The trumpets sounded and with a great shout, it was said, the walls of Jericho came down. The Lyre of Apollo was received by Orpheus to tame wild beasts and soothe the souls of men. The Pied Piper was able to lure both the rats and children out of town with his musical charm. Why? What did they know about the power of music and sound?

Whatever type of healing practice you may have, creating healing environments is  not just about basic sensual aspects or furnishing aesthetics. We must also consider vibrations, sounds and energies impacting upon persons.It is worthwhile for any persons working with music and sound in the healing arts to gain a bit of insight into its potentials and power to help them facilitate with precision and intent according to the client’s needs. We will explore this and more. 
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What affect does different instrumentation have upon persons? Each instrument family has distinct timbres and aspects of instrument  design that lend themselves to affect various body regions. Some of what we understand of such affect is due to how and where we use the instruments to play, others the materials they are crafted from, their resonance and the nature of the sound they produce. Explore this and more at this workshop

Is the ear the only mechanism involved in the perception of sound? How else are we affected?. We will explore experientially. What is consciousness? What is state change? Explorations of the nature of being and experiencing.

What special magic can music bring to our physical emotional mental and spiritual wellbeing? Is there a key to this magic? We will look at the special magics of music opening our mind and heart to it’s true potential and power.

What are the links between ambient environment sounds and health? how do sounds in the world soundscape affect health and wellbeing, not only of ourselves but all species? Included in this workshop is a brief overview of sound and health and interspecies ethics from the perspective of Acoustic Ecology.

How much of the way music affects us is due to individual bias and how much is due to elements of music and greater principles? Explore this and more in this intensive one day workshop

Reference manual  is included. Book soon, maximum numbers 8 due to space restrictions

MUSIC & SOUND IN THE HEALING ARTS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
​TRAINING FOR THE HEALING ARTS PRACTIONER

•        Counsellors  & Psychotherapists
•        Creative Art therapists
•        Dance Movement Therapists
•        Body Workers & Massage therapists
•        Reiki and Spiritual healers
•        Healing Centre managers
•       Chiropractors/ Osteopaths
•       Chinese Medicine Practitioners
•       Voice & Sound healers   etc

ENHANCE YOUR HEALING PRACTICE WITH SPECIAL EXPERIENTIALTRAINING

•     Nature of Sound and it’s behaviour
•     Affects on Body, Emotions, Mind & Spirit
•     Music and the subtle bodies
•     Perception & your personal response
•     Musical elements
•     Consciousness and state change
•     Aspects to consider for healing work

 For training dates see Home page, Whats on tab here 

The trumpets sounded  and with a great shout , it was said, the Walls of Jericho came down. The Lyre of Apollo was received by Orpheus to tame the wild beastsand soothe the souls of men. The Pied Piper of Hamelin led the children and the rats out of Hamelin. Such tales, whether folk lore; myth, or based in actual historical fact, have an element containing the magical nature of music and sound. But is it a magic?

No two souls are affected in the same way  by sound and music. The vast majority of people like and appreciate music as an art form. As a source of pleasure,  some as an outlet for their inner worlds, some as a vehicle to transport their consciousness. We love and appreciate it for many reasons, though we may not be aware of what they are consciously.

Through sound we are carried. Through vibratory resonance we receive sound, it is with our whole being not just our ears. Sound is an energetic phenomena. It is a force phenomena. It is a creator of patterns (Jenny, H1967, 2001 & Hughes, M, 1904) and an evoker of feeling responses. It is processed by more than  just the brain; in fact, the whole subtle body network and the meridian pathways (Wu, Shen, 2001). It is a stimulator of thought and of memory. Sound taps our ancestral memory, reaching back through time into the very dna code itself and the collective layers of planetary resonance and experience. It evokes deity and the gods, wisdom and knowledge. With song we share thought, feeling, message and story. We transmit who we are. We connect to the divine.

Our first songs are our mothers, they are her lullabies and laments, her biological rhythms. We hear in the womb, the ear being one of the 1st fully formed organs. Before we understand language, we understand sound, on a  level of unity consciousness in which we are totally open and connected. Children are born with chakras wide open but immature and take in every vibration around them as a sponge without the ability to self protect (Brennan, B, pp.64-66 1987).Then with birth  and our first utterance; the word is made flesh. The flesh utters the energetic presence and intent of the spirit, Self saying I am here.

We learn early on, our prejudices. We learn early on pleasures associated with sounds. We learn in a totally holistic multi sensory way, kinaesthetically (through the body and feelings), auditory (through the heard), olfactory (through taste) and visually (through our sight). Learning and memory are not localised solely within the mind brain region. It is here we process data, but according to holographic and field theories, information is stored throughout the whole energy field. The brain is merely the c.p.u., the mind is part of the larger evolving energy field. We perceive through our energy field, through our chakras and meridians, through our senses. All that shares the planet with us, is part of a physical and an energetic dimension, with  a corresponding energy field, a vibratory matrix- the great big web of Dependant life ( to quote a lyric in one of my songs- Atmospherica). 

Music and sound interact with this matrix and encode it. Music and sound affect matter, physical, emotional, mental,  and spiritual matter as sound is 'prima materia', a generating creative force. In the beginning was the word, the sound ‘The aum’. Sound and light can be measured as part of the electromagnetic spectrum- the spectrum we use to measure vibrations and emanations of all kinds in hertz and megahertz frequencies. Cosmic rays to earth quakes to x rays and microwaves all are part of this larger field. All energetic phenomena. There are still types of matter/ energy we cannot record and as yet we only have few tools that enable us to record impressions of the human energy field- Kirlian photography. The more our sciences develop,  the more we are able to discern, as our conscious growth is matched by our creative ingenuity and understanding. Consider the ground breaking revelations of Masura Emoto (r.I.P), water crystal photography and consciousness experiments (Emoto, 2004, 2005). We develop more refined methods of perceiving the energy spectrum with the manufacture of new technologies.

I speak of these things because they all impact consciousness and matter. Matter is consciousness at its densest level. Whatever ones theological  or philosophical orientation, there are certain things about the nature of sound and vibration, and it  is one such area where there is relative consensus. We use sound in medicine, ultra sound, in Laser surgery, we use it in military applications and we use it in engineering to clean things dislodging the sludge from fuel injectors.  All cultures have practises related to music & sound, sacred knowledge and healing. We have tales of its use and misuse.

Our spiritual traditions use  sound and music for sacred communion with deity. We use hymns, recite the words of the prophets and messengers, we use mantras and prayer. Our world is a totally sonic environment, getting louder everyday. The Soundscape  is changing , with new sounds emerging constantly as our technologies and populations grow.(Shcaeffer, M 1977).

Our many cultures and music’s, speak of our world, of our history, our concerns  for who we are. We are transported by sound- it affects our consciousness and it does this beyond most of our conscious control. When we take the time to reflect we may find certain music’s relax, stimulate, or agitate etc.. This response patterning  is an area both shared by all, but dependent upon  ones disposition and conditioning. We are all unique in vibratory matrix  and  beingness.

We have music that is instrumental, music of voice, electrified, acoustic, electronic and sound design  types of music and combinations of all of these, there is even room for noise in the compositional domain, and do not forget silence.

Let us now take a snapshot of the  spectrum of consciousness and brain waves and how sound affects us on these levels.

Brain waves

Associated activity states

B.p.m of music

Affect on consciousness

In gymnasiums and fitness centres group exercise classes  feature music with it  very  loud, it is fast paced, often called pump to mobilise the heart and get is beating. This music had moderate to fast B.P.M’s , (beats per minute), the rate of measure which we also use to measure heart rhythm. Standard rock and pop music sits at 120 b.p.m. It can exceed this and dance music’s  such as techno often use b.p.m’s that can exceed 160-180 bpm; and it is claimed up to 300b.p.m,( Wikipedia) at which it has exceeded the maximum rate possible by a healthy athlete. The heart can only beat at a certain rate beyond that we are at risk or cardiac arhythmias, and even heart attack. While we may entrain to sub divisions of metre and beat, I do believe it is most dangerous to the living organism and causes immense stress. This creates a forced resonance, a biological entrainment  in which we are then harmonised through activity  and match it  on a cellular level – we get pumped, pumped by sound and blood. This physical level  activity beginning with increased heart and respiration, changes the brain waves state. Yet this music is not always in harmony with the human organism, there is a type of rhythm called ‘anapaestic’ which runs contrary to the natural heart rhythm (Halpern , 1985p 138). Where we do not wish to be so affected it can cause anxiety,  panic attacks, depression, irritability, anger , fear, and trigger post traumatic stress. In essence it can trigger physical level issues and mental emotional level response/ disturbance. I have recently encountered research where technologies are being  created, sold and potentially employed for crowd control by Security companies Police and  Military which use infrasound, low frequency sound (beyond the range of human audition 20hz) to induce behavioural change by inducing nausea and other unpleasant symptoms. This marks a disturbing use of this knowledge .

There are many variables within the music that affect the rate, the resonance and the resultant brainwave states and heart/ breath rhythms. Amongst these are instrumentation, tempo, rhythm, key, melody, drone, and the nature of the sound the technology that produced it. The consciousness of the creator is also crucial with intent (Goldman, J) transmitted in the music.

By far the most significant of these is rhythm and tempo. Rhythm tends to engage the physiology, the heart and muscles and any tempo matching or exceeding the hearts rate, will increase brain waves to beta range, yet there is also potential to go into trance states at higher levels. Tempos more in alignment with a heart rate at rest and musics with minimal or no marked rhythmic pulse/ beat will relax the human organism and lower brain wave states to alpha rhythms and possibly theta affecting all other biological rhythms. Those affected are the  heart rate, the  breath or respiration and the  brain wave state as measured in hz. Any physiological change will affect the whole being, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

The spectrum of consciousness covers the many and varied states of being from coma, lethargy, to sleep, to relaxation, daydreaming, ecstasy, out of body, revelry, visioning, meditation, trance, peak performance, E.S.P,and all in between, mystical rapture. Randall Mc Clellan (1991) details a thorough table in The Healing Forces of Music which  considers the aspects related to music and healing and states of consciousness detailing where research has been done as at 1991 and 2000, about the effects of different musics on the human being. These studies are continuing by researchers at this time.

This is just a snapshot of the reality of the effects of music on the person and on their consciousness. The use of music for state change is an ancient technology used all around the world by Tribal and Indigenous cultures, with drumming and chant. The Hindi have mantras and ragas, the West has Gregorian Chant, choir and Symphonic, now also electronic music’s and technologies, ancient Egypt and Greece  have the Lyre and Flutes, the middle east Drums and stringed instruments and quarter tones. Asia has  Buddhist chants and mantras, bowls and gongs, trumpets and rattles, all of these are employed in state change. Australia has the uniqueness of the Didgeridoo, chant and rhythm sticks. Ice Age  bone Flutes have been found , dating back 35-40, 000 years which demonstrates how long we have  sought to express ourselves and relate through musical phrasing (Mannes, E 2009). 

Knowing that these sound and music technologies, tools and instruments exist, gives us the ability to select  & play music that supports our desired states.Many authors have written about this in details giving charts of various composers and styles to guide one along. Music is supreme in conjuring imagery. When I compose I go on journeys. From the earliest childhood memories music has conducted this function for me, as transporter of consciousness. I used to experience scenery and visions and be transported to other times and places, I would have movies within my mind. Some may say this was a kind of dislocated O.B.E experience, or voyaging in other consciousness energy bodies, as in shamanic voyages to other realities, or maybe what would fall under the umbrella of a guided imagery type experience. It depends on whether one goes off off, or stays with the body, or enters dream type altered states. It does not really matter how it is defined. I would certainly loosen the shackles of the physical very easily and be off somewhere, listening to the early electronic pioneers such as Jean Michelle Jarre or Tangerine Dream. I would feel things and tap in to archetypal levels and spiritual dimensions from an early age. A whole field of Therapeutic Music was created called Guided Music and Imagery by Helen Bonny, which as far as I understand it, uses mainly classical music to evoke memory and response, this journey is then processed with the help of a facilitator / therapist. such responses and journeys should not be limited to classical. film score brilliantly evokes such responses as does a lot of new age and electronic, instrumental or minimal music.

 So whether through rhythm in tribal cultures, or drones in Hindu and overtones in Buddhism, or the sublime melodies of the west or Middle East; Music is the ship which transports our consciousness. It is vehicle for our journey, it’s power is unlimited, for reaching the far off places, the foreign, often forgotten shores, of recessed memory .

To conclude our  topic, ‘Music and consciousness voyages, facilitating altered states ’-armed with a little fundamental knowledge, we have greater awareness and greater responsibility as to how we use music and sound and an understanding of phenomena from an energetic level, a field effect level, in which nothing is isolated, but all permeates in shared space. We come to know that we are vibratory beings in a vibratory world and there are many tools at our disposal in the form of instruments, voice, tools, techniques, sonic technologies  and compositions that can aid our state of health and alter our state of consciousness at will. This can be a self directed activity though is not to be undertaken lightly. Employing sonic technologies that may change ones brain wave state and state of consciousness’ would be inadvisable whilst driving  or in need of a high level of alertness operating machinery etc. Use common sense, Safety is always paramount and education falls more and more to the self in our ever changing world. To truly heal one needs to become one’s own physician, as the great master Jeshua said. If you are ill however, see a physician and seek out qualified practitioners. We cannot do all things alone, a team effort is often necessary. This is not to be taken as medical advise and no responsibility is accepted in relation to acting on this text. It is educational of nature. You must seek your own way on your own journey.

This is but a brief snapshot of an area where one could write many volumes. Below is a list of references on the matter. I was prompted to write about it because of my personal experience  and what has become an area of fascinating research for me i for the last 18 years, in which I am finding confirmation in every volume I read of my intuitions and theories. Sound Healing research is a growing field, in which scientific confirmation and cross disciplinary studies  is continuing daily, linking up with many ancient cultures areas of sacred knowledge and teachings. Sound Music and Health is an area that I am now starting to run classes about in the community, in relation to the Healing Arts and  Sound Healing practises. Be well. Listen to the body it is both vessel and teacher.

 

Bonny,H 1980, Guided Music and Imagery.

Brennan ,B.A 1987Hands of Light, Bantam Books,  United States Of America.

Brennan, B.A 1993,Light Emerging, Bantam books, New York, U.S.A.

Emoto, M 2004, The Hidden Messages in Water, Beyond Words Publishing, Inc Oregon U.S.A.

Emoto, M 2005,The True power of Water, Beyond Words Publishing, Inc Oregon U.S.A.

Halpern, S &Savary,L 1985,Sound Health The music and sounds that make us whole, Harper and Row Australia.

Hughes,M.W 1904, The Eidephone voice Figures, , Christian Herald Company, Ltd, London

Jenny,H 1967 & 2001, Cymatics,  A study of Wave Phenomena and Vibration, Macromeida Publishing, U.S.A.

Mannes, E 2009,The Music Instinct Science and Song, DVD Mannes Productions Inc, PBS Distribution.

Mc Clellan,R 1991-2000, The Healing Forces Of Music, , toExcell iUniverse.com Inc, U.S.A.

Schaefer, R.M,1977-1994,The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of The world, Destiny Books, Vermont, U.S.A.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardcore_techno

Wu,S 2001, Musical Qi Gong Ancient Chinese Healing Art from a Modern Master, Hona And Sekey books, New Jersey U.S.A.

Article by Catherine Meeson © 20111 & 2015

Everyone appreciates music. The why that we do so varies, but the vast majority of people have a love of the ability to vocalise, make sounds and create  pleasing patterns of sounds. We do this from birth naturally. Before it becomes music it is sound. Yet the experience and perspective on what music is, is entirely subjective. The chirping of a bird, the rumbling of a train upon the tracks, the play of children in the playground. These things have inherent musical nature, as they contain rhythms, patterns, tones, they are all utterances, uttered from slightly different types of beings- human, animal and mechanical.

We are now able to incorporate all of these sounds into musical forms. Many modern instruments are types of machines, especially within the electronic domain, they contain synthetic parts, circuit boards, knobs, and levers, wiring, which are constructed into wholes for a common purpose. Even that concept is musical, because music its self is about relationships, about harmony and relatedness of parts and wholes.

Sounds are an abundant phenomena, even within the seeming silence. It has been said the World is Sound (Nada Brahma). It is a very complex system of evocation and vocalisation. It is not necessary to have vocal chords to produce sound or music. Crickets do it with their wings, bees their wings in flight, the wind with its’ movement and the interplay with  the environment. Water with its’ passage against the rocks or shoreline. The fridge produces its hum from its’ motor and from the transmission of energy, the force involved in it’s mechanics coming to life, the 60 hz hum. A bell is struck; it does not sound alone. Most sounds need something to receive them, the air, the water, mass or something to act upon them. Then there is the domain of will and intent, the ability to initiate because the desire and ability is there to produce, the word/ sound.

The battle for dominance and power has always involved sound, battle cry’s, primal expressions, now it is bombs and guns, or the tearing of space with planes that fly at the speed of sound. Sounds arrest our attention, our ear instinctively responds, we can not deny or inhibit it or shut it down. It has been proven that when we sleep our hearing faculty remains active, processing the environment in which we dwell. Sound surrounds and encompasses space, but just as quickly as it comes, it goes. It’s vibrations pass into and through, sometimes absorbed, sometimes reflected, resonated and amplified. Sound interacts with it’s environment.  Sound is.

Our modern world is a sensory bombardment zone. We do not seem to have conscious choice. Everywhere we are exposed to sound. The norm is to have sound playing everywhere in the consumer world, as music drives cultural identification and stimulates behaviours and can be used to manipulate an unaware public. Train stations, at home, mobile phones, the internet, television, planes, automobiles, all forms of transport . The internet silently transmits the signal which magically we make audible again at the receiving end. Music transports our consciousness.

The point being, we are enveloped, but we Do have choice. We can choose what to tune into and out. To seek silence is crucial for health, to know one’s own thoughts and mind, one’s own feelings and heart. We are conditioned and absorbed into our cultural norms and it is not until insight dawns or we are otherwise taught that we realise we can shut it out for our health, and choose what we will give our attention and ears to. It is a bit of the old see no hear no speak no. It is essential.

Just as much as the silence is essential, is our own ability to sound and resound. Silence and sound are partners in health, the yin and yang of sonic phenomena. We have many words to describe sound making, din, racket, cacophony, symphony, serenade, song, sizzle, swoosh, thump, bang, screech, overture, melody, rhythm, harmony etc. I bet you could think of many descriptive terms.  Each has objective and subjective meaning and resonance, but they are all shared. A beautiful bath of sound for one irritates and jangles the nerves of another. The pounding bass at a fast rate faster than the aroused heartbeat, at incredulous volumes, is damaging to the ears and organs and literally hits one like a good hard thump in the guts. Such activity produces unease within the nervous system and hyper states that can not be sustained, the human heart rate can only ascend so much, and beyond that it is downright dangerous. Our world and being are vibratory in nature. It seems the louder we go the louder we want it to go . Thankfully along the road we have learnt a thing or two about Sound, Music and Health. There are elements everyone can employ without too much background or training to increase their health and well being. ‘Understanding the effects of the sonic environment on the nervous system, psyche and total health is not beyond the grasp of most people. Most people know intuitively and respond so.

We have likes and dislikes. This is our first guide, though sometimes stretching the boundaries to incorporate other musical tastes and styles is just what the doctor should order. We may grow up only with pop, be aroused all the time- unable to relax and be receptive to finer states of relaxation. In such instances one could be prescribed classical, ambient or new age music. In contrast a person whom only listens to easy listening and is depressed, morose and lacking physical vitality could do with a dose of Latin or middle eastern dance rhythms, to enliven , get the heart rate up and stimulate activity. This will naturally produce a change in the state of the being. One could also suggest songs with lyrics that touch on the core of the issues to help stimulate emotional connection, response and release, that could be the perfect antidote. A person who’s work environment plays music all the time to mask the Industrial rumble; could benefit from some ambient music, or silence infused with rustling leaves, frogs and birds to sooth the jangled desensitized nerves and ear cilia. A few days in a cottage by the sea could be the remedy for one struggling with relationship endings, needing solace and emotional release.

Sound is a primary force phenomena as our physics tell us, it is a waveform. It affects the particles of air and matter around it, it creates form (cymatics). It stimulates movement and entrainment (the coming into synchronisation and harmony with). It resonates and affects matter. Matter of the body, soul, emotions, mind and spirit, and subtle bodies.

So what use is all this? We can create guidelines for the conscious selection of music and sound for health. Being mindful of how sound, and music affect us personally, is the best place to begin educating our selves. To be sound is to be whole. To resound is to express that wholeness and being.

We can engage in soundwork practises to resonate the body, mind, spirit and shift blockages. We can massage our insides with sounds, sooth our nerves, raise our heartbeat, slow our brainwave state to enhance learning and relaxation. We can stimulate the imagination, enhance immune responses, increase our energy and come into union with the divine. We can release emotion and trauma. We can do many things with sound and music for health.

BASIC GUIDELINES FOR CHOOSING MUSIC AND SOUND FOR HEALTH

To STIMULATE

Increase tempos to above 8o beats per minute (the pace of the music and heartbeat)

This has applications physically for integration, physical activity getting grounded and earthed. Also any shift here will affect the other bodies and states of being, ie emotional, mental, spiritual energetic.

To RELAX

Decrease tempos to below 80  - 60 bpm for further relaxation (choose music with slower or minimal percussive elements) and to promote the  stimulation of lower brain wave states such as Alpha and theta which are states conducive to relaxation, healing, enhanced learning and memory retention.  Caution  DO NOT do this whilst driving or operating machinery, one needs to be in a safe environment. Trust your feelings and your body sense and energy fields. You will know what is instinctively good for you.

Take head of warnings about sound levels and be moderate when listening to live or amplified sound. Wear plugs. It can exceed safe levels very quickly causing hearing damage, nervous system over stimulation, producing hyper states and excessive adrenalin thereby producing fight flight response patterns with bio-physiological changes.

Seek out nature and attune to the sounds of the natural world, the planet, water, wind, insects, birds, the frequencies they produce are at volumes  very life affirming and are completely organic. If you cannot access physical space, seek out recorded musics with these sounds, the internet has many such resources available to download or order.

Develop awareness of your sonic environment, what is there? Remember you can turn down, tune out, remove, and relocate the source of irritation or yourself at times. Communicate with any problematic noise producing persons/ situations (if you can) and try negotiate a pleasing outcome for both parties. You can take positive affirming action.

Appreciate sound and music from other cultures, they stimulate thought, feeling and the body and spirit in ways that our own indigenous styles do not and open one up to the larger human community, enhancing empathy and relatedness.

Appreciate sound and music are not only about entertainment and monopoly, they are primal expressions, original creative impulses, they have a sacred dimension in all our cultures before this materialistic age. They are a way of being in tune with self and the divine source. Music creation comes from the core of human beingness.

Develop your inner ears, the ears of discernment. Listening is about a lot more then what is audible. To listen is to perceive directly the essential natures of things and relationships between things. This involves the heart, the will, the spirit. Listening is multi-leveled; yet it involves the ability to comprehend; and comprehension is something that comes in stages at certain ages of human development. It is the getting of wisdom and this is, our life’s journey. Coming to know the self and realising the unity of all beings in Creation.

To Resound and be sound

To know The silence within,

Is the source of all knowledge

The field of the One.

That which births into time

Resounds within the all

Sound Is the expression of eternal becoming.


Blessings Catherine Meeson 20 2 2011

 

 

 

©CATHERINE MEESON 20.9.2013

Avolokiteshvara the Buddhist Avatar of Compassion is known for their role in listening to and responding to the cries of the world. And within this philosophical And cultural framework  is the notion of the bodhisattva, a being on the path to buddhahood that embodies the teachings of the dharma and the commitment to love and serve all species all life. This is one of the beautiful flowers of the cultural garden, a distinct sounding symphony originating from within  the Orient.

The Indigenous of most nations are known for their roles as Keepers of Lore and traditions which place emphasis on the role of listening, heeding the voice of all relations. They know that their actions effect the generations to come and consider this is all actions. They have always strived to live in balance and close to their conception of the creator and guiding beings/ ancestors. This worldview is embodied in sayings such as In La kech, I am another yourself, and Miyayuke, Oyasin for all my generations for the next seven generations, as I understand. These are other flowers in the cultural garden of being, keynotes of the larger symphony, from many places around the globe, the Nth and Sth Americas, Africa, Australia, Alaska, are the many voices of cultural wisdom saying the same things, but in different ways.


The symphony of Oneness is an expression of the life of Planet Earth, the sounds of time- An Interspecies soundscape. Acoustic ecologists( a field of study currently inspiring me), speak of the voices of the natural world as geophony (sounds of earth, wind, water, volcanoes, etc), biophony( the sounds of animals and I wonder plants?), and anthrophony (the sounds originating from mankind or in relation to our activities and inventions). The Soundscape is the total sounds of place at any given time.

Our current predicament suggests our Orchestra  of being, of harmonious relationship is out of order, out of tune, out of key. The voices of anthrophony reign supreme, the voices of biophony fade as habitat is lost and monetary value eclipses relational worth. The sounds of geophony, are regarded as non essential for survival , not so core in our educated industrialised paradigm. We are not dwelling in caves anymore, so why listen for predators, or howling winds heralding storms, (maybe we are the predators?). We block out , we tune out, we choose ‘to what; we will attune. But do we ignore our ancient instincts oriented around sound, and bring about our collective destruction in our haste to live the modern life and not take heed of the ancient knowings? Do you enjoy the voice of birds? How does the sound of the ocean make you feel? What of the sounds within a forest? Do you hear them or do you have plugs in the ears to generate your own sound cocoon? I do it , many do it. How often do we do it? How often do you have conversation with others? Are they physically present of virtual? Being needs being.

We are the dominant species , but our domination is destroying ourselves and all life. Realisation is the key, yet can only come through love and balanced relation with. Consciousness is able to ascend into greater aspects of being, as the capacity to love all and serve all grows within us,  we understand;  but for many it is very hard to attend to this knowing these exalted levels of being if we are bound to survival in our daily lives.  It is not impossible to act on realisation in such a circumstance but much more harder, requiring  different aspects of human ingenuity ; one thing that we are very good at. If knowledge is confined only to a discipline how can its teachings, its realizations benefit the collective . Realization is intrinsic to being, yet the specifics like pieces of the pies or atoms of the molecule, needs translating into the many tongues of the human community, of the common humanity. Therefore it is the responsibility of those that do understand , who do have aspects of knowledge that relate to the whole to be stewards of all life, to act from great beneficence and to be the voice of sanity to the policy makers, economists,  those of might and power within the halls of high courts, who hold the reigns of civilisation tight.

The symphony will play on regardless of our efforts, for we are not its only players, yet we are fast eclipsing the players who do not conform to our vision of reality, (other life forms, the Indigenous nations, third world etc)., the symphony of wilful egoist greed. We need to be guided by love and the higher principles common in all cultures.  Principles of order, and relation. Symphony members come and go, their skill levels voice and  performative capacity vary. They have different hearing capacity,  occupy different places in life and within the frequency domain., At times for many reasons being s, players; become dissonant as a result of misuse of knowledge motivated by greed. There can be no one unity of being within such diversity of population when the ground of being is cast aside- the fundamental of our symphony, which allows us to sound, to be Sound and to perceive sound; as earth  and the elements within it which allow sound to propagate. We abuse these elements and therefore ourselves. We are all related, we are all made of the same cell stuff, the elements which constitute life on earth have been found elsewhere in the universe, of course!

Just because we can does not mean we should. Our modern  Symphony conductors are economists, and corporations, military  and governments, who manipulate the masses and the elected governments with their resources. The songs that they sing, the tunes, alluring like the Pied Piper of Hamelin- appeal to the base instincts, appeal to the essential needs, the senses, and there you then have  people as a “Maestro manipulating music and matter alike”.

This may appear cynical, it sort of comes with age, but it is a perspective on our collective predicament, a specie hood critique if you will, of which I also am a player. I endeavour and many like me, to play a symphony all will like, where all are welcome because the concert is never ending, and the tickets are free.

The Symphony of Oneness an Interspecies Soundscape is the reality of the Sound world of Planet Earth. It’s nature changes over large spans of geological time. Change- modulation is a constant on the systemic level, but when human agency has wrought in 200-300 years changes which will echo on in the valleys of future mountain ranges of earth for millennia, what are we to do?. The modes of thought that got us here are what need to change, our view of reality our fundamental sonic , upon which all of our assumptions are built and that sonic is our modern civilization, the flower of the model from Ancient Greece, and Rome. If we truly understood the nature of what we were doing , if we heard clearly, we would realise the need to rewrite our symphony at the level of players and actors, actions and  directions for our collective species hood orchestra.

We must step outside ourselves for a while and step into the feet of other species, into  the cell, the soul of the world. The trunk of the tree growing, the wings of the bees labouring for the Queen. There would be no toxic pesticides in my colony. Everywhere in the natural world supreme order and harmony of relations is mirrored, is sounded, is sung in the dance of the symphony that modulates between concord and discord.

The collective stories and myths of the Great flood, the tale Of Noah, tells us we have  not changed much, each round our desire nature must be transmuted, or great change will make us. We become as children, forget the high ways of civilization before , and we progress down the same road manifest in a different way. Noah embodied the repository of wisdom, listening to guidance and making preparations,, and realizing the bigger picture is worth labouring for. He became , so we are told; steward to all life,  protector;  his role was to be the arc reaching from the old world to the new, the one to come after reconfiguration, after cataclysm. The world was repopulated so we are told, species hood again evolved and diversified. We had had great loss , we had  better make sure we remembered into the future, so how will we do it, Through art, story, song, myth, all over the world..

 But what we stand to lose this time is immense, whether through just human agency or the forces of larger spans of geological  change sped up, Do we think our sciences are evolved enough to re engineer?, revive all life forms because we have genetic repositories, because we are mapping genomes? I don’t think we are that far along yet, despite the science. We are still Mr Frankenstein  in the lab making monsters, like Monsanto cross breeding species and forms, waiting for the results of future mutations and experiments to get out of hand. What would these species sound like? Are we to be the progenitors of tomorrows symphony, do we even deserve to be? Do we know what divine will is? Do we know what it will sound like fifty years from now, a question Murray Schafer asked? Maybe it will just be a gentle wind blowing over the bones of the forgotten race. A slight melodic variation, due to holes in the bones of  the humans. Maybe distant visitors will come, and reseed the earth and clean it up, maybe their knowledge and capacity to love is greater.?

The collective will of all species is to life. Most people given the facts and the truth, if it is within their ability to understand, will choose the will to life. To love to harmony. It is the great composers who govern the collective symphony as revealed in the daily song, the yearly and future forecast  levels of governance that must be brought to account. They orchestrate the belief systems and social fabric, the norms entombed in the courts of the land as Law. The gnosis transmitted in the schools.  They is us. The laws were revealed by all great teachers in all cultures . The laws are revealed in nature herself. If we have indeed been nurtured, seeded from realms above and beyond this one, what is it that you think the higher forms of intelligence would want for us? What would the gods? Angels,? Avatars say, now? How would they guide us?

Haven’t they all along? Is it us who fail to understand the message and listen? Maybe the greatest teachers are those species around us who sacrifice themselves so that we may come to realization and knowledge. And within it, what symphony will we play into the future? Will it be a symphony of Oneness?

I do hope so.

Blessings Catherine Meeson