“The medicine of the future will be sound.” - Edgar Cayce
Healing Hz, singing bowls, Koshi chimes, a native flute, and an E Equinox hang drum. These are the instruments I work with as a Yoga teacher and wellness practitioner, guiding students through immersive auditory experiences on a quest to heal and balance the human body.
My earliest introduction to sound healing first came through chanting - Bhakti Yoga. I was not immediately convinced… I think I consider myself more of a Jnana Yogi, or even a Karma Yogi. Chanting and devotion did not come so easily to me at first. I remember one night in Peru, in 2018, a group of us were gathered around a large hearth with a harmonium and a guitar, singing “Hare Krishna”. There was a certain element of togetherness-is-bliss that I of course reveled in, but looking back, I was much more affected by the sounds of the Andes… Especially the pan flute.
I can still vividly remember on our drive back to the airport, Tino was playing pan flute on the radio. As I sat in the backseat, gazing up at the wondrous green elevated steppes that are the Andes, I felt completely weightless; absorbed in absolute wonder at the magnificence of it all. Life is equal parts presence and in memory everlasting. My memories of Peru remind me of the timeless nature of our existence. We are eternal.
Do you believe in fate? Synchronicities? Signs from the Universe?
I first learned how to play a flute in 6th grade. At our school, as young intermediate students, we are initiated into our chosen instrument the year before middle school. I choose the flute, because it is light and easy to carry, and sounds lovely. The English style is much different from the native Peruvian flute and cedar flute that I have now, but the finger maneuvers are much the same. Recollecting my past experience (at least in this lifetime) with a flute is yet another reminder of how interconnected and synchronistic our life experience is stitched and woven together; each seemingly insignificant moment inevitably shaping and inspiring us closer to who we were always meant to be.
As I anticipate a Summer filled with wonderful outdoor adventures with my new set of transportable singing bowls, I am intrigued by the collection of data available that points to the scientific significance of healing our cells with sound. One of my favorite books on this subject is ‘Energy Medicine’ by James Oschman. It was first recommended to me by a friend who practices structural integration, aka “Rolfing”.
In the realm of bodywork and holistic healing, structural integration is a more permanent and long-lasting expression of deep-tissue massage. It combines elements of shiatsu with traditional massage into a style that Ida Rolf touted as being able to realign our body based on natural posture patterns and fascial lines. It is a truly transformational experience to work through a 12-week series and recognize the imbalances that exist within ourselves based on our everyday movement patterns.
There are many streams leading to a great river. I think of this often when working with various healing modalities; there are many ways to teach Yoga, but they all inevitably bring about the same result… A more unified existence through heightened states of consciousness. Or, perhaps this superconscious state is always who we are… We just temporarily forget in the illusion of “Maya”. Sound has a way of inviting us to remember…
This is a study examining the effects of singing bowls on mood, tension, anxiety, physical pain, and spiritual wellbeing: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5871151/
“The tension subscale in particular displayed highly significant effects for participants post-meditation, thus providing support to the hypothesis that a sound meditation would increase feelings of relaxation and decrease feelings of stress…
Additionally, depressed mood and anxiety scores were significantly reduced post-meditation compared with pre-meditation. Moreover, scores revealed increased feelings of spiritual well-being immediately following the sound meditation. Thus, while less desirable mood states such as tension, anger, and depression decreased following the meditation, potentially desirable variables such as a sense of spiritual well-being increased.”
Healing singing bowls are tuned within a certain set frequency that aligns with the various chakra points in the body, or specifically with the human endocrine system. Organs and glands resonate within a particular Hz. In sound healing, a chakra set will include bowls individually tuned in frequency with the different chakra resonances, and an endocrine healing set will include tuned bowls to align with the glandular system. You can also build your own unique set of healing bowls based on musical harmonics or closely-tuned frequencies known as binaural beat.
174 Hz: Relieves pain and alleviates stress
285 Hz: Healing for all tissues and organs
396 Hz: Liberation from fear (Root Chakra)
417 Hz: Creativity and Transformation (Sacral Chakra)
528 Hz: For DNA repair and cellular transformation (Solar Plexus Chakra)
639 Hz: Heart frequency, heals and balances relationships (Heart Chakra)
741 Hz: Self-expression (Throat Chakra)
852 Hz: Divine inspiration, interconnection with the Universe (Third Eye)
963 HZ: Infinite oneness and spiritual unity (Crown Chakra)
So, how does it work?
”One theory includes the potential effects of binaural beats in which the brain entrains to the Hz difference between tones in each ear, propelling the mind into states of deep relaxation, such as beta waves or meditative, trance-like theta waves.”
- Padmanabhan, Hildreth, Laws: A prospective, randomized, controlled study examining binaural beat audio and pre-operative anxiety in patients undergoing general anaesthesia for day case surgery. Anaesthesia, 2005
”Dysfunction results from cells, tissues, organs, and other structures vibrating at frequencies other than their normal pattern. Healing frequencies literally rebalance or reset the abnormal frequencies… Restoring the vibrational balance of the body restores all aspects of the body to communicate and function at its maximum effectiveness. In addition, frequencies can be beamed directly through homeopathic remedies to neutralize the toxic frequencies of chemicals, viruses, bacteria, fungi, vaccines, etc. so they no longer can damage any surrounding tissues.”
Smith, 2022: ‘Healing with Frequencies’, The New Frontier in Energy Medicine
There is immense power in self-healing with sound.
Chanting, humming, vibrating our chakras and tissues within certain frequency levels, bathing in sound waves, listening to healing and comforting music… All of this we can easily do ourselves, it costs nothing to hum or sing. We can bridge the gap between the ancient practice of sound medicine and the modern science of today when we pay attention to the effects of our surroundings. When we practice. When we share our knowledge to help each other. When we remember that we are all co-existing as a part of this divine oneness, in sacred geometry and sound vibration.
A U M