Neuroscience shows listening to music has similar effects to meditation

What do the Dalai Lama and a bass-music fanatic getting low at 3am at Burning Man have in common?

A surprising amount, actually.

As both a musician and a meditator, I believe that there is a connection between the exalted states on the dancefloor and the spiritual states achieved in meditation. Since the late 1990s I’ve been DJing and producing music with the likes of Bassnectar, Santigold, and Professor Green, and I’ve also been trained in meditation in the Yogic, Tibetan Buddhist, and Theravada Buddhist traditions.

The goal of both music and meditation is to create a powerful and positive shift in our mental state. Music is a reliable source of transformational experience for many, and we are attracted to music for the same reasons that meditators meditate. Music and meditation both allow a fuller and richer experience of our emotions: They stop our incessant and often negative mental chatter and offer us an opportunity to inhabit the present moment more fully and meaningfully. These are all important for good health and happiness in human beings.

“Music is the mediator between the life of the senses and the life of the spirit” — Ludwig van Beethoven

Our species has a longstanding obsession with rhythm, melody, and harmony. The aboriginal people of Australia believe in “songlines,” which manifest reality and everything in it, and some native Americans believe that life was brought about and sustained by the “song of the creator.”

Music is part of all authentic spiritual traditions: It has been utilized as an important element of spiritual rites and…

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