PRINTAmy Camie heals with her harp
A harpist with the power to heal brings good vibrations to Columbia
Photo courtesy of Amy Camie
Amy Camie has played the harp for 35 years and uses her music to help others heal. Her goal is to reduce stress and anxiety so others can sleep.
November 4, 2010 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Amy Camie’s friend was dying from cancer and spent her last moments in a hospice room. Camie felt compelled to help her relax during that time, and music became the answer. The resulting cassette tape changed Camie’s life.
As the soft vibrations and sounds of Camie’s delicately plucked harp strings wafted from the speakers, they brought a sense of calm to the room and made the patient’s body physically relax. Interested in the patient’s response, Camie was motivated to play chords for a cause.
Where: Unity Center of Columbia, 1600 W. Broadway
When: Sunday, Nov. 7, 1 p.m.
Cost: Free, suggested donation $10
Call: 447-0414
Camie, a classically trained harpist, didn’t realize the power of her music until she made that cassette tape. She has played the harp for 35 years and spent several years playing professionally, but that changed in the early ’90s when Camie began to play her harp for healing. She believes the intentions and energy behind the sound waves have a holistic power — and she has research to back it up.
In studies conducted by the Scientific Arts Foundation, an organization that supports the value of creative expression through community outreach programs, education and research, Camie’s music induced a substantial calming effect and normalized imbalanced brainwave frequencies in four female cancer patients.
Camie is convinced her music has unique healing powers based on the intentions and emotions she pours into its creation. “The notes don’t matter,” Camie says. “It’s the energy that’s riding on the top of those notes.”
In pilot studies by psychologist and neurotherapist William Collins, Camie’s 1997 album, New Love, was proved to induce relaxation. She recorded New Love to help her father relax after his prostate cancer surgery. When recording The Magic Mirror in 2007, however, Camie didn’t have a purpose in mind. After her husband, John, showed her ancient crystal healing chants, the music came to her. Because of this difference, she thinks the two albums invoke exceptional responses.
“You can have two different harpists playing the same music, and I know in my heart people will experience that differently because it’s not the music,” Camie says. “It’s the consciousness of the artist.”
In addition to playing for hospital patients, Camie spearheads a community outreach program called Help Soldiers Sleep. She aims to reduce soldiers’ and veterans’ stress and anxiety to help them sleep. In order to do so, she sends CDs locally and abroad to soldiers and vets.
Camie started the project after a military sergeant, who was a combat stress control specialist in a clinic overseas, e-mailed her for a solution to help soldiers de-stress, reduce anxiety and sleep. The Scientific Arts Foundation has distributed 143 of her CDs to soldiers. Through donations, the foundation hopes to distribute 360 CDs to veterans in Camie’s hometown, St. Louis.
Columbians can experience Camie’s music this weekend. Gary Smith, Unity Center of Columbia’s fine arts director, says he pursued an appearance from Camie after a church member gave him one of her CDs and others expressed interest. “We are trying to do holistic approaches through our church,” Gary says. “She introduces how music, sounds and vibration impact our thoughts, emotions, relationships and health.”
According to Camie, “Everything is energy,” and music expresses the vibrations of energy that people experience. The workshop “empowers the audience to become aware and conscious of what’s energetically within them and around them,” Camie says.
