My friend Lynn LaPlante-Allaway is a professional musician, and earlier this month she sent this email with an offer I couldn’t refuse:
I will be downtown for a rehearsal, would you like me to come by and play my violin for you? I will sit quietly in the corner and play and all you do is lie there, listen and heal.
Lynn arrived two days after I returned from the hospital. Mike met her at the door. I didn’t even get up. She went right to work, setting up behind me so that I wouldn’t feel obligated to smile or react while she played. “I just want you to lie there on the couch, listen, and heal.”
Mike left during Lynn’s performance, and when he returned an hour-and-a-half later he said I looked like I’d just received a massage.
You might remember reading a post I wrote last year about Daniel Levitin, the author of This Is Your Brain on Music. Levitin’s research shows that dopamine (a “feel-good hormone”) is released every time you listen to music you like. Not only that, but listening to music with someone else can release prolactin, a hormone that bonds people together. I’ve never had much success when trying to meditate –I’m just too antsy. Within minutes, however, Lynn’s music had put every worry and pain right out of my mind. It was, in a word, sublime.
Lynn’s beloved mother Alice Gervace LaPlante is the one who inspired Lynn to use music to help friends heal after a trauma. Alice died last year from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. Lynn had played for her mom her entire life, but she did so with a different intention after Alice got sick.
“I’d say lots of prayers beforehand, call in all her angels and helpers and mine, too and all sorts of woo woo stuff that works for ME,” she told me. “And when I played for her, I swear to you, something happened: the whole room changed, and my music changed, too.”
The only word Lynn can think of to describe her healing performances is “channeling.” Her own heart rate slows down as she plays, and she says her brain waves slow down, too. She can feel the person she’s playing for slow down as well. “I had no idea I could do this until my Mom got sick.”
Friends have been marveling at how quickly I am recovering, and you blog readers have been leaving comments about how healthy I look in the photos Mike publishes here, too. Many, many good things have combined to help me heal, but I gotta say: that early hit of dopamine and prolactin sure gave my recovery one helluva jumpstart!
It’s been one month since my life-saving heart surgery, and to mark the occasion, Mike and I took a cardio-walk downtown to attend a concert last night. Lynn is the principal violist with the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, a 55-piece ensemble that combines a jazz band with a symphonic orchestra. “This is the most exciting musical group I’ve ever been a part of,” Lynn told me. “And it just keeps getting better.” Last night was the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic’s first-ever appearance at Orchestra Hall. The music was gorgeous, and knowing Lynn was up there on stage playing her heart out made it all the more special. It was, in a word, sublime.
What a sweet, talented friend! Glad you’re healing quickly.
Lynne has learned all to well as have you now that music and peaceful calmness are wonderful healers as well as international and heavenly communication. You have a wonderful friend
Thank you, Beth! Your words are so beautiful to read, they make me so happy. I loved knowing you we’re there last night. I remember us setting that goal of you attending the concert–it’s amazing how much you’ve recovered in one month! Love you xoxo
Wonderful story about the power of music in healing.
Hi Beth,
This post reminded me of a technique I’ve used with children with emotional disorders called entrainment. I have a set of CDs that cause a child’s brain to become entrained to the music. Music therapists bring about the same effect and that’s exactly what Lynn did for you and for her mom. The music induces a response from your brain and heart rate so that you become “in sync” with the music. You can use this technique to calm a crying baby or a child having a tantrum by holding them close and intentionally slowing down your own breathing and heart beat and soon the child will get “in sync” with you, thus calming down. Google brainwave entrainment sometime when you have a free moment.
Glad you’re doing better.
Bobbie
Interesting stuff, Bobbie. Any information about the impact of “live” music? The fact that Lynn was right there playing her violin seemed to make a tremendous difference — I really could sense the vibrations inside me.
All of the music therapists I know use live musicsuch as harp or guitar. The CDs I have are all instrumental also and the majority of them are mechanically altered in a way that encourages a specific response and they require the kids to use full cover the ear headphones rather than earbuds. Some of the CDs are for calming anxiety, increasing connectedness, language development, etc. I have seen them work miracles. So glad you’re on the mend.
Beth, I rarely post on line but would like to say that
Judy and I are very happy to watch you heal so fast. We too believe in the power of music. And the jazz philharmonic sounds like something to lure us from sleepy Urbana to the big city. We miss you guys.
Jim, I *know* you rarely post online, and I am honored you did so here! Have been thinking about coming down to “sleepy Urbana” for a visit –it could be just wht the doctor orders, but not quite yet. While I wait to heal a bit more, we would absolutely *love* for you and Judy to come up for a visit to hear some music with us. Will phone you.
What a wonderful gift to help you heal. It definitely appears to be working!
Yes, and I’m gearing up to be full of energy in time for Sister’s Weekend — consider yourself warned.
The greatest gift of all; what a friend
Agreed. And it’s something you can’t buy on lin eor on ebay…!
I just read this story of being played to, on the violin, and how it made a real differenceI sleep with the classical music station onbarely perceptable, but evoking a distant possibilitya place to swim toXO Judy Spock ps Glad you’re back!
From: Safe & Sound blog Reply-To: Safe & Sound blog Date: Sat, 25 May 2013 21:26:47 +0000 To: Judith Spock Subject: [New post] Sublime
WordPress.com bethfinke posted: “My friend Lynn LaPlante-Allaway is a professional musician, and earlier this month she sent this email with an offer I couldn’t refuse: I will be downtown for a rehearsal, would you like me to come by and play my violin for you? I will sit quietly in the”
Oh, Judy, I’m glad to be back, too. Listening to music is *always* good, wheter on the radio or at a concert. But there was something especially amazing about having a violing played so exquisitely right behind me, it went through my skin, past my boens and right to my heart.
[…] Allaway, the principal violist with the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, came to our apartment to perform a private concert to help me heal from open-heart surgery. Whitney and I tried to thank Lynn for her music therapy […]
Leave a Response