Robert Peters wrote: >But today my intellectual and puritan mind tortures me with feelings >of guilt ;-): is it right to use classical music as a kind of musical >tranquilizer? Is something wrong with me that I acutally LIKED this >Beethoven for the teethless? Or is this approach altogether wrong and it >was good music arranged well for a special occasion? Is Meditation and New >Age Music a product of heaven or of hell? Anyone out there to help my >worried brains? (By the way, the massage was fantastic.) If I were you Robert, I would tell my intellectual and puritan mind to go to hell. I have always been of the belief that music and art and poetry and all other things beautiful have but one purpose: that is to uplift the spirit and soul, specifically, my spirit and soul. No music, be it new age, rock and roll or even (and I shudder when I say this because I find it so distasteful) contemporary Christian music is from Hell. In the right context, music of any style or genre serves a purpose. Brian Eno wrote his ambient music and left instructions that it should be as inobtrusive as possible. Something to soothe the subconscious. If your altered Beethoven brought you pleasure, I can't imagine the Ole Ludwig van would have any objection. If he does, well, take it up with him in the afterlife! Kevin