Lawrence Ball           

...a consistent overall pattern of musical relationship will constitute the new identify of Mankind.  The song of the moment will be what each individual is in that moment, translated into an ever-changing musical score.
                                                         Ken Carey, Starseed Transmission

The traditional way to understand music is to think of melody as a 'necklace' of notes, focusing on rhythm and changes of notes.  But there is another way to make sound.  Each note of music is itself a rich, inner world and may be made to continue, to transform its colour and to change, in itself, rather than give way to a new note and then another.

  As a composer, I had always been interested in music which changes very gradually and music consisting of long sounds or notes.  New techniques make it possible to produce finely etched and modulated tones.  Isobel McGilvray was responsible for using shape as a key to the qualities and differences of these never-before-heard sounds.  She discovered a connection between a person's response to a particularly shaped tone sequence and the qualities and energies that tone suggested and symbolised.  We have produced a series of these, which we call 'ShapeTapes'.

  ShapeTapes are a unique collaboration between Isobel, a healer/counsellor, and a composer (myself).  Each of seven cassette albums we developed contains a very richly coloured harmonic tone.  Each tone evolves through a long sequence of continuous changes which are generated from mathematical designs.  Each tape is based on a different geometric shape patterning (Triangles, Circles, Squares, Clover, Helix, Rose and Lines).

  We find that the tapes 'massage' not only the head and the body, internally and externally, but also the mind, the emotions and the deeper self.  Just as physical massage may have its effect more by the conduit of energy established with the masseur/s than by the physical strokes themselves, so do ShapeTapes work on the aura, the nervous system and the psyche - more by the continuity of the sound than by the alterations in it.  The sounds can be a complement to other therapies, allowing practitioners to work more deeply.

  A ShapeTape sound texture is a field of rich, vibrant, changing, 'one-note' sound.  It allows the listener flexible ways into noticing and being affected by the different facets of its cycles and changes.  The sounds can be exhilarating, challenging, novel, very much of the twenty-first century, but they can take some adjusting to.  They inhabit the same world of heavenly, subjective choirs as do the overtones in vocal chanting.  There is a wide range of responses to the tapes.  They have a powerful, deeply transforming effect on many people.  Others loathe them, or are left nonplussed, although we know of many who later changed their minds.  The tapes are a middle ground between sound therapy and music.  Comments range from:  "My stomach cramps cleared up within a few minutes." or "I realised I need to do things in a different way." to such as "It just sounds like TV interference" or "Is this it?"

  Isobel wrote a booklet about using ShapeTapes and also conducted a research project on the effects of the tapes, also summarised in a booklet.  Isobel analysed 100 sessions where people listened to the tapes for 45 minutes.  Four of the seven tapes were experienced subjectively as resonating in the chakra designated by Isobel as in any other chakra.  Of the sessions, 28% were experienced with out-of-body sensations, such as a part of the self detaching from or hovering above the physical body.  Some regularly had these sensations, others had none.  Six of the 100 classified the experience as negative, although several of these subjects felt they learned something important from the sessions.

  We welcome your enquiries and comments on these tapes.

Lawrence Ball is a musician and composer.
 

You may quote from or reproduce these editorial clips if you include the following credits and email contact:
Copyright © Daniel J. Benor, M.D. 1994 Reprinted with permission of the author P.O. Box 76 Bellmawr, NJ 08099 www.WholisticHealingResearch.com   DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com

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