I Found All The Parts, By Laura Faeth

By Less Lee Moore

In I Found All The Parts: Healing The Soul Through Rock ‘n’ Roll, we learn a lot about author Laura Faeth as we follow her on an important journey.

When we first meet Laura Faeth, she is an unhappy, bored housewife, mother, and former radio-researcher. She’s also a big music fan, particularly of one group she refers to as TBIF (The Band I Follow). TBIF is never named, presumably to avoid lawsuits and to make clear the fact that the band does not condone or support any of Ms. Faeth’s ideas.

But this is a book about how music helped Ms. Faeth transform herself in a positive way, not a book about obsessive, crazy stalker-y music fans. You might suspect otherwise as you learn about all sorts of New Age concepts like reincarnation, oversouls, and Tarot cards. As Faeth herself eventually comes to accept, however, her “journey was more about facing my fears than focusing on reincarnation.”

Faeth’s writing is intriguing, touching, and very funny. She often pokes fun at her own mystical journey, wondering if she’s “crossed the line from obsession into possession” and if evil has taken over, “causing irrational thoughts about past lives with a rock band?” She even self-deprecatingly refers to her search for secret codes and hidden messages by mentioning the infamous Charles Manson and his certainty that the Beatles were communicating to him through their music: “Secret codes in rock music? Geez, who in their right mind would think that could possibly be true?”

You don’t have to be a religious person to appreciate this book; “Maybe, “as Faeth herself wonders, “God isn’t a concept, but a state of consciousness . . . wouldn’t it be a shock if God is a state of mind?” In fact, Faeth doesn’t subscribe to one particular religious belief. She approaches all of them within the broad spectrum of spirituality and music’s role within that continuum.

Utilizing thought-provoking quotes from musicians like Robert Fripp, Peter Gabriel, Bonnie Raitt, Pete Townsend, Michael McDonald, Daryl Hall, and many others, Faeth connects the teachings of various figures in religion, mysticism, and psychology to the spiritual side of music, and how her journey of discovery helped her to heal herself.

Throughout the book, Faeth explains and illustrates terms like the Law Of Attraction (like attracts like) and Synchronicity, “the occurrence of a physical event in the world, at or near the time that it is being discussed or thought about.” She posits that paying attention to such synchronicities is “an important step on our journey of self-discovery.” (She also provides a glossary of terms used in the book on her website.)

Particularly intriguing is her discussion of the explicit physical connection that music has to our bodies. She talks about vibrations and resonance and how “. . . the seven vowel sounds. . . can stimulate the corresponding seven chakra energy centers in the body.” Chakras might sound like a bunch of religious hogwash to some but they are merely “seven energy nodes in the human body.” Perhaps more easily digestible are Faeth’s observations on karma—”the soul reaps what it sows”—and dharma—”to find your dharma means to discover your purpose in life.”

So what is Laura Faeth’s purpose? When we first meet her she is awkward and uncomfortable in her own skin, plagued by fears, doubts, and frequent bouts of sadness and depression. She frequently refers to herself as Gawk Girl and has a hard time letting her real self shine through. This is something to which all of us—spiritually-inclined or not—can certainly relate. “. . . Are we willing to move beyond the illusionary boundaries of ‘safe and acceptable’ into ‘that’s not cool’ by other people’s standards?” Faeth queries.

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