Healing Stories about the Native American Flute
The purpose of this page is to illustrate the incredible power of the flute as a spiritual instrument. Every flute player and/or maker I have encountered is extremely passionate about the flute. There always seemed to be an energy or essence behind the person and their passion that I have sought to know more about.
So an idea came to mind to reference these people and share some other encounters with those who live this passion of the flute. Yes the flute is an instrument, however I am finding it is more than an instrument, it is a wonderful device that Spirit has offered to us that enables a different level of peace and harmony than is typically found in the world.
So here is what I have done. I have asked players and flute makers this question and have asked them to fill in the blank. "I play/make the flute because _____" and then ask them to fill in the blank. Hopefully in sharing the experiences of others and the inspiration the flute offers them, it will move other people to explore the beauty and the spiritual beauty of the flute.
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Peter Zenker - Sold a flute to a lady who sent him the following message a couple of days later.
"I bought a flute from you on Saturday. I ended up giving it to my son as he had just returned from Afghanistan and has
trouble sleeping. He started playing it right away and on Saturday night fell asleep and slept the whole night for the first time since returning. I think it was a very good decision on my part ... but now I need my own flute."
I was quite moved by the message and I decided to make a flier about the health benefits of the NAF, andincluded the message as part of it. Anyway, many people that have bought my flutes have reported something similar, but not as effusive, until a friend of mine who had PTSD bought a flute from me and claims that the flute is responsible for curing him. He goes everywhere telling the story of PTSD and his flute.
This got the ears of the command post of our local military base here in El Paso, Tx. and they contacted me about it.
I told them that I would gladly provide the flutes for free, if they provided the group.
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An Chorn-Pond
"Arn Chorn-Pond was only a boy when the brutal Khmer Rouge regime overran Cambodia and turned his country into a ghastly land of “killing fields.” While most of Arn’s family, and 90 percent of the country’s musicians, were killed, Arn was kept alive to play propaganda songs on the flute for his captors.
Now, after being adopted and living in the United States for 20 years, Arn goes back to Cambodia in The Flute Player, seeking out surviving “master musicians” and facing the dark shadows of his war-torn past." Quote from PBS.org
Arn Chorn-Pond is a master flute player. His story speaks not only personally using the flute to heal his past, it shows how his music is restoring the traditional music of an entire nation. PBS has a movie entitled "the Flute Player". The following youtube video will assist in showing you the Power of the Flute and the Power of music.
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Black Hawk
Being raised on a reservation I was given a flute, rather than a pacifier to teeth upon. The flute is the only thing in this world that keeps me connected to Great Spirit. Being connected to the realm of Spirit, brings a sense of harmony and peace in a world of chaos.
I know the flute heals. I do not have to ask why or try to figure it out. I know the flute heals and as I was called to be a healer, the flute became an important instrument, the cell phone to Great Spirit, that enables all healing.
Without the flute, I am no longer connected to the real world of Spirit. With the flute I am able to help others by bringing Great Spirit into their lives
The Little flute
This is another native flute story. It’s about a flute, a boy, and a girl. There was a flute that nobody wanted. It was a high G flute, and it was best at bird calls. The flute maker rejected it and gave it away. He gave it to a Native American flute player, and because it was a gift, he couldn’t reject it. The flute player worked with it, and with time, the spirit of the flute became one with the flute player.
There was a girl about seven years of age in a hospital, who was in a coma for over two months. The doctors feared she would never come out of her coma and were ready to give up on her.
A small boy, a patient himself, saw the mother’s sadness. He kept urging the mother of the child to get one of those native flute players here. “They can help her,” he cried. His words went unheeded, and he became more and more persistent as time went on.
Finally, the mother in desperation, said to do as he asks. “I am half native, and I know it cannot hurt,” she said. Finally the flute player arrived with the little flute that nobody wanted. He knelt down by the side of the girl and played the flute close to her ear.
After a short time, the girl’s eyes slowly opened. She said, “I heard birds calling me. Where are they?” The flute player answered, “they are in the flute,” and he played some more.
The mother and the little boy cried. “It’s a miracle!” the doctors said.
All native stories have a moral. The moral of this story is the humblest of flutes can work miracles.
Aho (it is so) I am that Native flute player
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Clint Goss -
" I feel passionate when I play the flute. People say they see that in me, and I see it in others. But mostly I feel it. Musical expression seems to do that to people.
The Western music tradition that I grew up in seems to defeat that impulse of free musical self-expression, layering on rules and judgement. The Native American flute, with its design and its sound, seems to support a re-birth of musical self-expression in players. It works with young people, and it works with people who have been shut off to their own musical self-expression for so long.
I enjoy exposing people to this channel for self-expression, and I have a blast making music with other people. But mostly, I feel passionate when I just play the flute."
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Michael the Flute Maker
I make and play flutes because, like a horse grazing, there is a greater awareness of Peace. Peace is not brought into awareness by the activity. Peace comes from within and is brought to the activity. In playing the flute I enjoy it and on a few occasions the simple playing has somehow transcended my human mind and became a life of its own. In other words, the flute was playing its self, I, as a body was merely the tool through which Spirit flowed. I know this happens when suddenly my mind says, "What is that! Where did that come from?" In that moment I know it was Great Spirit using me to manifest Its voice into the world. Rarely do I remember what I played, nor can I repeat it, and in that moment I give thanks for the Great Spirit using me.
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Jeff Newkirk
"I play flutes because quite simply they have become my life. I have been playing for just over 6 years now, and am doing fairly well, as few have ever asked me not to play. I got started some would say quite by accident, but I chose to say that things are happening as they should. My only wish would be that I had found the flute earlier in my life.
I have asthma, and when I started playing the flute, was on three different medications for the condition, and I was still not breathing all that well. I remember my note phrases were quite short at first, three notes between breaths. Step forward 6 years, and I seldom have need of my Asthma medications, and my musical phrases are far longer. Some of that is due to better breath control, but over all I am breathing much better.
I seldom know beyond the first few notes what I am about to play, and seldom if ever remember what I have just played. I liken it to being there and supplying the wind and the fingers for the flute. This is one adventure that I hope never ends for me."
Note from this pages creator - Jeff recently sent me an audio file of his playing one of my 5th octave (high toned) drone flute in the key of F# . To listen to it, select the button below.
A high toned 5th octave drone flute - SevenWinds flutes, played by Jeff: