Our Dance with the Infinite Universe

We are embedded within a rhythmic universe. Everywhere we see rhythm, patterns moving through time. It is there in the cycles of the seasons, in the migration of the birds and animals, in the fruiting and withering of plants, and in the birth, maturation and death. As a species, we love to play with rhythm. We deal with it every second of our lives, right to the end. When the rhythm stops, so do we. And this is where music becomes important. Music is a mirror that reflects a culture's deepest social and biological rhythms. It is an externalization of the pulses that remain hidden beneath the busy-ness of daily life.

 

The big bang was beat one, the downbeat, the beginning of time and space. Music is a miniature of that very energy that blew us into creation. The careful manipulations of these rhythms that spawned us 13.7 billion years ago bring us closer to the edge of music magic. We will explore how these invisible energies reconnect us with the vibratory world and how rhythm can be used for entrainment and good health.

 

Rhythm is at the very center of our lives. By acknowledging this fact and acting on it, our potential for preventing illness and maintaining mental, physical and spiritual well-being is far greater. A large part of music's power and pleasure comes from its ability to reconnect us with the deeper rhythms that we are not conscious of. And it is the connection with these rhythms that gives music the power to heal.

 

Mickey Hart, the drummer for The Grateful Dead, making music out of sound waves from outer space and the human brain to demonstrate the theory behind "good vibrations". 

 

Produced by Mike Cerre and GLOBE TV for AARP's weekly broadcast on PBS-My Generation.