Whether we realize it or not, our bodies take their cues from the sounds around us. We are pumped up in exercise class to a certain type of music, while another track helps us focus when we study or work.
You may not know it, but the sounds you hear in the morning can have an effect on your entire day. Listening to a jackhammer, even for only 5 minutes, will make your body and mind react differently than, say, listening to the soothing sound of trickling water or classical music.
Every single one of the ancient civilizations used sound as a means of therapy. It goes all the way back to Egyptian pharaohs who used the power of chanting to heal rheumatic pains, as well as cure infertility and depression.
The ancient Greeks believed music had the power to heal the body and soul. They’re famous for using the flute and lyre in their treatments of illnesses.
Modern science now believes that sounds, rhythms and vibrations have the ability to help us prevent and recuperate from an assortment of ailments.
Whether it’s in the form of humming, chanting, using tuning forks or Tibetan singing bowls, listening to classical music, or belting out one of your favorite tunes, sound has the power to set your mood, guide your thoughts and heal you from the inside out.
What is Sound?
“Each celestial body, in fact each and every atom, produces a particular sound on account of its movement, its rhythm or vibration. All these sounds and vibrations form a universal harmony in which each element, while having its own function and character, contributes to the whole.” – Pythagoras (569-475 BC)
Sound is a form of energy so intoxicating and influential that can convey love and distress, or cause pain and destruction. In their simplest form, sounds are waves, or vibrations, that flow through the air and provide us with one of the most effectually vital ways we ha ve of communicating with others via their nervous system.
The nervous system is the body’s control center. It receives messages from the brain then delegates to various parts of the body to react in any given situation.
For example, how you react when you hear a fire alarm is completely different from how you react when you hear your alarm clock go off; both are sounds but your nervous system understands that the former means danger, which tells your body to go into fight-or-flight mode, while the latter simply signals the start of a new day.
We can’t discuss sound without mentioning Dr. Masaru Emoto, graduate of the Yokohama Municipal University’s Department of Humanities and Sciences and author of the bestselling book The Hidden Messages in Water. Dr. Emoto ran sound experiments on water which yielded some very astonishing, yet pleasing, results.
He quickly gained worldwide acclaim for his groundbreaking research and his discovery that water particles are very much affected by vibrational sounds.
Dr. Emoto reached the conclusion that any sound is essentially vibration, which means that music, and positive sounds are a form of healing energy. His research team also found out that thoughts give out vibrations as well, even though they weren’t able to determine the frequencies at which thoughts vibrate.
Nonetheless, they reached the conclusion that our thoughts have power over us; positive ones heal, negative ones debilitate.
What is Sound Therapy?
“Whether or not we hear it, everything has a sound, a vibration all its own.” – Joshua Leeds, The Power of Sound (2001)
The sounds that Leeds is referring to are called resonance, which is the frequency at which any object vibrates. Every part of our bodies has a natural resonance of its own. Thus vibrational medicine is based on the idea that disease (no matter what its cause may be) means that a person’s natural resonances are out of tune.
This could be due to stress, illness, or environmental factors. The way sounds can be used as a form of therapy is by the use of sound frequencies that are heard and felt by the body and mind with the intention of bringing them into a state of harmony.
Sound healers, sometimes called sounders, know that sound has physiological effects since vibrations aren’t only heard, but felt as well. It’s these vibrations that lower heart rate, relax brain-wave patterns, and decrease stress hormones.
That’s one reason Mitchell Gaynor, MD, an oncologist and assistant clinical professor at Cornell University’s Weill Medical College in New York, uses singing bowls with his cancer patients.
Gaynor believes sound therapy is becoming more and more popular as people gear towards the humanization of medicine, where the person as a whole is being treated, not just one specific part, and not simply the symptoms.
Experts believe that the ear is the most fundamental of all the organ senses. For starters, it controls the body’s sense of balance, which makes it the conductor of the entire nervous system. Studies show that listening to music is more effective than prescription drugs in reducing anxiety prior to surgery.
This is one of the reasons why music is slowly being given recognition as an effective form of treatment. It poses as an outlet for our emotions, plus the rhythm and frequency of music is very successful at treating physical ailments. In spite of all that, it still remains fairly unchartered territory.
“We’ve found compelling evidence that musical interventions can play a health-care role in settings ranging from operating rooms to family clinics,” says Daniel Levitin, author of the book, This Is Your Brain On Music.
Research proves that listening to music increases the efficiency of your immune system. It also has the ability to decrease cortisol levels, the stress hormone. “This is one reason why music is associated with relaxation,” Levitin says.
Recent studies also show that there is a direct link between music and how it dramatically soothes pediatric patients. “There is growing scientific evidence showing that the brain responds to music in very specific ways,” says Lisa Hartling, PhD, professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta and lead author of the study. “Playing music for kids during painful medical procedures is a simple intervention that can make a big difference.”
Music can help adult patients, as well. In Singapore at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, music therapists worked with patients in a live music therapy session by singing, song writing, or playing an instrument. The musical interventions were specifically tailored to meet each patient’s needs who reported feeling relief from ongoing pain they had previously suffered from. They also were more accepting of serious illness and their repercussions.
“Active music engagement allowed the patients to reconnect with the healthy parts of themselves, even in the face of a debilitating condition or disease-related suffering,” says music therapist Melanie Kwan, co-author of the study and president of the Association for Music Therapy, Singapore. “When their acute pain symptoms were relieved, patients were finally able to rest.”
Another study carried out at the University of Toronto by Lee Bartel, PhD, along with several other researchers at the Faculty of Music explores how much sound vibrations absorbed by the body can help lessen the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, depression and even fibromyalgia.
This type of therapy, known as vibroacoustic, consists of using low frequency sounds to generate vibrations that are applied to the body. During therapy, the patient lies on a bed or sits in a chair that has been embedded with speakers, much like sitting on a subwoofer.
These speakers transmit vibrations set at certain frequencies to be heard or felt. The frequencies are generated by a computer and have been tailored to meet each patient’s specific needs.
“Since the rhythmic pulses of music can drive and stabilize this disorientation, we believe that low-frequency sound might help with these conditions. Only when we look at it in this way do we start to see the interface to how the brain and body work together,” Bartel, Professor of Music and former Associate Dean, states.
He is leading a study using vibroacoustic therapy with patients who suffer from mild Alzheimer’s disease. The hope is that using the therapy to restore normal communication among brain regions may allow for a greater capacity of retrieving memories and their cognitive skills.
“We’ve already seen glimmers of hope in a case study with a patient who had just been diagnosed with the disorder,” Bartel says. “After stimulating her with 40-hertz sound for 30 minutes three times a week for four weeks, she could recall the names of her grandchildren more easily, and her husband reported good improvement in her condition.”
How Sound Therapy Works
Sound helps to enable changes in our brainwave state by using entrainment. Entrainment basically refers to the brain’s electrical response to rhythmic sensory stimulation. Entrainment coordinates our fluctuating brainwaves by providing a stable frequency on which the brain can re-tune itself to through the use of rhythm and frequency.
Only then, can we downshift our brain waves from being in their normal beta state (normal waking consciousness) to alpha (relaxed consciousness).
Sound therapy even has the ability to help the brain reach its theta state (deep meditative state) and go as far as reaching the delta state (sleep; where internal healing can occur).
Sound waves move through water at least 5 times more efficiently than through the air. In addition, since water in the human body accounts for at least 50-65%, this makes the human body the perfect vessel for reaping all the benefits sound therapy has to offer.
These benefits are encouraging and more importantly, immediate. Sound therapy allows your mind and body to relax and slow down somewhat in today’s hustle and bustle way of life that’s chock full of stress and anxiety.
Yet this type of alternative medicine does so much more than just put you in a good mood. It has the ability to help and heal many ailments and chronic conditions, which you may have accepted as part of your everyday life.
Below are three sound therapy techniques that you can try on your own at home or with a sound specialist at a clinic.
Toning, Chanting and Humming
Yogic chanting and saying ‘ah’ or ‘om’ slowly and deliberately, also known as toning, is the first step to meditation. It’s also a means of maintaining optimal well-being and releasing repressed emotions.
- Research shows that chanting can stabilize heart rate, lower blood pressure, improve circulation, produce endorphins, and promote metabolism.
- It also helps the mind focus, and aids decrease stress levels.
- Humming, which is one form of chanting, can directly affect the neurological system, along with tissues and cells. This is because these intonations create vibrations that resonate within your body and help your cells relax and be at their healthiest. It also optimizes your muscles as well as the nervous system.
- Humming is also an excellent way to clear your thoughts; in addition, studies show that it may also help keep your sinuses clear and healthy.
- Done on a regular basis, toning and humming helps revitalize the body and restore health to the mind and spirit.
This form of sound therapy has a neurochemical effect on the body, which boosts the immune system and the release of endorphins (our “happy” hormones). Two more benefits of chanting and humming that are often overlooked are that they assist in good breathing and good posture.
Furthermore, it’s believed that the muscles of the digestive system are stimulated by regular toning.
The Power of Music
“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” – Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
No other form of creativity has the lasting power of music because it speaks to us in so many different ways – healing, inspiring, moving, and uniting us.
- Music can make us shout with excitement, dance with ease and shed tears in pain.
- We can rely on music more than we care to admit. Over and over again, we turn to music to ease pain, for a trip down memory lane or when we want to focus on work.
- It enhances our rest, boosts our creativity and work performance. It can alter our emotions, stimulate our brains, and improve our health, productivity, and wellbeing.
- It can also promote movement, dance, and a higher degree of fitness.
As French poet Victor Hugo said, “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”
It’s now becoming more popular than ever for hospitals to use music therapy for its healing benefits, to ease patients’ pain, reduce depression and anxiety, as well as lower blood pressure.
In a 2007 survey of U.S. health facilities by the Society for the Arts in Healthcare, along with the Joint Commission and Americans for the Arts, found that of 1,923 healthcare facilities, 35% offered music of some type to patients.
Below are various studies that show the benefits of music therapy:
- In Helsinki, Finland, severe stroke patients admitted to a hospital listened to recorded music for at least an hour a day. Their verbal memory recovered faster, and felt less depression, than those who didn’t listen to anything.
- At the New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, premature
babies who listened to 2 hours of recorded classical music each week had lowered their heart rate and helped induce sleep. - In Australia, terminally ill patients had less anxiety, pain, and drowsiness after having a single music therapy session compared to those who didn’t listen to music.
- Other studies have shown music therapy beneficial in the treatment of autism, learning disabilities, dementia, and pain management during labor and birth.
- The Mozart Effect by Don Campbell shows how music, especially Mozart and Vivaldi’s, has the power to improve our power of concentration, enhance our ability to focus and look at a problem from various angles.
- Pachelbel’s Cannon, for example, helps slow down our breathing because the human heartbeat tends to match the rhythm of the music. It changes brain wave patterns from beta to alpha, which helps calm the nervous system, and has a direct effect on our metabolism and immune system.
There is an increase in the rate of development of synaptic connections in young children’s minds when they listen to classical music. Synapses are the spaces located in your cells that take any and all information traveling from one cell to the other and passes it on safe and sound.
These synaptic connections are what help us stay more focused, more alert, are able to concentrate better, and have stronger memory skills. As we age, our synaptic connections tend to weaken and some even wither away.
Moreover, without strong, healthy synapses, information can’t get from one cell to the other, which is what happens in diseases as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Play an Instrument
Very much like other extracurricular activities, learning to play music is a way for children to develop important life skills. Yet what sets music apart from other after-school activities is that kids gain self-confidence as well as a sense of accomplishment.
Their brain also benefits dramatically as a result of learning to play any type of instrument. However, there are certain instruments that create vibrations which are more soothing to the body since these vibrations play a vital part in healing body and mind.
They also help improve memory and decrease stress, all by synchronizing our brain waves with the help of their rhythms. It’s worth pointing out that 75% of Silicon Valley’s CEOs had instrumental music education as children.
Effects On the Brain
When you play a musical instrument and read sheet music, you activate regions in all 4 of the cortex’s lobes. This results in the following benefits:
- Test scores significantly increase
- Spatial reasoning increases by 46%
- IQ scores increase up to 7 points
- Provides children with discipline and patience, motivation, persistence
- The motor cortex is involved when holding and playing an instrument
- The prefrontal cortex controls expression, behavior and decision making
- Enhances the area of the brain involved with emotional reaction to music
- Hand-eye coordination increases tenfold
- The hippocampus is involved in memory-making, experiences and context
- The auditory cortex engages listening skills to perceive and analyze tones when listening to different tones and sounds
- The sensory cortex controls tactile feedback while playing an instrument
- The body’s production of the antibody immunoglobulin A and natural killer cells which attack invading viruses increases
- Boosts the immune system
The Healing Power of Vibration
Science shows us that the human body is a vibrational frequency entity. Each cell puts out frequencies, and takes them in. Sick, damaged cells are seen as those that are ‘out of tune’.
Sound therapy has the ability to introduce your brain to the right type of frequencies. What happens next is that the brain sends these frequencies to any and all out-of-tune cells where they are given the chance to repair and heal themselves; in other words, you get a “tune-up” of the whole body.
Health Benefits of Vibration
Physical Benefits
- Relief from chronic pain
- Relief from headaches and migraines
- Improved sense of balance
- Decreased sensitivity to particular sounds
Emotional Benefits
- Anxiety relief
- Boosts confidence
- Less frustration
- Improved ability to relax
- Improved mood
- Increased patience
- Better communication skills
- Improved ability to express emotions
Mental Benefits
- Brain ‘fog’ dissipates
- Increased focus
- More motivation
- Increased creativity and improved ability to brainstorm
- Improved attention span
- Better organization skills
- Increased self-esteem
Conclusion
Therapists believe that, just like yoga and meditation, sound therapy will soon enter the mainstream seeing that it’s at the cutting edge of healing.
The good news is that it doesn’t even have to be restricted to tuning forks and singing bowls; all you need is to hum, sing, play an instrument or just go for a walk in the park, and listen closely to nature’s own healing rhythms.
