by Kelsey Winters

Created on: September 05, 2009   Last Updated: September 06, 2009

Music therapy has recently been accepted as a technique to reduce stress and help with physical and psychological healing. Many people think music is simply a pleasing piece of entertainment to listen to, but, through various experiments, it has been proven as a healing technique. It can alter moods, make you feel relaxed, and even help heal physical ailments.

Using music as a therapeutic technique has been used throughout history. Aristotle believed that music, especially flute music, would help people with a cathartic release of their emotions. Plato believed music restored the balance and harmony in the soul. He also believed that it was ultimately responsible for the moral welfare of the nation. Pythagoras believed music had a healing effect on the subconscious mind. A baby in their mother's womb feels their mother's heart beat. A slow and steady beat will therefore be calming to most people because it will remind them of the safe haven of the womb. Similarly, Native American Shamans used music in their healing rituals. For them, healing rituals not only helped the sick and dying, but also encouraged peace and prosperity. Also, Africans used simple percussion rhythms to lower heart rates and bring down fevers of those who were ill.

Different styles of music have been created to try to accentuate the healing and meditative qualities. Many classical musicians, such as Bach and Mozart, created many pieces simply to alter the listener's mood. They believed they could hinder melancholy and depression by creating comforting and uplifting pieces. Next, New Age music, or instrumental music with a slow-tempo (usually consisting of a strong flute melody or percussion beat), was created to alter moods to be positive and increase people's conscious awareness.

However, some types of music, such as rock music, have been theorized to bring more harm to the body than good. Rock music is music that consists of a drum line alternating between weak and strong beats. Since it strays from rhythms based around the beating of a human heart, it has a somewhat addictive quality. The more a person listens to it, the more their judgment and perception decreases. This is because the alternating beats pattern distorts the neural communication messages between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. If a person listens to this type of music for a prolonged period of time, it may actually hinder their body's ability to return to homeostasis.

Music affects human physiology because

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