Music is an intrinsic part of every one of us, irrespective of the fact whether we are singers or listeners. Pulse and rhythmic patterns found in our heart beat, in our breathing, in our thought processes, in our locomotion, in various physiological processes – including digestion, elimination or sleep are the basic indicators of the existence of life or prana in our bodies, with which we are inseparably linked. There is an inherent rhythm everywhere in the mind and in and around us. If we devote our attention, our body rhythms become much clearer and more audible. We can feel how our breathing cycles, heartbeats and our baro-receptor feedback loops are made up of rhythms. These rhythms go on and on until perhaps one day, we cease to exist in present form or shape.
Melody is built in our laughter, cry, screams or songs, all following again a rhythmic pattern. The whole range of emotions get captured and communicated naturally within the rhythms and harmonies of different musical strides and idioms.
Very much like any biological system, nature is made of cycles and rhythms; seasons change in a cyclic manner, life functions in a cycle of birth, growth and death, and so on. Within the human body, life-processes are carried out in a rhythmic pattern. Various kinds of rhythms viz., endogenous rhythms viz,: muscular rhythm, pain wave rhythm, pulse-breath frequency, rhythms involved in the process related to blood circulation, digestion, respiration, sleep, etc. are known to biologists.
All biological processes including breathing, food-intake and excretion, energy exchange, metabolism, circulation, action of nerves, reproduction all follow a certain basic pattern of rhythms, which are common to all individuals in an orchestrated manner.
Some scientists are of the view that all biological processes involve rhythms. The process by which chromosomes condense and segregate during mitosis (nuclear division) is linked by some researchers to a musical symphony, in which several instruments, working individually, coordinate to produce a collective piece of elegance and beauty that one comes across in a Bach or a Beethoven symphony. As a conductor, with a wave of a baton ensures that each musical instrument enters the symphony at the appropriate time, so the conductors of the so-called mitotic symphony called ‘ checkpoints’ prevents errors in chromosomes segregation that can lead to diseases such as Down’s Syndrome or Cancer. (David Cortes and Stephen J Elledge 2000). Such parallel rhythms found in nature make man-made music akin to the nature-gifted one.
Expansion of Rhythms
Rhythms are not confined to intracellular functions alone; complexities of periodic rhythms grow right from cellular levels to the tissue levels and onwards, to organs, and, to the entire organism. Its implication is even far beyond this, as it reaches towards reproduction and population rhythms.
Some rhythms, like the heartbeat and breathing rhythms can be directly experienced if we devote our attention to them. In certain situations, when one feels excruciating pain, as say, when we get a toothache -a wave of pain sweeps over the affected area, occurring in an interval of say, 15 to 30 seconds. The rhythmic pattern here is the same as the one that forms our sleep cycles during the night.
Musical Rhythms
Musical rhythms, created by the mind follow the life pattern in an unconscious and, in an unintended manner. Listening to musical rhythms does have an impact on the brain wave rhythms, which are responsible for our state of consciousness. This is true whether we are at a stage of alertness (with the predominance of beta waves) or, we are in a state of relaxation for deep sleep (with the predominance of alpha, theta or delta levels, as the case may be). A musical-harmonic order called ’rhythmic fundamental order in humans’ can be intensified even when a person is sleepy.
A workshop was conducted at Delhi, on the 22nd December 2001 before an entitled audience, consisting of diplomats, civil servants, yoga teachers and music lovers. The author experimentally confirmed that by manipulating the rhythmic structure of a tabla for a manjira, one could descend to the alpha level and feel ‘relaxation’, ‘happiness’ and ‘peace of mind’, as remarked by the audience.
The literature on music is fast building up, saying that long-term musical involvement reaps cognitive rewards in terms of linguistic skills, reasoning and creativity, and also boosts social adjustments. Music exercises the brain and, playing instruments for instance, involves vision, hearing, touch, motor planning, emotion, symbol-interpretation – all of which go to activate different areas of brain functioning.
It has been observed that some Alzheimer’s patients could play music even long after they had forgotten their near and dear ones. These intimate connections between our life-process and music can remain, despite illness or disability and are not dependent on musical coaching or mastery. Because of this, the emotional, cognitive and developmental needs of people with a wide range of needs arising from such varied causes such as learning difficulties, mental and physical ailments, physical and sexual abuse, stress, terminal illness etc., can be addressed by exposing them to an appropriate dose of music suitable to their taste and needs.
Each one of us responds to music – from the newborn infant to patients suffering from terminal diseases, and from physically and mentally strong, to those who are physically or mentally challenged. Several psychotherapists have of late, used music to enhance their efficacy in treating neurotic disorders. Clients and their therapists improvise music together, building a creative musical process that itself becomes an end in itself. The therapy enhances communication and helps people live more resourcefully and creatively. It helps in controlling blood pressure, emotions, liver functioning and all the psychosomatic disorders. It is relevant here to recall the words of Paul Nordofff, musicologist, who commented that once a musician begins to work as a therapist, he’d find new depth in the art of music itself. Developing a clinical musical skill would no doubt release world music from the narrow clutches of entertainment, to a greater expansion towards service to humanity.
Musical experience
Musical experience is unique in the sense that it can impart an experience of extraordinary freedom to rise beyond limitation of one’s physical being. In other words, one’s consciousness level could be increased to the next higher realm, with the appropriate dose of music.
Meditative music, where melody and rhythms are combined with inspirational words and expressions (lyrics) as in bhajans, kirtans, Veda recitations etc., do enhance meditation and concentration and enable the mind to focus inwards – far from the madding crowd around. This form of internalization or inward looking, brings about its own benefits such as strength and security, peace and tranquility, especially to those who are trauma victims. Through music, and by letting one’s mind go after it, one experiences a deep state of relaxation which cannot be guaranteed with the help of chemical or synthetic drugs, and, without their accompanying side-effects.
Some ragas are traditionally believed to have certain therapeutic effects: listening to specific kinds of music at specific times of the day, is believed to have a curative effect on some ailments. Although no clinical endorsements are forthcoming, there is enough scope for future research.
Music therapy
In recent times, the subject of music therapy does not seem to have received adequate attention as in the West. This is surprising for a nation, which had in the past, made great strides in combining emotional melodies with intellectual beats and which has even codified those ragas which are therapeutic, as in the ancient text, Raga Chikitsa. The musical tradition of the country had dissected the ragas to arrive at this very crux, and identified which raga could be helpful to which conditions.
Therapeutic Carnatic Ragas
To cure insomnia, one listens to bits of pieces of Nilambari Raga; likewise marital fervor are believed to be in skilled in people by making them listen two pieces in Bilahari or Kedara; Sriraga, when sung or listened, after a heavy lunch is said to aid in digestion and assimilation; while Sama raga restores mental piece. Bhupalam and Malayamaarutham when sung before the dawn, serves as an agreeable invitation to people – including the Lord of the Seven Hills -to wake up from their slumber. Relief from paralysis is reported by listening to pieces or Dvijaavanti Raga. Those who are prone to depression are often recommended a dose of lilt in Bilahari to overcome their melancholy. Nadanamakriya, yet another raga, is supposed to ‘soften’ adamant people and works even on hardened criminals.
This article was published in Heritage Healing –June 2002 Pages 35, 36
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, Feb 20, 2021