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MUSIC IS HEALINGOur listening process starts with hearing. Beginning at the sixteenth week after conception and continuing until our death, hearing is a constant physical phenomenon. Sound waves are captured by the outer ear (known as the pinna), and travel down the auditory canal, through the eardrum and into the middle ear. There, the vibration of tiny bones called ossicles intensifies sound, and the amplified sound then travels to the inner ear through a maze of fluid-filled tubes, running through the temporal bone of the skull. Eventually the vibrations of sound reach the cochlea (a coiled chamber), which is lined with four rows of tiny hair-like acoustic sensor cells containing neurons. Each neuron is programmed to pick up a different frequency and the sound meets with the neuron that matches its own frequency. The cochlea then converts the vibrational energy to electrical impulses that travel to the brain, and from there, travel to the brain stem. This energy at the brain stem activates the limbic system. It is here that emotional and physical reactions are produced. Sound energy then moves on to the auditory cortex of the brain where we become conscious of the sound and can recognize what we are hearing. As your brain comprehends the sounds or in this case the music, the electrical energy released by the neurons creates various frequencies of brain waves. The brain waves that are created (beta, alpha, theta, and delta) determine what “state of mind” you are in. Beta waves are most prevalent during focused and active thinking, alpha waves during relaxation and quiet creativity, theta waves during meditation and pre-sleep, and delta waves during our various stages of sleep (both dreaming and dreamless.)Once through your brain, music in the form of electrical impulses make their way down your spinal cord causing an impact on the autonomic nervous system. This, in turn, can impact heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, and muscle tension. As an example, listening to the heavy metal will increase autonomic nervous system activity driving the heart rate and blood pressure up, whereas listening to "spirithouse" will slow down the brainwaves and in turn lower blood pressure and hear rate.