Does Music Induce Trance?
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Have you ever felt pumped up while listening to your favorite rock anthem? Or felt goosebumps after listening to a track from your pop idol? If yes, then the power of music has been cast upon you.
Music influences how the brain works. With the progress of neuroscience, researchers have been able to measure how music affects the brain. Neuromusicology, a new branch of research, reveals that music therapy can help reduce pain and brain and memory injuries as well as relieve stress.
As Madonna famously said in one of her hit songs, "Music makes the people come together." It is a form of camaraderie, bonding, and socialization. However, music has many documented psychological benefits, too, including sound healing.
Through words, music, and guided imagery, songs can help individuals lower stress levels, enhance their mood, or develop positive emotions. In Dex Experience's latest release, "Don't Underestimate Me," the lyrics allow for self-reflection and exploration of themes such as personal growth, consciousness, and individual transformation. It tells of an individual imprisoned by society's debased standards, who finally realizes that the way to personal freedom is to embrace one's own perfection.
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What is trance?
A trance is a type of altered consciousness, usually indicating decreased awareness and heightened suggestibility. Derived from the French word trance, trance is popularly associated with hypnosis, magic, and trance meditation.
Several forms of trance states exist, including one where an individual appears to be in a deep sleep, under an enchantment, experiencing an out-of-body experience, under the influence of hypnosis, or looking to be unconscious.
If a person is in a state of trance, his/her awareness is markedly decreased. He/she may be unable to open his/her eyes or walk or notice the sounds around her, keeping the individual singularly focused on one experience or feeling. Medical and scientific studies have published the benefits of trance, including its healing properties. In history, many healing and religious rituals and traditions employ trance.
How does music induce trance?
Psychoacoustics is a study of the perception of sound and the ways it affects the mind, emotion, and body of the individual. Studies show that some types of relaxation music that are powerful than others. Some sounds are particularly hypnotic. There are also some types of music like those with binaural beats that can actually induce certain types of relaxation as it alters the frequency of the brainwave activity.
Those repetitive musical sounds, tonally pleasing, and played at a slow tempo are wonderfully relaxing. In traditional music, it is referred to as an ostinato, comprised of a series of repeating notes or of a single discrete sound.
Isochronic tones, a tone that is being turned on and off rapidly, are a simple but effective way to induce various states of relaxation and meditation. In essence, these tones are simply a repetitive pulsing sound that boosts the frequency of your brainwaves to synchronize with the spectrum of the isochronic sounds.
When you listen to music, the brainwaves in your brain moves from the high-beta of ordinary waking consciousness down into alpha and theta ranges, the meditative (trance-inducing field). However, stress hormones like cortisol and norepinephrine have a tendency to decrease. They are replaced by chemicals like endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, and an oxytocin increase.
All the different states of mind, mood, emotion, dreams that human beings experience is trance conditions. When in a state of trance, you usually lose track of time and just let all inhibitions flow. Trance music is said to increase productivity since the upbeat and almost hypnotic beats make the person forget time and exhaustion, allowing them to go on and on with numerous tasks. Listening to music can alter your brainwaves that bring you into a state of deep relaxation and focus, elevating you to a trance state.