MONDAYS / On Whalesong and Creativity
EPISODE OVERVIEW: How creativity in nature can show us we are all connected.
In this episode, Fiona explores a somewhat mind-blowing concept that can help us to think differently about creativity and connection. We dive into the fascinating behavior of Humpback Whales and how their ancient songs might hold secrets about tapping into something deeper within us. It’s all about embracing the unknown, letting go of expectations, and allowing creativity to flow freely.
If you’ve ever felt a pull to create but didn’t know where to start, or if you’re curious about what happens when you let go of perfection, this episode is for you. It’s a reminder that creativity is something everyone has, and sometimes the best things come when we just let ourselves be. Press play and discover how you can tap into your own unique flow.
What Next?
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Okay, hello, hello.
It is Monday, September 9th, or at least I hope it is when you're listening to this. I'm going to share a little bit today on one of my favorite things that I have learned so far this year.
To the people that are close to me, you've probably heard me talk about this, because it gets me wildly enthused. It is from a book that I read earlier this year. The book is called Becoming Wild, and it's written by an ecologist named Carl Safina.
And he spent a significant amount of time with three different animal species.
And he, in this book, has documented, his findings, essentially documented the behavior of these three different species with particular focus on ideas of socialization, connection, identity, and this idea that, yes, animals do have an identity.
And then he also looks at the ways in which wisdom is passed down through generations in each of these species and how that impacts survival and that impacts their health and their livelihood.
So, yeah, I mean, it is an incredibly, incredibly beautiful book.
If that sounds at all of interest to you, then I highly recommend reading it.
And it is this lovely, lovely reminder that we are, in fact, just animals.
So many of the behaviors that he witnessed in these species are behaviors that we can all relate to.
And, yeah, I think it's just this really lovely reminder of, like, we are part of nature.
We are wild. We are animals. Yeah, so anyway, beautiful book. I highly recommend it. But there is a particular piece of this book. It's just from one small chapter where he speaks about the songs of Humpback Whales, the singing of Humpback Whales.
And I'm going to give a little bit of context first on whales. Whales are said to be one of the oldest species of mammals. They are believed to have originated around 50 million years ago and actually believed to have first of all been land animals, so that they had four legs and they eventually evolved to be ocean dwelling creatures.
The Humpback Whale, however, in its modern form that we know it today, is believed to have originated around 880,000 years ago. Humans, on the other hand, or the modern human or homo sapiens, records of the earliest humans date back to around what is believed to be around 300,000 years ago.
So Humpback Whales have nearly 600,000 years on us, and they have been singing, or the males have been singing, I'll get into that. It's just the adult male Humpback Whales that sing. But these adult male Humpback Whales have been singing for 880,000 years.
And it's only actually in the 1950s that there is any, that was, there was the first record of humans coming into contact with this singing or recognizing that Humpback Whales had this ability.
And it was the US military had began attempting to, like, scan for, they were trying to listen for Russian submarines underwater. And they came across these noises that it was completely unknown what these crazy noises were until they realized it was coming from the whales.
And yeah, so the whales have been singing in our oceans for 880,000 years. And I'm going to just read a couple of sections of this chapter out loud.
And I promise, I will then relate this back to you and whoever might be listening to this, that I am going to tie this into your current life and how you can use this information.
But yeah, humor me while I go into a little bit of detail of reading some of the passages from this book about the singing of Humpback Whales.
So the first part I'm going to share here.
Humpback Whales produce a series of beautiful and varied sounds for a period of 7 to 30 minutes, and then repeat the same series with precision, dot, dot, dot, for hours on end.
The function of the songs is unknown.
So this is actually, this is a quote from a scientist Roger Payne, and he was studying whales in the 70s, well, 60s and 70s, and he released a vinyl record in 1979 of whale songs.
And at the time, it was the largest ever printing of any recording.
There were 10 million copies of this vinyl that were distributed with National Geographic magazines.
And it is said to be that this is what really kicked off the movement of saving the whales and protecting our oceans, that it's through humans coming into connection with hearing these songs from the whales that sparked something in us to want to protect them, to want to look after them, to recognize the beauty in what they have to offer or to maybe feel more connected to nature, feel more connected to the earth, whatever it may have been.
But it is said that hearing these whale songs is largely what influenced people to want to get on board in helping to protect the whales.
And so that's a little just back story there.
So that quote that I just read out, the factual aspects of these Humpback Whales songs comes from Roger Payne.
He then goes on to say, the song contains elements that make up themes that the whales repeat in a specific order.
The songs of Humpback Whales employ rhyme.
It is a way of remembering.
A male Humpback will usually complete the song, then repeat it numerous times, singing for hours on end.
He says that singing Humpback Whales normally breathe when the song appears to reach its end, that every now and then they breathe in mid-song, but will not interrupt the singing.
They tuck their breath in and let the song continue to flow.
So for hours and hours on end, they are singing these songs on repeat, and every song is between seven and 30 minutes.
There are no recorded Humpback Whale songs that last longer than 30 minutes or shorter than seven minutes.
And they're repeating these songs with precision over and over, with their breathing not even being something that gets in the way of them and being consistent in that process.
And that's just the first part of it.
It gets wilder.
So I'm just going to read the next passage here.
We know now that the male Humpback Whales' strange and haunting singing is a changeable cultural aspect of their species.
Each year, all adult male Humpbacks within each ocean sing the same song.
But in each ocean, the song is different from the song being sung in other oceans.
There is a Pacific song, an Atlantic song, and so on.
So every single adult male Humpback Whale in each ocean sings the same song.
And remember, they sing it with precision.
So they're all singing exactly the same notes and exactly the same length of time.
This blows my mind.
And then the craziest, craziest part is this next passage.
Each year, the song of each ocean changes.
The new song spread wave-like, a slow moving fad crossing blue infinities, whale to whale.
All the whales adopting the same changed elements of the song.
How it will change, how much it will change, and how rapidly humans cannot predict.
Somehow together, strangely, the whales create a new song.
There's a lovely metaphor for us in that.
When the song of Hawaiian humpbacks and Mexico's Socorro Island humpbacks changed simultaneously, despite a separation spanning nearly 3,000 miles of ocean, researcher Alan Garland and her colleagues called this pattern unparalleled in any other non-human animals, culturally driven change at a vast scale.
So these two different groups of adults, male humpback whales, with 3,000 miles of ocean between them, simultaneously started singing a new song at the same time.
And that song was precise.
It was the same.
It absolutely blows my mind.
And I think it is so, so beautiful.
And what this did for me, why this has stuck with me, it has sparked so many different thought processes in my mind, because it opens up this question of like, where are they receiving that information from?
And I don't think we need to be able to explain where it comes from.
But yeah, I do think it helps open our mind to this idea of we can tap into something that comes from somewhere, somewhere beyond our mind, right?
We can receive something that wants to come through us, that wants to be expressed through us from places unknown.
And maybe one day we will understand it, and one day we will have the science and the data to prove where it comes from and how it functions.
But right now we don't.
But it doesn't mean that it's not there to tap into.
So there's one final part that I want to touch on here, and that is around the function of the songs.
He goes on to say here, how the songs function among whales remains unknown.
Females do not approach the singers, nor do other males.
And he goes on to talk about how there has been theories that have been explored as to whether the singing is a function of socialization or whether it is a function of mating.
And there really is no solid conclusion as yet.
The most, I guess, the theory that seems most likely is they sing because they enjoy it.
They sing because they want to sing.
They sing because it's something that connects them all.
And if they've been doing it for 880,000 years, then my assumption is that it is serving some kind of purpose.
No, it may not be leading them to reproduction.
No, it may not be leading them to social connection for survival.
Who knows?
Maybe it is.
But it's definitely doing something.
And they are mammals, and we are mammals.
And yeah, it just gets me thinking about, like, how important is expression?
How important is this tapping into something that wants to come through us?
And so, my proposition for you for this week ahead, the way in which to use this information or apply this to your life in some way, is to explore what it is that wants to come through you, what it is that wants to be expressed through you, that might feel like it arrives from places unknown.
And can you commit to acting upon it with no expectation.
And my suggestion is to put yourself in nature, if you can, and see how that helps you tap into, see if that helps you tap into something deeper.
And it makes me think of, I'm going to get the words wrong here, but there's one line from Rick Rubin where he talks about, the time for commercial consideration comes after the work is complete.
I may have butchered those words.
I apologize if I've got that slightly wrong, but I know the concept is correct, that the work comes first.
The work is the important thing.
And if you are someone listening to this who doesn't consider yourself to be a creative, or doesn't see yourself perhaps as someone who is here to express in the world in a big way, then I would like to suggest that you challenge that belief for yourself and recognize that creativity is in everything.
just because I'm talking about Whales singing doesn't mean what wants to come through you is necessarily song.
It could take any form, any form truly.
Yeah, my suggestion or my request is just, can you carve out some time for yourself this week ahead to explore what it might be, and let yourself act on it, let yourself go with it.
And really take note of how it feels.
Take note of what happens in the body when you allow it for yourself.
Okay, that's it.
I'm gonna leave it there.
I hope you have a really beautiful week ahead.
I hope you create some beautiful things, and I'm sending so much love.
