Music is more than just beautiful sounds, as I’ve learned in my exploration of music and sound for meditation and healing. There are some basic principles that music follows and those principles allow it to be used as a tool in teaching and healing - which is, if nothing else, a form of teaching oneself how to deal with stress, both physical and emotional.

As of the moment that I’m writing, there are no proven prescriptions of specific music for specific ailments. No healer can tell you to go home and take two Bach concertos to cure your migraine. But there is more than enough research to establish that music - in almost any form - can have beneficial effects on the mind and on the body. There are many theories as to why, and most of them make sense. I suspect that as the story of music and healing continues to unfold, we’ll find that there is more than a grain of truth in every single one of them.

There are, however, some universal truths that form the basis for the way that music is used in teaching, healing and socialization. You can certainly enjoy and use music to help you relax, meditate and heal without knowing them - but knowing them will help you see how music works its magic.

1. Listening to music engages many parts of the brain. The more of the brain is involved, the more you are ‘exercising’ your brain.

2. You can adapt music to anyone’s abilities. Anyone can participate. It may surprise some to realize that even a completely deaf person can hear and understand music through vibrations.

3. Music provides context for repeating something over and over, which aids memorization and processing.

4. Music provides a time structure through the use of rhythm and tempo. That time structure is mathematical in essence, and helps the mind organize what it hears and processes.

5. Music sets up a field of vibrations that is echoed by everything within its range. That may be the root of the healing and growth patterns that have been noted in famous studies like the one that played classical music to growing plants and showed increased growth in those plants.

6. Music provides a social structure for verbal and non-verbal communication. Though there are different frameworks for music around the world in many cultures, the language of music transcends verbal barriers.

7. Music’s natural mathematical structure subtly encourages the brain to organize thoughts.

8. It encourages and supports physical movement. Few people can listen to lively music without at least tapping their toes.

9. Music accesses emotions and memories, even those buried deep beneath the surface. With the exception of smell, few other stimuli are as likely to invoke memories as songs and selections of music.