It’s a mystic experience whenever a new song expresses through me with the perfect Divine essence of that particular moment. The magic of the harp’s ever evolving spirals of beauty quiet the mind’s incessant chatter to hear the wisdom of the Divine which never fails to soothe my soul and uplift me through the difficult passages in life.

        Like a bard from ancient times, my songs share the stories of life’s travails and enlighten us to more of who we are. Other times it’s a dance of joy and celebration. Over the years, my music has been a form of journaling my spiritual path. Each song has opened my heart a little more until it’s cauldron is overflowing with infinite Love and Joy.

        Music is the mystic song of the Divine.  Thus, it gives me great joy to compose and sing my original music to open hearts to the magnificence lying dormant within each of us.

What is Healing Music? A Closer Look

by Amrita Cottrell

Since the beginning of recorded history, music has played a significant role in the healing of our world. Music and healing were communal activities that were natural to everyone. In ancient Greece, Apollo was both the god of music and medicine. Ancient Greeks said, "Music is an art imbued with power to penetrate into the very depths of the soul." These beliefs were shared through their Doctrine of Ethos. In the mystery schools of Egypt and Greece, healing and sound were considered a highly developed sacred science. Pythagoras, one of the wise teachers in ancient Greece, knew how to work with sound. He taught his students how certain musical chords and melodies produce definite responses within the human organism. He demonstrated that the right sequence of sounds, played musically on an instrument, could actually change behavior patterns and accelerate the healing process.

Plato shared this profound belief, "Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good, just, and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but nevertheless dazzling, passionate and eternal form." Deepak Chopra has beautifully written, "Where is music? You can find it at many levels in the vibrating strings, the trip of the hammers, the fingers striking the keys, the black marks on the paper, or the nerve impulses produced in the player’s brain. But all of these are just codes; the reality of music is the shimmering, beautiful, invisible form that haunts our memories without ever being present in the physical world."

In 1993 Goldman & Gurin’s work on psycho-immunology revealed that nerve fibers are contained in every organ of the immune system, which provide biological communication between the nerve endings and the immune system. They believe that there is a direct link between a person’s thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, and emotions, and the health of the immune system. This being the case, we have the ability to be proactive in the health of our body, mind and spirit through music.

Music is a way to tap into the innate knowledge that resides deep in our cells. We live "in" music. Great music nourishes us in ways we don't even realize. It inspires us, relaxes us, energizes us–in short, it heals us and keeps us well. And music can be found everywhere in our world. While we may not always be listening to a Beethoven Symphony or a Mozart Sonata, the universe is a tonal symphony of many sounds interacting and vibrating together. Music is the pulse of the energy that courses in and through everything through vibrations.

Don Campbell, author of The Mozart Effect, says that music can be delicate and quiet, but never sedentary. Even a tone that extends for hours at a time, unvarying, carries a pulsing wave that affects our mind and body at many levels. What we bring to each sound is also of vital importance to our well-being. He goes on to say, "You, the listener, determine the final impact: You are an active conductor and participant in the process of orchestrating health through the listening process."

Felix Mendelssohn once said, "Music cannot be expressed in words, not because it is vague but because it is more precise than words."

Website: www.healingmusic.org

published December, 2000

Copyright, 2000 Amrita Cottrell, All Rights Reserved.