When Fred Stone asked me not to play another note unless I heard it, what happened was entering a different state of listening. Not that I never had that experience before, but his directive gave it a structure and that was unique for me. Afterwards the distinction between improvisers that moved me and soloists that seemed on autopilot, was what I noticed. Those who were “listening” were also in the present. That’s the echo to consciousness or what the hippies and Ram Dass or even George Harrison were excited about using titles like Be Here Now. It is no easy thing to be in the present ongoing. It’s what many meditative directives indicate, let your thoughts go, just remember your breathing etc. because consciousness is like a current in a river. One cannot stop the current from being a current. Being in the now challenges the effectiveness and parallels the musician who tries to play in the now. This might be why certain musicians describe their own thoughts as in the way. The state of free playing they worked to locate, foiled by thought.