MOZART’S MUSIC
ON BODY AND NATURE

BY

FLEUR NELSON
PhD Clinical Psychology Program
Cultural Foundations of Depth Psychology
Pacifica Graduate Institute
November 2007

This project became an expression of things that I enjoy and utilize as a source of inspiration and a vehicle connecting deeper with the personal and collective consciousness. It is a prelude for my love for classical music, nature, and photography. In my attempt to bring these three subjects together it is my hope that the reader and/or observer will see a natural flow and interconnection with these three worlds.

Nature is very musical when one sits in stillness. It is the simple sounds of the ocean waves breaking, the birds chirping in the trees, and the wind sounding its’ breath against the blades of grass all combined to become a part of Nature’s rhythm. Nature’s rhythm is full of colors, shapes and vibrations, which create energy fields of resonance and movement in the surrounding space. In the Mozart Effect (2001), Don Campbell explains that our human body absorbs these energies, and as result, our breath, pulse, blood pressure, muscle tension, skin temperature, and other internal rhythms are subtly altered.

In particular, I’ve always been fond of Mozart’s music. Whenever I am in stress or need to process things through I play Mozart’s music. For some reason, Mozart’s music makes me feel more connected with my life, and as a result, I have great realizations that lead me to making wiser choices in life. Equally, taking time walking in nature gives me a great satisfaction, rejuvenates both my body and mind, and helps me to be more grounded and clear with my journey in life.

Often when I go for long walks I take my camera with me and take pictures. Every picture is to capture the moment; to distill the way nature is posing in front of me, to acknowledge beauty and to open a transcendental dialogue between my self and Nature. There are moments in Nature that are musical tuning the mind and body with vibrations of the natural environment.

And so, for a period of a month, I decided to bring Mozart’s music with me on my walks at the beach. The light background of music as I was doing photography would help me become attuned to my surroundings, and as a result, would help me relieve stress, and bring joyful vibrations in both my mind and body. As Campbell puts it:

Listening to Mozart helps organize the firing patterns of neurons in the cerebral cortex, especially strengthening creative right brain processes associated with spatial-temporal reasoning (p. 3).

As a gifted child, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) channeled melodies that at his time were highly appreciated and adored as divine music. His contemporary admirers discovered the perfection of his music currying through rhythmic qualities of his that mimic rhythmic cycles in the human brain.


Don Campbell (2001) explains that Mozart’s music affects the rhythms of the autonomic nervous system, which regulates a vast biological landscape within our bodies. It can shift consciousness from beta toward the alpha range, enhancing alertness and general well-being. More over, as we absorb these vibrating energies, our breath, pulse, blood pressure, muscle tension, skin temperature, and other internal rhythms subtly alter.
Mozart’s talent manifested itself at such a tender age that his work never lost its aura of being composed by a child. For his time, his music was considered to be a channel between childhood and creativity that early romantic aestheticians found irresistible, for it echoed their rediscovery in childhood of the mourned golden age. Yet, his work permeates through the contemporary evolution. His work celebrates the freedom of human thought; embodies the innocence, inventiveness, and a promise of the birth of a new order of the ages.
Research and use of Mozart’s music in therapy brought a new dimension for helping people to alleviate or heal their pain and suffering. Mozart’s music has been broadly used to deal with everything from anxiety to cancer, high blood pressure, chronic pain, dyslexia, and mental illness.
Light background music can relieve stress and anxiety, simply – as the following expressions suggest-by enabling us to “strike a sympathetic chord,” “harmonize,” or become “attuned to our surroundings” (p. 125).
While with clients, I developed the routine during therapy to play Mozart’s music in the background. I notice that the music in the background would enhance the dynamics of our connection. To this very day, I am still amazed to discover that my concentration and connection with the client continues to be enhanced.

As I am listening to Mozart’s music, I hear the association of the different instruments representing the dialogue that takes place between two people. “The quality of the communication between analyst and patient is close to the quality of interaction among musicians in small ensemble playing” (Feder, K., Karmel, R. L., Pollock, G. H., Eds., 1990, p. 45). The music is like a narrator for how a therapeutic relationship between two people begins. The client wants to express his/her personal story; learning to harmonize and co-synthesize with another person. Using music as a metaphor, we could claim that in therapy both therapist and client both play the piano. There is one theme in the music that is shared; the story of the client, where as, the therapist is playing along.

In order for the two pianists to synchronize while playing the piano the therapist starts tuning in with the client’s piece of music in order to create for the client a safe container so that the client’s s story will unfold and transform. When therapy goes through all the facets of transference and counter-transference a more authentic dialogue is achieved between therapist and client. As Campbell eloquently puts it:

The therapist strives to synchronize with the patient with the aim if eventually drawing him or her into a more balanced rhythm (p. 124).

He or she makes the leap and matches the new rhythm, movements, and breath, thus creating a reassuring continuum (p. 124).

From the psychoanalytic perspective, by listening to music, we resolve symbolic representations of the unconscious conflicts that exist deep within us. Pure music cannot be put into words. It mobilizes greater forces within the unconscious that correspond to early ego organization. As the listener identifies with the music regresses to a primitive ego state which allows him/her to enjoy music as a child that responds to pleasurable sounds and thus experiences ecstasy. By breaking free from the ego boundaries the listener submits to the esthetics of music and thus releases inner tension. As Freud would put it, the oceanic feeling of being one with the world is reached (Feder, S., Karmel, R. L., Pollock, G. H., Eds., 1990).

Becoming “attuned” to oneself and one’s surroundings will give a sense of wholeness. Becoming a whole can be defined in musical terms. For example, both mind and body are orchestrating a symphony of sounds and aspirations, colors and emotions, images and visions, bodily neurological chemical and electrical charges and emotional discharges. When we are in harmony with our lives and feel healthy, we can say that the instruments in the orchestra perform fluidly and in tune. Where as, when we are unsettled within ourselves and feel sick, certain sections of the orchestra are out of sync. Learning to integrate conscious and unconscious life in therapy can initiate a process of listening to all aspects of one self and start playing the music that is closer to the heart.

And the real genius of healing lies in teaching the body, mind, and heart to discover and play their own music - not the score that has been dictated by social norms. (p. 63)

For the ancient Greeks, music was considered as a form of medicine for the soul. Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher and mathematician, believed that music, if properly used, could greatly contribute to holistic health affecting and purifying body, mind and spirit. For example, a person would go through a journey of introspection by sitting in the middle of a circle of people who would play music and sing for him/her. Pythagoras invented certain melodies devised as remedies against the passions of the soul, such as anger, rage, and desires. Those types of melodies accompanied with certain lyrics and poetry was believed that would eventually correct the soul and thus bring harmony and wholeness in one’s life (Guthrie, K.,S., 1987, p. 85).

Along these lines Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the great seventeenth-century philosopher and mathematician, wrote:

Music is a hidden arithmetic exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is dealing with numbers, because it does many things by way of unnoticed conceptions which with clear conception it could not do. Those who believe that nothing can happen in the soul of which the soul is not conscious are wrong. For this reason the soul, although not realizing that is involved in mathematical computation, still senses the effect of this unnoticeable forming of numbers either as a resultant feeling of well-being in the case of harmonies or as discomfort in the case of disharmonies (Berendt, J E,1991, p. 67).

The basic principle of ancient wisdom “as above, so below” kindly reminds us that the harmonies and disharmonies manifest as structures of sounds both in the cosmos as a well in the micro cosmos. The world above is represented by modern astronomy and cosmology discovering exiting harmonic relationships beyond the bounds of our own planetary system. The world below represents biology and physics understanding the intra- structure of the harmonics in the genes, and cells in the human body. And neurobiology brings the dimension of the brain with its alpha and beta waves orchestrating the sounds of the messages of the neurotransmitters, filtering experience and balancing processes of mind and body.

The entire microcosm is replete with harmonic concurrences. The long strings of nucleic acid in DNA are structured precisely according to the pythogorean Tetractys, the fourfold subdivision of the octave (octave, fifth, fourth, and major second). The Pythagoreans attributed magic power to the Tetractys and called it sacred. The four oxygen atoms, for instance, that surround the phosphorus atom vibrate in the Tetractys (1991, p. 69).

Having said all that, perhaps Mozart’s music stands to praise the inner child of divine love whose grace, beauty, and healing powers are intimately connected to the order of Nature and the memory of our origin and destiny. I would like to conclude here with the words of Paul Winter in his foreword for Campbell’s book, Music physician for times to come (2000):

My enthusiasm for the powers of music prompts me to ask, What is it we want, in our quest for “healing”? Is it simply to be free of illness or discomfort, to just get us back to the status quo? Or do we aspire to a wholeness, a fullness in which the wellsprings of our potential are uncorked and the enthusiasm of our life-song - whether as teacher or mother or fisherman or sax-player – is manifest in our voice, our smile, our relationships, and our livelihood? (p. xii).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berendt, Joachim-Ernst. (1991). Nada brahma. Music and the landscape of consciousness. Rochester, Vermond: Destiny Books.

Campbell, D. (2000). Music physician for times to come. Wheaton, Illinois: The Theosophical Publishing House, Quest.

Campbell, D. (2001). The Mozart effect. Tapping the power of music to heal the body, strengthen the mind, and unlock the creative spirit. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Quill.

Guthrie, K. S. (1989). The Pythagorean sourcebook and library. An anthology of ancient writings which relate to pythagoras and pythagorean philosophy. Introduced and edited by David R. Fideler. Foreword by Joscelyn Godwin. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Phanes Press.

Feder, S., Karmel, R. L., Pollock, G. H. (Eds). (1990). Psychoanalytic explorations in music. Madison, Connecticut: International Universities press.