Waking the Spirit, Andrew Schulman
Waking the Spirit, Andrew Schulman
List: $22.95 | Sale: $16.07
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Waking the Spirit
A Musician's Journey Healing Body, Mind, and Soul

Author: Andrew Schulman

Narrator: Andrew Schulman

Unabridged: 8 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/24/2026

Synopsis

Revised, updated, and beautifully accompanied by music performed by the author, this audiobook is the astounding story of a critically ill musician who is saved by music and returns to the same hospital to help heal others.Andrew Schulman, a fifty-seven-year-old professional guitarist, had a close brush with death on the night of July 16, 2009. Against the odds—and with the help of music—he survived: a medical miracle.Once fully recovered, Andrew resolved to use his musical gifts to help critically ill patients at Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s intensive care unit. In Waking the Spirit, you’ll learn the astonishing stories of the people he has met along the way—both patients and doctors—and see the incredible role music can play in a modern hospital setting.Schulman expertly weaves cutting-edge research on neuroscience and medicine, as well as what he has learned as a professional musician, to explore the power of music to heal the body and awaken the spirit.

About Andrew Schulman

Andrew Schulman is the Medical Musician/Critical Care at Berkshire Medical Center and the first Certified Medical Musician admitted as a member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. He is the founder and artistic director of the Abaca String Band, which has performed throughout the United States, and also a solo guitarist who has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the White House, and the Improv Comedy Club, among many others. Schulman lives in New York City with his wife, Wendy, and their dog, Phoebe.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Heidi on May 17, 2018

Waking the Spirit is an educational and uplifting look at music therapy from a world class musician who, not only plays for a critical care unit at a hospital, but was also saved by music himself. I've always known about the healing power of music for the spirit, but I didn't realize that it had such......more

Goodreads review by Michele on September 14, 2016

Once I started reading this fantastic book, it took just a few evenings to devour, and it would have been fewer if I hadn't been so strict about bedtime ;) . What a lovely mix of powerful memoir, compassionate portraits of patients helped by music (including some stunning coincidences or not s......more

Goodreads review by Jen on May 02, 2016

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. In "Waking the Spirit", Andrew Schulman traces his odyssey through recovering from surgery with music helping him and subsequently coming back to play guitar for other patients in the SICU. This book deals with some scientific/medic......more

Goodreads review by Jenzi on December 19, 2016

Best book I've read in 2016, best book out there about what incredible power music has to heal! I still can't find enough superlatives to describe what a beautiful transcendent narrative it is. I built part of a course I taught around it, and if you want a preview of the book, here is the first of t......more

Goodreads review by Helynne on November 12, 2016

Five stars to Andrew Schulman for so eloquently sharing this inspirational memoire about the miracle of music as a physical and psychological healing force. Each chapter begins with a quote from other studies and practices throughout ancient history and the Middle Ages that indicate the how long mus......more

Quotes

“He talks with neuroscientists and psychiatrists and explores the legacy of Pythagoras, the ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher who was among the first to recognize the healing properties of music.” New York Times Book Review

“Inspirational.” Publishers Weekly

“Offers evidence of the calming, stabilizing, and synchronous (‘entrainment’) physical effects music therapy can have on a patient’s nervous system, pain, and overall health…[A] testament to the limitless benefits of music and its role in health care.” Kirkus Reviews

“I think the world has been waiting for this book.”
Bill McGlaughlin, host and music director of the public radio programs Exploring Music and Saint Paul Sunday

“An inspiring personal story of the ageless power of music to comfort and to heal supported with plentiful compelling scientific evidence.” Caroline Stoessinger, author of A Century of Wisdom

“Waking the Spirit is an inspiring story that teaches many important spiritual lessons, but the principal one is that to give thanks, you have to give. By healing others, he healed himself. You will never listen to music in the same way again.” John Kralik, author of 365 Thank Yous

“Earnest but affable memoir…[Schulman] talks with neuroscientists and psychiatrists and explores the legacy of Pythagoras, the ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher who was among the first to recognize the healing properties of music. Along the way, Schulman posits that the relationship between the pain we feel and the songs and compositions we love has its roots in a tender, transcendent form of symbiosis.” Meghan Daum, The New York Times Book Review

“Waking the Spirit is an inspiring story that teaches many important spiritual lessons, but the principal one is that to give thanks, you have to give. By healing others, he healed himself. You will never listen to music in the same way again.” John Kralik, author of 365 Thank Yous

“In the grand tradition of Oliver Sacks’s Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Schulman cannily narrates stories of the ways that music can bring healing not only to the broken spirit but also to the broken body.” No Depression, Journal of Roots Music

“An inspirational testament to the limitless benefits
of music and its role in health care.” Kirkus Reviews

Awards

  • People Magazine Pick
  • Oliver Sacks Foundation
  • Books for a Better Life Award
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