Sound can set a mood. The soundtrack in aerobics class gets us moving, for example, while the one in yoga promotes quiet concentration. Sound also has a powerful effect on how we feel throughout the day. Our bodies and minds react differently to the unrelenting noise of a jackhammer than to a trickle of water in a creek.
In other words, some sounds simply make us feel better than others. Whether our conscious minds are paying attention or not, our bodies take their cues from these sounds and rhythms, knowing when to get energized and when to slow down.
Now, a growing body of research suggests that when used in a directed way, sound can also help us reduce stress, create a deep sense of well-being and even promote healing. From playing Bach in the nursery to yogic chanting in the oncologist’s office, sound therapy is gaining popularity as both a preventative medicine and as a complement to more-traditional treatments. Good for both the mind and the body, it has been shown to help lift depression, clear sinuses and help cancer patients recover more quickly from chemotherapy.
Good Vibrations
The idea that sound affects the health of the mind and body is not new. Chanting and mantra recitation have been part of Hindu spirituality and the healing power of yoga for thousands of years. Given the recent interest in mind-body medicine, it’s not surprising that this ancient tradition is experiencing a modern-day renaissance.
So what, exactly, is it?
Using the human voice and objects that resonate to stimulate healing (think tuning forks and singing bowls), sound therapy is one of a growing number of subtle-energy therapies that make up the field of vibrational medicine. According to the law of physics, everything vibrates: the chair you’re sitting in, the food you eat, the rocks and trees.
“Whether or not we hear it, everything has a sound, a vibration all its own,” writes Joshua Leeds in The Power of Sound (Healing Arts Press, 2001).
That sound is called resonance, the frequency at which an object naturally vibrates. Each part of our bodies has its own natural resonance, and vibrational medicine is based on the idea that disease is a result of those natural resonances getting out of tune – whether due to stress, illness or environmental factors.
As opposed to the highly focused and fast vibrations used in ultrasound (a technology already employed in hospitals to break up kidney stones and check on the health of fetuses, for example), sound therapy works more gently – but just as powerfully – to return the body’s own vibrations to their natural states.
Getting In Tune
But does it work? Yes, say sound therapists, who have successfully treated everything from stress to Parkinson’s disease to hormonal problems. Jonathan Goldman, director of the Sound Healers Association in Boulder, Colo., has seen tuning forks alleviate many maladies, including headaches and misaligned vertebrae. Diáne Mandle, a certified sound healer in Encinitas, Calif., uses Tibetan singing bowls to bring her clients’ bodies back in tune.
In her article “Sound Healing With Tibetan Bowls,” first published by the Holistic Health Network, Mandle writes that her clients have experienced “relief from pain and discomfort, clearing of sinuses, shifting out of depression, [improved] ability to sleep . . . , revitalization and clarity, feeling of well-being, great connectedness, and deep personal transformation.”
Sounds good, right? And perhaps a little strange?
“Using forks and bowls for anything other than dinner may seem to some people like New Age nonsense,” writes Stephanie Rosenbloom in a November 2005 article in The New York Times. “But healers, sometimes called sounders, argue that sound can have physiological effects because its vibrations are not merely heart but also felt. And vibrations, they say, can lower heart-rate variability, relax brain-wave patterns and reduce respiratory rates.”
Stress hormones decrease under these conditions, which is good news for everyone, but especially for people with a serious illness. 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 sees sound as part of a broader trend toward the humanization of medicine in which the whole person, not just the part that’s broken, is addressed.
“I believe that sound can play a role in virtually any medical disorder, since it redresses imbalances on every level of physiologic functioning,” he writes in his book The Healing Power of Sound: Recovery from Life-Threatening Illness Using Sound, Voice and Music (Shambhala, 1999).
The Future of Healing
Sound therapy, many experts say, is at the cutting edge of healing. And soon, they insist, like yoga and meditation, it will enter the mainstream.
The truth is, you’re probably already using sound therapy in your life. Several years ago, three out of four people who responded to a Prevention magazine health survey said that they listen to music to ease tension and stress. Of those, 82 percent reported that it brought them significant relief.
So even if you’re not interested in investing in a fancy tuning fork or a singing bowl, sound healing is still available to you. The next time you need a little pick-me-up or mellow-me-out, hum a little tune, or, better yet, go for a walk and enjoy nature’s own healing harmonies.
Which research papers? Can you direct me to some so that I can read them?
Hi John! There are a few information sources cited throughout the article that will point to the specific research used in those materials. Specifically the books the Power of Sound and The Healing Power of Sound: Recovery from Life-Threatening Illness Using Sound, Voice and Music, and the Prevention magazine health survey.
I never knew that sound has physiological effects since vibrations can lower your heart-rate. My sister over the last couple of months has been wanting to use different methods of healing using sound like singing bowls. I’ll have to keep researching to learn more about it and help her get the tools for it.
My son recently experienced a TBI traumatic brain injury. I think this would help him a lot. Loud noises really bother him. Extremely interested
I wish you would have had a few different sounds for listening samples.
Thank you for your time effort and information
What about electronic sound waves, how (if) they effect the brain? I ran some test today to see if I felt anything from some sound waves I came across. More tests will be needed, but you all might be on to something here. – JE
How does this technology solve a real-world issue ?
Had trial of ‘sound from bowls’ after yoga today. Have very painful feet. The vibrations seemed to alleviate the pain for several hours. Hmmm, I am a natural sceptic but I got brief relief…who knows. Drs do not have a handle on why I have disabling foot ankle pain. Also, get brief relief from Reflexology Massage but difficult to find anyone who really knows what they are doing. Definitely operator dependant. Will try the vibrating bowls again, this time getting low back and entire legs
Sounds true!
The Gong is a master instrument for Sound Healing.
Greetings,
Star
Music can be therapeutic from two different understandings. 1) from positive emotions. From the ages of 1-6 (and even pre-natal), the brain is subjected to music from parental understanding. The modality of most Western music is Mixolydian: hypate hypaton–paramese (b–b′)
Lydian: parhypate hypaton–trite diezeugmenon (c′–c″)
Phrygian: lichanos hypaton–paranete diezeugmenon (d′–d″)
Dorian: hypate meson–nete diezeugmenon (e′–e″)
Hypolydian: parhypate meson–trite hyperbolaion (f′–f″)
Hypophrygian: lichanos meson–paranete hyperbolaion (g′–g″)
Common, Locrian, or Hypodorian: mese–nete hyperbolaion or proslambnomenos–mese (a′–a″ or a–a′)
Of course the most common being Aeolian and Phrigian (minor & Major), and most Western music is written in these modes. As a small child has no knowledge of these, the brain uploads the data supplied to it and sets the emotions which it sees through sight, as the standard to an emotional response to have based on Major or minor modes.
And 2) from the understanding of cymatics, we can see how frequency, vibration and amplitude/energy moves matter. This effects the body in many ways. Dr Bruce Lipton “It is ABSOLUTELY happening that sound waves, from ANY source has a great effect on our cellular structure and DNA.” It is from ALL sound waves, including the music we listen to, which effects our bodies. We may be emotionally attached to a song, ie; ” Oh! I feel so energetic when I hear this song.” But in reality, it is the emotions which are influenced from historic values while growing up that most music causes the chemicals in our bodies to be charged. It is possible to be listening to music which emotionally makes us feel good, but from a cymatic standpoint, could be detrimental to the electrical system, causing the body to work harder.
I’m a jazz flutist and have been playing music wellness programs for many years, hired as an “entertainer” yet working more as a healer, doing everything from senior center concerts to bedside solos at hospices. I enjoyed this article very much. I would just add that not only classical music but also any popular music that has significance in a person’s life has far-reaching healing power. I “profile” people (yes, not politically correct!) in order to figure what songs they may have enjoyed as an adolescent/young adult, because those songs stay with us in a different way than other music, and are always uplifting when we hear them later in our lives. I call it “personally significant music”.
Healing sounds are the most effective, affordable and easy alternative to release pain and perilous diseases. Sound therapy helps people to regain the peace of mind and relaxes the nerves. This is a natural process which has no side effects.
Great post Karen!
Fascinated with sounds that heal.