A study of brain scans of people listening to music reveals similar patterns.
Science never sleeps; myriads of studies are being conducted daily, and many are based on brain scans to find out everything that is happening in that computer upstairs.
It is no secret that down the ages people of all cultures have danced to music, sang to music, enjoyed the group experience; it made everybody happy. Anybody who ever participated in Sufi dance or music group at the ashram can recall the experience of utter bliss and ecstasy in an instant.
In a very recent study, brain scans were made of people listening to the same music, and it has been found that they all show similar patterns of brain activity, in those regions of the brain wired for motor planning, but also attention and memory.
Most importantly, one of the major conclusions published in LiveScience is that music may really be a universal language. Neuroscientist and researcher Daniel Abrams of Stanford University said that the findings may help explain why music is such a powerful group experience. Having the same brain response to music may facilitate collective activities. He said, “Evolutionarily, music is something people came together to do. People chanted when they worked together. It was to bring us together for rituals, and to some degree, that still happens when we go to concerts or a club… Over the course of human evolution, music has been traditionally used in conjunction with synchronized movement and dance.”
Osho emphatically states that sound is the cosmic language:
[…] music is pure creativity. Words have limitations; sounds have none. Words belong to particular languages – sound is universal. Even trees are affected by music, birds are affected, animals are affected. Sound is the cosmic language. If any prayer can reach to God, it can reach only through music, not through words. Or even if it reaches through words, it will reach not through the words in themselves but through the music that surrounds those words.
Osho, Snap Your Fingers, Slap Your Face and Wake Up!, Ch 17
YouTube uploads of Flashmob operas and concerts prove the power of music – if it needs any proof, that is. We see people milling about in a market place, sitting at a café, when suddenly performers pop up among them and belt out the most beautiful arias – people stop in their tracks, eyes wide open, the music stirs something in their hearts, some have tears in their eyes, others laugh, many join in singing – and become one in the experience…
Bhagawati, Osho News
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