Peace Through Music

38:32

38:32

Peace Through Music

by Rev. Dr. Cindy Paulos Msc.D

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talks

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Meditation

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Everyone

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I talk about how to create peace through music with New Age mentors and longtime musicians Dean and Dudley Evenson. We talk about how important it is right now not to allow divisions about Covid to separate us We also go into how we can align through toning with each other.

Peace Music Community Healing Resonance Nature Events Education Expression Peaceful Music Flute Music Music Performance Musical Elements Gentleness Nature Inspiration Practices Voices

Meet your Teacher

Rev. Dr. Cindy Paulos Msc.D

Kahului, HI, USA

Meet your Teacher

Rev. Dr. Cindy Paulos Msc.D

Kahului, HI, USA

Transcript

Computer. Got it. A very big Aloha. I'm Cindy Pollas and this is the Peace Project. And I am very honored to have two peaceful, Beautiful souls with me here today. Dean and Dudley Evanston. The Evansons I just spoke to recently because they did a lovely piece called Monet's Garden. It's such a beautiful, Lush, Meditative piece with flute and harp and it's just gorgeous. And Dean is one of the true visionaries of ambient and new age music. And he's been doing it for so many wonderful years. And it's so exciting to be now talking about the evolution, Taking it to peace through Music Foundation, Which you just both started after four decades. You are. You're finally manifesting your longtime dream of creating peace through music. And in 1979, You had the vision of creating a nonprofit whose mission was to spread peace through music, Which has been a dream of mine for a long time. That's why I had to talk to you. And you want the nonprofit to highlight the many ways musicians are using their own craft to bring more peace into the world. So with that beautiful intention set, Which I honor deeply, Thank you. I welcome you. How are you both doing today? We're doing just fine. We got here. That's all good. Thank you, Cindy. So nice to talk to you again so quickly after our wonderful earlier interview a few weeks ago. That was great. You're where are you? Are you in the Northwest? Where are you? We're in Bellingham, Near Bellingham, Washington. We're near the Cascade Mountains. We're in the foothills of the. . . A couple hours north of Seattle. I bet it's very peaceful there. Well, We live by a wild river in a forested valley. So we're surrounded by gardens and trees and flowering bushes. We're at the dead end of a street. So there's no traffic. Yeah, We're way out there. So we can't live on mountain tops or somewhere else. So the edge of the desert or on a mountain top. That's kind of been how we've lived in many places. But now we seem to have found home. We've been here quite a while. Is there a tone? You're very attuned to music and peace. And I know in flutes, I'm a frustrated flautist. I'm actually having my flute repadded right now. It's been so long since I've used it. It needs repadding. But I know when you hit a note in a flute, You can kind of find that center tone. And when you get in that center tone, It kind of rings. And you know what I'm talking about, Dean? Yeah, The resonance, Especially in the lower notes. Do you find that there's a tone that you resonate with in peace? Would there be a peace tone you resonate to? Well, I'd say resonating with the natural tone of the flute itself is going to get you the most action. But really, Everybody has a different sort of resonant tone in their own voice or something like that. Dean and I do a lot of vocal toning together, Vowel toning, Ohming, And chanting. And so we resonate together. And I think that's one of the more fun activities that anybody can do just to spend time with their good friend or partner and just make sounds. And somehow through the sounding, It really seems to bring people closer together. It really becomes one vibration with each other. I noticed in your Monet's Garden, I noticed that you do in your music create that harmony and unity. And that you're so attuned in your music that I did actually hear that resonance that went so beautifully together. Because I guess you're so used to merging together with your energy, Having been together now at 50 years of it. It's over 50, I can't believe it. I'm going to do something I don't usually do. I would wonder if you could just improvise here a toning that you do together to give people an idea of how that works when you join your energy through a sound. Well I think one of the first things to know is that tone is all about breath. And so I think when we first were learning yoga and meditation, We were exposed to oming. And that's probably if anybody's ever been in an omed circle or omed before a meal or something like that, They've had the experience of toning. But there are also many tones a person can make or people can make. And Dean and I aren't wedded to any particular one. It's just that when we basically we're just kind of relaxing and so we just take a deep breath. And think about it as kind of letting out a sigh. It's been a rough day. I've got a lot on my mind. And so I'm just going to release it. And so we can just do a nice long ah tone. And ah happens to be the heart tone if you are into the chakra system. So that's another good one that you can't go wrong with. Absolutely. Let's just do a nice, We could just do a nice big ah and just take a nice deep breath and just follow that sound out all the way. Nice deep breath. Ah. Ah. And you can just feel it pushing out at the diaphragm. So resonate. We'll just hang out after dinner on the couch and just watch our breath and watch the sounds. It's just something that we love to do. So that's a couple can do that. But also in groups of course if you've ever been in a spiritual group or anything where they do an Aum prayer or something like that. It really, Really has a very powerful effect. I remember years ago and we haven't done this too much lately but I wouldn't mind doing more of it. We had a big circle of, We ohmed for a whole hour. And so you just, You're filling in the gaps of sound. Everyone's ohming and it's just you start to just feel like you're going to lift right off the planet. But it's a really powerful tool. Just like when you do Tibetan bells or any bells where you're getting in the center, Crystal bells or the brass bells. There is something that happens with that resonance that you can actually feel through your head and your body vibration just like a didgeridoo. You probably experienced that. I have where people do the didgeridoo soundings over you. But when you're doing the vocal one, What's interesting is there's another element to it which I think is your own colors of your own aura, The colors of your soul. The energy of your being is coming forth in a way that's very uniquely human. And what a gift that you two have gotten so dedicated to your path together that you can do this freely. A lot of people haven't been able to do that. You understand how beautiful a gift that is, Don't you? Well, It's more a matter of, I don't even think of it so much as a gift. We all breathe, We all talk, We all make sounds. And many of us may have been told to sing in the back of the choir and just kind of mouth the words because you didn't have a good voice. And that was just to me one of the saddest stories. So everyone can sing. I think when you round children, You really get it. It's just a natural thing. But really as we age, We get all sorts of societal conditioning that says, Oh, Don't make sounds. So we're not putting up with that. We think it's really important to sing. A few years ago, We had a fun time before COVID and lockdown and everything. But we would have people come over to our house and just bring songs that they were familiar with and the words. And we had a woman who played guitar. She'd come sometimes and a guy down the road played the piano. So we would just sing. And it wasn't a big professional thing. We didn't record it. It was just the old fashioned way of singing in the living room. And I would love to see that return and whether that becomes a big function of some sort and social way. Just as a family, Children love to sing families, Parents, Sing with your kids. I just can't say enough about the importance of singing. And you know the old song whenever I feel afraid, Whistle happy tune and no one ever knows I'm afraid. And you just sing, You just make it happen. And it really lifts your soul. Whatever you were doing. What's your vision? 40 years is a long time of working in this music field. You've created a beautiful circle of friends and we call it here in Hawaii, Ohana family. And so you have a wonderful Ohana already of people that you found it and many of them really enlightened people that you've been blessed to work with and helped over the years. So when you started this and said, You know, It's time for us to do what we've been dreaming of and to do this project with peace and to really create this foundation, Peace Through Music Foundation. Did you envision any particular way it would flow and come together? What, If you did, Can you share your vision for it? Well, First of all, We've been doing Peace Through Music for 40 years without a foundation, Just as a record label. And that's something that seemed to have come out naturally that our music was peaceful. We were into meditation. It turned out to be healing and that kind of thing. But then the foundation idea is a way that we can share this kind of idea and concept. Share it with each other and share it in a way of finding out who is similarly making sounds like that. And that opens up a whole dimension to work with people who are in their heart working for peace. And just, You know, There are a lot of musicians out there who aren't going to be playing in big arenas, Maybe, Although many are who also might have this approach. But people who want to use their music in some way to benefit society and also the planet. I mean, There's so many musicians who often, This is an example of Peace Through Music where musicians lend their sound to benefit saving the rainforest or helping people in some way. So many people will ask a musician to play for free. And of course they often do, Even though that's their craft. And of course it's always good when you can pay a musician. But musicians have that tendency to want to give back in some way. And then there are a lot of musicians who are, It's going to happen more and more, But as performing in elderly homes or for children and playing in prisons or working with disabled people or people who are having adolescents who are, You know, Got in trouble somehow and they need some encouragement. So whenever a musician can use their craft and their skill to add to the benefit for the whole of humanity, I think that's what we really want to highlight. So it's going to be a lot of fun to be networking with all these many, Many musicians who, You know, Some of them make music like we do, Which is the peaceful music that Dean and I do. But then others may be more rocking out with rock and roll or reggae music or you know, The beats and the rhythms and stuff. So it isn't what we really encourage people to think beyond culture and beyond genre. This isn't about, Oh, It's just new age music because of course that is a very peaceful music and very high intentioned music. And that's one of the blessings I think of this particular genre, But really music in general can benefit people in so many ways and it helps the soul. It helps the heart. It helps the person and themselves. I've heard so many stories of people, And I know actually quite a few, Some here on Maui who have been involved, A friend of mine who does reggae music, Marty Dred here, When he was a teenager, He joined a piece music group that went to Russia. And this was long enough ago where it was kind of very, Very stressful part of the Cold War situation. I don't think it's changed much, Has it anyway? It's come around, But now we're back to where we were. But we did that too, By the way, We did that too. We went to Russia in 1987. We called ourselves artist ambassadors and it was part of the citizen diplomacy movement that was happening because we thought, What is all this Cold War and all this fighting with the Soviets and whatnot? But we just thought people from church we were a part of in Tucson, Arizona had been going back and forth to Russia and Ukraine. And we said, We want to go. And so we organized a tour and met some fabulous Russian musicians. It was pretty amazing. Did you find that music is a language that anyone in any country, Any place in the world can understand that the language doesn't need words, But it's a language that speaks to the heart and soul and the way you do it. And I think that there probably was a lot of communication with people who didn't understand English probably. Did you get to play your music? Did you do a concert there? Yeah, We did a number of concerts and recording sessions, Actually 18 different events happened in two weeks. And we came away with it with some wonderful recordings, Which actually got used when NPR would talk about Russia and what was happening. They'd throw our. . . Well, It was an album we made called Music Makes the Snow Meltdown. And it featured collaborations with us and the Soviet musicians. Sergei Kiryokin was a avant garde musician that we'd heard about and we really wanted to meet him. So we were able to, And then we met some other people who just happened to be playing the kind of music that we worked with. So we're still in touch with some of those musicians. It was a very meaningful. . . Did you play in a concert setting with them or was it like a. . . We did. We played in Leningrad. We had one pre-planned concert that was set up at the base of the university or something in Leningrad. And then we did something in Moscow. And then we had in Ukraine, In Kiev, We were scheduled to play a little bit of music. We were going to open for some event that was set up. And then the guys came in, It was a pianist and Dean was there and with our cellist and the guys started playing piano. And I said, You guys play the same kind of music. Why don't you just jam with him? And so they started playing and then we really started cooking. So it was just. . . Oh, They took us to this underground jazz club and we recorded these Ukrainian women vocalists. They were part of this school, The university there in Kiev. And one of the schools where we made a little presentation, The teacher was so impressed because we had a dancer with us and a skateboard artist and a puppeteer and other musicians. And the person said, Your music was so special. It really made the snow melt down. And we thought, Okay, In Russia, That's something you want, A little bit warm. So we made an album called Music Makes the Snow Meltdown. It's still available. Yeah, It's a wonderful album. So how do you take all of these beautiful experiences, A lifetime of beautiful musical experiences in Prince and organize it in a way where people can get involved and find out more? Do you have any ideas of how you want to proceed? Of course, Now with this probably next few months, A year with Zoom or virtual, But then how do you proceed in actually putting into action your ideas that you want with this nonprofit? What we've got now is we've got the beginnings, Just the beginnings of a website. We really haven't got it fully developed. It's called peace through music. Foundation. And it's T-H-R-O-U-G-H. So peace through music. Foundation. And our director is a long time soundings collaborator, Burke Mulvaney. And so he's got a lot of things in the pipeline waiting to be launched, Something called the Mighty Network. And it's going to be a really wonderful way to network among musicians. We really want to, Again, Highlight and inspire. By highlighting what people are doing, We want to inspire people to do it in other cities and towns. And so it'll be a way that people can learn how they were able to perform here or do this or that. In fact, We just did our kind of launch at the Northwest Herbal Fair and we gave our first sort of peace through music award to Peter Ali. Now he's a native American flute player, A good friend of ours and Dean and he collaborated on an album with native American flute and silver flute. And you got to hear it. It's just gorgeous. So that's called Prayers on the Wind. But what is special about Peter is, Well, His mother's a Pima Indian and his father's from Morocco. So he's like a world blend of humanity. But he also, He has a day job and he, But he's always every weekend he's been out and now that things are opening up a bit. He's out traveling, He goes to reservations, He shares his music, He teaches people how to make these Cedar flutes and they come home with a flute and he's taught them a little bit about how to play it. And he plays at all kinds of little festivals and libraries and just does all sorts of presentations. So he's just out there sharing. So he was just a perfect person for us to highlight as an example. And then we want to continue to showcase people that we believe are doing something special in their community. Because when you hear about somebody doing something over there and you think, Wow, That guy's doing something cool. I could do that here. And that's what we really want it to spread like wildfire in a good way. And just motivate people to use their music, Not to go out and be big fancy recording artist. I mean, It's hard to be a musician today and earn a living. So we're not encouraging people to quit their day job. If they happen to be a working musician who's able to earn their living, Hallelujah. And we've been blessed in that sense. But for a lot of people, Music is just part of their lives. Tell them what your music teacher told you. Oh yeah. I stayed with the same music teacher for 10 years. And one of the things he said to me was, Don't try and make your living as a musician. It's much too difficult. So I listened to him and ended up getting a master's degree in molecular biology. But as I was doing that, I realized I was spending four fifths of my time on musical groups. I had a folk group going, A rock band. I was doing soundtracks for films for an art professor. So I recognized that and which direction I was going in. And I decided to go to New York City and learn what the music business was about and how to be a musician fully. Yeah, Of course he is a recording engineer for many years. But you do what you do. We kind of stumbled into it and we were fortunate when we started Soundings of the Planet in 1979. But everything's changing and you'll get a lot of naysayers and it's certainly appropriate to consider trying to earn a living as a musician. But even if that doesn't happen, I think there's so many ways to use music to benefit oneself and also to benefit the people around you. And frankly, Just playing music at home. It's all a vibration. The whole reality is vibration. Every molecule, Every molecular part is vibration. Every atom is a vibration. Every part of music is a vibration. Love is a vibration. Light is a vibration. How the zoom works is a vibration. And yes it is. And it's funny when you start contributing positive energy through these vibrations, How they resonate like we started with throughout the world, Throughout the planet. I think there's so much light out there, So many people doing beautiful things that unfortunately the side effect, Or maybe it's fortunately really, The side effect is that there's so much light that we'll be able to shine the light to see that there is darkness too and the darkness has to be shown because there is more light. When you have more light, You see more shadows. And so we're seeing some of the shadows and have to deal with those shadows as the most advanced part of our consciousness can right now because all these things have come up. And then I see beautiful souls like you dedicated to peace and helping it. I have to also go back to what I've always debated in myself about this planet and peace, Which is that this planet may have, Has beautiful peace in nature. And that's of course you're right there in a beautiful spot in nature and I'm here in Hawaii. It can be very peaceful, But when you get people together, And not just people sometimes, It can be animals even, Then there can be these things with the ego that come up that are conflicts that we have to learn to shine our light so that we can evolve past the conflicts in a peaceful way. And that's a huge challenge. I have to tell a funny little story. I have these, I like when I go and do yoga before I do yoga, I take bread and feed the little birds around here. And so I was throwing the bread out the other day and I've always thought of peace and doves and I have these minor birds. I don't think you probably have minor birds there, But these minor birds and then these real red headed cartons are kind of part of my bird family out here. So I was throwing the bread out and these two doves came, Started eating the breadcrumbs. I thought, Oh, That's sweet. I'm making this bird sound. And then the red headed bird came down and started eating some breadcrumbs. Those doves, One dove walks over to the red headed bird right in front of my eyes, Bumps him out of the way and chases him away. I'm going, You're supposed to be peaceful. There's enough bread here for everyone. What are you doing creating this pecking order where a dove has to push a red headed cardinal out of the way? I actually got mad. It's not cool. All right, You know what? This pecking order is an interesting thing. It's something that we have. There really is enough for everyone in this planet, But you look at how we in this planet will create conflict because we want something someone else has, Or we think our views are right and someone else's views are wrong. It's such an interesting thing peacemakers have to deal with to resolve this other side of beings that have this conflict or whatever you want to call it in the case of a dove, I think it's in something that wants what someone else has and they're going to take it through whatever means they want and then you have to resolve it. It's funny you mentioned doves. We've got about a dozen doves out at our bird feeder, But the blue jays are the ones that are pushing their way in. You mentioned conflict. I think one of my big concerns these days is what's happening in our new age community because some people are choosing to be vaccinated and some people are choosing not to be vaccinated. My prayer is that we really can understand that this is about oneness. There are lessons to be learned here and it's important to not lose our unity, Our sense of unity and to respect each other for our different opinions and choices in life. I really believe that most likely the yoga, Meditation and holistic community will not be spreading the virus because they do take care of themselves and they are healthy. I hope that that is the case. I wish personally I am vaccinated and I would prefer if everyone were, But I understand people make decisions in other ways. I really had to come to a recognition of the fact that no matter what happens, We need to not let this divide us because if we do, We are going to end up with a much worse situation that goes way beyond whatever got the vaccine or not. We've come a long way. Dean and I, When we first met and were involved in videotaping the emerging consciousness back in the 70s, We were trying to put together in our concepts what kind of world do we want to create. These beautiful people who are oriented in that way toward healthy living and taking care of themselves and meditation, They're all trying their best to do that. We just simply cannot let this divide our community or we are going to be in very big trouble. Music is one way that we can join together and let's just keep moving forward in that sense of using our gifts and talents to create the best possible world because it needs our help. It needs us to be unified and it needs us to be able to bring this sense of peace and love and compassion and forgiveness and understanding and all the things the Dalai Lama says. This is what we need now. We're being tested. We are being tested in a very big way. I know this is pervasive across the globe with our people. I call it our people because we are the people who have been born to try to figure it out in a way that isn't self-oriented, Is not ego-oriented. It's about being generous and kind and loving and healthy because there's a greater societal thing that doesn't care if we're healthy. It wants to sell us sweeties and just processed foods and chemicalized things. That's not going to be helpful in the long run. The people who are growing their own food, Who are into gardening, Who are into holistic and yoga, Meditation, All these people, These are our people and we need to just stay together and respect each other no matter what choices have been made as long as they are not harming each other, Of course. I so agree with you. Of course, I've been vaccinated and I work in a radio station. We're in a place that we're interacting a lot around a lot of people who come and go. I think most all of our people are vaccinated. Now with this division, I'm seeing here, There's always been aloha. Aloha has been the foundation of a lot of our way of living on Maui. In this last six months especially since the re-emergence of the Delta variant when the numbers have gone sky high here, Really over the top. I've never seen so much anger and frustration and the division of I'm right, You're wrong and bickering that gets nasty on social media especially. Recently, Unfortunately, There's all these people blaming visitors coming and turning hatred, Really anger towards them and going, What happened to aloha? What happened to. . . Yes, It's so important that we can realize that if we start saying I'm right and you're wrong, That is not going to create a peaceful situation. It's never resolved any situation with wars, With what's going on with COVID or anything. We know saying I'm right and you're wrong is not going to work. We do know, You know very well that if we reach out and share what we do have this positive music and love and I do poetry as well. If we share that, I mean, Hopefully that is something we can still agree on and focus on. There's always a choice. You can look at something that's going to be agreeable and positive and energy or you can respond to something in a negative way and almost without doubt, The negative way is going to draw more negative energy with it until it gets to the point where there's a lot of nasty things that come about from it. We really as peacemakers, Lightworkers, As people who are working for the good of the planet really have to more than ever choose to harmonize with the good and not get engaged with the I'm right and you're wrong, Even if we are. We need to speak our truth with love and compassion. I often say that conflict, When you go down to the root of it, It's more the appearance of conflict. I mean, There definitely are, But it's like there's obviously the news media and social media big time, They stir the pot of conflict and then it just gets bigger and worse. We need to speak our truth with kindness as the Dalai Lama would say. That's all we can say. We need to be proactive, I think. Those of us who have chosen to be vaccinated, Which I do very much appreciate, But I also don't want to leave my dear friends behind who have chosen not to be vaccinated. Certain people who deny the existence of COVID, Those people I probably never reach, But it's our dear friends who are deeply engaged in creating a beautiful new world. Those are the people that we need to stay connected with and keep loving and keep respecting. That's all we can do. I love the people standing across the room from each other, Both looking down at the number six from a different perspective. I was like, That's a six, No, That's a nine. It's like, Okay, We're both looking at the same number and we're both right and it's just seeing things from a different perspective. In any piecework, There has to always come the understanding of the person behind it. I'm sure you saw when you were in Ukraine and in Russia, And I see it because I've traveled the world as well. People are people. People have family, People have loved ones, People have joining together over eating food. People have stories that do unite. People unite over and through listening to music and creating music together. We can unite in a peaceful way in things that we agree on. I've seen this, Even Yo-Yo Ma and others have done concerts in Israel with Palestinians. We've been able to do huge steps forward. I hate to see some of the division that's happening at this point pull the threads of the seam apart with this unfortunate, It's like a war we've been through with COVID-19. If we could just unite in the good part, In the peaceful part and stay strong and just trying to overcome the challenges that we have rather than fight with each other. It's so imperative that what you're doing is so important right now with peace and your words of wisdom really do resonate. I know you're still in the very beginning stages of your new website and your new projects, But I know you have two sites that are beautiful. I love Soundings. What's the best website, Two websites, Your own personal website and the new website people can check out? Well, If they want to learn more about the Peace Through Music Foundation, They can go to peacethroughmusic. Foundation. Of course, All of our peaceful music is available along with our books and other things, Videos, Lots and lots of videos on Peace. That would be on our personal website, Which is soundings. Com. Then we also have some wonderful YouTube channels that I encourage people to visit. Our main music channel is Soundings of the Planet. So you can search Soundings of the Planet on YouTube. You'll be able to listen to Monet's Garden the full hour. It's spring in Monet's Garden and there are a lot of shorter ones. Then the other channel is, And there are a lot of meditation timers on there and a lot of just wonderful from all of the different musicians that we've collaborated with over the years. The other channel is more of our archival channel and that is called Soundings Mindful Media. There you'll get to see Ram Dass talking or the Hopi Prophecy, Thomas Pinacchia and David Minonia. You can hear the Jefferson Airplane when Dean recorded the looking at the foot of Grace Slick and Papa John Creech. It just goes on and on. John Denver playing in South Dakota. Chief Pusch Rose. That's a fun channel because that will just help you to understand where we've come from. Because when we started with our video camera in 1970, We were really curious about what was this new consciousness that everybody was interested in. It was about becoming better people. It was about self-development. It was about yoga, Meditation, And health and wellness and healing, Self-healing and so many things. Our Native American brothers and sisters really helped stimulate our interest in the planet and how important it is to take care of Mother Earth. It's a great opportunity to go see the latest PBS video on Native America. It's called Native America. It's narrated by Robbie Robertson. It's beautifully done, Beautifully done. I'm going way back to the deep, Deep thousands of years ago history of all Native. You talked about it or anyone else. I'd love to share in their stories together as my part of what I like to do, Which is having music on the radio and music streaming and also hear music with My Site Peace Project. Please keep me in touch. I'd love to share what you're doing and spreading this beautiful piece through music. It's a beautiful, Beautiful gift to the world. Thank you so much, Cindy. Thanks for your work. We're really interested in learning more about the Peace Project and the different Peace Awards and just again, Really working together to collaborate and lift up the many people who are using music to create more peace and love in the world. It's a good thing. Thank you so much and a big aloha.