Sound Healing
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
“Rhythm
is there in the cycles of the seasons, in the migrations of the birds and
animals, in the fruiting and withering of plants, and in the birth, maturation
and death of ourselves.”
—Mickey Hart of The Grateful Dead, said to Senate panel studying music
therapy.
According to many ancient religious traditions, the universe was created through sound. The word, the sound or voice of God/dess, went out into the void, and began to create. Scientist have called this “The Big Bang,” though this once cherished theory can no longer account for new discoveries about the Universe. However, the name tells us something. Indigenous cultures often have mythology teachings that tell of one who sings the universe into being.
Vibration is sound. Everything that is in existence, everything that has life and breath, everything energized by the mysterious force of nature, has a sound, a frequency, a musical, rhythmic quality. The relationship between the planets is called “The music of the spheres.” We can consider nature, and any system within nature, to be one great symphony so vast we cannot even conceive, and yet we are playing our part, as each cell in our body, each molecule, each atom, each proton and neutron has its own rhythm, it’s own note, it’s own frequency.
In Shamanic traditions, apprentices are often encouraged to listen to the sounds around them as if coming from one source, as if all the sounds are orchestrated to create harmony. This is practiced in wild places, forests, deserts and beaches. Nature’s symphony is magnificent to tune in to, to awaken to. We know that all Indigenous traditions used sound for healing in one form or another. Whether through drumming, singing, bells, the lyre, flute, didgeridoo, conch, brass bowl, chanting, repeating mantras, toning, keening, throat singing, whatever the chosen instrument, sound is the most faithful, valuable, and consistent form of healing we know. It even surpasses touch as a more universally recognized and utilized method of maintaining health, connectedness, balance, harmony, and well-being. Music truly is a universal language, and it is closely related to another universal language, mathematics. Music brings people together like nothing else (Oh, except that other universal language: food! And they go so well together!)
Sound healing is the practice of applying vibrational frequencies within the audible range to the human energy field, to bring the energetic bodies, chakras, organ systems, cells, and all parts into harmony, supporting optimal health and vitality.
The ear may well be our most important sense organ. Through the medulla, the auditory nerve is connected to every muscle in the body. Strength, flexibility, equilibrium, and muscle tone are all affected by the vibrational information received by the ear. In addition, through the vagus nerve, the inner ear is connected to the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, stomach, larynx, bladder, and intestines. All the systems in our body are informed by vibrations as they enter the ear. On his website www.holographicsound.com, Paul Hubbard describes sound healing: “In the biblical writings of creation, ‘First was the Word (sound vibration), And from the Word All Things were created (sound vibration moving into physical manifestation). ‘All things are created from sound vibration. There is a phrase in the Vedas, an ancient text found in India, which is, ‘Nada Bramin,’ meaning ‘The World is Sound.’ There is nothing in existence that was not created from and with sound vibration. Sound is the seeded vibration of creation.”
Resonance is when two objects vibrate in harmony with each other. When an opera singer shatters a glass with her voice, she has achieved harmonic resonance with the matter and shape of the glass. As she increases the volume of her voice, the forces that holds the glass together gives way, and the glass shatters.
We know that every organ, cell, and bone in the body has its own resonant frequency. Together all these frequencies create a compound frequency, as the instruments in a well-trained orchestra does. When one organ in the body is “out of tune,” the whole body is affected. Sound healing addresses this by bringing the organ back into harmony, to restore resonance, and in turn, health. When a harmonious sound is projected at a person, if that person is in a state of disharmony, he or she will eventually shift into a state of harmony through resonance with the sound being introduced. This is called sympathetic vibration.
Sound healing takes many forms. According to Quabalic wisdom, chanting one of the many names of God can activate the tree of life and lead to enlightenment. What are these symbolic of? Do the names of God represent musical tones, and when we find the right tone for our body, we activate the life force within ourselves, aligning us with the Divine, and leading, with repetition, to ascension? Just an idea… The practice of chanting mantras is explored in the UMS class Mantras And Mudras, and Meditation Skills, where the bijas, or seed sounds, are discussed, and related to the names of God. The bijas are combined to form Mudras, which magnetize certain qualities of the Divine. These two practices seem to be related, and I wonder if they achieve the same goal. Undoubtedly, the practice of aligning with Divine energy through sound has been around for a very long time. The East Indian Yogic traditions attribute a different musical note to each one of the chakras, and Traditional Chinese Medicine relates each organ system with one of the five elements, fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. These elements also have a musical note attributed to them, and these five notes make up a pentatonic scale that has long been used by Chinese composers. This system has been used also to create elemental music, with a combination of indicated correspondences that are considered balancing to the chakras and healing to the organ systems.
Hans Jenny, a Swiss scientist in the 1960s, experimented to discover how sound waves affected various materials when placed on metal plates. Materials like mercury, gel, iron fillings, and cornstarch were placed on the plates, and different sound frequencies were generated under them. He found that low frequency tones produced simple geometric shapes. As the frequencies were increased, the materials would break up and begin to form more complex patterns. The sound “OH” produced a well- defined circle, while the sound “OM” produced a pattern very much like the vedic symbol for this sound, the Shri Yantra. Jenny’s conclusion was that sound creates form.
In 1974, Fabien Maman, then a jazz singer, noticed the affect certain keys had on the audience and the musicians. He got together with French physicist Joel Sternheimer, and they began to study these affects. They found that every tissue, organ, meridian, and system in the body had its own resonance with a musical note. Maman later worked with Helene Grimal, a scientist with the National Center For Scientific Research in Paris. They studied the affects that sound has on normal as well as malignant cells. What they found was that when cells were exposed to certain notes, it affected their size, shape, color, and vibrancy. They found that when cancer cells were subjected to a chromatic scale, “their intracellular components started to lose definition as the scale ascended, and generally disintegrated between A (440 hertz) and B.” Maman theorizes that this research has important implications for the stimulation of health and vitality for normal cells, harmonization for healing or absorption of abnormal cells.
Masaru Emoto found the most amazing proof of how sound affects matter. He introduced certain sounds to water, and then froze it so it formed a crystal. What he found was that when he played classical music to the water, it formed beautiful, complex, well-defined, clear crystals with varying soft colors when frozen. When he played heavy metal music to the water and froze it, it formed a crystal that looked fragmented, with a disorganized, undefined shape, and a rather sickly grey-green color. Healing music, Tibetan mantra, and folk music all produced beautiful, healthy looking crystals as well. Japanese pop music, on the other hand, formed square crystals with less complexity and attractiveness. He also experimented with directing certain attitudes and emotions toward water, like gratitude, thankfulness, anger, sadness, and so on. This also produced definitive patterns in the water crystals. We can be sure that since our bodies contain 70% water, and every cell responds to the vibrations it is exposed to, what we listen to has a huge affect on our quality of life. So how can we use this knowledge to our advantage?
There are a great many modalities using sound for healing. As discussed earlier, sound healing is one of the oldest and most prevalent methods of shifting into balance and health. According to Mayan astrology, each of us comes into birth riding a wave of energy. This wave is part of a cycle, and has correspondences of energy, action, and a specific tone. Each tone is an expression of an energetic quality, and each tone has a complimentary tone as well. When this tone is sounded in one ear, with its complimentary tone sounded in the other ear, the higher brain can be accessed, and health and well-being realized.
Many practitioners using sound healing develop their own methods of using sound as medicine. John Beaulieu, N.D., Ph.D., developed a system he calls “BioSonic repatterning.” This process uses tuning forks calibrated to specific frequencies, which are used to “tune” the energy bodies and stimulate resonance, health and vitality. A very interesting aspect of Beaulieu’s work is his research into “nitric oxide,” a substance which is released from the cells of the body when health, well-being, and vitality are being experienced. There is a rhythmic movement to the releasing of this substance, called “puffing.” The cells puff up and release the nitric oxide with a measurable pattern and rhythm. When this rhythm is disrupted, the cells do not express in a whole, plump, healthy way, and lethargy, confusion, depression, and ill-health is experienced. BioSonic repatterning is a way of stimulating the rhythmic release of nitric oxide, through the use of sound and plant energy (a specific blend of herbs is used, called “EnRhythm”). Beaulieu has developed many tools for use in sound healing, and these products, as well as a lot of great information on nitric oxide and sound healing, can be found at his website, at www.biosonics.com.
Let us not forget about Royal Rife and his Rife machine that was discussed in the UMS course Metaphysical Technologies. He invented a machine that generates whatever frequency you desire, and has mapped out, with the help of many scientists after him who continued his work, which frequencies kill which viruses. He even had a nearly 100% cure rate for cancer patients with his invention. Unfortunately it was blocked by the American Medical Association, but it goes to show that sound can truly heal. I not only heals, but can destroy unwanted organisms, viruses and bacteria.
One of the biggest proponents of sound healing today is Jonathan Goldman. He is the author of Healing Sounds: The Power Of Harmonics (2002) and the director of the Sound Healers Association. Below is an excerpt from an article entitled “The Sound Of Healing: An Interview With Jonathan Goldman, which came out in the March/April 2003 Nexus, Colorado’s Holistic Journal. The interviewer was Ravi Dykeman.
RD: Please describe sound healing. JG: First, let me point out that modern science is now in agreement with what the ancient mystics have told us—that everything is in a state of vibration, from the electrons moving around the nucleus of an atom, to planets and distant galaxies moving around stars. As they’re creating movement, they are creating vibration, and this vibration can be perceived as sound. So everything is creating a sound, including the sofa that we’re sitting on, or this table, or our bodies. Every organ, every bone, every tissue, every system of the body is creating a sound. When we are in a state of health, we’re like an extraordinary orchestra that’s playing a wonderful symphony of the self. But what happens if the second violin player loses the sheet music? He or she begins to play out of tune, and pretty soon the entire string section sounds bad. Pretty soon, in fact, the entire orchestra is off. This is a metaphor for disease.
I have the greatest respect for traditional allopathic medicine. But with regard to our string player who’s playing the wrong music, allopathic medicine currently has the approach of either giving this player enough drugs so he or she simply passes out, or cutting the head off with a broad sword—analogous to surgery. I ask the question, “What if we could somehow give the string player back the sheet music?” What if we could somehow project the correct resonant frequency to that part of the body that is vibrating out of harmony, and cause it to vibrate back into its normal, healthy rhythm, restoring it to a condition of health? That’s the basic principle of using sound as a healing modality.
Goldman has been working on developing methods of sound healing for over 20 years. He creates healing music using chanting, singing, and many instruments, working frequently with indigenous sound healers and ancient practices. His website is www.healingsounds.com, and much information can be found there on this powerful vibrational healing practice. Another quote from Goldman, from an interview with Lane Badger, found at the above mentioned site, will close this section:
What are your highest ideals for your work in sound? Jonathan: I have this vision that everything in the universe is vibration, including our emotions, and the energy of love. We will discover the frequency of love and that it will be recordable. We’ll be able to put this frequency within our instruments. It will be pouring out of every juke box and every radio station in the world. And it will just change the vibrational fields of people, make everybody wake up. You know it’s a dream I have. It’s a nice one.