Sacred Music: The Most Powerful Medicine We Have
By Yuval Ron //
This spring 2019 I will be coming to Shambhala Mountain Center to explore the inner world of Nada Yoga—the Yoga of Sound—the use of sacred music and movement in Zen and Sufi traditions, and to experience the healing powers of sound meditations. Meditation has been found to be a powerful remedy for anxiety, fear, depression, high blood pressure, and other debilitating emotional disorders.
Music is the most powerful tool for meditation. The sound resonates through our body and mind. Some studies that I mention in my book Divine Attunement: Music as a Path to Wisdom have shown that humans and animals synchronize their breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, and physical movements to the rate of the musical pulse they are exposed to. In other words, when you play rapid music, breathing, movement, heart rate, etc. will become faster. If you play calming music, the heart rate drops and the process of relaxation begins. Thus, music can usher us into meditative state, even if we do not wish to go there! However, not all calming music is best for this endeavor. What we need is slow pulsing, harmonious, and pleasurable sounds. To achieve a more powerful and peaceful sound medicine, add devotional deep, sacred chanting and breathing, and acoustic instruments played by master musicians.
This is the kind of music I aim to create when I work with doctors and healers who practice using sound to promote well-being. In the early 1990’s I worked with the pioneer researcher Robert Monroe of Monroe Institute in Virginia, on the bi-aural beats hemi-sync-sound series called Metamusic.
In recent years, Dr Richard Gold and I developed new music for two healing-sounds products that were inspired by Traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine. This music is being used by acupuncturists, chiropractors, healers, massage therapists, yoga teachers, painters, and teachers to promote relaxation, sound sleep, well-being, and meditative states all around the world.
Through my many years of research and professional work in the field of music, mysticism, and sound healing I came to believe that sound is the most powerful medicine we have. It is the medicine of the future, as it was in ancient times. I hope to see you at Shambhala Mountain Center on April 5-7 to experience and explore the healing and transforming powers of sound.
About the Author
Yuval Ron is an Award-winning composer and has collaborated with Sufi leader Pir Zia Inayat Khan, neuroscientists Mark Robert Waldman and Robert Monroe, and led the Gala Concert for the Dalai Lama’s the Seeds of Compassion. He taught at Yale, John Hopkins University, UCLA, Middlebury College, MIT, and many others. For more info: yuvalronmusic.com
