A further possible effect of music upon the body is described by Bob Larson, (The Day Music Died) the one-time rock guitarist who gave up his playing upon becoming a Christian. Larson writes:

Dr.s Earl W. Flosdorf and Leslie A. Chambers found in a series of experiments that shrill sounds projected into a liquid media coagulated proteins.

A recent teenage fad was that of taking soft eggs to rock concerts and placing them at the foot of the stage. Midway through the concert the eggs could be eaten hard-boiled as a result of the music. Amazingly few rock fans wondered what that same music might do to their bodies. p.137

THE SECRET POWER OF MUSIC
The Transformation of Self and Society Through Musical Energy
by
David Tame

Overture:
Music and its Power

Our subject is not music as an abstract art, but music as a force which affects all who hear it. Music — not as entertainment only, but as a literal power.

Whenever we are within audible range of music, its influence is playing upon us constantly - speeding or slowing, regularizing or irregularizing our heartbeat; relaxing or jarring the nerves; affecting the blood pressure, the digestion and the rate of respiration.

Its effect upon the emotions and desires of man is believed to be vast, and the extent of its influence over even the purely intellectual, mental processes is only just beginning to be suspected by researchers.

Moreover, to affect the character of the individual is to alter that basic atom or unit — the person — from which all of society is constructed. In other words, music may also play a far more important role in determining the character and direction of civilization than most people have until now been willing to believe.

The powers of music are multi-faceted, sometimes uncannily potent, and by no means, as yet, entirely understood. They can be used or misused. We forsake the conscious, constructive use of these powers to our own loss. We ignore these powers at our peril.

Though little thought is given today as to the meaning or function of music within society, the civilizations of former times were usually very conscious of music's power.

This was especially true of the pre-Christian era. In fact, the further back in time we look, the more people are found to have been aware of the inherent powers locked within the heart of all music and all sound.

It has been easy for modern man, born and raised within a society permeated with the philosophy of materialism and reductionism, to fall into the trap of regarding music to be a non-essential and even peripheral aspect of human life.

And yet such a viewpoint would have been regarded by the philosophers of antiquity to be not only irrational, but also, ultimately, suicidal. For from ancient China to Egypt, from India to the golden age of Greece we find the same: the belief that there is something immensely fundamental about music; something which, they believed, gave it the power to sublimely evolve or to utterly degrade the individual psyche — and thereby to make or break entire civilizations.

Something immensely fundamental about music ...

***

Music, Man and Society.

For perhaps two decades now there has occurred the beginning of a new awareness abroad in the world. Not only in music, but in many areas of life, among a certain minority of people there is to be round a resurgence of committed interest in matters of the spirit.

Young and not so young people are frequently to be found rejecting the materialist world-view outright. They seek instead to embrace a mystical outlook, and tend to do so with unswerving dedication.

Some speak of the new age of Aquarius, in which, it is said, religion will become more scientific in the best sense, and science more religious.

Whatever its cause, that there is a new movement among some towards altruism, hope, brotherhood and an interest in self-evolution is unmistakable.

Yet what I believe will become clear in the pages ahead is that, for all our rejection of the philosophy of materialism, we have never­the-less failed to reject the music of materialism. Almost every form of twentieth-century music is utterly devoid of genuine regenerative spiritual value.

The ancients may well have been correct in the belief chat music patterns affect life patterns; and if so, then for a grass­roots movement back towards spirituality to allow itself to continue to be subjected to the music of individuals who are of an entirely different frame of mind makes no logical sense.

The minds of these reformers are gross and coarse. To follow them, whilst aspiring upward, makes no more sense than to attempt to climb a mountain by rolling downhill.

The non-materialist world-view demands a non-materialist philosophy of music. And from such a philosophy, in its own good time, there will be born inevitably a new music of the spirit. [See the Rainbow Families, "New Age Rainbow Music.]

http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow.html>Rainbow Music

The alternative is too horrible to contemplate. From down the decades there comes a warning to us on the dangers of wrong types or music — from none other than Henry David Thoreau, who wrote from his log cabin:

"Even music can be intoxicating. Such apparently slight causes destroyed Greece and Rome, and will destroy England and America."

***

Hard Rock-Heavy Metal-Rap

Rock, properly understood, is music warfare waged upon an unsuspecting society by guitar-gunners who are frequently fully aware of what they are about.

More than any other form of the misuse of sound, it is rock with which we must deal today. There is no question but that rock is intimately related to the kind of state of consciousness found in vast numbers of young people — young people who are to be the 'mature' adults of the future world.

Rock has unquestionably affected the philosophy and lifestyle of millions. It is a global phenomenon; a pounding, pounding, destructive beat which is heard from America and Western Europe to Africa and Asia.

Its effect upon the soul is to make nigh-impossible the true inner silence and peace necessary for the contemplation of eternal verities. Its 'fans' are addicted, though they know it not, to the 'feelgood', egocentricity-enhancing, para-hypnotic effects of its insistent beat.

How necessary it is in this age for some to have the courage to be the ones who are 'different', and to separate themselves out from the pack who long ago sold their lives and personalities to this sound and the anti-Aquarian culture which has sprung up around it!

I adamantly believe that rock in all of its forms is a critical problem which our civilization must get to grips with in some genuinely effective way, and without delay, it if wishes long to survive.

***

What This Book is About.
Back cover

Music influences virtually every physical, intellectual and emotional process. Harmonious music makes plants grow faster: dissonant music stunts and kills them. Music can even change chromosomes.

Drawing upon the wisdom of ancient civilizations as well as contemporary scientific data, David Tame offers a challenging and timely alternative view to the widely-held modern notion that music is an intangible art form of little practical significance.

This in-depth study of the hidden side of music — probably the most detailed and all-encompassing book on the subject yet written — includes discussion of:

music and morality
music therapy
sound and color
the tonal aspects of the American Revolution
music and magic in Ancient China
the origins and effects of jazz and the blues
the seven mystical rays
atoms as harmonic resonators
planetary conjunctions as cosmic chords
music and the computer
the physics of the OM
music and the new age

DESTINY BOOKS 377 PARK AVENUE SOUTH, NEW YORK 10016

Time was soft there...

 

Girl with a Guitar

Bringing back the Sacred

Western society breeds disconnectedness. As Starhawk once said during a lecture: "the advent of Christianity took the sacred out of our own bodies and removed it from the land, so that we could access it only via the hierarchical structure, the priests and clergymen."

It is up to us in this current day and age to bring it back or, more accurately, to remember it. I feel in my bones an ancient memory of that sense of internal sacredness.

When I climb to the mountaintop, I feel a yearning to belong, a yearning to be in my body and in the moment, a yearning to STOP! There are few experiences in the modern American lifestyle which allow us to "stop:" a lover's touch, encounter with death, the experience of true wilderness, the creative process.

Connection with the divine is what's at hand here, or to put it more precisely: an awareness of ourselves as divine beings. I see my human self as a point of juncture between energy and matter. A vessel for spirit to infuse physical form and act out its will.

A simple equation: Music=Magic. Magic=the Great Mystery. The Mystery=the Divine or Spirit. "Oh, spirit, infuse me that I may sing!" This is my prayer. This is my process.

More and more often, of late, I am overwhelmed by Existential depression: What is the point in leading this life which becomes a-means-to-an-end, when the future is so unsure? Where can I find meaning in this espresso culture of cars, telephones, Safeways and city blocks, sounds of machinery and radio jargon wafting through the night air.

How can bright shining young faces still go off to college with hopes of starting careers? As I write, these phrases sound almost humorous in their pessimism, but I know the weight of it all can be oh-so-real.

In the spring of '92, on a wilderness journey, I had an awakening re: these current times. The words came out of my mouth: There is no safe place, there is nowhere we can turn, not even to each other. The only thing we can do to make this tidal wave less uncomfortable is to emote! And with this I let out a loud and long wail that reverberated through the whole canyon.

I haven't forgotten that day. It has served me well. "Emoting," to me, means sending energy through my body in a direction towards personal and planetary healing and cleansing. This comes for me particularly in the form of music and lyric. Music is my tool for survival.

It enables me to ride the wave, when nothing else holds me together. It allows me to STOP my mental schizophrenia (bred into me by a dysfunctional culture) and be aware that I am connected with a power moving through me and beyond me.

When it truly comes through, music is the opening of a window to The Great Mystery and recognition of the sacredness within, both for the listener and the musician. It temporarily dispels that sense of isolation that paralyzes us in the face of despair for our world.

My musical process began as a small child in that form: "opening the window." I remember singing and swinging in the backyard every evening, or walking on the beach, feeling the wind and singing.

In my early twenties I moved to a piece of land in the Siskiyou Wilderness of Northern California and became more actively involved in the environmental movement, in defense of Earth—touring the country doing performances that focused on this theme.

After five formative years there, developing a relationship with that land (what Dolores LaChapelle calls a "sense of place"), I moved to Sonoma County and formed a band called The Little Big Band.

My vision is to reach as many people as possible, helping to build bridges and facilitate our passage through this perilous time. I find my constant challenge is to maintain my own center of gravity in the midst of a lifestyle that tends to pull me apart.

I have formed a weekly women's singing group called Singing into Being, which helps immensely in this respect. I feel more and more that I am only a tenant in this society. I belong here only temporarily.

There are others who are keeping the home fires burning, establishing and maintaining, Earth-based lifestyle. I believe the time will come in the not-so-distant future when we will need them, when we will join them.

Hopi elder Thomas Banyacya recently spoke in Berkeley to say: "it is no longer the 11th hour. THIS IS THE HOUR!" Consider: where you are living, what you are doing, the nature of your relationships, know your water, your garden, create your community, speak your truth, be good to each other, do not look outside yourself for the leader. "This could be a good time."

In the process of recording our first band album, The Monkey Puzzle, and dealing with the multiple facets of the music industry, it has been particularly difficult to maintain my perspective. At times I begin to feel swallowed up by the "industry," which views music as a business.

To me this view is hollow and meaningless. I'd just as soon give it all up and go back to the land. One night I threw up my hands in total surrender and asked for a dream which would reconnect me with my purpose. That night I was granted so vivid a dream it woke me up before dawn, in such excitement that I wanted to wake the whole household!

In my dream: everyone on Earth stood together in the open sun, it was mid-afternoon. We had turned our gardens into altars awaiting and calling in a force from beyond Earth, a force that we knew was coming to spark us, if we were ready to receive it.

The hour arrived, the force came welling up from inside of us, and with a great sense of joy, the entire human race experienced (at the same moment) a quantum evolutionary leap of spirit I could barely see our shimmering forms through the blur of heat-waves rising.

I could barely stand up with the sensation; it was as if my body were a rocket shooting upwards. In that moment, I knew that nothing would ever be the same again. I knew that the human race would once more swing towards a life in balance and avoid utter self-destruction.

When I awoke, I knew that this was, is and will be my purpose and the purpose of the music that comes through me. Only .through an evolution of spirit can we hope to heal this world. It is this goal which sparks and guides my process.

That very day, I received a letter from a friend, an activist living in the jungles of Ecuador. In disillusionment at the rising turmoil on Earth, he posed the question: "I wonder if we'll ever all line up together." I wanted to write him back, in the reassurance of that dream and say: "YES! WE WILL!"

By Joanne Rand
Music: http://cdbaby.com/cd/joannerand

The Magic of Music
Published: April 16, 2000
by: Nick Geisinger

Have you ever seen a toddler dance? Toddlers don't dance because somebody asked them to or because everyone else is dancing, the way we sometimes do. They dance because they simply can't help it. Music, quite literally, moves them.

During last month's Music in Schools celebration, music educators and
VH-1's Save the Music campaign worked to reaffirm music's important role in a school curriculum. Stressed repeatedly were the positive effects music education apparently has on a child's academic performance some studies have indicated that math, verbal and spatial IQ abilities can all benefit from exposure to music.

As a musician I have been thrilled to learn there may be "fringe benefits" to what I do, but saddened to realize that they are the focus of current arguments in favor of music education. If it turns out that music training does not bump up SAT scores, will we still value music education as an end to itself?

No class was more important to me than music class. From the moment the teacher dragged out the xylophones, I knew I'd found something I enjoyed, and more importantly, something at which I excelled.

Looking back, I certainly can't say the same for any of my science classes. (If I ran the world, VH-1 could relax and the Animal Planet would have to mount a crusade to "Save Biology!")

But, of course, all children have different strengths. School should be a place where they are free to explore them. It would be unconscionable not to include music as one of their options?there is no telling where another Mozart or McCartney or future music teacher is enrolled.

For most children music will not become a life ambition, but knowing how to make it can benefit them throughout their lives. During the most troubling and confusing times of life, periods of transition, moments of tragedy, and most days during the teenage years?an hour spent playing an instrument is therapy like no other. Playing music can often express what words cannot, in a way that can only be described as magical.

Even more valuable than its effect on individuals is the way music strengthens community. So much of education is about individual achievement, but music class is the ultimate form of group-work.

The first lessons you learn, whether you're handed a glockenspiel or a wood block, are that to create beautiful sounds you must listen carefully to everyone else, and that your playing will affect the group.

When children learn to play and sing music in harmony, they also learn about teamwork and valuing each person's contributions, skills that allow people to live in harmony with each other. These are skills we need to be teaching no matter what music education does to SAT scores.

Hopefully music's place in schools will be strengthened by publicizing its "fringe benefits." But if turns out that the studies are wrong, and there is no correlation between music education and scholastic achievement, will music still have a place in the school curriculum? We should not just hope so.

We should work to make it so. Music is fundamental to the human experience. As long as people have celebrated victory, or mourned loss, or felt joy or dismay, they have found rhythms and vibrations to speak to and for their souls.

No one can fully explain or quantify the profound effect it has on our lives, and we don't need to. Somewhere in its mystery lies its true value.

Nick Geisinger,
is Communications
and Marketing Assistant
at Connect for Kids.

Imagine This: John Lennon's Music from Heaven

by Joel Bjorling*

Death might be a new adventure, but if some psychics are to be believed, for composers and musicians it's just another gig or a new opus.

In the 1960s, Rosemary Brown of Great Britain claimed to receive "new" compositions from such deceased composers as Liszt, Beethoven, and Chopin.

Similarly, Belita Adair of Ojai, California, in the late 70s, allegedly played works by Chopin as he put his ethereal hands beside hers on the keyboard. She played complex compositions and sang songs in unknown or unlearned languages, her vocals ranging from low baritone to high soprano.1

Now, John Lennon, late leader of the Beatles, resumes centerstage. However, now it's not just to write new compositions. It's to save the world.

In late 1999, a song "Listen to the Angels," purportedly channeled by Lennon, was performed by Linda Polley, a psychic from Fargo, North Dakota, on KROQ radio in Los Angeles.

Linda and her husband Gerald, also a psychic, are editors and publishers of Voices from Spirit, a newsletter of "Spiritist" teaching.

They have conducted spirit interviews with such dead celebrities as Lou Costello, Rudolph Valentino, Jean Harlow, Mae West, and Elvis Presley. Historical personages have included spiritualists Arthur Conan Doyle and Margaret Fox, the scientist Nikola Tesla, the aviator Amelia Earhart, and religious figures like Jesus, Paul, Luke, and even Satan.

Gerald and Linda are from Maine. Gerald had many psychic experiences as a child, but didn't know what they were. They became especially pronounced when he was seventeen. Spirits appeared to him in dreams and visions.

They taught him his purpose in life and gave him instruction. Linda began speaking with spirit guides in 1971 when she attended mediumship classes with Gerald.

The Polleys call their philosophy "Spiritism," though it is derived from a group in England, rather than from the writings of Allan Kardec (author of The Spirits Book). (Kardec's Spiritism was prominent in Latin America, especially in the religion called Espiritismo).

Altogether, the Polleys say, Lennon has channeled seventeen songs. It all began in a dream. Linda said, "I could see in the spirit world someone singing (the song), but I couldn't tell who it was. I knew it was a guy with dark hair. I could (also) see a choir in the background...."

Through Gerald's spirit guide, she learned that the song came from John Lennon. Linda didn't hear the whole song until she wrote the lyrics. After completing the melody, she played it for Gerald. Gerald, himself, had channeled songs from Lennon and from Kurt Cobain, formerly of the rock group Nirvana.

According to the Polleys, the intent of "Listen to the Angels" is to enhance the spirit realm. Lennon, a life-long activist, whose efforts, they say, continues in the ethers, wants people to understand that "because of the decline of spirituality, the netherworld is running out of energy (that is) needed to sustain it."

What happens if the spirit realm disintegrates? If that happens, Linda says, "all life on earth will cease to exist. It's the scariest situation we've come across in any of our lifetimes! If people don't stop supporting the dark forces and start praying for their Loved Ones, repent and give up following those who spread hate and greed, the Earth is doomed!" 2

The public response to Lennon's discarnate music and the Polleys has been positive. The Polleys have appeared on The Daily Show (July 1998), and The Howard Stern Show (October 1998). "Listen to the Angels" was featured on a CD produced by KROQ during the holiday season and sold 65,000 copies.

The Polleys are currently looking for a producer and musicians for their CD, "Songs from Beyond By Speakers Gerald and Linda Polley, with Channeled Lyrics and Music from John Lennon, formerly of the Beatles." Lennon's share of the proceeds from the CD (at his request) will be donated to Save the Children.

Of course, whether these songs are, in fact, from John Lennon is a matter of conjecture. I have listened to three of their songs, "Listen to the Angels," "Care", and "Don't Make Heaven Mad." The melodies of the first two closely resemble, almost note-for-note, traditional American folk tunes.

"Listen to the Angels" is strikingly similar to "Listen to the Mocking Bird," and "Care" is nearly identical to the song "Five Hundred Miles." They are closer to the Kingston Trio than to the Beatles. "Don't Make Heaven Mad", however, is an exception. It is upbeat, with a rock-like rhythm, and in my estimation, most similar to Lennon's music.

Michael Harrington, professor of music at Belmont University in Nashville, has transcribed over seven thousand Beatle songs. The channeled music, he said, "was consistent with some of Lennon's music...(with a) melodic similarity in structure to something such as 'Julia' or 'Give Peace a Chance.'"

It also resembled the rhythm and harmony of some of his works. Comparing the transcription of Polley's work with that of Lennon, he "found it to be original."

"In other words," he concluded, "to the best of my ability, I have been able to rule out Linda Polley's having taken some other song and simply saying that this other song was the Lennon song.

Also, I was not saying that this HAD to be a John Lennon song. I have simply stated that had this music been presented to me by Julian or Sean Lennon who then told me that they had found it in their father's personal items, I would certainly have believed it was John Lennon's song.

Throughout all of this, I made no comment as to whether I believed Linda Polley had this song channeled to her. That is something upon which I should not comment and did not comment."3

References
1. James Crenshaw, "Belita Adair's Musical Mediumship," Fate,31(May1978).
2. Matt Schild, "John Lennon's Spirit Speaks Out Against the Disintegration of the Afterworld," Sinners and Saints Cemetery, (January 24, 2000).
3. Personal correspondence with Dr. E. Michael Harrington, March 10, 2000.

*JOEL BJORLING is a specialist in the field of new and alternative religions. His books include Consulting Spirits, Reincarnation: A Bibliography, and Channeling: A Bibliographic Exploration.

Copyright ©2000 The Anomalist

Juanita and I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year.