It is believed since long that Indian ragas can bring rain and light lamps, but they can cure cancer and brain injury too!
Although the age-long beliefs are usually taken with a pinch of salt, the recent claims are backed with scientific evidence, gathered by a team of medical practitioners and scientists through an experiment conducted among brain injury patients at RIMS.
Soubhik Chakraborty, a member of this team, emphasised on the therapeutic values of Indian classical music while delivering a talk on the topic ‘Music for Healing’ on Sunday. A Professor of statistics by profession at Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra and a harmonium player, he provided statistical opinion and views about issues related to music.
“Any music we like hear may not have healing effect on the body. Songs today are rich in rhythm but poor in melody. These rhythm-rich songs when heard at high volumes tend to excite the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and harm the body,” said Chakraborty.
Complications arising due to a provoked SNS include rise in blood pressure and cardiac problems, Chakraborty explains. “Rather than listening to what you like, find songs which are good for your body, he said. Reason behind choosing ragas was their melodious attributes which soothe the SNS,” he added.
“We formed a control group and a case group; each had strength of 30 patients who had sustained brain injuries. The former group was given only medication whereas the latter were also subjected to music medicine. People in case group showed considerably swift recovery with six months,” said Chakroborty.
The reason behind targeting brain injury was that it affects the Central Nervous System, like music, he further said, if one damages it, then the other must heal it.
Despite the success, Chakraborty feels there is a lot to be done in promoting the music as a medicine. “Our work falls under music medicine as we did not manipulate the tracks we had. For this we need a music lab with a professional music expert who can alter musical notes for differing effects which can be recorded. Then it would become music therapy,” he said.
Continuing further, he said, “Our next venture will be to extend music medicine to other maladies like migraine, diabetes, cancer, psychiatric problems and pregnancy related complications. We are interacting with leading institutions like Central Institute of Psychiatry and Ranchi Institute of Neuro Psychiatry and Allied Sciences to collaborate in our future plans.”