Lecture
In order for music to affect the listener to the greatest possible
extent, the listener must be specially tuned and prepared for it.
This tuning consists in the need to sit in a comfortable position, relax, and concentrate on the sounds of the music. They must not be listened to without due attention, being distracted meanwhile by any outside matters. From
real life one must try to step into another, imaginary world,
a world of whimsical images, moods, and colors. In essence, any perception of music is a kind of meditation, called non-directive, i.e. free of any imposition from outside. Here
it helps to recall that in the practice of yogic exercises it was recommended to listen to music in such a way as to perceive it not only with the ears, but
to inhale the aroma of the sound at the same time, to feel it on one's tongue, to sense it
with one's skin, to become the sound oneself, so that the music would permeate you from the tips of your toes to the roots of your hair. It is very important to be able to follow
the sounding melody unbrokenly with the inner ear, not letting it
out of the zone of one's attention for a single moment. The melody should become the path
along which the listener will walk and visit the most hidden corners of the soul – both their own and that of the composer who created this music.
If the music is being perceived in a live performance, it can be quite useful to step into the performer's image and imagine that it is you playing
the violin or the piano, that these are your fingers running along the keys or
the fingerboard, that it is you who are the conductor directing a first-class orchestra. Practical tasks involving conducting the music being perceived increase interest and involvement in the process of perception, which accordingly brings the desired psychotherapeutic effect.
Any purposeful perception with concentration of attention on
an object can be characterized as a meditative process, because,
by observing an object and reflecting on it, a person merges with it, as it were,
and begins to see it as if from within, deeply comprehending its inner
essence and underlying patterns. The meaning of musical meditation lies
in combining the sounding music with visual images and specific
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formulas of suggestion. One can speak of non-directive and directive
meditation while listening to music. Non-directive meditation occurs
when the listener freely surrenders to the images and associations
that arise while observing the development of the musical
content. Directive meditation consists in shaping
a specific and concrete direction of the experience, which is achieved with the help of showing specially selected slides and pronouncing
formulas of suggestion. If we take into account the existing data on the localization of the processing of verbal information in the left hemisphere of the brain, and of nonverbal information in the right, then the combination of visual and musical images, on the one hand, and formulas of verbal suggestion, on the
other – makes it possible to synthesize the work of the brain, that is, to actively influence a person's consciousness and their system of attitudes toward life. In this way we gain the ability to influence a person's worldview, defects in which quite often lead them to one
illness or another.
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