I Tried Sound Healing and This is What I Learnt

(Transcript from the video)

Even though I’m open to exploring alternative ways of therapy, I’m a sceptic at heart. That’s because over the last fifty years, traditional eastern ways of therapy, have been extremely commercialised in the west to fit the convoluted needs of western societies. 

According to research by the Global Wellness Institute, the wellness industry is valued at $4.5 trillion and is continuing to grow at a significant rate.

And we all know that wherever there’s money to be made, especially in trauma, there will be people who will try to take advantage. To allow someone to help us heal we must be vulnerable and when we are vulnerable we are the most at risk.

Cult retreats, abusive gurus, tarot card readers and incense sticks. Ok don’t get me wrong, I’ll light up a stick because it smells good, but I just don’t think it has the power to chase away demonic spirits.

So when I first heard about sound therapy I was very sceptical. 

But, I don’t need a neuroscientist to tell me that chilled music relaxes me because I can feel the effects of softer sounds in my body. So, being the curious spirit I usually am, I thought to give sound therapy a go.

In this video, we’ll dive into what sound therapy is, how it really works and gain some valuable insight from a professional. In the end, we’ll do a sound healing session together to see whether this works for you too. 

I met Lauren at the yoga studio I’m going and immediately I was hooked to her class. I think that’s mainly because of your personality. It was so calming and relaxing and it made want to come more often. And then through your Instagram I noticed that you were also doing sound healing sessions and wanted to try it. So I booked a session, I joined you, and it was really fascinating for me.

What is Sound Healing?

But before we move one, let’s get the basics straight. What exactly is sound healing?

Lauren:

First of all, thanks for having me. Sound healing is a really fantastic way of accessing deep levels of relaxation. It’s a form of meditation that I personally find to be a little easier than the traditional way we tend to picture it as it’s a more of a guided experience into a passive state. So, it’s a unique form of therapy that uses the vibrations of the sounds made by Tibetan singing bowls to promote healing of the body and mind.

Dimiris: 

Ok that’s great. You know, even though I’m into eastern philosophy from a young age, I always want to pair ancient practices with science. So how does this really work?  

Lauren:

Ok, so think of the ear. It passively exists. It just sits there allowing stimuli to simply enter. It doesn’t have to do anything. The ear is like a door, it’s the access point to your inner world. 

Let’s just start with a really simple example: music. If you play erratic, high energy music generally this will bring you into a state of excitement, like when you go to the gym. But if you play calming sounds or songs it will undoubtedly promote you to relax and it can even deepen focus and concentration. Maybe like when you’re studying for instance.

So, in sound healing, we just take it a step further where the vibrations made with the singing bowls actually penetrate the tissues and cells of the body directly affecting the nervous system. So, maybe you’ve heard of the fight, flight or freeze response, this means your body is on alert and stress hormones flood the body. Whilst this can be healthy and even life saving at times, being in this state more often than not actually is considered chronic stress and can lead to illness and disease. 

So sound healing can take you out of this state and actually activates the opposite response which is to relax. A state in which the body can perform the jobs that it needs to, to rest and to digest for instance. 

This practice has an abundance of health benefits whether it’s for the body, mind, soul or really all of them together. It promotes recovery from physical ailments, from migraines to sciatica and can also lessen emotional distress related to depression and anxiety. Overall, a sound healing session will leave you feeling not only relaxed but it also give you a positive sense of overall well-being. 

In a group session the vibrations travel through the air and affect the body as we discussed just a moment ago which is very beneficial. But what’s really cool is when you have a one on one session or even a smaller group where the bowls can actually be placed on the body where the vibrations then become even more profound and have even been described by some of my clients as a massage for the organs, an internal massage.

Chanting for Sound Healing - Kirtan Sound Healing

Dimitris:

It’s so interesting that you say that because, in Greece where I’m from, there’s this area called Meteora. So it’s an area with monasteries and what you’re saying reminds me one time I visited the place and witnessed the chanting of the monks, and it was clear that they were in some kind of meditative state.

Lauren:

Right. Absolutely. Sound and the vibrations created by sound can come from chanting, singing, or other vocalizations to create this inner sense of well-being too. Think of the sound AUM for example. If you’ve had any experience with yoga whether it be online or in your regular practice, chanting AUM is very common. The reason for this is that it’s said to be the universal sound of peace and creates a calming sensation for the body. The practice of Kirtan is where a group sings and chants different mantras and this creates some really awesome, positive effects through the sound of the voice. 

The Science Behind Sound Healing - Vibroacoustic Therapy

Dimitris:

You know, I really enjoy this discussion because you help me connect those dots in my head. It’s like, you know that it works, you know the philosophy of it, but learning more about the fundamentals of the traditions and at the same time learning more about the science of it all, it kind of brings it all together in my head.  So I want to go back to the science of it. What is all this based on?

Lauren: 

Yeah that’s a really great question and it’s actually why I chose to add sound healing to my offering. The fact that it has scientific backing and research to support it today. That’s although this practice was actually used even before modern medicine for healing. Today, we would call it the science of vibroacoustic therapy. 

Dimitris:

Now that we’re talking about sounds, even the sound of the word vibroacoustic, is enough to make me want to know more. So could you please tell me a a bit more about this?

Lauren:

Ok. so every musical tone vibrates at a different speed or frequency and this is measured in a unit called Hertz. A high-pitched tone has a higher frequency or vibrational speed while a lower tone vibrates more slowly and has a lower frequency. Vibroacoustic therapy uses frequencies within the range of human hearing and low frequency ranges which are considered to be less than 500 Hz are the ones that are said to contribute to a greater experience of relaxation and/or pain and symptom relief because you can actually feel these sounds.

So this really makes sense when it comes to the singing bowls because they have a frequency range of anywhere between 110 Hz and 660 Hz on average. 

So, there are some really interesting research articles out there from well established research facilities and universities, ranging from the way plants grow when they are played jazz versus metal music, to the speed at which wounds actually heal when vibration is used compared to when it is not. I think you may take a guess that plants grow more abundantly and wounds heals more quickly when exposed to frequencies similar to those of the signing bowls. That’s pretty cool right?

So a very specific example of a study done at the University of North Texas that I like, is where they found frequencies of 60 to 600 Hz actually provided optimal pain relief.

There’s so much growing research indicating that positive effects for pain relief using vibration technology are more effective over large areas of the body, and pain relief is more significant when applied in close proximity to where the pain is experienced. So this leads you to deciding whether you would benefit more in a larger or smaller group, based on what we discussed before.

So, apart from the thousands of years of tradition amongst healers, sound healing is really grounded in today’s research. It’s not a fad or what some people may describe as quackery, it is science and even Einstein quoted, quite famously, that everything in life is a vibration and put it down not to philosophy but down to physics. 

Dimitris:

And that’s fascinating, right? So, like I said before when I first came to your session I was a bit skeptical and I didn’t know what to expect, but the vibrations and the sounds from those Tibetan bowls really gave me this feeling of peace and this feeling of relaxation. And I don’t know if I told you after the session, but during the session I had my eyes closed and, I don’t know if I told you I’m colourblind so, I could see some colours. And that was really interesting for me.

Lauren: 

Oh good! I’m so glad to hear that although skeptical you gave it a try anyway, and now you’ve got to experience the awesome benefits. It’s really not uncommon for people to feel the same as you did not only before, but after the session if they are brave enough to give it a go like you were.

So to give you an idea of the reason you felt this way, it’s actually based on your brain waves. Sound healing most likely took you from a beta state which is one of deep thinking or in this case skepticism, into an alpha state where there is creativity and daydreaming, and even maybe to theta, or delta, which are brain waves which you find only in levels of deep sleep. So this is why you may have heard or will hear people saying that a sound healing session of maybe half an hour to an hour, makes them feel as though they actually have slept for a few hours. 

Sound Healing for Sleep and Deep Relaxation

Dimitris:

Ok, let’s make a pause here because I have problems with my sleep. So I’m really interested in what you are saying. So could you please elaborate this a bit more.

Lauren:

Ok, so let’s think about this. It means that we go from an awakened state of consciousness to a relaxed or meditative state, or even reach a state of sleep. When we sleep, this is when our bodies recover. This is why we sleep. This is when our body heals.

So, there are many different types of sound healing techniques out there. Ultimately, the goal of all of these therapies is to get a balance of the body through vibrations and to bring you into a sense of calmness and a state of relaxation where your body can restore itself bringing about better health. 

You don’t always need a healer to guide you although of course this would be nice. But there are many ways you can practice sound healing at home for instance. You can chant, you can sing the word AUM. It’s a really simple way of doing this. Or if you want to just listen, turn on some nature sounds like the waves of the ocean or birds chirping or any sounds that you find relaxing. You might’ve notices that in playlists for working or studying, bineural beats have become really quite popular.

Today we focused on the singing bowls but there are other cool instruments out there as well like tuning forks, gongs, bells, guided voice medication and a lot more. In my sessions I tend to do a combination of these and even add sometimes yin yoga before if it's interesting to my client.

Is Sound Healing for Anyone?

Dimitris:

I want to ask you a question that some people that are watching this video might have. So is sound therapy ideal for everyone? Can everybody do it? Or someone might feel more anxious, for example?

Lauren:

Yeah, look. It is for everyone but it depends on the space that you’re in, You know I like to think that people choose to do these things at the time that works for them. So they’re open to it, they’re looking for something. So they’re coming in with you know this mind, maybe in your case of sceptisism, but they’re still already there. So they are in that space already. So yes, it is for everyone but everyone has their own time where these things really draw them in. And once people really start to let go, is where the beauty really is. It’s where healing is. It’s where they find new, deeper levels of themselves.

Dimitris:

What I would like to know is how did you decide that you wanted to start doing sound therapy? 

Lauren:

For me I was looking for something a little bit more calming, more relaxing. In my teaching of Yoga I tend to do the more “Yang” side of the Yin and Yang, which is the active. So I was trained in Ashtanga which is a very “yangi” style of Yoga. It’s lighting the fire of the belly, of the body, it’s getting you going. So I was looking for something in the other side, on the Yin side that my client could use to get a really well-rounded practice to do the balance of the active and the passive. So sound healing, as we talked about, has a scientific backing and that’s why I was really interested in doing that rather than other forms of energy healing.

Dimitris:

Ok that’s great. Thank you for answering all my questions and thank you for being here with me today. Basically what you did is that you connected all the dots in my mind about what sound healing is, the science behind it, the ancient traditions and how all come together. So thank you so much for that. What I would like now is to get a taste of the real practice. 

So if what you're looking for is deep relaxation, we filmed a short video, so if you like to join us, click the link in the description below, or I’ll put somewhere up here, and follow us in the sound therapy session.

Click here for the Sound Healing Meditation Session with Tibetan Bowls