I have finished "The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes the Mind" by Seth Horowitz. In the final pages, info on the author included links to his web site, company and special project of Aural Therapy. I have hearing loss, especially in the high frequencies, like screeches and some bird song. Like many other older men, I have trouble hearing some girls and young women and at least as much trouble making out what they actually say. As I have written, I am fascinated by the effects that regular meditation can have. Deepak Chopra and many others point out sound, as in humming "Om", or repeating the Rosary or other uses of sound and voice to train attention and to worship. When I use my breath as a point of focus, I like to listen to the sound of my breathing as a continuous anchor of attention.
Prof. Horowitz mentions in his book how proud he was to have created a sound sequence that make some people, including his boss, nauseated. He wasn't trying to inflict misery, just researching connections between mind and sound. The link above to his Aural Therapy web site goes to free sounds, one each for improving one's ability to focus, improving one's awareness of the present moment and feeling and appreciating where you are physically right now, and finally being refreshed and relaxed and recharged. I saw that there is a TED talk about sound analysis of voice as a pretty good check to see if a person is suffering from Parkinson's disease. So analysis of sound that comes from a body might be helpful, too. Of course, the very sign of a physician is a stethoscope (hearing!) around the neck.
Sound can be funny. I just started following Cheryl Tipp on Twitter, whose startling job is "natural sounds curator of the British Museum". Some of my advanced singer friends love to sing advanced modern vocal music, since it is a challenge to sing, but they don't enjoy hearing it!
I am confident that some valuable and surprising things lie in store for our ears.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
