Music Therapy
In the words of Joanne Crandall, the author of Self-Transformation through Music, physicists are discovering that the foundation of the universe to be not just matter, particles of quarks, but also movements of energy.
Application of musical vibrations has been part and parcel of the ancient yoga system, which encouraged the repetitive use of the word, mantra, meaning ‘mind-projection’. It is a sort of device that could regulate the mind by combining sound, resonance and rhythm.
Sufism has also exploited the sound vibrations to reach higher levels of consciousness.
Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi, who lectured and taught classical music in The early 1920’s was of the view that the whole body mechanism, the muscles, the blood circulation and the nerves are all moved by the power of vibration. ‘As there’s resonance for every sound’, Khan declared, ‘so the human body is the living resonance of the sound’. According to him, sound has an effect on each cell of the body, on all glands, on the circulation of blood and on pulsation.
In recent years, a number of psychologists and therapists endorse these observations.
Several voice and machine-aided sound therapies have been used in recent years to restore the range of harmonious frequencies necessary for total health. Recent findings particularly in the budding branches of science, such as neuro-musicology, psycho-neuro—immunology etc. employing neuro-imaging techniques have endorsed the ancient concepts and practices of nada yoga and raga chikitsa.
Sacred Music: How does it Affect the Mind?
In India, musical sounds have healed the disturbed minds for generations, particularly in the forms of bhajans, kirtans and satsang. By combining music with one’s devotion (bhakti), the synergy so created, has helped people overcome their agonies or traumas.
Having recognized the importance of music, the saints and seers of India like Kabir, Meerabai, Namdeo, Purandaradasa, Tukaram, Thyagaraja etc. have used music towards their nirvana.
All religions have used hymns recognizing their positive impact on human beings. The religious or sacred music both in the East and in the West exploits low-pitched notes rendered as slow and repetitive phrases.
This induces meditation by calming down the nerves. Sometimes repeated beats of the drum also induce a certain stupor as may be seen in shaman practices proving thereby that music can act as a sedative, calming down the agitating mind and facilitating mental upliftment or transcendence.
Music in Sikhism
Since the days of Guru Nanak, devotional music has played a vital role in establishing peace and harmony in Sikhs.
Guru Nanak himself used to sing accompanied by Mardana, his muslim companion in instrument. Kirtans thus sung were not mere song numbers, as they depict a very strong mystic bond, being the word and essence of God . Reaching through the ears, kirtans enter the body and reach the innermost cells illuminating the unconscious self. The devotees thus enter a state of trance, ecstasy and inner bliss. Considered as a food for the heart, kirtan enables deep meditation on God’s holy name, which is the part and parcel of all congregational forms of prayers.
From Ahata to Anahata
Thanks to its Tantric roots, the sound transformation that acknowledges the importance of senses as a means to reach the spirit, nada yoga begins with the sense of hearing (ahata) as a basis for going deeper into the other realms of nada namely, anahata.
To achieve this goal, the breathing sound, which is accessible to one and all, was ingeniously used. This helped in controlling the mind, paving way for reaching the higher realms of consciousness.
Sound and the Universe
Sound exists as molecular vibrations which are polarized, or in opposite motion.
According to nada yoga, every manifested thing in the universe vibrates.
Giant strides made in neuro-imaging in recent years have opened up new windows confirming that brainwaves respond to match the frequency of a flashing light or a pulsating sound. Experiments conducted have also confirmed that slow beats modify heart rate and breathing cycle and that a musical piece can convert the high-frequency beta-waves in the brain into low-frequency alpha-waves.
There is a state of duality in both sound and in the universe. The whole universe, it was believed; is wrapped in vibrations.
Nada Yoga made elaborate attempts to synchronize the resonance and rhythms found outside the body with those found inside. It transcended even the human audibility levels by referring to those inner sounds (anahata), perceivable only through refinement of senses and by intense and rigorous practices of pranayama.
Divinity in Music
Ghulam Ali, the famous ghazal —singer had once remarked that he communes with God whenever he sings.
Realizing that the Universal harmony is based on the musical pattern, the nada yogis saw divinity in music. This realization must have ushered in the concept of nada being worshipped as Brahman. It was recognized that a never-ending creative process in the universe goes on continuously as rhythm, melody and harmony get built and rebuilt over and over again — endlessly! In other words, there is a ceaseless vibration and pattern forming and reforming.
Music is a paradigm of the basic organizing principles in all living beings and has many attributes, akin to Divinity. It is universal, formless, and creative.
The system of nada yoga considers the whole universe, as formed and enveloped in vibrations. It recognizes the rhythms present both inside and outside the human body, many of which are, of course, beyond the reach of the human sensory organs. Through practice, one transcends the physical barriers and is able to feel those vibrations, which are often beyond the reach of the sensory world. This capacity is obtained through intense practice of pranayama.
It is known to Biology that the metabolic processes carried out ceaselessly in our body produce noise, some audible, while the others inaudible. Wind circulation, blood circulation, growth, movements, alterations—all involve emanation of certain sounds. It is the sensitivity (or capacity) of hearing which makes them audible or otherwise. Because we don’t hear them, it never means that they don’t exist!.
The origin of Indian music is firmly rooted to creativity, an essential ingredient in all spiritual pursuits. The music, here, attaches a great deal of importance to a calm and thoughtful state of mind, as a basic requirement for any performer or a listener.
The Process of Music vis a vis the Process of Life
Identical patterns exist between: the processes that govern life and music. The process, in both the cases, is appreciated, though there is utter lack of understanding as far as how’s and why’s are concerned.
Life and music can be enjoyed better when we control our reasoning mind and activate feelings of love and accommodation as the very substratum of our existence.
The attempts to create new pathways, to discover new linkages and patterns represent the craving for creativity in all living organisms, human beings, being no exception. Enthusiasm and willingness to explore the musical linkages and patterns enables one to achieve greater heights in developing creative awareness.
Musical Pulsation
From the wisdom of the ancient seers, everything in the universe is associated with vibration, which is supposed to be the connecting link between all that one would encounter in the universe. Vibration patterns that emanate from a sound tone — as in the Tibetan gong — are harmonious to each other, as their aliquot parts are the same. Vibration can give rise to its octave harmonics: super—harmonics (multiples of two) or sub-harmonics (divisions of two).
The most important healing principle of sound and music is the ability of a vibration to reach out through vibrational waves to set off a similar vibration in another body. It triggers a response of similar frequency. Every cell in the body is a sound resonator and has the capacity to sound outside itself. By learning to direct and control our voice, use of musical instruments or applying tones and forms of music, sound healing can stimulate our body and mind. From ancient times vibrations in sounds have been employed as a therapeutic agent. The primitive societies too exhibited an awareness of a mental state — the state of healing consciousness — in which a patient healed from his sufferings. These communities used drums, cymbals and even whistles, murmurs and shouts in such a way that the patient gets into a trance-like state. There has been a strong belief that the human body is the living entity of vibrations and wavelengths. It is interesting to note that water, which is an excellent medium for conducting vibrations, constitutes 80% of the human body.
The Life- Rhythms
There is an inherent rhythm everywhere — in and around us.
Recent research in neurology indicate that appropriate rhythms can convert beta (13-28 cps) waves into alpha levels (7-12 cps) through synchronization (McCraty et al 1996)
Pulse and rhythmic patterns found in our heart-beat, in our breathing and in our body movements are just a few indicators of rhythms with which we are inseparably linked with. If we devote our attention, our body rhythms become clear and audible to us. We could feel how our breathing cycles, heartbeats and even our baro-receptor feedback loops are made of such rhythms. These rhythms go on and on, until, perhaps one day we cease to exist in the present level of form, shape or consciousness pattern.
Melody is built in our laughter., cry, scream or songs — all following again in a rhythmic pattern. The whole range of emotions could be captured and communicated within the rhythms and harmonies of different musical styles and idioms.
Time, Space and Music
Notes in music follow one another and paint a continuous picture in the Canvas of Time, linking the past, present and future at one go.
According to Kant, Time and Space are not concepts, as they do not have a plurality of instance. They are considered as forms of ‘intuition’, imposing a pre-conceptual order on our experience. In other words, every object of experience is placed in Time. One can never think of experiencing a sensation or perceiving an object without experiencing those things, as belonging to a chronological order of before and after. To experience something as objective, one must place himself in a space, as spatial relation too counts. It is interesting to note that music imparts both the time and space sense. Fast rhythms make us feel that there is a speed, though in our beta consciousness, time is moving at the same speed. Some of the Baroque classics, polyphonies, fugues etc. give us a feeling of verticality, though we remain where we are!
Researchers have noticed that timing in music can affect the levels of brain wave patterns. Depending on the frequency of beats, one could expect to achieve alpha or beta level of brain wave activities.
Low pitched, slow paced musical pieces are found to be conducive in the formation of alpha level brain wave patterns leading to relaxation, whereas the high pitched, fast paced musical pieces increase alertness of mind, by inducing beta level brain wave patterns.
Nature’s rhythms echo musical rhythms in terms of timing, intensity, synchronicity, frequency contrast, patterning etc.
Results of modern chronobiology and chrono medicine lead us to believe that the human organism doesn’t only have a complicated interior design in terms of space structure but also has a highly sophisticated time design which is built up from numerous rhythmical time structures.
Musical Chronology
The proper perception of a musical oeuvre depends on one’s ability to associate with the past, present and the future — that is, in other words, what has occurred, what is occurring and what is yet to come. Even for a layman, music represents a continuous movement linking the past, present and the future. Music reveals the point of intersection of the ‘timeless with time’. It thus exists in time. For Susanne Langer, ‘music is time made audible’.
It enables us to appreciate the value of the moment which is otherwise overshadowed by the mind or thought process.
`Time, what is referred to by Plato as “the moving image of eternity” is part and parcel of one’s musical experience. It is the time, which exerts its influence in the physical plane of our existence. Our lives are measured linearly and chronologically. It connects us with the cyclic nature of events: birth, growth and death.
References
Bagchi, K. 2006 Music Therapy : An Alternative Medicine, Delhi: GGerontological Society of India
Sairam T V 2007 Self- Music Therapy, Chennai: Nada Centre for Music Therapy.
This article was published in Mystic India October 2008 – Pages 31 to 33
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, July 21, 2021