Detailed Background of Keynote Presentation:

Presenter: Arden Wilken of INNER SOUND

In this two-hour long presentation, different aspects of sound and music healing will be explained and demonstrated to give the Healing Touch Practitioner greater understanding of how sound and music in general heals and their use as a complement to a Healing Touch session.

Sound and music have been used since the dawn of time to alter mental and emotional states as well as for physical healing. A classic example of this is the Greek mathematician Pythagoras who used music to soothe and heal people in emotional crisis. Modern technology has brought us specific sounds and frequencies that, for example, aid in the treatment of drug addiction by re-activating the production of certain chemicals in the brain. Whether its use has been conscious or not, whether it is ancient or modern, music and sound has had and continues to have great influence over our emotional and physical well being as it can touch the emotions directly and deeply by activating the resonant properties within the human organism.

Sound and energy healing have a common element: although they were used in ancient times, they were lost to the west until recently. With regard to sound healing recent research in the fields of biophysics, biochemistry, psycho-acoustics to name but a few has given us specific information on how sound and music heals and its importance as a regulator of bodily processes and the movement of energy.

Sound enters the body through hearing mechanism and cranial bones and through sympathetic resonance activates the body’s own natural frequencies. Sound travels through the body using the same pathways as the acupuncture meridians, the connective tissue. The connective tissue forms a continuous network into all parts and systems of the body down to a cellular level. Sound waves known as solitons travel at the speed of sound through the body regulating and creating emotional changes as well as all global body processes. The receptors on the cell walls join with the ligands (neurotransmittors, steroids and sex hormones) by vibrating in harmony with the solitons.

It is important to understand that the electrical bonds at a cellular and sub-cellular level in the body must maintain a very delicate balance. This balance in living things must never be too strong or too weak. If it were too strong, we would no longer have the ability to change, regenerate, and grow. If they were too weak, we would simply fall apart. Each cell has its own characteristic frequency. Through resonance a coherent field pattern can cause subtle modifications to these bonds. The coherent field patterns help to organize the bonds in situations where they may otherwise degenerate into chaos, i.e. the death of the cell. These bonds can not be regulated in a static way, therefore, the whole concept of balance is a dynamic one, a kind of elastic dance of expansion and contraction. Music and sound are coherent fields that can create a positive influence on this dynamic balance.

One of the first written references in the Western world to the use of music for therapy is from an ancient Hebrew text. In the Talmud we find mention of an apparatus that caused drops of water to drip continuously on a vessel of metal thereby creating a monotonous buzzing sound that enabled a sick person to sleep and recover. Before this music had had an important healing or spiritual focus in early civilizations, but as part of incantations to specific healing deities or to be at one with the cosmos.

Man’s perception of sound is no coincidence or mere cultural context. We perceive sound based on the laws of physics, our unique physiology and resonant potential. This perception even appeared in primitive man. He was able to perceive intervals. The evidence for this is a bone fragment that has been found with drilled holes that would have functioned as a primitive flute. It is speculated that these holes could be used to play a scale that is common to all cultures throughout history. This scale is known as the pentatonic or 5-tone scale.

The Chinese used sound and music to maintain and create harmony in their civilization. For the individual the creation of health and well being as well as the regulation of emotions was possible through music. Ancient Chinese music did not include the personal expression by composers that is so prevalent in the west. It was focused at maintaining certain standards of harmony and balance.

In our present culture the use of sound in therapy and healing is growing extremely rapidly. Sound therapy/healing emphasizes the use of tones, vibrations or sounds. How the nervous system reacts to sound in music or by itself is a part of sound therapy. Work with the voice to free up the expression is also a part of it. In this field sound is presented as a sequence of tones rather than a complex musical composition. Often non-musical instruments are used to create the sounds such as tuning forks, Tibetan and crystal bowls and electronic tone generators; however, musical instruments can also be used. Also, specific recording techniques and/or headphones have been developed to activate specific parts of the brain to create specific effects. In medicine, for example, explosions of frequencies that duplicate the frequencies of kidney stones are used to dissolve the stones.

INNER SOUND

INNER SOUND is an original system of sound and music therapy that creates either expansion or contraction in different systems of the body helping the individual to release and/or integrate blocked emotions that have become trapped in the body, specifically the connective tissue. These blocked emotions can be the cause of physical, emotional and mental problems or symptoms. The music of Inner Sound can either be used as focused listened with headphones, focused listening while performing specific exercises to enhance the effect of the music, or as background music to accompany other therapies or other activities. INNER SOUND integrates information from the ancient use of sound with modern technologies and research about the body and the mind.

INNER SOUND consists of approximately 50 musical motifs, short melodies with specific rhythmic patterns, developed by Arden Wilken from 1978 to 1985 while composing over 10,000 personal music composition based on the individual’s requested healing theme. Using the appropriate combination of these motifs Arden composed the music on 16 CDs, each with a specific focus on the human organism.

All of the titles and motifs are recorded with special processing called Spectrum Sound Resonance System (SSRS) that creates beneficial effects on the nervous system. SSRS was created specifically to enhance the effects of the music. The use of specific instruments in INNER SOUND focuses the sound or music at separate parts of the body, and based on the relative amplitudes and timing with which the music is played either the expansion/letting go or a contraction/focusing effect mentioned above is created. All of these factors are woven together to create a certain pulse in the music which can be used to activate and balance the vibrations of the body. This activation of these vibrations is paralleled by the activation of hormones and chemicals. A general example of this would be how the low frequency beats typical in rock music activate the adrenal glands and how the endorphins are activated by classical music producing musical thrills. By listening to the music Arden has created for specific themes it is possible to create long-term changes through a process of repatterning the chemistry and frequency of the body.

Suggested reading:

"Measured Tones; the Interplay of Physics and Music" by Ian Johnston. Published by Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol and Philadelphia

"Tuning In" by John Wilkenson.