Music as therapy has been a part of life since the beginning of recorded history. Music therapy as a profession is about 30 years old. This book, in a sense, is paradox. It is an attempt to touch the essence of music in the fullness of all her healing powers, to describe that which cannot be described. This attempt is made in the spirit of appreciation and perhaps as a tribute to the mind of man. Words can never reach far enough into music to touch her essence. However, with the trying, our words will become more musical, our respect and wonder more absorbing, our understanding of music deeper. Allow your soul to join the massive mythic artery which carries us to the essence of life and the human spirit, connecting us to all of life, before and after, around and in us, from the first moment of creation through all the transformations beyond time and space. For this is the healing experience of music. - Foreword & preface.