Can sound be used as a therapeutic treatment? Although it remains a generally unorthodox idea in allopathic medicine, it is far from new. Throughout human history, ancient cultures revered the act of creating sound and believed that specific resonant frequencies could produce healing effects. Ancient mythologies viewed sound not only as a pleasant entertainment, but also as a therapeutic and ontologically vital energetic force.
Sound is a vibration in space and time. Even though we can’t see it, everything in the material world vibrates at a frequency. And the idea that targeted frequencies can have a resonant effect on us, physically and psychologically, isn’t as outlandish as it might seem at first. In recent years, doctors and researchers have conducted numerous scientific studies that have highlighted the beneficial effects of certain frequencies. If music and sound have this incredible potential, how are their positive or negative effects used in the modern world?
A quick online search for 'Solfeggio frequencies' brings up a slew of stories, products and videos emphatically praising this ancient tone scale, which dates back to Gregorian chants or the sacred chanting of Benedictine monks. Today, these vibrational tones can be generated digitally and turned into long videos online, some with tens of millions of views. These videos tend to feature a specific sound frequency accompanied by soothing music that people can listen to while they sleep, relax or meditate.
'Monks Singing' by Jean Jacques de Boissieu, circa 1795. Etching and drypoint with roulette. (Elisha Whittelsey Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Solfeggio frequencies have seen a major resurgence in the last decade, along with the idea that these frequencies can bring spiritual or healing benefits to those who listen to them. The six primary frequencies are 396 Hz, 417 Hz, 528 Hz, 639 Hz, 741 Hz, and 852 Hz, where Hertz (Hz) is a unit of measurement for how many times a sound vibrates per second. While these numbers may seem arbitrary, they actually have profound and mathematically significant relationships. Mathematician Victor Showell described the frequency of 528 Hz as fundamental to Pi, Phi, and the golden mean found throughout the natural world.
A 2018 Japanese study concluded that 528 Hz has a “particularly strong stress-reducing effect, even after just five minutes of exposure.” Since stress is a major factor in most illnesses, a quick YouTube search for 528 Hz might be helpful from time to time. Many musicians are determined to change the pitch of the musical scale from A=440 Hz to A=444 Hz, so that the 528 Hz are included again, as was done in the older solfège scale. Musician Brendan Murphy says, “In A=444 Hz I feel the resonance almost at a cellular level, the vibrations are going through me and the guitar almost feels like a part of me. The tone is beautiful and bright; highly resonant.”
Setting the Tone: Past and Present
Musicians tune their instruments to a specific pitch to literally be 'in tune' with each other. Depending on where you are in the world, a standard pitch has been established for this purpose. Not surprisingly, this is a source of controversy in the Western world, where the standard was set at A=440 Hz in the early 20th century. Why is this significant? Many people argue with passionate vigor that A=440 Hz does not have the mathematical and vibrational essence that A=432 Hz or A=444 Hz are said to have. While this is not necessarily the result of a malicious conspiracy (as some claim), it could very well be a sign of modern-day ignorance in stark contrast to the wisdom of the past.
The number 432 has a powerful mathematical meaning of resonance. Used by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, it is considered sacred and in line with the universal design. It was not until 1917 that the American Federation of Musicians accepted A=440 Hz as the standard tuning, and the United States government supported this decision in 1920. In Europe, the British Standards Institute also adopted A=440 Hz as the standard pitch in 1939. Interestingly, during the same period, 23,000 French musicians voted in favor of A=432 Hz. Similarly, many Italian musicians argue that the current standard is incompatible with the vocal registers that have been handed down for centuries.
According to Dr. Alan Watkins, heart rate and blood pressure decrease significantly for monastic singers while performing Gregorian chants of the solfeggio scale. “The control of breathing, the feelings of well-being that communal singing provides, and the simplicity of the melodies seem to have a powerful effect on reducing blood pressure and therefore stress,” Watkins said.
Anecdotally, a large number of people seek relief by listening to Solfeggio frequencies online or participating in “sound healing” ceremonies that often include the playing of Tibetan bowls, didgeridoos, and other esoteric instruments. Originally called a “yidaki” by Australian Aborigines, the didgeridoo has been used for millennia as a healing instrument. Their culture has passed down stories of great healings with this sacred instrument. It produces low vibrational waves that a person can feel, and sometimes physically sense, during a “sound healing” ceremony.
The wisdom of water
A beloved area of sound healing research is the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese scientist who discovered that water can be encoded with vibrational information. For over 20 years, until his death in 2014, Emoto conducted experiments that demonstrated this remarkable quality of water. One such study showed how different types of sound produced different crystalline patterns in water. When exposed to Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, distilled water samples produced ornate, geometrically symmetrical crystals. On the other hand, distilled water exposed to heavy metal music produced distorted formations.
'Saul' by Alexandre Evariste Fragonard circa 1825-1829. Lithograph. (British Museum)
Emoto also examined the formations found in tap water compared to water collected from natural sources around the world. The beautiful hexagonal crystals found in nature were absent from tap water, leading him to conclude that “hexagonal crystals represent the life force of Mother Nature. Therefore, the absence of hexagonal crystals can be seen as a sign that the life forces in that area have been energetically compromised.”
In addition to these groundbreaking experiments, Emoto used a magnetic resonance imaging (MRA) scanner to transfer vibrational information to microclustered water that he called “Hado” water, meaning “vital energy.” He claims to have treated about 15,000 people with this water alone. If the molecular structure of water can be transformed and then consumed to produce positive changes in patients, what does this mean for biochemistry and the pharmaceutical industry? Masaru Emoto’s legacy lives on in the crystallography images of frozen water he shared with the world and in his bestselling book, Messages Hidden in Water.
"I believe that music was created to restore our vibration to its intrinsic state. It is human nature to create music that readjusts vibrations distorted by history. That is why I am so sure that music is a form of healing before it is an art," Emoto said.
Destructive sound and constructive sound
The therapeutic use of sound at the cellular level falls into two main categories: destructive and constructive sound. A medical technique called lithotripsy uses ultrasound to break up kidney stones. Ultrasound can be used to promote bone growth or to shrink tumors and destroy cancer cells. On the other hand, ultrasound can negatively impact human physiology through sonic and microwave weapons. For this purpose, the U.S. military has developed high-powered crowd-control weapons called Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs). Audio producer Cory Choy described the sensation of the weapon to Popular Mechanics: “A horrible, sickening pain went through my body, and then I realized it was a sound. At first you just think, ‘What’s happening to me?’ Your body goes into full-on panic and pain mode. It’s the sonic equivalent of looking at the sun. People in the direct line of fire didn’t run. They fell to the ground and started screaming.”
The lighter side of the development of sound technology is found in the work of people like Dr. Anthony Holland. In 2013, at a TEDx talk called Shattering Cancer With Resonant Frequencies, Holland showed promising research for the future of cancer treatment. Comparing his research to the resonant effect of a singer shattering a piece of crystal, Holland uses a pulsed plasma antenna called Opef (Oscillating Pulsed Electric Field) technology that combines two related frequencies, one high and one low, to shatter cancer cells. Other researchers argue that this is nothing new and that it was done as early as 1938 by Dr. Royal Rife, who invented the so-called Rife machine or Beam Ray machine. Regardless of the dark history of this field, using sound as a substitute for chemotherapy and more invasive treatments would truly represent a paradigm shift in cancer treatment. At the end of his talk, Holland paints a beautiful picture, saying:
"I think the future of pediatric cancer hospitals will be a different place. They will be a place where children gather and make new friends, probably not even knowing they are sick. They will draw pictures, color in their books, and play with their toys, not knowing that above them a beautiful blue plasma light emits pulsating healing fields that destroy their cancer painlessly and non-toxicly, one cell at a time."
The Power of Listening
What if we could literally listen to the cells in our bodies and hear what they are “singing”? Dr. James Gimzewski of UCLA is doing just that, using an atomic force microscope to listen to the specific sound a cell makes. Gimzewski has called this new field of study “sonocytology,” which involves finding the “unique sound signature” of a cell “singing” to its neighbors. The exciting possibility of this research is the ability to potentially classify healthy cells from unhealthy ones by their sound signatures, and then play their destructive sounds at amplified levels until they are destroyed through the law of resonance.
We all know that music is a precious gift in our lives. We don’t necessarily need studies to prove that music can be relaxing when we take the time to listen to “healing” tones. Whether it’s listening to a sound healing, putting on some classical music, using a sound therapy device, or listening to Solfeggio tones at home, the resonant frequencies and harmonious arrangements help us get into a better vibrational state.
As Masaru Emoto has pointed out, it can become a matter of life and death if we allow our “life force” to be compromised by the chaotic noise and toxicity of the modern world. The human body is mostly water, and apparently water loves beautiful, harmonious frequencies.