What is Sound healing?

Sound healing uses specific sound waves to promote relaxation, healing, and balance in the body.

How Does it Work?

Sound healing works by using specific sound frequencies to stimulate the body’s own natural equilibrium of resonance frequencies. Sound healing uses rhythmic frequencies, inducing deep relaxation, giving an opportunity for the body to relax back into its own natural resonant frequencies. This can be achieved through various methods, including:

• Listening to specific music or sound waves that restore the body’s natural frequencies.
• Using sound-emitting devices, such as tuning forks, gongs or singing bowls, to apply specific vibrations to the body, with intention, to stimulate the body's own return to equilibrium and natural resonance.
• Practicing sound meditation, sound baths, which involves lying down, attentive to the various sound waves that come and go, while feeling and noticing the vibrations that move through the body.
• Attention and intention, of the sound practitioner, as well as the listener(s), is a key component in how the sound waves interact, and in how they are given and received. The attentional space of sound, with mind and body, is affected greatly by its own reciprocal nature. In other words, we are discussing a quantum space where the outcome is directly affected by the observer's participation of it. (For more information on this, look up the double slit experiment).

Why Does it Work?

There is still more research to be done but there are a few prevailing ideas as to why sound healing is so helpful:

• Brainwave states. Sound baths may elicit brainwave states where individuals experience deep relaxation and healing, especially in longer sessions. These states include 'Theta' brainwaves which occur at 4-8 Hertz and in light stages of sleep, meditation or relaxation and 'Delta' brainwaves occurring at less than 4 Hertz and in stages of deep sleep or meditation.
• Binaural beats. Binaural beats are an auditory phenomenon created by playing two slightly different frequencies in each ear. When the brain perceives these slightly different tones, it produces a third frequency known as the binaural beat, the difference between the two hertz levels. So if you had one frequency at 20 hertz and another at 15 hertz, the difference would be 5 hertz. And this hertz level is equivalent to the 'Theta' brainwave state.
• Biofield. The biofield refers to an energy or electromagnetic field that is believed to surround and interact with the human body (everything is connected). This concept suggests that within this field may lie answers in accessing one’s overall health and well-being. In this way, sound waves exiting the vibrational instruments to interact with the purported biofield could also affect change in the biofield.
• Vagus nerve activation. The vagus nerve, also known as the tenth cranial nerve, plays a pivotal role in regulating numerous involuntary bodily functions, including one’s heart rate, digestion and respiratory rate. Stimulating the vagus nerve is integral to activating the body's relaxation response, as it can induce a state of calmness and counteract the “fight-or-flight” stress response. This nerve plays a key role in maintaining overall physiological balance and well-being and research suggests that it may be activated during sound healing sessions, creating an optimal state for healing..

Benefits of Sound Healing:

Sound healing has been shown to have numerous benefits, including:

• Reducing stress and anxiety
• Promoting relaxation and calmness
• Improving sleep quality
• Reducing pain and inflammation
• Improving mood and emotional well-being
• Enhancing cognitive function and focus
• promoting good self-care

Types of Sound Resonance Therapies:

There are different variations of sound healing techniques:

• Tuning fork therapy: uses calibrated (weighted and non-weighted) metal tuning forks to apply specific vibrations to the body and/or accoustically.
• Singing bowl therapy: uses singing bowls that create specific frequency sound waves to promote resonance with the body.
• Gong Bath therapy: using gong(s) and the different sound waves they emit to entrain listeners into deeper relaxation and brain states.
• Sound Baths (or sound journeys): involves lying down and listening/attending to sound waves while feeling the vibrations throughout the body.
• vibro-acoustical therapy: uses a vibro-acoustic bed allows the body to hear and feel the frequencies and vibrations more directly.(supportive research)
• Music therapy: uses music to promote relaxation and healing..

Conclusion:

Sound healing is a powerful tool for promoting deep relaxation, healing, and balance in the body. By using specific rhythmic sound frequencies to stimulate the body’s own natural resonance frequencies, sound healing can have a profound impact on both physical and emotional well-being. Whether you’re looking to reduce stress, improve sleep, improve focus, or enhance your overall mood, sound healing is a valuable addition to your regular self-care routine.

Supportive Research:

Goldsby, T. L., & Goldsby, M. E. (2020). Eastern Integrative Medicine and Ancient Sound Healing Treatments for Stress: Recent research advances. PubMed, 19(6), 24–30. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33488307

Goldsby, T. L., Goldsby, M. E., McWalters, M., & Mills, P. J. (2016). Effects of singing bowl sound meditation on mood, tension, and well-being: an observational study. Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine, 22(3), 401–406. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156587216668109

Rio-Alamos, C., Montefusco-Siegmund, R., Cañete, T., Sotomayor, J., & Fernandez-Teruel, A. (2023). Acute relaxation response induced by Tibetan Singing bowl sounds: a randomized controlled trial. European Journal of Investigation in Health Psychology and Education, 13(2), 317–330. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe13020024

Kim, S., & Choi, M. (2023). Does the sound of a singing bowl synchronize meditational brainwaves in the listeners? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(12), 6180. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20126180

Walter, N., & Hinterberger, T. (2022). Neurophysiological effects of a singing bowl massage. Medicina, 58(5), 594. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina58050594