DEAFNESS.......IN MUSIC!!
By Jean-Christophe Casu, Aosta, Italy

Many friends have asked me to write what follows. I finally decided after two years of encouragement and persuasion to talk about this personal matter. I became convinced that my experience could be a comfort to manypeople who were ill and perhaps give a ray of hope to the suffering.
I lost my hearing completely in October 1996. I underwent a surgical operation to remove a chronic ear infection. After a while, I began hearing in my right ear (where I had lost the hearing completely since 1969), apart from the usual noises, music! I was astonished! It had nothing to do with music that I had already heard, where one would think of a phenomenon linked to memory. This music was completely new! I asked my ear specialist how this was possible but he was unable to give any answer except joking about the fact that during the operation the doctors might have forgotten to switch off the radio!
As I concentrated on what I was hearing, I gained an increased awareness that they weren't just noises that gave an illusion of being music because the noises were there in my ears and I was still hearing the music at the same time. Further proof came when the music I began to hear were voices! Voices that were singing to the music, like a choir! The most surprising thing was when a tenor voice began to sing to lead the music and the choir, just as in an opera. Sometimes there are two solo voices doing a duet. These are not reminiscences because I have never heard these pieces before!
I woke up one morning with a piece of music (still in my right ear) that was so celestial, uplifting and exalted that I was moved to tears. Only the word "divine" can render remotely the beauty of this music. The music of Mozart, Beethoven, J.S Bach express a human touch even in their most spiritually uplifting pieces whereas the music I was hearing was completely devoid of any human touch. It belonged to another world, at least that's how it seemed to me.... The following dreams confirm this.

FIRST DREAM

A young man is singing in a square full of people. I realize that these people are Baha'is. The gentleman is singing beautiful classical music. All of a sudden I see my mother among the crowd (My mother passed away two years ago). She beckons to a group of persons with whom I am to come and sit in a certain place where there are seats. The tenor performs wonders with his voice. His song is powerful and so beautiful that at a certain point I wake up and realize that I am hearing the same music and song in my ears!

SECOND DREAM

There is a very large gathering at an important event in an immense park. A well-known singer is asked to sing. He accepts and begins to sing a magnificent song with a Baha'i theme entitled "One Mankind" (This song has nothing to do with any known song composed by Baha'is). The crowd is ecstatic! I wake up with the song permeating my whole being. I was literally vibrating from the energy emanating from the song coming out of my ears!

THIRD DREAM

I am walking along a path on a hillside holding a stick in one hand and a branch adorned with leaves in the other. It is a hot and sunny day. As I approach a little wall overlooking a valley, I hear music of unspeakable beauty as I climb the wall with a wondrous sensation of victory! This stupendous music uplifts me and transmits a great feeling of elation. When I wake up I have exactly the same music in my ear....
The above demonstrates that the music of the dreams and what I am hearing in my ear belong to the same realm. This is indicated in the Baha'i Writings.

"... your eyes have been opened to the light of guidance and your ears attuned to the music of the Company above; and blessed by abounding grace, your hearts and souls have been born into new life." ( Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 35)

"When the song is of the Kingdom, it rejoiceth the soul." (ibid, p. 180)

"The field larks are become the festival's musicians, and lifting wondrous voices they cry and sing to the melodies of the Company on high." (ibid, p. 255)

"Only the perceiving eye beholdeth the rays of the sun, only the listening ear can hear the singing of the Concourse on high." (ibid, p. 22)

The music and the singing are not only limited to classical and religious music. Sometimes I hear African music or Persian music with chanting. Sometimes it is only a piano playing, other times it is jazz music and frequently it is music that I am unable to describe. Music coming from an immense and infinite realm. It is always comforting music, conveying very rich emotional sensations of a very high level. The same pieces of music are heard more than once and each time they have the same effect on me. They take me back to Africa, to Iran, to France.... The strange thing is that because I hear this music continuously, I have the impression that I am not deaf. Therefore, I am surprised that I cannot hear the voices of the people around me! I hope you will get the chance to experience this wondrous celestial music which is available to us all.
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