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31 May, 2008

How To-20: "How to Use Sound for Therapy"


How to Use Sound for Therapy


from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

There is much information concerning the use of binaural beats to alter mind states. However, specific frequencies can also be used as an adjunct to treat a vast number of ailments, illnesses and conditions

Steps


  1. All plants and creatures respond to sounds and vibrations. Some frequencies are beneficial, while others are detrimental to the well-being of different organisms.
  2. Everything vibrates at its own frequency. Even seemingly solid objects have a frequency, this determined by the speed at which the electrons circle the nuclei of the atoms that make up the substance(s) of which the object(s) are composed.
  3. Living organisms have higher frequencies than non-living objects and we can use sound and vibration to affect almost anything on Earth in one way or another. Sounds that are in harmony with living organisms promote health and growth, while sounds that are “out of phase" cause illness and stunt growth.
  4. Each species of plant and animal has a spectrum of frequencies to which they respond favourably, and each individual in each species has specific frequencies which are more beneficial to it than the “background"? of frequencies that are salutary to the whole species. This means that it is theoretically possible to destroy organisms that are harmful to ourselves, our pets and other animals and our plants, both decorative and edible. As an aside, it is even said that the ancients used sound to lift huge stones and to enable them to fly around the world. These claims are hotly disputed by certain scientifically-minded “experts"?, who are nevertheless at a loss to explain how Edward Leedskalnin built his Coral Castle (look them up on a search engine) and how the authors of the Mahabharata and other ancient Indian documents knew so much about flying craft and “houses"?.
  5. Readers can download a free demo version of Brainwave Generator at http://www.bwgen.com/ , which program demonstrates how sound and visual stimulation can affect brain states and enhance such activities (and inactivities) as learning, meditation, sleep etc.
  6. A demo version of Tone Gen can be downloaded from http://www.nch.com.au/tonegen , which program can be used to create one’s own healing tones and binaural beats.
  7. SBaGen -- Binaural Beat Brain Wave Experimenter's Lab is a free software (under the GNU General Public Licence), can be downloaded from http://uazu.net/sbagen/ that generates binaural tones in real-time according to a 24-hour programmed sequence read from a file. It can also be used to play a sequence on demand, rather than according to the clock, or to write a WAV file for playing later. Pink noise, MP3 and Ogg files may also be mixed with the binaural beats to provide background sounds. This tool is ideal for anyone who wishes to experiment with these techniques and do research into this for themselves.
  8. Gnaural is a multi-platform programmable binaural-beat generator can be downloaded from http://gnaural.sourceforge.net/ an opensource binaural-beat generator released under the GNU General Public License.
  9. Ken Adachi’s website http://educate-yourself.org/nch/ offers a set of Bio-Energetic Frequency Charts with a large list of ailments and conditions and the frequencies one can use to help combat them.
  10. Learn more about Binaural Beats from http://web-us.com/binaural.htm
  11. Many of the “carriers"? used to achieve certain of the lower, inaudible brain wave frequencies and most of the frequencies that combat diseases and ailments are very high-pitched sine waves that are irritating to peoples’ ears. One can counter this by using Tone Gen to create one’s own brainwave combinations, using much lower frequencies, such as 20 Hz on one channel and 27 Hz on the other. These “combine"? in the brain to give a 7 Hz frequency, which is in the Alpha range.
  12. This writer has discovered that the sleep, Lucid Dream and healing frequencies are enhanced if the sound waves can impinge upon the body and has constructed a bed that takes advantage of this phenomenon. See accompanying illustration. On this bed, the Brainwave frequencies are fed to the patient via headphones, while the healing waves are fed to the speakers attached to the bed. The loudspeakers under the bed are channelled via an amplifier to the source of the sound, be it a CD player, computer or surround sound system. This bed is especially useful for treating ailments, as the frequencies pertaining to the ailment are fed to the speakers attached to the bed, where they impinge upon the body, while Delta frequencies are fed to headphones worn by the patient. The Delta frequencies help the mind to accelerate the healing process, whilst the appropriate frequencies that go into the body via the bed combat specific ailments. In this way, the irritating, high-pitched, healing Sine-wave frequencies are not heard by the patient, as the headphones apply Binaural beats to the patient’s ears, blocking out the healing sounds. It does, however, mean that two separate sources are required to provide the different sounds.
  13. The human mind responds to frequencies between 0.5 and 40 Hz. Hz stands for “Hertz", which can be described as "one cycle per second"; 100 Hz means "one hundred cycles per second", and so on.
  14. The following chart gives parameters for various brain states: Delta 0.5–4Hz Sleep and healing. Certain frequencies in the Delta range trigger the release of Growth Hormone, which promotes healing, regeneration and bodily repair.
  15. Theta 4–8Hz Drowsy (also first stage of sleep), for meditation, learning and memory. Theta meditation increases creativity, learning, reduces stress and awakens intuition and other extra-sensory perception. This is also the Lucid Dream state.
  16. Alpha 8–14Hz “Daydream state"?. Relaxed but alert, for relaxation and visualization. The Schuman Resonance occurs in this range.
  17. Beta 14–30Hz Highly alert and focused: peak concentration and cognition.
  18. When using Binaural Beats, you should experiment with various “carrier"? frequencies, from about 15 hertz upward. You can use combinations of 15 Hz on the left and 15.5 on the right to achieve 0.5 Hz; or 20 + 20.5 Hz etc. A frequency of 7 Hz can thus be made up of 15 + 22Hz; or 27+ 34 Hz; or 46 + 53 Hz: whichever is comfortable for you. Your family, friends and animals might require other combinations, so be prepared to experiment. Physical and mental comfort are a priority in any healing process, a situation of which many hospitals appear to be either unaware or unperturbed.
  19. Once Tone Gen has been installed on your computer, set it up thus : select “Tone". On the resulting dropdown, click “Stereo"; then, if you want to record the sound as a wave, click “Tone"?, then “Constant Specified Duration"?. Set the value to 60000ms, which is one minute. In the main window, double-click on “Sine Left Frequency" and set that value to, say, 20 Hz. Double-click “Sine Right Frequency" and set that to 27 Hz for a value of 7 Hz. You can also use fractions, for example 27.4 Hz.
  20. If you want to save your frequencies, select “File" on the main window and from the drop-down “Save as wav…" and name it (for example “7 Hz on 20 Hz carrier"). Incidentally, each 60000ms sound wave occupies 10 Mb of space on your hard drive. They can then be played on Windows Media Player or other software (Winamp etc.). Thereafter, you can burn them to CD if you wish. Burning the sounds to CD is advantageous inthat one can then apply different frequencies to the ears and the body of the person using the bed. The Brain Wave frequencies can be fed to headphones via a portable CD- or MP3- player and the healing sounds via a computer amplified by a surround-sound system, for example.
  21. The Sine wave is the most beneficial, but as it is irritating to the ears of some people, it is often masked with music or other sounds in commercially produced brain-state altering recordings. This, unfortunately, adds other frequencies and in so doing reduces the efficacy of the pure Sine wave’s effects.
  22. If you have a CD Writer, you can burn dedicated, exclusive CDs for friends and loved ones as gifts to combat their various conditions and ailments, or to help them with their studies, or dispel insomnia. You will, of course, have to experiment with the people concerned in order to discover which frequency ranges are most comfortable and beneficial to them. Binaural beats are a bit like horoscopes inthat each person is an individual and the general run-of-the-mill offerings might not fully apply to everyone: one “size" does not necessarily fit all. Give instructions for them to relax and listen to the sounds using stereo headphones, or to make a “sound bed" like the one here illustrated.
  23. One can also make a “portable" version of the healing mechanism, by separately insulating a pair of computer loudspeakers using small cardboard boxes and scrap polystyrene (Styrofoam) and holding the open sides against the body as the frequencies issue from them. See Illustration 2. The insulation will assist in containing the sound so that it does not overly disturb other people while in use.
  24. Brainwave Generator has a singular advantage over Tone Gen as it has a feature that causes the computer screen to flash at the frequency of the brain state one is trying to achieve. With both visual and auditory stimuli in tandem, the brain responds more rapidly to achieve the desired brain state. This writer has not yet experimented with this particular feature when applied to combat diseases and other ailments. However, he is cognisant of colour therapy, so that he is comfortable with the idea that the flashing screen can have beneficial effects, especially since the software permits the user to specify the colours that flash on the screen.


Tips


  • It normally takes people a long time to learn to meditate, but with the correct application of binaural beats in the 5 – 8 Hz range, a meditative state can be achieved within ten or so minutes for the dedicated novice, and within seconds for the veteran. In time, the requisite brain state can be achieved without the recordings as, with practice, the brain learns to invoke them on demand.
  • The 0.5 to 3 Hz frequencies produce a “dead"?, dreamless state in which the body’s ability to heal itself is greatly enhanced. It can be used to great advantage upon ill people, but should be gradually introduced for short periods in the beginning. Once the patient shows improvement, the times can be progressively lengthened and interspersed with Theta sound waves, up to about 8 Hz.
  • Theta frequencies in the vicinity of 5 to 7 Hz can help the body to rest completely, so that a period of thirty minutes in this state can produce an effect that is equivalent to four hours of sleep.


Warnings


  • Night birds should not overdo the Theta state as a substitute for a good night’s sleep. The body needs sleep, during which period it repairs itself and seeks out any foreign bodies that may be trying to invade one’s system. People can assist this process by applying the deep Delta frequencies while they sleep.
  • Be very aware that certain frequencies (they are different for different people) can cause great discomfort and even physical pain and illness … and never forget that too much of any good thing can have devastating effects.
  • Do not confuse "sound therapy" or "music-as-therapy" with "music therapy". Music therapy refers to the practice of a board-certified music therapist working with a client (or a group) to use music -- usually live improvised music -- as a means of achieving goals relating to areas such as self-expression, mood regulation, communication, interpersonal relationships, or reaching developmental milestones. Music therapy can only be practiced by someone with an advanced degree and appropriate clinical training and is not sold in a packaged self-help format such as books or CDs. Music therapists may incorporate techniques involving sound healing, but the fields are not the same thing and it is important to use correct terminology.


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1 comment:

bhawan said...

Through this article, I came to know about the fact that how (scientific reasons) sound effects on human mind and also on other species. Here I would like to add that this thing was explored by Eastern Sages since ages, this is the reason, they remember god, with some mantra like Om, Allah Hoo, Waheguru, om namah shivaya etc. one can easily notice that in all these mantras there is a common sound of ‘UU’. According to eastern philosophy there is a sound like ‘om’ is wavered in all around this universe. Even one can listen to this om sound by practicing with this mantra . I got one website for all such eastern mantras-www.gurumaa.com.

I found there a pool for soothing meditation music. You can listen yourself and can feel the impact of soothing meditation sounds and mantra vibrations on our mind and whole body.