What does Prescriptive Music do to comforts the dying person?
In the struggle at the end of life, Mones said, music-thanatology is an important factor in dealing with emotional and physical issues. “When the music begins to play I have seen shoulders relax, I have seen people take a deep sigh. Emotions bubble to the surface.” Sharilyn Cohn, who co-directs Portland’s nonprofit Sacred Flight, which contracts with 15 Portland-area hospitals, said every encounter is unique. She said the music is viewed as a compound medicine in which melody, harmony and rhythm combine to soothe the patient and the family. As practiced today, it was developed over more than 30 years by Therese Schroeder-Sheker. Her Chalice of Repose program was located in Colorado and Montana before 2002, when it moved to Mt. Angel in the quiet farm country of the Willamette Valley south of Portland. It stresses carefully individualized “prescriptive music,” a concept Schroeder-Sheker developed in which a harpist observes the body processes and mental state of a patient and adjusts to
