Hard to explain

[AngraMelo]

Im not a religious person, always thought of myself leaning towards the scientific method and needing proof and studies to "believe" in something.
As an artist, it is hard not to consider myself a spiritual person, not in the sense of using it to explain where we come from, where we go and the meaning of it all, but as a way to say that I went through experiences and situations that are very hard to explain and although a perfectly natural explanation involving, hormones, chance, randomness, brain impulses and logic might be just enough to completely explain those things, Im yet to find that reasoning completed.

That being said, I would like to talk about the Pipe.

I grew up in Brazil, who knows about tobacco around here are one of two people. Cigarette smokers and tobacco farmers. That is it. No pipe or cigar culture. No tobacco culture (among the consumers). Just people either growing it or choosing their smoke based on the prettiest pack.
My dad always smoked cigs, the smell used to trigger all sorts of nose/sinus problems in me and I clearly remember telling him when I was 5 years old: "Dad, could you smoke a pipe? I think it would smell better than that". Now that statement is pretty weird, I had no one that smoked a pipe around me. I was 5 years old and tobacco adds on TV were already shamed and prohibited so the mystery of where statement came from still remains.

When I was 14, I was going to the capital by bus to study music in a conservatory and had very little to no money. There was a day that I saw a little tobacco shop at the bus terminal, no pipes there but they had some cigars. I remember saving the ticket change of several trips to be able to afford a little cigar from an unknown brand. I bought it, brought it home and waited through the night to smoke. Everybody went to sleep, I sneaked out and smoked that little guy to the nub.

After that, life went on. I started smoking cigs and ALWAYS had an interest in tobacco.

Now this is where things get interesting.

Im a jazz musician and the focus of it all is improvisation. We spend our lives to be able to master our instruments so we can make music on the spot. We forfeit the perfection of composition for the thrill and rawness of coming up with brand new ideas on the spot while the other musicians are listening and following you with the sole purpose of making what you are playing sound the best that it can.
IF you are lucky you mind find IT. IT being that sensation. Where all the musicians are on the same page, the transformation of the music is out of your hands and everything you play is perfect. You loose the ability to control your instrument and emotions and the music takes charge of what is happening. That is no second thoughts or doubt. The mutual respect and admiration, alongside with experience are the foundation where the musicians stand and share that special moment. From my personal experience and the word of hundreds of other fellow musicians I can tell you that IT lasts for at the most 15 seconds. You can feel it several times in the same gig, but it wont last more than that. It is not happiness or the feel of adrenaline. Those are different. Unfortunately, the best (and most cheesy) way to describe it is like a out of body experience. You lift off, see yourself and others from third person and abruptly and lightning fast like you are back inside your head and try to focus so you can get back to it.

You might hear musicians talking about the art, the importance of music, expression, love... sorry... that is all bullshit.

The REAL reason why improvisation musicians keep playing is IT. It is exactly like a drug. You do everything you can just so you can feel IT again. The reason you practice, the reason you dont care about money, the reason why you accept gigs that will cost more to get there than what is pays, the reason you completely gee willikers your sleeping schedule, the reason you loose your mind. It is all because of IT and there is no denying it. One might not have noticed yet but soon enough they will. They will notice that the reason they play is to feel IT.

Now, there is ONE other circumstance that I felt that, that I felt IT. When the planets align and the smoke is perfect. You can ACTUALLY feel the EXACT same thing with a pipe or cigar. Never had with food or with a drink or any other experience. Not with sex, not with a deeply emotional moment, not during a painfully happy moment or during any other situation. It lasts just as much as when IT comes while playing and the feeling is precisely the same. There is something about the state of mind of smoking a pipe or cigar that has the ability to carry you over to the exact same spot where all serious musician spend their life looking for.

It might just be an amazing combination of brain secretions that lift you off, but I can assure you that a pipe is something way bigger than a chunck of something filled with leaves.

[Middle Earth]

Hopefully you can inspire some of your fellow Brazilians to take up the pipe. Be the seed of change. I was not gifted with creativity, so you are blessed in that regard. I enjoy my pipes and tobacco, but I do not get a sublime experience. It is relaxing and a break from the day to day experience of life. Really nothing more for me.

[Peacock]

There's something to be said for the pursuit of that meditative trance. I play sax and guitar, not professionally by any means, but I can relate to what you're saying here completely. I've also found 'IT' while on a long bike ride, you find the perfect cadence and suddenly you're not pumping your legs any longer but just feeling the ride, the road underneath you whizzes by and wind flows so naturally around your body. I've also found 'IT' while practicing meditation, something that I think naturally follows sipping a fine tobacco from your pipe. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I really enjoy these more long-form thoughts from fellow pipers.

[Longshanks]

I understand what you've described AM, and I do get that feeling any time a pipe & tobacco hit my nostalgia button or click just right with my mood.

The best way I can describe it: Imagine yourself in a prison that takes EVERYTHING you were passionate about away from you. No smoke, no drink, no coffee, no friends, nada. Then imagine walking out of prison 20 years later, crossing the street and walking into your happy place (marital or childhood home, favorite bar, make-out-point, wherever) and picking up your favorite vice (pipe & tobacco, cigar, drink, woman, whatever). Now smell, touch and taste that first good puff, first sip, first kiss, whatever it was you passionately missed the past 20 years... if you truly missed it, a feeling of relaxation, completion and bliss washes over you. The thought might even cross your mind that you're in heaven.

And if it doesn't, then it was probably never your passion to begin with.

Anyway, I believe that's what AM was trying to describe here. And as I mentioned earlier... I do sometimes get that feeling when smoking a pipe. And I like it.

[AngraMelo]

There's something to be said for the pursuit of that meditative trance. I play sax and guitar, not professionally by any means, but I can relate to what you're saying here completely. I've also found 'IT' while on a long bike ride, you find the perfect cadence and suddenly you're not pumping your legs any longer but just feeling the ride, the road underneath you whizzes by and wind flows so naturally around your body. I've also found 'IT' while practicing meditation, something that I think naturally follows sipping a fine tobacco from your pipe. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I really enjoy these more long-form thoughts from fellow pipers.

Absolutely! I guess the smoking situation might be a disguised meditation, you know what I mean? Perhaps the brain faces it the same way and achieving the nirvana is possible.

[AngraMelo]

I understand what you've described AM, and I do get that feeling any time a pipe & tobacco hit my nostalgia button or click just right with my mood.

The best way I can describe it: Imagine yourself in a prison that takes EVERYTHING you were passionate about away from you. No smoke, no drink, no coffee, no friends, nada. Then imagine walking out of prison 20 years later, crossing the street and walking into your happy place (marital or childhood home, favorite bar, make-out-point, wherever) and picking up your favorite vice (pipe & tobacco, cigar, drink, woman, whatever). Now smell, touch and taste that first good puff, first sip, first kiss, whatever it was you passionately missed the past 20 years... if you truly missed it, a feeling of relaxation, completion and bliss washes over you. The thought might even cross your mind that you're in heaven.

And if it doesn't, then it was probably never your passion to begin with.

Anyway, I believe that's what AM was trying to describe here. And as I mentioned earlier... I do sometimes get that feeling when smoking a pipe. And I like it.

That is a very interesting remark, because it is true that we sometimes give great importance to things that deeply are not that meaningful and vice versa.
The feeling of absolute bliss depends on many things but the scenario you described is very easy to imagine and a good way to report to someone else the feeling itself.

[Houtenziel]

Sometimes pipe smoking is like a prayer, and the smoke conveys my full meaning. I step aside from all the meaningless worries, pride, and triviality, and experience happiness and carelessness as if through the mind of a child. Plus, I am a fool of monumental proportions, and as C.S. Lewis would say, it gives me something to stick in my mouth.

[Longshanks]

@AM... Prison in my analogy refers to the loss of of our family friend, Leon, who passed away over 20 years ago. I will never smell him smoking a pipe again. But a sample of Sutliff OTS (courtesy of @Maynard) brought that sensation back to me so perfectly, it figuratively warped me back in time for the 15 seconds you mentioned... and THAT is one of my favorite pipe smoking ''IT'' moments.

[AngraMelo]

@AM... Prison in my analogy refers to the loss of of our family friend, Leon, who passed away over 20 years ago. I will never smell him smoking a pipe again. But a sample of Sutliff OTS (courtesy of @Maynard) brought that sensation back to me so perfectly, it figuratively warped me back in time for the 15 seconds you mentioned... and THAT is one of my favorite pipe smoking ''IT'' moments.

HA! That is IT! Amazing isnt it? I bet it is some crazy chemical, I would love to know what happens in the body when we feel that!

[slowroll]

For me, transcendental is when I'm in my old airplane doing a string of manuevers on a beautiful day. Then to land and fill my pipe sitting on the porch looking at the sky above my parked airplane.