Sound Healing – The Medicine of the Future

Did you know that various cultures around the world have been using music and sound for healing purposes since thousands of years? You might have believed that Sound Healing is just another New Age healing modality, when instead it has a long history in mankind. Sound Healing as a form of therapy has received a constant revival since the last decades, gaining more and more acknowledgement from scientists and popularity among people from all ages and backgrounds. Learn more about the history of Sound Healing, its effects and the instruments used, how it works and how you can benefit from Sound Healing sessions and events at Udara.

What is Sound Healing 

Sound can have profound effects on our health and wellbeing, whether we actively listen to music, play an instrument, move to the beat of the music or receive beneficial frequencies in a passive way. Sound Healing is the specific use of frequencies to promote healing and balance. It addresses various planes of our existence, from the physical to the emotional and spiritual level by using different instruments and the voice. In a way, it helps us to be more ‘in tune’ with the ourselves and ‘in sync’ with the natural laws, structure and order of the cosmos. 

Brief History and of Sound Healing and its Use

The power of sound to heal was used by most ancient cultures. To name a few, the ancient Greeks were using the flute and lyre, Native Americans have been using shamanic drums and songs, Aborigines of Australia have been playing the didgeridoo and Hindus of India have been chanting Sanskrit mantras to restore balance, harmony and health within people, communities and nature. Healing with sound has been rediscovered in the last century. As an example, music therapy was offered for wounded soldiers of the Second World War and Ultrasound was successfully introduced into Western medicine e.g. to dissolve kidney stones, reduce tumors and evaluate the condition of internal organs and soft tissues. 

New Science based on Ancient Beliefs

Since a few decades, scientists are more and more interested in finding out how sound healing works and how it can be used to treat various illnesses, in conjunction with allopathic medicine or even as a stand alone treatment. Edgar Cayce predicted that “Sound is the medicine of the future.” Science is rapidly evolving and it will be fascinating to witness new findings about the healing power of sound. 

Ancient people already knew that everything is vibration and even Einstein found this to be true as he supposedly said “Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.” Since the rise of Quantum Physics that aims to explain the model of reality and existence from the micro to the macrocosm, we experience a huge paradigm shift. The previous split of spirituality and science, the disconnection of body and mind seems to slowly disintegrate, to be replaced with not only the belief, but with scientific evidence that everything and everyone is interconnected in a sea of vibration.

How Sound Healing Works

Sound is continuous and regular vibration that travels through air and other mediums. The frequency of a sound is the speed of the vibration per second, measured in Hertz. For humans, audible sounds are between 20 and 20.000 Hz. When sound reaches our ears, it travels up the auditory nerve into our brain where it is processed. Sounds then can trigger bodily responses by changing brain chemicals, e.g. to alter our heart rate, blood pressure, emotional state or muscle tension. 

Sound not only travels through air, it even travels faster through air and much faster through bone. Knowing that our bodies are made up of about 70% water, we realize the vibro-acoustic potency of sound vibrations that go straight to all cells of our body. Our body as a whole is a sensory organ, which means we do not only hear the sounds but feel them through all of our tissues. 

Sound affects us on so many different levels, from the cellular function to the tissues, hormones, brain waves and the flow of energy in our body. Sound does not only work within the body, but also on the aura, the bioelectrical field around the body which can be harmonized with sound. 

Our bodies have a natural inclination to heal themselves, to recreate order, balance and harmony. It seeks homeostasis and wants to be ‘in tune’, but many factors can hinder this natural process such as pollutants and toxins, lifestyle, diet, lack of movement or mind state. Deepak Chopra states that “The body is held together by sound and the presence of disease indicates that some sounds are out of tune.”. Mitchell Gaynor, a physician who worked with sound healing as complementary treatment for cancer patients said “You can look at disease as a form of disharmony. And there’s no organ system in the body that’s not affected by sound and music and vibration.” 

Sound can act as a medium for our bodies to heal themselves through entrainment. When the sound healer introduces beneficial frequencies during the sound therapy, the body gets a signal to move towards this frequency and match the ‘healthy’ sound vibration. Natural, primordial sounds are much more effective in doing so, as they represent the inherent harmonious order of nature versus electronic music, which creates only a shorter and lower effect of entrainment. 

The intention that we put into the sound healing sessions (both as a giver and as a receiver) are as important as the frequencies themselves. Jonathan Goldman, a pioneer of the recent rise in Sound Healing created the formula “Frequency + Intention = Healing”. Thoughts can be seen as a form of energy and as we add beneficial, health-promoting, heart-centered intention into the process, the results of the sound healing are magnified.

What instruments are used during a Sound Healing session

Sound Healers use an array of instruments for healing, including the human voice. At Udara, we mainly use Tibetan singing bowls, rattles, chimes, rain sticks, gongs, flutes, drums and the voice for our sound healing events and sessions. The sounds can be on the lower range of frequencies such as deep gongs, drums or large singing bowls, they can also include higher notes from chimes, flutes or cymbals or any range of frequencies in between. The qualities of the instruments, the material (such as wood or metal) and how they are played can help us to realign with the elements of earth, water, fire, wind and space. A fascinating soundscape is being created for the listener, as the sounds reach the receiver from various directions and sources. 

The instruments we have at Udara come from various traditions, ancient and modern. We have collected an assemblage of fascinating instruments from Bali, Nepal, Europe, India and  Burma. While usually the receiver keeps his eyes closed during a sound healing session and thus might not know from which instrument the sound is coming from, we are always happy to show you the instruments and share our knowledge about them.

The Benefits of Sound Healing

Sound is known as one of the most natural forms of healing known to mankind. Some cultures have long realised that the beneficial effects of sound go much deeper than just relaxation. Sound healing touches us on so many different levels: physical, energetic, emotional, mental and spiritual. 

The effects of sound healing can include:

• stress reduction
• emotional balance
• lowered blood pressure
• soothing nervous system
• improved sleep
• muscle relaxation
• more coherence in the brain waves
• deepening meditative states, calming the mind
• pain relief
• inducing higher states of consciousness

While science will certainly follow up with more studies of the benefits of sound healing, you are invited to experience what it does to you personally, how you react to the different sounds, how they touch you and how they make you feel. A sound healing session can be a profound experience with rippling effects into your daily life.

Sound Healing at Udara

At Udara, we offer Sound Healing both in group settings as well as an individual healing treatment. 

For an Individual Sound Healing Session, you will receive the sounds in a more personalized way in a private setting. After an introductory talk with the therapist about your conditions, intentions and preferences, you will experience the sounds in a safe, nurturing container where you can truly let go and be fully immersed in the journey of sound. Find out more on this page about the individual session.

We have various events on our schedule that include Sound Healing, such as

• The Sound Healing Journey as part of our Udara Sunday events
  After joining an uplifting Ecstatic Dance, you can lie down and relax to experience the sounds healing in our big Yoga shalas with the ocean sounds as an extra plus in the background during our famous Udara Sunday where you can connect to the community and nourish yourself with a healthy vegetarian brunch buffet afterwards
• Yin Yoga & Sound Healing
  This special event connects the meditative aspect of Yin Yoga with healing sounds. While you hold the yoga poses for several minutes, we will bathe you in sounds to deepen your practice and bring you into a very present and relaxed state
• Breathing & Sound Healing
  The first part of this event is dedicated to connect to the breath and to practice breathing exercises that deepen the breath and increase the energy flow. The following sound healing is a way to enjoy a state of heightened awareness and deep rest.
• Cacao Ceremony & Kirtan
  During our Cacao Ceremony & Kirtan we use the voice to chant spiritual songs and sacred mantras, which have immense healing powers. We include a sound healing session at the end of the evening for you to integrate and to go deep within.

New Project for a Sound Healing Dome at Udara

We are excited to announce that we are in the middle of building a new sound healing dome for private sessions at Udara. Have a look at this video on our Facebook page to see the beautiful design of the entrance and its shape. The inside walls of our dome are covered with golden paint to give you a feeling of being held in a golden bubble of light while you dive deep on this journey of sound. The acoustics of this dome are truly amazing and we cannot wait to be of service for you with our private sound healing sessions. 

We are truly grateful that Sound Healing is an integral part of our offers at Udara and we look forward having you here as our guest to experience the wonders of sound healing.