ABSTRACT
‘Studying the literature of past civilizations’, writes the music therapist Chava Sekeles, ‘and. the healing rituals of traditional societies reveal that certain musical principles do in fact repeat themselves in quite surprising ways in differing cultures.’ For example a change of the organism’s equilibrium by auditory overstimulation has always been a characteristic of traditional societies which indulge in ecstatic ceremonies. This, even today can be employed in music therapy. The ecstatic procedure to which Sekeles refers is quite frequently found in the magico-religious healing rituals of certain Muslim confraternities like the Moroccan ‘Isawiyya, or ‘Isawa, the Hamadisha - a society more aptly described as a community of exorcists - and the Gnawa - a group of black descendants of slaves who may have been brought to North Africa from the coast of Guinea.
