Vibration is measured in units of hertz (Hz), the same unit in which sound is measured. Humans hear frequencies from 20 Hz up to 20,000 Hz, but that doesn't mean those outside the limits don't affect us. And "when you have two vibrating entities next to each other, the stronger vibration will affect the weaker one; eventually, they'll synchronize. That's basic physics," explains David Perez-Martinez, M.D., an integrative psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and sound healing practitioner. Then there's basic anatomy: "In your ear, there's the vestibulocochlear nerve, which connects to the vagus nerve, the major parasympathetic nerve in the body," says Dr. Perez-Martinez. (Reminder: Your parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for "rest and digest" activities such as reducing stress, lowering blood pressure, and relaxing muscles.) The vagus nerve helps control hormone release, digestion, blood glucose levels, inflammation, heart rate, and blood pressure. "And there's a little branch of the vagus nerve that goes right to the tympanic membrane (also known as the eardrum), which vibrates in response to sound waves. So that means that every sound that you process through your ears sends that information to the vagus nerve," explains Dr. Perez-Martinez. This is significant, because an inactive or blocked vagus can mean bad news for your health, and stimulating it via the right frequencies can help. A recent study on vibroacoustic therapy - when sounds and vibrations are applied directly to the body to penetrate you on a cellular level - found that the practice could be an effective treatment for chronic pain and injury recovery. We all learned in our elementary science classes that everything is made of atoms. Quantum physicists discovered that atoms are made of subatomic particles, which continually vibrate at certain frequencies. In fact, at the quantum level, what we think of as a quantum particle is really that particle’s vibration. Physics carried this to its logical conclusion and found that the entire universe is just a consequence of many infinitely large fields vibrating. Objects aren’t the only things that vibrate. It has been proven that our thoughts and feelings produce energy, which trigger vibrations. Everything vibrates at a different level, including feelings.  Emotions that we consider uncomfortable, or unpleasant, vibrate at relatively low levels. Emotions that most people find pleasant and joyful vibrate at higher levels. For most people, it is easy to express positive emotions like happiness and joy. However, many people don’t want to feel negative emotions, so they stuff them inside. If this is done over years, the lowly vibrating trapped emotions stagnate in the body and cause disease. Brainwaves are directly linked to mental states of consciousness. There are different types of brainwaves: delta, theta, alpha and beta waves.  Relatively slow delta waves are emitted during sleep, faster theta waves are emitted during meditation and beta waves (the fastest) are emitted when we are problem solving or focusing on particular tasks.

Sound waves that correspond to these four types of brain waves are generated when the sound healing practitioner strikes specific bowls. For example, the sound healer uses instruments that produce vibrations corresponding to the brain’s theta waves (4-8 hertz) to induce the positive feelings and healing experienced during meditation.