The Power of Music: Intersecting Science, Art & Spirituality

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. 
Ludwig van Beethoven

What's the connection between music and our understanding of science? Observe how Theoretical Physicist Brian Greene, an expert in String Theory uses this connection to explain Albert Einstein's "Theory of Everything."

Albert Einstein dreamed of finding what he called a Unified Theory. By that he meant a single idea, a single principle, maybe even a single equation that might describe everything in the universe. He worked long and hard many decades to try to find the theory and he never did. Since his passing many physicists have taken up where he left off, and many of us believe that an approach called String Theory may be the Unified Theory that he was looking for. And the basic idea of the unified description of all matter is pretty straightforward. If you take any piece of material, say a piece of wood, cut it in half, cut it in half again, keep on cutting it to ever smaller pieces, the basic question is what’s the smallest piece that you get to?

What is the finest uncuttable constituent? Now we all know if you cut fine enough you get molecules, if you cut them up, you get atoms, if you cut them up even further you get other particles, electrons going around the nucleus with neutrons and protons, even though the neutrons and protons are smaller entities called quarks. The conventional idea stopped there. String Theory comes along and says “There may be one more layer of structure: inside an electron, inside a quark, inside any particle you have heard of, according to these ideas, is a little tiny filament. Looks like a tiny little string, that’s why it’s called String Theory, and the little strings can vibrate in different patterns.”

So the idea is that, according to this theory an electron can be a string vibrating in one pattern. You can call it a middle C if you want, by the musical analogy, a quark could be a string vibrating at a different pattern like an A. So the difference between one particle and another is simply the note that its string is playing. And this is the unified description that this theory puts forward: everything can be reduced to the notes these fundamental strings are playing. Now that’s metaphorical. There’s math behind this, that allows us to see all of the key elements of physics can find a home in this description, but in a nutshell that’s what this theory says.

Source: Physics of Sound - Harmonics and The Unified Theory

What we play is life. 
Louis Armstrong

What is music? The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines music as "the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity." It then defines sound as "mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (as air) and is the objective cause of hearing." In essence, music is the science or art that defines the ordered transfer of energy from the source to its recipient. Therefore, on the most fundamental level, there is power in music.

Education in music is most sovereign because more than anything else rhythm and harmony find their way to the innermost soul and take strongest hold upon it. 

Plato

The Bible says in Genesis 2:7; "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." It then says in 1 Corinthians 15:45; "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul." In the Greek language, the word used by The Apostle Paul for human soul is the breath of life. In other words, God breathed into man and then man was able to breathe on his own. The soul is the center of thought, decision and emotion. It's the essence of our humanity.

Here's a very interesting story from The Bible which demonstrates the power of music to impact the human soul.

1 Samuel 16:14-22(NLT) - Now the Spirit of the LORD had left Saul, and the LORD sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear. 15 Some of Saul’s servants said to him, “A tormenting spirit from God is troubling you. 16 Let us find a good musician to play the harp whenever the tormenting spirit troubles you. He will play soothing music, and you will soon be well again.” 17 “All right,” Saul said. “Find me someone who plays well, and bring him here.” 18 One of the servants said to Saul, “One of Jesse’s sons from Bethlehem is a talented harp player. Not only that—he is a brave warrior, a man of war, and has good judgment. He is also a fine-looking young man, and the LORD is with him.” 19 So Saul sent messengers to Jesse to say, “Send me your son David, the shepherd.” 20 Jesse responded by sending David to Saul, along with a young goat, a donkey loaded with bread, and a wineskin full of wine. 21 So David went to Saul and began serving him. Saul loved David very much, and David became his armor bearer. 22 Then Saul sent word to Jesse asking, “Please let David remain in my service, for I am very pleased with him.” 23 And whenever the tormenting spirit from God troubled Saul, David would play the harp. Then Saul would feel better, and the tormenting spirit would go away.

Saul was troubled by an evil spirit and his deliverance came through a novel medium, music! Why was music the only suggestion given to him? Obviously, they understood the power of music to heal his ailment. Since hindsight is 20-20, we can all now marvel at their brilliance. Believe it or not, this was an early form of what is now called "Music Therapy."

Here's what Music Therapy expert, Concetta Tomaino, D.A., MT-BC, LCAT, has to say;

One of the reasons, and one of the exciting reasons, why music therapy has so much promise for people with neurological conditions is that music accesses the networks in the brain in a complementary faction (fashion) or differently than the function that a person has lost. And what I mean by that is we can stimulate the timing mechanisms, we can stimulate word finding ability, we can stimulate recognition memory, even short-term memory function through using music in a specific way that makes available to these patients function in the brain that’s still there but maybe they can’t get at independently because of the inhibition that has taken place due to their brain injury.

So music is an enriched sensory stimulus that allows for, I believe, the disinhibition of some of the inhibited function that has been lost in these individuals. And by stimulating these complementary or parallel networks, we see this type of ability come back.

Source: Music Therapy for Neurological Conditions

Music can be used to explain the scientific foundation of life! Music transfers energy! Music is a universal language! Music can bring deliverance from evil! Music can heal! Armed with this wisdom, tonight we begin in Atlanta, GA what may grow into a very important series of discussions on the music industry. Since music is so powerful, the current state of music in our culture is a major priority. If you can't join us in person, you can join us online.

If I can write the songs of the nations, I don't care who writes the laws. 

Plato