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by Pauline Oliveros

What is the difference between hearing and listening? Does sound have consciousness? Can you imagine listening beyond the edge of your own imagination?

In response to the anti-war movements of the 1960s, pioneering musician and composer Pauline Oliveros began to expand the way she made music, experimenting with meditation, movement and activism in her compositions. Fascinated by the role that sound and consciousness play in our daily lives, Oliveros developed a series of Sonic Meditations that would eventually lead to the creation of Deep Listening – a practice for healing and transformation open to all, rooted in her musicianship.

Quantum Listening is a manifesto for listening as activism. Through simple yet profound exercises, Oliveros shows how Deep Listening is the foundation for a radically transformed social matrix: one in which compassion and peace form the basis for our actions in the world.

This timely edition brings Oliveros’ futuristic vision – blending technology and spirituality – together with a new Foreword and Introduction by Laurie Anderson and IONE.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Essays, Art, Female Authors, Meditation

86 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2025

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[Yari · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend gave me this book a week after I had a retreat in the forest. After sleeping the first night, I told everyone in amazement that the insects, frogs and birds singing at the same time sounded like songs... everyone laughed at me in denial. And I laughed with them a little bit ashamed.

"When one is listening to the whole field of sound without focusing on any one sound but expanding to include all sounds that can be heard- sounds seem to become interrelated rather than chaotic or meaningless. The field seems to have a unified logic and form as if it were a composed piece of music"

Short but very insightful.
I can't hug this book enough.

[Filipa André · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love what it is about but was a bit painful to actually read…

[Salma · Rating 2 out of 5]

The introduction has a curious cultish, advertising rhetoric, especially near the end: abstract terms with definitions vastly ambiguous; emphasizing community while the occasion of collectivism is unclear; overestimating the radical, social reach, the blanket effect of "Deep Listening." The abstraction continues in Oliveros' essay: sometimes it's abstraction with enough specificity to get you to engage with the scope of her ideas; other times, the abstraction is lofty, without much material to sink your teeth into. The composite arguments are half-formed or at least half-articulated, sort of like the target audience already knows her practice and could fill in the blanks, so the whole thing felt like a cursory adjunct, which it might be.

Oliveros defines quantum listening as "listening to more than one reality simultaneously.... listening in as many ways as possible simultaneously – changing and being changed by listening." This last bit is interesting to me: the idea, weakly and distractedly expanded upon here, of our conscious listening transforming the material we are listening to. This, Oliveros tells us, is analogous to collapsing the wave function in quantum mechanics, which refers to how a quantum system transforms from a superposition of multiple states into one single, definite state upon observation, before which the quantum system undecidedly coexists in different states as a smeared object, a wave.

The common idea here – in both quantum listening and collapsing the wave function – is that the condition of what we perceive through listening or observing is an artifact of our conscious engagement with it. This makes it sound like the modes of our perceptible world (sound, visual objects, etc.) are circuitous with our consciousness, waiting for feedback to be rearranged, redefined, and transformed. I think this idea is narcissistic, optimistic, and ridiculously imaginative. The quantum listening definition starts in the last 6 pages of the essay, so if you must, read these. Anyway, there are some good ideas here, I just wish it were more specific. Maybe I will check out her other work and give this another go.

[Pablo Tablas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more I know about Oliveiros, the more I doubt the integrity of her practice. I'm always torn between seeing her as a visionary - who's developed a new technique to truly widen our perception -, or a strategist - who's founded an empire based on orientalist philosophies for naïve rich kids.

[Florian · Rating 4 out of 5]

geeft me zin om omgevingsgeluiden actiever te beleven en te voelen!

[Maeve de Bordons Alvarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep listening for everyone!

[Jacobcerisgandy]

4/20

Been occasionally reading this on the way to work but had a bad month and stopped doing virtually anything altogether. Lot of interesting thoughts raised in this. I’d quite like to try the group listening exercise provided at the end.

[Arcadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, Deep Listening is a lifelong practice. The more I listen, the more I learn to listen. Deep Listening involves going below the surface of what is heard, expanding to the whole field of sound while finding focus. This is the way to connect with the acoustic environment, all that inhabits it and all that there is.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

David lynch would eat this up

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is a particular type of boomer that has absolutely no real clue what ‘energy’ is. Or what ‘quantum’ means.
“Intended for healing, a new, living entity is sonically formed each time the meditation is performed”. Ok sure it is. I like magic mushrooms as much as the next person but this level of silliness is maddening. We have a brief respite in the land of sense on p29 before soon plunging back into a matrix of vibrating energy. Back in the days before you needed a full time job to pay the gas bill apparently you could do a three year course in it.
There is a great book to be written about concentrated listening, but this isn’t it.

[Kye Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve wanted to read this for ages and a very lovely person must have been using their quantum listening as I was gifted this as a present. Pauline’s writings, thoughts, theories and ideas have put so many of my own thoughts on listening and sound perception into words and it was a delight to read.

Academic/essay type text are often impenetrable to me and get lost in big words that aren’t saying much but this touches on so much more than just listening and does so in an engaging and cute way. You do not need to be musically minded to get something from this book!

[warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

got this from my sib for christmas <3 🥰

def some sections of this book aren't for me, and tbh they dont need the foreword and introduction so much. but im taking some important things from this. the way listening has been subjugated to sight (and reading & writing) in our society, partially as a product of industrialization, was very interesting. the discussion of listening as a fundamentally mutualistic thing that is always changing the listener and the listened-to was also cool.

i want to work on protecting my ears more, 'reminding myself when i'm not listening,' developing a wider listening practice that can deeply listen to the "focal and the global" ... maybe my new years resolution?

[Rebecca De · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to stop reading because they were like why does no one care about sounds? why is there no sound recorded of the stars in space ? And it’s because space is a vacuum and sound only travels through particles so there is no sound in space :( ((like duh just google it, did you do any research?))
So too wishy washy for me (and I love that wishy washy shit, Im like wish and wash all over the place) but also will probs try read again some other time

[Morgan Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Are we creating the sound that we hear by listening or is sound creating our listening?"

[Juliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Quantum Listening leads you to notice that you are listening. Quantum Listening leads you to attention to a point — all or nothing focus which changes that point forever. Quantum Listening leads you to an all-embracing perspective of an ever-expanding field. […] Quantum Listening is listening to our listening.” Pauline Oliveros’s Quantum Listening is a fascinating treatise on Oliveros’s practice of Deep/Quantum Listening, “a heightened state of awareness [that] connects to all that there is”. With a foreword by Laurie Anderson and an introduction by Ione situating Oliveros and her work within their contexts, the short essay then moves through Oliveros’s practice from its early conception to its present use. “From childhood I have practiced listening. As a musician, I am interested in the sensual nature of sound, its power of synchronization, coordination, release and change. Hearing represents the primary sense organ — hearing happens involuntarily. Listening is a voluntary process that through training and experience produces culture. All cultures develop through ways of listening. Deep Listening is listening in every possible way, to everything it's possible to hear, no matter what you are doing. Such intense lietening includes the sounds of daily life, of nature, or one's own thoughts, as well as musical sounds.” I enjoyed her observations that “the ear tells the eye where to look”, and “Each listener, through the act of listening, affects the field and thus the form. The form affects the listener in a dance of reflections in the space between.” Oliveros argues that “We hear in order to listen. We listen in order to interpret our world and experience meaning. Our world is a complex matrix of vibrating energy, matter and air, just as we are made of vibrations. Vibration connects us with all beings and connects us to all things interdependently.” Her world view of interconnectedness through sound is an engaging one.

[Eve Henley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm. Wow? Perhaps I will start listening to everything all the time, if I have the time.

“Hearing is the passive basis of listening. Hearing is involuntary”

“We need sound designers and composers as consultants to city planning and noise abatement regulation”

“And, because we do not all share the same culture, we definitely are not all listening in the same way to the same things”

[Tim Benschop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wat interessante inzichten, maar vooral een handleiding voor verschillende oefeningen. Handig als je een Deep Listening retreat zou willen hosten, minder interessant voor mij als lezer die meer geïnteresseerd was naar de filosofie achter het concept van Oliveros.

Lijkt me leuk om in de toekomst naar een Deep Listening sessie te gaan. Ben alleen een beetje bang dat er veel new-age hippies zullen zijn. Love witte mensen met dreads!

[Yvonne Boon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not concrete enough.
2.5 stars

[Isobel · Rating 5 out of 5]

very inspiring

[Diego Amaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wonder how many books (at least the two I read) has Pauline Oliveros written basically saying “guys I think we should listen more to the birds”.

I wish she talked more about the practice itself (only two pages that resemble a cooking recipe) instead of talking about spiritual nanobots that will help us tune into the bigger self (wtf?)

[pier · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing

[Leon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I preface this criticism by saying I may be missing some concepts or themes elaborated upon in her earlier essays as there are some quite esoteric ideas that are only briefly mentioned seemingly with assumption that the reader already understands.

I wish there were a little more substance over the advertising of Deep Listening(TM) because once it gets going it is thought provoking. This sort of makes it feel like an induction into a listening cult (which i’m not totally against…)

However, Oliveros is one of the great innovators of our time and her contributions to the cultural canon remain undeniable.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

un libro muy guay para leer en la playa.

[Layan · Rating 3 out of 5]

short introductory text on "mindful" listening. Interesting concept but lacked depth and substantiation. Writing jumps around and seems disjointed

[Dante]

not sure my palms will be registering electromagnetic waves or the aural non-dimensions of quantum flux any time soon, but a clearly important document!

[Mattea Gernentz]

"When do you stop hearing the sound? When does memory begin?" (56).

I found a well-loved copy in my friend's apartment and decided to give it a whirl. Honestly, Quantum Listening is a very fitting continuation of Simone Weil's ode to the power of attention. Oliveros even writes, "the greatest gift is rapt attention" (33).

Key Takeaways:

-Hearing and listening are NOT the same. Hearing is involuntary, a passive reception of audio stimuli. Listening is "directing attention to what is heard, gathering meaning, interpreting, and deciding on action" (30). Listening, according to Oliveros, is the "basis of all culture" (33). The whole body listens.

-Oliveros believes there are two kinds of listening: focal and global. Focal "garners detail from any sound" while global "brings expansion to the whole field of sound" (30).

-Her insight that most research is biased towards sight (vs. hearing) is very salient and relevant to the framework I am considering for art historical inquiry right now (e.g. why is Impressionism still considered foremost in terms of sight when an 'impression' includes all senses—and how is this exclusion tied to certain senses being gendered as feminine in the historic past [smell, taste, touch]?).

At times, my readerly allegiance hit its limits; I don't believe in the constant upwards evolution of mankind (into "extended humans" or "hybrid computer/humans" according to Oliveros). I don't have a desire to further my listening ability to "hear every drop of a waterfall." If I were meant to, then I already would. I think such a flood of sensations sounds more burdening than liberating. Oliveros expresses she "sees and hears life as a grand improvisation" (30). This sentiment is, at first, beautiful, but the inherent randomness and lack of Author (or Composer) it implies is unnerving.

[Trinity Delacruz · Rating 4 out of 5]

i found this book in london when i happened to pass by an unsuspecting building called “white cube.” it contained modern, contemporary art. there was a book shop inside, and i decided to buy it for my short train ride to paris. unimportant detail, but i was drawn to the deep blue color. this is sort of a useless review because i never understand things, and i also don’t think i’m the kind of person who gives genuinely relevant reviews, but here are some of my thoughts that spurred during my reading.

i haven’t read in a while. i need to read more often. i’m getting stupid. i think some of my best poetry (or the most poetry i’ve written) came when i was reading more often. oftentimes because i’d be on the lookout for metaphors and pretty language, and i’d write down one-liners and phrases that moved me. i got to do that for this book. some of the sentences left me with that “damn” feeling. like, i can’t believe someone thought of arranging words in *this* way.

i also think this book really reinforced my admiration for music and sound. it can really reach people in such a unique ways, especially emotionally. that’s insane. you can be touched by something you can’t physically hold.

i also really think i need to do something with music in my life. someday. whether it’s creating music or becoming an artist or joining a band or something. i feel like it’ll play a significant role in my life, whether overt or under the surface.

i finished this little book on my train ride to paris. nice short read.

[Nani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up in a bookstore in Brooklyn – it was not on display exactly, but seemed someone else had picked it up and abandoned it on a table, together with a few other, random books. I picked it up because I once participated in a meditative sound workshop, led by an artist who is now a dear friend of mine, and that experience reminded me of the pleasure of listening for the sake of listening, like the author of this book says:

Deep listening is listening in every possible way, to everything it's possible to hear, no matter what you are doing. Such intense listening includes the sounds of daily life, of nature, or one's own thoughts, as well as musical sounds.

Quantum listening is listening to more than one reality simultaneously.
Quantum listening is listening in as many ways as possible simultaneously – changing and being changed by the listening.
Listening shapes culture, locally and universally.

The topics/themes in the book are somewhat random, more like a collection of "sound bites" :) than a cohesive essay, but, I still enjoyed it.

[Mariá Portugal · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Oliveros book I’ve read, and it might not be the best one to start with. On one hand, her main idea is 100% relevant and contingent (we have to relearn to listen! Listening is fundamental to musical practice!), but the whole Deep Listening ® (auch) branding, the shallow use of quantum theory, and the lack of acknowledgment of her sources (the connections to Pierre Schaeffer and John Cage are pretty clear, and the idea of perception as an action seems to me pretty accepted throughout cognitive sciences; no need to be mystic about it) bothered me throughout the book. Quantum Listening sounded to me as, simply put, listening deeply—no need to create a new name for it, unless you want to make it a product and sell it in a shell somewhere.

Still, a pioneer. And if a daughter of Latinos, queer woman is stealing some ideas from white men to make fame and fortune, I think that’s a great thing. :D