The Healing Power of Music

The latest in the meditation practitioner’s world is all abuzz with stories about the “healing power of sounds” also know as “sound healing”. Sound healing has been around for a long time but now only recently has started to be used and recognized as a legitimate therapy practice, from simple meditation to even operating rooms or acupuncture. Throughout the realms of new age therapy and personal wellness, from massage to shamanism to reiki practices, the healing power of sounds has permeated aspects of holistic and professional health practices. Music, or sound, healing can be defined as using specific sound, whether it’s musical, natural, or other, as a therapeutic method to enhance and promote personal, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Often times music such as “ambient” music is used, or nature sounds such as ocean waves or rain falling are used. There are even more advanced sound therapy techniques, that can involve tuning forks, drums, “crystal” singing bowls, and more.
At the core of sound therapy is the belief that human beings have a natural vibration that is “in tune” with naturalistic surroundings of all biological life. There is even one theory in modern physics that states that all matter is composed of small, infinitesimal particles that vibrate in harmony, though at differing speed rates, to compose all organic material and organisms on earth. Perhaps the whole earth can be considered a “symphony” of all life’s creations vibrating together in one harmonious sound. The healing power of sounds is in retrospect, not considered a wholly new therapy. Many ancient Buddhist techniques of meditation, yoga practices, Tibetan monk practices, techniques from various indigenous shamanism, and more all reflect and support the theory of sound therapy.
It has long been suggested that humans are beings comprised of energy, which goes in accordance with sound therapy as sound waves allow the energy to vibrate and move freely, removing blockages that restrict energy flow throughout the body. Energy flow has been suggested in many cultures, one such example being that of the ancient Chinese theory of qi, energetic flow through the body. Most of the cultures that support energy flow also often use some form of sound therapy. These sound therapies can take many shapes and forms, several of those being shamanistic chants or hymns, as well as mantras. These chants can help people come into deeper states of connectedness with various divine spirits or higher powers, whatever those may be, and jointly connect people with the center of the core of life and energy in the universe.