Healing Power in a Human Voice
Have you heard or felt a wave of healing power in a human voice? Voices can carry many influences. They can scar like a knife edge or terrify with a scream, but here I want to talk about the power of voice to restore lost harmony. Let’s put it as a question: in your experience can the human voice help move a depressed, disordered being closer to wellness?
The voice, after all, comes from deep sources. It is finely tuned by the emotions and conveys the slightest change of feeling. It broadcasts the intention of a speaker and can load the simplest words with complicated meanings. It is a big part of all the nonverbal bonds we form with people.
“Finding your voice” is one way of describing becoming your own person. You can finally set aside the voices you grew up that helped shape your closest relationships. There is a confident resonance in the sound you draw from deep inside when you feel you are no longer fighting yourself but clear about who you are. I feel it as the sound of inner life that reveals depression or well-being as quickly as the light or dimness of the eyes and face.
Once I heard a speaker of the Dine (Navajo) Nation chant a blessing to a conference room packed with almost one thousand people. He sent his prayer out slowly at first, the English words and separate phrases clear, much as you would hear in any invocation. That familiarized us with the words and sentiment, but he soon picked up the pace. His voice gradually swelled to a resonant chant in the rapid rhythm and intonation of a ceremonial singer.
The single words and phrases blended into a stream of healing sound. It was mesmerizing, transforming something palpable inside me. I felt a kind of vibration in my bones that seemed to come through this speaker’s voice from a source far more ancient than anything his suit-and-tie appearance suggested.
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