Watches The Super Bowl


Sound Matters: by Steven Halpern


How A Sound Healer


Like millions of others around the U.S. and around the world, I watched the biggest spectacle in sports, this year’s annual Super Bowl. It’s an event, virtually a national


holiday, a secular religious event. Participating in the Super Bowl, even vicariously via TV, has taken on mythological proportions in our cultural consciousness. It’s an event that also provided several magical moments that highlighted the transformational powers of music. Millions also had their brainwaves altered into a higher magnitude of coherence for a few brief seconds, at the very least. Assuming you watched the show, did you notice them?


The Chill Factor There’s more to “hear” than meets


the ear. We’re talking brainwave synchronization, rhythm entrainment, endorphin release and sympathetic resonance.


Because of my training as a musician, musicologist and biofeedback/bio-energy fi eld researcher, I think it safe to say that I’d pick up on some aspects of the performances that are not as obvious to most folks. However, as you think back to your experience in the moment, or when watching the performances on YouTube, you may enjoy the additional dimensions and subtle pleasures that this heightened awareness brings. I’d fi rst like to thank some of my mentors who helped me awaken to these musico/mythic/mystical realities, including Dr. Jean Houston (www. jeanhouston.org), Morton Marks, and anthropologist Carlos Castaneda. In the fi rst of his books on shamanism and spiritual development, Castaneda reports what his mentor, Don Juan Matus, had to say about the fact that many people experienced the same vision


during a traditional religious ceremony involving peyote. “When the Absolute is present, it’s there for everyone.” However, not everyone has the spiritual vision to perceive it.


Case in point. Recall what you felt at the end of Kelly Clarkson’s outstanding performance of “The Star Spangled Banner”—especially in comparison with Steven Tyler’s “Star Mangled Banner” two weeks ago. (Another interesting American Idol synchronicity.) When she went upstairs, on “the land of the free,” and hit that high note clear as a bell, in crystalline falsetto, I felt chills up and down my spine. I bet millions of others felt that, too. I also bet that millions didn’t appreciate that that was a superpsychic sound sensation, what we call “the chill factor.” Goosebumps, chicken skin, it goes by many names. It’s part of the thrill we occasionally get when listening to certain music. Like the placebo response, people have always known of this phenomenon, but gave little importance to it. Same goes for the medical and healing community. As a sound healer, I know that this phenomenon has been analyzed by at least a few researchers. I want to focus my remarks on the tonal aspects rather than the lyrics, of course. A whole host of cascading chemical reactions are triggered in your body, mind and spirit. And here’s something most other authors miss: the reactions to music occur not just in the brain! I’ve discussed this in previous newsletters and articles, and will have more to say about this in the near future. On a related note: Who was the fi rst singer to “take it upstairs?” That’s a musician insider’s jargon for shifting into falsetto, into the higher range of the male or female voice, a concept introduced to mainstream audiences by Steven Tyler in


his fi rst year as a judge on American Idol. If you know, or would like to guess, tweet me @stevenhalpern or email me at askdrsound@innerpeacemusic.com. First correct answer wins your choice of one of my CDs or MP3s.


Chill Factor #2


This one occurred near the end of the halftime show. The visuals were spectacular, and over shown the music, which was appreciated. What a brilliant vision Madonna manifested. And what stunning mythological imagery we were treated to, not at a transformational ceremony at Eleusis, but right here, right now. By the way, Jean Houston’s Mystery School is keeping that tradition alive. I had the life-changing privilege of being her Musician In Residence and Drum Chief in 1978 at her weeklong and weekend workshops. Now, cut to the last segment, when Cee Lo sang the gospel song. Did you feel the buzz?


If so, you were being entrained, along with millions of other brains, bodies and spirits, with the rhythm in the music and the photostrobing of the choirs arms and body movement, all moving as one. Think I’m just over-analyzing or wondering what I was drinking? I wrote about this years ago, interestingly, after having an out-of-body experience during Fantasia’s fantastic fi nale on American Idol. I went into some detail about how that was orchestrated, and gave props to my insider sources on the cross-cultural origins of hypnotic and trance possession during religious ceremonies and (now) even public secular performances. In 1973, I met an amazing master


drummer, scholar and Santeria priest when I was giving a workshop at the legendary Esalen Institute. After experiencing in my body things I had never experienced before as he played


T e Monthly Aspectarian - www.lightworks.com 45


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