Introduction “We are creatures of expression.” Islene Runningdeer “I slept and dreamed that life was joy. I awoke and found that life is but service. I served and discovered that service was joy. - Rabindranath Tagore I wish to explain why I wrote this book. And who, in particular, I hope will resonate with its ideas and teachings. I have been a musician all my life. It’s been my great good fortune to have had this wondrous way of expression as a constant companion. I am grateful beyond words for the joy the making of music has brought to me. But I discovered along the way that, while I’ve been granted a special talent of expression, via music, it should not be for my benefit and joy alone. A couple of wise teachers convinced me that sharing this beauty was my duty and debt, the best way I could celebrate my joy and share the wealth. I have done my fair share of joyful performing through the years. However, my kind of music making eventually evolved into a more specific service to others, reaching many different kinds of people, but always with the intention of transmitting a healing balm through my musical expression, and the energies I cultivate and bring to bear. I’ve discovered that serving others in this way brings double joy. What could be better? Much has been written in recent years about the powers of music and sound. This book is different because it focuses on the deliverer of this wonderful art form, the musician herself. The inner powers of the messenger have been forgotten over a long history, so the healing potential of music has been restrained to a large degree. It’s time for us to revive these inner powers in our new world, which aches for healing. It’s also a time when sound/frequency/vibration/energy are emerging as a leading edge of advancement in medicine and healing. All the more reason why musicians who want to make a positive difference should be considering how to best use their expressive art and energies to bring solace and balm to the world. This book is for musicians. Although anyone interested in energy medicine will find something of value in these pages, I expect. It explores very specific ways we musical humans can develop inner resources, physical, psychological and spiritual, in order to amplify the healing power of the music we deliver. The ideas for this book sprouted and grew as a result of conversations I had a few years ago with faculty, administrators and students at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, my long-ago alma mater. After guest teaching a class about making music in service to others, and generating some excitement among young, serious student musicians about the potential for beautiful music to heal in various ways, I realized that even the most prestigious temples of music education had ignored this most important potential. The ancient art of healing with music had been buried in the dust of history, to be forgotten, ridiculed or dismissed as primitive nonsense. Fortunately, some of us have remembered and realized the potency of the music we make, and have figured out ways to bring our artful expression, coupled with healing energy, to an ailing and needy world. Student musicians are conventionally taught technique, interpretation and performance. They are trained to be teachers of music. Composition and conducting are musical specialties which some pursue. All such education often leads to either life-long employment, or at least a life-long avocation of enjoyment and fulfillment. All wonderful outcomes. But something huge and very important is missed if musicians have not spent time understanding how their musical energy affects those who are listening. And beyond that, how we music makers can learn to generate high quality energy from our centers and deliver it via music with healing effect. This certainly opens up a whole new venue for our art. I have successfully brought this way of sharing music to people in hospitals, hospices, nursing homes, dementia care facilities, churches, students, and yes, even conventional audiences in music halls for many years now. It has been a long work in progress, but its positive and powerful effects have been witnessed many times over. Now that I am an elder, it’s time I share what I’ve learned and what I know with younger musicians. So that they might pick up the ancient torch, make it new, and carry it on. I hope this book will inspire you to amplify the power of your music making with the potential to heal, to soothe, to awaken, to deeply move, to spiritualize the experience of listening for many. It may even direct you to create unconventional musical work for yourself, as I have done. The most beautiful music we make becomes even more beautiful when it helps others. In this way, we become Musician Healers. So may my way of blending musical expression with service be a legacy to the young musicians who are considering how their music making might meaningfully relate to a life’s work. I hope you will indulge me a great favor, and read this book in a thoughtful, questing way. Perhaps something new and useful will be revealed. -Islene Runningdeer, 2022