“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” — Plato

On a freezing July day, several years ago, in the high Tibetan plateau, I stood in front of the Namtso Lake. At almost 16,000 feet, it is the highest saltwater lake in the world and one of the most sacred and holiest sights in all of Tibet. It was as flat as a mirror. It lay without a ripple as if time itself had been frozen. The vast expanse of the clear sapphire water reflected the crystal sapphire sky and I couldn’t tell where the lake stopped and the sky started. The only sound I could hear was Aretha Franklin belting out, “Pink Cadillac” on my iPod. In the distance, I saw a nomad family with two small children, both sitting in the lotus position. I took out my earplugs and listened as the children soulfully chanted a Buddhist mantra. I slowly moved closer, bowed to the parents, and bent down in front of the children and gestured to see if they wanted to listen to my music. They immediately held out their cherry-red hands, and their little round faces sparkled in wonder.

As soon as the children heard my music, they began to giggle in a chaotic way; fits and bursts, loud to soft, nothing and then back to loud. I knew their heartwarming laughs revealed that they had never heard music coming out of such a small device, just as I had never heard such chanting reverberating out of small children. Was their experience of chanting more spiritual than hearing Aretha Franklin? From the light radiating from their eyes, I didn’t think so.

Music is one of our most powerful gateways to connect to our spiritual nature, our divine source, as well as to the universe around us and those other divine beings that inhabit it with us. I know of no other medium that can transport us as immediately, on all levels of our existence, beyond the limits of our intellect and physical body to a higher, often blissful and inexplicable state. Music has the unique ability to transform us independently of our thinking mind, to a place uninhibited by the judgments, doubts or fears.

Humans and our music have existed for ages. The oldest discovered musical instruments in the world (flutes made of bones and mammoth ivory) are over 40,000 years old. But instruments and songs may be far, far older. In his book The Descent Of Man, Charles Darwin wondered whether our language abilities had started with singing and if that was the reason for our pleasure in music. By studying fossils, we can establish that once our ancestors had the horseshoe-shaped hyoid bone in the throat in a similar position to modern humans, they would have had the physical ability to sing as we can. That date is over 530,000 years ago!

I won’t claim that all music is spiritual, or rather, created and intended for the benefit of the human spirit. It would be great if it were. As Eric Clapton said when asked if music is essentially spiritual, “For me, the most trustworthy vehicle for spirituality has always proven to be music.” When music delivers spirituality, the effect on us, our thoughts, our emotions, our subconscious, and even our physical well-being can be quite profound.

Just as music has helped rescue me from some of the lowest points of my life, it has been the blissful soundtrack for many of my most loving memories and the rhythm that continues to propel me forward. For me, spirituality and music will never be separated. The more music continues to awaken my higher aspirations and light the path of my inner journey, the more I am inspired to dive deeply into the realms of the magical unknown. If words are the limited language of my mind, music is the limitless calling of my soul.