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Music that heals

MUSIC THERAPY drives out all negativity from the body and recharges body, mind and soul positively

Photos: K. Ganesan

Hear to heal Rendering a voluntary service for students of a special school

“If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it…”

“The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils…” – So said William Shakespeare and none would disagree that music offers nourishment not only for the heart but also for soul.

Music is everywhere. Since time immemorial, music with its esoteric nature, infuses divinity and brings in harmony of the soul. “This soul soothing music has very powerful therapeutic effect on the human psyche,” declares Isaikalaimani G. Banumathi, a music therapist.

The music therapy functions on a simple technique called “releasing the blocks in the mind that create depression and washes off negative thoughts giving space to positive thinking.”

By just allowing patients to hear Carnatic music, there is every possibility of releasing stress and diminishing blood sugar level and pressure, she claims.

She culls out ragas and records them in cassettes and compact discs to hand over to the people, who often come with various problems.

“There are ragas for every problem. We have cassettes and CDs for insomnia, depression, diabetes, blood pressure and more.”

“Even if two people come with the same problem, the ragas selected for them may be the same but with a difference in pitch and time span for rendition. Also it can be instrumental or vocal depending on the need of that particular individual,” she explains.

Ms. Banumathi, who learnt music for 15 years under the guidance of Chenkotta Narayanan, a student of Semmagudi Srinivasa Iyer, offers music as therapy to children and pregnant women too. She finds too many children in the five-plus age group suffering from depression.

“No ear is immune to music. But the problem of today’s music is in rhythms, which results in hormonal imbalances,” she says.

She deals with Carnatic music alone and her therapy works on two modes: positive mode that enables hearing the music from a recorder and active mode that allows the listener to listen and repeat.

It is based on the associative and cognitive powers of the mind. The sound or music creates vibrations that are picked and passed through sensory nerves and reach the brain to make the difference.

Music therapy never attempts to change people’s diet or medication. Rather, it offers secondary support to solve their problems without any side effects.

Ms. Banumathi claims that she offers support to patients who are referred by doctors besides helping foreigners too who come to Madurai for relaxation.

Her husband, Guruprasad, learnt yoga from age of nine at Maharishi Yoga Centre in West Mambalam.

A yoga teacher now, he along with his music therapist wife, also extends support to people who come to him with various problems. “What we do is just to help people shed their negative thoughts and negative energies. It is a kind of ‘brainwash’ and allows people to think that they are capable of doing anything under the sun,” says Mr.Guruprasad.

The couple is also involved in rendering voluntary services to mentally retarded children at M.S. Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation and an orphanage home at Gandhigram Rural Institute.

“Music therapy is part of science. But there is no disputing the fact that music has a value and makes an effect on the senses. What matters most is how the effect can be tempered and turned to something more positive to enrich life,” they say and hope that the ‘Music Therapy’ will one day get its due acclamation.

S.S.KAVITHA

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