The Mozart Effect

Don Campbell is a pioneer in the field of therapeutic sound and the uses of music on learning and health. This is the author's story of how he cured himself of brain cancer with the music of Mozart. What is this magical medium that moves, enchants, infuriates, and heals us? Music almost defies description. It is a flexible power that brings different memories and images and invokes different feelings and emotions. Music brings us to a place of fear or anticipation within minutes of watching a movie; it takes our mind off traffic noise in seconds; it sets a quiet, spacious mood in an evening of romance. Music can dance and sing our blues away. It brings back the memory of a lost lover or a deceased friend. It allows the child in us to play, the monk in us to pray, the cowgirl in us to line-dance, the hero in us to surmount all difficulties. We have seen it help the stroke patient to find language and expression. We have witnessed the person with a fear of public speaking dissolve anxiety and tension.