Additional research on GIM can be found at the following sites:

Temple University Music Therapy Database:
http://www.temple.edu/musictherapy/dbs.htm

The Bonny Foundation
(selected bibliography for the Journal of the Association for Music and Imagery and ordering information)
www.bonnyfoundation.org

GIM Research

Dr. Kenneth James of the University of Chicago observed that the brain responds to music quite differently than it does to the spoken word. The brain's right hemisphere is activated by strong impressions. Music-evoked, feeling-laden images can be processed by the brain almost simultaneously and the time-space barrier of the logical left brain is circumvented. This allows millions of bits of information to be processed in seconds when the brain is stimulated by music. Since human beings have an enormous capacity to store information, the retrieval of significant impressions and images becomes an effective way of accessing the conscious as well as the unconscious.

Dr. Robert McDonald, a GIM practitioner from Minneapolis, studied the effects of GIM on the body/mind. He studied 30 adults with essential hypertension who were not taking medication. One-third of these subjects received GIM once a week for six weeks. One-third received verbal therapy once a week for six weeks and one-third received no intervention. Blood pressure in the GIM group steadily declined. At the six-month follow up, the GIM group continued to show the lowest blood pressure of the three groups studied.

In her doctoral thesis, Dr. Cathy McKinney compared the effects of Music and Imaging with simple music listening, and studied their effect on accessing emotions and affecting body states. It was found that listening to music while imaging has a more intense effect on the body/mind. An entrainment or synchronization occurred between the music, feelings, images, breath, and pulse rate. This entrainment has a powerful effect on the body/mind.

Dr. Carolyn McKinney studied the effects of 6 biweekly GIM sessions with 28 adults with a latent Epstein Barr virus and 28 healthy adults. The groups did not differ in pretest mood state. Through studying blood samples from pre- and post- sessions McKinney found that the post-test mood state was significantly and positively altered through GIM sessions in terms of anxiety, depression, and confusion. Also the Epstein Barr group showed significant improvement in fatigue on follow up. Her results indicated that a short series of GIM sessions (at least 6) can positively affect mood in people with Epstein Barr.

In addition to scientific research, GIM therapy has been applied to a wide range of special populations. Case studies by GIM therapists published in the Journal of the AMI (Association for Music and Imagery) discuss working with such diverse areas as trauma and abuse (Pickett, 1995), collective grief from the World War II Holocaust (Merritt and Schulberg, 1995), post traumatic stress disorder with Vietnam veterans (Blake,1994), addictions and recovery (Stokes, 1992; Borling,1992), and adapting GIM for a non-verbal man with autism (Clarkson,1994). GIM therapy with several AIDS clients is reported by Bruscia (1992) in Music and Miracles, ed. Doc Campbell. Clarkson (1996) and Wrangsjo and Korlin (1995) discuss the effectiveness of GIM from a psychiatric and psychoanalytic perspective.