Human: The Musical Species
“Our auditory systems, our nervous systems are tuned for music. Perhaps we are a musical species no less than a linguistic one.” - Oliver Sacks, The Power of Music
Few elements of human experience are more instinctive than music. Music in its purest form is a direct translation of the unknowable, the great mystery. It is part of humankind's deep striving for sacred connection. Like many of the conditions that support life on our planet, air, water, ideal proximity to the sun, the physics of sound and the harmonic series supports a hidden vibratory world that both influences and mirrors human consciousness.“…music is the “image” of consciousness, being that feature of the physical world that is most similar, in a fundamental respect, to consciousness itself.” - Of Mind and Music, Laird Addis
When I began composing music for therapy I didn’t fully realize I was standing on the shoulders of the ancients. I had heard the legends, and I had read books on Pythagoras, Ancient Chinese music theory, Indian Ragas and Greek scales and modes. I have come to realize there is a through-line here. From the release of Dream Time to the latest Forest Bathing release I have received reports of my music being effective not only in therapy but in sleep, meditation, recovery, even to calm pets. How does this relate to the mindful use of healing music in the distant past?
The ancient music is not buried but is being picked up and dusted off by a new generation, from Maori flute carvers to Greek Lyre makers. This ancient harmonic architecture that gives meaning to harmony, that allows our brains and bodies to vibrate with sympathetic emotional resonance, is a direct reflection of the workings of the Universe. The Pythagorean Music of the Spheres, once sought in the distant periodic ratios of an imagined geocentric solar system, is in us, in our every cell.
“The heart of man has been so constituted by the creator that, like a flint, it contains a hidden fire which is evoked by music and harmony and renders man beside himself with ecstasy. These harmonies are echoes of that higher world of beauty which we call the world of spirits, they remind man of his relationship to that world, and produce in him an emotion so deep and strange that he himself is powerless to explain it.” al-Ghazzali, Persian Mystic c. 1058 - 111AD, ref: Deep Listeners, Judith Becker, Indiana University Press
Music has three pathways into human consciousness. The first is physical vibration, air particles oscillating with the current of sound waves, moving our body's liquid matrix, tissue and bone. The second is electromagnetic analogues of the wave forms coursing through neural pathways. The third, most subtle and often overlooked, could be called intention, a more ephemeral transfer of information that is conveyed via ‘the field’. In Energy Medicine experiments at UCLA conducted by pioneering researcher Valerie V. Hunt, the human energy field was shown to respond to sound “…before there was any increased activity in the brain or in the circulation, and sometimes even when the stimulus was too weak to activate the nervous system.”
Our brains and bodies are both assessing and being influenced by the stream of spatial, rhythmic and harmonic information that is music. Our most direct interaction with music is via the hearing mechanism, the tympanic membrane and the cochlea, which sorts and translates harmonic vibration into the neural signals that flash through various brain centers and are interpreted as a form of emotional language. In the case of trained musicians it is a kind of moving math of harmonic ratios and tempo and time signatures. However, there is a powerful secondary circuit of sound interpretation which happens directly through the fascial system. The human body is like a microphone, sensitive to vibration with a specialized mechanism in the ear to discern and translate sound, but with a secondary sensory circuit that is tactile. Hearing impaired folks can discern sound through touch. As renowned Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie (who lost her hearing at an early age) said, “Hearing is a form of touch. You can feel it through your body…The body is like a huge ear. It is as simple as that.”Music has the power to move emotion, and it also has the ancient power of connection based as it is on a universal harmonic construct. When we are using intentionally created music in healing we are utilizing enhanced neural pathways, which can facilitate the release of powerful neurotransmitters such as oxytocin. Once translated by the hearing mechanism music entrains the physiology of a listener who, in a clinical setting, is in a whole different listening state than someone in a club or concert or car. I have come to think about the significance of music in the healing setting as unique, at once modern and ancient.
“What is wonderful about music is that it helps man to concentrate or mediate independently of thought. Therefore music seems to be the bridge over the gulf between the form and the formless.” The Mysticism of Sound and Music Hazrat Inayat Khan
The ritual use of music and sound has accompanied healing from the very beginning. In the lost record of the distant past there was some evolutionary shift from primate to human consciousness. While our primate cousins exhibit some musical attributes, it is the spontaneous banging of objects compared to the phenomenal organization of a symphony. It is possible the beginning of human consciousness paralleled the development of human musicality. We all benefit from our neurological and physiological susceptibility to music.
In my latest album Forest Bathing, the forest is a symphonic sound field in its own right. The water, wind, and birds are in the flow of an eternal moment. However, we humans are capable of deriving something more from that moment, a transcendent meaning that takes on universal proportions as we understand the whole and our place in it. Whether we know it or not our collective ability to create and enjoy music is a defining characteristic, perhaps THE defining characteristic of our species.
Listening to music is a co-creative experience with the musician/composer. Like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, music does not exist without our species’ ability to discern these patterns and render them into a universally accepted language. By harmonic law we are all hearing the same thing, while our unique human and spiritual experience delivers something slightly different and personal to each of us.
Sources
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep11320,
http://valerievhunt.com/ValerieVHunt.com/Valerie_Hunt_BioEnergy_Fields.html
