Sonud has an ancient kinship with meditation and healing. Sound healing has ancient roots in cultures all over the world, including Australian aboriginal tribes who used the didgeridoo as a sound healing instrument for over 40,000 years to ancient such as Tibetan or Himalayan singing bowl spiritual ceremonies. Sound meditation is a form of focused awareness type of meditation. One kind that has become more popular is called “sound baths,” which uses Tibetan singing bowls, quartz bowls, and bells to guide the listener. These practices highlight themes of how the experience of sound manifests not only through hearing but through tactile physical vibrations and frequencies.
Science is still catching up to understanding how sound heals, but the current research is promising. A review of 400 published scientific articles on music as medicine found strong evidence that music has mental and physical health benefits in improving mood and reducing stress. In fact, rhythm in particular (over melody) can provide physical pain relief.
Sound-based vibration treatment has been shown to help people with pain from arthritis, menstrual pain, postoperative pain, knee replacement pain. Sound-based treatment has even been found to improve mobility, reduce muscle pain and stiffness, increase blood circulation, and lower blood pressure.
Another theory on the benefits of sound rests on the concept of “binaural beats” or “brain entrainment” which hypothesizes that listening to certain frequencies can synchronize and change one's brainwaves.
Electrical activity in the brain is displayed in the form of brainwaves, or rhythmic, repetitive frequencies. These rhythms can be measured using a device called electroencephalogram (EEG).
There are four categories of brainwaves, which range from frequencies that occur during the most activity (beta) to the least activity (delta). Different states of alertness and consciousness in different parts of the brain generate varying frequencies of brainwaves.
- Beta waves are the fastest type of brainwave and occur when the brain is active and engaged mentally.
- Alpha waves occur when the brain is in a state of non-arousal, such as when a person has finished a task and is resting or when one meditates.
- Theta brainwaves are associated with daydreaming and rapid eye movement (REM) dreaming phase of sleep. Theta brainwaves occur when you are in a state like driving on the freeway or are running for a long time. This kind of state often is associated with times when ideas and creativity flow.
- Delta brainwaves are the slowest and associated with deep dreamless sleep.
The premise of binaural beats is that the brain synchronizes its brainwave frequency to the difference in hertz between tones played in each ear, which, depending on the frequency, can lead one to states of deep relaxation associated with beta waves or meditative trance-like theta waves.
Researchers are still trying to determine the mechanism of the healing benefits of sound, but sound in the form of vibrational therapy or meditation offers potential therapeutic benefits with low to minimal side effects. Atoui’s piece shows us the joy of being in the active presence of sound, perceived in its full totality, visually, tactilely, and acoustically.