The power of sound and dance to re-connect with yourself

Those who know me, also know that I have been practicing biodanza for years. Its creator is the Chilean psychologist and anthropologist Rolando Toro Araneda who for a long time studied the role of music and dance in the rituals of healing, celebration and initiation in various cultures. Biodanza is a practice of psycho-motor integration that, through bodily movement, the connection to one’s own feelings and the expression of emotions and feelings, is able to awaken unexpressed human potentials. Integrate, make united. Human beings, unlike plants and animals, have lost through a long process of degradation of their instincts, their wholeness, their ancient wisdom that keeps them connected to their own feelings and therefore to life itself. Biodanza helps to find the integration, stimulating the function of connection with life and connecting with ourselves, with each other and with the universe. Integrating oneself means rediscovering the psychophysical unity. Integrating with the other means rediscovering the original bond that unites us. Integration with the Universe means finding again the deep connection with nature and the whole cosmos. Some time ago, reading the book “Ayurveda Maharishi” by Prof. Ernesto Iannacone, an informative text about Ayurveda that I recommend everyone to read, I was surprised to discover that even in Ayurveda, my second great interest, there is therapy with melodies, called Gandharva Veda. According to Vedic science, in fact, the whole creation is sound. Some vibrational frequencies are very important and correspond to the “primordial” sounds that also create our physical body. Through primordial sounds it is possible to evoke very precise neurophysiological responses, such as the production of neurotransmitters or the stimulation of certain areas of the brain, with important effects on the whole organism. The discipline called Gandharva Veda is the branch of Vedic science that studies sounds and melodies. Gandharva means “heavenly melodies” and represents the tradition of musical performance that reproduces the vibrations of nature at different times of day and night. The tones used are primordial sounds and are a very old form of music therapy. Many diseases, from insomnia to schizophrenia, can be healed through specific music. Speaking in “scientific” terms we can think that listening to certain sounds stimulates particular receptors of the auditory cortex and induces the production and release of specific neurotransmitters. Gandharva music takes into account the physiological oscillations that occur during the day, so every moment of the day corresponds to a certain music. Listening to Gandharva music for five or ten minutes two or three times a day, sitting with eyes closed, has a relaxing and harmonizing effect. The melodies are rather repetitive, but repetitiveness is meant to interrupt the flow of thoughts and take us deep inside us. These melodies have a highly integrating and harmonizing influence capable of creating equilibrium in the atmosphere, neutralizing stress. Also here, as in Biodanza, an experience of harmonization with the deepest part of ourselves, with nature, with the Universe. In both cases, melodies and dances capable of giving courage, self-confidence and deep happiness. Like when we look at a breathtaking sunset or a majestic mountain that fill us with wonder.