‘Sound is the source of all being; vibration is the basis of all our reality.’
– Jonathan & Andi Goldman.
According to the English Oxford dictionary, ‘Sound’ is,
‘Vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person’s or animal’s ear.’
However, not all sound can be heard and the article below, based on my sound healing dissertation, will show how sound is much more!
What is Healing?
According to the same dictionary, ‘Healing’ is,
‘The process of making or becoming sound or healthy again.’
Therefore, Sound Healing is,
‘The process of using vibrations that travel through the air or another medium (such as the body) that can sometimes be heard by the human ear and enable a person or animal to become sound (or in tune) in body, mind and spirit and/or healthy again.’
Sound Healing practice is the ancient art of using the human voice and other instruments to facilitate physical, emotional, mental and spiritual healing.
Sound Healing is not limited to hearing the sounds because the vibrations or the sound waves, penetrate the cells of our physical body to change their frequency. Every organ and part of our body vibrates at a different frequency and when vibrating out of sync, dis-ease, inflammation and pain can develop.
The voice is the most powerful healing instrument. During a personal sound healing session, a Sound Healing Practitioner uses their voice to scan the body to identify areas which are ‘out of tune’ and causing a blockage or a disruption of energy flow; and then to ‘heal’ or start the ‘healing process’ of that area in the body. The Sound Healing Practitioner will also use other instruments during a Sound Healing treatment session such as gongs; singing bowls; bells; chimes; drums; rattles; a flute; tuning forks and many other ancient, sacred and what might seem like unusual instruments.
Receiving a Sound Healing Treatment is a different experience for everyone and is usually a very calming and relaxing experience; often finding inner peace and feeling the release of past trauma and emotions as well as physical pain. As a Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), I am also well trained and experienced to support and coach you through any feelings and thoughts you may experience during or after your session.
During a Sound Healing treatment you may also be invited to sound with your Practitioner. This enhances the healing process as well as enables and empowers you to learn how you can use sound for self healing. You may also be given sound healing exercises to practice following the treatment to enable you to continue with and manage your own healing journey.
Some benefits of Sound Healing have show to be:
- reduces pain
- decreases anxiety and depression
- reduces stress
- lowers cholesterol
- improves memory
- reduces blood pressure
- deep relaxation
- improves sleep
- has been shown to reduce tumours and completely destroy cancer cells
Caroline uses many different instruments during your sound healing session depending on what is required specifically for you personally. They include:
- Vocal sounds
- Tuning Forks
- Gongs
- Tibetan singing bowls
- Drums
- Rattles
- Shruti box
- Sansula
- Tinshall bells
- Chimes
- other sounding instruments
Caroline is trained as a Sound Healing Practitioner by the College of Sound Healing. If you would like to learn more or book a sound healing session please get in touch.
What is a Sound Bath or Sound Bath Meditation?
A Sound Bath is when you are bathed in sound. You can receive a sound bath in a group or in a 121 sound healing session. You can be laying down or seated and you will often cover yourself with a blanket to keep warm. The Sound Healing Practitioner will then ask you to set your intention for the session and start to play sound healing instruments such as gongs, singing bowls, bells and other sound making instruments; they can also use their voice to chant whilst you relax and absorb all the healing sounds during the session.
A Sound Bath Meditation is sometimes considered the same as a sound bath. However, I like to distinguish the two and will often have a theme for the session and then guide the group or individual with spoken mindful meditation elements, related to the topic being meditated upon.
If you would like to receive a Sound Healing Treatment, please contact me for an appointment.
How does Sound Healing work?
Everything in the universe is a vibration of frequency. This means we are an accumulation of vibrations and every individual part of us vibrates at a different frequency depending on its density and fluidity. Our bodies are made up of approximately 70-80 percent water and each organ, muscle, ligament and bone vibrates at a different resonant frequency. Resonant frequency means ‘natural’ frequency for that specific matter or material (or in this context, body part).
Water is a very good conductor of sound and vibration. You can see this when you see the ripples in a pond after throwing in a pebble and when you swim under water, you can hear the sounds from outside the water. If you put some water in a singing bowl and run the striker around its edge to make it sing, you will also see the vibrations in the water form a fountain and feel the vibrations in the palm of your hand whilst you are holding the singing bowl. The fountain effect is produced by the molecules of water vibrating so fast against each other and the side of the singing bowl that some molecules are forced out of the water at the edge of the bowl and then drop back into the water again.
Therefore, when we create sound vibrations, whether we can hear them or not, they will affect other surrounding materials and will cause these molecules to vibrate at the same frequency or will take on the frequency of the surrounding ones. When these frequencies resonate with or vibrate faster than the original matter’s resonant frequency, it forces some of the matter’s molecules to vibrate so fast against each other that some of them are released from (or pushed out of) that matter and into an adjacent matter, such as the atmosphere or an adjacent matter or fluid (such as that in the body). These in turn change the frequency of this matter, like the pebble being thrown into a pool of water. This is what is happening with the commonly described scenario of an opera singer, sounding at a pitch which matches and/or exceeds the resonant vibration of a glass, causing it to break into the atmosphere and fall through gravity, down to the floor.
When using sounding on a person’s body, the ‘released’ or ‘dispersed’ molecules (often toxins) travel through the fluid of the body which transports the unwanted toxins and they are flushed through the body through the excretory system. This is why it is important to drink water immediately after a sound healing treatment, to flush the unwanted matter/ toxins out of the body allowing healing to take place. If the client doesn’t drink water following a treatment, this can cause dehydration and the toxins to settle elsewhere in the body and therefore causing a problem or ‘blockage’ in that area.
This is how ultra sound is used in hospitals to vibrate, break up and disperse unwanted kidney stones which are then excreted through the person’s urine. There is also research from Fabien Maman in the 1980s, showing that sound can destroy cancer cells by vibrating the centre of the cells and causing them to explode and be destroyed completely!
In many healing and spiritual practices, it is believed that we have more than one body. These are known as subtle bodies attached to our physical body; an etheric body is attached to our physical body, an emotional body is attached to that, an astral body is attached to that, a causal body consisting of a mental and spiritual body is attached to that! This is commonly known as our aura. Each body is further out from our physical body and measures a few to many inches in width and the vibrations of each body become less dense and vibrate at a higher frequency the further out they are from our physical body.
This means that when we are in the company of others, our energy bodies are touching and mingling with each other and each one can affect the vibration of the other. This can be commonly understood as the ‘atmosphere’ (or the energy) in a room or environment. These energies can also be left behind leaving a residue atmosphere in the room and this is why it is important to clear all energies from a treatment room in between clients attending a treatment. Clearing a room of unwanted energies can be done in many ways, including with sound.
Lower frequencies are denser than higher ones and our subtle bodies can pick up denser and unwanted energies from others which will in turn affect each layer of our subtle bodies down to our physical one. When our physical body ‘holds on’ to unwanted energy, it will affect the part of the body to which it is ‘attached.’ This then changes the vibration of that body part and can subsequently cause pain, discomfort, disease and what are called ‘blockages’ in energy work.
Just as an ultra sound of a pregnant mother sends a feedback vibration which creates a picture on a screen to see the baby in the womb, when a sound is made over a part of a body, the feedback of that sound can vary and this helps identify an area which is not in resonance. This is how a practitioner knows where to direct a sound on a client.
What makes Sound Healing such an Effective Therapy?
Using sound for healing is a very sacred and holistic process. Even prayer has been shown to be more effective when spoken or chanted aloud rather than within the mind silently; and when chanted or said with appreciation and thank,s as if the prayer has already been answered.
Thoughts and intentions are also vibrational frequencies and for a client to receive optimum healing, a practitioner has to pay full attention towards their client; use visualisation and intuiting the sounds and volume of their voice and/or the instrument they are using, for it to be physically comfortable for the client.
Sound for changing brain wave frequencies
We can use sound to change the frequencies of our brainwaves and create different conscious states. We have specific resonant frequencies for each conscious state we are in and these are called, Theta, Delta, Alpha and Beta brainwaves and their frequencies are as follows:
Delta = 0.5 – 3hz
(state of Deep Sleep or Unconsciousness. Also when in very deep meditation)
Theta = 4hz – 7hz
(state of High Creativity and Deep Meditation and Sleep)
Alpha = 8hz – 13hz
(state of Daydreaming and Meditation which becomes stronger when eyes closed)
Beta = 14hz – 20hz
(Normal waking state of consciousness. When our focus is on activities outside of our body and mind, the external world).
There is a set of tuning forks called ‘The Brain Tuning Forks’ which are tuned to the brainwave frequencies above. I have experienced using these very successfully on myself in the middle of the night when I am struggling to sleep. Afterwards, I have fallen asleep immediately my head has touched the pillow! I have also had great feedback from parents and carers the following day when using the brain tuning forks with children on the autistic spectrum as well as those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) during a session. One mum reported that her son slept so soundly, he needed to be woken up to get ready for school the following day which had never happened before.Also, reports from school included that he was a calmer and more attentive child that day, asking what had caused this difference.
Because the body is very clever and can adjust its rhythms over time and get back into its resonant rhythm or change to a new rhythm, we can use sound in a rhythmic way to adjust and ‘retrain’ the vibrations of the body and brain to come back into balance. This is called ‘entrainment’ and was discovered by a Dutch Scientist called Christen Huygens. One day, he set in motion at different times, the pendulums of different sized clocks so they were all swinging at different rhythms. When he returned the following day, found that all the pendulums were swinging at the same pace and rhythm as each other!
One example of natural entrainment in humans, is when jet lag affects our sleeping and waking pattern and over a couple of days, we get into the rhythm of the new time zone. Another example of entrainment is when two women, whether friends or relatives or neither, live together, and over time their menstrual cycles entrain to be in sync with each other’s.
How are the sound healing frequencies created for Sound Healing?
The human voice is understood to be the most powerful sound healing instrument we have and when used with all of the other attributes mentioned above (intention, attention etc.) it is even more powerful.
Healing with vocal sound can be created by one person’s voice used on them self, or on another person or for a group of people. It can also be achieved by a group of people’s voices sounding together on one person or many people.
The importance of intention, thoughts, language and behaviour can be excellently demonstrated by the work of Marasu Emoto who discovered and published his work on the effect of different environments, music, sounds, intentions, thoughts, written words and behaviour had on the molecular structure of water. When positive intentions, words and behaviour were projected towards the water, beautiful crystals formed in the water when it was frozen and examined under a microscope. When negative intentions, words and behaviour were projected towards the water, no crystals formed at all, just ugly blobs of frozen molecules.
Here is a video showing this:
This means that we are affecting everything with vibration every moment of every day in the way that we think, communicate and behave towards our self, others and our environment and everyone and everything in it! Therefore we can see this as an opportunity to be mindful about our thoughts, the sounds and words we choose to use and create healing within and around us constantly.
Other work that shows the creation of resonant shapes and forms from sounds
Additionally, a medical doctor called Hans Jenny discovered that by placing different materials such as sand, on to a metal plate and vibrating sound over the plate, the materials took on different shapes and forms. The shapes and forms that were created seemed to depend upon the different frequencies of sound that were vibrating through the plate. Some took on the shape of human organs! This is known as the study of Cymatics.
Jonathan and Andi Goldman write in their book, ‘Chakra Frequencies – Tantra of Sound,’ how sound is energy and is not just something which goes in our ears which our brain processes so we can hear. Sound actually affects all our cranial nerves and specifically the ‘tenth’ cranial nerve which affects the larynx, the heart, the bronchi and the intestinal tract. This in turn affects our voice, breathing, heart rate and digestion. Additionally, they quote from the edition of the New York Times dated February 8, 1988 that,
‘Ultrasonic beams can make, break or rearrange molecules and levitate them in midair.’
And they go on to say,
‘Sound has the ability to rearrange molecular structure; it is therefore an enormously powerful and profound energy that can do extraordinary things.’
Please contact Caroline if you would like to book a 121 or group sound healing session.
