In the past few years, alternative treatments have become increasingly popular in the healthcare space. Many traditional healing practices have begun to be accepted as viable forms of medicine. Psychedelic treatment has taken the spotlight as the most promising alternative healing modality, and for good reason. Magic mushrooms, MDMA, ketamine, and DMT have shown incredible potential for treating issues including PTSD, depression, anxiety, and addiction.
What there was a tool to magnify the positive benefits of these treatments? Well, there is!
Sound healing, like the use of psychedelic medicines, is an ancient healing modality that’s validity has now been proven through modern science. The big finding in recent research into psychedelic compounds is that they increase the capacity for neuroplasticity which helps rewire the connections in the brain and overcome mental illness. Sound therapy also targets brain waves to change the state of mind and increase wellness.
The brain is composed of neurons that send off electrical signals to each other called brain waves. The brain produces five different brain waves associated with different states of mind. For example, Delta waves are associated with relaxation and sleep.
Psychedelic treatment has the power to restructure the brain!
Neuroplasticity refers to the ability to change neurological patterns. A traumatic experience is one common instance in which these patterns change. When safety is threatened, it causes parts of the brain which are associated with what is commonly known as “fight or flight mode” to become active. Essentially, the chemistry of the brain changes in an attempt to protect one’s self from the dangerous situation. The problem, however, is that these pathways continue to fire even once physical safety is found. When someone experiences trauma that causes changes in their neural networks, it can have effects on thought, emotion, and behavior.
Psychedelic treatment helps people begin to consciously change these patterns so that they can overcome undesired habits– sound can do the same thing. Sound causes what scientists call rhythms of the brain. This means that the sensory input from sound causes a significant amount of neurons in the brain to fire simultaneously. The more that the desired neural pathways are fired, the more they will continue to fire that way in the future. That makes sounds an incredibly powerful tool in reshaping the brain. Sound healing has become increasingly popular due to these findings.
You may have heard of binaural beats over the last couple of years. This sound tool uses sound in the frequency of brain waves to stimulate different reactions, like sleepiness, relaxation, or focus– to name a few. In addition to binaural beats, many different sound tools can help facilitate changes in the brain and promote wellness.
Common sound healing practices include Himalayan and crystal singing bowls, vibrational sound, tuning forks, and music. These tools create a wide range of frequencies that correspond to brain waves and influence neuroactivity. Manipulation of sound can be used to target specific brain waves to decrease anxiety, produce flow states, increase creativity, or aid in sleep.
Two are better than one!
Since psychedelics and sound both target changes in the neural patterns to help heal mental health issues, why not use them together? The power of two amazing tools working together is incredibly stronger than one! Sound healing can increase the benefits of psychedelic treatments by incorporating it into the initial treatment session and the integration process.
Using sound healing modalities, like solfeggio frequencies and sound baths would help increase the rewiring of neuropathways during a psychedelic trip. Perhaps even more important, is the role that it could play in helping people integrate their experience to help maintain the positive benefits for months, even years after the initial experience.
The amazing thing about psychedelic medicines is that they do not need to be consumed regularly. Recent studies have shown significant improvement in depression symptoms from just one psilocybin session. However, it is important to continue working to reinforce the new neural pathways. This has been a big discussion in the psychedelic medical industry recently. The main proposed solution is using traditional therapy. This is a great start, but there are many more tools that can help reinforce these new patterns, none more viable than sound therapy.
In addition to continuing to stimulate positive brain wave patterns, sound recall is an incredible tool to help reinforce the new neural pathways developed by using psychedelics.
Sound has links to memory recall during psychedelic treatment
Sound has a strong ability to bring up memories and nostalgia. On a neurological level, nostalgia happens when the brain returns to the state that it was in at a previous point in time. So, when listening to the same sounds that were heard during a trip, the brain will begin to fire in the same patterns. The more these neural pathways are in use, the more they will become habitual, resulting in lasting relief from depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms.
The use of sound healing in tandem with psychedelics has the power to change the brain and heal mental illness. The time for sound healing to be integrated into psychedelic treatment is now.
