Sound therapy has been around for decades.  I began working with sound for soothing while I was a teenager. I found an old cassette tape next to the road while walking to the store.  Our family was very poor and I did not have these types of things available to me on a daily basis.  The tape was pulled out of the cassette and looked to have been tossed from a car window.

I took that tape and wound it back together and was able to lay in my bed at night with an old cassette player under my pillow and played the tape over and over. I learned every word of the song, and used it to keep me safe in a home where there was no safety or sense of self.

Even earlier than that, as a small child, my parents would send me down to my grandmother's house to get this or that. It was a long dark dirt path to their house.  Fields of corn on each side, gently rustling in the breeze. The sounds brought visions of monsters walking in the corn while I made my way down the road.  I used to sing songs to the corn and to the energy around it to keep me safe.  I attribute my safe arrival to Charlie Pride and his song, the Snakes Crawl at Night.  This was a child's belief that when things were at play, they were not dangerous.

Moving forward, my love for music and the sense of protection it provided to me was instrumental in my desire to learn music. And is of course why I have a plethora of instruments in my home today.  My love of music is only outweighed by my equal love of science. I recall wanting to be a scientist throughout many parts of my childhood. I always wanted to know why and frequently took things apart to see how they worked. 

Sound has been used to heal for centuries in human society. We know that many tribal cultures connected the sound of the drum to the heartbeat of the earth and it was used in ceremonies for dance and pleasure as well as in ritual healing, cleansing as well as the welcoming of new life and departing of those who passed.  

When looking into those who have studied this field, even though this thought process is as old as we are the official study of it is relatively new. Even on YouTube there are those who will go into detail to explain the exact science around this practice.

One way to visualize sound healing is to look at sand bouncing on a metal plate next to a speaker. Or watch the ripples in water, when sound is played into it.  We, being over 70% water react much in the same way but on a cellular level.  Dr. Emoto, a leading scientist in this field demonstrated the effects of playing sound (positive/negative) on water and then freezing it, led to some remarkable findings.

This fascinates me. As I move forward on my sound journey, I am finding so much in this that resonates (pun intended) with me. I hope you are too.  

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or reach out directly over my chat link below.

Blessings

Sosanna

 Through our existence on this planet we have been attracted to the rhythmic beat of  the drum or the haunting sounds of the flute.  No matter how it was created, through bone or reed. Through animal skin or hollow log; the beat of the drum carried us to places that were safe, happy and healing. Sound is all around us. It has the power to join with us (resonate) or split us apart (dissonant). 

Healing sounds have been around since we humans picked up our first stick and tapped it against a fallen log. The medical uses of sound therapy walks the same path as treatments such as acupuncture. For example the Chinese believed that the body was affected by the tone and vibrations, and the pain of acupuncture could be dulled by making sounds to accompany the therapy.

Tibetan Cymbals

Sounds were used in healing through out almost every culture in existence. From the Egyptians to the modern world these societies pulled together their resources and experience to create a wellness treatment that consisted of sound.  Ancient Greeks treated physical injuries, sickness and mental distress with sound. This continued throughout Europe where religious ceremonies took on singing, chants and used them for spiritual enlightenment.

Our ancient ancestral cultures such as the Aborigines, Tibetans, Indians and of course the Egyptians all practiced sound therapy in some way.  They believed that the sound would resonate with our body and create an over all sense of calm or excitement based on the type of sound played. That sound held the power to heal our bodies, our minds and connect us to the gods.

Shamanic healers across all cultures are often seen as the produces of this sound healing magic. They were the one to go to and listen to in order to heal the body and mind. Usually the holders of this information were women. Even our Greek ancestors believed that music had the power to charm the savage beast and magicians across these same cultures used sound to provoke (and in some cases invoke) the power of magic through ritual sound.

One of the oldest instruments found is a 40,000 year old Neanderthal flute made of a vulture bone. Drums, rattles, shakers, flutes - anything we could use to make sound, our ancestors did and we still do today. As early as 500BC the Pythagoreans were linking sound to healing. Even our earth has its own frequency. 7.83hz is the heartbeat of our planet. And exposing our bodies to this frequency has shown improvement in focus, low energy, trouble sleeping and stress. 

Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing a lot of information (and science) with you on the power of the healing power of sounds. Together on this journey I'll help guide you to understanding what you can do on a daily basis to bring this power into your life. Experience the healing energy and the happiness that you can achieve though sound, harmonic healing and we'll explore the tools of the trade.

I hope you'll join me for the entire series.

Blessings

Rev. Renee Sosanna Olson