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Not just stringing 'em along
Harpist works her magic with music to help animals and people find peace and healing
by Norberto Santana Jr.
Published in the San Diego Union Tribune, August 19, 2000
MOUNT LAGUNA - Sue Raimond knows that music soothes the savage breast. She also believes it works on the savage beast.
And it's no surprise to her that when angels are pictured they're often playing a harp.
For the last five years, Raimond has been at the forefront of a movement studying the effects of harp music on animals and humans. She knows the
array of vibrations produced by a harp can be heard on many levels by animals. And she believed it produces a therapeutic, soothing effect.
"The harp is different because of the way if vibrates," Raimond said. "When you pluck a string, it's producing a whole series of harmonic overtones, but
the surrounding ones also produce their own."
Over the last decade, harp music increasingly has gained notice as an alternative medical treatment for humans.
The first international conference on harp therapy was held in Richmond, Va., last year. When conference organizer Lynelle Ediger Kordzaia met
Raimond, she was impressed by her work with animals.
Kordzaia works as a staff harpist with a school district, using the instrument as therapy for disadvantaged and disabled children.
"Susan's really the pioneer in the field of harp therapy for animals," she said.
But for a sample you don't need to go farther than down a dirt road in the midst of the Cleveland National Forest, where Raimond, 45, lives in a small
house surrounded by pines and oaks.
Every morning, she plays for her own animals.
She sits on a small wooden stool in her front yard, with a 38-string folk harp resting against her shoulder. Besides the local birds that come by, her
audience is made up of her 8-year-old dog, Jackson, a 28-year-old horse named Midnight and two cats.
Although Jackson initially is very excited to see strangers at the house, once Raimond begins to play he is transformed. Once he sits beside her to listen,
he doesn't move again until she finishes.
Listening to Raimond's morning session, it seems as if she can play forever. As she slowly reaches the end of one piece, she adeptly begins another without
pausing. Each melody melts into the next.
"It's just a magical thing," she said. "It's really, really wonderful. It's like the wind blowing."
This weekend, Raimond will be part of the Harp Gathering in Mount Laguna. Hundreds of harpists meet every year to trade techniques and hold a jam session.
Although she has been playing for 15 years, Raimond said she first noticed the relaxing effects of the harp five years ago while giving music lessons at Robinson's
Harp Shop in Mount Laguna. She began to notice that the shop owner's dog dropped into a deep slumber whenever she played.
"You almost had to wake them up," she said.
Since then, Raimond has become dedicated to backing up her hunch with science, traveling the globe playing her harp for animal researchers and
assisting people dealing with an array of illnesses.
"It's such satisfying work," she said. "To be able to eliminate pain and distress in an animal is great."
When Raymond Ediger, a veterinarian with the Maryland Department of Agriculture, met Raimond at the conference headed by his daughter, he was sold. "I'm an old
farmer; we've always known there was a connection with music," Ediger said.
He said farmers often play tunes while milking cows and training horses.
Ediger helped Raimonf in her research by introducing her to scientists of BioWhittaker, a biotechnology company. Earlier this summer, Raimond traveled to Walkersville, Md.,
to conduct tests at the company's animal facility. There, researchers allowed her to play to the rhesus monkeys.
"We were skeptical, but there was an obvious response from the animals we had her work with," said Kathleene Sterling, a veterinarian with BioWhittaker. "We had them
snoozing. It was pretty dramatic."
After just a few minutes of music, Sterling said, the most aggressive monkey - known for banging on the Plexiglas viewing windows - lay down with his hands
folded under his head. Three other monkeys stayed focused on the harp and almost fell asleep on their perches.
"With the monkeys, the tones she used were hypnotizing," Ediger said. "It just looked like you were singing a lullaby to a small child."
Sterling said the company was so convinced by the session that it bought several compact discs of special harp music from Raimond. She also confirmed that
the company is working with Raimond to explore whether harp rhythms can stimulate cell growth.
Closer to home, Pine Valley resident Robin Sellers became a believer in Raimond's music two years ago.
Her German shepherd, Storm, had been terrified by thunder and lightning since he was a puppy.
Sellers said she "had tried everything," including tranquilizers.
"He's gone through a solid wood door," she said. "He literally wants to climb inside you because he's terrified."
But after she bought a compact disc of Raimond's music, two years ago, Sellers said, Storm calmed down.
"You could hear the thunder coming," Sellers said. "I called the dogs in, put the CD on and within 10 to 20 minutes of playing the music the dog was totally relaxed on the floor.
I walked out of the room and he was just fine."
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SUSAN RAIMOND
Author, Lecturer, and Harpist
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