THE PHRASE SACRED VOICE REFERS TO A VOICE THAT IS CONSIDERED HOLY OR DIVINE.

The use of music, chants, and songs is a common element in most, if not all, spiritual and religious expressions and celebrations. From the sung mass of the Orthodox church, to the invention of polyphonic music in the 12th century by French composers Leonin and Perotin, to the magnificent works of composers like Mozart, Bach, and Palestrina, contemporary religion in the Christian tradition has been represented via music. and the very poignant music of composer John Tavener in our own times. Worship, respect, and music go hand in hand. The beauty of music, particularly sung music, often has the greatest impact on us. Examining different spiritual traditions while also going back in time, the Hindu religion has a rich legacy of devotional mantras, chants, and songs known as kirtan2. What other kinds of spiritual music are there here, if we exclude contemporary organized religion, which is thought to have existed for a very tiny portion of the 200,000 years that modern humans are thought to have lived? Our native origins and the shaman Well, our understanding is restricted since there aren’t many written documents. But there are certain oral traditions from those earlier eras that have persisted to this day. and they are kept by the tribe’s shamans, who are the most ancient of holy men and women. While it’s true that many shamans tend to ruminate on unimportant everyday issues, others are able to rise above their constrained ego-minds and wander among the stars, explore consciousness, and communicate with the spirits; one technique they use to do this is rhythmic chanting. Historians presently hold the opinion that, rather than living in the large cities and towns of today, humans have spent a significant portion of our evolutionary history in much smaller rural tribal cultures. And in this case, customs were transmitted orally, via chants, and through songs, rather than through written language. and anthropological research has shown the remarkable ability of the human mind to accurately preserve and transmit the most intricate oral traditions—through myths, songs, and storytelling—to subsequent generations. rhythm of life, so throughout human history, celebration and investigation of our spiritual lives have continuously included the use of musical instruments, rhythm, and, most importantly, the human voice. How come, I wonder? I’m not sure that I have “the answer” to this question, however. However, it seems to me that the human voice in its most beautiful and pure forms, as well as music, transcend our mental layers of contemporary languages and rational cognitive processes. They connect with us at our fundamental physiology and go deeper, so to speak, on a biological level. After all, we are molded and spend our lives among a myriad of rhythmic patterns, from the motion of star systems and galaxies to the cycle of electrons around atoms, our bodies’ countless internal rhythms, and the earth’s shifting seasons. And then there are the contemporary mystics who assert that humans sung before the invention of spoken language. As they grow, shamans often learn their own power songs for use in different ceremonies. Could it thus be that the human voice3, a tool we use in daily communication, is fundamentally a holy instrument used to convey the wonder and delight of life’s breath? references: 1. The BBC television series Sacred Music, accessible on YouTube, CD, and DVD. 2. Chaitanya Kabir, the renowned kirtan instructor. The Sounds True website offers his lessons. 3. Website: Chloe Goodchild – Awakening Through Sound. © Spirit healer David R. Durham’s website

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