Listening for wellness, the Tomatis way

It was 1984. I had just moved to Paris to join the company of director Peter Brook for the production of The Mahabharata. My knowledge of French, the language in which the production was going to play, was desultory to say the least. I had been working on the script, on Draupadi's lines, with the then director of the Alliance Francaise d"Ahmedabad, but beyond that, I spoke no French.

However, a few weeks into the rehearsals, Peter decided that he wanted me to go to a language institute to improve my pronunciation. I went off to the Centre Tomatis, where for one hour every day, I listened to what seemed like gibberish through ear phones, listening to some frequencies of music - I later learned that it was Chopin - through one ear, and to someone reading The Little Price through the other. The ears switched as did the gibberish. I sat and knitted, not paying any attention. But lo and behold, within five days, I was being complimented for the exceptionally rapid improvement in my pronunciation.

I have mentioned this story often, not having gone beyond the language teaching abilities of Tomatis. Imagine then, my utter surprise at discovering that Tomatis stands for much more - in fact, for our general well being, and as a method to treat many things otherwise treated only by mind-numbing drugs.

A while ago, I met two lovely women from Auroville who spoke to me about the first such centre they had been running for several years. Excitedly, I recounted my experience. Recently, they gave me a book titled 'Listening for Wellness' to read. And it opened a new world for me.

Tomatis has developed a system by which, having analysed thousands of voices and codified them, he and other practitioners are able, after what would appears like a simple listening test, to tell your state of mind and health. Questions like: Are you depressed? Were you a lonely child? Have you recently been abused? Are you under stress? Do you sing off key? Do you pretend that you are happy when inside you want to scream and run? Do you feel anxious and lack self confidence? - all this on the basis of a modified ear/listening test. This test is rather similar (but not) to the one an ENT specialist will put you through.

Based on this, and on research of which muscle in the ear corresponds to which major or minor organ in the body, and putting this together with research and experiments on which sound frequencies can massage or awaken which parts of the ear, a whole range of sound treatments are designed to alleviate these symptoms. And the cures for all of the above seem pretty miraculous.

Tomatis has proved that different parts of the ear correspond and are connected to different parts of the body and can have a direct effect on them. The treatments are all based on this. They range from treating depression to psychosis to fears and anxieties, dyslexia and learning difficulties to attention deficit disorder and autism.

Have you ever wondered why a mother walks or rocks a baby to sleep instinctively? Well, when we speak, our larynx touches the spinal cord which resonates like a string. The unborn baby thus listens to the mother constantly. It is also used to the mother walking around and doing all the things she normally does. The mother's voice is transmitted to the child in the womb through bone conduction.

As the author of the book says, "The mother's spine is like the cord and the pelvis like the case of a cello - emanating beautiful music to the foetus". So, the newborn is used to this. When a mother walks it, holding it to her heart, the child goes back into the safe haven of the womb and calms down. The other's footsteps and heartbeat are like reassuring rhythms and brings reassurance that life goes on.

"After birth, the heartbeat also becomes associated with milk, the food that sustains life." The next time you pull your ear or poke a matchstick into it, remember that that orifice is connected to your entire body and that simple gesture might not have simple ramifications at all.