I heard a talk on The Mozart Effect on national radio today. There are different opinions about it – but here’s a sample from several websites to whet your curiosity:

Shalom!

Rowland Croucher

~~ It’s called “the Mozart Effect,” the notion that exposing youngsters to the melodies of the maestro can improve verbal ability, spatial intelligence, creativity, and memory.

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As a psychiatrist, I have witnessed the positive effects of cortically energizing or charging the brain hundreds of times while working with depressed or anxious patients, and while treating patients with traumatic brain injury.

Eighty percent of the neuro receptors for sound (the hair cells in the Organ of Corti in the brain) respond only to frequencies above 3000 hertz (cps). This provides one-third of the charge the ear supplies to the brain, with the other two-thirds coming from stimulation to the vestibular system of the inner ear. This system governs muscle tone, coordination and balance. Stimulating it contributes to changes in body posture, vocal control, balance, handwriting, gross and fine motor movements, and integrating body “schema”.

When listening to the high-frequency filtered music of Mozart, most people experience profound positive changes in energy, appetite, concentration, attention span, and other mental and bodily functions. I strongly emphasize the importance of appropriate counseling in conjunction with this listening.

I often witness the light coming from the faces of many clients talking about their changes: singers talking about the gains in their voices and musicality; depressed and anxious clients feeling free, energized and calm; head injured people reclaiming some of their lost functions after the neurologist stated nothing more could be done.

Unborn babies and infants do not need music that has been especially composed for them. What they do deserve, to the greatest possible extent, is the best and most authentic music. If you like Mozart, listen to the authentic music of Mozart; if you like The Beatles, listen to the original music performed by this English group. It has been shown that immediately after birth, the music and voices heard before birth have a “magical” effect on babies, since those sounds and voices were imprinted on their memories. When they hear them again, they associate them with a sense of pleasure.

“It’s through sounding our own voices that we actually massage and vibrate our bodies from inside out,” says Don Campbell of Boulder, Colorado, an expert on sound in healing and education. Campbell put his own views to the test when he was diagnosed three and a half years ago with a potentially fatal blood clot in his brain. As he recounts in his book The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit, he refused surgery, instead combining imagery, prayer, and humming as his treatment. As he hummed a tone — careful not to use loud sounds that might dislodge the clot — he attempted to “massage away the blood clot from within.” Campbell envisioned the sound as a vibrating hand over the right side of his skull, then traveling through his body. The calming exercise, he suggests, encouraged the release of endorphins and other positive biochemical changes in his body. He also came to feel what he describes as an “inaudible sound” that accompanied a healing image, which he “replayed” for himself frequently.

In fall 1997, Campbell’s book “The Mozart Effect — Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit” was published by Avon Books to rave reviews. In the book, Campbell provides compelling evidence of the influence of sound, tones and rhythms on mental performance and spiritual outlook, as well as in the treatment of disease. Interweaving the riveting stories of ordinary men, women and children with solid research by doctors, psychologists and music therapists, “The Mozart Effect” shows how music can be used to improve memory and learning, boost pr oductivity, soothe jangled nerves, strengthen endurance, unlock creative impulses, sound away pain and heal the body from a host of ailments. The book cites fifty common conditions where music has made a difference — curing symptoms and changing lives — including high blood pressure, heart disease, AIDs, allergies, asthma, dyslexia, migraine headaches, back pain, substance abuse, anxiety, insomnia, pregnancy and labor, menopause, stroke rehabilitation, diabetes and cancer.