On Synchrony




The body is a sensitive instrument; the onset of menstruation, the timing and even the amount of bleeding, is capable of “entraining” with other rhythms, and to be sensitive to such factors as pheromones and sitting in moonlight (see Proctor’s article), dancing (see pp in Blood Relations, Knight), and even certain words (forthcoming in a future issue). Now we have a metaformic anecdote about singing a particular note in the scale, and onset of menses.

Master singing teacher Dwayne Calizo (at New College of California), working with Sarah Starpoli, one of his woman students, discovered that giving her a particular exercise of eight bars with a tempo of 80 bpm to sing high G over high C would bring about her bleeding, if she was within “any day now” in starting her period. He used the same technique with two other students, and the effect was the same. The bleeding begins about half an hour after the singing exercise, which he does with the students. And he is sure the same effect would occur if they did the exercise without his voice.

Tidbit submitted by Dwayne Calizo.