Supporting you in drawing from your own well of inner wisdom through the conscious use of voice and rhythm as a natural healer. You'll also discover a peaceful and inspiring view of the Holy Land that doesn't get reported by the conventional media.
Do you believe everything you see on the news? Did you know that I sing and play Mozart? According to CBS television, evidently so.
If you watch this video (type in Music and Weight Gain in the search box watch), you'll see Sunita Staneslow - my healing harpist colleague with whom I work at Meir Hospital in our healing music project and I are both shown making music in the neonatal ward. You'll see me singing to babies, and working with mothers.
Only they're reporting about Mozart music. Evidently Voices of Eden music and Mozart are now being compared!
How do you remain relaxed and focused in the midst of change? Perhaps it seems impossible? You know that experience of... take two steps forward, one back. Sometimes it might even feel like... two steps forward, three backwards...
It seems that the moment we commit to making a deep inner change, the deeper silt may come floating to the surface. Though we know we're moving ahead towards something good, instead of soaring, with wings outstretched, it may feel instead like falling into a deep bottomless pit.
Last week, I took my students to Tel Megiddo, the site of Armaggedon. Tel Megiddo is one of the more prominent archeological sites in the world, as it serves as the pinnacle of biblical archeology. In addition, it is one of the few places in the world where you can see thirty strata of different civilizations spanning some 10,000years. This alone is enough to put your worries in proportion :-)! This is the site where the prophetess Deborah sat court under the palm trees.
The round temple mound alone, shows 17 layers of civilization. It was a joy to play the bells there, to clear the energy prior to our descending deep in the belly of the earth, to reach the pure water of the well resting some 300 meters below the earth.
The sounds of the women singing on the way down were mysterious and awesome. It was dark.... until we got to the bottom. Water nymphs singing in the belly of the earth? Scary or inspiring? What do you think?
Wordless singing has been medically proven to lower blood pressure, heart rate, increase focus and quality of sleep amongst neonates in the NICU unit. In this video clip, I am guiding a new mother to sing with her baby in the neonatal ward of Meir Hospital. This lovely mother, appropriately named Shira, which in Hebrew means "singing - song" has taken to singing along with the monitor beeping in order to lower her own level of stress. You can hear the music composed for the healing music research project.
I have also opened a new blog specifically for lullaby music: www.lullabymusicblog.com.
How do you calm yourself in the midst of the "beeping monitors" of daily life?
On Anita Diamants blog: The Red Tent... and more... she posted a photo of the items on her desktop altar. This was in response to a query from a curious reader. At the end of her post, Anita asked: What is on your desktop altar?
So, I flipped open my trusty cell phone camera and clicked the photo above. On my desktop altar (from right to left - as befits a Hebrew speaker :-)...
1) Clay statuette of Miriam that I made some seven years ago on a glorious vacation in the Sinai desert. This statuette, fashioned from simple clay mud found in Sinai, which I sealed with simple glue (now peeling), has chaperoned me through countless ancient healing music tours overseas. It's my number one touchstone.
2) An ancient pottery handle which I found in Tel Hazor - an sacred healing music site in northern Galillee. This provides me with something to hold onto... when I don't know where to go next. It provides me with lots of faith.
3) A small Egyptian tambourine. Provides me with the sound of music.
4 & 5) Another ancient pottery handle picked up on a recent visit to Tel Megiddo (Armageddon) and Tel Dor (Phoenician site next to Atlit). These were also important sites for ancient sacred healing music of the biblical prophetesses.
6) Finger cymbals. Hand made in Egypt, I use these to dissipate energy. When I need a break, I ring them. It reminds me of the music I recorded with them in the ancient water well of Zippori.
7) A small peace dove bookmarker gift handmade by a colleague of mine. It reminds me of the beauty of simple aesthetic found in Israel. It calms me.
8) Behind the Miriam statuette - my logo - that includes a statuette of Miriam found in Achziv in the Western Galilee, dating from the Helenistic period. The Hebrew says: Kolot Eden - Havaya Musikaleet Tehorah... which in English means...
Voices of Eden Pure and Authentic Music Experience
Shabbat comes from the Hebrew root letters: Shin-Bet-Taf. These letters share the same root of the verb "to sit". Shabbat is a time to contemplate the week passed.
Approximately 3000 authors entered the contest... 250 would be chosen to go on to Round Two. The ultimate winner of this contest, sponsored by Hampton Roads Publishing, will receive a publishing contract. The voting deadline closed on May 3, with the announcement of the 250 winners to be made by Thursday, May 6.
A few days can seem like an eternity.
My task was to stay on purpose, inside and to keep a steady pace moving forward. Regardless of the results, I made a commitment to complete Miriam's Secret by the end of this year. If I didn't win this round, would I be courageous enough to follow through? If I did win, would I be willing to meet my fears and move forward?
The contests' creators' sent an email promotion of their own projects the day following the voting deadline. Some of the authors were outraged and complained bitterly. The contest creator sent an email in response.
The path to one's goal is filled with detours.
I enjoyed many inner detours on the path of my own response:
1) Reserving my own judgment on both sides of the issue in favor of deepening my sense of equinimity.
2) My willingness to notice my judgements as they arose. I filled out Judge Your Neighbor worksheets of The Work by Byron Katie, to set my thinking free.
I appreciated the angered emails, reflecting that competitive voice inside – "no" – "won't move ahead"... it's a small fine line... in this place one gets to be righteous and indignant.
3) Appreciation of how the contest creator addressed criticism head on AND stood up for himself transparently, e.g. "you'll find in the… (xyz places) written that we will send announcements... etc..."
I knew this when I signed on. I chose to sign on to use this platform as a support to get my OWN VOICE out there. What I appreciate seeing modeled is how people DO PLAY BIG.
Stretching beyond the comfort zone.
If you spend all your energy trying to dart the bullets, how will you ever move forward?
YUP, people will criticize you when you move ahead. People may even want to attack. Yet if you spend all your energy trying to appease "them", where will you have the energy to appease yourself?
Courage is having the discipline to stand by yourself in times of doubt.
Holistic winning requires several things:
1) Compassion. Criticism may sting. It's not a comfortable place to be.
2) Self Respect. Leaders are those who are willing to tread the unbeaten path.
3) Remaining Open... Especially in the face of a big OUCH; such as when others criticize us for moving ahead. Seeing how the contest creator responded gave me courage to keep my heart open.
I wrote a response thanking them for showing up, and opening the door for me to show up in a much bigger way as well. We all benefit! Taking the time to acknowledge them and me, publicly is a BIG CHANGE, for me. The shift is in the focus, not upon the physical action. I have decided to WIN.
WINNING starts and ends WITHIN.
Here's what I wrote the morning following the cutoff for Round One voting:
My experience inside of me is shifting. It is a big payoff.
I guess we are all so used to sitting in our comfortable habits - with the mediocre payoff of getting to be "right" about our beliefs. Staying as much as I can in the NOW moment. In the end, we don't have final control (although it's so nice to believe that we do :-)!
I am in LOVE. And I appreciate YOU.
WE WON ROUND ONE!
I credit the win to all of us. I acknowledge my response above as a major contributor. Thank you to EVERY ONE OF YOU WHO VOTED!!!!
The next two weeks are for finishing the book proposal and uploading it to the contest site. Voting for Round Two will begin May 24th.
Every one who votes receives a membership in the online healing and transformational music site, and also goes into a raffle to win a free Transformational Journey Intensive with me in Israel, where I will personally take you to Miriam's Well and Magdalene's Well.
Here's an update from Tel Dor - at a major cool ancient Phonecian temple on the mediterranean coast. Please remember to watch this video with an authentic healing music meditation - with directions for a free eight step relaxation program. Learn more about Miriam's Secret...
I am truly jazzed to have entered the Next Top Spiritual Author Contest sponsored by Hampton Roads Publishing. 2500 authors have entered this contest, which includes four rounds. The finalist wins a publishing contract for their book.
250 of the authors with the highest number of votes will go on to round two. I intend to be amonst them. Voting ends May 3. Please for for me here: http://www.NextTopAuthor.com/?aid=2961
Enjoy this clip to learn about my book - Miriam's Secret - Midwiving the Birth of Your Inner Transformation...
Thank you for voting for me, and sending this link to ten of your friends, and asking them to do the same.
I am writing this post to announce that I have entered The Next Top Spiritual Author Contest - it's a great step for me, as I have been preparing my book - Miriam's Secret - Empowering Your Voice Within You, or, Healthy Bonding with Your Inner Mother and Child. Those are a few of the tentative subtitles.
I will be blogging about this process - first hand.
With spring in the air, it's a time of rebirth. I love that spacious feeling of having the space and time to consider change and choose new direction.
Yet rebirth, like transformation, doesn't come without it's pain and pressure. Saying "yes" to one direction, means saying "no" to another. Others may not like it. Perhaps it will upset the apple cart.
How do you stay on purpose when going through change?
How do you respond to family, friends or colleagues who get stirred up by your transformation in process?
In his book "Real Magic", author Wayne Dyer shares how he has personally learned to avoid slings and arrows that come his way in his public pursuits. He has trained himself to ignore others' opinions and stay on purpose. His focus is upon his inner mission to help improve other people's lives and sticking with it, regardless of the outcome. Ironically, he shares as he is more on purpose, his speaking and communication flow.
I got very inspired by reading his words again after many years. My heart has been directing me to serve in a bigger way and share my talents through creative means. My intent is to help people more authentically express themselves. As I make inner changes, I meet up with more of my own inner slings and arrows and learn to make peace with them.
When you’re in turmoil, how do you connect to and express your inner voice of peace? Like when you’re in the turmoil part?
"I try to think my way around stuff and it doesn’t seem to work. I think you just have to be present with it. I’ll give you an example of how music has helped me. I had my own graphic design business for 12 years out of my home. Last year I took a day job in a new industry. I was miserable for the first eight or nine months of it. While it didn't feed my soul, it fed the family and that’s important.
During that time I wrote a song from that experience called "Get Me Out of Here". It’s a great blues song... To be able to express myself constructively without damaging others or things, or polluting the world - sitting down at the piano and writing about it and singing it, helped me deal with and move through it. The song has a lot of emotion behind it and makes me feel good when I sing it now."
I love how Scott alchemically transformed his misery through music, providing himself and others with a powerful source for self nurturing.
The other interviews in the home study course share other inspiring stories from the trenches: meeting life and death issues, million dollar debt, relationship conflict, challenges with children, coping with depression, managing conflict with equanimity, patience, kindness and compassion.
I am following my heart's guidance to offer this very special interview series at a "Name Your Own Price" through April 30, 2010. There are absolutely no strings attached. I am including the bonuses and a money back guarantee as well.
Like Wayne Dyer, I am simply doing what I know to be the right thing - showing up in a bigger way for me while truly hoping to contribute to improve the lives of others and doing divine work.
Spring is quickly approaching... with it... an abundance of flowers, colors and the rebirth of life and goodness. To this end, I have decided to begin giving away all of my music.
I believe that doing this will bring more good into my life, and in an exponential way, into the life of others.
For those of you interested in birthing good into your own life, whether this be related to birth of a baby in your family, or whether the birth be of another kind, please allow me to invite you to a gift of healing music and allow the sounds and rhythm to midwive the birth of your own good.
Last week, two students of mine, Eshel Rozio and Birgit Reshef and I made a pilgrimage to Tel Kadesh in the upper Galilee, home to an ancient temple as well as an amazing pistachio tree which was uprooted by a bomb which blasted it open during the war in 2006.
The incredible thing is, the blast, seemed to free the shape of a female body. Could it be the spirit of the Asherah - female divinity of ancient Hebrew tradition?
We let nature do the singing. This video is uncut, unedited... imperfectly human. Our vulnerable voices, allowing nature to sing through us.
What do you receive from listening to this? Can you see the feminine figure of the tree? Can't wait to hear from you.
I am feeling so satisfied to discover that the Egyptian press has published the article I wrote about the Voices of Eden healing music research project.
The whole point of my initiating this research project was to reconnect the two ancient civilizations of Israel and Egypt. There were times during which the healers of both places used voice, sound and rhythm as a natural healer. A big use of it was in childbirth and lullaby music.
I am humbled to learn that a new connection has been remade through this small but powerful gesture of good will.
There is power in vulnerability, sensitivity and emotion. This video came to my email box as I wrote in my journal about a dream, reconciling deep conviction with deep insecurity. Stop denying yourself from being who you are:
This is an absolutely imaginative and beautiful expression of authentic voice. It brought a huge smile to me this morning and I hope it will to you too:
I wonder what went on in your mind as you watched?
Christmas Eve – 20:00 – 24.12.09 Fauzi Azar Inn - Old City Nazareth
Join us for magical musical journey of heavenly song, sacred holiday music chants, ethereal harp and biblical percussion. This special holiday program illuminates the power of the voice, rhythm and harp as a natural healer such was used in ancient times.
Biblical frame drums are used to ground the body, sacred texts to soothe and relax the listener. In the ancient approach to music, the artist and audience are both actively involved in the musical experience.
This unique concert provides a genuine experience of holy music from the holy land. Voices of Eden music has medically researched three times and found to lower blood pressure, heart rate, increase focus and quality of sleep.
Fauzi Azar Inn – Charming Guest House in the Ancient Quarter of Nazareth, which Mapa – the leading press has called, "the Dream Guest House", "One of the Best Finds", and "Simply Wonderful"…
Healing harpist, Sunita Staneslow and I have developed this healing music concert geared towards busy, overly stressed people wanting to reconnect to their inner calm and the sacred in life, while connecting intimately with their family as well. Watch this clip to get a feel for the program:
Price: 35 NIS. Limited Seating available. Reservations a must. Directions: How to get to Fauzi Azar here. Tel: 054-4322352
A new year is on the horizon, along with a new life. Babies are coming out of my ears, my eyes and coming deeply into my heart.
It's a joy to be returning to the land of lullaby music. Last week, I returned to the Meir Hospital neonatal ward to sing for the babies, worked with a group of new mothers to help them sing to their babies, and this morning, presented to a group of 22 health care professionals to teach them about the therapeutic uses of Voices of Eden music.
The interest grows. So, I opened a new lullaby music blog which will be dedicated to lullaby music, mother music, and everything connected to help new mothers and health professionals use music for healing purposes.
The point is to build a generation of healthy babies. This can add a clear soothing drop of water to the creation of a healthy world.
Friday, December 04, 2009
Trying out new behaviour may feel weird, yet it allows you to expand and move forward.
I just love this lullaby video which shows native culture from the Far Eastern Chuckchi tribe. It shows humour, humanity, and features wordless singing and frame drum :-)!!!
This is a fantastic video which shows how sound applied to particles, creates matter. Imagine how your intention, which is your voice expressing itself silently, affects your entire body!
Vibration Creates Form
This video is PUBLIC DOMAIN. Share it freely. Tiny particles of sand are strewn on a smooth disk and subjected to vibrations being passed into the surface, they immediately begin to take form and arrange into a multitude of geometrically perfect designs. ... Share
This is a special music meditation - recorded today: 09-09-09 at 09:09.
It's 100% natural, authentic, unplanned, unrehearsed and recorded on the spot, while focusing upon the pomegranate tree outside my window, lilting beautifully in the radiant sunshine in the backyard.
Wordless vocals and an ancient frame drum in a Galilee garden... for you to connect to your own inner garden of Eden.
Please enjoy a gift of healing music. I wonder what kind of effect it will have upon you? Please post a comment and let me know... Download it for free here:
Thanks to Rowan Storm who posted another video on the Women Frame Drummers list on facebook, I did a search on youtube and was mesmerized to find this video of the healing musician and living legend - Bi Kidude. Her voice is smooth, clear, fresh, and without taint of egotism.
Bi Kidude is over 100 years old. She is a singer and drummer from Zanzibar, and it is amazing to listen to the clarity of her voice, and the heart beat of her drum.
How do you feel when you listen to the quality of her voice? What is it that you experience?
This blog is about authenticity. How do you stay authentic when whenyou are going through a major inner shift?
Do you retreat and stay away from others, hoping to gain clarity through your own inquiry? Or perhaps you find yourself speaking to friends and associates more than ever, hoping that the conversation will shed some light on the dark path of inner gestation.
I find it difficult to speak to others. It seems like everything I say is up for question. A word may come out of my mouth, and then a voice inside asks, "Is that what you really mean?" I notice that while the words may ring fine, there is a deeper meaning, beyond the words, floating in a pond, deep inside. I am diving, deeper and deeper, trying to get to the bottom of the pool.
My tendency is to want to stay in my cave, until I see the light of day, then come out of hiding. I also realize that seeing the light of day can only come when I walk outside.
What am I trying to say? I am reaching out to you. Just sending a hug. Whatever it is that you are going through, so am I. I am with you.
Where in your life are you in your cave right now? What is the shift you find yourself going through? What is the one little step you could take right now in expressing yourself, which would be an act of self kindness, and also an expression of your perfectly imperfect humaness?
Please post, so we can connect together and see what transpires.
Bobby McFerrin is one of the people I admire most - he is in the highest service to the Music. I had the great fortune to sing with him live on stage during his tour to Israel a few years before Voices of Eden music underwent the surgical knife of medical research. He was the first person I dared share my intent to sing without words, and to create a healing music choir which would create health and harmony with others for the highest good. His support and encouragement has provided me with confidence to move forward.
Now comes this delightful video of him teaching the power of the pentatonic scale at the World Science Festival. The Pentatonic scale has deep healing impact and has been consciously used all around the world, from ancient times until today.
I have watched it several times already and plan to watch it again. Watch and enjoy the dance:
Cultural journalist Aiyushman Dutta of the Assam Times brilliantly writes:
"More than just a healing force, music is a tool which can be used for greater understanding between different cultures around the world. As modernisation and technology makes inroads into each and every aspect of our lives and the entire world becomes one small little village, music is the very medium which can help bind people and their hearts together with each other. For it is the only form of communication, a language transcending borders, that speaks to us all as equals in the most profound way."
How does music from different cultures around the world affect you? Is it healing for you? Does some of it grate on your nerves? Does it take you travelling to an alternate space?
One reader answered a question I asked to prepare for an interview series I am preparing with living masters of everyday peace... What is your number one question about living peacefully in troubled times?
Her response: How do you know if you are living peacefully or running away from something deeper inside - that you're not facing?
Great question!!!! This will be included. What's your top three questions?
A Big Question: "When will they ever make peace in the Middle East?"
An Honest Answer: They are - NOW!
Israeli and Palestinian composers Eliana Gilad and Wisam Gibran are doing just that. This clip was recorded during a concert held in the inspiring 200 year old Arab Mansion, renovated into a lovely Inn and peace center in Nazareth - the Fauzi Azar Inn
Sunday, saw Jerusalem in a harmonious light, as White Eagle and the Grandmother drum, joined by a growing multitude of Israelis, Palestinians and trailblazers from Europe and the US who joined us in Jerusalem for the third annual Hug Around Jerusalem.
This year was special in that we were part of the Live H2o concert, inspired by Dr. Masaru Emoto and Dr. Leonard Horowitz. White Eagle began with twenty minutes of a slow and repetitive heart beat. Following, I provided a wordless heart voice, tuned to the frequency of 528 hertz, measured as the mathematical equivalent of equanimity.
A multitude then joined in with the drum beat, garnering the swell of a wave of voices, which would be joined by multitudes of people in thirty other venues around the world. The event was broadcast live over the internet.
I will post the link, as soon as it is up on the internet. Subscribe to this blog on the upper right hand corner, and you will receive an automatic notice when the blog gets updated.
The conscious use of sound can penetrate matter. This is how the walls of Jericho came tumbling down, in ancient times. Today, in Jerusalem, sound was used in a conscious way to heal the rubble - rebuilding a home for all, beginning in our own hearts. I invite you to a refreshing drink of musical peace from Jerusalem. Sit down, relax, and enjoy listening here.
At least 35,000 years ago, in the depths of the last ice age, the sound of music filled a cave in what is now southwestern Germany, the same place and time early Homo sapiens were also carving the oldest known examples of figurative art in the world.
Music and sculpture — expressions of artistic creativity, it seems — were emerging in tandem among some of the first modern humans when they began spreading through Europe or soon thereafter.
This Cosmic Melody was originally composed in 1999 when Barbara Marx Hubbard sent me a prototype of the Attuner (tuned to the vibratory rate of the earths rotation), that we were to use during a turn of the millenium sound healing event in Israel (prior to YK2 & the Intifada).
Everything in it's own time... now there's the wonderful Live H2o worldwide concert and Hug Around Jerusalem where I have the good fortune to be performing with Grandmother Drum, White Eagle and thousands of other wonderful hearts whom together will start the nine minutes of "AH" heart sound... from Jerusalem, all around the world. For those of you who read Hebrew, the Israel site is here.
I had the good fortune yesterday of a visit from my next door neighbor - Or. She wanted to play the piano. My cat Punkie was mesmerized by the sounds - he started to play with her. As you can see in the photo, she was startled.
He kept watching as she played - and touched the keys.
Please tune in June 10th, Wednesday, at 12 noon US Eastern Time, to www.healthylife.net when Jonathan Goldman interviews Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz - an internationally known authority in the overlapping fields of public health, behavioral science, emerging diseases, and natural healing.
Dr. Horowitz received his doctorate from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and has taught at Harvard School of Dental Medicine. His published works several American best-sellers: Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola-Nature, Accident or Intentional?, Healing Celebrations: Miraculous Recoveries Through Ancient Scripture, Natural Medicine and Modern Science, and DNA: Pirates of the Sacred Spiral. In the field of sound, Len's contribution to Healing Codes for the Biological Apocalypse introduced the concept of an ancient series of solfeggio frequencies.
In addition to his other work, Len has been engaged in the creation of a worldwide sound event, H2O: Concert for the Living Water. This will be a week-end long event taking place over the Summer Solstice Week-end, This 72 hour educational, musical, and multi-cultural event also features an unprecedented interactive Internet broadcast that will engage a chorus of 144,000 voices united to advanced the cause of lasting peace on earth, world health, and universal prosperity.
This Global Sound Healing event will culminate on June 21st at 5 PM Pacific Time with a Global Tone of Healing and Love directed into the oceans, lakes, rivers and streams fo the world. This powerful prayer and chant begins with a 9 minute global chorus, then make sits way westward around the word, joined by representatives from all major religions and Native cultures. For more information on this "Love Water Experiment", please click on Live H20.
Len is a fascinating speaker. Among the topics we'll talk about are sacred sound, the solfeggio frequencies, the effects of sound on water, the power of intentionalized sound to shift global consciousness and much more.
I know this June 10th show with Dr. Len Horowitz will be an extraordinary experience that you won't want to miss.
Please tune in June 10th for this extraordinary show. And please join us on for the H2O Concert for the Living Water- especially from Jerusalem where we will be singing by the HOly of Holies. I have the honor of being the mistress of ceremonies - for the live broadcast.
If eye's could truly see.... Here are a few photos of water paintings inspired by the biblical prophetess Miriam which I painted last year:
The prophetess Miriam helped the Israelites when they lost courage. Her music would soothe them, and calm their nerves. Her drum would ground them. She was known to help people to remain steady, and trust in their voice, when things looked troublesome.
Sound is everywhere. Music is sound. Your voice is sound and you can use it to creatively solve many problems in everyday life.
As we vibrate, we are releasing pure energy and intention through us from inner voice to outer voice. This week, I offer you the gift of a vibrational cleansing bath.
Tomorrow (Tuesday), I'll be discussing five benefits of the conscious use of voice and music for creative problem solving, encouraging people to center themselves in these profound peaceful principles of Ancient Healing and Transformational Music.
Here are the details to be with us on the F.R.E.E. W.E.B.I.N.A.R.
Date: Tuesday, June 2, 2009 Time: 1 pm Eastern/ 11 am Mountain/ 10 am Pacific/18:00 GMT Cost: None, as this is our loving gift to you Duration: One-hour (aka 60 minutes)
Click here to register for Tuesday's F.R.E.E. Webinar
Yes, the event will be recorded so you can have access to it later. The only requirement is registration so we may communicate with you (e.g., you'll receive a courtesy reminder two hours beforehand).
I'll be offering some more special goodies for the telecourse beginning on June 2nd
There is something immensely important related to experiencing the yearning to give voice to what is inside your heart. Connect to your yearning and you've connected to the seed of your authenticity.
The purpose of the Authentic Voice course is to help people connect to their inner yearning and to provide a space for them to express their authenticity in a safe and connected way. The course starts on June 7. Find out about it here.
Does Your Voice Get Stuck When You Need to Share Your Heart the Most?
I have been busy getting ready for my upcoming Secret Keys to Authentic and Transformational Communication telecourse which will begin June 7. You can learn more about it here.
There is a really cool early bird special until May 10. I am giving away free coaching sessions to help you gain clarity and confidence in communicating your heart when you need to most, without caving in.
In the meantime, please enjoy this minute music meditation:
Jewish & Palestinian Citizens of Israel Commemorate Yom HaAtzmaut - Al Naqba together to heal wounds of separation. The event, organized together by Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel began in 2002 and has continued to grow every year. This year, over 250 people participated.
I opened a new blog dedicated to Miriam and Passover: http://miriamscup.blogspot.com/ Please come and visit.
So in my own path to freeing myself from the inner slavery of taking myself too seriously, I took a walk in the beautiful Park City Utah snow and made a snow (well) woman. Well, should we say, in the spirit of Passover, snow Miriam :-)...
How did I get from Galilee to Utah? On a plane :-)... My brother is getting married this evening outside (!) with the snow capped mountains as a backdrop. Will be here through Sunday and then it's off to Los Angeles through the 12th.
Today was fun. The snow was all powdery and dry. Pristine. No one had yet walked upon the freshly fallen carpet of one of natures true beauties. I threw snowballs.
Lest you wonder if it ever snows in Israel? Yes. Here is a snow man... eh... snow Moses :-)??? from my Galilee village, taken last year.
What would you be willing to do today to free yourself of your own inner slavery? Chloe, the daughter of my new sister in law Jackie, is such a beautiful teacher of openness, sincerity and just plain whimsical fun at play. So grateful to learn from her and my other nieces and nephews. What teachers!
Is this cool or what?!?! Ever wonder how the ancient Israelites sounded when they sang in praise having safely crossed over the miraculously parted seas?
The coins have been dropping over the last several days, as I have been getting clearer as to how to share the ancient music of the prophetess Miriam through Biblical Music tours.
One of my brother's colleagues, Jon Miller and his wife Jan were here in Israel with his wife to visit his son, who is spending a semester volunteering at Kibbutz Maagan Michael. I had the fortune of hosting them for a day in Galilee. We visited Tel Megiddo (also known as Armageddon), Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Haifa and Caesaria. It was a blast to play music for them deep in the belly of the earth.
I told them the story of bringing my niece Julia to this very place on her Bat Mitzvah tour as it was the site of her Torah portion. I planned the itinerary around her haftorah (the portion of the bible that she would be reading for her ceremony). They said; "wow, you should do that as a business"!
Is three times a charm? It's the third time someone has said that to me over the last period of time.
What do you think? Take a look at the video and let me know.
I just came across this study which goes to prove that people are taking more responsibility for taking care of themselves...
According to a US nationwide government study conducted in 2007 by The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), 38 percent of adults aged 18 and over, and almost 12 percent of children, aged 17 and under, used some form of complementary or alternative medicine.
This study marked the first time questions on children’s use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies were included as part of the National Health Interview Survey. The study included questions on 10 provider based therapies such as chiropractic and acupuncture, and 26 other therapies that do not require a provider such as herbal medications and meditation.
Because many of the therapies are self-administered or outside the province of conventional medicine, patients have often led their physicians toward a more integrated approach to healing. In order to effectively diagnose and treat illnesses, doctors need to be aware of their patients’ over-the-counter medications, diet supplements, eating habits , state of mind and exercise regimens. As they assess the whole individual they employ a “holistic” approach toward health care that often may include CAM therapies.
This is a photo of an ancient rattle found in Galilee. Many types of percussive rattles were found in abundance in home altars in Galilee.
How were they used? Perhaps these rattles were used by the ancient Hebrews to shake up and loosen blocks to flow. It was a form of waking up energy. Perhaps the women used them to reduce anxiety and fear. Perhaps the percussion was used to wake up energy as well as to quiet it.
When energy is static, it gets stuck. We hold onto it and this creates stress.
When rhythm is played consciously, it can help increase more focus, as well as balance polarities in the body. You can hear this in the ancient hebrew vocal meditation.
Yesterday I went to Zippori National Park, archaelogical site across from Nazareth, where it is said that Mary, Jesus' mother lived. It was a city of peace, where during Roman times, Jewish, Christian, and Pagan cultures lived in harmony side by side. I went to the ancient well and water system to record music for the Opening Space for Change event with Hilary Barrett on Sunday, Feb. 1. Etty Koriat, a fabulous woman, who is the archaeologist who discovered one of the most important mosaics at the site gave me a private tour. It was amazing.
When I worked for CBS doing the voice overs for the 1992 Olympic Games broadcast to 60 million television viewers, I prayed to use my voice for a higher purpose.
Although I worked for CBS, I myself, had no television at home. I threw it out in 1989, with the goal of focusing my attention INWARD to the SOURCE of the broadcast. The ancient healing and transformational music for relaxation that I compose today is the result of that listening. You can hear it at: www.cdbaby.com/all/musicpeace
This beautiful movie also proves that I am not alone. Watch it and be inspired:
This is a video from the ancient well at Tel Megiddo, also known as Armageddon. The rhythm of The Well is sung in the background, by... yours truly :-)...
It's hexagram 48 of the Yi Ching. On Feb. 1 & 8th, there'll be a major cool 2 part telecourse - Opening the Space for Change, to help you connect deep within yourself to your own well of inner wisdom.
OK, this should be fun! Here's a simple contest to win a free ticket to 'Opening Space for Change': http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/spaceforchange.php - *including* thigh quality recordings of the two calls and specially composed music, so enter even if you can't be there on the day - Just write your answer to this question - "Why is it important to you to open a space for change?" - here on this wall: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=48821087006
If you have more than one answer, post them all!
We'll pick our favourite response and give its author free access to the calls and downloads.
How will we know how to live in peace if we do not know what it looks or feels like? None of us grew up with models of living in peace.
War and peace are flips sides of the same coin. They exist at the same time. I am committed to live an example of peace, by making it, even in war. I am not out to save the world. I am here to learn peace by living my life as responsibly as possible, no matter what is going on around me.
I have opened my home to my neighbors, whom two weeks ago, I did not know (not even one of them). We have decided to come together so that our children will learn something new.
Yesterday, instead of sitting in front of the television set, imbibing hatred and fear, we brought out whatever food was in the pantry and met at the corner park for a picnic.
No, it's not revolutionary. Strangers sitting in a park, sharing a meal. Not particularly dramatic.
Really? Which drama are you supporting with your focus???????
Thanks for prayers of faith and peace that have been loading my email box. My heart is filled with such gratitude for having spent the last war in the midst of the blasting bombs without fleeing.
I am so grateful to have had the willingness to meet my own inner war, and discover all the little ways I was contributing to it, by throwing bombs in my own life.
Today, as the latest war roars, it is a blessing to be at peace inside. This is what I have to contribute. It is why I wrote Quiet in the Eye of the Storm - Living Peace in a War Zone, as the bombs blasted daily in and surrounding my Galilee village. Their is an free extraordinary vocal audial piece available on the site. You can EXPERIENCE the peace coming through the voice. It is extraordinary because that peace was recorded, as bombs were exploding.
If I can do it, you can too!!! Your voice makes a difference.
I would really appreciate your sharing this message with others.
The biggest way we contribute to peace of course, is by living it - one moment at a time.
I consider David Califa, who began www.ipeace.me a truly inspirational master of living peace in the middle east.
Today, he just forwarded a link to a post on the ipeace.me blog that is truly profound.
Read it here, and then let me know what you think? I left a very long comment on the page there about my experience during the 2006 war in the north, which resulted in Quiet in the Eye of the Storm
War and peace exist at the same time. It's all what you focus upon. This is not to make light (pardon the pun), of the sorrowful bombs going off in Gaza. It is to show that there are alternative ways to live.
The people in the above picture, Jew and Arab alike, gathered in Galilee last night for the housewarming and opening of the Voices of Eden peace gardens and healing music center.
I spent the second night of chanukah making this movie. If you want to know what I have been up to these last six months, watch this short film and you'll find out.
Hope you will be inspired. The music is new stuff I recorded for the holidays a few weeks ago, in an ancient Galilee cave. Please give yourself a true gift of peace, and save yourself a last minute trip to the mall (cuz it's instantly downloadable and green for the environment).
You're looking forward to sharing meaningful connections with your family and friends during the holidays. After all, this is the season of celebrating joy and peace. It's the perfect opportunity to gather, relax and appreciate the holiness of the unique goings on of each others' lives.
But how do you remain centered in your holiness when you meet up with the scrooge in your family who always seems to kill your sense of holiday spirit rather than increase it?
It's not as if the family scrooge is the only thing challenging your sense of sacred space. Shopping, writing holiday cards, getting to the post office to mail out the cards and packages on time, waiting in line, tackling the crowds, rushing to it all done with very little time, can easily kill the joy of an otherwise restful time. As an exercise in creating peace, you invest lots of time and energy thinking about preparing that special recipe they took three helpings of last year. Then you run around town looking to find them that special gift that will also fit within your budget. Fear of their displeasure causes you to buy a gift more expensive than spend more money than originally planned leaving you with a sick sense of shame and embarrassment.
It's anything but sacred.
In wanting to keep the peace, you second guess yourself and them. You act nice and speak pleasantly, but you aren’t authentic with yourself or with them. It feels really empty.
So how come with all of the energy you're spending to go out of your way to please them, you're feeling even more stressed than you dare admit?
Perhaps it has nothing to do with what you are or aren't doing.
What will help you most to bring the sacred into the holiday season, even in the face of the family scrooge is to accept the sacred in yourself, exactly as you are. The key to creating peace with yourself and the family scrooge is accepting yourself and the scrooge, right where you are, in the midst of holiday overwhelm. It's not enough to want it. You've got to place your heart as first priority to connect to the real holy and remain open to your critical family member.
Scrooges don't necessary have to be people.
They often show up as unseen voices of inner criticism. Whether heard or silent, your voice makes an impression upon the entire atmosphere. How you attune your voice makes the difference between your experience of harmony or disharmony with yourself and others.
Consciously attune your voice as an instrument of harmony and peace during the holidays.
Here are three ways that you can attune your voice to create peace and harmony within yourself and with those around you:
1)Reconnect to the Source of your voice. Silence is the source of all sound. It is the source of true harmony. In the morning, even before getting out of bed, take a few moments to listen to that silence. You may notice the scrooge voices begin to clamor for your attention. That's ok. Just noticing the difference between them and the silence will help you to choose where to place your focus.
2)Attune yourself to the Source of your voice. For example, when you need to speak with the scrooge on the telephone, take a moment to tune into the vibration of calm and peace you would like to experience within yourself, before you dial the number.
3)Feel the harmony in the Source of sound. When you are listening to your favorite holiday music, notice what it is about it that you love so much. Allow that to deepen. When someone says something that has a positive impact upon you, notice where in your body you feel the harmony of the sound behind their words. Then, when scrooge comes –a- calling, you can easily tune yourself into the source of harmony and meet them with love.
Remaining centered in your holiness when you meet up with the holiday scrooges can actually increase your sense of holiday spirit and true joy when you are willing to meet yourself and your loved ones, right where you are, right now.
This is what creating joy, peace and goodwill during the holidays is all about.
PS. If you are wanting to enjoy some peace right now, click here for a free download of holiday musicfrom the Holy land that will help you bring the holy back into your holidays. It was recorded in an ancient Galilee cave with peace doves who flew in for the occasion from Jerusalem. The album makes a great gift item, and it's instantly downloadable.
I am absolutely majorly jazzed to have made my first music meditation movie to promote the Holy Music from the Holy land project, brining the holy back to the holidays.
This is a two minute music meditation with pics of the ancient Galilee cave where I recorded it, replete with the doves who flew in from Jerusalem to help.
Too stressed and tired to enjoy the sacredness of the holiday season?
By the time you read this page, you may just be itching to enjoy the holiday spirit. Maybe you've got a headache from contemplating what special gifts to buy that are meaningful, unique and they fit within your tightly stretched budget and there's too little time to complete all the items on what seems like your "to do list from hell".
Even if you don't feel on overdrive, if you're sensitive, whatever is simmering in your subconscious will be magnified, and you'll feel it more intensely.
Please Heal My Heart Please Heal My Soul Let Peace Grow Inside Us We will Know Another World
Please Take me to the True Place The path of all I Dream Of Love Of Life Of Clarity
We'll Know a Better World
The song was collectively written by Eliana Gilad, Arnon Friedman and Rania Haddad. The three of us: American, Israeli and Syrian lived in Paris around the time of the Oslo Accords.
Performing the song is the Jewish Arab accapella ensemble from Safed Ethnic Music college, where I headed the singing department. Performing with me are Zohar Lev, Shira Yaari, Sharon Levy and Hasan Kablan. The piece was performed at a year end concert in the City of Safed, center of Kabbalah - Jewish Mysticism.
Click to watch a really inspiring and uplifting music video, recorded around the world, showing regular people collaborating together. Grace Boyle has put together a lovely blog that is uplifting as well. Click on the link above.
This morning, I remembered the pledge that we used to repeat every morning during my grade school years, growing up in the United States of America... and the following updated version spilled from my pen...
The New Pledge of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the heart Of the United States of my Being And to the Republic for which it stands One nation, Divinely created With liberty and justice for all
What do you think? How would your life change for the better, if you were to remember this in your heart?
Do you feel like the Lone Ranger of Peace? Ever feel like you are the only one in your environment living peacefully.
This week, I discovered a great new movement: http://ipeace.ning.com/. If you are interested in finding other people who are committed to living peacefully, you'll be very pleasantly suprised to find thousands of people.
Rosh HaShana, the Hebrew New Year is being celebrated throughout the Jewish World today. In the Diaspora, for example in the US, where I was born and raised, Rosh HaShana means going to synagogue. Even those Jews who are not religious, will identify with their religion on this holiday, by going to the synagogue.
But here in Israel, where the majority of Jews are secular, it is only the religious who go to synagogue. The rest of the Jewish population celebrates the beginning of the new year (according to the lunar calendar), by taking the day off and celebrating with family and friends.
Last night with family and friends, we enjoyed a vegetarian gourmet feast, prepared pot-luck by each one of us. Today, I have been spending the day resting and recuperating from the last few weeks of intense construction work at the new Voices of Eden center.
In the afternoon I went for a walk to keep myself in shape after last night's eating frenzy (think Thanksgiving or Christmas family meal, then multiply it by 10!). In the park, I was tickled to find adults playing on the children's swing sets. You can watch them here:
Now, as I am writing this, it occurs to me that these people were very well finding their own creative ways for working off last nights festive meal!
One young man speaks with his friend (in Hebrew) as he swings to and fro, while behind him, two middle aged Russian women, gab, as they swing back and forth on another kind of swing.
As I type this entry, in the background, I can hear the Muezzin, calling the faithful to prayer from the mosque tower in the local Moslem village across the way. Today also marks the end of the Ramadan monthly fast, and several days of celebration begin.
I think I am pretty lucky to live in such a diverse place, where the new year and the Divine are being called in at the same time in so many different languages and faiths. This is harmony to my eyes and ears.
This is a photo of the mosaic that will adorn the entryway to my home and the permanent center of Voices of Eden. I am making good on my promise to revive the music of Miriam from the Ancient temple, which by the way, you can read an excellent review of at: http://bethanymagdalene.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
Once the center is complete, I will have an open house so that people can come and hear the music. Here is a whole slew of updated photos from the sacred construction process. There are some photos of my son and me there too, as well as a Druze feast, and a visit to Magdalenes well with colleague Rosalyn Clare during her visit from England.
Ok, so now I have moved out of my home in the Galilee hills and am living temporarily as The Official Wandering Jew. But, as you might be able to see from these photos, the sacred temple is on it's way to being completed, and with a bit of luck, I will move in before mid-October.
I am just learning to take one day at a time, and to allow the process to take it's time. There is a natural rhythm, and the building, which is sacred, must be allowed to dance it's own dance. I am moving to it's music and learning in the process to stop trying to push the river. It's exhausting enough building a building, trying to control nature is... well, let's just say, over the top.
I have an entire house to pack today. Moving tomorrow. By time I hear back from you, it will be from an internet cafe.
I cannot imagine how exciting this is. Have turned over my excitement brakes, realizing that this is just about one of the most exciting things I have EVER done in my life.
Rain poured down in biblic proportions upon the mystic city of Safed, home of Jewish mysticism. Yet no amount thunder, lightning, sleet or hail could dampen the spirits of the multifaith ethnic music orchestra members who were about to make their debut performance in the college auditorium. As waves of people entered, the auditorium alchemically transformed from a sea of empty white seats into a crowded swell of children and adults, knotted white prayer fringes hanging from beneath the coats of the traditional Jewish men, while multicolored kerchiefs bobbed to and fro on the heads of the observant Muslim women, punctuated with bare midrifts protruding from the teenagers' hip hugger jeans.
The concert began with the traditional eastern classical orchestral modes, revered by Jewish, Christian and Muslim cultures in the orient. Following a short interlude that allowed the religious Jewish men to politely exit (it is against their tradition to be in the presence of a woman singing in public), the singers entered onto stage. When Harmony Clashes with Dissonance
After solo pieces were beautifully performed in Hebrew and Arabic, the flavor turned Spanish. Zohar, a beautiful student of mine from the north, left her usual pop tunes and prepared a song inspired by the flamenco tradition.
The guitar strings and percussion wove in colorful tapestry accompanying Zohar's voice as it edged it's way from softness to power to BAMM!!! - when she collapsed and suddenly fell flat on the floor.
Gasps from the shocked audience replaced the silence which just a moment before had absorbed the haunting melody from her voice. Her husband ran onstage and carried her outside to the fresh air. The MC went outside to find out what was happening.
Survival - the Booby Prize
When unexpected disaster collapses your world and your survival seems at stake, the automatic response is to fight, flee or disappear. The problem is, most times you get stuck there - in survival mode.
Have you ever noticed that some of the most difficult and painful disasters in your life seem to occur when you are flying forward towards your positive growth and then WHOOSH, you are suddenly swept up in a hurricane of emotion and crash to the ground and the entire world seems to crumble beneath your feet?
How do you lift yourself up after you've tumbled to the ground?
Diving off the cliff so the wind can lift your wings
I jumped in to fill the gap. "Here is an opportunity for all of us to make harmony", I said. "Yeh, hell seems to have broken loose. We don't know what to do. We're not in control. Yet we are in control of how we react right now. We have a choice in how we respond to this situation.
I'd like to suggest that we contemplate Zohar's health and well-being, rather than worrying about her sickness, as we move to the next musical piece". Music is food for the soul
The orchestra began as I went outside to see what happened. Though she was still lying on the ground, she chuckled at her improbable state. "She will not go back up on stage!" the authorities declared.
Nuts are more than just a healthy snack
This song represented a huge breakthrough for her in expressing her authentic voice and I suspected perhaps her fainting was in reaction to the excitement and breaking through a tough layer of fear.
"How are you feeling?" I asked. She looked like she really wanted to continue. "Do you feel up to continuing?" I asked, leaving it up to her to decide what was most appropriate. To my suprise, she answered, "Yes!"
The MC and college authorities looked at us in disbelief as I escorted her back onto the stage.
At this point, you may be thinking, "How crazy! How irresponsible! How dangerous!" From an intellectual perspective, this could be true. It was a risk to support her in her decision, but sometimes doing the nutty thing, when your inner guidance clearly directs you to do something, is the most healthy, responsible way to respond, even if it looks bizarre. I trusted the Higher Power to determine the outcome.
It's never to late to begin again
The guitarist and percussionist provided the musical introduction as Zohar rebalanced herself with focusing exercises we had worked with over the past few months. Her singing was stronger than ever. The rain outside turned into a thunder of applause and standing ovation from the audience, visibly moved by her act of faith and courage.
Is there a place in your life where the ground has seemed to cave in beneath your feet? What small step could you take now towards turning your failure into a round of standing ovation?
Life continues after the show is over
While singing after collapsing left Zohar with a new sense of confidence, it also left it's traces of stage fright. "Perhaps it will happen again?" she worried. Following a few more months of coaching, she asked if I would accompany her on stage in another concert and help her choose the song. I answered, yes.
My lord who is eternal and everlasting
From the sand to the sea, to the sound of the crashing of the waves
For it is in the heavens, and in the crashing thunder, where the prayer of man is heard Those are the words of the Hebrew spiritual we sang; Eli Eli. The live performance that you see see here, was composed in the moment, on the spot. It is the result of surrendering to vulnerability, allowing our bodies to be instruments, in service to the music.
I hope the Heavens heard our prayer.
I hope that you will post a comment so I can hear yours. Or visit the website.
Students of the 
This blog is about authenticity. How do you stay authentic when whenyou are going through a major inner shift?
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