Spirituality Studies 9-2 Fall 2023 39 Carmen Ramírez-Hurtado, Victoria Cavia-Naya hend the immanence and transcendence accorded to them in what they perceive, especially under this prism of the vibrating dynamic totality, or with other concepts and authors under a specific heading, has also been made clear. In this sense, June Boyce-Tillman (2007, 1409) includes a large part of these studies in some of her writings, but we have selected the only one that connects with contemplative spirituality: This is the area where many claims for a spirituality associated with order have been made by traditional writers on aesthetics and spirituality linked with an unseen order. She also understands the musical potential for spirituality in a sense consistent with the one we propose here: “the ability to transport the experiencer to a different time/space dimension” (Boyce-Tillman 2007, 1409). Moreover, this unseen order relates to the philosophical findings outlined in the previous section, according to which music and singing, through the perception of energy and vibration, can access the transcendent and invisible in an embodied form. And they do this in a particularly intimate and personal way because the voice is like a fingerprint, unique to each person, which is part of their identity in a specific and radical way. In the articles by Laurendeau that study the parallels between science and Christian mysticism, we can find some paths that can very well be applied to our object of study [9]. Moreover, in the new trends in the methods of learning to sing, there are also similarities with the path towards spirituality. One of the shared axes is that, on the intellectual plane, access to transcendence can only be attained by suspending, precisely, our reasoning, to let reality itself penetrate us. Laurendeau thus underlines this aspect of modern phenomenology and describes this process by following the experiences of Teresa of Jesus [10]; the union with the absolute is not explained or constructed, but requires the suspension of intellect, detachment, and surrender. Singing itself, as considered here (without referring to its possible support in the form of words or feelings) is perception and self-awareness of oneself – body, mind, and spirit – and of the environment as a whole. Indeed, learning to use the voice efficiently, humanely, and holistically involves such abandonment and surrender. In this sense, Rosanna Baroncelli explains her process as a professional singer in an article in which, despite its somewhat ambiguous title [11], we find surprising coincidences with the spiritual path. First is the need to let go of the ego, as taught by so many currents of spirituality; the abandonment of the ego occurs when there is a previous process of meditation and concentration (Baroncelli 2015, 2). She follows the school of Estill Voice Training to reach what she calls the zone: an empty space of reasoning and abandonment of judgment, with clear parallels in the meditative practices of various traditions that seek to reach the center of the self. Although this author follows a specific school, this point is common to other systems of learning to sing [12] and coincides exactly with the paradox taught by the great masters of spirituality: namely, one must make an effort not to make more effort, as we have already pointed out in another of the previous sections (cf. Jalics 2003). The metaphysics of singing thus speaks to us of a path beyond the physical (which implies a spiritual quest). And discipline and technique, which are obviously necessary and hard to learn, also have a parallel with the early stages of what in many spiritual traditions can be understood as asceticism in its various forms. This is practiced before meditation, contemplation and letting go, freeing the consciousness from judgment and focused effort to let go and enter into detachment and surrender, thus allowing the spirit in us to speak, unhindered and unimpeded. If this approach is followed, the voice reflects the inner balance that involves all aspects of the whole of the human being; it is a vibration that happens in the world and places us in it with the naked truth about who we are [13]. For the purposes of our study we would not so much follow the path of the professional singer who studies the discipline for years, as assert that anyone can reach this contemplative moment through his/her singing voice. We would then approach it as contemplative meditation through singing, which, as a practical corollary, we set out in the following section.
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