Breath of Life Flutes Native American Style Flutes for Health and Healing

Healing....

Healing the human body is a challenging topic of discussion for any number of reasons. And when the goal is healing the human spirit, the discussion becomes much richer, filled with hidden levels of meaning, bringing each of us face-to-face with the hardest questions of all — those which transcend the human condition. (Which, by definition, we cannot answer while remaining inside the human condition.)

We also need to be aware of legal considerations — Only medical professionals may make medical claims.

In many ways I suppose this is good — most of us have seen the lying snake oil salesman in television shows. That kind of immoral activity really has taken place in the past, and no doubt it still does to this day. So while this limits our discussion, we can understand why it must.

In this light, allow me to open this section of my web site with the following statements:

I am profoundly UNqualified to offer medical advice of any kind! Nothing I say should be construed as offering medical advice. I am (profoundly!) unqualified to do so, and I do not offer medical advice.
Treating our physical bodies well provides a solid foundation for all other activities we may undertake. This means eating healthy food, getting adequate rest, and exercising appropriately. And it is always prudent to ask your doctor if any of the topics we are discussing are suitable for your current condition of health.
Everything I offer is my opinion.
I view and answer these questions from a spiritual point of view.
I personally find the process of Gnosis (seeking understanding) to be an important aspect of my Spiritual Journey. But I also believe ultimately I will discover I am quite wrong about everything I think I know. Or perhaps more likely, I will discover a new perspective, setting all my "knowledge" adrift from the "meaning" I currently attribute to it (from my human-centric point of view).

So where does this leave our discussion?

Typically, the strongest statement made by non-medical professional is along these lines...

...X helps promote a relaxed mental and/or physical state, which in turn is thought to help promote the mind-body to affect its natural ability to heal.

And there seems to be a wide variety of studies supporting such claims. But all this is really saying, however prettily it may be worded, is that the mind and body has a natural ability to heal itself, and when we place our mind and body in a relaxed state, they are better able to do what they naturally do. Well, sure! I don't know about you, but I don't need 1,001 studies to tell me this — it's "common sense" isn't it?

One brief example of our self-healing ability is related by Joseph Campbell in his book "Myths To Life By" (page 222). A man suffering schizophrenia gets a "nasty cut" on his finger, but refuses to let anyone tend to the wound. Instead, by focusing "'a sort of attention on it'" (which I frequently call Directed Intention) this man healed his finger in a day.

I personally think our primary state is spiritual.

We are some kind of mental-spiritual energy-being projecting its essence into this physical world. It is as if we are "physical shadows" of our Higher Self. And this is not something I expect we are capable of completely comprehending. (Because doing so requires transcending our existing state. Which is why mystics of all ages turn their backs upon comprehension, and instead seek apprehension.)

Attempts to catch a glimpse of what lies beyond our physical existence have lead to a wide variety of approaches, some more "mystical" in nature and some more "scientific" in nature. Each seeks to understand at least something of our non-physical being, and how to interact with it to our ultimate benefit. Examples include meditation, chakra manipulation, sound therapy, reiki, and acupuncture.

To my way of thinking, all of these are seeking a means to improve our ability to promote relaxation at some level of our being, with the intention of returning us to our "natural balance." Some approaches seek to interact with our energy-spirit-body, some with our mind-emotional-body, some with our physical-body, and many of these approaches seek an integration of all these paths.

All are undertaken with the intention of producing a state in which our natural abilities to heal are promoted. The distinction may seen subtle to some, but there is a difference between trying to actively heal, and to encourage the conditions in which healing naturally takes place.

The following are some of the areas of interests I find intersecting with these types of questions...

Hypnosis Meditation Placebo Effect

Acupuncture, EFT Energy-Work, Reiki Chakras

Intention 432-Hertz "Healing Frequency" Schumann Resonance, Frequency of the Earth

Music and Sound Chanting and Toning

So what is the role of the flute in promoting one's health?

Surveying the above topics should begin to underscore the importance our perception has upon the quality of our health. This is where I find playing the Native American style flute may be useful in promoting better health, greater relaxation, and setting us upon our Personal Journey with a lighter step.

Music...

It may seem trite, but music really does "soothe the angry beast." Music soothes our inner beast which frees us to more easily work with, or find common-union with, our Spiritual Higher Self. Anyone doubting this need only spend a little time researching the application music therapy techniques. Better yet, take your Native American style flute into a retirement home or dementia unit and play for them! You will see for yourself the profound effects music has on the human spirit.

Focus aid...

I find playing one of my Native American style flutes often brings my thoughts into greater focus. I think what is happening is part of my overly-busy mind is quieted, while the creative areas of my mind become more active. This is a good combination, and I find the effect to be much like a meditative state. When promoting self-healing this offers an excellent opportunity to feed positive suggestions and images into the relaxed and open mind.

Active imagination...

This is something Carl Jung spoke of, and it involves the process of activating the creative centers of our mind and allowing the images and impressions of the unconscious to flow upward toward our conscious awareness. We can also use this creative process to energize thought-images empowered with specific Directed Intention. These Intentions may easily include themes promoting self-healing.

Visualization...

This is a more commonly heard phrase. This is the process by which we use the tools spoken of above to promote the conditions in which self-healing are more likely to take place.

"Spiritual massage" ...

This is a phrase which came up while speaking with my mother. I rather like it! Most of us accept that physical massage therapy offers positive benefits to us. Some of these anticipated benefits are physical and others are mental-emotional-spiritual. When I say "spiritual massage" I mean all of this, but I am emphasizing the importance of our Spiritual Nature. Playing the Native American style flute reaches us on a very deep and personal level. It reaches our soul — it touches the very essence of who and what we are. Even if this is not something we fully understand!

For all these reasons, I personally find the Native American style flute to be wonderfully healing and rejuvenating. I sincerely recommend others try this — either by playing or listening. There is little enough at risk — a few dollars and a little time — and the potential rewards are great, and across many levels. I really feel you are likely to find playing the flute offers great personal returns for a relatively modest investment.

	www.BreathOfLifeFlutes.com Copyright © 2010-2011 Erik Weaver erikeweaver@gmail.com Please contact me if you have any questions about flutes, learning to play, or if you wish to have a flute hand-crafted for yourself or a loved one.
Please note, while I admire much of the Native American culture, I am not a Native American Indian. So far as I know, my bloodlines are 100% European, including Welsh, English, Scottish, Irish, and moving onto the continent, Holland and German... along with a number of unknowns, I'm sure. One may properly refer to me as an European-American Mutt ;^) Although, in truth, I consider myself an American, not an European-American. My mother's bloodlines in North America pre-date the American Revolution and my great-grandfather on my father's side was a circuit preacher in Kansas around 1900. Of course, we all have tribal ancestry. It is simply a matter of when and where. It would seem my ancestral tribal roots must be Celtic and Teutonic (Germanic).