What is Sound Therapy?

CHAPTER 6
from Take Two CDs and Call Me in the Morning
Suzanne Jonas, Ed.D.
(Book can be ordered at: www.InnerHarmonyHealthCenter.com)

SOUND AS THERAPY

Imagine yourselves out there in the universe. From all the heavenly bodies it is singing, speaking as it sings, singing as it speaks, and all your perceptionis a listening to this speech which is song, and the singing speech of theCosmos...And whenever a planet in its course passes a constellation of the fixed stars, there bursts forth, not one single note, but a whole world of music.
Thus we have in the heavens of the fixes stars a wondrous Cosmic instrument
of MUSIC. Rudolf Steiner

THE SOUND OF CREATION
The book of Genesis tells us that creation began when God spoke the words,"Let there be light," and the Gospel of John also says that sound is theauthor of all things: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was withGod, and the Word was God....All things were made by him." Hundreds of yearsbefore Christianity the immortal words of the Hindu Vedas said: "In thebeginning was Brahman with whom was Vak, or the Word, and the Word is Brahman."In Egypt, the ancients believed that Thoth spoke the world into life: hewould name an object and bring it into life. And on the North American continent,the Hopi Indian legend says spider woman sang the song of creation over inanimateforms on earth and brought them to life.

The mystical traditionsof Egypt, Rome, Greece, Tibet and India tell us that sound is the very fountfrom which our universe arose. It is responsible for creation, as well assustaining and transforming all life and all matter. These traditions knewof the effects of sound, which was a highly refined science. All of themused vocal sounds to activate energy in the body for healing. The PythagoreanSchool and Philosophy, which lasted over 800 years, taught that music was equal in importance to mathematics and, again, was the foundation of allthings.

Likewise, the Jewish mystics known as Kabbalists taught thatthe Divine Word, the speech of God, creates and sustains both the heavensand the earth. They, too, believed that the various objects in our universeare different because a specific and unique combination of letters of sacredspeech sustains each one.

THE POWER OF THE VOICE
In Africa, theSangomas (Shamans in the Congo) heal the sick, bring on rain storms, easethe pain of childbirth, and calm the fury of raging animals with the utteranceof a single word or phrase. There are also many stories of some of our nativeAmerican medicine men, Rolling Thunder for one, who have used words and chantto bring about changes in weather and health, and to manifest objects. Thereare several Sound Healers today who are reviving ancient chants for the purposesof creating health and prosperity. Three of the most well known are: JonathanGoldman (www.healingsounds.com), Jeffery Thompson, Ph.D. (www.neuroacoustic.com),and Mitchell Gibson, M.D. (www.tybro.com). They use the power of the voiceas a potent instrument for the restoration and maintenance of optimal health.Goldman, as well as some other sound healers, are able to direct their voiceto different parts of a person's body to bring it back in tune. Also, likeDr. Gibson, he has recorded several ancient chants onto CDs. His Holy Harmonyuses the ancient Hebrew words for God combined with tuning forks for a verybeautiful and inspiring album. Dr. Gibson's CDs use ancient Hebrew chantsto align a person to such things as prosperity, miracles, and healing. Dr.Thompson records a person's own voice and mixes it with specific tones thatincrease relaxation. Listening to this combination creates a mix of emotionssuch as love, caring, and safety and feelings of comfort and relaxation toassist in healing.

For centuries the early Christian church prohibitedthe use of musical instruments in the church. It was the belief that thehuman voice was the most perfect instrument for creating music. In JonathanGoldman's book: Healing Sounds, he explores all of the vocal traditions onour planet from Tibetan overtone chanting where the voice is trained to producemore than one note at a time, to current toning and chanting used to rebalancethe body. He relates many research findings that demonstrate the effect ofusing one's voice or having a sound healer's voice directed at you. Theseinclude beneficial changes in respiration, cranial bones, the brain, rateof flow of cerebral spinal fluid, and the pineal gland. Here is further demonstrationof how sound can affect our body symphony. Over the years there has beensome refinement of the types of sounds that are effective to use when toning. It appears that lower sounds influence lower parts of the body, as highersounds influence the upper body. There also appears to be a direct relationshipbetween specific vowels and different parts of the body. For instance, todecrease fatigue and increase energy, sit up straight, take a deep breath,and slowly sing a high note on the vowel 'aye' or 'eeee' and imagine sendingit to your brain. Remember to sing with some energy! Do this for no morethan 5 minutes. For relaxation: sit up straight, take a deep breath, andslowly sing a low note on the vowel sound “uh” or 'ah' and send it to yourlower abdomen. Again, put some energy into your sound.

It is interestingto note that Tibetan and Christian monks who participate in lengthy dailychanting are very healthy. An interesting situation occurred at a Benedictinemonastery in France shortly after the second Vatican Council. The monks haddiscontinued their daily practice of Gregorian chant and had become fatiguedand depressed. Several recommendations of adding vitamins, meat and potatoeshad no effect, even making some of the monks feel worse. Dr. Alfred Tomatis(www.tomatis.com), a French physician and hearing specialist, was consulted.He advised they reinstitute their daily 6-8 hours of chanting, and soon mostwere back in good health.

In the Tibetan chanting tradition, manyof the monks create more than one note at a time, called overtone chanting.It appears that both the listener and the producer of this type of singingbenefit greatly. Mark Ryder, Ph.D.. found decreases in heart rate, respirationand brain wave activity as well as a charging of the cortex of the brain.What this translates to is being able to relax and often go into very deepmeditative states. For those of you interested in hearing overtone chanting,David Hykes, founder of the Harmonic Choir, has a very effective and interestingcd, Solar Winds. (www.harmonicworld.com)


THE PHYSICS OF SOUND
In the 21st century, we are proving what these ancient groups had known.The field of Quantum Physics is demonstrating that all of creation is composedof vibration which when lowered in frequency to our hearing range, is sound.Every thing is waves of energy or vibration, or inaudible sound. As a protectivemeasure, our physical hearing is such that we are unable to hear most thingsvibrate - can you imagine what it would be like if you could! Instead, wehave very sensitive microscopes so our eyes can see everything vibrating.As we peer into the microscope at the first layer we can see the moleculesmoving, some not much like in wood. But as we look further we see the protons,neutrons, and electrons vibrating, and inside the proton we see quarks dancing.

We are a walking symphony of sound: heartbeat, rushing blood, digestion,and vibrating cells all playing together to form you. Every thing has a resonantfrequency or number of cycles per second that it vibrates. For instance,the resonant frequency of water might be 100 cycles per second. If the moleculesdance faster or slower, the water changes its tune and becomes somethingdifferent, in this case, steam or ice. The human heart has a certain resonantfrequency, as does each muscle and vertebra, hormone, and cell salt. Whenany of these vibrate too fast or too slow, we become out of tune and mightfeel sick or discomfort.

The field of Cymatics (www.cymaticsource.com),pioneered by Swiss scientist Dr. Hans Jenny in the 1950's, is the scienceof how sound waves translate into physical patterns . He conducted experimentsthat directed simple pure tones into powders, pastes, and liquids. The soundstransformed the materials into patterns that are found throughout nature:crystals, chromosomes, cells, molecules, bone, tissue. His research demonstratedthat each cell generates its own frequency and the nature of the frequencydetermines what the resulting structure will be, i.e. heart, ruby, pine needle,etc. And, growth is the result of the vibrations. Here was the scientificdemonstration of the ancients' belief that all is composed of sound and soundcan influence matter.

One of the ways the basic frequency of an object can be altered is through
entrainment.In this process, the powerful rhythmic vibrations of one object will causethe less powerful vibrations of another object of similar frequency to lockin step and oscillate with the more powerful object. If all are startedat approximately the same time, all will entrain their motions to the loudestclock, and will soon be tick-tocking together. The use of entrainment isnot a new technique. Physician Walter Jane (1962) states that the ancientEgyptian and Greek civilizations were using these principles and techniquesfor healing in their temples.

Another way of changing a frequencyis to match the resonant frequency of an object and implode it, break itup. An opera singer who sings a note that has the same frequency as a crystalwine glass creates a resonance that will soon shatter the glass, just asthe construction industry uses sound to break up concrete. Another examplecan be found in modern medicine where ultrasound is used to break up kidneystones.

The therapeutic application of frequencies appears to haveseveral advantages over music and traditional medicine. First, frequenciesmay be applied to specific areas of the body that need attention therebyeliminating the possibility of effecting surrounding or related body parts/processes.Second, the frequencies bypass all the personal and cultural biases of thepatient. There is no problem with “liking” or “not liking” the selection. Third, the application of frequencies is controllable and the outcome measurableas a direct correlation. When a frequency is applied, there are definitephysiological reactions such as change in heart rate, blood pressure, oxygenation,and change in the targeted body part. And fourth, treatment appears to bepainless, with no negative side-effects if applied in a prescribed manner.