A SOUND BODY

Many ancient cultures viewed physical illness as a lack of harmony in the body; they used sound and music to restore this natural condition. A “sound body” literally produces harmonious music (Paul 10). Russill Paul claims that “sound is powerfully linked to our feelings; it causes our cells and tissues to vibrate, activating a range of experience far beyond what the sound can heal on a cellular and physiological level” (Paul 10). “The hard and soft palates are a blueprint of the body’s nervous system. Sound yogis use this knowledge to manipulate the body’s spiritual channels in much the same way that a reflexologist uses the hands and feet to stimulate the body’s meridians” There are at least 64 meridian points on the hard palate, and 20 on the soft. “Stimulating these points, especially through the rich phonetics of Sanskrit, affects powerful changes in the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus, which govern our immune system, our emotions and our moods. This is why medical research continues to confirm the assertion that chanting produces beneficial chemicals in the body, releasing ‘feel-good’ hormones and endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers.” Paul says that “chanting yogic mantras particularly in Sanskrit,” also “stimulates the vagus nerve, which is situated near the jaw and is considered to be the single most important nerve in the body; it services the heart, lungs, intestinal tract, and back muscles” (Paul 48). In addition, Khan iterates this great effect on the human body “the whole mechanism, the muscles, the blood circulation, the nerves are all moved by the power of vibration. As there is resonance for every sound, so the human body is a living resonator for sound….[It] has an effect on each atom of the body, for each atom resounds. On all glands, on the circulation of the blood, and on pulsation sound has an effect” (Khan 269).

We are “instruments of flesh and bone” with the greater portion of our brains concerned with the mouth and hands (Nims 151). And we know that “sound is ‘heard’ not only through our ears but through every cell in our body,” so that “vibration touches every part of our physical being” (Gaynor 17). Mitchell L. Gaynor, M.D., author of Sounds of Healing: A Physician Reveals the Therapeutic Power of Sound, Voice, and Music says, “the rhythm of poetry can entrain our voices and be felt in the entire body (Gaynor 17). Entrainment is a phenomenon illustrated in this classic example of two or more metronomes or pendulums beating at different rhythms in the same room. At some point, they will synchronize with each other. This also tends to happen with the rate of respiration of people in the same room. Poetic and musical rhythm can provide a controlled space for creative expression and relaxation. This rhythm also allows people who have problems articulating speech, such as stuttering, to entrain to a song so that they can sing it. People with limited control over motor function are able to keep a beat on a drum and mirror a facilitator who is playing with them. Oliver Sacks says, “for people who have motor problems, music acts as a catalyst. Hearing a beat can be enough to carry a person from thinking to moving. (Gaynor 87). Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan has an entire program called the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine “to complement medical treatment for children, teens and adults with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).” One of the therapist/musicians uses wind instruments to help improve the heart and respiratory rates with patients who have these chronic diseases.