I had the pleasure of meeting and subsequently hosting Ellen Dissanayake when she visited Australia to share her work around the evolutionary purpose of the arts. I could wax lyrical on the subject and her theories but for now I will detail only the most relevant part of her work to this project.
She supports the notion that music is a universal language that translates across kinship and tribal lines. It enabled modern humans to feel more cohesive. It enabled humans to develop a deeper compassion and connection to one another. What’s more it eases our anxiety- an anxiety born from our complex ability to reflect on past incidents, bring them into our present thinking and then project on the possible future outcomes. The obvious extension of this mind power is to then try and influence those future outcomes to be favourable.
Music has accompanied all our rites and rituals, appeals to the gods and to the elements for favourable outcomes forever and until this day. More rain, bountiful crops, fertility, good marriage etc. Participation in these rituals increased a sense of shared values and actually physically eases our anxiety. By organising ourselves rhythmically and sonically, even in how we adorn ourselves, we are taking control of our own bodies and our circumstances powerfully in that moment. By singing and dancing in unison our fears and anxiety transforms into a thing of beauty and a feeling of hope… even joy. We are deeply wired to respond to these music based forms of expressions. Modern science backs this up and has shown that when we engage in coordinated singing or dancing, especially in a group, we release Oxytocin- loosely labeled the bonding hormone that is most prevalent between infant and mother at child birth and breast feeding.
So, as humanity faces it greatest challenge yet, where we need to find cohesion on the most extraordinary level, we need to draw upon all our resources to usher in major changes around the way we live on this planet. Music will necessarily play a leading role to guide our many and varied complex consciousnesses through this period of extreme and deliberate flux.
The inner life that music penetrates and expresses may well be otherwise inaccessible and inexpressible.
-Ellen Dissanayake
For all Earthkind 