What is the meaning of the song "Elevation?"

[drummer120]

I have no clue what this song is about.

[MirrorballMoon]

In a nutshell, sex, spirituality, joy . . . and how they are all so closely connected.

[Nielsen]

Or if you want to put it in a literal concept, a mole, digging in a hole going down excavation 

[efdeat]

I think in U2 by U2 Bono says that this song is about sex . . . wonder what it is like to be Ali and have people knowing that he is singing about her!   

[luieu2]

not sure but i love it

[theocean]

Not sure either, but I was just talking about it with my boyfriend, its very sexual, when he said "you shoot me from a gun  I need to Elevate Me Here..........its Ali.....he loves her.

[U2-obsessed and proud]

I read somewhere that it was about being high on exctasy, i think it was the Wikipedia page but they are wrong alot

[fresno dave]

"I and I" is a name for God, and "Elevation" is the name of a classic Chasidic Jewish prayer technique.

So it's about sex AND prayer.

Does this description of it from Rabbi Cohen's book sound like the song, or what?:

Prayer is not something the pray-er   just recites...it is an
experience he enters into. There is no room for inhibition; singing and dancing are essential means by which he expresses his emotional cleaving to God….but such ardor/desire for God has to be so overwhelming that any extraneous thoughts
are excluded…If distractions are erotic in nature…and the pray-erfaces up to the predominance of the sexual urge at both conscious and subconscious levels, and
its capacity to intrude even during prayer...then he
has learned to take
measures…by introducing the (ancient) doctrine of the "elevation of strange thoughts." This is a Chasidic Jewish technique not of sublimation, but of thought conversion, whereby the beauty or desirability of the woman is latched
upon and used not as a sexual but rather as a mental and spiritual stimulus. We are taught to "elevate" these thoughts by substituting the beauty of God for the
physical beauty that is currently bewitching us. The pray-er has learned to immediately contrast the pale reflection of beauty that humans are endowed with,
on the one hand, and the supreme Divine source of authentic and enduring beauty, on the other…This is not sublimation; This is elevation.
-Rabbi Jefery Cohen
http://www.davewainscott.blogspot.com/2008/10/of-course-prayer-is-eroticuntil.html

[Dark Angel]

I cannot listen to that song now without shuddering!

[MirrorballMoon]

"I and I" is a name for God, and "Elevation" is the name of a classic Chasidic Jewish prayer technique.

So it's about sex AND prayer.

Does this description of it from Rabbi Cohen's book sound like the song, or what?:

Prayer is not something the pray-er   just recites...it is an
experience he enters into. There is no room for inhibition; singing and dancing are essential means by which he expresses his emotional cleaving to God….but such ardor/desire for God has to be so overwhelming that any extraneous thoughts
are excluded…If distractions are erotic in nature…and the pray-erfaces up to the predominance of the sexual urge at both conscious and subconscious levels, and
its capacity to intrude even during prayer...then he
has learned to take
measures…by introducing the (ancient) doctrine of the "elevation of strange thoughts." This is a Chasidic Jewish technique not of sublimation, but of thought conversion, whereby the beauty or desirability of the woman is latched
upon and used not as a sexual but rather as a mental and spiritual stimulus. We are taught to "elevate" these thoughts by substituting the beauty of God for the
physical beauty that is currently bewitching us. The pray-er has learned to immediately contrast the pale reflection of beauty that humans are endowed with,
on the one hand, and the supreme Divine source of authentic and enduring beauty, on the other…This is not sublimation; This is elevation.
-Rabbi Jefery Cohen
http://www.davewainscott.blogspot.com/2008/10/of-course-prayer-is-eroticuntil.html

Fascinating text, Fresno Dave, thanks for sharing!  I'll just add this little supporting quote from U2 by U2:
Bono: "[Elevation] is fun and frolics but the goal is soul.  It is about sexuality and transcendence, a playful piece about wanting to get off, or in this case, to literally get off the ground.  I can't actually remember writing it, it was all over in minutes, which is probably not the greatest admission to make in a song about sex." (p. 296)

As for the ecstacy rumour . . . I wonder if the person who started that actually knew U2's music.  (By that I mean the whoever the original author of the idea was, not the poster on this thread.)  Bad and Running to Stand Still are all about drugs, but they are not the joyful celebrations of them.  Bono's lost friends to drugs; he writes about their devastating effects, but I've never heard him praise them.

[DGordon1]

"I and I" is a name for God, and "Elevation" is the name of a classic Chasidic Jewish prayer technique.

So it's about sex AND prayer.

Does this description of it from Rabbi Cohen's book sound like the song, or what?:

Prayer is not something the pray-er   just recites...it is an
experience he enters into. There is no room for inhibition; singing and dancing are essential means by which he expresses his emotional cleaving to God….but such ardor/desire for God has to be so overwhelming that any extraneous thoughts
are excluded…If distractions are erotic in nature…and the pray-erfaces up to the predominance of the sexual urge at both conscious and subconscious levels, and
its capacity to intrude even during prayer...then he
has learned to take
measures…by introducing the (ancient) doctrine of the "elevation of strange thoughts." This is a Chasidic Jewish technique not of sublimation, but of thought conversion, whereby the beauty or desirability of the woman is latched
upon and used not as a sexual but rather as a mental and spiritual stimulus. We are taught to "elevate" these thoughts by substituting the beauty of God for the
physical beauty that is currently bewitching us. The pray-er has learned to immediately contrast the pale reflection of beauty that humans are endowed with,
on the one hand, and the supreme Divine source of authentic and enduring beauty, on the other…This is not sublimation; This is elevation.
-Rabbi Jefery Cohen
http://www.davewainscott.blogspot.com/2008/10/of-course-prayer-is-eroticuntil.html

Fascinating text, Fresno Dave, thanks for sharing!  I'll just add this little supporting quote from U2 by U2:
Bono: "[Elevation] is fun and frolics but the goal is soul.  It is about sexuality and transcendence, a playful piece about wanting to get off, or in this case, to literally get off the ground.  I can't actually remember writing it, it was all over in minutes, which is probably not the greatest admission to make in a song about sex." (p. 296)

As for the ecstacy rumour . . . I wonder if the person who started that actually knew U2's music.  (By that I mean the whoever the original author of the idea was, not the poster on this thread.)  Bad and Running to Stand Still are all about drugs, but they are not the joyful celebrations of them.  Bono's lost friends to drugs; he writes about their devastating effects, but I've never heard him praise them.

That doesn't mean he'd never do it. And if it was about ecstasy, that doesn't necessarily mean the song is praising them. I personally don't think it's about drugs, I think it's a pretty straight-forward fun rock song. I doubt there were any strong religious undertones to it or anything.

[drummer120]

Thanks for all that insight y'all. 

[fresno dave]

you know, seeing my post two above..i am more convinced than ever the song is linked to the Jewish prayer form of 'elevation," even if Bono never heard of it..
some of my latest thoughts:
http://davewainscott.blogspot.com/2011/02/elevation-and-suach-people-and-things.html

[briscoetheque]

Oh yes, without a doubt it's about God.

You guys are all kidding yourself. It's a pop rock song that means nothing more than rhyming a few 'ation' words...

Sometimes the best answer is the most obvious...

[gypsyheart75]

Oh yes, without a doubt it's about God.

You guys are all kidding yourself. It's a pop rock song that means nothing more than rhyming a few 'ation' words...

Sometimes the best answer is the most obvious...

A mole is a metaphor for God?!