Mindstate - Baba Brinkman

The mind is its own place, so it’s a base in itself

When it’s impatient, paradise feels like a prison cell

And it’s wasted, but however far from grace it fell

The mind can still make a heaven out of raising hell

We live in a strange realm, and I’m beginnin' to doubt

My ability to figure it out;

now

If the mind is its own place, then mine is an open space

I’m home on the range like a coyote roaming the plains

Showing strangers how to notice correlations, only

I’m facin' down some cowboys makin' loud noises

Hoping my home is a vacant location so they can take it

It’s the same ancient battle for the temple of the mind

That people have been fighting since the beginning of time

And the winning side has always been the mentally blind

Who try to simplify everybody into two different kinds

Of people: «You're either with us or against us, and you’d better decide

Or you’re gonna get criminalized!»

In this critical fight, I’m livin' behind enemy lines

Keepin' my mind open like a nympho’s vagina

Tryin' to fill it with every different kind of info I can find

And you know why?

‘Cause propaganda machines

Can teach you a whole lot about an enemy’s strategies

And every piece of data feeds into reality

There’s no need to understand, just believe

Hidden in the temple in the center of my head

I’ve invented a script that can never be read

I write it as I’m livin it a few steps ahead

And if I’m ever gonna quit then I better be dead

When the mind finds itself in a police state

It needs a secret place to keep it safe

And when it’s mistreated daily and repeatedly disgraced

It stays sane by retreating into the deepest cave

Where the siege is laid to keep the demons at bay

But the easiest way to break free from these chains

And make peace is to take a leap of faith

And believe something that can’t be reasonably explained

That’s how people change, by takin' a chance

On a path when they can’t see the destination in advance

And laughin' in the face of disaster when their best-laid plans

Are translated into wastelands;

it doesn’t make sense

But all you need is a beat and street corner to break-dance

And no scientist could ever explain that with brain scans

‘Cause the mind is the one place in the infinite expanse

Of creation that still has infinite space to expand

Hidden in the temple in the center of my head

I’ve invented a script that can never be read

I write it as I’m livin it a few steps ahead

And if I’m ever gonna quit then I better be dead

There’s a place in the mind that waits in silence

Until it’s awakened by some inspiration inside it

Sometimes the sensation is violent, and we’re surprised

By the places it finds us;

in strange environments

We do exactly what the act of creation requires

It takes an entire civilization to change the climate

Into a lake of fire, but at the same time

Every person is alone when they change their mind

So the landscape inside is one of the only places

I know of that’s really capable of homeostasis

In times of crisis;

it’s a lonely oasis

Where you’re totally safe, a place to resist the barrage

Of information in this modern day system of ours

I walk through it feeling like I’m living on mars

Recognizing ninety percent of it as just a mirage

That’s why I’m tryin' to drop the curtain on the Wizard of Oz

‘Cause behind the smoke machines and faces made of green plastic

I feel like there’s real magic that people can access

If they learn to reach past all the easy answers

And ceaseless distractions that we’re always being harassed with

All you need to grasp is that the mind is its own place

And when you make this known then no one can take your home away

And nothing you do to improve it will ever go to waste

And you can use it to create your own fate, so don’t throw it away

Hidden in the temple in the center of my head

I’ve invented a script that can never be read

I write it as I’m livin it a few steps ahead

And if I’m ever gonna quit then I better be dead