When Listening Comes Alive: A Guide to Effective Learning and Communication
Paul Madaule
Second Edition
219pp. Paperback Book
ST256 $14.95

Diagnosed as dyslexic at an early age, the author experienced a remarkable recovery with the help of Dr. Alfred Tomatis which he chronicles in Part 1. Also includes a clear explanation of the Tomatis Method and its applications.
Part 2, "Listening Through Life" explores listening at all ages, understanding where listening is centered, and "what" it does for us at the different stages of life. Part 3, "Earobics" is concrete, hand-on information on listening and techniques for applying them.

Susan Weber: Don, can you share with us some impressions of Alfred Tomatis?

Don Campbell: For the past thirty-five years, I have been fascinated with the multiple levels and complexities in the act of listening. As a music student, I was amazed when other students heard rhythms and harmonies that escaped my perception. As a music teacher, I was fascinated when some students could hear melodies and intervals that others missed. As a music critic, I often heard a concert in different ways from my other colleagues while attending the same performance.

In 1982 I heard a radio program about a French physician who had explored the science of listening, how the ear was essential for many levels of health, expression, and communication. Soon thereafter, I found my way to Dr. Alfred Tomatis who was visiting The Listening Centre in Toronto. Our conversation revolved around great music, and its power to transcend language.

My world as a trained musician was completely changed with the talent and ability of Dr. Tomatis to define the perimeters of listening. Tomatis' insight, intuition, and remarkable power to listen in a way that was "deeper than the words being spoken" always impressed me. Our conversations continued to be focused on music, its mystical, energetic, and emotional powers. From chant to Mozart, Bach to modern opera, we remained musical friends.

I went to Carcassonne in southern France in 2000, the year he died. Although he had been ill for some time, he was bright and insightful. We continued sharing our insights about the patterns, rhythms, and high frequencies within some of Mozart's music. I could tell he was still finding new ways to listen. In our last discussion, I knew he was still perplexed with the limitations of language and words, compared to the never ending and vast vocabulary of the "music of the spheres."

Dr. Alfred Tomatis was a pioneer. He opened the door to unlimited possibilities in the fields of language development, music therapy, and learning disabilities. It is now our work to apply and transform his work into a more harmonic, understanding world.

SW: Paul, You were dyslexic? How did you find help?

Paul Madaule: I grew up in the late 50s and 60s in a small and isolated town in the south of France. Dyslexia was known, the typical treatments were about the same as now; tutoring, special education, and speech therapy. My free and fun time was consumed by therapies and tutoring, without ever addressing the real problem. I was becoming quite disenchanted by not being able to learn and thought I had no future. My language and academic skills were poor, as well as my motor skills and coordination.

When I was 18, I met Dr. Tomatis in a monastery near my home town. He was helping the monks return to Gregorian chant as a way to regain their health, activity level, and well being. I had stopped going to school and was helping out with some of the crafts they were producing such as stained glass windows. It was a peaceful hiding place away from my bleak reality. One of the monks took a real interest in me. As Dr. Tomatis talked to them about his work in Paris with the dyslexic, this monk realized that he was describing me, and brought us together.

In contrast to the previous specialists, Dr. Tomatis asked me about me as a person--my hopes and dreams. He invited me to come to Paris so he could help me.

Three weeks later while on vacation in England, I was having fun! I had been there before but stayed in my room. I was just too shy and had a hard time with the language. Now I was expressing myself in English and enjoying going out, meeting girls, joking, and being able to express myself in another language. It is very much what I repeatedly observe with many clients who have problems like mine--more ease and fun in communicating.

I transferred to a boarding school near Paris so I could complete the second part of the program every weekend. (We call that a boost after the original treatment.) School was difficult but I was able to finish. I studied psychology and continued working with Tomatis during my studies. I am still doing the same work today.

DC: In the 20 years, I have known Tomatis and Paul, I have heard hundreds of stories of how students and parents found this magical place of transformation. Paul and others who have started centers, have a very personal sense of enlightenment. The basis of all of this work is to communicate--to listen to and express themselves to the world. Tomatis opened so many doors to what perception, consciousness, well-being, and health mean in relationship to the ear. It is an unending pool of resources psychologically and musically.

SW: Why do you think that the spectrum of learning disorders and autism is on the rise?

PM: Better detection and identification, but this alone doesn't explain the magnitude of the increase.

I view ADHD and autism as the extremes of the same spectrum. Based on all the years I have worked with ADHD clients and the many positive results I obtain, I believe at least 80% of them have an underlying listening problem. The ADHD child seems to be too open, absorbing everything and not knowing what to do with it. The autistic child has completely closed off communication in reaction to a world he perceives as too chaotic and disjointed. He is protecting himself from fear and overload--the most extreme state of non-listening.

We are more and more challenged by our audio environment (television, noises), all of the chemicals we absorb in our food and air, the large number of vaccinations, etc. I consider these things "noise" for the nervous system. There may be some genetic markers which influence the onset of autism, but genetics alone does not explain the very recent increase. We do not mutate that fast!

Environmental factors may start affecting the child's development as early as pre-natal life. An increasing body of research is linking autism with life in-utero. In this stage, the embryo is like a sponge, absorbing everything without the ability to filter out the unnecessary.

DC: In the last 50 years, there has been a gradual increase in audio/visual stimulation from radios, television, and computers. The natural patterns by which the mind learned to learn over thousands of years, have been subject to immense shortcuts.

There is so much overwhelm; chemical dependency, our foods have changed, sleep patterns are affected through air-conditioning and heating, etc. I think it is this logarithmic growth in sensory overload, outside of the natural timing of the body, that has sent a couple of generations of kids into shock.

PM: There is a paradox in what is going on with our children. On the sensory, the input level, they are more and more bombarded by information. On the output, the motor level, they are more and more immobile, under-stimulated. Healthy activities are diminishing. Look at the body fat statistics. Some children may become very sophisticated in their fine motor ability to play a game boy for hours everyday, but at the expense of their gross motor and coordination skills. This is totally insane.

Music is the greatest organizer of the world of sound and language by attuning the ear and stimulating the brain. The ear just doesn't perceive sound, it also works on the body. The "ear of the body" not only controls balance, it makes us aware of every movement and connects us with the world around us. Because of its action on the ear as a whole, music acts as a fine tuner. We need music and physical movement to develop focus, self-regulation, self-control, concentration, all these skills which form a base for nonverbal and verbal communication, and for the learning process.

I see my work in taking this instrument, the ear, which is so important in our development, and fine tuning it to clearly receive and make full use of the information we need. Language comes to us by sound. Language is extremely important in organizing our mind. A lot of children have difficulty with controlling impulses because they do not talk to themselves very well--their inner language is not well developed and this affects their self-awareness. Tomatis described language as an organizer, a "structuring dynamic." Ear tuning with the use of sound stimulation as we do it with the Tomatis listening training gives children access to language, and to its translation in the written form; writing and reading.

DC: My work with music has been to find a way to give the self, the soul, the spirit, the natural ego more room to move within this world--to find that sacred place where the mind, body, heart, and emotions listen in alignment.

Dr. Tomatis was the first one to put all of this into context for me. I always had the content of this information, but the ability to connect the auditory dots was amazing. As I live and watch this method and many others develop, I still go back to the premise that we can all find our soul through sound and music. I am hoping these young kids and teenagers will find their spirit, giving them space to move. That comes through better listening--to themselves and their world. I think the source goes back to a true Greek platonic thought. There is an enormous amount of wisdom and perfection within the human, if we give it enough room to come forth.

For more information
Read more about The Listening Centre, and Listening Fitness with the LiFT.

Read Paul Madaule's articles on the educational and therapeutic value of music, and voice and listening training with children with developmental and learning problems.

More information on the Tomatis method and clinics around the world at tomatis.com.

Paul Madaule is the Director of The Listening Centre in Canada, an institution that he founded in 1978. The Listening Centre was the first clinical facility using the Tomatis Method in North America. Paul has also helped create a dozen Centres throughout the US and Mexico.

Graduating in Psychology from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1972, Paul spent several of his formative years working with Dr. Tomatis in his Paris Centre.

When Listening Comes Alive is now available in six languages. Two documentaries on his work at The Listening Centre were produced in 1995, one dealing with autism (The Child That You Do Have) and one on adults with reading disabilities (The Key to the World). His work with autism is described in a book by Stephanie Marohn, The Natural Medicine Guide to Autism.

Paul often gives lectures and workshops on his work, including the "Listening Experience Workshop" and the "Ear Voice Connection Workshop." He has developed a portable audio-device called The LiFT-Listening Fitness Trainer.

Additional Autism and ADHD Resources

Awakening Ashley: Mozart Knocks Autism On its Ear
Sharon Rubin
229pp. Paperback Book $18.95

Story of a little girl's recovery from autism using the Tomatis Method and the Mozart Effect to retrain her ears.

The Conscious Ear: My Life of Transformation Through Listening Alfred A. Tomatis
Billie M. Thompson, editor and translator.
300pp Paperback Book $25.95

The work of Alfred A. Tomatis has had a revolutionary impact on our understanding of the ear, opening the way to a transformation of human listening.

Healing Powers of Tone and Chant
Don Campbell
2 Cassettes 104 min. $18.95

Cassette One, Healing with Tone and Chant, features toning, chanting, and workshop exercises for individual or group instruction. Cassette Two, Chant: Healing Power of Voice and Ear features Tim Wilson as narrator presenting the research of A. Tomatis, the electronic ear, and the effects of sound on brain and body.