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Music Therapy
Ibrahim B. Syed,
Ph. D.
President
Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc.
7102 W. Shefford Lane
Louisville, KY 40242-6462, USA
E-mail:
IRFI@INAME.COM
Website:
http://WWW.IRFI.ORG
"Music is the medicine of the
future," said Edgar Cayce in 1947 and who healed thousands of people while in a
Trance State.
Currently there is an aversion to
music by some of the Ulema (religious scholars) in the Islamic world. This paper
analyzes the Islamic perspective on music and singing. It concludes that
utilization of music as a therapeutic agent in Medicine is not haram
or forbidden. There is documentary evidence that shows the power of music can be
tapped to heal the body, strengthen the mind and unlock the creative spirit.
Published papers and Journal articles offer dramatic accounts of how doctors,
musicians, and healthcare professionals use music to deal with everything from
anxiety to cancer, high blood pressure, chronic pain, dyslexia, even mental
illness. During childbirth, music can relieve expectant mothers' anxiety and
help release endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, dramatically decreasing
the need for anesthesia. Exposure to sound, music and other acoustical
vibrations can have a lifelong effect on health, learning, and behavior. They
stimulate learning and memory, strengthen listening abilities. Music has been
used as a treatment or cure from migraines to substance abuse.
One thousand years ago, the
Muslim Physicians were in the forefront in the world of medicine with
innovations and therapeutic techniques that are considered modern in the 21st
century. They treated mental illnesses by confining the patients in asylums with
21st century techniques of music therapy. It is not surprising to
know that at Fez, Morocco, an asylum for the mentally ill had been built early
in the 8th century, and for the insane asylums were built by the Arabs also in
Baghdad in 705 A.D., in Cairo in 800 A.D., and in Damascus and Aleppo in 1270
A.D. In addition to baths, drugs, kind and benevolent treatment given to the
mentally ill, musico-therapy and occupational therapy were also employed. These
therapies were highly developed. Special choirs and live music bands were
brought daily to entertain the patients by providing singing and musical
performances and comic performers as well.
Malik al-Mansur Sayf al-Din
Qalawun built the Al-Mansuri Hospital in Cairo in 683 AH (1284 AD). The most
outstanding characteristic of this hospital was that, like the advanced
hospitals in the 21st century, provision were made to entertain
patients with light music. Professional storytellers were appointed to narrate
stories and jokes to patients (Radio, TV, and PC have replaced these today).
Mu'adhdhinun sang religious songs in their melodious voices before
the morning 'adhaan (call for prayer) so that afflicted patients
might forget their suffering. It is interesting to note that this
hospital is rendering its services even to the present time.
MEDICAL BENEFITS
Music therapy has been lost for more
than 1,000 years both in the Muslim countries as well as in the most advanced
countries or developed countries in the West. In the last three-decades or so,
tremendous interest has been shown in the Western countries in the application
of music therapy to treat several diseases and ailments. No one knows exactly
how music heals, but it looks like our brains are wired to respond to it.
Scientists are finding that the human brain is pre-wired for music("Music on the
Mind" by Sharon Begley, Newsweek, July 24, 2000, pp 50-52). Dr. Clive Robbins
who is a cofounder of the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy at New York
University in New York City says, "There is something intrinsically musical
about the brain's neurological structure and the muscular function of the human
organism. At a nonverbal level, music activates our minds, integrates our
attention, and seems to help regulate some body functions." Dr Robbins has
treated a cerebral palsy child with music therapy making the child to learn to
balance his body and coordinate the movement of his limbs. The child is also
learning to communicate and made him grow motivated and intent.
The right song seems to work in
more than one way--distracting us from pain, boosting mood, reviving old
memories, even prompting the body to match its rhythms. Music has long been
appreciated for its calming effects, but new research shows it also may have the
power to restore and keep us healthy. Soothing sounds, from Tibetan chants to
Beethoven symphonies, are being given scientific credit for preventing colds,
easing labor pain and even boosting anti-aging hormones. One study found that
surgery patients who listened to comforting music recovered more quickly and
felt less pain than those who did not. The International Journal of Arts
Medicine reports that infants in intensive care go home three days
earlier eat better and gain more weight if the staff talks and sings to them.
Clinical studies and anecdotal
evidence from music therapists suggest that the sound of music that is soothing
and comfortable….
Lowers cortisol, a stress
hormone, as much as 25 %
- Boosts endorphins, the body's
natural opiates or feel-good drugs.
- Reduces pain after surgery and
reduces the need for sedatives and pain relievers
- Make patients recover from surgery
faster and with less pain
- May prevent colds
- Raises blood levels of
Immunoglobin A(immune system fighter) to a whopping 14.1 %
- Eases labor without drugs
- Helps preemies in intensive care
- May stimulate neural connections
in the brain and promote spatial ability and memory in children
- Lowers blood pressure as much as 5
points, reduces heart rate, improves cardiac output, relaxes muscle tension
- Manages nonpharmacologically pain
and discomfort
- Improves mood and mobility of
people with Parkinson's disease
- Decreases nausea during
chemotherapy
- Helps patients participate in
medical treatment and decreases length of hospital stay
- Relieves anxiety and reduces
stress
- Eases depression
- Enhances concentration and
creativity
- Brings positive changes in mood
and emotional states
- Increases awareness of self and
environment
- Gives a sense of control over life
through successful experiences
- Provides an outlet for expressions
of feelings
- Improves memory recall which
contributes to reminiscence and satisfaction with life
In addition,
music therapy may allow for:
Emotional intimacy with
families and caregivers
- Relaxation for the entire family
- Meaningful time spent together in
a positive, creative way
Exciting new
research suggests that our brains respond to music almost as if it were
medicine. Music may regulate some body functions, synchronize motor skills,
stimulate mind and `even make us smarter.
To take advantage of music's healing power, one
need not go to the music store at all with the prescription. The home remedies
one needs are probably already in one's music collection. According to Suzanne
Hanser, D Ed, a lecturer in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical
School, "There is no set prescription or a particular piece of music that will
make everyone feel better or more relax. What counts is musical taste, kinds of
memories, feelings and associations a piece of music brings to mind. Some people
relax to classical music, others like the Moody Blues. The key is to
individualize your musical selections."
DEPRESSION
Research indicates that for 20
women and men whose ages ranged between 61 and 86, moods rose and depression
fell when they listened to familiar music they selected while practicing various
stress-reduction techniques- on their own or with the help of a music
therapist-- according to a study from Stanford University School of Medicine. On
the other hand a control group who missed out on the music and the exercises saw
no improvement during the 8-week study period. It helps to perform gentle
exercises depending on one's fitness level, while the music plays. The movements
should be light and flowing. Breathe to the music. Gently come to rest at the
end of the music.
INSOMNIA
Research indicates that 24 out of
25 people with sleeping problems nod off more quickly, snooze for longer periods
of time or get back to sleep more easily after a middle-of-the-night awakening
after listening to classical and New Age music, according to a study from the
University of Louisville School of Nursing, in Louisville, Kentucky. The music
must be quiet, melodic with a slow beat and few, if any, rhythmic accents. To be
effective one should skip the after-dinner coffee or tea, and avoid telephone
calls and TV after 9 PM. Softer and quieter music should be played as bedtime
approaches. The listening of music should continue in bed with a tape recorder
or CD player equipped with a silent on/off switch. One should lie quietly,
taking even, deep breaths.
STRESS
Many studies have found that
soothing melodies can ease anxious feelings and quiet both blood pressure and
heart rate…even under very stressful conditions. Everyday stress responds to
music too. The music selected to listen should be such that it must grab your
attention and at the same time relax your body, so that all of your worries of
the day, such as your concern about what has happened earlier and your plans for
what should happen in the future should slip away. Slow music, like a love song
sung by a great voice or a calm instrumental piece may be perfect. If a slow
tune gives your mind time to fret or obsess, switch to something livelier. The
best way to listen is to sit or lie down in a comfortable position, in a place
where there is no disturbance. After a few minutes one can perform a relaxation
exercise.
PAIN
One study from Yale University
School of medicine found that people who listened to their favorite music while
awake during surgical procedure needed smaller amounts of sedative and pain
medications than those who did not hear music. Physical discomforts from
postoperative pain to chronic aches can be eased with flowing melodies and
distracting rhythms, music therapists and researchers say.
Dr. Alicia A. Clair, Ph.D. who is
a board-certified music therapist and professor and director of music therapy at
the University of Kansas in Lawrence says that music can bring transitory relief
from short-term as well as long-term pain and discomforts such as arthritis and
osteoporosis. Gentle and soothing stress-reducing music is helpful which can
relax and distracts the mind. Martha Burke, a board-certified music therapist in
Durham, North Carolina says, "Gently flowing music or music with a slow, steady
pulse can help promote relaxation, which can then alter patient's perception of
pain. Soothing music can lower the heart rate and breathing rate, leading to
further relaxation and reduces tension that comes with the pain. We know music
is so incredibly complex-- it has tempo, rhythm, melody, and harmony. And so it
stimulates the brain in many ways at once."
BRAIN DAMAGE
Samuel Wong, a Harvard-trained
physician based in New York City, plays musical instruments to help patients
with brain damage (from stroke) and Alzheimer's disease reconnect to the world.
He is also music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Honolulu
Symphony. "When brain damage (from stroke, Alzheimer's disease, etc) leaves a
devastated mental landscape, music "builds a bridge" that allows patients to
reconnect with the outside world. The study of medicine has informed my
performance of music, and my learning of music has deepened my role in healing,"
he says.
In 1996, researchers at Colorado
State University in Fort Collins tried giving 10 stroke victims 30 minutes of
rhythmic stimulation each day for three weeks. Compared with untreated patients,
they showed significant improvements in their ability to walk steadily. People
with Parkinson's disease enjoyed similar benefits.
Stroke victims and patients with
Parkinson's disease walked more steadily and with better balance and speed if
they practiced while hearing a balanced metrical beat or a piece of music with a
powerful, even beat. A musical beat from any genre seemed to provide a rhythmic
cue, which has a powerful, organizing effect on the brain's motor skills; it
helps harmonize movement almost at once, according to researchers.
Scottish researchers have found
that a daily dose of music significantly brightens the moods of
institutionalized stroke victims. When daily music therapy was administered for
12 weeks the patients were less depressed and anxious, and more stable and
sociable than other patients in the same building. Music therapy has also proved
useful in the management of Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases.
SOUNDS OF HEALING
Mitchell L. Gaynor, MD, Director
of medical oncology and integrative medicine at New York's Strang Cancer
Prevention Center (affiliated with the Cornell Medical Center) and author of the
new Hardcover book "Sounds of Healing: A physician Reveals the Therapeutic Power
of Sound, Voice, and Music" (Published by Broadway Books, June 1999, $25); says,
" More doctors are seeing a connection between hormonious sound and health. If
we are around very harmonious people and harmonious vibrations and harmonious
sounds, we begin to feel better. I have never found anything more powerful than
sound and voice and music to begin to heal and transform every aspect of
people's lives. It can really change people's lives. We know that music is
capable of enhancing immune function, lowering heart rate, lowering
stress-related hormones like cortisol that raise our blood pressure and depress
our immune systems. It also trims complications after heart attack, calms
anxiety, slows breathing and increases production of endorphins, the body's
natural painkillers. Consider: 80% of stimuli that reach our brains come through
our ears. Even before we were born, music makes a difference. Hearing is the
first sense to develop, when the fetus is only 18 weeks old (Quran, 32:9). We
know that the unborn child hears for literally half the pregnancy and is
affected profoundly by what it hears. Studies show music by Mozart and Vivaldi
actually can bring down fetal heart rate, calm brain waves and reduce the baby's
kicking. Rock music, on the other hand, appeared to drive fetuses to
distraction, greatly increasing kicking. Our bodies are 70 % water, and that
makes them excellent conductors for sound and vibration. We are not just hearing
with our ears. We are literally feeling vibration sound with every cell in our
bodies. Disharmony and noise, whether it's from traffic, the boss yelling at us
about a deadline or a jackhammer on the street, can make us stressed, depressed
and pessimistic -- all of which depress our immune systems. That's why
disharmony can eventually lead to disease. Our own voices are very underutilized
healing tools. Singing is a great way to tap music's healing power. If you are
self-conscious, try chanting. Anyone can do it, and "you can't do it wrong. We
are just seeing the tip of the iceberg as far as the incredible power of sound
to affect every cell and every organ system in our bodies.
The Qur'an Says:
But He fashioned him in
due proportion, and Breathed into him something of His spirit. And He gave you
(the faculties of) Hearing and sight and feeling (and understanding): Little
thanks do you give!
-----Surah Sajda,
32: 9 also 16: 78; 67: 23
Dr. Keith Moore, Professor and
Chairman of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Toronto School of
Medicine, writes in his most popular Textbook on human embryology, (The
Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, Keith
L. Moore, T. V. N. Persaud, Paperback,
Published by Saunders W B Co ., March 1998 Price: $49.00) that the human embryo gets first the ears (hearing), then the eyes (sight) and next
the brain (feeling and understanding or metal faculties) in that order, as
mentioned in the Qur'an in the above verses.
On the other hand very loud music with
sounds louder than 90 decibels cause stress and ear damage. Pierce J. Howard,
Ph.D., director of the Center for Applied Cognitive Studies in Charlotte, NC,
and author of "The Owner's Manual for the Brain: Everyday Applications from
Mind-Brain Research, Paper back, published by Bard Press, November 1999, says,"
Very loud music creates an altered state of consciousness akin to an alcoholic
or drug-induced stupor that can become addictive. "
THE MOZART EFFECT
Don Campbell, a composer, music
researcher and teacher, healer and the author of book " The Mozart
Effect-Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind and
Unlock the Creative Spirit", (published by Avon Books, New York, NY, October
1997, 332 pp) learned that he had a potentially fatal blood clot in an artery
just below his brain. He shrunk the blood clot from more than an inch and a half
in length to an eighth of an inch by humming quietly for three to four minutes
at a time, up to seven times a day. He did this for three weeks before he went
back for a second brain scan.
In "The Mozart Effect", Don
Campbell, says " You know music can affect your mood: it can make you feel
happy, enchanted, inspired, wistful, excited, empowered, comforted, and heroic.
Particular sounds, tones and rhythms, can strengthen the mind, unlock the
creative spirit, and miraculously, even heal the body. Exposure to sound, music,
and other forms of vibration, beginning in utero, can have a life long effect on
health, learning and behavior."
In conclusion, one should listen
to a piece of music that one finds inspirational and uplifting. Dr. Ahmed Al-Kadi
of Florida's Akbar Clinic conducted research on the healing power of listening
to Qur'anic recitations. There is an urgent need for conducting more research on
Music Therapy by Muslim Physicians both in the West and in the Muslim countries
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