Singing and sound can change the way you think or how you feel. We
use healing songs to strengthen people and to help them discover the
richness of their being. We have songs that can even heal a person who
is suffering.^78Moses explains that the Samish word s ̄ı’ ̄ılhmeans ‘to sing,’ ‘to pray,’ and
‘to cry.’ In expressing the healing power of sacred song Moses says, “We
believe that when you sing, your cry will turn into a song.^79 He says of
healing ceremonies: “We sing for a person in sorrow to uplift them, to
give them energy, to give them life-force.”^80 Breath has special signifi-
cance here: sacred songs carry the breath of the ancestors, which contin-
ues to help and heal the living generations. Not printed words, but the
breath-infused words of traditional teachers, healers, singers, and the
oral historians known as storytellers perpetuate healing knowledge and
the spirit of life.
Body as Instrument of Sacred Music
A major feature of Tantra is the ontological presupposition that the uni-
verse, and everything in it, is a manifestation of the one Brahman. Emer-
gent from this principle is a positive attitude toward material nature and
the human body. T ̄antric practice utilizes material nature in order to
transcend subjugation to materiality. Tantra regards the body as part of
the sacred creation, and as enlightenable itself. T ̄antric religious thera-
peutics focus on recovery of the primordial unity of Self as cosmos, and
utilize somatic experience for meditation and the attainment of libera-
tion. Music is a manifestation of primordial ́saktior energy. Swami
Prajñ ̄an ̄ananda explains that the n ̄ada ́sakti or primordial sound energy is
experienced by both musician and listeners:
Gradually the awakened energy penetrates all the force centers of the
body and finally reaches the thousand petalled lotus of the sahasrara... ̄
and then the sadhaka ̄ -artist and the sincere music listeners feel divine
communion of the j ̄ıv ̄atmanand p ̄aram ̄atma. They attain the fruition of
the n ̄ada s ̄adhana, which enables them to cut asunder the knots of nesci-
ence and realize the transcendental Brahman.^81The human body is the instrument of sacred speech and song. William
Powers’ study of Lakota sacred language utilizes Levy-Bruhl’s idea of
‘appurtenances’ to explore the idea of speech and song as extensions of
the body.^82 Sacred music can be vocal or instrumental. Sacred music
tantra and aesthetic therapeutics 161