The world is silent but for the beating of my heart.  And then I listen.  And then I hear.

 

Rhythm.  And sound.  We are all comprised of the same building blocks, molecular structure, DNA and vibrational harmonics.

 

Do you believe in the collective unconsciousness, the knowing that we all have genetic memory that serves tobind us to humanity?   Is it a stream,or perhaps a river, or an ocean of thought, another, perhaps a higher consciousness?  Is it creation? Who was it who said, “Tocreate is divine, to reproduce merely human?” (1)

 

Rhythm.  The flow, the sound of a breath, a heartbeat, the last eternalgasp, the cadence of humanity.  We arecreatures who live and thrive from the stimulation derived of our group.Singularly we exist, within the context of the right nurturance, we soar to theheavens on the wings of divine ability. Stimulation from nurturance, from positive challenge, from abstractthinking allows expansiveness in our conceptual thinking, our ability to solveproblems and to be productive members of society.

 

Beginnings.  Babies tender and full of the possibilitiesof life.  All infants have musicalability. 2 We are moldable plastic individuals.  Brains formed, each of us born with 100billion brain cells/neurons. 3 Learning is a lifetime of possibility, alifetime event if we choose it to be. Did you know that musicians have a 5% greater capacity in theircerebellum?  This is thought to be dueto the structural plasticity of the brain.4  It seems, according to Dr. NormanWeinberger, Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior at the University ofCalifornia, that “playing music seems to be the ultimate form of brainexercise.”2

 

Rhythm.  We areborn with it.  We move to it.  Deep within our genetic structure, our de-oxy-ribo-nucleicacid (our DNA), we can establish relational models.  We can map it; photograph it with infrared light using a devicecalled a spectrophotometer.  And throughthese images, through these pictures of our selves, in the most core sense,these frequencies are resolved down to a mathematical relationship, one that iscoincidentally like the science of music. It replicates the linear relationshipof musical notes, the building blocks of musical theory from which thefoundational theories are laid.  Thatstarting place from where we begin to bend and break the rules.  The harmonics of our DNA can be synthesizedand played.  It is not dissonant nordiscordant, it is harmonic in the sense that with these notes, we feel anoverwhelming sense of comfort.

 

Rhythm.  Relational.  Music is thehabitation of relational tone and structure and sometimes even dissonance.  Cultural dissonance.  Do you know that we compose mostly in C?  The drums and bells and gongs of theEastern world are for the most part tuned to C as well.  “Could it be that we are all as a planet trying to tune to the same vibrational harmonics?” Could this be the beginnings of ourunderstanding of the collective unconsciousness?  Vibrational frequency. Nature or nurture?  In what waysdoes this serve to define and describe the ways in which we see things differently, to the beat of another drum? What is the explanation for being attuned to a different harmonic scale?  Surely future science will help to informus.

 

Rhythm.  The neonate.  Theinfant.  Full of possibilities, to be somuch determined by nurturance and love. To love a child, to touch a child, to sing to a child is to mold theircircuits, the synapses of their being to be able to accept love and to givethem the gift of critical thinking.  Itis the programming of the computer, the laying down of the foundation; it isthe beginning of their own circle of life.

 

Math and music are processed inproximate areas of the brain. Abstractions, critical thinking, pathways laid down to solve andresolve, critical thinking.  One ofthose abilities that helps to define the tools of man.

 

Rhythm.  And music, yes music is transcendent.  Who among us has not been transported to the divine?  In the world of technical parlance, musichas been linked to the areas of the brain reserved for biologically relevant,survival related stimuli.  And thoseshivers down the spine of ecstasy.

[6] It expands beyond our conscious space andinto the world of possibility and hope and dreams.  To hear the chanting of the monks high atop the mountain, tolisten to the choir in St Paul’s cathedral, it is to be like a bird and soar tothe heavens on the wings of God.  It isto connect with that most beautiful part of humanity, the divinity ofcreation.  And so, even with theknowledge of the power of creation and destruction, man’s inhumanity to man,music restores us in our relationship to self, to our higher power, to thebeauty that is life as we are allowed to experience it unfolding.

 

Rhythm.  It is the beat, the autumnal cadence, the fire of spring, it isbeginnings and endings, the circle of life. If all constructs are based upon the premise of a healthy brain is onethat is utilized and maximized, the extrapolate from this:

 

A child’s most critical point inlife, the time when these neural connections are laid down is from 0 to 3 years– maybe even conception to 3 years, but as yet, we do not know thoughpreliminary testing does seem to validate the importance of prenatalstimulation.7 Music and math require the same abstractionsof thought.  Through PET(positron-emission-tomography) scans of the brain it has been shown that thecortex area of the brain is stimulated while listening to complex musicalforms, such as Mozart.  Testing scores,such as the SAT are demonstrating the ability of children exposed to the artsas being more able to engage in critical thinking.  In  1995 children who hadstudied the arts for over four years scored 59 points higher on the verbalportion of the SAT and 44 point higher on the math portion as compared tochildren with no such coursework.8 And we are never too old to learn, tostimulate our brain, to continue to maintain these neural pathways.

 

It has been said that from thetime of the ancients, Plato and Aristotle to name but a few, that the healingpowers of music have been recognized. Since post World War I and II we have used music as a healing tool inthis country.  The beginnings were withthose men that we sent out into the world to be our warriors and ourprotectors.  They came back home fromhorrors that most of us will never, ever imagine.  Mustard gas, cries of the wounded, the living/breathing fury ofbattle.  And music, yes music was usedto touch these men, to show them that even through where they had been and whatthey had seen; there was still the possibility of beauty and healing in theirlives.  For what they now witnessed wastheir ability to still be touched most deeply and profoundly through theprofound lyrical beauty of music.  Thatsoul connection that music inhabits.

 

And so forward we havemoved.8  In 1950 the National Associationfor Music Therapy was founded. The possibilities for music in healing seemto be limitless.  We have found thatstroke patients who have lost the ability to speak can often more easily learnto sing their words, sentences and thoughts – thus allowing them “improve thefluency of their speech.” Thinkof it as a sort of rewiring of the brain, the temporal house of our soul.

 

Rhythm.  In healing.  It is our“big external clock.”9 Take it back to the images of our DNA, tothe linear relationships, to the synchrony of movement with the beat, with therhythm, into patterns and shapes and forms. A hand keeping time. A reigning inof emotions to a positive realm for an adolescent living beyond despair – thatmoment to connect back to a self evoked with the aid of music, to happiertimes.  Beneath the layers of what wecan consciously detect, it is possible to see the changes reflected in the PETscans.  A consciousness layered beyondthat which we can discern.  We are trulycomplex creatures capable of processing vast amounts of information.

 

Rhythm.  The underpinnings of music. To put us in the mood, to fuel our desire, to calm us down and toestablish our belonging to the tribe of humanity.  To witness the depths of mans’ inhumanity to man, the firstbreath of a newborn or the last whisper of our beloved. At core, we are allbuilt with the same materials.  It ishow our neural pathways are laid down, our ability to think, to create, toproblem solve and our relationship to the world that makes each of us uniquelygifted.

 

The world is silent but for the beating of my heart.  And then I listen.  And then I hear.  Rhythm.