Beyond Therapy: Music, Spirituality, and Health in Human Experience: A Review of Literature

In the current healthcare environment, there is a growing interest in the relationship between spirituality and health. The connections between music and both medicine and religious experience are well-established, but little is known about how the musical and spiritual aspects of human experience work together to influence well-being. A review of the healthcare literature from 1973–2000 identified 52 published reports on the topic of music, spirituality, and health. The majority of the papers were narrative descriptions or case studies, and appear within a variety of clinical contexts. Fifty-two percent of the authors were credentialed music therapists. Examination of the literature indicated that many papers used terms and concepts associated with both spirituality and health interchangeably, which might lend support to the basic interconnectedness of these two aspects of being. The function of music across the literature was explored, and a transformational model of music experience derived from the literature is proposed. Based on the findings of the review, several conclusions about the future role of music in spirituality and health are drawn, and recommendations for further research are offered.