The answer lies within, so why not take a look now

There's something so comforting about listening to Cat Stevens. I guess because my Dad would have had Cat on high rotation back in the early seventies, I must have heard it a lot, so it's firmly imprinted in my brain. Same goes for Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, although my own personal music taste is more folksy, more like Cat than the heavy guitars of Page, Plant or Hendrix.

I love music which fuses styles from different cultures, using instruments that would never traditionally appear together, to create something unique and beautiful.

I can't get enough of bands like Kila, Capercaille, Taffetas, Baka Beyond, Diya Singh. I also love alternative country performers, like Gillian Welch, Nickel Creek, the Dixie Chicks and the Waifs. It must be the mandolins/banjos/bagpipes that get me hooked, because I just love the sound of these different instruments playing together.

This may be the reason why I loved the Police so much as a teenager. Recently reading Sting's autobiography, "Broken Music" I was reminded of the fact that he played the double bass and how this was such a unique combination for a trio at that time in musical history.

The other lasting impression which his book left on me, related to his experience in Brazil upon taking the herb ayahuasca. He describes taking the herbs at a religious gathering there, whereupon everyone in the small hall soon began to groan and cry with pain, then run from the room to retch, with their stomachs violently convulsing. After some time, the room settled as each person began to see all kinds of visions, in their altered states.

His own visions were fascinating, leaving me wondering whether the herbs had allowed him to see either his own past life, or that of his ancestors.

As much as I'd love to see a glimpse of such past lives, I don't think I'd have the courage to go through the whole experience of taking the herbs. I'll just have to settle for what comes in my dreams, meditations and imaginative wondering.