Sorry to burst your bubble, Martin, but I'm back! But hey, please don't let that stop any of you from going at "another round!"

And I'm better, too! :-)

   Could be that new musical molecular meditation I created last night (that was fun, and I practiced it for quite a while!) Could be the hours and hours of sleeping, the other energetic healing work I've been doing, the gallons of chicken noodle soup, or it could just be that the flu bug finally ran it's course. Maybe a combination of all those factors.

In any case, what does it matter?   YIPPEEEEE! I'm back to work today!!

And I just wanted to get back to a couple of you I missed yesterday ...

Jerry said "Eventually, someone probably should point out that "The Word" set to music is called gospel. There is certainly an enormous amount of music that is spiritual that isn't gospel, but when the phrase "The Word" is used the connection to Christ saying "I am the Word," is the first thing that would come to mind for Christians. If you're not talking about the "Word," what do you mean by the word?

Jerry, you're right of course. I could have been more clear with the title of this thread. The Prologue to the Gospel of John starts with "In the beginning was the Word; the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God from the beginning. Through him all things came to be". (John 1:1-3) Yes, Christians interpret "The Word" in this context to mean Jesus himself.

I was thinking more of the beginning of Genesis ie And God said "Let there be light", and there was light (Genesis 1:3) So, according to Judeo-Christian tradition, it was in response to "the Word" of God that Creation came to be. ANd according to the esoteric traditions presented in Anahata's website, and the article I linked to, that "Word" was a Musical One.

Also, by "spiritual" I meant the broader definition, as Amos posted above, and not the specific genre of American folk music called "spirituals" that you mentioned.

Freda said "funny, tonight i was a session. theme was drinking songs. one guy was playing something faaantastic on the concertina. it was throbbing, waling and humming, and everyone was right there, nodding, rocking, eyes closed, listening. I found myself listening and thinking - what if someone from Planet X walked in and heard this for the first time ever - listening to how he was organising and controlling sound, creating moods and feelings, and how everyone was getting off on it.

it felt so good."

Freda, that's exactly what I meant by "Music is the very highest form of magic"! Is there another medium that is as subliminally effective as Music for changing people's attitudes and moods -- changing their "state of consciousness"?

Music is so powerful! It can be used to uplift, to console, to torture, to energize, to tranquilize, to teach, to march the soldiers off to war, to inspire the peaceful end of that war, to stir up blood-lust (or any other kind of "lust"), to quiet those very same lusts etc etc etc. It's a neutral power, though, just like electricity. Whether it's effects are positive or negative depends on the intent, on the way it is used.

Now, that's what I call real-life "magic"! And yes, it DOES feel so good! So thanks very much for sharing your story.

daylia