EFTA02343235.pdf

From: Rupert Sheldrake Sent: Monday, July 4, 2016 10:55 PM To: Jeffrey E. Subject: harmony Dear Jeffrey, I much enjoyed our =onversation and have been puzzling over the evolutionary basis of our appreciation of harmony, not =omething I'd ever thought about before until you brought up this fascinating =uestion. Fortunately as I was puzzling over it, the sounds =f a workshop my wife, Jill Purce, was giving in a large room below me =n our house came wafting up. She teaches chanting and meditation and was giving a special master class on overtone chanting, a form of =hanting which brings out the overtones which are always implicit, that are made explicit in this Mongolian technique. So I think the answer is fairly clear. =lthough harmony in musical sense of the word is not a major part of our evolutionary heritage, harmonics certainly =re. If you and I sing the syllable 000 on the note C, our voices will sound different and will be recognisable to any =eople who know us because there are different patterns of overtones. This is =hy a flute playing C sounds different from a cello or a trumpet. Just to recognise somebody else's voice requires this detection =f overtones which are, quite literally, harmonics and the same is true in the animal kingdom. Sheep can recognise their lambs by sound, and vice versa, again based on a subtle detection of =armonics. So =ur brains and our mental habits have over a long period established the ability to detect harmonics, and to recognise =ifferent patterns of harmonics. So when musical harmonies come along, our brains and minds are naturally receptive to =hem having had millions of years of practice. I myself think that =he three dimensional patterns of rhythmic activity set up by the perceptions of sounds, and indeed all =ther sensations, resonate with previous similar patterns and involve an =nherent memory given by morphic resonance. Best wishes Rupert EFTA_R1_01311072 EFTA02343235