By Katharine Abrahams
Music Touches the Inner Man
LaMar Boschmann states that “music is one of mankind’s fundamental avenues of communication, and one of the most successful because it transcends the conscious mind and reaches the subconscious.
Music can bypass the gate that guards the entrance to the mind (which constantly tries to reduce the Word of God to what it can understand) and comes in a different way. Music is heart to heart, and spirit-to-spirit. That is why it is so destructive when used for evil. It touches the inner man. Music can work to our advantage or to our disadvantage, so we must always be careful what we sing.”
It is even possible to observe scientifically that music — or even sound in itself — can be damaging. The following examples illustrate this point:
- In Musicogenic Epilepsy (“Music and the Brain” – studies in the neurology of music, published in London in 1977 by William Heinemann Medical Books LTD, chapter 9) a lady is cited who suffered from distress, seizure, convulsions, frothing and cyanosis after listening to a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Valse des Fleurs. She says: “I might be listening to music on the radio when a certain note seems to catch me – or maybe it’s the vibration – it gets in my head and off I go”.
- Along a similar vein, William Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice that, “Some are mad if they behold a cat, and others when the bagpipe sing l’th nose cannot contain their urine“!
Experiments of Music on Life
In Lyall Watson’s book Super Nature, he records experiments he conducted observing the effects of different kinds of music on plant life. One example is the effect of prolonged exposure of plants to rock music. The results invariably showed that the plants died, whereas after exposure to classical music they grew faster.
A question that I would love to have an answer to is whether there is a pre-ordained sound pattern that is healing and strengthening, and another which causes disorder and death.
In his book, Lyall also observes that:
- The vibrations from an air conditioning plant functioning at seven cycles per second can lead to recurrent nausea.
- Sound can be damaging it itself. He provides an extreme example of how a six-foot long police whistle — which when blown by a technician — caused all his internal organs to be mashed into amorphous jelly by the vibrations.
- ‘Bio-weapons’ are being developed today — sounds that can make people nauseous, drop to the floor, cover their ears and even lead to momentary paralysis.
- Vibrations can knock buildings like an earthquake and that the low frequency sounds of an earthquake often cause depression and fear. Biblical evidence would agree with this during the battle of Jericho the walls collapsed from the sounds of the trumpets and the vibrations of the people marching round the city.
- Bacteria are apparently killed by certain frequencies and grow faster from others giving credence to the ancient idea that repetition of certain chants or songs could cure disease.
- The possibility of sounds meshing with an opponents’ brain waves and putting him to flight in panic. (Is this LaMar Boschmann’s description of music bypassing the gates to the mind?) The Japanese-kiai of the samurai when shouted in a minor key produces partial paralysis by suddenly lowering the arterial blood pressure. A major key when loud or sudden is said to have the opposite effect. These effects are also noted in a less extreme way by Johann Matheson who speaks at length on the effects different keys have on the body and emotions.
- Pythagoras — writing hundreds of years before the advent of modern science — discussed the qualities of the vibrating universe. I believe he saw a glimpse of how these vibrations can be both creative and destructive.
Other examples of profound negative effects of music can be seen from Europe in the middle-ages, when music sometimes produced grotesque epileptic-like fits. The Tarantella produced dancing mania, today in the Middle East, there are dancing dervioles, and in Haiti voodoo ceremonies are still conducted.
Lyall is not alone in his observations. Others have noticed similar patterns. In the London Observer (1971, 28th November) and cited in Lyalls’ book, W. tempest writes about traffic noise: “Society warns that these sounds can produce symptoms of restlessness, euphoria, lower efficiency, and dizziness due to loss of balance. They believe that infra-sounds are responsible for the ways in which some drivers wander across the central strip of high-speed roads apparently quite oblivious to the danger of oncoming traffic, and that the vibrations may account for a large number of inexplicable accidents.“
Disserens and Schoes remark that music can produce: “Increased bodily metabolism, altered muscular energy, acceleration and irregularity of respiratory rate, enhanced perception of other special senses, exaggerated knee-jerks, a lowered threshold for various sensory stimuli; and a marked effect upon the blood pressure and also the peripheral and central circulation’s.”
The Bible says that we are to use music with knowledge and insight. Perhaps this is so we use it consciously and for good.
Spirits operate through Sound
Sound is a medium through which spirits can operate – Gods’ Holy Spirit, the demonic, and the human spirit – from Holy to evil and all that is in-between.
I hope by now you have begun to understand that the function of sound – the physical vibration that we perceive aurally as sound – is not to please the ears. Just as the function of food is not to please the taste buds, (they just check that the food is safe to eat and give pleasure to the eater) but is for the edification and nourishment of the body, so the function of music is not to please the ears. God is a functional God and He created music for a purpose.
The devil knows this and initiates changes so gradually that few people have really understood what has happened. In doing so, each time we are led to accept the unacceptable to a greater extent than before.
To illustrate what I mean, we now accept as normal; traffic noise, pollution, water with chlorine and other impurities added to it and food with little nutritional value. The same is occurring with music. Live music is gradually being replaced by recordings; acoustic instruments drowned out by electronic — the mass-produced and watered-down are replacing original music from the heart. This music can sound acceptable but is no longer being used for its intended function.
God Ministers through Sound
Imagine attending a concert and seeing the audience being healed of diseases, delivered from evil spirits, set free from mental health problems and forever changed by entering into God’s presence.
It is my conviction that God wants to see music restored to all the functions He ordained for it, and for music and His musicians to become purified so the Lord is again able to use it in power and might. I believe that He is going to use me as well as many others to bring this about.
On the other side of the picture, the devil wants nothing more than for musicians to be ignorant of both God’s plan for music and his evil plans. This includes using music to inspire lust, greed, hatred, violence, selfishness, materialism and sloth. This brings him glory instead of God. Just listen to the lyrics from a few ‘pop’ songs if you are not convinced! He also wants to use music to create illness, whether via the emotions it evokes or on a purely physical level. It is same with food, air and water. These can either be healing for the body when in a pure form, or destructive when tainted — pure mountain air versus the polluted in our cities. Food grown without chemicals in naturally nutrient rich soil versus genetically engineered food grown in nutrient poor soil heavily laden with chemicals.
God also ministers to us through the sounds in creation – the sea, birds singing, wind, human voices and musical instruments. Compare the sounds of the sea to that of a pneumatic drill and the effect on our mental, spiritual and emotional well-being! Creation is also evidence of our creator. Music can also be evidence of our Divine creator. We often hear comments like “you played like an angel”, “I knew there was God when I heard him play”, “the music sounded as if it came from heaven”.
Write the Vision
“Write down the revelations and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may return with it” (Habakkuk 2:2)
The vision of my heart is to find and train a whole orchestra of musicians in Israel. Those musicians must carry a vision to use their musical gifts only for The Lord. In unity they will pray and play for the deliverance and healing of their audience, who do not necessarily know of this aim. This will be a powerful secret weapon against the enemy!
I desire to use and not misuse the gift of music for healing, deliverance and intercession. I want to glorify God when I make music and in doing so set others free by the glory of His presence. I also desire to make a difference to the world through prayer and worship intercession.
My passion is to hear Gods voice as I play and to speak the words from His heart!
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Katharine Abrahams (nee Steddon) was born In England, and in 2000 graduated as a specialist in Historical Performance Practice, from Londons Royal Academy of Music. She also studied at The Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland and at The Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands. Katharine has performed and ministered across Europe and in Japan, as a recitalist, soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player on both recorders and baroque and modern cello. She has also released her first solo CD of Bach’s cello suites. Currently Katharine lives in Jerusalem, Israel and is a Jewish believer in Yeshua. She gave her music fully to Him in 2001, to use for His purposes and Glory.
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