What does music awaken within us? It’s hard to say. We’ve all experienced a moment when a melody halts us in our steps. We let it sink over us, savoring every note. Something has flickered inside: a memory, a state of mind, an emotion that has no words. When the music passes, we stir and stretch like people waking from a dream. That’s the mysterious and bewitching power of music.
“Nothing activates the brain so extensively as music,” said Oliver Sacks, famed neurologist and author of the book “Musicophilia,” which explores the profound and poignant ways music affects people on a neurological level. Sacks has researched the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, music, and medicine—a field that’s bearing fruit in clinical settings where music is harnessed for the purposes of healing. Researchers and medical practitioners such as Dr. Sacks have discovered how music reaches deep into the pathways of the mind and how it can be used to transform and heal people.
