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Developing Your Own Sound Healing Practice: The Role of Music and Sound in Healing from Cancer
Introduction
Sound and music can be powerful tools in the healing process. They can be utilized as medicine in
some cases, but in all situations they can certainly be used as a pleasant adjunct to any form of
medical treatment.
What is Healing and Where Does it Come From?
Mitchell Gaynor, M.D., Medical Oncologist, Director of Medical Oncology and Integrative Medicine
at the Strang-Cornell Cancer Prevention Center and New York Hospital, and author of Sounds of
Healing: A Physician Reveals the Therapeutic Power of Sound, Voice and Music, says that, "Sound
enters the healing equation from several directions: It may alter cellular functions through
energetic effects; it may entrain biological systems to function more homeostatically; it may
calm the mind and therefore the body; or it may have emotional effects, which influence
neurotransmitters and neuropeptides, which in turn help to regulate the immune system--the healer
within."
Healing sounds focus on the ability of harmonics to create vibrational changes. These changes may
occur in the physical body, or in the mind, emotional and etheric bodies. When these changes occur,
they initiate transformation and healing.
Throughout this century, the medical profession has focused more on "cures" than on "healing".
Healing addresses the whole individual and not just the disease. Cures treat a specific state of
physical, psychological, and emotional being. Terms such as "wellness" and "holistic" have become
popular in today's world. Many people in contemporary society feels as though they have lost
control of their life. Indeed, there are many great influences over our well-being. However,
our true health cannot be insured by our jobs, or secured by a large medical institution,
governed by the country we live in, or even defined by our diagnosis. It comes from deep
within each of us. Our ancestors have passed on a rich heritage of how to survive in this
increasingly chaotic world, but we are beginning to shift as a society into discovering the
secrets of how to thrive.
Wellness can be defined rather abstractly as intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and physical
vitality; engaging in attitudes and behaviors that enhance the quality of life. A true state of
being "well" is not merely a condition of the individual. Our wellness exists when it is
inter-related with the wellness of family, community, and environment. Diseases can manifest
cellularly, energetically, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually in many
combinations of the body and mind. Cancer is becoming an ever-increasing problem in the world,
and we must exhaust all possible therapeutic means in order to survive. The American Cancer
Society and National Cancer Institute provide the following statistics:
- Since 1990, 5 million people have died from cancer
- Approximately 1.3 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed in 1998
- Men have a 1 in 2 lifetime risk of developing cancer.
- Women have a 1 in 3 lifetime risk of developing cancer.
- Cancer is the second leading cause of death; heart disease is the first.
- One of every four deaths is from cancer.
- Approximately 8 million Americans alive today have a history of cancer. Some can be considered cured, even if their cancer returns after 5 years. Others still have cancer.
- The overall annual costs for cancer equal $107 billion; $37 billion of that amount accounts for direct medical costs. Treatment of breast, lung, and prostate cancers account for more than half of the direct medical costs.
Arthur Harvey, Ph.D., a music professor and advocate of music therapy, shared his feelings on
healing with the Music for Health Services Foundation in 1995. He stated, "As an active (music)
educator for the past 35 years, I knew I had to clarify what I meant by [healing], and [to heal]
if I were to know whether I believed in healing through music, and believed it is an area that I
want to continue to be associated with. While we all have our own interpretations of meanings of
the concepts associated with healing and heal, Webster's New Unabridged Dictionary utilizes a
musical term as synonymous with Healing... becoming SOUND, well or healthy again. Healthy is
defined as... being in a SOUND state. To heal is... to make SOUND, or... to grow SOUND, or... to
return to a SOUND state." In addition, I believe that we can heal ourselves by literally becoming
sound and making sounds.
Our life can be thought of as a beautiful symphony orchestra. We are made up of many facets that
can be thought of as instruments. When we are in a state of health or wellness, it is as though
all the instruments are in tune with each other. They can create the most beautiful music, which
moves us to experience the heavenly realms of health and wellness. If only one instrument in an
orchestra is slightly out of tune or if the percussionist is slightly off the beat, the music
loses some of its magic and power.
When we become ill, some part of our being goes out of tune or off the beat almost as though we
have lost our sheet music and don't know the notes or where the downbeat is in the music. If the
instrument is badly out of tune or the rhythm stays off-beat, the musical experience can be quite
unpleasant. Jonathan Goldman takes this analogy one step further. He says, "Traditional allopathic
medicine currently has several approaches to the problem of illness or being out of harmony.
Metaphorically speaking, one solution is to drug the violinist, sometimes to death, in hopes of
getting this person to stop playing.
Another more frequently utilized solution is to cut out the offending organ as occurs in surgery.
But what if it was possible to give the frustrated musician back their sheet music and let the
whole orchestra return to normal? Analogously, what if it were possible somehow to project the
proper resonant frequency back into the organ that was vibrating out of tune, harmony or rhythm."
The Mind/Body Connection
Increasing scientific evidence supports the powerful communication between the mind and body. It
is a widely accepted belief that medical treatment is effective only when the whole person is
treated-body, mind and spirit. Music has been referred to as a universal language. It crosses
cultural boundaries and historical backgrounds. Its use in therapy with profoundly handicapped
patients suggests that music is an effective means of communication when other means fail. Music
is believed by many to be an important asset in creating healing environments.
Dr. Alfred Tomatis, a surgeon in the specialty of Ear, Nose and Throat and who later became a
pioneer in Applied Psychology, has conducted many research studies about hearing. Our sense of
hearing is one of the first that is developed and activated, in utero. For each of us, the first
sounds we ever knew were the sounds of our mother's heartbeat (approx. 50-60 beats/minute); the
soft whooshing sound of our mother's breath in and out, much like the sound of distant surf coming
in and going out (approx. 12-15 cycles/minute); the tone of our mother's voice, muted and high
pitched resembling the sound of a dolphin. These were the first sounds that connected us to our
bodies and the world around us.
We are rhythmic creatures. Inasmuch as all matter is vibrating, our bodies are a series of
overlapping rhythmic patterns: heartbeat, pulse(s), brainwave activity, electrical currents from
our muscles, etc. When we speak, the variations of pitch, tone, volume and rhythm, are responsible
for 38% of our communication. The remainder of human communication is 55% non-verbal, and 7%
actual verbal language. In actuality, we use sound and music as part of our ongoing human
experience and communication network, whether we are consciously aware of it or not.
Sound is an extremely powerful tool for healing, personal growth, and spiritual transformation,
which I believe are all one in the same. For centuries, sound has been used successfully to induce
states of physical, mental, and emotional relaxation. Ancient esoteric traditions contend that our
identity is an interactive vibrational energy system whose patterns of intention, consciousness,
and information can be expressed dynamically through the human voice. Sound vibration directly
aligns all energy fields, the use of our own voice is the most powerful and potent vehicle to
bring about this alignment. Sound allows a person to enter into what is the most personal and
sacred place we may ever know. From this place, we can journey deep into our own inner resources
to retrieve information, energy, renewed vitality, balance, clarity, inspiration, relaxation,
creativity, free expression, and transformation.
I believe that it is possible to experience powerful physical healings by harmonizing the emotional
body. Many physical ailments are actually aspects of blockages in the emotional body. When the
emotional body is healed through sound, physical healing can occur. And vice versa-bringing the
physical body into harmony with the emotional body.
History of Sound in Healing
History tells us of the value music has as a therapeutic tool. From the dawn of civilization music
was used to heal. In ancient Greece, Apollo was both the god of music and medicine. Ancient
Grecians said, "Music is an art imbued with power to penetrate into the very depth of the soul."
These beliefs were shared through their Doctrine of Ethos. In the mystery schools of Egypt and
Greece, healing and sound were considered a highly developed sacred science. In ancient Egypt,
the professions of priesthood, musicians and physicians were combined. Around 400BCE, Plato shared
this profound belief, "Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind,
flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence
of order, and leads to all that is good, just, and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but
nevertheless dazzling, passionate and eternal form."
In the Bible we read about how Saul was healed by the harp of David. Saul suffered from what we
now call major depression. In the middle ages Burton's Anatomy of Melancholia clearly described
the healing powers of music. Burton was a minister and suffered from episodes of major depression.
Novalis, pen name of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr (Baron) von Hardenberg (1772-1801), was a
romantic poet whose fiancée died in 1797 of tuberculosis, which later claimed his life in 1801.
In his writing entitled The Encyclopedia, he wrote this about music's role in wellness. "Each
illness has a musical solution. The shorter and more complete the solution, the greater the
musical talent of the physician."
Around the time of Novalis, healing and music diverged into the disciplines of arts, and science
or medicine. The therapeutic role of music was eclipsed by its role as entertainment. The sciences
became a rational, logical, temporal, intellectual way of defining the mysteries of the universe.
Scientists have searched for explanations of illness by studying its parts rather than looking at
the total picture. We must not discount, however, the life-saving discoveries of scientists such
as Alexander Fleming, with his discovery of penicillin, as well as other masters of the scientific
world who brought us many other life-saving remedies.
Sound in Medicine?
Allopathic medical hospitals all over the country are test-researching the use of sound within
the hospital environment. Music is being used to minimize pain, reduce complications of surgical
procedures for patients, and to promote relaxation and the subsequent lowered blood pressure,
heart, and respiratory rate of both doctors and patients.
Don Campbell, in his book The Mozart Effect, notes that places like the University of Massachusetts
Medical Center in Worchester are using harp music in lieu of tranquilizers and painkillers for
cancer and other seriously ill patients. He also notes that Dr. Paul Robertson, visiting professor
at Kingston University in Ontario, Canada, cites studies where patients exposed to fifteen minutes
of soothing music require only one half of the recommended doses of anesthetic drugs and sedatives
for painful operations. Even President Clinton, in 1997, chose to forego general anesthesia in
place of country-western music during his extensive tendon operation.
Sound, in the form of chant, tone, music, and nature sounds is being re-discovered in the
healthcare arena for the enhancement of health, vitality, hospice/pallative care, numerous
psychological and behavioral conditions, and stress reduction. Goldman & Gurin's work on
psycho-immunology, which they published in 1993 in their book Mind Body Medicine, revealed that
nerve fibers are contained in every organ of the immune system, which provide biological
communication between the nerve endings and the immune system. They postulate that there is a
direct link between a person's thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, and emotions, and the health of
the immune system. This being the case, we have the ability to be proactive in the health of our
bodies and minds.
The quantum physicist, David Bohm, who wrote Wholeness and the Implicate Order, speaks of health
as "the essence of non-obstructed, indivisible, flowing movement of the self's internal harmony
transcribed into the external world. When the internal and external are at odds with each
other--dissonant--the result is disease or a break in harmony. In tonal music the appreciator
sought the fundamental in the music as a metaphor of spiritual unity, the ending of a journey.
In new music one seeks the fundamental in one's self; the return to the fundamental is anywhere,
anytime, and any direction, because the fundamental is everywhere and here."
Next Page
- Amrita Cottrell, Original Article
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