Every culture in the world has used sound and music to heal. Finally we're catching up. Seven years ago, Peter Fisher, a 60-year-old physician in Ohio, was driving to work when he recognized the symptoms of an impending stroke: bright flashing lights, numbness, headache. Calmly, he pulled into a gas station, leaned on his horn and asked the terrified attendant to call an ambulance to take him to a specific hospital. The only movement he had was his eyelids, and his only means of communication was blinking once for yes, twice for no.
Ironically, three years after participating in Peter's rehabilitation, Campbell, then a robust 43-year-old, learned that he had a potentially fatal blood clot in an artery just below his brain. He was given three options: undergo immediate surgery with no guarantee of a positive outcome; be admitted to the hospital for six weeks for hourly monitoring; or simply wait a few days and see what happens.
Campbell, who'd spent 10 years investigating the effects of sound on the body, was quite knowledgeable about therapeutic uses of music. So he decided to pass on the surgery and hospitalization and simply hum. Fearful that a more powerful sound might bring on a stroke, he hummed quietly for three to four minutes at a time, up to seven times a day. He did this for three weeks, at the same time meditating on healing images. He went back for a second brain scan, and when his doctor saw the results, he was speechless: The blood clot had shrunk from more than an inch and a half in length to an eighth of an inch, and Campbell was proclaimed out of danger.
"Sound therapy" may seem like just the latest New Age fad, but in fact it dates back thousands of years. "The use of sound and music is the most ancient healing modality," says Jonathan Goldman, founder and director of the Sound Healers Association in Boulder, Colo., and author of Healing Sounds (Element Books, 1996). "It was practiced in the ancient mystery schools of Egypt, Tibet, India, Athens and Rome for tens of thousands of years. Much of this information disappeared in the West, but it's been re-emerging in the last 10 or 15 years."
Even if you didn't know that a thousand years ago the Chinese believed music could do everything from transform people's characters to restore the fertility of the soil, you do know that sound is a powerful force. Most of us, at one time or another, practice our own version of music therapy. We instinctually make--or seek out--sound to express our emotions. A mother naturally sings to soothe her baby. When we're depressed, we play or make our favorite music, either to lift us out of our gloom or to intensify it; when happy, we play joyous music to enhance the mood.
We're in good company. In The Iliad, Apollo, the mythical god of music and medicine, halted a plague because he was so pleased with the sacred hymns sung by Greek youths. Pythagoras, who discovered that all music could be expressed in numbers and mathematical formulas, founded a school that, among other things, trained students to release worry, fear, anger and sorrow through singing and playing musical instruments.
Music is a fundamental component of all major religions, from Christian hymns to Jewish cantorial melodies to the muezzin calling Muslims to prayer. Buddhists recite mantras and prayers and chant to win merit in this life and those to come. Millions of people around the world chant the Sanskrit mantra "om" daily to purify mind and body and become one with all creation. Sufis (the esoteric branch of Islam) hold that higher states of consciousness can be attained by concentrating on the reverberations of bells and the harmonic echoes of choirs. And Judaism's mystical Kabbala teaches that chanting certain vowel sounds connects one with the energies of the Divine.
Don Campbell may he one of the leading American pioneers in his field, but the man he calls the Einstein of sound is Alfred Toamtis, M.D., a Frenchman who's devoted his life to the study of the human ear and the effects of musical sound on the brain. It was Tomatis who first established that fetuses can hear sound. Back in the 1960s, the Paris-based physician was called in to investigate a strange malaise that had overtaken a monastery of Benedictine monks in the south of France. Out of the blue, the brothers had become listless, tired and depressed. Once other medical authorities had ruled out physical causes, Tomatis began to search for changes in their diet or work conditions but discovered none.
After a lengthy discussion with the monks, however, Tomatis learned that before they took ill, the monks used to gather eight or nine times a day and chant for 10 to 20 minutes. But thanks to the reforms of Vatican II, their daily chanting had been reduced by several hours a day. It dawned on Tomatis that the physiological benefits of their chanting--slowing down their breathing, lowering their blood pressure and elevating their mood and productivity--were at the heart of the monk's lethargy. His solution: restoring their full sonic regimen of Gregorian chants. The effects were dramatic. Within six months, the monks were back to their old vigorous and healthy selves.
Goldman, who points out that both Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon were interested in exploring the uses of music for healing, combines his own musical training and intuition to find stagnant energy patterns in a person's vibrational field. By creating a sirenlike sound with his voice, he scans a client by directing his voice from the person's feet up to their head, then back down. Wherever the tone changes, energy is stuck. Goldman then directs the sound at those areas (sometimes holding it in one spot for five minutes or more) until the sound--and hence the person's energy--becomes whole again. A session can last up to an hour and may be accompanied by other healing techniques, such as therapeutic touch.
Don Campbell offers two simple exercises you can try on your own. If you're tired and need some "sonic caffeine," intone a long-e sound (as in emit) for three minutes. You may feel silly for the first minute, he warns, but after the second you'll get into it, and after the third, you'll feel the effects. For a three-minute relaxation, make a long-o (as in ocean) or ah (as in aha) sound.
The research, and healing work, that's being done with sound and music is vast. Campbell, a consultant and trainer to health professionals, musicians and other teachers (he estimates there are 5,000 music therapists working in this country), explains that much of the work is focused on rehab.
Sound is used as an adjunct therapy in helping people recover from strokes and head injuries. It eases the side effects of chemotherapy--it's especially effective in controlling nausea and pain. In operating rooms it's often used to help relax patients and stabilize their body systems. German studies show that in up to 60 percent of those cases, less anesthesia is required. Music also has become an increasingly popular therapeutic modality in nursing homes, schools, prisons, day care centers and spas. Research shows it to be effective in relieving pain and frustration in people with Alzheimer's, AIDS, autism, trauma, substance abuse, learning disabilities and a host of nonspecific physical, emotional and mental impairments. As evidence of how accepted this work has become, Medicare often covers music therapy for patients who have Alzheimer's, are recovering from strokes or learning to walk again.
The work of Mitchell Gaynor, M.D., is further proof that sound therapy has infiltrated the mainstream. His credentials are of the highest order: He's the director of medical oncology and integrative medicine at New York's Strang Cancer Prevention Center, a 66-year-old academic medical center affiliated with the Cornell Medical Center, where the Pap smear was invented. In addition to performing conventional cancer treatment (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy), Gaynor runs an ongoing, biweekly support group that utilizes guided imagery, meditation and sound, voice and tone. "Breathing is critical to absolutely everything that produces well-being, yet doctors tend to overlook it," he says. "Besides their vibrational impact, voice and tone are just another way to get the therapeutic value of breathing.
"Five years ago, a Tibetan monk came to see me as a patient," Gaynor continues, "and he gave me a Tibetan bell. The first time I heard that sound, I knew it would change my life." With the monk's help, Gaynor located some Tibetan "singing" bowls, which are used in many Himalayan cultures to induce meditative states. For the past five years he's been leading his cancer support groups through guided meditations to the sounds created by the Tibetan and quartz-crystal bowls. Though Gaynor hasn't conducted clinical studies to measure the effects of the sound therapy, group members are unanimously thrilled with the results. "People identify with the bowls' pure tone and have profound relaxation responses," he says. "They tell me that worse than the cancer itself is the fear that they have no control over their futures. The relaxation they experience from the sound and meditation makes them more hopeful." Once they have hope, he adds, they often take more active steps toward their healing.
John Ortiz, Ph.D., a "psycho-musicologist" based in Camp Hill, Penn., is a trained musician and psychologist as well as the author of The Tao of Music (Samuel Weiser, 1997). He uses a combination of techniques to speed up patients' healing processes. "Unlike conventional psychotherapy, music is never about why," he says. "It is about who, what, when, where, how. `Why' can take over a situation and keep you caught up in the analysis instead of taking action." He tells the story of a former patient, Charisse Lavelle(*), a 45-year-old marketing executive with a severe case of depression. She had no energy, insomnia, trouble concentrating and had lost interest in her friends and family. She had begun to overeat, which only depressed her more, and she was caught in a vicious cycle. Her M.D. sent her to a psychiatrist, who put her on antidepressants, which made her inorgasmic and only fueled the depression. Eventually she found her way to Ortiz.
"Find three songs that sound like your depression, three that feel like you want to feel and three in between," he instructed her. Then he had her make an "entrainment" tape of all nine. She was to fill the rest of the tape with her favorite music. "Just thinking about it made her mood lift," Ortiz recalls. Since she didn't have all the songs at home, she went to the mall to get the others--something she hadn't done in months. Shopping for the music and making her own tape restored her sense of having some control in her life. Her next tape was music to exercise and dance to, which got her moving again. Within a matter of months of psychological and sound therapy, Charisse was feeling significantly better--and off antidepressants.
What might we expect in the future, then: Tonal spas to rejuvenate our vibrational fields? Chanting centers in schools, workplaces and doctors' offices? Self-teaching CD-ROMs for retoning? Goldman says the possibilities are limitless. When we drum and chant and sing together, feelings of joy and friendship develop. We feel positive and our self-esteem shoots up. And if we're really lucky, we may even have a mystical experience or unleash unrealized creative talents.
More than 50 years ago, Edgar Cayce, the "Sleeping Prophet" of Virginia Beach who healed thousands of people while in a trance state, said that "music is the medicine of the future." From the sound of things, he was probably right. But hey, that's old news to the likes of Pythagoras and Confucius.
(*) Not their real names.
For more information on sound therapy, a catalog of tools or an international directory of healers, call the Sound Healers Association, in Boulder, Colo.; (303) 443-8181. For books, tapes, resources and Don Campbell's schedule, call the Mozart Effect Resource Center; (800) 427-7680.
If you's like to experiment with sound therapy on your own, Orftiz, Campbell and Goldman offer the following suggestions.
* Raise your sound awareness by noticing the sounds around you in everyday life. This grounds you in the here and now and enhances your communication skills by improving you listening skills.
* Play your favorite music when you do housedwork or unpleasant chores. Not only will it distract you, but it will motivate you and create pleasant associations with that activity,
* When you're angry, tense, or frustrated, play an energetic piece of music (such as a march). Move your body for five to seven minutes, letting the music release your emotions. Then your mind can look at the situation with a more objective, and compassionate, attitude.
* If you want the benefits of deep relaxation but have problems with formal mediation, sit somewhere quiet. Hum or chant different vowel sounds and "direct" them to various parts of your body. When we create and focus on sound, we begin to stop the constant chatter in our minds, which is the first step toward to only deep relaxation, but spiritual enligthenment!
March, 1998 by Suzanne Gerber Vegetarian Times
RELATED ARTICLE: Stocking a Healing Music Library
(Suggestions from Don Campbell)
Sonic Stress Reduction Rosa Mystica, Therese Schroeder-Sheker (Celestial Harmonies)
Crystal Mediations from essence, Don Campbell (Spring Hill Music)
Music for Airports, Brian Eno (EG)
Dolphin Dreams, Jonathan Goldman (Spirit Music)
Sonic Energizers Earthbeat, Paul Winter (Living Music)
Flashdance Soundtrack (Casablanca)
Sonic STudy Hall Concertos for Violin, Harp and Flute, Telemann (any version)
Handel: The Complete sonatas for Recorder, Ton Koopman (Harmonia Mundi)
Music for 'The Mozart Effect,' Vol. 1
Sonics for Spiritual Inspiration Requiem, faure (Teldec)
Gloria, Jogn Rutter (Collegium)
Songs of Sanctuary, Adiemus (Virgin)
Suzanne Gerber is the senior health editor of Vegetarian Times. Additional reporting by Luise Light.
The sound of healing.
A few weeks later, Peter's desperate wife placed a call to Don Campbell, a composer, music researcher and teacher, healer and the author of The Mozart Effect (Avon Books, 1997). Campbell, who knew the Fishers professionally, suggested they play as much Mozart as possible in Peter's room, and a few weeks after that, he paid a personal visit. "I sat on the right side of the bed, because the right ear is the quickest way to the language centers of the brain, and began to sing and simultaneously tap each syllable into his hand," recalls Campbell. "For the next three hours, I would sing and tap for five minutes, then rest for 10 minutes." At the end of the Session, the two men were actually communicating with a codified system by which Fisher would indicate letters with eye movements.