Sound Healing – Joan Willis

Sound healing has its origins in the dawn of humankind.  Perhaps, the first human infant was lulled to sleep by the sound of its mother’s heartbeat.  What to speak of human beings, we can see in nature that even animals use sound as a form of healing for one another.  Sound is indeed one of the most basic primordial features in nature itself.

Currently sound healing techniques are being used in patient therapies across the globe.  One popular form is found in the use of what is termed “Tibetan singing bowls”.

Originally used by Buddhists for religious ceremonies, meditation support, prayer and trance induction, singing bowls are now employed as a form of sound healing.  One way of doing this is for a facilitator to place singing bowls on various parts of the human body, such as the lower back (in cases of back pain), and strike the bowl with its accompanying “striker”, creating a sound that reverberates through the ether and also sends vibrations throughout the body of the recipient.  This is said to affect the body, mind and spirit of the recipient at very deep levels.  Even if you doubt all that, one this is for sure, this form of sound healing is very relaxing.

Another form of sound healing is done with a gong and a striker.  For those of you old enough to remember “The Gong Show”, I don’t have to go into to much detail about that!

Currently there are several yoga centers that employ this method of healing by having their yoga students lay on the floor in shavasana and just relax and listen to the magical sounds that are created when the gong is struck at various points and in various degrees of intensity.  Again, this is another very relaxing procedure.  

Of course, thanks again to technology, there are several forms of sound healing available for free download on the Internet.  Many of them claim take the listener on a journey through all the brain waves; beta, alpha, theta and delta.

http://www.chopra.com/