More Evidence from the World of Scientific Research
For a quarter of a century researchers have been monitoring how the brain reacts to certain stimuli and how it processes the information received. They have discovered that the brain starts to build up a stubborn wall against an overload of information and stimuli of a sensational nature.

They have noticed that the construction of this inner wall is initiated more quickly than any other evolutionary change that has occurred in humans. The necessity of the brain utilizing this defense mechanism is as a direct result of the information overload that people, especially those of the past fifty years, have been exposed to. It would appear that as a result of modern 20th century humanity’s exposure to an ever-increasing amount of dramatic, violent, and sensational information, the brain has had to resort to protecting itself.

About 20 years ago, the first signs started to surface that something unique was happening inside the brain. Researchers discovered a strange phenomenon when they were studying the processing of stimuli and emotions of people in Germany.

Four thousand people took part in a biological experiment that took place over a couple of years. After the experiment it was clearly noted that the participants could not smell and taste as before.

“In the department of smell and taste there was an extreme change,” remembers psychologist, Henner Ertel, from Munich. “The brain had developed a stimuli acceptance limit, under which it refused to process any new stimulant”ⁱ

Before, any stimuli were accepted without hesitation, but after these intensive experiments the picture began to change dramatically. It was noticed that our sensitivity to stimuli reduces itself yearly by about 1%. The finer stimuli are filtered out of our consciousness with the result that more space is left for the receiving and accepting of the coarser sensations known as the “very strong stimuli.” With each generation we have been losing the ability to process and accept the more sensitive and finer kinds of stimuli.

When parents of the 1980s and 1990s were shown videos in which people are cut to pieces in front of the camera, they reacted sympathetically and disgustedly. Most of them refused to even see it through right to the end.

But in the case of the younger generation the same reaction was not found. They watched emotionless and were more interested in seeing the dramatics and whether the contents of the film were exciting. If it was, then they continued watching, if not, then they would switch the movie off.

The Committee of Rational Psychology, who conducted this study, discovered a type of generation gap that was manifest between the groups. Whoever was born before 1949 apparently still has the “old brain.” Whoever was born between 1949 and 1969 has a modified version of the “old brain.” Those born after 1969 possess the “new brain.”

The “new brain,” unlike the old brain,” can react in a state of dissonance-readiness. By the term dissonance we understand that there is a disturbance in a normally harmonious process.

“The youth,” says Henner Ertel, “have grown up with contradictions and can handle them.”
In the past one would have called this ability “multiple-consciousness.” Today it is considered normal.ⁱⁱ

All this points to a rising society whose minds are becoming more and more resistant to the bizarre, violent, and sensational messages they are being bombarded with every day. The sad thing is that their minds are becoming less and less sensitive to the simpler and purer messages that they are being sent. It is believed that by some time next century the ability of the mind to successfully differentiate between right and wrong will become all but non-existent.

What would the reaction have been in 1956 if a band like Guns N’ Roses were unleashed on the public, instead of Elvis Presley? Of course the reaction to Elvis and his contemporaries was very strong back in the 50s anyway. But, if it had been something of the likes of Guns N’ Roses, you could be sure that even the rebels would not have known what to do.

Today Elvis is, quite literally, kindergarten music. Not to mention the aspect of semi or total porn used in advertising today. If you were driving down the road in the 1950s and saw a billboard displaying a naked or half-naked woman selling car batteries (obviously, the connection between batteries and naked woman does not seem to escape the manufacturer or advertising agency), there would have been an immediate outcry. Now, in the “enlightened” 21st Century, the use of pornographic images in advertising is common practice and, in most cases, even recommended.

Things that would have shocked people 30, 40, or 50 years ago, today have no effect. That which was right has become wrong and that which is wrong has become right. A total switch in values has occurred. These things have resulted in the break up of the family unit and the disintegration of the “church family” as well.

What do we do to fix the problem? We often do exactly what we should not do: follow the standard that the world has set.

Satan has not been asleep in the 20th century. He has, especially in this age of the information explosion and modern technology, made expert use of the devices available to him. If there were one thing that he desires more than anything else, then it would be to debase people’s consciousness to the point where they cannot successfully differentiate between right and wrong. One cannot underestimate the role of music as a device for the desensitizing and conditioning of modern society. There is nothing new in the concept that music has the power to adjust and channel the collective mind-set of massive groups of people.

How can we expect generations of people, affected by music and media, with minds that have lost the capacity to clearly distinguish right from wrong, to make rational, sane decisions about method of outreach and content of music in worship? Humanly speaking, we cannot.

Our safe guide will not be our feelings or personal preferences. Our guide must be the light that God has given us in the principles of His Word and in His prophetic testimony for His end-time people. Combined with this, we need the guidance of the Holy Spirit, living and dwelling in us individually and collectively.

Any other route we take will be on the road to salvation by our own works, a salvation obtained through human wisdom, which is blind to the things of the Spirit of God. Only when we allow God to strike the equilibrium in our lives will we once again be worshiping Him in the Spirit and truth.

Music as Treatment

Music has been used as a symptomatic treatment and attempted long term healing device in the area of mentally handicapped and schizophrenic patients. Neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks describes a patient of his, suffering from recurrent crisis characterized by intense excitement and uncontrollable movement, under treatment:

By far the best treatment of her crisis was music, the effects of which were almost uncanny. One minute would see Miss D. compressed, clenched and blocked, or jerking, ticking and jabbering, a sort of human bomb; the next, with the sound of music from a wireless or gramophone, the complete disappearance of all these obstructive, explosive phenomena and their replacement by a blissful ease and flow of movement as Miss D. suddenly freed of her automatisms, smilingly ‘conducted’ the music, or rose and danced to it.ⁱⁱⁱ

Jonathan Goldman, in his book Healing Sounds, refers to research done by Dr. Diamond with regards to the strengthening or weakening effect of music as a healing device:


Dr. Diamond spent many years demonstrating that not only would certain substances make us strong or weak, but that music could do the same thing.^iv

The question of whether music has or does not have the ability to influence, in the way which we have thus far observed, has not just been a study that falls within the parameters of some scientific researchers, neurologists, and ancient philosophers. If this had been the case then one may be tempted to write it off as simply the theoretical concoctions of over-zealous and prejudiced minds bent on turning the facts to suit their own particular bias.

My contention is that when searching for truth it is best to question those who have had experiential knowledge in a particular field. When studying music, lets ask those who have not just seen through observation, but have experienced, in this case music, as creators, performers, and philosophers.

You will discover, when searching for this valuable information, that musicians from all genres will testify to the amazing power of this intangible, powerful, expressive medium we call music.

Jimi Hendrix, the guitar hero who wrote that hit song “Voodoo Child” reveals the strength of music as a medium for setting spiritual atmosphere and indoctrinating minds:

We’re making our music into electric church music-a new kind of Bible, not like in a hotel, but a Bible you carry in your hearts, one that will give you a physical feeling. We try to make our music so loose and hard-hitting so that it hits your soul hard enough to make it open. It’s like shock therapy or a can opener. Rock is technically blues-based…We want them to realize that our music is just as spiritual as going to church.^v

And if this seems to be the drug-induced opinion of some psychedelic rock star, then we would do well to listen to the words of one of the classical greats clearly making the spiritual connection with music. Consider the words of Claude Levi Strauss:

Since music is the only language with the contradictory attributes of being at once intelligible and untranslatable, the musical creator is a being comparable to the gods, and music itself the supreme mystery of the science of man.^vi

The spiritual implications of these statements are more than clear. And it is only when one has experienced music, not merely as a casual listener, that you can appreciate the incredible depth of influence that can be accomplished through the use of this powerful yet subtle form. I would stop short of comparing the musician to “a being comparable to the gods,” but I would most definitely stress that anyone who doubts the persuasive influence of music is doing so purely from the point of ignorance, or stubbornness.

If you have ever spent some time in the privacy of your own room and in the not so restrictive confines of your mind, listening intently to your favorite music and letting the atmosphere of the sound take you on a journey of your own imagining, then you will know, first hand, the liquid force of music’s subtly transforming power.

In my own experience, as a listener, composer, performer, and critical observer, I have witnessed how music can take a hold of and literally transform the mood of those exposed to its influence. I have had the opportunity of experimenting with various modes of music while performing and have witnessed the effect that it produces on its listeners. I have performed in front of various people in different countries and diverse cultures and have seen the same musically-induced response manifest in those who are listening to the many varied atmospheres in sound that are being offered to them.         
         

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i PM (November 1993): 14-20.
ii Ibid.
iii Oliver Sacks, Awakenings, revised edition (London: Pan, 1981).

iv Jonathan Goldman, Healing sounds (Healing Arts Press, 2002):18.

v David Henderson, ‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky (Bantam Books, 1978): 9-10.

vi Oliver Sacks, Awakenings, revised edition (London: Pan, 1981): 56-57.