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7 Steps to Self Agape
by José Stevens, Ph.D.

Remember that the goal of this teaching is to facilitate the lessons of unconditional love and acceptance. There is no possibility of accomplishing this toward others if you have not first learned how to unconditionally accept yourself.

Here are seven steps to lead you in that direction.

· 1. Trust in your perceptivity.

· 2. Ruthless truthfulness with yourself.

· 3. Acknowledging that the world and those in it are perfect and making a commitment to be tolerant.

· 4. Allow yourself your own power and constant choice to be appropriate with it.

· 5. Erasing fear and the chief negative feature to live in gentleness and joy.

· 6. Truly experiencing surrender and therefore power and control, which leads to the true integration of personality and essence. This allows you to fully experience the physical plane as well as the truth, love, and beauty of the other planes.

· 7. Humility
1. Trust in your perceptivity.

The first step to self-agape has to do with developing your ability to perceive. Perceiving is not thinking about, nor is it figuring out or scrutinizing. Remember that perceptivity is a function of your emotional center and that perception is a feeling. This is the ability to size up the truth of a situation, experience, or person by instantly and emotionally sensing what is so about them.

You might walk into a business meeting where a number of people are present and you can instantly perceive whom you can trust and whom you should be careful about. You can instantly perceive as well whether you are going to get anywhere with this team or whether you are going to waste time and money with them.

The aphorism “Don’t guess, perceive”, applies to this step. This is an important way to look at perceptivity. Your society does not encourage people to follow and trust their own intuitions and perceptions. Characteristically older souls, because of their experience, have inherently good perceptivity skills. The problem tends to be that older souls lose confidence in their perceptivity when they live in a young soul society that places a low value on intuition and perception. Thus, this first step to self-agape is to trust and develop the skill of perception.
2. Ruthless truthfulness with yourself.

The second step to self-agape encourages you to be completely honest with yourself. Ruthless truthfulness means the courage to state what is so about yourself and your perceptions at any one time. This truthfulness does not have so much to do with perceiving as it does with telling the truth about what you perceived. Often you perceive accurately but then deny what you saw, or distort is so much that the truth becomes unrecognizable.

You may accurately assess that the business team gathered is a bad mix of personalities and that your endeavors will come to grief. However, if you should slide to the negative poles of your over-leaves and become, for example, ingratiating, you may deny to yourself and the others your original perception. You will act as if everything is fine and proceed foolishly into a mess.

Knowing and telling the truth, however, can be tricky. Because the truth is unique for each individual, one person’s truth is another person’s lie. In addition, truth is not always constant but changes as the soul matures and gains experience. The truth for a baby soul is different from the truth for a mature soul. The truth for a baby soul is that law, order, and obedience to authority are the most necessary ingredients to live a good life. The truth for a mature soul is that individual search and questioning of authority is necessary for a good life.

Ruthless truthfulness is a form of compassion and need not be seen as a way of putting oneself down or being self-deprecating. Being self-truthful is not beating yourself up but seeing in a detached way what the reality is and what must be done.
3. Acknowledging that the world and the people in it are perfect and making a commitment to be tolerant.

The third step focuses on acknowledging that people are perfect the way they are. Perfect means that each person is following his or her own path just the way that they should. In other words, every person is learning their lessons in his or her chosen ways. The important lesson one person is learning may be the important lesson that another person learned ten lifetimes ago or will learn three lifetimes from now.

Therefore perfection does not have to be a high ideal or look like your pictures of what the world is supposed to be, but in fact what is.

The concept of perfection in “what is” has always been one of the most difficult for students to understand. You may ask, how can the world be perfect if there is killing, war, famine, and disease? How can so-and-so be perfect if he lies, cheats, and steals from me? Should I do nothing, then, to correct or stop these things? The answer is paradoxical. Yes, all these things are being perfectly done and everyone is learning their lessons exactly the way they had hoped (on an essence level, of course). However, part of this perfection is that when you perceive injustice you perfectly move to correct it. Therefore physical reality is a game that everyone gets to play, the unjust and the just, and in the illusion of time one will eventually become the other, and the game continues.
4. Allow yourself your own power and the constant choice to be appropriate with it.

Personal power is the result of telling the truth. Telling the truth gives you presence, and presence is perceived as power. Being appropriate with power is a unique task for each individual.

The more powerful a person is, the simpler the message. The philosophical writings of young souls are often lengthy, complex, and difficult to read. The message of old souls tends to be far simpler. The teachings and concepts of Jesus Christ are immensely powerful and are phrased in the simplest possible terms, as in the parables and in statements such as “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The Buddha taught the eightfold path based on the simple truth that to crave is to suffer. Meher Baba said, “Don’t worry, be happy.” What could be simpler?
5. Erase fear and your chief negative feature to live in gentleness and joy.

Attention and awareness are the chief tools for erasing fear. Fear is a by-product of the false personality and when you shift your identification away from the false personality and toward essence you automatically begin to dissolve fear.

All seven chief features — self-destruction, greed, self-deprecation, arrogance, martyrdom, impatience, and stubbornness are based on fears. A major life task each lifetime is to erase the neutralizing effect of the chief feature so that you can reach your goal. When you are realizing your life goal, whether it is acceptance or growth, you feel the joy of essence work. The experience of joy always leads to gentleness.
6. Truly experiencing surrender and therefore power and control.

This allows you to fully experience the physical plane as well as the truth, love, and beauty of the other planes.

As you can see, step six contains a paradox, calling on you to experience surrender while at the same time experiencing personal power. You need to be able to hold this contradiction at one and the same time in order to be in control.

In one sense, surrender means no longer resisting the events and experiences of the physical plane. Surrender does not mean giving up, but embracing essence-directed lessons and opportunities. When you stop resisting being in a body and the karma that accompanies it, you begin to rapidly accelerate your spiritual growth. As you accelerate you become more powerful because you learn to fear nothing.

Spiritual growth allows you to access the higher centers — higher intellectual, higher emotional, and higher moving. As you begin to open up to the higher centers you begin to experience the truth, love, and beauty of all the planes within the Tao.
7. Humility

This seventh step is the experience of completion after you have mastered the first six steps. The seventh step allows you to let go of attachment to that achievement and this neutrality is expressed as humility.

This article was excerpted from the book “Earth to Tao”, published by Bear & Co./Inner Traditions International, Santa Fe, NM.

Earth to Tao.

A more recent book by this author, Transforming Your Dragons :Turning Personality Fear Patterns into Personal Power.

From today’s call:Values assessment:

1. Look at the values at: 

www.humanityquest.com

 2. Pick 20.

Break it down to the TOP 5 (1 - 5)

4. Whenever you make a decision, review your values  

The power of remaining positive, whatever the situation, can never be underestimated. We are all here for a limited period of time, is it worth it to spend any of that time in a dismal mood? Being negative?The true test of an individual to remain positive is when challenges become difficult. Remaining positive keeps one’s mind in the right state of balance and often opens resolutions to the problems at hand. Negativity is contagious; not only does it affect the individual, but it spreads to anyone they interact with. When only the negative perspective is in focus, the resolution process is impeded.Eliminating negativity, or rather, being positive is a mindset that can be found at any moment, and turned into a habit. Here are some tips that can help you in shifting your mindset:

1. Shift Your Thoughts - Be conscious of your thoughts. Especially, when life just isn’t going your way. The moment you see that you are diving into frustration, agony, sorrow and low self-esteem - shift your thoughts, by thinking about something completely unrelated. This breaks the pattern of self-pity, mind-created stories, and negative downward spiral. What makes us different from other mammals is our ability to control our thoughts and think for ourselves.
2. Find the Lesson - There is a lesson to be learned from every situation. No matter how unfortunate the situation may appear, recognize the beautiful lessons waiting to be discovered. Sometimes lessons are expensive, but every problem is a learning opportunity in disguise. You may have made a mistake, but now you can accept it and continue, knowing that you will make a different decision in the future. Understand this and be appreciative for the experience.
3. Attitude of Gratitude - You cannot be both angry and grateful at the same time. Start counting the blessings and miracles in your life, start looking for them and you shall find more. What’s there not to be grateful? You are alive and breathing! Realize how lucky you are and all the abundance in your life.
4. Positive Affirmations & Visualization - Practice seeing yourself in a positive and confident light. Do this whenever you have a few minutes (examples; Waiting for a friend, sitting on the bus, riding an elevator.) Self-affirmations (list of positive statements about yourself and your self image) are another simple and powerful tool to train your subconscious to see yourself in a positive light. This is important, as many of us can be so hard on ourselves though social conditioning. I am guilty of being extra tough on myself, but have learned over time to recognize my gifts rather than finding false and self-imposed inadequacies.
5. Inventory of Memories - Keep an inventory of memories that can immediately make you smile. Occasions where you felt happy, appreciative and cheerful. When you were at peace with the world. Whenever you are in a negative frame of mind, consciously and deliberately pick up any leaf out of this inventory and dwell on it. Reminiscing those happy moments gives a balanced perspective to your situation. You realize that what appears negative today will change tomorrow. Nothing stays the same.
6. Criticizing Detox Diet - Change your approach and attitude. See if you can stop criticizing others and situations. Our cultural conditioning teaches us to find flaws and problems at all times. Shift from fault-finding to appreciation-finding.

Whether you are positive or negative, the situation does not change. So, we mind as well be positive.As with any habit, the habit of remaining positive in all situations takes practice and a commitment to yourself to take control. But start small, start paying attention to your emotions, start by wanting to change. I am working on this constantly, and I am here with you, working towards better understanding of my emotions and becoming a better person. Keep going at it, and you will gradually become a positive energy source for the others around you! Wouldn’t that be empowering?Source: 

Source: www.thinksimplenow.com

Regardless of whether you are introverted or extraverted, you have probably felt shy at some point in your life. There is a misconception that only introverts experience shyness, but in reality being shy has more to do with being uncomfortable with yourself, especially around other people.Shyness has three components:

1. Excessive Self-Consciousness — you are overly aware of yourself, particularly in social situations2. Excessive Negative Self-Evaluation — you tend to see yourself negatively3. Excessive Negative Self-Preoccupation — you tend to pay too much attention to all the things you are doing wrong when you are around other peopleThis ThinkSimpleNow article has compiled some excellent tips that may help you overcome the uncomfortable feeling of shyness:

1. Understand Your Shyness — What situation triggers this feeling? And what are you concerned with at that point?
2. Turn Self Consciousness into Self Awareness — Recognize that the world is not looking at you. Most people are too busy looking at themselves.3. Find Your Strengths — It’s important to know and fully accept the things that you do well, even if they differ from the norm.4. Learn to Like Yourself – Practice appreciating yourself and liking the unique expression that is you.5. Don’t Conform – Trying to fit in like everyone else is exhausting and not very much fun. Understand that it is okay to be different.6. Focus on Other People — Rather than focusing on your awkwardness in social situations, focus on other people and what they have to say.7. Release Anxiety through Breath — A simple technique to calm anxiety is taking deep breaths with your eyes closed.
8. Release Anxiety through Movement — One way of viewing anxiety is that it is blocked energy that needs to be released. You can release this energy through physical movement.9. Visualization — Visualizing yourself in the situation as a confident and happy person helps to shape your perception of yourself.10. Affirmation — Words can carry incredible energy. What you repeatedly tell yourself gets heard by your unconscious mind, and it acts accordingly.
11. Do Not Leave an Uncomfortable Situation – Turn the fearful situation into a place of introspection and personal growth.
12. Accept Rejection — Accept the possibility that  we can be rejected, and learn to not take it personally.13. Relinquish Perfectionism – Create visions of yourself out of the Being from who you are, naturally; and let that expression flow.14. Stop Labeling Yourself — Stop labeling yourself as a shy person.15. Practice Social Skills — Like any other skill, social skills can be cultivated through practice and experience.
16. Practice Being in Uncomfortable Situations — Placing yourself in these uncomfortable situations will help to desensitize your fear of the situation.17. The Three Questions — During social settings where you may experience nervousness, periodically ask yourself the following three questions:

   1. Am I breathing?   2. Am I relaxed?   3. Am I moving with grace?

18. What is Comfortable for You? — Going to bars and clubs isn’t for everyone. Understand what feels comfortable for you, and find people, communities and activities that bring out the best in you.

19. Focus on the Moment — Becoming mindful of what you’re doing, regardless of what you’re doing, will take focus away from the self.20. Seek and Record Your Successes — Keeping a journal of your successes will not only boost self-confidence, but also shift your focus toward something that can benefit you.Source: www.thinksimplenow.com  

Eating broccoli could reverse the damage that diabetes inflicts on heart blood vessels. The key is most likely a compound in the vegetable called sulforaphane.

Sulforaphane encourages production of enzymes that protect the blood vessels, and reduces the number of molecules that cause cell damage — known as Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) — by up to 73 percent.

People with diabetes are up to five times more likely to develop cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes — both of which are linked to damaged blood vessels.

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.Where there is hatred, let me sow love;where there is injury,pardon;where there is doubt, faith;where there is despair, hope;where there is darkness, light;and where there is sadness, joy.O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seekto be consoled as to console;to be understood as to understand;to be loved as to love.For it is in giving that we receive;it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

         One of the reasons I live in Florida is that I love the beaches.

         One morning I was on a walk on a particularly lovely beach.   The sun had just lifted off the horizon, and the Atlantic was calm.   The waves were lapping gentle lace on the shore with a shushing sound, as though to quiet the whispering breeze through palm fronds.  The air was fresh and salty, smelling of forever.

         I realized I was sharing the lovely view with a man.

         We started to talk, and I could just feel that he was a wonderful man.   He had that kind of presence.  

         I told him about what I felt my life’s purpose was.   I told him this book.   I wanted, I said, to help people find happiness.

         The man said something that I will never forget.

         He said that the problem we have as human beings is that we overcomplicate things.   In short, we overanalyze things.   We get confused over the irrelevant things that clutter our paths.  

         He gave me these words to put in my book.

         If you take only one sentence from this book to live, this one should be it:

Love yourself unconditionally without judgment, love your brother unconditionally without judgment, and be at peace.

         If I was limited to one thing to teach, it would be this simple statement.    There, on the beach, with the warming rays of the sun touching, I felt as though truth itself was penetrating me.   

         Love.

         Everything comes down to love.

         Love, I believe, is what philosopher’s call the “ground of being”.

WHAT I MEAN BY LOVE

         Okay, if love is everything, what’s next?  Send out valentines to everyone?   Listen to sentimental music and smooch everyone who comes within reach.  Prance through parks, strewing flowers?

         No.

         That’s the sentimental version of “love”.

         I’m not talking about the “touchy — feely” version of love, either.

         This is what I mean.

         Love, quite simply, is the force that connects each of us to one another — and to the eternal energy that powers us.   We don’t close our eyes and conjure up love from thin air.   We relax, open our hearts, and find the love, the connection to each other and the universe.   That’s love.

         We human beings are not separate from each other.

         We just think we are.  

         If we are all eternal beings, if the source of our true selves and our souls is a higher consciousness — don’t we all share that.   If, in our ego state, we also touch that higher joy, don’t we touch it not just through going within — but through each other?

         And while our Ego’s and identities can hinder our comprehension of our True Selves — can’t we appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of  Identity … of the Other?

         This seems to me something of what love is, though I can’t pretend to be able to actually qualify or quantify love’s true depth and mystery.

         I only know that it’s real.

         I can feel it.   And it feels like the true nature of the energy in — well, everything!

         Love, I believe, is the essense of our being.   It is the life that breathes through us.   It is the key that unlocks the temple.  

         I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase  “God is love.”  I didn’t make that up.  I’m far from the first to express this viewpoint.

         I’m just trying to live it.

         If we show our love, if we live it, we wake up that energy in others as well as ourselves.   We connect.   There’s no way you can describe love.  It’s a feeling, and it’s a feeling that’s true and pure and good.

         Love has the power to change the world.

BORN TO LOVE

         You can learn a lot about love from a dog.

         Have you ever seen a dog’s reaction when its owner comes home after being away for a while?  There’s not an ounce of that dog that isn’t wagging or yapping or staring with glowing thrill.   That’s unconditional love.

         Even when a dog is beaten, it remains loyal.   Neurotic and withdrawn and broken, and confused, but still trying to love.

         As children we are filled with love and happiness, until the world beats us, until the false reality says, no, being.  You are not love.  You are a worthless machine and must fit into me, performing your duties.

         If you can reach into yourself and feel love — you can reach out and touch other with it, and spread that charge, that truth.   You have everything you need to love.  It’s your nature. 

         Remember the Golden Rule.

         Love your neighbor as yourself.

         Why is this so true?

         Because when we love, that energy of True Self connects, recognizes and transforms.   It breathes energy into our world and our egos.   It animates us — and makes our existence here worthwhile.

GIVING

         As you remember how to tap into this natural energy of love, you will learn that a major pleasure of money comes not from using it to buy things — but in giving it.

         There’s a law that says whenever you give it will come back.

         If you want love you must give love.   If you want money you must give money.

         This is a law that truly successful people understand.

         “But I don’t have anything to give!” I hear you say.

         How wrong you are!

         Any kind of gift of money — when given freely — is a gift of love.

         However, the principal here is giving.   A gift doesn’t have to be money, or bought by money.

         Say a prayer for someone.

         Bring an attitude of silence of mind and peace to a chaotic work environment.   Open a door for a stranger.   Pick up some litter in a park and put it in the trash.   Call your parents and share some of your time with them.  

         Touch some one today with a simple good deed — or just a smile.

         Be a difference maker at any level.

         People are starving for a positive beacon in their lives.  By paying attention to other human beings and understanding this, you can touch them.  Revere other humans for who they are — souls who just need help remembering the love they have and the love they need.

“You give but little when you give of your possessions.   It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

Kahil Gibran

We all experience stress throughout our lives.  Situations that can cause stress are unavoidable. What we can control is how we react to them. Psychological stress can best be defined as emotional strain or tension in response to a particular event, behavior, place or person. While it isn’t always easy to find effective ways to manage the daily stress we face, it is vital to try to find healthy ways to manage stress. When we cannot, we often feel its damaging impact through anger, depression and a multitude of other health problems.

There are some situations that inherently rate high on the stress scale: divorce, death of a child or spouse, illness, a move or a change of job. But each of us has the ability to manage most stressful situations by altering the way we respond to them. It is impossible to manage or control all the people, events and places in our lives that place demands on us, and any attempt to do so causes our stress level to go up. We would be better off learning to accept those situations we can not change and to manage how we deal with stress by understanding the phenomenon of “being stressed.”

Stress is classified into two types - acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term). People experience acute stress when they are dealing with a dangerous or life threatening situation. Because these circumstances were common in our evolutionary past, humans have a built-in mechanism that is commonly referred to as the “fight or flight” response, so named because of the way our bodies react to such an event. Immediate physiological responses, mediated by the release of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, prepare the body for this “fight or flight” response by increasing blood pressure, heart rate and respiration. In fact, blood flow can increase 300 to 400 percent in order to prepare the legs, brain and lungs for the added demands of either fighting off a physical threat, or running to safety. Conversely, other major body systems such as the digestive tract are shut down short-term, as they are considered non-essential during a stressful event. These physical changes were vital for survival in prehistoric times, and this response can still be important today when we are in a dangerous situation or even during an athletic event or a competition where a “ramped up” system can enhance the way we perform. The problem, however, is that this system now operates inappropriately in our modern world. Although heavy traffic, work deadlines and credit card statements are not life threatening, the system is activated by our response to them, often many times throughout the day. This is chronic stress, and over time the repetition of the “fight or flight” response, designed to allow us to survive occasional real threats, begins to alter our everyday physiology and health.

Not all stress is bad, however, and stressful challenges are necessary to become stronger both physically and mentally. The positive effects of overcoming stress can include:

• Increased energy and motivation
• Increased self-confidence
• Increased drive and productivity
• Enhanced work performance
• A feeling of excitement and a sense of purpose and challenge

Use these steps to help manage your stress more effectively: 

1. Determine what is causing stress in your life. There may be particular situations, people or events that make you feel nervous, anxious or fearful.
2. Keep a diary to record the events or situations that are stressful for you. Record your physical symptoms and emotions.
3. Strengthen your support system and communicate with family and friends. Most people who are able to cope well with stress have strong social support networks with family, friends and even pets.
4. Open up. Learn how to express your thoughts and feelings.
5. Don’t be afraid to say “no” when someone asks you to do something. Learn your limits. You can’t do it all and you shouldn’t feel guilty about it.
6. Learn how to express your feelings appropriately by not insulting or hurting others. Say “I feel angry” instead of “you make me feel angry.” This will help maintain and improve the important relationships in your life.
7. Simplify your life. This means restructuring your priorities. Evaluate what activities are most important, and get rid of the ones that aren’t. You will feel less worn out and more rested. You’ll also have more free time to spend with family, friends or even to be by yourself.
8. Recognize that drugs and alcohol are not effective methods to solve problems. If you feel that you are relying on drugs or alcohol to escape from your problems, seek the advice of a mental health counselor or community health service about special programs for stress management.
9. Improve lifestyle habits. Increasing physical activity and eating healthy can do wonders for your ability to manage stress. Regular physical activity and a healthy diet can improve weight, energy levels, self-confidence, and overall health and well-being, making it much easier for you to handle daily stressors.
10. Reduce stress at work. Seek out support from your Human Resources department or a sympathetic coworker or manager. Learn how to communicate your needs in a non-confrontational manner, such as giving suggestions on how to improve working conditions to help increase productivity.
11. Laugh it off. Did you know that laughter is one of the most effective ways to reduce stress? No matter how bad things are, laughing dissolves tension and seems to help brighten the situation. Try not to take things too seriously - a negative mood only adds to your level of stress. Another plus - laughter seems to help boost the immune system, in turn making you less prone to developing colds and other infections.
12. Take a media break or a news fast. Research has shown that the emotional content of the news can affect mood and aggravate sadness and depression.
13. Try mind-body exercises such as breath work, meditation, yoga and biofeedback. The Healing Rhythms Biofeedback training program (I am one of the “trainers”) is an interactive way to monitor and relieve unhealthy stress
14. Check your medications including over the counter medications, many can aggravate anxiety or depression.
15. Eliminate caffeine and other stimulants from your diet.
16. Increase intake of omega-3 fatty acids.

With brains wired for song, we derive pleasure, feel less pain and transcend our body’s limits

By Judy Foreman   Boston Globe

Dan Ellsey, 33, was sitting in his wheelchair in a soulless room at Tewksbury Hospital, his virtually useless arms and weak torso strapped to the chair for safety.

Suddenly, as soon as we were introduced, he arched his back, grinned broadly, and aimed the riveting power of his dark brown eyes at me, as if eye contact were his only means of transcending the prison of his body.

But it isn’t. In the last few years, Ellsey, who was born with cerebral palsy, has discovered another, almost miraculous, way of expressing himself: music. Not just listening to country and soft rock, as he has done for years, but composing music himself with a special computerized system called Hyperscore, developed by composer-inventor, Tod Machover, professor of music and media and director of the Opera of the Future group at the MIT Media Lab.

I stand there, awed, as we listen to Ellsey’s music, which on the computer has an abstract, eerie sound that swells and recedes like ocean waves. As we listen, we watch on the computer screen as the “score” - colored lines on a graph that represent different instruments - unfolds before our eyes.

A look of pure bliss crossed his face. For Ellsey, as for most human beings, music has almost inexplicable power - to rouse armies to battle, to soothe babies, to communicate peaks of joy and depths of sorrow that mere words cannot.

Just why evolution would have endowed our brains with the neural machinery to make music is a mystery.

“It’s unclear why humans are so uniquely sensitive to music - certainly music shares many features with spoken language, and our brains are particularly developed to process the rapid tones and segments of sound that are common to both,” said Dr. Oliver Sacks, the neurologist whose latest book, “Musicophilia,” is about the brain’s sensitivity to music. Some researchers, he added in an e-mail interview, believe that in primitive cultures, music and speech were not distinct. Other researchers debate which came first in evolution, speech or song.

What is clear is that the brain is abundantly wired to process music.

Scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute, for instance, have found dramatic evidence on brain scans that the “chills,” or a visceral feeling of awe, that people report listening to their favorite music are real. Music that a person likes - but not music that is disliked - activates both the higher, thinking centers in the brain’s cortex, and, perhaps more important, also the “ancient circuitry, the motivation and reward system,” said experimental psychologist Robert Zatorre, a member of the team. It’s this ancient part of the brain that, often through the neurotransmitter dopamine, also governs basic drives such as for food, water, and sex, suggesting the tantalizing idea that the brain may consider music on a par with these crucial drives.

But music has the power not just to awe but to heal. If a person has a stroke on the left side of the brain, where the speech centers are located in most people, that “wipes out a major part of communication,” said Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, chief of the Cerebrovascular Disorder Division and Stroke-Recovery Laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

But if the right side, where a lot of music is processed, is intact, some stroke patients can use “melodic intonation therapy,” which involves singing using two tones (relatively close in pitch) to communicate. Schlaug’s research suggests that with intense therapy some patients can even move from this two-tone singing back to actual speech.

Stroke patients with gait problems also profit from neurologically based music therapy. At the Center for Biomedical Research in Music at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, director Michael Thaut and his team have shown that people partially paralyzed on one side can retrain to walk faster and in a more coordinated way if they practice walking rhythmically, cued by music or a metronome. Combining rhythmic training with physical therapy also helps stroke patients recover gait faster, he said in an e-mail.

“Music helps us organize our movement,” said Kathleen Howland, who has a PhD in music and cognition and teaches at Lesley University in Cambridge. Twenty years ago, she said, therapists tried to get stroke patients to walk better by flashing lights at them. But music, especially rhythm, works much better, she said.

A number of studies show that music therapy - the use of music for medical goals - can reduce pain. In a 2001 study on burn patients, whose burns must be frequently scraped to reduce dead tissue, researchers found that music therapy significantly reduced the excruciating pain. Patients undergoing colonoscopy also seem to feel less pain and need fewer sedative drugs if they listen to music during the procedure, according to several studies.

But not all studies have been so clear-cut. One 2007 review by the Cochrane Collaboration, a nonprofit, international organization that evaluates medical research, involved pooling data from 51 pain studies; it showed that listening to music can reduce the intensity of pain and the need for narcotic drugs, but cautioned that, overall, the benefit was small.

Music therapy may also improve mental state and functioning in people with schizophrenia, according to a 2007 Cochrane review. Premature infants who listen to lullabies learn to suck better and gain more weight than those who don’t get music therapy. And Deforia Lane, director of music therapy at the University Hospitals Ireland Cancer Center in Cleveland, has found an improvement in immune response among hospitalized children who played, sang, and created music compared to children who did not get music therapy.

Indeed, the list of potential benefits from music therapy seems almost endless (check out the website of the American Music Therapy Association, musictherapy.org).

For some people, like Dan Ellsey, they can be nothing short of liberating.

As the sound of Ellsey’s music faded away the other day, I asked him what message he would like to tell people through his music. Painstakingly, he tapped out his answer, aiming a laser device on his forehead to highlight pictures and letters on his computer.

“I am smart,” he wrote, arching his back, joy beaming from his eyes. “I have a good personality.”

Anything else? Eyes alight, he tapped: “I am a musician.”