THE MAGIC OF SOUND

We would all likely agree that music and sound affect our bodies.  Specific harmonic arrangements can cause the body to become energized or induce it to enter a relaxed state. Sound and music are deeply rooted in humanity’s psyche and manifest themselves in a plethora of human activities, including spiritual ceremonies, celebrations, and various forms of entertainment.

Many cultures have acknowledged the amazing healing capabilities of sound by using them to treat physical ailments. Today, many alternative healing practitioners tap into the same body of knowledge and use sound therapy for the benefit of their patients.

Enter the dawn of Quantum Mechanics, and we now know that all that there is vibrates at a certain frequency, including our bodies, plants, the atmosphere and the totality of the universe. Sound provides a potential frequency that can directly affect the harmonics that form the foundation of all living systems.

What is Sound Therapy?

Sound therapy is essentially the process of healing the mind and body through music, tones, frequencies, and vibrations. Sound therapy takes into consideration a person’s emotional, mental, psychological, and spiritual well-being and improvement.

Sound therapy can be performed in a variety of ways and can be conducted with instruments or through clapping, chanting, or humming, among other methods.

Many people claim to experience feeling rejuvenated after a sound therapy session. When a person seeks healing through sound therapy, their fundamental objective is to focus deeply on the music or sound being generated by the practitioner.

Sound Therapy Throughout History

Sound healing is not limited to one culture. In fact, sound therapy has existed for thousands of years and has manifested itself in different versions throughout the world.

The Aboriginal Australians known as the Yolngu are believed to be one of the earliest groups to perform sound healing rituals. They play an instrument called the yidaki which they believe can heal various physical ailments including fractured bones and body tissue damage.

The ancient Egyptians also valued sound healing. In fact, for thousands of years, ritual leaders and priests chanted vowel tones and used instruments such as the sistra.

In ancient Greece, the great mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras is credited as the father of music therapy. He wielded the instrument called the kithara and directly observed the calming effect of the music he played to the people and animals around him. He discovered that the seven keys in the Greek system of music were capable of triggering various emotions, and that some sounds and instruments could cause chaotic and stressful emotions. He described his discoveries as a form of “musical medicine”.

How Sound Therapy Works

How does sound therapy affect the body? In order to determine the answer to this question, we first need to understand what sound is and how it is received by the body.

Sound is essentially the energy created when an object vibrates. When an object vibrates, it causes the air surrounding the object to vibrate as well. The air’s movement allows it to carry the vibrational energy from the object to different places, including the human body.

The ears are the primary organ that receives sound. The outer ear funnels the sound. The sound is then channeled to the ear canal where it reaches the eardrum, which is a sensitive, tightly stretched membrane. The sound waves cause the eardrums to vibrate and three tiny bones (known as the ossicles) behind the eardrums move. The ossicles’ movement triggers a shift in the cochlea, liquid-filled coiled tubes that are lined with tiny hairs. When these tiny hairs move, they send nerve signals to the brain which translate into sound.

A study by Salamon et al. investigated how music lowers anxiety and stress levels. The researchers determined that the compound nitric oxide is primarily responsible for causing physiological and psychological relaxing effects. Nitric oxide has been identified to assist in developing the auditory system and the flow of blood in the cochlea.

Some studies have also explored how other organs, such as the skin, are able to receive and absorb sound. One study identifies the similarities between hearing and sensing vibrations, as both are stimulated by traveling waves. 

Principles of Sound Therapy

The principles of sound healing transcend the understanding of the body’s mechanical reception of sound. In fact, the principles of sound therapy are rooted in the goal of transitioning the body’s vibrations to an optimum state. Practitioners realize that a person and his or her organs, cells, atoms and subatomic particles are comprised of unique frequencies. Practitioners perform therapeutic applications of sound vibrations with the intention of bringing harmony and balance to our body systems. Essentially, they bring harmonic resonance to our bodies and how they relate to the energy fields that extend far from our physical bodies.

Entrainment, the practice of tuning the body to a desired frequency, also plays a crucial role in sound healing. Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch scientist, is credited for the advancing our knowledge of entrainment. In the context of sound healing, entrainment occurs when the sound coming from an external source is used to tune the body back into balance. When a practitioner produces sounds with the intention of healing, he or she ultimately aims to use entrainment to address the patient’s body imbalance by creating a harmonious resonance between the healing sound and the vibration of the patient’s body.

Another essential principle is the intention behind the sound. This is often thought of as the reason why the sound was generated. People usually create sound or music with the intention to entertain or relax. In sound therapy, the practitioner focuses his or her intention on delivering healing energy to the patient. It is believed that the sound waves become imbued with the practitioner's positive intentions.

 

According to Jonathan Goldman, a leading figure in sound healing, all music has potential therapeutic qualities. Furthermore, factors such as time, place, and the individual’s needs are essential for music to fully display its therapeutic capabilities. This is an important concept to remember since there are many ways sound healing can be manifested and performed.

When a sound healing practitioner conducts a session to treat a patient, it is essential for him or her to determine the type of sound or music that best resonates with their patient. Sound uniquely affects individuals; a particular composition may evoke memories of happiness, excitement, grief or anxiety.

What Sound Therapy Can Do for Your Well-Being

People who have undergone sound therapy sessions have reported being relieved of physical and mental aches and pains. Some of the health improvements that people have claimed to experience include the following:

1. Stress Reduction

A recent study involving 105 participants measured heart rate variability (HRV) parameters after a 40-minute Himalayan singing bowls sound bath meditation. A trend showing overall relaxation and statistically significant reduction in heart rate were observed.

The researchers concluded that the physiological measurements “indicated a consistent reduction in heart rate throughout the meditation and a reduction in overall sympathetic tone and an increase in parasympathetic tone.” Sympathetic tone refers to the sympathetic nervous system, which is typically engaged with high activity and stress. The parasympathetic tone refers to the parasympathetic nervous system, which is in play during times of rest, repair, digestion, and relaxation.

The stress-reducing effects of sound therapy may help promote healthy blood pressure.  A study examining Himalayan singing bowls as an adjunct therapy to relaxation showed healthier blood pressure levels amongst participants post-sound bath.

Another study from 2019 looked at heart rate variability with two different forms of relaxation – Himalayan singing bowls and supine (lying flat) silence. Both groups achieved relaxation, but the group that participated in a 20-minute session of Himalayan singing bowls had stronger markers of consistent relaxation and stress reduction, over the other group.

A 2015 study that focused only on gong baths showed that participants found the sound vibrations healing or relaxing.

1. Boosts Mood and Well-Being

An observational study of 62 participants exposed to sound healing via a singing bowl meditation showed that participants experienced less tension, anxiety, fatigue, and low mood after the meditation. Additionally, a feeling of well-being significantly increased across all participants.

1. Reduced Pain

In the same observational study, participants reported reductions in pain. Specifically, the group aged 40 to 59 who were new to this type of healing meditation showed the largest reduction in pain scores.

1. Improved Immune Function

A study on music therapy showed markers of improved immune function in active participants. These participants engaged in a 30-minute session where they played various percussive instruments and sang. It’s believed that a similar effect occurs when sound bathing, especially in groups that actively make sound along with the sound healing instruments.

Research has also been conducted to explore the effects of music and sound therapy on a person’s health. Music therapy has been shown to have the potential to affect blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, EEG measurements, body temperature, galvanic skin response, and immune and endocrine processes. In fact, a review by Thaut acknowledges music therapy’s potential to be used in rehabilitation.  

 

One research study considered the influence of music therapy on anger management in psychiatric patients. Fourteen participants randomly divided into two groups underwent a music therapy anger management program and aggression management program respectively. The results of the test showed that those in the music therapy group displayed greater positive coping skills. The researchers suggested that the number of hours patients are exposed to music therapy can hasten the process of adopting positive behaviors.

Ellis also explored the effects of sound therapy on children who have severe learning difficulties and profound and multiple learning difficulties. One study tested the effectiveness of a specialized sound therapy program with a uniquely high frequency. Twenty children from remedial classes were grouped into an experimental and control group. The experimental group listened to the frequency, while the control group listened to classical music without the high frequency. After a 16-week test, results showed that the experimental group showed more significant gains in auditory discrimination, reading ability, reading comprehension and spelling compared to the control group.

Instruments and Methods Used in Sound Therapy

Sound therapy can manifest itself in a variety of forms, all of which have the potential to heal. Several instruments that can be used to perform sound therapy.

Vocal Toning

Vocal toning is the process of creating sound with an elongated vowel for an extended period. It creates the strongest healing sound that can be performed without an instrument.

 

In Ayurveda, vocal toning is a powerful way to balance the body’s chakras. Different vowel sounds correspond to different chakra. For example, vocal toning of the sound “uh” (as in “up”) resonates with the root chakra.

Vocal toning is probably the easiest sound healing procedure you can perform since you do not have to use an instrument and it can be done anywhere and anytime. To perform vocal toning, find a place where you will be undisturbed and seat yourself comfortably in a chair with your spine upright. Take a few deep breaths to relax. When you are ready, vocal tone the root chakra. You can then move up to the different chakras, namely the sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow and crown chakra. Visualize the color of the chakra as you tone its corresponding vowel sound.

Chants

Chanting also uses the voice and involves repeating sacred words, names, and phrases. The goal of chanting is to trigger physical changes in the brain through sound vibrations. Chanting is said to bring about a sense of deep calm and peace.

A form of chanting that began in India is known as Kirtan. It is believed to usher in feelings of peace and unity. Kirtan is performed in a call-and-response style. Those who participate in Kirtan recite ancient chants which are mostly sung in Sanskrit.

Both vocal toning and chanting can be done individually or in a group.

Singing Bowls

Also known as Tibetan singing bowls and Himalayan singing bowls, these are inverted bells made principally from copper, bronze, or quartz crystal. They are played by circling and striking the bowl’s rim with the accompanying mallet.

Playing the singing bowl can create unique rhythmic patterns and vibrational sound harmonics like the frequency of “aum” or “om,” the sacred mantra in Hinduism and Buddhism.

Gongs

The gong is an instrument that has been used in sound healing for thousands of years. It is a percussion instrument usually made from brass or bronze. There are different sizes of gongs, each size emitting a unique sound. The gong is played by hitting its center with a mallet. Other techniques of playing the gong include priming it by stroking and letting it vibrate and spinning it to make warping sounds.

Gong baths are meditative and relaxing sessions where a patient lays down while a sound healer plays a set of gongs that surround the patient. The patient allows the sound, volume, and vibrations from the gong to be absorbed by his or her body. Most of those who have undergone gong baths have reported feeling more energized, less stressed, and more peaceful.

Shakers and Rattles

As noted above, the ancient Egyptians used a shaker-like instrument called the sistra. Shamans and healers have used shakers and rattles to connect with spiritual entities to aid them in treating a patient. These instruments are believed to fragment dense energy and cleanse the body of negativity.

Tuning Forks

A tuning fork is often used to correct the tones of musical instruments. The prongs of the fork are struck to create a specific pitch, to which the musician matches the tone of his or her instrument. Tuning forks have also been used in sound therapy, such as where a practitioner makes it vibrate and then places it in near the patient’s ailing area. Tuning forks can also be placed near the chakra locations to stimulate energetic healing.

Sound is a truly a powerful force that positively affects the mind, body and soul. People of various cultures have identified and harnessed sound’s capability to bring about healing and balance. Sound therapy has evolved over the centuries and has recently been further refined to complement traditional medical treatment.

Fast forward to the 21st century, we now have firm evidence of the positive impact of sound therapy on both our physical and mental state, thanks to the amazing discoveries that quantum mechanics has delivered to each and every one of us. 

From mood enhancement and relaxation to oneness with the cosmos, music can shift our state of mind. Meditation is not that different. Meditation lowers the stress hormone cortisol, helps us get a good nite's rest and rewires the brain with a host of positive neural connections that can alter our thought patterns.  When we are fully lost in music, we are getting a taste of nirvana without any of the rigorous training.

The goal of both music and meditation is to create a powerful and positive shift in our mental state. Music is a reliable source of transformational experience for many, and we are attracted to music for the same reasons that meditators meditate. Music and meditation both allow a fuller and richer experience of our emotions: They stop our incessant and often negative mental chatter and offer us an opportunity to inhabit the present moment more fully and meaningfully. These are all important for good health and happiness in human beings.

Music and spirituality

“Music is the mediator between the life of the senses and the life of the spirit”  – Ludwig van Beethoven

Our species has a long-standing obsession with rhythm, melody, and harmony. The aboriginal people of Australia believe in song lines which manifest reality and everything in it, and some native Americans believe that life was brought about and sustained by the “song of the creator.”

Music is an integral part of all authentic spiritual traditions: It has been utilized as an important element of spiritual rites and rituals to unify groups with each other and the divine, to focus the mind, explore deeper truths, and to transcend the bounds of ordinary existence. The chanted mantras and ragas of the Hindu traditions, yoga’s seed syllable “om,” and the hymns of modern gospel churches are all examples of tools that are universally used to bring spiritual practitioners to higher states of consciousness.

So, what is it about music that imparts these shifts in mental state almost instantly, when it might take a meditator many years to achieve the same effect reliably without music? It’s not one thing, but a combination of many different effects that work on different parts of the body/mind complex. Let’s have a look at some of them.

“Music can minister to minds diseased, pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, raze out the written troubles of the brain, and with its sweet oblivious antidote, cleanse the full bosom of all perilous stuff that weighs upon the heart” — William Shakespeare

Music forces us to take a present-centered perspective on reality to engage with it.

Music offers the opportunity for us to take a present-centered perspective on reality to engage with it. This sense of being present feels good- not being present can even result in unhappiness.

One of the reasons we love music so much is that we can forget our troubles and just be. Immersed in sound and devoid of the usual angst of life, we perceive our world from a hyper-present flow state.

One of the markers of flow is “transient hypofrontality,” which is a state where our sense of self temporarily deactivates and the parts of the brain that generate feelings like anxiety and self-doubt are subdued. In this state, the activity becomes entirely rewarding in and of itself without regard for outcome. Could life be like this all the time?

Most meditation traditions assume the answer to this question is yes. They work with flow as a tool by utilizing meditative states called “jhana,” which fulfill the criteria for the flow states that music listening and playing can generate. As the great sages of southeast Asia have been telling us since the Axial Age, the gateway to happiness is opened when we can let go of our sense of self and the neurosis that comes with it.

“One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain” — Bob Marley

Much of the time, humans are stuck worrying about the past and the future rather than the present. This happens when a subsystem of the brain called the default mode network is active. Although it normally results in anxious and stressful thoughts, evolutionarily it offers great benefits. We spend much of our time ruminating on past events to learn from what went wrong, and we think about future events to prepare for them.

When we listen to music, the default mode network is activated, but with a very different emotional outcome. When the default mode network is engaged by music we love, it appears that even though we are in a waking rest state (which is the typical playground for the negative ramblings of the default mode network), the mind focuses on the music. Instead of worrying about that project due at work, the unpaid credit-card bill, or what to wear at the wedding next weekend, we get sucked into the music. For the length of that song or concert, we’re much less likely to comb our memories or future for negative or unresolved trauma or events. 

For thousands of years, Buddhist meditators have known the effects of an activated default mode network as “mind wandering,” and the tools to transcend it are built into the meditation system. By using gently repeated intentions, noting of thoughts as they arise, and a general increase in mental power, Buddhist meditation allows us to transcend the random and negative imaginings about past and future.

Let it all out

“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness” — Maya Angelou

German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer summed it up perfectly:

“The inexpressible depth of music, so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from its pain.”

Meditation is also a way of experiencing our emotions more fully. But rather than outsourcing our emotional expression to music in meditation, we’re taught to quieten the mind and let the latent and repressed emotions arise. In a state of relaxed mindfulness, we allow emotions to arise without suppressing them or getting caught up in them, and in this way the feelings, memories, and trauma can fully express in a safe space. This generates greater emotional literacy, releases stored negative emotions that can cause illness, and increases our focus and mindfulness—all of which are associated with happiness.

“Music is a moral law. it gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything” — Plato

It has been shown in controlled studies that listening to music releases copious amounts of dopamine from the brain, which is one of the happiness neurochemicals. It is well known for being the brain’s “reward” drug of choice for encouraging actions that are good for reproduction and survival.

“It is interesting to think that while animals get these ‘rewards’ from things like eating and sex…humans get them from abstract or aesthetic pleasures like art, poetry or music, that as far as we know don’t have any survival value,” Salimpoor says in one of her studies. It provides a hit of euphoria that leaves you craving more, which is why it’s such a potent driver of behavior. 

But there’s one difference with meditation: You get the dopamine hit, but without the craving for more. As a study on Yoga Nidra meditation shows, practicing this yoga-based meditation increases the dopamine’s euphoria effect, but decreases the need to act. This leaves the meditator with dopamine’s buzz, but with a greatly decreased likelihood that they’ll do something dangerous.

In Buddhist meditation, you train yourself to lessen the craving to act on our evolutionary urges that are reinforced by dopamine. Buddhists believe that this is directly tied to a reduction of suffering and a heightened sense of happiness and connectedness in daily life. In fact, after realizing nirvana, the historical Buddha stated in the first and second of his philosophy-defining Four Noble Truths that “the cause of suffering is craving.”

Feeling one with others

“I think music (is)…something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music” — Billy Joel

As any regular concertgoer knows, there are times when the crowd seem to become a single entity: areas of the arena moving and flowing like a wave on an ocean of vibration, the uniqueness of any one person lost in a seismic togetherness that is beyond the physical. The feeling is exhilarating and blissful, and the longer a good concert goes on, the more harmonized and integrated the audience becomes. What we call a “vibe” in the club or concert can be quantified both psychologically and physiologically.

In the meditation world, this experience is explained as a loss of self in the group. The rush of unity and oneness that arises is due to the loss of ego, instead replaced by something that the enlightened ones have written about for millennia: that we are all connected in far deeper ways than appear on the surface.

Scientists are now measuring this collective experience at concerts. They have found that when we gather in front of live performers in large groups, there is a brain synchrony in the delta range that is related to both increased enjoyment of the experience (the exhilaration), but also of affiliation with those at the show (oneness).

Research by the Arts and Humanities Research Council has found that music is also a social contagion: participants show more positive associations with images of people from two different cultural groups after listening to music explicitly belonging to that cultural group. The researchers suggest that the participants’ brainwaves and physiology were aligning in measurable ways—what scientists call “entrainment.” With music, this entrainment is not just an alignment to the rhythmic and melodic components of the music, but there is also an emotional entrainment that occurs at the same time. This creates a quantifiable connection and positive affect.

Buddhist “loving kindness meditations” do a very similar thing. By training for emotional entrainment, meditators experience pronounced prosocial effects in everyday life. This study shows that “the practice of loving kindness meditations led to shifts in people’s daily experiences of a wide range of positive emotions, including love, joy, gratitude, contentment, hope, pride, interest, amusement, and awe…They enabled people to become more satisfied with their lives and to experience fewer symptoms of depression.” 

Both music fans and meditators know that feeling connected to ourselves and others feels great, but meditators don’t wait for the return engagement of their favorite reggae band. We take what music fans know and retrain our neural pathways to do the same thing, whether there is music playing or not.

To music or meditate—that is the question

“Meditation can make life musical, and music can bring a deep inner peace” — meditation master Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The study of how music affects the mind/body complex is a relatively new field, but you don’t need a scientist to tell you how your mental state shifts while listening to your favorite music—you can feel it yourself. It brings us closer to being able to understand life and our place in it and helps us transcend the ego by connecting with those around us in a more positive, holistic, and healthy way.

There are many qualities that we can experience under the influence of music with no formal training. These include increased focus, empathy, lowering of stress, pain relief and prosocial tendencies.  These are all also well-documented effects and goals within the various Buddhist meditation systems too.

So, the next time you are sliding to your favorite tune in the club or at a concert, take a second or two to notice the magic it creates. Ask yourself, “What would it be like to have this feeling all the time?”