One of the early creators of ambient music described it this way: this music does not demand attention but it rewards listening.
That expression has always stuck with me and shows us a powerful way to use subtle energies.
Our ability to tune into waves of energy that are subtle helps us to both navigate the energy patterns around us, and appreciate details that are important in the big picture. For example, I prefer ambient music when I am trying to focus on a project, doing a reiki healing session, and also when I am working out at the gym. For me, the increased focus helps propel me in a gentle way.
When using music in chanting rituals such as kirtan, which uses the songs from the Hindu traditions, raises energy by getting people to do call and response chanting together. In that setting, the lyrics lead the way. Every spiritual tradition and religion around the world uses sound as a driving force in their rituals. Sound unifies vibrations.
Back in the day when Catholic churches used Gregorian chants which were sung a capella in Latin, a person could get chill bumps hearing those voices resonate off the stone walls of Gothic cathedrals. Even people who not Catholic are moved by these recordings, entranced with the harmonies and vibrations.
There are people in this area who conduct gong baths, which use nothing but vibrations to change feelings and quiet minds. Much research has been done on sound and healing and the vibrations of different kinds of sounds all work for this purpose.
When I used to lead drumming circles I always marveled at the way a room full of people who did not know each other and were not musicians could find themselves playing together within minutes, raising and unifying the energy of a group using nothing but the combined vibrations arising from the rhythms. Researchers have found that participating in drumming circles boosts immune systems, produces feelings of well being, and releases emotional trauma in those who played.
The Sufi practice of zikr is a dance with chanting that lifts into trance very easily, with the combination of words and movement creating a spiritual vortex.
The Sufis also gave us the poet Rumi. The leading interpreter of his poetry is Coleman Barks, former professor at the University of Georgia, who I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing read this elegant poetry. I asked him why poetry books are the kind of literature that sells the least, but yet people love to come to poetry readings. His answer was this. "When a poet speaks the words out loud, he is launching arrows to the heart of the listener. Poetry is most powerful spoken out loud."
I always remember Malidoma Some, an African drummer and shaman saying that anyone who has trouble with drumming has trouble with listening. In drumming it is our ears that let us connect with the others in the circle, not our eyes. Closing our eyes and opening our ears is the way to connect through sound.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead says that our last sense to go is hearing when we die, and that is why they continue to say the prayers long after the person stops breathing. Hearing, in their tradition, is the sense that aids the person most in their transition.
An American musician, Therese Schroeder-Sheker, played harp and used her voice, playing at the bedside of dying patients in St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula Montana, of all places, from 1992-2002, using the music to assist in their transition.
Look at all the ways that music connects us to spirit. Notice how closely connected hearing is to spirit.
For those of you who say that you have a hard time meditating, try picking up a simple instrument like a tambourine and within as little as three beats, you can go into trance. You heard that right. You can shift your consciousness in as little as three beats. The number 3 again.
If you listen, spirit often communicates with us without words. Sometimes words matter, sometimes they do not. Rhythm creates trance and trance creates energy. That is why when we chant in these other languages it always needs to keep it original sound to work, so the words are rhythm tools, rather than words. The original language has a music that goes with it that can get lost in translation.
Researchers find special resonances for sound healing within chambers of the pyramids of Egypt. Older than the pyramids is Newgrange, in Ireland. It features a domed chamber totally fashioned out of stones fitted together without any cement or other binding material. This where the ancient high kings and druids had their ashes laid to rest and those walls heard sacred chants reverberating off the stone. I asked the tour guide and she let me stay behind and chant. It did not take much for those walls to come alive.
One simple definition I have heard is that when you are praying you are talking. When you are meditating, you are listening.
What are you being rewarded with by listening?
When you turn more attention to your hearing, what do you notice? What messages and energies is spirit bringing into our lives, with or without words?
I always love hearing from you, so if you feel like sending me a note, calling or coming to see me, please do!
Have a wonderful day!
