聲音療癒背後的科學
用聲音頻率來改善健康愈見普及 也獲得更多的研究支持
原文連結：http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/science-behind-healing-sound
在療癒領域中，聲音療癒是個讓人覺得好奇的地方。幾千年來就有人使用它，比如，中亞的泛音歌唱；但是，它在近代神經學研究來說，聲音療癒還是個新領域。
「聲音的力量」一書作者，同時是心理聲學（psychoacoustics）專家的Joshua Leeds，同時是研究聲音如何影響人類神經的專家，他說說，聲音可以是「為特定人創造一組頻率和振動， 而產生療效。」Leeds並說「聲音療癒愈來愈受重視，就像15年前的瑜珈。人們了解聲音可以幫助人們減少壓力、幫助學習，甚至可以幫助自閉症兒童。」
現在有很多理論是基於1970年代一位生物物理學家Gerald Oster而來的。他的研究顯示，在一隻耳朵邊敲響某個聲音，在另一耳敲一個比較不同的音階，這兩個聲音在兩耳裡會創造一個第3個聲音，叫「雙耳頻率」(Binaural Beat)。研究顯示這兩個音創出的第3個音可以刺激左右半腦，創造一個「腦波共振」(Brain-wave Entrainment)。
專做兩腦同頻共振音樂的Monroe公司行銷主管Carol Moore說，當兩腦同步時，會更集中。例如，一些睡眠音樂可以讓聽眾進入很深的delta腦波。腦中的電子活躍度降低。有些產品還特別為中風或開過刀、慢性病或在化療過程的患者設計的。Moore說「你可以把藥當成是幫助身體復元的，愛的力量，而不是傷害自己或是毐害的。」
腦波共振不是沒有人持疑的。但有些研究者支持這個論點。2008年出版的期刊「健康和醫學的另類療法」中，刊出一份針對20個腦波共振的研究和結果。結論是，腦波共振對壓力、疼痛、頭痛甚至經前徵候群都有助益。
這些研究還同時顯示，聲音可以改善行為問題。創出名叫Holosync產品的Bill Harris說「不同的腦波形態會影響情緒。」Harris利用沒有絃律或節奏的樂器，如水晶缽、雨聲，有時讓客戶錄下他們自己聲音的肯定語意。他說「這些聲音進入腦波中，會促使腦部組成一個比較複雜的狀態。它使你情感上或理智上處理的狀態，更進一步提升。我不是說這能治療癌症，但它真的會在人的健康上產生深刻的影響。很多有慢性病、腸燥症、乾癬等因壓力惡化症狀的人來找我們幫忙。」
美國洛杉磯的聲音療癒家Jamie Bechtold說，聲音可以改善免疫力和治療失眠。「很多人來找我的原因是他們的壓力和不安。」有的人還因為肌肉拉傷、感冒、頭痛來找她，她會用音叉在穴道上共振。她說「我看到有人痙攣的肌肉因這些頻率而完全放鬆」。Bechtold同時還把銅鑼音波放在瑜珈練習裡。她說「錄音的音樂還可以，如果有現場演奏的音波，地板會跟著震動，聲波會傳導到整個空間裡共振。」
神經聲波研究中心的創辦人Jeffrey Thompson說，不同的頻率會對治身體不同密度的部位。他使用一種聲音療癒的聲波神經系統治療桌。Thompson說「當頻率從500赫茲（Hz，每秒振動次數）降到400赫茲，你會感覺音波多作用於你的肌肉、再來是關節、才是你的骨骼。我們能做頻率的按摩，讓音波進入你全身的細胞裡，你會發現音波會激化身體細胞到超級療癒的狀態，還能重建更多組織。」
Leeds說，「現在有愈來愈多的聲音科學的研究，我們知道在分子階段發生了什麼事。在未來，我們認為聲音療癒會被稱為「頻率醫學」(Frequency Medicine)」
全文如下
The Science Behind Healing with Sound
There's growing interest in using sound frequency
to boost human health. And research backs it up.
In the realm of healing techniques,
sound work inhabits a curious space: It has been used for thousands of
years—think of overtone chanting from Central Asia, for example—yet, it’s also
on the frontiers of modern neuroscience.
Sound work is “creating a frequency and
vibration for someone that’s conducive for him or her to heal,” says Joshua
Leeds, the author of The Power of Sound and an expert in the field of
psychoacoustics, the study of the effects of sound on the human nervous system.
“Sound healing is trending up. It’s like where yoga was 15 years ago. People
are realizing that sound is a viable medium to address distress, enhance learning,
even work with an autistic child.”
Much of the current work is based on
the early ’70s research of biophysicist Gerald Oster. Oster showed that when a
tone is played in one ear and a slightly different tone is played in the other
ear, the difference causes the brain to create a third, internal tone, called a
binaural beat. The theory is that this syncs the brain waves in both
hemispheres, a process dubbed “brain-wave entrainment.”
“When the brain is in synchronicity,
there’s more focus,” says Carol Moore, marketing director of Monroe Products,
which makes Hemi-Sync verbal meditations and music that contain embedded
binaural beats. For example, “Our sleep titles help drop you into the deep
delta waves. Electrical activity in the brain gets slowed down.” Some of the
products are designed to help people recover from a stroke or surgery, deal
with chronic pain, or become more relaxed while undergoing chemotherapy. “You
might envision the drugs as a love potion, rather than poison. It’s creating a
state where you can say, ‘This is coming into my body to heal me, not to do
damage to me,’ ” says Moore.
Brain-wave entrainment isn’t without
its skeptics, but some research supports it. In 2008, the journal Alternative
Therapies in Health and Medicine published
a review of 20 studies of brain-wave entrainment and patient outcomes. The
conclusion was that brain-wave entrainment is an effective tool to use on
cognitive functioning deficits, stress, pain, headaches, and premenstrual
syndrome.
The studies also suggest that sound
work can help with behavioral problems. “Different brain-wave patterns affect
emotions,” says Bill Harris, who created Holosync products. His system uses
sounds like rain and crystal bowls—there’s no beat or melody—with a pulsing
tone underneath. He also uses custom affirmations, which people record in their
own voices. “You’re practicing going into a brain-wave pattern. It causes the
brain to organize at a more complex level. It takes what you can handle
emotionally and intellectually and pushes it higher,” says Harris. “I’m not
claiming this cures cancer. But it does have a profound effect on people’s
physical health. A lot of people come to us for chronic pain, irritable bowel
syndrome, psoriasis, things that are exacerbated by stress.”
Sound can increase immunity and treat
insomnia, according to Jamie Bechtold, a Los Angeles-based sound healer. “Most
people come to me for stress and anxiety,” she says. For woes like pulled
muscles, colds, and headaches, Bechtold uses tuning forks on acupuncture points.
“I’ve seen back muscles that are spasming completely relax using this
vibration.” Bechtold also combines gong performances with yoga classes.
“Recorded music is fine, but with live music you can feel it. The floor is
vibrating. The sound waves are bouncing all over the place.”
Jeffrey Thompson, founder of the Center
for Neuroacoustic Research, says different frequencies target the various
densities in the body. He uses a vibroacoustic sound therapy table. “As the
frequencies slow down, from 500 to 400 hertz (a hertz is one cycle per second),
you feel it more in your muscles, then your joints, then in your bones. We can
give a vibrational massage, down all the way to your cells. I can do cranial
work with sound, work on organs. You’re finding frequencies to elevate the
body’s cells to a super-healing state, rebuilding more tissue,” Thompson says.
“There’s more on sound science than
ever before,” says Leeds. “We know what is happening molecularly.” In the
future, he says, “What we think of as sound healing will be called frequency
medicine.”
