Can music really heal the physical body? Leading scientific research says yes. Studies on the healing powers of music are documented in books like The Power of Music (by NY Times best-selling author Elena Mannes) and The Healing Power of Sound (by oncologist Mitchell Gaynor MD), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently launched three new studies on the healing powers of music. Quite simply, whether singing lullabies or sacred chants, mothers and religious leaders have known for millennia what scientists are only beginning to understand: Singing has the extraordinary power to uplift, transport, and heal us, as well as to connect us to the Divine. This shift in consciousness is why, after hearing a particular song, our mood may change abruptly, or we suddenly may feel transported back in time. Singing bypasses out mental process, both awakening and soothing us at the core, without effort. Among other benefits, we are able to access, release, and heal from the experience of trauma, without having to recount and risk getting triggered by painful memories. Below is information about and links to relevant data. In addition, top integrative medicine doctors in Loolwa Khazzoom’s network are available for expert commentary.

I wrote this personal statement for the Lloyd Symington Foundation, as part of my application for a grant for my band, Iraqis in Pajamas, to produce the song, “Cancer Is My Engine.” It puts my Cancer Healing Adventure in the context of a lifetime of choices I made in how to approach trauma and healing.

My passion for self-healing and the mind-body connection began at a very young age, decades before the thyroid cancer diagnosis that rocked my world in 2010. My natural interest was nurtured by my flute teacher, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where I studied in the preparatory department, from ages 11-17. Her own teaching lineage descended from monks who discovered that when they prayed in different positions, the quality and timbre of their sound changed. Over the generations, their discovery evolved into a comprehensive approach to music performance that had three essential components: rooting in and emanating all music from the center of one’s brain; “singing” from different body parts, to create sounds ranging from soft and soothing to powerful and raging; and expanding the small of one’s back, to instantaneously receive deep breath, then invite it to fill and spread throughout the body, carrying […]