About this item
For millennia, music has been known to have a powerful role in the healing process. This moving and inspiring book tells the tale of a man pulled from the brink of death by music who, in turn, uses music as medicine to help heal others. Andrew Schulman, a fifty-seven-year-old professional guitarist, had a close brush with death on the night of July 16, 2009. Against the odds -- with the help of music -- he survived: A medical miracle.Once fully recovered, Andrew resolved to dedicate his life to bringing music to critically ill patients at Mount Sinai Beth Israel's ICU. In Waking the Spirit, you'll learn the astonishing stories of the people he's met along the way -- both patients and doctors -- and see the incredible role music can play in a modern hospital setting.In his new work as a medical musician, Andrew has met with experts in music, neuroscience, and medicine. In this book, he shares with readers an overview of the cutting-edge science and medical theories that illuminate this exciting field.This book explores the power of music to heal the body and awaken the spirit.
About the Author
I am a professional classical guitarist living and working in New York City since 1975, except for the three years from 1978-1981 when I lived on the Olympic Peninsula, and then Seattle, in Washington State.
I played electric guitar in a rhythm and blues band called the Soul Guild when I was a teenager. From 1982-1985 I performed in the comedy clubs in NY - The Improv, Catch A Rising Star, and Dangerfield's, doing a "Victor Borge of the Guitar" routine. I also studied jazz when I was in my twenties, with one of the great jazz guitar teachers - Howard Morgen.
This variety, added to the Bach and the other great classical music I love, would have a very important impact later in life after I suffered severe complications after major surgery in July 2009. I was clinically dead for a few minutes and put into a medically induced coma. Great doctors and nurses saved me at first; it was music though that saved my when I was at the precipice in the coma, hours, maybe minutes from death. That is the heart of the story of my book, the event that not only saved my life but changed it forever. As a result, in January 2010, I became a medical musician in that same Surgical Intensive Care Unit.
I'm still a regular musician. But the journey of the book reveals how I combined four decades of experience as a professional musician, the experience of someone who survived catastrophic critical illness, and then received the on-the-job training from doctors and nurses who had saved me in order to create a new specialty in the field called Music & Medicine, Medical Musician.
The drama, as well as humor, and fascinating things about music and medicine that are part of my story and the story of all the people, patients and staff, found in a critical care unit, were ideal material for a book. So I hope you will read "Waking The Spirit: A Musician's Journey Healing Body, Mind, and Soul" and laugh and cry and be as fascinated by that world as I have been for seven years now. ~ Andrew Schulman
