#89 Elena Mannes, author, writer, director

Elena Mannes had music in her life "from the womb" and many musicians in her family, so it is no surprise that she is an award-winning author of a book and director of a documentary movie on music. The book is titled The Power of Music and the movie is The Music Instinct: Science and Song. The book includes great information about music and along with the movie are both listed on the Planetary Gigs Society website. The movie features musical luminaries Dan Levitin and Bobby McFerrin and provides a ground-breaking exploration into how and why the human organism and the whole ebb and flow of the cosmos is moved by the undeniable effect of music. Elena says, "The new science is showing how we are really wired for music in so many ways; we're wired to respond to certain harmonies, even infants." She also has a new book out called Soul Dog, about the spiritual lives of animals. Elena says, "We're all the same stuff."