REASON AND DREAM

(est. 2021) explores the intersections of technology, culture, and human experience. From urban phenomena and digital spirituality to the evolving landscapes of creativity, we investigate how modern life reshapes perception, identity, and society.

  SUBSCRIBE    


Cassandra Myrren  #12 — 6 min read


Sonic Immunity: Healing Through Frequencies

2023

AI-Generated Content


In the unrelenting hum of our age — the low electrical thrum of machines, the infinite hiss of data moving invisibly between us — it has become easy to forget that sound is not only noise. It is architecture, medicine, weapon. Somewhere between the rhythmic chants of prehistory and the algorithmically generated soundscapes of the present lies an ancient knowledge: that frequencies can alter the body, cleanse the mind, and reconfigure the self.

I have seen it in temples where monks chant at a pitch so low it feels as though the walls themselves inhale with you. I have felt it in hospital corridors where soft harmonic drones replace the mechanical beep of machines, slowing heart rates without pharmaceuticals. The body is a resonant chamber, a cathedral of fluid and bone, vibrating in response to the sonic fields it inhabits.

Science, in its hesitant vocabulary, calls this vibroacoustic therapy. But the language is insufficient; it misses the intimacy. The way a single sustained note can loosen the clenched muscles of grief. The way an overtone, perfectly tuned, can feel like forgiveness. In the work of 20th-century pioneers like Alfred Tomatis, sound was treated as both diagnostic and restorative — a way to "retune" the nervous system itself.

We now know that specific frequencies stimulate different cellular processes. At 40 Hz, gamma waves appear to boost memory and cognitive function. Lower ranges, between 1–8 Hz, can guide the brain into deep meditative states, mirroring the calm found in centuries-old ritual drumming. Yet this is not merely biology — it is cosmology. In certain Sufi traditions, sound is the bridge between the temporal and the divine. In Navajo healing ceremonies, songs are not performance, but intervention: acts of restoring harmony to the universe.

The danger, of course, is that in our era of commodified wellness, this knowledge is being stripped of context and sold in pixelated packages. YouTube playlists promising “miracle healing” with 432 Hz tones are a symptom of our shallow hunger for shortcuts. Frequency becomes product, divorced from the intention and community that once gave it power.

If we wish to speak of sonic immunity, we must go deeper. This is not about curating a soundtrack for relaxation. It is about reclaiming a discipline that understands the body not as a machine, but as a listening field — one that can be tuned, strengthened, and made whole through the precision of resonance. It is about entering the sound, allowing it to enter you, and knowing that healing is not in the ear but in the entire vibrating self.



References
  • Ansdell, G. (2014). How Music Helps in Music Therapy and Everyday Life. Routledge.
  • Becker, J. (2004). Deep Listeners: Music, Emotion, and Trancing. Indiana University Press.
  • Goldsby, T. L. (2018). Acoustic Resonance in Human Cells: A Mechanistic Hypothesis. Journal of Integrative Medicine.
  • Goodman, F. D. (1990). Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences. Indiana University Press.
  • Tomatis, A. (1991). The Conscious Ear: My Life of Transformation Through Listening. Station Hill Press.