“Magic’s just science that we don’t understand yet.” – Arthur C. Clarke
by Astara
As is the case with any bold essay on health, please remember — content in this blog and on our site is for educational and personal growth purposes only and does not substitute professional medical advice or consultations with healthcare professionals.
At Illuminating Hearts, we’ve experienced firsthand how sound can be medicine. Over the last 9 years, we’ve witnessed our clients evolve a myriad of health challenges through the power of sound. Our company is built on the knowing that resonance is the beginning of everything, it is at the root of everything. If you go to the source of an issue, you can transform it. That is why our resonance medicine brings music, metaphysics, and mindfulness together in a new way to heal you at the root of life: vibration. (read more in our blog Healing and Alchemy)
In the modern world, the sound around us — from mechanical systems, refrigerators, cars, airplanes, etc, — all impact our body negatively, whether we “hear” it or not. They are what we call noise. The sounds found in natural world do the opposite, they restore us. Nature sounds are not truly silent, yet they are the restorative silence we hunger for in a noisy world.
Humans seek the pragmatic along with the spiritual in their lives. We at Illuminating Hearts explore both on purpose — we delve into the science as well as the esoteric and spiritual aspects of being alive. Our mission is to help others become aware of the intersection of mind, body, and spirit, alongside science.
What is spiritual? It is our desire to connect to something bigger than ourselves, that we cannot measure or see with our five senses. In our personal healing journies, we’ve discovered the weaving of emotional, mental, and spiritual layers underneath every ailment that challenges us, which is why we have a systems approach to healing. It’s why we call our resonance medicine offering Sound Alchemy, rather than simply sound healing — to embrace all dimensions of well-being so we change our very relationship to each ailment and trauma. (read more in our blog Healing and Alchemy)
At Illuminating Hearts, we know scientific measurement and evidence based design is important. We evolve our healing methodologies by staying grounded in what works and what doesn’t. Music therapists, biomusicologists, sound healers — any modality that involves sound as a therapeutic healing tool — have been researching the primary role sound plays in our health for decades. This article aims to reveal the benefits resonance medicine can offer us, rooted in research.
First, let’s demystify some core terms used in our field by defining them.
Resonance Medicine Terms
It is essential to level set any discussion of resonance medicine with definitions. The terms — vibration, frequency, resonance, and entrainment — are used interchangeably in sound healing work, yet they all refer to different aspects of sound:
- Vibration is an oscillation of parts whose equilibrium has been disturbed.
- Frequency is a measurement of the rate at which a vibration occurs. Physics refers to it as a wave, either in a material (sound waves), or in an electromagnetic field (radio and light waves), measured in cycles per second (Hertz or Hz).
- Resonance is the phenomenon of influence when an object or system is subjected to a vibration that matches its natural frequency. The object or system then absorbs energy from the external force and starts vibrating differently, with a larger amplitude.
- Entrainment is the synchronization of organisms to an external rhythm.
Sound healing or resonance medicine are a synthesis of the terms above: oscillation (vibration) at a certain rate (frequency) leads to a phenomenon of influence (resonance) ultimately generating positive synchronization (entrainment) within the body.
Benefits
Our instruments create harmony generating positive entrainment. Let’s look at the incredible benefits possible with resonance medicine. Each benefit below includes, where possible, the research associated with the healing opportunity.
Community connection & belonging.
Increased personal coherence can be achieved as people learn simple techniques to self-regulate their emotions from a more intuitive, intelligent, and balanced inner reference. This state is directly associated with increased intuition and improved health and cognitive functioning.
The HeartMath Institute has studied for over 30 years, with over 16,000 research citations, how coherence is reflected in physiology and objectively measured, expanding out to coherence in the context of families, workplaces, and communities. Their studies show that increasing personal coherence is not only reflected in improved personal health and happiness but also feeds into a global field environment. They postulate that as increasing numbers of people add coherent energy to the global field, it helps strengthen and stabilize mutually beneficial feedback loops among human beings and with the earth itself.
Support cellular health.
Sound creates infrared light, which powers the structured water-building mechanism in cells. This powers our biology run by life-giving electricity. Through a piezoelectric effect, the vibration of the instruments activates your natural healing intelligence at a cellular level and influencing an increase in the life-giving electricity our cells need. (Reid, J. S., 2006)
Stress reduction through physical relaxation.
Engage the parasympathetic nervous system where healing occurs. Music exerts positive modulator effects on cardiovascular and respiratory activity, namely increased heart rate, balanced heart period variability, increased vascular bloodflow and respiration rate during the post stress recovery. (Sokhadze, E.M., 2007) Other studies in medical settings found that music helped patients with pain management (Presner, J., 2001), that it may be a risk free alternative to sedation (Loewy, J., 2005) and that it was associated with decreased levels of cortisol— the stress hormone associated with depression, fatigue and mood disturbance. (McKinney, C. H., 1997).
Regulate the nervous system with internal massage.
We begin our healing work with toning and breathing to prepare the body to receive the benefits of resonance medicine. The jaw muscles send a signal of safety within the vast reach of the vagus nerve, relaxing your entire nervous system, organs, and body systems. The steady vibration of the hum within stimulates our vagal nerve tone, engaging the calm state associated with our healing intelligence. (Gerritsen RJS, Band GPH, 2018, Clements-Cortes A, Bartel L. 2018) Later the gongs and other instruments massage you from the outside in, furthering the cellular harmony.
Breathing and toning helps you arrive in the body. We share simple tools attendees can take home as calming tools that down regulate and send a signal of safety through the entire the nervous system, organs, and body systems. The vibration of your voice massages you from the inside out and the breathwork oxygenates your system. (Zaccaro, A. 2018) We enjoy that our breath and toning practices are something you can take home and use.
Build vagal nerve tone for well-being and mental health.
Resonance (internally and externally) fosters positive regulation of the nervous system: stimulating the release of endorphins, relieving stress, promoting a reduction in anxiety, reducing pain, and promoting euphoria. Positive resonance combined with breath increases Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Increased HRV leads to adaptability, flexibility, and supports longevity. (Gerritsen, R. 2018, Gutierrez, D. 2018, Ellis, R. 2010)
Hear smarter, not harder.
Our sound is organic with no digital compression, wireless technology, or amplification. Whenever we upload or share recordings, compression is applied. This is the case in all streaming sites across all platforms, which is the norm in our world now. This impacts the brain and body over time. Imagine this metaphor: you are looking at a paragraph with multiple sentences, and each word is disemvoweled — missing a vowel or two. You can still read the sentences, and eventually paragraph, but it takes effort. This is what happens to the brain and body when we digitally sample sound. Organic sound is natural sound, finally giving the brain and body a rest. Suddenly, our body and brain are able to access the full spectrum of overtones and infrasound our ears can’t hear. This rests your brain!
Facilitate mental relaxation to give your brain a rest.
Another way to rest your brain is through relaxing sounds. Sounds that soothe make room for stress reduction and ultimately, clarity, ease, and peace so attendees can rise above constraining thoughts and behaviors. Music therapy and sound healing has been successfully used in medical settings to alleviate the stress of pre and post operative anxiety, pain, depression, grief, insomnia, and migraine. (Mysaka, A., 2000)
Improve moods with better brain chemistry.
The Kennedy Center studies the brain on music in a recent article, “Researchers have discovered that the brain does not have one special place to analyze music. Instead, different parts of the brain handle different aspects of a song, like rhythm (the beat) and tone (pitch and loudness). And one of the most mind-blowing discoveries is that the parts of the brain that deal with emotions also fire up in response to music.” (Kennedy Center)
Other research suggests, “the human brain’s perception of musical tones and what constitutes harmony is at least partly hardwired — a view bolstered by recent research showing that young babies can distinguish discordant from harmonious combinations of notes.” (Early Music, 1997) Since we use all of our brain when listening to music, and we are hardwired for harmonious sound, when we listen to such music it has the potential to synchronize the two hemispheres of the head brain. This creates coherence in the brain, offering the potential for better chemistry and greater cognitive functioning.
Become an inner chemist in the dark.
During our sessions we encourage attendees to use Mindfold Eye Masks or at least close their eyes inside the sound. Darkness is a key to relaxing the mind long enough to enter the rest digest state (parasympathetic nervous system) while giving better access to more of the brain (alpha, theta, and gamma brain waves), all the while producing a little melatonin to decrease cortisol and improve circadian rhythm, even during the day. An eye mask like the Mindfold creates “full dark” which is more effective for better chemistry, since light can be transmitted through closed eyelids. (Mariana G Figueiro, 2012) In such a light stimulating world, we all benefit from giving our eyes a rest!
Use more of your brain.
Inside music — whether playing or listening — we can access all of our brain, as well as multiple brain wave states. This translates as experiencing greater wholeness and in turn, more availability to life. That’s what I call happiness!
I’ll use a metaphor from agriculture to describe why more of your brain is better than less. Imagine: one farmer plants multiple crops, keeping pests away without chemicals, increasing soil health and biodiversity. Now imagine: another farmer plants one crop only year after year seeking efficiency and ends up requiring pesticides to survive, ultimately destroying soil health.
Like the latter, the monocrop farmer, many of us only use two brain wave states: beta (active wakefulness) and delta (sleep). That’s why we’re not experiencing holistic brain health. Like that farmer, we’re educated to think this leads us to “higher yields” and mental efficiency. The truth is we end up degrading our health by utilizing such a small percentage of our beautiful brain ecosystem.
Such brain “monocropping” can deplete our life of nutrients, increase our risk of disease, and generate insecurity on multiple levels keeping us from true rest when we need it.
Our sound instruments help the mind access the entire brain — as well as multiple brain states — opening up our creativity, intuition, and enhanced brain chemistry. With practice, we can even learn how to reach our subconscious. In studies, the use of alpha and theta brain waves in people with Global Anxiety Disorder increases their global functioning level and reduces anxiety. (Dadashi, M. 2015)
The following measured brain states are the ones we know of in science, and they are listed from fastest at the top to slowest at the bottom:
Lamda (100 Hz or higher) Highest level of consciousness, ability to control your autonomic nervous system and biological function. Peak state awareness of Oneness.
Gamma (35 – 100 Hz) Moments of inspiration occur spontaneously, focused creativity, and a higher level of consciousness.
Beta (12 – 35 Hz) Your default level of consciousness when you’re awake and alert.
Alpha (8 – 12 Hz) Inner conscious level. A calm and receptive state experienced during relaxation. The optimal state for learning, growth, and self-awareness.
Theta (4 – 8 Hz) Outer conscious level. The state of meditation and light sleep. Enables enhanced introspection, self-hypnosis, mind-body healing, lucid dreaming, shamanic journeying, and more.
Delta (1.5 – 4 Hz) Unconscious level. The deepest levels of relaxation and surrender ushering in restorative, healing, and dreamless sleep.
Epsilon (1.5 Hz or lower) Enter a state of totality, integration, and intense euphoric happiness. A condition in which the brain resets.
We’ve found the most commonly accessed brain states in our sound healing work are Gamma, Alpha, Theta, and yes, sometimes Delta! 
Create coherence and get smarter.
Allow the gut brain, the heart brain, and the head brain to talk better, allowing all systems to collaborate with body’s natural healing intelligence. (McCraty R., 2009) In a study of musicians playing together, a significant change in Heart Rate Variability (HRV) among the musicians from baseline after a breathing technique was introduced. Improved mental focus and feelings of connectivity was shown among the musicians. (Riley, K. and McCraty, R. 2023)
Reconnect to nature with non-rhythmic sensory stimuli.
Nature is non-rhythmic, including our bodies. Nature is stochastic, filled with randomly determined patterns. Yet, there’s order (and health) amid the randomness. Our body is hardwired for the sensory stimuli found in nature: rain falling, waves splashing, wind in the grasses, birds chirping, frog song, click of crickets, leaves rustling, water trickling over rocks, dappled sunlight, etc.
Here is the challenge: the person-built environment is a deliberately predictable realm filled with mechanical noise and dissonance. (Kahn et al., 2008, Kolbeinsson, 2022, Evans G.W. 2000) And we spend 90% of our time indoors! This comes from a pie chart from the NHAPS study (2001) that shows that Americans spend 86.9% of time indoors, plus another 5.5% inside a vehicle. (Kleipis, N. 2001) Shelter, thermal comfort, and transportation are required, but our everyday urban/suburban world lacks the qualities needed to support our need for continual stochastic nature patterns our bodies recognize.
We purposefully layer positive stochastic sounds with our instruments, mimicking nature’s intelligence. We use instruments that emulate biodiversity — the water, earth, air, and fire that make our world and our bodies. This provides the vibrational antidote to the stagnant tyranny of the sterile and predictable in our modern homes and offices. Studies show stochastic patterns through nature mimicry — of multiple kinds, not just sound — have a positive impact on stress reduction through heart rate, systolic blood pressure and sympathetic nervous system activity. (Li, 2010; Beauchamp, et al., 2003) Connection to nature provides cognitive benefits through observed and quantified behavioral measures of attention and exploration. (Windhager et al., 2011) Nature mimicry also has positive effects on emotion, mood, and empowerment through shifted perception of environment and enhanced positive health responses. (Cerwen, G. 2022, Gaakwad, J. 2022)
Sound Alchemy is the ancient medicine of the future.
In this past decade, knowledge of sound has slowly started to re-enter mainstream education and culture as to its effects and benefits on our mental, emotional, and physical well-being. We have a lot further to go in research, yet we are excited to be at the forefront of this innovative sound wave, connecting dots that others might not see yet. In the years ahead, we look forward to adding the many other benefits from sound healing that already exist that we have yet to identify and measure. Like the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, we have directly seen that, “Magic’s just science that we don’t understand yet.”
Read more about Illuminating Hearts and Sound Offerings.
