Living Artisan

Christian Yoga Existed in Medieval Europe

Julian (or Juliana) of Norwich, also known as Dame Julian or Mother Julian (late 1342 – after 1416) was an English anchorite of the Middle Ages. She wrote the earliest surviving book in the English language to be written by a woman, Revelations of Divine Love.

She reached God through a form of body prayer through self-guided motion.

Body prayer had four poses, Await, Allow, Accept and Attend.

Await, is the first posture of receiving, held with cupped hands extended at the waist, palms up, to receive the presence of God.

Allow, is the second posture of opening, reaching up with the hands and extending through the arms.

Accept, the third posture, receives whatever comes in life, with hands cupped at the heart.

Attend, the final posture, extends the hands and opens the palms with willingness to receive and act on what has been revealed.

Sources :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_of_Norwich

Julian of Norwich: Armstrong, Karen, Visions Of God (1994) Bantam Books

Try Body Prayer yourself: Jewett, Ethan Alexander, The Body Prayer of Julian of Norwich, (2012)

Effects of Rosary Prayer and Mantra on the Heart

Objective
To test whether rhythmic formulas such as the rosary and yoga mantras can synchronise and reinforce inherent cardiovascular rhythms and modify baroreflex sensitivity.

Design
Comparison of effects of recitation of the Ave Maria (in Latin) or of a mantra, during spontaneous and metronome controlled breathing, on breathing rate and on spontaneous oscillations in RR interval, and on blood pressure and cerebral circulation.

Results
Both prayer and mantra caused striking, powerful, and synchronous increases in existing cardiovascular rhythms when recited six times a minute. Baroreflex sensitivity also increased significantly, from 9.5 (SD 4.6) to 11.5 (4.9) ms/mm Hg, P<0.05. Conclusion Rhythm formulas that involve breathing at six breaths per minute induce favourable psychological and possibly physiological effects. What is already known on this topic Reduced heart rate variability and baroreflex sensitivity are powerful and independent predictors of poor prognosis in heart disease Slow breathing enhances heart rate variability and baroreflex sensitivity by synchronising inherent cardiovascular rhythms What this study adds Recitation of the rosary, and also of yoga mantras, slowed respiration to almost exactly 6/min, and enhanced heart rate variability and baroreflex sensitivity The rosary might be viewed as a health practice as well as a religious practice." Source : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC61046/

Musical Thanatology – Music for Transforming the Dying Experience

“During a music vigil, the music thanatologist offers music in a prescriptive way. With careful attention to the patient’s vital signs and physiological needs, he or she adjusts the elements of music — such as melody, phrasing and rhythm — to provide an individually-tailored response. The goal of a music vigil is to relieve suffering and to bring beauty and comfort to the dying process.”

Source : https://www.nextavenue.org/music-dying/

Source : https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/palliative-and-supportive-care/article/family-members-views-on-the-benefits-of-harp-music-vigils-for-terminallyill-or-dying-loved-ones/9DC5385B43774ADB21603CD789F2E0B1

Source : https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/104990910602300206

A Neuroscientist Explores the “Sanskrit Effect” – How Mantra Increases Cognitive Function

“We studied a group of verbal memory specialists to determine whether intensive oral text memory is associated with structural features of hippocampal and lateral-temporal regions implicated in language processing. Professional Vedic Sanskrit Pandits in India train from childhood for around 10years in an ancient, formalized tradition of oral Sanskrit text memorization and recitation, mastering the exact pronunciation and invariant content of multiple 40,000-100,000 word oral texts. We conducted structural analysis of gray matter density, cortical thickness, local gyrification, and white matter structure, relative to matched controls. We found massive gray matter density and cortical thickness increases in Pandit brains in language, memory and visual systems, including i) bilateral lateral temporal cortices and ii) the anterior cingulate cortex and the hippocampus, regions associated with long and short-term memory. Differences in hippocampal morphometry matched those previously documented for expert spatial navigators and individuals with good verbal working memory. The findings provide unique insight into the brain organization implementing formalized oral knowledge systems.”

Source : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26188261

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/a-neuroscientist-explores-the-sanskrit-effect/

Ostinatos, Early Western Repeated Rythmic Patterns

“Ostinato, (Italian: “obstinate”, )plural Ostinatos, or Ostinati, in music, short melodic phrase repeated throughout a composition, sometimes slightly varied or transposed to a different pitch. A rhythmic ostinato is a short, constantly repeated rhythmic pattern. Ostinatos appear in Western composition from the 13th century onward, as in the motet Emendemus in melius (Let Us Change for the Better) by Cristóbal de Morales (c. 1500–53) and in the Concerto, Opus 38 (first performed 1925), of Paul Hindemith. Use of an ostinato was particularly common in 16th-century dance pieces, notably in the bass line, where it is called a basso ostinato, or ground bass (q.v.). A single-pitch ostinato governs the “Scarbo” movement in Maurice Ravel’s piano work Gaspard de la nuit (1908).”
https://www.britannica.com/art/ostinato

Ostinao Midi Files – https://www.d.umn.edu/~jrubin1/JHR%20MIDI%20downloads.htm

Improvisational Music and Depression Study

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6489303/

“Improvisational music therapy is suitable for basically all client groups without the need for specific musical training, and can be successfully applied even when one’s ability for verbal expression is limited [13, 14]. Any adult with normally developed cognitive skills and abstract thinking is able to connect symbolic and experience-based mental contents to their musical expression in clinical improvisations. They are also able to verbalise, in other words to further process, their music-based experiences and to interpret these experiences in the light of their current life situation [15].”

“The special potential of music to facilitate the processing of complex negative emotions is supported by music psychology research. Music listening has been shown to induce complex emotional experiences [22, 23], and to support elaborate self-regulatory processing of sometimes difficult, personal emotional states in everyday life [24]. Furthermore, music is often characterised—somewhat paradoxically—by pleasurable experiences of difficult emotions, such as sadness [25]. It has been argued that the enjoyment of sadness in music is explained by the capacity of music to allow simultaneous absorption, yet dissociation, from the affective content [26, 27]. Music characteristically allows access to various degrees of emotional nuances and intensities with simultaneous self-reflection, detachment, and elaborative awareness of these emotional nuances [28], supporting both experience and conceptual awareness of feelings [29]. Overall, the findings support the idea that music holds special potential for the self-reflective processing of complex, difficult, and even painful emotions.”

Cardiac Coherence, Self-Regulation, and Well Being

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4179616/

“In this article we discuss the perspective that one’s ability to self-regulate the quality of feeling and emotion of one’s moment-to-moment experience is intimately tied to our physiology, and the reciprocal interactions among physiological, cognitive, and emotional systems. These interactions form the basis of information processing networks in which communication between systems occurs through the generation and transmission of rhythms and patterns of activity. Our discussion emphasizes the communication pathways between the heart and brain, as well as how these are related to cognitive and emotional function and self-regulatory capacity.”

Vibroacoustic Music and Autism Study

“The results revealed that vibroacoustic music reduced self-injurious, stereotypic, and aggressive destructive behaviors in the participants. In addition, the results indicated that the effect of vibroacoustic music was to some extent dependent on the participants’ diagnosis. Implications for vibroacoustic music theory and practice are discussed.”

Source

Theories of Biological Immortality

“Biological Immortality”, is the phenomenon happens when a species reaches a state where it ceases to age, or no longer experiences a further loss of physiological function. Rose suggests humans also experience a biological immortality phase if they are able to live long enough. “You can die, but the idea here is that you are non-aging,” Rose said, “versus aging with a decline of survival likelihood under good conditions.”

https://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-achieve-biological-immortality-naturally
https://www.kurzweilai.net/

Vibroacoustics and Chronic Pain in Juvenile Arthritis

“Conclusions. Vibroacoustic therapy is a revolutionary tool in the fi eld of multidisciplinary management of chronic pain in JIA and triggered a noticeable diminution of the SDAI score, decreasing the disease activity from severe to moderate and the psycho-behavioral manifestations, with great statistically signifi cant difference to the witness group.”

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266009663_Effects_of_physical_and_vibroacoustic_therapy_in_chronic_pain_in_juvenile_arthritis