All lectures are interwoven with the performance of music

Music and Planetary Survival
Re-imagining our institutions, empowering creative community

We are living at a crucial and very dangerous time, unprecedented in human history. The Earth has not undergone anything comparable to the order of devastation and destruction witnessed today; mass extinctions, biospheric toxicity, exploitive depletion of natural resources all in the name of a “progress” no longer commensurate with planetary survival. We face worldwide starvation, disease, war, terrorism; our families disintegrate, our children struggle with violence and self- destructive lifestyles. These emergencies call for nothing less than a planetary transformation in consciousness – the greatest in human history.

In this presentation, Lorin Hollander investigates the burning question of how we might ground human existence in harmony with the rhythms of life. Through music and an entirely different order of communication Mr. Hollander takes the audience beyond the cognitive and the experiential into the realm of visionary creativity where lost secrets surface and untapped gifts ignite in new inspiration. Music touches the fundamental and universal aspects of our souls and therefore has an unmatched power to nurture and guide the creative inspiration we need to assure our survival as planetary beings. Furthermore, music mirrors the waves and vibrations underlying the most fundamental causative principles found in nature - the very life forms we are struggling to save. Indeed, as a reflection of nature’s vibratory patterns, music provides the blueprint for planetary revival and spiritual revelation.

Mr. Hollander addresses the need to awaken abilities which are not yet taught, not yet named let alone accomplished – capacities to re-imagine a world where we live in harmonious being with ourselves, others, and the universe. It is thus that the world currently hurtling towards social and ecological ruin can be renewed. Business organizations must embrace and universities must prepare innovators able to communicate their visions in ways which will awaken those enabling and endorsing non-sustainable modes of being. This presentation provides a powerful access for the audience to discover how this inevitable shift in priorities offers as well our greatest (and perhaps only) opportunity for economic growth and development in all human enterprise.

Suggested audiences: All – Corporate, Basic Education, University, Environmental, etc.

Music, Sunflowers, the Cosmos and Me
Nature, Vibration, the Music of the Spheres

The universe is shaped the way it would sound. This presentation focuses on an exploration of Sacred Geometry, Fibonacci ratios and the Laws of Harmonics, beautifully illuminated and made clear with the performance of music. Hollander shows the audience how music mirrors the waves and vibrations underlying the most fundamental causative principles found in nature - the very life forms we are struggling to save. Vibrations cause and are the reason for the Fibonacci ratios – shapes we find in parts of our bodies, in seashells, galaxies, crystals, sunflowers, orbits, eggs, buds, pines cones and in the unfolding of embryonic life. Furthermore, the blueprints for planetary revival – the vibratory patterns underlying the process of transformation itself, can be understood through an exploration of music. Music touches the fundamental and universal aspects of our souls and therefore has an unmatched power to nurture and guide the creative inspiration we need to assure our survival as planetary beings. Through music and an entirely different order of communication Mr. Hollander takes the audience beyond the cognitive and the experiential into the fundamental realms of human consciousness wherein creative visions and prophetic intuition can be harnessed to guide planetary transformation.

Suggested audiences: Particularly relevant to environmentalism, deep ecology, spiritual ecology, biology, science, as well as the arts, personal growth, spiritual consciousness, etc.

Toward the Light – Mystery, Adventure and the Experience of Dying
“If you die before you die you will not die when you die.”

There is little in human existence more relevant to our lives than the experience of death and dying. Yet until recently western civilization has denied, repressed or shown lack of interest in the subject. Is death the absolute end of everything? Or, as told to us in the great mystical traditions, is it a great adventure and liberation? What is the experience of dying itself? What does it feel like? Need we be terrified? Is reincarnation real? There are thousands of children worldwide who remember intimate details of a previous life, memories which have been scrupulously studied and verified. There are also hundreds of documented Near Death and Out of Body Experiences. Ancient revered Books of the Dead are united with groundbreaking consciousness research in illuminating extraordinary realms of consciousness experienced when dying. In this presentation Hollander, who has participated in this consciousness research for more than a generation, will weave music and poetry into a survey of the entire landscape. Knowing the very real possibility that our dying can be an awesome adventure and time for liberation, can utterly transform the way we live our lives.

We Have Met the Enemy and It is Us
Breaking through our fear of failure, unleashing creative innovation

This lecture with music investigates the fears and concerns we have about winning the approval of our supervisors and bosses – the authority figures – and examines how this stifles the creativity, freedom and self-expression of those working within corporate and business environments. Exploring what happens in stage fright is a perfect vehicle for understanding the experience of “life-fright” – the fear of being criticized or judged, whether speaking in public, expressing creative ideas, asking for a raise, or facing our boards or the media. Mr. Hollander guides the audience through an experiential process of distinguishing in ourselves the true nature of what we believe is a critical “other.” He illuminates the dynamics at the root of this illusion and provides access to a breakthrough in creative self-expression.

The Symphony Conductor – New Paradigms for Leadership

Using the symphony orchestra as a metaphor for the business organization, Mr. Hollander demonstrates a new model for leadership. The audience in this presentation palpably feels this model of leadership when Hollander conducts a professional chamber orchestra on stage to demonstrate the differences in the energy and atmosphere of the group when he is inspiring rather than controlling, committed to creative collaboration rather than competition – to serving a higher purpose. The meeting’s host joins Mr. Hollander in conducting the orchestra (optional) and feels what it is like to lead an ensemble in an environment which fosters creative innovation. As a model of visionary leadership, the symphony conductor maintains the vision, empowers full self-expression in each musician, and initiates an authentic ownership of his/her creative contribution to the orchestra. (This can also be an experiential workshop without a chamber orchestra.)

Music, Creativity and Myth – Genius and Madness
The Hero’s Journey of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”

Just as many of the great creative geniuses were tormented people, many highly gifted individuals today suffer with the same unbearable turmoil; it is an inevitable component of their very giftedness. (One in seven commits suicide, two in seven try.) Joseph Campbell discovered that the experiences of the personality disintegration and reintegration (what we call, but perhaps can no longer, manic-depression) of these spiritually and psychologically different people are identical to the “hero’s journey” – the departure, initiation and return – as found in the world’s great mythologies. The great creators left evidence, personal chronicles of their mythological journeys expressed in their works of art. In addition to having been an infant child prodigy who composed music at age three and performed Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier at five, Lorin Hollander brings 35 years of exploring the inner world of highly gifted with an international community. Performing Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition allows the audience to experience a felt-sense, to live through the emotional and spiritual impact of a “hero’s journey.” This presentation illuminates new ways for understanding works of great art as well as the lives of highly gifted people. It also provides insight into training mentors, counselors and guides for these often tormented and misunderstood souls.

Suggested audiences: Education of the gifted, spiritual psychology, religious studies, mental health, wellness and healthcare professions, etc.

Rites of Passage – Initiation, Wholeness and Creative Leadership
Transforming spiritual bankruptcy in our communities

Our young people desperately need rites of passage in their lives, experiences guided by elders wherein initiates undergo what will allow them to reclaim not-yet-recognized aspects of themselves. This is a tragically missing stage of development in our society undermining a discovery of our projection of fear and hatred, which is played out in the many dysfunctions we are facing – from drugs to gang violence, teen pregnancy to suicide. By gaining clarity through a rite of passage, young people ritually enter the world of the grown-up and no longer take revenge on projected parts of themselves they do not know. Through rites of passage we ignite forgiveness of what we hate “out there” and learn to love what we didn’t know was really “in here.” Music is the most powerful force we know to prepare compassionate leaders, nurture empathic families and inspire responsible citizens of the world.

Suggested audiences: Education, youth, parents, teachers, etc.

From Senior to Elder – Singing the Music of the Spheres
Embarking at last on the creative journey of our lives

An ever-increasing portion of our population is becoming seniors and they also need a rite-of-passage of their own. They are at a time of their lives where many yearn for inspiring new creative endeavors. We are not prepared as a society to empower their capacities and fulfill their dreams. We must assure that our seniors take their rightful place as true elders; becoming authentic leaders and mentors to the younger generations wherein they are honored and sought after for their wisdom and compassion. Music is the most powerful force we know to rekindle creative inspiration and empower visionary leadership.

Additional Lecture Topics

Music and Healing – The Spiritual Journey to Wellness
The path of the wounded healer
As a board member of Oliver Sack’s Institute for Music and Neurologic Function and having pioneered in the fields of music therapy, Lorin Hollander will clarify why and how music heals.

Music and the Brain – The Long Awaited Evidence
Closing the question at last, music in the life of our children

Music, the Divine Principle – Cosmos and Consciousness
Visionary creativity and harmonious being: a divine principle of our soul

Enlightened Mentorship in Music – Realizing Who We Are
Music as a spiritual discipline for self-knowledge and transcendence