John’s talk is called, “The Healing Power of the Lullaby”
Trace the lullaby backward in time from, say, Billy Joel’s “Goodnight, My Angel,” to lyrics found on a five-thousand-year old Sumerian cuneiform tablet and you realize that the texts have more to do with the anxieties and existential dread of the singer than of the baby. Even the word “lullaby” suggests a broader application. A widely accepted folk etymology traces the nightly practice of the lullaby to “Lilith-Abi,” Hebrew for Lilith Begone! Without such precautions, there was always the risk of the demon herself showing up to steal the soul of the child. Mothers have feared such abductions since Hades/Pluto grabbed Persephone and whisked her to the underworld. They fear still.
Protection against demons does not have a place in modern child caregiving, but emotional health is still front and center. According to Dr. Mark Tramo of UCLA’s famed neurology department and, significantly, a lecturer at the Herb Alpert School of Music, preterm babies responded favorably to the sustained presentation of lullabies which not only induced sleep but ameliorated the pain normally experienced after, say, a heel stick procedure (which is how blood is drawn from neonates).
I would suggest that, as mythologists, we have underestimated not only the significance of the lullaby as generative of story, myth, and even scripture, but the significance of sound itself. The experience of intrauterine sound, I will argue, is the fertile field from which image arises in perinatal consciousness.
If that doesn’t disturb your sleep, nothing will.
About John
John has a PhD in mythological studies and a Master of Music in conducting. He knew this day would come. His studies are briefly merged.
John and his wife Eileen direct the well-known sacred ensemble Shantigarh (a Hindi word meaning “House of Peace”). John is also the curator of resources for the Joseph Campbell Foundation.