A quick look at music, medicine, death & dying

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Dec, 2002 by Lily G. Casura

Earlier this year I was privileged to attend a workshop on the unusual topic of "The Harp and Creative Healing," with international performance artist and second-generation harpist, Christina Thurin. What I didn't realize at the time is the increasing attention being given to the role of music in palliative care and grief work, and how the harp is at the center of that focus.

The harp is a musical instrument with roots in ancient times. Mention is made of the harp in chapter four of the Book of Genesis, and King Saul was one of the first people recorded who used the harp for medicinal purposes. When troubled by recurring mental illness, he found relief in David's playing the harp for him.

Christina Tourin believes that there's something special about the harp -- every primitive culture enjoyed a form of harp, she believes -- and is creating an interdisciplinary harp therapy program with the ambitious goal of "a harp player for every hospital and hospice by 2020!" Tourin's program is based in San Diego, and works in a collaborative manner with the San Diego Hospice. Across the country, in New York state, the Music for Healing and Transition Program also trains musicians and music students to "serve the critically ill and dying with live music to promote healing, or assist with the life/death transition." Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona provides undergraduate and graduate credit for MHTP courses taught on campus. Again, the harp is the instrument of choice.

If you're picturing a harp of the old, floor-to-ceiling style model, encased in 22 karat gold leaf, and hauled into the room on a dolly, with a classically-trained musician fresh from a symphony orchestra at the strings, you may need to update your view. Harps now, particularly the Celtic and folk harps popularized in the last 20-30 years, are often much smaller, more portable models, and most often (especially in the smaller sizes) made of woods like birch, cherry and mahogany. The gold leaf (as well as the choir of angels wafting above) seems now purely optional. Harpists, too, are coming from other musical traditions, including Suzuki training and (gasp!) rock-and-roll. However, it's the tone of the harp that draws people to play it, or just listen to it.

Christina Tourin teaches extensively about the various modes of harp music -- Dorian, Aeolian, Mixolydian, Locrian, Ionian and Pentatonic -- and how each affects different aspects of the body/mind/spirit. She also sees how each of the various modes can be utilized differently in the hospital or hospice setting, from grounding agitated and anxious patients, to providing emotional release and comfort for the dying and their families, even to -- surprisingly -- hurrying along bowel movements for some of the more constipated patients.

A search of the Web turns up more information: there's a harp therapy journal to educate and inform enthusiasts, and various harpists across the country are coming out with health-oriented CDs or even teaming up with healthcare practitioners in collaborative work. Gail Barber, a harpist and professor at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, teams up with a holistic healthcare practitioner, Ingrid Naiman, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A harpist and music healer in the San Francisco Bay Area, Joel Andrews, who the San Francisco Chronicle has called "a remarkable virtuoso and musician," offers CDs and cassettes to support healing while challenged by various health conditions, teaches seminars, is a conference presenter and author, and works closely with Dr. Norman Shealy. (He also offers, in true Northern California style, "soul path re-alignment" and "seraphic attunement" if that's more your interest.)

Two of the most often-cited names in the work surrounding death and dying today are those of the Chalice of Repose Project, in Missoula, Montana, and Richard Groves' work, The Sacred Art of Dying. Mr. Groves is based in Bend, Oregon, and he holds seminars that include the nation's first end-of-life care certification program. Both programs have scholarly roots in the European monastic tradition. If programs like these help healthcare practitioners to understand better the holistic approach to dealing with the dying and their families, then harp and music practitioners at the bedside, trained in a holistic tradition and offering solace that only music can provide, are apparently helping to close the circle.

Lily G. Casura is the author of Gentle Medicine: Treating Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia Successfully with Natural Medicine, which is available from www.SelfHenlthPress.com and from Amazon.

Resources

The Chalice of Repose Project at St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center

Attn: Ms. Therese Schroeder-Sheker

312 East Pine Street, Suite 436, Missoula, Montana 59802 USA

406-329-2810 / Fax: 406-329-5614

URL: http://www.saintpatrick.org/chalice/index.html

(The Chalice of Repose Project offers a comprehensive informational packet for $15, including various articles about the program, and offers other items, such as videotapes about the program, for sale. A list of items offered and prices is available on the Web at http://www.saintpatrick.org/chalice/chaliceorder.html.)