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NPR  Morning Edition 3/3   Art and Music Therapy seem to help with brain disorders  Scientists want to know why.  It's a 6:53 listen.   

Creative Forces an arts therapy initiative sponsored by National Endowment for the Arts.   How the arts are increasingly being used to treat brain conditions including PTSD,  depression,  Parkinson's and  Alzheimer's.   Neuro Arts Blueprint,  a partnership between John Hopkins  Internet Arts + Mind Lab Center for applied Neuro aesthetics and the Aspen Institute's Health  Medicine and  Society Program.   It goes on.   About studies on how the arts activate multiple parts of the brain.

Renee Fleming,  an American Soprano,  performed while inside a MRI Scanner.   Singing,  imagining singing,  speaking.  The largest effect was seen in

Imagining singing.

Imagining singing.   This clicked.   With this thing i do,  a LOT,  which many of us do….we look at stuff.   When i look at the stuff above,  i remember Making.  I see new possibility.   I imagine.        This is important.  They are wanting to make a new category:  Brain Scientists and Art Therapists.   Neuroarts.

And then.   From the beginning of humanity,  homo sapiens have drawn pictures,  utterances became language and song,  materials were pieced together,  formed  woven  sewn  drums and rattles flutes  stringed things.  Fire and Seed.  This was our Evolution.  All of Us.  the whole planet of Us.   How we Evolved.   I might not understand,  but i think that species,  plant, bird, animal, reptile, insect Evolve and refine in that Evolving because it is advantageous.  What is not,  is shed along the way.  The things that we are,  over and over have given the abilities to conceptualize and then actualize,  create,  means to give life to these attributes.

here's where i drift

That thing that Elizabeth Gilbert and i  feel as an Intelligence of the Universe,  that WANTS TO COMMUNICATE WITH US…at this juncture,   that  WAS,  Already  ….at the beginning of Us…and at this juncture,  is  seeking communication

What if enough of Us sense this and respond…as a continuation of our

Evolution.  the Evolution of our species.

?

 

 

 

 

 

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14 responses to “Part 2 from yesterday. Big Wondering in rudimentary form”

  1. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    What I am about to put here, is not directly at all related to the above or is it?
    You may remember me writing about my former neighbor, a Mexican American father who was so happy with his rental near us, two of his boys lived with him, he worked in a nursing home; politically we were as far apart as you can imagine but over time, he questioned his beliefs and on the second go around, did not vote for the great evil.
    A few months after we moved here, we spotted him stacking produce in our local grocery store. So surprised, I went up to him and he told me that he had had such a hard time with his landlord that he had had to move and as a result, with rental prices sky rocketing here, he was working three jobs now, to make ends meet, etc. He was all in favor of the grocery strike that might occur (the grocery store is Smith’s, a Kroeger store. The Smith workers in New Mexico had threatened to go out on strike last month but in the end, the union did not go on strike and the workers did get better pay as he told me two weeks ago.)
    Yesterday, we went to do our usual every two week grocery shopping and of course, Alan was working. When he saw me he came over and told me that his bright, wonderful 20 yr old son Kevin had been killed in a car accident and that his funeral was today.I was so stunned, I dropped my purse, held out my arms and in the middle of Smith’s produce section, hugged him while he cried.
    When I got home, I wanted to do something to honor la familia but I am an ex-Catholic and have a very hard time going to Catholic funerals. Went to the mortuary website, and found a way to honor Kevin, the fine son of my neighbor. Flowers, well yes but what called out to me and I do mean “called” was a memorial tree. I remembered how excited Kevin was when they moved in, wanting to help his Dad and brother turn their backyard into a garden with flowers and especially trees. Rich and I ordered one and our words will go on a tribute wall for the family to see.
    Came home, very, very windy day but I needed a moment to sit outside, leaves swirling all around, and I thought of my choice of a tree over flowers…in my head, as I had looked at the memorial web site,a voice simply had come into my head and said these words:
    a good strong tree to honor this good strong young man for we are connected.
    Now I have a vivid imagination but this exchange was as solid as any that I have ever had in my life. Evolution, compassion, connection…yes to all of it.

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  2. CatherinE Avatar

    “Imagining singing…” I love this phrase. It gave me a new way to respond to the pressure of making ideas that crowd in on me. It is not pressure, it is imagining and it is valuable in itself!!! That’s where I am, although I find the other parts of your Big Wondering interesting to consider.

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  3. Nancy Avatar

    Grace~ I too listened to this and thought of so many I know, both here in this circle and others as well. I thought of those who make and imagine that, and those that…well, I wonder if they do or would…and how that may help them? So much to this connection of Arts and Mind. I was interested to hear that the imagining was just as valuable. A reason to let go of guilt or self-pressure to more actively make and do. Whatever parts feed us, heel us, support us – that is what we should do and it is all okay. Thanks for this and a reminder to listen again and deeper. xo

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  4. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    I’m back because I finally got some time to go and find the article on the NPR website: the music therapist Rebecca, who helped the veteran with music spoke of “when we receive music, even when we hear music, we’re activating multiple parts of the brain”…brain changes in response to other therapies such as dance” and that led me to consider the idea of receiving music:
    The idea of receiving music, had never occurred to me, hearing music yes, and then it came to me that of course, because dance is my outlet, even when injured or ill, my imagination has me dancing to heal and I dance to express emotions that at times, I have a hard time putting into words; other times dancing is simply for the joy of movement, to know that my body receives the music that allows all of this to flourish is such a gift…

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  5. grace Forrest Avatar

    related…or is it? oh, so much yes it is.
    This is the way.
    this is the way we know. How to go. My love to you, to
    him, his son Kevin, the tree that holds spirit. Us.
    This, for all of Us. so much yes. it is related.

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  6. grace Forrest Avatar

    that the imagining is of Value. yes.

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  7. grace Forrest Avatar

    the imagining…MORE valuable…isn’t this just the most
    amazing???????

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  8. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes, and i know this for you…that listening and responding with dance, so Beauty Full a Love, a
    Love
    how we can understand and go …. deeper, understand More

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  9. maria Avatar
    maria

    yes Grace , it IS

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  10. maria Avatar
    maria

    daer people you support me…. the revalidation of the leg( knee) take his time because it was a long time unactive, in my imagining i will dance and ride on my bike,but it did’nt work at al, i could’nt listen to music because i could’nt recieve it ,it did’nt come in; maby in my mind i was to stubborn /headstrong , unconscious angry for this surgery , THANK you this helps to understand deeper , more

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  11. Liz A Avatar

    I imagine music all the time … and as my hearing has continued to worsen, I can actually imagine music better than I can hear it …
    and I wonder … “imagine” is a word that means (to me) to make images in one’s mind … is there another word for making music in one’s mind? … perhaps the neuroarts people will come up with one
    and Beethoven … how he composed when virtually deaf

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar

    to take all the time needed to understand this

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar

    stubborn, headstrong, just
    unwilling
    RECEIVE. beauty Full. the thing of RECEIVE.
    love to you, Maria

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar

    Imagine
    Visualize
    the thing of Sound…
    Thank you for bringing this into it….sound….
    and Beethoven….i will go there to learn more. I’d
    not fully understood ever before

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