by Giorgia Ragni
Ergo Sum is the western answer to the need of meditating.
While in the east awareness is achieved through the elimination of thoughts and desires, in the west it is conquered by engaging the brain in multi-tasking activities.
The east clears the mind through silence and breathing while the west "meditates" with music (Pre Baroque, Early music such as counterpoint, polyphony, Bach's music ...) and the mathematical aspect of it in order to trigger neurological responses and achieve an overall optimization of the cognitive abilities.
Music and emotions are tightly interconnected.
Music reaches out to people through emotions, by stimulating brain areas involved in the emotional mechanism.
And what if we used music for a different purpose?
What if we used music to control the emotion network rather than to stimulate it without control?
Ergo sum has this ambitious goal; but first of all: what are the emotions?
"Emotion" comes from the latin word EX (out) + MOVERE (to move) and it literally means to bring out, to move.
Furthermore, also from the latin word EMO (blood) + Action.
An action provoked by a strong energy.
As a matter of fact, when we experience anger, rage, embarassment, the blood moves fast from an area to the other making our face turn red.
Every day stimuli trigger emotions which provoke anxiety, sufferings, diseases and ultimately illnesses.
Traditional Chinese medicine considers emotions as the cause of diseases.
Buddhism considers emotions and thoughts as the cause of our saddness.
In order to face the problem, oriental disciplines suggest meditation which consists of temporarily disconnecting thinking mechanism so that silence can awake conscience.
Buddha taught us that the source of all diseases is to be found in 3 poisoning behaviours:
disillusion (confusion and ignorance), attachment to things (desire, pride), repulsion ( rage, hate, aggression).
By concentrating on the body rhythms (breath, heart beat) we can find the balance through contemplation (emotional detachment) benefitting from a harmonization of oneself with the universe.
Hence, music represents the western approach to meditation and fulfills the need to re-order the mind, confused by emotions.
Osho says: "Music is meditation. we love music because we feel meditation happening".
Neuroscientist, psychologist, and author of "How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain" Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett (Harvard Medical school) asserts that emotions are predictions, hypothesis the mind makes.
The brain does not react to inputs. Only through past experiences the brain predicts and builds the way in which we perceive the world.
The mind creates an image of the world and music reproduces the acoustic image of the mind.
Finally, emotions are the result of a spontaneous and natural chimical process. we are made of emotions and we like them, they become and addiction and we want more and more. Confused and addicted by inputs, our body reacts and protects us through the illness mechanism and emotional apathy.
This issue is particularly noticeable in society which have conquered a very high level of comfort, wellness and wealth. Frustrations, neurological diseases and suicide seem to be the climax of wellness society.
DMX - Deep Music Experience- through conscious music inputs, aims to control and manage our emotions.
Bach's music is ideal for the DMX therapy, because it stands between the two previously mentioned music ages: (-Pre-Baroque music: focused on meditation and emotional control. - From Baroque music onward: music based on entertainment and emotional stimuli).
Ultimately, the DMX effects and purposes are numerous and act to maximize perception of ORDER and MENTAL BRIGHTNESS, to facilitate ENHANCEMENT of COGNITIVE ABILITIES and to promote the OPTIMIZATION of PERFORMATIVE and CREATIVE ABILITIES
hence lead to the OPTIMIZATION of a PHYSICAL and EMOTIONAL BALANCE.
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