Music: The Power of Sounds and Words

Music as The Very First "First Aid"

Music is a mysterious mathematical process whose elements are part of Infinity. … There is nothing more musical than a sunset.

Debussy, as quoted in The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music (1996)

by Don Michael Randel

In the movie, The Weeping Camel, a pregnant camel lived in a remote Tibetan Village. After a protracted labor, she gave birth to a stillborn. The camel, pained beyond anyone’s expectation, lay down and would not get up. She keened and moaned in grief.

Her owners tried everything they could to prod her back up. They enticed her with foods. They coaxed her with caresses. They pushed her, pulled her, and pleaded with her.

No response except more keening. She barely seemed to sense that anyone was around her. She had become encased in her own loss.

One day, someone in the village thought to call in a local musician. When he arrived at the camel’s pen, he sat and listened. Then he picked up his instrument and imitated her keening. He “sang” with her that way for a while when, slowly, she started to pay attention. He kept playing. In time, she started to eat. And then she stood. Her grief was resolved.

When I heard about this story, I decided to include it in a workshop I was giving on classical homeopathy as a perfect example of vibrational similarity (or the principle of like cures like). I told my husband about it since he’s a musician and engineer and I thought he’d not only understand but be delighted by this mystery of resonance and musical healing.

“So, what do you think?” I asked.

“So she had to have someone to grieve with?” he said.

“Precisely,” I answered.

Then he added, “Well, there’s the blues for ya.”

Musicians and lovers of music have known this since the first instrument struck the first golden note, since the first bird sang the first song, since the first words were written to sing along.

Mystics and prophets have known it, using music to celebrate and call forth the Divine. There’s an old saying: “The scientists climbed the mountain and found the mystics waiting.” I imagine there will be some musicians there as well.

The Science-Music Mountain

The evidence is mounting: Sound of all kind not only reaches us in the obvious emotional sense, but more profoundly at the preconscious, genetic level. Words and music are transformative and can alter cellular function.

One study provided us with our first clear evidence that music affects us at an exceedingly deep level—even before we’re born.

The study was conducted at the University of Leicester’s School of Psychology in England in which babies were exposed (in utero) to music for up to three months before they were born and then not again until they were at least a year old. In it, Dr. Alexandra Lamont found evidence that babies remember and recognize music they hear in the womb. She was further surprised to discover that not only did they recognize it, but they retained the memory of that music for at least a year. Keep in mind this impact was felt in a fetus prior to six months of gestation, at a time, supposedly, that we are not "feeling" anything or "thinking" anything at all. Not only was it felt, it was stored and recalled.

But it’s not only the very young. This resonant relationship with music continues as we age. Research led by Dr. Frederick Tims of Michigan State University (November 1999, Alternative Therapies) showed that patients with Alzheimer's Disease who underwent four weeks of structured music therapy showed significant increases in their level of melatonin, a chemical linked with sleep regulation and immune response.

Yet another study at the Maryland School of Medicine (M. Miller, M.D., 2008) demonstrated that “joyful” music (defined by every individual) improved vascular health, causing the inner lining of blood vessels to dilate and increase blood flow. This same response occurred in the researchers’ prior study on the effects of laughter (2005).

In one of the latest, more pointed studies, several researchers studied the effects of music on hypertension. (Arq Bras Cardiol. 2009 Nov;93(5):534-40. Music therapy effects on the quality of life and the blood pressure of hypertensive patients. Zanini CR, et al.)

They concluded:

“Music therapy has contributed to an improvement on the quality of life and blood pressure control of patients, suggesting that this activity may represent a therapeutic approach to help strengthen the programs of multidisciplinary care of hypertensive patients.”