The Incredible Power of Music

The Pervasiveness of Music

Music is so pervasive throughout human culture that every society on earth has never lacked music. Whether one is speaking of ancient tribes stretching animal skins over three stumps to make drums, or carving hollow bones to make flutes; bands or ensembles to play at weddings, funerals, or parties, or sending troops off to war; mothers rocking their children to sleep with a lullaby; or students studying with background music, all societies everywhere have music as an integral part of their daily routine.

As one author stated, “As for us humans, music remains fundamental and central in every culture, and so we humans are a musical species no less than a linguistic one.” Because of this intrinsic power of music in people’s lives, variations on compositions have been written and performed to influence people’s thoughts and actions in academics, athletics, military combat, marketing, and religion. Note, for instance, the following quotes from various authors and personalities. (4) 

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” — Albert Einstein

“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.” — Albert Schweitzer

“Music is the shorthand of emotion.” — Leo Tolstoy

“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.” — Charles Darwin

“Where words fail, music speaks.” — Hans Christian Anderson

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” — Aldous Huxley

“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.” — Con- fucius

“Music is … a higher revelation than all Wisdom and Philosophy.” — Ludwig van Beethoven

“Music … will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the fundamental laws ofthe State always change with them.” — Plato

“Music is what tells us that the human race is greater than we realize.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

“Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul.” — JohannSebastian Bach

“If music be the food of love, play on.” — William Shakespeare.

Dictators such as Adolph Hitler understood the importance of music to foment the desired aggressive militarism of countries like Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. The urge to march to the beat of “Alta Kameraden” can hardly be suppressed. Likewise, new recruits to basic training are taught to sing as they march, to build esprit de corps and dull the pain of sore feet and shoulders,

Communism and other social movements have their songs as well. The Internationale, a song concocted in France in the late 1880s, glorified the socialist state, such as noted below.

“Arise ye workers from your slumbers, Arise ye prisoners of want,

For reason in revolt now slumber And at last ends the age of can’t ….

No savior from on high delivers, No faith have we in prince or peer;

Our own right hand the chains must shiver,

Chains of hatred, greed, and fear…. ” (5)

Notice how the message reeks of humanism, that no God will help them in the struggle to throw off oppression; they themselves, the masters who are victims of oppression, must unite and cast off the chains that bind them. This message set to music, repeated over and over, convinced many a citizen of France and Russia — and elsewhere — to join forces with the Communist wave that reared its ugly head over multiple millions of unsuspecting, gullible citizens in those nations.

In the modern age, music has made remarkably rapid turns towards humanistic godlessness and self-consuming narcissism, with the entry of several music genres: rock and roll, rap, heavy metal, punk, pop, and others. Allan Bloom inhis book The Closing of the American Mind made clear what the objective of these various new musical innovations is about.

“Rock music has one appeal only, a barbaric appeal to sexual desire — not love, not eros, but sexual desire undeveloped and untutored. It acknowledges the first emanations of children’s emerging sensuality and addresses them seriously, eliciting them and legitimatizing them, not as little sprouts that must be carefully tended to in order to grow into gorgeous flowers, but as the real thing. Rock gives children, on a silver platter, with all the authority of the entertainment industry, everything their parents always used to tell them they had to wait for until they grew up and would understand later.

“The inevitable corollary of such sexual interest is rebellion against the parental authority that represses it. Selfishness thus becomes indignation and then transforms itself into morality. The sexual revolution must overthrow all the forces of domination, the enemies of nature and happiness. From love comes hate, masquerading as social reform. A worldview is balanced on the sexual fulcrum. What were once unconscious or half-conscious childish resentments become the new Scripture.” (6)

The teenage rock music enthusiast Michael Brown, who from age 15 to 17 dove headlong into the abyss of this musical genre but miraculously came out of it and became a Christian, asked these questions:7

1. Did rock music help introduce drugs to American young people?

2. Did rock music help introduce sexual promiscuity to American young people?

3. Did rock music help introduce Eastern religion to American young people? (7)

The answer to all of these questions is a resounding “yes,” and the influence of this music has been deepening and growing even bolder amidst a society that has become in undated with this swill going on three generations. This effect to turn youth into “… devil worshippers, to stimulate self expression through sex, to provoke lawlessness, impair nervous stability, and destroy the sanctity of marriage” (8)  has now become so embedded within modern culture that the physical, mental, and spiritual health of the younger generation has become severely compromised … not forgetting the effects of Iphones, economics, ease of travel, and other factors. Together, these negative influences on families and individuals can be documented in many ways, such as the following.

• 25% of parents in the U.S. are not married. There are 51 million households headed by unmarried Americans, or about 44% of all house- holds; this number continues to More than 50% of Americans cohabited before marriage. (9)
• 40% of all births are to unmarried mothers, a number that is growing. (10)
• Cohabitation before marriage results in … (11)

… greater stress than in marriage.

… only a 50% chance of ever getting married.

… a greater chance for divorce in the first five years of cohabitation.

… a five-times greater rate of separation.

… a greater chance for infidelity.

… a poor relationship quality: more violence and fighting, with less happiness.

… less income as they grow older.

… more drug abuse and depression.

• Effects of rock and heavy metal music on children’s lives are many and 12 “In 1989 the American Medical Association released a report which concluded that music is a greater influence in the life of a teenager than television. Those involved in the rock culture were more likely to be low achievers, involved in drugs, sexually active, and involved in satanic activities. A fascination with heavy metal music was an indicator of adolescent alienation and possible emotional health problems. A report by Free Congress [Research and Education Foundation] concludes that ‘heavy metal and rap music today contains an element of hatred and abuse of women of a degree never seen before.’ In addition to extraordinary sexism, the music contains equally offensive racism, blasphemy, and bigotry. Large numbers of disturbed adolescents with low self-worth draw inspiration from heavy metal music because it makes them feel powerful and in charge. Providing simple answers to complex problems, it gives them a source of authority for what they feel and do. Attitudes and behaviors reinforced by heavy metal music are aggressive rebellion, abuse of drugs and alcohol, graphic violence and suicide, fascination with the occult, and sexuality that is graphic and explicit.”

This hugely significant effect of rock, rap, heavy metal, and other modern music genres on the decline in people’s emotional and spiritual health, success in marriage, and ties to drug usage, academic success and preparation for a useful, abundant life points to the incredible power that music has on people. Remember, people are musical entities, designed to send and receive music. None of us can live without it, and we are indelibly affected by it.

With the knowledge that music in its various genres has such dramatic effects on the human body, the most logical question is, how can this be? How can a series of musical notes strung together in a certain way with a particular beat and intensity affect a person as it does? The answers have been long in coming, but they are becoming available … and they are indeed astounding! We must look at how these sound frequencies affect our genetic code.

One of the first scientists to speculate on the effect of music on the genetic code was Susumu Ohno, a geneticist from the Beckman Research Institute in Duarte, California, who developed a system of setting genes to music — or music to genes. He set the SARC oncogene,  a gene  causing cancer in both chickens and humans, to music and found it produced a sound much like Chopin’s Funeral March. On the other hand, a gene that produces phospho-glycerate kinase, an enzyme that breaks down glucose, revealed itself as a lullaby. (13)

Dr. Ohno believes that the structure of music parallels that of the genes, so by assigning notes on the musical scaleaccording to molecular weights he can develop patterns that produce melodies. Some musicians have carried this method further to de- velop literal symphonies based on our DNA. Stuart Mitchell has initiated The Human Genome MusicProject,14 which is “the pure and real-time translation of our human genome” into orchestral likenesses. He has concentrated on chromosomes 1 and 11 to date, which give quite different but beautiful, soothing melodies.

It has been learned that certain specific sound frequencies will influence DNA. For instance, 528 Hz will healdamaged DNA. This frequency has the ability to create what is termed “clustered water,” a particular ring configuration of water molecules which flow easily through cell membranes and enables more efficient removal of cell toxins; larger, aggregated bound water does not flow as easily through cell membranes. Clustered water hydrates DNA more effectively than bound water, since the hexagonal, crystal-shaped clusters prevent the DNA from failing energetically due to their support of the double-helix at a 528 Hz resonant frequency. If genes can be switched on and off due to specific sound frequencies, then it is quite certain that DNA can be affected by sound, and the ultimate activity of DNA, which is to generate enzymes which are the biological catalysts of living systems. (15)

Besides frequencies such as 528 Hz which heal DNA, some frequencies are known to damage it, or cause unnatural expressions of a multitude of genes. The adoption of A = 440 Hz as the international standard for tuning, rather than A = 432 Hz, which was the musical standard for centuries, is one example of how mankind has corrupted the God- given frequencies that maximize life and vitality. The British Standards Institute in 1939 adopted the A = 440 Hz standard, which was promoted by certain NAZI scientists in the 1930s to encourage a more aggressive behavior of the populace.By contrast, the A = 432 Hz standard, which is intrinsic with the creation, is soothing and “bio-friendly,” and is considered energy-enhancing and healing. Interestingly, the sun’s diameter is 864,000 miles (432 x 2 x 1,000), the moon’s diameteris 2,160 miles (432 x 5) and the precession of the earth’s equinoxes is 25,920 years (432 x 60). Note that English miles are used in these calculations, not kilometers as used in the Metric System.

Ernst Chladni, the god father of cymatics and leading acoustician in Beethoven’s time, stated in his textbook that the note C is defined as 256/512 hz; the A above this C is 432 Hz. We see that 432 squared equals 186,624, which is nearly identical to the speed of light in miles per second. Thus, A = 432 Hz harmonizes with light that enters our eyes and affects an incredible number of physiological processes throughout the creation. On the contrary, A = 440 Hz tuning produces discordant or agitating effects on our DNA due to its sound-light translation mechanism.

In the late 1980s, biologist David Deamer and composer Susan Alexjander sought to determine the frequencies of our DNA bases adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T) using infrared absorption spectrophotometry. The frequencies were then arranged into musical compositions through a synthesizer using certain conversiontechniques. They discovered that each of the DNA bases possesses a specific frequency: 545.6 Hz, 550.0 Hz, 543.4 Hz, and 547.8 Hz for A, G, C, and T, respectively, the average being 544.2 Hz. The bio-friendly A = 432 Hz isthus shown to be virtually identical to the C = 544.2 Hz of our DNA in the “cosmic key- board,” as it were!

These frequencies are used by practitioners of sound therapy, wherein a sound frequency is presented to the body, and healing is initiated as a result … even if the exact octave is not reached, since harmonics will cause the correct frequency to be presented to the DNA. (16)

“The law of harmonic resonance means that you will immediately affect light/matter on many octaves of the same note simultaneously. Because sound (vibration) organizes light/matter into form, it is potentially the mostpotent tool in a healer’s arsenal. Sound does strange and exotic things other tools cannot. ‘Junk’ DNA, for example, responds to sound; codons can be turned on and off using acoustic vibrations, and our cell membranes have antennae that detect sound vibrations and can pass these into the cellular matrix.”

These “primary cilium” on cell membranes are antennae that read vibrational energy fields and act like tiny tuning forks. If a frequency from music, for instance, energizes the cilia, then the message of that frequency or rhythm is transmitted through the cell membrane and into the cell, affecting enzymes and the DNA code itself! (17)

The guitarist Brandon Murphy made the observation that “At A = 444 I can feel the resonance almost on a cellular level — the vibrations go right through me, and the guitar feels almost like a part of me. The tone is beautiful and bright, highly resonant. This is not the case when I use 440 Hz (standard Western tuning).” (18)

Furthering the knowledge that music directly affects cellular DNA, a study of human blood components as affected by classical music was conducted at the University of Helsinki, and published in 2015. While acknowledging that scientists have long known that listening to classical and certain other types of music reduces blood pressure, increases dopamine release, and improves muscle function — clearly improving brain function — reasons for these changes at the molecular level were not understood, so these scientists selected two groups of people, one that was experienced with classical and the other that was not. They took blood samples before and after listening to Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major and analyzed for specific genetic markers. The results were quite astounding!

“In musically experienced participants, we observed the differential expression of 45 genes (27 up- and 18 down-regulated) and 97 genes (76 up- and 22 down-regulated) respectively based on sub phenotype comparisons. Gene ontological overrepresentation analysis revealed that the up regulated genes are primarily known to be involved in the secretion and transport of dopamine, neuron projection, protein sumoylation, long-term potentiation, and dephospho rylation. Down-regulated genes are known to be involved in ATP synthase-coupled proton transport, cytolysis, and positive regulation of capsize, peptidase, and endopeptidase activities. One of the most up-regulated genes, alpha synuclein (SNCA), is located in the best linkage region of musical aptitude on chromosome 4q22.1 and is regulated by GATA2, which is known to be associated with musical aptitude. Several genes reported to regulate song perception and production in songbirds displayed altered activities ” (19)

Music does indeed directly affect a person’s DNA, triggering genes to generate beneficial components for the blood … and we know that “. the life is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11; Deuteronomy 12:23). At least these benefits to the blood apply to classical music and similar types. For the experienced listener, the blood showed increased expression of the glucocorticoid receptor, which regulates stress, depression, and addictive behaviors, and it also inhibited dopamine reuptake, which meant the brain retained higher levels in its reward center. As one of the study authors explained, “Listening to classical music enhanced the activity of genes that are mainly related to reward and pleasure, cognitive functions, and proper brain functions.” (20)

It would be most interesting to study the effect on the blood of rock, rap, and heavy metal music. Would it not beplausible to expect an increase in the levels of components that intensify stress, depression, and anti-social behavior due to reduced dopamine concentrations?

A recent study performed at the Simmons Foundation revealed that DNA flows inside acell’s nucleus in a “choreographed line dance,” explaining how nucleic acids move within cells. This movement likely plays a role in gene expression and replication. 21 The chromosomes with their genes are anything but static, and coupled with the knowledge that cells are covered by frequency-sensing cilia, the interaction of the DNA on genes with music gives rise to the vision of our very cells dancing within themselves to the beat of our favorite tunes!

God’s Revelations On Music

The Right Type of Music

Cultivate Right Music

Bibliography