MUSIC, EDUCATION AND HEALING

The healing technique that I used the most during my career is that of aboriginal music therapy. I produced 8 CDs of this music and its a part of our daily life, at home, at the office and when travelling. Here are some excerpts of a book which I’ve written on my music and shamanic perfumes.

Music in Native American tradition has a very special status. Indeed, in our tradition its imbued with the power of “medicine”. The word “medicine”, in the Native American lore is used to indicate an event, something or somebody acting as a communication medium between the visible world and the invisible world. “Medicine” conveys an image, mystery and magic. It is the spirit of the sound, the intention with which it is emitted, which passes on the power of the medicine.

Music amplifies our body’s vital energy. Music takes its power from the earth and the shy. This gives it a vibration, easy to feel, filled with the spirit of healing and peace. The transmission of sacred healing sounds requires many years of training and practice but is fairly simple in its principles.

It’s good to mention that although the music therapy can be effective on all the levels (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual), it is traditionally used in conjunction with several other therapeutic approaches.

First Nations have a holistic, global way, of understanding the world, an inclusive vision of the universe. In this vision of the world, all things are in relationship, animals are of our relatives and it’s the same with cliffs, trees and clouds. Everything can be included in our inner and outer relationships with life. Music can be a way of expressing the intimate mathematical connections which support the world. If I learn to beat the heart pulsation of the earth on my drum, I attune my own heart with this fundamental rhythm.

Our spirituality and our music therapy are connected and cannot be separated without losing the essence of their therapeutic principles. Dis-ease and the malady are often caused by a discord with the world or an imbalance with nature. We can retune with the sacred sounds those aspects of our being which are in dissonance with the fundamental laws of Creation. The law of harmony illustrates this principle according to which when things are created on the same frequency, or thought-form, if one of them moves, the other also vibrates through harmonic resonance. This principle explains why our musical instruments sound better every passing year, as the wood aligned itself with the vibration of the music we play on our instrument. In the same way, music attuned with the laws of nature can re harmonize a being with the health inherent to its fundamental nature.

Music is also very important in education. If you try to teach the alphabet to a child with a song, he will quickly learn it and will remember it forever. If you teach it without song, it will become a laborious process, with possibility of forgetting. In traditional Native American teaching we always begin with a song, and often this song is also a prayer to open our hearts to the abundance and to the harmony of the world. All mothers will help their babies and children with sound, singing and humming to them, naturally, without attaching any concept to this activity.

The silence before and after the music is as important as the music itself. In the first moment before the stream of sounds, inspiration, as a soft wind, will be felt and we shall enter the special time-space that the musician is trying to convey. After we’ve heard the last sound comes the precious moment of silence that is a synthesis of all which was expressed. This global feeling of unity and completion is important for understanding, for healing and for appreciation. I’ve often noticed that audiences don’t applaud as readily to my healing concerts as to other types of music when I finish the last note. They are in a different time-space and feel rather introspective, hanging on to the special moment where they feel something beyond words.

Silence is a part integral of the art of listening. If you really listen to the world around you, you will realize that there is always a sound which vibrates in a continuous way in the atmosphere, on a high frequency. That sound is Great Spirit continuously creating the world.

Light, Joy and Love to all

Blue Eagle

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