I read that people who are sensitive to music are the exception, not the rule. The violin or piano can make me cry out of nowhere and it's a wonderful release like it's some emotion that was hard coded into my body a long time ago.
Deep tissue massage and certain exercises like the qi gong spinal cord breathing have also helped to release emotions.
Bowls are awesome. So are some chants.
There's also binaural beats which replicate the sound of two sources a few hz apart which induces brain states of that difference frequency.
I am not a fan of bassy or shrill sounds. It puts me into a physically discomfortable state which just brings on the anxiety or frustration.
Ugh, the bass travels through walls and violates other people's space which is hugely inconsiderate.
Plus whoever is near the music is way beyond safe volume levels even for 30 minutes! Dead hearing cells don't come back.
As for synesthesia, I have this hearing that can tell me where an issue is when it comes to mechanical/electrical things. I agree that it's a combination of thoughts with senses and emotions. I would call it a whole brain experience!
Very interesting! I'm a musician, and I've noticed that I occasionally have these sorts of physical responses to music, but I'd never tied it to synesthesia before.
I read this article yesterday, and this morning as I was meditating I realized - I live next to a busy road, and my physical response to cars going by was basically identical to my physical response to hearing the jumpscare noises: basically the opposite of what you described with the bass drum, it was as though parts of my body, my chest in particular, were retreating from the sound, moving inward and away from it. I think this might be part of why most people are so disconnected from their physical responses to auditory stimuli; a lot of the sounds that surround us today are deeply unpleasant, so we'd rather avoid being aware of these responses rather than experience and sit with the discomfort.
I wonder if dancing is to some degree a technique for increasing these sort of synesthetic responses to sound we all have? That would explain the prominent use of dance in rituals in many cultures. Indeed, it seems to track with a line from Servius' commentary on Vergil's poem: "obviously the reason why there is dance in religious cults is because our ancestors did not want any part of the body not to sense religion: for song pertains to the spirit, dance to the mobility of the body" (qtd in https://aeon.co/essays/dance-was-ubiquitous-in-ancient-rome-what-was-its-meaning)
Thanks for this. I play the quartz singing bowls and I love to hear about the experiences people have while listening to them.
If you’re interested, I have some recordings of pieces I composed for quartz bowls. It’s not quite the same as listening to them in person, but you might still enjoy: https://shawnfeeney.bandcamp.com/album/thin-places
This is fascinating and I love the description - also weird to me since it feels incredibly familiar (I'm a musician, and tend to be very attuned to music) but also totally new (I've never really brought music into my meditation practice, and while meditation is very embodied to me in all the ways you describe I think there is a whole world of richness that you've touched on which I haven't explored yet). I did write something recently on musical entrainment and how music and rhythm affects the brain, and can bring about meditative states; though I think on reflection this is quite different from the kind of flavour and experience you can get from sound and audio in general. Thanks for sharing, and makes me excited to explore more.
I read that people who are sensitive to music are the exception, not the rule. The violin or piano can make me cry out of nowhere and it's a wonderful release like it's some emotion that was hard coded into my body a long time ago.
Deep tissue massage and certain exercises like the qi gong spinal cord breathing have also helped to release emotions.
Bowls are awesome. So are some chants.
There's also binaural beats which replicate the sound of two sources a few hz apart which induces brain states of that difference frequency.
I am not a fan of bassy or shrill sounds. It puts me into a physically discomfortable state which just brings on the anxiety or frustration.
Ugh, the bass travels through walls and violates other people's space which is hugely inconsiderate.
Plus whoever is near the music is way beyond safe volume levels even for 30 minutes! Dead hearing cells don't come back.
As for synesthesia, I have this hearing that can tell me where an issue is when it comes to mechanical/electrical things. I agree that it's a combination of thoughts with senses and emotions. I would call it a whole brain experience!
https://robc137.substack.com/p/left-brain-vs-whole-brain-in-battlestar
I'm not sure if you take cannabis but using a bit is a great flavor enhancer to music or anything novel.
Stay below 100 mg delta9 (or 150 delta8/etc) per day as they found higher reduced positive results with cancer pain patients.
Tolerance negates benefits. Saturating the Cannabinoid receptors is counterproductive. It ends up giving less effect for more dose!
I'm annoyed that there's no standardization of dosing for cannabis. It's like they want us to overdo it so they can sell us the patent pill instead. 🤔
Very interesting! I'm a musician, and I've noticed that I occasionally have these sorts of physical responses to music, but I'd never tied it to synesthesia before.
I read this article yesterday, and this morning as I was meditating I realized - I live next to a busy road, and my physical response to cars going by was basically identical to my physical response to hearing the jumpscare noises: basically the opposite of what you described with the bass drum, it was as though parts of my body, my chest in particular, were retreating from the sound, moving inward and away from it. I think this might be part of why most people are so disconnected from their physical responses to auditory stimuli; a lot of the sounds that surround us today are deeply unpleasant, so we'd rather avoid being aware of these responses rather than experience and sit with the discomfort.
I wonder if dancing is to some degree a technique for increasing these sort of synesthetic responses to sound we all have? That would explain the prominent use of dance in rituals in many cultures. Indeed, it seems to track with a line from Servius' commentary on Vergil's poem: "obviously the reason why there is dance in religious cults is because our ancestors did not want any part of the body not to sense religion: for song pertains to the spirit, dance to the mobility of the body" (qtd in https://aeon.co/essays/dance-was-ubiquitous-in-ancient-rome-what-was-its-meaning)
Love that quote! Yes I think dance is a tremendous tool here, and I’ve only just started exploring it over the last year
Thanks for this. I play the quartz singing bowls and I love to hear about the experiences people have while listening to them.
If you’re interested, I have some recordings of pieces I composed for quartz bowls. It’s not quite the same as listening to them in person, but you might still enjoy: https://shawnfeeney.bandcamp.com/album/thin-places
i have a lot of thoughts but for now just want to register that i will be trying a sound bath because of this post
This is fascinating and I love the description - also weird to me since it feels incredibly familiar (I'm a musician, and tend to be very attuned to music) but also totally new (I've never really brought music into my meditation practice, and while meditation is very embodied to me in all the ways you describe I think there is a whole world of richness that you've touched on which I haven't explored yet). I did write something recently on musical entrainment and how music and rhythm affects the brain, and can bring about meditative states; though I think on reflection this is quite different from the kind of flavour and experience you can get from sound and audio in general. Thanks for sharing, and makes me excited to explore more.