A little over a year ago I went through brain surgery to have a tumor removed. The tumor was located in my language center, and after the surgery the retrieval of nouns was almost impossible for me. I went through a great deal of speech therapy in order to re-train my brain to locate or re-learn words that had literally been cut from my consciousness. About a month after the surgery I discovered that if I sang what I was hoping to say in my mind the words would eventually come. I was not able to sing out loud for a couple of months because breathing tubes had been down my throat for many hours and may have scratched my vocal chords. As soon as I was given the go-ahead to sing, I pulled out my harmonium (pump organ) and began a daily practice of allowing all words to flow through me. I would do exercises of finding nouns and integrating them into song lyrics. These were clumsy practices that I was coming up with myself, but after a short period of time my speech therapist let me know that I was making rapid strides. The sound of the harmonium would reverberate through my mind and body and the way in which music utilizes one’s entire brain, as opposed to unique areas, pulled upon my intelligence and bore new regions to hold the newly acquired nouns.
I have returned my language skills to almost full restoration and music is still an essential process. I have also just been given a magnificent harmonium by Mid East manufacturing and find its sound to be wonderfully rich and refined. Check out their instruments at:
http://www.mid-east.com/index.asp
Music is the key to the expansion of the mind on numerous levels.
– Moksha Sommer