Music allows us to thrive: from metaphysics to medicine

The connection between music and healing is written into the human experience.

Music, vocalization, singing, these activities have been wrapped into our spiritual and cultural experiences from the outset, as we borrowed from the natural world that which connects us most intimately with our surroundings and with our inner world, that of patterned structures. Creating rhythmic sound is hard-wired into our evolutionary experience, along with many species. Our ability to create music, through crafted instruments that manipulate the energy vibrations in nature, comes from our deep-rooted connection with the energetic ground of the cosmos through frequencies and varying degrees of waves, or fields, that constitute all matter. The resonant ontology of the universe shapes us and directly influences our ability to grow.

Music, movement and flow, and creative action in general, contribute to health and wellness via integrated synergy, cultural enrichment and individual evolution of one's mind, body and spirit. The human condition that ultimately separates us from other animals is the movement of our mind, which allows us to co-create more deeply and intentionally. Recognizing the power of music from the earliest movements of human development led to its encoding in early civilizations, as evidenced by the Chinese symbols for music, happiness and medicine.     Music (“樂”) shares the exact same character for happiness (“樂”) and…the Chinese character for medicine (“藥”) is simply the same character with the symbol for plants placed on top.

The inherent connection between music, nature and healing stems from the energetic level, from the vibrational structure of matter. Reality, in some respects, is acoustic. Made up of fluid, vibrational structures at varying degrees of differentiation that constructs our experience of the world. Quantum fields give rise to a variety of wavelengths and frequencies that scale up through the process of evolution. All living things maintain this fundamental fluid and resonate structure of the natural world. Even our material world maintains some degree of fluidity and malleability. Music and structured frequencies connect us to this energetic ontology through every layer of our being, and permeates all aspects of matter. Thus it affects us at the physical, mental and spiritual (energetic) layers of our being. Music and vibrational frequencies have healing qualities due to the very fabric of existence.

Sound has an energy potential that interacts with our body on various levels: including the cellular or bio-electrical layer, our emotional or psychological space, and the experiential or phenomenological points of interaction that help us understand the broad effects of sound and music on the body and mind. The overarching power of music to influence our senses and move us into a different state of mind creates overall well-being because movement and synergy are essential to living a healthy and robust life.

We can benefit from the energetic charge of vibrational movement either passively listening to live music or actively flowing with the music (even if its not as direct). The generative power of sound envelops and flows through musicians effortlessly affecting their whole being. We don't simply hear music, we feel it. The energy exchange that occurs when sound penetrates our body is palpable in certain settings. Regardless of whether we can hear the sounds or music that reverberates, the sound waves emanate out into the surrounding space. The hearing-impaired still feel sound and create music and write beautiful compositions without experiencing it at the auditory level because we all feel the effects of vibrational energy deep within our bodies. Other modes of connecting to music emerge and the relationship with sound develops differently, as it does for dancers. You might not be aware of it, but music moves you from the inside out.

Cymatics, which studies the visual representation of sound waves (often with sand or water), reveals the energetic connection between vibrational fields and particular frequencies that shape the fluid environment surrounding the sound patterns that produce similar effects within us. Water takes on distinct patterns influenced by these sound waves that directly influence the hydrophilic cells in our body. Our bodies experience a deep and direct connection with music, at the energetic or bio-electrical level which illuminates the healing effects of music and movement on our health and relational stance in the world. Rhythmic patterns create structure. That is true for music as it for nature. Curist mind highlights the resonate nature of reality that permeates and interlaces all that comes into being in the world. Music accentuates these connections for each of us in different ways.

Spiritual traditions employ music and sometimes movement to elicit a dissolution of self, of ego, to move from an embodied individual to an open spirited soul that allows the fellowship of others, and the essence of the creator, to penetrate and dissolve our hardened boundaries. Creating a sense of unity with the people and the world around us, with the universe at large, envelops us with a sense of interdependence, of melting into the metaphysical ground of oneness. Music has the power to bring out our relational energy that helps us expand our very being outwards, to let go of some of our emotional armor and connect with the people that share the same energy with us when in community. And music heals the individual by allowing the mind to dive inwardly and explore memories and emotional connections to what occupies us at the moment.

We listen to music when we exercise to take our mind off the task at hand, and to move into a flow-state to forget our body and tap into the talent and interests that bring us joy. It's this expansive and introspective state of mind that music, movement, and other important practices elicit that lead to health and happiness. We grow stronger through resilience as we flex these contemplative and internally directed thoughts that we can engage to establish emotional regulation. Music helps us tune into our authentic self via our mental and emotional landscapes that loosen the grip that daily stress has on us. It is a calming agent, or a motivator depending on the genre.

Integrating music into mental health and physical treatment can enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of a wide variety of modalities. Music therapy provides a powerful mode of holistically engaging the patient that generates many neuro-physiological benefits leading to emotional resonance. Music molds the neuroplasticity of the brain and affects our cognition such as learning and attention. As psychedelic psychotherapy begins to take shape in the mental health community, music will play a central role in providing medically sound benefits of music therapy, movement and vibrational therapy, as well as nature therapy, as integrative health for treating depression, anxiety, and a wide array of conditions that affect a large majority of the population. Music allows us to soften our defense mechanisms through the internal movement that it occasions in the mind, dissolving the emotional armor that we all carry as a protective shield in the world, as the mind moves into more meditative brain states that dissociate the ego state. Future neuroscience research will be crucial to understand which sound frequencies elicit specifically desired brain wave patterns to target mental health conditions for greater treatment efficacy. Most of what we understand is anecdotal when it comes to our long history using music as medicine.

At a physiological level, musical vibrations interact with our energetic layer of being that extends beyond the boundaries of our skin, generating an expansive experience, making the listener more receptive. Specific frequencies, such as those that elicit theta brain wave states, have the calming effect to help reduce anxiety before a therapeutic session with the potential to create an introspective mental state that aids the treatment process. Music enhances the efficacy of treatment and makes it possible to create safe spaces for the mental and emotional journey for patients using an alternative treatment. Music can help reorient someone who has ventured into emotionally treacherous regions of their psyche, and serve as a medium for return during a challenging session. These highly charged moments are usually cathartic and important steps, but they require a tether at times. Using music after a dissociative treatment can be instrumental in helping the patient return to a full sense of self, gradually tethering their attention to their body through movement and heightened tonalities.

Creating energetic resonance through awareness of one’s mind, body and spirit develops our emotional resonance, or resilience, and lays the foundation for happiness, allowing one to thrive despite the events that shape us. Music is important for babies and young children to develop more neuronal connections and stronger bonds within the corpus callosum, that part of the brain that unites the left with the right hemisphere. Music is part of every important event in society, used to mark special moments and special holidays. We know music is important for memory as well. Throughout our lives we map our memories in our minds in different ways, one of which is through specific songs that lay a mental map of our life's timeline, and so it remains crucially important towards the end of life to tether our minds through old familiar songs that remind us of our past. Studies show that music helps Alzheimer's patients recapture the memories locked within their minds, and at times it helps them return to a sense of self. Music encodes our memories. It marks a quintessential aspect of our humanity.

Music is medicine. Reality is acoustic. Happiness comes from our synergistic energy. By connecting these fundamental truths, we create the healing space that guides Spirit activism and accentuates our life. Tune in and you will thrive.