Most of us would accept that music has an incredible power to heal. Which of us hasn’t lifted our spirits with an energetic pop song, or soothed a broken heart with one of the classic love songs? The wellness benefits of music don’t need to be proven for most of us, since we are very familiar with them.
A study published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing recently found that chronic pain patients experienced significant relief from pain when they listened to music for one hour per day. The same study discovered that the patients also experienced a decrease in the level of their depressive symptoms. This is just one example of a building medical consensus that music is a valuable tool for healing. Our mood is the centre of our wellbeing, so it makes sense that if we cultivate a good mood, we will be better able to deal with life’s challenges.
Sound Healing is a developing complementary therapy that uses music to heal. Other sound tools and specific techniques are used to act on the patient’s mood, as well as the vibrations of the body. Sound therapists claim that it is more than the melody of a song that affects you; it is also the vibrations initiated in your body. This is where it gets interesting; medical science has accepted the benefits of music – but have little to say about the benefits of vibrations in the body.
In fact, medical science has no way to test the effects of vibrations, which, is claimed by complementary healers to affect the individual’s ‘astral body’ rather than their physical one. However, it is a theory accepted in many ancient cultures. For example, the belief in the astral body is widespread in India, a tradition that is well explained in their scriptures. It is believed that our physical body is surrounded by ‘sheaths’ – different layers of the astral body. The reason they chant mantras is for the astral body to learn a healing vibration. This kind of sound healing is a central religious practice in India, to this very day.
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