What the Ancients Knew About the Healing Properties of Music [1]

The healing properties of music were well known to the peoples of the past and they made considerable use of it. Among primitive peoples songs and musical instruments such as the drum and the rattle were used not only in order to increase the effect of herbs or drugs, but also as independent means of healing. Such practices have persisted until the present among American Indians. Paul Radin, in his essay on “Music and Medicine Among Primitive Peoples,” reports that “among the Ojibwa, for example, the so-alled jessakid practitioners are supposed to function simply by sitting near the patient and singing songs to the accompaniment of their gourd rattles…