Healing Music

Music can be used as a tool for focusing and fusing our minds and our bodies, making it a perfect medium to aid in healing. While this contravenes the "just give 'em a pill" variant of Western medicine, music has long been part of therapy in Asian and Native American cultures. Yu-Xiao Guang's "Silk Road," with its airy arrangement and subtle progression, is an ideal example of songs guaranteed to deliver you to a better space.

It isn't absolutely necessary to be beat-free when making this healing music, as evidenced by Ginkgo Garden's "A Mystic Day In Mandalay." Nor does it necessarily have to be Asian-influenced, as heard in British composer John Tavener's "The Protecting Veil." Whether on solo guitar — Keola Beamer's "Kaulana Na Pua" — or solo piano — George Winston's "Rainsong (Fortune's Lullaby)" — these songs share a life-affirming essence.

Lama Gyurme's "Offering Chant" probably conforms to what you might expect in healing music, with its Buddhist-meets-Gregorian vibe, but the decidedly contemporary Philip Aaberg's "Montana Half-Light" does the trick every bit as well. It's all about what resonates with you, dear listener. Justin K. Knight's "In Tune" is pretty far removed, musically speaking, from Chöying Drolma and Steve Tibbetts' "Song of Realization," but they're both paths to the same destination.

A good portion of being well is tied into being aware of what our bodies are telling us. Sometimes, to quiet the frantic background chatter that afflicts our everyday lives, we can chant, or meditate, or listen to music that will help to calm the troubled waters. In large part, the New Age movement was started to bring into harmony the several spheres that we inhabit — then that lofty goal was overtaken by hucksters and hangers-on, sullying the New Age label, if not the concept. Nonetheless, committed practitioners of whole body-music therapy persist, and other music not specifically targeted for healing can be used in its aid. Even if you're skeptical of the aims, this is great chill-out music.