Feature Article - Open Wide, Say Aaahhh

Sound Medicine for the Twenty-first Century
by Tryshe Dhevney

It can’t be that simple. You can’t just open your mouth, make a sound and change your life! Or can you?

I don’t know if it was what my husband said or the tone of his voice, but I was in a slow burn and churn. A few moments later I found myself chopping carrots for dinner…only I’m not chopping, I’m slaying supine orange bodies on a countertop battlefield. Several minutes go by and I realize someone’s got to do something about this or we’ll be belching anger until bedtime. In an impulse I open my mouth and gently sustain a tone “aahhh.” Within seconds I feel my heart soften…tears begin filling my eyes. Something has shifted. Okay, maybe my husband isn’t my problem. It feels as though the tone has illuminated something in my brain. I experience a long suppressed childhood memory—rejection, abandonment? Whatever it is still has power in my life, unleashing a hurricane of emotions. As I continue with the tone the howling winds of fear pummeling my heart grow quiet, my shoulders drop…the moment is sweetened somehow. Wiping my cheeks, I lean around the counter, “Sorry, honey…this one’s about me.” His eyes never leave the newspaper, “I know.”

How could something as basic and primal as the sound of the voice have the power to change what is in our hearts, quiet our fears and expand consciousness? Maybe it is too obvious for the conscious mind to imagine, but it’s time to think outside the box. Across the globe sound is being embraced as medicine for the new millennium.

Breaking the Sound Barrier

Early in my childhood I was taught to muzzle my voice, careful to say the right thing. Nothing spelled doom so much as a look from a disapproving adult. Don’t speak, don’t move, don’t feel and if you know what’s good for you, don’t tell the truth. These were the tenets of my time and my childhood as typical as they come. Eventually it became easier, if not safer to do what was expected—BEHAVE! That is to say, suppress my vibrant, curious, messy human nature. I wasn’t alone. Women of my generation especially, though not exclusively, live with a legacy of silence. Many of us traded being authentic for being good. We cultivated the art of choking back our words and speaking nice. Sadly, any experience of an authentic Self faded into a distant cellular memory.

As adults we coped—with trauma, negative emotion, multitasking, suffocating fear, stress, loss of passion and purpose. We accepted the unacceptable while our inner people-pleaser determined the course of our lives. I don’t know about you, dear reader, but in my life this was a recipe for disaster.

Studies show when we silence ourselves or repress our feelings there is potential for chronic, even serious health problems. This unconscious unexpressed anger can become so all-consuming that it can literally kill us. Most attempts at feeling better or “getting things under control” take time, money and/or special gear. It would not occur to most of us to simply open the mouth and make sound. Imagine the remedy as simple as saying “aaahh!”

Sounds True

We all know that listening to a babbling brook or a favorite piece of music can change our moods. What most don’t realize is that the sound of our own voice can provide an even more penetrating and prolonged shift in the internal vibrations of the body, mind and spirit. Recent medical research shows that creating sustained primordial sounds can shift brain states, create health and transform consciousness with little or no effort. Dr. Andrew Weil, author, lecturer and founder of the Program in Integrative Medicine in Tucson, Arizona, states, “The new science of psychoacoustics – the study of the effect of music and sound on the human nervous system – shows that [frequency] can relieve pain, help stroke patients, and benefit other conditions.” In recent years, noted French composer and bioenergeticist, Fabien Maman has been exploring and documenting the specific influence of sound on the cells of the body. He conducted experiments with two breast cancer patients who toned for three and one-half hours a day for a month. In one case, the tumor vanished. The second woman had surgery to remove the tumor and it was discovered that the tumor was “reduced and completely dry.” In his book, The Role of Music in the Twenty-first Century, Maman writes, “This finding indicates that the vibration of sound plays a determinant role in the transformation of cellular structure, acting directly at the most subtle level of the human organism. . .The diseased cell died because it was not able to accommodate its structure and synchronize with the accumulation of sound.”

Toning—making a sustained sound, usually a vowel tone—can change the entire molecular and cellular make-up of the body. In other words, sound heals!

Sound Wisdom of the Ages

The use of sound and music to “soothe the savage beast” has a long history reaching back through time. Many cultures and religions have revered sound so deeply as to believe that it called the universe into being. The Old Testament states, “In the beginning was the Word.” In Sanskrit, “Nada Brahma” translates, “the world is sound.” Pythagoras, considered by many to be the Godfather of Sound Medicine, taught his students to use sound and music to soothe the spirit, release worry, fear and anger and enhance joy. Ancient Chinese cultures believed that the power of sound could do everything from transform a person’s character to restore fertility to the soil. The priests of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome sang in the temples and used singing bowls made of quartz crystal as they healed the afflicted. It just makes sense. Ancient wisdom still resonates, influencing our modern culture and providing the foundation for a new wellness paradigm.

Expression vs. Repression

The shortest road to well-being begins with feeling the physical sensations of your body experience. There is a natural sound attached to every feeling—both physical and emotional. Let it out. The sound that comes through your own voice allows you to touch something authentic within. It’s our nature. Sound finds natural and spontaneous release when we “ooo” and “aahh” over a sensational crème brûlée or experience the sweet rhapsody of a cooing baby. Not only is sound enlivening our overall experience of a given moment, it’s massaging the muscles and tuning up the body. Don’t you feel better after a good cry or deep laugh, or find relief once you get things off your chest? Previously stuck energy begins moving with a simple thought—a decision to let go and let it out. The brain is responding—balancing the nervous system, strengthening the immune system and creating a visceral sense that all is well.

That visceral sensation is the nervous system responding to sound and restoring resonance throughout the body/mind and spirit. The body remembers that it knows how to feel good and how to restore balance.

Expression rather than repression of sound is the key to our overall health. There are many vocal sounds you make that are spontaneous and unconscious. There are other sounds made with conscious intent which instantly change your emotional state, restore health and connect you with vibrational resonance—the experience of being tuned in and turned on about your life. The evidence is in your experience. You feel better. Some of the most basic daily tasks take on new vitality when you make sound.

Let’s say you lift something heavy. If you hold your breath the burden seems heavier and you may rip or even rupture something inside, some organ you’ll want to keep for a while. If you release sound during the lift, as body builders do, a strength surges through your muscles, focusing your attention and making the lift easier and less damaging to the body.

Opening your voice and expressing sound energizes the cells. This surge provides a sensation of being grounded in your body, integrating and balancing brain function. Research shows that once sound is introduced there is also a notable increase in the amount of Alpha waves moving through the brain. You feel calm, less anxious and able to access your extraordinary natural wisdom and capabilities. Whether it’s peak athletic performance you’re after, increased creativity or simply just feeling good, one tone can make the difference.

Seven Seconds to Sound Health

The voice is a dynamic part of our internal healing mechanism—a personal sound system that accelerates our connection to well-being. Just spending minutes a day consciously making sound can shift the dense frequencies of stress or disharmony and align your natural rhythms. We all are endowed with the means to heal ourselves—it’s how our bodies are designed. The healing process begins with a desire to feel good, to be in a state of harmony. Your voice simply accelerates that desire into reality.

Why take my word for it? Let’s make sound! Get comfortable, relax your tongue and the muscles in your neck and face, open wide, and in a mid-range pitch that is comfortable for you begin to tone, aaaaahhhhh. Stay with this tone for a minute or so and then stop and listen to your body. Don’t you feel better—a little more peaceful, more relaxed, less stressed out? Just seconds of toning will energize the breath, oxygenate the entire body, relax the muscles and stimulate the flow of energy through your body. As you hold these tones you accelerate the release of any resistance, emotional and physical, and create an experience of being in the flow. What have you got to lose except maybe a little suffocating fear or the stress of a vein-popping day? Not only will you feel better, the world around you will reflect your good feeling as well.

Play with your voice every day. You can tone while in your car, puttering in your garden (plants love taking a big drink of your voice), while putting on your makeup (a sonic facial), playing with your pet, and working out—even yawning. Experience the power of your own voice as you access a deeper resonance and calming power within. Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way and Vein of Gold, sums it up beautifully: “The human voice and our conscious use of it as an instrument can penetrate and heal even the deepest shadows of our human condition.”

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