Music as a Catalyst for Mind Alteration in Various Eastern Religious Traditions

The project proposal is devoted to studying various religious theories inside Eastern religions which recognize music as an inevitable part of one’s way to God and the exact cosmogonic theories inside Islam which see music as the base for the world. The problem of the research is based on the wide-spread statement that so-called “True Islam” doesn’t allow any usage of music as it was forbidden by the Prophet who named music one of serious sins – which was later reflected in several hadiths (stories about the life of the Prophet, which were used in Islamic law system as an analogue for British precedents) and those hadiths, in turn were used throughout the centuries to justify persecutions against music lovers. The aim of the research is to analyze the actual situation in this sphere in order to reveal whether that statement was universally recognized – and, if not, to study those movements which accept music, showing which reasons they use to justify their attitude towards it. These studies were to be focused on the actual matter of philosophic theories used by such religious movements inside Islam.