Infinite Health—“The Bridge," invites you through music and sound therapy to connect with your true energetic essence which resonates with the infinite.
Annette Kearl, MA, MT-BC received her Bachelor of Science in Music Therapy from Utah State University in 1988. She completed her internship at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton, California. She has maintained her board certification since 1988. She has studied toning and overtone singing with Don Campbell, Jill Purce and Kay Gardner. She studied sound/vibrational healing with Fabien Maman at Tama-Do The Academy of Sound, Color and Movement in France and Sound Yoga with Sri Hanuman and has conducted research on the effects of the Monochord Table on the body. She is also a provider of The Listening Program, developed from the work of Alfred Tomatis.
A researcher in Utah State University's music department is finding that musical notes literally resonating through the body can induce relaxation. Music played in the classroom can promote learning; can music also affect our physiology? Music therapist Annette Kearl plays an overtone table. Beneath the horizontal surface on which the patient lies, 50-some wires are strung. The patient rests on a pad on the table and, as Kearl plays the strings, feels the musical vibrations. The table's wooden parts are specially constructed to resonate, like the wood of a violin or guitar...
Music-Based Auditory Stimulation method that trains the brain to improve the auditory skills needed to effectively listen, learn and communicate. Read an
article here.
Vibrational Commucation: Music and the Physical and Subtle Bodies by Annette Kearl
Since the beginning of human history, we have been musical beings. From the earliest sounds of wood and stone striking a rhythm in the African night, to the elaborate chants in a medieval monastery, humans have used music to give language to spiritual mysteries, emotional tales, and physical desires. Music is a vibrational communication that is universally understood by all human beings. The messages of music reach across time, race and culture...
Music Therapy is the prescribed use of music and music related techniques to assist and motivate a person towards specific, nonmusical goals. Music therapists use their training to address physical, emotional, cognitive and social needs of individuals. Music therapy improves the quality of life for persons who are well and meets the needs of children and adults with disabilities or illnesses.
Music Therapy utilizes music and music related activities to modify ineffective learning patterns. Music Therapy works as a creative, flexible and sometimes spontaneous means of utilizing the appeal of music to help people of all ages and abilities. Music Therapy is an established health care profession. Music Therapy can positively affect children and adults alike. Music Therapy can make the difference between isolation and interaction.
Who is qualified to practice music therapy? Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program. (American Music Therapy Association definition, 2005). Persons who complete one of the approved college music therapy curricula (including an internship) are then eligible to sit for the national examination offered by the Certification Board for Music Therapists. Music therapists who successfully complete the independently administered examination hold the music therapist-board certified credential (MT-BC).
Therapeutic Characteristics of Music:
Music can be characterized by how it heals. The way music fires the neurons in the brain to the tempo it is played, helps bring into play the characteristics that bring the most healing benefit to an individual. Although the power, range and effectiveness of music as a healing tool has many variables, there are certain traits that are Universal.
1. Music captivates and maintains attention, stimulating and utilizing many parts of the brain. 2. Music is adapted to, and can be reflective of, a person's ability. 3. Music structures time in a way that we can understand. 4. Music provides a meaningful, enjoyable context for repetition. 5. Music sets up a social context by setting up a safe, structured setting for verbal and nonverbal communication. 6. Music is an effective memory aid. 7. Music supports and encourages movement. 8. Music taps into memories and emotions. 9. Music and its related silence, provide nonverbal, immediate feedback. 10. Music is success oriented. People of all ability levels can participate.
Music as a Healing Power
Music is a magical medium and a very powerful tool. Music can delight all the senses and inspire every fiber of our being. Music has the power to soothe and relax, bring us comfort and appreciation. Music subtly bypasses the intellectual stimulus in the brain and moves directly to the emotional center. There is music for every mood and for every occasion. Music Therapy is incorporated in a number of areas of medicine. Some of these include labor and delivery, oncology, pain management, physical rehabilitation, and pediatrics. Music Therapy has been shown to have influences on the immune system, blood pressure, heart and respiratory rates, and pain perception.
Sound not only affects our state of mind, but can be used to improve our health. The basic tenet behind sound therapy is that everything in the universe is in a constant state of vibration. If true, the cells of the human body constantly vibrate, meaning that sound can either relax or agitate, heal or harm. Sound therapy most commonly employs the direct application of the voice, music and other sounds.
Many cultures recognize the importance of music and sound as a healing power. In the ancient civilizations of India, the Orient, Africa, Europe and among the Aboriginal and American Indians, the practice of using sound to heal and achieve balance from within has existed for many years. The Tibetans still use bells, chimes, bowls, and chanting as the foundation of their spiritual practice. In Bali, Indonesia, the echoing gamelan, gong, and drum are used in ceremonies to uplift and send messages. The Australian Aboriginal and Native American shamanists use vocal toning and repetitive sound vibration with instruments created from nature in sacred ceremony to adjust any imbalance of the spirit, emotions or physical being.
The Priests of ancient Egypt knew how to use vowel sounds to resonate their "Chakra" energy centers or chakras. There is a direct link between different parts of the body and specific sounds. Such a technique appears extremely old, yet healing through sound goes back even further at least as far back as Atlantis where the power of sound was combined with the power of crystal.
Vibrational Communication
Vibrational medicine, which validates that everything in the Universe is in a state of vibration and the frequency at which an object or person most naturally vibrates is called resonance. It is based on the idea that all illness or disease is characterized by blockage in the channels on some level, either in nadis, meridians, arteries, veins, or nerves. When there is a blockage, the organ in question stops vibrating at a healthy frequency and thus it results in some kind of illness. So, through sound and light, one can break up, dissolve and release these blockages that initiate in our light or etheric body. Ultra sound has been used medically for almost two decades as a diagnostic tool by pediatricians while the baby is in the very early stages of fetal development. More recently, ultrasound is being used to cleanse clogged arteries. Ultrasound works on the same principle of light equals sound and tone equals radiance manifesting in form.
The Monochord Table has 55 strings underneath that are tuned according to the season of the year. This tuning corresponds with the meridian of the season. The therapist plays the strings and the resonance of them produce a symphony of overtones that vibrate up through a comfortable sand pad and surround the body. Nutured in harmony, the mind becomes quiet and the stillness is experienced. From within that state of conciousness, creative intention is manifest.
The Columns of Sound resonate over the energy centers of the body (Chakras). They are tuned and played in a specific progressions to expand, balance and center the body/mind.
Did You Know? The human ear can detect a minimal range of vibration between 20 to 20,000 cycles per second (cps) or Hertz (Hz). A standard measure of frequency is Hertz, abbreviated Hz. It means "cycles per second." Compare this to the vibrations dolphins or even mice can detect, which is up to 100,000 (cps) and you realize how much more of our "Universal Symphony" we are missing out on.
The rate at which something vibrates, determines how dense it is and how we perceive it to be. Therefore, different things vibrate at different rates or frequencies. These things can be perceived as either sound, light or color or solid matter. There is even a "hum" to the Earth. Known as the Schumann Resonance. The lowest-frequency (and highest-intensity) mode of the Schumann resonance is at a frequency of approximately 7.8 Hz. This particular frequency just so happens to be associated with the Alpha waves in our brain, which are most associated with our meditative state. "When your alpha is within normal ranges we tend to also experience good moods, see the world truthfully, and have a sense of calmness. You can increase alpha by closing your eyes or deep breathing or decrease alpha by thinking or calculating.
The human energy field is a symphony of sound, frequencies and energetic matter. From our auric field and Chakra centers, bones, and organs in the body, all possess a different resonant frequency. When an organ or part of the body is vibrating out of tune or non-harmoniously, it is called "dis ease" or disease. A body is in a healthy state of being when each cell, each organ creates a resonance that is in harmony with the whole being.
Music and Sound Therapy Tools
1.Affirmations: One of the many things that sets musical affirmations apart is that the music and text represents the use of words, rhythm, voice and melody functioning to integrate the left and right sides of the brain. At times in a non-stop, high-stress world our minds may be constantly producing the beta brainwave which represents actively thinking. The alpha brainwave state is one of focus while being relaxed and receptive. A balance of beta and alpha is optimum. Music at Adagio tempos along with verbal affirmations help to integrate the message on a deep level leading to positive behavior changes.
2.Mind Quieting: A non-resistant mind is a free mind. Being the observer of your thoughts without identifying with them (allow the thoughts to come and go) and you maintain control, retrain your mind and you regain your freedom. Calming the mind is a behavioral technique used to interrupt, minimize and eliminate "psychological noise". Obsessive, repetitive thoughts, anxiety and fears are all apart of negative, self-destructive patterns that can benefit from the power of music and mind quieting.
3.Breathing : Breath is life! “Prauna” as it is named in India is the life force. Your breathing is the voice of your spirit. It's depth, smoothness, sound, and rate reflect your mood. If you become aware of your breath and breathe the way you do when you are calm you will become calm. Practicing regular, mindful breathing can be calming and energizing. With the addition of music and it's rhythm, the "musical breath" can even help stress-related health problems ranging from panic attacks to digestive disorders. Fall into the rhythm of the music and breathe. Focus on your breathing and the music. (click on Behavioral Medicine page to read Annette’s article about the breath).
4.Mantras: No one can fully explain the mystery of mantras. Their magical sounds help heal physical imbalances, relax the mind, quiet the emotions, and open the heart. Mantra means “mental device.” The ancient mantras of India have been used for thousand of years. They stimulate, activate, motivate, and rejuvenate. They help us go beyond borders, realize our potential, and celebrate the power of love. Mantras offer increased flexibility and strength while they gently expand your consciousness, and help you experience love, compassion, and inner peace. (click on Primoridal Sound Meditation to learn more).
5.Chanting: Chanting begins with an invocation - a prayer, a group OM, or some small line of remembrance that connects everyone to a higher source. To learn chanting has a healthy strengthening effect on the mind; it develops concentration, patience and determination. Ancient chanting of the Monks has proven to improve health.
6.Toning : Toning with your own voice can improve health, greatly reduce stress, release negative emotions, strengthen immune system, increase energy, improve self-confidence, enhance memory & creativity, transform relationships, accelerate natural healing help you ascend to new dimensions of reality. Toning is the basis process of "letting go" of basic, natural sounds to attain a sense of balance, harmony and centering. Try toning on different notes and on different vowel sounds A, EE, AH, OH UU and notice the positive effects.
7.Entrainment : Musically, entrainment invloves the "merging with, or synchronizing to, the pulse of the music". This principle is related to the isomorphic principle which states that one's mood should be matched to the mood of the music and then gradually moved into the desired direction. The principle of entrainment is universal; Appearing in chemistry, pharmacology, biology, medicine, psychology, sociology, astronomy, architecture and more. The classic example shows individual pulsing heart muscle cells. When they are brought close together, they begin pulsing in synchronicity. Another example of the entrainment effect is women who live in the same household often find that their menstrual cycles will coincide.
The entrainment process is quite evident in music. It is possible to have rhythmic entrainment, melodic entrainment and dynamic entrainment. Entrainment music has the potential to (1) resonate with the listener’s feelings, (2) transform negativity into positivity, and (3) promote a state of liveliness or serenity. Certain sounds, in specific sequence can help bring the listener from one place to another.
