WHAT IS SOUND THERAPY? 
By Aeoliah, Recording Artist, Sound Therapist, Author 

     "In our present culture, there is such a strong emphasis on mental pursuits, overachievement through competition in a driven and mentally-overactive challenging world where selling predominates, where faster is better, and the constant pressure to achieve & 'perform' and out-do in a competitive market, taxes our nerves and our emotions, affecting the health of our body and mind. Being constantly bombarded by the media with fast-action images and sounds being aggressively projected to get our attention, eventually we begin to desensitize, as our nervous system takes the toll. Our breathing becomes shallower, our blood pressure rises, and eventually we seek ways in which we can escape from the frantic and chaotic stimulus that surrounds us daily. When the mind is overburdened with busy thoughts and continuous distractions, it becomes overloaded, and eventually overwhelmed with the daily challenges that contribute to stress. If we do not learn how to balance our mind, and emotions, the body will suffer the consequences. Now how does all this relate to music? 

     "Music used effectively as sound therapy provides the emotional content necessary to rebalance and fine-tune the overload of sensory input and stimuli we are bombarded with daily." 

     There are basically two forms of energy in our universe;- light and sound. Both have the power to create or destroy. Depending on the intention, clarity, and personal development of the composer, music can be one of the most powerful tools to restore harmony, peace, and balance to our beings. When music is created consciously with the intention of bringing healing, inspiration, harmony, and beauty into form, it has a much more positive and profound effect on the listener. Now let's take into account the sounds that we hear daily: barking dogs, trains, traffic, sirens, telephone rings, garbage trucks, computers, printers, TV, radios, our own thoughts, and many other sounds that we just take for granted. When we suddenly remove ourselves from these sounds, and enter a sanctuary of silence, everything around us changes instantly, and we are able to connect more to our inner world. Gradually we feel more recharged, and more connected. Now we slip in a CD disk of soft beautiful music and we begin to notice how this begins to shift our thoughts, our breathing becomes deeper, as we begin to relax and let go of anxiety, tension, & stress. 

     For over 20 years, I have studied the effect that different sounds and music have on the nervous system. There is a lot of frantic music out there that jars the nerves. There have been studies made on plants where they were subjected to various kinds of music for a prolonged period of time. Several plants in an isolated room were played the music of Mozart, and in another isolated room, were plants that were played heavy metal rock and roll music. Within a few days, the plants who heard the Mozart music were healthy looking and erect, while the plants that were subjected to the heavy metal music, were droopy looking wilted, and almost life-less. If you can imagine that the human body and nervous system is such a sensitive instrument, how do you think all the sound pollution and pressure we are subjected to daily is affecting our bodies, emotions, and nerves? Through the years, I have distributed various music to thousands of people to test the effect it had on them. This gave me a more clear idea of the kind of tones, waveforms, and harmonics to incorporate into my music to make it more effective as a therapeutic tool as well as a sonically beautiful and pleasing experience. 

     I have developed a special system of harmonic overtones in my music that correspond to different parts of the body and brain, helping greatly to reduce stress and imbalance in the body and nervous system. I find that this kind of music has a very soothing effect on the mind and body, giving the listener a chance to reconnect more with their own inner self. To me, this is what makes the music therapeutic….if it doesn't have a positive, balancing effect on the mind, body, and emotions, it is only fluff, filling the space with sound that is more superficial, and decorative. However music that is specially created and designed by a professional sound therapist and composer, creates a space for the client or listener to connect with their own inner resource more deeply. It's much like a form of yoga, which means union with one's self and the universe. Union creates harmony, peace and a deeper sense of connectedness. 

     After years of sound research, and composing over fifteen musical recordings, I was able to create and perfect a very specialized music that is the quickest and most effective form of sound therapy not only to de-stress, but to revitalize, harmonize, and rebalance our energy system mentally, emotionally and physically. I was starting to get letters from hospitals, clinics, chiropractors, yoga teachers, massage therapists, wellness centers, spas, and many people in general stating how much this music was helping them in ways they have never experienced music before. Not only did they love the music, but it also touched their very inner core. 

     I normally do not like to discuss the music I compose, because on a certain level, it is quite personal. However as a sound therapist and composer, I do know that sound therapy plays a most important role in our well-being. It allows us to feel, to dream, to express our emotions, to surrender, to shed tears, to experience our own healing process without getting trapped in the intellectual analysis of this process. At this intuitive, experiential level, we no longer require interpretations or explanations. As we begin to flow with the music, we begin to slowly release control of the reactive mind and ego. This process creates a state of surrender that is effortless, as we flow deeper with the music, mundane thoughts and our analytical mental process begin to dissolve…creating a deeper state of sublime relaxation and well-being. This is what is known as letting the 'chi' or life-force energy expand in our bodies. As this attunement process continues to expand the universal life energy within us, it becomes progressively integrated into the listener's subconscious. The music acts as a tuning fork, guiding us into more refined states of harmony, balance, and bliss. This helps the nervous system and brain to rebalance its polarity, where the right and left brain and body are more in-sync with one another. 

     "Pure sound therapy at its best is music that helps us to refocus our attention on more positive thought forms by reducing high levels of stress and tension in our bodies and minds, harmonizing our emotions, and by increasing the universal life force essence, also known by the ancient Chinese as 'Chi'. This helps to enhance the function of our immune system and to rebalance our endocrine system. It also helps to enrich our feelings and thoughts with a greater ability to respond to life in a more clear and positive way. It helps shift our attention from the mundane world of habits, addictions, and conditioned behavior which have become limited and constricted, to a world of inspiration, beauty, harmony and love.