Vibes
The salient theme of this discourse revolves around the intricate relationship between sound, music, and their profound effects on healing and well-being. We delve into the scientific underpinnings of sound as a vibration, exploring its historical context within healing practices and the emerging studies since the 1990s that substantiate its efficacy. With a particular focus on concepts such as resonance and entrainment, we elucidate how sound waves can influence bodily frequencies and potentially facilitate healing processes. Furthermore, we examine the fascinating debate over tuning frequencies, specifically the contrast between 440 Hz and 432 Hz, and their implications for personal and collective well-being. Through this exploration, we aim to illuminate the transformative power of sound and music in our lives, encouraging a deeper understanding of their therapeutic potential.
The exploration of sound, music, and vibration as pivotal elements in the realm of healing is an intricate topic that captivates both scientific inquiry and personal experience. The episode delves into the historical context of sound as a therapeutic medium, tracing its lineage through various cultures and practices. I articulate the significance of resonance, where sound waves interact and influence each other, and introduce the concept of entrainment, whereby certain frequencies can induce beneficial effects on the body and psyche. The discourse is enriched with references to contemporary studies that illustrate the efficacy of sound therapies, such as the use of music in surgical recovery and the management of chronic pain, underscoring the profound impact of auditory stimuli on human physiology.
As I navigate through the scientific methodologies underlying these studies, I acknowledge my own limitations in expertise, yet I express a keen fascination for the evolving field of sound healing. This episode serves not only to inform but also to evoke a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of sound and the human experience. The dialogue encompasses various modalities of sound therapy, including music therapy and vibrational healing practices, emphasizing the holistic approach to health and wellness. I invite listeners to reflect on their own experiences with sound and music, encouraging a personal exploration of how these elements resonate within their lives.
Takeaways:
- The exploration of sound's healing properties reveals a fascinating intersection of science and art.
- Vibrations, or 'vibes', significantly influence our physical and emotional well-being, as evidenced by numerous studies.
- Resonance and entrainment are critical concepts in understanding how sound can affect our body's frequencies.
- Research shows that music therapy can aid in pain management and improve recovery times during surgeries.
Links referenced in this episode:
Transcript
Hey, guys.
Speaker A:Welcome back to Music Is My mantra.
Speaker A:I'm Courtney McKenna.
Speaker A:Today we're going to explore a little bit of the science and the nerdy side of sound and music and vibration and healing.
Speaker A:With that, I'll talk a little bit about the nature of sound, a little bit of a historical context of how sound has always been used in healing practices.
Speaker A:I'll talk about some studies that I find that are pretty exciting, that are new as of the 90s, that are really impacting the way that people are thinking about vibration and healing and music and sound.
Speaker A:This is going to be a little bit out of my comfort zone.
Speaker A:I'm going to be talking about scientific method studies, things that I'm definitely not an expert on, but I've just found really interesting.
Speaker A:Since I started studying more about music, I've always had this interest in.
Speaker A:In healing and wellness.
Speaker A:This episode is called Vibes.
Speaker A:Vibes is shortened for vibrations.
Speaker A:You might have heard that term floating around the atmosphere.
Speaker A:Vibes, that place is good vibes, bad vibes, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker A:It's not just a phrase.
Speaker A:It's actually.
Speaker A:It comes from more of a scientific foundation.
Speaker A:Everything on earth is vibration.
Speaker A:Sound as a vibration is a wave that is being carried through a medium.
Speaker A:It could be a block of wood, a solid.
Speaker A:That's where you get a guitar.
Speaker A:It could be a drum that's also a solid.
Speaker A:It could be through water or it could be through air.
Speaker A:All of these vibrations are characterized by frequency and amplitude.
Speaker A:If you think of frequency, it's the pitch of the sound.
Speaker A:It could be really high up here or really low down here.
Speaker A:And the amplitude, which is measured in amps.
Speaker A:Think of an amplifier or a speaker, for example.
Speaker A:That is how loud the sound is.
Speaker A:The different organs in our bodies have different frequencies that can resonate with sound on different wavelengths in different hertz.
Speaker A:These different frequencies in our bodies potentially can change when it's encountered with another sound.
Speaker A:Resonance is the idea that one sound wave can influence another one.
Speaker A:If you are singing and playing the piano and your voice isn't quite matching the key of the piano, for example, you have these two wavelengths and they can be really close.
Speaker A:But if they're off pitch at all, then the resonance, you can hear it.
Speaker A:It's like it creates another wave that's not the same tone, it's not the same pitch.
Speaker A:What we like to do is tune our voices.
Speaker A:We train our ear to match pitch in different frequencies.
Speaker A:But there is a specific type of resonance called entrainment, where entrainment is the idea that a certain Frequency could influence another frequency.
Speaker A:This is.
Speaker A:These are studies that sort of prove the benefits of a sound bath, for example, because listening to these soothing sounds and that sort of thing can have a positive soothing impact on our body or our nervous system.
Speaker A: cially like I said, since the: Speaker A:More recent studies have shown that very low frequencies can be used for pain management.
Speaker A:There's been studies where music is played during a surgery.
Speaker A:The recovery time is much faster.
Speaker A:There's studies that show that sound can help improve mobility because the body reacts in a way that our mind doesn't fully comprehend.
Speaker A:But it's that idea of entrainment where, where the waves are actually moving energy through the body.
Speaker A:Sound therapy has been explored for managing lots of different types of chronic pain, like fibromyalgia.
Speaker A:There's been studies on dementia and music and how music can actually help to restimulate the mind, bring back memories, sort of awaken the soul, if you will.
Speaker A:They don't call it that because that's not scientific.
Speaker A:But obviously there's also this idea of brainwave entrainment.
Speaker A:We talked a little bit from about the book Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, which goes through the different brainwave levels.
Speaker A:And once you get to this relaxed brain, theta brainwave state, then you're more programmable to learn new things, to let go of old beliefs and sort of re reprogram your mind, which is pretty cool.
Speaker A:There's also been studies of solfeggio frequencies such as 5, 28 Hz and the effects it has on the body and the heart.
Speaker A:There's this idea of binaural beats, two different pitches, stimulating the brain from different side to help you focus or relax.
Speaker A:And different frequencies, different hertz can be effective for certain things like, like focusing or like relaxing, getting to that theta brainwave state, helping the body to.
Speaker A:Into this relaxed, safe space, which helps to regulate your nervous system.
Speaker A:That's just with the vibrations, the frequency of it.
Speaker A:But then we also have this area of music that's tempo.
Speaker A:The tempo or the rhythm has physiological effects on the body as well.
Speaker A:It can also influence our brainwave activity or the entrainment of our heart rate.
Speaker A:Some studies show hormonal regulation, stress reduction and dopamine release.
Speaker A:If you, for example, want to tap your foot along with the music that is actually creating a vibration as well to sync your body up with the rhythm of the song that you're listening to.
Speaker A:I haven't cited anyone yet because These are more commonly accepted ideas of sound healing.
Speaker A:There's two different types of recognized sound healing areas.
Speaker A:There's music therapy, which deals more with emotions and actually the writing components, the pieces, the melody, technical stuff that goes along with this song.
Speaker A:And then there is sound healing, which is more of using the frequencies directed in the body.
Speaker A:Think like Tibetan singing bowls, tuning forks.
Speaker A:And that's actually going, you know, physically over the body, using the skill of entrapment to shift the frequencies in the body, which is so cool that that's a thing.
Speaker A:If you've ever had a sound bath, maybe you've experienced this personally.
Speaker A: g because like I said, in the: Speaker A:You may have heard of Dr.
Speaker A:Emoto and his studies on the effects of music on water.
Speaker A:What he did was basically run different types of music, like jazz, metal, country, classical, to through water and watched it freeze.
Speaker A:He created these ice crystals using the energetics of water on the ice.
Speaker A:In some instances, there were beautiful crystalline patterns.
Speaker A:Some of them were super chaotic and crazy.
Speaker A:This study is not super widely accepted because the different variables that you need to have a study, it needs to be repeatable.
Speaker A:It needs to have, you know, standardization.
Speaker A:Some say that it's subjective because you're just looking at crystals.
Speaker A:And what I find beautiful might be different from what you find beautiful.
Speaker A:But the really important thing about this study is that if you look at like classical music compared to thrasher hardcore metal, the patterns looked very, very different.
Speaker A:Our bodies are mostly made up of water.
Speaker A:You can imagine what sounds and the process that we know to be true of entrantment does to our body when we're listening to different types of music.
Speaker A:If you want to listen to classical it, there are studies out there that say that it can help your brain develop to remember things.
Speaker A:I used to listen to classical music all the time when I was studying growing up, because I heard that and I believed it and it did.
Speaker A:You know, there.
Speaker A:There's not words.
Speaker A:It's like you're just feeling where the music comes together and there's this resonance and then a release.
Speaker A:There's tension and then release.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:I find it really soothing.
Speaker A:Metal is something where I play guitar, so I have a big appreciation for it.
Speaker A:And I.
Speaker A:There are some bands that I've gotten into, but it's not something that I listen to all the time.
Speaker A:It's pretty much like I have to be in sort of a rare mood to listen to that kind of music.
Speaker A:But I always, you know, I can appreciate a good guitar solo.
Speaker A:I can appreciate how tight the drumming is.
Speaker A:For example, before the 90s, of course, before of these studies started popping up.
Speaker A:Another really interesting thing that you'll find about music and healing and that space in between is this idea of 440.
Speaker A:The frequency of 440, the note 440 Hz is a above middle C.
Speaker A:This is the note that all orchestras tune to.
Speaker A:If you ever go to see a live orchestra, they'll all tune to this note.
Speaker A:All Western instruments are all already Pre tuned to 440.
Speaker A:Now before the 60s, this wasn't the case.
Speaker A:There was not the Internet, the board of Standardization or whatever the the name of this agency was that declared that 440 would be the standard across the globe.
Speaker A:I couldn't find any research on why they chose that, except for maybe it was just more commonly accepted already.
Speaker A:But the alternate tuning to 440 is 432.
Speaker A:This is something that you'll find a lot of mathematical theory behind because all of music is math.
Speaker A:Music theory is all math and patterns.
Speaker A:People believe that 432 is really where that A should be tuned to.
Speaker A:Now you might be thinking, okay, that's so subtle.
Speaker A:Like, can you even hear the difference?
Speaker A:It's really hard to, I don't know if I can, if I would be able to tell the difference to just right after each other.
Speaker A:Except for maybe, you know, it's a little bit lower in pitch.
Speaker A:But you can order singing bowls, Tibetan singing bowls that are tuned to 4:40 or 4:32.
Speaker A:This is because Tibetan singing bowls, this comes from the Indian Vedic tradition.
Speaker A:The Vedas are, is the oldest philosophy book in the yogic tantric practice.
Speaker A:I guess you could say it's kind of like the Bible, but it's a, a, a book of poems and rules or guides of how to live your life, the best yogic life that you can.
Speaker A:And they believe that sound has a, a really big impact on that.
Speaker A:There's actually what we call bij mantras, which came from that philosophy.
Speaker A:These are what they call them seed mantras.
Speaker A:They're sounds like Lam Vam Ram Om.
Speaker A:What's cool about these is that these seed mantras all correspond to a chakra in the body.
Speaker A:And if you're not familiar with what a chakra is, there is a idea that comes from this eastern philosophy that there are energy centers in the body and there's seven of them on the body.
Speaker A:There's other beliefs that there's more below us and above us and.
Speaker A:But there's seven main ones.
Speaker A:Your root chakra, your sacral, your solar plexus, your heart, your throat, your third eye up here.
Speaker A:The very last one is your crown chakra.
Speaker A:Each bij mantra corresponds to a chakra.
Speaker A:And each chakra has a different representation for a part of your life.
Speaker A:For example, the root chakra is think of like the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Speaker A:It's safety, it's shelter, where it's like those primal needs.
Speaker A:Whereas our sacral is above the root chakra.
Speaker A:It's sort of for us women, it's where our womb are and that's the source of creation.
Speaker A:Whereas the solar plexus, which is right in your gut area between like your belly button and your heart, this is where all of your self confidence is.
Speaker A:Your heart is obviously love, your throat is communication.
Speaker A:The theory is that you can tune these chakras by saying these vowels and these bij mantras, these sounds.
Speaker A:Some even believe that the notes correspond to to the seven chakras.
Speaker A:There's seven notes.
Speaker A:Now I couldn't find specific research on this, but it kind of makes sense.
Speaker A:The part that doesn't so much is that in the world there's lots of different musical systems.
Speaker A:And our musical system like solfetch, seven notes.
Speaker A:Do re, mi, FA so lati, do re, mi FA so lati.
Speaker A:Those are more of a western philosophy.
Speaker A:If you go to India and you play an instrument there, they might not subscribe to 440.
Speaker A:They because they have other ways of tuning instruments and they have different notes that are on different scales.
Speaker A:What's cool is that we can apply these notes to the seven chakra system.
Speaker A:But I don't think traditionally that's really what was intended.
Speaker A:But the mantra itself, the sound, the vowel shape, that's definitely very powerful.
Speaker A:One thing that I take from my own practice in Buddhism when I lived in New York City was that they believed in this idea of cause and effect through sound.
Speaker A:It's actually pretty practical if you think about it, because I'm using my body to create something new that then can kind of come back and retone through entrapment my cells on a very cellular level.
Speaker A:It's partially intention, but I'm also creating through communication and through my lungs and through my throat.
Speaker A:It's just, it's a cycle of using our own energy to sort of rebalance and reset, which I think it's super cool, this idea.
Speaker A:Again, this is a very Ancient thing that is still used today with sound, healing, singing bowls, that sort of thing.
Speaker A: Back to the: Speaker A:David Hawkins who spent 20 years, researched a quarter million of people doing kinesiology muscle testing on these people to get a read of the different frequencies of emotions.
Speaker A:He created what he calls the map of consciousness.
Speaker A:He in his work he found that higher frequencies were often more associated with joy love, where neutrality is in the middle.
Speaker A:Lower frequencies were these heavier emotions that we often think of when like we're sad or angry or frustrated.
Speaker A:You can see his map of consciousness.
Speaker A:It's pretty crazy.
Speaker A:Like quarter million of people is in my mind a pretty big sample size.
Speaker A:Again, I'm no expert, I don't think his study was peer reviewed or recreated.
Speaker A:But it is an interesting concept.
Speaker A:If we can study the frequencies of organs, then why not be able to understand the frequencies of, of emotions?
Speaker A:Because then we can come back to this idea of entrapment.
Speaker A:You can already feel a song when it's a happy melody and maybe you're having a sad day and it can pull you out of that or vice versa.
Speaker A:Like if you're feeling really frustrated and you put on like a heavy rock song, it can be a release because you're just letting it go and you're feeling it.
Speaker A:A lot of these newer concepts I think are going to be explained more over time.
Speaker A:There are people who are studying the frequency of plants.
Speaker A:This is another big thing.
Speaker A:It's like the idea that the rose is the highest frequency flower out there.
Speaker A:It makes sense, right?
Speaker A:Like I, I love roses and I, they smell delicious and they're beautiful and I mean I think all flowers are incredible but they smell so good.
Speaker A:Bruce Tyneo was the one who has been studying plants.
Speaker A:He's found that the Rose is at 320 hertz.
Speaker A:This idea of emotions having different frequencies, it's more of a theoretical concept because through muscle testing they, they haven't figured out a way to study the brainwaves, emotions yet that I'm aware of anyway.
Speaker A:But one thing I did find that was really interesting is that our energetic body, which is a real thing because this is how if you ever have like a CAT scan or an MRI or something, the body, those machines are not actually touching you.
Speaker A:You lay down in a bed and then they scan you.
Speaker A:But they're also, they're reading the energy that comes off of your body.
Speaker A:So in that sense you could say that telepathy is real because our bodies have vibrations and auras that we can't necessarily See, but we might be able to feel like if you're talking with somebody and you get like a weird vibe, you get a weird feeling, you can feel it.
Speaker A:It's the same thing with music.
Speaker A:We turn on music when we want to feel a certain way.
Speaker A:It's less often that you just play Radio Roulette and you end up with something random.
Speaker A:You usually put on Spotify or Pandora because there's a specific person or a song that you want to listen to because you have the intention of wanting to feel a certain way.
Speaker A:Maybe you really connect with the lyrics.
Speaker A:But there's something about the actual physicality of sound interacting with the frequency of our own body and our own organs that makes us change.
Speaker A:These were some of the interesting studies that I found that I've heard learned about over the years.
Speaker A:I wanted to just dive into them a little bit for myself because I've seen these things shared on Instagram.
Speaker A:Of course, I've done my yoga teacher training, so I know about the Vedas and I know a little bit about Bij Mantra or Seed mantras.
Speaker A:I wanted to know, like, the validity of these things, right.
Speaker A:Because I.
Speaker A:I love the idea of daydreaming and imagining.
Speaker A:And I do feel that there.
Speaker A:There's just something very magical about music and the way that we can create it and the way that we can use it as a tool or just, you know, even just working with it, creating it at all, accepting it to help us relax and to regulate our nervous system.
Speaker A:These are all things that music can do pretty incredibly.
Speaker A:But I.
Speaker A:Like I said, I think on the first episode, I do think we are just scratching the surface.
Speaker A:A lot of these studies, again, were in the 90s, and now I really feel like this, with the advancement of AI, like we're just on the surface of understanding a lot more about ourselves and how we can advance as a society.
Speaker A:So I thought that these were kind of interesting to bring up, you know, especially the 440 versus 432, because I.
Speaker A:I feel like it's one of those debates where it could be real, it could not be real.
Speaker A:But it makes sense to me that if everything is perfectly created in a Fibonacci sequence throughout the universe, 432 aligns with that.
Speaker A:Shouldn't we be working with it as opposed to slightly off or against it?
Speaker A:Just some ideas for thought.
Speaker A:I hope that you found this episode interesting.
Speaker A:I can't wait to have some more experienced guests on than myself to talk more about these things.
Speaker A:The power of transformation.
Speaker A:I think I covered the Scientific stuff.
Speaker A:All right, I'll add some fun, like images and photos and stuff in for context.
Speaker A:But yeah, I wanted to share.
Speaker A:When my, my grandpa was sick, he was diagnosed with dementia at the end of his life.
Speaker A:I got to go and play music for him.
Speaker A:He was never really a man of too many words towards me, but it was definitely special because I do feel like he kind of came back to life in those moments.
Speaker A:It's just another example of how the power of music can enliven us.
Speaker A:It's the frequencies, the molecular alignment, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker A:The vibes are real.
Speaker A:When the vibes are good.
Speaker A:Trust your gut, trust your solar plexus.
Speaker A:Trust that your body actually can feel good or bad, because it can.
Speaker A:It can feel whether something is safe or not.
Speaker A:It can feel intention, the intention that somebody has for you if they have one, for example.
Speaker A:Our nervous system also reacts to our past experience.
Speaker A:This is where things get tricky, is because sometimes we're taught to ignore how we feel because we're actually triggered by something that happened to us a long time ago.
Speaker A:And that's not actually the reality of what's happening right here, right now.
Speaker A:We get to learn between reality and the discernment of what's real and what's just coming up from past experience.
Speaker A:Or potentially it could be something that our parents generation learned.
Speaker A:Trauma is absolutely passed down from generation to generation.
Speaker A:This is, this is also being showcased in, in lots of new research studies as of the past 30, 40 years.
Speaker A:Maybe just, you know, the past hundred years of research has been full of new ideas that maybe won't even become mainstream for another hundred years or more.
Speaker A:I like to always consider all possibilities, especially because I do think that our bodies have this in the intelligence that is God given, we can tap into that technology which is God, Source, Creator.
Speaker A:We can pull from source when we're co creating with God.
Speaker A:This is when things really get crazy and start to really flow.
Speaker A:Vibes are real.
Speaker A:The power of your voice.
Speaker A:I mean, playing an instrument is great.
Speaker A:I love the guitar because I can feel the vibrations through the wood and it's a very soothing, comforting sound.
Speaker A:When I was learning to play, it wasn't very comfortable because it's just an awkward instrument.
Speaker A:Your body is like all lopsided.
Speaker A:Your hands have to get strong.
Speaker A:I love playing the piano now for that reason because it just feels a lot easier.
Speaker A:But our voice is an instrument and a tool that we have with us every single day.
Speaker A:And that's what is incredible about being human, is that we have all of these tools that we might not even realize.
Speaker A:You want to learn more about Bij Mantras or sound healing?
Speaker A:Sound Music therapy?
Speaker A:I can't wait to have guests on to help go deeper into these topics.
Speaker A:And of course I'll share more about my personal transformation with music with these moments as this podcast continues to unfold.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for checking out the last few episodes.
Speaker A:If you haven't already subscribe to this podcast, please do so.
Speaker A:I really want to get the word out there because especially when I have guests starting to come on, I think it's going to be a really helpful space if you haven't already found value in this.
Speaker A:Thank you for hanging in there.
Speaker A:Thanks for joining me every Monday for a new episode.
Speaker A:If you're interested in learning about any upcoming events I'll be having soon, or even ways to hack your own productivity, healing, music, wellness, you can check out my website at CourtneyMkenna Rocks/podcast.
Speaker A:There you can go download my Bullet Journal, my Daily Devotion Bullet Journal, which hopefully will help you to get aligned with the thing that you're most wanting to create this year.
Speaker A:If you have any questions on how you should use that DM me or share, shoot me an email at Courtney at musicismymantra.
Speaker A:Com and I'll see you next week.
Speaker A:Until then, I hope you go and live your best life, healthy, wealthy and wise.
Speaker A:Bye.
