THE SOUND OF GOLD with Nandini

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0:51 Hi, welcome to the Sound of Music. I am so excited to be here with you today and for my listeners that continue you to tune in. Thank you for your continual support, and for my new listeners, thank you for being here. For all my listeners, my focus is on music, the music industry, music schools, music teachers, music venues, much anything to do with music, and music is so healing for us. It is healing because there are sounds, there are vibrations that we all attune to and we I think a lot of us don't really think about that. And if you're viewing, if you're watching this right now, you can probably see I have my cat here, who's on stage two. And if you can't see, just know that I'm in good company. We'll getting back to the music. Music, the fundamentals of music. The sound, the vibrations have such an impact on our well being, on our spirit, mind, boddy spirit, and I think a lot of us don't realize how we are so connected to Mother Nature around us because sound is all around us, the birds, the bees, the wind, and the trees. That's a rhyme and that sounded pretty good if I don't say so myself. But I want to let you know that we are so connected to this earth in so many ways. And I'm

2:22 so excited today. I have such a phenomenal guest and our focus today on our show is the power of music and the power that music has on plants. And today I have my dear friend sitting backstage, Nandini. Welcome to the show. Thank you, Lisa, thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here with you today. Thank you, thank you, and I'm so glad that you're here. And gosh, there's so much I want to cover today. You know, you and I chatted a little bit, and I would love for our listeners to get an idea of your background, of your of your journey and what has impacted you to be so awake. We should argue awake, but what has impacted you two go along on this journey with Ai, with not Ai, but a plant intelligence and life around us.

3:22 Well, well, my background, first of all, my corporate background isn't wholesale banking. I worked in London for eighteen years with the Lloyd's Banking Group. Yeah, so a very. I struggle with the right word to describe that career. You know, I could look back on it and thing, you know. I worked in an industry which really extracts from the earth, that does you know, really doesn't add a lot of value to the world. So that that was my background. And when I left wholesale banking in two thousand and eight, at the height of the financial crisis, I became very, very ill, and I guess that that was a part of my weakening, where through my healing process I became even more aware of our connection to so much more than we have been conditioned to believe. And one of the things that really came alive in me is our ability to heal, our ability to self heal, and how much the natural world gives us. So my healing journey has been a natural path, using the gift of the plants, you know, the medicine that the plants give us. So,

4:54 you know, I had started building that connection with the natural world. And then a few years ago it must have been on Facebook. I really have no distinct memory of how I heard this music, but it must have been a real on Facebook where I suddenly heard this strange music. And it's very difficult to explain the effect it had on me. It just had a really really intense and deep effect on me, and I felt like I need to know more about this music. You know, what is this music? Where is it coming from? And the music was coming from a device called the Music of the Dance, so and it was playing plant music.

5:38 You know. So I'll just show you know, the viewers you can see this. This is what the device looks at like. This is the latest iteration of it. And the device has what it does. It converts the naturally electrical impedance between a plant's roots and its. Leaves to musical notes. So you have, you know, like a connection that goes to the plant leaf and then a connection that goes. Into the roots. And when you connect the device in that way, the naturally electrical impedance converts it into its converted by the device into musical notes. So the question then arises, well, why why would anybody do this? Right? So, the people behind this device is an ecospiritual community called Damenho in northern Italy, and their belief system is that at one time in our history we were all connected humanity or the nature, the plants, and nature spirits, and somewhere along our history we became very disconnected. And their mission is a reconnection of what they called a three mother worlds, which is humanity, the plant world, and nature spirits. And I found all of this very very fascinating, and as

7:11 I said, the music touched me very very deeply, and I felt it had to be a part of my life. And as a writer. When I left my corporate career, I became a freelance writer and a ghost writer, and I thought, well, I need to write about this. And then I thought, well, you know, as adults, we are already so very conditioned to see ourselves as separate from nature. You know, I thought, well, the audience that I really need to speak to is children, because they still have that or an inherent connection with the natural world which hasn't been conditioned out of them. Sure, so I ended up writing I'd never been, you know, a children's author before, but I ended up writing the very first children's book on the music.

8:07 Of the plants. So when I created my platform, I really wanted it to be a means of reimagining children's education around nature, because you know, the public education system really doesn't have much of that. You know, you would learn the mechanics of, say, synthesis. You know, you will learn the mechanics. Of how our plant grows and what we can take from the world, but the real magic and aree of what happens in the natural world is not part of that education. And being connected with the natural world and learning from the natural world.

8:50 Is certainly not part of that education. So I really wanted to create a platform to reimagine children's. Education around me. And one thing that struck me when I was trying to find a name, you know. A suitable name for that platform, I found out, quite by a surprise, that my own name in Sanskrit, you know, like how some words have meanings in different contexts. So I understood the translation of my name from Hindi to English, but I had never come across a translation of my name from Sanskrit to English.

9:31 And as it turned out my name in Sanskrit translated to a musical composition. Wow, I just got the chills. So my you know, my my family, my friends, they shortened my name to Nandy. You know, they don't say Nandy, they. Say Nandy and Nandi in Sanskrit as well, you know, refers to like a musical note to musical composition. So I then decided to name my platform Nandy. So that's how I came across that name, and I created When I wrote my book, I created a character a young.

10:13 Girl who pairs. The music in nature by a fairy. A fairy comes to her and shares the nature with her. So I wanted children to you know, be aware that yes. There is music out there and that you know, like a child will come and say to you, I saw a fairy and of course it's missus imagination. Yes, how are we to know? Right? We are conditioned to think that we should only believe in something if science tells us it's correct. And as science progresses and developed, science is you know, proving so many. Things that we you know that we would have probably.

10:56 Dismissed in years, right, So I use that story to you know, tell children. Yes, have that imagination. If you think that you've seen a fairy, don't let anybody tell you that you haven't. You know, and please understand that there is music around. Us in everything. We amuse the world around us as music. I love that. Now I have a few questions, Nandy, for our listeners, and we have we're being viewed, but we also have listeners that might be driving that cannot see us. Can you please share with us how they would find your book, how would they connect with your information?

11:39 Okay, So my website is Nandy n A N D I m O t P, which stands for Music of the Plants dot org. So it's Dandy m OTP dot org. And on there, of course, is my book. I've created some mini lessons sharing the intelligence and nature with children, and as we've discussed Lisa, I'm really working on a curriculum. The lessons that I have on there are. For the younger audience, say around seven eight years old, but. Now I'm working on a curriculum for slightly older kids, say. Between ten and fifteen, where.

12:22 I want to create a curriculum that shares the intelligence in nature because as part of my reimagining of you know, children's education around nature. I want this curriculum to provide our foundation for our future scientists, engineers, architects, lawyers, artists, teachers, you know, by sharing the intelligence in the natural world, so that then our future creators will create solutions based on nature's intelligence. I love that. Now, I do have some question for you about that, but I'm gonna setting aside for a minute.

13:03 I want to in our world we call it rewind. I want to rewind a little bit back to the device that you showed us and for our viewers out there, the device makes a sound that once you connect it to the leaf and the root. I know behind the scenes, I have help. So if I know behind the scenes, we are able to play some music to share to get an idea of what it sounds like. Is that available right now?

14:06 She she, she.

15:18 That's my personal recording of my just seeing a plant that sits on my desk. That is, you know, my partner, you know, and I mean I that music touches me. And what you know, people who use the music of the plants what they find. What I found is that the plant it's like a communication, you know, the plant helps me with what I need at any given moment. And what do you mean by that as far as would you say emotionally or is it something that I don't know if that's the right question to ask.

16:01 No, it absolutely is. I mean, you know, like when I sit and meditate with this music, you know, like I may have a question or some issue that I'm grappling with, and you know, as happens when we meditate, sometimes you know, answers come. But what I've found is that with the music, it's just a very a more intense experience and as the music, you realize that the music meets you where you're at. It's difficult for me to put into words, but it's something that every person that I've spoken with who uses the music of the Plants will voice in their own way.

16:46 It's a very very personal experience. Yes, yes, I imagine. So I'm getting emotional just thinking about it because we all go outside and we focus on myself. There's so many times where I'm outside and the beauty around me I will, I will, I love and I appreciate. But there's been so many times and again just being for myself, where I've taken the scenery for granted. And after our conversation, our mate the other day, and I really thought about it, and even when we were conversing, I didn't express it. But it is so touching to know and to be aware that we're not as human beings. We're not just here on this planet to just show up and do a job and and and go home and you know, tend to the family and and just do our thing, whether you know home and routine and whatnot. I think a lot of us forget about the connection we have with mother Nature. That it's not I mean everything that everything that's around us home, everything that's built from wood is taken from the tree.

18:03 Are the paper we write on, the pencil we use is taken from the tree. A lot of herbs that we cook with are taken from the plant, A lot of herbs for healing, for for incense, for sense. I mean, it's just the more we think about it, the more we're aware of it. And I mean, you've been doing the research, you've got received awards for the book that you've received, You've there's so much more you can talk on off of this from me than I can share. Yeah, I mean you've raised some very good points, you know, things that we don't really think about You know that the food we eat, you know, like a book that we pick up, you know.

18:45 It has come from a tree. But the very basic part of our existence is our ability to breathe. The air we breathe is provided by the trees. You know. The trees were here before us. A plant world was here before we even became possible on this planet. So we have evolved from the plants, and it's not something that we really think about. So something that I you know, mollo over a lot is how and when did we become so disconnected from the very thing that has given us life, you know.

19:29 And I wonder about. The indigenous communities around the world who we have unfairly labeled as savage, because you know, they have lived in connection with the natural world. They respect the natural world in a way that we've not been conditioned to. They understand that without the health of the natural world, we have no health. And there's one. Person that I'd really like to mention before we run out of time is Robin Wall Kimerara. She is a botanist, a scientist highly recognized in her field, but she's also a Native American and she has written a book called Reading Sweet Grass which I highly recommend to everyone.

20:23 It's a beautifully written book. But one of the things that Robin wall Kimrara asks us to do is to consider our language around the natural world. You know, so when we look at a tree, we say it. You know, when we look at an animal, we say it. But in indigenous communities. They would refer to our tree as a person, a planned person. You know. They refer to the plants as our brothers and sisters. And I find that so very beautiful. So, yeah, what call chimera? She has tried to come up with a word that that would help us to change our language around how we interact with, you know, how we refer to the natural world around us. And she has you know, she uses this word from her native language. And I won't even try to say it our butcher the pronunciation, but the last syllable of that word is key, right, So she says, how about if we refer to a plant, an animal, a rock, a mountain, a river, every aspect of the natural world around us, not as it but as key and the plural of that word. She says, how about if we call it kin? And we already

21:55 have an understanding of the word kin something we are related to, you know. And I found that just so very beautiful. So now when I speak of my plant, I don't see it. I say key, Key needs water today. He is asking me for watered Key looks beautiful today. You know, you can practice it with your cats, Lisa. You know, instead of saying head, you say key. You know, if you're not calling them by their names, you know, And it's just double way because language, excuse me, really affects how we see what we're talking about and how we perceive it. So when we change. Our language around things, then we change how we perceive it.

22:38 So I just wanted to make sure that that was part of our conversation. Thank you, thank you. Yes, And that's so true how we express our words. I've had a conversation with my husband many times and I said words have meaning, and he's like, what's the meaning you give it? I go, well, yes and no, but it has meaning. You can't just throw something out and not have a reaction to something that might be uh, might be something that's misunderstood. But in addition, I want I want to talk more about this uh, and I want to go back to the schooling. But before we get to that. My question to you is, in our conversation, in our sharing of communication, you had brought up matriarch and patriarch and and the mother nature, the world around us, the plant life, and matriarch patriarch we think of, I think of mom and dad. But please tell me how you've researched matriarch and patriarch and how you find matriarch to be key to be the focus for our our world around us, our natural world.

23:52 Yeah. So there's a reason that we refer to nature as mother nature, you know, because what nature teach us is how to thrive through cooperation. You know. There are so many different species of plants, so many different species of animals, and yes there is predation, Yes there is competition, but it all comes to a thriving and balance. Right. So, patriarchy is very linear, and it's very hierarchical, you know, and it's a very it's a dominator paradigm that you need to add something that is on top, a person who is on top, something that comes, you know, down the ladder, a person who comes down the ladder.

24:44 So patriarchy and that's how we're. Conditioned to think, right, because we've had patriarchy now for what thousands of years, But in the history of humanity, patriarchy has existed for only a. Very very short space time. But it is what we know, and it is what we understand. It is what we have been conditioned by, I believe, and a lot of people are now, you know, sharing these ideas. You know, I've come across so many writers on substack who are talking about why we need matriarchy instead of the patriarchy. And the mistake that people make is that they think, well, matriarchy simply replaces patriarchy where you have a world dominated by men. In under matriarchy, you'll have a world dominated by women.

25:37 But that is not how matriarchy works. Matriarchy is not linear and hierarchical. Matriarchy is circular. There is no person on top and there's no person underneath. With matriarchy, children are centered because you know, of course. The cliche of the children are our future. So airing is centered because if we don't care, then we have no future, you know. So I would invite everyone to do some research, you know, like if they find that that would trigger them in the wrong way and they think, well, you know, who wants a world ruled by women under matriarchy.

26:21 That's not what matriarchy is about. So I really encourage everyone to do some research around that and find the writers. You know, like if you are on substack or any other platform that you're on, there's so many people who are writing about it. Thank you, Thank you, And for our listeners, please share again how we would get in touch with you, to connect with your website and your book. Yeah, so on my website there is a contact option, you know. And also I wanted to say I've mentioned Robin Wilkit Mora and her book Reading Sweetgrass. I also have a link for bookshop, my own store on bookshop dot org, where I have, you know, I share a list of books that would help people, you know, learn a lot more about the intelligence in nature. So if this conversation sparks your curiosity.

27:15 And you want to learn more, you know, there are fantastic books that you can read to help you make that reconnection to the natural world around us. Very nice, And two other things before we finish up, because I promised a lot of my viewers and listeners that I played piano at the end of my show. The two things I want to mention The first thing is I know when we have, in your case, put in so much research, so much time, and so much focus on the music of the plans, I know that a grant would be a huge help to you. And I'm personally I don't have specific connections, but I want to mention this to our listeners that if this is a topic that is a focus for you and that you are able to support, please reach out to Nandy to to help her formulate some type of grant that can help this project grow.

28:17 Yes, yes, thank you for mentioning that, Lisa, because I really want to build this curriculum. You know, I will need the funding to have an artist and animator, a social media person to help share it. You know, I funded my platform the publishing of my children's book on my own, but you know, as I've mentioned to you, you know, there's been challenges with my husband being very ill and with medical expenses being what they are, I'm unfortunately unable to finance, you know, the creation of this curriculum as I envisage it on my own right now. So if there's anybody with any connections to grants that support children's education or nature based you know, initiatives.

29:12 I would really really like to, you know, to learn about them. Thank you, You're welcome. And perhaps this is just coming in uh into my mind right now. Perhaps you know, we are in the last portion of the school year for most of the United States. I would like to think and then we go into the summer. You're I mean, I'm getting these like lights going off thinking your ideas and what you want to help teach the younger generations. And I mean that would be great to introduce into camps. Oh, yes, absolutely so My aim is homeschooling groups. I say that, you know, and there are so many homeschooling groups that would do outdoor activity is you know, have their own gatherings and stuff. So you know that I would love to get into the school system. But the school system being what it is, you know, hopefully that is something that happens, you know, down the road.

30:12 But we'll say, yes, there's in even the private school systems of presenting a curriculum exactly. Yes, at Lisa, I just wanted to say, because I know you need to wrap up soon, but I just wanted to say that if anybody listening really doesn't understand, you know what I'm talking about when I talk about plant intelligence. You know, do have a look at my website. I do touch and look under the tab that says classes. I do touch on what the what I envisage the curriculum to be, and I mentioned biomimicry, biotechnology. You know, we don't have the time now to go into those in specific detail, but they are fascinating, fascinating areas where we can create a future that mimics and learns from the natural world around us, and where we can create a much more sustainable future for ourselves where we are not destroying our only home, our beautiful planet Earth.

31:15 That's beautiful. That's beautiful, And Nandy, thank you so much for being on the show. In closing or post to closing, my daughter again, this is a thought going off in my mind. When she was going to high school, my daughter took an after school class called the called Adventure Group Adventure Club. So you know, I just imagine picture this being like a class that's offered, even if it starts off as an after class group, or like a curriculum. Like when you and I went to school growing up, there was maybe a cooking class, or there was a sewing class that we had to choose to take. It would be beautiful to see this progress into something like that where it is offered throughout the school systems and that it becomes part of the growing of our younger generations.

32:09 Thank you so much. That is my hope. That's so beautiful. Well, for my listeners out there and for my viewers, Nandy, i would love to have you on my show again. We can talk more about music and the impact it has on our own health and well being. And I'd love to connect with you in time to see how this has developed and how it's impacting our communities because it's so needed. Thank you, Thank you, Lisa. You're welcome and you are just such a blessing to the world. You have this gift. I don't know anyone like you. You have this vision and this voice, and you you know you are a chosen one.

32:50 Oh you're so kind. Thank you, You're welcome. You're welcome. Well, thank you, Nandine you. With that, I'm going to ask my viewers and ask my listeners to kind of well, if you're viewing this, you can sit back and close your eyes. If you are out driving, it's the end of your Monday and it's been a busy day. Maybe my music set a greater piece for the rest of your evening. And if again, if you're driving, don't close your eyes, but still let my music kind of take you on a little bit of a journey of relaxation and peace. And if you've listened to me before, I've mentioned I've been noted as the instant composer. I don't have anything memorized or prepare.

33:44 So sp.

35:37 An.

37:45 We do still have a few minutes left, and I'd like to thank Nandini for being on our show today and talking about the music of the plants. And again for our listeners out there. Nandini please share with us how to get in touch with you. Oh, I think the sound is off, so. Nandy right, I've been on muted now, thank you, Okay. My website is Nandy Annie and EIMOTP dot org. You can find out you know everything about what. My mission is around reimagining children's education around nature. Thank you, thank you again, and for my listeners out there, thank you for joining us today and I look forward to having you join me again next week. You have to tune in next week to find out who my next special guest is and Nandy me. As I mentioned, I will have you back since we do have a couple of minutes left, and I will play a piece to kind of pose us out. Is there anything in particular you want to share with us that we didn't touch upon before we we end our show today.

38:58 I would just like to invite everyone to begin acknowledging the natural world around us, because you know, it's just the background for us, and it's not something that we pay attention to. So the next time you pass a tree, maybe just say thank you. Thank you for the air that I breathe, thank you for cleaning the air for me, you know, thank you for holding the soil together for us. You know, like when you sit down to eat, recognize that every single thing on your plate. Comes from a plant. You know, without plants, there is no us. And just if we can just say thank you a little more often and just make it a habit, you know, at least once a day we say thank you to the plants, I think that would be a beautiful thing.

39:47 I agree, I agree, And you know this just came to me. It was a conversation that we had as well, and you were talking matriarch and patriarch and the level of how that how we grew up with knowing the authority in that patriarch world and it's not so. And that in connection with what kind of work you do. And you and I we talked about the farmer. We talked about you know, the garbage company, the people that work for the trash company, like we need them, the farmers, we need them. We need to eat in the trash company.

40:30 We need those people so we can have a clean strands. Yeah, you know, like we have been conditioned to see certain jobs as having more value than others. That's something that I always think about is that my husband in London, he worked in mental health. I worked in jose banking and financially. My job was more valuable than what he was doing when he was actually caring for or a segment of society that needed so much help. His work was so much more valuable than what I did. You know, So I think that that is how patriarchy has not served us.

41:13 And under matriarchy, everybody is valued. You know, it's a circular existence. It's not a hierarchical existence. Everybody has value. We appreciate the value of everything. And when we appreciate the value of the world. Around us, and we recognize that every single thing has a purpose and a meaning in this world, every pebble, every grain of sand serves a purpose. Then there can be no discrimination. Nothing is more valuable than the other. That's so true, so true, so impactful. Yeah, you know, it's almost it's almost like this is helping me to think and to invite our listeners out there that I'm a little bit of a workaholic and sometimes I need a reminder to stop. And I think a lot of us out there, with the technology.

42:08 Being what it is and our Amazon Microwave Society type of world where go, go, go, you know, and and we're always onto the next thing, and we don't take time out for ourselves one and secondly to be the observer and and to just embrace our surroundings instead of yes, instead of taking it for granted and just oh well, okay, I got to watch the time I got to get to this place next. You know that it's and just appreciating the tree that you mentioned, or the flowers outside the you know, the bush outside of the office you perhaps work at, or or that the shrubbery you know outside your your lawn on your lawn. But it's so there's so much we can just tear down on the superficial level that we live. Most of us live on at the superficiality of go and I'm doing this and you know, my income or not income in my car and my home. Take all that away. We would not be here, like you said, without mother nature.

43:21 Absolutely yes, and. It's just astonishing once you wake up to the fact that we are destroying the natural environment through the decisions that we are making in our industrial growth society, and we really need a rethink of how we approach our own existence. You know, we have entered what scientists are calling the anthroposcene and the anthropasscene. Is this era that we are in where. Human actions have impacted the natural world and climate in a way that it never has before.

44:01 You know that we can have a. Lot of doom and gloom around that, or we can have a lot of hope in that if we woke up to the fact that we have one planet, we have one home, and all we need to do is to change how we exist in harmony with the natural world around us, thereby ensuring our own future, the future of our children, our grandchildren and beyond beautiful. Now. I know we're having some difficulties with. Viewing. I know my listeners can hear me, but I know we're working backstage on some technical twitches. But considering everyone can still hear me, there is and we don't have much more time to go into this, but there is the global warming that we know of, and a lot of that has to do with the way we're not taking care of our surrounding and the fact that music of the plants, the plans are getting emotional in that the plans are trying to communicate with us.

45:06 Absolutely. Thank you for saying that. You know, like this conversation can become very woo woo, and a lot of people can just switch off from that. But it's not woo woo. It's it's real, you know. It's it's a real thing that there is electrical impedance between a plant's roots and its leaves. We may not be able to hear plans. You know, science has proven that plans make noise. You know, I've actually written an article on that. If anybody's interested in that, I you know, I'll be happy to share it with them. You know, science is waking up to a lot. Of what indigenous communities have always toured us, and we're.

45:51 Just about out of time. I'm sorry to cut you off, but but thank you so much. I love what you're doing. And for my listeners and watch viewers out there, please connect with Nandy the Music of the Plants and Nandy, you and I will talk soon. And for my listeners, thank you so much for supporting our show. And I look forward to seeing you and speaking or you'll see me next week. And Nandy, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure having you on. Thank you so much. Lisa, thank you, be well. Thank you