with no sound. Afterwards watch it one more time with the
sound turned on. Compare how this film sequence impacts you
differently with and without music. Most likely you will find
the difference in emotional impact amazing.
Charles Tart explains that music can stimulate the mid-
brain, the seat of emotional response, which encourages access
to feelings.^3 Hearing certain kinds of music, our inner control
is loosened and a greater range of sensitivity to feelings is
made possible. Therefore the score plays a significant role in
how movies affect us, especially when they are utilized for
catharsis (see The Cathartic Way, above).
Carol A. Bush emphasizes in Healing Imagery & Music
that music expresses universal themes and imagery and con-
nects us with our deeper self. “It enters the brain spreading out
in the corpus callosum where memory is stored. From there it
can stimulate the capacity of recall, loosening a flood of psy-
chologically significant images or related memories.”^4 In the
process of self-discovery through movies, the score contributes
to the process of gaining access to psychological material that
has not been fully conscious (see The Evocative Way, above).
Music brings increased dimensionality to movies; it helps
to carry our experience along, encouraging the unfolding of
dynamic material. In most films music is used to intensify the
impression of the visual image by providing a parallel illustra-
tion of the same idea. Referring to plays, Aristotle said that
music produces emotional dispositions like those evoked under
real conditions. In movies, music enhances their capacity to
draw us into the action and therefore enables us to identify with
the characters more than acting alone can do. When we choose
certain films, this supports our process of assimilating mes-
sages that guide us in our healing and personal growth (see The
Prescriptive Way, above).
Unlike any other medium, music, together with the emo-
tional capacity of the visual channel, affords the possibility of
manipulation. Since we want to be “manipulated” into becom-
ing healthy and whole, our choice of movie is a big factor when“Music is the shorthand of
emotion. Emotions, which
let themselves be described
in words with such
difficulty, are directly
conveyed... in music, and
in its power and
significance.”
Leo Tolstoy30 E-Motion Picture Magic