The tarot card reading, held by Ruth Aitken was very enlightening. As soon as I sat down, she told me she could see my grandfather next to me, which obviously made me smile. She picked up on a lot of current issues, including my prospects of travelling and publishing a book. This is perhaps not such a revelation, being a journalist after all, but it was quite comforting to be told that my plans for the future will work out as well as I hoped.

My favourite artists of all time

Inspired by the latest Doctor Who episode which featured non other than Vincent Van Gogh, I have decided to share with you my favourite artists of all time and how they have made a great influence on my own work.




William Blake

To some a visionary, to others a over zealous spiritualist, Blake was an early Romanticist who spread his talent over three mediums: painting, poetry and printing. Blake carried a strong, almost anarchic voice throughout his work, a voice disgusted with sexual inequality, slavery and rigid social structures of the time, such as marriage, class and education. Despite Blake's modern outspokeness, he was a devout Christian and his archaic depiction of angels, demons and figures from the Bible reappear again and again in his work. Aesthetically, Blake had an extraordinary talent in watercolours and was able to depict dramatic scenes with body, texture and rhythm in this difficult medium usually associated with the realism movements. Blake's early life as an engraver lent to a blending of mediums, using his engravings to illustrate beautiful hand written copies of his poetry. Perhaps a favourite painting of his has to be 'Pity', and ink and watercolour epic which portrays an angelic rider galloping across a midnight sky, scooping up a baby from his dead mother lying on the ground. The stark contrast of inky blue sky and the luminous bodies show a overwhelming sense of sorrow and mysticism.



Vincent Van Gogh

As mentioned before, Van Gogh is another inspiration of mine, and yet another mad man added to the list. Sadly Van Gogh exists more of a name than a credible artist these days. Recently the press have been filled with new stories of Van Gogh's ear incident, proclaiming that it was Paul Gaugin, fellow artist who cut off said ear in a fight. This of course has little to do with Van Gogh's talents, which should exist on their own. Van Gogh experimented with compositon and technique, but I feel his earlier work inlcuding his Japanese wood prints were too forced and fashionable to create any resonance. 1888 was Van Gogh's penultimate year. An array of quickly created pieces, with looser compositions, heavy textured brushwork and vivid hues lent himself to become the most easily recognised painter of our times. Van Gogh was able to portray the bleakest, most depressing and mundane of scenes such as 'Still Life in Absinthe' and 'At Eternity's Gate'but also create spectacular, beautifully joyous impressions like 'The Starry Night' and 'Road with Cypress and Star' - landscapes turned fantasmagophical through the eyes of manic.



Wassily Kandinsky

I have had the pleasure to see Kandinsky's paintings in the flesh at Tate Modern and they certainly don't disappoint. Russian born Kandinsky formed an alliance other expressionists from Germany to create 'Der Blaue Reiter' (The Blue Rider)group which focused on presenting spiritual truths in their work. The group disbanded following the outbreak of World War I but Kandinksy continued to paint, concentrating now on abstract pieces. Kandinsky named the grandfather of abstract was inspired by music to create large canvases of clashing colour, shapes and squiggles which from afar look improvised, but at closer viewing you can see every shape was perfectly outlined to make this visible ochestra of colour. The childish, simple military theme of'Cossacks' and the complex blendings in 'Composition VII' Show Kandinsky as an experimental artist never afraid of modernity.



Franz Marc

Possibly my favourite artist of all time, Franz Marc's work has inspired my style unlike no other. Marc was another member of Kandinsky's 'Der Blaue Reiter' group and went on to paint some of the most iconic canvasses of the early Expressionism movement. Marc was obsessed with animals and their pure energies and was notable for painting in thick primary colours, limiting his palette to only the necessary colours of life. Blue was the most spiritual colours of all for Marc, and he usually limited this precious colour to the masculine strength of horses, which are predominant in his work. Likewise, it's contrasting colour yellow, was a symbol of spiritual femininity. 'Yellow Cow' painted in 1911 supposedly depicts Marc's joyous matrimony to Maria Franck. Marc's life came to a sudden end with the approach of the First World War. He was labelled a degenerate artist by the Nazis and many of his works were taken from museums in Germany. In 1916 Marc was one of the first Germans to be killed at the Battle of Verdun in France. Perhaps Marc's most poignant pieces is 'Fate of the Animals'painted in 1913 which depicts a number of animals caught in a cataclymsic rush of energies. Marc saw himself saw this piece as a fore-telling of the great war, 'It)is like a premonition of this war - horrible and shattering. I can hardly conceive that I painted it.'

There are so many more artists who I sadly do not have time to mention, but I consider these four the most prominent within my own work. For me the turn of the century, late 1800s, early 20th century was a pivotal moment for art. It was the beginning of modernity as society began to accept art as an expression rather than a two dimensional mirror of our lives. All these painters were revolutionaries in their own rights, and I hope in the future we can more artists who step up to the challenge.

Good tv, bad tv...

I don't understand reality TV, nor do I enjoy it, and believe me I have given it a try. I cannot think of a situation for harrowing than sitting in on a saturday night to watch a has been pop star struggle to force a kangaroo anus down his gullet. I know I'm not the first to say this, but UK television is at a definate low point, and its dragging us down.

Britain's Got Talent; on the exterior a warm, fuzzy hearted programme showcasing ordinary people and their party tricks, reminiscent of a Butlins holiday your grandma will remember. But this is hardly the case, a row of sneering self important C-list celebrities poke and prod their on stage victims, laughing relentlessly at the poor buggers who believed faithfully in their own miniscule talents. Is it their fault they delude themselves in the first place? I was appauled watching the footage of the first Susan Boyle performance, a relatively normal looking, slightly chubby lady walks on stage and immediately gets a bout of jeering and disgusted looks from both the audience and the sickening slimeball judges. Of course attitudes changed as soon as she opened her mouth, and everyone gave themselves a little slap on the wrist for assuming 'ugly' people can't sing, but that was not what upset me. What would have happened if she opened her mouth and the musical equivalent of lumpy blamange fell out? The jeering would have continued, people would shake their heads and call her deluded and pathetic, she would be buzzed off stage without a hint of optimism. I know what I find incredibly pathetic; the constant rehashing and pimping out of shows that should have been washed out last decade.

Sadly with the instant following created out of reality TV and it's considerably smaller budget, most of our dramas have sunk into oblivion. The BBC used to lovlingly create family dramas which were fun, whimiscal and perfectly sewn together. Snigger as much as you want, but the 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice was absolutely brilliant. Sure, a few sexy alterations were made (who's complaining?) but it consisted of a bright, talented cast in some beautiful surroundings. I was only a kid when I used to watch the show, but I loved it because it was a mirror image of my life as a squabbling sibling, only with fancy dresses and lengthy speeches. Although saying this, a decade later the BBC brought Dicken's Bleak House onto our screens; a long winded but complex drama which was faithful in almost every aspect.

Kids shows have changed too. When I was one of these dwarf people about a decade ago, television was magical. The Magicians house, The Queen's Nose,Bernards Watch, Carrie's War. Even the cartoons were sophiscated, like the cruel realism of Animals of Farthing Wood and the social dilemmas faced in Noah's Island. For those of you have never heard of it, it was about a polar bear called Noah who found himself along with a load of other animals shipwrecked on a mysterious island during a zoo transportation. The creatures of all shapes, sizes and intelligence have to survive on the island by diplomacy and team work, as organised by the reluctant leader, Noah. Basically it is Lost, except with animals and structured, credible storylines.

The only programme I truly look forward to watching these days is Doctor Who. The new season with Matt Smith has started off strongly and so far each episode has carried an exciting plot, fantastic backdrops (Venice, Van Gogh's France, civilisations within the core of Earth, war time England to name a few!)And a youthful cast (Matt Smith and Karen Gillan) who have proven themselves to not only fill the shoes of Tenant, but to out do most of the previous regenerations and thier assistants...or so I am told, I'm not a Doctor nerd.

Next time you turn on the television, do everyone a favour and switch over when Big Brother or Wife Swap are on. I believe good television is good for the soul, and I think we need a bit of optimism and positive aspiration in our lives.

Don't go travelling without your towel!

"Time is an illusion, lunch time doubley so." - the immortal words of Betelgeusian Ford Prefect.

Yes it's towel day, the world wide celebration of The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy and rememberance of it's creator, Douglas Adams who passed away on May 11, 2001. A day when self proclaimed nerds can show their love of Adam's stories which have spanned radio, books and television for the last thirty years. I am myself wearing a towel over my shoulder, and true to Adam's words it has been more than useful over the day.

I was first introduced to Douglas Adams when I began playing Starship Titanic twelve years ago. I loved the quirky oddball humour of the game, it had the large budget and graphics of an epic American video game, but it certainly didn't take itself seriously. I began reading the Hitchiker books when I was fourteen. Although my parents revelled in the television show, I was unaware of the kind of impact these stories made on the nation.

It's the pure, unglamourised Britishness that makes Hitchikers so accessible to it's English audience. We can all relate to despondant Arthur Dent, a man who simply wished to potter around his little house who ends up travelling the lengths of the galaxy in his dressing gown. He fumbles along in these adventures, pausing to gawp wide mouthed at life's little annoyances (i.e the world being destroyed) protesting to have a little lie down when things get tough and the ever lasting search for a good cup of tea.

Adams was famous for his style of improvised writing. His fluency and unique flair for combining the genres of comedy and sci-fi made his books an engaging read for the teenage me. However Adams who was well reknowned for writer's block and procrastination, "I love deadline, I love the whoosing sound they make as the fly by." The last books of the series; "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish" and "Mostly Harmless" did not reach critical acclaim and were based sketchy subplots of his creations from the previous series, although Arthur and his hapless friends are given their final curtain call.

In 1981 the BBC broadcast a television series of HHGG which thanks to a brilliant casting (I'm convinced Simon Jones really is Arthur Dent) and some fantastic hand made illustrations disguised as computer graphics, it is a very faithful adaptation of the story. The choice to use American "squeaky-tonsils" Sandra Dickinson was a brave one, seeing as Trillian was originally an "arabic looking" astrophysicist from England, but I wouldn't want to argue with Adams's decision.

The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy epitomises what it is to be British: eccentricity, an overwhelming desire to drink a good cup of tea, being overwhelmingly startled at change but giving small responses like "Oh dear." HHGG philosophises about our very existence, how insignificant and mundane our lives are, but how wonderfully funny they are. Adams was never afraid to stare into the seemingly bleakness of life and laugh. There might not be a god, there might not be any rime or reason why some of us get shitty jobs, repulsive family members or get our houses crushed by a demolition squad, but we might as well have a giggle. Happy Towel Day!

Hello I'm me, who the hell are you?

Perception is one thing, all us as conscious beings cannot escape. Not to say that some people haven't tried.

To us normal blimps of existence, the famous are there for one gastronomical reason, for us to judge, prod and poke them until they don't look like us anymore but a group of plastic aliens that descend to earth for a while until we get bored of them.

I've been intrigued by the personality created around Jim Morrison, in fact I'm not at all sure that such a person ever existed. It's like every fan, critic or friend own a small piece of a jigsaw and squeeze them all together to make the paradoxical Frankenstein that is Morrison. He's either a sex symbol or a melancholic poet, a menace to society or an icon of revolution, a philandering bastard or a vulnerable young man. Morrison himself created an enigma around his past life, declaring his parents dead and that he was traumatised by a horrific car accident witnessed at the age of four. It turned out that his parents were very much alive (but estranged from their son and his bohemian lifstyle) and that alledgedly the accident involved no fatalities, just an old Pueblo man crying on the side of the road. But why do people care if these stories were true or not? why do I care? It's the strange insatiable desire we all have to figure out these percieved gods.

Another perception gripped strongly by the public is that of Sylvia Plath and her husband Ted Hughes. Plath remains an enigma too, a young talented and beautiful woman who is bizarrely obsessed with death. Hughes adultery was blamed for Plath's suicide, although it is forgotton that Plath was suicidal from her early years as a teenager. We like paint a picture of the shy, vulnerable women being abused and abandoned by the tyranneous Hughes, it's easy for us to understand, easy to create a victim and a bully. During her lifetime Plath fought against perceptions placed on her. In 1954 after intensive electroshock treatments, Plath bleached her hair blonde and made a name for herself at Harvard, winning poetry prizes and exceeding in her studies. Plath said she wanted to make a 'new persona' for herself, although clearly she did not rid herself of all her demons.

Modern celebrities, as we all know are created entirely on perception than any recognition of their art. A pop star is not just a singer, they are an image perfectly honed (and sometimes destroyed) for the viewing pleasure of the public. It's interesting to see how the tide turns for some celebrities. Seven years ago Cheryl Cole was the arrogant foul mouthed member of a girl band who racially attacked a black woman in a restuarant. But after her husband's adultery in 2008 Cole was thrust into tv shows, adverts, her own successful solo career because she was now a 'nice northern lass' Her public image took a U-turn so much so that she won 'Most Inspirational Woman of the Decade.' Heck. The same couldn't be said for pop road-kill Britney Spears who continues to grapple to the top of her failed career but slides back down again. It's inevitable that once Spears pops her clogs she won't be the pot bellied red-neck mad woman but a poor desolate girl who was pushed to become the best by all those around her then laughed at on her way downwards like a circus freak show by all of you, you bastards!

I could go into the whole 'celebrity culture compensating for structural religion debate' but it's obvious to everyone. Let's just say that judgement is what we all do best, as soon as we learn to speak we are saying what we like and don't like, we love examining others, doing a bit of pop psychology on them because we all know somewhere in the world someone is doing that to us as well.

Milking our ovaries: Womb envy in folklore

Fairytales have not always been the fluffy Disney-esque stories we read to our children at night, once upon a time they were unpleasant stories of rivalry, jealousy and an incredible amount of violence and debauchery.

When I was a child fairytales bored me, they were flat, meaningless stories that preached crusty morals about being do-gooder females. Our revolting folklore tales were cleaned up by 18th century storyteller Charles Perrault in order to entertain French aristocrats who were so gentille the mere mention of blood or copulation would make a lady keel over. In turn the Brothers Grimm took many of Perrault's adaptations and a handful of German folklore and mashed them up into a bright ball of fluffiness.

Sadly these tales stripped of thier crude motifs lose a lot of their intial meaning. Freud may have coined the phrase 'penis envy', but looking back at the attitudes towards women in these old tales its easier to believe that men have been(and perhaps still are)scared, envious, intriguded and fearful of the power of the womb.

Bruno Bettlehein explored how fairytales become symbolic of children growing into adults. Every single heroine in the fairytales of the Western world are pretty industrious girls no older than 13. Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel were all supposed to be girls reaching menstruation, and with menstruation comes the ability to bear children. Of course these girls never follow a smooth course to a happy ending, they are obstructed by people jealous or frightened by their developing sexuality, namely old crones or promsicious men. Little Red Riding Hood is the obvious example, a girl who conspiciously wears the colour of menstruation whilst wandering around a wood completely alone save for the ravenous male wolf whos enticed by the sight and smell of this young woman. Bettlehein suggests the absence of parents in these tales plays upon a bildungsroman theme, that by removing guardians (or making them utterly useless) it shows how young women must make their own decisions in life.

There is however a recurring theme of parental neligicance in womb envy, being incestuous fathers. In The Bear by Giambattisa Basile a king seeks out a new wife after being widowed, and looks towards his own daughter as his bride. He keeps her locked within the castle and her only escape is by wearing a bearskin (or donkey, or goatskin depending on the variations)to avoid having sex with her father. The entrapment of the pubescent daughter shows the father is aware of the girl's sexuality, sees it as a threat to his own power as a man so he decides to keep her for himself.

Basile also recorded the earliest version of the sleeping beauty story, named Sun Moon and Talia. The father is distressed when the heroine, Talia pricks her finger on the spindle, the spindle being a phallic symbol and the blood drawn from Talia showing a loss of innocence. The King presumes she is dead and sends her body to a country estate to never be seen again. However another king finds Talia in the estate, and not being able to wake her, decides to rape her in her sleep. What a lovely tale to tell the kids! Talia gives birth, still comatose to twins who wake her up by sucking the poision out of her finger. The princess's deep sleep marks her period into sexual maturity, the rape is an act of dominance and power of the male upon a dormant womb. When Talia wakes up and seeks out the king who violated her, she comes across his evil wife who also shows womb envy because after years of marriage she remains barren while Talia gives birth to twins in her sleep.

It's interesting to note in The Grimm's 'cleaned up' version of the tale, the young girl in her comatose state is made unttainable by being placed in the top room of a tower surrounded by a thicket of thorns. The thicket is a protective barrier against the girl's virginity that only the most virtuous of men can enter . In a more literal interpretation, the thicket is the virgin's freshly grown pubic hair which acts as the gateway to a princess's womb.

Our fairytales were not born out of social niceities as we know them today. It wasn't about morals and karmic outcomes for do-gooders, they were tales about humanity. Jealousy, anger, betrayal, courage, friendship, family roles and restraints. They were about real people in bizarre fantasy landscapes which mean to tell us more about human behaviour than what we should or shouldn't do. Sexuality is the greatest motivaton in the human psyche, and to those male storytellers all those years ago, the womb and feminine sexuality was an admirable mysterious and unattainable quality. Sex is all about the hidden, fetishes are fetishes because we don't understand them, they are secrets. In folklore the womb is a secret and all men want to know.

Drawing the Curtains: Frusciante's life through the albums Part Three

Next follows A Sphere in the Heart of Silence, which was released in November of the same year and is one of Frusciante's albums which closely resembles his first recordings over a decade ago. The album is a joint effort with multi-faceted musician Josh Klinghoffer whose childlike high pitched vocals lends a ethereal quality to the album's melancholia. The album contains only seven tracks at an average of five minutes each which is a bold move even for an experimental artist like Frusciante.
The album is deeply electronica influenced with synthesisers and electronic drums as primary instruments. Frusciante returns to his trademark caterwailing from Niandra in "Walls" blended with heavy electronic beats in a somewhat painful track you wouldn't want to be seen listening to unless people already find you disturbing. "Afterglow" is arguably the most inspiring track on the album, finding a perfect balance between a fast paced dance backing and haunting vocals. "Shadows casting bodies, who knows which way things will go?" Frusciante's take on electronica is undoubtedly fresh and complexing for the listener but I feel the man works best when he keeps his music raw and untampered.

Curtains is the final quick release album of 2004, and rather aptly named too. Frusciante seems to have pulled himself from the depressive Sphere in the Heart of Silence towards a more acoustic orientated album. "The Past Recedes" is a predictable, soft centred track that is a little too perfect sounding for a Froo fan like myself. An official video for The Past Recedes was created, but it is a rather uninspiring piece where cameras pointlessly follow Frusciante round his boring LA house doing boring things like getting out of bed, eating a rissole and taking a nap. Watch out for some exciting shots of his kitchen sink and try not to hyperventilate! Joking aside the album is a massive improvement from "Sphere" and illustrates in finer detail how simplicity and unrefined peformances of songs leads to a purer and enjoyable sound. A clear example is "Ascension" which in no way is perfect (Frusciante's count up to the song is heard and the acoustics of the room are tinny) but it is a warm, bittersweet and spontaneous song that shows seems to wrap up the whole message of the album, that the deeply flawed side of humanity is the purest inspiration.

Although the six month album stint ceased here, it certainly wasn't the end of Frusciante's solo efforts. January 2009 saw the release of The Empyrean, a musical masterpiece to start the end of a decade. The record has been named a concept album by Frusciante himself, but it perhaps more subtle in its storyline than the more famous examples from prog rockers Pink Floyd and Genesis. The Empyrean is supposidely the story of two characters existing within a man's mind throughout his lifetime. It's not quite clear how this conclusion is met simply by listening to the album, like previous works of Frusciante his songs express a plethora of atmosphere without any tangible meaning. It's probably why his work remains so compelling.
The Empyrean literally means the highest point in heaven, and backed up by a string quartet and a handful of prominent musicians (Flea, Josh Klinghoffer and Johnny Marr from the Smiths) the album develops a celestial silky smooth weightlessness to Frusciante's sound.
Frusciante's cover of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" is a beautiful rendition and although it doesn't quite capture the intimacy and grief of the original, Frusciante makes it his own. It is an apt song for Frusciante who like Buckley was plunged into heroin addiction and it's references to Greek mythology link nicely with the Milton/Blake-esque theme of the album.
"Unreachable" is a quietly spectacular song and a pivotal scene in the story of The Empyrean. the protagonist wakes from the lull of "The Siren" and realises he is disconnected from everyone in the world. In "God" we see Fruscinate playing the role of the big man himself, explaining to the protagonist why he even creates life in the first place and not to give up just yet.
"So each day would be new I build you to sleep. That's the idea of dying but you'll just have to see." Of all of Frusciante's works, "God" a melodic feathery piece is the artist's own reconcilication with spirituality after a destroyed youth.
"Central" at 7.16 minutes long is the most lengthy and powerful song in the album, illustrating the protagonist's sudden desire to rid himself of apathy and fear to progress to his own Empyrean.

Essentially The Empyrean is a story of personal enlightenment, attaining heights that seemed impossible at one point. Being comfortable with your own existence and not denying yourself to life. Frusciante's style in The Empyrean is refined without an obsession over perfection. Vocals are distorted and instruments experimentented with but the album has a solid backbone which stretches his style into the sublime. Indeed it's Frusciante's greatest effort as of yet.