Ispectrum magazine #10

ISPECTRUM
MAGAZINE Issue 10/November - December 2014
10
CHANGE, INOVATION
AND CREATIVITY
DARK TOURISM
OUR OBSESSION WITH DEATH
Ocimum sanctum
A potent weapon
against cancer
Cracking the code
The emotional language of
music

1
Features
03
DARK TOURISM:
05 What Is Dark Tourism?
08 What drives us to seek out
horror?
15
CHANGE, INNOVATION AND
CREATIVITY:AN INTERVIEW
WITH KATHRYN JABLOKOW
19 What is intelligent fast failure?
26 Plan your future.
30
Ocimum sanctum:A potent
weapon against cancer
31 Tulasi gives protection from
harmful radiation
33 Effect of tulasi on various
cancers
37 Is the tulasi safe for humans?
39
Cracking the code:
the emotional language
of music
43 The Theory of Musical
Equilibration
44 The tonal characters of musical
harmonies
59 A new way of understanding
music
CONTENTS
15
39
26 30
3

2
Mado Martinez
Editorial Director
Published Bimonthly ISSN 2053-1869
Editorial Director
Mado Martinez,
madomartinez@ispectrummagazine.com
Art Director
Rayna Petrova
raynapetrova@ispectrummagazine.com
Contributing Editors
Matt Loveday
mattloveday@ispectrummagazine.com
Jennifer James
Ravinder Dhindsa
Contributing Writers
Rob Hutchinson
Dr. Vishwas B. Chavan
Bernd and Daniela Willimek
Images
www.commons.wikimeadia.org ,
www.morguefile.com ,
www.freeimages.com
editorial
Ispectrum
magazine
Issue number 10 means 10 reasons
to be happy. Hold tight because we are
celebrating it with amazing featured
contents. For starters, our expert in
Psychology, Rob Hutchinson, talks about
Dark Tourism. Over the past few years
visiting sights of death and destruction
has been growing in popularity. What
powers our desire to go and see the
places where many people have suffered
terrible deaths?
In our traditional section of interviews,
Dr. Kathryn Jablokow, Electrical Engineer
and a leading expert in creative prob-lem
solving, shares with us the secrets
of change, innovation and creativity and
how we can apply this knowledge to our
quotidian life and our profession.
In turn, Dr. Wishwas B. Chavan introduc-es
us to Holy Basil (Ocinum Tenuiflorum),
a plant with many different medicinal
properties. Its effect on cancer treatment
has been studied extensively in recent
years and it looks like this plant may be
a potent weapon against cancer.
And for closing this issue, the research-ers
Bernd and Daniel Willimek wonder;
how it possible for music to evoke emo-tions?
The odd correlation between music
and emotions is not something we think
much about until we actively consider
what music really is. Strictly speaking,
music is nothing more than a series of
molecules in the air that are made to
oscillate and make their way to the ear.
But what do these oscillating molecules
of air have to do with our feelings?
Enjoy reading!
www.ispectrummagazine.com
admin@ispectrummagazine.com
+44 7938 707 164 (UK)
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DARK TOURISM:
3
by
Rob Hutchinson
website
www.ispectrummagazine.com

ver the past few years dark
tourism - visiting sights of
death and destruction - has
been growing in popularity.
O
So much so that there are special-ist
travel operators who now offer
package deals to tour places of
ethnic cleansing and radioactive
catastrophes. A trip to Chernobyl
or the Killing Fields can now easily
be arranged by a travel agent, and
the business is booming. But what
powers our desire to go and see
the places where many people have
suffered terrible deaths? And how
ethical is it?
4

5
Dark tourism is now
such a significant topic
that it is now a recognized
field of academic study,
with The Institute for
Dark Tourism Research
(iDTR) serving as a cen-ter
for scholarships, arti-cles
and research. As
dark tourism crosses
the boundaries between
tourism, sociology, psy-chology
and culture, it
has become an entirely
distinct field of study,
essentially combining an education
of death with a holiday.
Dark tourism, however, does not
represent death itself in its most
basic form; only certain kinds of
death. The distinction is important.
Here, death is packaged up (would
you like to go all inclusive on your
trip to the Killing Fields?), and com-mercialised,
even referred to as a
‘contemporary mediating institution’
between the living and the dead.
Dark tourism is now responding
to huge demand. Look at the Twin
Towers now - there is a visitor center,
bus tours and hawkers selling maps
and conspiracy theory books on the
corner. Why has the memorialization
of those who lost their lives warped
into a tourist attraction? Because the
demand exists. For me, leaving the
gaping hole where the towers were
would have been a far better memo-rial
than the visitor center that exists
What Is Dark
Tourism?

today - a raw, horrific reminder of
the evil that is in the world. But the
majority of visitors who want this
dark tourism experience do not want
something so painful; they want that
‘packaging up’ of death.
For example, in The Killing Fields in
Cambodia you can crawl across the
ground whilst live bullets are fired
6
over your head. A tacky adrenaline
rush that insults those who lost their
lives crawling through those same
fields? Why not even send a post-card?
This is not to say that all dark
tourists want this experience - many
are compelled to reach out to these
sights so as to not forget tragedy, to
be aware of their heritage or to pay
their respects.
The Anne Frank Museum or
the concentration camps
are strong examples of this
type of tourism. Paying to
stay in a Latvian prison
and be treated like a pris-oner
is on the opposite
end of the scale. The iDTR
claims that dark tourism
is far more than a simple
fascination with death -
that it is a complicated
study of the interrelation-ships
of society and cul-ture.
But for some of those
who feel the pull of the
macabre it is solely a curi-osity
of death that moti-vates
them. Where does
this curiosity come from?

7
Dark tourism is noth-ing
new - it has existed
in a basic form for cen-turies.
In the Middle
Ages and before, peo-ple
would go to wit-ness
public executions,
and for many it was a
day out with the fam-ily.
Curiosity was the
pull for these people
- especially when the
unfortunate person
sentenced to death
was well known. Even
now, where the peo-ple
who died might be
nameless, the more
famous the atrocity
the more visitors there
will be. Tourists in gen-eral
today (and even
historically) have been
motivated by push and
pull factors - the push
of psychological factors
to do something and
the pull of the external
motivators of a desti-nation.
Generally, pull
factors have been con-sidered
more important
with push factors being
attributed solely to the
desire to escape from
everyday life.
However, research has
proven that push fac-tors
are equally as
important as the pull
factors, with facilita-tion
of social interac-tion
and socio-psycho-logical
reasons sig-nificant
contributors.
Interestingly, Uzzell
(1984) claimed that
tourists visit places
according to their psy-chological
needs, which
would raise interesting

Almost all animals
exhibit curiosity, so it is
no wonder that it plays
a part in our motivation
to seek out new expe-riences.
Our curiosity
to seek out dark tour-ism
may hinge upon
wanting to investigate
death or to feel our
own mortality. Either
way, it is curiosity that
serves as the psycho-logical
push factor that
begins our journey.
If curiosity is human
nature, then it is human
nature to be drawn to
places that satisfy this
need to explore the
darker side of human-ity.
Dark tourism helps
separate a maca-bre
curiosity from the
harsh reality of death
and make it morally
acceptable to visit a
8
site of an atrocity, a
buffer as such between
witnessing death and
dying itself.
Curiosity can be linked
to novelty, or a desire
to be different. If you
are sick of the standard
holiday on a beach, or
want to stand out from
the crowd, then dark
tourism has a certain
allure. We are all inter-ested
in new experi-ences
- remember once
going to a beach was a
novel experience, but
after many years it is
nothing new. Once we
were curious of the
beach, but now as we
have grown up, our
curiosity reaches for
more abstract places. I
am sure you can think
of a friend or acquain-tance
who loves to be
the center of attention
questions regarding the
psychological needs of
dark tourists. A burn-ing
desire to connect
with other people´s
suffering? Or simply a
perverse interest in the
pain of others? Push
and pull factors both
involve motivation, but
what motivates dark
What drives us to seek
out horror?

or brag about their experiences, and
here dark tourism again satisfies
that craving. A thrill seeker might
bungee jump or climb a mountain,
but for those who seek adrenaline
without the physical danger a dark
tourism site provides the answer.
One key factor that runs through
all visitors, whether they are con-scious
9
of it or not, is remember-ing
the ordeals that happened at
that place. Some people specifi-cally
go on a sort of pilgrimage,
to remember those from their own
community, country or religion who

10
have perished, such as Jews paying
their respects at Auschwitz, or out
of guilt for the acts of their fellow
countrymen and ancestors.
Either way, both visit for that poi-gnant
remembrance. For others,
who go for the thrill and uniqueness
of the holiday, they cannot fail to be
touched at some moment and fall
into a contemplative silence imag-ining
the horrors of the past that
occurred at their very feet so many
years ago. Going hand in hand with
the theme of remembrance is that
of death. This is a more cultural
factor. In the Western world, where
talk of death is frowned upon and
nobody really, really considers their
own mortality until it is too late,
dark tourism offers them an outlet
to view death in all its bareness, in
the open light of day, and to con-template
what death really means.
We cannot talk about death over an
evening meal, or with our friends,
and it is almost a taboo subject.
Death may enter our mind one
morning, but thoughts of our mor-tality
are unpleasant, and it is soon
pushed back into the depths of our
mind. However, it remains there,
and some people may choose to
act on it, to seek it out and face
death by confronting the death of
others.
Psychologically, it may do people a
huge amount of good to go out and
investigate mortality through the
deaths of others. Dark tourism may
be taking that idea to the extreme,
but it’s not like you can go down to
your local morgue to explore death
- and being ‘parcelled up’ and pre-sented
to you with the darkest
parts cut off (no dead bodies lying

Educating the young about the mistakes of
the past is one of the best ways to avoid
them in the future
11
in the fields
for example)
dark tourism becomes
a viable option. In
other parts of the world
where death is a more
open topic and people
are not slaves to liv-ing,
where moderniza-tion
has not taken hold
and family and com-munity
ties are more
important than what
the latest version of
the iphone is, people
have an interest and
reverence of death,
an acceptance which
motivates them to pay
their respects to others
who have died, a mix
of remembrance and
death combined.
Another factor that can
play an important role
in dark tourism is edu-cation.
Educating the
young about the
mistakes of the
past is one of
the best ways
to avoid them in
the future. And if
you tell a student
they are going
on an excur-sion
to visit a
place where evil
or tragedy hap-pened
they are
certainly going
to remember it
more than a trip
to a museum,
and the effect
of them using
their imagina-tion
whilst look-ing
at an ordi-nary
everyday
scene that contained
so much violence in
the past is far more
impacting than reading
a textbook on it. Soon
the majority of those
who lived through some
of the most harrowing
and evil events of the
21st century will be

dead, and it will up to
the future generations
to honour victims and
remember to not com-mit
the same mistakes
again. The Holocaust
was a terrible event,
and this can be trans-mitted
through watch-ing
films and reading
books, but a visit to
Auschwitz, for exam-ple,
leaves the impres-sion
of a lifetime. It
is not only the young
that go to be educated.
Adults go to try and
understand why these
terrible events hap-pened,
or how desper-ate
the victims were.
Some go for closure
or answers, which can-not
always be found or
provided, but it is this
curiosity that we seek
to educate.
With media coverage
now twenty-four hours
a day and tragedies
covered live on TV, in a
sense we have become
desensitized to vio-lence
and death. There
is death on the news or
in the papers everyday.
The media have almost
12

an obsession with death. So when
dark tourism became slightly more
well-known the media jumped on
it.
A vacation to visit death? What
a great story! The BBC has had
reports, podcasts and videos on
many aspects of dark tourism.
This free publicity has made many
more people aware of its existence,
13
and if the nice man on the BBC is
reporting from on death’s doorstep
with all those normal looking peo-ple
snapping photos behind him,
what’s there to fear? Sure, it’s a
little weird, but what an idea for
my next holiday!
The media have helped to reduce
the stigma attached to viewing
death and in a way helped dark

14
tourism to grow and become more
accepted. It is still a niche mar-ket
but in twenty years more it
could become mainstream tourism.
Everybody remembers viewing the
Twin Towers going down on the
news and it is an image that will
stay with us forever. It is a hard
hitting one, and can affect people
to such an extent that they can
feel the pain of others and be moti-vated
to visit Ground Zero and pay
their respects, remember the trag-edy,
look for answers and educate
themselves. The media gives them
this merely by reporting the live pic-tures.
We can see how intertwined
the media is with dark tourism. We
watch death on TV with a morbid
curiosity, and now we can actually
go and relive it in our minds in the
very same place.
Whether dark tourism appeals to
you or not, enough people have
the curiosity to explore it and it is
undeniably a big money business.
Maybe this curiosity exists in us
all and we only need a little push.
With the myriad of factors that are
contributing to dark tourism I can
only see it flourishing. Clearly other
people do too - once the Fukushima
Daiichi Power Plant - hit by the 9.0
magnitude earthquake and follow-ing
tsunami in 2011 - is free of
radiation, the authorities hope to
open it up as the latest dark tour-ism
attraction.

CHANGE, INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY:
AN INTERVIEW WITH
KATHRYN JABLOKOW
15
Dr. Kathryn Jablokow
he moved to the
Philadelphia region
in 1996, where she
joined the full-time
S
Engineering faculty at Penn
State Great Valley, then went
on to graduate from The Ohio
State University with B.S., M.S.
and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical
Engineering. Since then, Dr.
Jablokow’s research and
teaching expertise in problem
solving and creativity have
expanded, and she is now rec-ognized
as one of the leading
experts in this field as it applies
to science and engineering.

16
by
mado martinez
website
www.madomartinez.com
MM. Is everybody creative?
KJ. Yes, and that is definitely not
the common view in many places.
Many people say only certain peo-ple
are creative. As I talked about in
the book, they will separate people
in many different ways, into these
piles of creative and non-creative
people. And when I started to think
about it and started to read about
a few psychologists and a few sci-entists
who disagree, who say that
everyone is creative, I found their
reasoning to be very sensible. If
you think about what we have
accomplished, as human beings
on the planet, we couldn’t have
accomplished what we have done
if only a few people were creative.
It just doesn’t make sense. But we
have to be able to describe the rea-son
that we don’t think the same
way, because we clearly don’t think
the same way. So somehow how do
you put those two things together?
Everyone is creative but we don’t all
create things in the same way. And
so that was when I started study-ing
some of the psychologists who
have done so much work in creativ-ity
and realised that we could put
these two things together and they
could both be true. But you have to
look at creativity as something that
is different from person to person.
And once you make that assump-tion
it actually falls into place very
quickly.
MM. Can you give an example of
two different creative people?
KJ. You have sort of the popular
view of a creative person as some-one
who is overflowing with ideas
and those ideas are pretty radi-cal,
they push the limits of things,

17
they may bend the rules, they may
break the rules, and their ideas
are kind of splashy and they fail a
lot because their ideas are break-ing
rules and that doesn’t always
work but they don’t mind because
they have a hundred more. And
that’s one style of creativity and it’s
absolutely a style of creativity so
I’m not denying that those people
are creative, but that’s one way of
being creative.
And then you have people who are
creative by taking something and
picking it apart to the point that
they understand absolutely every
detail of it and who then, because
they understand those details, can
create something within that sys-tem
or within that domain that
nobody else can see because they
don’t understand the details the
way this person does. So I can be
creative in a big splashy breaking
the rules kind of way but I can also
be creative by really following the
rules and exploring how those rules
make things possible.
Those are just two ways that I can
talk about creativity. I can also
say somebody is creative and they
have a talent for art, so their cre-ativity
in art is at a very high level
because they know a lot about it

18
and they have a lot of potential for
it, and someone else is creative in
science because they have a special
potential for that, so their creativity
in science is more developed. So
there are different ways of giving
you these examples.
MM. If you have an idea and
you don’t pay attention to it,
what happens?
KJ. It is a pity. It’s a terrible pity. I
have a quote that I like to use with
my students when I say you need
to write down your ideas because
the problem with just making a
mental note is that the ink fades
very, very quickly. We forget some-thing
that we just write down in
our head. It goes away because we
have so many things coming into
our minds. So much information all
the time. So recording those ideas,
however you do it, is an important
part of making sure you don’t lose
them, and making sure that you
digest them properly. You know,
I want to digest my ideas, I want
to see them next to each other
because that could give me anoth-er
idea. I want to share them with
people.
I can’t do that if I’ve forgotten
them. So yes, I think recording
them is critical. This is my ideas

19
book. I have probably
a dozen of them here
in my office at work
and another dozen at
home. I carry one with
me wherever I go, even
if I go to a meeting
and I think this meet-ing’s
going to be really
boring, I always have
one with me because
it’s amazing how many
ideas come out of a
boring meeting.
MM. Do you think
people have low self-esteem
and that’s
why they don’t log
their potential?
KJ. Yes, I think many
people don’t get the
encouragement. They
may not get encourage-ment
as a child which is
very sad. Maybe there’s
no-one at home who’s
really listening to their
ideas when they have
them, or it may be their
friends. I have a ten-year-
old son and he’ll
come home and he’ll be
upset because he had
an idea and told his
friends, and his friends
all said it was silly. So
even children with each
other are already dis-couraging
each other
about ideas sometimes.
So I think we have to
learn even from a very
young age to be open
to the ideas of other
people, even if we don’t
agree with them
MM. What is intelli-gent
fast failure?
KJ. Intelligent fast fail-ure
says that I’m not
going to succeed every
time. I know I’m not, the
world doesn’t work that
way. We always fail at
something, and when it
happens we tend to say
‘that means that some-thing’s
wrong with me,
I failed because there’s
something wrong with
me, my ideas must be

‘I didn’t fail a thousand times, I
learned a thousand ways not to do
bad’. Instead, say ‘no,
wait a minute, by trying
something and failing I
can now learn some-thing
that I couldn’t
have learned if I’d suc-ceeded,
perhaps’.
something’
Use Thomas Edison. In
the United States we
use Thomas Edison.
He tried literally thou-sands
of materials in
one of the inventions
he was working on, and
he failed thousands of
times. It was the wrong
material, it was the
wrong example. But he
persevered, and there’s
a famous quote of his
that goes: ‘I didn’t
fail a thousand times,
I learned a thousand
20
ways not to do some-thing’.
So intelligent fast fail-ure
is noticing that I’m
not happy that I failed,
but not thinking there
must be something
wrong with me because
of it; rather, focusing
on what I learned from
that failure, because
that learning thing is
what I’m going to walk
away with. I’m not going
to walk away with the

21
failure, that’s behind
me, that’s gone, but
what did I learn? And
that’s the thing I write
down, I write down in
my journal that I tried
this, it didn’t work, but
this is what I learned.
And then I might get a
new idea. You don’t do
it stupidly. It’s not stu-pid
fast failure – that’s
a bad thing. I don’t
want to do things that
make no sense at all
- that’s not what it’s
about. But it’s to take
the information I have
and make the good
judgement of some
things I should try. And
then if they fail, mark
down what I learned,
and say I failed, but it’s
like treating everything
like an experiment. All
of life is an experiment
if you think this way.
MM. The more we
fail, the more chanc-es
we have to suc-ceed?
KJ. Sometimes. I mean,
I can’t say that I won’t
get there if I don’t; I
may have no failures
and get to the solu-tion,
and that would
be OK too. But I think
if you look at intelli-gent
fast failure, you
may find places where
you couldn’t have pro-ceeded
any other way.
You explore spaces
you may have missed
otherwise. If you look
at some of the prob-lems
we have to solve
in our world today,
they’re very difficult,
they’re very challeng-ing,
they’re very com-plicated.
We’re going to
have to explore every
space we can to find
the solutions to some
of these things.
MM. Are we better
when we work alone
or when we work in
teams?
KJ. You make a very
good point. There are
times when working
alone is actually the
better thing to do. So
we shouldn’t think we
have to work in a team
to get things done, but
we have to learn to
work in teams because
many of the things we
want to do we can’t do
alone, and if we can’t
do it alone we need to
learn how to collabo-rate.
Collaborating is
not something humans
beings know how to do
when they’re born but
if you watch little chil-dren
they know how
to do it to a certain
extent.
And then at some point
it’s ‘no, that’s my car,
that’s my toy, that’s my
bunny rabbit’, or what-ever.
So you have to

teach them. So when
we get to be adults it’s
the same, we have to
learn to work in teams
at a different level now
we’re more advanced.
For example, if I think
about all the things in
our book there is no
way that any one of
us has the resources
to [write that book]
alone, and the benefit
is we have all these
different perspectives
on something and I
continue to learn as I
work with these other
people, and they bring
knowledge to the table
that I have never seen,
and they bring scales
to the table that I have
never used.
And in the end, com-bining
all that after
we navigate our dif-ferences,
that’s the
trick. The product can
be so much more, and
so much better than I
could have done alone.
I don’t remember which
video it was where I
talk about problem
A and problem B. So
problem A is the thing
that we’re trying to do
22

together. And problem B is the fact
that I have to manage the differ-ence
with you, and you with me,
so every time I work with someone
I always have two problems: the
thing we’re trying to do together,
and managing our differences.
MM. Let’s talk about resistance.
What can we do when we find
resistance in our time or in the
person we are working with?
KJ. There are a number of things
we need to do. The first is to take
a step back and take a deep breath
because if we stay emotional about
it we stop thinking clearly. I have
many colleagues who think differ-ently
to me and if I come in after
being very emotional about it then
we just get conflict, so the first
thing is to step back and remove
the emotion from the situation.
The second thing is to think about
what it is, what’s that problem that
the two of us are actually trying
to solve together, because that’s
really more important.
23
It’s more important that we solve
this than whether I agree with the
other person. So, what does this
shared problem need from me and
what does it need from the other
person? And how can I see that
what they’re saying, their resis-tance
to me, has value for this
thing we’re trying to do? It’s very
rare really that people resist you
and have no sense about it. It’s
usually not nonsense. There’s usu-ally
some value in that resistance,
there’s a good reason. It’s kind
of like failure again, every time
someone pushes back at me. If I
can take the emotion out and think
‘wait a minute, it may be tiny but
there’s something in that, that I
can learn from, from what they’re
saying, from their resistance’, it will
help me move forward.
So, a professional example, from
me: because I’m a professor we
have to write proposals to get
money, we do it all the time, and
they tell us the statistics are ten to
one, that I’ll have to submit a pro-posal
ten times before they say yes,
so I submit it and they come back

24
with resistance; this was wrong,
that was wrong, we don’t like this,
we don’t like that, why do you want
to do this? If I just say “oh, then
forget it”, I won’t get anywhere.
So I have to look and say they’re
resisting my idea, what is it in their
resistance that has value that I can
use, that I can feed back into my
proposal and make my proposal
better? And that’s how you get the
money.
MM. What about the customers,
readers, public, etc… what’s
the importance of their opinion
in our creativity process?
KJ. In a way everyone is your cus-tomer.
A customer for new ideas.
My husband is my customer. If
it’s an idea about doing things at
home, he’s my customer. My kids
are my customers. My mother is
my customer. So are the people I
work with. So are the people you
write for. In a way every person I
meet, that I do more than just say
hello to, is a potential customer.

25
So learning to listen and to think
‘now what is it that they demand?
What is it they need?’ I might not
have it, I may not be able to give
them what they want. But I need to
understand what they want before
I can make that decision. So when
I’m writing a proposal for a book or
some other thing, there are prob-ably
times when I say I’m just not
going to send it over there because
I know that’s not what they want.
So I make a better decision, I send
it over here because it’s more likely
my proposal will be accepted here.
But if we don’t listen we don’t know
how to make that choice.
MM. How do you define empa-thy?
KJ. Empathy has a lot of different
levels to it. So there’s an emotion-al
level to empathy which can be
valuable, particularly if I’m talking
to people that I’m close to, like my
family. If I’m listening with empa-thy
it’s that emotional connection.
When I listen to my children I’m
looking and feeling for their feel-ings
because their feelings are just
forming, they’re children and they
need to understand. If it’s a profes-sional
relationship my empathy is
more about motivation; what moti-vates
them and their thinking, their
ideas; so I’m listening for how they
see the situation.
How do they see the problem? And
let’s say this tea cup is what I’m
trying to make for them. How do
they see this tea cup? I may think
it’s beautiful and they may look at it
and go ‘god, I hate white tea cups,
I’ve never liked white tea cups,
why would they make me a white
tea cup?’ And if I’m not listening to
their perspectives I’m gonna miss
out.
MM. What is a strategic plan?
KJ. A strategic plan is basically
thinking about your path, your tra-jectory,
where you are and what
you want that path forward into the
future to look like. And you can say
to yourself I’m going to look very
far out. Where do I want to

26
be in twenty years? And where do I
want to be in ten years? Where do I
want to be in five
years? Where do I want to be in a
year? Where do I want to be next
month?
I can’t predict everything. A stra-tegic
plan isn’t about predicting
everything absolutely, it’s about
making choices and knowing how
you want to make choices. So if I
look, for example, at the key com-ponents
of my life, those need to
be part of my strategic plan; so my
faith is a part of my strategic plan,
my family is part of my strategic
plan, my profession is part of my
strategic plan, and so every deci-sion
I’m going to make is a stra-tegic
decision. I need to make
sure that I’ve thought about all
those key components so that
they’re all tracking
in the direction
they want to go.
MM. So you’re telling
me that I should plan
my future?
KJ. You need to plan it.
MM. Everyone should do it?
KJ. Everybody should do it.

27
Everybody should
think about where
they want to be and
what are some of the
things they’re going
to need to do to get
there. Understanding
that there’s no con-trol.
Ultimately there’s
no control. Planning
doesn’t mean control-ling,
it means plan-ning,
that’s it. It means
if everything goes my
way I’ll do this. If it
doesn’t go my way, I’ll
do that.
MM.How can we
track our progress,
how do we know if
we’re doing it right
or wrong or if we’re
going to profit?
KJ. Well, we talk in the
book about measuring
things, about metrics,
about how to mea-sure
things and there
are many different
things you may need
to measure, to track
your life and to track
what you’re doing and
each of them may take
very different kinds of
measurements. So for
example if I’m mea-suring
my professional
life then I’ll use metrics
like ‘am I rising in posi-tion
in my company or
my job?’
Some people keep track
of how much money
they make. Some peo-ple
keep track of how

28
many options they
have. They can work
at five places or they
could work at ten.
Those metrics relate to
your professional life.
For me, as a profes-sor,
it’s about research,
it’s about my teach-ing,
about where I am
in the university. But
if I’m measuring my
progress with my fami-ly,
I’m not going to use
the same metrics. With
my family it’s going to
be, again, much more
emotional, much more
intuitive. When I walk
into my home do I feel
a sense of peace or
do I feel conflict? Are
my children settled in
school? Are they doing
well in school? Do my
husband and I have
enough time together
to do the things we
want?
The metrics are differ-ent,
but I need to be
aware of those met-rics,
even if I don’t
write them down. Now
of course I would say,
you know, you need to
write them down, right?
So that you can look
back and say oh, that’s
where I was a year ago,
that’s right, wow, look,
I really have come far.
And that gives me con-fidence
that my plan is
working, I’m measur-ing
things well. Or, I
look and say I haven’t
come as far as I wanted
to - what can I change?
What should I do dif-ferently?
Otherwise,
it’s just trial and error,
and that doesn’t work
very well.
MM. Encouragement
is a tool?
KJ. Yeah, from child-hood.
And I think you
start with the peo-ple
around you. You
start small. If you only
encourage one person
in life to be creative
who wasn’t before,
you’ve made a huge
mark, you really have.
I’ve had students come
to my classes who are
maybe thirty-five years

old - I teach masters students who
are older than that - and they say,
’ you know I didn’t know I was cre-ative’.
And I think, good lord, that’s
sad. And they walk out a different
person. And I hope that everybody
in the world is going to turn around
and find somebody that they can
now say to, wait a minute, you are
a creative person just the way you
are, you don’t have to change to
29
be creative, you already are. And
help them to realize the ideas they
have.

30
Ocimum sanctum:
A potent weapon against
cancer
“Tulsi Flower” Photo credit: Vaikoovery is licensed under CC-BY-SA-3.0

by
Dr. Vishwas B. Chavan
ulasi (Ocimum tenuiflorum,
Ocimum sanctum or Holy
basil) is a plant of the family
Lamiaceae.
T
Long considered as sacred, tulasi
has many medicinal properties. And
the most important medicinal prop-erty
getting the attention of the medi-cal
community is that which can
fight against one of our most dread-ed
diseases… cancer. Cancer has
little or vague complaints in the early
stages, and is diagnosed frequently
at advanced stages. Treatments are
costly and have many side effects,
and have a profound effect on the
patient and his/her family.
31
It was assumed that our ances-tors
considered many plants sacred
because of their extraordinary
medicinal properties. Nothing is
more appropriate than the exam-ple
of tulasi. Though this plant
has many medicinal properties, its
effect on cancer has been studied
extensively only in recent years.
Some of the main chemical con-stituents
of tulasi are: eugenol,
oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, ros-marinic
acid, carvacrol, linalool,
β-caryophyllene, β-elemene, and
germacrene D [1].
Tulasi gives protec-tion
from harmful
radiation
Pre-clinical studies have shown
that tulasi and some of its con-stituents
like eugenol, rosmarinic
acid, apigenin, myretenal, luteo-lin,
β–sitosterol, and carnosic acid

32
prevented chemical-induced
skin, liver, oral,
and lung cancers by
increasing the antioxi-dant
activity, altering
the gene expressions,
inducing apoptosis,
and inhibiting angio-genesis
and metasta-sis.
Eugenol, rosma-rinic
acid, apigen-in,
and carnosic
acid are also
shown to pre-vent
radiation-induced
DNA
damage [2].
Another study confirms
the possible radio-pro-tective
effect of tulasi
against high-dose (131)
Iodine exposure [3].
In a study by Monga J
et al, the 50% alcoholic
aqueous extract of
different spe-cies
of tulasi,
was admin-i
s t e r e d
orally in
mice and
resulted
in significant reduction in
tumor volume, increase
in average body weight,
and the survival rate
of mice. The various
extracts showed modu-latory
influence against
lethal irradiation doses
of gamma radiation
in terms of radiation-induced
chromosomal
damage, while at the
same time induced an
increase in reduced glu-tathione
level (an anti-oxidant)
and GST activ-i
t y [4].

Further confirming this,
an extract from tulasi
is found to protect one
from harmful nuclear
radiations. The active
constituents of tulasi
are now being turned
into a drug at a Gujarat
facility. The drug could
be a boon for cancer
patients to alleviate the
side effects of radio-therapy
treatment. The
human clinical trials are
nearing completion at
the Advanced Center
for Treatment Research
and Education at the
Tata Memorial Centre in
Mumbai. [5]
Effect of tulasi on various
cancers
Chandrakanth Emani,
assistant professor of
plant molecular biology
at Western Kentucky
University-Owensboro
(WKU-O) in the US said
that the tulasi plant
could serve as a store-house
of anti-cancerous
compounds like euge-nol
33
[6].
Effect of tulasi on
pancreatic cancer:
Pancreatic cancer is
one of most aggressive
cancers and has one
of the highest fatality
rates among all can-cers
(5-year survival is
estimated as less than
5%) [7]. Scientists
have shown in vitro that
extracts of tulasi leaves
inhibit the proliferation,
migration, invasion,
and induce apoptosis
of pancreatic cancer
cells. The expression of
genes that promote the
proliferation, migration
and invasion of pancre-atic
cancer cells includ-ing
activated ERK-1/2,
FAK, and p65 (subunit
of NF-κB), was down
regulated in pancreatic
cancer cells after treat-ment
with tulasi. Intra-peritoneal
injections
of the aqueous extract
significantly inhibited
the growth of ortho-topically
transplanted
pancreatic cancer cells
in vivo (p<0.05) [8].

Effect of tulasi on
prostate cancer:
As of 2011, prostate
cancer is the second
most frequently diag-nosed
cancer and the
sixth leading cause of
cancer death in males
worldwide [9]. In a
study done in USA, fla-vonoid
vicenin-2 (VCN-
2), an active constitu-ent
of tulasi, effectively
induces anti-prolifera-tive,
anti-angiogen-ic
and pro-apoptotic
effect in prostate cancer
cells. This study pro-vided
strong evidence
that VCN-2 is effective
against prostate cancer
progression in andro-gen-
independent pros-tate
cancer. [10]
Effect of tulasi on
lung cancer:
Worldwide, lung can-cer
is the most common
cancer in terms of both
incidence and mortal-ity.
In a Korean study,
results demonstrate
that ethanol extracts
of Ocimum sanctum
(EEOS) induces apop-tosis
in human non-small
cell lung carcino-ma
(NSCLC) A549 cells
via a mitochondria cas-pase-
dependent path-way
and inhibits the in
vivo growth of Lewis
lung carcinoma (LLC)
animal model, suggest-ing
that EEOS can be
applied to lung carci-noma
as a chemo-pre-ventive
candidate [11].
Effect of tulasi on
other cancers:
In an Indian study,
tulasi leaves signifi-cantly
decreased the
incidence of both B[a]
P-induced neoplasia
and 3’MeDAB-induced
hepatomas in mice
[12]. In
a n o t h -
er Indian
s t u d y ,
adminis-tration
of
ethanolic
tulasi leaf
e x t r a c t
r e d u c e d
the inci-dence
of
N-methyl-
N ’ - n i t r o N -
n i t r o s o g u a n i d i n e
(MNNG) -induced gas-tric
carcinomas in rats
[13].
34

Anti-cancer mechanisms of tulasi
In a study done by
Industrial Toxicology
Research Centre,
Lucknow, on the pro-tective
effect of tulasi,
effects of the alcoholic
extract of the leaves
of tulasi on 3-methyl-cholanthrene
(MCA),
7,12-dimethylbenzan-thracene
(DMBA) and
aflatoxin B1 (AFB1)
induced skin tumorigen-esis
in a mouse model
were investigated. It
was concluded that leaf
extract of tulasi pro-vides
protection against
chemical carcinogen-esis
in one or more
of the following mech-anisms:
(i) by acting
as an antioxidant; (ii)
by modulating phase I
and II enzymes; (iii) by
exhibiting anti-prolifer-ative
activity [14]
35

Metastasis sites for common cancers
36
Another study conclud-ed
that free radical scav-enging
appears to be
a likely mechanism of
radiation protection by
tulasi flavonoids orien-tin
and vicenin in mice
[15].
Effect on metasta-sis:
Metastasis (spread
of cancer cells to dis-tant
organs) is always
a problem in cancer
treatments. Tumor cells
detaches from primary
tumor and spread to
another organ in the
body. There they form a
new tumor, complicat-ing
the disease process
and treatment options.
It was found that tula-si
has anti-metastatic
effect exerted through
inactivation of matrix
metalloproteinase-9
and enhancement of
anti-oxidant enzymes
[16].

37
Toxicity or safety study of tulasi:
In a study by Chandrasekaran CV et
al, scientists employed the standard
battery of in vitro genotoxicity tests,
namely bacterial reverse muta-tion,
chromosome aberration and
micronucleus (MN) tests, to assess
the possible mutagenic activity of
tulasi on rats. Tulasi extract did not
show structural chromosomal aber-rations
or increase in MN induc-tion,
with and without S9, at the
tested dose range in both 4-h and
18-h exposure cell cultures. Thus,
it was concluded that tulasi extract
is not genotoxic in bacterial reverse
mutation, chromosomal aberration
and micronucleus tests. In an acute
oral toxicity test, rats were treat-ed
with 5 g/kg of OciBest™ and
observed for signs of toxicity for 14
days and the results did not show
any treatment-related toxic effects
to Wistar rats [17].
Thus, we can say that this won-der
plant Tulasi (Ocimum Sanctum
or Holy Basil) can offer a ray of
hope for cancer patients. Still, large
numbers of randomized clinical tri-als
are needed to establish tulasi as
effective weapon against one of the
deadliest enemy of humanity, can-cer.
We, as scientists, should use
this opportunity effectively which
Mother Nature has offered to us.
Is the tulasi safe
for humans?

38
References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocimum_
tenuiflorum
2. Baliga et al (2013) Ocimum Sanctum L
(Holy Basil or Tulsi) and Its Phytochemicals
in the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer.
Nutrition and Cancer; Volume 65, Supplement
1, pages 26-35.
3. Joseph LJ et al. Radioprotective effect
of Ocimum sanctum and amifostine on the
salivary gland of rats after therapeutic radio-iodine
exposure. Cancer Biother Radiopharm.
2011 Dec;26(6):737-43.
4. Monga J et al. Antimelanoma and radio-protective
activity of alcoholic aqueous extract
of different species of Ocimum in C(57)BL
mice. Pharm Biol. 2011 Apr; 49(4): 428-36.
5. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/
ahmedabad/Wonder-drug-from-tulsi-extract-may-
be-your-answer-to-cancer/article-show/
11970923.cms
6. http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/tul-si-
enters-us-lab-to-fight-cancer-472623
7. http://www.who.int/tobacco/research/
cancer/en/
8. Shimizu T et al. Holy Basil leaf extract
decreases tumorigenicity and metastasis of
aggressive human pancreatic cancer cells
in vitro and in vivo: potential role in ther-apy.
Cancer Lett.2013 Aug 19; 336(2):
270-80(cancer cells in vitro and in vivo:
potential role in therapy.
9. Jemal A, et al (2011). “Global cancer sta-tistics”.
CA – A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
2011:61 (2): 69–90.
10. N agaprashantha LD et al, Anti-cancer
effects of novel flavonoid vicenin-2 as a
single agent and in synergistic combination
with docetaxel in prostate cancer. Biochem
Pharmacol. 2011 Nov 1;82(9):1100-1109.
11. Magesh V et al, Ocimum sanctum induc-es
apoptosis in A549 lung cancer cells and
suppresses the in vivo growth of Lewis
lung carcinoma cells. Phytother Res. 2009
Oct;23(10):1385-1391.
12. Aruna K, Anti-carcinogenic effects of
some Indian plant products. Food Chem
Toxicol. 1992 Nov; 30(11): 953-956.
13. Manikandan P et al. Proliferation, angio-genesis
and apoptosis-associated proteins
are molecular targets for chemoprevention
of MNG-induced gastric carcinogenesis
by ethanolic Ocimum sanctum leaf extract.
Singapore Med J. 2007 Jul; 48(7): 645-651.
14. Rastogi S et al, Protective effect of
Ocimum sanctum on 3-methylcholanthrene,
7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene and afla-toxin
B1 induced skin tumorigenesis in mice.
Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2007 Nov 1; 224(3):
228 -240.
15. Uma Devi P et al. Radiation protection
by the ocimum flavonoids orientin and vicen-in:
mechanisms of action. Radiat Res. 2000
Oct;154(4):455-460.
16. Kim SC et al. Ethanol extract of Ocimum
sanctum exerts anti-metastatic activity
through inactivation of matrix metallopro-teinase-
9 and enhancement of anti-oxidant
enzymes. Food Chem Toxicol.2010 Jun;
48(6): 1478-1482.
17. Chandrasekaran CV et al. Evaluation of
the mutagenic potential and acute oral toxic-ity
of standardized extract of Ocimum sanc-tum
(OciBest™). Hum Exp Toxicol. 2013 Sep;
32(9): 992-1004.

Cracking the code:
the emotional language
of music
The Theory of Musical Equilibration
answers an age-old question
by
Bernd and Daniela Willimek
translated from German by Laura Russell
ow is it possible for music to
evoke emotions? This is a ques-tion
we often do not even ask
ourselves: it seems completely
natural for our feelings to be stirred
up by music. The odd correlation
between music and emotions is not
something we think much about until
39
we actively consider what music really
is. Strictly speaking, music is nothing
other than a series of molecules in the
air that are made to oscillate and make
their way to the ear. But what do these
oscillating molecules of air have to do
with our feelings?
H

Studies on the effects of music are as
old as music itself, and over the years
different branches of science have
focused on analyzing this issue. Back
in the 19th century, a field known as
‘tone psychology’ took up the cause,
followed by the 20th-century disci-plines
of music psychology and music
physiology, which studied how the
brain processes music. However, any-one
40
who had hoped that these devel-opments
would contribute to solving
the puzzle ended up disappointed.
Nowadays we even use highly sophis-ticated
equipment and systematically
structured research projects but we
have yet to resolve the key question:
how and why does music produce
feelings?

No progress despite highly sophisticated equipment
41
For quite some time,
the Theory of Musical
Equilibration has aston-ished
people with its
assertion that music
cannot convey emo-tions
directly; instead,
it simply expresses
processes of the will
with which the listener
can identify. The the-ory
states that identi-fying
with these pro-cesses
gives them an
emotional content.
For example, when we
hear a major chord, we
identify with a process
of the will that says,
‘Yes, I want to’, where-as
in a minor chord the
message is, ‘No more’.
This process of the will
that states ‘No more’
can be experienced
as something sad or
angry, depending on
whether the minor
chord is played quietly
or loudly. The distinc-tion
here is the same
as if someone were to
whisper the words ‘No
more’ quietly or if they
were to shout them at
the top of their voice.
The words sound sad
when whispered and
furious when shouted.
The minor chord is the
same: a quiet minor
chord sounds resigned
and a loud one, angry.

These kinds of pro-cesses
of identifying
with something are not
only found in music.
Something very simi-lar
can be observed
when we watch televi-sion
and identify with
the processes of will
that our favorite char-acter
expresses. Here
too, relating to these
processes generates
emotions in us. All
attempts to find the
root cause of emotions
in music itself failed
until we realized that a
‘detour’ was involved,
which led through will.
The Theory of Musical
Equilibration offers a star-tling
new insight:
Music cannot communicate
emotions directly;
instead, it communicates
processes of the will
42

43
How can we envision what a pro-cess
of the will is like in music? It is
related to the phenomena that ear-lier
music-theory experts described
in terms of suspended notes, lead-ing
notes and the urge towards
musical resolution. As we listen to
music, we sometimes anticipate
the way one chord will lead to the
next. The processes of the will are
probably anchored in overtones –
notes which also resonate when
music is played, but as a rule they
are not actively perceived and can
have different impacts on the way
we experience music.
Equilibration
Developed by music theorist Bernd
Willimek, the Theory of Musical
Equilibration (die Strebetendenz-
Theorie) is the world’s first well-structured
approach used to outline
the emotional character of differ-ent
musical harmonies, and it is the
first to postulate the rationale for
the emotional effect they have. It
was initially published in 1998 in the
journal Tonkünstler-Forum Baden-
Württemberg, Stuttgart (Germany),
and presented in lectures, including
one held in 1997 at the University
of Rostock. The Theory of Musical
Equilibration has yet to be refuted,
and to date there is no equivalent sci-entific
hypothesis.
The basic statement of the theory is
that experiencing music emotionally
has its roots in the listener identify-ing
with processes of the will which
are encoded in the music. The harmo-nies
which are heard and anticipated
interact with each other, presenting
opportunities the Theory of Musical
Equilibration has categorized sys-tematically
in such a way that even
more complex and concrete processes
of the will can be musically depicted.
The manuscript ‘Music and Emotions
- Research on the Theory of Musical
Equilibration’ can be downloaded free
of charge through the link >
http://www.willimekmusic.de/music-and-
emotions.pdf
Overtones yield the
processes of will in
music

The Theory of Musical Equilibration
hypothesizes that, to date, the
effect of overtones has been mis-understood.
Despite earlier beliefs
to the contrary, it is not that we
perceive changes in the notes:
instead, we identify with the will
that they express, and unlike pre-vious
premises, the notes want
to remain unchanged. Something
else remarkable is the fact that the
notes are not perceived as what
they really are – frequencies – but
as something vague and uncertain.
The fundamental principle of the
Theory of Musical Equilibration is
quite simple at first. Chords are tra-ditionally
described in many text-books
as having ‘striving’ notes,
i.e. notes that want to be resolved.
This sense of striving, however, is
a contradictory desire. For exam-ple,
the real musical experience
we have when we hear a C-major
44
Determining the emotional
character of emotions
In 1996, Bernd and Daniela Willimek
began conducting surveys to learn
how children judged the effects of dif-ferent
chords. They used these data
as the basis for a wide-scale study in
which over 2100 children from four
continents have participated in musi-cal
preference tests. These tests were
designed to find correlations between
scenes from fairy tales and musical
selections that described emotional
terms. The most well-known partici-pants
in the tests included members
of the Vienna Boys’ Choir and the
Regensburg Cathedral Choir.
Overall there was an 86% match,
i.e. 86% of the participants corre-lated
the musical selection to the
emotion outlined by the Theory of
Musical Equilibration as being the
best match. As a supplement to the
tests, the Willimeks also researched
the repertoire of classical music and
film scores to explore further links
between music and emotions. Here
they found conspicuous parallels
which further confirmed their find-ings.
The tonal characters
of musical harmonies

45
chord is not the effort
of the E to resolve.
Instead, the defining
musical experience is
identifying with the
will for the E not to
change – to allow it to
keep resonating as it
is. If we want to apply
this idea with great-
Equilibration states
that when we hear a
major chord, we iden-tify
with a process of
the will that says, ‘Yes,
I want to’. In emotional
terms, we can describe
this process of the will
as ‘identifying with a
feeling of sober-mind-ed
contentment with
the present moment’,
a sense of satisfaction.
er nuance in a musi-cal
context, we may
also need to take into
account the preceding
or subsequent harmo-nies,
if not also the
harmonies anticipated.
Below we will discuss
the nature of some of
the chords as deter-
There are, howev-er,
other qualities the
major chord can evoke
mined by the Theory of
Musical Equilibration.
More information on the
interpretation of these
emotional characters
can be found in the
manuscript ‘Music and
Emotions - Research on
Equilibration´.
as well: we will address
those below.
Why do major chords
sound cheerful?
Major chord
A major chord
can express a
feeling of being
content

Why have we always associated minor
chords with a sense of sorrow?
46
Why do minor chords
sound sad? Several
music theorists do not
regard the minor chord
as a harmonic inter-val
of its own; instead,
they see it as a ‘sup-pressed’
or clouded
major chord, since the
third in the chord is
simply lower than in
the major chord. If we
apply this thought to
Equilibration, that
means a suppressed
version of the major
chord leads to a ‘cloud-ed’
feeling of being con-tent
with the present
moment. Contentment
turns into discontent-ment,
a sense of ‘no
more’. The minor chord
thus seems sad when
played quietly and full
of anger when played
loudly. If a minor chord
is first repeated quietly
and then at increas-ing
speed and volume,
you can experience a
remarkable transfor-mation
from hearing an
expression of sorrow to
an expression of anger.
Minor chord
Play this chord several times, first
quietly and then at increasing volume
and speed. You will notice the strik-ing
shift from a sense of sorrow to a
sense of fury.

Major chords can sound
just as sad as minor chords
47
Musicology has not yet managed
to find an explanation as to why
minor chords feel sad, and conse-quently
it was truly overwhelmed
when it came to analyzing why
major chords can also sound mourn-ful.
Major chords can seem sad if a
sorrowful-sounding minor chord is
used as their dominant.
If the chords below are repeated
several times, the listener begins
to anticipate the minor chord as
the major chord is still sounding,
resulting in the major chord taking
on the character of a minor chord.
It then seems just as sad as a
minor chord.
Dominant Minor chord
Alternate between quietly playing the chord on the left and the chord on the right several
times. As you do so, pay attention to the effect of the major chord on the right. You will
notice that after a short while, this chord sounds just as sad as the minor chord on the
left, despite the fact that it is a major chord. Here the major chord assumes the character
of a minor chord.

48
Minor chords can evoke emotions
other than sorrow and anger. The
music from the movie Pirates of the
Caribbean is a well-known exam-ple:
the theme is played in minor,
or more specifically in what is called
natural minor. This harmonic mode
sounds adventurous and coura-geous.
Children who were asked
their impressions of this chord used
words such as ‘excitement’, ‘Wild
West’ and ‘thriller’. The terms they
used kept revolving around the
ideas of adventure, courage and
danger.
Nearly every TV thriller uses the
impact of the minor chord to gen-eral
tension in the theme music and
in exciting scenes. Beyond that, this
harmonic device is what shapes the
downright bold-sounding charac-ter
of natural minor when used in
rock and pop music (Deep Purple,
Santana). In commercial esoteric
music for meditation, this chord is
played at low volume to express
a sense of letting yourself go and
embarking on a meditative adven-ture.
The courage-inspiring effect
of the chords is intended to evoke
responsiveness to our feelings and
new spiritual experiences.
Natural minor is the
perfect match for
high tension
Natural minor
Play the highlighted notes in whatever
sequence you like. When you play them
quietly, they will remind you of a medi-tative
adventure, whereas when they
are played loudly, they can be used to
accentuate an exciting thriller.

49
When a major chord
is alternated with a
dominant chord (see
image below right), the
listener receives infor-mation
that seems con-tradictory.
It resolves
this conflict by inte-grating
both impres-sions
into an impres-sion
of forward motion.
Nearly every wander-ing
song uses this har-monic
progression to
create a sense of mov-ing.
Major chord
Dominant
The dominant chord brings
motion into music
Alternate between these chords many times, and you
will have a sense of being part of forward motion.

The subdo minant is the
sound of tranquility
Major chord Subdominant
Start by playing the chord on the left several times to get used to the key. Then play the chord on
the right and allow it to unfold its effect. You will sense your mood brightening.
50
The subdominant chord
(image below right) is
used in classical and
pop music to commu-nicate
a relaxed and
untroubled mood. It
is frequently used at
melodic high points.
Passages with subdom-inant
chords in songs
of different kinds were
also described in sur-veys
as being the most
‘untroubled’ and ‘joy-ful’.
This sentiment goes
well with moments of
lightheartedness, such
as those which occur
in a rapturous state
or after a victory. That
means that the sub-dominant
is also excel-lent
for songs sung
at cheerful occasions,
and its use is wide-spread
in this con-text.
The subdominant
is also well-suited to
depicting a light-heart-ed
mood in children’s
songs. In many nation-al
anthems, the sub-dominant
emphasizes
the emotional apex of
the song.

Major chord Subdominant major 7th
First play the chord on the left a few times to establish the key. Then play the chord on the right,
and you will notice a sense of wistfulness. Every musical epoch from the Baroque era onward has
taken advantage of this effect.
The subdominant with a
major seventh conveys
wistfulness
51
This chord clearly illustrates that
the emotional effect of harmonies
has remained fundamentally the
same across the centuries. The
subdominant with a major seventh
sounds downright wistful, regard-less
of whether it occurs in the
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Air, the
choral piece ‘Abschied vom Walde’
by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
or in Elton John’s ‘Your Song.’ In
many pieces, this harmonic device
is a means of generating a sense of
pensiveness.

The seventh chord was part
of the countercultural
revolution
When a seventh chord (see image
below) is played at a loud volume,
it creates a sensation of being
rebellious and defiant. In the 20th
century, this musical device provid-ed
a new way for the younger gen-eration
to revolt against the values
of the establishment. Prior to that,
the spirit of rebellion it expressed
was aimed across racial lines in
North America. The blues patterns,
which are built on these harmo-nies,
sound rebellious and defiant
52
through their chords alone.
The explosive musical effect of what
was once considered an anti-estab-lishment
anthem, the Rolling Stones’
‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, came
from the sevenths in the chords
and the melody. If these sevenths
were removed from the melody
and replaced with another note,
the melody would suddenly lose
its revolutionary nature, and at
best it would be suitable as a rock
anthem. By contrast, if the seventh
were to be played quietly, the piece
would take on an entirely different
character. It would come across as
plaintive, weepy or weak.
If you play the highlighted notes of this chord at a loud
volume, they have the character of rebellion or revolt. At
a lower volume they feel more weepy or weak.
Seventh chord

The added sixth in a major chord expresses
warmth and security
53
The added sixth in a
major chord, can con-vey
profound togeth-erness,
a feeling of
warmth and emotional
solace. Even Ludwig
van Beethoven made
use of this effect, and in
today’s pop music, the
chord continues to cre-ate
the same impres-sion.
The chord does not
always have this effect,
however. There is a
small trick which inverts
its character, however
when this happens, the
chord does not express
comfort, but a feeling
of being forlorn. The
decisive point here is
the listener’s orienta-tion
towards the key of
the piece. The follow-ing
examples demon-strate
the point:
Portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven

Play the chord on the left a few times to establish the tonic. Then play the chord on the right and
see how it affects you. You can almost envision a mental image of being cuddled up next to a cozy
fire with someone you love, enjoying a sense of contentment and security.
54
Added sixth (major)
Added sixth (major)
Major chord (D-major)
Major chord (F-major)
Here again, play the chord on the left to establish the key as a baseline. When you play the chord
on the right, something surprising will happen. Even though this is exactly the same chord as in the
previous example, its emotional impact has changed completely. The same notes no longer seem to
express warmth and comfort: they convey the very opposite, a sense of feeling lost.

The added sixth in a
minor chord represents
heartbreak
In a minor chord, the added sixth
has exactly the opposite emotional
effect of the added sixth in major.
It is employed to express painful
loneliness and heartbreak. Franz
Schubert effectively deployed this
chord as well: it appears at the
beginning of his sorrowful song
cycle Winterreise during the first
words, ‘Fremd bin ich eingezogen’.
Minor chord Added sixth (minor)
First play the chord on the left to become acclimatized to the key. When you hear the chord on the
right, you can relate to a sense of loneliness.
55

The diminished seventh
chord communicates
fright and despair
56
The diminished seventh chord
When you play a diminished seventh quietly,
it is reminiscent of melancholy brooding. If it
is played at a louder volume, it is can be used
to underscore the scenes in horror movies in
which shocking things occur.
The diminished seventh chord is
a solid device for creating a feeling
of fright in listeners. Tense scenes
of horror in movies are height-ened
with diminished sevenths,
and this happens frequently in
scores. When children were asked
what this chord made them think
of, they responded with answers
such as ‘something horrible’, ‘some-body
having a nervous breakdown’
or ‘someone running away from a
monster in the forest’. The frightful
effect of this chord was familiar as
far back as Johann Sebastian Bach.
In St. Matthew’s Passion, he used
this harmony at the very moving
moment when Pontius Pilate asked
the crowd who should be released,
Jesus or the criminal Barrabas, and
the crowd screams, ‘Barrabas!’. The
same chord can be heard at the
word “tears” in Stevie Wonder’s
song ‘Joy Inside My Tears’. When
the chord is played quietly, a spirit
of melancholy brooding is evoked.

A miracle happening – the augmented chord
is full of astonishment
57
The defining char-acteristic
of an aug-mented
chord (see
image below) is that
it contains dissonance
which wants to resolve,
but the resolution it
seeks cannot be read-ily
identified. Applying
Equilibration thus leads
to an equally unclear
outcome: identify-ing
with processes of
the will is a vague and
unclear procedure. The
listener assumes the
role of a questioner and
identifies with a feeling
of astonishment and
amazement. This also
describes the emotion-al
character of the aug-mented
chord.
In movies, this is an
effective way of calling
attention to miraculous
things happening in the
story. In cartoons in
particular, augmented
chords can frequently
be heard when magic is
performed in the story.
In Winterreise, Franz
Schubert uses the aug-mented
chord at the
very moment the word
‘wunderliches’ is sung
in the ‘Die Krähe’ (‘The
Crow’).
Augmented chord
With its combination of consonance and dissonance, the
augmented chord conveys a feeling of surprise because
the three notes of its triad cannot be clearly interpreted.
In film scores this chord can be heard when something
remarkable or magical takes place.

The whole-tone scale
feels weightless
58
The whole-tone scale,
which is commonly
used in Impressionist
music, can yield a feel-ing
of weightlessness.
In film scores, these
chords are primarily a
way to musically illus-trate
states of floating
such as scenes that
take place under water,
in space, or in a subjec-tively
buoyant state:
dreams.
The whole-tone scale
In Impressionism, the whole-tone scale is used to convey a feel-ing
of weightlessness. If you play the highlighted notes in any
given sequence, you will notice a sense of floating.

59
The minor sixth
expresses a sense of
fear
A feeling can be inspired in the
listener not only with a chord: two
notes can also be enough to gener-ate
this effect. If you play a minor
sixth (see image below) quietly, the
dyad can create an unusual sense
of fearfulness
Minor sixth
A minor sixth can generate a mood of
fearfulness
A new way of
understanding music
The issue of the emotional
effects that musical harmo-nies
have is as relevant as ever.
Centuries of composers have
been using harmonic structures
in keeping with the observa-tions
described in the Theory
of Musical Equilibration, which
is quite remarkable. This gives
researchers an endless field of
new activities and a wide range
of opportunities due to the rich
scope of untapped material. The
Theory of Musical Equilibration
is to inspire further interest in
one of the most exciting aspects
of musicology: the emotional
response to musical harmonies.

“I didn’t fail a thousand times, I learned a thousand ways
not to do something”
- Thomas Edison
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