Sound Healing
Sound healing is nothing new, our ancient ancestors were well aware of the power that sound had on our health and state of mind. Tibetan bells and bowls, Peruvian whistles, Chinese and Arabian gongs, Aboriginal didgeridoos, drums and voices from all cultures have been used to create altered states of consciousness, deep meditation, healing and even the movement of physical objects.
It is no coincidence that these sacred healing instruments have re-emerged at a time of great shift for humanity and the planet. It seems we are now ready for and in need of their extraordinary re-harmonising and transformative potential.
How does it work and why is it useful now?
As Einstein said ‘Everything in life is vibration.’
Everything in the universe is vibrating, including us as human beings. We are made up of vibrating energy, every cell, tissue, organ, and bone is fundamentally a collection of vibrating waves and particles. And everything has its own resonant or optimum frequency. Our physical and energetic system works a bit like an orchestra. Therefore everyone has a note, a place of perfect harmony.
If a group of cells (for example) is out of tune or not vibrating at its optimum frequency, then disharmony and eventually disease can occur. These disharmonious frequencies begin at the wave level in the subtle energy field that surrounds the physical form. As they become denser, they can eventually affect the physical body manifesting as disease.
The job of the sound healer is to disperse and/or transform accumulated dense frequencies, to raise the vibration, retune and restore natural harmony.
Sound affects us whether it is within our range of hearing or not. We’re living in a world surrounded by invisible energetic pollution. Our modern technology has created a state of addictive hyper-stimulation that we are yet to find a way of managing in our lives. The use of therapeutic sound can bring us quickly into the theta brainwave state, into deep meditative relaxation, clearing digital interference and returning us to harmony – perhaps the perfect antidote to an increasingly digital age.
Therapeutic instruments
Gongs and Bowls
The gong is an instrument of total resonance. Playing gongs and bowls creates sound waves which entrain brainwaves. The gong produces a vast range of natural harmonic overtones. When two or more gongs or bowls are played together the entrainment creates many combination tones and also extremely low frequency (or ELF) tones, (30Hz or less) which can’t be heard by the human ear but can be felt in the body. These ELFs can be of great benefit to human health; for example, it has been shown that ELF of 10Hz has the effect of lowering blood pressure.
Entrained gongs produce ELFs of between 4 and 13Hz, stimulating alpha and theta brainwaves, which induce a natural state of meditation in the listener. These meditative, peaceful states of mind create access to the subconscious, where deep inner transformation and healing can take place. Intentions can be planted and take root and creativity is heightened.
In these states, we can rebalance the physical, emotional and spiritual bodies, release physical tension and energetic blockage and facilitate a deep sense of peace and even bliss.
The gong is accessible to all, it is a healing instrument for the people. More information can be found on our Acupuncture Treatment page.
Drums
The drum is the sound of the natural world or the rhythm of life. Everything has its own natural rhythm. Shamanic drums are used for journeying and to create altered states of consciousness and deep relaxation. They take us down, deep into ourselves, into the essence of our hearts.
Tuning forks
Sarah and Isabel use Acutonics tuning forks made of NASA grade aluminium, tuned precisely as therapeutic instruments to cosmological frequencies. Everything in the cosmos, every planet, moon, asteroid and so on has its own unique frequency or signature tone. These cosmological frequencies were discussed by Pythagoras (570-490BC) who referred to them as the ‘music of the spheres’ and came up with mathematical formulae for the tones. He had his own Mystery School and actually regarded himself as a sound healer. Johannes Keppler (1571-1630) a contemporary of Galileo, calculated the notes of the planets confirming Pythagoras’ theories.
The Acutonics tuning fork frequencies are applied in pairs to acupuncture points accessing the meridian grid of subtle energy (Qi) both within the body and in the field. The cosmological frequencies each have different properties, for example the frequency associated with Saturn has an affinity with time and structure and therefore may be applied for structural instability or rhythm regulation. The sun frequency brings warmth and light, strengthening Yang and the moon cools, nourishes fluids and Yin and regulates cycles.
As acupuncturists, we use classical oriental medicine principles of diagnosis and treatment. The frequencies are a subtle yet powerful way of stimulating the chosen channels and points. Sometimes we use the forks alone as an alternative to needling, and also commonly alongside acupuncture and Tui na (Chinese massage therapy). The combination of sound, needles and hands rebalances the physical, emotional and spiritual bodies, releases physical tension and energetic blockage and re-establishes a sense of harmony.
The human voice
Along with sound healing instruments we also use our voices. Where appropriate, sounding, chanting and singing in the healing space and sometimes directing the sound into points and energy centres.
The human voice is the original therapeutic sound instrument; it is pure and powerful. Ancient mystics and tribes all over the world have used song and chanting to heal the physical body to connect with and evoke the nature of plants and animals for knowledge of their medicine, and to manifest, create and motivate in the material world. Hildegard of Bingen (a 17th century mystic) said as we sing words, their true meaning is revealed directly to the soul through body vibration.
Through chanting and singing we unite the past and the future in the eternal now. We vibrate the throat centre, the heart, the third eye and the crown. The endocrine system is activated and balanced, and we breathe. We inspire, we cleanse. The feeling centres open, cleansing and releasing obstructed emotional and mental thought forms. Chanting together, we become again in the now. We literally raise our vibrations.