🎧 An Invitation to Hear What We’ve Forgotten
On a quiet morning walk in Saligao, Goa, just before the crows begin their cawing contest and the scooters claim the roads, I paused at the side of a banyan tree. No music, no words. Just the sounds the world offers when we finally hush our own. A koel’s clear call echoed from one side of the hill, answered by the rustle of palm fronds in the other. My breath slowed. I was not just hearing—I was listening.
And that, perhaps, is the essence of World Listening Day, celebrated each year on July 18, in honor of R. Murray Schafer, the Canadian composer and founder of acoustic ecology. Schafer believed that our sonic environment—the soundscape—matters just as much as the physical one. “The world is a huge musical composition,” he once wrote, “that’s going on all the time, without a beginning and presumably without an ending.”
The Art of Listening in a Noisy World
In a world buzzing with constant input, we often conflate hearing with listening. The former is passive, automatic. The latter is active, intentional, and at times deeply spiritual.
Listening has roots far deeper than language. Our ancient ancestors relied on their ears long before they had words or walls. The crack of a twig, the distant growl of an animal, the changing tone of birdsong could signal danger—or survival. Modern neuroscience confirms that our brain still prioritizes sound as a threat-detection system. We don’t just hear with our ears; we hear with our nervous system.
That primal vigilance can still be felt today. Think of how a baby calms when it hears its mother’s voice, or how you instinctively turn at the drop of glass in a restaurant. Sound grounds us in presence and alerts us to change—both internal and external.
Listening as Therapy and Healing
Listening isn’t only reactive—it’s also transformative. In practices like hypnotherapy, the voice becomes a vessel: cadence, silence, and repetition guide clients into deeper subconscious states. “The voice doesn’t just convey meaning,” says clinical hypnotherapist Dr. Meera Jacob. “It carries rhythm, trust, and presence. It’s not the words, but how we listen to them that rewires us.”
Even beyond clinical settings, sound has healing potential. Research shows that heartbeat meditations, sound baths, and simply sitting in silence can reduce cortisol, lower blood pressure, and bring a sense of grounded awareness. You don’t need a stethoscope to hear your own heart—you only need to listen. Sit still long enough, and it becomes audible in the neck, the fingers, even the throat.
The Silence That Speaks
Silence is often feared in modern life, filled too quickly with chatter, screens, or playlists. But silence is where the world’s subtle layers emerge. Composer John Cage once entered an anechoic chamber—a room without echo—and expected to hear nothing. Instead, he heard two sounds: one high (his nervous system), one low (his blood circulation). “There is no such thing as silence,” he famously concluded.
In shamanic traditions across cultures—from Amazonian ayahuasqueros to Siberian seers—listening is the first act of communion. Nature speaks not in language, but in wind, in rustle, in the tremor of animal movement. The shaman listens for these subtle cues—not only for healing, but for guidance and truth.
When the Skin Listens
And sometimes, listening transcends hearing. There are rare conditions—such as cutaneous synesthesia—where people actually feel sound on their skin. Deaf musicians like Evelyn Glennie perform barefoot to feel the vibrations of instruments. “Hearing is basically a specialized form of touch,” she once said. “Sound is simply vibrating air, which the ear picks up and converts to electrical signals. The brain then interprets these signals, but the skin can interpret them too.”
It reminds us that listening is not confined to the ear—it is a whole-body experience.
How to Celebrate World Listening Day
Every year, the World Listening Project announces a theme and encourages people worldwide to take part in soundwalks, recordings, listening meditations, and community conversations. The theme for 2025 is still in the works, but past years have included Listening to the Weave of Time and The Unquiet Earth.
How might you observe it? Perhaps with a walk along the beach at sunrise, your phone off. Perhaps by recording the sonic life of your kitchen—water boiling, knives chopping, spoons clinking. Or simply by lying still and letting the night speak.
A Final Note
To listen is to be present. To listen is to honor what is too often ignored. It is radical in its simplicity and revolutionary in its depth.
R. Murray Schafer believed that if we listened deeply to the world—and each other—we might live more wisely. Maybe the first step isn’t finding the right thing to say. Maybe the first step is shutting up and listening.
“Sound is the vocabulary of nature.”
— Pierre Schaeffer, composer
References
- Schafer, R. Murray. The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment, 1994
- Cage, John. Silence: Lectures and Writings, 1961
- Evelyn Glennie, TED Talk: “How to Truly Listen”
- World Listening Project – https://worldlisteningproject.org
- Krause, Bernie. The Great Animal Orchestra, 2012
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