Music can be a spiritual experience when the listener and music become one. It affects people both mentally and physically through sounds and vibrations that can be uplifting, calming, or anxiety-provoking. Like spiritual encounters, musical encounters are personal and evoke different meanings and emotions for each listener. Music shares parallels with spirituality through deeper listening rather than just hearing, interpreting messages from the creator's point of view, providing inspiration, and being used as a form of worship.

1. Music &
Spirituality

2. Music
● Music can be medicinal and
therapeutic to our minds & bodies
● Sounds carry energy, vibrations that
affect us in different ways
o Uplifting, calming, anxiety-
provoking, etc.

3. Music
● We hear sounds with our ears
● We feel energy or intention behind
the words & sounds in our bodies

4. Spirituality
● Spirituality often involves an encounter
with God, or a higher power
o During this encounter, a person’s soul becomes one
with that power
● Music can have the same effect, where the
person and music become one

5. Music & Spirituality
● Music can be a spiritual experience when
the listener and the music become one
o Musical encounters, like spiritual encounters, are
different for each person
 They may have completely different meanings
and evoke different emotions

6. Parallels of Music &
Spirituality
1. Listening, not hearing
a. Listening requires a deeper level of awareness than
simply hearing
b. Listening to music is parallel with “hearing with
understanding” in spirituality/religion

7. Parallels of Music &
Spirituality
2. Interpretation from the reference point of
the author
a. Ex: Interpreting a passage from the Bible, and
interpreting the meaning or message of a song
3. Inspiration
4. Worship
a. Where music and spirituality combine