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The Mastermind Group

Hi friends…just wanted to let you know about a neat-o thing that I have started and you may want to think about it for yourselves.

A bass player friend of mine named Paul and I found ourselves driving home after many gigs and shooting ideas back and forth during the ride. Our ideas would gain so much momentum and creativity that we’d sit in the parked car outside my place and just go back and forth.

These ideas basically dealt with what is here on the blog – personal development, meditation, and how it relates to being better in business, in life and essentially having an integrated and happy experience with life, business and music.

The core idea is that what’s on the inside is also on the outside. The outside reflects the inside.

Anyhow, he has recommended a few great books by John Assaraf and Jack Canfield – to name a few. You might recognize their names from the hit movie “The Secret”.

All the success “gurus” recommend having what is called a “mastermind group” so my friend and I decided to make it official and meet once a week – rather than have an occasional shmooze – to have our mastermind session.

Napoleon Hill goes into great detail about a mastermind group – and how it is a channel for “divine knowledge and energy”. Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie, as well as all the names mentioned thus far – had mastermind groups.

Question: Why have a mastermind group?

1) Accountability; I have to go back to my meeting on a weekly basis and tell whether or not I met a goal over the week. Just knowing that I will be held accountable is in my mind all week and I have noticed already that I have taken action on issues where I previously felt stuck.

I haven’t had this type of accountability since I took music lessons!

2) Energy: Two heads are better than one. When ideas get going, it can get very creative. New ideas can come to the individuals during the meeting that might not have occurred individually. This is akin to a creative group having at a business meeting, but it is for the lives and business of the individuals in the group.

3) Knowledge: Each person has a wealth of experience and can enlighten the others. At our first session Paul recommended John Assaraf’s book “Having it All” – which is a powerful book. I have learned more about how the brain works from this incredible book. In turn, I “hipped” Paul to some direct marketing knowledge regarding headlines, structure of an ad (I know a bit, but it’s always advancing) and more.

4) Doing It! I know I’ve gotten books and read about a method and “nodded” in understanding but not applied the true practice. I was aware of this when I wrote my own “Virtuoso Guitar Technique” book – aware that buyiing this book is baby step #1. A few years of consistent practice of the material is the main thing – and a small percentage of my customers would actually do that.

The mastermind group is helping me apply the things I’d normally read about and maybe forget.

5) Beneficial Reminders: Delegate tasks and don’t work hard at something someone else “plays at”. Charge enough for your / my services. Don’t waste time with crap that does not matter – focus on what counts. Eat right, exercise, meditate. Do the most important thing in the day first. Stick to a schedule. Visualize what you / I want daily.

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In conclusion – well, it’s only going to be session #3 coming up next week. Paul and I hope to gauge our progress, see if goals have been met and see where we are at in 6 months and then a year.

If we meet and hopefully exceed our goals – we may put a method / seminar together to show other musicians how to truly empower themselves from the inside out.

I think that there is a big difference between teachers who “talk the talk” vs those who TRULY “walk the walk”. I vowed to never be a “talker who was not a walker” – but to guide others through my own real life example – whether it be musical, business,or personal. If we do come up with a study course it will be because we experienced real world results.

Stay tuned!

The Healing Powers of Music: Part 1

By Adam Rafferty 5 Comments

Greetings friends. This is what is bound to be a long series of articles, and a subject I find fascinating.

As of late I have been listening to (and watching on youtube) videos about the mix of quantum physics, personal development, spirituality and healing. At the forefront of this East meets West inquiry is Dr. Deepak Chopra. Many believe that he should marry Oprah Winfrey so that she could finally be Oprah Chopra. But seriously folks….

In an audio book type recording released by Dr. Chopra (not sure how I got it) the theme throughout was the connection of body and mind. It seemed like a promo piece for his book “Perfect Health”, but was not just an ad – it was information-packed.

He goes on to say that many of us are taught to think along the lines of Renee Descartes – one of the fathers of western philosophy. According to the audio, Descartes thought that body and mind were separate entities.

Chopra disagrees and gives scientific example of how the whole body – not just the head – thinks. He gives the example of the thought “I am thirsty” and how that same certain chemical that is released in the brain when the thought is had, is also released in the stomach, the heart and the kidneys as well. The thought “I am thirsty” is had by the whole body as an experience- and can be proven.

Here is a short video in which Chopra describes physiological effects of happiness and peak experiences:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfBWtovxYQY&rel=1]

A basic point Chopra keeps coming back to is this: we have the greatest pharmacy in the world, right in our own bodies. Pharmacy and store bought medications are substitutes for what our body has the capability to naturally produce – only the chemicals that our body naturally produces are better for us and have no side effects.

So when ailments arise, it is often that the body is unable to produce it’s own “medicines” and patients turn to the same chemicals in the form of treatment.

Just like the water experiment – where the body / mind connection is demonstrated – he explains case study after case study in which patients learned to meditate, and their “in house” pharmacy suddenly started to be more effective.

Meditators came off or reduced medications / treatments for asthma, cancer, hypertension, chronic fatigue syndrome and more.

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OKAY ALREADY, SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH MUSIC?
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There is a very brief mention of the healing qualities in music, but when I heard it I perked up.

If a thought such as “I am thirsty” makes the whole body react (glands secreting fluids, etc) wouldn’t hearing a piece of music surely make the entire body – not just the head – react?

I know I have heard “scary music” in movies and reacted internally. I have heard music and cried at it’s utter beauty. I have danced to music and felt energized, overjoyed in a maximum health kind of way. I have been a rebellious teen and seethed with anger – and hard rock helped me feel like I was not alone in telling the world to go stick it :-). I have heard classical music and been lifted to the heights of (some of) the vision had my the great composers.

All of these experiences – we know now – are more than just “in the head”. They are full body, physiological experiences.

This must be one of the reasons that some music lasts over years while some dissapears the minute promotion dollars run out. When music lasts over the years it is because people really love it and get a special experience listening to it. It could be James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, J.S. Bach, James Brown or Howlin’ Wolf. There is a thread in great music that heals- and it is not limited to style. Music that stands the test of time has a very special ingredient.

This also explains why a mere “imitation” of something great is not necesarily great. The ingredient we are talking about is a “vibration” or wavelength that listeners pick up on – much like a ghost. Yet, we all know when we hear it – because we feel it. Something is happening in our bodies. Have you ever heard Aretha Franklin sing the blues and felt your skin tingle? I have – and I’d be willing to bet that it’s good for you!

This is the beginning of an explanation (to myself) as to why after years of playing jazz (I still do) and other types of music – I am finding something very special in my acoustic guitar and arrangements of simple songs. On the surface – yes, it’s simpler – but only in terms of vocabulary.

The sound, the vibration of the wood, the timbre of the bronze strings, and the simplicity of the melodies – is healing me. I can feel it!

The Butt Technique

By Adam Rafferty 2 Comments

Greetings friends! I am so happy….Fall finally feels like Fall here in NY.

I can’t say what an exciting time this is in my life….we truly do go through cycles. And I am actually very excited about how I am able to reach so any new fans & friends via onlie efforts (blog, youtube, etc).

I had an interesting conversation last night with a new friend “Ian” at my best friends birthday gathering…of course it was interesting to me becasue he is a new fan of my music 🙂 Seriously though, it brought up some interesting points that I’d like to share with you.

But first…..

As you know I am a fan of the Release Technique / Sedona Method and refer to it when I need to. (There are so many great personal developement aproaches out there, I find it hard to stick with one and exclude others).

You may never have heard of it – and I am not here to preach or sell anything. It’s all about letting go of limitations and allowing oneself to be, do or have anything.

I can give you an example. For years I thought it was wrong and unjazzlike to use effects pedals. Me, “Mr. Jazzboy” – with archtop endorsements, using pedals? How could I? Worse off – I imagined the double scoops of dissaproval I’d get from peers, jazz icons of yester-year, my teacher and how I’d be undoing the career I’d spent years paving.

Pretty dramatic, huh?

This may seem trivial – but at the time was my reality. (Take a second to appreciate that many of us do this all the time – maybe even you!) One day, (actually it took a lot of gumption) I got the effects out and started playing. People loved it and saw I was having fun. It just felt real,honest and fun – as if a tightness in my chest was let go.

The long and short of it was this – I dropped the limitation. Get it?

It involved “letting go” or “releasing” on the need for anyone’s approval. And, releasing on the “survival” aspect of my career.

Ironically, organist Dr. Lonnnie Smith loves what I do with the pedals. Who would have thought? Releasing actually led to one of the hippest gigs I’ve done.

I hate to use such a trite example, but can you see that our lives, our worlds are constructed out of these psychological houses of cards? It’s insane!!!!

Lester Levenson, the spiritual genius that taught many about this “letting go” concept, (Sedona & Release Technique) said that the highest level of achieving anything is “releasing” the limitations. I love this – he calls it the butt technique. Sit on your butt, release, and watch it come to you.

Whoa! Sounds good, but it is a little hard to believe!

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Back to the conversation I had at the party.

Ian, my bud, loved the new acoustic tracks and vids on you tube that I had put up and is also a Tommy Emmanuel fan (my new favorite guitarist, and the worlds fave as well).

He kept asking me “so you are here and Tommy is there. What are you going to do to get over there where he is?”

It sounded to me as if he was asking, “what will you do” or “what’s the plan” or “who will you call” to get from where I am to where I want to be.

I started to give an answer like, “well I hope I get there someday maybe people will check out the CD…” but he persisted, which I thank him for.

Finally I said to him “It’s not any one thing I need to do, as much as it is a place I need to be in my psyche and soul. When I am in that place, good things happen – people will like the music, doors will open unexpectedly.”

“And whether the doors open or not, the money and recognition comes or not – the being in that special place where the music lives, where I communicate to others, where I am free of hangups, – that is the place of spiritual success before outer success comes…that’s the place.”

“Oh and by the way – you can’t be in that place becasue you want the success. It is truly the zone of ‘the destination is the journey itself.'”

“So, if I want to be ‘there’ where he is – guess what – there is no ‘there’ where he is and ‘here’ where I am. The place to be is the zone of enjoyment and thanks, and then one is like a magnet puling in all good things.”

“I need do nothing except be in that place.” And then I realized – the butt technique was what I was describing.

And then Ian said “that was the answer I wanted to hear”.