The Healing Sound Of Music
By Kate & Richard Mucci

  Continued...    

To begin with, they can physically damage our ears. People in modern society have a great degree of hearing loss. Whether frequencies originate from random noise like jet engines or rock music emanating from stacks of amplifiers, the vibrations actually damage the delicate tissues which allow us to hear.

The physical damage, however, is dwarfed by the social consequences of hearing loss. Conversations become difficult, movies are not nearly so enjoyable, even driving takes on an added dimension of danger. Many people who suffer from hearing loss become despondent and withdrawn, just because it's too hard to communicate!

The ears are not the only body parts which suffer from jarring, loud or discordant sounds, including certain kinds of music.

When exposed to a multitude of instruments and voices, an erratic beat and electronic distortion of the notes themselves, the resonating frequency of the human body is thrown into chaos. The organs begin to vibrate out of sync with the nervous system, which can't keep up with the rate of breathing, which…it goes on and on.

Is it any wonder that so many of us feel stressed, tired, and irritable? Our cells are vibrating at erratic levels; out of sync with each other. In advanced cases, this bombardment of frequencies can cause many physical changes, and lead to disease in the body. How do you counteract this insidious invasion by sound?

You do this by being conscious of frequencies that disrupt your body's own rate of resonance, eliminating them, and ultimately replacing them with frequencies that have a positive impact on the body. You need to tune up!

There are many therapists who actually use tone generators and sound wave machines to help people get their bodies vibrating back at their optimum rates. You could try that approach, but it may be very expensive, and not readily available where you live.

The easiest, best, most enjoyable thing - MUSIC. Technically, music is no more than a series of notes or tones arranged in a mathematically precise and aesthetically pleasing pattern. Tones are just some of the dozens of sounds traveling through the air, water, or even solid objects at any one time. Whether we hear them or not, these tones resonate through us constantly.

If you want to change the resonating frequency of your body, listening to or making music is very powerful. Listening to the soothing tones of chant, Native American flute, harp or even synthesized strings is a great way to get the body resonating back to its proper, natural state.

Sit quietly, in a comfortable chair, and really listen to a CD that is pure with simple melodies and with uncomplicated arrangements. Listen to each instrument and FEEL its impact on your physical body.

This experience is enhanced if you wear padded headphones that actually cover the whole ear, because then you get the full effect of all the frequencies in the music. Also, it blocks out other audible sounds that could be creating discordance. Close your eyes. Keep out all sensory input but for this music.

Each tune has a different range of frequencies, different melodies, and they will give you different physical responses. Allow your body to respond. Close your eyes and breathe deeply. Pay attention to how your physical body changes. Immediately it will be more relaxed. There will be a difference in your blood pressure, your heartrate, and your breathing.

Once your body is calm, resonating at a more balanced vibration, you will be amazed at how different things look. Things that might have been bothering you, people that might have annoyed you - they just won't matter as much. You have so much more freedom to think your own thoughts, unencumbered by extra input. You will be able to feel your true feelings. They won't be governed by energy over which you have no control.

Another excellent way to actually calm the physical body is to listen to a pure beat. Any repetitive sound, such as a metronome, a heartbeat or constant, even drumming, has a regulating effect on the biological functioning of the human body. Go to a music store and get an old fashioned wooden metronome. Set it on "largo" about 40 beats per minute. This slow, soothing rhythm has an hypnotic effect. After ten minutes or so, you will find yourself in a very relaxed state. Even the ticking of an old-fashioned grandfather type clock can have the effect of regulating your body.

Whenever you're feeling over-stimulated or irritated, stop. Analyze what's bothering you. You'll be amazed at how often it is a sound - music, machinery, perhaps voices. If you can't eliminate the noise, or get away from it, at least you will recognize that it is noise that's making you feel stressed or upset, and not some unknown element.

You can counteract noise overload by humming. If you have to travel on a subway or bus, or even in your car, or if you work in a factory with loud machinery, you can help your body resonate at its optimum rate by humming. You don't have to hum loud enough for anyone else to hear, just loud enough to feel it in your own body. As you hum, you will find yourself making tones that make your body feel more comfortable, and the noise from which you cannot escape will not bother you as much. Try it, you'll like it!

We know, now, that every individual body and everything is being bombarded by sound and noise. Consider the dissonance created by the overwhelming number of the frequencies which are penetrating everyone on Earth. Nothing is in tune with anything else!

Is it any wonder that there is so much anger, mistrust and fear? How are you supposed to relate to and communicate with each other under these sound stresses?

What if we could balance and synchronize ourselves with each other and the planet? It makes perfect sense that communication would be much easier, and we would all feel much healthier and more peaceful.

Barbara Marx Hubbard is a futurist who believes we could all benefit by humming a certain note. She believes that "D flat" is the note that most closely matches the resonating frequency of the Earth. She feels that, if enough people were to hum or otherwise create this tone together, it would counteract the discordant frequencies racing around the planet, and raise the consciousness of Mother Earth and the people inhabiting her.

An interesting concept and one that would be fun to try. §

Kate and Richard Mucci own Nevada’s first music and sound healing center, The Music, Mind & Matter located at 1201 S. Hwy 160, Suite 118, Pahrump. Telephone 775-751-2379  musicmindmatter@aol.com  or website at www.crosswynd. The Healing Sound Of Music also contains a FREE full length CD recorded by Richard and Kate Mucci to demonstrate the kinds of musical frequencies that work to heal the body. Listen, and be well! (isbn 1-899171-33-9)