Music – From Heaven to Hell and back to Heaven

I spend a lot of time…. listening to music in all sorts of strange places. I went to Ronnie Scott’s to hear Eliane Elias and Marc Johnson a week or so ago. It was brilliant and mellifluous. When I travel around on trains I listen to everything from Bach and his mate Vivaldi to Jazz and Rock… and beyond. Music has to be one of the most worthwhile contributions to the world. It heals, uplifts the spirits, shifts us out of a coma and empowers us to take off from one dimension into another. Sadly, in the hands of the wrong people, particularly power crazy loons, it can also be alarming, particularly when it motivates people to do strange stuff.

Get a giant swarm of humanoids in front of a boy band yelling ‘Give Peace a Chance!’ and in no time the crowd is sniveling and pleading for peace, with a bad attack of sentiment to match. That’s nice-ish. Even a quick snivel is OK. Less pleasant is when a crowd of blokey nerds in uniform march in unison to a military band, in preparation for processing… getting ready to be shaped-up for the next war, and killing people. This is rather less OK. Wagner single handedly (according to some) persuaded people to embrace the joys of ethnic cleansing, inspired by none other than the convoluted and dare I say it – bizarre and singularly unattractive plot line of Parsifal.

But the music that was used the other night when I went to a guided meditation was something else. I never know what to think of this other worldy electronic stuff. I do know some people hate it. Personally I think it’s absolutely fine, and can be hauntingly lovely. The brilliant Christina Mills, hypnotherapist and teacher, conducted a guided meditation on ‘loving kindness’ using some very spacey electronic harmonies that took six of us into a dimension that cannot be described. Such experiences combine the living human voice with the focused power of like minds, which are guided and attuned to good and loving intention that fulfils everything anybody could need spiritually. The music plays a part in the process. Having shared this loving moment is a real privilege. We should all have access to such experiences at least once in our lives.