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Introduction to the by Rod Paton This
creates a need for an academic approach based on links to older, related
disciplines including the Arts, Study of Religions and Anthropology.
These provide alternative epistemologies and extensive cultural material
including for example, theories of symbol and myth; the role of dreams,
fantasy and imagination; processes of artistic and scientific
creativity; mysticism; and traditional psycho-spiritual practices, such
as meditation and other consciousness-changing activity. In
the development of this unique MA route which is now in its second year
of operation at UCC, psychotherapist and lecturer Marie Angelo
identified early on the need for a significant element of arts
experience as a third strand alongside transpersonal psychology
approaches and professional development. The degree was designed to
attract students from three broad fields: •
those with a background in psychology and with an interest in
imag-inative approaches (eg post-Jungian, Archetypal,
Psychosynthesis); •
students from an arts background, especially those who lean towards
epistemology, hermeneutics and the study of non-reductive theories of
perception and experience rather than traditional musicology, literary
criticism or professional performance; •
students with experience of therapeutic or transformational approaches
within professional practice in the caring professions. In
1999 I was asked to write a music-based module to correlate with this
innovative programme. It was immediately clear that the developments
within the Music and Psyche Network since its formation provided an
ideal platform from which a taught programme might emerge. So I asked
the core group of M&P to suggest a list of ingredients and
approaches for a 36 hour module which would be taught over 4 teaching
days spread over 3 months. What emerged through consultation with the
University development team was actually a dual approach which located
the music module alongside a similar course in the field of
dance/movement under the generic heading Experiencing Arts Therapies.
Thus, the module was conceived, born and eventually validated. The
first degree module, Embodying Personal Myth (discovering
unconscious life through movement-based expressive arts) is coord-inated
by Jill Hayes, who studied this unique approach at the Tamalpa Institute
in California. Music and the Psyche (exploring healing, tradition
and community through musical experience) draws upon an eclectic
approach to musical studies and to music as therapy and emphasises music
as inner experience as opposed to external structure. This provides an
alternative approach to musical study, developing an aesthetic which,
rather than being based upon notions of ‘correct’ procedures or the
sterile analysis of common practice, simply examines the nature and the
functions of sound and the way this affects us as sentient beings. The
first cohort of students experienced the first teaching day in Jan
’03. The module offers them opportunities to interrogate the inner
nature of musical experience and its applications, exploring those
functions of the art which reach beyond notions of pure entertainment or
intellectual enlightenment. In the words of the M&PN Statement
on p3, ‘it reaffirms, and makes explicit those properties in music
which can heal, transform and empower the individual, which can bind and
strengthen groups and which deepen community awareness.’ CG
Jung, echoing Schopenhauer, believed that the practice of music provided
direct access to the archetypes and that it should therefore be an
essential ingredient of all therapy. We explore music as a bridge
between inner and outer states and the potential benefits for physical,
emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. Subjects we’re considering
are ancient and modern theories of sound /music (from Pythagoras to
Inayat Khan), esoteric traditions of music (Music and Mysticism),
psychological frameworks of investigation (Jung, Rogers, Storr,
Berendt), sound healing and music therapy (Nordoff /Robbins, Bunt,
Andsell) and music in community, disability and education contexts. The
recognition that everybody can create music is not merely empowering but
points to what Peter Michael Hamel has termed ‘a completely new form
of music making currently in its infancy.’[1] The experiential aspects
of the module offer students opportunities to engage with their own
imaginative inner world; and touch on the relationship between music and
dreams. Student are asked to keep a diary throughout the module and
record their experiences, reflections, analysis, dreams and ideas. Group
process is respected as an essential part of the learning strategy, and
students’ own experience plays an important part in discussions of
musical meanings and structures and the here-and-now of the experiential
sessions. The intention is to create a safe environment for group
members to touch qualities in themselves which will enable them to
identify their own healing potential and to discover something of what
this can mean in practice. Such sessions will include the use of
voicework (chanting and intoning), group improvisation (simple
instruments and voice) and the performance of pre-conceived musical
structures (simple compositions). Among
the seminars, will be Maxwell Steer’s reCognising mySelf, of
which he writes: “I believe that organised sound (‘music’) has a
role similarly vital to the psychological balance of individuals and of
society as sleep. Both bypass the programmed responses of left-brain
conscious-ness, and restore direct communication with the subconscious
– and it is in the non-conscious element of our psyche, the void of
unknowing, that our powers of wisdom and self-healing lie: (it being
part of mankind’s role as co-creators with the divine that we
ourSelves are the source of all our sickness and also of all our
health.)” Sarah
Verney Caird also leads a seminar dealing with the issues of personal
energy and balance centring on
our voices, ‘making friends’ with our own sound, and considering
this in the context of releasing blocked energy within ourselves and our
interactions with others. She also speaks on improvisation as a
life-skill, and esoteric understandings of the therapeutic powers of
sound and music, and what it means to engage in these activities. For further information about the MA
Transpersonal Arts and Practice contact Dr. Rod Paton 01243 816181 – r.paton@ucc.ac.uk
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