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Note: Many Chinese play music while practicing tai chi or qigong. I think it is fine for harmonizing post-natal Qi. But i find it distracting if I am practicing neigong,more internally focused qigong or meditation that is designed to connect to pre-natal Qi. How about other practictioners? How does music affect you? – Michael
MUSIC AMPS IMMUNITY AND CUTS STRESS
By Katherine Gombay-McGill
Futurity
March 28, 2013http://nhne-pulse.org/listening-to-music-increases-immunity-reduces-stress/
http://www.futurity.org/top-stories/music-amps-immunity-and-cuts-stress/
Before surgery, listening to music is more effective at reducing anxiety
than prescription drugs, report researchers.In a large-scale review of 400 research papers about the neurochemistry
of music, researchers have shown that playing and listening to music has
clear benefits for both mental and physical health.In particular, music was found both to improve the body’s immune system
function and to reduce levels of stress.“We’ve found compelling evidence that musical interventions can play a
health care role in settings ranging from operating rooms to family
clinics,” says Professor Daniel J. Levitin of McGill University’s
psychology department.“But even more importantly, we were able to document the neurochemical
mechanisms by which music has an effect in four domains: management of
mood, stress, immunity, and as an aid to social bonding.”The information gathered gathered by the researchers shows that music
increased both immunoglobulin A, an antibody that plays a critical role
in immunity of the mucous system, and natural killer cell counts (the
cells that attack invading germs and bacteria).As reported in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Levitin and his
postgraduate research fellow, Mona Lisa Chanda, also found that
listening to and playing music reduces levels of cortisol, the stress
hormone, in the body.The authors suggest a number of areas for future experiments in the
field. These include: Uncovering the connection between oxytocin, the so-called “love drug,”
group affiliation, and music Administering the drug naltrexone — an opioid antagonist used during
alcohol withdrawal — to uncover whether musical pleasure is promoted by
the same chemical systems in the brain activated by other forms of
pleasure such as food And experiments in which patients are randomly assigned to musical
intervention or a rigorously matched control condition in post-operative
or chronic pain trials. Suitable controls might include films, TV,
comedy recordings, or audio books.Finally, the authors lay out a framework for future research with
questions such as: What are the different effects, if any, of playing vs. listening to music?
Are some people more likely to experience positive effects of music
than others? If so, what individual differences (e.g. personality
traits, genetic, or biological factors) contribute to the effectiveness
of music interventions? What is the role of oxytocin in mediating musical experience?
What stimuli can be used as a basis of comparison to match music along
dimensions of arousal, attractiveness or lack thereof, engagement, and
mood induction?The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded the research.Original Study: The Neurochemistry of Music (pdf)
http://download.cell.com/images/edimages/Trends/CognitiveScience/TICS_1180.pdfI find music can help shift stagnant energy in a room,
and get things more mobile esp. to motivate doing household chores.However, unless I am using it for this specific purpose,
or in a situation when I can devote 100% of my attention to
it (simply for its enjoyment), I find it to be yet
another distraction . . .something else my body needs to filter.So in cases where I am meditating, doing qigong, or needing to
focus on a particular task . . . I find that I enjoy silence
far much more. My kidneys feel it to be MORE nourishing.And there is a wonderful richness in silence.
People are so used to be stimulated, they lose touch with that.S
In my opinion best way it might help, might be to learn right way to exercise with one’s own voice.
Even if one would have a healthy voice to start with; that is vocal cords are ok as well as ears, lips, tongue and so on, one still would make also very simple exercises like holding single notes, both high/low notes, testing dynamics in controlled manner, building totally even legato etc.
So one would use voice practices as a kind of audible pranayama and little by little to move to more mechanic and aggressive breathing techniques (combinet with three traditional bandhas).
And actually this Anthroposophical singing method has just the right type of exercises, but these seemingly have been only modified from Werbeck’s original ones in such a direction that these would be usefull for performing composed art music as soon as possible instead of being used as breathing exercises.
This Valborg Werbeck has also written a book which is quite interesting, but it’s written in somehow fanatic tone and there are also some totally misguided remarks like for example that qigong type of energy practices are not good, because these lead into something called atavistic clairvoyance and so on. Werbeck (a Swede) has been herself a professional operatic singer, but it’s used in various ways also as a therapeutic tool.
HOWDY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWTVhOc0258 (sacredvowels)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4ne-ce8aAI (conductoradept)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHFDa9efCQU (mcferrin)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TmVV5kP18w (whore)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz0tYD_vVIo (blacksabbath)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y47JdUI_PhE (guillaumedm)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eSz2J3nS2o (apärt)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9yflt20ewE (rape)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c-ArtilaV4 (burzum)
An earworm is a piece of music that sticks in one’s mind so that one seems to hear it, even when it is not being played. Other phrases used to describe this include musical imagery repetition and involuntary musical imagery. The phenomenon is common in normal life and so may be distinguished from brain damage that results in palinacousis. The word earworm is a calque from the German Ohrwurm.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EarwormFor some this so called earworm problem could become much more severe than how it’s normally seen or actually heard. But for one’s memory palace one really needs both silence and sounds, IMO.
Practicing with voice and clapping are best ways to immediately to relate with sound, but it’s also important in my opinion, when one starts meditation session, to check from one’s surroundings high and low sounds, if some where in the distance there is something worth remarking and so on, so being as silent as possible and simply listening.
HOWDY
Ps. Still about S & M…what about Tom of Finland type of S & M? And also sorry for my broken English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-dPC-srIbs (chinesemusic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXfNg6NN3C4 (heroictrio)
Sorry, but I didn’t mean to be nasty or anyway to break the forum rules.
I still don’t see that any really pious person should practice S & M in that particular sense or…
HOWDY
You’ve been pushing questions on this S&M stuff
to “ribosome777” on a couple of threads now.The topic is fine IF he wants to discuss it,
but if you are bringing it up repeatedly in random threads on
other topics, continually pushing him . . . it
could be viewed as harassment.Please be mindful of forum posting guidelines.
Thanks,
StevenThat singing school is real.
One must learn to integrate voice with breathing.
Enochian has been commended enough.
HOWDY
James A. Bennfs first monograph begins with a spectacular death. In the year 527, after a series of striking miracles (rays of light, augural wonders, and numinous vapors), the monk Daodu ¹x strikes a chime, recites verses on emptiness, and burns himself to death. His remains are honored, placed in a sacred reliquary by the local ruler, and a laudatory funerary inscription is carved. In the space of a few pages after this anecdote, Benn concisely traces the religious motivations of Daodu as well as his political connections, placing the monk squarely within the long arc of a broader Buddhist religious history while firmly locating him in his specific Chinese context. This little story is beautifully chosen, for it contains the essence of Burning for the Buddha. In a series of chronologically and thematically arranged chapters, Benn expands on every element of this anecdote: on the long history of Chinese Buddhist self-immolation (a category that contains not only auto-cremation but also any form of religious self-harm or suicide), on the role of the body in Buddhism, on the power of scripture, and on the influence of biographical writing in Chinese Buddhist history.
-http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24572Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) describes reported cases of the burning of a living (or very recently deceased) human body without an apparent external source of ignition. As of 1995, there have been about 200 cited cases worldwide over a period of around 300 years.
There are many hypotheses that attempt to explain human spontaneous combustion. These include several natural explanations as well as supernatural and biblical explanations.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustionFrom a purely materialistic perspective, the Lotus Sutra is, as Liu Xinru has so memorably described it, “virtually a workshop manual rather than a text of Buddhist philosophy.”
-JAMES A. BENN, Burning for the Buddha: Self-immolation in Chinese BuddhismMy point here was only that using voice can be, when done in the right way, good practice itself, but that it is especially good preparation for really mechanic and quite violent breathing exercises.
HOWDY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrlKyDIx91o (kujikiri)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJpG_7qEPOI (sirbasil)
Christian martyrs were usually tried and killed by hostile forces. The majority of the monks I shall discuss terminated their lives voluntarily although at least one was executed.
-BRYAN J. CUEVAS & JACQUELINE I. STONE, The Buddhist Dead: Practices, Discourses, RepresentationsSelf-immolation is tolerated by some elements of Mahayana Buddhism and Hinduism, and it has been practiced for many centuries, especially in India, for various reasons, including Sati, political protest, devotion, and renouncement. Certain warrior cultures, such as in the Charans and Rajputs, also practiced self-immolation.
Two well-known Jataka tales, Buddhist myths about previous incarnations of the Buddha, concern self-immolation. In the “Hungry Tigress” Jataka, Prince Sattva looked down from a cliff and saw a starving tigress that was going to eat her newborn cubs, and compassionately sacrificed his body in order to feed the tigers and spare their lives. In the “Sibi Jataka”, King Śibi or Shibi was renowned for unselfishness, and the Hindu gods Śakra and Vishvakarman tested him by transforming into a hawk and a dove. The dove fell on the king’s lap while trying to escape the hawk, and sought refuge. Rather than surrender the dove, Śibi offered his own flesh equivalent in weight to the dove, and the hawk agreed. They had rigged the balance scale, and King Śibi continued cutting off his flesh until half his body was gone, when the gods revealed themselves, restored his body, and blessed him…But “abandoning the body” also covers a broad range of more extreme acts (not all of which necessarily result in death): feeding one’s body to insects; slicing off one’s flesh; burning one’s fingers or arms; burning incense on the skin; starving, slicing, or drowning oneself; leaping from cliffs or trees; feeding one’s body to wild animals; self-mummification (preparing for death so that the resulting corpse is impervious to decay); and of course, auto-cremation.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolationSimple question: are these really acceptable practices?
HOWDY
Ps. Sorry, but I know this posting is off-topic.
I still think that if somebody wants to start doing breathing exercises best way in the beginning is using one’s voice.
Then abdominal and thoracic breathing and various pranayama like nadi shodhana, sheetali, sheetkari, ujjayi etc.
And packing process breathing would be quite advanced because one should know one’s respiratory system first of all and also because one’s system should be able to process energy in totally different way before doing more violent breath retention.
HOWDY
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC World Service
Choir singers not only harmonise their voices, they also synchronise their heartbeats, a study suggests.
Researchers in Sweden monitored the heart rates of singers as they performed a variety of choral works.
They found that as the members sang in unison, their pulses began to speed up and slow down at the same rate.
Writing in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, the scientists believe the synchronicity occurs because the singers coordinate their breathing.
Dr Bjorn Vickhoff, from the Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University in Sweden, said: “The pulse goes down when you exhale and when you inhale it goes up.
“So when you are singing, you are singing on the air when you are exhaling so the heart rate would go down. And between the phrases you have to inhale and the pulse will go up.
“If this is so then heart rate would follow the structure of the song or the phrases, and this is what we measured and this is what we confirmed.”
Sing from the heart
The scientists studied 15 choir members as they performed different types of songs.
They found that the more structured the work, the more the singers’ heart rates increased or decreased together.
Slow chants, for example, produced the most synchronicity.
The researchers also found that choral singing had the overall effect of slowing the heart rate.
This, they said, was another effect of the controlled breathing.
Dr Vickhoff explained: “When you exhale you activate the vagus nerve, we think, that goes from the brain stem to the heart. And when that is activated the heart beats slower.”
The researchers now want to investigate whether singing could have an impact on our health.
“There have been studies on yoga breathing, which is very close to this, and also on guided breathing and they have seen long-terms effects on blood pressure… and they have seen that you can bring down your blood pressure.
“We speculate that it is possible singing could also be beneficial.”
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