What is Sound Healing?
Sound Healing is a very gentle yet powerful therapy. As with all holistic treatments the effects can be subtle, slowly changing patterns that have developed over a long period of time, or if a person’s energy is waiting to shift, a treatment can have a very powerful affect on a physical level.
To get an idea of how sound vibration works in the body, think about the fact that our bodies are made up of about 80% water, which means we are mostly fluid. The thing that’s great about fluid is that is moves easily and can be changed. Think about how you see ripples on a river or even a puddle when the wind blows. Or if you were to put a bowl of water on top of a washing machine mid cycle what would happen? The water would move and splash as it is affected by the energy of the machine pulsating beneath it.
Sound Therapy has the same affect on our bodies and our watery insides! If you have ever been to a loud rock concert you can almost feel the bass notes pulsating within you, that’s because they are! The fluids in your body are responding to the sounds, and your brain responds by being more awake and excited. Likewise if we are stressed and our insides are hyperactive and beyond our control, relaxing sounds and calm music brings us to a state of peace, the fluids and pulses in our bodies become like a calm inner lake that helps us find focus.
Sound Therapy works on the same concept. It is very gentle but depending on the instruments used and your level of sensitivity, powerful changes and effects can be felt. If the therapist uses voice, flutes and light chimes during the treatment the results are usually more of relaxation and meditation. However experiencing a sound healing with large gongs and singing bowls can be a powerful cleansing experience and leave the client feeling quite overwhelmed. The vibration and sound of gongs and singing bowls literally pulsates through the body sometimes pushing through inner boundaries where you might not find the feelings so pleasant. This is usually when an energy blockage is being cleared. It is wonderful, but very powerful and should not be underestimated! It is always best to start slowly with sound healing and become accustomed to the treatments on a gentle level before booking yourself on a day intensive gong bath course!
Sound Therapy is suitable for everyone as the treatments are adapted to each person’s individual needs and current state of health. All you need to do is have the intention to relax and be open to change.
The session will involve an initial consultation to determine your needs. You then lie back and relax. (See FAQs for more info).
Sound Therapy can be used for stress, anxiety, increased energy, pain control, discomfort during pregnancy, mild depression, fluid retention, and so many other things. Please contact Alexandra to have a chat if you are unsure and would like more information.
We all have within us the potential to exist as we always dreamed, to be at peace with ourselves and with the world around us. Sometimes we have built up layers of emotions that we thought were helping us survive in this sometimes difficult world. In fact, these layers of emotions and thoughts block us from seeing the truth. They control us and dictate our thoughts, our moods, our bodies and ultimately our lives. Yet, by penetrating below these layers of our personalities we find something else, something new and refreshing, that helps us understand that everything is a lesson to be learnt. By learning and understanding our pathway we shed the superficial needs that we once had, instead finding meaning and fulfillment to our lives. In fulfillment there is contentment. In contentment there is joy and happiness.
Alexandra is a qualified Sound Therapist trained by the College of Sound Healing, a CMA registered college.
How Does Sound Healing Work?
Sound Healing is a therapy where sound/frequency is applied to the body to encourage healing to take place.
Sound can be applied to the body in different ways:
- The subject can use their own voice
- The subject can use their own voice with other voices
- The subject can use their own voice whilst listening to music
- The subject can listen to another person’s voice or number of voices
- Through listening to an instrument or instruments
- Through listening to music or sound through speakers or headphones.
Sound healing works using the concept of vibration and resonance. If we consider that everything around us, including ourselves is made up of physical matter, that is, in essence, a collection of vibrating atoms and particles, we understand that anything that vibrates has a frequency. Wood, metal, skin, our organs are all a mass of particles vibrating to a particular frequency. We know that there are many other frequencies around us that we cannot see. We talk about a radio or TV programme being transmitted to us on a certain frequency, we communicate everyday on mobile phones using frequency but we don’t see these frequencies, we just know they are there! Frequency is sound, sound is frequency. Everything as we know it has its own frequency thus its own sound.
For the human body to stay healthy it is important to maintain the body’s natural composite vibration. We are bombarded on a daily basis by high and low frequencies around us that cause stress. If we do not maintain our own natural vibration we can become ill. This is when we can use sound healing to rebalance and heal our bodies.
Sound is already used as part of modern medicine. For example sound waves are used to break up kidney and gallstones in the body. A machine call a Lithotripter bombards the stones with a certain frequency for a few hours, and the remains of the stones are passed out in the urine. No anaesthetic is needed.
Sound Healing encompasses the principle of Entrainment. Realised by the Dutch scientist Christian Huygens in 1665, Entrainment is when two interacting oscillating systems, that function independently, synchronise with each other. The less powerful system will change its oscillation to that of the more powerful. This has the effect of saving energy, as it takes more energy to work against something, than it does with it!
For example, Huygens conducted an experiment where he set up a room full of pendulum clocks all swinging at different rates. When he returned to the room a day later all the pendulums were swinging in the same direction.
There are also examples of entrainment in nature with migrating birds that flap their wings at the same time and rate and glide together in order to save energy, and how a group of women that spends a lot of time together will often find that their menstrual cycles begin to synchronise.
In sound healing the weaker parts of the body become stronger as they entrain with the frequency being given by the therapist.
The Intention of the sound healer also plays a very important role in the healing process. Once the frequency is aligned the intention of the healer must be pure and for the highest good. The intention will then carry the healing sound to the intended part of the body.
During a healing session an altered state of consciousness is achieved for the healer and the client, for example, the client’s brain waves will most commonly change from Beta to Alpha. As this happens there is a slowing down of the heart rate. As already discussed we understand that sound is frequency and vibration. Everything that vibrates has a rhythm. Rhythmic instruments such as drums and rattles can be used to achieve a particular brain state.
Music has a similar effect. Slow music calms the heart rate whereas heavy rock music will stimulate it. Our natural daily patterns have rhythm, our breath, stomachs, and cranio-sacral pulse for example. When these rhythms become imbalanced illness can occur. Drumming can help restore the body’s natural rhythms by the process of entrainment. A steady drumbeat will entrain our heartbeat to its rhythm and create an altered state of consciousness, at which point healing can occur.
Two powerful healing aspects of music are Intervals and Harmonics both of which have ratios in common.
An Interval occurs when two notes are sounded either at the same time or consecutively. For example, in music, a series of ascending or descending notes is called a Scale. A typical Scale commonly has eight notes. If you were to play the first note and then the second in the Scale this would be called either a major or minor 2nd interval. The first note and the third note would be called a major or minor 3rd interval.
Intervals create negative and positive feelings within us, Major usually being brighter or happier in sound than minor. Discordant Intervals can produce feelings of tension in the body, but also help us find darker emotions within us that perhaps do not usually surface. Dissonance can help us break through negativity before resolving to the positive. Different cultures, east and west have differing Scales, but all are based on Intervals.
Research has shown that Intervals produce ratios. For example an octave (the same note, but played eight notes apart) has the ratio of 2:1 and a fifth produces a 3:2 ratio. Amazingly, we find these ratios in nature, in the atom, in space and in ancient architecture.
Ratios also play an important part in the structure of Harmonics. Pythagoras, the famous Greek philosopher and mathematician, invented the monochord and discovered harmonic ratios in sound. Through his invention of the monochord (a long wooded box with a single string attached that is able to vibrate), Pythagoras found by dividing the string a number of times and allowing it to vibrate faster, he could sound the octave above and fifth above that of the fundamental note going higher with every further division. He deduced that within one note are many notes all related to the fundamental note through exact mathematical ratios. The German scientist Hans Kayser developed a theory based on the work of Pythagoras that states that,
The whole number ratios of musical harmonics are found in the basic laws of chemistry, physics, crystallography, astronomy, architecture, spectroanalysis, botany and other natural sciences (College of Sound Healing website. Simon Heather)
When we sing, we produce harmonics (ratios) in our natural sound. These harmonics and ratios have a healing effect on the body. We can see, as discussed earlier, that by using the power of Intention to carry the voice (and the harmonic ratio structures within the voice) to the physical body, which is in itself a collection of vibrating atoms and particles also containing the same ratio structures, healing can occur. Assuming the voice and/or sound is pure, that is, the harmonics and ratios are present, using the principle of Entrainment, the body’s ratios at atomic level should entrain to that of the voice, or sound intended to give the healing. When used with rhythm, drumming etc. an altered state of consciousness is achieved, that is, the conscious mind is allowed to rest for a while, and the body can naturally attune itself to receive the healing.
An example of healing with intervals can be shown in Fabien Maman’s research, where he found that diseased cells, namely cancer cells, became unstable and disintegrated when exposed to the musical intervals of the eight note scale. It was interesting however that the healthy cells absorbed the sound without breaking down.
Intervals and Harmonics have been used for centuries in world religions through Chanting. Chanting is a simple and repetitive vocalisation and is used as a form of prayer and meditation. Its aim is to clear and free the mind, slow the brain waves, focusing it on the Divine, and allowing spiritual energy to flow through the body. We feel more connected with the music because our minds are able to receive it effectively.
Gregorian Chant for example was used as a meditation and prayer for monks. The pure sound, rich in harmonics, often sung in chapels and monasteries built especially (using ratios in architecture) to amplify the harmonic resonance of the sound.
Mantras can also be used in sound healing. Mantras are sounds, words or groups of words, which are sounded repetitively in order to achieve a state of meditation and healing. Mantras originated in the Vedic Tradition in India and later became part of the Buddhist, Sikh and Jain religions.
During a sound healing session, the healer may focus sound energy on particular chakras in the body in order to balance or energise them. A Chakra, originating from the Sanskrit word for wheel is an energy centre in the body. It is believed that there hundreds of chakras all over the body, but there seven main centres that begin at the base of the body and go up to the crown of the head. Each chakra has a mantra associated with it. These mantras are called Bija mantras meaning seed sound. Each mantra has a long, nasal sound at the end of it that directs the healing energy of each sound into the relevant chakra. For example, the Bija mantra corresponding to the base chakra is Lam (sounded like the word Lang with a silent ‘g’).
When we use these mantras we connect with the element of the chakra in question. For the base chakra we are connecting with the earth element.
Balancing the chakras is an important part of sound healing, as each chakra stores emotions and memories of things that have happened to us. Negative memories and events can create an imbalance in these energy centres. As each chakra is linked to major organs and glands in the body, any imbalance can begin to affect our health and lead to eventual dis-ease.
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