THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF MUSIC #2

(With apologies for Googles spacing.)

Akasha in Hindu philosophy is ether - the substrate of the quality of sound. 

It is the one pervading substance - the primordial Ohm, the root of vibration.

The concept of 

Nada (sound or vibration) - Brahma 

means the universe was created from the energy of sound. 

Sanskrit letters are sacred and were part of this creative vibration.

This concept is similar in Kabbalah where the Hebrew letters are considered sacred.

Both traditions treat sound, letters and vibration as fundamental to creative reality.

The Celts believed that the world was sung into existence.

They called the sacred tune of the universe the Oran Mo'r.

"Quiet— Eternal Quiet. Not even the sound of the restless, stirring, dark

waters could be heard.

Then, a great spiraling strain of Melody moved across the endless waters.

Subdued at first, then quickly gathering momentum until it reached a great crescendo.

And, then, there was Life! But the Melody did not stop. It continued its song,

filling all of Creation with its Divine harmony. 

And so it continues today, for all those who listen." Frank Mills

John said; "In the begiining was the word..."

This Logos was also sound and vibration. Sacred letters and words combined with harmony.

Even for those who think of the Bible as being mythology it is worth noting

how much it has to say about the power of sound and song.

In Exodus the Israelites trembled as trumpets sounded from Mount Sinai before Moses

went up the mountain to receive the ten commandments.

In the book of Joshua it was the blowing of the rams' horns by the priests

carrying the Arc of the Covenant that caused the wall of the fortified city to fall down.

Singing and playing musical instruments in the tabernacle and later the temple

was the duty of Levite priests and priestesses. 

Levite harpists were routinely called upon by the prophets to enable prophecy

especially with Isaiah, Jeremiah and Elisha.

King David's psalms were originally in song and included instruments ...The book of Revelations also refers to the "seven trumpet agues" that will occur at the endof this age at the return of Jesus to earth.

"The Music of the Spheres."

There still is an ongoing singing of the stars as Mills says;

"And so it continues today, for all those who listen."

The Chaldeans were apparently the first to say that all the heavenly bodies joined together to create music as they orbited space. The San Kalahari Bushmen also could hear this sound - as also stated in the Zohar. Pythagoras was apparently the first of the Greek philosophers to theorize that the sun, moon and planets emit their own "hum" as they orbit which reflect celestial sounds imperceptible to most human ears. Plato agreed with him and also assumed there was a numerical component to them.

"There is geometry in the humming of strings. There is music in the spacing of the spheres. Number is the within of all things." Pythagoras 

 "Pythagoras alone of mortals is said to have heard this harmony ... If our hearts' were as chaste and as snowy as Pythagoras, our ears would resound and be filled with that supremely lovely music of the wheeling stars." John Milton

If the sun, the moon and all these huge bodies are rotating it is possible that they do generate sound. It is also likely that since we are born with this subtle music from light years away in our ears. However, now we may no longer be able to hear it or even know it is there - unlike the Bushmen who are as pure as Pythagoras. They all previously benefited from having little noise pollution. Pythagoras believed that not only the stars but all creatures and objects have energetic signatures which could be translated into numbers, fractions or geometric structures and that the Creator "geometrized" the universe in sound vibrations.This would fit with the idea that music is a part of the 'mathematics' of God.

If you amplify the frequency of sound the structure of matter can change.

Sound has the power to do many amazing things:

Playing the right frequency of sound can

cause a wine glass to move and even break apart.

Levitate and rotate objects

Boil water

Create light and heat

Drill through stone and metal

Destroy cancer and pathogens

Heal

 

THE POWER OF MUSIC ON BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT

# 1

I still believe in things I can't see ... I believe in things I can feel: Music Love and God." Lina Loy

AFFECT ON AGING

Dr. Langer more than three decades ago showed that if you turn back the clock psychologically, this can tempoarily effect aging. A group of men between 70 and 80 years old relived a week in 1959 in a building refurbished to fit the era. The experiment included listening to the music of that time. viewing shows and movies from that decade on black and white T.V. and discussing those current events. After the week it was noted that their memory, physical strength, vision and hearing improved.

DEMENTIA

Recent F.M.R.I. research showed that listening and singing songs that were personalized and relevant to the musical memory of dementia patients had the effect of stimulating brain areas that were relatively undamaged by the disease. The music animated those with dementia and reduced anxiety, agitation and depression. It also enable loved ones to communicate with them more easily. 

Musical memories were preserved because many areas were spared from the amyloid deposits in the brain. Music could take varied, other pathways through the brain. Although music seemed to anchor the patients back into reality there was little affect of this treatment on the general condition of the patients.

The late Glen Campbell developed Altzheimers but was still capable of giving performances with the help of his devoted family. The audience did not seem to care when he sometimes had to be reminded about the lyrics. Musical memories seem to be retained in many patients who otherwise have severe cognitive dysfunction.

Music has also been used to treat traumatic brain injury, Parkinson's disease, P.T.S.D. and other brain disorders. Motzart's piano sonata in D major apparently decreased epileptic seizures. 

INTELLIGENCE IN CHILDREN

Motzart's music may not have beneficial effects on childrens' spatial reasoning abilities (The Mozart effect) but any positive effects rather appeared to be due to "enjoyment arousal" and also possible with other music, and others positive stimuli as well.

Music can make children smarter but the effects are temporary and non-specific and no different to other methods of stimulating their brains.

However, children who become musicians have more neural connections, higher spatial intelligence, a more symmetrical brain with a larger corpus callosum and higher test and I.Q. scores. This may be akin to learning another language. Musicians also have an enhanced auditory system with a greater ability for identifying pitch and recognizing musical pieces.

MUSIC AS MEDITATION

The right kind of music also has the potential to create heart and brain Coherence by facilitating the Parasympathetic nervous system. This can override stress and the negative emotions that arise from a Sympathetic flight of fight response. Coherence (balance, harmony, equanimity) is a positive energy or vibration which spreads beyond its immediate environment. 

Music can also be healthful, enhance immune function and create positive emotional states.

 The wrong kind of music can do the opposite.

With music, hidden and repressed emotions can be released. If one listens to music with a tempo slower that the heart rate, the heart rate slows down.

The Heart Math institute has extended this concept to the idea of Coherence of heart rhythms in relationship to Heart Rate Variability (H.R.V.)  Heart rate Coherence occurs when the Parasympathetic and Sympathetic nervous systems are in balance. 

According to the Ancestors...

The mind controls the heart.

According to the Heart Math Institute the heart sends more signals to the brain than the other way around. Heart Coherence has the potential to create emotional balance in the brain and can occur with any meditative technique, active or passive, mental or physical and with selected music. We know how critical physical exercise is for both heart and brain function.

 

Music can do many things to our inner beings and we have to be careful in how we select it. The Nazis used it to torture Jews, the military to march soldiers to their deaths in war, others to court and woo prospective mates ...

 and all shades of light and dark in-between ...

Chassidic and African wisdom teach that song is also the most powerful way to pray and also to mourn.

"There are three ways of mourning; with tears, with silence and with song. That with song is the most powerful."

"With song one can open the gates of heaven." Chassidic sayings

"We pray by singing and dancing." African proverb

The Safe Sound Protocol was developed by Dr. Porges for children who have suffered severe abuse. This particular sound vibration facilitated their social engagement by means of high frequency auditory stimuli which simulated the frequencies of the human voice. Sadly, because of abuse their ears have been primed to detect low frequency threatening, predatory sounds only and tune out the more healthful, heartful, human ones.

  GRIEF AND SHAME #5

THE ADULT

"The face of shame is invisibility." Brene' Brown

"Shame grows when it is unspoken. Bringing it into the open through conversation is the first step to breaking its power." Brene' Brown

Shame can create a desire to be invisible and is often associated with a hopeless, helpless, head down posture and an anxious, apathetic, depressed, dejected, and detached demeanor.

The only way out of the pain and grief is through it.

One has to come out of hiding.

This depends on the courage to be vulnerable.

In the case of shame the ego self is often shattered and Self love through vulnerability is the answer.

Self compassion aligns with Self Worth  and generates fewer negative emotions. 

The core of treatment is vulnerability. This is difficult in our society where vulnerability is regarded as weakness when in fact it is strength and courage. Vulnerability depends on trust, surrender, will and love, the opposite of anger, rage, hatred, malice, envy and resentment of self or the other which may seem an easier option.

One has to own it to release it.

What you resist will persist.

"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." Joseph Campbell

Vulnerability depends on recognizing and acknowledging the suffering and exposing one's shame to others which is challenging and will generate fear. This is understandable - the causes of fear have been listed as;

the deep, the dark, the steep, threat to life, limb, organ or function, religious or superstitious and 

the most powerful all - threat to the ego self.

The classical survival flight or fight resonse occurs in severe stress and also in shame. The Four F's also include checking out completely as in ...

Freezing or Feigning death

 An animal in a survival situation - say an impala escaping from the clutches of a cheetah - has no PTSD after this predicament. The Freezing and Feigning death is an effective escape mechanism and does not become a malady. He continues being a normal impala. We humans, not so much.

Getting stuck in self deprecation and shame can come from damaging self talk which becomes imbedded in the subconscious. Positive affirmations may be difficult but negative ones should be avoided.

One should treat oneself as one would treat a good friend. 

Although negative feelings may be activated at times they become manageable.

The courage to be imperfect can lead to kindness and compassion towards others.

Shift the blame to where it belongs.

Release yourself from what you are not accountable.

 

If one is able to rise above the pain s/he may be able to achieve a huge shift in consciousness. Someone who has emerged into the light after being submerged in darkness will have the potential to be more powerful spiritually than someone else who has not been so severely tested. In addition they are more likely to find profound meaning in their lives, contentment and even happiness.

"There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in" Leonard Cohen

Your teaching is in the shadow of your experiences.

The bigger the crack the more potential for light to enter.

Sometimes the bigger one's shadow the more the light can be, behind it - but only it if it can be realized.

"Be willing to give up who you are - the old familiar- for who you might become to reach that which is beyond you.” Rev Nachman.

  

To glean love, acknowledgment and support from a community, a 12 Step program or a similar rehabilitation program is hugely helpful, and usually indispensable.

 

GRIEF AND SHAME #4

We are responsible for but are not our actions.

We need to admit when necessary to our unskillfulness. Forgiveness of self and the other and asking forgiveness will usually take care of Remorse and Guilt but,

ongoing Self Condemnation/Recrimination/Deprecation and Shame may result in soul sickness or even soul loss and require much more help.

"Shame is the swampland of the soul." C.G. Jung

Shame is about feeling bad about who we are. If associated with humiliation it can create self-disgust, 'I am bad, I am no good for anyone, I am the mistake.' Shame can be a crippling emotional force where the soul splits from the body.

 This can occur early in childhood from a dysfunctional home.

A similar dynamic can occur in adulthood in the home or outside of it. The dysfunction in childhood is often only confronted and dealt with later in life. 

Some degree of Shame is said to occur in at least 50% of people.

Early on it can be due to humiliation of a child, often associated with severe abuse; Sexual, Physical, Emotional/Verbal, or Emotional Voyeurism.

Having a loving, caring caregiver in the early stages of childhood that makes the child feel safe, secure, seen, soothed and heard is essential (Attachment Theory.) This stands in contrast to an ongoing disgust for a child which causes shame and humiliation.

Core or Toxic shame occurs when a child is continually put down as in as... 

you are no good to anyone or for anything! 

The child comes to believe they are the mistake and were born a mistake. This dynamic can develop even before language begins due to a lack of love and bonding. The parent or caregiver may even say or make the child feel, that they were never wanted in the first place.

 These caregiver rarely have any self awareness. They may demand perfection and obedience - no mistakes are allowed. They may rationalize that they are providing for a nuisance who would otherwise be on the street but for them.

The child feels abandoned, isolated and disconnected and in a continual survival mode from fear.

Abandonment can also be due to the child being forced to take care of the caregiver's emotional needs.

To protect themselves from being scrutinized by others and social services the caregiver may demand that the child puts on a happy face and threaten them if they speak out to anyone. The child, fearing that their survival is at stake, complies.

"The sins of the fathers and mothers (and grandfathers and grandmothers) are visited upon the children..."

In many families it is often multigenerational and kept secret. 

The child of an alcoholic parent may eventually become an alcoholic or the abused may become the abuser. The victim becomes the perpetrator.

"If we do not ttransform our pain we will most assuredly tramsmit it." Richard Rohr

The child and later the adult may overact to give an appearance of normalcy. Two personas may develop, a public and a private one.

Anger due to lack of self worth can become projected inwards with self deprecation, or outwardly as blame and judgment. There may be toxic emotions such as malice, anger, rage, hatred, envy and the impulse to harm themselves or others.

Self-Condemnation not only inhibits spiritual transformation but if the abused has no self-worth and gets sick a belief that s/he does not deserve to be well can creep in. This can cripple the Inner Healer which is part of the soul.

"Malice sucks up the greater part of her own venom and poisons herself." Montaigne

 

Abuse may cause emotional shut down, causing mood disorders, "dis"-ease and even disease as well as self-mutilation as in, 'I am not ok!'

The numbness can result in addiction, to fill the emptiness inside. 

In the case of sexual abuse excessive eating may help the victim to escape being sexually less appealing. Alternatively the abuse may eventually be acted out as promiscuity.

 

GRIEF #3

REGRET, REMORSE, GUILT AND SHAME

Its useful to look at semantics to help assign the level of grief we may be experiencing.

REGRET

means we wish we had done things differently.

A criminal may have regrets about being caught but has no remorse. S/he regrets only that he did not succeed.

We say 'regrets' when it comes to invitations but may not have even cared to attend the event.

Regret is about oneself and may not be associated with remorse or with grief.

REMORSE

is usually about what we have done to another and can be severe. It may create guilt which causes more suffering.

Remorse should inspire an apology and restitution. It should be sincere and come from the heart in order to restore the soul to its rightful place.

Hopefully it should move one not to repeat something similar in the future.

GUILT

implies one did something wrong but you yourself may,

or may not be bad. It can be associated with regret or remorse. Remorse should require reconciliation to try and correct the wrong.

To err is human, to forgive Divine.

When we consider forgiveness it must first begin with forgiving oneself. God/Jesus will forgive us for anything we have done to the Self made in His image. However, if we have wronged another this will require asking them for forgiveness.

Guilt can lead to shame as can Self-Condemnation and Self-recrimination where shame can take over. Guilt and especially shame can result in a higher level of grief and suffering. Shame can cause soul sickness or even soul loss. Shame especially, and sometimes guilt, can make us believe that we are bad.

Regret and remorse are not about feeling that you are bad, only that your actions were unskillful.

We are responsible for but are not our actions.

"Self-condemnation strengthens guilt which is one of the greatest impediments on the path to enlightenment." Yoga wisdom

Belief that one is bad and belief that one is out of control

makes one more so!

One should not magnify. Guilt can turn into shame.

Guilt and less commonly shame can helps us self correct but otherwise they will dibilitate.

It is much harder to forgive oneself when there is shame.

"Shame is an acutely self-conscious state in which the self is 'split' by contrast in guilt the self is unified." J. L. Herman

If Herman is talking about the small self or ego that is true but not if he means the Higher Self or Soul. The soul is always unified and pure as is the breath which comes from the Creator. We are all constantly being animated by the breath of the Creator and have the potential to attain a level of purity.

When there is shame the soul, which is pure, can separate from the impure body causing soul sickness or even soul loss. This happens when our Ego or self-cherishing subordinates the Higher Self, our Evil Inclination or Shadow overcomes our Good Inclination and when Monkey Mind dominates Big Mind. Tricksters and our Guides also have a hand in which will prevail.

Self-condemnation, Self-recrimination go beyond Regret, Remorse and Guilt and may mean 

we may feel bad about who we are.  

This is where Shame can step in. Shame can be a crippling emotional force. This can lead to a downward spiral and can be reflected in the body's facial expression; a lowered head, downcast eyes, changes in the voice and a slack posture.  

If it is associated with humiliation it can be more toxic to the soul. The Sympathetic nervous system which is responsible for Fight or Flight can now go into override and submit to Freeze or Feign Death.