Sound Healing - Just the Right Touch

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Sound Healing - Just the Right Touch
October 02, 2010

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October 2, 2010

Hello,

I hope you enjoy this issue's article on sound healing.

Carol

Sound Healing - What Is Sound Healing, and How Does It Work?

by Kay Grace

Can you think of a song that had a powerful effect on your emotions? How about the sound of a car accident happening nearby - what would that do in your body? Do you feel a bit uneasy just thinking about that sound? It's clear that sound and music are powerful forces in our lives. Imagine what might be possible if you could harness that power to create a positive, healing reaction.

This is sound healing, a form of energy medicine or vibrational therapy designed to have a measurable effect on organs, tissues, and brainwave activity in a way that changes how a person feels, functions, and responds. Sound healing also induces a state of calm, slow, and regular breathing, lower blood pressure, less pain, and reduced stress, all of which boost the function of the immune system.

Effects of Sound Healing

Sound can take your brain waves from active to alpha, as if you were meditating. The director of a Baltimore hospital coronary unit found that 30 minutes of classical music produced the same effect as 10 milligrams of Valium.

The Journal of Advanced Nursing reported that listening to music for one hour a day for one week reduced chronic pain by up to 21 percent and depression by up to 25% in people with a range of conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis. Premature babies exposed to music increased their feeding rate 2.5 times, which allowed them to leave the hospital two weeks earlier than other premature babies, in research done by Jayne Standley, a leading music therapist from Florida State University.

Mozart's music has been found to reduce the electrical activity associated with seizures in people with epilepsy. A leading New York oncologist uses Tibetan singing bowls and Hindu Sanskrit chanting to help cancer patients. In his book, The Healing Power of Sound, Dr. Mitchell Gaynor discusses the amazing results seen by integrating music, vocalization, and meditation into patient care.

We know what a great health benefit it is to reduce stress, and using music and sound to help do this is a fun, powerful, and effective way to enhance health and improve energy. In fact, sound and music can help you shift from one state of energy to another, from feeling tired and depressed, to feeling more calm, energetic, and happier. Often, emotional and mental difficulties can also be resolved.

Hospitals and clinics today use sound to heal in a number of ways, from music in the waiting room, to ultrasound waves aimed at kidney stones to dissolve them. After WW II, the benefits of sound gained attention in the West when veterans in homes and hospitals responded positively to visiting musicians. Today, hospitals are being constructed with music and sound as an integral part of the architecture, with different music for waiting areas, outpatient clinics, emergency rooms, and operating rooms, all designed to aid patients in healing and to rejuvenate and support staff.

Vibrational Energy

Sound healing is based on vibrational frequencies. Physics tells us that everything in the universe is made of energy that vibrates at its own unique speed or frequency. If a person is in pain or feels out of balance, it may be because his or her subtle energy system is blocked in one or more areas, in addition to any physiological issues.

When parts of the body such as organs, muscles, and bones are vibrating at their normal frequency, a person is healthy. If a part is vibrating at a frequency that is not in harmony with a person, he or she is unhealthy. Using music, sound tools, technique, and intention, the sound healer helps to release the pain and assists the person in healing by making changes in the unhealthy sound patterns.

For example, someone with lower back pain may have pulled a muscle but is also feeling unsupported by those close to him or her. This pain, and even the thoughts about the pain, vibrate at a specific speed, creating a sound that may or may not be audible to human ears. The task of a sound healer is to match this specific frequency in order to release the pain. However, most sound healers would agree that this addresses only the physical issue. The person must also pursue healing on an emotional, mental, and spiritual level so that the pain will not return shortly after the session.

Sound, even in its simplest form, such as a single tone sung at the proper frequency, can effect change in our bodies. Scientists believe this may be possible because our bodies are made up of about 80% water, and water is a major conductor of sound. If sound helps the cellular activity move toward greater order, the body can do its own job much more effectively. More complex music affects us on a mental and emotional level because it is acting on the nervous system, specifically, the parts of our brain responsible for emotion, memory, and non-verbal communication.

Some researchers take this idea even further. Masuru Emoto, a Japanese researcher, has studied the effects of music, chants, thoughts, and words (which technically have their own measurable vibrations) on the shape and pattern of water as it forms into crystals. Water in vials onto which the words "Thank You" have been placed creates a beautiful crystal, while the words "I hate you," creates a dark, chaotic mess. The theory is that since humans are made up of mostly water, sounds, including the inaudible frequencies of words and thoughts have an effect on us, both positive and negative

This kind of work implies that using sound and adding a positive intention doubles the positive effect of sound healing, moving the person closer to a state of balance and health. There are many studies, formal and informal, that illustrate the effectiveness of using sound to create positive changes in body, mind, and spirit. But a person only has to think of a song that powerfully affected his or her state of mind to demonstrate it.

It makes sense to be open to the possibility that you can use music and sound for better health. I encourage you to explore the many ways you can reduce unhealthy sounds (including your own thoughts!) in your environment and replace them with more harmonious ones, and to seek out experienced sound healers and healing music to assist you on your journey to greater health and happiness.

To learn more about Kay Grace or to attend an upcoming Sound Healing Training Retreat, please visit energyexpress.com.