The healing values of music have been recognized from the car lest times. Paracelsus, the most illustrious of all therapeutic seers, rew upon the powers of this art in his ministry for the cure of varied ills, mental, moral and physical. Special compositions were prescribed for certain maladies in accordance with vibratory law. He literally practiced what he termed a “musical medicine.”
That the art of musical healing is now being rapidly restored to us is evident from many quarters. Substantial contributions are being made to this end by the scientist, the medical practitioner, and the psychologist, as well as by the interpretrers of music itself.
Since the universe and all its parts, including the body of man, is built through the power of rhythmic vibration, it follows that a scientific application of musical rhythm can be advantageously utilized for both the restoration and the maintenance of physical well being. Radiant and perfect health exists when there is complete harmony between the keynote of the etheric vehicle, which is the vitalizing principle of the physical body, and the keynote of the archetype, the heavenly pattern in the likeness of which the physical body is moulded.
All discordant emotions, negative thinking, and destructive passions, such as anger, hatred, lust, and particularly fear, introduce discord into the vital and physical bodies and generally lower their tone and interfere with their normal functions. This introduces a dissonance between the keynotes of the two vehicles which in turn reacts upon the physical body as lack of ease, or disease. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he," is a statement embodying a more far-reaching truth than is generally recognized even by metaphysicians. This statement is, moreover, a powerful healing affirmation.
As man comes to learn the musical laws underlying the creation and operation of the universe, or macrocosm, and the application of these same musical principles to the sustenance and well being of his own body, the microcosm, he comes to realize more fully the truth of the Master’s statement: "Verily thou art the temple of the living God."
At the conclusion of the World War in 1918, some intensely interesting experiments along the line of musico-therapy were conducted by Margaret Anderton, a musician and nurse, among wounded Canadian soldiers. Her findings are so completely in harmony with the teachings of occultism on this subject that we herewith quote from a published interview given by Miss Anderton to the press at the time.
"There are two chief ways of treating patients," said Miss Anderton, “though in detail no two cases can be treated alike. But, as a general thing, I administer the music for any form of war-neurosis, which is largely mental, and have the man produce the music himself in orthopedic cases or those of paralysis. Different instruments are used for different types of trouble. The timbre of an instrument probably plays the largest part in musical healing, and for this reason wind instruments are good because of their peculiar quality. Wood instruments are particularly potent for a certain kind of war-neurosis because of their penetrating, sustained tone. Instruments are usually better than vocal music, for with the human voice the personal element, which is usually not desirable, enters in. At times, however, the voice is the best. The timbre of wood instruments, however, affects the nerve centers more than does the voice or the piano. This timbre is especially good with deaf people, who feel the vibrations in the spine.
"Some of the cures seem little short of miraculous — and it depends on the definition of the word miracle whether they are short of it. Memories have been brought back to men suffering with amnesia; acute temporary insanity done away with; paralyzed muscles restored. One captain who had been hurled into the air and then buried in debris at the bursting of a bomb had never been able to remember even his own name until the music restored him."
Musico-therapy may be harmful as well as beneficial. Mere playing for soldiers is not musico-therapy and may often be very detrimental to wounded, convalescent, or mentally depressed cases if done without knowledge of the needs of the men or the basic laws underlying music and the technique of using it for purposes of healing. Nor is knowledge of music alone sufficient. There is need also of the application of the sciences of physics and psychology, and of the anatomy of the human body, espeically the structure and mechanism of the nervous and muscular systems.
The report of Miss Anderton’s work continues:
“Tests have been made upon healthy men, and it has been
ascertained that certain pitches or harmonic combinations have
a certain bodily effect. At present the effect on the throat of a
certain chord in a certain key is being investigated, and
it may prove to be of help in dealing with paralysis of the jaw.
"The correspondence between color and sound vibrations is also threaded into the healing work. This, too, has been worked on for years by Miss Anderton. 'I had often thought about it,' she said, 'but it was crystallized for me one night after a concert when a man came to me in a state of great excitement and asked me why he had seen a certain color around the piano all the time that I was playing a certain composition. I looked up the vibrations of the dominant tone of the piece'."
Experiments have been tried with the human voice at the New York State Hospital for the Insane on Ward’s Island. Physicians said it was shown that tired nerves and brain were soothed by song and that vocal music was more effective in treating the insane than was instrumental music. Among other observations recorded from these experiments were the follow ing: The soprano voice was most beneficial in cases of acute malancholia; the tenor voice, high and clear, had the best effect on persons having softening of the brain, while the deep, rich tones of the baritone best served the paranoiacs.
It has been well demonstrated again and again that an unbalanced mind is particularly sensitive to musical vibrations. A professional pianist in Russia, trying solos on mental patients, found that jazz was positively harmful, while soft, soothing, restful music would quiet the most violent. Making practical use of this knowledge to national and racial ends, the Soviets some years ago were reported to have prohibited the sale of phonograph jazz records.
The Los Angeles County General Hospital has also done some experimental healing work with music. Treatments have been conducted under the supervision of the Chaplain of the Institution, together with the heads of the tubercular and psychopathic departments.
Another pioneer in musico-therapy is Harriet Ayers Seymour, chairman of the Music Division of the Hospital Visiting Committee of New York. Her experience has been carried on with the cooperation of doctors in various hospitals for many years.
Here is a partial list of some of her musical prescriptions:
Of benefit to persons suffering from paralysis and disorders of the
joints: Sousa’s marches, The Anvil Chorus, William Tell Overture,
Brahms' Hungarian Dances, By the Waters of the Minnetonka.
Of benefit to persons afflicted with tuberculosis: Strauss’ waltzes, La Paloma, Minuet in G, Schubert’s Serenade, March of the Wooden Soldiers, Brahms’ Lullaby, Schubert’s Ave Maria, From the Land of the Sky Blue Water, Somewhere, Over the Rainbow.
Beneficial to persons being otherwise treated for heart trouble: The Barcarolle, The Blue Danube, Chopin’s A-Minor Waltz, Tango music, Humoresque, Cui’s Orientale, Song of India, Donna e Mobile, Oley Speake’s Sylvia.
For persons suffering from insomnia and from pain generally: Men delssohn's Spring Song, Meditation from Thais, Chopin’s Preludes, On Wings of Song, Andante, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Adagio, Beethoven’s Pathetique Symphony.
For soothing persons suffering from certain mental and nervous af flictions: Rhythmic folk songs, County Derry, songs of Stephen Foster, Spanish tangoes, Brahms’ Hungarian dances, Sousa’s marches, Strauss’ Waltzes, Gilbert and Sullivan, Indian Love Call, My Wild Irish Rose, Wishing, Estrellita.
Miss Seymour has pointed out that in order to derive the most benefit from use of music as supplementary environmental treatment of various persons, each individual case must be taken into consideration. For example, "Meditation from Thais" might benefit one person in grave pain, but might irritate another.
The following excerpt from a United Press dispatch, October 17th, 1941, carrying the Chicago dateline, records yet another experiment leading toward a future adoption of music as a universal healing agent. The item follows:
Soft strains of classical music which she alone could hear today obscured travail of childbirth for a mother whose first child was delivered by Caesarean section.
Dr. Edward L. Cornell, who performed the operation, approved the experiment by which radio music was carried to the patient through special ear plugs. “It is a progressive step," he asserted. "We have more work to do, but it obviously caused a satisfactory distraction."
The mother thought the musical accompaniment "just wonderful." She heard "Tales from the Vienna Woods," parts of the "Fortune Teller," and "L’Amour, Toujours L’Amour" before Tchaikovsky’s concerto in B-flat minor was put on at the climax of the delivery. The patient had only a local anesthetic.
The experiment was supervised by Cornell with the assistance of Dr. Leonarde Keeler, who regulated the flow of music.
The mother selected the music herself. It was played by a frequency modulation radio station, eliminating pauses for announcements.
Previous operations, including childbirth, have been accompanied by music, but not in such manner as today — where no one in the room but the mother and Keeler, with auxiliary earphones, could hear the sounds. In other experiments, physicians had found music distracting to them thus endangering their patients.
Keeler said the vast range of music materially improved the capturing the listener’s attention more than common radio tones do. He said further experiments will be made, but he predicted that the method probably would gain widespread use in hospitals.
It is particularly interesting to note that the young mother selected Tchaikovsky’s Concerto in B-flat minor as the composition with which the incoming Ego was to be welcomed into its new mundane experience. The soul signature of this Ego is probably more subjective than objective, thus leading the mother through her love for the incoming spirit to choose music set in a minor key.
— Corinne Heline
