When Samantha Sinai went to college, she wanted to use her formal cello training in a beneficial way.

“I wanted an avenue to take cello training and relate it to helping people directly,” she said.  “I accomplish non-musical goals through music.”

Sinai is a board-certified music therapist, who graduated from the Baldwin Wallace University Music Therapy Program in 2012.

About thirty people attended her event, “Music for Meditation and Raising Vibration,” hosted by the Ohio Metaphysical Society (OMS) at the Unity Chapel of Light in Tallmadge, Ohio Friday, April 4, 2014.

Those in attendance took part in group singing and cello-accompanied guided meditation at the society’s monthly meeting. Sinai also spoke about her experiences with music therapy and meditation.

“Simple music, when used in the right way, can make a difference,” she said, after sharing a story about how she was able to reach a victim of sexual abuse.

Sinai said she connects music therapy to spirituality.

“Music can be a powerful tool to reach a higher self,” she said. “The most amazing part is seeing how people are transcended from their experience with pain, anxiety and self-doubt.”

Bruce Sugarberg, Ohio Metaphysical Society co-founder and volunteer minister at Unity, said the event was developed because he believes the key elements of metaphysics, spirituality and meditation, go well with music.

“The combo of music to draw people in and create the right mood can be really effective and benefit people more than [other forms of meditation],” he said. “We asked Samantha because she is a really good musician.”

One attendee, Nick Hemrick of Rootstown, said he turned to meditation 25 years ago, when he was looking for a coping mechanism after experiencing “difficulties in his life.”

“I was looking for a way out, for peace,” Hemrick said.

Hemrick said he now attends the weekly meditation service at Unity Chapel, led by Sugarberg.

When a previous organization, the Akron Metaphysical Society, folded over a decade ago, Sugarberg said he felt he should organize its successor.

Sugarberg said The Ohio Metaphysical Society meets on the first Friday of every month at the Unity Chapel of Light in Tallmadge, a Christian-based church “open to all people, races, lifestyles, orientations, abilities and spiritual beliefs.”

“Unity is a church where the accent is on what’s right with you,” Sugarberg said. “Rather than what’s wrong with you.”

More information about Sinai, music therapy and meditation can be found on her website.

Contact Jacob Green at [email protected].