Music the Healer, not the Thriller

CEBU, Philippines - Just exactly how does music heal or thrill? In three ways - through the mind, the body and the spirit. You may not know it but the kind of music you listen to can make you healthy, sick, age fast or die prematurely. Music is now being used to manage pain and well-being and even manage death in a practice called music thanatology.

Notice that the human race during the Book of Genesis lived a full nine hundred years and all because there was not much sound or music that bombarded their mind, body and spirit.

The youth of today die early and grow old prematurely all because of loud, discordant music. And even if you are not stressed out, you will still have those wrinkles on your face all because the music you listened to caused your heart to beat agitatedly, causing dysfunctions in your body and ended up in your skin, hence the wrinkles. If loud, discordant music causes plants to wilt, how much more for the human skin when our skin is far more sensitive than plants.

Music affects the body, mind and spirit in many powerful ways because it puts the body, mind and spirit in a particular state long after the music has stopped. When you listen to music whether advertently or inadvertently, the first thing it hits is the brain. Research has shown that music with a strong beat can stimulate brainwaves. Faster beats bring sharper concentration and more alert thinking while slower tempo promotes calm and puts a person in a meditative state.

With alterations in brainwaves come changes in body functions such as breathing and heart rate. Rhythm is the main ingredient. Music with fast rhythm and beat causes the heart to work faster and slow rhythm causes the heart to relax. The faster and louder the music, the more it wreaks havoc to the body and well-being. Listening to rock music causes body and mental functions to go haywire. It is like being struck on the head or having massive cardiac arrest. In both cases, a person dies instantly. Rock music only has to hit your brain once and all other functions in the body are altered.

When people are in a rock concert, their body movements are altered. What they do not know is that their vital organs were altered first – that is, their heart is beating faster, blood pressure rises, their kidneys function in disarray, their lungs have difficulty pumping oxygen, their brain functions are shattered. Hardly is anyone aware that listening to chaotic, rock, loud music is like committing suicide or drinking poison consciously. What happens is that long after the music stops, your body systems won’t be able to get to their normal mode right away and over time, doing that will mean activating cancer cells inside you. When blood vessels to your heart, lungs and brains are being blocked, it may have been caused by complications in thickening cholesterol, eating too much fat and discordant music that caused your body to malfunction.

But it’s not rock music only. Even rhythm and blues music or slow music that renders themes of depression and anxiety causes the same unhealthy effect on the state of mind and well-being. Depression lyrics tends to leave a state of emptiness and despondency on the emotion no matter what melody.

Listening to Contemporary Christian Music won’t help either. If music with purportedly Christian lyrics are rendered in a rhythm that’s fast or with drum accompaniments, it will still alter the state of mind similar to rock music. Instead of promoting worship and solemnity, many Contemporary Christian Music especially those performed with drums and electronic musical instruments cause congregants to dance and distracts them from meditating on God’s word.

The Sound of Healing.

But the same medium of music that thrills and kills, is the same medium that heals. Relaxing, contemplative and inspiring music can be used to bring more positive state of mind and help keep depression, tension and anxierty at bay. It can help creativity and boost optimism levels.

Music has been found to bring many other benefits such as lowering blood pressure, reduce the risk of stroke and other health problems that with continued exposure will boost immunity and ease muscle tension, among others. 

Music has been considered and used as a tool to help the body in staying and becoming healthy since the 1940s. The first widely known use of intentional music as a therapy was with military patients during World War II. Volunteers came to play and sing for the injured-in-combat. The US Veterans Administration hospitals used music to help treat soldiers suffering from shell shock.

From this evolved a treatment protocol called music therapy that uses music and all its facets – physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic and spiritual to help clients improve or maintain their health. Music is used to treat a variety of conditions and disorders including psychiatric disorders, medical problems, physical handicaps, sensory impairments, gait problems among stroke patients, substance abuse, communication disorders and aging. Music is used for cancer management and pain management.

Music is also used to improve learning as a mnemonic device, build self-esteem, reduce stress, support physical exercise and facilitate health-related activities.

One has to be choosy about healing music. The music that heals is one that allows the brain to contemplate, relax the muscles and enhance the intelligent functions of vital body organs. This often comes when listening to classical music or instrumental music played with a certain slow rhythm. Studies have shown that listening to music composed by Mozart improves brain circulation and IQ levels.

It is not the music itself that kills. It is the spirit of the music that stays in the mind and body long after the music is gone. Listening to discordant, worldly music lets the wicked spirit dwell in you wreaking havoc to your body systems, health and mind even after you’ve turned off the music.