John Oliver believes music has a profound influence on the human body. John Oliver is an Associate I Composer of the Canadian *”Music Centre and co-director of Earsay Productions.
He came to international attention during 1988/89 when he won six prizes for five compositions ranging from chamber to orchestral to electroacoustic music.
Based in Vancouver, Canada, John Oliver writes music for acoustic and electronic instruments. His recent music combines familiar musical materials or techniques with new inventions, with a view to creating a new, exciting listening experience.
John began piano study at the age of five. One of the first things he noticed was that certain notes on the piano would make certain objects in the room buzz consistently.
One note made the teacups on the shelf buzz, another would make the picture frame over the sofa buzz, another made the storm windows rattie.
“This was my first exposure to resonance; technically called sympathetic vibration (I call it Harmonic Resonance™). Gently depressing and holding the middle C key on the piano without making the hammer hit the string (thus making the string vibrate) and then sharply hitting the C below middle C would make the middle C string vibrate,” John says.
He later saw some pictures in a book called Cymatics by Dr Hans Jenny. Basically, Dr Jenny took a speaker or transducer and attached it to either a membrane or thin plate of steel and covered this with a variety of substances such as iron filings, silica powder, milk, and water. Smoke-filled chambers were also used.
He then played a specific frequency into the speaker or transducer and photographed the results. The particles formed incredible patterns with remarkable similarities to naturally occurring patterns, which ranged from moonscape-like images to mandalas (complex symbols used in Buddhist meditation) to stalagmite-looking forms. As the frequency was changed, the forms and patterns changed.
“I thought that the human body must respond this way as well,” he says. “We are about 90% water (fluid), our bones are great conductors of vibration and we have a variety of densities provided by tissue mass, fat, muscle, organs and bones (skeletal system).
Given how profoundly sound affects these material substances, it is easy to understand how our body and spirit takes on the patterns of music.”
John continues. “While pondering the nature of the universe and the essence of life, I came to the conclusion that everything is vibrational in nature. In matter, there is an atomic structure with a nucleus with electrons and protons circling in a specific, ‘harmonic-resonant’ pattern.
Thinking of disease I reasoned that disease is ‘dis-ease’, ‘dis-harmony’, ‘dissonance’, ‘disillusion’, ‘disconnection’ (fragmentation of the psyche). They are synonymous for the same thing – not being whole, connected and integrated.
“I did considerable research with a number of massage and alternative health practitioners. Using kinesiology, acupuncture pulses, and other testing methods, a capable practitioner can do an assessment of everything from metabolic function to emotional involvement.
We then find the specific frequency (pitch) and waveform (instrument) which, when played, will restore balance to the area affected.
“Muscles which tested very weak before the music treatment – a little finger can sometimes push down the entire arm or leg – often show remarkable changes in strength and muscle reflex response.
They become so strong that while the tones are playing, you can lift yourself off the ground using the same previously weak muscles. This tells you that the sound is doing something very profound. I then compose a 30-to-45-minute long piece of music based on the specific frequencies and waveforms that demonstrate the balancing and vitalising responses.
The specific sounds address the specific areas, but the combination of the sounds into ‘music’ is what gets the emotions involved. Allowing for an emotional and soul-level healing creates the opportunity for a complete physical body healing.”
The client receives a CD or tape of their custom music to play for themselves regularly for ongoing benefits. One client was scheduled for a series of root canal procedures in two teeth. He was so sensitive to the analgesic drugs typically used to manage the pain that he was concerned.
“I said I’d make him a tape of sounds and music that would numb his tooth and displace the pain,” says John.”We found the frequencies of the affected teeth and then found the frequencies of certain acupuncture points that provided an outlet for the pain. It worked and we were on to something.”
John pauses and continues, “Experiments showed thai we respond to sounds that we cannot hear. We put the selected sounds exclusively into a pair of headphones and put them on a person’s ankles. They responded to the sound even though their ears could not ‘hear’ the sound.
Once you vibrate a part of the body the blood cells carry this resonance to the whole body very quickly. Research done with deaf children also showed that the children could identify different sounds and instruments by laying on a giant membrane and having the sounds played through it.”