By: Hettie Basil Lighttower

Would you say …… MUSIC is MEDICINE!!?? We all know music makes us feel good. It can even make us happy when we are sad; calm when we are nervous. Let’s explore and see if there is science behind all this. Here’s what I have learned:
Musical notes are sounds. Sounds are a frequency. Some frequencies we can hear and others we cannot. Frequencies are a form of vibrations. When vibrations are on the same wavelength aka frequency, they resonate with one another. As a matter of fact as a cellist I enjoyed this resonance phenomenon on my instrument.
Those of you who have been string students or performers will have understanding of this. An example would be when I held my 4th finger(pinky) down on my A string the note under my finger is a D on the cello. When I firmly pressed my fourth finger down to play that D loud and clear precisely on pitch the open string next to the A string would vibrate and also create a sound ALL BY ITSELF! You might have guessed it. THAT untouched open string is a D string! The D string recognized and resonated with the D pitch of the 4th finger note being played on the A string. It then reacted and “sang” along or vibrated in response. It was a natural reaction with no effort on my part to manipulate it physically. It just simply began to move with the frequency to produce sound on its own. It produced the sound it was tuned to! The note D.
This example of what instruments do is an obvious one that we can hear and see with our senses of hearing and sight. We can even feel the physical vibration of these sound frequencies as they ring out on the instrument. Now to go a step further let’s consider that musicians and scientists have discovered that if you place a sprinkle of salt, sugar or sand on a tray, interesting things happen while playing music. Let it be a black or dark color tray so you can see the contrasting color of said granules.
Turn up the amp! Then play different notes and combinations of notes. It is amazing to SEE the vibrations of each respective note or combination of notes being reflected uniquely in the granules. The granules show that physical things when subjected to sound vibrations are arranged in well-organized geometrical patterns to perfection. Each sound creates its own specific design, and changes with each note. The granules show that vibrations AFFECT MATTER. The vibrations MOVE and rearrange matter. The designs that form are beautiful like snowflakes!! Water will(not surprisingly) also ripple in even flowing ringlets at a pace directed by the rich values of tones it’s subjected to.
Now, just imagine that our own physical bodies have receptor centers for specific notes just like that D String we mentioned. Suppose that just above our belly button there is a receptor center for the note E! Imagine that receptor vibrating to and singing out on its own EVERY time it hears and feels an E frequency. Imagine that any cell in that abdominal space of our body connected to the E receptor center, hears and resonates with this vibration E as well! And just like the salt or sugar or sand or water; those cells, too, ripple and organize in geometrical harmonizing patterns creating perfection.
Our body and our cells are matter correct? We are made up of mostly water correct? It would make sense that the same vibrations of that D note on the A string that move the untouched D string and that the same vibrations that organize the granules into specific designs would have the SAME influential capability to affect ANY matter within range. Would you agree? This would be true especially if certain matter resonated with a particular note. And certain matter DOES! Our bodies being made of matter and water then logically fall into that influential range capacity. When we ourselves are subjected to sound aka music we have a reaction internally because of this law of resonance!
And to go one step deeper…… we really DO have a receptor center above our belly button that resonates with the note E!!! So anytime we are in the presence of the note E our “gut” will lovingly respond to the E and embrace it. It (our body in the area of this natural receptor of ours) will repair in the way it needs to repair depending on the subsequential duration and quality of the note E.
This modern science of “music is medicine” is being studied and recognized all over the world. We will continue on in detail next week about this subject of music and our health. The discussion will include other musical receptors we have, ancient knowledge of them, what bells, windchimes and wooden flutes have to do with it and how we can incorporate them in our lives.
As always feel free to send in your notions to [email protected]. It will be fun to see what you come up with. I will include them in the next column as per their arrival relative to the publication deadline of Tuesday by 12 p.m. of the same week. If you wish to be anonymous let me know. Kindness is contagious.