Richard Lloyd Jones: Some have called it a collaboration between God and the artist. For others, it's a means of escape. It's been used to persuade, to manipulate, and to seduce. Its stars' sins make headlines, and their victories make billions. But its impact is much more than simply economic. Today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head, let's get some perspective on music. I'm Richard Lloyd Jones. You know, it's been great to hear from many of you about the show, and I just want to make sure again that you have my email address so you can let me know what you think.
Rich at richjonesvoice.com. And by the way, I have some more copies of Liberation of the People, Dr. Norberto Keppe's incisive exploration of the pathology of power, to give away if you'd like. Just drop me an email again, rich at richjonesvoice.com. Now, music and art. These have an enormous influence on us, obviously, from babies in mothers' wombs to teenagers listening to favorite artists on tinny headphones in a desperate attempt to understand what's going on inside and around them, to composers scoring love scenes in award-winning films.
Music impacts us much more than most of us think about on a daily basis. Let's turn a psychological eye to music today. Fabrizio Biliotti is an Italian journalist and musician who's studying with me here at Dr. Keppe's International Institute of Analytical Trilogy here in São Paulo. He's been developing a perspective on music and the arts and their impact and purpose. Fabrizio, Dr.
Keppe is fond of talking about the real world, only he maintains that this is the world of arts. And what we normally think of as the real world is actually a fantasy. It's a different view, maybe, of the perspective of the matrix, right? It's a very fascinating consideration that he explores a lot. Talk a little bit about this first, please.
Fabrizio Biliotti: Yeah, that's a very interesting topic because Dr.
Keppe, in his book Sociopathology, says and writes that this link with transcendental world And ours, especially music, he says. And that's very beautiful. Because if you study the history of music and the history of ours in general, you can see that in the past, for example, in the Greek world, they thought that ours were a very, very important means to connect the human being with transcendence, with the gods. And also a very important therapeutic means to heal the diseases and sicknesses of human beings.
And Dr. Kappi, in his work, he recovers this important point of view.
Richard: But it would appear something has been lost of this more transcendental aspect of music, which you mentioned, Fabrizio. If music used to be something more consciously curative, essential even, what occurred to change that?
Fabrizio: What happened, for example, in art, especially in music in the beginning of the 10th century, was exactly the opposite.
For example, if you think about Arnold Schoenberg in the music, he taught his students that you have these eternal rules and how you can change, destroy and modify these rules to reach another kind, another style of music. He wanted to create a brand new musical style in order to use what? To use more dissonances and shrill frequencies. And that's an important point, because pleasure comes from consonance, from harmony.
This consonance in the melody works with the right part of the brain that is linked to the feelings. And the rhythm is an important part of music. Works with the left part of the brain, with the logic part, but both parts must work together in harmony. You
Richard: know there's something very clarifying in this view Fabrizio, and the balance between melody and rhythm that you're talking about makes a lot of sense.
Seems to me you're saying that there is a right structure or some as you call them universal principles, and it seems that you're implying that they have been lost or diminished in importance in some way. How has this happened?
Fabrizio: I think the explanation is in the concept of theomania that Dr. Keppe discovered. Theomania means when a human being thinks to be like a god.
I remember, for example, that Johann Sebastian Bach, he studied all the musical styles that came before him. His composing was the result exactly of this knowledge of the acceptance of the goodness that the other musician did. And with Mozart, the same thing, because he studied in Bach and all these music composers, and the result was the beautiful works he did. It seems that Schoenberg came to change all these things, and he wanted to create something different.
Well,
Richard: let's move into this aspect a little deeper, Fabrizio. Most of us have never heard of Schoenberg anyway, so let's use a more contemporary example to try to explain how you see this better.
Fabrizio: We could speak about free jazz for example. Is the totally loss of every limit, there is no structure. And what is important for our body, for our mind, for the right functioning of our brain, is to recognize also structure.
This intellectual part is also important, not only the feelings but also this organization you have. That is why for example back music is very pleasurable, because this music has melody but at the same time this logic part, this rhythmic part. And we could say that not only jazz music but also classical music and modern pop and rock music are losing all these rhythms.
That is a reflection of this loss of ethic somehow, also in music. Human beings, they want to impose themselves like gods. I mean, the singers, the rock bands and composers. The human will is above what exists in reality, that are the universal, that is the transcendental world, the transcendental reality. Continuing
Richard: on from that thought, Fabrizio, in his book Sociopathology, Keppe writes, all that exists obeys the same laws and follows identical principles.
This being so, anything that is organized must exist within a similar structure. If this does not happen, something is wrong. So Fabrizio, what happens to our bodies when we go against these laws and principles?
Fabrizio: Many scientists like the American John Diamond, Verli Bell, and so on, they studied since a lot of years, since many years, the impact on the human body of this kind of music.
And well, it's very amazing to see, For example, how heavy metal music, for example, with this pounding rhythm, they stimulated and increased the stress mechanism in the human beings with very, very catastrophic consequences. For example, muscle weakness or difficulty in concentration, difficulty at work and so on, aggressiveness, not only because of the music, but also because of the lyrics of this song.
This music stimulates the stress mechanism and increases the percentage of adrenaline in our blood.
Richard: Now, just to make sure we're not starting to sound like everybody's parents lamenting the corruption of youth, let me reassure you that we are not advocating burning records or burning heavy metal radio stations. But we're trying to see the facts here. Not to judge the situation, but to be more conscious of just what is going on.
Let's get into this a little bit more, Fabricio, at the end of our podcast. The issue of the impact of music on our health.
Fabrizio: There is a very interesting research of a Japanese scientist, Masaru Emoto. He put these water crystals between two loudspeakers, playing first classical music, Bach, Beethoven, and so on, and then with heavy metal music. And the results were really amazing.
When he was photographing the water crystals while it was playing classical music, the form of the crystal was perfect and beautiful to see. And when he was playing heavy metal music, the structure of the water crystal was destroyed. And that's very interesting because our body is constituted, we say, almost 70% of water or liquids. And then what is happening with this water crystal can happen also with our body.
Then if we listen classical music, That means that our inner structure, our cells, and everything are balanced, are in balance. And when we listen to heavy metal music, techno music, and so on, what happens with these crystals can happen with our cells and with our body. That means destruction.
Richard: And the attitude of destruction that lies unconscious under the surface in we human beings is something that drives our desire for destructive anything, including destructive music.
I'm Richard Lloyd Jones.
