Dr. Alfred Tomatis (1920 - 2001) was the pioneering French physician and psychologist who discovered a previously unacknowledged connection between the ear and voice, and put his discovery into practice in everything from the treatment of learning disabilities, to the singing of Benedictine monks. Gregorian chant, said Tomatis, is “fantastic energy food.”

In this revised and remastered edition of his landmark 1978 public radio documentary, award-winning producer Tim Wilson revisits his interviews with Dr. Tomatis - including the only sound document of him speaking in English, and adds a new commentary by Paul Madaule plus overtone chanting by David Hykes

The popularity of the original 1978 radio documentary widely contributed to the dissemination of Dr. Tomatis’ ideas in North America. This new edition, a tribute to Dr. Tomatis’ lifelong quest, is a profound and subtle meditation on listening as the most vital of human faculties.

A note from the Producer:

Listening, said Alfred Tomatis, is nothing less than our “royal route” to the sacred. It’s also something, he was firmly convinced, that very few of us do well. And so he made it his lifelong task, both as philosophy and as clinical practice, to help make better listeners, to connect people of all ages via this most vital of their faculties, to their true potential.

I first met Dr. Tomatis in the late 1970s when, as a young radio producer on something of a spiritual quest myself, I had become absorbed by the poetic, expressive power of sound, and by its power to heal. The documentary program which resulted from our meeting, titled simply Chant, brought an extraordinary response when it was first broadcast on the CBC and on National Public Radio. The message that it is the ear that shapes our most intimate associations, and regulates a whole range of mental and physical activity, seemed to strike a deep chord in listeners. And it made a lot of sense.

Although it has been my particular interest to seek the reverberations of Tomatis’ discovery in the religious practices of Buddhist and Benedictine monks, they can also be found in more direct, down to earth ways. Paul Madaule, a longtime collaborator of Tomatis and now Director of the Listening Centre in Toronto, daily applies these insights to his work with learning disabled and autistic children, and to artists and professionals who simply want more focused energy at their disposal.

“The spiritual,” he says, “is in work well done, in giving the best of yourself to others.” And if one needed a reason to become a good listener, there is surely none better than that.