The sense of sound has been used by humans for preservation for centuries. Hearing sounds has been a crucial communication tool, as well as used to alert others of danger (similar behaviour can be observed in the animal kingdom).
The therapeutic effects of sound can be observed in everyday life. From a mother’s bedtime song to her baby to help facilitate the relaxation and sleep, to crying and other behaviours, sound seems to have a very profound psychological effect.
The Fall and Rise of Resonance Science – A short review on the history of sound, acoustics and resonance. http://www.einsteinshiddenvariables.com/uploads/TheFallandRiseofResonanceScience.pdf
Ancient Architectural Acoustic Resonance Patterns and Regional Brain Activity – Ian A. Cook et al.
Ian A. Cook is Associate Director of the UCLA Laboratory of Brain, Behavior, and Pharmacology. http://www.scribd.com/doc/14079961/Time-and-Mind-The-Journal-of-Archaeology-Consciousness-and-Culture
The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program. Acoustical resonances of ancient structures. http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/pdfs/1995-acoustical-resonances-ancient-structures.pdf
The latest archaeoacoustics research from the University of Trieste, Italy.
There isn’t much information on the sound healing in Aboriginal Australia, however, it is known that the didgeridoo (see the picture above) has been played during ceremonial dancing and singing, according to some, for 1,500 years. It is also possible that it has been used as a healing tool among the Aboriginal people of Australia.
The sistrum (see above) was a sacred instrument in ancient Egypt and believed to have been used in dances and religious ceremonies. It was also played to scare away Set (in Ancient Egypt, a god of the storms, disorder, desert, foreigners and violence, Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, vol. 3, p. 269).
Article: The Code of the Conch.
How the science of sound explained an ancient Peruvian oracle. Miriam Kolar, Stanford University http://nautil.us/issue/6/secret-codes/the-code-of-the-conch
Hinduism
Om is one of the most important sounds and symbols in Hinduism[i]. “It refers to Atman (soul, self within) and Brahman (ultimate reality, entirety of the universe, truth, divine, supreme spirit, cosmic principles, knowledge)[ii].”
[i] Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus (2011), Sound and Communication: An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism, De Gruyter, ISBN 978-3110181593, page 435, Krishna Sivaraman (2008), Hindu Spirituality Vedas Through Vedanta, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120812543, page 433
[ii] David Leeming (2005), The Oxford Companion to World Mythology, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195156690, page 54; Hajime Nakamura, A History of Early Vedānta Philosophy, Part 2, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120819634, page 318; Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus (2011), Sound and Communication: An Aesthetic Cultural History of Sanskrit Hinduism, De Gruyter, ISBN 978-3110181593, pages 435-456 in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om#cite_note-9
Pythagoras is one of the earliest recorded looking into the healing properties of sound.
Pythagoras: Discovery in the field of Sound
The legend tells that while Pythagoras was walking past the blacksmith’s shop, he heard different pitches being emitted, possibly, leading him into thinking that the variation in pitches was created due to the difference in the weights of the hammers. Hence, Pythagoras started his experiments with sound. He used the monochord and the lyre to find out that “By stopping the string exactly at the halfway point, he produced an octave, or a ratio of 1:2. By dividing the string into various other lengths, intervals of the fourth and fifth were produced, and so on”[i].
Pythagoras together with his followers thought of the universe as a large lyre, where different planets were vibrating at specific pitches and “harmonized with other heavenly bodies to create a “music of the spheres”[ii]. Their belief was that, similar to the order in musical sounds, there is also a mathematical order in nature and the whole universe: “Music was number, and the cosmos was music…”[iii]. God as universal harmony, being conceived through a number, was one of the principal teachings of the Pythagorean School.
Pythagoras: therapeutic use of music
A legend tells that upon hearing about the youth who broke up with his lover and wanted to set her house on fire, Pythagoras concluded that the person was “under the influence of a certain musical mode” and suggested to change this mode. He succeeded in calming the person down. Pythagoras and his followers were believed to have music exercises for both sleeping and waking, promoting different states of alertness of relaxation for work[iv]. Later Plato, who was heavily influenced by Pythagoras, took his “sound healing” even further, prescribing certain musical modes for illnesses, and to warriors.
Pythagoras: changing the world’s view
With Plato’s introduction of Pythagoras’s view on the musical universe, it became a standard mainstream Greek, as well as Western civilization’s, world view. In the 19th century Albert von Thimus, using Pythagoras’s concepts, created a “Pythagorean Table”[v], aimed at mathematically explaining music’s effect on the human being and the whole universe.
[i] Pythagoras and Music Melanie Richards, M.Mus., S.R.C
[ii] Pythagoras and Music Melanie Richards, M.Mus., S.R.C
[iii] Pythagoras and Music Melanie Richards, M.Mus., S.R.C
[iv] Pythagoras and Music Melanie Richards, M.Mus., S.R.C
[v] Pythagoras and Music Melanie Richards, M.Mus., S.R.C
Kepler was the one who took Pythagoras’s concepts further and made a discovery about physical harmonies in planetary motion – that the difference between the minimum and the maximum speeds of a planet in its orbit is approximately a harmonic proportion. “For instance, the maximum angular speed of the Earth as measured from the Sun varies by a semitone (a ratio of 16:15), from mi to fa, between aphelion and perihelion. Venus only varies by a tiny 25:24 interval (called a diesis in musical terms)”[i].
Hence, Kepler came up with the “celestial choir” where Venus and Earth are the two altos, Mercury is a soprano, Saturn and Jupiter are the two basses, and Mars is a tenor. Mars produces the greatest number of notes, and Venus produces only a single note, explained by Venus’s nearly circular shape of the orbit, and Mars’s elliptical orbit[ii].
Kepler states that only at very rare intervals the planets would produce sound in perfect harmony or “perfect concord”, and he thought that it only happened once in history – probably, at the time of creation. He also emphasized that harmonic order has its origin in heavenly alignment.
[i] Brackenridge, J. (1982). Kepler, elliptical orbits, and celestial circularity: A study in the persistence of metaphysical commitment part II. Annals of Science, 39(3), 265 in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonices_Mundi#cite_note-Brackenridge-5
[ii] Brackenridge, J. (1982). Kepler, elliptical orbits, and celestial circularity: A study in the persistence of metaphysical commitment part II. Annals of Science, 39(3), 265 in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonices_Mundi#cite_note-Brackenridge-5
One of the great modern days’ applications of sound work is ultrasound, which is used to detect certain conditions in the soft tissues and the organs of the body. Moreover, it is used in “Checking the condition of a foetus, breaking down kidney stones (“A high powered ultrasound wave is used to break down kidney stones and other stones in the body. The stones vibrate until they shake themselves apart and are then easily passed out of the body via the urethra”) and stones elsewhere in the body, [and] measuring the speed of blood flow in the body”[i] to help see if the patient is at risk of a stroke.
There is currently on-going research into the healing properties of sound; NHS is now employing music therapists who work alongside health practitioners (for more information, see Sound Healing: Science page on our website). An increasing number of sound therapists and healers are holding sound sessions using gongs, drums, rattles, Tibetan singing bowls and other musical instruments with the aim of helping people relax and perhaps overcome certain conditions. For information on our events, how to book, price and the dates and locations, please, visit the Events page on our website.
[i]http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_gateway_pre_2011/radiation/ultrasoundrev2.shtml
You can learn more About Sound Therapy here;
about the science behind Sound therapy on our Sound Therapy: Science page here;
about our Sound Therapy Events here;
about our Sound Bath – Journey Through the Chakras events here;
about our Chanting, Gong Bath, and Meditation events here;
about our Private Sound Therapy Treatments here;
about our Sound Therapy for Private Tours here.