Sound Healing

Vibrations and our Body

Everything is vibration. It is a well-known fact that the whole Universe is energy in vibration. Vibration is the source of all life. Sound is a very important form of vibration. Sound is all around us. It’s in our voices, the music we listen to and in our environment.

In the brain, all our neurons fire at different vibrational frequencies based on the data they receive from our surroundings. Those vibrations interact with every cell in our body.

Our body is like an orchestra. All organs, chakras and tissues vibrate at a different frequency. Just like all different instruments are tuned to a different tone or frequency. When all instruments are tuned well and played well, the sounds produced are beautifully in harmony. 

This is when we feel healthy, happy and in harmony with the inner and outer world.

However, the environment and our thoughts can cause our body to go out of tune. And just as with the instruments in the orchestra, our bodies then need re-tuning. The longer you wait with this re-tuning the more disharmony is created within the body and in the end this may cause physical dis-ease or illness.
The article Sound to the Rescue gives further information on how our etheric body may become out of balance or starts to vibrate with a lower frequency.

How Does Sound Healing Work?

The sound waves or vibrations created by acoustic instruments like gongs, drums singing bowls and tuning forks, can alter your brainwave frequencies. By using specific rhythms and frequencies you can downshift your brainwave pattern from the beta state (normal consciousness) to the theta state (relaxed consciousness) and even to the delta state where internal healing can occur.

When you have two vibrating entities next to each other the stronger vibration will affect the weaker one; and eventually they will synchronise.

Then there is the physical part. In your ear is a nerve that connects to the vagus nerve, the major parasympathetic nerve in the body. This parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for rest. It reduces stress, lowers blood pressure and relaxes muscles. And a little branch of this vagus nerve goes right to the eardrum, which vibrates in response to sound waves. This means that every sound that you process through your ears sends information to the vagus nerve.

Why is this important?
If you suffer long periods of stress the activity of the vagus nerve is suppressed and this is bad for your health; so stimulating the vagus nerve – through the right frequencies – could bring your body back to a normal healthy state.

What Does Science Say?

As Sound Healing is still a pretty new healing modality there is not a lot of research available as yet. But more studies are published regularly that back up the physical benefits of sound healing.

There is some research suggesting that tuning forks may help relieve muscle and bone pain. A 2016 study found that after a singing bowl treatment participants felt significant less tension, anger and fatigue. On a physical level it helped lower blood pressure, improved breathing and circulation, alleviated aches and pains and strengthened the immune system. Additionally a feeling of spiritual well-being significantly increased across all participants.

And a recent study on vibroacoustic therapy – when sounds and vibrations are applied directly to the body to penetrate you on a cellular level – found that the practice could be an effective treatment for chronic pain and injury recovery. Both the Sound Bath and the Sound Healing are a form of vibroacoustic therapy.

While the exact mechanisms behind these benefits are still being researched, the sound therapy puts your body into the parasympathetic state. When stress or pain you are in fight or flight mode, sympathetic state, your body is surging with cortisol and inflammatory molecules, which is, needless to say, not very healthy for the body. So anything that calms you down will help your healing response and reduce inflammation. Sound therapy is ideal to affect this and thus benefit your health.

Being in a parasympathetic state affects you not only on a physical level but also on an emotional, psychological and spiritual level. It increases antibody production for better immunity, it decreases cortisol levels, which helps lowering your blood pressure and it increases alpha and theta brain waves so you can be more alert during the day and go into a deeper sleep, where healing occurs.