Part One
"What is night for the conditioned souls is day for the
self realized sages, and what is day for those in confusion is night for
those free from illusion." Bhagavad-gita, 2.69
Music reflects life; being part of the whole, it reflects
the whole. Different styles of music reflect the different cultures from
which they arise. Indigenous native American music reflects the culture
that created it, the music of J.S. Bach reflects the predominant world
view of early 18th century Germany, and more recently, the music of the
cyber-punkers and gangsta-rappers reflects late 20th century urban culture.
Yet music is not just a mirror, reflecting the society
which generates it, music also has an effect on society; it changes the
way people think, feel, and act and can have healthy or unhealthy effects
on mind, body, and spirit.
The ancient Chinese, Greek and Indian philosopher kings
(rajarsis) respected the powers of music and therefore encouraged and discouraged
certain types of musical performance practices. During the Renaissance
the Catholic Church recognized the power of music as a significant force
for spiritual awakening and codified rules of style which allowed music
only of a particular character to be performed in church, prohibiting other
more worldly and sensual styles. This directly led to the golden age of
vocal polyphony as epitomized by Palestrina (1525-1594).
However, "Over the passing of centuries the details of
the ancient mysticism of music were lost or forgotten. The belief that
music played a role in determining man's moral nature took on a more earth-bound
rationale... Only during our present century has the belief in music as
a force capable of changing individuals and society become almost totally
forsaken and lost. This means that in the comparative lack of importance
which twentieth century man attaches to music, our civilization stands
virtually alone. Whether or not this is the result of
modern man's greater wisdom and progress, or whether it is the result of
an over-materialistic world view and a peculiar ignorance, remains an open
question." - David Tame: The Secret Power of Music
Early in 1996 a newspaper report appeared in the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette about Austrian researchers who had performed auditory
experiments on milk cows. They concluded "the cows' milk production increased
when the music of Mozart was piped through loudspeakers into their barns;
however when
hard-rock was played, the cows showed their displeasure
by mooing loudly and producing less milk."
The contemporary French doctor, Alfred A. Tomitas, has
pioneered research in the neurophysiological effects of music and sound
on the minds and bodies of listeners, which has had far-reaching influence
in the "modern" field of musical therapy. According to his theory,
there are two kinds of sound; there are "discharge" sounds (those which
tire, fatigue and drain the listener) and "charge" sounds (those which
give energy, life and health).
Dr. Tomitas has accomplished seemingly miraculous recoveries
and given new life to thousands of patients by his innovative treatments
with sound. In the mid-1960s, he visited a monastery in France which had
just been taken over by a new abbot, a young man. The new abbot had changed
the internal rule of the abbey by modifying everything a little after the
Second Vatican Council, and he was therefore something of a revolutionary.
When Tomitas arrived, there were those who wanted to retain
the Latin, others who were for the existing rule, and still others who
wanted to change and revolutionize everything. Finally everything was changed.
They even eliminated chanting from the daily schedule. Although Benedictines
chant from six to eight hours a day, this abbot succeeded in demonstrating
to the other monks that chant served no useful purpose, and that without
it they could recapture that time for other things.
Well, in fact, these people had been chanting in order
to "charge" themselves, but they hadn't realized what they were doing.
And gradually, as the days passed, they started to get bogged down; they
became more and more tired.
Finally they got so tired that they held a meeting and
frankly asked themselves what it was that was causing their fatigue. They
looked at their schedule and saw that their night vigil and the rhythm
of their work deviated excessively from the norm for other men. They seemed
to live too differently from the rest of the world, and they seldom slept.
They decided that they should go to bed early and wake up, like everybody
else, only when they were no longer tired.
Well, it is common knowledge from physiology that the
more you sleep, the more tired you are, and so it was for the poor Benedictines--they
were more tired than ever. So much so that they called in medical specialists
to help them try to understand what was happening. They finally gave up
on this after a procession of doctors had come through over a period of
several months, and the monks were more tired than ever.
Then they turned to specialists of the digestive system.
One of the great French doctors arrived at the conclusion that they were
in this state because they were undernourished. In fact, they were practically
vegetarian--they ate a little fish from time to time--and
he told them they were dying of starvation. His error was forgetting that
the Benedictines had eaten as vegetarians ever since the 12th Century,
which one would think might have engendered some sort of adaptation in
them. Anyway, once they started eating meat and potatoes like the rest
of the world, things only got worse.
Dr. Tomitas was called by the Abbot in June, 1967, and
he found that 70 of the 90 monks were slumping in their cells like wet
dishrags. Over the next several months he examined them and began the treatment
of re-awakening their ears. He re-introduced their eight hours daily chanting
immediately. By November, almost all of them had gone back to their normal
activities, that is their prayer, their few hours of sleep, and the e legendary
Benedictine work schedule. - adapted from an article by Tim Wilson:
A L'Ecoute de L'Univers
Dr. Tomitas succeeded in giving the Monks back their health
and energy without drugs or medication. He succeeded by treating them with
sound only.
