Can Sound Affect Our Well-Being?

The effects of sound on our bodies

Can sound affect our well-being? Today researchers are proving what ancient people have know for thousands of years, and that is… our body responds to vibration, and that every cell, neuron and organ in the body resonates with its own frequency creating within a beautiful symphony of sound.

The string theory first introduced in the late ‘60’s has today become a popular field of study.  The theory claims that everything in our universe, the planets, the stars, and the suns even the subatomic particle is made up of microscopic strands of energy.

These strands of energy are very, very small, thin and elastic; to give you an idea of size they are estimated to be about 10³³ centimetres, which is about a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a centimetre. They can twist, wiggle, wobble and can join with each other and they can break apart.

Everything you see is made up of energy

Everything you see in this life, everything you can touch, taste, smell, hear and even the words you speak is made up from these tiny strings of energy. What makes them different from each other is the way the string vibrates. A string that vibrates one way is an electron with all of its specific properties of mass and charge. Another string when vibrated has the characteristics of a photon, the particle that makes up light.

So, in the deepest level of matter, we find patterns of vibration, this pattern is what gives the particle its specific properties. As physicist Brian Greene explains, all the different properties of the particles that make up matter are “the manifestation of one and the same physical feature: the resonant patterns of vibration—the music, so to speak—of fundamental loops of string¹.

If all matter is composed of vibrating strands of energy, then so are we, our bodies are literally a symphony of strings, our cells, neurons, tissue and organs vibrate and resonate the sound of life. Billions of frequencies are interacting with each other and resonating within us. These vibrations are constantly interacting with the external vibrations in our environment.

A short Summary

In a world where vibration reigns the greatest, the sounds and vibrations that fill the world around us can and does influence and even change the vibrations within us, affecting our health and well being for better or for worse. This is also true of the vibrations within us affecting the environment outside of us.

String theory is by no means the origin of such ideas; it is only recently that this theory has proved what has been around for millennia. The ancient sages, philosophers and teachers of many cultures were fully aware of the principles of vibration and energy flow- the idea that sound can influence health and well being.

It is said that Pythagoras used music to heal the body and the emotions. His understanding of vibrating strings led him to discover the relationship between the tone and the ratio of the strings. He said that the movement, rhythm and vibration of every atom as well as every planet in the universe produce a particular sound.

Pythagoras believed that music contributed greatly to health, when used correctly. He called his method “musical medicine”. His followers would sing certain chants in unison, other times his followers employed music as medicine. Certain melodies and harmonies were composed to cure the passions of the soul- emotions like anger and aggression.

The concepts of vibrating energy that are supporting the modern string theory are what give foundation to what we know today as energy medicine or vibrational medicine. In his book Vibrational Medicine, Dr. Richard Gerberdefines vibrational medicine as ““medicine that is directed toward an understanding of energy and vibration, and how they interact with molecular structure and organismic balance.²

Evidence of Vibrational Energy

The question is how do we know what the ancient practitioner and philosophers were saying about sound is true? Is there any evidence today that sound and vibration can affect matter or interact with the molecular structure of our bodies to stimulate healing? And if there is, can we measure their effects?

In the eighteenth –century a German scientist and musician Ernst Chladni (left), also known as the father of acoustics, demonstrated that sound affects matter, with the use of simple, visual experiments.

He would draw his violin bow around the edge of a plate covered with fine sand; the sand would form various geometric shapes and patterns in response the vibration of his violin bow. see image (left).

Dr. Hans Jenny, a Swiss medical doctor and scientist realized the importance of vibration and sound, and spent most of his time studying it. His studies and fascinating experiments into the phenomena of waves (which he called cymatics, from the Greek kyma, meaning “wave”) provided fascinating images of how sound influences matter.

In the ‘60s Dr. Jenny would place sand, fluid and fine powders on metal plates. He would then apply vibration to the plate using a special frequency generator and a speaker. His experiments produced the most extraordinary and beautiful patterns that were unique to each individual vibration. These patterns would remain intact until the sound was stopped which would bring about their collapse.See images (left)

For many, these experiments proved that sound can and does affect and alter form and that different frequencies produce different results, and that sound actually creates and maintains form.

Dr Jenny was well known for his incredible cymatic images, but what many didn’t know was that he was also an artist, a musician, a philosopher, historian and a physicist. With excellent powers of observation and a deep interest in nature, Dr. Jenny always saw an underlying, unifying theme in world about him, and that was wave patterns produced by vibration.

For Dr. Jenny everything he saw reflected patterns of vibration involving number, proportion and symmetry, he called this the “Harmonic Principle”

Our bodies respond to sound

The studies and experiments of people like Dr. Jenny and people before him have vast implications for the field of healing and vibrational medicine. If sound can alter form, how can it change our internal life? We know see how patterns of vibrations are everywhere in nature, but what role do they play in creating, maintaining and altering the very cells in our bodies? How different are the vibrational patterns of a sick body to that of the healthy body? Is it possible to turn unhealthy vibrations into healthy ones?

The effects of sound on matter

Dr. Masaru Emoto a Japanese scientist, played classical music and folk songs through speakers placed near water. He would then freeze the water to make crystals which he would then compare with crystalline structures of different samples.  When different musical pieces were exposed to the water sample, it formed different and beautiful geometric crystals. If he then played heavy metal music the crystal basic shape would break apart.

In taking the experiments further, Dr. Emoto wanted to measure the impact of words and phrases on the crystalline structure of the water. These experiments yielded results that match what psychologists, philosophers and spiritual teachers have been teaching for years- that, the words we speak and the thoughts we think impact our well-being on all levels.

In another experiment Dr. Emoto taped various words and phrases to jars of water, after freezing them and taking photographs of the crystals, he found that words like, love/appreciation, thank you etc, produced a variety of beautiful geometric forms. Words like, you make me sick or you fool produced crystals that were disconnected and chaotic.

Fabien Mamam, a French composer, acupuncturist and bioenergetician, and Helen Grimal, a biologist, experimented with both healthy and cancer cells to see how they would respond to voice and various instruments. The most dramatic effects of sound they captured on photographs were the progressive destabilization of the structure of the cancer cells. When they played sounds that would progress up the music scale, these cancer cells would finally explode.

The implication of what has been discussed here, although in a very limited way, is profound. Since our bodies are made up of 70% water, just think for a moment how the external sounds of our environment affect our internal environment right down to the cellular level. Imagine how the words we speak about ourselves and others- affect not only our health, but the health of those around us.

Intention powered by the healing energy of sound is the key to improved health and other improvements in one’s life.

Notes:

1. Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory ( New York: Vintage Books, 2003), pp.15-16.
2. Richard Gerber, Vibrational Medicine, 3d ed. ( Rochester, Vermont: Bear & Company, 2001), p. 65.
3. The book: “The Role of Music in the Twenty First Century” Fabien Maman
4. The book: “Messages from Water” (Dr. Masaru Emoto)
5. www.cymascope.com soundhealing.html
6. Pelling A, Sehati S, Gralla E, Valentine J, and Gimzewski J. Local nanomechanical motion of the cell Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Science, 20 Aug 2004;305;5687:1147-50. http://www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/gimzewski/index2.htm