Over the past couple of months, I’ve experienced the healing effects of crystal singing bowl sound healing and other forms of sound baths.

This might sound like a new-agey and “woo-woo” wellness trend, but it’s actually been around for thousands of years and is supported by science.

Sound healing and music therapy have a deep history — indigenous societies around the world have been using sound in healing ceremonies for decades, and sound is used in everything from advertisements to retail stores to movies to evoke emotions and induce actions.

Everything Vibrates. Including You.

Everything that moves vibrates. Every vibration emits a sound.

Every atom, molecule, cell, gland, and organ of the human body absorbs and emits sound. You are a walking, breathing, vibration machine. You produce sound even when you aren’t making any noise.

Humans can generally hear sound vibrations between 20–20,000 Hz, although we hear sounds best from 1,000–5,000 Hz, where human speech is centered.

We take in sound not only through our ears, but through our whole body, ingesting it through skin and bone conduction, feeling the vibrations.

The Effects of Sounds and Vibrations on Our Systems

Sound is an essential part of our environment, and one that we may not pay enough attention to.

We feel the effects of sounds even when we cannot hear them.

Some sounds and vibrations produce dis-ease within us by agitating the sympathetic nervous system, also known as the fight-or-flight response.

You can feel sound in the shaking of a city sidewalk as a subway rumbles underground. In the slam of a door. In the rumble of helicopters and planes flying overhead. The wail of sirens and the blaring of horns. The clanging of pots in the kitchen. The pulsing of a jackhammer on a city sidewalk.

You also can feel the vibration an argument in the next room, a conversation at the table next to yours in a restaurant, the bass of the music at the party a few doors below your apartment.

Other sounds activate the parasympathetic nervous system, creating inner harmony and feelings of peace. The steady pulse of ocean waves. A soft summer rain. The hush of a winter snowfall. Walking barefoot on sand. Leaves rustling in a light breeze.

Studies show that sound can produce changes in the autonomic, immune, endocrine, and neuropeptide systems.

How Sound Healing Works

Sound healing is increasingly used to address everything from mental and emotional health issues to cancer.

I’m the type of person who likes to know how something works. So I read about it. Then I took a workshop to learn about crystal singing bowls.

But the best way to learn about how sound healing works is to experience it for yourself. That’s what I did, and I encourage you to do the same.

Turn the concept into embodied knowledge by going to a sound healing experience. Once you do that, you’ll realize that “how it works” is really not relevant. You’ll feel the effects.

Have you experienced sound healing? Or are you skeptical and hesitant to check it out? Please share your experiences or skepticism in the comments!