How sound healing works and the science and mysticism behind it – Health benefits included

We have experienced sound healing when we heard the rustling of tree leaves, the crashing of waves on the seashore, a call of a melodious bird in the early morning, and the sound of the falling rain.

These elemental sounds are charged with the power of nature and are in perfect harmony with their surroundings. In a way, they speak to us in a language that’s so innate in us that we connect and feel calm with them immediately.

The Hindu scriptures tell that the Universe originated from a single, unstruck, primordial sound “OM”.

It is the reverberation of Om that puts the life force into everything and brings it into creation.

If you think of the Big Bang, then a bang cannot happen without a sound.

Any article on sound or sound healing is also incomplete without the world-famous quote of Nikola Tesla, in which he says, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.”

Older and ongoing studies of Cymatics have shown us the transformational power of sound and how it can shape and affect matter. More on this later in the article.

Sound is a universal phenomenon on its own and in the form of music, it transcends time, cultural and social barriers, reaching people’s hearts and moving generations.

Music has been and will be a powerful medium to drive any message home.

While sound is such an integral part of our lives and it has many aspects, here in this article we are going to focus on its healing ability.

Sound healing or Music therapy uses aspects of sound to improve or heal the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of the listener or the practitioner.

Sound healing in the traditional sense can be a therapeutic treatment taken from a trained practitioner who knows how to use sound to treat specific ailments. In a healing session, you may participate in listening to music, singing along to music, moving to the beat of the music, meditating to sound and mantras, or playing an instrument.

If you want to explore those means of traditional sound healing then you can do that on your own accord.

Here, however, we are going to understand the science and mysticism behind sound and understand how we ourselves can practice it on a personal level and create sound environments that heal and uplift not only on a physical level but also raise our consciousness.

We all have playlists to suit our various moods and now it’s time to get one for our well-being.

The Power of Music to Draw States from Within and Evoke Memories

I have observed that I write better, get creative thoughts, and declutter my mind more efficiently when I am listening to the music I like and which suits my mood at that moment.

I have also observed that specific songs, sounds, and music evoke some precise memories and thoughts in me that relate to the time when I first heard them.

Our memories, thoughts, and feelings, deeply affect our state of mind and state of being.

I know, it’s not just me but you have felt this as well.

Can you pinpoint a track in your life that’s linked with motivation or achievement?

Can you pinpoint a track that’s linked to a breakup?

We all have those two tracks I am sure.

Science has confirmed that our brain latches specific mental states and memories to specific music we have heard at the time of experiencing them.

That’s why a Gym playlist gets us going and a travel one helps us feel hippy at heart.

Our brain likes patterns, music is a pattern and that’s why we can remember the lyrics of a song more readily than what we study. Catchy loop songs like “Waka Waka” have that’s why become such sensational hits and doctors can be seen using music therapy with patients who have memory issues.

While this is the enchantment of music, of sound, noise is that much more disturbing.

If a good sound can make you feel better a bad one can greatly disturb you.

All these city noises every day disturb us on an energy, frequency, and vibration level.

How are we supposed to keep sane or evolve when our environments are designed to drive us crazy?

While we can only do so much about our environment, we can do so much more to clear the debris created by this noise.

And not just clear it but carry that sound resonance throughout our life with us.

The question is how? And the answer is sound healing.

The Nature of Sound Vs Noise and How it Affects Matter

Getting into the topic let’s first understand the mathematical or scientific difference between what we call sound and noise.

So there are single frequency pure tone instruments like the flute which produce a really soothing sound, and then there are multi-frequency instruments with complex wave structures that produce a vibrant sound.

What constitutes both of them into sound-producing instruments rather than noise-producing ones is the whole number mathematical relationship between their frequencies.

Say, if a sound instrument is resonating at 200 Hz, then when it goes up in pitch, it will just keep getting multiplied with itself to whole numbers like 400, 600, 800Hz, etc.

Now contrary to this, objects that also vibrate at a set of frequencies but whose frequencies have no simple mathematical relationship between them will produce noise. Say a dropped plate will create, 185Hz, 192Hz, and 232Hz, etc.

The sound immediately differentiates itself with sound numbers that are whole and don’t have abruption in them.

Music is a pattern and sound itself is known to create its own. If passed through an observable medium, like the Chladni plates, on which small particles of any type, like sand, can be seen pulled together into amazing symmetric patterns when vibrated by something like a violin bow.

It’s simply by virtue of how the soundwaves passed through the plates define the design of the patterns created.

Ernst Chladni made this first breakthrough in Cymatics somewhere between the late 1700s and 1800s.

Cymatics is the science of making sound visible. It says that when a sound comes in contact with a membrane, a soft tissue like our skin, a pliable sheet of metal like the Chladni plates or water, on that, the sound imprints an invisible pattern of energy.

Another recent breakthrough, The CymaScope, developed by John Stuart Reid, not only allows us to see the beautiful geometric patterns created by sound but it lets us peep into the invisible world of sound that has myriads of holographic bubbles.

CymaScope lets us image a circular section through a sound bubble.

The inventors of the CymaScope and those who apply it for research vouch, that just like the invention of the microscope and telescope, this instrument gives us access to a dimension that we didn’t suspect existed. The world of visible sound.

Symmetric, geometric, patterns and whole numbers are the keywords here for our application of sound healing.

In the TEDx talk by Joanna McEwen, where she spoke about how raising your vibration increases your chances of experiencing serendipity, she points out the symmetrical similarities between the sacred geometry worldwide, the harmonious shapes and patterns found in nature, and those that are created by soundwaves.

Like the bud of a sunflower to a Cymascopic image of a sound.

Secondly, by the two experiments mentioned above, we also see that sound has the ability to imprint itself on the matter. I am sure you also know that sound travels really efficiently through the water, we ourselves are 70% water and like some of the videos we have seen on YouTube, a bass woofer really gets the water jumping, like ourselves in music festivals.

Going forward in the talk, Joanna says, “Through the study of micro-cymatics and sonocytology, we are now able to hear the difference between a healthy and an unhealthy cell.”

In the talk itself, you can listen to the healthy pulsations of a yeast cell and the high-pitched stressed frequency of an unhealthy one as presented on the Cymascope.

Everything you hear is a sound but some of it is noise and as we saw noise can be differentiated by uneven frequencies and uneven patterns. Sound is symmetric and represented by whole numbers.

To be able to produce sound the ensemble of musicians truly need to use the right instruments, played by trained hands and at synchronous rhythms.

The ensemble of life and the universe, the way even our solar system functions, everything seems to be in perfect sync.

Even in nature, everything happens at a rhythm. While there are thousands of noises in a jungle, every single one of them is a sound. Nobody is known to have walked out of a jungle disturbed by its noises.

Unless it was a roar of a tiger chasing you, the low, growling frequencies that they create are specifically designed by nature to instill terror in their listener. The sound instrument of the apex predator.

But just like the apex predator, when we are mouthing unsavory, hateful, or hurtful words, we are inflicting and imprinting the same low vibrancy states on the receiver, maybe even on the creator.

Even our surroundings and our homes are trapping the surrounding noise frequencies within their walls and continually redirecting them toward us.

Creating a perpetual cycle of disturbance in our life.

To break free of this we need to somehow introduce a stable sound frequency in our lives and utilize it to take our consciousness to a higher level.

For that let’s take a look at Brainwave entrainment.

Brainwave Entrainment

Brainwave entrainment is a hypothesized phenomenon in which our brain changes and synchronizes its brainwaves to certain sound frequencies that we hear in a particular way.

This theory rests on the concept of binaural beats which are considered to be an auditory illusion.

They are considered an illusion because a binaural beat doesn’t really exist but it is perceived by our brain when we play two tones of slightly different frequencies, simultaneously in separate ears usually via headphones.

Recently the game Hellblade: Senua’s sacrifice used 3d binaural 360° sound to create a terrifying gaming experience like no other. When I first played it I didn’t know the premise of binaural beats, to me, it was just a type of audio technology like Dolby but little did I know.

When our brain is exposed to these tones of different frequencies it synchronizes its brainwaves to the difference in hertz between them and perceives the creation of a new, third tone. Simply put, the frequency of this tone is equivalent to the difference between the original two tones.

So say, if you listen to a sound of 120 hertz in one ear, and 130 in another, then the third tone would be of 10-hertz frequency and that is the frequency our brain would synchronize its waves to.

As far as I have read, the difference between their frequencies shouldn’t be more than 30 hertz for binaural beats to work.

Now, why is this important? It’s important because so far 4 different types of brainwaves have been confirmed by science and each of them is associated with a set of frequencies and mental states.

The four categories of brainwaves, arranged from the fastest to the slowest, from occurring during the most activity to the least activity are Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta waves.

Therefore to understand the application of brain entrainment we must first understand the nature of these brainwaves.

4 Types of Brainwaves and the Mental States They Create

Beta waves – We experience Beta brainwaves during most of our waking hours. These occur when the brain is active and engaged mentally. We could be working, thinking, engaging with our hobbies, or whatever that requires our active attention. As most of our day is filled with things to do and so these are the most commonly occurring brainwaves. Optimal Beta waves result in one-pointed focus, memory retention, and problem-solving. Excess of them causes anxiety, stress, and an inability to relax.

Alpha waves – We experience these waves when we are in a restful alert state. We might not be engaging with something very aggressively but we could be reading, meditating, and relaxing thoughtfully after completing a task. At optimum levels, these promote relaxation, flow state, and even eureka moments like its partner Theta waves that stimulate creativity. Excess of them can cause, daydreaming, inability to focus, and making an individual too relaxed where he/she cannot take any necessary action. Marijuana is known to increase Alpha waves, we all have heard of the creativity that smokers experience at times but we also know of smokers who barely do anything. They are often too relaxed and unable to focus on anything worthwhile, daydreaming is a hand-in-hand trait with that.

Theta waves – Nowhere in the zone of the Theta waves, mediation starts getting deeper, It’s also associated with a very non-engaged state of our brain, where we could be in the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of our sleep, where dreams occur or probably riding on a freeway or running for a long time where the action has become unconscious, sort of automated because of visually no disturbance, unneeded active input and flow like immersion. So, Theta waves are true flow state waves, these at optimum levels can strengthen intuition, foster creativity, and improve emotional resonance, it is when the relaxation of a deeper level happens. In excess these cause, hyperactivity, depression, ADHD, and impulsivity.

Alpha-Theta are known to border around 8 Hz which is the frequency at which someone says that they were in the zone. Sports scientists have studied that Alpha waves surge after peak performances and eventually, when you shift into an effortless Theta zone or flow state, your conscious and subconscious mind begin to have a dialogue and in those moments you will be amazed by the insights that emerge from within you and the performance that you give.

Delta waves – Associated with restoration and rejuvenation, Delta waves occur during deep dreamless sleep and transcendental deep meditation. While these are the slowest brainwaves they are the loudest because of their low frequency. At their optimum, these strengthen our immune system, promote natural healing, and are restorative and rejuvenating on all levels. Physical, emotional, or mental. In excess, they cause severe ADHD, inability to learn or think and hamper the body’s ability to revitalize and heal the brain and the body. Basically, making you inefficient in all walks of life.

Now as we know the premise of these waves and what they indicate, we can join dots and pull a line from them to brain entrainment and from there to the application of binaural beats.

We must first understand though that these waves are not the cause of your varied states of being but the result of how you conduct yourself in life and the experiences you are having in the world. Good or bad. For some, things like ADHD and Depression could be a disease, not just the result of circumstance or a particular behavior.

Nonetheless, if we go by the theory of brain entrainment, or overall understand the context of when these brain waves are created, we can promote or manifest them at will by sound and music and by healthy practices like exercise, pranayama, eating right, pursuing our hobbies, meditation and so on.

Sound healing or music therapy is just one of the ways. It’s a passive easy way and it could be a great supplement for creating a sound being and environment for your personal growth and evolution.

The selective application could also help someone with anxiety, sleep, memory, focus, attention, creativity, and more.

While binaural beats are so far not known to have any side effects but I personally prefer nonsynthetic, organic, acoustic sounds and music. I would rather listen to classical music of all forms for healing rather than EDM or beats designed specifically for this purpose.

It’s not to demerit anything but just a personal preference based on personal knowledge and experience.

Speaking of classical or naturally produced music let’s move on to the final two parts of our topic here.

Raag Chikitsa – An Ancient Sound Science of Healing

One of the branches of the Ayurveda, the ancient medical science of India, concerns itself with the healing of various ailments of the body and mind by music. This particular application of music for healing is called Raga Chikitsa or Raag Vidya.

Indian classical music is all about evoking specific moods, feelings, and awareness within the mind, body, and soul of its listener. Apart from the musical content itself, Indian classical music also emphasizes the esoteric concept of Rasa (literally meaning, Juice, essence, flavor) of the music being played and adheres to strict guidelines assigned for the time of their rendition, like day and night to maximize their emotional impact on the listener.

While in the digital age when music is accessible 24*7, listening to a Raag has not remained as customary. In the past ages, no self-respecting musician would play a Rag at the wrong time.

In terms of its recital, if ever a musician makes errors technically but nails the rasa, or the quality the composition intends to convey flawlessly, then the audience will appreciate such a rendition more than just a technically sound one.

A genre of music like this lends itself particularly well to therapeutic application.

Raag Shikitsa also engulfs itself with the spiritual by seeming to affect the spiritual chakras of our body, the 7 energy centers that govern our very existence. Chakras have many qualities associated with them and likewise, it also has some sounds, frequencies, and mantras associated with each one of them.

Raags seem to reverberate with these frequencies and evoke their specific qualities.

For instance, The Manipura, The Solar Plexus, or the Chakra in our naval region governs willpower, valor, energy, strength, and so on in our internal world, and in the physical, it starts with the most basic yet the most essential one, our digestion.

When a Raag like Abhogi, Malkauns, and Bhimpalasi is played to it, I mean when we listen to its rendition, it’s said that it cleanses this chakra and brings about an inner transformation as a result of that cleansing. It fosters a change of attitude, people are said to give up vices or compulsive habits and it also improves the digestive system, laying the foundation for a strong body.

One of the Nine Jewels of Emperor Akbar, the great medieval composer Tansen has a legend about him that he was able to light lamps by playing the fire Raag Deepak and invoke rainfall by playing Raag Miyan Ki Malhar. He also created a Raag to specifically soothe Emperor Akbar’s stress in the evening called the Raag Darbari Kanada.

Taking this a step beyond, Nada Yoga is a path of exploration of consciousness through sounds.

It doesn’t just heal physical ailments it elevates our consciousness and life into new dimensions.

So if you cannot play any instruments yourself, which is most of us, then you can 100 percent listen to Indian classical music and develop a taste for it to benefit from its calming effects at least if not the multitudes suggested by the Raag Chikitsa.

I have taken up playing guitar for the past 2 months. I always wanted to learn playing it as a child and now that I have finally gotten to do it, it excites me like nothing else. These days it’s a ritual that when I return from work, I freshen up and the first thing I do is start playing my guitar for about 30 minutes or so until my mom gets me a soothing cup of hot tea.

Within that half an hour my consciousness is completely cleansed and stripped of the disturbances and the rush of the day and eases me into a sound evening that resonates with personal meaning and clarity.

I am treating it like a professional emotional and mental debris cleaner.

Now, I strongly suggest that if you ever wanted to learn a musical instrument in life, then now would be a good time to do so.

And if that is not you then we will be covering a couple of music or sound instruments that are specifically used for sound healing, some of which are a staple in the eastern spiritualism and meditations, that do not have a learning curve for them to enjoy their sounds and resonance.

Even if you are not a musician I must tell you that creating your sounds gives us satisfaction like nothing else and the instruments I will be listing below will help you do that readily. So let’s get to know them.

Instruments Used in Sound Healing

As we are learning about sound healing we should keep in mind that this is not a new age phenomenon.

Cultures across the world have used it from time immemorial for rituals, healing, and spiritual upliftment.

Each culture has lent its own instrument to the orchestra of healing and eventually as the world became globalized cultures exchanged it to further attune their symphonies.

Among all these instruments the one that is the oldest and the most organic and personal to our human culture is our voice.

A child is calmed and comforted by the voice of its mother. Leaders have used it to create revolutions and in bleak times a chorus of people singing in unison has given hope to millions.

If you learn to use your voice properly you can use it to heal or comfort yourself or other souls.

The easiest way to do it is to hum, chant, sing, and even pray to emit those positive vibrations in your surroundings. The ancient Hindu scriptures advise that the humming or chanting of the unstruck sound “OM” is the most powerful of all.

Complementing our voice are certain instruments that create aiding sounds that help us take these benefits further. These instruments highlight that sound doesn’t just manifest itself through hearing but also through tactile physical vibrations and frequencies.

Here are 7 Instruments You Can Play Easily for Sound Healing

Gong – With their loud thrums gongs might seem unpleasant to some people at the beginning but if played properly they can bring your focus to the present and completely calm your being. An excellent instrument to resolve physical, emotional, and spiritual dissonance. Gongs have been in practice from as early as 4,000 B.C.

If you are a reader from the US you can order this gong from Amazon by clicking here.

Tibetan singing bowls – These are the most well-known and well-used instruments in sound healing. Their main application is in a therapy called “Sound baths” where you can feel the sound working your body and mind. Having rich harmonics these bowls go back to the 12th century and were very common in Asia, especially in the Tibetan monasteries.

If you are a reader from the US you can order these bowls from Amazon by clicking here.

Tingsha bells – Most people who practice any form of mediation must be aware that these small cymbals are used to signal the beginning or the end of a meditation session. When struck against each other they create a distinct high-pitched tone which helps participants of a meditation session to gently bring their awareness back to the room or literally to the present moment.

If you are a reader from the US you can order these tingsha bells from Amazon by clicking here.

Rainstick – Rainsticks are believed to be created by the Aztecs. Traditionally they were made from dried-out cactus which were filled with small seeds or stones. When turned upside down or shaken in any form it produces the sound of falling rain. The sound of falling rain is somewhat considered a white noise that subtracts all the other noises out, creating tranquil calmness.

If you are a reader from the US you can order this rainstick from Amazon by clicking here.

Wind Chimes – Wind chimes are hung in gardens, in balconies, and near windows of the house where the wind can ruffle them and produce sounds after they hit their central weight. These are considered to ward off evil spirits, carry the elemental power of the wind with them, and enhance the flow of chi (life energy) in your house and within you. Wind chimes produce beautiful timbres and celestial sounds, evoking feelings of joy and contentment.

If you are a reader from the US you can order this from Amazon by clicking here.

Shankha (Conch Shell) – The conch sounds at the same frequency as that of the earth which is 7.83 hertz. That is called the heartbeat frequency of the earth or Schumann’s resonance. It’s also the frequency at which OM reverberates. Even the air passage inside the inner curvature of the conch is of the nature of the Fibonacci series (where each number is a sum of the previous two), this golden ratio is a universal occurrence across the metrics of beauty, structure, and completeness. As we saw earlier, 8 hertz is also the frequency at the border between our Alpha and Theta brain waves. Because of Such undeniable interconnection between the frequency of the existence and the conch, it is known to destroy negativity in its range and even disease-causing bacteria as proven by the research conducted by Dr. Jagdish Chandra Bose. People suffering from hysteria can also be benefited from its sound. Shankhas are blown at the time of sunrise and at the time of sunset to avoid the strong rays of the sun obstructing its sound waves.

If you are a reader from the US you can order this from Amazon by clicking here.

Didgeridoo – The Didgeridoo is an indigenous instrument from Australia that originated more than 1,000 years ago. The instrument can measure up to 10 feet long, is commonly made out of wood, and painted with traditional imagery. This is instrument is said to clear out emotional and energetic stagnation. Some studies signify that playing it can reduce snoring and sleep apnea because it strengthens certain muscles in the airway. An ideal instrument for relaxation.

If you are a reader from the US you can order this from Amazon by clicking here.

Now a few other instruments include the monochord, Djembe, Kalimba, Pan Flute, Harp, Hammered Dulcimer, Hang Drum, and the Native American Flute.

I did not include them in the main list because all of them have a less or more learning curve. The instruments from our main list, apart from the Shankha (conch) and the Didgeridoo, are straightforward to play. I have seen a Shankha all my life so I can tell that with some practice most will be able to blow it and even the Didgeridoo won’t be as technical as the others.

Also, there are quartz crystal bowls in place of the traditional Tibetan bowls but I find them too early and modern in the process to replace anything that is indefinitely tried and tested.

Benefits of listening to the listed instruments:

1. Help with Anxiety disorders
2. Help relieve Depression
3. Help relieve Post-Traumatic stress disorder
4. Lowers stress
5. Lowers Blood pressure
6. Improves sleep

Apart from these benefits please also keep in mind the things that we learned about the nature of sound and how it affects us on multiple levels. The benefits could be that far-reaching and investing time into this is nothing too out of the ordinary and so this is what should come to anyone’s mind first if they have anxiety issues, sleep issues, or stress issues before reaching out to a pill.

Just like John Stuart Reid, developer of the CymaScope casually mentions in his lecture at the water conference (he speaks about it from 1:18 minutes in the linked video) about the secrets of cymatics, I too would like to tell you that he shows us a 3-dimensional image of water and the water has a 7 fold structure to it, which he says is a strange thing because the sound image he shows is of a male voice who was chanting. He says, almost every time we capture an image of a male or a spiritually oriented female, their sound structure has 7 folds.

The reason I am pointing it out is that even our body has 7 Chakras. 7 energy centers and if sound can tell that you are working on them, then I guess the type of sounds these instruments create are good for our consciousness, and being spiritually oriented is overall great for balancing and uplifting our energies.

Conclusion

It’s been a wonder-filled journey for me while writing this article because I got to learn so much about the nature of sound, how it affects us, matter and in a way the universe.

The correlations are unreal and it puts into context a lot of trivia that we hear around casually in detail.

Cymascope was a discovery for me, our different brain waves, binaural beats, brain entrainment, sound healing, the instruments used for it, a proper look at Raag Chikitsa, and how we can practically use it to build a sound environment and a sound lifestyle or well-being.

In the TED-Ed video below the presenter speaks about how music affects our brain and more so when we play it and says that neuroscientists discovered through FMRIs (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and PET (Positron Emission Tomography) that all tasks, such as reading or doing math show activity in a particular area of the brain but when exposed to music, multiple regions of the brain start showing activity.

Music makes our brain dance like nothing else.

While widespread research has not happened on the topics we discussed here but something so innate and organic in our life, like sound, is worth exploring and its applications worth trying.

It enhances our perception of how noise and sound are different and why we should work on creating a sound environment for us.

The information presented here should also make us consider the type of music we listen to every day and if some of it has become too dated for the newer you, you are trying to create.

One extremely important aspect of our health and well-being is nutrition. I have done a whole series explaining it in detail. I encourage you to check it out.

I hope you have derived great value from this post and if you have any personal experiences to share then please connect with me on Instagram or drop your comments below.

Finally, from now on when you think that someone has a sound mind then think of all this.