The healing power of music

By Laika Jain

FOR many months, Kavita Narayan has been trying to fight recurring bouts of anger, depression, anxiety, insomnia and sweating, before enlisting herself in an anti- stress programme of her company. She was diagnosed as suffering from anxiety neurosis.

Extensive tests and exercises, however, failed to yield any result. A senior television producer, she did lead a stressful life. And then, someone suggested she listen to compositions in flute every evening. In less than a fortnight, Kavita found herself fighting fit!

"The symptoms just vanished," she exclaims. "And it is not as though I love listening to flute. I was brought up on western pop and Hindi film songs. But the moment I play a record of a flute recital, I can feel my nerves and then it’s a state of bliss!"

That music heals, is a well known fact. Only, there has been no scientific research conducted on the subject so far. It is only now that maestro like M. Balamuralikrishna, Kunnaikudi Vaidyanathan and Ganapathi Sachidananda Swamy are concentrating on music therapy.

Swamy, for instance, has identified 72,000 nerves and 14 important modes that play a vital part in healing problems ranging from palpitating hearts to alcoholism. He himself plays a Roland synthesiser to demonstrate the effect of this therapy on patients.

Then there is bio physicist-turned-music therapist Srirama Bharathi who practises a unique form of "sound and herbal therapy" in which a patient has to simultaneously view a picture of a Hindu deity, eat a herbal paste and listen to a particular raga played on the music system.

"We have found that ragas like Anandabhairavi helps relieve hypertension whereas Shankarabharanam is useful to the mentally ill," informs Kunnaikudi Vaidyanathan, director of the Raga Research Centre in Chennai where musicians match their scores with trained physiotherapist.

"Kalpesh Sidhva, who practices in Bombay adds: "Even the Bible mentions the use of music in treating illness, where David plays to Saul. The oldest English text Medicina Musica, concerning music and medicine, was written by physician Richard Browne in 1729".

Sidhva is, as he describes himself, a trained sitarist by choice and a healer by accident. "I practised on my sitar at home as a child, he narrates. "Once my grandmother came over on a holiday and stayed with us. She was suffering from what was supposed to be an incurable asthmatic condition. One of her lungs had collapsed and the other one was fast deteriorating. Doctors had given her six weeks to survive. But in our house, listening to my sitar, she lived for another 11 years!"

He points out that music maestros in India had done wonders where medical science had failed. Muthuswamy Dikshitar, for instance, had written the Navagraha Kirtis to cure stomach ache. Shyama Sastry’s composition, Duru Sugu, uses music to pray for good health. "Why Thyagaraja is said to have brought a dead person back to life with his Bilahri Raga composition, Naa Jeeva Dhara," says Sidhva. "But then, it is important to draw a line between music healing and spiritual healing. Music has nothing to do with religion or faith."

Healers suggest that even if the patient is tone deaf and is incapable of singing or playing a musical instrument, a half-hearted attempt to do so can have curative effects. "Composing music helps people to express their feelings and understands their fears," says M. Balamuralikrishna.

"Singing helps overcome speech impediments, improve articulation, rhythm and breath control. Playing instruments helps motor coordination. Rhythm helps improve coordination, balance and relaxes the muscles. Listening to music evokes memories and relaxes the mind."

"The main aim of music therapy is to restore, maintain and improve emotional, physical, physiological and spiritual health of individuals" elaborated Dr B.N. Manjula of National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences. "The Maharashtra police has adopted this programme."

The only problem though is that unlike mainstream medical systems, nobody can prescribe a certain music for a particular ailment, mainly because the experience would differ from one individual to another. This makes the therapy a lesser science.

"You have to be your own researcher and the therapist can only assist you at discovering your comfort level," explains Sidhva. "Besides, remember that not all sound forms are beneficial. A wrong diagnosis can aggravate your condition".

He warns that the music therapist has to be particularly careful while treating people with mental and physical handicaps, blood pressure problems, sensory impairments and children with learning disabilities and emotional disturbances. (MF)