A Review of Andrew Schulman’s “Waking the Spirit”
Music that Heals
You’ve probably heard the stories of people being miraculously healed by prayer. You may not have heard stories of people being healed by music. However, Andrew Schulman’s work in the field of music and healing bears out that it is possible. Being healed by music even happened to him: it saved his life! In 2009, Schulman underwent an operation to remove a pancreatic tumor that turned out to be benign. However, he had a reaction to something in his blood transfusion during the surgery and immediately went into cardiac arrest as soon as he left the OR. He was clinically dead. Doctors put him into a coma just to keep him alive. While he was under, a few days later, his wife would plant his iPod ear buds into his ear and play the first thing on the playlist: a piece by J.S. Bach. He began to recover slowly immediately.
After Schulman was healed, he came back to the same surgical intensive care unit (SICU) that he, himself, was a patient of to play classical guitar for other patients — as a way of giving back. This book journals his successes (and some failures) in this regard. And it is a fascinating read. It turns out that Schulman suffered some brain damage that prevented him from memorizing any new music and he only retained memory of six pieces, all learned before the age of 20. So, in order to come back and play in the SICU, he had to carry around a rather large book of sheet music with him. That’s just one of the elements that make Schulman’s narrative so fascinating. He was damaged, but he didn’t give up in helping others. By the end of Waking the Spirit, he is regarded as just as much an integral part of the SICU team as the nurses and doctors.
However, Schulman also reaches out to medical professionals to colour his experiences, and they describe what might have been happening in a particular patient when music was played. This aspect of the book is a little dry, but necessary. (It might have been helpful to include maps of the brain so readers could visualize all of the different parts.) Yes, it does take a little bit of the magic away from the healing stories, but, of course, Schulman and his publishers probably don’t want to take on any unnecessary litigation risks for quack science. Plus, Schulman recalls in the book hearing about a doctor who played heavy metal while operating on a patient, and that patient would die — possibly because the fast fretting music pushed them over the edge. You need to get the music right.
I can attest to what Schulman is doing, and that music that you grew up with can have a resonating effect. While reading this book, I took out a few CD-Rs that I’d burned over the years, and wound up playing the Gigolo Aunts’ Flippin’ Out. Originally, I had four of the disc’s songs on a mix-tape sent to me by a female pen pal in Washington, D.C., when I was in university back in the mid-’90s. Listening to those four songs really took me back, and I could remember precisely where I was when I had heard these songs (in the car, in my apartment, etc.). However, the other six songs didn’t really register with me because I wasn’t as familiar with them and hadn’t formed any memories around them. So I suspect that Schulman’s medicine really works, if the correct music is played that resonates with the listener (who, being in an SICU, is probably in a coma or some kind of vegetative state).
The writing here is impeccable. Schulman has a natural style that is “off the wrist” and is friendly and chatty. I wonder if he got any help, unless, of course, Schulman has as natural a writing talent as he does have a playing talent. Speaking of which, it’s sad that we don’t get a CD with this book of the pieces of music that had healing properties (though Schulman does include a list of pieces at the end of Waking the Spirit). Still, it’s an utterly fascinating read. As Schulman soldiers on, he begins to meet other musicians in the SICU that are patients and have a fairly substantial pedigree. (Schulman meets the son of the man who wrote “Over the Rainbow” for one.) Schulman has nary a discouraging word for the doctors he works with (and why would he, when they saved his life?) and the patients that he meets, and admits that he has formed bonds of friendship with them after their hospital stay. This does little to advance the lack of bias in the book, but what Schulman’s doing is still captivating. Perhaps, the “story” is more interesting this way by reaching into the private lives of some of those that he helps.
Overall, Waking the Spirit is a tremendous book about the resilience of the human spirit in the face of medical adversity and even death. It is an example of medicine that can have a restorative effect that you don’t need a prescription for. After reading this book, I was wishing that you’d see more guys walking around with guitars in ICUs and ERs — at least, up here in Canada. While Schulman cautions against music as “the” ultimate form of medicine, and notes that A) you need to be a professionally-trained concert musician to have any effect and B) health decisions are best made with the consultation of your personal doctor, it’s easy to see from this book that music does have some level of help of those who are sick and in need. I’m overjoyed to have had the experience of reading this book, and the insights into health that it offers. Waking the Spirit is an excellent and unusual memoir about the power of healing from without and within, and should be read widely. Take two chapters and call me in the morning because I’m now off to listen to some more soothing music.
Andrew Schulman’s Waking the Spirit: A Musician’s Journey Healing Body, Mind, and Soul will be published in paperback by Picador on August 1, 2017.
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