Beginning this stanza of “What the Thunder Said”, Eliot describes a woman who manipulated her hair, and “fiddled whisper music on those strings”. Interpreting “those strings” as the woman’s own hair we can interpret a curious instance of a woman using her body as an instrument to play music. Of course, we must acknowledge that realistically, one can’t make any substantial sounds with their hair, and thus we can interpret her “whisper music” as imagined, or only perceived by her. In terms of the human body, especially in relation to hair, we can further understand this passage by looking at page 298 of the Visuddhi-Magga. This page discusses the superficiality of beauty and the ego, as it declares that the human body is repulsive. The repulsiveness of the human body is argued, as the Visuddhi Magga reads, “When any part of the body becomes detached, as, for instance, the hair of the head … people are unwilling so much as to touch it”. According to the Visuddhi Magga, humans assign significance and beauty to discardable parts of their body, and when those parts are discarded, humans view them with disgust. When comparing the teachings of the Visuddhi-Magga with the long-haired woman, there seems to be a contrast in appreciation for the human body. While the Visuddhi-Magga argues that the body, especially the hair, is repulsive, the woman is using her own hair as an instrument, something of significance and beauty in and of itself. I believe another important aspect of this analysis lies in the consideration of Eliot’s notion of “conceptual death”. In “The Waste Land” Eliot has challenged the reader’s literal understanding of death, and instead seems to propose the idea that death is a complex and cultural state that cannot be so easily defined. Literally, our hair is dead, but when attached to our body, it becomes a part of a living thing, and thus seems to gain significance through what I argue is “conceptual vitality”. Interpeting the lesson of the Visuddhi-Magga, hair loses its “vitality” when it is cut off, and becomes recognizably repulsive. Though it was always dead, it has lost its significance to the body. I would argue that the woman using her hair as an instrument is an affirmation of the hair’s significance to herself, and thus, a part of her own conceptual vitality.