Imagine a world without music. In the documented history of humanity, humans have never been without music. Music is interwoven into every aspect of our lives. We hear it as an anthem for our country, as background music in a store or restaurant, and as a form of worship in religious ceremonies.

Music is an avenue to the soul. Music reaches our inner most being triggering an emotional eruption. Music can penetrate the strongest of people. Countless times we have all witnessed the strongest of athletes cry at National Anthems at Olympic medal ceremonies. The music serves as an avenue of catharsis for their struggle and triumph.

Much of what we have learned about the impact of music and lyrics has been studied and discovered through the positive psychology movement originated by the American Psychologist, Martin Seligman. The focus of positive psychology since it’s emergence in 1998 has been to empirically measure well-being in individuals. Positive psychology provides research and insight into character strengths, positive emotions, meaning, purpose, grit, engagement and resilience. In 2002, Seligman proposed five specific elements of positive psychology: Wellbeing; Positive Emotions; Engagement; Positive Relationships; Enhanced Meaning and Achievement. We can experience these five elements expressed in the arts.

The humanities have played a role in health and science for several decades. Science and music have long been studied together in music therapy in both qualitative and quantitative studies. Fields such as art therapy, music therapy, and narrative medicine have all contributed to relieving, and in some cases healing, mental and physical illness. The social, mental and physical effects of music have been documented as early as 4000 B.C.

Modern research has identified numerous positive effects of music. A 2013 article written by Scott Christ identifies 20 surprising science-based benefits of music:

1. Eases pain.

2. Motivates people to bike harder.

3. Improves running motivation and performance.

4. Increases workout endurance.

5. Speeds up post workout recovery.

6. Improves sleep quality.

7. Helps people eat less.

8. Enhances blood vessel functioning.

9. Reduced stress.

10. Induces a meditative state.

11. Relieves symptoms of depression.

12. Elevates mood.

13. Improves cognitive performance.

14. Helps people perform better in high-pressure situations.

15. Reduces anxiety as much as a massage.

16. Relaxes patients before surgery.

17. Eases stress after surgery.

18. Elevates mood while driving.

19. Helps cancer patients manage stress and anxiety.

20. Eases recovery in stroke patients.

Music and emotions: Music has the power to both express and arouse emotions. Victor Hugo, a French poet and author in the 18th century, and author of the famous Les Miserables wrote, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent.”

Music's ability to influence emotions has been well studied. The field of psychology has long postulated that positive emotions contribute significantly to the sense of subjective well-being. There is ten most commonly experienced positive emotions that have been the target of scientific research: joy, gratefulness, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, and love.

Musical tone has the power to manipulate our emotional experience. It has been documented that minor keys and slow tempos tend to express and evoke sadness or a sense of dissonance, while major keys and fast tempos tend to express and evoke happiness. For years, social psychologists have studied the impact of music on shopping, eating, and its impact on medical procedures. Social psychologists have also identified the impact of the rhythm, timbre and loudness of music upon human behavior. Think of the excitement created in a baseball arena when the team’s theme song begins to play and thousands of people jump to their feet and begin singing the same song. There is a sense of unity, purpose, strength and undeniable energy. Social psychologists have proven the loudness of the music also adds to the overall experience and expression of the music. Loudness adds the intensity in which the song is experienced.

We know that not all individuals have the same reactions to music. However, many listeners do have a similar response to the same piece of music. This indicates both an objective component to the emotional expressiveness of music and a subjective experience. Various pieces of music can hold specific meaning to us and can tightly be connected to memories that evoke specific emotions. One might hear a song that was performed at a close friend’s funeral and be flooded with an emergence of the past emotional experience.

At times, music itself is moving and can evoke emotions. However, much of today’s music involves a combination of music and lyrics that exponentially impact emotions. Lyrical words add something powerful to the music of a song.

Alonso, 2012, stated “Words make you think…….music makes you feel….but a song makes you feel thoughts.” Music and lyrics combine the cognitive and emotional content of a song and work in conjunction in a synergistic culmination to create one experience. Smith (2012) writes that “singing engages parts of our brain (particularly in the right hemisphere) that speaking alone does not.” Creative and artistic abilities are housed in the right hemisphere, while the language centers are located in the left-brain hemisphere. This is why singing is a unique activity not only for expressing and conveying emotion, but also for processing the emotional dimensions of cognitive thought. Music set to lyrics engage both hemispheres of the brain combining the experience of music, words and emotions.

Lyrics, set to music, have been an effective way to communicate to the masses for centuries. Levitin in 2006 wrote, “over time, we know music and lyrics have been a part of every society.” It is also a well-studied fact that the human voice has the capacity to convey emotion in a range of different ways through changes in pitch, contour, and volume. Even if a person cannot understand the exact words that are being spoken, a listener can intuitively determine the emotional expression of the music and lyrics. Consider the fact that hundreds of people flock to the opera for an emotional dramatic encounter, all the while, never understanding the words in Italian being sung by the performing artist.

Surprisingly, whether lyrics are sad or pleasant, they contribute to overall well-being. The lyrics of a song helps the listener to feel understood by an artist. There are definite times and places in history for songs that speak to the pain and suffering of the human condition. The ability of music and lyrics to assist humans in expressing their pain and suffering is a major contributor to overall emotional health. The health expression of negative emotion is powerful in creating a build up of psychic and emotional tension that once released can assist in bring homeostasis back to an individual’s sense of well-being. We see this dating back to even Bible days where King David expressed lamenting emotions through numerous chapters in the book of Psalms. David sang and played his songs of lament to sooth his soul and to communicate with God.

A study by Bharucha et al, (2006) found that people listen to music to have an emotional experience based on the emotions they get from the music. While this might seem obvious, people “listen to the sad song to feel sad” or “listen to the happy song to feel happy” it’s important to note that music has the capacity to influence our emotions in an active and passive manner. Music manipulates mood without the listener’s consent. MacDonald et al., (2012) reported the act of selecting a song uses a number of psychological assessments; we subconsciously know that the musical scores we play can change the environment and the emotional states of those who hear them. Even for the author, songwriting itself has a healing impact and can serve as a healing property for the hardship of human experience and provides an avenue of emotional expression.

Music and lyrics can have a negative impact. Teenagers are some of the biggest consumers of music. Laurence Steinberg’s (2014) research on adolescent’s reports that the plasticity in the brain is at prime time for learning, soaking in every bit of the environment. Plasticity refers to the brains ability to adapt, build new neural pathways, and accommodate and assimilate new information. Teenagers are at the second most impressionable age, almost as impressionable as they are during the first two years of life when the brain is exponentially gaining in size and mass. However, the message of popular music in the rap and hip-hop arena seems to have a message that damages self-image, encourages toxic behavior, denigrates women and other groups of people, and has a strong message that what one has is not good enough. However, we hear this music blasted by teenagers in their vehicles, in locker rooms, social gatherings and over various sources of media. For example, the 2013 song “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thick and Pharrell Willimas gives the direct impression to men and women that “no” doesn’t actually mean no, it really means “come and get it” which complicates an already complicated issue of rape and sexual assault.

A statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on communications expressed concerns about the negative impact of lyrics (defined as the Impact of music, music lyrics, and music videos on children and youth, 1996). Studies have shown an increase of lyrics with an emphasis on sex, drugs, and violence. The music industry has glamorized drugs and violence that has the potential to influence young minds in their decision making to engage in such behaviors.

Consider a newer pop culture song by Ed Sherran entitled, The Shape of you.

A portion of the lyrics reads:

The club isn't the best place to find a lover

So the bar is where I go,                                                   

Me and my friends at the table doing shots             

Drinking fast and then we talk slow.

It later states:

I'm in love with your body                                               

And last night you were in my room                             

And now my bedsheets smell like you

Additionally think about lyrics from some of the most popular known artists world-wide such as Adam Levine and Maroon 5 with their songs such as “Animal” and “One More Night” that depict a human’s sexual desires as something we lack the power to resist and just instinctually have to fall prey to. Is this a positive message for developing minds?

On the flip side, lyrics can have a positive impact and help us re-frame our thoughts and emotions. Think of songs such as “Firework” and “Roar” by Katie Perry, and Kool and The Gang’s “Celebrate Good Times, Come On.” The song “Shake it off” by Taylor Swift is actually an example of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. The song focuses on shaking off negative thoughts that drag you down. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy works to challenge a person’s thought processes, re-frame thinking and offers alternative, more healthy thinking patterns. Taylor Swift has incorporated these concepts through the avenue and song that can easily come to mind when we have a negative thought we need to “Shake off.” These songs have positive messages that have a positive impact on our experience, perceptions, and self-image.

If music and lyrics can have such a powerful impact on the thoughts and emotions of a human being, what happens when music and lyrics are combined with religious and spiritual meanings and are created as a form of worship that lifts not only the hearts of the listener, but reaches to the soul of the person? We will shortly examine the impactful role of spiritual songs and gospel music.

Impact of group singing: Group singing is an exhilarating and transformative experience. Group singing has an interesting impact on the mind and the body with both a calming effect, yet and energizing feeling at the same time. Researchers have reports that group singing is like an infusion of the perfect tranquilizer; it soothes the nerves and elevates the spirit. In 2007, The Harvard Health Letter reported that “whether in a barbershop quartet, an a cappella group, a gospel choir, or a community chorus, people who sing together often seem utterly happy and engaged.”

In an article written by Stacy Horn in 2013 in Time Magazine, she quotes information from her book Imperfect Harmony. She states, “The elation may come from endorphins, a hormone released by singing, which is associated with feelings of pleasure. Or it might be from oxytocin, another hormone released during singing, which has been found to alleviate anxiety and stress. Oxytocin also enhances feelings of trust and bonding, which may explain why still more studies have found that singing lessens feelings of depression and loneliness.” A very recent study even attempts to make the case that “music evolved as a tool of social living,” and that the pleasure that comes from singing together is our evolutionary reward for coming together cooperatively, instead of hiding alone, every cave-dweller for him or herself.

Good news for some people, research has also shows that you don't even have to be a good singer to reap the rewards of group singing. According to one 2005 study, group singing “can produce satisfying and therapeutic sensations even when the sound produced by the vocal instrument is of mediocre quality.”

The benefits of singing regularly seem to be cumulative. In another study, singers were found to have lower levels of cortisol, which is a stress related hormone in the body. This indicates that group singing lowers one’s overall experience of stress and decreased the body’s production of stress hormones. Other studies have suggested that when a group is singing together, their heart rates become synchronized. Singers have reported feeling that singing together can feel like a guided group meditation. Overall, scientists have researched the effects of group singing, and the results show benefits in mood, stress levels, and even the immune system. Study after study has found that singing relieves anxiety and contributes to quality of life.

In March of 2016, The Journal of Music reported findings from British Psychologist Nick Stewart where researchers compared Choral singers to solo singers and members of a sports team. The first finding was that choral singers and team sports players reported significantly higher levels of well-being than solo singers. The second finding was that choral singers appear to experience a greater sense of being part of a meaningful, or “real” group than even team sport players.

Dr. Julene K. Johnson, a researcher who has focused on older singers, recently began a five-year study to examine group singing as an affordable method to improve the health and well-being of older adults. Group singing has positive effects from childhood to the elderly.

Singing in a group encompasses several of the elements proposed by Positive Psychologist Martin Seligman. Singing in a group promotes engagement. Engagement is experienced as a connection to the music, lyrics and the act of working with others. If you are a singer or a musician, or even a choir member, think about how easy it is to enter into a state of flow in a rehearsal. It is easy to lose time and be lost in the moment being completely unaware of the passage of time. What feels like only a few moments can encompass an hour. Music can put us in a “zone” and “flow” where some people describe this as a state where the performer stops thinking about their performance and simply acts. It is during these moments where the artist is lost in the music that the greatest musical improvisations have occurred.

Engagement also indicates a strong connection to other people. Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government professor Robert Putnam states that, “singing in a choir is a way to build social capital which is the building of social networks, trust between individuals, an so on that makes people happier and probably healthier too.”

Group singing also promotes positive relationships. Group activity helps us have a sense that “other people matter.” A sense of community and oneness with others promotes the experience of relationship and contributes to our sense of well-being.

There is a natural drive with in a person to want to feel connected to something bigger than us in this world. The positive psychology element of meaning is characterized as a connection of the self to something larger and the idea that what you do in that context matters.

The positive psychology element of achievement is also realized as a part of group singing. It is exhilarating to perform and perform well, to function at your best, to push your limits to accomplish goals and to achieve.

I would like to propose that the elements of positive psychology are experienced at even a greater depth when group singing is being performed through the avenue of gospel music.

Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher, though he did not use the term existentialism. He proposed that each individual—not society or religion—is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely, or "authentically". Existentialism became popular in the years following World War II, and strongly influenced many disciplines besides philosophy, including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychology. Existentialism strives to understand the meaning and purpose in life. We are an amalgamation of our experience. In order to find meaning in life, one has to examine their life on multiple different levels. People are multidimensional: we are social, familial, relational, occupational, educational, and spiritual. Spirituality and how we Kit into the cosmos cannot be ignored when searching for an answer to the existential crisis.

Ancient history as recorded in the Bible depicts how spirituality, music and singing serve to create emotional expression at gatherings and celebrations to unite people. Ancient history depicts music to have helped win wars, celebrate triumphs, sooth men troubled by evil spirits and assist with the expression of grief and anguish. However, music is often used as a tool to joyfully celebrate. A few specific books of the Bible such as Leviticus and 1st and 2nd Chronicles even speak of choirs of people gathered to sing and make music. In the Old Testament, the children of Israel were encouraged and instructed to sing not only in their times of joy, but also in their times of grief. We can see that since this early time, music has been an avenue and effective tool in helping man express both positive and negative emotion.

The great Martin Luther, a well know spiritual leader, stated that singing is a “word ministry” and although not a substitute for the preached word, it is a complement to the preached word and a form of word ministry with added emotional power. In fact, in Luther’s estimation, music was so important to life in general and to ministry in particular, that he did not believe that one should become a teacher or a preacher without some musical skill. To quote Luther: “I always love music; who so has skill in this art, is of a good temperament, fitted for all things. We must teach music in schools; a schoolmaster ought to have skill in music, or I would not regard him. Neither should we ordain young men as preachers, unless they have been well exercised in music.” For Luther, spirituality and musical ability go hand in hand.

In a 2010 article written by Gary Harbin he reports “Gospel songs have two factors that make music beneficial to the psychology of humans. Like other types of music that have soothing melodies, helps the body muscles relax, and helps in sleeping. According to expert, listening to gospel songs gives you an inspiration sound bath that helps you focus on being calm and rested. This is perfect for those who live with high levels of stress every day.” However, if gospel music is fast with a strong tempo, it can also increase muscle tension, wakefulness and be energizing to the listener. For hundreds of years we can see the impact of music on spiritual gathering whether it is from the Jewish community where dancing, tambourines, joy and laughter are present, or to the somberness of liturgical singing in a Catholic Mass.

Harbin also reports,“Aside from inspiring the body and soul, gospel music has also been found to have therapeutic benefits for those with psychiatric disorders, physical handicaps, and people suffering from sensory impairments, developmental disabilities and substances abuse. Gospel music inspires body & soul because it carries within its lyrics messages of inspiration that one cannot find in other contemporary music. Because this kind of music comes with references to a Higher Power who can help in overcoming obstacles and conquering fears, this makes it a powerful inspirational tool for the mind and the body. Music in itself has a powerful influence over moods.”

Singing gospel music becomes worship. According to positive psychology, the act of worship is engagement. Worship allows us to get into the “zone” and the “flow” with something greater than ourselves. It speaks to the existential crisis that is internal in the soul of man. Worship induces calmness, relaxation and enhances our sense of belongingness and well-being whether it be individual or corporate.

Scientists have been able to examine a more comprehensive assessment of specific religious activities, such as worship, on the brain through the use of an electroencephalogram (ECG), (which measure the electrical activity in the brain) and by the emergence of various types of brain imaging technology. Scientist can actually see the brain light up and activate when a person worships through the use of music.

Interestingly secular science is proposing that we are wired for spirituality, that is, our brains have been designed to commune with diety. Studies have shown positive changes in numerous anatomical structures of the brain- the occipital-parietal circuit, the parietal-frontal circuit, frontal lobe, thalamus, amygdala, striatum and anterior cingulate gyrus . The emerging medical field of psychoneuroimmunolgy is recognizing the central role of worship in the prevention, amelioration and cure of disease. Corporate worship has been shown to have health benefits. Regular church attendance is associated with a 30-35% reduction in the likelihood of death and a reduction in the probability of stroke. Engagement in worship meets our needs as human beings for purity, knowledge, beauty, love, and purpose. Music helps enable all of these to take place within us.

The combined efforts of music and spirituality promote a strong sense of well-being. Gospel music engages the five areas of positive psychology: Wellbeing; Positive Emotions; Engagement; Positive Relationships; Enhanced Meaning and Achievement.

Music is powerful by itself, combined with lyrics, and when it is performed individually or collectively. If you are a singer or a musician, remember the emotional impact you are having on the listener of the melodies you are creating. Think about the message you are trying to convey. Let’s work to promote a positive quest for meaning in individuals by offering music and lyrics that promote joy, gratefulness, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, love and the well-being of all mankind.