THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF MUSIC #2

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

It is the one pervading substance, the primordial Ohm. 

It has also been described as Logos, the Higg's field, Dark Energy and many other names. The concept of 

Nada (sound or vibration) Brahma 

means the universe was created from the energy of sound. 

The Celts believed that the world was sang into existence. They called the sacred tune of the universe the Oran Mo'r.

As Frank Mills describes: 
"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."

This Logos was sound and vibration.

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

The book of Revelations also refers to the "seven trumpet agues" that will occur at the end of this age at the return of Jesus to earth.

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.

Chronicles relates that the kingdom of Judah was under threat by a huge coalition of armies. On the advice from prophecy, one of the Levite musicians told king Jehoshaphat to send out the choir and orchestra in front of the army and sing praises to God. God then set the coalition armies against one another until not a soldier was left of Judah's enemies.

King David's psalms were in song including instruments such as psalteries, harps, timbrels, stringed instruments, organs and cymbals and ...

We know, however, there can be no light without dark, no rose without a thorn and Satan became and has become the inspiration for the dark side of music. 

It has been said that Lucifer was the chief musician in heaven. This concept comes from Ezekiel; 

"The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day that you were created."

Music was meant to be sacred until Lucifer who became Satan fell from heaven together with the other "fallen angels" because he wanted to become God. 

It would be difficult to talk about music without bringing the dark side of music to the fore - regardless of whether Satan is mythological, archetypal or real.

As we will see many musicians have gained notoriety by aligning themselves with "Satan." Robert Johnson confessed to making a contract with the devil to gain his incredible musical expertise. Johnson, previously a mediocre musician - after this event - became a master of the blues.

There is no doubt that music can be one of the most powerful forces both for light and for dark.

Click to highlight and then play this attempt by Eugene Havenga, the musician I work with in South Africa, to render this ??? "primal sound of the universe." It came in a dream but almost impossible to reproduce. I hummed it as best I could into my I phone then took it to Eugene.

06_Primal_Sound_of_t..>

You may be better off playing Dvorak New World Symphony

PreviewPreview3:05Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" / Karajan ...

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

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

The Ancestors

THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF MUSIC # 1

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

Lina Loy

I thought I would begin this blog with the better known benefits of music that are not necessarily spiritual but more cognitive and healing in nature. 

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

Recent research showed that listening and singing songs that were personalized and relevant to the musical memory of dementia patients lit up brain areas of F.M.R.I. that were relatively undamaged by the disease. The music animated those with Altzheimers 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 deposition from the disease. Moreover, music takes 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.

It is interesting to note that 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.

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. 

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

Music can make children smarter but the effects are short term 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.

However, the effects of music go far beyond its therapeutic affects.

The concept of Coherence has been described as the Maharishi effect. Maharishi university showed that if a critical number of folks meditated in an area the crime rate decreased. This might also be described as the "Butterfly Affect" when a butterfly flaps its wings it can be felt even more potently on the opposite side of the planet. Coherence (balance, harmony, unity) is positive energy or vibration which spreads beyond its immediate environment. 

With music, hidden and repressed emotions can be released. If you listen 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. 

The heart is known to send 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. 

 The right kind of music also has the potential to create heart and hence 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. 

Music can be healthful, enhance immune function and positive emotional states;

 the wrong kind - the opposite.

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 wisdom teaches that song is also the most powerful way to mourn. Africans and Celt would agree.

The Safe Sound Protocol was developed by Dr. Porges for children who have suffered severe abuse for the sake of improving their social engagement through high frequency auditory stimuli which simulate the frequencies of the human voice. Sadly, because of dorsal vagal nerve overstimulation their ears have been primed to detect low frequency threatening, predatory sounds only and tune out the more healthful, human ones.

Click to highlight then play

13_Ai_Yai.mp3

16_Spirit_Chant.mp3

CONSCIOUSNESS IN NATURE 
THE STILL BEINGS #7

The Ancestors

This New Year will begin with some closing comments on the Four Beings of Nature and the
Still Beings.

 Pachamama, the Earth Mother, is the goddess revered by the indigenous peoples of the Andes. She presides over the earth - our planet. Many of them believe that problems arise when we take more from her than we deserve, and concede that we have brought the earth changes upon ourselves. 
They voice the same concerns as did Chief Seattle;

"Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to Him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its Creator."

The more contemporary Gaia hypothesis of James Lovelock is not dissimilar.

1.  "Living matter on the earth collectively defines and regulates the material conditions necessary for the continuance of life. The planet, or rather the biosphere, is thus likened to a vast self-regulating organism."
   Sadly we have difficulty thinking of Her as a living entity and now She is rebelling against us.
   
   According to the Ancestors, She, the Earth has given birth to us Talking Beings;
   

   

   Unfortunately we may well have mis-regulated Her 
   and maybe ourselves out of existence.
   

   "The whites, too, shall pass - perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste." Chief Seattle
   
   

We have also polluted the meanings of many precious and semiprecious Still Beings.

On the positive side:

Gold has been said to have warm, Yang like qualities with the power of Leo. It has also been called the Master Healer.

Silver of the other hand is Ying, calm and cool and is the metal of emotions. It is also powerfully antimicrobial and is used topically in medicine. If ingested to excess it can cause the syndrome of argyria  

(a condition caused by excessive exposure to the element silver, or to silver dust where the skin turns purple or purple-grey.)

Numerous crystals have been endowed with various beneficial properties especially those for spiritual protection such as jasper, obsidian, iron pyrite, turmaline and quartz.

Not all Still Beings are healthful or helpful with their energies such as the electromagnetic ionizer, radon which can cause cancer and uranium which wrongly used can create havoc. 

Everything on the planet has the potential for light or dark, such is the nature of creation. How we use them is up to us.

This begs the question if what is described here is truly "consciousness." Maybe if we comprehend this consciousness rather as being VIBRATION transmitted by the Breath/Prana/Chi/Ruach/Moya of the Divine

 it may make it easier for us to understand the Ancestors. To go beyond our limited, acquisitive understandings we should look at what they say about the Still Beings - meditate and ponder...

If you want to learn the language of the rocks you must first slow to their pace which is different from wild and growing beings.

Although they are soundless they are not silent so listen long and deeply to hear what hearing ears do not.

The rock may not let you image it simply as a chunk of granite or quartz but as a form of a beautiful sprite 

(a type of legendary creature including elves, fairies, and pixies)

 in a crystalline gown

To sanctify the ordinary is to recognize and acknowledge the sacred in every created Being. There is nothing that is empty of the Divine.

The Ancestors

Malidoma Some' describes what his teachers said while they observed him during his initiation. He had been told to go and "see" a tree.

We have no idea how much we have lost in our quest for "education" and technology.

Maybe if we understand our deficiencies we will be able to one day,

"hear what hearing ears do not and see what seeing eyes do not."

Click on the link to highlight and then play

01_The_Four_Beings.mp3

Let this be the year for our planet.