Hello Dear Fans & Friends Around The World,
My last few months have been
interesting, to say the least. I
entered the hospital in February and
arrived back home in late April. I
hope you forgive me if I owe you and
email or letter. I am still
catching up on things. I have
therapy five times a week on three
different days. I tend to sleep on my
days off. I am doing as well as can be
expected and
intend to keep getting better.
Your cards, calls, prayers and well
wishes made all the difference and I
Thank You.
While in therapy at the acute
rehabilitation hospital, my Recreation
Therapist, Chona (a very nice person!),
asked if I enjoyed movies and/or music.
Say it with me, I told her about ..
André Rieu! Moderator Bill Cole from our
Blog had sent me a care package with CDs
from Andre Rieu & Mirusia Louwerse.
So .. when I came back to my room after
physical therapy, Chona had surprised me
with a CD player and I heard the JOYFUL
sounds of André Rieu and his JSO.
The music was so soothing, I soon found
myself sound asleep. I awoke refreshed
and feeling well.
This leads to an article I found
today. I could give them a story
or two about the healing powers of
music! Couldn't you?
*I have read all of Dr. Sacks books.
~~~~~~~~~~
Neurologist, Choir Explore Music's
Healing Power
By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press
Writer
NEW YORK —
Noted neurologist Oliver Sacks has found
common ground with the pastor of
Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church: Both
men believe in the healing power of
music.
Sacks, the
best-selling author of "Awakenings" and
"The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a
Hat," shared the church stage Saturday
with the famed gospel choir as part of
the inaugural World Science Festival, a
five-day celebration of science taking
place in New York this week.
"It should be an
exciting and unusual event," Sacks said
in an interview this week. "I will talk
about the therapeutic and beneficent
power of music as a physician, and then
their wonderful choir will perform. ...
And the audience will make what they can
of it."
Sacks' most recent
book is "Musicophilia: Tales of Music
and the Brain," which examines the
relationship between music and the
brain, including its healing effect on
people suffering from such diseases as
Tourette's syndrome, Parkinson's, Autism
and Alzheimer's.
"Even with advanced
dementia, when powers of memory and
language are lost, people will respond
to music," he said.
A Baptist church is
an unusual venue for Sacks, a professor
of clinical neurology and clinical
psychiatry at Columbia University
Medical Center who was brought up Jewish
but is not a religious believer.
But the central role
of music in church makes Abyssinian a
good place to discuss the myriad ways
that music affects the human brain, said
Sacks, who was played by Robin Williams
in the movie version of "Awakenings."
Abyssinian's pastor,
the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, said the
choir is looking forward to performing
with Sacks. He noted that music plays a
central role in the healing power of
prayer.
"What we have been
studying ... is that when you pray,
there's actually a physiological change
in the body," he said. "Music is very
much a part of this. There are certain
notes that generate in the human body a
kind of peacefulness."
Abyssinian was
founded by Ethiopian sea traders in 1808
and is celebrating its bicentennial. It
is a popular destination for European
tourists, who line up around the block
in Harlem for Sunday services.
The event there is
one of two Sacks is participating in
during the World Science Festival. The
other focuses on vision and the brain.
The festival was
conceived by Columbia University
physicist Brian Greene and his wife,
Tracy Day, a broadcast journalist.
"Our intent is to
help shift the public perception of
science, so that people realize that
science is as important as art,
literature, film, theater," Greene said.
Panelists include
Nobel laureates, as well as actors,
dancers, philosophers and science
journalists.
Greene
said he hopes the festival will spread
to other cities.
~~~~~~~~~~
Let's chat about this on the Blog. If you have
stories of the healing powers of music you can share
them with us!
Blog This