Stimulating, authoritative and often lyrical, "The Mozart Effect" offers dramatic accounts of how doctors, shamans, musicians and others use music to deal with everything from anxiety to cancer, high blood pressure, chronic pain, dyslexia and even mental illness. For example, the director of a Baltimore hospital's coronary care unit has found that half an hour of classical music produces the same effect as 10 milligrams of Valium. And students who sing or play an instrument score up to 51 points higher on SATs than the national average. Drawing on personal experience and the uplifting stories of dozens of ordinary men and women, Campbell shows us how to put the healing powers of music into action. He describes the transforming effects of toning, chanting, mantras, rap and other self-generated sounds. (One woman used toning in the recovery room after surgery for a brain tumor and needed no pain medication.) And he recommends more than two dozen specific, easy-to-follow exercises to help you raise your spatial IQ, sound away pain, boost creativity and make the spirit sing.

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With a subtitle of Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit, the casual reader might jokingly ask if the book could also improve chances for world peace, bring free and open elections to third world countries, and give your wash whiter whites and brighter brights. Don Campbell's premise is, however, reasonably straightforward: he asserts that the kind of noise to which one is exposed can have important effects on mental and bodily health. As a trial, try protecting your hearing for a few days from the continuous barrage of noise in a typical urban environment; it really does seem to improve one's attitude and fatigue levels.

Where Campbell's ideas become more provocative is in the realm of music. Supported by much anecdotal evidence, he proposes that Classical music with a big "C" (the music of Mozart's period) can reach out to those who are mentally isolated from their fellows, like the autistic, and can help infants react and think better. (Will prenatal music classes be the next big trend for yuppie babies?) In addition, the music of Mozart contributes to the improved functioning of the higher cerebellar functions, including the ability to deal with logical and mathematical concepts, while contemporary rock actually decreases mental acuity.