Long ago, Socrates informed his Greek compatriots that in one respect the barbarian Thracians anticipated civilization. They knew that the body could not be cured without the spirit. “For this reason,” he continued, “the physicians of Hellas are not in a position to heal a large number of illnesses, because they are not familiar with the context.” In other words, even in Antiquity, there was a contrast between mechanical, orthodox medicine, focusing exclusively on bodily functions, and the alternative holistic method which takes into account the interplay of the body and the psyche. When Socrates talked about the Thracian barbarians in north-eastern Greece, he was making a reference to the mythical singer Orpheus, who came from this region. Orpheus sang and played his lyre so enchantingly that the wildest of animals became docile and even trees and rocks followed him. No wonder he was also famous for his healing powers. The doctrines of the Orphists, as the dis ciples of the Thracian hero were called, formed the basis of the harmonies of the spheres, laid out by mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras in the 6th century B.C., after he had observed the constant relationships between the length of the strings of a lyre and the basic chords in music (1:2 for the octaves, 2:3 for the fifths and 3:4 for the fourths). These findings led him to the conviction that harmony determines all of nature and can thus be used as an important remedy. Pythagoras even believed that music following the laws of cosmic harmony was superior to all other remedies and therapeutic methods. For him, it was a universal means of treating the body, the mind and the soul. Admittedly, in this our ancient genius was way off the mark, but after long being neglected his doctrines of harmony have contributed to a shift back to treatment usingmusic whenever the aim is to expand the spectrum of therapies in as patient-friendly a way as possible.