About sound healing
Anna Prinsloo works with her voice, quartz crystal singing bowls, a gong, a medicine drum, a rattle, a didgeridoo and various other instruments during a sound healing session.
Since antiquity sound has been used in various native healing practices around the world. The benefits of sound and music therapy have also been well documented in the modern era. To understand the potential of sound frequencies to impact our health, one must understand the vibratory nature of all manifested phenomena. Everything in the cosmos is in a constant vibration. We literally exist in an ocean of sound. All physical manifestation has a vibratory frequency. The bio-energetic system of the body is like an orchestra playing a symphony. When all the organs and systems are vibrating at their natural frequency, the system is in harmony.
Stress, trauma, energy blockages and environmental factors can alter the natural rate of vibration of the human bio-energetic system, resulting in imbalance and disharmony. Strong emotions impact the vibratory frequency of the body. These emotions carry a specific vibration, which is known as ‘emotional charge’. Sound healing is a very effective and non-invasive way to restore the natural frequencies within the body and the bio-energetic field.
Entrainment
One of the fundamental principles of sound healing is a phenomenon called entrainment. When two metronomes swinging at different rates are put in close proximity they will eventually entrain and start to swing at the same rate. The weaker and less coherent frequency will start to align with the more powerful coherent frequency. This explains how sound frequencies that are in harmony with the natural resonance of a specific tissue are able to ‘recalibrate’ the tissue to its natural state of vibration.
Altering brain wave patterns and physiological responses
Research has documented the capacity for sound to alter brain wave patterns and thus facilitate deep states of relaxation. Deep relaxation has a profound impact on the nervous system and activates the body’s innate healing capacity. During deep relaxation it is possible to access deeper levels of consciousness and recall memories usually inaccessible in the waking state.
Research has also documented the effect of sound and music therapy on physiological processes such as:
- Immune function
- Endocrine function
- Autonomic nervous system (regulation of blood pressure, heart rate and breath rate)
- Pain processing
- Stress and survival responses
- Processing of fear and trauma in the limbic area of the brain
Sound has also been documented to have profound effects on mood and mental states by stimulating the release of endorphins which are natural ‘feel good’ substances.
Clearing blockages in the flow of subtle energy
Our physical body is the vibrating at a frequency which can be perceived by the five senses. The subtle energy body is vibrating at a much higher frequency and is far less dense. The human eye is not capable of perceiving this rate of vibration. The subtle energy body, although not visible to the human eye, plays a vital role in our health and well-being.
There are three primary energy systems within the body – the chakra nadi system, the acupuncture meridian system, and figure eight energy flows. Chakras are electromagnetic vortices corresponding to major nerve plexuses. Nadis distribute energy from the chakras throughout the system, especially to the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine glands. Meridians are vessels that circulate subtle energy throughout the body. Each meridian is associated with a specific organ and function.
Sound waves have the capacity to clear energy blockages and restore flow in the chakra-nadi system and the meridian system. Imagine an opera singer singing a note that causes a glass to shatter. In this way the blockages of energy are broken up and energy flow is restored.