"Music, Mice, and Madness"...and Hymns

Our Relief Society chorister recently had a baby. I've been her substitute for a few weeks. This week I will give my first "music moment". I thought I would post it here, too.

As I thought about what I would share this week, I reflected mostly on how music affects our behavior and the way we think. I found the following story online about the psychology of music.

A student named David Merrill devised an experiment to discover how music would affect the ability of mice to learn new things. Merrill had one group of mice listen to classical music 24 hours a day and another to heavy metal music. He then timed the mice as they ran through mazes to see if the music affected their speed of learning. Unfortunately, he had to cut the first experiment short because the heavy metal mice all killed one another. In a second experiment, mice that listened to Mozart for 10 hours a day dramatically improved their maze-solving abilities, while the heavy metal mice actually became worse at solving mazes than they had been at the beginning of the experiment.

This is one experiment of many that tests the affects of music on behavior. It doesn't necessarily prove that heavy metal music leads to murder or violence, but that music likely does impact how we think and act.

Elder Jay E. Jensen spoke on the nourishing power of hymns in May 2007. He said, "Hymns play an essential role in spirituality, revelation, and conversion. His experiences with hymns growing up were similar to President Hinkley's. As a deacon, President Hinkley attended a stake priesthood meeting with his father. They sang "Praise to the Man". Later he would say, "I had an impression that has never left that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet of God."

In January 2008 I remember having a similar experience. With friends, I toured the Rexburg, Idaho Temple before it's dedication. It was my first opportunity to see the majority of a temple's interior. The guide pointed out significant architecture and paintings in the various rooms. Just before we reached the Celestial room, he asked that we be completely silent and reverent while we walked through. We entered and the Spirit filled my heart and words to a hymn powerfully ran through my mind.

"Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder
thy power thru-out the universe displayed;
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee
How great thou art!
How great thou art!"

I felt an intense closeness and love for my Heavenly Father and knew this was a place where he would reside and important work would be done.

President J. Reuben Clark Jr. said, "We get nearer to the Lord with music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer."

Our Relief Society lesson is titled "The Church of Jesus Christ Today". In relation to our topic, Elder Jensen said, "The hymns of the Restoration carry with them the spirit of conversion. They came as a result of sacrifice. They reinforce the great truths of the Restoration.--such as the divinity of the Father and the Son, the plan of redemption, revelation, latter-day scriptures, the gathering of Israel, the holy priesthood, and ordinances and covenants. These nourishing hymns create an atmosphere that invites the Spirit, which leads us to conversion."

I'm grateful for hymns that invite the Spirit, offering us revelation, and often converting us to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Hymns have the power to lead us away from temptation and can affect our behavior and thoughts in a positive way.