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Eternal return (also known as "eternal recurrence") is a concept which posits that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. The concept is found in Indian philosophy and in ancient Egypt and was subsequently taken up by the Pythagoreans and Stoics. With the decline of antiquity and the spread of Christianity, the concept fell into disuse in the western world, though Friedrich Nietzsche resurrected it as a thought experiment to argue for amor fati.

In addition, the philosophical concept of eternal recurrence was addressed by Arthur Schopenhauer. It is a purely physical concept, involving no supernatural reincarnation, but the return of beings in the same bodies. Time is viewed as being not linear but cyclical.

Premise[link]

The basic premise proceeds from the assumption that the probability of a world coming into existence exactly like our own is finite. If either time or space are infinite, then mathematics tells us that our existence will recur an infinite number of times.

In 1871, Louis Auguste Blanqui, assuming a Newtonian cosmology where time and space are infinite proceeded to show that the eternal recurrence was a mathematical certainty.^[1] In the post-Einstein period, there are doubts that time or space is in fact infinite, but many models exist which provide the notion of spatial or temporal infinity required by the eternal return hypothesis.

The oscillatory universe model in physics could be provided as an example of how the universe cycles through the same events infinitely. Stephen Hawking's concept "arrow of time", for example, discuss cosmology as proceeding up to a certain point, after which it undergoes a time reversal (which, as a consequence of T-symmetry, is thought to bring about a chaotic state due to entropy).^{[citation needed]} Hawking and J. Richard Gott have also proposed models by which a (or the) universe could undergo time travel, provided the balance between mass and energy created the appropriate cosmological geometry.^{[citation needed]}

Multiverse hypotheses in physics describe models where space or time is infinite, although local universes with their own big bangs could be finite space-time bubbles.

Classical antiquity[link]

Scarab on a fresco.

In ancient Egypt, the scarab (or dung beetle) was viewed as a sign of eternal renewal and reemergence of life, a reminder of the life to come. (See also "Atum" and "Ma'at.")

The ancient Mayans and Aztecs also took a cyclical view of time.

In ancient Greece, the concept of eternal return was connected with Empedocles, Zeno of Citium, and Stoicism.

Indian religions[link]

The concept of cyclical patterns is very prominent in Indian religions, such as Jainism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism among others. The wheel of life represents an endless cycle of birth, life, and death from which one seeks liberation. In Tantric Buddhism, a wheel of time concept known as the Kalachakra expresses the idea of an endless cycle of existence and knowledge.^[2]

However it is to be noted that the cycle of life in Buddhism does not involve a soul passing from one body to another, but the karma of the deceased being carrying on to another being born. To get rid of this cycle the person should get rid of its karma through the attainment of enlightenment. (See: Rebirth (Buddhism)).

Judaism[link]

Jacob's Ladder by William Blake (c. 1800, British Museum, London). - Jewish time is linear, has an end and goes up towards spiritual heaven. To step spiritually higher each cyclic year or festive event is good illustrated by this painting, depicting a spiral ladder up.

Judaism's ethical monotheism posits a creation narrative "In the beginning" and a messianic "Olam Haba," which mean Judaism has a linear, not a cyclical, view of time. But cycles in judaism - even festive cycles or weekly cycles - are represented as prospects to step spiritually higher each time they are paced. Rather than just repeating or memoration the same every time an again the cycles are passed with a purpose to get spiritually higher and become - in regard to god's standards - a better person. Cyclical time and return are reflected in Jewish traditions such as: The history of the Jewish people is said to be repeating events in the lives of its biblical forefathers; people’s lives in the next world, or after death, are to some extent spiritual repetitions of what they did in this world; and some kabbalists wrote that time is composed of seven cycles, which repeat every seven thousand years (a view rejected by Isaac Luria). These concepts give human choices to do good deeds and be nice in Olam HaZeh — "this world" - some of the comming of the jewish messiah's infinite weight.^[3]

Renaissance[link]

Ouroboros

The symbol of the Ouroboros, the snake or dragon devouring its own tail, is the alchemical symbol par excellence of eternal recurrence, possibly borrowed from the Norse concept of Jörmungandr or the Midgard Serpent. The alchemist-physicians of the Renaissance and Reformation were aware of the idea of eternal recurrence; the physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne in his A Letter to a Friend c. 1657 linked the Uroboros symbol with the idea of eternal return thus -

that the first day should make the last, that the Tail of the Snake should return into its Mouth precisely at that time, and they should wind up upon the day of their Nativity, is indeed a remarkable Coincidence, which tho Astrology hath taken witty pains to salve, yet hath it been very wary in making Predictions of it.

An allusion to eternal recurrence also occurs at the conclusion of Browne's The Garden of Cyrus-

All things began in order, so shall they end, and so shall they begin again;

Friedrich Nietzsche[link]

The concept of "eternal recurrence" is central to the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. As Heidegger points out in his lectures on Nietzsche, Nietzsche's first mention of eternal recurrence, in aphorism 341 of The Gay Science (cited below), presents this concept as a hypothetical question rather than postulating it as a fact. According to Heidegger, it is the burden imposed by the question of eternal recurrence—whether or not such a thing could possibly be true—that is so significant in modern thought: "The way Nietzsche here patterns the first communication of the thought of the 'greatest burden' [of eternal recurrence] makes it clear that this 'thought of thoughts' is at the same time 'the most burdensome thought.' "^[4] The thought of eternal recurrence appears in a few of his works, in particular §285 and §341 of The Gay Science and then in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. It is also noted in a posthumous fragment.^[5] The origin of this thought is dated by Nietzsche himself, via posthumous fragments, to August 1881, at Sils-Maria. In Ecce Homo (1888), he wrote that he thought of the eternal return as the "fundamental conception" of Thus Spoke Zarathustra.^[6]

Several authors have pointed out other occurrences of this hypothesis in contemporary thought. Rudolf Steiner, who revised the first catalogue of Nietzsche's personal library in January 1896, pointed out that Nietzsche would have read something similar in Eugen Dühring's Courses on philosophy (1875), which Nietzsche readily criticized. Lou Andreas-Salomé pointed out that Nietzsche referred to ancient cyclical conceptions of time, in particular by the Pythagoreans, in the Untimely Meditations. Henri Lichtenberger and Charles Andler have pinpointed three works contemporary to Nietzsche which carried on the same hypothesis: J.G. Vogt, Die Kraft. Eine real-monistische Weltanschauung (1878), Auguste Blanqui, L'éternité par les astres (1872) and Gustave Le Bon, L'homme et les sociétés (1881). Walter Benjamin juxtaposes Blanqui and Nietzsche's discussion of eternal recurrence in his unfinished, monumental work The Arcades Project.^[7] However, Gustave Le Bon is not quoted anywhere in Nietzsche's manuscripts; and Auguste Blanqui was named only in 1883. Vogt's work, on the other hand, was read by Nietzsche during this summer of 1881 in Sils-Maria.^[8] Blanqui is mentioned by Albert Lange in his Geschichte des Materialismus (History of Materialism), a book closely read by Nietzsche.^[9] The eternal recurrence is also mentioned in passing by the Devil in Part Four, Book XI, Chapter 9 of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, which is another possible source that Nietzsche may have been drawing upon.

Walter Kaufmann suggests that Nietzsche may have encountered this idea in the works of Heinrich Heine, who once wrote:

[T]ime is infinite, but the things in time, the concrete bodies, are finite. They may indeed disperse into the smallest particles; but these particles, the atoms, have their determinate numbers, and the numbers of the configurations which, all of themselves, are formed out of them is also determinate. Now, however long a time may pass, according to the eternal laws governing the combinations of this eternal play of repetition, all configurations which have previously existed on this earth must yet meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and corrupt each other again...^[10]

Nietzsche calls the idea "horrifying and paralyzing",^{[citation needed]} referring to it as a burden of the "heaviest weight" ("das schwerste Gewicht")^[11] imaginable. He honestly professes that the wish for the eternal return of all events would mark the ultimate affirmation of life:

What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.' [The Gay Science, §341]

To comprehend eternal recurrence in his thought, and to not merely come to peace with it but to embrace it, requires amor fati, "love of fate":^[12]

My formula for human greatness is amor fati: that one wants to have nothing different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely to bear the necessary, still less to conceal it—all idealism is mendaciousness before the necessary—but to love it.^[12]

In Carl Jung's seminar on Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Jung claims that the dwarf states the idea of the Eternal Return before Zarathustra finishes his argument of the Eternal Return when the dwarf says, "'Everything straight lies,' murmured the dwarf disdainfully. 'All truth is crooked, time itself is a circle.'" However, Zarathustra rebuffs the dwarf in the following paragraph, warning him against over-simplifications.

A late 1880s comment by Nietzsche, "In an infinite period of time, every possible combination would at some time be attained," has been cited to argue that Nietzsche dropped his plans to try to scientifically prove the theory because he realized that if he would have to eventually repeat life as it is, his presumption of infinite time means "he" would also have to "repeat" life differently, since every configuration of atoms and events will occur.^[13] Instead, according to this interpretation of Nietzsche, he continued to propound the doctrine for its psychological and philosophical import.

Poincaré recurrence theorem[link]

Related to the concept of eternal return is the Poincaré recurrence theorem in mathematics. It states that a system whose dynamics are volume-preserving and which is confined to a finite spatial volume will, after a sufficiently long time, return to an arbitrarily small neighborhood of its initial state. "A sufficiently long time" could be much longer than the predicted lifetime of the observable universe (see 1 E19 s and more).

Modern cosmology[link]

The oscillating universe theory - that the universe will end in a collapse or 'big crunch' followed by another big bang, and so on - dates from 1930. Cosmologists such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Max Tegmark suggests that if space is sufficiently large and uniform, or infinite as some theories suggest, then identical instances of the history of Earth's entire Hubble volume occur every so often, simply by chance. Tegmark calculates that our nearest so-called doppelgänger, is 10¹⁰¹¹⁵ meters away from us (a double exponential function larger than a googolplex).^[14][15][16] In principle, it would be impossible to scientifically verify an identical Hubble volume. However, it does follow as a fairly straightforward consequence from otherwise unrelated scientific observations and theories. Tegmark suggests that statistical analyses exploiting the anthropic principle provide an opportunity to test multiverse theories in some cases. Generally, science would consider a multiverse theory that posits neither a common point of causation, nor the possibility of interaction between universes, to be an ideal speculation. However, it is a fundamental assumption of cosmology that the universe continues to exist beyond the scope of the observable universe, and that the distribution of matter is everywhere the same at such a large scale (see cosmological principle).

Modern cosmological proposals have also been made by Peter Lynds who suggested a model of eternal recurrence in a 2006 paper.,^[17] and by James Quirk who approached the question through a hypothesis based on the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics.^[18]

Arguments against eternal return[link]

Nietzsche scholar Walter Kaufmann has described an argument originally put forward by Georg Simmel, which rebuts the claim that a finite number of states must repeat within an infinite amount of time:

Even if there were exceedingly few things in a finite space in an infinite time, they would not have to repeat in the same configurations. Suppose there were three wheels of equal size, rotating on the same axis, one point marked on the circumference of each wheel, and these three points lined up in one straight line. If the second wheel rotated twice as fast as the first, and if the speed of the third wheel was 1/π of the speed of the first, the initial line-up would never recur.^[19]

References in other literature[link]

• In modern times eternal recurrence was a major theme in the teachings of the Russian mystic P. D. Ouspensky whose novel Strange Life of Ivan Osokin (first published St. Petersburg 1915) explores the idea that even given the free-will to alter events in one's life, the same events will occur regardless. The greater part of the 11th chapter of his "A New Model of the Universe" (1914) is devoted to the idea and he there identifies allusions to eternal recurrence in the writings of Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dante Gabriel Rosetti and Charles Howard Hinton.
• James Joyce was influenced by Giambattista Vico (1668–1744), an Italian philosopher who proposed a theory of cyclical history in his major work, New Science. Joyce puns on his name many times in Finnegans Wake, including the "first" sentence: "by a commodius vicus of recirculation". Vico's theory involves the recurrence of three stages of history: the age of gods, the age of heroes, and the age of humans — after which the cycle repeats itself. Finnegans Wake begins in mid-sentence, with the continuation of the book's unfinished final sentence, creating a circular reference whereby the novel has no true beginning or end.^[20] See also Ages of Man and Greek mythology.
• Jorge Luis Borges, in his short story "The Doctrine of Cycles" explains and refutes the concept of the Eternal Return, citing it as being "...usually attributed to Nietzsche."^{[citation needed]}
• Northrop Frye, in his highly influential Anatomy of Criticism, formulated a theories of cycles influenced by Giambattista Vico and Oswald Spengler, and later commented: "I noticed that the acceptance of theories of recurrence seemed to accompany either neurotic obsession, as in Nietzsche, or projected forms of self-interrogation of the most dubious kind, as in Yeats' Vision. Also that cyclical images seemed to be central and indispensable to fascist and nazi views of history. ... reincarnation has two reactionary elements built into it. It makes possible a lessening of seriousness about the efforts to be made in this life..."^[21][22]
• The religious scholar and writer Mircea Eliade has applied the term "eternal return" to what he sees as a universal religious belief in the ability to return to the mythical age through myth and ritual (see Eternal Return (Eliade)). Eliade's theory of "eternal return" describes a distinctly nonspontaneous process that depends on human behavior; thus, it should be distinguished from the philosophical theory of eternal return (the subject of this article), which describes a mathematically inevitable process.
• H.P. Lovecraft's poem "Nemesis" deals with eternal recurrence, being narrated by a persona who is doomed to live over his lives "without number" as a punishment for hubris.
• Milan Kundera's seminal work, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, is rooted in the concept of Eternal Return, with the narration explicitly referring to and building on Nietzsche's interpretation.
• Robert Jordan's epic fantasy series 'The Wheel of Time' is set in a world in which an eternal return of history is reality and the end of each cycle is marked by the rise of a 'Dragon' who can be loosely compared to Nietzsche's Übermensch.^{[citation needed]}

References in popular culture[link]

• The central theme of the movie Groundhog day is about eternal return when the main character played by Bill Murray wakes up each morning to find it is the same date and everything which he does not influence repeats endlessly until he has perfected himself in a kind of transmigration of the soul.
• In the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, the polytheistic religion of the humans of the Twelve Colonies is centered on the belief of eternal recurrence, and the religious elements of the show frequently incorporate this idea with the scriptural phrase "All this has happened before, and all this will happen again." The monotheistic Cylons also adhere to this doctrine and repeat the phrase as often as the humans.^[23][24]
• The first line of Disney's Peter Pan is "All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again." This line has been cited as the inspiration behind the same theme in Battlestar Galactica.
• Woody Allen, in Hannah and Her Sisters, considers the theory of eternal recurrence. "Great", says Woody, "that means I'll have to sit through the Ice Capades again."
• At the end of the 2001 film K-PAX, the extraterrestrial named "prot" explains eternal return by scientific laws in the universe. Implying the big crunch will restart the big bang and every person and life will be lived out in exactly the same way each time this occurs.
• The Information Society song, "Seek200", utilizes a sample of "all of this has happened..." from a Peter Pan record, repeatedly.
• This idea plays an integral part in the story of the Xenosaga RPG trilogy, primarily near the end of the third game, Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra.
• The sci-fi television series, Lexx, makes frequent references to this concept, and it is a relatively important plot point throughout most of the early and mid-series, including the concept of "cycles of time", and the line, "Time begins and then time ends, and then time begins once again. It is happening now, it has happened before, it will surely happen again..."^[25]
• Michael Ende's 1979 novel, The Never Ending Story, muses on themes of eternal return, with the Old Man of Wandering Mountain and the Childlike Empress being two opposing and unified figures caught in The Circle of Eternal Return. (p. 195)
• The idea of eternal recurrence is continually mentioned in the 2007 American horror film Wind Chill.
• Jim Morrison, who was familiar with Nietzsche's works, spoke about the idea of eternal recurrence. "Well, we’re all in the cosmic movie, you know that! That means the day you die, you gotta watch your whole life recurring eternally forever, in CinemaScope, 3-D. So you better have some good incidents happenin’ in there... and a fitting climax" - The End of "Light my Fire" (18:52) on Disc 2 of The Doors: Live in Detroit.
• The 2007 Pulitzer Prize Winner for drama, Rabbit Hole, by David Lindsay-Abaire, touches on the concept of eternal recurrence. A short story written by one of the play's characters describes a child who jumps through black holes, or rabbit holes, to access these alternate realities where his dead father is still alive.
• Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young references the concept in the song "Deja Vu" with the lyrics: "If I had ever been here before on another time around the wheel I would probably know just how to deal" and "I feel like I've been here before" and "We have all been here before"
• Flann O'Brien's novel The Third Policeman embodies an instance of eternal recurrence, with the protagonist being entrapped on a circular hell.
• The Rolling Stones' 1971 song, "Sway", references the eternal return by asking "did you ever wake up to find, a day that broke up your mind, destroyed your notion of circular time?" and then even alludes to Nietzsche's "demon."
• The American metal band Darkest Hour released the album The Eternal Return on June 23, 2009.
• The The Matrix trilogy plays with the theme through the planned creation and destruction of Zion and the Matrix itself. The humans themselves are not actually replications of their previous selves, they are participating in a sequence of events that has happened on multiple previous occasions and is intended to repeat itself into the future.
• The Sacrifice a final film by Andrei Tarkovsky is meant to explore the perpetual recurrence of the personal reality, among other things of the Nietszche's philosophy.^[26]
• The anime Zegapain is set in a virtual reality which must reset all history and memories to the initial state of the simulated time frame every 150 days.
• In the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, 8 episodes of the second season play off this concept.
• The 2009 horror film Triangle effectively portrays the eternal recurrence in its Nietzschean incarnation.
• In the sixth part of the manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, this is crucial to Enrico Pucci's plans to purge humanity of horror and sorrow, by accelerating the next cycle of existence without human spirits actually dying, so they will have subconscious awareness about the totality of the future.
• The plot of the episode "The Late Philip J. Fry" of the television show Futurama revolves around circular time travel.
• Eternal return is a key feature of the book Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
• The Red Dwarf series contains an episode referencing the eternal life philosophy in Series 7, Episode 3, titled Ouroboros (Red Dwarf) - Lister is shown to be his own father who travels back in time to leave his newborn baby (himself) to find a better life, causing an infinite loop in time of his own creation, life and reproduction. The series shows he believed he was left at birth in a box with the inscription 'Our Rob, or Ros' which he believed to be a request for his naming by his paternal parents, but turned out to be a reference to Ouroboros - in the story the box the newborn baby was put in, was that of a perpetual battery hence the Ouroboros inscription.
• "Eternal Return" is a white wine from Napa Valley, California, produced in 2010 from Sauvignon Blanc grapes by Crosby Roamann.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Hatab, Lawrence J. (2005). Nietzsche's Life Sentence: Coming to Terms with Eternal Recurrence. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-96758-9. 
• Lorenzen, Michael (2006). "The Ideal Academic Library as Envisioned through Nietzsche's Vision of the Eternal Return". MLA Forum 5, no. 1. http://www.mlaforum.org/volumeV/issue1/article3.html. 
• Lukacher, Ned (1998). Time-Fetishes: The Secret History of Eternal Recurrence. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-2253-6. 
• Magnus, Bernd (1978). ISBN 0-253-34062-4. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 
• Jung, Carl (1988). Nietzsche's Zarathustra: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1934 - 1939 (2 Volume Set). Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-09953-8. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0691099537. 

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v t e Philosophy of time Concepts in time Time · Duration · A priori and a posteriori · Eternity · Event  · Action · Deterministic system · Free will · Eternal return · A-series and B-series · Temporal parts · Growing block universe Time Portal Theories of time Determinism · Temporal finitism · Fatalism · Indeterminism · Compatibilism and incompatibilism · Presentism · Eternalism · Four dimensionalism · Endurantism · Perdurantism  · B-Theory of time Related articles Metaphysics · Etiology · Teleology · Post hoc ergo propter hoc · The Unreality of Time

v t e Friedrich Nietzsche Works The Birth of Tragedy Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense Untimely Meditations Hymnus an das Leben Human, All Too Human The Dawn The Gay Science Thus Spoke Zarathustra Beyond Good and Evil On the Genealogy of Morality The Case of Wagner Twilight of the Idols The Antichrist Ecce Homo Nietzsche contra Wagner The Will to Power (posthumous) Concepts Amor fati Apollonian and Dionysian Eternal return Free will God is dead Herd instinct Last man Master-slave morality Nietzschean affirmation Perspectivism Ressentiment Transvaluation of values Tschandala Übermensch Will to power World riddle Related articles Works about Nietzsche Influence and reception of Nietzsche Anarchism and Nietzsche Nietzsche-Archiv Nietzsche-Haus, Naumburg Nietzsche-Haus, Sils-Maria Nietzsche Music Project Relationship with Max Stirner My Sister and I

Maaya Sakamoto (坂本 真綾, Sakamoto Maaya^?, born March 31, 1980^[1]) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, actress, and voice actress.^[2] She made her debut as a voice actress in 1992 as the voice of Chifuru in the anime series Little Twins, but is more well known for her role as Hitomi Kanzaki^[3] in the hit anime series The Vision of Escaflowne. She released her debut single Yakusoku wa Iranai, in collaboration with Yoko Kanno under Victor Entertainment on April 24, 1996.^[4]

Since her 1996 debut, she is among the more popular voice actresses who have also branched into singing, performing songs in both English and Japanese. As well as being a prolific seiyū, she has also had several successful releases; despite initially only modestly selling, her singles Tune the Rainbow,^[5] Loop,^[6] Ame ga Furu,^[7] and Triangler^[8] have all reached the top 10 Oricon singles chart: Triangler in particular charted at #3 and remained charting for 26 weeks. Her albums have had similar success, with Shōnen Alice^[9] and Yūnagi Loop^[10] both reaching the top 10 Oricon albums chart; and her newest album, You Can't Catch Me, released on January 12, 2011, became her first release to ever reach #1.^[11] She held a concert at the Nippon Budokan on March 31, 2010, her thirtieth birthday.^[12]

On August 8, 2011, Sakamoto married fellow voice actor and frequent co-star Kenichi Suzumura. She announced their marriage on her official site five days later.^[13]

Early life[link]

Born in Tokyo, Sakamoto grew up within a family of her parents and her older brother, who sustained a serious motorcycle accident in 1999 or 2000 (he married in 2002 and had a daughter in 2004). Sakamoto graduated from Toyo University with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology in the spring of 2002.^[14] Her favorite colors are blue and gold,^[15] while her hobbies are performing, reading, and singing.^[1] She was one half of the seiyū duo Whoops!!, alongside Chieko Higuchi. She has been called onee-sama (お姉さま, onee-sama^?), a respectful way of saying "older sister" by her Ouran High School Host Club co-star Ayaka Saitō.

Collaborations[link]

Sakamoto first teamed up with composer Yoko Kanno in her 1996 debut single, "Yakusoku wa Iranai" ("Promises Not Needed"), which was used as the opening theme for the anime series The Vision of Escaflowne. Kanno collaborated with Sakamoto up until her fifth album, Yūnagi Loop, which has no songs composed by Kanno. Sakamoto also performed three songs for the series Wolf's Rain, for which Kanno was the composer: "Gravity" (which is sung completely in English), "Tell Me What The Rain Knows" (with lyrics by Chris Mosdell) and "Cloud 9". She performed "Hemisphere", the opening theme of the series RahXephon, as well as two songs for the series' theatrical version RahXephon: Pluralitas Concentio: "Tune the Rainbow" and "The Garden of Everything" (duet with Steve Conte). In 2008, Sakamoto and Kanno collaborated again for "Triangler", the opening theme song for the series Macross Frontier.^[16] She also performed the song "cream" with HIDE, which was featured in the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex mini album be Human.

Awards and nominations[link]

In the 23rd Anime Grand Prix, she ranked tenth place under the seiyū category with 126 votes.^[17]

In addition, in the first Seiyū Awards, she was nominated for "Best Actress in a leading role" for her portrayal of Haruhi Fujioka in Ouran High School Host Club as well as "Best Musical Performance" for Tsubasa Chronicle's ending theme Loop.^[18]

Discography[link]

Filmography[link]

Appearances in other media[link]

Webcast[link]

• Maaya Sakamoto's Full Moon Recital Hall (September 23, October 23, November 22, December 21, 2010) -Ustream
  • reading of Japanese literary works^[31]
  • one of the special projects offered by a Japanese online magazine "Saizensen"

Publications[link]

Serialization[link]

• Sakamoto Maaya no Manpukuron (坂本真綾の満腹論^?) – Currently in Newtype.

- A monthly column

Books[link]

• I.D. (アイディ。^?) – December 9, 2005^[32]

- An essay collection (out of print)

• Chizu to Tegami to Koi no Uta (地図と手紙と恋のうた^?) – April 18, 2008^[33]

- A photo and lyrics book compilation

• from everywhere. – February 21, 2011^[34]

- An essay collection

References[link]

External links[link]

• Maaya Sakamoto's Official Homepage (Japanese)
• Idling Stop ~ Official Fansite (Japanese)
• "Saizensen" Maaya Sakamoto's Full moon Recital (Japanese)
• Maaya Sakamoto at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Maaya Sakamoto discography at MusicBrainz

Constance Demby is a performing and recording artist, vocalist, original instrument designer, painter, sculptor, and multi-media producer. Considered a pioneer and innovator in the world of sound, her Contemporary Classical Electronic Symphonic Spacemusic falls into several categories including ambient or space music.^[1] She is best known for her award winning 1986 album [Novus Magnificat]

Biography[link]

Constance ^[2] Demby was born in Oakland, California. She learned to play classical piano in her childhood and went on to become a multi-instrumentalist (including hammered dulcimer, vocals, synthesizers, and originally-designed custom acoustic instruments). A performing and recording artist, vocalist, original instrument designer, painter, sculptor, and multi-media producer, Demby is considered a pioneer and innovator in the world of sound. Her Contemporary Classical Electronic Symphonic Spacemusic covers a wide range, and falls into several categories - including:

Ambient

Spacemusic

Electronica

Contemporary Classical

New Age

She studied sculpture and painting at the University of Michigan.^[1] It was both as musician and sculptor that her Sonic Steel Instruments, the space bass and the whale sail were created. An original design, her Sonic Steel Instruments have been recorded by Lucas Skywalker Studios for use in their filmscores, and also filmed by Discovery Channel at Gaudi's Park Güell. The Space Bass is featured on Michael Stearns' soundtrack for Chronos.

Early Life and Training:

A fifth generation Californian born in Oakland, CA, Demby began her training in classical music at age 8 in Burlingame, CA with her first public performance at age 12, which included classical piano works, double piano concertos and solfeggieto for the left hand alone. In high school, she formed a jazz group during which she began to develop skills in piano improvisation. Later, at the University of Michigan, she studied painting, sculpture, and multimedia.

Multi-instrumentalist:

Demby performs on a variety of instruments: Early instruments included the Koto, Ch’eng, Harpeleck, Tamboura, and Hammer Dulcimer. In order to expand her explorations in sound, in the 70’s she commissioned expert Sam Rizzetta to create a custom Hammer Dulcimer with extra low bass strings, which resulted in a new depth of resonance, and a unique new version of the ancient instrument.

Original Instrument Design:

Demby’s background as a painter and sculptor contributed to her development of original instruments when she invented the Whale Sail and the Space Bass, 10-foot-long, bowed instruments that transmit primordial subsonic resonances. As a sculptor, while torching a sheet of metal, she first noticed the unique subsonic tones and unusual sounds, which subsequently led to the development and refinement of the instruments. Lucas Sky Walker Studios, licensed the sounds of the Space Bass for use in their film scores. Discovery Channel filmed the Space Bass in Gaudi's "ParcGuell" in Barcelona for one of their specials. The Space Bass is featured on the soundtrack for the IMAX film, Chronos directed by Ron Fricke

The 1970's - Early Career:

In the early 70’s Demby co-founded a unique multimedia group, Central Maine Power Sound & Light, which toured the East Coast with their groundbreaking sound light shows. Venues included the Museum of Modern Art, the UN Sculpture Garden, Lincoln Center for the Arts, Fitchburg Planetarium, Strausbourg Planetarium, and the Greenwich Village Gallery, “A Fly can Bird but a Bird can’t Fly” where Demby’s massive multi-media "SPACE MASS" show was produced in March 1970. In 1977 Demby began to investigate the spiritual life, and was drawn into “Sant Mat,” a discipline based on the yoga of mantra and the eternal Sound Current. Once initiated by Sant Ajaib Singh Ji, Demby was opened up and the sound current began to pour through, inspiring devotional songs which formed the basis of her first album, SKIES ABOVE SKIES.

The 1980's:

In 1980, Demby returned to the west coast, settling in Marin County north of San Francisco. Her record label, SOUND CURRENTS was founded, and in 1980 SUNBORNE was released, inspired by “The Emerald Tablets,” an ancient script by Hermes Trismegestus. In 1982, the devotional SACRED SPACE MUSIC, featuring the Hammer Dulcimer, was released on the Hearts of Space label. Demby had developed her own technique for playing this ancient instrument, described as a “shimmering effect” as the hammers hit the strings in rapid succession. Brugh Joy, MD used “The Longing” from SACRED SPACE MUSIC as a meditation for his pupils, employing a special technique he created in which three chakras are activated, resulting in a heart-opening experience for the listener. In 1983, Demby performed at The Alaron Center in Sausalito, CA. Melodies that would later become the themes in NOVUS MAGNIFICAT appeared that night, captured on tape in the cassette album LIVE AT ALARON. During this time period, Demby formed the group Gandarva which included among others, multi-instrumentalist Benjy Wertheimer of Ancient Future. The group toured to Boulder, Colorado double-billing with Paul Winter. In 1987, the compilation album LIGHT of this WORLD came out on Demby’s Sound Currents label, and in 1989 the celebratory SET FREE was released by Hearts of Space.

The Electronic Revolution: NOVUS MAGNIFICAT – Through the Stargate:

The mid-eighties brought changes in recording technology with the advent of digital sampled sounds. BY the mid 80’s, digital sampling synthesizer keyboards had been invented, which formed the basis of all her orchestral works. (include former info on digital sampling) The EMULATOR II had been designed with a full digital orchestra on floppy disc. Like the Emulator I, it was an 8-bit sampler, however it had superior fidelity, and allowed more flexibility in editing sounds.

With a full digital orchestra to compose with, Demby embraced the electronic revolution and created a contemporary classical electronic symphony using a full range of orchestral symphonic instruments, pipe organ, and choral voices. Tapping into her spiritual guidance, she brought through her groundbreaking album, NOVUS MAGNIFICAT – Through the Stargate, with sound textures added by Michael Stearns, it was released in 1986 on the Hearts of Space record label. - Novus has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide, making Demby one of the most successful New Age artists of the decade. Working with Warren Dennis at his studio The Banquet, and with Anna Turner and Stephen Hill of Hearts of Space, the release of NOVUS helped to build the Hearts of Space label. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novus_Magnificat

The 1990's:

Demby began touring internationally in the 90’s, first to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, then to Lanzarote, Canary Islands to perform in an undergound volanic cave, where she shared the billing with Paul Horn and Pauline Oliveras. Power Places Tours invited her on their tour to Egypt, where she performed at the foot of the Great Pyramid and conducted ceremonies inside the Kings Chamber. A tour to Tokyo was next where a special effects film was made of the artist in action; resulting in a CD and DVD of LIVE IN TOKYO. In 1995 the emotionally cathartic album AETERNA, considered the sequel to NOVUS, was released on the Hearts of Space label, reviewers comparing the music to classical masters such as Bruckner, and Rachminoff. Arjuna Ardaugh, Founder of the Living Essence Foundation and Author of THE TRANSLUCENT REVOLUTION commissioned Demby to create music for his guided meditations. HEART MEDITATION and THE BELOVED. During this same time period Demby was commisioned to compose a score for FACES OF THE CHRIST for a film inspired by images of the Christ throughout history.

The 2000's and 21st Century:

ISSO, International Space Science Organization, commissioned Demby to create a score for the film "I AM," an ambitious, multi-leveled journey through time and space, earth and cosmos, the creation of life, the history of civilization and world religions. The album SPIRIT TRANCE, composed in Spain, features four selections from "I AM". The title song on Spirit Trance, "Legend" was originally composed for the film “JAMES DEAN – AN AMERICAN LEGEND”, however due to complications with the James Dean Foundation, the film by director Alan Hauge never made it to the big screen.Demby toured Spain for 2 1/2 years with performances such as “II Cicle Internacional de Musiques Mistiques” at MERCAT De Les FLORS in Barcelona.

SANCTUM SANCTUORUM was composed in Spain with critics comparing the album to Gregorian chant and Requiems by Faure and Durufle . Returning to the US,Demby toured the west coast presenting concerts and healing workshops[M24]. Her Sound Currents label subsequently released SONIC IMMERSION , a vibrational sound healing attunement featuring the sub-sonic frequencies of the SPACE BASS.

UK SACRED SITES TOUR:

In 2005, Constance was invited to tour England to present a SACRED SITES UK TOUR. The tour included sites such as Glastonbury, Avebury, and a sunrise ceremony at Stonehenge

TOURS:

Tokyo / Live in Tokyo

Egypt / The Pyramids, Kings Chamber

Spain / Barcelona, Sitges, Valencia, Esplugues

Brazil / Rio de Janeiro, Sau Paulo

Canary Islands /Underground Volcanic Cave performance

Los Angeles / Laserium Cyberstudios, Sacred Music Festival

Massachusetts / Strasbourg, Fitch & Haydn Planetariums

NYC / Museum of Modern Art, UN Sculpture Garden, Lincoln Center for the Arts

EVENTS:

Constance Demby has been a featured musician and speaker at many conferences with other notable authors, artists and teachers including The Dali Lama, Josepth Campbell, Depak Chopra George Lucas, Joseph Campbell, and Gene Roddenberry, Marianne Williamson , Paul Winter Consort, Brugh Joy, David Spangler

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• 1978: Skies Above Skies (CS, Sound Currents/Gandarva)
• 1980: Sunborne (CS, Sound Currents/Gandarva)
• 1982: Sacred Space Music (CS, Sound Currents/Gandarva; 1988 CD, Hearts of Space Records)
• 1986: Novus Magnificat: Through the Stargate (Hearts of Space Records)
• 1989: Set Free (Hearts of Space Records)
• 1995: Aeterna (Hearts of Space Records)
• 1998: The Beloved (Living Essence Foundation)
• 1998: The Heart Meditation (Living Essence Foundation)
• 2000: Faces of the Christ (Sound Currents)
• 2001: Sanctum Sanctuorum (Hearts of Space Records)
• 2004: Spirit Trance (Hearts of Space Records)
• 2004: Sonic Immersion (Sound Currents)
• 2011: Ambrosial Waves – Healing Waters (Sound Currents)

Live albums

• 1984: Constance Demby at Alaron (live, 1983)(CS, Sound Currents/Gandarva)
• 2000: Attunement: Live in Concert (live, 1999)(First Light Music; Sound Currents)
• 2008: Live in Tokyo (live, 2002, CD-DVD)(Sound Currents)

Compilations

• 1987: Light of This World (compilation, 1978–1986 best-of, plus 2 original tracks)(CS/CD, Sound Currents)
• 1991: Polar Shift (various-artists compilation, 1 original Demby track)(Private Music)

AWARDS

VOTED --"One of the 10 best albums of the decade. " - Pulse! Magazine

VOTED --’One of the 25 most influential ambient albums of all time" - New Age Voice

VOTED --"One of the 25 best gateway New Age albums" - New Age Retailer

VOTED --"Editor's Choice" - Third Annual Digital Audio magazine awards

VOTED --"Top 50 definitive CD New Age Library" - CD Review

VOTED --“TOP 15 - Electronic New Age Albums List”

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Wright, Carol. Constance Demby biography at Allmusic
2. ^ ASCAP (2009). "Works written by: Demby Constance Mary, CAE/IPI No. 127.53.77.66", database of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers

Further reading[link]

Please expand this article. Some suggested sources are given hereafter. More information might be found in a section of the talk page. (May 2009)

• Winters, Kelly (2005). "Demby, Constance", Contemporary Musicians, Gale Research Inc, 2005. Retrieved May 31, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com
• Wright, Carol (2004). "Constance Demby in Spain: A New Authentico". Archive.org from ConstanceDemby.com

External links[link]

• ConstanceDemby.com – official website
• Constance Demby at Allmusic
• Constance Demby discography at Discogs
• Constance Demby at Piero Scaruffi