We are all musical instruments.
Each of our bodies resonates with its own distinct wavelength and we are affected by the respective resonance of the objects around us, from mountains to paperclips. Even our thoughts have their own electrical pulses. There are chemical reactions that cause our dreams and our emotions, and then chemical reactions to our reactions.
To help tune the instrument of our lives, concert pianist and modern philosopher Serge Mazerand has written a reference guide. His new book 7 Keys To Serenity was penned in his log home in Smithers. He will launch it with a series of personal appearances across his home region, and Prince George is on the itinerary.
"I spent three years on a roller coaster writing process," said Mazerand describing the birth of the book.
"My background is not as a writer, obviously, I am a musician first, and then there is my interest in nature (he operates a salmon fishing resort when not busy with music). I've contributed to magazines, I've composed music, but a book is not the same thing. But there are some similarities, and the inner drive was there. It was a healing process for me, along the way. Like my CDs, it was made for me first and foremost then as it all comes together, it becomes ready for other people."
Music is made on seven foundational notes, he said. With so much music naturally occurring in human daily existence, he wondered how it might be possible to transpose life into melody. This notion was little more than a hobby, at first.
As he spotted the musical charts of life, though, and started formally taking notes about it, it slowly evolved into a working theory and then a set of conclusions he arranged into seven action points - a septette of key ideas.
"It's a musical perspective that resonates with life," he said. "You might say 'I'm not a musician, I wouldn't understand about that' but I would say actually, you are a musician. Sound, vibrations, amplitudes, sound waves, it is all a part of life. Our cells orchestrate our lives. We are the music. We have very powerful instruments within us. You will understand this easily."
The book maps out a path to understanding and improving life using these musical undertones. It is a self-help and self-health hypothesis. It focuses on getting in conscious touch with the subconscious forces in our lives. Mazerand said there are many names for these subtle agencies. Everything from "chi" to "God" could possibly be ascribed to it.
His exploration doesn't try to knock any of these titles or concepts off their course.
His motivation is to have everyday people simply understand better the tones being struck at hard-to-hear levels within our own bodies and minds, then use the knowledge to build happier lives.
"Thoughts, words, actions, emotions, it all creates vibrations just like playing a note on an instrument," he said.
"If the vibrations are created by poor choices, they are essentially out of tune. When they are based on healthy choices, it is in better tune. That makes us live a life of ease or a lack of ease, dis-ease, disease."
Mazerand considers his entire life a pathway that led him to these concepts.
His mother tongue was French but he moved from France to Canada decades ago and became fluent in a second tongue and a second cultural context.
His music career was creative, reflective, keen on the senses of hearing and touch, and emphasized articulation and interpretation. This also developed his thought processes on life in general.
His nature-based tourist endeavours put him in close (literal) touch with the great outdoors, wind and water, trees and landscapes.
He called his three years of writing in his log house near Telkwa something akin to a hermit in a cabin, with little outside stimuli over that period. It was meditative as well as creative.
His time in Prince George will be busy, as he unveils the fruits of this life's labour. On Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. he will be in person at Books & Company for discussions and book signings.
Then, on Wednesday, Mazerand will perform a concert at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church "where I can't wait to play that wonderful piano they have there" but also discussing the book - all beginning at 7 p.m.
Admission is by donation, and signed copies of the book (and his past CDs) will also be available.
