Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Using Sound (Vibration) Therapy to Ease Agitation and other Negative Symptoms amongst Persons with Dementia


Why does sound heal?    

Everything in nature vibrates at a particular frequency, including plants, rocks, stars, television sets, cellular phones, and, of course, our bodies. When the body is continually exposed to vibrations similar, but not natural to its own frequencies, the new vibratory patterns may cause the natural frequencies to alter their vibrations to the new patterns. Dutch scientist Christian Huygens observed this principle, called entrainment, in 1655.  He discovered that when he hung two clocks with different pendulum speeds close to each other on the same wall, the pendulums would ultimately synchronize and swing at the same speed. When our natural frequencies become “out of tune,” the body may become out of balance and we may become ill.  The same process that can cause our vibrations to be unhealthy can also be used to restore the vibrations to homeostasis.  Sound healing seeks to return our vibratory patterns to their natural state.  Sound not only heals physical, mental and emotional trauma, but it also is a conduit for progress on our individual spiritual journey, as some sounds lead us to higher levels of consciousness.

How do Tibetan Singing Bowls help in the healing process?

It can be said that illness is a manifestation of dis-harmony within the body—an imbalance in the cells or a given organ. Since all matter is energy vibrating at different rates, by altering the rate of vibration we can change the structure of matter. Sound from Tibetan Singing Bowls entrain the brain to move into the Theta brain wave frequencies that induce deep meditative and peaceful states, clarity of mind, and intuition.  The sound vibrations affect our nervous system, engaging our relaxation reflex and inhibiting the stress or pain response.

Through listening to Tibetan Singing Bowls one’s internal dialogue, the ’inner critic’ is quietened. Their sound synchronizes brain waves and enhances awareness of the mind/body connection.

All parts of your body possess a different resonant frequency. When an organ, or other part of the body, is vibrating “out of tune” or non-harmoniously, it is called “dis-ease”. A body is in a healthy state when each cell and each organ resonate in harmony with the whole being.

Using Tibetan Singing Bowls for healing is based on the idea that all illness or disease is characterized by a hindrance to the flow of energy in the body. When energy flow is hindered, the organ or tissue in question stops vibrating at a healthy frequency, and thus it results in some kind of weakness or illness. The sound frequencies created by Tibetan Singing Bowls restore and optimize the flow of energy in the parts of the body where this is required.

Sound and vibration can be used to re-tune us to health and one of the most powerful modalities for this is the use of Tibetan singing bowls. When there is a deep relaxation through soothing, resonant sound, the body is affected on a cellular level, opening up the flow of energy to move us back toward vibrational alignment with health. Sound can help us shift our energy frequency from lower to higher, removing the lower frequencies of emotions such as fear, anger, and resentment. If fact, whenever you are immersed in lower frequency emotions you can simply chant “Om” to elevate your energy. The sound of the bowls is calming, and they are frequently used as a meditation aid as the sound induces a sense of peacefulness.

Quantum physics has proven that everything has vibration, whether it’s a table, a chair, a person, a planet, or a cosmos. And wherever there is a sound, there is a vibration. When we use sound coupled with intention, which is the most important aspect of healing, we can direct sound vibration to raise the body’s vibrational frequency.

Negative energy can make us physically ill or mentally depressed. Each bowl emits a soothing vibration that radiates out negative energy, which restricts your ability to reach your full physical, spiritual, and mental health….

About Tibetan Singing Bowls   

Tibetan singing bowls are handmade bowls, composed of various types of metals, usually combinations of bronze, copper, gold, nickel, silver zinc, tin and iron. These bowls produce various tones by striking a wooden mallet either on the side of the bowl or rubbing the mallet around the outside of the bowl.  A therapy session using bowls consists of the therapist placing bowls of assorted sizes on the chakra points of the body and playing the bowls, again, by either striking or rubbing the side of the bowl.  The therapist will choose bowls appropriate to the chakra tones or to the part of the body that needs to be balanced. The Sound, Mind, Healing and Education website quotes a November 2005 Massage Magazine article called “Samvahan, Vibrational Healing from India,” describing the theory behind Tibetan Bowl Sound Therapy. “'The sound waves from the bowls spread, as the concentric waves from a stone dropped in a pond, into larger and larger circles through blood, flesh, organs and even bones, relaxing them and at the same time harmonizing and energizing them. In this way, the more than 100 trillion cells that are the building blocks of the human body are receiving a gentle cell massage. A visual example of the cleansing power invoked here is what happens when we put jewelry or dentures into a supersonic bath and see how in a short while all the dirt and grime is shaken loose. The sound therefore is releasing energy blockages throughout the body. The bowl vibrations are soothing enough to calm the nervous system yet powerful enough to travel deep into the body to penetrate the bones.'”

Tibetan Singing Bowls and Brainwave Entrainment 

The Tibetan Singing Bowls are an ancient technology, about 2500 years old, for stimulating our brainwaves. Just like the new technologies of Brainwave Entrainment, Binaural Beats & Isochronic Tones, Tibetan Singing Bowl create a pulsation of sound to entrain our brain.

Tibetan Singing Bowls create a pulsating tone, that feels good and helps you to relax. The more you listen the deeper you relax, as your brainwaves begin to entrain with the Tibetan Singing Bowl’s tone. The benefit of this entrainment is that your brain waves can be “toned” so that you can deliberately experience pleasant and/or productive mental/emotional states.

The upper end of the theta brainwave range is of great importance to healing the body, mind and spirit. At 7-8 (Hertz) cycles per second our deeper intelligence, creativity and self-healing mechanisms of the body are activated. This is what is commonly referred to as “being in the zone”. Tibetan Singing Bowls can be used to put you into this special brain wave state that supports the achievement of your unique goal toward better health.

Producing theta brainwaves through the use of Tibetan Singing Bowls in conjunction with sophisticated audio technologies is facilitated through listening to the Healing Tance-Formations recording.

Dr. Hans Selye, “the father of stress” was an endocrinologist in 1950’s who did research on the response of organisms to stress. He determined that stress is the underlying cause of all illness and dis-ease. His research was taken a step further by Dr. Herbert Benson.

Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard’s Mind Body Institute, has studied stress reduction for 35 years. Dr. Benson found that stress causes physical or emotional blockages. Dr. Benson found that stress reduction was essential to creation of health. He coined the phrase “relaxation response”. He defines this as “a physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress – for example: decrease in heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tension.” He also found that regular elicitation of the relaxation response has been scientifically proven to be an effective treatment for a wide range of stress-related disorders. In fact, to the extent that any disease is caused or made worse by stress, the relaxation response is essential to healing it.

Chakra Balancing

Chakras are energy vortices originating in the ancient Indian system of healing. Most literature discusses seven main chakras but there are literally hundreds of vortices of energy all over the body.

Chakras are the connection between the spiritual aspect of our being and the physical. There is an endocrine gland associated with seven of the main chakras. In the Indian system of healing, when a physical dysfunction is in place, one or more chakras are considered to be blocked, dysfunctional or unbalanced. Unbalanced chakras are reflected in a whole range of mental, emotional and physiological dysfunctions.

Chakra balancing is used to correct the chakra so that the endocrine gland and all the associated structures and organs effected by that gland balance and begin to function correctly. Historically, chakra balancing has been done in a number of ways but it has been most effectively done by someone who has the capability to either feel or see (or both) the chakras and their state of unbalance. They then use energy healing techniques to adjust and balance them.

Tibetan Singing Bowls naturally cause chakras to self-correct. The sound waves, in the form of sine waves run correcting frequencies to the unbalanced chakras, bringing them back to normal functioning.

The overall balancing effect of the Tibetan Singing Bowls and theta brainwave entrainment combine to enhance and support the corrective rebalance of the sine waves effect on each chakra. The result is balanced chakras, which then in turn enhance cellular and systemic healing throughout the body that is facilitated by the theta rhythms.

Singing Bowl and Health

Healing through sound and vibration has been known to reduce stress, improve concentration, reduce blood pressure, stimulate life force flow in the body, improve immunity, harmonize the chakras with the energy field, heighten intuition and perception, synchronize the brain hemispheres, remove mental and emotional negativity, and enhance creativity.

Most importantly, stress is at the root of many of our twenty-first century diseases and it is through relaxation of the body that balance, health, and happiness can be restored… As much as 70 percent of the human body is made up of water, so when you strike a singing bowl next to your body, the vibration makes a mandala (a pattern) in your body, which is healing and relaxing.

It was also reported that healing session may improve the patients well-being by lowering level of the severe chronic pain and stabilizing the abnormal blood pressure.

Recent research positively pointed on substantial positive effect of the vibration sound therapy on depression and anxiety symptoms improvements, and there are scientific evidence that it helps with boosting and slowing mental decline on the early stages of Alzheimer’s. For the later stages, sound therapy has been found very useful to lower the level of the patient’s agitation and mental stress. The positive responses also include greater focus, ease with pain management (both physically and emotionally), relief of anxiety and depression and most importantly, an increase in calmness and joy.

Recent Research into Sound Therapy

* Small scale studies have been conducted on the therapeutic effects of TSBT on those who are ill and/or recovering from illnesses such as cancer.
* Therapeutic for with headaches or who have a diagnosed mental illness such as anxiety disorder (Kempen, E. 2007; Bensimon, Amir & Wolf, 2012).
* Therapeutic effects of music therapy / sound therapy for calming those with dementia and agitation (Bellelli, G, Raglio, A & Trabucchi, M, 2011; Lin et al, 2010; Spiro, N 2010).
* Further studies being conducted into using nanotechnology to assess the cellular effects of vibrations in cells within the human body (Pelling et al., 2004).

Sources and Additional Information:


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