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Enlightenment for the Ages—Therapeutics
The effects of music on the immune system
“Music that Soothes, Enchants, IMMUNIZES??”
by Susan Dunn, MA, The EQ Coach
Immunizes? Of all the things you know music does for you –
energizes, inspires, soothes, evokes emotions, and
entertains you – there’s evidence it affects our immune
systems.
The Greeks suspected this, making Apollo the god of both
music and medicine. They believed music had the power to
move streams, tame beasts, and penetrate the depths of our
soul’s, changing and healing us.
Pythagoras, a mathematician, thought certain musical chords
and melodies produced certain responses in people, and that
the right sequence of sounds could change the behavior
patterns of people and accelerate healing.
The connection between math, healing and music is a strong
one. Many people talented in math are also good at music
(they’re both symbolic languages), and to be a doctor or
nurse, you must be good at math.
HOW DOES MUSIC DO THIS?
Music is vibration. The cochlea in our ears converts it to
electrical impulses which travel to the brain stem. That’s
our primitive brain and that’s why we’re so deeply affected
by music; the brain stem is so far from the neocortex it
doesn’t even know we have one. Music is as primordial as
smell, completely circumventing “thinking.” Smells affect
us emotionally. You know how you feel when you walk into a
house and smell cookies like your mother used to bake, or
how you bury your face in your loved one’s clothes after
they’ve died? It’s how the newborn finds it mother, and how
the lover selects his mate (pheromones).
Music affects us as profoundly. When you hear a song from
your teen years, suddenly you’re transported across time and
space to your first love and feel as you did then (and would
give anything to have it back?).
These electrical impulses create brain wave frequencies:
beta, alpha, theta, and delta. Beta waves are when we’re
alert and focused. Alpha waves are when we’re relaxed or
in-the-flow. Theta waves occur during deep meditation and
that twilight time before we fall asleep. Delta waves occur
during sleep.
The electrical impulses then make their way down the spinal
cord and impact the autonomic nervous system (“ANS”), which
effects our heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, and muscle
tension, which translate into “feelings.”
We hear “Con Te Partiro” (“It’s Time to Say Good-bye”), by
Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, and feel the sorrow of
parting, a Sousa march and we get up and start cleaning
house, and music like Pachelbel’s “Canon” is so even-keeled
it’s used by masseuses. Likely it puts us into alpha state,
along with the massage; or doesn’t disturb us from that
state.
Music and massage are two things I recommend to people
who’ve suffered trauma that goes beyond words. Touch and
music reach the cells of the body, where the healing needs
to take place, because the suffering is pre-verbal, or
extra-verbal. As Mendelssohn said, “Music cannot be
expressed in words, not because it is vague but because it
is more precise than words.”
Because music is vibrations, we “feel” it as much as we
“hear” it. In fact the German composer Beethoven was deaf
at the end of his career. He continued to compose by
placing a piece of wood between his clavicle and the strings
of the piano, feeling the vibrations.
WHAT DO THE SCIENTISTS SAY?
Goldman and Gurin, early researchers in the field of
psychoneuroimmunology, found there are nerve fibers in every
organ of the immune system, establishing a link between our
thoughts and feelings and health. What we tell ourselves
about what we perceive and how we therefore feel, makes a
difference.
Dr. Candace Pert, professor of Physiology and Biophysics at
Georgetown University Medical School, researches “new
paradigm” healing and “how the ‘bodymind’ functions as a
single psychosomatic network of information molecules which
control our health and physiology.” In other words, our
emotions are in our cells. (You’ve seen her in “What The
Bleep Do We Know?” and on Bill Moyer’s “Healing and the
Mind.” She is the author of “Molecules of Emotion”.)
Dr. David Sobel, author of “Rx: Preparing for Surgery,”
recommends talking to your immune system before surgery
because our immune system as well as our autonomic nervous
system functions can be influenced by our thoughts,
visioning and what we hear.
What about sending it music, and not just before surgery,
but routinely?
WHAT KIND OF MUSIC?
I’m sure I’m not the only parent who objected to their
teenager listening to acid rock; the lyrics were bad, yes,
but just the beat I thought was agitating, and I could see
the effect on my sons when they listened.
What would be calming? This varies from person-to-person,
and it’s your pleasure to figure out what works for you. If
you can monitor your pulse rate and such, as you listen, so
much the better; if not, simply note what calms you and
makes you feel good. Some folks I know play the same music
every night when they go to bed, and it works like Pavlov’s
dog.
I should add here that one of my sons did one of those
experiments growing plants to music when he was in high
school, and darned if the ones that got Mozart didn’t
thrive, while the ones that got acid rock died.
That might be a clue, a place for you to start.
CAN MUSIC BE THERAPEUTIC?
Expressive Arts and Music therapists think it can. Barbara
Crowe, past president of the National Association of Music
Therapy thinks its because music and rhythm still the
constant chatter of the left brain.
“A loud, repetitive sounds sends a constant signal to the
cortex,” she says, “masking input from other senses…”
Do we need a break from all the judging and analyzing? You
tell me.
The Director of Coronary Care at St. Agnes Hospital in
Baltimore, thinks “… music therapy ranks high on the list of
modern day management of critical care patients.”
According to the American Music Therapy Association, music
is used in hospitals to alleviate pain, elevate mood,
counteract depression, calm or sedate, induce sleep, manage
anxiety, and lessen muscle tension andd relax the ANS.
EXAMPLES
We hear examples from time-to-time … perhaps you received
the email about the little boy who sang a certain song to
his baby sister when she was in utero. When she was born
she was in great distress and her brother was brought to the
hospital to tell her good-bye. He started singing the same
song, and she calmed and was able to get better. If it’s
not true, I think it could be.
Or the research on Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSS for
whom the only thing that’s worked has been drumming.
Or check out “Chant,” a recording made by the Benedictine
Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain, which has sold
millions of copies around the world. About it, the music
critic for the San Francisco Examiner wrote: “What we’re
talking about is inner peace, transcendence, a serenity
beyond mortal care.”
Ask those of us who live music, not just love it, and we’ll
tell you music transports us somewhere … somewhere where we
like to be, and I suppose we take our cells with us when we
go there!
But don’t ask others, find out for yourself.
©Susan Dunn, MA, The EQ Coach,
http://www.susandunn.cc. Coaching, Internet courses and ebooks around
emotional intelligence for your personal and professional success, and wellness.
EQ coach training and certification.
Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for information on this no-residency program
training coaches worldwide. Email for free EQ ezine.
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