WYC 2010:  In His Image

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GYC West

Lifestyle of the Last Generation

Nicole Parker

But We’re Just Friends

Alan Parker

Wreck-creation or Re-creation

Grownups Playing Dress-up

iWorship

Allen Lloyd

Heavenly Music:  Starting Now

Health for Body, Mind, and Soul: Preparation for the End Time Crisis

Father in heaven, we thank you for this time in which we can reflect upon heavenly music and also reflect upon music that draws people away from heaven.

We pray that you would give us your discernment and your spirit that we might be willing even to change our favored way of listening if it's not in accordance with your will.

We pray for your spirit now, in Jesus' name, amen.

Alright, well I'm not sure how I can do this topic justice in an hour's time or a little less.

And probably the only way I'd be able to do it justice is if we had more time where we could have the actual music examples and actually play the examples and then dissect the music.

1 of these days, we'll have a music seminar where we do all of those things.

And so we can see each 1 of those elements that are there.

I was blessed in several ways in my life.

But 1 of the ways I was blessed was the father that the Lord gave me.

My father was a great musician, had a natural gift of music.

I think he only had 1 or 2 years of actual formal music training.

But he was a great composer, a great arranger.

And he actually made his way through college playing jazz piano as part of a nightclub.

There were several other performers that came with him, singers, et cetera.

And he would write all the music for that.

And he would also, when he was on board ship in World War II, he was the default music person on board ship.

And for entertainment, when they'd be out there in the Pacific for days on end, not seeing anyone or anything, the captain would get him to write music for everyone on board ship.

And this was actually before his college days.

And even though he had a gift of music, he hadn't written for multiple instruments.

And 1 time, the first piece he wrote was for trumpet and clarinet and piano and singers, et cetera.

And as soon as they all started playing, they were all off because he didn't realize the trumpet was a B-flat instrument.

And he didn't realize the clarinet, I think, is E-flat or something.

And so he had to rewrite all of that for the appropriate keys to get it there together.

And so he was often having to write music where he was at.

And he ended up writing a lot of music, particularly male quartet music.

He was part of a male quartet later on, after he became a Christian, called the Flying 4, where they would fly into these small churches and perform their male quartet music, even made recordings.

But after he became a Christian, he recognized his need to give up the music that he had performed and enjoyed and even composed.

Because he knew the effects of that music.

Very clearly in regards to declining the morals of those that were there in those nightclub places and how it would do it.

He even knew how to produce that effect on the frontal lobe of the brain, even though he didn't understand quite the frontal lobe.

But he knew what would produce a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment and wanting more, but yet a decline in morals.

And when he became a converted Christian, he recognized his need to go away from that.

And I grew up during the time after he'd become converted.

And the first few years, in fact, all of our brothers and sisters would recognize it.

As soon as the music would come on the radio, we might be listening to the news.

And boom, like lightning, he would switch that off.

And we wondered why he was so particular about that.

And then later on, we realized because he had an affinity for that, he didn't want to enjoy or develop a taste for it again.

He was totally trying to transform his taste.

And finally, it came where after he was away from it for a number of years, it no longer had the appeal for him.

And he could actually listen to it without that affinity being there.

In fact, it was kind of obnoxious to him at that point in time.

And after that time, and only then, is when he actually put on music seminars himself.

He would go to the piano and play Onward Christian Soldiers in a syncopated rhythm and be able to draw out from the people in the audience, what does this make you think of?

And just go ahead and compile it from the people that were there.

All right, now we're going to play onward Christian soldiers without the syncopated rhythm?

What does that make you think about, et cetera?

And so he could easily draw out, just by examples, how the style of the music would bring about either the lower nature or an elevated nature that was there.

And so I had the advantage of listening to that.

And then I had the advantage of also studying under the mother of music therapy in the United States, Juanita McElwain.

She started more PhD music therapy programs than anybody else.

And the last program she started was at Phillips University in Oklahoma and started her PhD music therapy program.

And I went there and I studied under her.

And I also saw a lot of the studies she did.

And I actually got in her chair, her music chair, and had the music piped in.

And she would measure heart rate and galvanized skin pressure and all of the mental effects that this music could do.

And then also look at the EEG and see what was happening with the frontal lobe of the brain, et cetera.

And so as a result of growing up in an environment where my father knew the difference and was able to easily demonstrate that difference and then studying under some more expert individuals, I have compiled my own choices of music that also go along with inspiration in the Bible.

What we really ought to be centering in on is heavenly music.

And as I mentioned, starting now would be the good time to start.

Well, our first quote is from the pages of Inspiration.

Councils on Health is where this comes from.

The brain nerves which communicate with the entire system are the only medium through which heaven can communicate to man and affect his inmost life.

The only medium through which heaven can communicate to man and affect his in most life is through what?

It affects the brain nerves in a powerful way.

Good music and bad music is either good or bad because of how it is affecting those brain nerves.

And then the next statement, whatever disturbs the circulation of the electric currents in the nervous system lessens the strength of the vital powers and result in a deadening of the sensibilities of the mind.

And so just by disturbing those electric currents, you're going to lessen your vital powers and deaden your sensibilities of the mind.

And this is why music can have that powerful influence.

Music enters the brain through its emotional regions, which include the temporal lobe and limbic system.

From there, some kinds of music tend to produce a positive frontal lobe response that influences the will, moral worth, and reasoning power.

You'll see it on PET scans and other ways.

But the type of music that produces this very positive frontal lobe response is characteristic of what would normally be called traditional classical music.

It's where most of our hymns are derived from in the hymnal.

And this is, although there can be modern composers that put together the traditional classic genre, it doesn't have to be composers of yesteryear.

It can be present day composers that do that.

It does produce a positive frontal lobe response.

And this is actually a picture I took myself of the Dallas Symphony during their annual Christmas concert.

Our family tends to go to that every year if we get a chance.

And it is a performance that's sold out 12 nights in a row without any advertising in regards to how good it is.

In fact, if you look for it online, you won't even see it because They don't have any trouble selling out their seats for this occasion.

Other kinds of music will evoke very little, if any, frontal lobe response, but will produce a large emotional response with very little logical or moral interpretation.

And this is characteristic of the syncopated rock and roll rhythms that are prevalent in our day today.

And we'll get into that type of music here later on.

But basically, the studies show that upbeat music is not necessarily uplifting music.

It can have a fake sense of uplifting, but it's not really an uplifting music as far as the frontal lobe of the brain is concerned.

Music psychotherapy, in which people are encouraged to reflect on their past, present, and future while listening to classical music improves mood and reduces stress.

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Series

Lifestyle of the Last Generation

Heavenly Music: Starting Now

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

The Heavenly Sanctuary and the Universal Characteristics of Worship and Music

1h 1m

The Sweetest Song I Know: Authentic Musical Worship Deepens Our Experience with Christ

What Heavenly Music

47m

Three Cosmic Messages: Earth's Final Conflict

05 Mathematical Proof We are Living in the Last Days

56m

Christian Berdahl: Music Seminar

3. Music Overview

2h

Music in Your Sphere: Max the Potential of Music in Ministry

1. The Song of the Spheres

50m

New Jerusalem

20m

The Rise of Spiritualism and the Occult

Dragon Song

1h 19m

Was Blind But Now I See

53m

Christian Berdahl: Music Seminar

1. Overture: Our Personal Journey

2h

MTYC 2010 Breakout Seminar - Music

Making Music Practical

50m

Sound Doctrine