Interview:

Music is the mother that picks us up like babies and carries us where we most want to go. The first time I heard spiritual chanting, I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven. As the music resonated through my soul, I wondered if this was how angels feel in paradise. I was lifted to a place where my mind (for once) stopped listening to itself jabber, and my heart (for once) blew open without reservation. It wasn’t the sort of pleasure you feel after sex or racing your car or swilling a latte. That pleasure soaks you for a few moments and then evaporates. This wave of bliss abided, spreading over me like a blanket. This was different from the popular music I’m used to, with its booty shaking and crotch grabbing. Spiritually enlivened music is just as visceral, just as exhilarating, but it doesn’t only serve the body with all its lust and rage, like an MTV act. It serves the soul, plunging you into lucid stillness. You drop yourself and something bigger picks you up and carries you to shelter. Music gets you high, though unlike drugs it has only one side effect: ecstasy. But getting high isn’t the point, it’s just the effect. Music washes through your mind, cleansing every corner, so the grace of God can flow in.

“Music washes through your mind, cleansing every corner, so the grace of God can flow in.”
– Linda Johnsen, co-author of “Kirtan!: Chanting As A Spiritual Path”