BRATTLEBORO — Can music really heal the physical body?
“Leading scientific research says yes,” writes opera-singer-turned-healer Donatella Moltisanti.
Moltisanti, a New York-based alternative wellness practitioner who calls herself a “soul healer,” writes that “whether singing lullabies or sacred chants, mothers and religious leaders have known for millennia what scientists are only beginning to understand: Singing has the extraordinary power to uplift, transport, and heal us, as well as to connect us to the Divine.”
To support her contention, Moltisanti cites recent studies on the healing powers of music documented in books like The Power of Music by New York Times best-selling author Elena Mannes and The Healing Power of Sound by oncologist Mitchell Gaynor.
Moltisanti believes music can induce a shift in consciousness.
“After hearing a particular song, our mood may change abruptly, or we suddenly may feel transported back in time,” Moltisanti explains. “Singing bypasses our mental process, both awakening and soothing us at the core, without effort.”
But there are other therapeutic benefits from music too.
“Through music, we are able to access, release, and heal from the experience of trauma, without having to recount and risk getting triggered by painful memories,” Moltisanti adds. “Singing is a powerful vehicle for connecting deeply with each other, with Spirit, and with our essential Being.”
Moltisanti is giving a free concert/workshop in Brattleboro to show what she means.
As part of the Brown Bag Lunch series at the River Garden sponsored by Strolling of The Heifers, “Moltisanti Soul Singing: The Healing Power of the Human Voice” will be presented on Nov. 30, from noon until 1 p.m..
'A powerful voice'
Moltisanti will introduce the concept of soul singing, then she will guide participants through a Moltisanti Soul Singing program, and she will conclude with a Q&A session. This innovative program of sound healing combines operatic vocalization, crystal singing bowls, and guided meditation.
This event is part of Moltisanti's Fall tour for her new album, Moltisanti Soul Singing.
According to her website, Moltisanti is an internationally acclaimed soul teacher, healer, channel, and singer.
“I am naturally gifted with a powerful voice,” she says. “When people come up to me and tell me how powerful my voice is, I of course am complimented but also a little put off. I want my voice to have something more than power. I see something else there, something soft and emotive.”
An opera singer by trade, Moltisanti uses healing chants and songs to channel the highest vibrations of sound and light.
As she writes at her website, donatellamoltisanti.com, Moltisanti is an expert in “energy analysis, child and inner child healing, and she is a relationship enhancer. She helps women to nurture and balance themselves and their families using many modalities of healing, including, but not limited to; Bel Vaspata, Angel Healing, Reiki, Past Life Regression, and Soul Retrieval.”
“I am of Italian heritage, which has given me the wisdom on how to heal and connect with nature,” Moltisanti says.
Raised on the island of Sicily, Moltisanti grew up surrounded by ancient healing wisdom, which fed her gift as a natural healer. She discovered this gift as a young child, she says, when she was able to eliminate pain in her family members, simply by putting her hands on the places that hurt.
Only later did she learn to heal herself.
Moltisanti first discovered the therapeutic benefits of music three decades ago while studying opera in Italy.
“As a teenager, I suffered from debilitating menstrual cramps that left me bedridden for several days each month,” Moltisanti says.
When Moltisanti began studying opera at an Italian music conservatory, she was surprised to discover that her debilitating chronic pain suddenly disappeared.
“Medication provided no relief, but once I began singing opera, the pain dissipated,” she says.
Opera-based method
Moltisanti believes than singers are more sensitive than most to the way myriad forces affect their bodies.
“I had a music teacher in Rome who had a lesson at 9 a.m.,” she says. “When I went to the studio one day after having not enough sleep, I was told to go back home. My teacher insisted that a singer needs 10 hours of sleep. Singers must be in touch and honor the body.”
In the ensuing decades, Moltisanti developed an opera-based method for healing chronic illness, using it to facilitate healings worldwide - including for some who did not get results through conventional medicine.
Today, Moltisanti remains at the cutting edge of sound healing, offering an innovative fusion of operatic vocalization, crystal singing bowls, and guided meditation, and collaborating with doctors and psychologists across the country.
Moltisanti became a certified nutritionist and a holistic health counselor - through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition - and she studied with numerous spiritual teachers from diverse modalities of healing.
Ultimately, Moltisanti developed the Moltisanti Soul Healing method, a six-step process that helps individuals access their core being, let go of residue from trauma, and express themselves authentically.
At the core of this work are the Moltisanti Soul Singing method, a music-based healing that fuses classical opera, sacred Eastern music, and improvised vocalization, and the Moltisanti Conscious Breathing method, a tool for awakening the body and becoming both spiritually aligned and emotionally grounded by mastering the breath.
Moltisanti will be teaching some of what she has learned at the upcoming workshop in Brattleboro.
“In my concerts and workshops I usually prepare my audience with some breathing techniques, which they never forget, so they can be activated by what they will hear,” Moltisanti explains. “After that I explain the journey I am going to take them on. Only then do I sing and play music. What is remarkable is that when the session is over, the faces of my participants have changed. They look different, because they are now in a different space.”