Awakening Normal:

How Focused Listening to Music Heals Mental Illness

A NEUROLOGICAL PARADIGM

(2018)

 by Laurna Tallman

 A brief summary in 45 points of the Tallman Paradigm and some of the concepts that derive from that neurological paradigm. Laurna writes in the Introduction:

When I set a Master’s thesis topic in 1975 to answer the profound question about the relationship in human consciousness between the written word and mental images, I assumed the answer lay in psychology and that I would be synthesizing the three metalanguages of literary criticism, of art criticism, and of psychology. I set aside that labour to marry, but those questions pursued me. Thirty years later, I would discover the answers lay in human neurology and a novel paradigm I would discover while healing one of our children from schizophrenia. The reader will see that my work is scientific, scholarly, and replicable and that it meshes seamlessly with the scientific discoveries of other researchers. My discoveries and my opinions based on them are highlighted in red type. In the summaries near the end of this document those discoveries are numbered in red [1 … 45]. I expect others to add their own remarkable insights as they work with these new understandings of how the human ear controls human thought processes and behaviour.

A timeline of Daniel’s integration disorder and development of left-brain dominance follows the text (page 45). This introduction to my longer works, while footnoted, mentions authors and works more fully described in those publications. More information about the process that led to my discoveries is in the Biographical and Family Notes and in my other publications available from Northern Light Books (see copyright page for contacts).

ISBN 978-0-9811672-8-2

76 pages, two-colour, diagrams, footnotes
8½” x 11”, comb binding.

You can download Awakening Normal for $5.00 (PayPal) from admin@northernlightbooks.ca. You can order hard copy at the same address during website construction.

“When I went for my 11 a.m. doctor’s appointment today I took Awakening Normal with me. I actually hadn’t taken the time yet for a careful reading. Am I glad I took it with me! My appointment was at 11 a.m. and I didn’t get in until 1 p.m. I was absolutely immersed in it while I waited. Even with all my knowledge of your work I didn’t feel like it was the same, old, same old. The way you have told it and explained things left me excited and involved at the new things I was learning. Knowing of [our priest’s] interests I’m hoping she will be as engrossed and impressed as I was (and I haven’t even finished it yet). When I unearthed all my stuff from my carrier bag at home, I continued reading and continued to be energized by your discoveries. My mind is dancing with delight.”

R.W.-U., retired librarian and lifelong friend of the author