Musicologist Joachim-Berendt says in his book, `The Third  Ear’,  that in this Aquarian (spiritual) age, we are moving out of the age of sensory dominance of the eye and moving towards the age of the ear which is a more receptive organ because hearing is the first sense within the foetus to develop in the womb by the fifth month of pregnancy. Also, hearing is the last sense to leave before death occurs. Even in comas, patients who don’t respond to other sensory stimuli will respond to sound. This is why one should never ever speak ill of persons in coma in their presence because they helplessly hear all the negative talk and this hampers their exit from the world, making the transition from life to death very painful.

The Greek philosopher, Pythagoras sarcastically said, “Every illness is a musical problem and every cure, a musical solution.” Pythagoras knew the effect of music on our different ‘chakras’. Even lay persons like us get affected by loud cacophony and feel our nerves jangling, while soft, lilting, soothing music relaxes our nerves. Different music has different effects on different people, which is why people pick and choose which musical genre they wish to go to like Western Classical, Indian Ragas, Jazz, Folk, New-Age, Rap, Vocal or Instrumental etc.

The basis of all healing music is the underlying tone, drone, mantra and chant. These four act as life-giving tonics and become the basis of healing by touching the human aura in a specified area that needs healing. Chants are particularly helpful and I have tremendous faith in our Yatha, Ashem and Yenghe Haatam. These are extremely powerful and potent chants and if you keep chanting them in your every free moment, they will form a sort of print on your tongue and mind, giving a strong protective shield around your electro-magnetic body (aura).

Chanting even helps to break down blockages in certain areas of the body and acts like a tonic in healing minor ailments. However, chants cannot override your past karmas and certain sicknesses like organ-cancer cannot be cured. For cysts, tumors, kidney-stones, gall-stones, you need deep, penetrating chants according to Norwegian music-therapist, Olav Skilles. In Germany, a doctor invented a `sound-bath’ for vibrant health, using electronically generated tones which no musical instrument could produce. He cured rheumatism very effectively with his music, which he played very softly, at times for two to three hours on speakers under the patient’s bed. Even patients who had autism, spasticity, cerebral problems, hyper activity and depression were cured. Later, he invented a ‘ Lithopripter’ meaning a ‘Stone-grinder’ which destroyed kidney stones by music without surgery.

Music also appeals to the hidden faculty of the soul eg., in the beautiful strains of Beethoven’s  noble `Fifth Symphony’, or in the sublime anguish of Chopin’s `Ballade in G Minor’, there is spirituality. There’s a divine element in symphony, tune, tone and song and a great musician or singer is an interpreter of divinity for lesser mortals like us.

Several people have tried music-therapy as a cure and it hasn’t worked for them. Why? Because the practitioner needs to have complete knowledge and in most cases, little knowledge is indeed a dangerous thing since the right musical instruments have to be selected to resonate specifically – eg., a flute will not resonate on our abdomen because the sound is not penetrative enough, it’s not loud enough and not deep enough to vibrate the huge mass of organs in the abdomen. Only drums or tablas are used for curing abdominal problems. While healing with music, the choice of instruments is very important as it affects the body, mind and spirit. Also important is the pitch, base-note, underlying drone, sound intensity and tone.

Even the human body has music, like the rhythm of the heartbeat, the pulse, the breath etc. The song of God has always been singing in this world and is ever-sounding spiritually in man’s ears (Naad-Brahma or Sarosh-no-Naad), but we have no time to listen to it. Even at the physical level, there’s the deep drone of the seas, the lapping music of waves, the singing of the wind making trees dance, the torrent of the rain, streams, rivers, waterfalls and ultimately, what Socrates called ‘the music of the spheres’. Just as nature obeys the laws of harmony, we should also follow harmony with Manashni, Gavashni and Kunashni.