Recently I have been reading a book by Oliver Sacks, on "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain". I've been reading this book in preparation for my hope and desire to study music therapy. This book tries to explain music affects the body and the different reactions the body has to it.
" Listening to music is not just auditory and emotional, it is motoric as well: 'We listen to music with our muscles. We keep time to music, involuntarily, even if we are not consciously attending to it, and our faces and postures mirror the 'narrative' of the melody, and thoughts and feelings it provokes."
I have been so completely absorbed with what this book is saying! Later on, the book talks about a man who had an "out of body" experience, he was standing at a phone booth and was struck by lightning. He died essentially, but was brought back and recovered months later. But what was so fascinating about this story and incredibly amazing was that before this man's accident, he really had no love for music, but after his recovery, he felt this overwhelming need and desire to play and listen to classical piano music. He even taught himself to play. He is now an aspiring composer.
The power of music. Can it be explained by some scientific definition or phenomena? Maybe. But to me it is the power of God in us that makes us grab on to something. One thing that this book is correct on, music and the love for it is inside everyone, it just takes something to spark it. Even if it takes a near death experience.
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