My desire to use music in conflict resolution is undaunted and, in fact, increases daily. (Scroll through these older posts for more about music and conflict.) My eyes and ears are always watching and listening for how music can affect disputes. Most recently I read the book The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do Without It, and was once again inspired to find a way to include music in mediation.
Read this excerpt from the book and see if it does not resonate with your deepest affection for music.
Unlike language, say, music has no dedicated mental circuitry localised in one or a few particular areas: it is a “whole brain” phenomenon. On the one hand this makes it immensely challenging to understand what is going on. On the other hand, it shows why music is so fundamentally important: no other stimulus comparably engages all aspects of our mental apparatus, and compels them to speak with one another: left to right hemisphere, logic to emotion. ... It is quite simply a gymnasium for the mind.
I agree with the book's author Philip Ball that it may be no coincidence that words that describe how we get along with each other come from music: harmony and dissonance.
We are deeply musical beings. In some cultures, if you were to say you were not musical, it would be akin to saying you were not alive.
[M]usic is too deeply embedded in our cultures to be extracted. It is [also] too deeply embedded in our brains. ... Music is a part of what we are and how we perceive the world.
Why would we want to deny conflict resolution such an intrinsic key to our selves and our cultures? Is it because we are not yet quite sure how to use music in these situations? If so, I firmly believe we need to solve that puzzle, and soon. This is a new century and, as I have been saying (probably sounding like a broken record to many), we need to move beyond, and to leap out of, twentieth century mindsets and models and methods.
If we needed proof that music has a profound influence on our minds and brains, neuroscience is delivering the evidence. Let's find out how to most effectively use this tool with our clients. Who wants to join me?
Comments