Marilyn's Blog

A Remembrance: Helen Lindquist Bonny - March 31, 1921 - May 25, 2010

2010-05-26T13:54:00.004-04:00

When I first got to know Helen, I noticed that she was a very adventurous spirit. She would try things that nobody else was trying. At the Institute for Consciousness and Music, we sponsored many workshops on a wide variety of topics. When a workshop leader suggested a demonstration of a technique -- it might be past life regression, it could be Shamanic journeying, it could be anything -- Helen would volunteer to be the person, the ‘guinea pig’ for the demo.

She was always interested in what more she could learn and how she could continue to grow. That enthusiasm, that ability to risk and to grow at her edges was something that she really translated and taught to all of us. When, as a student in her training, I saw her willingness to experiment, it made me feel like it’s safe, I can try that. I always got from her that there is safety within ourselves even in exploring parts of our psyches that we do not know.

Helen taught us how to use the music and with our imagery to move into non-ordinary states of consciousness without fear and with a feeling that there’s more to be, there’s more to grow into. We see that spirit in her work, not only with Guided Imagery and Music, but then even when she became ill and was a hospital patient. She found places and ways that she could use music, imagery and relaxation in a hospital setting and created the MusicRx Program.

That exploring, pioneering spirit is one of the things that really attracted me to her and I’m sure that’s true for many others who have been attracted to her and her work. With her adventurous spirit, now that she is released from her physical limitations, she can take the ultimate music and imagery trip. She will most likely, somehow, leave some bread crumbs to light our way as well.

The Bonny Method is different from Guided Imagery

2010-04-21T19:32:00.004-04:00

The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music is a very specific method. It is a method that uses music that has been put together in programs for this method. They vary in length from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. The programs are designed to enable an individual to have an imaging experience with music. The person’s own imagery is evoked by the music. It helps the imagery to move and the music supports the person while the process is underway (see my blog of Feb. 7, 2010). This process differs from guided imagery in that with guided imagery, the facilitator will usually guide the imagery, suggesting what will be seen or where the person will go within his or her imagination. If music is used, it’s used as background; it’s used to relax and calm. With the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music, facilitators speak of music as a co-therapist. It’s that close within the experience; maybe even closer than that. It is central to the method. In other techniques, such as guided imagery or guided relaxation, the music is ‘acoustical wallpaper,’ and is not intended to be something the person reacts to, feels emotionally or is guided by. It is like a mattress the person lies on. Pleasant, safe, and comfortable. Distinguishing between these approaches is important as the outcomes, goals, and manner of reaching these will be different.

The original name of the method, Guided Imagery and Music, was coined by Dr. Bonny in the early 1970’s. She had met and worked with Dr. Hans Carl Leuner, the originator of Guided Affective Imagery, a powerful process that did not use music. She saw the similarities and the differences between his method and what she was developing and created the title as a synthesis. It was and is often referred to as simply GIM (in the U.S., this is pronounced by naming each letter; in other countries, it is sometimes made into a word like ‘gym’ or ‘gim’ with a hard ‘g’.) The words ‘guided imagery’ as part of the name of this method are misleading. Over the 30+ years that this method has been practiced, many practitioners have searched for a different name, one which would not use ‘guided imagery’ as a part of it. So in the early 1990’s, practitioners in the United States added “The Bonny Method” to the title with the intention to distinguish this method from guided imagery techniques. So today you will see that different names are used: The Bonny Method, Guided Imagery and Music (GIM), The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music, Music Evoked Imagery, and more that I don’t know. Persons trained in and practicing this method will have an affiliation with the Association for Music and Imagery (AMI). Go to that web site and view the registry of facilitators to find a practitioner in your area and to learn about training programs. Click HERE.

Divine Collaboration

2010-04-13T10:32:00.007-04:00

In 1999, Helen Bonny was honored at the World Congress of Music Therapy for her development of the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music[GIM]. At that time, she addressed the assembled group in a plenary session. This is an excerpt from that address. She speaks beautifully to the presence of music for the composer, performer, and listener.

“Music is a creative moment-by-moment revelation which is totally dependent upon the interpreter. When belief structures are active, open and non-compartmentalized, the artist plays within a domain beyond his small and limited access to the music. And when the written music has issued from and through the heart of one of the world’s great composers, a direct line to inspired playing and listening is possible. This divine collaboration awaits within great music to renew minds and to heal hearts.

In addition to a full knowledge of the technique required to execute the piece of music and an understanding of the dynamics, the composer’s written and implied purpose, and integration of parts within the composition, the player must add his depth of person and his unique combination of feeling and experience to playing of the music. If the performer is able to get inside the music, to reach the heart of the composer’s intent while adding the depth of his own spirit and sensitivity, the music will speak to the listener in ways that words cannot. Later I was to find that this deep intentionality which an individual musician or group of musicians arrives at, at the behest of a conductor, is what touches long held emotions and evokes holistic responses in us.

The GIM approach is self-evocative. It is based on the theory that the individual psyche when properly approached will respond with the most efficient and effective imagery, and that music is the central evoking agent. The therapist and the music provide a milieu within which the widest possible choices can be made. We call this milieu an envelope of sound, or sound presence and the element of sound presence introduced into work with imagery creates the powerful therapeutic differences between verbally produced, and music-evoked imagery. Deep conscious elements of the person are evoked through the imagery which arises in response to the music medium and the presence of the supportive guide.”

'Invited by Music' Nuggets

2010-02-26T17:47:00.006-05:00

What does ‘invited by Music’ mean? How can music invite? Who does it invite? What happens if you accept the invitation?

The conversations that surrounded the making of the film “Invited by Music” were full of nuggets that answered these questions. The context for many of these conversations is The Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music which is described on my web site. And yet, there is a sense in these conversations that Music invited these persons to more than their imagination or their therapeutic growth through the Bonny Method. In this excerpt from a larger interview, you will get the sense of what I mean.

Lindsey Beaven, Marriage and Family Therapist, living in California, and working on her Ph.D. from Pacifica Graduate Institute.

“I took an early interest in classical music. I don’t come from a household that was interested at all in classical music, but somehow I found it. I participated in a modern dance class at the age of 12 or 13 and the teacher always used classical music. I really connected to the music. We would listen to a crackly record of a classical piece, imagine what it suggested and then dance those images – a bee, a bush, a wolf, the earth are some that come to mind. I learned that music is filled with images. The one constant from about that time in my life was how classical music just kept coming into my life. It was always very powerful. Now I recognize it as something that I was connecting with at a deep level even then. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. But it did something with me and to me that other things didn’t. It has been a friend throughout my life. With all the ups and downs, there was always music to go back to.

“In one of my very early experiences with The Bonny Method, I experienced myself in a very different way. Right at the point when I was feeling not so great about myself, I felt as if I experienced something very core that was very alive. It was as if a lot of myself had died, and yet I found a very, very alive part. It was extremely exciting to discover it was there. This experience with music had an amazingly strong effect on me that I didn’t understand. And over two or three or four months, I suddenly realized there is something deeply spiritual in music. Now I think this was something I picked up in music all along, but I could never quite put my finger on. You know, when I listen to music, that’s the part of me that I feel. And so, it sort of all fell into place. And also my relationship with music was not this sort of sudden, quirky thing. It was really a part of me. My respect for music and my interest in it just got broader and broader. Music had enabled me to grasp that there is a gigantic universe inside of me that I had no idea existed before. I mean, I sort of thought I knew myself, but suddenly there was this huge thing that I would now call the unconscious, a whole new world, that I had never begun to look at. That was very exciting to discover!”

The Imaginative Response to Music

2010-02-07T15:10:00.010-05:00

Music evokes an imaginative response. This fact is foundational to the Bonny Method. Have you ever noted the ways that music actually becomes a part of your imagery? Music assists and even causes imagery to occur and movement within an image sequence to start, change, shift or stop. Music can become personified or can take on an interesting form. It can become a carrier like wind or water. It can become the voice talking to the listener/ music traveler. It can become the embodiment of a dilemma. There are many different ways in which music can interact with the imagery process. Let's take a look at some examples of music coming directly into the image process and furthering inner work.

* Music can relieve tension and help alleviate pain. While listening to music, a woman with a back injury reported: I'm a fingerboard of a stringed instrument. My body is stiff and hard. When fingers move over the board, it eases the pain. They touch the front side, but it goes through to the back. It's as though I'm a violin. My head is the chin rest. Fingers are on the trunk of my body. My back is the box of the violin. As fingers move on the board, vibrations go to the sound box which is my back. This is happening where the pain is most intense. This part of my back looks relaxed. The music makes it stretch out even more.

* Music can intensify a dilemma. The Bonny Method session began with a path image which forked, a metaphor for the domestic conflict this listener was facing. "One path leads up the side of a steep grassy hill. The other goes along the edge of a rocky cliff. The tension part of the music goes along the rocks: the other part of the music is the other path. The difference in the music is really pulling on me. The upper path is more exciting. Part of it is covered. The other is safer. I prefer the upper."

* Music helps to move through resistance. This person moved from fear of loss of control to calm.
"Now I am physically going down. I don't like it. I don't have control. I can stop it if I want to. If I stop it, I won't know what to do. The music suggests just being. I don't know what I'm supposed to be . .. I'm listening to the music. . . There's a French horn in this music which is bringing me hope, longing, strength. It's a powerful instrument. I'm imaging myself playing this."

* Music supports resolution and reconciliation. This woman was struggling with bringing her children and their stepfather, her husband, into a closer, more settled relationship.
"There is a bird singing. I'm telling the bird how much I need it right now. The whole stream is filling with birds ... and singing. The music is pouring into me. The music lifts everyone out of the water. We float along with the birds. The children fall asleep on this bed of music. My husband is happy. I feel peace."

* Music can encourage opening up to new possibilities. A man considering a career change is restless to get on with finding a new job.
"There is a pure, white light. It has a prism effect. The light diffuses through the building. It was constructed to bring the light into focus. I stand there appreciating the beauty. I can touch the light. I feel purified. 1 put my hand in it. It gets hot. A voice inside says, 'Take it out!' The music says. 'Let it flow'. I feel the energy from the light being transmitted through my body. I'm overcome with awe . . . that I can feel this light."

Have you noticed how you use music in your own listening experiences? Or how you are in a relationship with the music? There are moments in a listening session when the music's support can bring a shift in imagery, leading to a long sought after resolution. Don't expect music to be the rescuer in to a difficult situation. Rather, aim at deepening the mutual bond of trust among the three of you - your inner landscape, your self and music.

Good news about music

2008-11-19T21:25:00.002-05:00

And so music invites us to be joyful and to heal our hearts. It's always gratifying to learn about research that proves what we already know. I wonder why, in this study, it is recommended that you only listen to the most joy producing music for yourself every two weeks. Too much of a good thing? I remember years ago Baba Ram Dass saying something about how we human beings can only stand a limited amount of ecstasy at a time.

Here is a synopsis of the study. More information is available at www.PhysOrg.com

Joyful music may promote heart health
Listening to your favorite music may be good for your cardiovascular system. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have shown for the first time that the emotions aroused by joyful music have a healthy effect on blood vessel function.
Music, selected by study participants because it made them feel good and brought them a sense of joy, caused tissue in the inner lining of blood vessels to dilate (or expand) in order to increase blood flow. This healthy response matches what the same researchers found in a 2005 study of laughter. On the other hand, when study volunteers listened to music they perceived as stressful, their blood vessels narrowed, producing a potentially unhealthy response that reduces blood flow.
The results of the study, conducted at the University of Maryland Medical Center, will be presented at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, on November 11, 2008, in New Orleans.
"We had previously demonstrated that positive emotions, such as laughter, were good for vascular health. So, a logical question was whether other emotions, such as those evoked by music, have a similar effect," says principal investigator Michael Miller, M.D., director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "We knew that individual people would react differently to different types of music, so in this study, we enabled participants to select music based upon their likes and dislikes."

First Blog Entry

2008-11-05T13:47:00.001-05:00

“Let the music take you where you need to go.” These are the words that Helen spoke to me before she turned on the stereo cassette tape recorder. And as the music began, I stepped into an envelope of musical sound, and my inner perceptions opened. Visual images, emotions, memories… it all came flooding to me, and on the rhythms and dynamics and sounds of the music. The carefully crafted music program that Helen had chosen to play was at times disarming… challenging… and it never left me. It stayed with me the whole time. At times, Helen would make a gentle suggestion, a supportive gesture, and I continued to travel into my inner world.

This first time that I experienced the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) from the inside, I came to understand that music and I could have a new relationship. And this was a relationship of such intimacy that I really never believed could happen. As a lay person, not a musician, I’d always been a little bit on the outside with music. But I came to find, with GIM, that music was no longer outside of me; it was something that really was a part of me.

As I open this blog, I invite you to share with me how music has invited you into deeper meaning, adventure, creativity, healing. Let’s celebrate together this gift we share whether we are highly disciplined musicians, casual strummers, or open-hearted listeners.