Can the musical power of Kate Bush fight a version of Vecna which exists in real life, just as it does in Stranger Things?

Welcome to Science Blast, where we quickly explain the interesting areas where pop culture meets real science.

In the first part of Season 4 of Netflix’s wildly popular science fiction horror series Stranger Things, music plays a critical role to the plot in how it is able to counteract the dark forces of the upside down.

When part 1 of Season 4 first released you likely noticed the song Running up that Hill by Kate Bush trending - because of how it factors into a truly powerful moment of the show - in which the character of Max Mayfield, played by Sadie Sink, is able to be pulled from the clutches of the monster called Vecna at the last second - through the way her favorite song is able to reach her mind in ways unmatched by words, or other stimuli.

There is, in many ways, a real-world parallel to Vecna - who like the other antagonists of stranger things gets his name from Dungeons and Dragons - where he is an undead Lich, a master of necrosis and living death, and his spell - a condition in which people are sometimes said to be locked into the recesses of their minds, experiencing times and places not representative of reality, and facing fear and confusion as a result. And, like Vecna’s trance, it is fatal.

This condition, of course, is Alzheimer’s - a leading cause of death and a disease estimated to impact over 6 million people in the US and tens of millions more worldwide. And, much like the trance that the characters in Stranger Things experience, one of the only tools that provide some relief is music - specifically, music that has made an impact on that person in the past.

In 2013, researchers at the University of Salamanca in Spain conducted an experiment in which one set of Alzheimer’s patients were stimulated with familiar music, and another set of patients was stimulated with unfamiliar music. The results were striking.

According to Scientific American, “Those who heard tunes they knew showed an immediate improvement in identity, mood, moral judgment and body awareness—elements of self-consciousness that are adversely affected by Alzheimer's. Those who listened to unfamiliar music scored worse on all measures except body awareness.”

You may have actually seen this related and incredible video, from the documentary film Alive Inside, which shows the impact music can have on those losing their hold on reality.

After visiting Victor Creel in Pennhurst asylum, Nancy and Robin actually describe what may be happening here well. Just as music in the show connects Max to her memories and that is what grants her temporary reprieve. That is precisely the effect music can have on those with dementia.

But, it’s important to note that at the end of Episode 4, Vecna has still not been eliminated. And it’s the same with Alzheimer’s. In real life Kate Bush, as magical as she definitely is, can not defeat this evil alone - only delay it, and you can actually help, by supporting the charities working on developing therapies to truly overcome Vecna’s curse.

And there is some good news. Promising research demonstrating that not just music, but light, sounds, and other safe and cheap stimuli in the right combinations, could be used to combat dementia like Alzheimer’s, and perhaps even reverse it.

In a way, Vecna is real. And you can fight him, just as a lot of us did, when we were kids.

If you have someone you care for suffering from these terrible maladies, play them a song that they love, And if you can: support charities like ours at Lifespan.io - that are working on therapies and technologies that could one day overcome such diseases.

We are all running up that hill together, and together we could potentially throw Vecna down it for good. No problems.

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► Alive Inside: http://www.aliveinside.us/
► Music & Memory: https://musicandmemory.org/resources/
► Papers: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... / https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
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