How old are you? How old am I? Yeah.
I'm 90 years old. What was life like when you were a little girl? Oh, God, I forgot so much.
I can't, I can't. I've forgotten so much. I'm very sorry.
Oh, it's okay. What have you forgotten? I've forgotten what I used to do after I became a young lady.
I've forgotten so much. I can't remember. I've been here 90 years. And if I could remember, I would tell you, but I don't. I can't remember.
I want to try and experiment. What? I want you to try and let the music take you back into your memories. To travel back into time.
And then we'll stop and you can tell me where it took you. Okay. You ready?
That is the young shot. Yes I want to be in that number I went and sang Wow He's singing when the saints go by, marching by, and it takes me back to my school days. I would like to hit the number. Mama told us not to go listen to him. We would sneak off at night.
I bring back pictures from the dance. And I worked in Kings County nine years. You build it in Kings County.
My birthday, November 20th, 1920. That was in the war time. I was working in Fort Jackson. And my son, on February the 4th, was 69. I didn't know I could talk so well.
This is Dan Cohen. Six years ago he volunteered at a nursing home and what he experienced there changed his life. Dan asked me to film him for one day. He wanted to show people what he was seeing.
What was happening when he gave elders with dementia the music they had loved? Music connects people with who they have been, who they are, and their lives. Because what happens when you get old is all the things you're familiar with and your identity are all just being peeled away.
What unfolded that first day moved me so much. I ended up following Dan for three years. Did you work with elderly people before?
Well, I'm a social worker and so I have worked with elderly people when I was actually, for my internship, but it really wasn't most of my life I spent in the computer industry. And this is sort of, for me, putting two things I love together. We really want to learn what music someone's going to really recognize and enjoy.
One of the residents is a resident who likes gospel music. The church was all his life. And I think that we can start with him. Henry, speak to me. I want to hear your voice.
Can you talk to me? So let me hear you. Tell me your full name. Henry has dementia and he needs total assistance with all his activities of daily living.
Hi Papa. Hi Papa. Huh?
How you doing? I'm alright. I'm fine.
Who am I? Huh? Who am I? I'm your daughter. Daughter?
Which one? Wait a minute. I got too many.
I don't know. You got so many? Yes. Maybe granddaughters.
Well, that's what I mean. I don't know. OK, it's Cherry. How long has he been in the nursing home? Approximately 10 years.
It affects him greatly because he was always, you know, fun-loving, singing. You know, every occasion, he would come out with a song. I remember as a child, he used to walk us down the street. me and my brother and he would stop and do singing in the rain.
He would have us jumping and swinging around poles. He was, you know, he was good. He was always into music, you know, always loved singing, dancing. You want your music now? Let's try your music, okay?
And then you tell me if it's too loud or not, okay? Music is inseparable from emotion. So it's not just a physiological stimulus. If it works at all, it will call the whole person, the many different parts of their brain, and the memories and emotions which go with it. I-I suppose to sing with this?
You can if you like. Ohhhhhhh Ohhhhhhh When I first met him, he was very isolated and he used to always sit on the unit with his head like this. He didn't really talk to much people. And then when I introduced the music to him, this is his reaction ever since. Henry waking up did something to all of us Everyone in the room felt it We will follow The philosopher Kant once called music the quickening art and Henry is being quickened, he's being brought to life.
Yeah. I'm gonna take the music for one second, okay? Just to ask you a few questions.
Okay? How awake was he? I'm gonna give it back to you. Was he still lost in his dementia? Or had the music in some way changed that?
Henry? Yeah? Um, do you like the iPod? Do you like the music you're hearing?
Yes. Tell me about your music. Well, I don't have one, I mean.
Ask yes or no questions. Do you like music? Yeah, I'm crazy about music.
You play beautiful music, beautiful sound. Beautiful. Did you play music when you were, did you like music when you were young? Yes, yes, I went to big dances and things.
What was your favorite music when you were young? Well, I guess, well, Cab Calloway was my number one band guy I liked. I did a lot of music.
Henry? Yeah? What was your favorite song?
Oh, I'll be home there for Christmas. You can count on me with plenty of snow. Mr. Toe, present, Reverend Newtree.
Ow! Christmas Eve will carry me Where there's love like beans Henry, what was the favorite part of your life? What was your favorite part of your life?
Part of my life? Part of my life was riding a bicycle. Grocery boy.
What did you like about riding a bicycle? That's where I made my money. So in some sense Henry has reacquired his identity for a while through the power of music.
What does music do to you? Give me the feeling of love. No matter, figure right now the world needs to come into music singing.
You got beautiful music here. Beautiful, oh lovely. And I feel the band of love, dream.
The Lord came to me, made me holy. I'm a holy man. So he gave me these sounds. I'll just say, I meet you.
I'm gonna say, Rosalie, won't you love me? Rosalie, won't you be sweet and kind? Sweet, pretty, kind. What do you think happened with Henry? I mean, what did we just see happening with Henry?
We connected with Henry. We connected with Henry's self. You know, when you're in a nursing home, or when you have Alzheimer's disease, you're really struggling with your own thoughts and confusion. Dan was excited. I was excited.
What if all these people we've seen could be awakened like Henry? All of a sudden everything falls into place and you're right there with the music, you understand it, it's pleasurable. You're not thinking about anything else, you're not struggling. This is no small problem.
There are 5 million people in America with dementia. 10 million people spend a large part of their life caring for them. There are maybe a million people in nursing homes, losing their connection to life.
Let me give you a kiss. Come on sweetheart. Dad, hello, hello, Johnny?
Hey Johnny, how are you? I mean, isn't this desire, a desire to awaken another person to what they are, to what they could be, a deep part of being human? How often does anybody have a chance to affect the lives of a million or more people?
I'm hoping people are ready to come along on this journey. Here you go, you hold this. We all feel music is magic. I feel like I'm one with the world. But for those with dementia, it can be a backdoor into the mind.
The parts of the brain which are involved in remembering music and responding to music are not affected. too much in Alzheimer's disease or other dementias. Part of the reason why musical memories are so strong has something to do with the way music enters our brains in the first place.
Music has more ability to activate more parts of the brain than any other stimulus. Music seems to be a cultural invention which makes use of parts of the brain developed for other purposes. Not only auditory parts, but visual parts, emotional parts, and at a lower level in the cerebellum, or the basic parts for coordination.
When we are young, music records itself in our motions and emotions. Luckily, these are the last parts of the brain touched by Alzheimer's. For the patient. With Alzheimer's, it has to be music which has a meaning for them and is correlated with memory and feeling.
And by exciting or awakening those pathways, we have a gateway to stimulate and reach somebody who otherwise is unreachable. Yeah, it's not an easy life for you. I love you. I love you too.
I have one resident that barely opened her eyes. She didn't respond. As much as I tried, I knew her for two years. No matter what I tried, massage wouldn't work.
Nothing worked. When we got introduced to the iPods and the family told me the things that she liked, it was amazing once we put the iPod on her. She started shaking her feet. She started moving her head.
Her son was just amazed. Okay, can we stop? Because now I'm getting a little... I'm seeing her all over again.
What we're spending on drugs that mostly don't work dwarfs what it would take to deliver personal music to every nursing home resident in America. And now we pause it to start it up again. And hit the button. Couldn't be easier. There you go.
Yes. Okay. So why don't these people have their music already? And why does it take an outsider like Dan to get it for them?
In today's really crazy system, I can sit down and write out a script for a thousand dollar a month antidepressant. No problem. Nobody asks any questions. If I want to provide a person with a $40 personal music system, that will take a lot of work. Because personal music doesn't count as a medical intervention.
You see what I'm saying? It's sort of a side thing over here. The real business, trust me, is in the pill bottle. Open for me? Or help.
The healthcare system imagines the human being to be a very complicated machine. We figured out how to turn the dials. Blood pressure, oh, turn that down, you know?
Blood sugar, oh, turn that down. We have medicines that can adjust the dials. We haven't done anything, medically speaking, to touch the heart and soul of a patient.
Gil? Yes? They want you upstairs.
You have to come take your meds. No, no, no. No, no, you refused this morning, so they want you to come now and take them. No. Listen, you know it's important, okay?
No, no, no. Look how you're acting, okay? You need your medication. Well, Gil is a little different. As you can see, he's a big guy.
He's a strong guy. When he gets agitated, we really need things in place that are going to work and work quickly. My anger manifests itself in very many different ways.
The anger is there, but sometimes I can't express it. I like to think of distress as communication. If you give a highly sedating medication to that kind of a person, you're actually taking away the one avenue they have to tell you they have a problem. And the problem with that is you can turn a person who's engaged into a person who is withdrawn into themselves and no longer able to connect with the world around them.
I wish I had my freedom. It's the most important part. That is what makes me most pissed off.
That I can't go on. I don't know. The thing people lose most is those intangibles. The idea of choice and control.
We're going to do your medicine now, alright? Just every aspect of what am I going to do next is dictated to you in most institutional environments. Drink some of that. And music creates spontaneity that you cannot create in an institution. It takes you to a place where you can leave the regimen and go off in a world that you create and that you connect with on your own terms.
Hi Gil. Hi. I brought you your music that you requested and put it on your ears. Over your head.
Does that fit okay? Yeah. Okay. And here's your iPod.
All you have to do is click the center button one time. I think you're all set. Would you still love to move?
There is no pill that does that. A medicine can dim the spark or the light. It never brings it out. What they need is engagement. They need to succeed in the world around them.
So you want an iPod too? First, what's an iPod? I don't know anything about electronics.
He has his favorite music and it's playing. That's all it is. It's just, it's like your own jukebox.
Let's start. He wants to see what it looks like, the iPod. It's small.
No kidding. Denise is a bipolar schizophrenic. She's been with us for about two years.
I like... super. Everybody is super.
Denise doesn't hold back any emotion. Her joy is off the charts. Unfortunately, so is her sorrow and her anger.
So she's very raw. She's very real. Do you know what I'd like to do?
Denise is probably an extreme resident that we have here. I'm being emphatic, and I have a very vivid imagination. I'm very resilient, and I drop.
And I keep on trying, and I drop. But I never stop! And I drop! One of these days I'm gonna drop and stay on the floor! I'm on four.
I've lived here two years and never four. I couldn't believe the music let Denise push away her walker. She'd been using that walker every day for two years.
I'm Spanish! You're not Spanish! No, I'm not Spanish! I'm following your lead.
I'm having fun! Good! Me too. It's surprising that a little music evokes this much joy.
It only makes sense when you understand their isolation. What happens when they come to a nursing home? What are their losses?
I never thought I would be in a situation like this. They lose their independence. It's sad to say, but sometimes they lose their dignity.
That's it. Sometimes they're dealing with the loss of a loved one. Imagine losing that all in one day. I want to get home. Yeah, you do?
I've been here for the last two or three days. Right? What do you want to do at home? Be with my family. Where are we going?
Right down here. People who have been here for years who have dementia, they'll still tell you, this is not where I live. Yeah, I can go out this way too. Tom has been in this nursing home for five years now. So they're always trying to escape.
I have to go that way. They're looking for the exits. That's one of the most frequently asked questions is, how do I get out of here?
I'd go. I can't get out here either, right? Because this isn't their normal world when they come here. Now they're in this world and this isn't the world that I know.
It's dark. With few choices. Little hope for the future.
No control over the medications flowing through them. Is it any surprise their minds struggle to adapt? People close their eyes and withdraw inward more and more. If the outside world is horrible, I go to the inside to restore my balance.
But after a while, people just become living dead people. They go into vegetation. And this does not have to be. No.
I play it at... I play music. I know, you're a trumpet player, right?
Yeah, and I play in a band. What I've found is that we all have music in us, and when we go through what we go through, like trauma caused by disease, caused by wars, that gets covered up. And... I found a way of accessing that with some people. So it's really to help them find that song that they've covered up from the pain so they can sing again.
Samite was a volunteer. who seem to have a deep understanding of how music can heal trauma. I've had a situation where I was actually overwhelmed. I was in the Congo.
These people were told that this guy is coming to bring music, a healing power of music, which was a little overwhelming because these were about 150 women who had just gone through rape, who had just gone through the worst abuses you could ever imagine. I think I was inspired actually because I picked up the flute and I played a really sad melody and the melody came from the pain that I knew these women had been subjected to. And when I finished the flute I could see tears running down on some of the women's faces. And the next place that I knew that I had to take them was to sing a happy song.
So I kicked into... And soon they started moving a little bit and soon they were clapping. And I'm telling you, three hours later we're still singing.
And now we're all connected. We're all just one body. Everybody just singing. When I go to nursing homes, remember these amazing stories.
But it's always through music that they're able to express themselves and that reminds those people we will have a chance to be happy again. Music had always been a big part of my life. When I was younger, I played the trumpet, I played the organ, I played the piano.
When I went off to college in the early 70s, I had the requisite giant album collection, which I carried through to my marriage. Ended up here. I lost all of my music.
My world became this facility. This is solitary confinement. And every human being needs stimulation from the outside. From little babies to old people.
If you find the music that the people know, there's stimulation communication. And people do not withdraw inward. Like many people in this institution, Steve found himself alone. After eight years of being here, I finally had the opportunity to get my music.
How's that? Good? All of a sudden, Vistas, which I thought were closed to me, opened up. Have you ever had music just hit you in a place that immediately brought you to tears and you don't understand why?
You know, music has that power. I can remember being five years old, hearing this music in the distance, crawling to it. It was Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini.
You know, crawling to the music, laying on the floor and crying. Music touches us all. Okay.
When does our relationship with music begin? 22 days. A single cell jolts to life.
This first beat awakens nearby cells. And incredibly, they all begin to beat in perfect unison. These beating cells divide and become your heart. This desire to beat in unison seemingly fuels our entire lives.
Amazingly, after six months of development, the cerebral cortex is capable of supporting thought. Yeah, all the ladybugs are super cute. Researchers have studied the sounds of newborns and discovered that in their cries are patterns that reflect their mother's speech.
This means that even before we're born, we are learning how to sing with another human being. I wondered how everyone knows that, regardless of what country I'm in. It seems like everyone knows that.
Now how is that possible if it wasn't already inside you? Every child will tend to keep time to music heard or imagined, which you will not see in a chimpanzee. You got it!
Music seems to be almost as quintessentially human as language. This response to a beat may be hardwired and human. And I think almost all human beings will bring out their inherent musicality. 277. You have a little bit of room to grow. I've got a lot of room to grow, considering it will hold 2,000 songs.
That's right. Do you have the piano man? Piano man?
It's thrilling to me to be able to see a person who's been without music for years and then watch how that person comes alive. I mean, as a physician, that's a thrill. But there's something behind that wonderful moment.
I mean, how did that happen in the first place? Why were we able to feed and water and medicate this person but not respond to deeply human needs that he might have? A century ago, they were called nursing homes because you received nursing care, and most of the time it was in a home-like setting. That was before, I guess, our civilization advanced to the point where we created 15,000 nursing homes based on a hospital model. How did this become the way millions of Americans end their life?
The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure. Technology has radically transformed the human environment. Our safety, no longer tied to the home or the village, became tied to something else.
We became urban, and the traditional family structures began to feel pressure and weaken. As a consequence, by the late 1800s, elders in alarming numbers were ending their days in the poorhouse alongside the insane and the homeless. This social security measure gives at least some protection to 30 millions of our citizens who will reap direct benefits through old age pensions. There was a real awareness that older people in America were sick and poor, and a decision was made to support them. Not through the welfare system, but through the health care system.
And so what we had was this incredible shotgun marriage of the poor house and hospital. And that's what nursing homes became. A new industry was born.
This business exploded after the Medicaid Act of 1965. The idea of taking care of elders on a mass scale was something new in human history, and it was bound to run into problems. Early on, there were accusations of warehousing elders, overusing physical restraints, and even when reformers challenged that practice and reduced it, a new problem came up, the overuse of antipsychotic drugs. These drugs aren't designed... ...for use with elders, and yet they're being massively overused in nursing homes. Can you sit here?
Kiss me. Thank you. American nursing homes actually have some of the best people in our nation.
Some of the biggest hearts, most generous spirit, greatest joy and laughter. I love these people. However...
They go to work every day inside an institution that defines people in terms of their diagnoses and their disabilities and thinks of them as patients first, human beings second. He doesn't really initiate conversation. He just kind of exists.
Does he already have music in his room? Does he have a radio, CD player? I don't think he has a radio in his room, no. Okay. And he has dementia?
He has dementia. Johnny, can you tell us, who's this guy? Who's that guy? Is that you when you were in the Navy?
Is that me? Yeah. Do I look like that? Yeah. That's you.
That's not too bad. We had Capitol years and we've got a lot of Tommy Dorsey, big bands, all of this stuff. Let me sort it out by Frank Sinatra.
How about this one? We tried to learn John's story. Who's that guy?
You had the same guy? To help us find his deepest music. I got more muscles.
But how do you do this for someone like John? All right, what about this? We were told a few things.
He played baseball. Oh, boy. He'd been drafted and served at Los Alamos. It was there that the army gave him shots for radiation poisoning. Shots that caused all his hair to fall out.
Lastly, after the war, he performed in Philadelphia under the stage name Larry Stewart. But we couldn't learn this from John. The sensory record, the movie that played only in John's mind called memory, is gone. His love, his dreams, gone.
Who are we without our memory? Oh Johnny, oh Johnny, please don't leave me. Oh Johnny, oh how perfect. Johnny, how you can love?
Oh, Johnny, oh, Johnny Heavens above, you make my sad heart jump with joy And when you're near, I just can't Sit still a minute, I'm so... Oh, Johnny, oh, Johnny, please tell me, dear, what makes me love you so? You're not handsome, it's true, but when I look at you, I just go, Johnny, oh, Johnny, oh. There was no way we could have known there was this much life inside of John.
Some and dainty evenings, you may see someone, you may see your brother. He should have had a voice like him. For Johnny, getting his music. And a little focused attention...
You're quite the singer....was all it took to awaken feelings he hadn't felt in years. I love to do it. Where did you, when did you first sing?
When you were young, did you sing? I don't know. No?
I'm just a small guy. Yeah? I'm crying.
Why? I don't know. I love everybody around here. My gang.
This is my gang. This is your gang? Yeah. Does it make you happy to sing for us? Yeah.
Half the people in nursing homes get no visitors, so it's not like the family can do it. The nursing homes don't really have a ready budget for this. The government does not reimburse for music and iPods, and so it really needs to come from somewhere. So my ultimate goal is to make this a standard of care in all 16,000 nursing homes in the country. That's the goal.
It depends on the nursing home. It depends on how proactive the volunteer department is. Is this something you'd want to explore for your own facility? Well, I have several concerns. That you give it to two people and ten people are going to want it and I'm not going to be able to give it to them.
Frankly, how it's administered. This is a very big place and we have 600 residents here. Cost is also a significant factor that we have to consider in every program.
So tell me, how can I help you today? I'm looking for a donation. One second here.
The research shows it, our experience shows it, there is no doubt that mainstreaming the use of personalized music, using iPods... I spoke to the senior vice president and they... They have a no corporate philanthropy policy. There are 16,000 nursing homes in the United States, and the challenge is getting it out there. And we can really use your help.
Sandra Day O'Connor, talk to him about your project. No, about Alzheimer's, support of Alzheimer's Association. Support for Alzheimer's.
You talked to the man himself? Yeah. And he said no?
Yeah. So what luck am I gonna have? How's the work going? It's uh, it's a struggle. Yeah, no kidding.
I have to tell you, I'm one of the few people who actually really knows how you feel about this. Because a couple of decades ago, I got really charged up by this idea that we could bring plants and animals and children into the lives of elders. I had these same kind of experiences that you described where I could see people come alive.
We had this dream that we'd just go door-to-door, but we couldn't penetrate sort of the fog of the nursing home. What you're doing is outside of conventional practice, and if you're going to be successful going forward, you have to understand how big a barrier that is. We went looking for answers.
It turns out we are not alone. There are lots of people who believe there's something fundamentally wrong with the American nursing home. I think we are part of a movement that is much, much bigger.
I want to work on culture change. I want to support culture change as a national priority. Hi, Bon.
Hey, Dan. What's up? How are you? We value independence and have the hardest time, I believe, of any country with the concept of dependence. And so whereas other folks have integrated aging, we had a unique interest in saying, over there, I don't want to see it.
I don't want to know about it. Why are we changing now? Why are we changing now? Because it's not working. Because it's dehumanizing and I think, quite frankly, I think baby boomers are saying this is not acceptable.
This is not how I want to be treated when I get older. This was inspiring. But are we really interested in changing the way America ages? You might not realize it, but the United States of America has only 6,000 geriatricians in a nation of 300 million people. Even worse, that number is not going up, it's going down.
This is unfortunate timing, because the challenges we're going to have to face are growing. facing an epidemic of neurologic diseases on a global scale. A cheery thought.
On this map, every country that's colored blue has more than 20% of its population over the age of 65. This is the world we live in. And this is the world your children will live in. For 12,000 years, the distribution of ages in the human population has looked like a pyramid with the oldest on top.
It's already flattening out. By 2050, it's going to be a column and will start to invert. And this is why that's not entirely a good thing.
Because over the age of 65, your risk of getting Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease will increase exponentially. There are five million Alzheimer's patients in the United States. In the next ten years, that number will come close to doubling.
We do not have the facilities, we do not have the resources, financial or otherwise, to cope with that number of people suffering from dementia. We have to find a way to help them age in place in a healthy manner. It's a for a... Knife?
No, fork or spoon? She says we just don't understand. And I think that's probably true. You end up being dependent on someone else for everything that you do. You can no longer write your name.
You struggle reading. You lose small motor control. You can't even remember how to get in and out of your apartment or the elevator.
So do you remember where is the elevator? Maybe it's here? Yeah, it could be, yes. Okay.
Yes, I think so. Let's press. Okay.
We go down or up? We have to go down. Okay, so do you want to press for me?
Oh yes, here. This one? Down, that's up. I'm not sure. So that's down.
This is down, yes. Okay. Oh, did I do that badly?
I don't think so. Do you see the light? Yeah, I can see the light.
Okay. Oh beautiful look at that I gotcha, I gotcha, didn't I? For Mary Lou loving her grandson is easy It's just everything else that is hard. But surprisingly, even deep inside Alzheimer's, her capacity for love and affection remains strong. I have lots of people to talk to me and do all that kind of thing.
So, yeah. Are you sad because other people don't have that? Yeah. Of course, because how could I do things if I didn't have people with me?
So, that's the... This is a hard journey for you, huh? Yeah.
Well, my husband, he's wonderful. Would you like to hear some music? Would you like to listen to some music? Sure, why not?
What do you have, Dan? Here you go. I don't know how to do this. Straight over your ears and your head. Perfect.
See the little button in the middle? That's that? Yeah, right in the middle.
Click it once. There you go. I can get around, get around, get around, round, round, I can get around, get around, round, round, I can get around, round, round, I can get around, round, round, I can get around, round, round, I can get around, round, round, I can get around, round, round, I can get around, round, round, I can get around, round, round, I can get around, round, round, I can get around, round, round, I can get around, round, round, I can get around, round, round, I can get around, round, round, round, I can get around, round, round, round, I can get around, round, round, round, I can get around, round, round, round, I can get around, round, round, round, round, I can get around, round, round, round, round, round, I can get a Go.
Get out there. Go with me. All right.
I always take my car cause it's never been beat and we've never missed yet I need more You want to stop the music? Oh, thank you so much Okay It was, I'm so glad to get it Thank you And I love it Very nice to hear. Okay, so there's tears of joy.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Just wanted to make sure. Oh, yeah. That's the best thing I've ever had, this thing.
I don't know how to say it. It's just... It can't get away from me if I'm in this place.
I thought you were going to grow wings. I was trying. We wanted to believe that music would help Mary Lou stay with her family longer. We didn't know if it could do this until we met Norman and Nell.
Nell and I have been able to avoid long-term care for a number of years. By trying to keep her constantly stimulated. Music has been an enormous part of it. Then you'll play the piano for us? Yes, but I just want to be with you a lot.
Okay. Do you mind? Absolutely not. I love that.
Norman has cared for Nell at home for ten years without drugs. Without personalized music, Nell would be in an institution. I've spent 38 years now working on Alzheimer's disease and I haven't done anything for patients that's as effective as the music therapy is. I wish I had and I'm still trying but I really haven't seen anything as positive as that.
Mary Lou and Nell have family. Imagine having to navigate this on your own, far from your home. Denise got a message to us that she wanted us to come back. I'm having fun. That she had something to tell us.
And we came. Dad, how are you? I'm fine, how are you?
Because we knew no one else visits her. It's a letter from the hospital describing her condition. Metastasis. That means that it has spread.
Yes. So because of that, I think it is very serious. It is very serious. You know, life goes on. It goes on!
Whether you die or... It goes on! And I... I cannot accept that I don't leave something in this world for somebody. I cannot accept that! Do you understand what I'm saying?
It's painful to feel that what you have to give is not needed. That there's no one there to receive your gifts. In our past, in all our stories, in other cultures. Elderhood had something to give and there was always someone there who needed what elders had to give.
Is this true in our new world? Does elderhood have a place? We're taught from a very early age that adulthood is the pinnacle of existence. And that older people are really just broken down versions of their former incredible selves. We've built a culture that prizes individuals who are able to emulate the success of machines.
They can be machine-like in how they live. This is not good news for aging, I have to say. Because aging is not a machine-like endeavor.
It's the fact that they're moving into a different way of living that causes America to put them away, to hide them away. What I've learned over a career of working with older people is that American culture is wrong. There is actually life beyond adulthood. There's actually the opportunity to live and grow and become elders. Every Indian people, also all world people, very happy, very happy.
All the Shiva happy. Boli hara hara hara maha. We are made to age.
And the aging that we experience actually holds in it very important learnings and lessons. There is a touch that takes a lifetime to achieve. Locking this touch away is like stripping from ourselves part of being human.
These people that we see in this nursing home, their spirits are dumped on because we're locking them away. But when you bring the music, that spirit is what you see that comes out. The spirit is still fresh and young. My pain is very painful. Oh, sorry.
But you know what? What? I can take a lot of pain.
You look like a very strong person. Very slowly. Isn't it? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm It's not something you can just reach on. You have to completely open yourself up.
You give yourself. And once you give yourself, then it opens up dialogue. Take this off, please.
Now when you go back to Uganda, they'll ask you who gave you that. What are you going to say? The strongest woman I've ever met.
Dan was breaking through. He received a grant to give matching funds to 35 nursing homes. And this time The nursing homes were lining up. Gosh, how many different states is this going to be? That's just amazing.
Oh, yeah. Here we have 50 headphones, and this represents 50 changed lives. It's great. A lot of music. After three years of filming, Dan had music in 56 homes.
We knew this was just a drop in the bucket. Just changing something in a nursing home somewhere, it doesn't take you far enough. Our real focus of concern needs to be the 1.6 million people who are living in nursing homes and how to make the lives of everyone better.
I thought this was just going to be... just like that. People would just take the idea and run with it.
They didn't. I left Dan knowing he would never stop. I hoped maybe he'd reach the right person, and they would help him, and this dream of his would come true.
We first see Henry unresponsive and almost unalive. Henry? Yes, sir? I've got your music. Then he has given up his favorite music.
And immediately he lights up, his face assumes expression, his eyes open wide, and he's being animated by the music. This is his reaction every sense. Do you like music? Yeah, I'm crazy about music. You play beautiful music, beautiful sounds.
What does music do to you? Give me the feeling of love. No matter, figure right now, the world needs to come into it. music singing you got beautiful music here and uh a beautiful band of love dreams you know that little video that I made for Dan right um I think some kid posted it onto reddit.com and it's insane And I'm getting smacked. I'm behind by 85 emails.
85 people contacted me. And if I had 300 people, I mean it's just, you know... Man, you just gotta, you gotta scroll down and just read what these people are saying.
I'm... You've never heard anybody write anything like this. It's like, it's crazy. My grandma is very much like Henry. I've been trying nearly everything to get her more alert and happy.
My grandfather died three days ago. Music has so much power. Patsy Cline.
Her eyes lit up instantly and the smile on her face made my day. I haven't cried yet, but this is... made me start tearing up. She was so emotional. Maybe if this worked for Henry, it could work for my grandmother.
When the music ended, my mother looked up and she saw him. I'll hold that memory forever. The music carried her away.
I have to do this. I'm going home to see my mother with Alzheimer's. She is at this moment listening to Ray Charles sing, Come Rain or Come Shine, and she has found her place in the world again.
Music back in your life mama. Were you surprised that clip went viral? I mean millions and millions of people have seen it. People just they watched it.
They saw a human being come alive and when any of us come alive it touches us deeply. That's why we want to involve the community both in getting iPods donated and having the students come into the nursing homes to work with the residents, find their playlist. We've been afraid to enter these places. Afraid of aging. Afraid of having nothing to give.
But music, entering one 94-year-old man, reminded us... We do have something to give. All we have to do is ask. What's your favorite song?
Vinnie, what's your favorite song? What's your favorite song? What was your favorite song? Remember this?
Yeah, that's a lovely one. That's a beautiful song. Beautiful. Well, I have to have that one.
That's my cell. Look how fast her mind is responding to her songs. That's big. In music, Mary Lou feels like she's perfect again. Like she's flowing through life.
And so it is for all of us. Music gives us something we hunger deeply for. Something we've pursued for thousands of years. We wired our very brains for.
We need music. It awakens in us our most profound safety. The safety of living in concert with each other and our own selves. What happens to you when you hear it?
When you hear it? I feel good. It's like I got a girl.
I want to stay with her. And that is why, together, we're going to do this one small kindness. We're going to bring life into the places where it's been forgotten.
And together, Whoa! we will listen. You have a beautiful voice.
Oh, darling,