sound therapy

We can explore the healing properties of sound from two totally different but compatible and complementary perspectives: scientific and spiritual.

Scientific approach

Science provides the evidence on how sound waves affect you on physical, physiological and emotional level, all of which is the result of different natural phenomena known in physics: sympathetic resonance and entrainment.

Science provides the evidence on how sound waves affect you on physical, physiological and emotional level, all of which is the result of different natural phenomena known in physics: sympathetic resonance and entrainment.

Sympathetic resonance (vibrations)

Vibrations of one object stimulate the response in another object of a similar frequency.

It simply means that the sound waves sent by one vibrating object make the other object in a close proximity vibrate too.

It’s most commonly demonstrated by two same-frequency tuning forks held close to each other. Striking one fork makes it vibrate and its vibrations make the other (unstruck) fork vibrate too. In the end they both sing, even though only one was played.

You can experience the sympathetic resonance on different levels: 

• mental – when you have flashbacks while listening to music
• emotional – when a song evokes different emotions, making you happy, touched, sad, energized, …
• physical – when you feel the bass standing close to a speaker.

Different instruments (and voice) used in a sound therapy emit multiple frequencies, which makes it possible for them to stimulate different parts of your body and mind.

Entrainment

The tendency of two vibrating bodies of similar frequency to lock into phase and vibrate in harmony – in resonance.

The stronger vibrations from one source destabilize and entrain less powerful vibrations to re-adjust to the dominant frequency.

The phenomenon was first discovered in 17thcentury by a Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens, who observed that the pendulum clocks mounted on the same beam/wall and in close proximity to each other synchronize over time and start swinging at the same rate, in harmony. That’s simply because they exerted force on each other, their energy has been transferred and “borrowed”. In result the fastest one slowed down and the slowest one sped up. 

To sum up

The sound waves created by the specific instruments, played in a particular way, affect your brainwaves through sympathetic resonance and entrainment, naturally putting you into a lower brainwave frequency state, known as the ASC (Altered State of Consciousness).

As research shows, even a few minutes in lower brainwave frequency states during the day can improve functioning of the neurons, putting your hormonal and nervous systems in balance.

Spiritual approach

Specific components of spiritual well-being and their significance are very personal. Literature defines them as the connection with a higher being (religious perspective), oneself, others and nature (existential perspective). These are; however, all present in mental and social health as well, as any aspects of health cannot be perceived in isolation – they are all interconnected. From that point of view, the effects of the sound therapy in spiritual context depend on what the spiritual health is about for you.

Nowadays, more focus is being put by health experts across many different specializations on the holistic approach towards personal health, giving the same weight to all its components. We all start appreciating the interconnectedness and interdependence of physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual health as only taking care of them all can lead to a higher level of well-being.

Since body (how you feel physically) mind (what you think), heart (what you feel emotionally) and spirit (who you are) are all interconnected and interdependent systems, affecting any of them stimulates a reaction in others.

  Sound enters the healing equation from several directions: it may alter cellular functions through energetic effects; it may entrain biological systems to function more homeostatically; it may calm the mind and therefore the body; or it may have emotional effects, which influence neurotransmitters and neuropeptides, which in turn help to regulate the immune system – the healer within… I believe that sound can play a role in virtually any medical disorder, since it redresses imbalances on every level of physiologic functioning.

Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, M.D.

(a Director of Oncology and Integrative Medicine at Strang Cancer Prevention Center, who incorporated the use of sound (singing bowls and voice) into his everyday practice)