Sound Therapy and Healing

Music can heal. Scientists have shown that sound and music affect our brain waves, metabolism and physiological responses and can create profound cellular change. Pythagoras used certain melodies and instruments to treat emotional diseases. Edgar Cayce predicted that sound would be the future medicine.

Progressive clinics and hospitals are now beginning to use therapeutic sound and music. Educators are finding that sound can accelerate learning, brain activity and help treat learning disorders. Research is becoming available almost everyday to anyone wanting to understand this simple, yet complex tool.

Benefits

• relaxes the mind and lowers stress levels that inhibit learning. When used effectively, it increases alpha levels in the brain, boosting memory and recall and allowing the brain to access reserve capacities.
• acts directly on the body, specifically on metabolism and heartbeat. Listening to certain types of music can trigger the release of endorphins, producing a tranquil state that leads to faster learning.
• stimulates and awakens, reviving the bored or sleepy and increasing blood and oxygen flow to the brain.
• is mathematical. Certain musical structures stimulate specialized brain circuits, allowing listeners to decode complex ideas more easily.
• inspires emotion, creating a clear passage to long-term memory.
• is a universal language, uniquely capable of crossing cultural barriers and training in ethnic traditions and values. It can set a dramatic stage for lessons in history, foreign language, sociology, political studies and geography.
• is a powerful facilitator for deeper states of consciousness, expanded awareness and healing.

Research

The research on Music and Sound is as varied as the techniques and instruments. The most recent research was broadcast in June of 2009 when a team of scientists and musicians came together to explain how music affects our emotions, our brain...and why. Notes and Neurons

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In a study that was reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (2002; 166: 144-145), researchers at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden found that nitric oxide levels in the sinuses were 15 times higher during humming than during normal, quiet exhalations. Nitric oxide (NO) helps to dilate the capillary beds and increase blood flow. Humming had the effect of dramatically increasing the gas exchange in the nasal sinuses. Based on the results of their study, the researchers believe that regular breathing exercises that involve humming may be able to help reduce the incidence of sinusitis and infections in the upper respiratory tract.

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I am also including an article issued by the NCCAM "Energy Medicine: An Overview".

Treatment

With so many options available, sound tools can range from the use of vocal mantras, toning, singing bowls, tuning forks and specific frequencies available by CD or computer program. Understanding music and the structure of harmonics is useful, though not always necessary in today's information and technology age. By incorporating specific music, in certain keys, your therapy session can be dramatically enhanced. Practitioners may utilize a range of frequencies to correlate to body processes and brain states, all orchestrated to achieve balance or help neutralize stresses.

Most often, sound and music is brought in as a complementary therapy, there to help the patient relax. Though, with the rapid advancements in sound therapy techniques and tools, clinicians are finding this modality can trigger or accelerate positive outcomes.

Personal History and Background

At the age of eight I was marched into the office of an elder French pianist and given instruction on a finely tuned instrument. My mother insisted I practice, as did Sister Miriam Jean, the nun in charge of the metronome. By 6th grade I had composed my first sonata and began picking up the bardic harp and native sweet pipe (both are nods to my heritage). Even then, I observed how music impacted individuals and groups, and began to understand the far-reaching effects. My natural curiosity to answer all the 'Whys' began young.

Having a core foundation in music theory and years of practical experience in playing an instrument helped me take intuitive leaps in the world of frequencies. I already tuned instruments and casually watched the use of tuning forks in other fields, namely my father's lab at the Academy of Health Sciences (ever had a tuning fork used while undergoing a physical exam by an MD?). As a young adult I came across papers describing brain states, body/organ frequencies and the physics behind sound waves, note intervals and cultural scales. It all just clicked.

Searching out the pioneers in this field, I began to write down my own theories about sound resonance, collective consciousness and transitions. Dr. Valerie Hunt, Dr. Jeffrey Thompson, The Monroe Institute  and numerous other experts in this field (some conventional, some not), all became sources of an incredible body of knowledge that was just moving into the mainstream.

Being exposed to such diversity in sound and the possible applications inspired me to pull together a group of musicians I met while living in St. Augustine, FL. to co-found "Heart Journey". Partnering with local Hospice directors and extended care facilities, we were called in when a transition was imminent and played live music to help soothe patient and family members as their loved one passed on. I was able to marry my love of Sound and Music with a role my grandmothers subscribed a Healer, that of facilitator (birth, illness, then death). My experiences during this time were profound.

The articles began when I returned from back to back trips involving sound temples in Egypt and Heiaus on Kaua`i. I felt I had completed a circle and wanted to share my discoveries, along with a few insights I had picked up along the way. Those few articles published in "New Horizons" magazine and "Sedona" quickly spread out in the New Age/Metaphysical Circles (though I wrote them as practical guides, some of the methods I taught were getting noticed) and I was contracted for my first speaking engagements. After a few nationwide events known to these same circles, I was asked to join the "Universal Lightworkers Conference". It was an exciting time, but it also happened too fast and I found myself juggling time spent on the road with the time I had raising my young family. I made the choice to withdraw to take care of family and make sure my 2 young daughters and son knew their heritage, and their Mom.

Back to the present, life has finally cycled back around with the time to begin teaching again. For a science so complex (and I do consider the physics of music complex), the first steps are incredibly simple and remain the same no matter how far you tiptoe into the tulips. I have assigned it a simple phrase to help people remember the tools I will give to them and the path sound and healing takes.

Ready?

Note. Your. Breath.