The Healing Energies of Music
by Hal A. Lingerman
(200 pages, pb, $8.95)
Theosophical Publishing House, 1988
ISBN 0-8356-0570-1
The simplest book to read, with many fine recommendations of music for various occasions
and feelings. Contains an extensive appendix recommending a variety of recordings.
Chapter Titles
1. Music for You - A Closer Relationship
2. Music for Better Health and Well-Being
3. Finding Your Music
4. Music for Daily
5. Music for Home and Family
6. The Music of Nature
7. Angelic Music
8. Music to God and the Christ
9. A Gallery of Great Composers
10. The Deeper Mysteries of Music
11. Music for the Future
Selected quotes:
pp. 2, 3
"Stories come down to us about how sensitive and skilled the ancients were in using
music as a healing art. For them music was not just a form of entertainment; it was also a
source of health, containing chords of rhythm and melody that harmonize and re-balance the
human organism, draining away its impurities. We learn from Manly Hall, prolific writer on
esoteric traditions, of an incident in ancient Greece, when an angry man charged an enemy,
sword drawn, ready to kill. Suddenly 'a wise Pythagorean,' sensing the situation, struck
one chord on his lyre. Instantly, all anger and hatred were drawn out of the would-be
attacker and he became gentle as a lamb.
Pythagoras of Samos, a very wise teacher of ancient Greece, knew how to work with sound.
He taught his students how certain musical chords and melodies produce definite responses
within the human organism. He demonstrated that the right sequence of sounds, played
musically on an instrument, can change behavior patterns and accelerate the healing
process.
In the Old Testament we also read about the power and therapeutic value of beautiful
music. Saul, an ancient king, was troubled 'by an evil spirit.' He was advised as follows:
'... seek out a man, who is a wise player on a harp: and it shall come to pass, . . . that
he shall play with his hand and thou shalt be well.' I Samuel 16:16
Saul sent for David, whom he 'found favorable in his sight,' and when David played his
lyre for the king, these were the results: 'David took a harp, and played with his hand:
and Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.' I Samuel
16:23
From these examples, it is clear that the ancients sensed the power and value of beautiful
music, and they knew how to use it to promote harmony and well-being in their lives.
Likewise, today we can rediscover the therapeutic and spiritual potencies of great
music."
pp. 139, 140
To some it is evident that every sound gives forth a color equivalent. Likewise, the
vibratory movements of musical notes and phrases combine to express meaningful patterns or
shapings, called archetypes, which reside in a superphysical field of thought and feeling.
Both the colors and forms of music can be observed clairvoyantly. In addition, some
persons "feel" the colors of musical works, and scientific advances have
expanded to give us new directions toward demonstrating the colors of music. The Russian
composer Alexander Scriabin envisioned a time when a cosmic color organ would reveal
simultaneously the colors and formations of every piece of music as it was being played.
The study of the relationship of color animation and sound is called synesthesia by some
researchers, though the term implies relationships among other senses. I am sure this
science will be developed further in our lifetimes. Both Leopold Stokowski, the famed
maestro of symphony orchestras, and Walt Disney were interested in the combination of
color and sound, and together they produced the great movie classic Fantasia, which is an
animated union of color, music and movement, a dramatic representation of the energies
released through sound and vibration.
pp. 140, 141
I am grateful for the observations shared by another clairvoyant teacher, Geoffrey Hodson
in his book Music Forrns:
'Each note, when sounded or sung, produces ... a typical form in superphysical matter.
These forms are colored by the way the sound is produced, and the size of the form is
decided by the length of time in which a note is sounded or sung ... The composer
originates and establishes the form, partly by the play of his consciousness during
composition and partly by his own performance of the piece.'
Music never stands still. Each note and phrase plays its part in building a continuously
shifting array of shapes, colors and consistencies which the total piece is vibrating into
the listener and his atmosphere. A clairvoyant can describe only the most outstanding
color highlights and patterns a musical work is building as it is being played. The
composer--by his own thought forms and consciousness during the creation of a piece of
music--and the performers who interpret the music together bring through the essence and
harmonies of the music originally 'heard.' Likewise, a sensitive artist or listener, by
moving inside the music he is experiencing, can contact mystically the mind and
'atmosphere' of the composer. In this way we can understand what Leonard Bernstein meant,
during his performance of a Mahler symphony, when he said, 'But I AM Gustav Mahler.'