Unable to sleep with a throbbing headache, but reluctant to exchange it for the drenching sweat that over-the-counter painkillers had been triggering, I began in frustration to hum a low, moaning note. Experimenting with the pitch, I found one that set up a vibrating micromassage in my skull and alleviated the pain. On three different nights that worked, and was the last thing I recall before falling asleep. Naively, I had discovered something both ancient and on the cutting edge of healthcare.

Indigenous cultures all over the world use singing, toning (holding long notes with the voice), percussion, and instrumental music to accompany all aspects of daily life, including healing practices. In Ancient Greek mythology, Apollo was the god of both music and healing, and sound was used in a therapeutic manner  in virtually all ancient societies. Many of today's experts on the therapeutic uses of sound (generally called sound healers or therapists) employ ancient methods, such as shamanic drumming and vocalizations, Gregorian or Buddhist chanting, and using specific musical tones and intervals to balance the body's energy centers (chakras) or enhance the function of specific organs (as practiced by Hindus). In addition, modern sound healers are devising their own combinations of healing modalities, incorporating sound into psychotherapy, physical therapy, cognitive development, and much more.

Some practitioners of "mainstream" medicine are also tuned in. "If someone had told me when I was a medical student," wrote Dr. Mitchell Gaynor while director of oncology and integrative medicine at the Strang Cancer Prevention Center, "that one day I would be teaching my patients to use singing bowls to heal themselves, I would have thought he or she was crazy. Yet...prominently displayed in my consultation room...is a beautiful 10-inch quartz crystal bowl, which plays a key role in my busy practice of oncology and internal medicine."

A classic example of sound's impact on the body is the "Brahms Baby" study in which hospitalized premature infants grew faster, had fewer complications, and were released earlier when the Brahms Lullaby (appropriately) was played several times a day. Similarly, recordings that mimic the tempo of a calm mother's heartbeat are soothing to infants—an observation that spawned a smorgasbord of CDs with a human heartbeat as well as nature's lullabies, like ocean waves and pattering rain, not just for infants, but also for harried adults. Sound (usually as music) has many other documented benefits:
·  Enhances awareness in Alzheimer's and cognitively impaired people
·  Modifies breathing rate and depth, heart rate, and blood pressure
·  Reduces muscle tension and increases movement
·  Triggers endorphin release, which improves mood and lessens pain
·  Modifies release of stress hormones
·  Enhances immunity
·  Relieves or lessens depression
·  Calms presurgical and postoperative stress
·  Enhances learning among developmentally delayed children
·  Reduces pain medication usage in childbirth
·  Accelerates tissue repair
·  Elicits emotional catharsis
·  Modifies brain electrical activity
·  Equalizes activity between the left and right cerebral hemispheres
·  Kills cancer cells in the laboratory

Don Campbell's book The Mozart Effect recounts numerous case studies of sound's impact on a vast range of physical, psychological, and emotional ailments. Other books on the health benefits of sound include Deepak Chopra's Quantum Healing, Katherine Le Mee's Chant, John Beaulieu's Music and Sound in the Healing Arts, and the books of Mitchell Gaynor.

How can sound impact our physiology and psychology? Sound is, in a technical sense, nothing more than the pulsating nudges of air molecules against our bodies, including our eardrums, which set our middle ear ossicles a-quivering. They, in turn, set up vibrations in the fluid of the inner ear, which jostle microscopic hairs that tweak nerves, which send messages to the brain (which lay in the house that Jack built). Those nerve signals cause changes in brain cells, like neurochemical release and electrical activity, which can spawn a diversity of secondary responses. Sound also directly vibrates cells and tissues all over our bodies (recall those heart-pounding rock concerts, or ask someone to play a djembe or frame drum over your torso—quietly at first!).

Sounds have different effects on us, depending on their frequency, tempo, volume, instrument or vocal quality, psychological associations, and so on. Here are some basics. Sound frequency is the number of repeating sound waves, or cycles, per second (measured in hertz, or Hz). A single pure tone, like that generated from a tuning fork or crystal bowl, has a single frequency. Some sound healers place tuning forks at acupuncture or acupressure points to enhance energy flow, or use crystal "singing" bowls to generate a pure tone corresponding to a chakra that the healer perceives to be energetically blocked or impaired. (Each chakra is said to have a corresponding note—C for the root chakra, ascending one whole note for each higher chakra, with B corresponding to the crown chakra). Physical sensations and emotional responses also can be elicited with a single frequency.

Tempo of music or rhythm (beats per minute, or bpm) is a different variable, though sometimes erroneously called "frequency." A tempo of roughly 40-60 bpm is generally calming emotionally and physiologically, whereas 80-120 bpm is stimulating. (Yet that generalization is too simple, as some people are saddened by slow music, or irritated by fast.)

The brain's electrical activity can be described as four types of brain waves with corresponding frequencies on an EEG (electroencephalogram). Beta waves (with a frequency of 14 Hz and above) are most conspicuous in the normal waking state; alpha (8-13 Hz) signify dreaming and light meditation; theta (4-7 Hz) appear in inward focusing of attention and in transition between waking and sleep; delta (.5-3 Hz) are present in deep sleep.

Brain waves are not the same kind of phenomenon as sound waves, but certain frequencies of sound can "entrain" the brain to produce more of a certain brain wave type, shifting the EEG pattern. A drum beat at about 240-270 bpm is commonly cited as the tempo shamanic healers use to aid in shifting the ordinary mental awake state (beta brain-wave dominance) to one rich in imagery (theta).

In the early 1970s, biophysicist Gerald Oster discovered a brain-wave-modifying phenomenon called a binaural beat or rhythm. When a different frequency of sound is played in each ear (through stereo headphones), such as 100 Hz and 109 Hz, the brain perceives a 9 Hz frequency. That induces changes in the EEG patterns. Binaural recordings are marketed as aids for pain relief, relaxation, stress reduction, meditation, drug-free visioning, and sleep.

With the mix of sound frequencies, tempos, volume, instrument qualities, and more, how is sound used as a healing tool? Letting go of the technical aspects and following intuition—both of sound healer and client—is the advice of Naaz Hosseini, a gestalt therapist in private practice in New Paltz and Nyack who specializes in voice empowerment. "When someone comes in for a session, I make a variety of improvised vocal sounds for a minute or two, and the person is just a receiver, watching for any responses—sensations, emotions, memories, or impulses to move. Someone might say 'I felt sad when I heard this,' or that something was soothing. I then invite them to make that sound, either alone or with me." A reluctance or exuberance in doing so can shed light on emotional or psychological issues that Hosseini's gestalt training can address.

Housseini also deals with physical problems, as she did with a client who had a cartilaginous growth in her throat. "I got into a meditative state to become fully present with her, then trusted that whatever sound came out would be right. I placed my hand on her throat, making that sound. Next, I suggested she make a sound very quietly, to match mine. She reported having a lot less tension and more flow of blood and lymph in that area. She had come in afraid she had cancer, and left knowing that vibration and sound could heal that area."

Kimberley Hughes, a sound healer and psychotherapist/life coach in New York City, combines her vocal training (as an operatic singer) with studies with renowned Hindu sound master Sri Bhatnagar and sound healer/author Tom Kenyon (Brain States). Among her many sound tools is a full set of charka-matched quartz singing bowls, and the soundscape she creates with them is glorious.

"I feel that what happens when you play a note is that it vibrates whatever is ready to be cleared," Hughes says. "It could be emotions, toxins—I've had people start to cry, have memories, even throw up. I believe that releasing is good." She then works with the client to create an intention for the cleared area, like filling it with love and gentleness. "When people come for a sound healing, many times their lives change radically within a day or a week. I don't know if it somehow shatters old patterns, or brings in new things, but it happens very quickly."

Among the changes Hughes hopes to elicit is a natural rebalancing within the brain. "Our culture tends to reward 'left brain' function—logic, analysis, sequential thought—more than 'right brain' intuition, holistic insight, and emotion. Specifically chosen musical intervals, rhythmic patterning, and well-timed silences can literally balance the functioning of the human brain." She also increasingly recognizes our need to return to natural sounds, rhythms, and cycles. "Our gradual separation from nature has separated us from parts of our own natures as well—the physical and emotional and metaphysical rhythms." Her goal is to help people reconnect with them, through individual sessions and public performances by Healing Rain, a sound-healing cooperative (read more at www.quantumchange.builderspot.com).

The healing support of music is working its way into hospital emergency rooms, intensive care units, maternity wards, physical therapy rooms, nursing homes, and hospices, in the form of Certified Music Practitioners (CMPs), musicians trained to bring their skills to the ill, injured, recovering, and dying. Melinda Gardiner is executive director of the Music for Healing and Transition Program, which teaches CMPs in Hillsdale and many other sites in the US and Canada. "We train musicians and singers to play or sing therapeutic music at the bedside, to work with people one-to-one. We simply play music and allow the inherent qualities of the music itself—the melody, harmony, and rhythm—to do the healing."

Gardiner, who plays harp and sings, emphasizes that live music is crucial. "We can match the patient and change as the patient changes, moment by moment. Someone in the ER usually is anxious and in pain, so we generally play music that would compel a person to relax. On the other hand, if we were playing for someone who would need stimulation, like someone in rehab, we would use a rhythm to support them in doing their exercises. In the intensive care unit, we can do a heartbeat rhythm."

Institutions in our area that hire CMPs include Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson, the Community Hospice of Columbia/Greene in Catskill, Phelps Hospice in Sleepy Hollow, and Westchester Medical Center. There are about 350 CMPs nationwide, and about 200 more completing internships.

Matthew Cantello, a sound healer in Stone Ridge, describes music as "a great accentuation to westernized treatment. We've got meditation, yoga, tai chi, aromatherapy, other resources for healing and growth—music is yet another. It quiets the mind, opens the heart, and elevates the spirit, and enables the body to clear the decks for its miraculous healing abilities."

He has developed a unique methodology called communing with music, "which enables people to tap into this valuable resource for everything from stress reduction and wellness to self-healing and spiritual growth." He teaches this in his award-winning book and companion (or stand-alone) CD, Communing With Music: Practicing the Art of Conscious Listening, and offers workshops in our area (visit www.artshealing.com).

"Communing with music is about using it consciously to promote various states of being. The idea started from a peak experience when I was having a very difficult time in my life, and was awakened by a series of pieces that opened the door for me to being able to use music in this way." An important part of the approach is, over time, developing your own "power music"—a compilation of recorded pieces that are personally meaningful. "The music becomes an ally," he explains. "When you acquire a relationship with certain musical pieces, the meaning and power grows over time. They are not to be used frivolously as background music. They are very special." His book suggests several pieces to try for relaxation, opening the heart, forgiveness, vitality, or energizing; the CD is a compilation of some, plus information on using them.

Peter Blum, a Woodstock sound healer for several decades, knows that specific sounds can have select effects on physiology. "I studied with Fabian Mamon, the French acupuncturist, chi-gong teacher, and musician, who did research in hospitals." Among his discoveries were combinations of frequencies that would destroy cancer cells. But Blum especially enjoys creating "soothing, calming, energizing, and inspiring music" for private healing sessions, public performances, and in workshops, using his 40 metal singing bowls and percussion instruments. "The word 'healing' comes from 'to make whole,'" he adds, and so he creates his music to help people achieve that. His latest of five CDs, Singing Bowls and One, features many musicians he's played with over the years in improvised duets with the bowls. (Blum and Hosseini will perform on Friday, September 16, at 8pm at Shakti Yoga in Woodstock.)

Whether by working with a sound healer, finding one's own power music (as Cantello teaches), experimenting with making sounds oneself, or enjoying performances, the realm of sound is a powerful, often overlooked medium for healing and growth—especially when we choose to listen with focus, not just hear what happens to be around us.