Certain sound frequencies, produced with bowls or electronic synthesizers, favor a pleasant experience of relaxation. They can improve mood and help to achieve deep and regenerating meditative states.
- What is a sound bath?
- How do you take a sound bath?
- Benefits of the sound bath
- Sound modifies the state of consciousness
- What are binaural pulses?
Who has not felt embraced by music and transported by it to a place far from everyday worries. While the music plays, we feel that something good is happening inside us. It is not strange that we associate memories of magical moments with music. It is the power of sound, which can be used as a medicine.
WHAT IS A SOUND BATH?
Many yoga rooms, spas, and alternative therapy centers offer sound baths as an experience of relaxation and deep reconnection with oneself. They are performed with traditional wind and percussion instruments that cause vibrations and resonances in the body.
With your eyes closed, the sounds of Tibetan gongs or bowls create a space around you. One feels as if one is inside a cave formed by layers of sounds, some closer and others more distant. It is perceived how the vibrations arrive and resonate in the brain and the whole body.
HOW DO YOU TAKE A SOUND BATH?
The mind and body have to remain in relaxation to receive the impact of the deep, resonant vibrations of metal or crystal bowls, bells, gongs or tuning forks. It is not strange that during a sound bath emotion that had been contained emerge. It can, therefore, help process complicated emotions.
Sound baths can be done alone or in groups. Live sound is always more effective than a recording and, on the other hand, as in meditation, when the experience is shared it is usually deeper. The environment created by the therapist and the commitment to the other members of the group – we are not going to get up to do something else – favor that we let ourselves be dragged and enveloped by the sounds.
BENEFITS OF THE SOUND BATH
A study from the University of California, San Diego, led by Dr. Tamara Goldsby, found that a sound bath with Tibetan bowls can reduce anxiety, fatigue and depression.
In another study from the University of Foggia (Italy), the authors considered whether the low frequencies that predominate in sound baths can have a direct effect on the body. They concluded that they act on the endocrine system and the central nervous system and are capable of inducing relaxation and analgesia, so much so that they are useful in the preparation of surgical operations. Their study confirmed the effect on pain perception, heart rate, blood pressure and other vital signs. But the effects can perhaps go much further.
SOUND MODIFIES THE STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Sound has always been used to cause changes in consciousness, says Dr. Elvira Brattice, PhD and researcher at Aarhus University. Harmonic-rich sound baths lead to a positive and relaxing experience because “they allow you to detach yourself from the cognitive part of the brain.”
The sounds that create an immersive and repetitive soundscape activate the so-called “default neural network”, a set of brain regions that collaborate with each other and are responsible for much of the activity developed while the mind is at rest. This activation causes a pleasant experience that takes us away from tensions, and explains why we do not want the sound bath to end.
Exposing yourself to sounds is a meditative practice, which helps to disconnect from the mind and connect with the body and subconscious. Sound can take us a long way. While listening to Hindu mantras, Gregorian chants or those of Tibetan monks, spiritual experiences can be achieved. Sound baths can be used simply to relax and leave a session refreshed or, in the context of a spiritual tradition, to approach enlightenment.
WHAT ARE BINAURAL PULSES?
Another technique that uses sound to induce relaxation and modified states of consciousness uses binaural pulses, which are produced when a different frequency is directed to each ear through headphones.
By receiving different frequencies, the brain creates the illusion of a third sound that we are not aware of. For example, if your left ear receives a frequency of 100 Hz and your right ear a frequency of 90 Hz, the brain perceives a binaural pulse of 10 Hz. The interesting thing is that this pulse can influence brain wave patterns that correspond to different moods, concentration and consciousness.
