Music ,creativity and reinventing musical knowledge
If you forget yourself and merge in the music ,that is creative music.Creating music is not just making images of some one elses’s music but creating a new ritual of value afresh.It is not just occupying spacetime as any object do,but living and identifying with spacetime which is eternal.A musical mind has a deeper sense of listening to one’s self and to nature and to other musical minds ,an intuitive sense in making musical responses and increased ability to embrace sounds and confidence in musical expression .Such a musical mind-set made me to plunge into a new project of music therapy using Indian music .
Why did I want to make music for healing ?
What made me aware of this property of music?
How did I develop this awareness into a fullfledged project ?
The answers to these questions will probably lead to an extensive autobiography from age 3 onwards when I became a music lover and a lover of Meera and Krishna through the music of M.S.Subbalakshmy and my childhood experiments with developing children in our joint family and later on my Medical knowledge and my later experiments with music .But am I a good singer ? Do I play instruments? At what level are my technical skills in music? Have I received music education?The answers to all these four questions are in the negative.
What do I have to say musically?What are the unique qualities of my musical ideas which will be of use to the entire humanity?How can they be developed and enriched for humanity and the peaceful co-existence of world?And how much these ideas have helped me to improve quality of my life?These questions will give answers which can make the contents of a series of books.Music had a profound positive impact on my life and I have seen that impact on a lot of people ,both musicians and nonmusicians.Healthy and unhealthy,children and octogenarians,males and females .At musical grassroots lie my intellectual and aesthetic wisdom.For creative thinking,intuition,motor skills,social skills and creative social problem solving I have been using my love of music .Music has given a balance to my rational logical scientific consciousness and nonrational intuitive spiritual poetic consciousness.Individual musical expressions ,spontaneity,soulfulness are subjective concerns but they make what is original .The technical perfection gives music an inhuman mechanical character.
The music has to be valued for the effect it produce on the listeners and the performers.Not just by the competence and technicality of performer for it to give a healing effect.If both combine in a balanced ratio it becomes good healing and creative music.There are several moments of spontaneity,unpredictability,and surprises in a live musical performance and the sense of spirituality is preserved in creative live musical performance of a good singer.It enhances a love for life ,an understanding of one’s self,and of the oneness of entire creation .
Good listening ,creative expression and musical intuition are needed for healing experiences.There is an inner self in each of us which loves good music.That self is touched by good music .
In every Classical music concert,one can notice improvisations done by the vocalist and violinist(a duet),and between Mridangist and a ghatam player(another duet)and improvisation involving all the four(a quartet)Such a free form of improvisation is what makes the Indian classical music so creative through ages.Sharing of music by family,village,and festival seasons,and temples where members of community share musical repertoire was a tradition and still is ,in India which have helped to bind together the society .Performing,Listening,questioning and improvising together ,and final analysis and recording are the four steps in improvisation of music.Creativity is a quality which can be continually improved and improvised and is originality developed from a basic set of rules of music.Most of our ideas are creative and not logical and come out of the blue when we are in sushupthy or totally relaxed by intuition,but they happen to be logically correct and verifiable.This quality of our brain is not much understood by scientists .I have been wondering at this quality of human mind right from my childhood and the answers fit into the slots of a jigsaw puzzle by my musical intuitive mind ,not by my scientific intellectual logical mind ,but could be explained in detail with that part of my mind.How the musicians intuition works is exactly in this way.
Aesthetics of music depends on who you are,where you are,and what you are doing because these determines your Musical life panorama(MLP).This is the reason for our individual preferences .Beauty and meaning are created by individual and therefore a good aesthetic sense is a blessing .
1.Listen and be silent.
2.Try to play something similar to what is heard
3.Try to play something different from what is heard .
These are the three options musicians have.All have its own value.Changing rhythmic groove(time),raaga,and swara prasthaara ,musicians do improvise .But to make improvisation on the saahitya/literature one needs literary and language abilities as well.The good vocalist of Karnatic music have developed all these abilities .
The drum or mridanga/ghata etc have cycles of rhythms and they if played alone,exclude melody and harmony.The Indian Chenda and the western drum do this exclusion..The drum playing maintain the time groove,in fixed repetitive pattern(Thaalavritha) now called ostinato in west,with a time feel from idiomatic music .
Recording for educative,promotional and commercial purposes and the rules related to copyrighting of performance and recording are too complex here to discuss(Ref The future of the music business .How to succeed with the digital technologies.A guide for artists and entrepreneurs by Steve Gordon .2005.) and being a healer and a spiritualist, I am not very proficient in that field .
Listening :-
This is a field in which I am interested for healing experiences of my clients .Good listening or audiating is also most important for developing into a good musician.Good listening is mentally active performance.It permits us to detect nuances and reach a intuitive nonlinear mode of understanding.It is the primary means by which musical concepts ,familiar and unfamiliar is assimilated,stored,brought to memory for later use.Building a musical vocabulary is a life-long exercise for a good music maker and listener.Good listening increase our musical vocabulary.New ideas of music enter through the gateway of good listening.the more you listen the more you hear and understand its meaning and delight in the new discoveries made.
1.Take deep breaths and relax to listen music perfectly .
2.Do not make judgements of what is heard.It does not help good listening.It even inhibits one’s listening capacity.
3.Try to attend /notice the sounds heard as best as possible.
4.Float into the music and merge with it,enjoy it .Making judgements can wait.Let us enjoy good music by good listening.
Objective listening is identifying the various elements of the music ,-instruments,rhythm,raaga,pitch,tempo,harmony ,mode,timbre form,words and so on.
Subjective listening is imbibing the emotions or bhaava and rasa of the entire piece ,looking inwards and identifying personal moods or emotions created by music –The effect of music on the listener .Then compare the emotional effect one had with effect of same piece on others making the assessment objective.It is an interpretation of the effect of healing music on clients.A music therapist has to use both methods ,the first for research purposes and creating data for coming generations,and the second for therapeutic effects for the patient/client/listener who is in immeadite need of it.Both should go hand in hand.The individual variations,the reasons for these variations,changes that occur as time passes causing improvements in the client both in music listening and healing effects and so on has to be documented clearly .Supplementary listening with musical examples should be studied as well.Recorded familiar and unfamiliar music,familiar and unfamiliar female and male voices etc can be used.Then the effect of background sounds can be eliminated .The parameter of music is to be researched one at a time (for example the sound alone without accompanying instruments ,and with instruments ,and their different effects ).And what health parameter showed change with that single or combined parameters should also be noted.In this way to build a meaningful vocabulary for music therapists to share with each other,to practice and to teach should be generated.
After an example music is played, I get a written feedback from the listeners regarding what they felt while hearing.And also I collect objective data of both psychological scores and of parameters like BP,Heart rate etc .The listening at home and a second sitting after 10 days when the procedure is repeated and a third session after another 10 days (total 30 days) gives several new insights into human mind,body and soul and to use of an assortment of raagaaas and not one single raaga as the best for healing experiences.
Try the listeners to answer questions like:-
1.What is important to this music?
2.What are main musical ideas of this music ?
3.What does the composer/performer communicate to you?
4.What makes this music distinctive/unique ?
5.In what way one particular type/raaga affected you in this particular session and why was it different from others?
6.What was new in it to be different from others?
7.Was there something which you felt you didn’t understand ,any hidden message ?
8.what would you think will increase your understanding and thus healing experience with music?
9.Is it intuition or logic that helps you enjoy music?
10.When you listened what feeling you had?What imagery happened in your mind?
11.Did listening to this music help you in any way /If so,in what way?
Finding meaning in a musical experience means understanding music and self healing with it.Try to help the client in such selfhealing experiences .
In schools it is ideal to give inter-disciplinery links between music,astronomy,physics,social studies,interpersonal social behaviour and medical healing experiences .Every teacher and every parent wants the children to be able to work independently and know what they are doing .That is needed for a successful life.The way to do this is easily taught by the method of interdiciplinery study and of improving listening skills with music as described above.In a concert situation ,there is more meaning than what we have expected to find .So to help audiences to have meaningful experiences of listening , have contact (interpersonal)with them and a good musician always have such social skills with his/her rasika.The contact with listeners on stage is disrespectful according to orthodox musicians ,but it helps a lot for improving musical repertoire and to understand the musician and his music .The words need not be a technical speech,just a few opening words and personal remarks or sharing experiences will do.
I have listened to Dr K.J.Yesudas’ concerts for research into such social contacts he makes to his millions of listeners in different stages and different cities and villages .Even those listeners who have no education into musical technical vocabulary get benefits from such personal communication and improve their musical listening tastes .The aim of a musician is not just making his/her technical skill approved by the elite musicians and scholars of music.Ofcourse that is an important part of life for any respectable musician.But beyond that there are some dimensions.
It extends to teaching and improving the standards of the masses and that only makes one a Guru for the entire musical world.Indian classical music has a rich repertoire of vocabulary which is inapproachable or difficult to approach by the masses and by the western mind alike .But performers like Jesudas have crossed such barriers and made a musical advaitha possible .This musical advaitha had been used in my healing music exercises with my clients .
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Mathematics,Biology and Music
‘The types of mind which results from training in mathematics and in biologycertainly differ profoundly.But the difference does not lie in the intellectual faculty.It would be a mistake to say that manipulation of mathematical symbols requires more intellect than original thought in biology.On the contrary ,it seems much more comparable to the manipulation of the microscope and its appurtenances of stains and fxatives.Whilst original thought in both spheres represents very similar activities of an identical faculty.Intelligence is little affected by the effects of training.What is profoundly susceptible to training is the imagination ,and mathematicians and biologists seem to differ enormously in the manner in which their imaginations are employed.”(Preface to 1930 ed of The genetical theory of natural selection by R.A Fisher .Oxford uty press 1999)..While biologists deal with the sthoola(gross)and then proceed to the subtle (sookshma)of the human and animal ,plant body,mathematicians deal with the gross universe and its subtle aspects .The mathematicians are dealing with the abstractions of lines ,points ,infinitely thin laminae and masses concentrated at ideal centers of gravity and they are trained in their imaginations to do so.Eddington’s words that contemplation in natural science of a wider domain than the actual ,leads to a far better understanding of the actual ,shows the imagination needed for both biologists and the mathematicians to link the cosmic body and its mathematics with the worldly body and its mathematics.And this is what is done by the Upanishads and for this the saamaveda uses its musical repertoire.
Darwin was concerned about the variety of species and the variety of the physical characters in the siblings of the same parents which he called variations .W.Bateson in 1909 quoted Samuel Butler “To me it seems origin of variation is the only true origin of species.Darwin accepted the fusion or blending theory of inheritance as the undisputed belief of his times.This acceptance had influenced his views on variation and causes of organic evolution.But in a letter to Huxley in 1857 he had mentioned the possibility of not fusion but mixture as parents have parents and grandparents and thus a long list of ancestral origin .The pithru /mathru vansa of the ancient Indian chronologies and their laws of inheritance are never analysed by scientists or historians .Why should the racial and chronological list of paramparaas given in detail by the historians of India in such minute details if they were not aware of the survival of the races through ancestral genes is not asked by any one .Every one dismisses the chronology as a mythical text and as lies of an imaginary poetic mind.But I do see it as a biologist and Scientist .Only a race who thinks of the origin of the species can be so elaborate in recording the chronology of different kings and their relatives as well as of the entire Gurukula parampara.From where did we originate and from where did our wisdom and knowledge originate had been fascinating questions to these scientists/historians.Their varna and its rules also originated from such knowledge.They knew that with blending inheritance bisexual reproduction will tend to rapidly produce uniformity.And if variability persists,causes of new variation must be continually at work.They knew the great variability of the domesticated and wild species of animals,plants and also of humans because of the great biodiversity of the tropical forests which they occupied and also compared it with the temperate biodiversity which is not as great as the tropics.The domestication of human,animal and plant changes the conditions of food production and intake .Increase food intake cause increase in size but there is indirect variability in all directions ascribed to disturbance ,change of condition and regularity of action of reproductive system and the imbalance and balance of these conditions is dealt with in samkhya and yoga philosophy and in ayurveda and medicine of India which deals with biological knowledge.The tropical geological changes and the changes they bring about both in wild and domesticated species ,temporary increase or decrease of food due to the weather changes and variations of temperature which cause imbalance were well studied by them because of their proximity and familiarity to the cyclical monsoon clocks.they knew where to find food in times of distress and knew the nature and quality of food which was abundant and variable in their territory.they knew that for their survival the biodiversity also should survive and thus the agricultural and wild life preservation systems were evolved.These rules were not known to the western world to which Darwin belonged because they were not familiar with the tropical Indian geographical peculiarities and its long experience and traditional knowledge.Therefore ,variation under nature was described as “the subject is an obsure one.But it may be useful to probe our ignorance.”(Ch XX11 Variation).In the 1842 manuscript (Foundatins p2)it is said that “each parent transmits its peculiarities and if varieties are allowed to cross freely such varieties will be demolished .All bisexual animals must cross ,hermaphrodite plants does cross “And here the possibility of a third race and a number of races which has lost the purity of the original parental race and have differences is suggested.And if if varieties with only slight differences are crossed the differences disappear and produce a uniformity of breed .”
Such theories were existing in India for a prolonged period of time from prehistoric times and hence what Darwin postulated after the contact of Europe with India was the continuation of the ancient Indian concept only.But due to lack of familiarity with the rules of Indian scientists there had been several misunderstandings and mistakes .This we will come to later.One of the difficulties Darwin had with natural selection was that in the most ancient domesticated plants and animals ,the natural country where they were reared from ancient times showed more variations due to cross breeding .That is,the variations were not natural selections but made by crossbreeding by human intervention of cultivation and domestication.
The particulate inheritance(inheritance of a particle-gene) causes an individual to resemble a remotest ancestor and not the immeadiate parents ,for the ancestral gene pattern can be by chance reproduced and hence reversion of a variance occur.Thus particulate inheritance diffes from blending theory .There is no inherent tendency of variance to diminish .In a population with two alternative genes of any factor ,existing in the ratio of p to q ,the three genotypes would be in the ratio of p2:2 pq :q2.This algebraic ratio assures that the the characteristics will be represented in fixed proportions of the population ,provided the ratio p and q are unchanged.Chance survival and selective survival can change the ratio to slight extant.How can we calculate chance survival?
Suppose there is n number of individuals in a population .Breeding at random the variance will be halved by this cause alone in 1.4n generations.Since number of surviving individuals to reproduce in each generation in most species exceed a million and in some a millionfold greater ,the cause of hereditary variance will be exceedingly minute. ,when compared to rate of halving in one or two generations by blending inheritance.The contrast is that mutation rate needed to maintain a given amount of variability is many thousand times smaller in particulate inheritance than in blending theory.The variability of cultivated and domesticated animals being almost equal or more than the wild species whether natural or artificial selection is the cause for destruction and survival of species was a problem faced by the theory of selection and survival.
For Darwin,the fact that the siblings of same parents and ancestry having different variable features and characters could be explained in two ways by the two theories.Under the blending theory it proves mutation ,new and frequent .Under particulate inheritance it is due to heterozygote population,any two offsprings equally likely to get unlike or like genes from their parents.In close analogy to physical concept of energy and the statistical concept of variance,the heterozygote possess variance in a potential or latent form and it is stored in a homozygous from which it will later reappear.A statistical equilibrium of population is achieved thus by random mating between latent and apparent form of variance.Particulate theory resembles kinetic theory of gases with perfectly elastic collisions ,whereas blending theory resembles theory of gases with inelastic collision ,and in which outside agency is required to be continually at work to keep particles astir.
Many of the domesticated animals,birds(including men)are ill-fitted to survive in wild condition and in severe natural calamities.The natural selection is at work in wild varieties and artificial selection in domesticated and cultivated series and as one can expect it is the wild varieties which will survive and continue the races when some great disaster wipe out life on earth.By destroying wild life and normal and natural growth of plants and animals human beings are gradually destroying the survival of himself on earth.The adaptation of generations of species is not there for the manmade varieties of plants and animals ,whether it be artificial cloning or insemination.
When there is an increased demand the cells have the power of adaptive multiplication and then we find rates of mutation.Then,can we suppose the environment control nature of mutation,like the course of a projectile is controlled by the field of force in which it flies?Or does the mutation happen due to an inner urge in the cell implanted in it by a primordial ancestor which directs its predestined evolution?Or is the nature and the environment has series of interactions for such an evolution to take place?The blending theory presupposes every individual organism as a multiple mutant .In particulate theory the much lower mutation rates do not fit in with that.Weissmann postulated a momentum for mutations which enable the minimal mutations to increase in an advantageous direction until it attains a selection value ,and continuous decrease of a useless organ in evolution.Here the selection value is its utility and size which is not always true .
If a change of 1 mm have selection value a change of 0.1 mm has a selection value one-tenth as great ,though it is inappreciable to us.The rate at which mutation happen depend on selective advantage for a species but sometimes it has selective disadvantage as in a cancerous growth also.The frequency of mutations in Drosophila is not greater than one in 100000 flies,and a lapse of 100,000 generations is needed tp produce a significant change in the heritable nature of the species.And usually the mutant gene is eliminated by nature and not preserved in surviving individuals since they are pathological and lethal..The agency controlling mutations is not capable of controlling the direction of evolution.
How impossible it is without statistics to conjecture the duration of life and percentage of deaths to births in mankind.(Charles Darwin 1845 .Life and letters ,11;33).Physiologists admit that biology differs from the physicochemical and mathematical scinces in being inexact.(Huxley 1854).These two opinions are totally different ,yet we respect both Darwin and Huxley in their own way.Biology is not an inexact science and it needs statistics and mathematics physicochemical sciences as all of us know today .
We are born and we die.The interval is our life history.This is so for all species and for all individuals of each species.The calculation of a birthtime and time of death and calculations of how to manage the life and its various functions and business is all about sciences of India .It is what is called the dharmasasthra.It is in the mathematical calculation of a divine birth and the protection of dharma by that special birth ,India had excelled from time immemorial and still does.The Dalai Lama was identified by such a calculation.Indian scientists predicted birth of Christ .The birth of a Rama,Krishna and Budha were predicted before they were born.So the life history starts from a prediction of birth and the waiting for that prediction to happen by an entire nation .The chronology of kings and descendents and family is a type of census of the living and the dead calculating the population of that particular race ,whether sooryavansa,chandravansa or a mixture of the two ,or agnikula .I have given the chronology of the three Nalapat branches as a sample of population control which is inbuilt in the maternal branches and a Malthusian parameter of population increase is shown in the paternal branch of the Nalapat (Christian converts).The reproductive value of a female increases from age 10 to 20 -25 and thereafter it decreases steadily and by 40 it is nil .Therefore by studying the living females in a family and calculating their age one can reach a Malthusian parameter.For the paternal inheritance system ,the same is applicable to male members.Malthusian parameter of population increase is measured by a vital statistics of an organism in relation to its environment which determines the measure of relative growth rate of population .It also is a measure of the reproductive value of individuals at all ages and stages of their life history.In a pair of allellomorphic genes we can distinguish
1.rarer from more common
2.less advantageous from more advantageous
3.the mutant gene from the relatively primitive gene from which the mutant arose
4.recessive from dominant.
2 and 3 are closely associated.In a population the less advantageous may become rarer if freely allowed to reproduce.But the rarity can also be due to family control adopted by certain groups and not adopted by other groups and then just by rarity and commonality alone the advantage and disadvantage cannot be assessed.The rarity of AB dominant genes over O group gene (which is more primitive than all the others) is not to be assessed in that way.500 mutant genes in Drosophila cultures in 1958,showed distribution as follows:
Gene Recessive Intermediate Dominant Total
Autosomal 130 9 0 139
Sex-linked 78 4 0 82
In several species the wild gene /primitive gene dominance has been seen ,including in the rodents in which the albino genes were studied.This is true in the O group ,Rh + group of blood in human beings . The human trials of modification and mutation of RNA virus has resulted in the new H1 N1 virus (in 1918 the Spanish flu human virus was inoculated into swines and in 1930 the mutant first emerged and in 2009 it has assumed lethal proportions causing damage to human life ).Therefore ,the new trials with mutation and cloning are to be viewed with caution by the scientific community.The ignorance and overenthusiasm of human can cause havoc after sometime and when such a calamity happen the resistant mutant gene will not respond to usual methods of treatment.They will survive and that also is survival of the fittest according to the theory .
The chance of survival of an individual gene:-
The gene n an individual will appear in the next generation in a certain number 0,1,2,3… etc of individuals or homologous loci.For bisexual individuals there should be two individuals with the same gene.But in a virus or in organism with selffertilisation,the same gene appear in the offspring and the original gene is doubly represented if the individual survives to maturity.The probabilities of the offspring getting the gene 0,1,2.. attain maturity is denoted by P0,P1,P2…,where since one of these contingencies must happen ,
P0+P1+ P2+….= 1.
Probability of extinction Probability of survival
Number of generations No advantage 1% advantage Difference No advantage 1% advantage
1 0.3679 0.3642 0.0037 0.6321 0.6358
3 0.6259 0.6197 0.0062 0.3741 0.3803
7 0.7905 0.7825 0.0080 0.2095 0.2175
15 0.8873 0.8783 0.0090 0.1127 0.1217
31 0,9411 0.9313 0.0098 0.0589 0.0687
63 0.9698 0.9591 0.0107 0.0302 0.0409
127 0.9847 0.9729 0.0118 0.0153 0.0271
Limit 1.0000 0.9803 0.0197 0.0000 0.0197
Of 10000 mutations enjoying a 1% selective advantage ,and which has already reached the stage of existence in one sexually mature individual,3642 will fail to transmit the advantageous gene to any descendent ,whereas with no selective advantage only 3679 will so fail.Even after 31 generations the number surviving out of 10000 will be only 687 against expectation of 589 where no selective advantage is enjoyed.When there are 10 lakhs individuals a 1% advantage mean ,in a group of only a few people the chance survival is almost inoperative.A mutation though advantageous has only very little chance of establishing in a species ,if it occurs once only.To have a 1 % advantage it has to happen at least 50 times ,and in mature individuals at least 250 times for its prospects to be secure in future .In a species with 100 crores in each generation,to maturity,a mutation rate of one in a thousand million will produce one mutant in every generation,and thus establish superiority of the new type in less than 250 generations and quite probably in less than 10,from the first occurrence of the mutation.If mutation rate is one in 10 lakhs the business is settled in the first generation.Mutation rates like other characteristics of organisms change only gradually in course of evolution.Unfavourable mutations happen increasing at 1 in 10 lakhs or more without affecting character of species,as in a cancer cell,whereas favourable mutations are at 1 in 1000 fold less and happen once only in 1000 generations at random.The rate of increasing mutation rates and decrease of it is compared in different species.When there is no selective advantage or disadvantage ,the fraction of cases in which extinction has not taken place after n generations is,approximately 2/n.That is,the in absence of selection,expectation in any future generation is equal to the number now living,that the average number of individuals in which the surviving genes will each be represented is ½ n.To observe the actual or sphuta ,if the frequency with which each number occurs is the coefficient of the corresponding power in expansion of theta (x),we have in theta the generating function of the moments in distribution.If zero is origin and u1,u2,u3 etc are the moments ,of the distribution of earlier generations ,those in the latter generations will have the coefficients of t denoted as u1’,u2’,u3’ etc and we have relations,u1’=u1,u2’=u2+u1,u3’=u3+3 u2 +u1, u4’=u4+6 u3+7 u2+u1 etc.
Since all moments are initially one (Eka or unity)it iseasy to see from these that u2 will increase proportionately to n,u3 to n2,u4 to n3 etc when n is large.Knowing the moments we may now infer the actual form of the distribution .
Thus time ,moments,each generation,and each individual as well as each genetic particle is interconnected in Indian mathematics and chronology of parampara.This knowledge of cosmic and biological law in terms of mathematics and its application into musical rhythms is a unique feature we can see in Indian tradition.The antiquity of this shows the antiquity of human culture and cognitive powers and creativity.The logarithmic tables of the ancient astronomers bear testimony to their observational and logical mathematicalpowers.There had been modifications in their values over time ,by different modern scientists but the methods remain the same as well as the basic truth remains the same is noteworthy.When Krishna says in the Bhagavad Geetha that everything and everybody exists as before ,the truth of recycling energy and its manifestation as generations of population has to be understood.
Stastistical investigation of just one parameter,say wing colour of night flying moths ,was taken up by R.A.Fisher to study variation as determined by mutation and selection. That means he took varna or colour of wing of moth for study of statistics.The study of varna (white,reddish white,yellow and black and its mixtures) in human species is done very early in India and they attributed the colours to the actions and karma not to birth from those times. Though it may appear crude and unscientific to the 21st century scientist,the method was known from at least 10000 BC is something which gives insight into human intelligence and cognition of variation and inheritance and attempt to group biological inheritance under karma theory so that equality prevail among all races of human beings.Darwin thought abundant species will make most rapid evolutionary change and supplant less abundant groups with which they compete.Among the factors which influence relationship between variation and selection is the tendency of like to mate with like ,known as homogamy.The effect of selection in human stature is increased in this way by more than 20 %.Fertility depends upon the constitutional similarity of the mates according to Indian sciences.R.A.Fisher also mentions this in his book(pp 99)but says there has been no research to prove or disprove this.Heterozygote stage has a selective advantage over homozygous state,and cross fertilization has advantage over self fertilization.In a population mating at random ,the reproductive value of the three genotypes would bein ratio of a:b:c.For genotype of first kind,its offspring will be pa+qb if crossfertilised at random,against a if it is selffertilised.For heterozygote we find,1/2(pa+b+qc)for cross fertilization against ¼(a+2b+c)for self fertilization.The average advantages in the two homozygous phase are thusq(b-a) and p(b-c)respectively.In heterozygotes it is ¼(p-q)(a-c).The frequencies in which the three phases occur being p2:2 pq:q2 ,the average loss of value in self fertilization will be ½ pq (2 b –a-c).Equilibrium is established when p=b-c/2b-a-c ; q=b-a/2b-a-c.
A,b,c being proportionate contributions to the ancestry of future generations we must have also , p2a +2 pqb _q2c=1.And substituting p and q we get b2-ac=2b-a-c.
Thus the average loss of value of offspring caused by self fertilization ,as a homogenous expression in a,b,c only in the form (b-a)(b-c)/2(b2-ac)..
For any factor a,b,c in the ratio 5:6:4 a stable genetic situation is established in which the product of selffertilisation is worth 1/16th less than the average products of cross fertilization.
Equilibrium involving only two factors A and a,B and b will be maintained mutually .It is important tounderstand the fact that equilibrium of frequencies of gametic combinations AB,Ab ,aB,ab requires a third condition of equilibrium .AB and ab are favoured by natural selection.AB and aB decrease when these opposite pairs increase .Adjustments take place by recombinations in individuals who are heterozygotes for both factors.AB and ab unite to form double heterozygote states and inequality in frequencies of the two kinds of double heterozygotes have an important consequence.When two factors considered happen to be on the same chromosome,frequency of recombination depend upon crossing over which is affected by genetic differences between different strains.Substitution of less favoured combinations for the more favoured combinations can happen.Thus a reduction in reproductive value ensues.
Individual variations of heritable nature has a distribution pattern .Suppose this distribution coinside with the modal integer,the frequency of values other than this integer may be easily calculated from the standard deviation of the distribution.If standard deviation is 1/6th of a unit,3 exceptions will be expected in a 1000 people.(3/1000)..For 1/8th,only 63 in a million people will show exception.For 1/10th of a unit,only one in 2 million.Very extensive counts will be required to exclude variations of this kind .The integral numbers possess a special stability favouring a conservative tendency in evolution.This is not found in simple measurements.In any highly adapted organism the probability of of advantage through any considerable evolutionary steps (saltation)rapidly becomes infinitesimal as the step is increased in magnitude.
If we look farther back,the proportion of existing variance ascribable to ancestry becomes smaller and smaller .Taking the fraction of segregation as only 2/5th in each generation,the fraction due to differences in ancestry 10 generations back is only aboutone pat of 160 ,while at 30 generations it is less than one in four millions.It is only the geographical barriers to sexual intercourse between different races ,which lead to geographical races and there is a common ancestor for entire human race from this viewpoint.The ancestry of members of the same nation can differ little beyond the last 500 years.At 2000 years the only differences that would seem to remain would be those between distinct ethnographic races.these or at least some of the elements of these ,may indeed be extremely ancient.Diffusion of blood between the separated groups was not completely nonexistent even in remotest times (especially with the ancient trade routes and commerce of the Indus valley Mehrgarh period,and archeological evidence of human migrations from Paleolithic times and before ) and hence the classification of the ethnographic races based on varna must be taken as an earliest evidence of human knowledge of biological and racial variance and inheritance as well.The knowledge of a common ancestor for every living creature ,not only human race,characterizes the knowledge of biological ancestry of Indians.They attribute Prajapathy Kasyapa as the first generator of all human races and races of animals and birds as well .Bible attributes Adam as the father of human races only .
Darwin was not the first to account for sexual selection by the two secondary male characteristics namely,battling of polygamous strong males to get the female and the amazing development of plumage in male birds like pheasants,peacocks etc .The sexual preference of females is determined by these two characters .The ability of birds to sing beautifully is another akin to plumage ,which attract the female bird.In these cases competition is between the members of the same sex for getting a female.Not between two species.The element of female will and choice also has a definite role in winning of the male animal/bird .But A.R Wallace rejected the role of female choice in evolution of sex-related ornaments of the male individual (like plumage,song,prowess etc).A medical person is required to certify the cause of death.But there is no need for such a person to certify the sociological cause of birth.If birth has taken place ,there definitely had been a sexual selection and a sexual union is known to everyone.What was the cause of attraction of female to male and the subsequent union is a biological as well as psychological/intellectual even spiritual thought process.Though it may seem abstract,it is the spiritual and intellectual and mental faculties that are first stimulated and the physical union happen only in the end and therefore it is only an effect and not a cause.For evolutionary change and survival by sexual selection,existence of a sexual preference at least in one sex(in female for a definite quality in male as described above)and bionomic conditions in which such preference will confer reproductive advantage are mandatory.When these two conditions are satisfied,the existence of special structures as plumage,special abilities of producing songs etc can be judged on morphological grounds to be efficacious as ornaments ,fully developed only in the mating seasons and paraded conspicuously for the female to see,hear and get attracted .In birds in captivity under artificial conditions the sexual preferences of birds are deranged by their mental derangement .That means an effective nervous system mechanism is needed for natural sexual preference and selection.It responds differently to a preferred male and a unprefered male.Even hens show this ability to behave differently to their preferred cocks.Even polygamous birds prefer only one mate in one season.According to Darwin,birds remain single when they cannot find a mate which does not interest or please it.According to H.E .Hpward (Territory in bird life)birds remain unmated because they are not in possession of a breeding territory where they can nest and breed unmolested ,and are ready to mate with even a widow or widower bird left in possession of a coveted nesting territory.We have to think of this character in human behaviour as well.Not only the second alliances but also the first alliances are based on availability of a suitable mate who can provide a home for rearing kids in human worldly life as well.Therefore samsaara is always akin to biological urges just as in any other animal/bird kingdoms .(In Indian philosophy this is called Puthreshana,vitheshana and lokeshana –desire for children,wealth and worlds).This is commo to all biological life forms .Female preference of males have along with the qualities mentioned as plumage,song ability,prowess ,the availability of a good home /nest for rearing young ones.Therefore men are proud of these qualities and achievements .The sexual selection being based on these characters,the strong ,beautiful,handsome with artistic abilities and enough support at financial level had been selected by the bride and her people as a suitable alliance and this continues still in our world .The plumage development and song abilityand sexual preference for these must advance together and should not be checked by counterselection ,so that it advance with everincreasing speed .If these conditions satisfy,the speed of development will be proportional to development already attained which will therefore increase with time exponentially or in geometric progression.Thus in any binomial situation in which sexual selection is capable of,and where it is not under check of any sort,exponential time expansion or increase in geometrical progression is seen which produce great effects rapidly.A countercheck will produce a relative stability .The number of males with plumage/song ability and the number of females for exert the female preference of it must be equalized for this balance.
How the males attract the attention of the females by their abilities ? How do they get a reproductive advantage over others?How is the monogamous bird societies also have the same advantage as the polygamous bird societies ,probably more than the polygamous ones ?According to Darwin,the early age at which the female is ready to breed,the number of offsprings are related to the availability of nutrients it gets.That is it is nonhereditary causes.The infant mortality rates are another cause for survival and if the animal starts mating early,even if a few offsprings die some will survive is the advantage of the early breeding of birds.Remating of birds (Darwin killed several birds to demonstrate this !And thus initiated the destruction of their race!) after its mate is dead is another means of survival of the races according to Darwin.The finely adorned male gain reproductive advantage and it act as special weapons as in territorial right establishment and the dispute is not a war but a creation of strong impression and intimidation on the rival (both male and female) and a sprightly bearing with fine feathers and triumphant songs are quite as well adapted for war propaganda as for courtship and this is an imitation of birds and animals by the ancient man.The plumage /peacock feathers on crown of kings /emperors ,the war trumpets and conches of them and the strength of the Akshouhini army to impress the neighbouring kings and his retinue of females must be seen in this light.The adornment to attract female and th especial weapons to intimidate the males of same sex are attributed to courtship and sexual selection by Darwin.These create an emotional reaction in other members of the same species.The acquisition of singing ability and developing of ornaments and artistic tastes is to have an evolutionary effect on female members of the species ,to fit her to appreciate more and more highly the display offered.The evolutionary reaction of war paint and war plumage and weapons is intended to male members to make them less and less receptive to all impressions save those arising from genuine prowess.The Batesian and Mullerian theory of mimicry is for defence as well as for survival of species.Sometimes nauseous flavours are evolved as a means of defence by the organisms as a part of mimicry.Stings,disagreeable secretions ,orders etc are the negative repellant forces at work for defence .
Just as our body has an innate selfregulatory mechanism of homeostasis,human societies also has a selfregulatory power.Only such societies will persist even after severe external intereferences and natural calamities to which it is exposed over prehistoric and historic times.The fact that Indian society has survived while Egyptian,Greek,Roman ,Babylonian and Assyrian societies succumbed to disasters shows the selfregulatory mechanism of this society had been at work since antiquity.The insect communities have a co-operative system comparable to human societies which function co-operatively to survive together (pp 180 R.A.Fisher). But they behave as a single animal body whereas human society has an individualistic system of reproduction .The attempt to have kulasangha(guilds of several families together)as panchaayathana during vedic times is akin to an attempt of behaving like a insect society for common benefit ,at least to some extant.The basis of such a cooperative economic system is free interchange of goods or services between different individuals for common good of all.The individual is induced by enlightened self interest to exert himself/herself actively in whatever way s may be serviceable to others and to discover new ways or improved methods of making himself valuable to the common wealth.Those who perform highest get valuable rewards from society .Those who perform least do not get fame or rewards of position.Therefore every one acted for the best performance .The social co-operation of human beings in villages and urban settlements and forests and mountains of India was based on this policy.They produced the best goods/services for the common wealth and enjoyed the land which was common property because it belonged to God ,not to any one individual in particular.Dharma and dhaana(charity) and truth were the vows of every one and in this system the natural and sexual selection had certain natural laws which were followed by every one for the sustainance of all races and species .The music of the spheres and of the seasons and of the day and night and the circadian bilological rhythms of the body were understood and followed as laws and the Indian system of music and music therapy is based on the balance of the three qualities just as the ayurveda ,following samkhya principles.
The number of children to a group of women at the end of their reproductive period cannot be ascribed only to chance.marrried or unmarried state,widowhood,divorce ,wealth and beauty and many other factors determine a womans fertility and it cannot be just studied with mathematics or statistics.There are several mental and moral qualities which determine reproduction.The choice between celibacy and marriage ,and if marriage is decided upon,between precipitation and and postponement of union is a matter of temperament.Some women are charmed by male society and others are not and this factor is at work in human societies unlike other animals and birds and the educational status of the female is a determining factor as well.Therefore the less number of children in a particular group of women cannot be assessed as a direct evidence of inheritance of infertility,nor is it a chance finding ,especially with modern methods of family planning.The evolution of the conscience of respecting voluntary reproduction in educated and civilized society cannot be assessed with statistics alone .In unciviliced societies and in poor families infant mortality as well as primitive infanticide also determine the number of children .The modern system of scanning and destruction of female foetus in utero has decreased the birth rates of female babies to some extant.Selective mortality by nature and selective mortality by artificial means both are at work in such cases .The races which had been having longest social experience of civilized conditions are most immune to modern methods of birth limitation according to statistics(pp 209 R.A.Fisher).Economic and biological forms of class distinctions is also of paramoiunt importance in selective use and control of birth of children.The male selection of birth rate and infanticides due to a patriarchal society is compensated by the female selection of births and protection of girl child in a matriarchal society.Therefore the “success in the struggle for existence “at least in human beings is dependent upon several other factors of sociopolitical and economic importance rather than on natural selection.A permanent civilization is a longstanding civilization and it has to be considered as successful .It is not necessarily unprogressive and conservative as some historians think,but represent the successful balanced and continuously progressive one which has withstood the test of time .And ,India being such a civilization,the world has several things to learn from her .
Intelligent design(ID )theory :-
The evolution versus ID theory is gaining importance.Is nature intelligently designed or not? Is Darwinism a pseudoscince ?In his book Dissent over descent Steve Fuller tries to answer these questions.According to Fuller the hostility to ID nad Darwinism is based not on science but on antireligious bigotry.In fact science and religion has gone hand in hand in India as well as in western history .The theological speculations about divine justice and dharma have fostered advancement of science .The contents of Fullers book deals with the subject under 7 headings.
1.Is there really a scientific consensus?
2.Was Darwin really a scientist?
3.Is there a middle ground between creation and evolution?
4.Is intelligent design any less science than evolution?
5.why cant evolutionists stop tallikig about design?
6.Why is intelligent design unlikely togo away?
7.Who is afraid of Biblical literalism?
ID theorists are steeped in Christain theology but without speaking of God or scriptures they use scientific terms and try to reinterpret science without doing independent research.They have a genetically modified Darwinism to explain origin of life on earth.For the biology is Gods design and technology is mans design and both are design sciences.Technology imitates and improves upon biology.
Bible say man was created in image of God.Indian scriptures say ,man created the veena with wood in the image of daiveeveena(the veena of human body designed by God).So ,man is the design of God in his image and the technology of the veena is the image of the image .Image of the design of God.There is a term called synchretism in linguistics .It is for grammatical forms that result from combining historically distinct roots ,which gives the mind an impression of a timeless idea.Someone who wants to advance a scientific paradigm can go to the roots of scientific history ,to the ancient predecessors and their works regardless of the projects that drove their scientific work.A stanunch atheist as well as a staunch believer in God both goes to roots of scientific logic to prove a point.The neo-Darwinian synthesis have allowed this without hindrance from their specific religious beliefs/interests.In open synchretism we can reexamine the original terms used both in science and scriptural literature and compare the origin .A secular humanist steeped in historical and philosophical relations between science and religion ,Steve Fuller calls the Jesuits the subtle masters of reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable.And,I being a person who has been steeped in Indology and Vaishnavism is also finding it easy to reconcile everything into the fold of science and spirituality,which for me are not separate but a single entity.Perhaps the Jesuit fathers who came to India and learnt Indian sciences and scriptures got their tradition from India ,though there is evidence from their early letters that their intentions and understanding of Indian tradition was not in the correct direction.Many scientists call themselves atheists ,but atheism as a positive doctrine has done nothing for promotion of science is a known fact.
The binomial system of classification and nomenclature is now attributed to the 18th century Swedish Physician –turned-naturalist Carolus Linnaeus.His classification of living things into kingdoms,order,genera,family and species is tantamount to a caste theory of nature ,with a chance for mobility,that is a species change ,restricted to hybrids created by nature or by human beings who undertake agriculture and animal husbandry.From where did he get this idea of nomenclature to all living objects ?From the translation of Itti Achuthan’s work by the Dutch enthusiasts .From where did IttiAchuthan get the knowledge ?From the ancient system of samkhya and Ayurveda and the concept of Naamaroopa for prakrithy /nature .The classification of Indian system expands to both living and nonliving objects while that of Linnaeus is confined to living things alone.Linnaeus ,living in a time in the west,where stars and elements were not named,but numbered ,diligently ascribed systematic assignment of names to 4400 animals and 7700 plants and 500 minerals .The concept of India that a naama or name is a manthra which confers secret powers to objects as well as to the person who names them was being experimented in a new way by the western world through Linnaeus.His work was titled “The system of nature”.The names were not just a list ,but an encyclopedia with grammatic rules for constructing new names as in Sanskrit,but in a different way.The intelligent design was being read through morphology of objects and then given a meaningful name.The name homo sapiens means ,human the wise.He had the concept that nature is created for human beings ,a Biblical concept,whereas in Indian concept nature is created for every creature alike.Linnaeus thought diseases occur when objects are named wrongly,or addressed by wrong names .This is the concept of Indian manthra also.A manthra wrongly produced or wrongly pronounced is harmful.A raaga wrongly rendered is harmful .Most of the creatures and plants were not seen by Linnnaeus but he named from the preexisting descriptions of the older books/writers.Linnaeus believed in the economy of nature whereby births and deaths are balanced ,and this is what we now call global ecology,a concrete sense of which ws beginning to be gleaned during Linnaeus ‘ lifetime ,from the long voyages for commercial ,diplomatic and military purposes (pp 64 Steve Fuller).This long voyages to India by the Europeans after Vasco da Gama was the real reason for the translation of scientific texts of India into European languages and the development of what we now call western science.(whether it be biology,medicine or astrophysics ).Linnaeus is portrayed as part of prehistory of modern biology.But he was also a early political economist.Because 18th century natural history and political economy shared a preoccupation of transforming the world balance from east to west .Only in the 19th century the terms biology and sociology became separate terms in France. The transition between civil history and natural history ,natural and political economy was difficult before that period.Adam Smith believed that supply and demand for goods tend towards equilibrium from Linnaeus observations about the finite size of anmal stomach checking the otherwise potentially insatiable desire for nourishment.Smiths generation of economists noticed Linnaeus arguments for national economic self sufficiency which was then called cameralism ,but now called protectionism.Linnaeus dream was to convert European states to gardens of Eden,where all nourishments were there for all the people so that they become selfsufficient.He thought that such a successful governance and economy will lead humanity of Europe back from the fallen state (of God).In every botanical and zoological garden ,that spirit is enlivened.But ,the spirit of economically selfsufficient welfare garden states or republics of the east which the Europeans coming from the temperate climates ,saw in tropical east was the real reason behind the concept.They identified the green tropical forests and its economy with Garden of Eden is that which really matters.Linnaean naturalists demonstrated in their gardens that naturally alien creatures can live harmoniously ,cooperating with each other in symbiosis ,even in human designed environments and they were the temples of these naturalists and were replica of Indian Upavana and Ashrams.By 1778,the year of death of Linnaeus,he was considered the most significant scientist after Sir Isaac Newton.
Darwin took another step back to genesis by reviving the tree of life image .The tree of life or Samsaaravriksha is a powerful image in Indian philosophy and worship of trees is as ancient as Indian life ,and is demonstrated from IVC,Mehergarh period onwards.The tree image shows all life descending from a common ancestor and the manifold species are thus from a single stock .The concept of Prajaapathy as the originator of everything in the universe is ageold.The treelike structure or cladogram is used for historic study of languages by German scholar,August Schleicher at the same period as Darwin.He constructed a geneology of Indo-European languages from an Adam –like originating moment in Northern India.His cladogram was stuck in biology ,aiding in development of taxonomy ,especially when DNA was interpreted as coding moments of speciation ,or branching of the evolutionary tree .This is the so-called molecular clock hypothesis.
What scientific method means is the natural divine spirit in each and every one of us,which is disciplined and channeled systematically ,by our own effort in self-knowledge or pursuit of truth.And this is what spirituality is all about.Therefore,I do not find any controversy between the spiritual and scientific,since I am trained in the ancient spiritual traditions of India and in the western scientific methods alike.
Science is based on faith in human reaon’s ability to transcend to its immeadiate circumstances.This is the same ground on which spiritualism is also based.The controversy between science and spirituality was constructed in 19th century by the industrialized technological Europe.Technology alone does not comprise science.Technology is a tool ,man being a tool-making animal,it is a tool he created for speedy actions and for better fulfillment of his needs in minimum time.Science is the systematic logically and mathematically verifiable laws which depend upon human cognizance and intelligence and experience .If we understand this,there is no controversy between spiritual and scientific.The fact that Galileo was prosecuted and his laws not accepted by Vatican,and that the main philosophical works of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ,a heretic Jesuit paleoentologist who discovered the Java man fossils,were banned by the Roman catholic church until after his death in 1955 (because he did not accept a division of labor between science and religion in terms of how and why about the question of nature of life ) bears testimony to the fact that the Biblical and the scientific methods are different .But ,when we go to Upanishads and the vedic scriptural knowledge and the 6 darsana of India there is no controversy at all with spiritual and scientific methods of enquiry or with the goals of them.
DNA is considered as Gods language imprint .The DNA Nobel prize-winner James Watson recently told a journalist that UK is wasting its money on development aid to Africa .But that statement was a demonstration of his “selfish gene “,indirectly.The neo-Darwinist theory of reciprocal altruism means individuals are genetically predisposed to care for members of their own kin in the strong sense of group selection.(E.O.Wilson founder of sociobiology).We share 99 % of our genes with chimpanzee and 95 % with most other animal species.So that ,by the gene sharing we have an instinctive liking to protect the animal world ,creating a new brave moral economy and ecology ,which is as ancient as the animal species itself.Thus the idea of sustaining “our own”at the expense of “them”is lost.The Upanishads call it the mama(mine)and thava(yours)feeling.All are one .There is no mine or thyne difference in common sharing as God’s wealth .That was the global ecology practiced by ancient Indian scientists.The modern science has not yet reached that state ,but is progressing to that level slowly and steadily .Ecology is broader in concept than the welfare of a human society.It cannot be restricted to one religion alone ,to one society alone ,to human race alone but encompass the entire universe and that is Indian Advaitha theory practiced even by the illiterate who has never heard of the term.It is practice of advaitha rather than theoretical knowledge of it which was unique in India .When a new person(like a European in 13 -14th century)comes and see a illiterate villager protecting a tree and worshipping plants,trees ,serpents ,animals like cows etc,he may misjudge it as animism or as paganism because they are not aware of the practical advaitha which leads to ecological balance and selfsupporting economy for welfare of entire universe.Science was practiced ,not theorized here.
The synthesis of spirituality and science is not the same as the secular science-religion segregation ,lead by Francis Collins who led the US National Institutes of health drive to map human genome.he is committed to Christianity but ,like many atheists, he gives all religions equal treatment ,and treats them with respect .This is called a broad church approach to religion which results in a philosophy sufficiently devoid of controversy between Hindu,Muslim,Jew,Christian including Pope john paul 2(pp 105 Steve Fuller).The problem is ,this lumping together of Indian philosophy as a religion ,just like other semitic /or institutionalized religions which both scientists ,atheists and spiritualists are doing very often .They fail to see the difference between the artificially made religious propaganda from the logical mathematical ,reasoning and systematic codifying of knowledge in Indian thought ,more scientific than all modern sciences put together ,and the practical advaitha of global economy and self sufficiency of an ancient society which still survive after all the trials and tribulations it had been subjected to.Much of the war over science and religion was fought between Christianity and modern western science.
Can there be a design without a designer ?
Can Copernicus dislodge earth from the center of universe?
Can Darwin dislodge humanity from the center of earth?
Can Freud dislodge reason from center of humanity?
The privileged position of humanity in nature is lost from Darwin to the Michael Foucault ,the leader of postmodern questioning of ontological integrity of what is called the subject,the author/designer/or simply man.Postmodernism and naturalism fit in together.We humans have only marginal differences from the common genetic material of all living things and are subject to natural forces which we can control only marginally better than other creatures composed of the same genetic material.This is where the Indian philosophy of Samkhya,Vaiseshika and yoga comes in for our aid.Newton demonstrated that humans are capable of mastering a universe not physically centered on them,because our cosmic centrality is not tied to our physical nature.Freuds account of Narcissism was focused on own body .Kant’s confidence was grounded in something beyond the locus of endless fascination.Hume believed that the idea of cosmic order with or without God is a figment of human imagination.He rejected both sacred and secular knowledge.He reinvented for 18th century ,the therapeutic attitude of moral philosophy of ancient atomists called Epicureans ,whichWittgenstein reinvented for our own times.Hardy and Weinberg(1908)found out that evolution does not occur in a population if seven conditions are not met:-
1.Mutations not occurring
2.Natural selection not happening
3.Population is infinitely large
4.All members of the population breed
5.All matings are totally random
6.Everyone produces the same number of offsprings
7.There is no migration in and out of population.
In these situations the gene pool frequencies remain unchanged ,but since all these do not occur simultaneously in any real situation,evolution is the natural rule .Here evolution is defined in negative terms as result of anything that cause gene pool frequencies to deviate from the ideal case described by Hardy-Weinberg principle.The deviation from balance to imbalance and restoration of balance is the principle of Indian samkhya philosophy and of Chinese yin-yan balance.In 1800 William Paley designed the term artifact for all designed things.For him and ID theorists after him,biology and technology are two species of the same genus ,the design sciences.Biology is a divine design and technology is a human design.Nature is a divine artifice .We are both artifacts as well as offsprings of God.Reproductin is self replacement for survival and death is planned obsolescence.There is indefinite durability as well as perpetual movement for the machinery of life .These ideas developed into informed projects of biophysics,bionics,biomimetics and biotechnology etc.
Why do human beings try to create things that already exist in nature ?Why do we clone and make a being when it can be produced naturally?
How do we do it ?
How is the technology.Why is the nontechnological bio part of our nature.
James Clerk Maxwell said the universe is designed to be understood by creatures like human beings .this is now called the Anthropic principle.But who designed the universe?And who designed the human beings and other creatures who can cognize the design of the universe? And how human beings design a model of the universe as well as his own nature ?And thus become a designer himself ?If we replace the term design with creation,and designer with creator ,the science and spirituality meets .God as designer of universe and human beings ,and human beings as designers of scientific gadgets and instruments and methods of measurements of the universe etc are thus cognizable as noncontroversial.Now the only question remains to be answered is does human beings know what they are creating and what would be the aftereffects of them on global ecology?Did the industrial revolutionists know that fossil fuel usage will increase global warming within a short span of 300 years and make so much of natural calamities in the last decade ?Did the Spanish flu investigators in 1918 know that the hybrid virus they created by injecting Human virus in to swine will turn up as H1 N1 hybrid just 90 years after its creation and make so much of havoc?No .Human beings do not know what they are doing to global ecology or to global health.Their activities are for selfish purposes-for research degree,position,fame and high salaries and other paraphernalia the research project brings and they are not concerned with the welfare of entire world.In this they do differ from ancient scientists of India ,who believed in the dictum”Loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu”.
As Steve Fuller notices(pp 181)the idea of evolution was the common feature of most of the great cosmologies ,and of the karmic ideology of India and China.The entire global community will be benefited by the study of ancient Indian sciences and ways of living as part of natural ecology and humanism for global peace and wellbeing .Probably ,that is what we need in the present hour .The music of the cosmic spheres and of the biofields created by electromagnetic potential of the 72000 naadi and their chakra in human body ,and the 72 melakartha raaga as the parent naadi from which endless musical melodies are created for human health(physical,mental,intellectual and spiritual)as well as plant and animal health is thus revisited and reinvented/rediscovered for world peace and healthy living .This is probably the reason for my birth and my training in science and art of east and west.The life of every organism , being a design of the designer , the designer had designed me for the synthesis of art and science,west and east .I do hear the harmony of a musical melody in this perception of thought and life as a mission to be fulfilled,as a journey to be undertaken with blissful cognizance of a divine design.
Darwin was concerned about the variety of species and the variety of the physical characters in the siblings of the same parents which he called variations .W.Bateson in 1909 quoted Samuel Butler “To me it seems origin of variation is the only true origin of species.Darwin accepted the fusion or blending theory of inheritance as the undisputed belief of his times.This acceptance had influenced his views on variation and causes of organic evolution.But in a letter to Huxley in 1857 he had mentioned the possibility of not fusion but mixture as parents have parents and grandparents and thus a long list of ancestral origin .The pithru /mathru vansa of the ancient Indian chronologies and their laws of inheritance are never analysed by scientists or historians .Why should the racial and chronological list of paramparaas given in detail by the historians of India in such minute details if they were not aware of the survival of the races through ancestral genes is not asked by any one .Every one dismisses the chronology as a mythical text and as lies of an imaginary poetic mind.But I do see it as a biologist and Scientist .Only a race who thinks of the origin of the species can be so elaborate in recording the chronology of different kings and their relatives as well as of the entire Gurukula parampara.From where did we originate and from where did our wisdom and knowledge originate had been fascinating questions to these scientists/historians.Their varna and its rules also originated from such knowledge.They knew that with blending inheritance bisexual reproduction will tend to rapidly produce uniformity.And if variability persists,causes of new variation must be continually at work.They knew the great variability of the domesticated and wild species of animals,plants and also of humans because of the great biodiversity of the tropical forests which they occupied and also compared it with the temperate biodiversity which is not as great as the tropics.The domestication of human,animal and plant changes the conditions of food production and intake .Increase food intake cause increase in size but there is indirect variability in all directions ascribed to disturbance ,change of condition and regularity of action of reproductive system and the imbalance and balance of these conditions is dealt with in samkhya and yoga philosophy and in ayurveda and medicine of India which deals with biological knowledge.The tropical geological changes and the changes they bring about both in wild and domesticated species ,temporary increase or decrease of food due to the weather changes and variations of temperature which cause imbalance were well studied by them because of their proximity and familiarity to the cyclical monsoon clocks.they knew where to find food in times of distress and knew the nature and quality of food which was abundant and variable in their territory.they knew that for their survival the biodiversity also should survive and thus the agricultural and wild life preservation systems were evolved.These rules were not known to the western world to which Darwin belonged because they were not familiar with the tropical Indian geographical peculiarities and its long experience and traditional knowledge.Therefore ,variation under nature was described as “the subject is an obsure one.But it may be useful to probe our ignorance.”(Ch XX11 Variation).In the 1842 manuscript (Foundatins p2)it is said that “each parent transmits its peculiarities and if varieties are allowed to cross freely such varieties will be demolished .All bisexual animals must cross ,hermaphrodite plants does cross “And here the possibility of a third race and a number of races which has lost the purity of the original parental race and have differences is suggested.And if if varieties with only slight differences are crossed the differences disappear and produce a uniformity of breed .”
Such theories were existing in India for a prolonged period of time from prehistoric times and hence what Darwin postulated after the contact of Europe with India was the continuation of the ancient Indian concept only.But due to lack of familiarity with the rules of Indian scientists there had been several misunderstandings and mistakes .This we will come to later.One of the difficulties Darwin had with natural selection was that in the most ancient domesticated plants and animals ,the natural country where they were reared from ancient times showed more variations due to cross breeding .That is,the variations were not natural selections but made by crossbreeding by human intervention of cultivation and domestication.
The particulate inheritance(inheritance of a particle-gene) causes an individual to resemble a remotest ancestor and not the immeadiate parents ,for the ancestral gene pattern can be by chance reproduced and hence reversion of a variance occur.Thus particulate inheritance diffes from blending theory .There is no inherent tendency of variance to diminish .In a population with two alternative genes of any factor ,existing in the ratio of p to q ,the three genotypes would be in the ratio of p2:2 pq :q2.This algebraic ratio assures that the the characteristics will be represented in fixed proportions of the population ,provided the ratio p and q are unchanged.Chance survival and selective survival can change the ratio to slight extant.How can we calculate chance survival?
Suppose there is n number of individuals in a population .Breeding at random the variance will be halved by this cause alone in 1.4n generations.Since number of surviving individuals to reproduce in each generation in most species exceed a million and in some a millionfold greater ,the cause of hereditary variance will be exceedingly minute. ,when compared to rate of halving in one or two generations by blending inheritance.The contrast is that mutation rate needed to maintain a given amount of variability is many thousand times smaller in particulate inheritance than in blending theory.The variability of cultivated and domesticated animals being almost equal or more than the wild species whether natural or artificial selection is the cause for destruction and survival of species was a problem faced by the theory of selection and survival.
For Darwin,the fact that the siblings of same parents and ancestry having different variable features and characters could be explained in two ways by the two theories.Under the blending theory it proves mutation ,new and frequent .Under particulate inheritance it is due to heterozygote population,any two offsprings equally likely to get unlike or like genes from their parents.In close analogy to physical concept of energy and the statistical concept of variance,the heterozygote possess variance in a potential or latent form and it is stored in a homozygous from which it will later reappear.A statistical equilibrium of population is achieved thus by random mating between latent and apparent form of variance.Particulate theory resembles kinetic theory of gases with perfectly elastic collisions ,whereas blending theory resembles theory of gases with inelastic collision ,and in which outside agency is required to be continually at work to keep particles astir.
Many of the domesticated animals,birds(including men)are ill-fitted to survive in wild condition and in severe natural calamities.The natural selection is at work in wild varieties and artificial selection in domesticated and cultivated series and as one can expect it is the wild varieties which will survive and continue the races when some great disaster wipe out life on earth.By destroying wild life and normal and natural growth of plants and animals human beings are gradually destroying the survival of himself on earth.The adaptation of generations of species is not there for the manmade varieties of plants and animals ,whether it be artificial cloning or insemination.
When there is an increased demand the cells have the power of adaptive multiplication and then we find rates of mutation.Then,can we suppose the environment control nature of mutation,like the course of a projectile is controlled by the field of force in which it flies?Or does the mutation happen due to an inner urge in the cell implanted in it by a primordial ancestor which directs its predestined evolution?Or is the nature and the environment has series of interactions for such an evolution to take place?The blending theory presupposes every individual organism as a multiple mutant .In particulate theory the much lower mutation rates do not fit in with that.Weissmann postulated a momentum for mutations which enable the minimal mutations to increase in an advantageous direction until it attains a selection value ,and continuous decrease of a useless organ in evolution.Here the selection value is its utility and size which is not always true .
If a change of 1 mm have selection value a change of 0.1 mm has a selection value one-tenth as great ,though it is inappreciable to us.The rate at which mutation happen depend on selective advantage for a species but sometimes it has selective disadvantage as in a cancerous growth also.The frequency of mutations in Drosophila is not greater than one in 100000 flies,and a lapse of 100,000 generations is needed tp produce a significant change in the heritable nature of the species.And usually the mutant gene is eliminated by nature and not preserved in surviving individuals since they are pathological and lethal..The agency controlling mutations is not capable of controlling the direction of evolution.
How impossible it is without statistics to conjecture the duration of life and percentage of deaths to births in mankind.(Charles Darwin 1845 .Life and letters ,11;33).Physiologists admit that biology differs from the physicochemical and mathematical scinces in being inexact.(Huxley 1854).These two opinions are totally different ,yet we respect both Darwin and Huxley in their own way.Biology is not an inexact science and it needs statistics and mathematics physicochemical sciences as all of us know today .
We are born and we die.The interval is our life history.This is so for all species and for all individuals of each species.The calculation of a birthtime and time of death and calculations of how to manage the life and its various functions and business is all about sciences of India .It is what is called the dharmasasthra.It is in the mathematical calculation of a divine birth and the protection of dharma by that special birth ,India had excelled from time immemorial and still does.The Dalai Lama was identified by such a calculation.Indian scientists predicted birth of Christ .The birth of a Rama,Krishna and Budha were predicted before they were born.So the life history starts from a prediction of birth and the waiting for that prediction to happen by an entire nation .The chronology of kings and descendents and family is a type of census of the living and the dead calculating the population of that particular race ,whether sooryavansa,chandravansa or a mixture of the two ,or agnikula .I have given the chronology of the three Nalapat branches as a sample of population control which is inbuilt in the maternal branches and a Malthusian parameter of population increase is shown in the paternal branch of the Nalapat (Christian converts).The reproductive value of a female increases from age 10 to 20 -25 and thereafter it decreases steadily and by 40 it is nil .Therefore by studying the living females in a family and calculating their age one can reach a Malthusian parameter.For the paternal inheritance system ,the same is applicable to male members.Malthusian parameter of population increase is measured by a vital statistics of an organism in relation to its environment which determines the measure of relative growth rate of population .It also is a measure of the reproductive value of individuals at all ages and stages of their life history.In a pair of allellomorphic genes we can distinguish
1.rarer from more common
2.less advantageous from more advantageous
3.the mutant gene from the relatively primitive gene from which the mutant arose
4.recessive from dominant.
2 and 3 are closely associated.In a population the less advantageous may become rarer if freely allowed to reproduce.But the rarity can also be due to family control adopted by certain groups and not adopted by other groups and then just by rarity and commonality alone the advantage and disadvantage cannot be assessed.The rarity of AB dominant genes over O group gene (which is more primitive than all the others) is not to be assessed in that way.500 mutant genes in Drosophila cultures in 1958,showed distribution as follows:
Gene Recessive Intermediate Dominant Total
Autosomal 130 9 0 139
Sex-linked 78 4 0 82
In several species the wild gene /primitive gene dominance has been seen ,including in the rodents in which the albino genes were studied.This is true in the O group ,Rh + group of blood in human beings . The human trials of modification and mutation of RNA virus has resulted in the new H1 N1 virus (in 1918 the Spanish flu human virus was inoculated into swines and in 1930 the mutant first emerged and in 2009 it has assumed lethal proportions causing damage to human life ).Therefore ,the new trials with mutation and cloning are to be viewed with caution by the scientific community.The ignorance and overenthusiasm of human can cause havoc after sometime and when such a calamity happen the resistant mutant gene will not respond to usual methods of treatment.They will survive and that also is survival of the fittest according to the theory .
The chance of survival of an individual gene:-
The gene n an individual will appear in the next generation in a certain number 0,1,2,3… etc of individuals or homologous loci.For bisexual individuals there should be two individuals with the same gene.But in a virus or in organism with selffertilisation,the same gene appear in the offspring and the original gene is doubly represented if the individual survives to maturity.The probabilities of the offspring getting the gene 0,1,2.. attain maturity is denoted by P0,P1,P2…,where since one of these contingencies must happen ,
P0+P1+ P2+….= 1.
Probability of extinction Probability of survival
Number of generations No advantage 1% advantage Difference No advantage 1% advantage
1 0.3679 0.3642 0.0037 0.6321 0.6358
3 0.6259 0.6197 0.0062 0.3741 0.3803
7 0.7905 0.7825 0.0080 0.2095 0.2175
15 0.8873 0.8783 0.0090 0.1127 0.1217
31 0,9411 0.9313 0.0098 0.0589 0.0687
63 0.9698 0.9591 0.0107 0.0302 0.0409
127 0.9847 0.9729 0.0118 0.0153 0.0271
Limit 1.0000 0.9803 0.0197 0.0000 0.0197
Of 10000 mutations enjoying a 1% selective advantage ,and which has already reached the stage of existence in one sexually mature individual,3642 will fail to transmit the advantageous gene to any descendent ,whereas with no selective advantage only 3679 will so fail.Even after 31 generations the number surviving out of 10000 will be only 687 against expectation of 589 where no selective advantage is enjoyed.When there are 10 lakhs individuals a 1% advantage mean ,in a group of only a few people the chance survival is almost inoperative.A mutation though advantageous has only very little chance of establishing in a species ,if it occurs once only.To have a 1 % advantage it has to happen at least 50 times ,and in mature individuals at least 250 times for its prospects to be secure in future .In a species with 100 crores in each generation,to maturity,a mutation rate of one in a thousand million will produce one mutant in every generation,and thus establish superiority of the new type in less than 250 generations and quite probably in less than 10,from the first occurrence of the mutation.If mutation rate is one in 10 lakhs the business is settled in the first generation.Mutation rates like other characteristics of organisms change only gradually in course of evolution.Unfavourable mutations happen increasing at 1 in 10 lakhs or more without affecting character of species,as in a cancer cell,whereas favourable mutations are at 1 in 1000 fold less and happen once only in 1000 generations at random.The rate of increasing mutation rates and decrease of it is compared in different species.When there is no selective advantage or disadvantage ,the fraction of cases in which extinction has not taken place after n generations is,approximately 2/n.That is,the in absence of selection,expectation in any future generation is equal to the number now living,that the average number of individuals in which the surviving genes will each be represented is ½ n.To observe the actual or sphuta ,if the frequency with which each number occurs is the coefficient of the corresponding power in expansion of theta (x),we have in theta the generating function of the moments in distribution.If zero is origin and u1,u2,u3 etc are the moments ,of the distribution of earlier generations ,those in the latter generations will have the coefficients of t denoted as u1’,u2’,u3’ etc and we have relations,u1’=u1,u2’=u2+u1,u3’=u3+3 u2 +u1, u4’=u4+6 u3+7 u2+u1 etc.
Since all moments are initially one (Eka or unity)it iseasy to see from these that u2 will increase proportionately to n,u3 to n2,u4 to n3 etc when n is large.Knowing the moments we may now infer the actual form of the distribution .
Thus time ,moments,each generation,and each individual as well as each genetic particle is interconnected in Indian mathematics and chronology of parampara.This knowledge of cosmic and biological law in terms of mathematics and its application into musical rhythms is a unique feature we can see in Indian tradition.The antiquity of this shows the antiquity of human culture and cognitive powers and creativity.The logarithmic tables of the ancient astronomers bear testimony to their observational and logical mathematicalpowers.There had been modifications in their values over time ,by different modern scientists but the methods remain the same as well as the basic truth remains the same is noteworthy.When Krishna says in the Bhagavad Geetha that everything and everybody exists as before ,the truth of recycling energy and its manifestation as generations of population has to be understood.
Stastistical investigation of just one parameter,say wing colour of night flying moths ,was taken up by R.A.Fisher to study variation as determined by mutation and selection. That means he took varna or colour of wing of moth for study of statistics.The study of varna (white,reddish white,yellow and black and its mixtures) in human species is done very early in India and they attributed the colours to the actions and karma not to birth from those times. Though it may appear crude and unscientific to the 21st century scientist,the method was known from at least 10000 BC is something which gives insight into human intelligence and cognition of variation and inheritance and attempt to group biological inheritance under karma theory so that equality prevail among all races of human beings.Darwin thought abundant species will make most rapid evolutionary change and supplant less abundant groups with which they compete.Among the factors which influence relationship between variation and selection is the tendency of like to mate with like ,known as homogamy.The effect of selection in human stature is increased in this way by more than 20 %.Fertility depends upon the constitutional similarity of the mates according to Indian sciences.R.A.Fisher also mentions this in his book(pp 99)but says there has been no research to prove or disprove this.Heterozygote stage has a selective advantage over homozygous state,and cross fertilization has advantage over self fertilization.In a population mating at random ,the reproductive value of the three genotypes would bein ratio of a:b:c.For genotype of first kind,its offspring will be pa+qb if crossfertilised at random,against a if it is selffertilised.For heterozygote we find,1/2(pa+b+qc)for cross fertilization against ¼(a+2b+c)for self fertilization.The average advantages in the two homozygous phase are thusq(b-a) and p(b-c)respectively.In heterozygotes it is ¼(p-q)(a-c).The frequencies in which the three phases occur being p2:2 pq:q2 ,the average loss of value in self fertilization will be ½ pq (2 b –a-c).Equilibrium is established when p=b-c/2b-a-c ; q=b-a/2b-a-c.
A,b,c being proportionate contributions to the ancestry of future generations we must have also , p2a +2 pqb _q2c=1.And substituting p and q we get b2-ac=2b-a-c.
Thus the average loss of value of offspring caused by self fertilization ,as a homogenous expression in a,b,c only in the form (b-a)(b-c)/2(b2-ac)..
For any factor a,b,c in the ratio 5:6:4 a stable genetic situation is established in which the product of selffertilisation is worth 1/16th less than the average products of cross fertilization.
Equilibrium involving only two factors A and a,B and b will be maintained mutually .It is important tounderstand the fact that equilibrium of frequencies of gametic combinations AB,Ab ,aB,ab requires a third condition of equilibrium .AB and ab are favoured by natural selection.AB and aB decrease when these opposite pairs increase .Adjustments take place by recombinations in individuals who are heterozygotes for both factors.AB and ab unite to form double heterozygote states and inequality in frequencies of the two kinds of double heterozygotes have an important consequence.When two factors considered happen to be on the same chromosome,frequency of recombination depend upon crossing over which is affected by genetic differences between different strains.Substitution of less favoured combinations for the more favoured combinations can happen.Thus a reduction in reproductive value ensues.
Individual variations of heritable nature has a distribution pattern .Suppose this distribution coinside with the modal integer,the frequency of values other than this integer may be easily calculated from the standard deviation of the distribution.If standard deviation is 1/6th of a unit,3 exceptions will be expected in a 1000 people.(3/1000)..For 1/8th,only 63 in a million people will show exception.For 1/10th of a unit,only one in 2 million.Very extensive counts will be required to exclude variations of this kind .The integral numbers possess a special stability favouring a conservative tendency in evolution.This is not found in simple measurements.In any highly adapted organism the probability of of advantage through any considerable evolutionary steps (saltation)rapidly becomes infinitesimal as the step is increased in magnitude.
If we look farther back,the proportion of existing variance ascribable to ancestry becomes smaller and smaller .Taking the fraction of segregation as only 2/5th in each generation,the fraction due to differences in ancestry 10 generations back is only aboutone pat of 160 ,while at 30 generations it is less than one in four millions.It is only the geographical barriers to sexual intercourse between different races ,which lead to geographical races and there is a common ancestor for entire human race from this viewpoint.The ancestry of members of the same nation can differ little beyond the last 500 years.At 2000 years the only differences that would seem to remain would be those between distinct ethnographic races.these or at least some of the elements of these ,may indeed be extremely ancient.Diffusion of blood between the separated groups was not completely nonexistent even in remotest times (especially with the ancient trade routes and commerce of the Indus valley Mehrgarh period,and archeological evidence of human migrations from Paleolithic times and before ) and hence the classification of the ethnographic races based on varna must be taken as an earliest evidence of human knowledge of biological and racial variance and inheritance as well.The knowledge of a common ancestor for every living creature ,not only human race,characterizes the knowledge of biological ancestry of Indians.They attribute Prajapathy Kasyapa as the first generator of all human races and races of animals and birds as well .Bible attributes Adam as the father of human races only .
Darwin was not the first to account for sexual selection by the two secondary male characteristics namely,battling of polygamous strong males to get the female and the amazing development of plumage in male birds like pheasants,peacocks etc .The sexual preference of females is determined by these two characters .The ability of birds to sing beautifully is another akin to plumage ,which attract the female bird.In these cases competition is between the members of the same sex for getting a female.Not between two species.The element of female will and choice also has a definite role in winning of the male animal/bird .But A.R Wallace rejected the role of female choice in evolution of sex-related ornaments of the male individual (like plumage,song,prowess etc).A medical person is required to certify the cause of death.But there is no need for such a person to certify the sociological cause of birth.If birth has taken place ,there definitely had been a sexual selection and a sexual union is known to everyone.What was the cause of attraction of female to male and the subsequent union is a biological as well as psychological/intellectual even spiritual thought process.Though it may seem abstract,it is the spiritual and intellectual and mental faculties that are first stimulated and the physical union happen only in the end and therefore it is only an effect and not a cause.For evolutionary change and survival by sexual selection,existence of a sexual preference at least in one sex(in female for a definite quality in male as described above)and bionomic conditions in which such preference will confer reproductive advantage are mandatory.When these two conditions are satisfied,the existence of special structures as plumage,special abilities of producing songs etc can be judged on morphological grounds to be efficacious as ornaments ,fully developed only in the mating seasons and paraded conspicuously for the female to see,hear and get attracted .In birds in captivity under artificial conditions the sexual preferences of birds are deranged by their mental derangement .That means an effective nervous system mechanism is needed for natural sexual preference and selection.It responds differently to a preferred male and a unprefered male.Even hens show this ability to behave differently to their preferred cocks.Even polygamous birds prefer only one mate in one season.According to Darwin,birds remain single when they cannot find a mate which does not interest or please it.According to H.E .Hpward (Territory in bird life)birds remain unmated because they are not in possession of a breeding territory where they can nest and breed unmolested ,and are ready to mate with even a widow or widower bird left in possession of a coveted nesting territory.We have to think of this character in human behaviour as well.Not only the second alliances but also the first alliances are based on availability of a suitable mate who can provide a home for rearing kids in human worldly life as well.Therefore samsaara is always akin to biological urges just as in any other animal/bird kingdoms .(In Indian philosophy this is called Puthreshana,vitheshana and lokeshana –desire for children,wealth and worlds).This is commo to all biological life forms .Female preference of males have along with the qualities mentioned as plumage,song ability,prowess ,the availability of a good home /nest for rearing young ones.Therefore men are proud of these qualities and achievements .The sexual selection being based on these characters,the strong ,beautiful,handsome with artistic abilities and enough support at financial level had been selected by the bride and her people as a suitable alliance and this continues still in our world .The plumage development and song abilityand sexual preference for these must advance together and should not be checked by counterselection ,so that it advance with everincreasing speed .If these conditions satisfy,the speed of development will be proportional to development already attained which will therefore increase with time exponentially or in geometric progression.Thus in any binomial situation in which sexual selection is capable of,and where it is not under check of any sort,exponential time expansion or increase in geometrical progression is seen which produce great effects rapidly.A countercheck will produce a relative stability .The number of males with plumage/song ability and the number of females for exert the female preference of it must be equalized for this balance.
How the males attract the attention of the females by their abilities ? How do they get a reproductive advantage over others?How is the monogamous bird societies also have the same advantage as the polygamous bird societies ,probably more than the polygamous ones ?According to Darwin,the early age at which the female is ready to breed,the number of offsprings are related to the availability of nutrients it gets.That is it is nonhereditary causes.The infant mortality rates are another cause for survival and if the animal starts mating early,even if a few offsprings die some will survive is the advantage of the early breeding of birds.Remating of birds (Darwin killed several birds to demonstrate this !And thus initiated the destruction of their race!) after its mate is dead is another means of survival of the races according to Darwin.The finely adorned male gain reproductive advantage and it act as special weapons as in territorial right establishment and the dispute is not a war but a creation of strong impression and intimidation on the rival (both male and female) and a sprightly bearing with fine feathers and triumphant songs are quite as well adapted for war propaganda as for courtship and this is an imitation of birds and animals by the ancient man.The plumage /peacock feathers on crown of kings /emperors ,the war trumpets and conches of them and the strength of the Akshouhini army to impress the neighbouring kings and his retinue of females must be seen in this light.The adornment to attract female and th especial weapons to intimidate the males of same sex are attributed to courtship and sexual selection by Darwin.These create an emotional reaction in other members of the same species.The acquisition of singing ability and developing of ornaments and artistic tastes is to have an evolutionary effect on female members of the species ,to fit her to appreciate more and more highly the display offered.The evolutionary reaction of war paint and war plumage and weapons is intended to male members to make them less and less receptive to all impressions save those arising from genuine prowess.The Batesian and Mullerian theory of mimicry is for defence as well as for survival of species.Sometimes nauseous flavours are evolved as a means of defence by the organisms as a part of mimicry.Stings,disagreeable secretions ,orders etc are the negative repellant forces at work for defence .
Just as our body has an innate selfregulatory mechanism of homeostasis,human societies also has a selfregulatory power.Only such societies will persist even after severe external intereferences and natural calamities to which it is exposed over prehistoric and historic times.The fact that Indian society has survived while Egyptian,Greek,Roman ,Babylonian and Assyrian societies succumbed to disasters shows the selfregulatory mechanism of this society had been at work since antiquity.The insect communities have a co-operative system comparable to human societies which function co-operatively to survive together (pp 180 R.A.Fisher). But they behave as a single animal body whereas human society has an individualistic system of reproduction .The attempt to have kulasangha(guilds of several families together)as panchaayathana during vedic times is akin to an attempt of behaving like a insect society for common benefit ,at least to some extant.The basis of such a cooperative economic system is free interchange of goods or services between different individuals for common good of all.The individual is induced by enlightened self interest to exert himself/herself actively in whatever way s may be serviceable to others and to discover new ways or improved methods of making himself valuable to the common wealth.Those who perform highest get valuable rewards from society .Those who perform least do not get fame or rewards of position.Therefore every one acted for the best performance .The social co-operation of human beings in villages and urban settlements and forests and mountains of India was based on this policy.They produced the best goods/services for the common wealth and enjoyed the land which was common property because it belonged to God ,not to any one individual in particular.Dharma and dhaana(charity) and truth were the vows of every one and in this system the natural and sexual selection had certain natural laws which were followed by every one for the sustainance of all races and species .The music of the spheres and of the seasons and of the day and night and the circadian bilological rhythms of the body were understood and followed as laws and the Indian system of music and music therapy is based on the balance of the three qualities just as the ayurveda ,following samkhya principles.
The number of children to a group of women at the end of their reproductive period cannot be ascribed only to chance.marrried or unmarried state,widowhood,divorce ,wealth and beauty and many other factors determine a womans fertility and it cannot be just studied with mathematics or statistics.There are several mental and moral qualities which determine reproduction.The choice between celibacy and marriage ,and if marriage is decided upon,between precipitation and and postponement of union is a matter of temperament.Some women are charmed by male society and others are not and this factor is at work in human societies unlike other animals and birds and the educational status of the female is a determining factor as well.Therefore the less number of children in a particular group of women cannot be assessed as a direct evidence of inheritance of infertility,nor is it a chance finding ,especially with modern methods of family planning.The evolution of the conscience of respecting voluntary reproduction in educated and civilized society cannot be assessed with statistics alone .In unciviliced societies and in poor families infant mortality as well as primitive infanticide also determine the number of children .The modern system of scanning and destruction of female foetus in utero has decreased the birth rates of female babies to some extant.Selective mortality by nature and selective mortality by artificial means both are at work in such cases .The races which had been having longest social experience of civilized conditions are most immune to modern methods of birth limitation according to statistics(pp 209 R.A.Fisher).Economic and biological forms of class distinctions is also of paramoiunt importance in selective use and control of birth of children.The male selection of birth rate and infanticides due to a patriarchal society is compensated by the female selection of births and protection of girl child in a matriarchal society.Therefore the “success in the struggle for existence “at least in human beings is dependent upon several other factors of sociopolitical and economic importance rather than on natural selection.A permanent civilization is a longstanding civilization and it has to be considered as successful .It is not necessarily unprogressive and conservative as some historians think,but represent the successful balanced and continuously progressive one which has withstood the test of time .And ,India being such a civilization,the world has several things to learn from her .
Intelligent design(ID )theory :-
The evolution versus ID theory is gaining importance.Is nature intelligently designed or not? Is Darwinism a pseudoscince ?In his book Dissent over descent Steve Fuller tries to answer these questions.According to Fuller the hostility to ID nad Darwinism is based not on science but on antireligious bigotry.In fact science and religion has gone hand in hand in India as well as in western history .The theological speculations about divine justice and dharma have fostered advancement of science .The contents of Fullers book deals with the subject under 7 headings.
1.Is there really a scientific consensus?
2.Was Darwin really a scientist?
3.Is there a middle ground between creation and evolution?
4.Is intelligent design any less science than evolution?
5.why cant evolutionists stop tallikig about design?
6.Why is intelligent design unlikely togo away?
7.Who is afraid of Biblical literalism?
ID theorists are steeped in Christain theology but without speaking of God or scriptures they use scientific terms and try to reinterpret science without doing independent research.They have a genetically modified Darwinism to explain origin of life on earth.For the biology is Gods design and technology is mans design and both are design sciences.Technology imitates and improves upon biology.
Bible say man was created in image of God.Indian scriptures say ,man created the veena with wood in the image of daiveeveena(the veena of human body designed by God).So ,man is the design of God in his image and the technology of the veena is the image of the image .Image of the design of God.There is a term called synchretism in linguistics .It is for grammatical forms that result from combining historically distinct roots ,which gives the mind an impression of a timeless idea.Someone who wants to advance a scientific paradigm can go to the roots of scientific history ,to the ancient predecessors and their works regardless of the projects that drove their scientific work.A stanunch atheist as well as a staunch believer in God both goes to roots of scientific logic to prove a point.The neo-Darwinian synthesis have allowed this without hindrance from their specific religious beliefs/interests.In open synchretism we can reexamine the original terms used both in science and scriptural literature and compare the origin .A secular humanist steeped in historical and philosophical relations between science and religion ,Steve Fuller calls the Jesuits the subtle masters of reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable.And,I being a person who has been steeped in Indology and Vaishnavism is also finding it easy to reconcile everything into the fold of science and spirituality,which for me are not separate but a single entity.Perhaps the Jesuit fathers who came to India and learnt Indian sciences and scriptures got their tradition from India ,though there is evidence from their early letters that their intentions and understanding of Indian tradition was not in the correct direction.Many scientists call themselves atheists ,but atheism as a positive doctrine has done nothing for promotion of science is a known fact.
The binomial system of classification and nomenclature is now attributed to the 18th century Swedish Physician –turned-naturalist Carolus Linnaeus.His classification of living things into kingdoms,order,genera,family and species is tantamount to a caste theory of nature ,with a chance for mobility,that is a species change ,restricted to hybrids created by nature or by human beings who undertake agriculture and animal husbandry.From where did he get this idea of nomenclature to all living objects ?From the translation of Itti Achuthan’s work by the Dutch enthusiasts .From where did IttiAchuthan get the knowledge ?From the ancient system of samkhya and Ayurveda and the concept of Naamaroopa for prakrithy /nature .The classification of Indian system expands to both living and nonliving objects while that of Linnaeus is confined to living things alone.Linnaeus ,living in a time in the west,where stars and elements were not named,but numbered ,diligently ascribed systematic assignment of names to 4400 animals and 7700 plants and 500 minerals .The concept of India that a naama or name is a manthra which confers secret powers to objects as well as to the person who names them was being experimented in a new way by the western world through Linnaeus.His work was titled “The system of nature”.The names were not just a list ,but an encyclopedia with grammatic rules for constructing new names as in Sanskrit,but in a different way.The intelligent design was being read through morphology of objects and then given a meaningful name.The name homo sapiens means ,human the wise.He had the concept that nature is created for human beings ,a Biblical concept,whereas in Indian concept nature is created for every creature alike.Linnaeus thought diseases occur when objects are named wrongly,or addressed by wrong names .This is the concept of Indian manthra also.A manthra wrongly produced or wrongly pronounced is harmful.A raaga wrongly rendered is harmful .Most of the creatures and plants were not seen by Linnnaeus but he named from the preexisting descriptions of the older books/writers.Linnaeus believed in the economy of nature whereby births and deaths are balanced ,and this is what we now call global ecology,a concrete sense of which ws beginning to be gleaned during Linnaeus ‘ lifetime ,from the long voyages for commercial ,diplomatic and military purposes (pp 64 Steve Fuller).This long voyages to India by the Europeans after Vasco da Gama was the real reason for the translation of scientific texts of India into European languages and the development of what we now call western science.(whether it be biology,medicine or astrophysics ).Linnaeus is portrayed as part of prehistory of modern biology.But he was also a early political economist.Because 18th century natural history and political economy shared a preoccupation of transforming the world balance from east to west .Only in the 19th century the terms biology and sociology became separate terms in France. The transition between civil history and natural history ,natural and political economy was difficult before that period.Adam Smith believed that supply and demand for goods tend towards equilibrium from Linnaeus observations about the finite size of anmal stomach checking the otherwise potentially insatiable desire for nourishment.Smiths generation of economists noticed Linnaeus arguments for national economic self sufficiency which was then called cameralism ,but now called protectionism.Linnaeus dream was to convert European states to gardens of Eden,where all nourishments were there for all the people so that they become selfsufficient.He thought that such a successful governance and economy will lead humanity of Europe back from the fallen state (of God).In every botanical and zoological garden ,that spirit is enlivened.But ,the spirit of economically selfsufficient welfare garden states or republics of the east which the Europeans coming from the temperate climates ,saw in tropical east was the real reason behind the concept.They identified the green tropical forests and its economy with Garden of Eden is that which really matters.Linnaean naturalists demonstrated in their gardens that naturally alien creatures can live harmoniously ,cooperating with each other in symbiosis ,even in human designed environments and they were the temples of these naturalists and were replica of Indian Upavana and Ashrams.By 1778,the year of death of Linnaeus,he was considered the most significant scientist after Sir Isaac Newton.
Darwin took another step back to genesis by reviving the tree of life image .The tree of life or Samsaaravriksha is a powerful image in Indian philosophy and worship of trees is as ancient as Indian life ,and is demonstrated from IVC,Mehergarh period onwards.The tree image shows all life descending from a common ancestor and the manifold species are thus from a single stock .The concept of Prajaapathy as the originator of everything in the universe is ageold.The treelike structure or cladogram is used for historic study of languages by German scholar,August Schleicher at the same period as Darwin.He constructed a geneology of Indo-European languages from an Adam –like originating moment in Northern India.His cladogram was stuck in biology ,aiding in development of taxonomy ,especially when DNA was interpreted as coding moments of speciation ,or branching of the evolutionary tree .This is the so-called molecular clock hypothesis.
What scientific method means is the natural divine spirit in each and every one of us,which is disciplined and channeled systematically ,by our own effort in self-knowledge or pursuit of truth.And this is what spirituality is all about.Therefore,I do not find any controversy between the spiritual and scientific,since I am trained in the ancient spiritual traditions of India and in the western scientific methods alike.
Science is based on faith in human reaon’s ability to transcend to its immeadiate circumstances.This is the same ground on which spiritualism is also based.The controversy between science and spirituality was constructed in 19th century by the industrialized technological Europe.Technology alone does not comprise science.Technology is a tool ,man being a tool-making animal,it is a tool he created for speedy actions and for better fulfillment of his needs in minimum time.Science is the systematic logically and mathematically verifiable laws which depend upon human cognizance and intelligence and experience .If we understand this,there is no controversy between spiritual and scientific.The fact that Galileo was prosecuted and his laws not accepted by Vatican,and that the main philosophical works of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ,a heretic Jesuit paleoentologist who discovered the Java man fossils,were banned by the Roman catholic church until after his death in 1955 (because he did not accept a division of labor between science and religion in terms of how and why about the question of nature of life ) bears testimony to the fact that the Biblical and the scientific methods are different .But ,when we go to Upanishads and the vedic scriptural knowledge and the 6 darsana of India there is no controversy at all with spiritual and scientific methods of enquiry or with the goals of them.
DNA is considered as Gods language imprint .The DNA Nobel prize-winner James Watson recently told a journalist that UK is wasting its money on development aid to Africa .But that statement was a demonstration of his “selfish gene “,indirectly.The neo-Darwinist theory of reciprocal altruism means individuals are genetically predisposed to care for members of their own kin in the strong sense of group selection.(E.O.Wilson founder of sociobiology).We share 99 % of our genes with chimpanzee and 95 % with most other animal species.So that ,by the gene sharing we have an instinctive liking to protect the animal world ,creating a new brave moral economy and ecology ,which is as ancient as the animal species itself.Thus the idea of sustaining “our own”at the expense of “them”is lost.The Upanishads call it the mama(mine)and thava(yours)feeling.All are one .There is no mine or thyne difference in common sharing as God’s wealth .That was the global ecology practiced by ancient Indian scientists.The modern science has not yet reached that state ,but is progressing to that level slowly and steadily .Ecology is broader in concept than the welfare of a human society.It cannot be restricted to one religion alone ,to one society alone ,to human race alone but encompass the entire universe and that is Indian Advaitha theory practiced even by the illiterate who has never heard of the term.It is practice of advaitha rather than theoretical knowledge of it which was unique in India .When a new person(like a European in 13 -14th century)comes and see a illiterate villager protecting a tree and worshipping plants,trees ,serpents ,animals like cows etc,he may misjudge it as animism or as paganism because they are not aware of the practical advaitha which leads to ecological balance and selfsupporting economy for welfare of entire universe.Science was practiced ,not theorized here.
The synthesis of spirituality and science is not the same as the secular science-religion segregation ,lead by Francis Collins who led the US National Institutes of health drive to map human genome.he is committed to Christianity but ,like many atheists, he gives all religions equal treatment ,and treats them with respect .This is called a broad church approach to religion which results in a philosophy sufficiently devoid of controversy between Hindu,Muslim,Jew,Christian including Pope john paul 2(pp 105 Steve Fuller).The problem is ,this lumping together of Indian philosophy as a religion ,just like other semitic /or institutionalized religions which both scientists ,atheists and spiritualists are doing very often .They fail to see the difference between the artificially made religious propaganda from the logical mathematical ,reasoning and systematic codifying of knowledge in Indian thought ,more scientific than all modern sciences put together ,and the practical advaitha of global economy and self sufficiency of an ancient society which still survive after all the trials and tribulations it had been subjected to.Much of the war over science and religion was fought between Christianity and modern western science.
Can there be a design without a designer ?
Can Copernicus dislodge earth from the center of universe?
Can Darwin dislodge humanity from the center of earth?
Can Freud dislodge reason from center of humanity?
The privileged position of humanity in nature is lost from Darwin to the Michael Foucault ,the leader of postmodern questioning of ontological integrity of what is called the subject,the author/designer/or simply man.Postmodernism and naturalism fit in together.We humans have only marginal differences from the common genetic material of all living things and are subject to natural forces which we can control only marginally better than other creatures composed of the same genetic material.This is where the Indian philosophy of Samkhya,Vaiseshika and yoga comes in for our aid.Newton demonstrated that humans are capable of mastering a universe not physically centered on them,because our cosmic centrality is not tied to our physical nature.Freuds account of Narcissism was focused on own body .Kant’s confidence was grounded in something beyond the locus of endless fascination.Hume believed that the idea of cosmic order with or without God is a figment of human imagination.He rejected both sacred and secular knowledge.He reinvented for 18th century ,the therapeutic attitude of moral philosophy of ancient atomists called Epicureans ,whichWittgenstein reinvented for our own times.Hardy and Weinberg(1908)found out that evolution does not occur in a population if seven conditions are not met:-
1.Mutations not occurring
2.Natural selection not happening
3.Population is infinitely large
4.All members of the population breed
5.All matings are totally random
6.Everyone produces the same number of offsprings
7.There is no migration in and out of population.
In these situations the gene pool frequencies remain unchanged ,but since all these do not occur simultaneously in any real situation,evolution is the natural rule .Here evolution is defined in negative terms as result of anything that cause gene pool frequencies to deviate from the ideal case described by Hardy-Weinberg principle.The deviation from balance to imbalance and restoration of balance is the principle of Indian samkhya philosophy and of Chinese yin-yan balance.In 1800 William Paley designed the term artifact for all designed things.For him and ID theorists after him,biology and technology are two species of the same genus ,the design sciences.Biology is a divine design and technology is a human design.Nature is a divine artifice .We are both artifacts as well as offsprings of God.Reproductin is self replacement for survival and death is planned obsolescence.There is indefinite durability as well as perpetual movement for the machinery of life .These ideas developed into informed projects of biophysics,bionics,biomimetics and biotechnology etc.
Why do human beings try to create things that already exist in nature ?Why do we clone and make a being when it can be produced naturally?
How do we do it ?
How is the technology.Why is the nontechnological bio part of our nature.
James Clerk Maxwell said the universe is designed to be understood by creatures like human beings .this is now called the Anthropic principle.But who designed the universe?And who designed the human beings and other creatures who can cognize the design of the universe? And how human beings design a model of the universe as well as his own nature ?And thus become a designer himself ?If we replace the term design with creation,and designer with creator ,the science and spirituality meets .God as designer of universe and human beings ,and human beings as designers of scientific gadgets and instruments and methods of measurements of the universe etc are thus cognizable as noncontroversial.Now the only question remains to be answered is does human beings know what they are creating and what would be the aftereffects of them on global ecology?Did the industrial revolutionists know that fossil fuel usage will increase global warming within a short span of 300 years and make so much of natural calamities in the last decade ?Did the Spanish flu investigators in 1918 know that the hybrid virus they created by injecting Human virus in to swine will turn up as H1 N1 hybrid just 90 years after its creation and make so much of havoc?No .Human beings do not know what they are doing to global ecology or to global health.Their activities are for selfish purposes-for research degree,position,fame and high salaries and other paraphernalia the research project brings and they are not concerned with the welfare of entire world.In this they do differ from ancient scientists of India ,who believed in the dictum”Loka samastha sukhino bhavanthu”.
As Steve Fuller notices(pp 181)the idea of evolution was the common feature of most of the great cosmologies ,and of the karmic ideology of India and China.The entire global community will be benefited by the study of ancient Indian sciences and ways of living as part of natural ecology and humanism for global peace and wellbeing .Probably ,that is what we need in the present hour .The music of the cosmic spheres and of the biofields created by electromagnetic potential of the 72000 naadi and their chakra in human body ,and the 72 melakartha raaga as the parent naadi from which endless musical melodies are created for human health(physical,mental,intellectual and spiritual)as well as plant and animal health is thus revisited and reinvented/rediscovered for world peace and healthy living .This is probably the reason for my birth and my training in science and art of east and west.The life of every organism , being a design of the designer , the designer had designed me for the synthesis of art and science,west and east .I do hear the harmony of a musical melody in this perception of thought and life as a mission to be fulfilled,as a journey to be undertaken with blissful cognizance of a divine design.
Music therapy for children with special healthcare needs
EVIDENCE BASED GUIDELINES FOR CARE WITH MUSIC THERAPY IN CSHCN
Dr Suvarna Nalapat
First formulate basic guidelines and then implement them into practice.
1.The small circle of improvement model:-Plan—Do-study and analyse the effects subjectively and objectively-and then act and improve on the model.
2.Longitudinal continuity of care.
Requires long time follow up and contact with child and family.Therapist must be available for long term consultation.(either in person/or by email/phone etc)
3.The orderly transfer of care from expert therapist to the assistant can take place gradually when the assistant gets confidence to deal with the problem.
4.It should be family centered care.
Role of doctor/clinician/therapist is at two levels
1.Care of individual child and at family level
2.Development of systems of care at community/population level
THE BASIC PLAN
1.The first and the most basic is the proper evaluation of the child and diagnosis by the PCP/Paediatrician and then involvement of a team of specialists
2.The therapist is a member of the multidisciplinary team .Should be able to communicate and work in unison with them.
3.Verbal and written communication between the team members is facilitated by a diary in which each member notes down the observations at each visit and this is kept with the child/parent and sent to school/to therapists/specialists so that each is aware of the progress and condition of the child and what he/she is getting as intervention.
After having a pretest knowledge of the condition of child from teacher/parent/doctor the therapist can plan the strategy.(The pretest here means the condition before music therapy started )
4.From assessment of the pretest condition provided by the team,the therapist has to group the clients and then do group and individual assessment of the clients
5.Grouping :-Can be done in different ways according to the combined decision of the team.
The different varieties of groupings are in order of preference
A.Infant-toddler groups,preschool group,school age,and latency/adolescence group
B.On a basis of class .as given by the present team.at Adarsh School Ernakulam)
C.verbal-nonverbal (which is not very good procedure)
6.The groups of children with the parents attend the group sessions.
The methods are variable for each group depending upon its requirements as well as for each child.But in the initial 15 days the groups are given a test model.
Have a sruthipetty/Thamburu/or even a keyboard with you and to its sruthy just repeat sa pa a saa /mandra shadja with athitaara shadja/or mandrashadja with G3 or N3 as in Panthuvaraali /Rasikapriya etc.Just the swara only with sruthy.
The two notes used should be at recognizable distances .This is especially of use to test the children without language or with monosyllables alone who will try to make sound as the pitch we used .This need not be perfect.But let them be free to make whatever sounds they please .The turntaking,the pitch ,etc and the time taken for each child can be noted down in diary.Some children take more time ,even days.Sometimes they just keep quiet for three or four days and start making cooing/babbling noises after 4th or 5th day,indicating that they had been attentive/listening/learning(cognition/memory improvement).
In the initial period children may not tolerate more than 30-45 minutes of this.Some may tolerate more time.These variations have to be noted and remembered by teacher and parent.Initially if the child sits for 20-30 mts it is enough.Later when he/she becomes interested in music they sit more.The creating of interest in music is the art and efficiency of the therapist/parent teamwork.To which teachers can contribute a lot.
At home parents can casually start singing the same notes if they can sing.And see whether the child respond by any making of sounds.Better still is a recorded sound of music therapist to which played at home the family /and the siblings sing in pitch.That might be a stimulation for the child to make sounds.
When selfconfidence come they will start in groups also.
For those already having singing skills low frequency raagaas are selected and the familiar music sources used first.Better to use only vocal so that there is no attention problem from background noises of BGM.Because the autism spectrum is a disorder of sense organ functions the distractions may be too much for them to concentrate on one thing.
About the pretest EEG and fMRI :-
This is for research and for community programme(for further care of the future children who may be affected with the same disorder) and does not have much role or rather limited role in individual childcare.The fear the hospital/equipment/conditions of the research can create and stimulate the amygdale can be of negative influence to the music effects on individual child.Most of the available data are on volunteers and parents of children with autism who volunteered etc..And the family and the autistic children were known to the researcher for long time so that the fear complex was minimized.
So, if these are planned we can do it this way.This is a suggestion which we can discuss in detail,in case the parents are willing .(If not,this should not and cannot be done)
1.Do pretest assessment before the sessions of music therapy starts and have a baseline value ..
2.In those children who have shown definite improvement and who can tolerate external fear situations ,we can do a posttest after three months of intensive therapy and compare pre and post tests
3.In the intermediate group of responders we can do the posttest after 6 months of intensive therapy and in late responders one year after the intensive therapy.
4.If possible restrict this only to children who have passed the adolescent stage and not on toddlers and young children .
5.Make sure the client you select can withstand the procedure for the required period of time and will not be frightened or made worse by the procedure because there is disordered sensory function in these children.Explain the entire procedure to the parent/caregiver /teacher before launching on the project and only with their consent and co-operation do the research.
6.Whereas the music therapy is a very safe procedure without any side effects,the neurological research programmes could be stimulating the amygdale and cause fear complex and therefore the entire time or duration needed for the test ,its implications etc must be informed (Informed consent)to parents in detail.
Thus we have one pretest and posttest value for all children but at different intervals depending upon the response.
This is a broad outline of strategy which we have to finalise.
The principles are
1.Acknowledge each child as a unique person and valuable
2.Inform,empower ,communicate with parents/caregivers and across the care continue to the community health programmes
3.Participate as fully as possible in the childs care
4.This is a nonjudgemental family centered casemanaged care programme .
5.How to participate and advocate?By having close communication with children and parents and teachers.,By making systematic models for management,Pushing the policy and programme changes in support of high quality care ,continue to remodel according to needs of the child as he/she grows
The dimensions of quality care are
1Safe Free from negligence and does not cause harm to patient or community
2Effective Overuse of ineffective care and underuse of effective care should be avoided.In the case of music it is underuse of an effective tool.This effective tool to be used matching to scientific principles and improving community health
3Client centered Honouring each person and respecting the choice of the client and family
4Timely Should not delay the process of growth
5Efficient Reduce waste of energy and time by systematic plan and management in advance by careful study /research /plans
6Equitable No racial ,class,sex ,wealth inequalities in health care by music therapy..All alike in God’s eye and in nature’s eye and in healthcare professional system.
Policy decisions:
1.Evidencebased practice .The explicit use of the best evidence to inform decisions about the care of individual patient.
2.Quality measurement and improvement .
3.costeffectiveness of the programme
4.Public release of quality information
5.interoperability that links clinical,public health ,school,and family data of children with developmental delay through medium of music
6.standardisation of data by a team of experts –team work .
7.Translating research into practice
These are the broad outlines on which I have worked out the programme.
Dr Suvarna Nalapat
First formulate basic guidelines and then implement them into practice.
1.The small circle of improvement model:-Plan—Do-study and analyse the effects subjectively and objectively-and then act and improve on the model.
2.Longitudinal continuity of care.
Requires long time follow up and contact with child and family.Therapist must be available for long term consultation.(either in person/or by email/phone etc)
3.The orderly transfer of care from expert therapist to the assistant can take place gradually when the assistant gets confidence to deal with the problem.
4.It should be family centered care.
Role of doctor/clinician/therapist is at two levels
1.Care of individual child and at family level
2.Development of systems of care at community/population level
THE BASIC PLAN
1.The first and the most basic is the proper evaluation of the child and diagnosis by the PCP/Paediatrician and then involvement of a team of specialists
2.The therapist is a member of the multidisciplinary team .Should be able to communicate and work in unison with them.
3.Verbal and written communication between the team members is facilitated by a diary in which each member notes down the observations at each visit and this is kept with the child/parent and sent to school/to therapists/specialists so that each is aware of the progress and condition of the child and what he/she is getting as intervention.
After having a pretest knowledge of the condition of child from teacher/parent/doctor the therapist can plan the strategy.(The pretest here means the condition before music therapy started )
4.From assessment of the pretest condition provided by the team,the therapist has to group the clients and then do group and individual assessment of the clients
5.Grouping :-Can be done in different ways according to the combined decision of the team.
The different varieties of groupings are in order of preference
A.Infant-toddler groups,preschool group,school age,and latency/adolescence group
B.On a basis of class .as given by the present team.at Adarsh School Ernakulam)
C.verbal-nonverbal (which is not very good procedure)
6.The groups of children with the parents attend the group sessions.
The methods are variable for each group depending upon its requirements as well as for each child.But in the initial 15 days the groups are given a test model.
Have a sruthipetty/Thamburu/or even a keyboard with you and to its sruthy just repeat sa pa a saa /mandra shadja with athitaara shadja/or mandrashadja with G3 or N3 as in Panthuvaraali /Rasikapriya etc.Just the swara only with sruthy.
The two notes used should be at recognizable distances .This is especially of use to test the children without language or with monosyllables alone who will try to make sound as the pitch we used .This need not be perfect.But let them be free to make whatever sounds they please .The turntaking,the pitch ,etc and the time taken for each child can be noted down in diary.Some children take more time ,even days.Sometimes they just keep quiet for three or four days and start making cooing/babbling noises after 4th or 5th day,indicating that they had been attentive/listening/learning(cognition/memory improvement).
In the initial period children may not tolerate more than 30-45 minutes of this.Some may tolerate more time.These variations have to be noted and remembered by teacher and parent.Initially if the child sits for 20-30 mts it is enough.Later when he/she becomes interested in music they sit more.The creating of interest in music is the art and efficiency of the therapist/parent teamwork.To which teachers can contribute a lot.
At home parents can casually start singing the same notes if they can sing.And see whether the child respond by any making of sounds.Better still is a recorded sound of music therapist to which played at home the family /and the siblings sing in pitch.That might be a stimulation for the child to make sounds.
When selfconfidence come they will start in groups also.
For those already having singing skills low frequency raagaas are selected and the familiar music sources used first.Better to use only vocal so that there is no attention problem from background noises of BGM.Because the autism spectrum is a disorder of sense organ functions the distractions may be too much for them to concentrate on one thing.
About the pretest EEG and fMRI :-
This is for research and for community programme(for further care of the future children who may be affected with the same disorder) and does not have much role or rather limited role in individual childcare.The fear the hospital/equipment/conditions of the research can create and stimulate the amygdale can be of negative influence to the music effects on individual child.Most of the available data are on volunteers and parents of children with autism who volunteered etc..And the family and the autistic children were known to the researcher for long time so that the fear complex was minimized.
So, if these are planned we can do it this way.This is a suggestion which we can discuss in detail,in case the parents are willing .(If not,this should not and cannot be done)
1.Do pretest assessment before the sessions of music therapy starts and have a baseline value ..
2.In those children who have shown definite improvement and who can tolerate external fear situations ,we can do a posttest after three months of intensive therapy and compare pre and post tests
3.In the intermediate group of responders we can do the posttest after 6 months of intensive therapy and in late responders one year after the intensive therapy.
4.If possible restrict this only to children who have passed the adolescent stage and not on toddlers and young children .
5.Make sure the client you select can withstand the procedure for the required period of time and will not be frightened or made worse by the procedure because there is disordered sensory function in these children.Explain the entire procedure to the parent/caregiver /teacher before launching on the project and only with their consent and co-operation do the research.
6.Whereas the music therapy is a very safe procedure without any side effects,the neurological research programmes could be stimulating the amygdale and cause fear complex and therefore the entire time or duration needed for the test ,its implications etc must be informed (Informed consent)to parents in detail.
Thus we have one pretest and posttest value for all children but at different intervals depending upon the response.
This is a broad outline of strategy which we have to finalise.
The principles are
1.Acknowledge each child as a unique person and valuable
2.Inform,empower ,communicate with parents/caregivers and across the care continue to the community health programmes
3.Participate as fully as possible in the childs care
4.This is a nonjudgemental family centered casemanaged care programme .
5.How to participate and advocate?By having close communication with children and parents and teachers.,By making systematic models for management,Pushing the policy and programme changes in support of high quality care ,continue to remodel according to needs of the child as he/she grows
The dimensions of quality care are
1Safe Free from negligence and does not cause harm to patient or community
2Effective Overuse of ineffective care and underuse of effective care should be avoided.In the case of music it is underuse of an effective tool.This effective tool to be used matching to scientific principles and improving community health
3Client centered Honouring each person and respecting the choice of the client and family
4Timely Should not delay the process of growth
5Efficient Reduce waste of energy and time by systematic plan and management in advance by careful study /research /plans
6Equitable No racial ,class,sex ,wealth inequalities in health care by music therapy..All alike in God’s eye and in nature’s eye and in healthcare professional system.
Policy decisions:
1.Evidencebased practice .The explicit use of the best evidence to inform decisions about the care of individual patient.
2.Quality measurement and improvement .
3.costeffectiveness of the programme
4.Public release of quality information
5.interoperability that links clinical,public health ,school,and family data of children with developmental delay through medium of music
6.standardisation of data by a team of experts –team work .
7.Translating research into practice
These are the broad outlines on which I have worked out the programme.
Making dreams into music
Acoustic experience-The aesthetics of music and making dreams into music
Dr Suavrna Nalapat .BSc MBBS;MD(Pathology)
Visualisation of music in Music therapy is a dream-like aesthetic experience.How this can be achieved and how scientific is this method?What is the history of this procedure ? These are discussed in this chapter.
Most of the people are living among noise and hence have no time to rejoice in voice ,or they are denying the voice .The philosophy of music is the oldest branch of aesthetics in India.It starts from the Vedic literature(in written/oral traditions of saamveda)and then through Mathanga and Bharathamuni ,to AbhinavaGuptha and the Thanthric exponents of music.In the west it originated from Pythagorus (Akousmathic kori)and Plato ,Ptolemy,St Augustine,Plotinus,Boethius,and poets and philosophers of middle ages and is a comparatively recent tradition .In the west Kant and Hegel were two giants of aesthetics.Rebirth of aesthetics happened in 18th century with John Mattheson and Charles Batteux,after the Europeans became established in Asian colonies.. In India the tradition of classical music became very vibrant at the same time,because ,the Europeans who came to India were enthralled by the tradition they saw here,and wanted to recreate it in their way in their homeland.
Those who want to hear the voice ,imagine a room where in the silence a permanent voice is heard .(Om /or any other pleasing note /in your pleasing preferred voice).Or in silence listen to a soft Thambura,or to the wind,ocean or a bird’s call.With these one can also hear an inner voice which is far from the maddening crowd of everyday noises.
Sounds are either events or processes.How to distinguish them. ? Only processes are enduring.Events happen at a specific time.Processes last through a time.An event makes a change in the world.Process last unchangingly .Thus the beginning and end of a process is an event.Some sounds are events .Some are processes.Aristotle called them actions and passions.Our worldview is dependent on three applications on the concepts of identity.Sound as a pure event with a beginning and end.The soundspace when a sound saturate our hearing and draw out all its competitors.And the God’s earview of things we obtain from music. This is how I listens to my own inner voice,or to God’s presence through music.
Music makes use of a particular kind of sound .When we hear music we hear not only the sound but something which moves with a force of its own.This intentional object of musical perception is the tone.Exploring the relation between the sound and tone describes our musical experience.Because of this Leibniz called music as a kind of unconscious calculation .(The unconscious/superconscious nature of calculation is its only difference from astronomical calculations/or from the conscious efforts in yoga to make mind concentrate.).Music’s nature as an art of sound,a new way of understanding music which has character of aesthetic ,accords music the status of a narrative.
The representational nature of poetry is the medium of language by describing things according to pre-established semantic rules.If sounds of music is put to a linguistic use (literally to a musical language)this music is capable of representation.It would be poetry written in a language of absolute pitch.(a kind of superlative tonic language).Hence such poetry is nothing but sound itself.We find this in Muthuswami Deekshither krithis and other traditional music of India.Then it will be a single act of attention in which both music and its subject matter are heard and the description of the subject is unfolded through music ,just as in painting.When we hear a Annamacharya krithi or Tyagarajakrithi,it brings the music as well as the form of the deity they worship with all its attributes.Thus visualization of music as part and parcel of healing exercise in music therapy had been in use from time immemorial in all Bhakthysampradaaya..
The crucial difference between an acoustic and visual appearance is that in visual ,we cant see without attributing it to something.Whether it is a woman,a horse,nature ,deity a visual appearance present us with an identifying description of that object.Hence for visualization of music such a method is used by the ancient composers of India who were singers/composers/philosophers/yogins rolled in one.The expression and representation are thus different or distinct ,and the term expression means artistic meaning compared with our states of mind.Meaning of a work of art is available only through its particular expression in it.The expression of a Tyagarajakrithi takes us to the states of mind of Tyagaraja and if it fails to do so,with a particular performer,he has failed in expressing that state of mind.This is especially true in Bhakthy traditional music of India which has a special aesthetics of its own.Cadences are integral parts of tonality or an integral part of experience of structure and form.The bass voice persists in tonal music as an independent melodic line because harmonics rest on bass line.and are heard in relation to it.Triadic tonality forces bass into prominence matched only by the principal melodic voice and melodic constraints automatically apply to it.Just like earth which is the basis of everything,bass voice sustains ,establishes ,strenghthens the others.
Music is organized but not the same way as language is organized.Musical experience can be amended and deepened without loosing its distinctive intentionality .This happens with practice and experience.Probably this is what Jesudas means when he says music should evolve with time.Music is organized at three primary levels ,the rhythm,melody and harmony.
In any planned activity in business management we have a tree diagram of decision tree.
The successive decisions form a tree structure.(The aesthetics of music .Roger Seruton.He uses the terms in business and marketing ways.)
Enter market
Import product Manufacture locally
Build manufacturing unit Acquire a unit/factory
Import staff Local staff
Train abroad locally
Bring instructors Local instructors
Same kind of decision tree in all rational actions whether it has an aesthetic goal or not.Music production also has the same rules when it comes to marketing and making music..I would have preferred a simili related to Educating the people about the aesthetics of music rather than entering a market as Roger Serton has done here.
To listen to music with understanding is to relate by a conscious route where the composer subconsciously derived it.The recuperation of it also is subconscious in listener and musical analysis makes it explicit.Hearing the structure is part of the phenomenology of musical perception,rather than a matter of influence or analysis.
Aesthetic interests are insatiable interests.Each time we listen to a musical piece we find something new in it.An experience to which we are repeatedly recalled is an experience of value .Aesthetic value is a form of intrinsic value.Because there is aesthetic experience only,there is an aesthetic value.If no experience no aesthetic value either.The science of sound does not say anything about the tonal space ,musical movement,language of tonality.Music is absent from the scientific theory of the world.Musical analysis occur in the following contexts.
1Psychology of musical perception .A branch of cognitive psychology
2.Musical analysis an attempt to describe music of aesthetic interest and to show how tonal surface is constructed.This is a controversial practice.the music should come from or emerge in the perception of listener.The structure is real only if lived by the listener.It is person-oriented.
3.Music criticism.The good and bad in it and just what it means.
4.Musical aesthetics which is a metastudy.It is a critical discipline .Describes the nature of and the limits of our thoughts about music.These four practices usually overlap.
Making and listening to music are social with religious/spiritual/ceremonial connotations.Silent listening is a primary musical experience .Public performance always keep the listeners silent.In private performance(recorded music)music is separated from the social context for the time being.Making music together is a social event ,a nonsemantic communication ,a mutual tuning in relationship.Barrier of I and U transcend to the realm of we.A human being is anassortment of raaga ,and when it is sung properly ,it gives pleasure.If sung improperly it creates problems in society.The story of Narada singing the raagaas improperly and the raaginis becoming lame is symbolic of it.If the people have proper music right from childhood,and in a definite orderly way,they will be happy and healthy is a message from that story.
In the book ,The way of the white clouds(A Buddhist pilgrim in Tibet ,Lama Anagarika Govinda .Shambala publications California 1971)Tibetan music is based not on melody but on rhythm and pure sound value.Man is in connection with a universal background and not in solitary existence.The sounds that come from the womb of the earth,depths of space like the rumbling of thunder etc are always with him.Manthra is a sound of nature.Music symbolize the vibration of universe.The effect of gradual swelling and ebbing of oceanic tides ,and the breeze of individual life creating and playing with the multitude of cosmic waves and wavelets and the sound of the all-encompassing OM,the prototype of all Manthra sounds is the basis of Indian and Tibetan music.(See Thanthric and Manthra texts and Upanishads)The human bass voice represent the primieval cosmic sound and experience of infinity of space.The drum ,the infinity of life and its movement.Or what we call the dharma eternal(sanathanadharma).Budha after his enlightenment uttered the word Amrithadundhubhi(The eternal drum of immortality )which he heard and he wanted to make it heard throughout the world.When Teravaada budhism of South considers music as just a sense pleasure,Tibetan Budhism considers it as the eternal cosmic truth.In Tibet the ways of contacting the deeper layers of mind are
1.Dream visions
2Meditation
3.Trance
4.oracles
5 natural and supernatural psychic portends
The vastness of space,the solitude,and the silence of nature around act as a concave mirror that enlarges and reflects our innermost feelings and thoughts and concentrates them in one focal point ,our consciousness and in such moments the best divine music is born within us as a inner voice of silence.
The first chapter of the book Dreams(Dreams –A reader on religious cultural and psychological dimensions on dreaming.Ed Kelly Bulkeley.ch 1.Budhist dream experiences by Serenity Young pp 15)speaks of women and female deities in men’s dreams.They bestow supernatural powers that lead to enlightenment.To complete the quest they have to depend upon a female guide ,win a goal or achieve enlightenment and wisdom(pragnaa).Pragna is feminine in Asian traditions and personified as a semidivine woman .Sankaracharyas soundaryalahary on seeing the devi and Kaalidaasas story are musically and visually aesthetic .
Women are good dreamers.The musical dreams of women are very beautiful and predictive too.The women have conception dreams like that of birth of Christ and Budha by their mothers .A paali text Saardoolakarnaapadhaanam is on dream interpretations.In Bible we find dream interpretation of pharaoh by Joseph. Kathasarithsaagaram deals with dream interpretations of the Hindu and Budhist lore,all before Freud and Jung .All tribal people had dream interpretations of their chieftains for safety of tribe.The dreams of women are being interpreted by men and this gender difference is the cause for fallacy according to Kelly Bulkeley.Ability to interpret dreams is a tremendous source of spiritual and temporal power and only very few people understand their own dreams.Dream is a passive nonheroic form of activity best performed by a female or a junior male.Budhist heroes dream internalizing this female power and at the same time maintain their male power as interpreters of the dream.In Lalithavisthra when Gopa (Yesodhara)wake up and tells her dream to Budha,it is Budha who interprets it,not Gopa herself.He was Vesanthara in last birth and Gopa was Maadi and Maadi had a prophetic dream .(Vesaantharajathaka).Women are powerful dreamers and have prophetic dreams.But powerless to fulfill them since they are not allowed to interpret it themselves.Padmasambhava discuss the dream of his wife Bhaasadhaara .In Milerepas biography Marpa discuss the dream of wife Dakmena and interprets it.The root of it is the dismissal of the male Budhists of real women from the monasties,and internalization of imaginery women .The incorporation of female imagery and female deities and distancing of actual women happen in Budhist thanthra.Women are sworn to secrecy as silent participants of their thanthra .The rarity of female biographies on yogic/thanthric experiences in spirituality is because of this gender difference.(pp 17 ibid)The dreams of Kannaki and of Devanthi in Chilappathikaara (sangham period Tamil epic)on the other hand are not interpreted by men but by themselves and no gender dominance seen in south .The dream speaks to the individual dreamer but also to all those who hear them.
Saamavidhaanabrahmana edited by A.C Burnell(London Trubner and co 1873 )recommends certain things to have a prophetic dream.
One among them is to put the deity Sankarevaasini(may be Parvathy)in a basket full of unhusked grain,incense,and flowers and putting it to the headend,lay down in a sacred pure place with head to east .Sing the hymn from saamaveda(imam uhuvu).Remain silent while falling asleep.One will see as if a film the phala or fruit of what is to happen(future prediction).The dream chathan(Sanskrit Sasthaan/saasthaa) made in the temple of devi (the present Ponnambalamedu)in chilappathikaara is almost the same procedure.This is the birth imagery of devi.Another is death imagery in which one puts a box with garagoulika a powerful poison in it and sings aayaahi susamaahitha ,the saama hymn.This is death imagery.The term swapnamaanavaka(the student of dreams)is seen in a 12th century Budhist text on constructing Mandalaas .The text is Vajraavaleenaamamandalapaayika by Abhayaakaaraguptha translated to Tibetan and it is a method of watching a dream and finding out whether its deities allow the mandalasthaana.In Mesopotamia and in Hebrew Bible and in Egypt stars and animal viscera constitutes the writing of Gods.The sacrifice of Ismail is done according to a dream. Prophet Mohammed receives information in dreams.He saw twice in dreams an angel covering Ayesha in a cloth and carrying her.This happened before he actually saw her and married her.One of God’s sign is the manaam or dream.in night and day.Right dream come from God and impure ones from devil.The analogy with death is seen in the words”Men are asleep.When they die they awake”.In ancient medical texts of India red women and blood in dream predicts death.In Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad (4.3.13:38 and 4.4)discussion on sleep and dream leads to discussion of death.
Dreams have memorizing power.The memorizing of texts(Koran ,Geetha etc)seeking help in making a choice /decision(Ishtikara)and transformative potential a dream has on dreamer are noteworthy.A visionary with heightened awareness get dreams of visions .Young girls and young women has this power without any previous preparation.Especially when a relative /a dear one dies.(says pp 97 of the book)which I absolutely agree since I had my first vision of Devi in a sparkling golden ocean ,in a mandala of light and music ,at the age of 8 when we had two deaths in the family.The power is more during menstruation and there is a period of latency between the dream and its actualization.The Lakota holy men compare the power to a medicinal plant .When all the lifeproducing stuff is over the wisdom is in the root if they work with the medicine in the right way.They call a woman who has this power a bluebird woman ,who can bring a voice to sing during her sleep.The blue bird of Krishna was awake in me when I lost my grandmother ,his best devotee and my granduncle ,a gnaanayogin.Artists ,medical people and spiritualists had this bluebirds power within in the ancient world ,partially or wholly.
Making dreams in to music
Contemporary song writers carry on this ageold dreaming tradition with them.(Nancy Grace).Billy Joel at Berkelee college of music in Boston said “All songs come from my dreams”Paul Mcartneys album Lazarus heart,colvins poleroids from his album fat city,confessions of a blue singer by Rory Rock all came from dreams.So,when I say that my poetry came from my dreams and my music also I visualized from childhood dreams,there is nothing unusual or supernatural about it.It is just a natural phenomenon within me.Just as a flower comes out of a plant ,they came out of me in right seasons,right times.That is my interpretation of my dreams.
Jane white Lewis reflects on the Jungian analytic practices of dreams in chapter 10 of the book and says dream is finding the truth within and dream work as a spiritual discipline .It is a spiritual alchemy ,an instinctive response to deep pain and injustice and viraha in a lover’s quarrel.A highly emotional stage of a lover’s viraha and a yearning for the lover/God happen and only then a person’s spiritual perspective reaches the darkest and the most distressing phase and transformation into truly authentic and reliable spiritual perspective emerge as pure gold.The dreams of scholarship are very interesting because many discoveries and inventions and abstract truths have been discovered /revealed in dreams,like that of Ramanujan,Kekule,Jung and Poincare.The creativity is not only mystical and artistic but also scientific in dreams.And creating a new thing is actually practical dreaming ,making a waking dream as in the thanthric twilight practices.We create in dreams whether asleep or awake.Sometimes metaphor structures a dream .In love a bridge dream means Love is a journey .In a flying dream it means a sense of freedom experienced by the dreamer.
In his book ,Implications for psychoanalysis ,The new neuropsychology of sleep,J.Allen Hobson says that dream emotions like anxiety ,fear ,anger,elation are primary shapers of dream ,not reaction to them.The classic anxiety dreams are feeling lost,not haing proper credentials,or adequate equipments,suitable clothing,or missing a train etc.
There are functional deficits (physiological)as loss of noradrenergic and serotonergic modulations in REM sleep.These neuromodulators are essential for learning,memory,perception,attention via their direct CNS effects and indirect peripheral mechanisms.In NREM sleep these are not decreased .In REM neuropsychology what we get is certain hyperassociative quality and instability of the timespace ,place and the person –a qualitative feature of the REM dream.The dream characters are thus a chimera ,some features of the dreamers self and some of another.Even the sexual identity of dream characters is fluid.A person gives longer more vivid more motorically animated more bizarre accounts of the REM than the NREM.There is some degree of dream amnesia and the narrative need not be complete.The cognitive and scientific dreams of the dreamer must be then coming out of the NREM phase and the narrative we get are only very few and only from exceptionaly scholarly minds and probably that is why the tribals considered only their chieftains dreams worth reading and analyzing.
In narrating a dream there is a selfreflectiveness (SR)defined as examination of ones own thoughts,feelings,behaviour .SR involves duel levels of awareness alluded to as experiencing the self immersed in its own pattern of awareness and the secondary level of awareness examining the experiencing self.(pp 333 ibid Tracey L.Kahan quoting Rossi 1972:139).She approaches dream as a metacognition.Metacognition is awareness of ones own cognitive processes and a deliberate direction of ones thought processes.Thus both selfreflection and intentionality of self regulation are in it.One part of our mind tells the other parts where to go (intentionality) and observes its progress(selfreflection or monitoring)and corrects its deviations (regulation)if any .Usually when we think in dreams such metacognition is absent .But metacognition is present in sleep and in lucid dreaming.(Godwin 1994;Green McCreeny 1994;Laberge 1985;Van eaden 1913)and high order of cognitive skills do occur even in nonlucid dreams (Cartwright 1981;Cicogna 1991 q pp 341 -342 Tracy L.Kahan ch 22 Ibid ).To have a dialogue with the skeptics she gives a spectrum of perspectives on dreams and dreaming as below.
Theological spiritual Paranormal Scientific
Dream instructions and prophecies from Gods as in the Prophets Higher meanings encoded by a higher power/deeper self The facts transmitted at a distance through dreams by unknown means As functional activity.Consistent with known laws of nature .
In my dream analysis I combine the spiritual and scientific approach predominantly and sometimes even feel that there is something unknown transmitted in it from a higher power which may be called unknown,just as our deeper self which also is only partially known.That cannot be named since it is unknown or partially known .
How scientific is a dream consolidation?
When in jagrad or waking state the sensory inputs are fed to association areas in cortex and hippocampus.Acetylcholine is high during waking state.It prevents the feedback of signals from hippocampus to cortex ,so the information is kept separated or not merged with other incoming stimuli .The advantage is that there is no distortion of information.The disadvantage is that there is no integration or synthesis of knowledge.But this is overcome by the linking together of input information by encoding .(See the previous issue of memory and amnesia for the figure of Visual cortex.The same happen with auditory cortex).
In sushupthy or dreamless sleep,acetyl choline levels falls,and the EEG become more in a mediatative state,and the newly encoded memory in hippocampus is allowed to be fed to association cortex.There is no new input at this stage .(page 129 .Beat memory loss.Rita Carter.Cassell illustrated.Octopus publishing group.2005)Sleep is a sensory blockade or chithavrithinirodha as in meditation/Samadhi.The feedback from hippocampus retriggers neural patterns activated during previous waking .Thus the heard,seen and experienced are consolidated with its meanings .The new linkage forges a new connection between the concepts .So when it is wellconnected ,it become synthesizes as a whole.When one of them is triggered all others are also triggered.Thus heard music,the visualized sight,the experience of emotion,and the meaning 0f it become integrated.This consolidation is what is happening in sushupthy .This is a normal ,not a supernatural thing to happen.But for me to have an interlinking of music,philosophy,astronomy,medicine and language and literature I should have an interest and sradha in them in my waking state is a mandatory thing.The question of how I got the experience while I was only 8 years still is an enigma which comes next .The vaasana of a previous janma in a cyclical universe was thus reasoned by ancient brains .
The new scientist (28th May 2005)reported a few things for betterment of brain conditions and memory power .
REMEMBER FORGET
Glucose Fatty foods
Music Excess alcohol
Word associations Sleep deprivation
Exercises Poor hearing
Chewing gums Bad eyesight
I am happy to understand that I have all the best things needed for remembrance /memory power (except chewing gums)and do not have the things which make me forget and hence my brain is in a fairly good state of memory and cognition and probably that is why I remember my own dreams so well and can interpret them and analyse and do selfreflection as a metascience of my own consciousness.And what is after all spirituality than selfreflection and knowing the self? Hence making my dreams into music and music therapy was written in my brain and in my dreams and in my life’s plan itself by God,is what I would think.As a person who believe in the rhythmic orderly nature of cosmos and its laws I don’t find any supernaturality in what I do or think.It was predestined harmony as Leibniz says.Or in better terms,a God-given gift of Saraswatham ..
1 The aesthetics of music .Roger Seruton
2 A Buddhist pilgrim in Tibet ,Lama Anagarika Govinda .Shambala publications California 1971
3 Dreams –A reader on religious cultural and psychological dimensions on dreaming.Ed Kelly Bulkeley.ch 1.Budhist dream experiences by Serenity Young pp 15
4. Saamavidhaanabrahmana edited by A.C Burnell(London Trubner and co 1873
5. Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad (4.3.13:38and 4.4)
6 Jane white Lewis Reflects on the Jungian analytic practices of dreams in chapter 10
7 Implications for psychoanalysis ,The new neuropsychology of sleep,J.Allen Hobson
8.Tracey L.Kahan quoting Rossi 1972:139
9. Godwin 1994;Green McCreeny 1994;Laberge 1985;Van eaden 1913)and high order of cognitive skills do occur even in nonlucid dreams (Cartwright 1981;Cicogna 1991 q pp
341 -342 Tracy L.Kahan ch 22 Ibid
10. page 129 .Beat memory loss.Rita Carter.Cassell illustrated.Octopus publishing group.2005
11 The new scientist (28th May 2005)
Dr Suavrna Nalapat .BSc MBBS;MD(Pathology)
Visualisation of music in Music therapy is a dream-like aesthetic experience.How this can be achieved and how scientific is this method?What is the history of this procedure ? These are discussed in this chapter.
Most of the people are living among noise and hence have no time to rejoice in voice ,or they are denying the voice .The philosophy of music is the oldest branch of aesthetics in India.It starts from the Vedic literature(in written/oral traditions of saamveda)and then through Mathanga and Bharathamuni ,to AbhinavaGuptha and the Thanthric exponents of music.In the west it originated from Pythagorus (Akousmathic kori)and Plato ,Ptolemy,St Augustine,Plotinus,Boethius,and poets and philosophers of middle ages and is a comparatively recent tradition .In the west Kant and Hegel were two giants of aesthetics.Rebirth of aesthetics happened in 18th century with John Mattheson and Charles Batteux,after the Europeans became established in Asian colonies.. In India the tradition of classical music became very vibrant at the same time,because ,the Europeans who came to India were enthralled by the tradition they saw here,and wanted to recreate it in their way in their homeland.
Those who want to hear the voice ,imagine a room where in the silence a permanent voice is heard .(Om /or any other pleasing note /in your pleasing preferred voice).Or in silence listen to a soft Thambura,or to the wind,ocean or a bird’s call.With these one can also hear an inner voice which is far from the maddening crowd of everyday noises.
Sounds are either events or processes.How to distinguish them. ? Only processes are enduring.Events happen at a specific time.Processes last through a time.An event makes a change in the world.Process last unchangingly .Thus the beginning and end of a process is an event.Some sounds are events .Some are processes.Aristotle called them actions and passions.Our worldview is dependent on three applications on the concepts of identity.Sound as a pure event with a beginning and end.The soundspace when a sound saturate our hearing and draw out all its competitors.And the God’s earview of things we obtain from music. This is how I listens to my own inner voice,or to God’s presence through music.
Music makes use of a particular kind of sound .When we hear music we hear not only the sound but something which moves with a force of its own.This intentional object of musical perception is the tone.Exploring the relation between the sound and tone describes our musical experience.Because of this Leibniz called music as a kind of unconscious calculation .(The unconscious/superconscious nature of calculation is its only difference from astronomical calculations/or from the conscious efforts in yoga to make mind concentrate.).Music’s nature as an art of sound,a new way of understanding music which has character of aesthetic ,accords music the status of a narrative.
The representational nature of poetry is the medium of language by describing things according to pre-established semantic rules.If sounds of music is put to a linguistic use (literally to a musical language)this music is capable of representation.It would be poetry written in a language of absolute pitch.(a kind of superlative tonic language).Hence such poetry is nothing but sound itself.We find this in Muthuswami Deekshither krithis and other traditional music of India.Then it will be a single act of attention in which both music and its subject matter are heard and the description of the subject is unfolded through music ,just as in painting.When we hear a Annamacharya krithi or Tyagarajakrithi,it brings the music as well as the form of the deity they worship with all its attributes.Thus visualization of music as part and parcel of healing exercise in music therapy had been in use from time immemorial in all Bhakthysampradaaya..
The crucial difference between an acoustic and visual appearance is that in visual ,we cant see without attributing it to something.Whether it is a woman,a horse,nature ,deity a visual appearance present us with an identifying description of that object.Hence for visualization of music such a method is used by the ancient composers of India who were singers/composers/philosophers/yogins rolled in one.The expression and representation are thus different or distinct ,and the term expression means artistic meaning compared with our states of mind.Meaning of a work of art is available only through its particular expression in it.The expression of a Tyagarajakrithi takes us to the states of mind of Tyagaraja and if it fails to do so,with a particular performer,he has failed in expressing that state of mind.This is especially true in Bhakthy traditional music of India which has a special aesthetics of its own.Cadences are integral parts of tonality or an integral part of experience of structure and form.The bass voice persists in tonal music as an independent melodic line because harmonics rest on bass line.and are heard in relation to it.Triadic tonality forces bass into prominence matched only by the principal melodic voice and melodic constraints automatically apply to it.Just like earth which is the basis of everything,bass voice sustains ,establishes ,strenghthens the others.
Music is organized but not the same way as language is organized.Musical experience can be amended and deepened without loosing its distinctive intentionality .This happens with practice and experience.Probably this is what Jesudas means when he says music should evolve with time.Music is organized at three primary levels ,the rhythm,melody and harmony.
In any planned activity in business management we have a tree diagram of decision tree.
The successive decisions form a tree structure.(The aesthetics of music .Roger Seruton.He uses the terms in business and marketing ways.)
Enter market
Import product Manufacture locally
Build manufacturing unit Acquire a unit/factory
Import staff Local staff
Train abroad locally
Bring instructors Local instructors
Same kind of decision tree in all rational actions whether it has an aesthetic goal or not.Music production also has the same rules when it comes to marketing and making music..I would have preferred a simili related to Educating the people about the aesthetics of music rather than entering a market as Roger Serton has done here.
To listen to music with understanding is to relate by a conscious route where the composer subconsciously derived it.The recuperation of it also is subconscious in listener and musical analysis makes it explicit.Hearing the structure is part of the phenomenology of musical perception,rather than a matter of influence or analysis.
Aesthetic interests are insatiable interests.Each time we listen to a musical piece we find something new in it.An experience to which we are repeatedly recalled is an experience of value .Aesthetic value is a form of intrinsic value.Because there is aesthetic experience only,there is an aesthetic value.If no experience no aesthetic value either.The science of sound does not say anything about the tonal space ,musical movement,language of tonality.Music is absent from the scientific theory of the world.Musical analysis occur in the following contexts.
1Psychology of musical perception .A branch of cognitive psychology
2.Musical analysis an attempt to describe music of aesthetic interest and to show how tonal surface is constructed.This is a controversial practice.the music should come from or emerge in the perception of listener.The structure is real only if lived by the listener.It is person-oriented.
3.Music criticism.The good and bad in it and just what it means.
4.Musical aesthetics which is a metastudy.It is a critical discipline .Describes the nature of and the limits of our thoughts about music.These four practices usually overlap.
Making and listening to music are social with religious/spiritual/ceremonial connotations.Silent listening is a primary musical experience .Public performance always keep the listeners silent.In private performance(recorded music)music is separated from the social context for the time being.Making music together is a social event ,a nonsemantic communication ,a mutual tuning in relationship.Barrier of I and U transcend to the realm of we.A human being is anassortment of raaga ,and when it is sung properly ,it gives pleasure.If sung improperly it creates problems in society.The story of Narada singing the raagaas improperly and the raaginis becoming lame is symbolic of it.If the people have proper music right from childhood,and in a definite orderly way,they will be happy and healthy is a message from that story.
In the book ,The way of the white clouds(A Buddhist pilgrim in Tibet ,Lama Anagarika Govinda .Shambala publications California 1971)Tibetan music is based not on melody but on rhythm and pure sound value.Man is in connection with a universal background and not in solitary existence.The sounds that come from the womb of the earth,depths of space like the rumbling of thunder etc are always with him.Manthra is a sound of nature.Music symbolize the vibration of universe.The effect of gradual swelling and ebbing of oceanic tides ,and the breeze of individual life creating and playing with the multitude of cosmic waves and wavelets and the sound of the all-encompassing OM,the prototype of all Manthra sounds is the basis of Indian and Tibetan music.(See Thanthric and Manthra texts and Upanishads)The human bass voice represent the primieval cosmic sound and experience of infinity of space.The drum ,the infinity of life and its movement.Or what we call the dharma eternal(sanathanadharma).Budha after his enlightenment uttered the word Amrithadundhubhi(The eternal drum of immortality )which he heard and he wanted to make it heard throughout the world.When Teravaada budhism of South considers music as just a sense pleasure,Tibetan Budhism considers it as the eternal cosmic truth.In Tibet the ways of contacting the deeper layers of mind are
1.Dream visions
2Meditation
3.Trance
4.oracles
5 natural and supernatural psychic portends
The vastness of space,the solitude,and the silence of nature around act as a concave mirror that enlarges and reflects our innermost feelings and thoughts and concentrates them in one focal point ,our consciousness and in such moments the best divine music is born within us as a inner voice of silence.
The first chapter of the book Dreams(Dreams –A reader on religious cultural and psychological dimensions on dreaming.Ed Kelly Bulkeley.ch 1.Budhist dream experiences by Serenity Young pp 15)speaks of women and female deities in men’s dreams.They bestow supernatural powers that lead to enlightenment.To complete the quest they have to depend upon a female guide ,win a goal or achieve enlightenment and wisdom(pragnaa).Pragna is feminine in Asian traditions and personified as a semidivine woman .Sankaracharyas soundaryalahary on seeing the devi and Kaalidaasas story are musically and visually aesthetic .
Women are good dreamers.The musical dreams of women are very beautiful and predictive too.The women have conception dreams like that of birth of Christ and Budha by their mothers .A paali text Saardoolakarnaapadhaanam is on dream interpretations.In Bible we find dream interpretation of pharaoh by Joseph. Kathasarithsaagaram deals with dream interpretations of the Hindu and Budhist lore,all before Freud and Jung .All tribal people had dream interpretations of their chieftains for safety of tribe.The dreams of women are being interpreted by men and this gender difference is the cause for fallacy according to Kelly Bulkeley.Ability to interpret dreams is a tremendous source of spiritual and temporal power and only very few people understand their own dreams.Dream is a passive nonheroic form of activity best performed by a female or a junior male.Budhist heroes dream internalizing this female power and at the same time maintain their male power as interpreters of the dream.In Lalithavisthra when Gopa (Yesodhara)wake up and tells her dream to Budha,it is Budha who interprets it,not Gopa herself.He was Vesanthara in last birth and Gopa was Maadi and Maadi had a prophetic dream .(Vesaantharajathaka).Women are powerful dreamers and have prophetic dreams.But powerless to fulfill them since they are not allowed to interpret it themselves.Padmasambhava discuss the dream of his wife Bhaasadhaara .In Milerepas biography Marpa discuss the dream of wife Dakmena and interprets it.The root of it is the dismissal of the male Budhists of real women from the monasties,and internalization of imaginery women .The incorporation of female imagery and female deities and distancing of actual women happen in Budhist thanthra.Women are sworn to secrecy as silent participants of their thanthra .The rarity of female biographies on yogic/thanthric experiences in spirituality is because of this gender difference.(pp 17 ibid)The dreams of Kannaki and of Devanthi in Chilappathikaara (sangham period Tamil epic)on the other hand are not interpreted by men but by themselves and no gender dominance seen in south .The dream speaks to the individual dreamer but also to all those who hear them.
Saamavidhaanabrahmana edited by A.C Burnell(London Trubner and co 1873 )recommends certain things to have a prophetic dream.
One among them is to put the deity Sankarevaasini(may be Parvathy)in a basket full of unhusked grain,incense,and flowers and putting it to the headend,lay down in a sacred pure place with head to east .Sing the hymn from saamaveda(imam uhuvu).Remain silent while falling asleep.One will see as if a film the phala or fruit of what is to happen(future prediction).The dream chathan(Sanskrit Sasthaan/saasthaa) made in the temple of devi (the present Ponnambalamedu)in chilappathikaara is almost the same procedure.This is the birth imagery of devi.Another is death imagery in which one puts a box with garagoulika a powerful poison in it and sings aayaahi susamaahitha ,the saama hymn.This is death imagery.The term swapnamaanavaka(the student of dreams)is seen in a 12th century Budhist text on constructing Mandalaas .The text is Vajraavaleenaamamandalapaayika by Abhayaakaaraguptha translated to Tibetan and it is a method of watching a dream and finding out whether its deities allow the mandalasthaana.In Mesopotamia and in Hebrew Bible and in Egypt stars and animal viscera constitutes the writing of Gods.The sacrifice of Ismail is done according to a dream. Prophet Mohammed receives information in dreams.He saw twice in dreams an angel covering Ayesha in a cloth and carrying her.This happened before he actually saw her and married her.One of God’s sign is the manaam or dream.in night and day.Right dream come from God and impure ones from devil.The analogy with death is seen in the words”Men are asleep.When they die they awake”.In ancient medical texts of India red women and blood in dream predicts death.In Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad (4.3.13:38 and 4.4)discussion on sleep and dream leads to discussion of death.
Dreams have memorizing power.The memorizing of texts(Koran ,Geetha etc)seeking help in making a choice /decision(Ishtikara)and transformative potential a dream has on dreamer are noteworthy.A visionary with heightened awareness get dreams of visions .Young girls and young women has this power without any previous preparation.Especially when a relative /a dear one dies.(says pp 97 of the book)which I absolutely agree since I had my first vision of Devi in a sparkling golden ocean ,in a mandala of light and music ,at the age of 8 when we had two deaths in the family.The power is more during menstruation and there is a period of latency between the dream and its actualization.The Lakota holy men compare the power to a medicinal plant .When all the lifeproducing stuff is over the wisdom is in the root if they work with the medicine in the right way.They call a woman who has this power a bluebird woman ,who can bring a voice to sing during her sleep.The blue bird of Krishna was awake in me when I lost my grandmother ,his best devotee and my granduncle ,a gnaanayogin.Artists ,medical people and spiritualists had this bluebirds power within in the ancient world ,partially or wholly.
Making dreams in to music
Contemporary song writers carry on this ageold dreaming tradition with them.(Nancy Grace).Billy Joel at Berkelee college of music in Boston said “All songs come from my dreams”Paul Mcartneys album Lazarus heart,colvins poleroids from his album fat city,confessions of a blue singer by Rory Rock all came from dreams.So,when I say that my poetry came from my dreams and my music also I visualized from childhood dreams,there is nothing unusual or supernatural about it.It is just a natural phenomenon within me.Just as a flower comes out of a plant ,they came out of me in right seasons,right times.That is my interpretation of my dreams.
Jane white Lewis reflects on the Jungian analytic practices of dreams in chapter 10 of the book and says dream is finding the truth within and dream work as a spiritual discipline .It is a spiritual alchemy ,an instinctive response to deep pain and injustice and viraha in a lover’s quarrel.A highly emotional stage of a lover’s viraha and a yearning for the lover/God happen and only then a person’s spiritual perspective reaches the darkest and the most distressing phase and transformation into truly authentic and reliable spiritual perspective emerge as pure gold.The dreams of scholarship are very interesting because many discoveries and inventions and abstract truths have been discovered /revealed in dreams,like that of Ramanujan,Kekule,Jung and Poincare.The creativity is not only mystical and artistic but also scientific in dreams.And creating a new thing is actually practical dreaming ,making a waking dream as in the thanthric twilight practices.We create in dreams whether asleep or awake.Sometimes metaphor structures a dream .In love a bridge dream means Love is a journey .In a flying dream it means a sense of freedom experienced by the dreamer.
In his book ,Implications for psychoanalysis ,The new neuropsychology of sleep,J.Allen Hobson says that dream emotions like anxiety ,fear ,anger,elation are primary shapers of dream ,not reaction to them.The classic anxiety dreams are feeling lost,not haing proper credentials,or adequate equipments,suitable clothing,or missing a train etc.
There are functional deficits (physiological)as loss of noradrenergic and serotonergic modulations in REM sleep.These neuromodulators are essential for learning,memory,perception,attention via their direct CNS effects and indirect peripheral mechanisms.In NREM sleep these are not decreased .In REM neuropsychology what we get is certain hyperassociative quality and instability of the timespace ,place and the person –a qualitative feature of the REM dream.The dream characters are thus a chimera ,some features of the dreamers self and some of another.Even the sexual identity of dream characters is fluid.A person gives longer more vivid more motorically animated more bizarre accounts of the REM than the NREM.There is some degree of dream amnesia and the narrative need not be complete.The cognitive and scientific dreams of the dreamer must be then coming out of the NREM phase and the narrative we get are only very few and only from exceptionaly scholarly minds and probably that is why the tribals considered only their chieftains dreams worth reading and analyzing.
In narrating a dream there is a selfreflectiveness (SR)defined as examination of ones own thoughts,feelings,behaviour .SR involves duel levels of awareness alluded to as experiencing the self immersed in its own pattern of awareness and the secondary level of awareness examining the experiencing self.(pp 333 ibid Tracey L.Kahan quoting Rossi 1972:139).She approaches dream as a metacognition.Metacognition is awareness of ones own cognitive processes and a deliberate direction of ones thought processes.Thus both selfreflection and intentionality of self regulation are in it.One part of our mind tells the other parts where to go (intentionality) and observes its progress(selfreflection or monitoring)and corrects its deviations (regulation)if any .Usually when we think in dreams such metacognition is absent .But metacognition is present in sleep and in lucid dreaming.(Godwin 1994;Green McCreeny 1994;Laberge 1985;Van eaden 1913)and high order of cognitive skills do occur even in nonlucid dreams (Cartwright 1981;Cicogna 1991 q pp 341 -342 Tracy L.Kahan ch 22 Ibid ).To have a dialogue with the skeptics she gives a spectrum of perspectives on dreams and dreaming as below.
Theological spiritual Paranormal Scientific
Dream instructions and prophecies from Gods as in the Prophets Higher meanings encoded by a higher power/deeper self The facts transmitted at a distance through dreams by unknown means As functional activity.Consistent with known laws of nature .
In my dream analysis I combine the spiritual and scientific approach predominantly and sometimes even feel that there is something unknown transmitted in it from a higher power which may be called unknown,just as our deeper self which also is only partially known.That cannot be named since it is unknown or partially known .
How scientific is a dream consolidation?
When in jagrad or waking state the sensory inputs are fed to association areas in cortex and hippocampus.Acetylcholine is high during waking state.It prevents the feedback of signals from hippocampus to cortex ,so the information is kept separated or not merged with other incoming stimuli .The advantage is that there is no distortion of information.The disadvantage is that there is no integration or synthesis of knowledge.But this is overcome by the linking together of input information by encoding .(See the previous issue of memory and amnesia for the figure of Visual cortex.The same happen with auditory cortex).
In sushupthy or dreamless sleep,acetyl choline levels falls,and the EEG become more in a mediatative state,and the newly encoded memory in hippocampus is allowed to be fed to association cortex.There is no new input at this stage .(page 129 .Beat memory loss.Rita Carter.Cassell illustrated.Octopus publishing group.2005)Sleep is a sensory blockade or chithavrithinirodha as in meditation/Samadhi.The feedback from hippocampus retriggers neural patterns activated during previous waking .Thus the heard,seen and experienced are consolidated with its meanings .The new linkage forges a new connection between the concepts .So when it is wellconnected ,it become synthesizes as a whole.When one of them is triggered all others are also triggered.Thus heard music,the visualized sight,the experience of emotion,and the meaning 0f it become integrated.This consolidation is what is happening in sushupthy .This is a normal ,not a supernatural thing to happen.But for me to have an interlinking of music,philosophy,astronomy,medicine and language and literature I should have an interest and sradha in them in my waking state is a mandatory thing.The question of how I got the experience while I was only 8 years still is an enigma which comes next .The vaasana of a previous janma in a cyclical universe was thus reasoned by ancient brains .
The new scientist (28th May 2005)reported a few things for betterment of brain conditions and memory power .
REMEMBER FORGET
Glucose Fatty foods
Music Excess alcohol
Word associations Sleep deprivation
Exercises Poor hearing
Chewing gums Bad eyesight
I am happy to understand that I have all the best things needed for remembrance /memory power (except chewing gums)and do not have the things which make me forget and hence my brain is in a fairly good state of memory and cognition and probably that is why I remember my own dreams so well and can interpret them and analyse and do selfreflection as a metascience of my own consciousness.And what is after all spirituality than selfreflection and knowing the self? Hence making my dreams into music and music therapy was written in my brain and in my dreams and in my life’s plan itself by God,is what I would think.As a person who believe in the rhythmic orderly nature of cosmos and its laws I don’t find any supernaturality in what I do or think.It was predestined harmony as Leibniz says.Or in better terms,a God-given gift of Saraswatham ..
1 The aesthetics of music .Roger Seruton
2 A Buddhist pilgrim in Tibet ,Lama Anagarika Govinda .Shambala publications California 1971
3 Dreams –A reader on religious cultural and psychological dimensions on dreaming.Ed Kelly Bulkeley.ch 1.Budhist dream experiences by Serenity Young pp 15
4. Saamavidhaanabrahmana edited by A.C Burnell(London Trubner and co 1873
5. Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad (4.3.13:38and 4.4)
6 Jane white Lewis Reflects on the Jungian analytic practices of dreams in chapter 10
7 Implications for psychoanalysis ,The new neuropsychology of sleep,J.Allen Hobson
8.Tracey L.Kahan quoting Rossi 1972:139
9. Godwin 1994;Green McCreeny 1994;Laberge 1985;Van eaden 1913)and high order of cognitive skills do occur even in nonlucid dreams (Cartwright 1981;Cicogna 1991 q pp
341 -342 Tracy L.Kahan ch 22 Ibid
10. page 129 .Beat memory loss.Rita Carter.Cassell illustrated.Octopus publishing group.2005
11 The new scientist (28th May 2005)
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