Let’s get basic: you and your SO are at a concert and you both love the band. It’s a magical evening, and you both are in the flow of the music, the vibe, and each other. The whole thing is almost holy in a numinous way, and you both know that: head, heart, body, and soul, it’s that special.
Have you ever felt that? The togetherness aspect of music is important here: having an ineffable moment alone is so much different than sharing one. (As an aside, ask any of the members of the psanctuary.org community who use psilocybin mushrooms together for this very reason about why they do that. However, I digress….)
You’ve felt that, yes? At least once in your life? With someone else? Just making certain.
Here’s the really profound insight: what did you DO with that experience afterward?
What Will You Do With Music?
Most of us remember it. The memory goes into the pattern-matcher and becomes playback whenever we want, right? Maybe we Jones for a repeat, and become – or remain – exuberant fans of the band that brought us to that place together. I’ve met people who have seen Taylor’s “Eras” tour multiple times in multiple cities around the world. No joke.
I’ve also met people who use psychedelics regularly in a group setting (see how I worked that back in here?) just to get back to the…experience? Moment? Bliss? High? Language for that is very slim, especially in English. We tend to describe what happened to us, how we felt, the inspiration in the moment, the connection with that one person closest to us, all with words that seem empty of…something we can’t quite define.
It’s a beautiful thing, yes?
Did you know that the beautiful experience – unity consciousness, divine presence, even (ugh) a “download” – is available outside of the stadium, theatre, ceremony, or club where you first…er…experienced it? (You can see the trouble with language, right?)
How Our Culture Shapes Our Musical Awareness
Culturally, depending on where we grew up, we are raised to align along an axis with “music as a concert” at one end and “music as a tool” at the other. It could be the same incredible music! The difference is the mindset (again, a tough and limiting word) about the music. In one case, we are consumers who crave a repeat of the musical high. In the other case, we are travelers sharing fuel for the journey. Don’t get me wrong: the feelings, thoughts, movement, and soul aspects of the music are the same; the difference is how we are aligned with them.
Music as entertainment can be highly moving. The same music that’s highly moving can also be used to change the way we process life. Quite literally, life can transform from work to play. Would you want that?
Let’s answer that question with another question: do you use any kind of present intentions? Or goals? Or any kind of future-oriented “what I want” tools? Does practicing them include music?
The physical and emotional aspects of that question are easy to address. The mental and spiritual aspects? In Western culture, not so much. I’ve already mentioned our Western cultural mindset about music; what about the spiritual aspects?
Seen another way, working out to music is good; research says it’s better than silence. Changing our mood with music is good. On the other hand, do you us music as a memory palace? Or to prepare for a presentation or meeting? To prepare others in the same meeting? Or, most powerfully, do your future plans or present intentions have their own playlist that’s intricately aligned with what you want: head heart, body, and soul?
No?
What Comes Next?
Then we ought to talk. As a start, I can set you loose on part of this journey with a short article on LinkedIn about Silver Bullet Playlists, although Westerners aren’t naturally adapted to the cultural shifts that must be made to really understand and use playlists like that right out of the gate. To support that need – and many of the other cultural shifts we must make to use music like a boss – I’ve designed and deployed a full-on quest, which allows your personal experience to be your teacher while guiding you along the new pathways you’ll need to traverse to reach the new awareness of how music really works on us. I enjoy being the quest Guide; you could learn to be one, too.
With understanding like that, just imagine what you can do, and how much better you can do it.
I know words are a poor substitute for the spiritual experience, however much of the spiritual wisdom literature of the world states that, when you get Spirit right, everything else flows from that. And what is music if not a gateway to Spirit? Let’s do this!
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Over the course of more than 40 years of paying attention to how music works on us, Bill Protzmann has rediscovered the fundamental nature and purpose of music and accumulated a vast awareness of anthropology and sociology, as well as the effects of music, the arts, and information technology on human beings. Bill has experimented with what he has learned through performing concerts, giving lectures, facilitating workshops, and teaching classes. He first published on the powerful extensibility of music into the business realm in 2006 (here and abstract here). Ten years later, in 2016, he consolidated his work into the Musimorphic Quest. In this guided, gamified, experiential environment, participants discover and remember their innate connection to this ancient transformative technology. Also, The National Council for Behavioral Healthcare recognized Bill in 2014 with an Inspiring Hope award for Artistic Expression, the industry equivalent of winning an Oscar.
Musimorphic programs support wellness for businesses, NPOs and at-risk populations, and individuals.
