Human song is as old as time. Before mankind knew how to speak words, singing was likely mimicry of the sounds of nature and eventually developed into spoken word languages, according to scholars on the subject. The depth of music in our global cultures runs to our cores, and it’s why sound is so powerful to our well-being.
Have you ever been moved by listening to a song? Think about your favorite song right now. You can likely summon it instantaneously, and it transports you to that time and place in your memory of how that song affected you. If it’s a happy memory, you’ll feel jubilation. If it was a sadder memory, you’ll feel that instead.
The power of music is demonstrated over and over again in many aspects of life. If you watch the video above, you can see how one solo singer can move an entire audience with his passion, skills and talent. But, it’s not discussed frequently how powerful music, or sound, can be used in healing. The qualitative and quantitative scientific research available today speaks volumes about the veracity of sound therapy (also known as music therapy). Even in modern medicine, we use ultrasound imaging and lithotripsy (using ultrasound to pulverize stones in the bladder and kidneys until small enough for the body to naturally pass them through). In this article, I detail several ways in which sound healing can be achieved in your everyday life.
Mantras, Meditation and Your Own Voice for Healing | Sound Healing
You may have experienced a yoga class where the yoga instructor begins with chant, like “OM!” Or, she plays a Tibetan or crystal bowl(s) and the room fills sonorously. You may keep your eyes open or close them. You start to feel a relaxing response to the sound.
The use of your own vocal chords, lungs and mind to focus sound is a powerful tool in sound healing. This is most often called mantra meditation, and it’s the use of Om or other mantras (sounds or short phrases that are repeated over and over) to elicit a connection between mind, body and spirit. Mantra meditation has many benefits, including developing your focus to stop rumination, reducing anxiety, stress and other symptoms of depression, and deepening oneness with the self.
From chanting and meditating on our own voice, we move forward in this discussion of sound healing with listening to external sounds.
Music Therapy and Binaural Beats | Sound Healing
In Dr. Kathleen M. Howland’s enlightening TEDxBerkleeValencia talk (above), she discusses the power of ancient healing practices that have informed our modern understanding of music therapy as sound healing our bodies and minds. Sound has the power to help infants overcome speech impairments and physically disabled patients regain motor faculties when music is present.
The author of The Healing Power of Sound: Recovery from Life-Threatening Illness Using Sound, Voice, and Music, the late Dr. Mitchell L. Gaynor, came to study sound healing therapies when a Tibetan cancer patient introduced him to his culture’s use of sound (Tibetan bowls, gongs and more) to create healing sounds. After seeing the veracity of these interventions with his patient, Dr. Gaynor, renowned for his pioneering work in the field of integrative oncology, lead the charge with bringing integrative medicine to his cancer patients. He found through extensive research that his oncology patients recovered more, faster and for longer periods when treatments incorporated sound healing.
As Dr. Gaynor learned and educated thousands on this topic, our brains communicate through electrical impulses passing back and forth throughout itself. These brainwaves are measured in the frequency known as Hertz (Hz) (as well as amplitude). And, not coincidentally, that’s also the same measurement of sound. When the brain is in low frequencies, you get drowsy and drift off into sleep (Theta and Delta waves). When your brain is highly active and focused or in light meditation, you are in higher frequencies (Beta and Alpha waves).
If you want to get a small glimpse of the power of music therapy, you can use a psychological response our brains have to sound frequencies. Our brain frequencies tend to mimic ambient sound frequencies. We can do this using a tool called a binaural beats generator; Brain.fm is the most powerful and research-backed software available today. These are sound files that play two different beats in our ears (usually wearing headphones to isolate each set of beats to a hemisphere) to bring your brainwaves into focus, relaxation and even sleep states. Try it out and see the benefits of sound therapy for yourself!
Neurological Music Therapy (NMT) | Sound Healing
As neuroscience and technology continues to develop, we are able to bring sound healing to new levels. One such area is in neurological music therapy (NMT) (also known as Brain Music Therapy (BMT)). Galina Mindlin, MD, PhD, is the founder and clinical director of the Brain Music Therapy Center, and associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, uses the power of brain scanning technology, EEG (or, electroencephalograms) to see the brainwave frequencies of your mind and then she creates music tailored to modify your brain frequencies to correct problems in the brain and enhance performance.
As she writes in Your Playlist Can Change Your Life: 10 Proven Ways Your Favorite Music Can Revolutionize Your Health, Memory, Organization, Alertness and More, with her co-authors, Don DuRousseau, MBA, and Joseph Cardillo, PhD, you don’t need a fancy EEG and customized music files from her center to get the benefits of BMT. You can create available music to tailor playlists for your health and vitality. You know the songs that make you happy, excited, motivated, and those that relax and calm you when you’re stressed and upset. Assemble these playlists and you can use sound healing in fun and varied ways.
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Music allows us to create and remember meaning, induce relaxation and excitation, and find motivation. Sound healing is bringing this general understanding to the healthcare arena so that more people have access to noninvasive, powerful and ancient healing practices. Have you tried sound healing, music therapy or other sound practices before? Let me know in the comments!