Can the sound of your own voice help keep you healthy? Sahar Huneidi looks into it: "All information we take is inputted through our five senses, hearing, tasting, seeing, touching and smelling. Through those senses we compile a 'data bank of experiences, which when recalled, can sometimes be re-triggered awakening a multitude of emotions connected to them."
Sounds Divine
All information we take is inputted through our five senses, hearing, tasting, seeing, touching and smelling. Through those senses we compile a ‘data bank’ of experiences (whether good or bad), which when recalled, can sometimes be re-triggered awakening a multitude of emotions connected to them. When an experience is traumatic, our body mind system is thrown out of balance, and healing may be required to bring the mind and the body to a state of harmony once more. An excess and prolonged load of emotional ‘baggage’ can cause dis-ease or dis-harmony impinging our physical health and bodies.
It’s easy to get caught up in a culture of ‘noise pollution’: everywhere we turn there’s traffic, machines, sirens, television or music systems. Does the quality of sound affect our well-being? Yes, you can count on it! Simon Heather, the founder of 'UK Sound Healers Association' writes “French ear, nose and throat specialist Dr Alfred Tomatis who believes that the ear is the most important of all our sense organs. The ear controls the body’s sense of balance, rhythm and movement and is the conductor of the entire nervous system. Through the medulla, the auditory nerve connects with all the muscles of the body. Hence, muscle tone, equilibrium, flexibility and vision are affected by sound. Through the vagus nerve, the inner ear connects with the larynx, heart, lungs, stomach, liver, bladder, kidneys, small intestine and large intestine.”
French jazz musician, Fabien Maman, author of The Role of Music in the Twenty-First Century, studied the effects of the sound of musical instruments on the body, including blood cells in later experiments; together with scientist Hélène Grimal, a senior researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris. He found that when the person sang an ‘F’ to their own blood cells. The cells resonated perfectly with the voice, producing balanced, round shape and vibrant colours of magenta and turquoise. He concluded, “In the human voice there is an added element which cannot be found in any other instrument… The human voice carries its own spiritual resonance… This difference is what makes the voice the most powerful healing instrument – particularly when the person needing the healing produced the sounds with his or her own voice.”
This view is at the core of Stewart Pearce’s work as a sound alchemist and master of Voice, author of The Alchemy of Voice (see www.thealchemyofvoice.com): “we each have our own particular and totally individual resonance… I believe it is increasingly vital for each of us to find our true voice” Stewart believes that each one of us has simply ‘unremembered’ our primal note and that, “this primal sound is stored within our cellular memory, awaiting a time when we can rediscover its sensation and fulfil its promise”
Harmonizing through Sound
- Have courage to really listen and find your own true note: sing in the shower, hum or chant.
- Chant using simple vowel sounds. The sound ‘OH’ is a general harmonizer. Take a deep breath in and breathe out to the sound of ‘OH’.
- Listen intently to others’ voices, and try to locate where their voice is coming from, is it from their head, heart or deeper?
- Pay attention to how you feel and how your body responds when you listen to music or hear certain sounds.
- Make time to see a live concert. Live music, particularly instrumental, has more beneficial effect.
Note that quote
“Man is not only formed of vibrations but he lives and moves in them... He who knows the secret of sound, knows the mystery of the whole universe”
Hazrat Inayat Khan(1882-1927), Sufi sage and spiritual teacher from India, author of The Mysticism of Sound.
Further info
Listen to Sahar’s inspirational podcasts, visit www.podcasts4life.com
