"Ears of the Angels is a beautiful and entertaining book which elucidates the healing power of sound and vibration. I truly believe that Deena Spear's work is years ahead of its time and represents the essence of healing."

-Christiane Northrup, M.D.
Author, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom (Bantam, 1998)
and The Wisdom of Menopause (Bantam, March 2001)

" . . . Deena Spear's example [of energy work] is exhilarating. Healing and bringing out the core essence of violins. Wow, what a concept! She even uses long distance healing techniques to repair instruments over the phone. It works of course."

-Barbara Brennan
Author, Hands of Light®, Light Emerging, Seeds of the Spirit®,
founder Barbara Brennan School of Healing®, (BBSH)

"Deena Spear is describing a system of modern medicine that could bring medical knowledge out of the dark ages and into the 21st century. She has an incredible talent that could be learned and used by many. This is a dangerous subject because it challenges the stranglehold that pharmaceutical based medicine has on the people of the USA."

-Walt McCall, D.V.M.
Campbell, CA

"Whatever she does, my violin has never sounded better."

-William Steck
Concertmaster, National Symphony Orchestra 1982-2001,
Concertmaster, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 1974-1982

"This is the non-fiction version of Harry Potter. What she does is for real."

-Michael Glass, M.D.
Ithaca, NY

"Deena is a wizard. When she energy-adjusts my cello, my wife thinks I've been practicing-for a change."

-John Martin
Principal Cellist, National Symphony Orchestra, 1948-1994

"Your mind will say no, but your ears will say yes."

-Debra Moree
Professor of Viola, Ithaca College School of Music

"Ears of the Angels is Deena Spear's fascinating account of her unique relationship with stringed instruments and how she ultimately developed into a healer of sentient beings. Deena's love and work carry us in a way like no other."

-Rob Butts
Co-author with his wife, Jane Roberts, of the Seth books.

"Deena's gift is extraordinary, her story compelling and she is a person of tremendous merit."

-Jill H. Lawrence
host of Wisdom Radio's Jill & Friends

The Healing Path, May/June, 2003
by Stephen Clearheart Johnson

Ears of the Angels is the most remarkable book I've read in years. In The Healing Path, we usually restrict reviews to local or regional authors, but this work by Ithaca resident Deena Spear lifted us above our self-limitations. Her story is one of a trying journey toward healing that will educate many who are skeptical of such terms as remote healing. She will inspire many healing arts practitioners to greater advances, propelling the field of holistic healing to new heights. And, she will keep readers rolling with laughter as she describes the frustrations and the bewildering turns and twists of her journey. I believe that Ears of the Angels will do for energy medicine what Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance did for Buddhism in the West.

Deena spent many years as a violin maker and adjuster of instruments. Accomplished musicians came to depend on her for delicate repairs to violin bodies for not only physical integrity, but also for sound quality. She developed innovative techniques and new physical tools for making tiny scrapings or other "surgical" adjustments until the correct harmony was achieved. She dwelt so long in the world of vibration and attunement that her attention went beyond working with the physical source of sound to adjusting the energy fields that create sound. In the end, she learned that any instrument, including a human body, can be tuned telepathically. Her delighted clients are now happy to have her enhance the sound of their instruments over the phone. And, Deena often has to tune the musician before working on the instrument. Now, she works with the chakras and multidimensional energy fields of violins � or humans � rather than depending on relatively crude adjustments to the physical bodies.

After years of success in conventional modes, Deena began to seek more hidden knowledge. The story of how she reached her current level of work will delight readers, and she spices the story with humorous observations that help us take our own troubles more lightly. Readers who are animal lovers will delight in learning how her dogs Pocca and Yuppee Dupp not only aided her on the journey, but also helped her understand there was indeed a journey to take.

Nearly two decades after studying under Jane Roberts of Seth fame, the journey unfolded when Deena took an intensive course from Barbara Brennan (author of Hands of Light) and began work with a medium who helped her receive answers to violin questions from masters of the craft � including some who had created the antique instruments she was tuning! Their great knowledge was not given overnight, but in careful, tedious steps. Knowledge was revealed only to the extent that the student could absorb one lesson before moving to another.

Deena's story is laced with testimonials. It is fascinating to read the musicians' reactions as they experienced Deena's evolving work. When the story moves to healing humans and animals, the testimonials become remarkable. There's a comment from the mother of a girl who was failing after receiving a transplanted kidney which her body was rejecting, but recovered after Deena worked on her energy field, bringing down the creatinine levels. When the test results came in, the mother quoted the doctor as saying "Must be a fluke," and went on to say, "The doctor had no explanation for this. He never brought it up again."

Another fascinating story involves a child suffering neurological problems after moving into a house that had been treated for termites with Dursban. Ms. Spear tells more of this episode in her article presented elsewhere in this issue. The story is remarkable in its implications. This is precisely the kind of information that I hope doctors or other medical personnel would study, so they could begin to incorporate energy medicine into their allopathic conventions.

Ears of the Angels positively sings with hopeful and uplifting energy. I felt a healing energy as I turned the pages. As one of her guides said, "the farther one gets from the physical, the closer one gets to the music."

NAPRA, July/August 2002 issue
In Tune with the Divine

EARS OF THE ANGELS: Healing the Sounds Heard and Unheard of Violins, Humans, and Animals by Deena Zalkind Spear. $29.95hc, Singing Woods Press, 0-9712173-0-0. Tuning a well-made violin is a complex art that requires years of specialized training and a sensitive ear. So to tune the instrument without being in the same room with it, or even in the same state... that takes an amazing ability that few possess. Spear claims to have that ability. Even more, she says she can "kinetically tune" not only stringed instruments, but people and animals as well, and that she can do it all over the phone.

Outrageous? Not necessarily. Indeed, just a few chapters into Spear's book and her story sounds utterly credible. Most readers will appreciate her acknowledgement and anticipation of skepticism. She explains the process by which she arrived at her unusual circumstances with such clarity and lightheartedness that you find yourself nodding along in agreement. The first person narrative, coupled with her sense of humor, brings vibrantly to life what might otherwise be a dry and arcane subject. Glittery and ethereal cover art, numerous photographs of the author and friends, and pen and ink drawings by Bruce Burgess contribute to the impressive presentation. The text is divided into two parts: first, the fascinating story of her metamorphosis from neurobiology student to luthier to healer and beyond; and then, for the more technically-minded, a detailed description of the processes in traditional manipulation of violins and other instruments. For those still in need of convincing, Spear has included testimonial letters from clients she has helped with her unique talent. For most, the natural flow of her writing is so engaging that the reader will quickly be completely enthralled. -HN

Alternative Medicine Magazine, November/December, 2002
ALTERNATIVE BOOKSHELF

Ears of the Angels
Deena Zalkind Spear
Singing Woods Press, July 2002, $29.95ISBN 0-9712173-0-0

A violinmaker and acoustical researcher by trade, author Deena Zalkind Spear describes an entirely new form of energy healing in her book, Ears of the Angels; she essentially creates harmony where there was none within everything she lays hands on, from instruments to people.

She discovered her remarkable powers of healing after a two-decade career in music. While attending a four-year school devoted to energy healing, she found that placing her hands on violins, violas, and cellos let her alter their sound and playability. In other words, she had the ability to change audible vibrations through mental energy alone. The professional musicians who were Spear�s clients were thrilled with the improvements in their �energy-tuned� instruments.

One day, she writes, a musician with an upcoming recital couldn�t make the long drive to have her viola tuned. With nothing to lose, Spear decided to see if she could adjust the unpleasant-sounding instrument over the phone. �It worked, and it worked well,� she recalls.

It wasn�t long before the author recognized that her talents for creating harmony extended beyond music into other realms. �If it vibrates, it can be tuned,� she says. �Violins, animals, people, thoughts, feelings, and events. They all vibrate.� With a wonderful sense of humor , she described how her special talent with stringed instruments blossomed into a gift for healing animals and people. For Spear, the goal of tuning is the same, whether she�s working with a violin, an animal, or a person; to replace disharmony with harmony.

While the idea of energy healing is nothing new-acupuncture, for instance, is based on working with invisible energy fields and psychic healers have described auras emanating from the body-the vibrational healing that Spear describes pushes the boundaries of even this discipline. Her long-distance healing, based on adjusting both audible and inaudible sound vibration, go beyond previously known uses of telepathic healing work.

Spear�s heartwarming stories elaborate on how she has used her abilities to help both people and animals in distress, sometimes working alongside medical doctors. She points out that it is important to recognize the underlying mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of life in order to achieve permanent healing. This, of course, is also a premise of alternative medicine; a damaged spirit can lead to a damaged body. Spear doesn�t distinguish between the disharmony she feels in the emotional realm and the disease that exists on the physical level; she simply responds in a supportive way to any discord she experiences.

Spear demonstrates that she reflects on such spiritual matters in her own life. Both her depth and humor shine through her stories, and the reader becomes her close friend. The book is a good read, thanks to Spear�s graceful writing style, and will intrigue even those unfamiliar with such healing techniques. As Christiane Northrup, MD, suggests in her Health Wisdom for Women newsletter, �Ears of the Angels may well be describing the medicine of the future.

-Swaha Devi

The Catgut Acoustical Society Journal
By Jeff Loen
May 2004

Readers will recognize Deena Spear as author of a 1987 article on air-body mode matching for violin, viola, and cello [1]. It was one of the best things ever published in CASJ--clear, practical instructions that have become routine steps for improving instruments in many shops. It also helped spur several years of research into air and wood modes. Today, after several decades of professionally tuning hundreds of instruments, Deena is a master at tonal adjustment. Prominent musicians seek her services, as well as makers in the CAS who have quietly discovered that her special �knack� can help instruments to sell for higher prices. People of less gracious constitutions than Deena might hesitate to publish a book detailing valuable and hard-won skills. However, readers of �Ears of the Angels� soon discover that Deena is not your usual fiddle fixer. She says, �I feel compelled both to publish and teach this new violin acoustics information so that it is not lost,� and �I would not bother to write all this for publication if the sound changes were not so dramatic.�

Early in the book Deena rightly points out that traditional methods of tonal adjustment (moving soundpost, altering bridge, checking glue joints) are often limited. We are told how �Carleen Hutchins showed me that if she stuck clay on the end of the violin fingerboard, it could substantially change the sound of the instrument.� She continues, �I studied Carleen�s paper in order to figure out how to eliminate the clay. I wanted to find ways to make the acoustical changes so that they could be incorporated into the wood of an instrument and be part of the normal set-up.� She goes on to describe how tuning air and fingerboard modes led to tuning tailpieces, and then to tuning ribs using special tools for scraping inside the instrument. Certain steps took years to master, but eventually she worked out a painstaking system. The system was difficult to develop because the steps must be performed in a specific order, and the techniques become more subtle as one progresses.

The hardbound book is attractively assembled, with holographic cover lettering, talented drawings, and corny cartoons. The writing and cartoons create a light-hearted tone, although it seems strange that the book is, in fact, quite serious. Part I, entitled �Closer to the Music,� is about Deena�s learning experiences involving violins and healing. Endearing stories include references to her interactions with friends in the CAS. As the years go by and Deena develops more knowledge about violin tuning, players offer testimonials about the success of her adjustments. Part I also recounts a series of experiences that will strike some people as far-fetched (readers can make up their own minds about these). Part I is informative, entertaining, at times hilarious, and in the end challenging and puzzling. Readers with a sense of humor and an open mind will find it most intriguing; if you lack these qualities, then skip Part I.

Part II, entitled �Working in the World of Matter� describes a system for changing �the quality and carrying power of violins, violas, and cellos.� Several steps involve light scraping with the intention of evening out �dull� and �bright� tapped sounds on various parts. Air-body mode tuning is included as part of the system and important corrections are made regarding the 1987 article.

The importance of the book is summarized as follows by violist Clifford Young, who wrote the Foreword for Part II: �Deena�s contribution to string instrument adjustment, I feel, will ultimately change the whole nature of how we view sound and objects that create sound. She has created something unique and valuable that I believe will help musicians a thousand years from now.� It may be hundreds of years before luthiers are ready for it, but this beautiful hard cover, smyth-sewn book with acid-free paper will be waiting for them. Besides improving instruments, perhaps it will spur another round of fruitful research.

[1] Spear, D.Z., 1987, Achieving an air/body coupling in violins, violas and cellos: A practical guide for the violin maker: Catgut Acoustical Soc. Newsletter No. 47, p. 4-7.