The Healing Power of Music - Essay Example

There are still other favorable aspects of music to people aside from the Mozart effect. This one aspect is the capability of music to heal people. This area does not have a certain approach or a definitive description. It plainly proposes that the wonderful creation of music can improve and enhance the condition of individuals in their physical and mental levels for a more holistic growth (Mount, 2004). This statement of music having healing powers has been demonstrated in various fields and areas like the bible, arts and literary forms.

For example, in the Bible, the story of David depicted how the young boy alleviated and appeased the heart and soul of King Saul. The Greeks were also known for using lyres and flutes. The music created by such instruments is capable of healing. It was even suggested that Alexander the Great was restored to having a sound mind when he was made to listen to the music created by the lyre. Egyptian writings that already have more than two millenniums of existence illustrate how chants and charms were able to treat predicaments like barrenness (Heather, 2002).

Evidently, these events in early history attest to the healing capabilities of music. Yet, it is still imperative to prove today the mechanism of how music can have healing powers and to establish whether or not this will really work. Dr. Balfour Mount, a professor at McGill University and specializing in palliative medicine, puts forth that this healing aspect of music can be associated with the life condition of the person. In an article, he discussed how this condition or quality of life is given a subjective interpretation.

Thus, the meaning and value will vary from one person to another. Still, two common factors among different individuals are highlighted, that is 'satisfaction in life' and 'emotional well being' (Mount, 2004). In this regard, it is evident that there are inherent qualities in every individual that make them value the same thing despite their differences in situations and attributes. This can be gleaned from the fact that life is seen as a continuity or journey that has to be traversed, and music, as proposed by Dr.

Mount, can aid in supplicating energy to the person at whatever state he or she may be, be it of joy or sadness (Mount, 2004). Furthermore, people also experience different states. It is not as simple as having one or the other, just like how the statue of Buddha with three heads embodies this idea. The Buddha statue has three heads going into varying directions. The one heads to the right, the good path. The head at the other side leans to the left side minding the evil. The one in the middle and facing forward has a serene disposition, suggesting a state that resembles the disposition of the mind of God.

Such representations propose that in life, there really is an option to find a peaceful and calming state of mind that is beyond merely choosing the good and evil. This is the exact state where a therapeutic music can lead a person (Oliver). Music heals by allowing the person to work on whatever he or she is confronted with at present. One must not worry at what happened in the past nor stress out on planning for the future. The whole process entails a 'letting go' of any 'literal or rational patterns of thought' and it also requires recognition of what happens in reality in a more 'imaginary, intuitive and metaphoric way' (Mount, 2004).