E-Book of Articles - World Federation of Music Therapy

Nuki, Michiko et al: Effects Of Healing Music On Endocrinological Changes
As a result of reviewing various resources from within and outside of Japan,
a scientific definition of "healing music" could not be found. In "The
Overview of Sound Healing Practices," Crowe and Scovel state that a
definition of sound healing is not clear, but terms such as music therapy,
healing, curing, and health are loosely grouped and are included within the
meaning of sound healing 1).
"Heal" is a derivation of the Indo-European word "holy". Words such as "holy",
"heal", "health", "hallow", and "whole" all have these same roots. Keeping
this in mind, Nuki connected the word "heal" with "holistic medicine". In
other words, being healthy means to have a balanced functioning of the
mental and physical as a whole. "Healing music" can be seen from the
spiritual and physical point of view and is defined in this paper in the
following manner. From the mental point of view, "healing" is the release,
comfort, or easing of distress and fatigue, and music which functions to do
so is called "healing music". From the physical point of view, "healing music"
is referred to as music that functions as a physiological index to reduce
stress through emotional responses while listening of music.
2 PURPOSE
To view healing music from an academic perspective, a psychological
investigation and an endocrinological experiment were conducted. In the
past, in order to investigate the psychological response to music, Nuki
conducted experiments using the heartbeat, respiration, and Galvanic skin
reflex responses from the autonomic nervous system, and an
electroencepharography (EEG) from the central nervous system as indexes.
However, because endocrinological research is extremely rare in Japan, the
effects of music therapy on the changes of stress-related hormones in the
blood stream were investigated. In addition, the correspondence between
psychological evaluations and endocrinological changes was examined.
3 METHOD
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