I can't thank Rogers and Hammerstein enough for those words. I've been enamoured with music all my life. My family was a warrior family for over 1000 years, but it was also a musical family for two generations including mine, and another generation since. What is there about music?
The Song from "The Sound Of Music" has several incredible points. They are points of quantum consciousness. If you are a monist (as compared to a dualist), you are thinking that there is a certain level of consciousness in all matter. That being the case, it is fair to say: "The Hills are Alive...." Of course they would be alive if all atoms are given to possibilities, affected by one another, and aware of each other (what Nick Herbert calls the "vodoo effect").
But "Alive with the Sound of Music???" Yup. That is my belief.
My students will tell you there were certain definitions in science, and certain definitions in math, that I just pounded and pounded. In science, it was "Heat is the vibration of atoms." Followed by "Sound is the vibration of atoms." Then they were expected to conclude that sound was a form of heat, and vice versa. So...all hills are alive with heat (they aren't frozen at absolute zero) so they are giving off sound. I could also show they are giving off light because of the sound (infra red light, in fact). So it is fair to say that the hills are definitely alive with sound. You say:
"We don't hear the sound...." No, you generally don't unless the hills are on fire and you can hear the fire. The sound given off by the hills is too quiet to hear. Simple as that.
I'm reminded of the notion that Beethoven got the music for his "Pastoral" symphony from the woods of Vienna. How is that possible? Well, the woods of Vienna caused him to write music. He was inspired to write certain notes describing the Vienna Woods? Note that: "caused." He was open to the music of the woods? Did the atoms of the woods cause him to write? Interesting question. He certainly thought so when he wrote: "How happy I am to be able to walk among the shrubs, the trees, the woods, the grass and the rocks! For the woods, the trees and the rocks give man the resonance he needs."
Resonance, he said. I taught my students about resonance. The notion that vibration in one object could, through physical connection or even the air, induce vibrations in another object. My goodness, my son's rock-and-roll guitar counts on resonances from the speakers to continue to twang the strings of his guitar. But Beethoven was talking about a different resonance. A resonance between the woods and his brain? His feelings? Are our feelings connected to nature. You bet. I will show you how, shortly.
For what it is worth, Beethoven took notes on the pastoral setting. He jotted themes about bird songs, and the rustling of leaves. He even wrote this: " The greater the river, the more grave the tone."
Gustave Mahler lived a while in Steinbach while he wrote his 2nd Symphony. Upon seeing the surroundings of Steinbach with its alps, lakes, meadows and trees, an editorialist wrote an account saying: "Not since Beethoven plucked the Pastoral from the fringes of the Vienna Woods almost 90 years earlier was a landscape so thoroughly plundered by a composer." I felt Mahler wrote the most powerful music ever written concering life and the universe, So it is fair to say that Mahler took the energy from this terrain and turned it into "The Resurrection," his 2nd Symphony. Is that possible?
Let me be really simplistic about this. Instead of subtle tones transfered from the consciousness of the hills to ours, let's just do a bare bones visual. Here is a "staff. It tells where the musical notes should appear:
Ok...here is one of my favorite pictures of Homer, Alaska. Homer has to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet, at least for me:
Now, you guessed it...let's superimpose the staff and the picture.
Now, let the violas play the darker mountain outlines. Let the piccolo play the very faintest tallest white peaks. Let the Basses play the ocean shores...you get my point?
I've always wondered if someone hasn't created a program that will convert landscapes into music? Meanwhile, though, Beethoven admitted doing something like that. Mahler's
correspondence indicates any time he took walks in Steinbach with his family, he took copious notes about the nature of things.
Many years ago, an Alaskan artist, Norman Lowell, shared some of his sketch books with me. I was stunned at what he sketched. Books full of sketches. So musicians do that too. Then we find Wagner creating Liefmotivf's (themes) for his incredible Ring Trilogy, and we find Johh Williams creating Liefmotif's for Star Wars. Associating various themes with various energies.
So music can create an attitude, and the Hills ARE Alive with the Sound of Music. Now I wonder, do people enjoy the vibrations of music? Well of course they do. Most people don't even realize it but the vibrations of music enter their bodies and create effects.
Keeping it simple, let's see some people enjoying the Sounds (Vibrations, class) of music:
Some of these people are picturing the music, others have their hands in the air. Why is that? Some will tell you it was inspiring, it made them extremely happy. They wanted more. Could it be that the energy of the music is doing something to their bodies? Oh yes. No question. Let me take you on a little "trip," so to speak.
Hopefully you've heard of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques). It is derived from various incredibly wonderful modalities of the adjustment of human consicousness and physiology. Adjustments came in the form of acupuncture, acupressure, massage therapy &c. EFT streamlines, in a way, these adjustments. The point I wish to make, though, involves the tapping points. In acupuncture there is an amazing host of points, but in EFT the number of points is perfect for my essay. EFT points are located primarily on the hands and the face. Let's take a moment and look at the points used applying EFT to the hands:
Notice the tapping points on the hand. They affect changes to the physiology of the person. The tappings are vibrations, and those vibrations affect changes to the person's state of mind and physiology. It is fair to say that "drumming," a sound and physical vibration, is changing the person. Now, let's look at the exponentially more complicated hand depicted by people whose specialty is "reflexology."
You do the math...EFT, Kidneys? Liver? Heart? Brain? Energy? Amazing isn't it. Is it true? It certainly has enough merit that the Occident is deeply invested in understanding accupuncture, Tai-Qi, Qi-Gong, &c.
But look at those ladies in the picture above. Some are receiving energy of sound in their hands, some through their faces (you'll find, in EFT, that the face has a number of incredibly important "meridians," just as do the hands). One is just receiving it, hand out, and the men, likewise, have their hands up to intercept the sound.
That sound is working through the same meridians as EFT, acupuncture, EMDR, &c. That sound is changing their minds and bodies. It can be healing, comforting, relaxing, encouraging...changing the course of their thinking. Here's a kink in your think...suppose sound is a finer tuning than tapping. Suppose that tapping is like tapping on the gauge to get the needle loose, but sound is finer tuning. Tune. Get
it? Like the piano "tuner."
Ah, and we have the "Power of the Word." I have already discussed that on the pages devoted to "Living Water." You will find people in churches with their hands raised during sermons. I, for one, used to be rather embarassed by that. Now I am embarassed by my ignorance of the matter.
I set aside more pictures of people waving hands at concerts, but why should I? We've all seen this occur in many "venues." It is all about receiving energy from sound, whether it be words or or music.
Now I am going to expand on this a "smidge." You have to do some imagining with me. Suppose you believe that sound can affect your bodies through these EFT points. I do.
Suppose you are intrigued by the notion that your consciousness can be altered by vibrations, whether EFT, EMDR, or sound. Did you know that sound is form of heat? I think I mentioned that before. I made my students understand that fact.
Well, one of the eminations of heat is "infra red," a form of light used in the treatment of sore muscles, or, for that matter, cancer. So, is it such a stretch that sound could be used to treat sore muscles. Well, Duh. That's what the vibrators do. Ah, but I was talking about the sound of a beautiful voice, be it a baby, our wife, or,
for that matter, the wind in the tall conifers. Maybe I was talking about how warming it seems to hear praise by your parents. Oops, I seem to have gone from one consciousness affecting another.
Could it be that just seeing something special, something that represents beauty to you, can be healing?
Do you ever wonder why you enjoy your trip to the beach? You say it is the SOUND of the
waves...the sound of music. Is that sound healing you of something. Sure. It may only be healing you of stress. But, wow...that is changing your thinking. And, dear reader, by changing your thinking you chose to eat a nice soft, palatable (through the many other meridians in your body) meal. That affected a change to your DNA. You have, by going to the beach, changed your DNA. Impossible? Nope. Not if you "relax' enough.
So I return to Alaska. I'm drawn back, inexorably, to "The Sound of the Music" in Alaska. Even the trip through Canada. Music everywhere. Changing my DNA. Healing.
I have a very dear friend who is blind. How does this work for him? Oh come on...all these vibrations work their magic on him the same as us. I have to go back to
Helen Keller and remind you of something. When did she first see? When she felt the vibrations on her hand. Suddenly she saw. All the sensory inputs suddenly made sense.
We missed the whole thing. Helen Keller was "healed" by "heat," the vibration of atoms. From there, we saw the miracle.
Is it possible that by driving through Alaska Helen Keller, or my friend Patrick, could have their bodies improved? Yup. The Hills are alive with the sound of their music. Those vibrations will go into their bodies and work their magic just as quickly as they do us. You've heard: "It's so peaceful here." "I feel so good here."
So why DO you go to the museum? Healing. Changing your DNA. Reinforcing your declaration to be well. Why DO you like "your kind" of music? Because the vibrations change you. They "heal" you.
But I began this with consciousness. There is no way for me, the monist, to prove to you, the dualist, that the "Hills are Alive." What difference does it make? I can't even prove to you that I am not just a fancy robot. The point is, though, that I can say some things that make you happy. You can say some things that make me feel good. Therein lies our proof that we each have consciousness. That still leaves me to wonder...if the Hills make Me feel Good....what are they saying?
In conclusion, suppose you DO have Glaucoma. Can you affect change to your body by listening to good music? Of course. You are told you can lower your various pressures by relaxing, meditating. When you have cancer, why are you encouraged to seek out peaceful music, a peaceful environment, relaxation? It isn't because relaxing heals you. It helps, true, but what you see, what you THINK (meditation), the food you eat, the sauna in which your relax, the FIR...
I would like to stretch your thinking even farther before I wrap this up. Dr. Budwig, a German scientist, created a "protocol" for changing cancer cells. Part of her "Protocol" requires daily exposure to the sun. Of course we attribute that to our need for Vitamin D. I wonder, though, if the light from the sun doesn't vibrate various meridians in our body and fine tune us. We know it vibrates the atoms in our retinas, because we can see the light. Give that some thought, folks, then consider this, a "recording" of the voice of the sun. It actually rings like a bell, causing the light coming from it to look like sound waves. So variations in the ringing can cause our sensing nerves to feel the sound through the light. I know, this has been considered even since the Greeks: "Music of the Spheres, &c." But my point is that the light causes vibrations of our atoms, and that vibration works just like EFT, only on a much finer level...well, you get the point. Here is TODAY's sun, this very moment. Click on it and you can get a 1 minute sample of the sound it's light actually creates:
Now let's just filter that sound and listen to just one tone of the sound, and wonder what wonderful effect of fine tuning it might have on our bodies, working through either an EFT tapping point, or some other accupuncture meridian:
Yes I know...I've left the Hills, and gone to the Stars. Why not, though. Let me stretch even further. You are standing out at night and receiving some starlight. Did you know the Stars were alive with Music? You do now, because the sun is a star. Now, let's listen to a couple of night sounds:
Sounds from the Constellation Hydra
I'm not sure I'd want to listen to that quite so loud. I think I'm getting a headache from the sound. Oh, you remember...it is making cilia in my ear vibrate, which my brain, in turn, hears. Could be an overdose? I think it would be better received IN IT'S SEASON (isn't it interesting how these sounds will be available to our meridians (accupuncture/accupressure only during certain times of the year...no overdosing)...and if we're fully dressed, maybe not at all except through our face points?
Sounds from our favorite Constellation, Centaurus
Our closest neighbors
So, just how much fine tuning is available to us? I have no idea. I'm just musing, as usual. Musing as in Music...and, it's all about vibrations, folks. And atoms remember where they've been...and they allow for possibilities, just in case you want something different.
The hills aren't anything until you look, or measure. It's all for you.
Suppose you want to hear what Gustave Mahler took out of the mountains of Steinberg. You'd best have a head-set on, and read the captions (or have someone read them for you). You will find out that all of this is for a purpose, and Mahler finally hit on it, it's all about possibilities. What we set our minds on, strive for, and, all possible...:
As you listen, this immense music follows the outlines of the mountains
picks up the shadows, cliffs...and finally, the chorus rises, and they all
exclaim what Mahler noticed..even the children rejoice ....a possibility becomes a fact...
....and, you were, again, listening to the sound of the Hills...
and you were vibrating...isn't that exciting...
Speaking of "vibration"...Mahler wanted the tympani at the end of this to be beat as hard as possible. The drummers were breaking their sticks..shouting, Maestro, we're breaking our sticks....He shouted back...get more sticks....they broke drum membranes...bring out another drum...why?
Because of the beating we take as we work our way through life, and because of the vibrations that are necessary to accomplish our lives....It's all about ....
