By Olivia Syers-
The expression “seeing is believing” advocates sight as the key player in our connection to the external world. For our ancestors however, the ears, not eyes, told of what lay beyond the campfire light.
Sound has the profound ability to relax, enchant, and unite us. It can also haunt, shock and terrify. A primordial quality that touches us deeply, it is hardly surprising then that in the last
decades, the employment of sound to exert power and control has risen. From dispersing crowds, to blasting songs on repeat at Guantanamo Bay: sound can be a tool of torture and coercion. Even
current noise pollution levels can cause ‘sonic fatigue’ accompanied by physical and psychological
symptoms.
Incidentally, human abilities to better harness its potential to heal and liberate have also increased.
Overlooked for centuries, but now re-entering the mainstream, there are a multitude of ways we
use sound therapeutically. From Hippocrates (aka the Father of Western Medicine) using sound to treat mental health, to ultrasound in hospitals today, the use of sound for health and happiness is everywhere!
A LIFE OF SOUND
Author and researcher Eileen Mckusick wrote that “The human body is wired to be exquisitely sensitive to sound highlights the impact sound has on our being. The faculty of hearing is the first sense to develop in utero, and the last to depart before death.”
Human beings are susceptible to sound on a psychological, emotional and physiological level, with the ‘right’ sounds encouraging us into a more harmonious state. Think of a baby drifting off to a mother’s lullaby, or the gentle lapping of waves on the beach calming our mood.
Compare that to the relentless hammering of a pneumatic drill outside your office window.
When such a pervasive sound ceases, every fibre of our being sighs with relief. The tension being
held onto subsides. It is easy to see how undesired sound can cause health and well-being to suffer, and having no ‘earlids’ unlike our eyes, we cannot shut off sound. This means we often
underestimate how vulnerable we really are to it.
SOUND THROUGH TIME
Sound and music are found in all cultures and natural healing systems, with many different sound making instruments. One of the oldest instruments is the didgeridoo or ‘Yidaki’, dating back tens of thousands of years. Stories passed down through the Aboriginal people of Australia tell of the deep vibrations healing broken bones, muscle tears and many other ailments. The very low sounds are heard audibly but also felt by the body if close enough. A bit like a thumping car bass rattling your bones.
Didgeridoo, the Yidaki is the iconic sound of Australia, played by many Aboriginal people across Australia and around the world
Sound Healing
Sound healing was big in Ancient Egypt and Greece, with some very worthy names such as
Pythagoras, Hippocrates, and Aristotle proclaiming curative properties. Iamblichus stated:
‘Pythagoras considered that music contributed greatly to health, if used in the right way…He called his method ‘musical medicine’… with certain melodies composed to cure the passions of the psyche…anger and aggression.’
Physicians in classical Greece treated sciatica, digestive problems, insomnia and mental trauma with flutes and harps. Native American culture uses drums and flutes to heal the sick. In Tibet, singing bowls are used in meditative practices that have a number of health benefits, and the Yogic traditions of India recognise the beneficial effects of chants and mantra on various parts of the body.
With such a rich tradition up to the Middle Ages, there is then a gap of around 450 years where this ancient art almost died out in the west. The 1930s saw the discovery of the medicinal properties of ultrasound, and a new era of sound therapy.
SLOWING THE BRAINWAVES
Growing research suggests that meditative music and frequencies can ease anxiety and reduce pain, as well as improve a host of other symptoms associated with physical and mental ill-health. The Natural Resonance Center believes that music alters our physiology.
“Soothing music can produce a response characteristic of relaxation in which autonomic, immune endocrine and neuropeptide systems are altered. Likewise, it produces desired psychological responses such as reductions in anxiety and fear.”
One explanation is that it directly affects brainwave activity. Daily life, with its stresses and demands requires most brains to function at the ‘Beta’ frequency. This is associated with alertness, thinking and planning, with focus on the external world. As brainwaves slow, we move to the Alpha state: experiencing relaxed wakefulness, Theta: a deep meditative state, and the Delta state: associated with profound sleep.
With doctors now in agreement that a huge amount of disease is stress-related, can you imagine
how the world would change if we were all able to relax more?
WHERE DOES SOUND COME INTO IT?
‘Brainwave entrainment’ is the mind responding and synchronising to an external frequency. For
example, when someone is struggling to fall asleep, their brainwaves are probably heightened.
When presented with a slower frequency, usually in the form of sound or deep vibration, the mind begins to slow down to match.
In fact, it was Christian Huygens, a Dutch physicist and inventor of the grandfather pendulum clock in the 1700s who discovered the principle of ‘entrainment’. He set each pendulum swinging individually and when he checked some hours later, all pendulums had locked in step with the largest ones. Here’s a real-time demonstration.
‘Binaural beats’ use sound technology to mimic desired brainwave states. Claims of boosting
creativity, focus and learning, increasing feelings of euphoria, aiding sleep and pain reduction, are made by the many free tracks accessible online.
WHAT ABOUT SOUND WE CAN’T HEAR?
Some sound therapists liken the body to an orchestra, with each part vibrating at a different rate.
Therapeutic sound is believed to bring all parts of the body into harmonic resonance. Sound is
absorbed through our bodies, and we even perceive sound through our skin and bones, according to a study by the National Institutes of Health 4.
. Our bodies are largely composed of water which conducts sound much faster than air, making the human body an ideal medium for sound to pass through.
Sub-audible sound is often used in medical science. High-frequency ultrasound waves have been
used for over 60 years for “diagnostic scanning, ultrasound therapy, and the ablation or destruction of unwanted tissues” 5. Most commonly we see this in pre-natal screening, and shattering kidney, pancreatic and gallstones.
WHAT ELSE CAN SOUND BE USED FOR?
Therapeutic sound has such a broad reach, and there is no doubt that its popularity is on the up as word spreads. Whilst scientific research is lagging behind, evidence has shown inspiring results when treating insomnia, anxiety, PTSD, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, sciatica, depression, dementia, tinnitus, autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia and ADD/ADHD. Recently it has gained attention for treating long-covid symptoms, and sinus problems.
Immune systems also get a boost from nitric oxide production associated with sound healing techniques, including humming. Sound is increasingly being used to treat animals and pets too.
Gradually we are seeing sound therapy being introduced to hospitals and other health care facilities, such as end-of-life care, dementia and cancer wards, stroke rehabilitation, surgical theatre and post surgical recovery.
Mitchell Gaynor, MD, an oncologist and assistant clinical professor at Cornell University, uses singing bowls with his cancer patients “I believe that sound can play a role in virtually any medical disorder, since it redresses imbalances on every level of physiologic functioning”
Others benefiting from sound therapy are those with autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia and
ADD/ADHD, where sound and music have been seen to reduce challenging symptoms. Aside from different sounds and instruments being used for sensory stimulation, sound therapy can be used to improve auditory processing and language.
One avenue of research is the importance of right ear dominance.
Because the right ear connects to the left side of the brain, the language centre, recordings are made so sound is louder in the right ear the result is an improvement in reading and vocal skills.
According to Sound Therapy International, drawing on the work of Dr. Alfred Tomatis,
(who also worked a lot with tinnitus): “The left hemisphere of the brain is the main centre for processing language. In order for speech sounds to reach the brain efficiently, the right ear must take a leading role in listening because the right ear communicates most directly with the left hemisphere…children with dyslexia have failed to achieve right ear dominance and that therefore the order in which they hear sounds becomes jumbled.”
Sound therapy has also produced wonderful results in the community with addiction groups, trauma groups, prisons, schools and nurseries, care homes and hospices all benefiting. There are also stories of it leading to spiritual experiences.
SOUNDS THAT HEAL
There are many ways to access the healing powers of sound at home or via a professional. Some
common techniques are: Tuning fork therapy, ‘sound baths’ (meditation using various instruments including gongs, singing bowls, drumming and the voice to ‘bathe’ in vibrations), binaural beats, humming and chanting, listening to soothing or classical music, drumming circles, and bespoke audio programmes for autism spectrum disorders and tinnitus.
Sound affects us whether it is in our range of hearing or not. While the physical
fundamentals of sound have been well established over thousands of years of study, the
physiological and psychological effects of music continue to puzzle and excite scientists around the world.
Therapeutic sound can bring us quickly and effortlessly into more relaxed states, returning us to harmony – perhaps the perfect antidote to an increasingly digital age.