In our last column, we discussed spa life vs. private practice, and the opportunities available for acupuncturists in this lucrative venue. In this issue, we will explore the world of sound, and a new non-needle facial protocol using tuning forks.
What Is Sound?
Sound is vibratory motion. Everything around us is in constant motion, from the planets and stars to the smallest insects on the planet. Everything produces a sound vibration; therefore, everything produces sound. Some sounds we hear audibly; some we cannot. Some sounds are heard at 20 to 20,000 cycles per second; others, like the great symphony of the "music of the spheres," we hear with our spirit.
Although sound exists all around us, humans hear within a very limited range. Although we can't audibly hear all the vibratory sounds of the universe, they are still accessible to us. These sounds - these unseen powers - can be harnessed to help us heal at physical, emotional and spiritual levels. We know this is true on a musical level when we listen to music to help soothe our sadness; lighten our spirits; wake us up; put us to sleep; help us relax; or just experience the pure joy of a particular composition. We can (and do) see our depression lift, our bodies loosen and our pain subside, while our spirits soar as we feel the impact of the music in our body.
Scientific research has demonstrated that the effects of music are quantifiable and innumerable; for example, it has been proven to have an effect on blood pressure, heart rate and circulation. There is also conclusive evidence that musical sounds can reduce high fever and the intensity of physical pain.
According to scientists, our cells, molecules, atoms, glands and organs all absorb and emit sound. When relaxed, our brain waves vibrate at eight cycles per second, attuning us to the octave in music, and to the electromagnetic energy of the earth and the cosmos.
Many religions and cultures believed that sound called the universe forth into being. To the Hindus, the "mother tone," Aum, created the universe out of nothing. All the frequencies and overtones of all other sounds were contained within this seed sound.
Swiss medical doctors Hans Jenny pioneered the study of wave phenomena. His experiments applied pure tones to inert powders, pastes and liquids to demonstrate the effect of sound over matter, creating sacred, life-like, floating forms found throughout art, nature and architecture. Sir Guy Manners, an English osteopath, uses this process to achieve a balanced metabolic state in a cell or organ. Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, working at the Strang-Cornell Cancer Prevention Center in New York, uses Tibetan and crystal bowls with cancer patients. Jeffrey Thompson, DC, uses nature sounds to promote healing at the cellular level.
We use sound via vibratory tuning forks to balance, tone, and lift the muscles of the face. This treatment supports the body's ancestral DNA level via the eight extraordinary meridians; the ying or nutritive postnatal level, with specific acupuncture points; and the wei level, to release any tensions around the neck and shoulders.
Our body is nearly 80% water, making it an ideal conductor or resonator for sound. Since water corresponds to the kidney, we are indeed supporting and affecting the deepest level of cellular structural integrity and memory, especially when we open the treatment with the eight extraordinary meridians.
In this article, we offer a basic balancing tuning fork facial using two tuning forks that vibrate at the frequency of the earth as it travels through the four seasons. Scientists have proven that DNA and RNA chains have a specific resonance maximum corresponding exactly to an octave tone of the earth's rotation. This frequency is balancing, grounding and calming. It also tones, tunes and renews the face.
A more involved facial treatment works with the intervals of a 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th, all of which have their own unique archetypal and musical qualities and can either tonify or sedate the acupuncture points and muscles.
Lao Tzu referred to the interval as "the sound of universal harmony between the forces of yin and yang."
Facial Soundscapes: Harmonic Renewal
A Balancing Tuning Fork Facial
Introduction
Use the two gold earth (ohm) tuning forks, and open with the eight extraordinary meridians, depending on the results of your diagnostics.
Because sound is such a powerful, direct, and non-invasive healing modality that has many applications and possibilities, we will explore it in depth in future articles.
References
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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