We are ... Hearing - Interview of Dr. Alfred Tomatis ( Psychologies - December 1991) - Translated from French to English.
For nearly forty years , Dr. Alfred Tomatis journey through the maze of our auditory appendages. For him, it is in the hollow of the ear that man must seek the source of balance. The time of an interview , we lent him more attentive ears ...
Psychologies : You have written about pregnancy and autism , dizziness and music, dyslexia and learning foreign languages ... At the center of all your work , the ear. It is that important ?
Dr. Tomatis : Ear deserves more attention than it currently provides . This is not an organ is just cause ear infections ! Behind this appendix, there is nothing less than the brain. The ear appears even before the nervous system. In the course of evolution, it has grown by leaps and brain followed suit . The ear has two functions. First, it gives energy to the brain. This is a dynamo . And it works for all living creatures , from fish to humans. Second, it allows us to situate ourselves in space. With it, we can stand up , up, down, we walk ... More mobility increases, the ear is perfected.
This parallel evolution of the ear and the brain she always checks ?
Approximately . There are animals like snake, with a large brain , but almost deaf. Conversely, bats have very sensitive hearing , despite their tiny brains. But these are exceptions. By perfecting the ear Deputy additional bodies: the vestibule, the saccule , cochlea ... It is they who provide the man 's verticality. But more important is that the ear allows us to listen . Animals hear. Mammals have occasionally small moments of listening . To be able to listen to the man needed his brain increases in a fabulous way . I believe that man is made to listen.
Where is the difference between listening and hearing ?
Hearing is a passive phenomenon . We are inundated with sounds. But take charge to listen, it is a voluntary act which immediately determines the verticality and engages communication. Traditional asceticism repeat it constantly: " Listen ! " Probably because people do not listen. Traditions even say often : "Look and see . " Difficult for us to understand the formula , because we live in a world of vision since the Greeks and Latins. We treat many children with autism , who have ears phenomenal , but see nothing , they do not listen.
Where does the importance of the ear ?
This body is wider than you think . The hall , which is the most archaic part , absolutely innervates all the muscles of the body. All our actions are based on the vestibule. Throughout its evolution, the ear is provided with an organ, the organ of Corti . It contains cells with an eyelash , as protozoa. When these cells become atrophied , the eyelash that garnishes becomes more important , and this gives rise to the hair. The hair is a skin for the ear. Conversely, when the cell loses its Corti cil to develop his body, it is organized to give birth to all sensitive organs of the skin. One can almost say that man is a ear full ! It not only communicates with the ear , it communicates with the body. Talk to the other is to play his body and the body of another. He who is not afraid of her body can make it vibrate when he speaks , and feel inside . It is both a way to better understand and communicate better. Similarly , one can learn to vibrate his body from the inside to stop being afraid .
We immediately think of the sacred songs : Gregorian chants , the " Om " Tibetans ...
The ancients have known that! They sang to recharge the brain, and to have control of that body which is below . Alas ! the number of listeners is still extremely small. But I think the man is on his way to becoming listening .
For you, this is the next step in evolution?
It is an inevitable progression. The great listeners are those who hear the other. This is not nothing! We would know fewer social problems if everyone knew listen to the other . We live in the world of evil - listening , dialogue of the deaf. But this is not all. The great listeners also know listen to their bodies . The eardrum is innervated by parasympathetic nerves. If we knew how to listen inside, we would know how is our heart, our breathing , digestion ... All somatisations are along these nerves . Psychosomatic pathology is here! Learn to listen to his body, it already would avoid a lot of diseases.
But when it comes to listening to your body , you can not imagine that the ear is involved. Instead, consider taking body awareness .
Speaking of awareness, you touch the last level of listening. For whoever knows how to listen the fact beyond all we talked about. Sometimes listening to the universe. Listening is a faculty of the highest level. It is the contact with consciousness.
What do you mean by consciousness?
Our ego is such that we would like to have awareness. No! It is the consciousness that takes us, that fills us. We are enveloped by it, and we spend our time refuse . If you have the ear completely open , you can start a dialogue with the universe. He alone speaks. We only transcribe through a transistor called the brain, that the universe wanted to express . We transcribers very poor performance !
How do we learn to listen?
We must first awaken the ear. For this we use the filtered sounds and electronic ear . The filtered sounds are sounds without memory , sounds that we can not associate with memories. That is why they are filtered so that the subject hears as he did in utero. With children, the mother's voice is used when possible . In other cases , it is especially Mozart. But must also sounds really penetrate to the brain. So we use electronic ear. It is a device that can receive sound exactly as should a human ear works perfectly. We know today that 90% of the auditory nerve fibers are efferent : they leave the brain to go outward . When you receive a sound, it tickles the inner ear and the outer ear. It is as if you were in a fortress when a visitor comes , you want to know who he is, then you open the inner door before lowering the drawbridge. We listen to what we want to listen ! Forcing the doors to open, we help the eardrum to tighten the muscle of the stirrup to work , the ear to form.
It is a rehabilitation of the ear, as it rehabilitates a member who has been plastered ?
Exactly! It rehabilitates in his ear listening function . For the brain to work, it needs four and a half hours per day stimulation at a rate of 3.5 billion of stimuli per second. It may happen to perceive everything that surrounds it. There are not many people who have great ideas ! Their ideas are given. The intuition is that. Einstein said: " The genius is a spark once in life, and fifteen hours a day. " Mozart was a great listening more than genius. But he received perfectly everything around him.
Now to Mozart. According to you , his music is a tool for personal development or therapy ?
Music is an extraordinary instrument , which has been neglected . We tried all kinds of music and we always come back to Mozart. When listening to Mozart with electronic ear, filtered sounds, the pulse was immediately climbs to 120 beats per minute. Like it ! Mozart kept all his life a rapid pulse , a child's pulse, this is probably why it is worn very quickly and disappeared very young. But to enjoy the music , you must have a good ear . Someone who hears Mozart with a distorted ear perceives noise ! Music therapy , for example, never considers the possibility of integration of the subject. It is not enough to receive sounds, they must still be properly distributed throughout the brain. We have a primitive brain , the thalamus , which distributes information . Unfortunately, this relay is also the receiver of our emotional life. If overloaded , the distribution can not be done . The ear is the intersection of a multitude of universes. She made me into many areas from the total non - listening , which is a psychiatric until the foreign languages.
This is the theme of the second book you just published.
I realized that all ears are the same at birth, in all corners of the world. This is the sound changing environment . Variations are related to the environment , climatic conditions , the air quality ... The ear shape for receiving the sounds corresponding to their native language. If we allow him to hear differently , the subject can learn any language. We all have in mind the possibility of integrating all languages , provided hear .
Can I use your method as a mere instrument of wellness and balance ?
Yes ! We get more and more people who do not have any particular problems, but simply looking to know themselves better, to evolve. We do not need to have a serious problem to learn to listen!
For nearly forty years , Dr. Alfred Tomatis journey through the maze of our auditory appendages. For him, it is in the hollow of the ear that man must seek the source of balance. The time of an interview , we lent him more attentive ears ...
Psychologies : You have written about pregnancy and autism , dizziness and music, dyslexia and learning foreign languages ... At the center of all your work , the ear. It is that important ?
Dr. Tomatis : Ear deserves more attention than it currently provides . This is not an organ is just cause ear infections ! Behind this appendix, there is nothing less than the brain. The ear appears even before the nervous system. In the course of evolution, it has grown by leaps and brain followed suit . The ear has two functions. First, it gives energy to the brain. This is a dynamo . And it works for all living creatures , from fish to humans. Second, it allows us to situate ourselves in space. With it, we can stand up , up, down, we walk ... More mobility increases, the ear is perfected.
This parallel evolution of the ear and the brain she always checks ?
Approximately . There are animals like snake, with a large brain , but almost deaf. Conversely, bats have very sensitive hearing , despite their tiny brains. But these are exceptions. By perfecting the ear Deputy additional bodies: the vestibule, the saccule , cochlea ... It is they who provide the man 's verticality. But more important is that the ear allows us to listen . Animals hear. Mammals have occasionally small moments of listening . To be able to listen to the man needed his brain increases in a fabulous way . I believe that man is made to listen.
Where is the difference between listening and hearing ?
Hearing is a passive phenomenon . We are inundated with sounds. But take charge to listen, it is a voluntary act which immediately determines the verticality and engages communication. Traditional asceticism repeat it constantly: " Listen ! " Probably because people do not listen. Traditions even say often : "Look and see . " Difficult for us to understand the formula , because we live in a world of vision since the Greeks and Latins. We treat many children with autism , who have ears phenomenal , but see nothing , they do not listen.
Where does the importance of the ear ?
This body is wider than you think . The hall , which is the most archaic part , absolutely innervates all the muscles of the body. All our actions are based on the vestibule. Throughout its evolution, the ear is provided with an organ, the organ of Corti . It contains cells with an eyelash , as protozoa. When these cells become atrophied , the eyelash that garnishes becomes more important , and this gives rise to the hair. The hair is a skin for the ear. Conversely, when the cell loses its Corti cil to develop his body, it is organized to give birth to all sensitive organs of the skin. One can almost say that man is a ear full ! It not only communicates with the ear , it communicates with the body. Talk to the other is to play his body and the body of another. He who is not afraid of her body can make it vibrate when he speaks , and feel inside . It is both a way to better understand and communicate better. Similarly , one can learn to vibrate his body from the inside to stop being afraid .
We immediately think of the sacred songs : Gregorian chants , the " Om " Tibetans ...
The ancients have known that! They sang to recharge the brain, and to have control of that body which is below . Alas ! the number of listeners is still extremely small. But I think the man is on his way to becoming listening .
For you, this is the next step in evolution?
It is an inevitable progression. The great listeners are those who hear the other. This is not nothing! We would know fewer social problems if everyone knew listen to the other . We live in the world of evil - listening , dialogue of the deaf. But this is not all. The great listeners also know listen to their bodies . The eardrum is innervated by parasympathetic nerves. If we knew how to listen inside, we would know how is our heart, our breathing , digestion ... All somatisations are along these nerves . Psychosomatic pathology is here! Learn to listen to his body, it already would avoid a lot of diseases.
But when it comes to listening to your body , you can not imagine that the ear is involved. Instead, consider taking body awareness .
Speaking of awareness, you touch the last level of listening. For whoever knows how to listen the fact beyond all we talked about. Sometimes listening to the universe. Listening is a faculty of the highest level. It is the contact with consciousness.
What do you mean by consciousness?
Our ego is such that we would like to have awareness. No! It is the consciousness that takes us, that fills us. We are enveloped by it, and we spend our time refuse . If you have the ear completely open , you can start a dialogue with the universe. He alone speaks. We only transcribe through a transistor called the brain, that the universe wanted to express . We transcribers very poor performance !
How do we learn to listen?
We must first awaken the ear. For this we use the filtered sounds and electronic ear . The filtered sounds are sounds without memory , sounds that we can not associate with memories. That is why they are filtered so that the subject hears as he did in utero. With children, the mother's voice is used when possible . In other cases , it is especially Mozart. But must also sounds really penetrate to the brain. So we use electronic ear. It is a device that can receive sound exactly as should a human ear works perfectly. We know today that 90% of the auditory nerve fibers are efferent : they leave the brain to go outward . When you receive a sound, it tickles the inner ear and the outer ear. It is as if you were in a fortress when a visitor comes , you want to know who he is, then you open the inner door before lowering the drawbridge. We listen to what we want to listen ! Forcing the doors to open, we help the eardrum to tighten the muscle of the stirrup to work , the ear to form.
It is a rehabilitation of the ear, as it rehabilitates a member who has been plastered ?
Exactly! It rehabilitates in his ear listening function . For the brain to work, it needs four and a half hours per day stimulation at a rate of 3.5 billion of stimuli per second. It may happen to perceive everything that surrounds it. There are not many people who have great ideas ! Their ideas are given. The intuition is that. Einstein said: " The genius is a spark once in life, and fifteen hours a day. " Mozart was a great listening more than genius. But he received perfectly everything around him.
Now to Mozart. According to you , his music is a tool for personal development or therapy ?
Music is an extraordinary instrument , which has been neglected . We tried all kinds of music and we always come back to Mozart. When listening to Mozart with electronic ear, filtered sounds, the pulse was immediately climbs to 120 beats per minute. Like it ! Mozart kept all his life a rapid pulse , a child's pulse, this is probably why it is worn very quickly and disappeared very young. But to enjoy the music , you must have a good ear . Someone who hears Mozart with a distorted ear perceives noise ! Music therapy , for example, never considers the possibility of integration of the subject. It is not enough to receive sounds, they must still be properly distributed throughout the brain. We have a primitive brain , the thalamus , which distributes information . Unfortunately, this relay is also the receiver of our emotional life. If overloaded , the distribution can not be done . The ear is the intersection of a multitude of universes. She made me into many areas from the total non - listening , which is a psychiatric until the foreign languages.
This is the theme of the second book you just published.
I realized that all ears are the same at birth, in all corners of the world. This is the sound changing environment . Variations are related to the environment , climatic conditions , the air quality ... The ear shape for receiving the sounds corresponding to their native language. If we allow him to hear differently , the subject can learn any language. We all have in mind the possibility of integrating all languages , provided hear .
Can I use your method as a mere instrument of wellness and balance ?
Yes ! We get more and more people who do not have any particular problems, but simply looking to know themselves better, to evolve. We do not need to have a serious problem to learn to listen!
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