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Singing as Therapy 
Those of you who have been to my seminars have heard me only once. I bet it was the first professional seminar you've attended in which the presenter astonishingly broke out in song. Had you had attended twice - once before my recent California tour and once afterwards - you would probably have noticed an improvement in my voice. I'm still a far cry from Luciano Pavarotti, but I've gotten a step closer.
I've known for a long time that singing is an important primal human experience. Singing - or making music with our voices - is probably more deeply rooted in our genetic programming than speaking. Many animals sing, though they do not have speech. Have you noticed that recalling the melody of a song is easier than recalling its lyrics, and that babies start humming long before they are able to speak?
Primitive peoples sing a great deal. The Pygmies - the people who have never left the forest - sing every day and have fantastic vocal abilities. The Pharaohs brought Pygmies to Egypt because of their wonderful voices.
Throughout the history of the world, if people wanted to hear music or singing, they needed to produce it themselves. In modern times, we rarely encounter ordinary people singing except as part of religious services, or when the national anthem is sung at public gatherings. Why don't we sing much any more? Because we rely on recorded music. We listen to professionals rather than do it ourselves. I believe many young people today are embarrassed to sing because they can't compete with the entertainers they hear all the time.
We tend to think that our modern inventions improve life, but they don't always. Replacing singing with radios and CDs is about as gratifying as watching pornography instead of having real-live sex. Have you noticed that immigrants from the less-developed countries - where life does not revolve around modern technology - sing a great deal? It's because they haven't become spoiled by reliance on recorded music.
In May, during my Southern California seminar tour, I met up with a long-time friend, Sampatti (Claire) Plowman. She is a massage therapist, but more importantly for me, a former opera singer and talented singing teacher. She gave me a quick voice lesson that dramatically improved my control and quality. I sing louder, with less effort, and stay more on key. Singing has become even more fun. And no less important, my speech has become clearer and my throat no longer hurts after a full day of speaking.
Want to become happier? Discover the joy of singing and give it the importance in your life that it was meant to have. Sampatti can help you do this amazingly quickly and easily. She will immediately identify your voice's stumbling block and show you how to get it out of the way. Sampatti is so good at this that I believe it was the reason she was put on this earth. So take advantage of her. She can be hired for individual or group lessons. If you don't live in southern California, have your organization bring her to give a full-day seminar for a group of people, making it cost- effective. The benefits for professions that rely on speaking, such as teaching, are immeasurable.
Do you think you are tone deaf? Don't worry. Sampatti says that just about anyone can be taught how to carry a tune. Including you. Most people's difficulty singing is really an emotional block that originates in childhood, when authority figures try to get us to be quiet. When Sampatti teaches people to sing, she simultaneously frees us from these blocks and we become more open.
Want to find out if Sampatti can help you or your organization? You can email her at diva44667@aol.com. Or you can call her at 760-202-0040 or 760-408-5770. Say Izzy sent you.
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The Insanity of Modern Elementary Education |
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| The world is going topsy turvy. Lately I have been speaking a lot about the contamination of psychology by law. More and more laws are being passed defining how people need to behave, and requiring adults who deal with children to enforce these laws. The assumption, which few seem to have the guts to challenge, is that whatever is legal is automatically psychologically the best for us. The underlying reason, I believe, is that we are afraid of getting in trouble. Faced with doing what you think is psychologically best or following the law, we follow the law.
I have a new client that illustrates the insanity overtaking education. A young mother called me because her family has been having a year from hell. Her five year old daughter has been having behavior problems in school all year long, and the kindergarten teacher suspects she has an attention deficit disorder. Meanwhile, this same "ADD" kindergarten student has done wonderfully in the 3 R's, quite an accomplishment for a child who can't pay attention.
The first day of the school year, this cherubic little gir, who had just turned five, held the hand of another girl throughout the day, and gave her a kiss. Instead of admiring the girl's sweetness, the kindergarten teacher informed the parents that they must stop their daughter from displaying "sexual harassment"! So she was forbidden to touch other children, and was disciplined by both her teacher in school and her parents at home whenever she put her hands on any other child.
This, of course, did not make the little girl's behavior improve. She became an angry child looking to get back at others. But it also gave her great power. She discovered she can drive the adult world crazy by bothering other kids and no one can stop her. So much unnecessary misery has been caused because schools are trying to squelch the normal - and often healthy - natural behavior of children.
Fortunately, the family has been able to return to normal, as the school year is over and the parents have taken my advice to stop interfering in her social relationships.
Click here for Izzy's free online manual for handling children's aggression... »
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Cain and Abel |
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| At my seminars I often talk about sibling rivalry. Brothers and sisters are biologically programmed to love each other, even though it appears that they want to kill each other.
On a few occasions, seminar participants have pointed to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel as proof that the nature of siblings is, indeed, to want to kill each other. But is this so?
Look at the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis. You will find that it is the very first story that happens after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The expulsion marks the beginning of civilized life. Previously, Adam and Eve lived naturally as hunter-gatherers, just like all the animals. They disobeyed God's command to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and as punishment they were expelled. As a result, they obtained the understanding of the difference between good and evil, began living by laws, and had to grow their own food (the advent of agriculture).
The Cain and Abel story therefore, can only be used as an indication that siblings want to kill each other in Civilization, not necessarily in Nature. And if you do observe the world of nature, including human tribes who are still hunter-gatherers, you will discover the problem of sibling rivalry does not exist. In Nature, siblings help and protect one another, and if the parent dies, the older sibling raises the younger ones. Sibling rivalry becomes a problem only in Civilization, because parents naively think it is their business to play judge between their children.
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