Health

(Kindly note that The tables in this post have not come correctly )

Music Therapy and Psychology in Health problems -Contemporary concerns and solutions for reseacrh personnel.

Dr Suvarna Nalapat

In contemporary industrialized societies ,psychological aspects of health and illness are readily acknowledged and there is widespread acceptance of the idea that mental and physical health are intimately related.A century ago ,medical doctors tended to view health as the absence of disease and to regard illness as a physiological matter.The idea that every individual act to improve their own health by a lifestyle and a psychological means was overlooked by the medical professionals .They thought that the only way to keep healthy is by the science they offer to a diseased person(patient)to get back the lost health.In stark contrast to this earlier approach ,health is now typically defined in terms of biological,psychological,and social aspects of wellbeing .This biopsychosocial model of health is consistent with contemporary thought which recognize the importance of social psychological factors in every aspect of health and illness. A variety of factors have had an influence on the development of this new perspective.The twentyfirst century saw a increased lifespan along with increase in dementia and Alzheimers and other geriatric problems as well as lung cancer ,and other types of malignancies related to certain lifestyles.Both categories are amenable to psychological research .And psychological approaches have been applied in these areas.Psychological and social elements to definitions of health including the geographical features and social capital broadened research and integrative medical approaches came in ,displacing the autonomy of a single type of Medical knowledge(that is the modern Medicine )alone .Health psychology continues to examine factors such as gender,ethnicity and life style,socioeconomic status in relation to health.Particular emphasis is placed on stress in causing diseases.Stress is a factor in the development and experience of illness within the emerging field of psychoneuroimmunology .The growing cost of modern medical treatment which is sophisticated and costly but does not give a cost-effective cure for the disorders also has changed the old equations in favour of integrated medical practice.For any type of health sciences ,whether modern or ancient ,it would be cost-effective to prevent illness,rather than treat illness.With this in mind,health promotion has made extensive social psychological research .Application of social psychology to health does not merely address a specific problem.It has lead to development of models and theories for better understanding of health and illness in a sociocultural context.This also lead to rejection of Psychology’s traditional emphasis on dysfunction alone,and instead of that investigation of factors which promote the “Good life”” for a welfare state is emphasized ,as exemplified in the positive psychology movement .(Page 64.Applying social psychology John Cramer,Noel Sheehy,JaquellineReilly,Kren Trew ,and Orla Muldoon. Palgrave Macmillan 2003)
Following this the old Biomedical Model of disease has changed to the new Biopsychosocial Model.
In this model ,the medical research discovered links between some disorders and certain habits and lifestyles.(Example eating animal fats ,smoking etc for cancer; stress for Coronary artery disease and many others).Eliminating such behaviours ofen can prevent disease to some extent, or if already a person is ill,prevent its complications.
To prevent disease the people needs social cognition of how to achieve it.That is social as well as cognitive factors exert influence on health and illness of a person.The perceptions,attitudes,decision-making and other cognitive processes in a person determines his health-related behaviour.Two theories of social psychology on social cognition first formulated were Theory of reasoned action(TRA)and Theory of Planned behaviour(TPB).Even if there is cognition ,an individual may not be able to practice what he /she wants if the social capital is not there.
In order to interpret symptoms as a sign of a particular disease the individual need knowledge about it .That is a part of education department.Then the social condition of poverty,malnutrition,and environmental pollution etc cannot be controlled by a individual.The agroeconomy and food sufficiency,clean drinking water,disposal of waste and pure environment etc are goals of a society which wants its citizens to be healthy and to prevent communicable diseases.So an integrated approach is needed in administrative set up .At present the different departments of Government function as separate islands and a combined integrated approach from both below and above (from people,and the administrators and rulers) simultaneously has to be planned for the success of an integrated scheme.This is what I wanted to achieve by drawing attention to integration of all branches of medicine with Music therapy which is basically depending on the Psychoneuroimmunology for its actions .This is said easily,but achieved with great difficulty and slowly in a Government machinery which is highly hierarchical and Beaureaucratic. By getting co-operation of people –from panchayaths,from grassroot levels,from musicians,doctors ,and from public and media –from below this is made somewhat easier .For this one has to make a series of lectures and write articles,books on the subject so that the communication percolates to all alike.For me,the first several years of my music Therapy work had gone into this preliminary steps .

Wilkinson R.G(1996.Unhealthy societies.The afflictions of inequality. Page 1.Routledge) stated that “Medical science can address the biological pathways involved in disease ,the Pathology and the opportunities for treatment ,but to the extant that health is a social product and some forms of social organizations are healthier than others ,advances in our understanding of health will depend on social research.

Practical issues:
In medical science the gold standard for research is a empirical evidence from an RCT .(Randomised controlled study which is ideally doubleblind ,placebo controlled trial).Pre and post testing is compared and statistically significant differences between the groups attributed to the treatment.This works well in a biomedical format of disease.From a biopsychosocial model to achieve the necessary degree of control is difficult.The variables has to be selected carefully . How I eliminated bias and how I controlled my variables in Music ,I have already discussed in my previous work .
The pilot study intended at the reduction of the modifiable factors of heart disease ,(stress,anxiety and blood pressure )with vocal music using Indian Raagaas.Then ,to this project the Yoga,Ayurveda,and Chakra related theories of different indigenous medical systems were integrated and analysed to get an integrated approach .
The field of health promotion utilizes models of attitude change in publicity campaigns and community health programmes.Asking people to eat less,but nutritious food,take up regular exercise,reduce alcohol intake,stop smoking has some impact but is limited only according to Bennet and Murphy .But when it comes to using music for prevention of disease ,and for personality development and improved memory and cognition in children there is more positive response because everyone has a positive experience of peace with music and has previous experience of its feel good nature ,even without hearing about music therapy .This universal appeal for music makes it an ideal tool for integration of medicine and for social health promotion .
The TV exposure for too long is harmful because it suggests that audiences are passive and uncritical and ,soaking up whatever is exposed to induce a pernicious change in values,attitudes and behaviour.This is true of music too.A person loves one particular type of music need not be because it is good for him/her but he/she had been exposed to it too long.This problem was the first I had to tackle when all my clients chose Yesudas voice .This objection is likely to occur from the medical personnel and research workers.Therefore I wanted to have a control voice which is soft and good for therapy ,which can sing classical music well,and at the same time unfamiliar to the clients and a female voice (quite unlike Yesudas).If I get good response from the same people who love Yesudas voice,then I have proof that
1.It is not familiarity but quality of voice and the raaga that is doing the healing
2.Both the test voice and the control voice being good and soft ,both were acting as control to each other.
3.The voices were tested on 30 volunteers in controlled and uncontrolled atmosphere
4.The voices were tested on clients with a variety of illnesses
5.The voices were tested even in a big crowd where the people were at random ,uncontrolled in parameters
6.In all cases ,written feedback as psychosocial research procedure was collected
7.The selected cases were interviewed for more detailed analysis so that narrative medicine also was included
8.The MLP of selected individuals was used for study of development of musical preferences and cognition of music .
In this way equal importance was given to discipline of music .(Not only to medical science ).That is how I integrated the art and science into a whole for human wellbeing and health and a peaceful living .
Since music therapy is a communication there may arise three levels of problems related to communication.
1.Technical problems.How accurately the communication is transmitted?
2 Semantic problem.How does the transmitted symbol(language/music)convey the intended meaning?
3.Effetcive problems: How efficiently does the received meaning affect the behaviour (here the parameter stress and Blood pressure) in the desired way?
All these levels were taken care of with utmost care in our study .The infrastructure of Amritha Institute provided no problem regarding technical quality.Only when we went out and had an uncontrolled noisy atmosphere this technology was not available.Even then ,with those limitations we could achieve good results (assessed by written feedbacks) shows the efficacy of the medium of music .

The problems that are likely to be encountered has to be thought about first and a systematic plan drawn out and executed within a timespan to get away with errors and biases.Then the research would be a success.Another important thing the Music therapists should remember is that we are part of a social team working in collaboration to facilitate health of society and it is a responsible job to be undertaken with care and maximum efficiency .Documentation is important since that alone will give you an authenticity.Just by claiming that Music is universal and healing occurs with it,the scientific community will not accept you as scientists.Or give you opportunities as scientific research assistants.You have to prove it with your projects and documented evidences and sincerity .This practical side is more important than mugging up theory and answering multiple choice and essay questions.This should be born in mind by the Music therapy training institutes and their staff as well .The universities also should take care that the projects are given more importance for student training .The initial teething troubles will be erased in due course and therefore there need not be any panicky reaction about them .
One thing is certain.Integrated medical and social sciences will be the future of our welfare state for achieving its ultimate goal of health and education and friendly unpolluted environment and in that goal Music and Music therapy has a great role to play .That is not a astrological prediction,but a prediction based on the need of the hour and the social pulse as well as the problems the medical profession faces today.All these ,including a work force which will reduce unemployment of the nation are in the broad plan of this scheme .Ultimately all this planning is done for peace of all individuals,of the society ,of the nation and of the entire world of living beings.

Introjection and Projection

Introjection is a much stronger term than Internalisation that we come across social and human sciences and that usually means taking an idea or a view of the world.Introjection is by comparison more like swallowing of the world ,says Ian Craib (page 40 Psychoanalysis ,a critical Introduction Polity Press Blackwell.2001) like an unconscious thought (which Kleinian psychoanalysts call phantasy) .What is the use of this in practical life ? When we want to take control of an external situation we do this .That is how we hold on to what we might loose and this is how we develop an Ego as well as a superego.We make our own worldviews and by those worldviews we try to control the world in which we live .The ego is formed by that process.But ,the superego is formed by our own world view as well as the archetypal world view of all our ancestors and that makes our superego which is cultural ego ,or identity as a group,a people,a nation,a race and as a people having same language,practices,rituals etc.
In daily life of a husband and wife this control by introjection is seen as adjustments .A wife buying cigarettes or alcoholic drinks to her husband or even arranging a flirting partner for him is trying to control a threatening situation and treating a situation to show that “This belongs to me and I can control it “.Actually this eases a lot of anxiety in the wife that she might loose her husband to addictions or to another woman .It shows she has tension/stress which she is trying to control by introjection.Similarly a group trying to increase numbers by conversion,by other means to increase strength has a feeling that they will fail if they do not do so. They have tension and stress and are not peaceful.
Projection is opposite to Interjection.It is putting something in our mind to another person .The brainwash of several revolutionary political parties is for this.The projection is positively seen as a part of communication also when there is projective listening or creative listening .In this we are projecting us into the mind of another person to understand what they are saying.Example when we read Gandhi,we project us into his personality and words to understand him better .
Apart from communication,sometimes projection defends our personality too.For example,when we find someone with a bad intention,we can project all our goodness onto that person,and protect ourselves from that person’s bad intentions .Because by investing that person with qualities which he/she does not actually possess ,we give them an image which pleases them and makes them act accordingly to keep up that image ,and thus we save ourselves.This also instills good behaviour in another person and therefore is good for both .This positive way of transforming is used by teachers and parents on children for their development.Children also project their ideals on their parents and teachers and thus by projection love them more.
Harmful examples of projection are racism,homophobia,hatred to opposite sex etc.Projection is seen in hatred of paedophiles,murderers and criminals developed by society .So there are good and bad aspects in all these.The reason for splitting the world into good and bad ,liked and disliked (which is called duality) is projection and this word projection is seen in Sanskrit language of Vedantha as Adhyasa (see the commentaries on Brahmasuthra .Brahmasindhu DC Books Kottayam 2006).A split world,a split mind,a split personality is due to the splitting and projection being central to all dualities or dwaitha.And Advaitha is the philosophy of nonduality,nonprojection and seeing truth as it is ,absolute and blissful.This shows how our ancients were not only scientific but practical in making a society that is peaceful and self-sufficient and contended .All the divide and rule strategies of political ,social and religious leaders involve duality,projection and has to be discarded by a wise person .Universal language of Music is used by the rituals of all tribes for the common and universal spirit of oneness between them and hence use of music for Advaitha is timeless as far as humanity is concerned.

In knowledge acquisition and in communication we need projection or projective identification .But except as a method of knowledge ,use of it in society as propaganda will lead to divide and rule.Therefore,use of it has to be very judicial and with proper caution .Bion made a grid which is like a coat of arms ,with multiple functions .The vertical axis describe a process of working ,or the activity of a natural scientist.That is a process of Observation,development of a theory from observation,a process of induction,and laws that can be tested.The vertical axis is thus a description of growth of human thought .
Row A is raw material of experience/raw data collected by senses and called by Bion as Beta elements.
Row B or Alpha elements are the primitive elements o fthought from basic data of mind.These are hypothetical entities.The rows following these are real .
Row C is materials presented by patient/Client in a session ,dream materials,and produced from association of alpha and beta elements
Row D are preconceptions which enable mental growth.A preconception is waiting to get some material to get attached to.When this happen we experience that as understanding the meaning of something of the patient’s material.In this way the preconception becomes a conception.(Row E).
From that row ,there is a purification and generalization.From conception we move to concept(Row F) which involves loosing whatever that mask truth.
The concepts are able to be arranged in more organized form ,as abstract hierarchical form involving observed regularities from which hypothesis can be derived (Row G) and abstract formulae of Algebraic Calculus (Row H).
The horizontal axis deal with different uses to which thoughts can be put.
1 A tentative hypothesis about what might be going on between patient and analyst
2. The second column is relevant when analyst makes a comment to reassure him or herself that he/she knows what is going on.In groups the patience to sit and wait for what is going to emerge may be less and levels of anxiety may grow rapidly unless all members have same degree of patience to wait and watch and the same confidence in what is being done.This is a danger for all team research as I have often experienced .
3.The third column Notation,is noting something that is happening in a particular session.The group discussions on such things is good
4.4th stage is drawing the client’s attention to the analyst’s hypothesis.Inquiry and action columns (marked 5 and 6)and beyond upto n contain the more positive interpretations .Column 5 pursue the inquiry further,column 6 involve confronting the client with the irrefutable facts about himself/herself.
Grid of Bion 1962
1
Definitory
hypothesis 2
ѱ 3
Notation 4
attention 5
Inquiry 6
Action ……n
A
βelement A1 A2
B
αelement B1
B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 …Bn

C
Dream,
Thought,
Myths
C1
C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 …Cn

D
Pre-conception D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 …Dn

E
Conception
E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 …En

F
Concept
F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 …Fn

G
Scientific
Deductive
system G2
H
Algebraic
Calculus

The columns are actually a list of interventions rather than the psychoanalytic personification of scientific methods.The place for irrefutable facts in psychoanalysis and science are doubtful though Bion use such a term.The possibility of clarity of meaning at logical levels as we proceed is evident from the grid.
By the last process algebra and calculus we come to the conclusion all thought process is essentially an abstract process.The Symington’s claim that Bion’s model of thought is a fluctuation between paranoid –schizoid and depressive position.The reason they say is that the starting point is not existence but absence (Not bhava but abhava as Sankara would have said in Sanskrit).
Page 102 (Ian Craib)says that absence of an organ like breast is what beta element mean.To make up for that absence thinking as a symbol but the absence is felt as a persecution,as long as one thinks about it as a lack or absence of something.Since the lack or absence is a thought of persecution,it is paranoid and a trial to transform this persecution feeling.This is in terms of absence of breast ,in the case of a cancer patient.
But apply this to other types of lack or absence /Abhava of opportunities etc in various social,religious beliefs we will find the significance of what is going on around us .
I don’t want to give examples since that might hurt people who has been believing that they are right in everything they do.But ,I would be happy if they do some retrospection and find out where their political,social,philosophical and other revolutionary thoughts start and where their religions start .Lack or persecution from a God who sends the man from his garden,of a class which deny everything to them, of a sex that persecute opposite sex –and so on.All start from a paranoid-schizoid persecutionist view of world and then a feeble attempt to redress it.The Advaitha on the other hand tell us that we are Athman and we haven’t lost anything,except that a covering has occurred over our minds which can be removed by proper thinking,and education and those who have patience and willingness can follow a regime of life and education to see that truth and enjoy supreme bliss .
In music therapy we deal with individual as well as group therapy.That is individual and group psychology is taken into consideration .A group or a mass of people ,at random come for Kutcheri or music concerts.The people may be a professional group belonging to a particular institution or a particular organization and they have a group psychology .The group processes are ability to think in groups.The group discussions and the training to open up before others is thus essential for a trainee so that he/she can assess the psychology of both individuals/colleagues as well as a random or professional group.By relationships and discussions in a group we get an idea of possible doubts and objections that can arise and we get a opportunity to defend our data and our analysis which is a important point in our research and treatment .Some groups have a defence against a new discipline or a new way of teaching and evaluation .Such groups are very much against the modern methods of learning and teaching .Similarly some groups are reluctant and opposed to singing a Vivadi Raga in music and making them understand that there is no Vivadi but only balancing .The philosophical and mathematical and other proofs even if we give they do not understand ,since they are not receptive to abstract maths and philosophy.The only way then is to sing and demonstrate that the Vivadi can be sung with beauty and exceptional attraction and it gives a special aesthetics and healing to clients.The Melakartha Raga sung properly by a person with suswara can be used for this purpose.The group psychology is only slowly and steadily won over and do not expect to achieve it overnight.I had patiently waited more than ten years for this to happen .But it did happen is what matters.Not the time interval. One who has patience can wait not ten years but an entire lifetime to achieve and give what is truth and energy and bliss to all alike.
The Basic assumption groups have certain unconscious relationships between group members that defend against both intellectual and emotional learning.The three important features of such Basic assumption group relations are dependency,pairing and fight-flight .
Dependency:- The group members depend upon the group leader to lead them ,control,organize work and take no responsibility inwhat is going on.This is a problem in every nation and every institution where each member/citizen has to be a responsible member in group work/team work.The leader is expected to bear all responsibilities for the work,for the mistakes and faults and when he/she asks for more responsible behaviour the subordinates quarrel with authority and become rebellious .Paradoxically the dependency group appears in a situation where it is least appropriate-in a university seminar or class.This is where everybody should engage in thinking .The working of each brain is precious for making group successful .
When this happens what to do ? That is the best challenge for an administrative leader in a professional teaching and service institution.I had faced this in the Blood Bank of Calicut Medical college and could successfully tackle it with the Indian ethics in management in Gita and Ziel-oriented project planning .At the end of six months the entire staff of Blood Bank had been thinking with me about what to be done next and how to tackle each problem and that was a moment of real happiness for me.
Pairing:- A relationship between two members of a group that seems to relieve others of the group from responsibility of participating is called by this term by Bion.This may be between same sex or opposite sex members.The group starts to feel that this couple will rescue the entire department/group from all its problems as if they are a Messiah .Ofcourse this is only a phantasy of the group but this happens always as all of you might have experienced in your professional surroundings.
In teaching situations two teachers ,or two mature and wise students /postgraduates will always dominate the discussions frequently arguing with one another and supporting each other if some one else argue with one of them.This makes all others silent witnesses of what is going on and is not a good feature for a group discussion.All should get equal opportunity to express views in a democratic set up and all should participate in discussion .Only then the group will succeed to achieve what they really should achieve.
Fight-Flight:-
This is a group form of defencive projection.The group will find an external enemy or an internal scapegoat for all its shortcomings and victimize that person .The criticism and attack on that enemy enable an internal cohesion and feeling of identity within the group ,or if the scapegoat is within the group ,among the rest of the group members.The enemy carries all the blames for failures of the group .This I need not elaborate since any person who have worked in a institution/organization might have seen or have been part of this behaviour there .Or at least you might have witnessed this several times in group politics .
Menzeis –Lyth (1989) shows how in a teaching hospital ,anxieties within it being very primitive dealing with death and illness, are dealt with by a Beaureaucratic organization.In organizations and in politics when there is something creating anxiety ,the system is changed for something else but the anxieties are not removed.They are shifted from up to downward strata in hierarchical organizations.Whether in a matter of dependency,fight-flight or pairing in Beauraecracy to alleviate anxiety,individuals within the group inhibit their own creative thinking processes and collective work become difficult .The contrast between a well-defended ,highly anxious group and a group that can mobilize individuals in a collective creative process is immense .
I will give two examples here.
1 .A client comes to a patient and goes into deep coma in the hospital ,because of negligence of the duty nurse and doctor who refused to give intravenous glucose to him ,though he was having hypoglycemia on admission.The Doctor who had seen the patient earlier was on a discussion /seminar and the duty nurse insisted that without his permission she will not give glucose IV .The doctor was late after his seminar and teaching session to reach the department and by that time precious time was lost and the patient who came walking to the casualty was in deep coma.Then there had been an afterthought among the staff doctors/nurses that in case the patient die a legal problem might come up against those who are responsible and they sent a PG trainee and collected all the case sheets ,references that the patient’s wife had with her .And after that the doctor never turned up .The Principal and Superintendent came to know of such a patient in the wards and when they put up an enquiry ,the Professor and Head of Department of Medicine had to take up the responsibility of the patient .For five days the patient was in coma and all investigations and questions to the family were directed to make it look like a suicide. All sorts of allegations including drug addiction,alcoholism, possibility of HIV/AIDS and even a homicide by the wife was thought of as possibilities.But the patient came back to normal after 5 days and when he was told what had happened ,he being a doctor working in the same hospital,collected the copy of the casesheet that had gone to the Record Library and asked his wife to take enough photocopies and keep.He knew his colleagues and their psychology well.They were afraid of a legal procedure against negligence and not bothered about what happens to their poor colleague. Whether he lives or not was immaterial .But they should save their skin.
2. A client with cancer needs a prolonged treatment regime and the medicines are costly .The patient’s parents are poor .They are struggling to make both ends meet. The drug companies are competing for market and are giving commissions to doctors for getting more markets for their product .Only with the doctor’s prescription the stores give medicines and if he writes only costly ones the poro patients find it difficult to get them.The ups and downs in social status have made this problem permanent in India ,at least in Kerala ,where I have worked.When this is pointed out do you think the entire group of doctors,though they know this happening will agree to it? And even those doctors who are not part of this game will not come in open to criticize their colleagues who are doing this .This sort of defence mechanisms ,pairing between organizations(like doctors and drug stores and marketing people etc) exists and many are silent as pointed out in fight-flight situation.Only the dominant speak .
This social psychology of group and organizations are harmful to entire society .
Can we deal with it musically ? We can introduce humanitarianism into science and by that address such social issues is what my Music therapy project aims at.And I think my attempts are partly being successful .

The best Therapist is the one who understands that therapy begins where the theory ends.It is practice and constant experience that leads to theory for an expert therapist .And there is no magic formula or set of instructions /or prescriptions .Each individual being a unique person the therapist must be able to expect a new challenge in each patient .The psychotherapy is considered as a mutual search for both therapist and patient.The same is true for Music therapy practitioners too.It is a matter of enabling a person to think and feel .Not a process to know. If one feels that one knows self ,then no more effort from us to know Athman and it will make us stagnant. We are just like babies who find our way to our mother’s breast ,the moment we are born.Just like that music and language make us drawn to them .That is why it is called the breast milk of mother Saraswathy.The patient root around in search for selfhealing ,for a meaning and therapist help in the search just by being there as a moral support.Because music is inherent in each individual and role of therapist is just to make the patient feel for that search of self in him/her for healing .It is not a treatment or a cure but a healing by our own musical self .It brings about a change or transformation in the client as well as in the therapist .No body gets cured of any illness but they discover that they were not so ill,as they thought .Human psyche is full of paradoxes and in medical models of modern medicine this factor is never attended to in wholistic manner.By introducing music therapy research protocols in medical curriculum we can make it more wholistic and humanistic and addressing problems in a better way for benefit of the nation,of society,the discipline itself ,nothing to speak of the doctor/nurse/student community and the general public as clients.A total social transformation can happen if we seriously apply this model into our social life and science.The decision whether one needs music therapy or not has to come from the client or the family members and never from the therapist .

Some one was asking me if only University educated musicians and doctors can do music therapy what about musicians who have no academic degree and yet wants to contribute their share? They can definitely contribute in tehri own way .
1 Making their music the best –both with technical perfection of notes and Raaga and with careful protection of the softness of voice and having the bhavas of love,compassion and devotion in songs they are contributing their share to music therapy practice .Probably they do contribute a major share among masses making an awareness of the effects of music and contributing to the MLP of each individual in society .
2.Each Kutchery is a group therapy and so is a bhajan .By being able to do a performance like that ,in front of a huge crowd ,each artist is able to understand their own uniqueness,the uniqueness of their art ,their own individuality and the individuality of the audience as a group.If individual therapy is that of hospitals and university educated postgraduates in a collaborative teamwork and research ,the group therapy is more effective with popular singers with good knowledge of the art and a good voice and a feel for the pulse of the audience .The strength of music is best demonstrated by such individuals in public eye .
3.They can contribute much to the society and its development and inculcation of values into society by their personality and popularity .They are the right persons to be models for the society as group therapists .Live performance of such artists in hospitals,clinics etc can be organized to help the cause .

Each and every one ,musicians,music lovers and organizers of concerts,doctors,other medical ,paramedical staff and university people and educationists and public figures can contribute their share in the social reformation programmes using music because there is no one who does not love or like music of some sort .

stress

These are some tests for adults to evaluate whether they are having stress and how they can cope with it by selfhealing techniques and music therapy.

Stress tests
1 .Find out whether you are under stress.Check the list of symptoms and notice whether they affect you only occasionally ,often or always.
1 I get nervous ,anxious
2.I feel overexcited
3.I worry too much
4.I become confused and forgetful
5.I have difficulty in concentrating
6.I feel irritable most of the time
7.I get depressed
8.I feel bored and apathetic
9.My heart pounds
10.I breathe rapidly
11.I get stomach upsets easily
12 I feel lighthearted or faint
13.My feet and hands become cold
14.I perspire easily
15 I have to pass urine often
16.I get diarrhea and/or constipation
17.My blood pressure is high
18.My face feels flushed
19.I cant sit or stand for long
20.My muscles are tense and stiff
21.I stutter or stammer
22.I have a nervous twitch
23.My hands and fingers tremble
24.I clench my jaw and grind teeth
25 I get headache or eye aches
26.I have low backpain
27.I am becoming withdrawn
28.I am shorttempered
29.My appetite changed rapidly (eating too little or too much)
30.My sex drive is increased or decreased
31.I oversleep
32.I cant sleep
33.I have minor accidents and make more mistakes
34 I am using more drugs ,alcohol,medications
35 I always feel tired

Stress test 2 .By Psychologist Lyle H Miller and Alma Dell Smith (Boston Uty Medical center).Modified to suit our purpose.Score each item from
Almost always 1
Once a month 2
Once a week/day 3
Only very occasionally 4
Never 5
Rate yourself accordingly .

1.I eat at least one hot balanced meal
2.I get 7-8 hrs sleep
3.I give and receive attention regularly
4.I have at least one relative within 80 Kms of my house on whom I can rely
5.I exercise to the point of perspiration
6 I smoke less than ½ a pack of cigarettes
7.I take five alcoholic drinks
8 I have appropriate weight for my age
9.My income is adequate to meet my basic requirements
10.I get strength from my beliefs/religious/spiritual/or secular
11.I regularly attend social activities
12.I have network of friends and acquaintances
13.I have one or more personal friends in whom I can confide my personal matters
14 I am in good health(including eyesight,hearing etc)
15.I am able to speak openly about my feelings
16 I have conversations with my people at home,at office etc
17.I involve in entertainment or hobby
18.I am able to organize my time effectively
19.I drink less than 3 cups of coffee/tea/cola
20 I take a quiet time for myself
How to get the score: Add up the score.Subtract 20.
Over 30 indicate vulnerability to stress
Between 50 and 75 seriously vulnerable
Over 75 extremely vulnerable

Test 3 Holmes-Rahe stress scale (Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe ) based on survey of 5000 people

Event stress point

1.Death of spouse 100 %
2.Divorce 73
3.Marital separation 65
4.Jail term 63
5.Death of close family member 63
6.Personal injury/illness 53
7.Marriage 50
8.Fired from work 47
9.Marital reconciliation 45
10.Retirement 45
11.Change in health of family member 44
12.Pregnancy 40
13.Sex problems 40
14.Gain of new family member 39
15.Business readjust,ment 39
16.Change in financial state 38
17.Death of close friend 37
18.Change to different style of work 36
19.Change in number of argument with spouse 35
20.Mortgage more than USD 10000 31
21.Foreclosure of mortgage/loan 30
22.Changed responsibilities at work 29
23.Son/daughter leaving home 29
24.Trouble with in-laws 29
25.Outstanding personal achievement 28
26.Wife begin or stop work 26
27.Beginning or end of school 26
28.Change in living condition 25
29.Revision of personal habits 24
30.Trouble with boss 23
31.Change in work hours or conditions 20
32.Change in residence 20
33.Change in school 20
34.Change in recreation 19
35.Change in church/religion 19
36.Change in social activity 18
37.Mortgage/loan less than USD 10000 17
38.Change in sleeping habits 16
39.Change in number of family gettogether 15
40.Change in eating habits 15
41.Vacation 13
42.Festival/Christmas 12
43.Minor violation of law 11

That means life itself is the stress .But the way people react to the same event varies. It is not the event but your own ability to cope with it that matters. For example,I had the experience of my spouse’ death at my 48th year (which according to Holmes is 100% stress )but I coped with it well and it never left a stress symptom over my personality. It was because of my philosophical background,my musical preferences and also my lifestyle which includes a background of Medical profession as well that of a teacher .When duty demands a soul which had gone through philosophical discourses will not succumb to any stress even if that is a 100 % stress according to the Psychoanalysts. For this,I myself am an example.

Holmes showed that in a sample of 88 Doctors ,with 300 or more on the scale had 70 % chance of suffering ulcers,psychiatric disturbances ,broken bones or other health problems within 2 years of various crisis.Those who scored under 200 had only 37 % incidence of such problems.They could predict by adding up the life stresses of healthy football players ,which ones would be injured the next season.
By singing keerthans one is able to withdraw oneself from the body,external environment and stressful experiences.Kirthan relax mind and is called a Yogic Tranquilliser .It cause the fast moving beta waves of brain to change to slower relaxed alpha rhythms.Alpha denotes condition of mind when one is within internal space detached from external space.The relaxed state enable us to achieve steady ,onepointed tranquil state of mind .The calm waves makes a calm personality and is a sign of stress relief.When man’s thoughts are corrupted there is no control of mind and stress happen.The desires and passions tossing mind keeps it tense.The involvement in Keerthan and Yoga and disciplined mind leads to mature,calm peaceful personality .The role of music was known for this property of calming mind for Yogic concentration from early times.Now the modern techniques and research protocols of medicine is finding that this is happening through action of the brain waves,by the neurotransmitter rsubstances and also immunological enhancement to prevent all disorders.Hence the branch is a Neuropsychoimmunological research as far as Music Therapy is concerned.

Apart from the EEG,Hormonal and other measurable parameters ,what is the psychological mechanism that reduce stress through musical communication between therapist and client?
Effective human communication is one of the important factors that reduce stress.Learning to communicate to express our needs and emotions instead of suppressing them inside help to reduce stress and calm mind.Music is the best communication between two souls .And through that ,humans forget all sorrows and this universal language is used by therapist for stress relief .The art of conversation is an important aspect of human life essential for communicaton but it is not the language itself but the Bhaava and the Sthobha in it that really communicate the emotion and that is what music is all about.In fact from a person’s speech (and music) a person’s personality as well as what he/she wants to convey is better communicated than anything else.The voice,the tone,the pronounciation,the diction,the vocabulary,and sentence construction etc make a strong contribution to the personality.Because of this the improvement of voice and speech is important for improving communication,for healing as well as for personality development.Personality of a person is what people think about him/her and character is what he/she really is.Character is aquired through self-discipline and firmness of conviction.
Good communication means shared conversation which involves speaking/singing as well as listening.If no one listens there is no communication.The communication is an exchange of ideas through speaking/singing and listening .Therefore a good conversationalist /Music therapist has good communication skills of both types.For communication skills one should improve
1.Ability to get along with people
2.Ability to express clearly ,concisely and convincingly
3.speaking,listening ,verbal exchange of ideas
4.habit of listening to others.On an average efficiency of a person in listening to others is ten to 25 %.
5.Able to start conversations to the topics familiar and liked by by the the listener ,to the interest of the listener. That is why the therapist has to start with musical preference of listener
6.One has to appreciate people with whom you converse
7. imagination and select vivid picturesque words to colour the speech
8.Should be tolerant to views of others.If you totally disagree it is better to keep silence for the time being instead of being aggressive .Avoid strong arguments and using bad language against anyone
9.Conversation with different types of people can be enjoyed by a tolerant conversationalist only.A therapist is to meet different types of people and therefore this talent has to be developed for helping all types of people.
10.Voice and speech should reflect the sincerity of purpose .It should express the real person within us .
11.A good conversation does not happen by chance.Only when people have a mind and intellect developed beforehand by a lifetime effort ,they are able to converse and share freely and sincerely with others.
12.A good conversation is not a gossip about the defects of others but a very positive psychological help and that should give confidence and improve the quality of the listener .
13.A person who help others should be able to listen to their needs,experiences with a compassionate mind and provide positive feedback to improve their life and personality
14.Nine conventional topics which a common man will like to hear and can converse about are,films,music,newspapers,arts,magazines and books,newspapers,social activities,special cultural interests and hobbies.Starting with such subjects a person can slowly help the people.Of all tehse the best is music because it does not carry gossip or bad stories or any adverse things and is best for conveying love,compassion,devotion etc.
15.Learning to love people and all living things is essential for a compassionate therapists .Genuine interest in all living things and their wellbeing is the personality of the therapist .
16.A broad outlook ,a wide range of interests and a sharing of activities ,reading and listening are helpful for all tehse.
17.Selfconfidence is also a factor for a good therapist .
18.Flattery seldom works but a smile is a healing tool and sincere love is that which stands the test of time in the face of all adverse experiences.And for a Music therapist ,the best gift from a disciple will be involvement in the professional work shown by the people ,and not just flowery words or awards .And that is what is very rare to find.But such rare people I did find in my sojourn through this hard professional journey .
19.Do not forget that people come to you needing attention,sincerity,encouragement and even adults are really having a hidden child within which craves for sympathy and motherly love .
20.In dealing with worry ,have a sincere and compassionate ear to the sufferings of the person concerned.A loving word and a helping hand and an encouraging system of wholistic care may do wonders for reducing worry and stress.
Below a schematic chart of personality is given.The upper half is the Unstable and the lower half is the stable personality.The left half is the Introverted and the right side is the extroverted personality.A balanced personality has to be developed.

UNSTABLE
Moody
Anxious
Rigid
Sober
Pessimistic
Reserved
Unsociable
Quiet Touchy
Restless
Aggressive
Exitable
Changeable
Impulsive
Optimistic
Active

Passive
Careful
Thoughtful
Controlled
Eventempered
Calm
Reliable Sociable
Outgoing
Talkative
Responsive
Easy going
Lively
leadership

STABLE

To give confidence and induce positive thinking in others we have to inculcate them in ourselves first.
The Art of Positive thinking by Affirmations is to resolve to yourself that you are what you want to be.This helps you to achieve the Goal you seek .
What are the affirmations which help to lift your self esteem?

1.I love myself,my Athman.And since Athman is same in every living being I love all living beings as myself.I do not harm anyone by deeds,words,or thoughts.
2.I am able to focus/concentrate on anything I choose effortlessly .
3.I am able to recall my knowledge when a Practical situation so demands
4.I am an excellent speaker/communicator
5.I start each day with joy ,energy and a blessing for all living beings
6.I share my inner peace and happiness with others,through my words (spoken/written)deeds and thoughts and prayers
7.Everyday I become more and more wise,compassionate and openminded and effective in communicating my feelings and thoughts with a positive result
8.In my own inner world I feel satisfied and happy because I have lived a full life of love,and knowledge combined with actions for the good of all .
9 I do not waste my time in idle talk and use every moment of it for improving myself and through that the world in which I live in
10.I am an Athman and not this perishable body or mind ,and no disease or destruction happen to that Athman which is the real Me ,and whatever that I think,do and speak /communicate will be forever remaining in this world for the sake of welfare of all beings
11.Whoever comes in contact with me gets a share of my goodwill so that a change happens in their outlook and their life becomes more fruitful for the sake of the society.
12.I love my students,my patients,my friends and relatives and even those whom I have not seen and that love is my source of strength ..

The messages we give to ourselves in this way,affect our own personality,selfesteem and make our relations with others more fruitful and pleasant .If a negative message is passed on by someone,either ignore it, or if that message is being repeated avoid such people who pass on negative messages to belittle our selfesteem.Only a person who has a positive outlook will get perfect satisfaction and happiness and will be devoid of diseases and sorrows .

Music as Ritual

Music and Ritual

In India music and dance and arts has a ritualistic background whether tribal or Vedic.When I speak on the cultural heritage of Indian music and arts ,someone was asking me “Are you promoting Hindu religion?”
When I was speaking about the classical music and its effects on the health of my clients ,then also someone asked me “Are you promoting Yesudas?”
I don’t know the meanings of both these questions.
For one thing there is no need for a person like me to be a promoter of either Hinduism or of Yesudas.Both are already famous and accepted by a very large section of society.The second aspect is that if any one who does research on Indology is a Hindu Fundamentalist ,then it is better to be that rather than doing no research at all on our past history of heritage and culture.The third aspect is that if I am promoting both Yesudas and Hinduism at the same time ,that is an impossibility ,as any fool can see from the first glance itself.

I saw a journal published by Spanda Foundation a Transnational Non-profit NGO for sustainable advancement of peace ,knowledge and understanding and they had published a Music and Ritual Project edited by Keith Howard in 2006 which I happened to read in 2010 .This book should be seen by those people who asked me whether I am promoting Hinduism and Jesudas .They have said in the introduction itself that in all cultures of the world art and ritual ,especially music and dance ,occurred together and developed together.Ritual is a human activity from early stage of human development and in that music and dance were for creating atmosphere or to provide aural and visual markers that lend efficacy to the procedures and atht is part of an ethnic people’s developmental history.In Indian people’s developmental history,then Indian music ,dance,arts and languages and other scriptural stories etc has a n important role and to ignore it saying these are just myths and religion,is not to know our own past and our own evolution as a people together.Which one developed first ,music or ritual?The newborn child develop ability to explore sound and dance before it speak and walk and pray .So first is music and art .This ethnomusicological approach is what I am using in my studies.
Nepal in the Himalayas is a prehistoric part of India where part of Videha king Janaka and his daughter Sita ,and the branch of Rama’s succcessors (Of Moolaka) as the Sakya Sudhodana and GouthamaSidhartha lived.The first article in this research work deals with the tribal old musical rituals and how the shaman heals with it .
The horoscope predictions,scriptural text readings and shamanic rites of sending dangerous spirits of ancestors away and applying music for pestilence and other disorders ,the need for correct intonation and chanting are used by tehse tribals just like the Sanskrit Thanthriks of ancient India.Gurung is the word for Guru used by them.The shaman is a ritual expert and an astrologer ,head or chieftain as well as a Gurung.To be a Shaman they start learning at 4 years of age and continues till 24 (20 years of study. Comparable to Indian traditions ).The hills of Pokharan at 5000 feet height has a place called Yajnakot where the shaman interviewd by the research team had been living for generations as Shaman Gurus.At the beginning of the ritual they too chant the entire history of their Guruparampara (which has a 100 )just like the Vedic practice.The shaman say that the Nepal Shaman has come from the four directions-South,east,west and North.This particular family has come from south (Cho or Ui Cho Hyula ) and call themselves as Namtithu Namtahya Pachyu Tamu/Tamumai are considered as outsiders as Gurungs.Prominent in Annapurna hills and Manasalu mountains of Central Nepal speaking Tamu-Kyui language,.Pachyu is a pucu /Poju(Poojari) or shaman pajyu and the term is present in all mythical Tamu histories.The other Pajyu is from Karkola from the east ,pron from west,Chalden from South says Pignede (1993).
Pachyu Chiba means the head Shaman chosen by a possession .The learning has to be completed before marriage (during Brahmacharya as in Indian tradition).Four of the relatives play percussion instruments for the shaman and assist in his curing spells.The shamans are also Vaidya preparing herbal medicines.
For the training of Pachyu phases of moon are important.Training starts from a time of partial eclipse.During full moon period spirits have less power so the student is taught to fight them during full moon.Healing is practiced as new moon rises,so that patient become better when moon becomes full.At daylight they collect herbs and at night they sing,dance play instruments and give herbal medicines .The dress (especially the cap and drum and cymbal of Pachyu resembles the Vealn/Vannan Veriyattu and the Khlypri that of Parya and Theyya Manthravada kolams (though the Nepali shaman is shown to wear shirts in photographs –may be a new addition to the attire-and the Vannan and Paraya does not wear it in their ritual times.).Fighting ancestaral spirits is done by Pachyu only and they do not eat pork or buffalo just like Indians .Khlyeperi’s job is to purify dead and send tehm to upperworld.Before they do it,the Pachyu has to send the dead spirit away by their ritual.The music and rhythms of these two groups differ.
The funeral rites rhythms of the Nepali ritual starts with rhythms of creation,not with destruction.Then invites ancestral spirits,goes to lower worlds,and call souls of dead,then bring soul back to meet the living.This is played with special drums which are rare (Padu and herga they call them) and submetric units change frequently as one pattern give way to next.The patterns are sad and amrk separation and loss and there is gradual acceleration as sequence progresses.The interlocking patterns of the two drums represent split pulls of human life or struggle between good and bad deeds.(says Killius about it).The two drums speak between them a secret language in rhythms.
I remember the small hut of a Paraya just opposite our Nalapat House ,across a small field.When at night a drum beats with a sad pathos note,my grandmother used to exclaim “Someone has dead.Appunni is calling the spirits “.Nowadays that rhythm is not heard anywhere in Kerala ,I think.That rhythm which reduce all the bad karma of the dead soul and make it pure and tehn send it to upper worlds or heaven is lost .For brass cymbals (called siljyo chhya) or Chyolle ,the shaman says they are fighting with spirits by speaking through cymbols and driving them away (bad ones).For a spirit (dead one) crying they use a Horn which Appunni also played in his ritual.Long hollowed and spiraled horns and conch shells are used for making two types of sounds –sad mourning ,and happy auspicious ones.Cymbols are similar to Tibetan rol-mo.The instruments are bigger for khyelpri and high resonant frequencies come and go.The effect of a constantly changing harmonics is created.

The Nepali shamanic ritualistic music and its notations are given recorded from Cambridge research center in the book.And the British and western researchers are interested in how the eastern prehistoric music was used in healing ,both by tribal and classical musicians of India.There is no religious interest in that type of research ,but just a search or quest into the ways of an ethnic group of people and their past histories and cultural heritage and its development.
In Balinese history dance and drama is to pass down cultural values through tales of Ramayana,Mahabharatha,and other such epic stories.Bali dance is ritualistic and part of the popular religion of the land and propagated by court of royal kings.The relationship between what westerners usually call religion and what Balinese call Agama is a twisted tale .(page 74 Damp dreams some problems with dance in Bali by Mark Hobart . Keith Howard Ed Music and ritual).That is a sentence which catches our attention. Agama is an Indian word for Vedic culture .And that is not what the religion means in English language .This lack of understanding of modern human beings and scholars and westernized educationists has caused the question put to me as I had pointed out in the first paragraph itself.We have to rethink and redefine our understanding about India and its culture and its terms and rituals which are for healthy living in a geographic region.
Even the Vedic utterances against the enemies has to be understood as rituals to ward of harmful spirits as enemies in the early evolutionary history of human beings,and not as the political history of a servant class as enemies to the masters.It is an absurd idea to feel like that ,and that idea came from the western masters who were facing struggles from the subdued colonial people as their servants and enemies and has nothing to do with Vedic rituals.The Thripura destroyed by God in the Veda is as much the final covering of mundane life as a triangle around the Bindu in the Mahathripurasundari Chakra of Srividya ,rather than the political destruction of any city /urban center.Unless one know the different rituals associated with the vedic and tribal and thanthric people of the land and understand each as offshoots of the same primitive popular cults of the land ,this fact will not be cognized.And when the wrath of Parasurama killed entire race of royalty,and when during end of Dwaparayuga destruction of all was predicted ,the people of the land had codified the important scriptures and protected tehm in popular as well as academic discipline (in Gurukula) for posterity and the message was given through Katha (which is a story drama,with dance and music ) to all alike as a means of survival of the knowledge among the remaining few (especially women and children who were the only survivors in both the situations mentioned).

In Balinese language Pulau Dewatha means The island of Divine ones.Pulau or Pulu(mayi ) and Pulava is then an islander for Balinese.Sumatra known a steh Gateway to Mecca of South East Asia the group music,dance and rhythmic percussions are famous.One type called Ratoh duek (sitting chattering) in Achean and Sman in Gayo is a secular folk game .The other is a Rateb duek (sitting devotional) partly religious.This was modified and used in Kerla Muslim traditions till the beginning of last century .I do remember groups of Rateb players(Mostly Muslim)coming to our courtyard to play this rhythmic dance in a circle with their percussion instruments.Th eorigin is Mughal Indian ,says the book (page 88).The rateb is a sufi style trance and the music and dance rhythms are played throughout night just as the Paraya and Nepali shaman do .This is done during circumcision,weddings and for honouring guests too.In China the Xian Gyuye with wind and percussion instrumenst is the oldest surviving music of the land ,the living fossil(Huohuashi) as known by Chinese scholars.It was a popular music by folk musicians,labourers,peasants and lower social classes.The silk route had contributed to this musical culture to China and flute is a important constituent of the instrumental music.Confuciou sis attributed to have the four basic principles of ruling established as music,law,rituals and administration.Slow simple music along with rituals was a must in law and administration of China from Confucius times.Music had a ceremonial cultural value in administration of state since it was essential for stress relief and efficiency of rulers and citizens of the nation.The same principel we see in the administrative laws of India where royalty had ritualistic music ,just like the common man ,and both had to be healthy in mind and body and intellect for a healthy nation.
The two tables below show how the Confucian administration was same as or similar to Indian system of music and astronomy,and Ayurvedic healing and use of it in the five elements and the state administration.

Table 1:-
12 pitches .Huang zhong,dalu,taicou,jiazhong,guxian,zhonglu,ruibin,linzhong,yize,nanlu,wuyi,yingzhong.
Each of these alternate as yang,yin,yang ,yin
The five degrees :1st pitch is gong.3rd is shang,5th is jue,8th zhi,10th yu
Order of state: Gong is emperor,shang minister,guxian people,zhi matter,yu affairs
Internal organs:spleen,lung ,liver,heart,kidney in that order (for the 5 degrees)
Human character:-trust,loyalty,humanity,courtesy,wisdom (for the five degree)
Element :Earth,metal,wood,fire,and water
Directions:Middle,west,east,south and North
Colour:-yellow,white,green,red,black
Table 2:-
Source of sound.. instrument moral implication
Metal Bells order,horizontal,power,military commander
Stone chimes discernment,death,result of defending frontiers
Silk Qin,Se sadness,honourable,will power,courageous officer
Bamboo flute spreading out,gathering crowd,resource gathering officer
Gourd mouth organ
Earth globular flute
Skin drums power,movement,a moving crowd,generals and officers
Wood zhu,Yu
Yhis ritual and meaning came to existence in 3rd century BC in China.

When I compare this with the extensive Thanthric scriptural material and Yoga literature of India and also the Ayurvedic and Musicological ancient texts , along with my childhood experiences of popular and folk music of my small village where all the tribal and folk arts existed harmoniously ,I find what a rich tradition we had and compared to the other parts of the world how much research can be done in Indian music and culture ,if the foolish so-called Intelligentia and academicians of universities thro waway their preformed notion that whatever is written in Sanskrit is religious and is whatever is ritualistic in India is Hinduism and it is equivalent to the term religion as used with the semitic meaning.Hinduism is a culture,a living tradition of ethnic geographical civilization of a people who lived in the subcontinent from Himalaya to Kanyakumari and the varied cultural peculiarities of each region and the codified and educational schemes organized by ancestors to protect each needs more care and research ,rather than dumping it in the dustbin of religion and politics and terms like Right wing an left wing.
I am totally unaware of the right or left wings since I always take the Royal Middle path to truth ,what is called the Rajamarga ,as in Tyagarajas’s Kharaharapriya composition “Chakkani Rajamargamu”.
I have only one request to researchers who are true truth seekers.Dont be fooled by preformed opinions.Observe everything,question,analyse and if found to be logically and experimentally as well as experience-wise true ,accept it as truth.That is science.To label something as myth,untruth,religion etc and refusing to study and analyse it makes that been lost to posterity forever.The ethnoarcheology,ethnomusicology and ethnic history of India is a living tradition still and study these well before coming to a conclusion.There might have been superstitions in it as in the shamanistic beliefs of ancient past ,but those were the first thought processes of a people before they became evolved and in every step of evolution,in their changing scriptures we find evidences of the evolving thought processes and studying that we will be able to compare our own knowledge systems with the knowledge systems of ancient and from that comparative wisdom we would be able to make a better,classless and free society equal in every respect –economically,educationally ,but diverse in their cultural ritualistic music and arts traditions and belief systems.
I had finished writing this short piece yesterday night,before I went to sleep.Today morning (on 7th June 2010) Times of India reports that a psychologist Matt Rosano ,Professor and Head of Department of Psychology in his book “Supernatural selection :How religion evolved” has stressed the role of religion in the struggles of prehistory for survival and reproductive advantage.He says that roots of religion stretch as far back as half a million years,when our ancestors developed the motor control to engage in social rituals-that is to sing and dance together.70000 years ago,a global ecological crisis drove humanity to edge of extinction,and forced survivors to create a new strategy for survival,and religious rituals were foremost among them.This book is said to be a response to the 2006 bestseller “The God Delusion”by Richard Dawkins,an atheist manifesto that pitted science against religion.
Rossano says Dawkins missed the science that revealed how religion made man more human.He pulls together evidence from a wide range of disciplines to show the valuable purpose served by systematic belief in the supernatural power.According to him,evidence confirms that at its core religion was not about doctrines,creeds,institutions or miracles,but about relationships.Religion is a fundamental way for humans to relate to each other and the world around them and in early prehistory that was a definite advantage.
I have not read both the books.But it seems to me what data and evidences I have been collecting throughout my life(from my own personal and professional life experiences,from other people’s experiences and sciences and scriptures of east and west and comparisons thereof) has something in common with Rossano’s work.May be we are two samaanahridaya(likeminded individuals)who have done the same methods of observations and research ,at two points in space ,simultaneously ,or as a synchronicity ,in psychological and astronomical terms.

Musical Psychotherapy .How to improve your listening skills for healing?

We live in a world of sound and light-that of music and cosmic energy.This universe is a harmony of several lives,of several sounds and lights which interact and vibrate together filling the great silence of Brahman.Every one should ask “Is my life creating harmony or discord in this universe?? “
We are making either music or noise in this silence.Music is positive pole and noise is negative pole.The divine resonance of positive pole fill us with resonances ,open up transparencies in us ,enlarge our horizons of thought and help us feel the beautiful and inspiring .It nourish and strengthen us .It has powerful waves of life energy and leads us to the unfathomable source ,which we call God or a Supreme power.
Noise makes us insane,in chaos,disconnected with everything,disharmonious,and only music can bring peace,beauty ,synthesis,integration and transformation into this chaotic world of noise and balance it .Depending upon our deepest sensititvity we choose the sounds best for us.If someone fails to choose the sound and music best for themselves,a Music therapist helps him/her.
I had been a doctor,a Pathologist and a Medical teacher throughout my life and I had several occasions to observe the effects of music on developing normal and abnormal children,on adults healthy and unhealthy.Music has helped me to learn more with concentration and to age gracefully ,and to withstand all trials and tribulations,to perform my domestic as well as official and social duties with satisfaction.Specific music selections and portions have been observed to contribute in changing attunement,behaviour and productivity of individuals .A single piece of music ,carefully played can alter entire atmosphere .Wisely used ,music can clear and purify body and increase our immunity and protect us against illnesses and stress which is causing exacerbation of many a disease state ,in addition to causing disease states .Though all of us are born equal,we are born into each lifetime with different upbringings,tastes and temperaments and personalities and inclinations to harmonize.Each has a unique personality and a unique type of music that suits ,though music is universal for all.

Music brings healing streams of electric charges.But if we are not attuned to it,if we are not prepared and concentrated it need not reach us.If we are well attuned the music will play through us and enter us ,not remain as a external thing.So learning how to relax and link great melodies is a key for healing with music.The Naadalayayoga begins with such a preparation.

.Take a comfortable position –either on your couch,floor or a chair .If outside ,you can lie down on grass .In Yoga practice whatwe call Sukhaasana is thus chosen .

The 10 keys for listening:-
1.Sit quiet and perfectly silent for at least a minute.Control body(so that it is relaxed)mind(so that it is calm)and listen to our own inner voice which we call Athman or soul.That perfect silence will be felt in a meditative silence.
2.Before you listen to the music of your choice ,think of it as the grace of divine presence within your silent soul-space .
3.Thus we are able to surrender totally to the music we hear .Be openminded to what you hear and do not try to analyse it with intellect .Be emotionally,intuitionally one with it
4.While listening to music,immerse totally in it with thoughts,mind and body .
5.Feel the music is embracing and filling you completely.The sound of music enters you and you enter into it in that moment.
6.Enjoy the music wherever it takes you without inhibitions.Whatever visualizations come to you will heal you .
7.With that joy of music and its visualizations praise the power which gave you such creative listening .And ofcourse such creative music.The music and listener are one and not different .Feel that oneness.
8.After playing the music ,take time to absorb it .Sit quiet for some more minutes and note your feelings ,given by the musical experience.
9.Keeping a diary and writing down what came to your mind after these minutes of silence ,you can decide which music gave you more happiness,relaxation and healing and which did not give that.(whether the image is a place,person,colour,nature,presence,shape,archetype ,idea or a creative work truthfully record it).What feeling does the music awaken in me?What feelings it evoked in me ?
10.If needed ,you can also play the music when you do housechores,or dancing or learning or working etc ,that is you can see hat it feels with and without music during other periods of activity.

Where you hear the music?
1.Let it be a beautiful place to enhance the beauty of music.
2.Let it be a quiet place free from distractions
3.Be sensitive to sounds of nature
4.If using an equipment ,let the stereo and sound system have clear tone with minimal distortion.The brand name or advertising may not help you.Trust your own ear for choosing
5.Take care of your musical system .Clean records when dusty.Play one record at a time.Clean tape heads regularly .Remove dust from equipment.

For increased therapeutic value,you should not be overcritical about the music you listen to.Once you choose your music pieces Love them unconditionally for what they have to offer .Emphasise the treasures of music ,not the defects in them.Different pieces of music stimulates different areas in our brain and body .Melodic music ,with minimum or solo instrumental accompaniments ,and devotional music are quietening and soothing than the full orchestral and choral pieces according to my experience and I find Hal A Lingerman recommending the same for healing .But being accustomed to western music only he gives only the instrumental music and its effects on us .According to him bass,percussion and electronic notes are stimulating only physical body parts ,(Marches,Overtures,lively songs,epic soundtracks,dances and songs from Broadway shows)string and wouldwinds affect emotional aspects (quiet music to ease and calm anger,ballads,devotional gospels folk music for emotional catharsis melody with slow rhythms and pacing for relieving tensionquiet music for depression,fear and for insomnia ,galwanising powerful music for strength and courage ,wistful nostalgic piece for relaxation,reverie and removing stress)and string instruments affect mental aspects(melodies for eternal love and devotion which appeal directly to our heart ,clear melodic ,rhythmis music for intellectual power and thinking ) and harp ,organ,wind chimes and high strings are for soulwhich is meditation music..(The healing energies of Music .Hal.A.Lingerman page 24-37)).This is a restricted view from the point of view of the vast musical repertoire of the world,the varieties of musical forms and also the uniqueness of each individual .Yet can be used as a base for our building upon our regional musical repertoire with client needs.
Mediatational music and Yoga have everything to do with Indian Classical and Hindusthani music .It also has the Intellectual and emotional aspects .The stimulation of the physical is minimum ,but in Indian popular music there are enough of it .So Indian music has all the required elements from time immemorial and what we have to do is to implement use of it in educational,developmental and hospital situations with proper data collections.
In meditation,the listeningtime is Holy and is a musical meditation.We listen with attitude of reverence and prayer.We are open to spiritual energy of music .

Hal Lingermans idea of Finding out our music is based on Astronomical teaching and the elements .
Fire:- Aries,Leo ,Sagittarius
Earth:-Taurus,Virgo,Capricorn
Air:-Cancer,Scorpio ,Pisces
Water:-Cancer,Scorpio,Pisces
Music is used to cultivate and activate the expression of energy as they emerge through these temperaments.
Fiery natures like power,competition,surging sounds,strong rhythms,romantic yet dynamic melodies ,music of strength and responds to music of victory.
The earthy signs love warm melodies,homey traditional and evocative of friendships and earthly comforts.Music of nature appeals to it with nostalgic and suggestive of repose.It loves music with definite lyrics and meaningful poetry.Loves literal statements to mere suggestiveness.Simple themes often repeated ,beautiful and restful tunes appeal to it.Warmth and poignance ,domestic happiness ,delights of earth and heaven ,warm melodies suits them.
Air sign is independent and resents restrictions.It needs rhythmicity ,variety and clear melodies.It loves music that moves ahead in a certain direction ,yet encompassing a wide spectrum of style and colour.It respond to experimental music ,extroverted music,current songs and promotional hit songs contemporary tunes and textures fascinates it for a period and then it get bored and discard it.I don’t know why Lingerman included Indian Ragas in this category.Possibly he thought that since there is a wide variety of Ragas in India it is of this category alone or ,his knowledge of Indian raga music is very very limited and also of Indian astronomy and yoga and chakra music.
Water sign seeks pieces with deep feeling and contrasting polarities of emotion which bring a total response from heart.It feels before it thinks.If you tend towards dramatic ,melancholic music and tragedy will appeal to you.Melodies of power,victory which drive away fears ,tears and suffering is suited.Great love themes,deep passions,and human striving arouse the watery signs and their many moods.

Visualization of music as colours,designs,patterns etc is important.Great music stimulate imagination and creativity .The imaginary picturisation of the music or its visualization is more meaningful for each person .Therefore the narration of each person on his/her musical experiences is part of narrative medicine.
Music is an art that express the inexpressible.It is beyond all words and all colours.Yet for communication of our experiences we have to use these .We are taken to other levels of consciousness by great music and deep memoirs of an unknown life may come to you and faithful ecording of tehse experiences for posterity is creative as well as experimental dat collection .Thus it is both science and art .From my experience I can say that beautiful music had always taken me to the grandeour of the universe and cosmos and to music of spheres and then beyond,to that great silence what I call the realm of God .Indian classical and devotional music has this quality .
Another important aspect is that great music help us discover and if needed change some habits and behavioural patterns we kept from childhood.The memories of past hurts and past sorrows are erased.The memories of past loves and past enjoyments are stored forever in our musical experiences and their memories.By music therapy ,the therapist can try to enhance the positive side and decrease the negative side by allowing the person to experience and decide which is best for him/her.Music is a real revelation of one’s soul.Performance of a Musical Raga or a Kutchery in India is a rite in festival ,not just for enjoyment but for initiation into mysteries of human soul.

Dr John Diamond ,in his book “Your body doesn’t lie “ say that rock music has made the muscles of his clients go weak.(Response of muscle to rock music) and that each muscle is related to an organ in our body.The abnormal rhytm of rock music and its loudness are causing this harmful effect according to him.It is only noise ,a sound which at some intensity decrease body energy.Good music and nature sounds increase or strengthen ,while detrimental music decrease it .Even a good music ,if played loudly for a long time can decrease body energy.Therefore judicious use of volume of music is needed.
What is distinction between music and noise?Melody and words are being replaced by shrieks with frenetic rhythms and a collective hysteria is produced .This temporary savage trance is not therapy or healing .Destructive music deteriorates our physical,mental ,intellectual powers and leave us weak in all respects .

The Music therapists are practicing one of the most ancient forms of healing and are reviving a lost art and science .The willful person has the power to focus,to concentrate,perceive selectively and most importantly to transform material existence.The therapist fills role of a listener/observer who helps people to see,listen and observe ,feel themselves ,assist in decoding the complexities of life and dreams andth ecryptic indirect messages people send to themselves and to others.The music therapist as a psychotherapist ,learn to create an identity (musical )and a snes eto what they really are within the multiplicity of roles that they play in the work and personal life.They find support,self-validation,group inclusion and guidance and to healing through an ancient traditional art.Though art therapy was introduced separate from Psychotherapy,at present the realms are merging and fusing and transforming the field of psychotherapy practice for its betterment.Professional associations and publications by them still separate them but instead of emerging as a hybrid of the two,and instead of remaining as a separate discipline ,the universality of music has allowed the integration of all human beings and their physical,mental,intellectual and spiritual healing and the distinctions have faded .Individaul art works are not mere commodities ,and audiences are not mere consumers and musician is not just a professional earning his livelihood with an art .The creation of good music by a musician amounts to social service because the wide range of music created by him/her is having more ability to heal people and society than the various social reforms of a Government.The judicious recognition of such music and its role and its use for society and its healing is an art and science and a psychotherapeutic transformation of entire society with its illness of separatisms.
Psychology has not yet incorporated the space-time relations of modern astrophysics but Indian music had done it and therefore integration of science and art through music had been a process as old as Indian culture.
Community and Music therapy:-
The verbal communication and narrative MLP of each person will reach the primordial levels of group unity and rhythm and this is achieved with relative ease .Music,arts and drama lends themselves naturally to formation of a collective natural Unity and identity of a people .Therefore the Indian music and dance and other art traditions have to be viewed as a unifying force of entire subcontinent .This is also true of all Indian scientific and philosophical traditions.The integration of all these is possible and then using this geographical cultural and artistic and scientific knowledge ,applying the modern levels of scientific research to them gives a unified integrative corroborative process .It is a total transformation by wholistic movement of integration and corroboration.How this is implemented is what is important .
According to Shaun Mc Niff (The arts and psychotherapy pp 4-5)) the drama and music(theatre) started form shamans for visualization and group identity and transcendent oneness of a group.He says the Shamanic healing is a right hemisphere phenomenon and the teacher(voice within oneself) is the illness and individual by a dialogue with this teacher (communication of organism with itself)reestablish balance and order.This selfhealing and balancing is initiated by a shaman ,the psychotherapist of the group/community .The value of placebo effect was fully appreciated by tehse early healers and in 1978 I.M.Lewis described Psychiatry is a latent shamanism and shamanism is often more than Psychiatry.(Ecstatic religion:An anthropological study of spirit possession and Shamanism New york Penguin 1978).Both aim at balancing the individual and environmental relationships,but psychiatry lacks ability to relate to transcendental source of life and dynamic pulse of creative action.The integration of music and arts to modern psychotherapy allows us to have benefits of both,but without having to go back to savage practices of shamanism.The shamanic way of dream power is made use of by modern psychology .A circular enclosure of sacred place is always chosen by ancient cults to do healing .In artistic musical and dance performances the performer and the audience together make the circle ,thus uniting the powers of entire community for group healing.Circular imagery is the mandala in Jung and this was used by India at least from Indus Valley/Harappan times as we see from the archeological evidences and also before that from the cave pictures dating back to 10000 BC .The musical circles of Melakartha raaga in Classical music is in the same pattern.Accordin to Gestalt psychology the experienced order in spacetime is always structurally identical with a functional order in the distribution of underlying brain processes.(Kohler wolfgang.Gestalt psychology New york.Liveright 1970 pp 61.)
Both in psychotherapy and shamanism the training of the healer have direct effect on healing process.He/she has to keep the client’s mind to positive thoughts by art and science of his/her discipline.Sigmund Freud contributed greatly to renewal of a shaman’s role in society by a psychotherapist .His dream interpretations had several things accepted from Shamanism .Jung vitalized the spiritual and archetypal ancestral memories in each human being as a collective memory of the whole race .Freud’s discoveries were those of an archeologist of mind and emotion.Jung’s discoveries were more wholistic and ntegrative of entire human race and its spiritual and intellectual,emotional heritage.Slavery to the Freudean ideas have made psychotherapy very limited in its use.Because the therapists are always thinking about a hidden feeling(a hidden agenda) and give inadequate attention to explanations offered by the artist (by the client ).Creativity and creation itself is a motive and everyone loves to create a unique style and express it or communicate it as a mark or symbol of identity.So is every society.To try to find out any other hidden agenda for art is like distrusting everything and that is a neghative aspect of Freudean psychotherapy.The series of motives or one motive above the other is always individualistic and unique for each oen of us and mere generalization is not correct.The motivation theories are
1 Equalibrium/order/Balance
2 Competency/mastery /skill/expertise
3.Exploration/resolution of uncertainty/knowledge /discovery
4.Aesthetic pleasure /intensification of life
5 communication/relationships
6.Ahievements/social recognition
7.Emotional recognition/sublimation
8.Fear /fearlessness
9.Mortality/Immortality
All tehse and any one or more of it in combination exists in each individual and his/her symbolic expressions in word,art,deeds and in thoughts .

The therapist should know that each individual has an artistic healing power within .And should believe in that healing power.If you don’t believe in that power within yourself,you are not fit to be a music therapist .Unless you believe in it yourself,how can you help others with it?So self-experience is the first thing to achieve.So before you start teaching others or healing others,teach yourself,heal yourself is the first advice.The attitudes and values of the therapist has a definite effect on people/clients (Frank Jerome;Persuasion and healing.A comparative study of psychotherapy .Baltimore.The John Hopkins Pr 1961)
Obstacles felt:- The most consistent factor is time and emotional drain of the other jobs .Demands and responsibilities to others,to profession,to families etc. For students the demands of professional study also has the same problems .The distractions of such demands makes the total involvement and dedication difficult ,says many a professional and a student alike.To overcome this ancient India had some systems of free education for students at Guru’s residence and the Guru was given facilities for providing free accommodation,food for the student ,through state allowances of temple lands and the like.The system is continued now in universities with state grants ,but not entirely free as in ancient times.What we can now do is to manage our time efficiently without making the obstacles rule over us,but ourselves being in perfect control of all obstacles.This I say from my own experience of a bust professional and domestic life of responsibilities of manifold nature.Our effectiveness as expressive art therapists come directly from our involvement in and personal explorations of that particular art.Our ability to support the value ,respond to intensities,of a client’s needs and art will be directly proportionate to the extent we feel these forces within ourselves.
Emotionally troubled people tend to complain of loneliness ,emptiness,depression ,confusin,and a very negative sense of self (Page 64. The Arts and Psychotherapy.Mc Niff).If a creative artist(novelist/poet etc)always express such thoughts a psychotherapist should realize his/her needs for balance of emotion.The visualization techniques of the western music therapy to give suggestions to think of a part of body(with disease)as a still lake ,floating cloud or any such fantasy imagery is good for such people .These guided imagery or fantasy techniques used by west is no needed in India since each Raga in itself contains such imageries .And just leaving the client to immerse in a raga ,natural feelings of the raaga can be used without any suggestions from therapist ,according to the clients choice and only in extreme cases (where no creativity is possible due to severity of disease) a suggestion from therapist be used.The children and adolescents may be helped to control and direct their expressions of emotions by their own natural ability in this method.Scribbling the experiences,thoughts with or without an accompanying drawing may be attempted as exercises with each music session.The spontaneous creativity is stimulated by this.
Use of rhythmic music as stimulus for creative action existed in shamanic cultures as drumbeats(percussion instruments) which summon the spirits.In people with lack of consciousness and in slow reactors etc this can be of use to invoke creativity and for a warming up of energy .Repetetive rhythms are for warming up and in concerts the Varna rendering is such a warming up operation.Predictable sounds and movements in beginning help people to relax ego controls and flow with the music.Consistent rhythms help support the emergence of synchronous movements and a sense of group unison.Chanting also have a similar effect because of repetition of sound pattern which sustain attention while relaxing participants and enabling them achieve a trancelike state of concentrated mind.
Warming up exercise limit perception by focusing attention on a particular object.This type of exercise sharpen the figure-ground perception and demonstrates how contact can be made with different objects in environment by the same technique .Similar exercises can be initiated with selective focusing on sound patterns and movement qualities.Figure-ground perceptions can lend themselves to creative writing warm ups by having clients write the visual descriptions of the music they experienced.Metaphorically by freely associating the listened music with the various images that enter the consciousness the person is freed from all obstacles of self-expressions and enjoy the creativity and wants to explore more into such experiences and this has to become a part of life .That is the therapy rather than a temporary activity,becomes a way of life to the community as such .
With this the client finds more easy to contact and communicate with therapist as well as others .The music that evoke emotional memories engage the person in dialogue with external world and they become more self expressive and open .Smetimes a great musician who had wanted to freely communicate but found it difficult to do so ,becomes very communicative after a few sessions with a music therapist and the transformation in him brings good to the society he/she lives in.A creative music therapist can achieve this,even without the musician ever suspecting that he/she is made an experimental model by the therapist ,in the interest of the entire community .(If he/she knows it he may resist change/transformation due to ego or some other conscious reason which undermines the whole use of music therapy on a musician which aims at healing of the society as a whole).The totality of the therapy can be seen as the warming up for life .
Spontaneous writings ,prose and poetry ,that come out of musical experience in itself has a healing power .Whether you call the creative expressions as poem or not they are creations of a human soul .The clients poetry need not be frist class poetry.Their music need not be first class music .But by expressing their arts ,their music they are healing themselves and you as therapist is motivating them to do so.That is a community work and not something which you are doing for getting an award or a Nobel prize or for a monthly professional wage/fame as musician.Reading poetry,reciting Aksharasloka,filling up samasya,playing group and solo music and dance and folk arts and drama ,reciting stories and narratives our ancestors had this healing touch to entire community .We think that ,every thing they did were religious according to our modern concept of semitic religion and pseudosecularism .But the modern experimental evidence coming from all over the world in fields of human consciousness,ideas,arts and healing show that they were not so .They were efforts through which ancient human consciousness devised educational system so that entire society benefit and no single person is left out of the scheme.Every single person and his/her needs are integrated in the educational art psychotherapy of the ancients and a deep study into this educational system may sometimes shock us because w ehave an ego tha we alone are superior and ancients were inferior to us .This ego may get a shock if we compare modern and ancient knowledge systems and the practices.Within th eclient’s personal language system and understanding the therapist has to devise his/her schemes.Thus when I used the Melakartha raga schemes I used Malayalam lyrics (which unfortunately was not available till that time and so my own poetry had to be used) .Unless we have geographical and language contexts of the population on whom we are using therapy with music ,our efforts may not succeed .Though universal,music has some regional pecularities which makes it popular in some groups .India having all sorts of music suited for all its population the selection is not a problem .When we use vocal music with sahitya in it we are combining creative approach of language psychotherapy as well as that of music and this is the most useful for a person who has already developed language skills(adults)and also for children whom we want to develop language skills .In people with no language skills (mentally or intellectually or physically deficient) one can resort to rhythms ,to instrumental music etc as the case may be according to te hclients needs and liking.For others the language and music combined therapy is more wholistic and integrated when compared to that without language.Th enature of language and music centers in our brain is such tha both function mutually for cognition and understanding and processing of memories.

Sound is a sense modality directly connected to expression of emotion.Making and listening to music is cathartic,gently stimulating and calming.Music can summon life from the dead,calm the most aggressive of the beasts,motivate even a malevolent force to act benignly towards society(others).The integration of artistic and spiritual realities into psychology happen as study of behaviour evolve from its earlier and very exclusive focus on parental conflicts and other forms of psychopathology .Music is the universal language of the soul in all traditions and cultures all over the world.Because of the invisible nature of sound energy as vibrations this divine nature is ascribed to it.The human mind transforms this invisible unmanifested divine vibrations into expressions of joy of nature by musical expressions of a great singer .The sound of nature is also music.But it differs from either rlive or recorded music from a singer.
The music therapy sessions are not just listening to music ,but speaking about what we felt and recording or creatively expressing and sharing those thoughts with others too.It is exploration and improvisational expression of feelings of the musical moments .Music being a rich source of personal associations,stimulates recall of personal emotional memories.Recordings of your favourite singer can be used to facilitate guided fantasy or imagery experiences .The selections made by you and the therapist in a scientific integrated way has to relax and tehn make creativity bloom within you for a positive effect of healing.Music followed by sharing of emotions,discussions and interactions unify people for positive results .Music listening may vary from on eminute to 15 or 20 mts or more depending on attention span of person/groups and after that I usually ask them to give what they felt in writing.Such written feedback data has been used in my research extensively .Since my audience have a varied population (from astronomers/astrologers/other professional groups of different modalities of medical practices,philosophers/historians/teachers/students and music lovers)the feedback has shown me the unity and universality of all tehse diversities and also the uniqueness of creativity and healing power in each person .I have found that the egocentric scholarly people are having more resistance to selfhealing than any other group because they fail to get involved in music).My orientation towards the working of sensory awareness and listening skills,interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences and interactions/dialogues/discussions/sharing of musical life panorama and musical feelings and resolution of conflicts through a musical medium has been discussed in detail in my previous works on music therapy.
Sound dialogues between client and therapist,between individual group members or subgroups within a large group happen with musical healing.
Withdrawn ,unresponsive people: just echo the therapist’s opinions like mirror movements in a dance .Just show that they have heard and understood and likes the concept .This is part of dance therapy and music and dance being inseparable has to be taken as the integrating principle between these two .(Kinetic intelligence of body in Gardner Multiple theory of intelligences).
Observe a singer.The bodily expressions of the singer while singing and while not singing or while making improvisational voice sounds.We will find that his whole body tends to move in synchrony with the sound pattern ,giving them a visual form of expression.The voice comes from within the person’s entire being (body,mind,intellect and soul)and not just body alone .But the body organs and the visible and audible and felt parts being accessible to our sense organs of cognition we start from that .We start from the seen and heard and travel to unseen,unheard and unmanifested true being of the singer.This improvisation with a singer needs a lot of listenings with his performances and also out of performances in his natural settings in a friendly atmosphere and deep understanding ,which is mutual between the listener and the singer .I have been doing this experiment for the past several years with my favourite singer and I can say how important it is for both listener as well as singer to bring out his/her total personality development for community as a whole.The only test for it is what happens to both these individuals after such a sharing between them and how it becomes useful for community/society they live in.
There are four primary factors of movement relating to use of space by an individual.The space means the quantitative measurement of one’s body’s angles and patterns when moving .The same applies to movement of swara,words etc in music also.The space,weight(measurement of strength and force of action/words /letters etc) the time(temporal span of a movement )and flow (continuity ,pauses,interruptions,of a specific movement)are the four primary factors we listen to .But there is in addition the gestalt of the entire person,the actions consistently performed ,transitions from such actions influenced by some other force /or individual,and evaluation of all these together makes up a response of a person to a music therapist .The effort and shape of entire sensory expression gives us a clue to how significant is therapeutic application of art ,especially music in healing.The regular observation of a single singer’s performance and actions closely needs patience and an intense involvement and love for what research you are doing on that singer.In the last 10 years I closely followed Padmabhooshan Yesudas as my favourite singer and attended (between 2000-2010 )150 of his classical concerts to do this research on musical repertoire.The time,energy,effort and involvement ,nothing to speak about the expenses of such an activity has shown me how important it is to love what you are doing as a research to do justice to it .Many students coming and asking for guidance in Music therapy ,I find are not prepared for concentrated involved research at least for an year .They are not willing to do a project with real patients or children or any chosen group of their liking,following the standards of accepted research and wants to be spponfed by what we have aquired .That is not the correct attitude to genuine research in any field.
Hal Lingerman has suggested that each artist gives out a particular quality of energy to a particular listener ad he has also studied the elemental signs of a few western artists to analyse their music. He gives a short account of sound and colour relationship called synesthesia and that sound is visualized by people as colours.All these I have already discussed in my own experience in all my writings and these western ideas of music have all their roots in ageold Indian concepts .The potential power of music to integrate personality and temperament,to awaken our soul,to link us to enlightenment and greater intellectual,mental levels with perfect body health has been recognized by 20th century researchers just like those ancient stalwarts of Indian music thousands of years ago.What,we in India needs is the integration of music into all wakes of life ,into professional life and domestic life and into developmental strategies of human resources and for solution of problems of the ailing society and human beings .Ultimately the music as universal language is for peace of entire living world ,by integration,corroboration and compassionate understanding .Music is Love and Compassion.And that is God itself.