Surrounded by her collection of 18 gongs and dozens of crystal and brass singing bowls, Jamie Bechtold, 39, caters to a clientele that can’t get enough of good vibrations. In 2015, she opened up a sound-focused wellness space in Eagle Rock, a gentrifying neighborhood just north of Los Angeles, the perennial hub of new age therapies—and lately, business is booming. So to speak.
With major outlets like The New York Times and Vogue endorsing sound baths as “mainstream” and “the new shortcut to Zen,” visibility for the metaphysical health craze may be at its peak. Yet, according to Bechtold, authenticity appears to have taken a backseat to the mania; many are rushing to jump on the bandwagon without a true understanding of how sound healing—which is also called vibrational therapy—actually works.
If you’ve paid a visit to the now-famous Integratron in Joshua Tree National Park, then you are likely already obsessed with sound baths. If not, the idea probably seems pretty straightforward: You lie on the floor, close your eyes, and do absolutely nothing while soothing, slightly primordial sounds swirl around you and lull you into a blissful, deeply relaxed state. Recipients often report a buzzing sensation, or a sense of floating in midair, or even of angels singing directly to them.
Bechtold, a former biologist, is working to remove the air of mystery that surrounds her field. And that starts, she believes, with a better understanding of why we even need sound healing in the first place. “Our bodies are sensitive to frequencies like Wi-Fi signals, traffic, and fluorescent lights,” she explains, “Things that we hear or sometimes don’t hear.” As an antidote, she says “soothing sounds can help retune our nervous system.”
[quote position="left" is_quote="true"]I felt high. There were also points where I couldn’t stop laughing.[/quote]
This sense of being soothed—decreased heart rate, relaxed breathing, deep sense of wellbeing—is something anyone who’s enjoyed a well-administered sound bath can attest to. Some sessions last up to two hours, leaving the recipient revitalized and at peace, like waking up from a warm, wonderful dream. Yet the benefits extend far beyond the afterglow of a good nap. Nor is the practice limited to just Tibetan bowls and gongs. Bells, chimes, rattles, drums, didgeridoos, chanting—and a host of other obscure apparatus and techniques—all equally demonstrate the activating power of sound.
“I describe it like water coming through a pipe,” Bechtold offers. “The sound bumps up against a block, maybe that’s a physical trauma or an emotion. Like in a pipe, first there’s a little pressure there—clients may feel fear, anxiety, anger, or pain. Then I tell them to relax, breathe” and let the sound push them through the experience.
It’s a fitting metaphor for explaining the potency of sound baths and other similar treatments. Sound travels four times faster through water than air, and since the human body is made up of over 70 percent water, the vibrations move through us with surprising alacrity. “Our body is a perfect sound resonator,” writes Donna Carey, one of the founders of Acutonics, a pioneering new form of sound therapy that uses metal tuning forks applied to specific acupuncture points on the body.
According to Carey, a former clinical dean at the Northwestern Health Sciences University Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Program, sound as a healing tool can be traced back to the dawn of civilization. She cites examples reaching far back through history: Ancient Hellenic culture has a record of the flute being played to cure gout. In the Bible, David plays the harp to ease King Saul’s depression. Scientists today speak of an event known as the Big Bang. What was that, she asks, if not one exceptionally fertile sound session?
[quote position="right" is_quote="true"]The unseen healing power of vibrational motion can actually be viewed as a form of kinetic energy.[/quote]
In her curriculum text, which accompanies studies of the tuning forks, Carey goes on to list other ways that sound has been used throughout history to “lift spirits and settle the soul.” Interestingly, this doesn’t always mean the sound is physically heard. Unlike classical or pop music, the experience of sound and vibrational therapy has less to do with listening and more to do with feeling. “The unseen healing power of vibrational motion or sound can actually be viewed as a form of kinetic energy that is measured scientifically as a waveform,” she writes.
If that sounds like a lot to take in, here’s a pretty picture to go with the words. Cymatics, one of the most irrefutable demonstrations of sound’s mystical power, is a relatively undocumented field. It’s defined as the “science of visualizing audio frequencies,” and it relates to the phenomenon of physical matter reorganizing itself into geometric patterns when exposed to certain frequencies. The eerie effect is well documented on YouTube, where videos—like the one below showing grains of salt aligning, as if by magic, into one perfectly symmetrical shape after another—have attracted millions of viewers.
One of the more intriguing aspects of sound healing today is its connection to the cosmos. In Acutonics, the tuning forks used are precision-calibrated to a natural harmonic series that mirrors celestial bodies. In simpler words, the forks are literally tuned to the Earth, the moon, the sun, and other planets. This technology originates from the work of Johannes Kepler, the 17th century German astronomer who discovered the elliptical orbits of planets and studied their velocities. Many years later, in 1978, when Swiss mathematician Hans Cousto was able to translate those planetary orbits into musical tones, a cosmic scale was born.
For example, Cousto claimed that the 24-hour cycle of Earth rotating on its axis corresponds to a frequency of 194.18 Hz (roughly equivalent to the musical note G). In turn, these sounds hold different therapeutic properties when played; Earth’s frequency is said to be grounding and balancing, while the sound of the sun transfers a bright, demanding energy.
[quote position="full" is_quote="true"]We would sing back to back, then rub our hands together and hold them out to feel the energy we were creating.[/quote]
Such astronomical claims aren’t exactly verifiable. Still, for some, sensory perception is all the proof they need. Nora Logan, 30, witnessed these effects firsthand, when she walked into a sound meditation one day at Naam Yoga in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “There were about 150 people in this big room, all chanting together,” she describes. “We would sing back-to-back, then rub our hands together and hold them out, facing each other, to feel the energy we were creating.” The intense chanting—itself a deeply vibrational act—proved so overwhelming (“I felt high,” Logan recalls) that at one point, she had to leave the room because she was uncontrollably crying. “But,” she adds, “there were also points where I couldn’t stop laughing.”
But Bechtold isn’t so quick to buy into this. Even though she herself uses gongs labeled “Saturn” and “asteroid belt,” she finds the terminology misleading. “There’s no actual proof that these sounds (correspond to) the elliptical orbit of these planets. At least, I can’t find anything that says so.” Instead, she offers her clients a wider picture, stating simply that the frequencies “connect us to the energies of planets.”
“Don’t try to solve it or figure it out,” Bechtold says. For her, even if we may never know exactly why the vibrations help us through trauma, somehow “the sound helps move it along” eventually. Scientific precision was never the point.
Why do some folks use social media but don't engage?
Psychologist says people who never comment on social media share these 5 positive traits
For over 20 years, social media has developed into a staple in many people’s day-to-day lives. Whether it’s to keep in communication with friends and family, following the thoughts of celebrities, or watching cat videos while sipping your morning coffee, there seem to be two types of social media users: commenters and lurkers.
The term “lurker” sounds equally mysterious and insidious, with some social media users writing them off as non-participants at best or voyeurs at worst. However, mindfulness expert Lachlan Brown believes these non-commenters have some very psychologically positive and healthy traits. Let’s take a look at how each one of these traits could be beneficial and see how fruitful lurking might be even though it can drive content creators crazy.
1. Cautious about vulnerability
Consciously or not, making a post online or commenting on one puts you and your words out there. It’s a statement that everyone can see, even if it’s as simple as clicking “like.” Doing so opens yourself up to judgment, with all the good, bad, and potential misinterpretation that comes with it. Non-commenters would rather not open themselves up to that.
These silent users are connected to a concept of self-protection by simply not engaging. By just scrolling past posts or just reading/watching them without commentary, they’re preventing themselves from any downsides of sharing an opinion such as rejection, misunderstanding, or embarrassment. They also have more control on how much of themselves they’re willing to reveal to the general public, and tend to be more open face-to-face or during one-on-one/one-on-few private chats or DMs. This can be seen as a healthy boundary and prevents unnecessary exposure.
Considering many comment sections, especially involving political topics, are meant to stir negative emotional responses to increase engagement, being extra mindful about where, when, and what you comment might not be a bad idea. They might not even take the engagement bait at all. Or if they see a friend of theirs post something vulnerable, they feel more motivated to engage with them personally one-on-one rather than use social media to publicly check in on them.
2. Analytical and reflective mindset
How many times have you gone onto Reddit, YouTube, or any other site and just skimmed past comments that are just different versions of “yes, and,” “no, but,” or “yes, but”? Or the ever insightful, formerly popular comment “First!” in a thread? These silent browsers lean against adding to such noise unless they have some valid and thoughtful contribution (if they bother to comment period).
These non-posters are likely wired on reflective thinking rather than their initial intuition. Not to say that all those who comment aren’t thoughtful, but many tend to react quickly and comment based on their initial feelings rather than absorbing the information, thinking it over, researching or testing their belief, and then posting it. For "lurkers," it could by their very nature to just do all of that and not post it at all, or share their thoughts and findings privately with a friend. All in all, it’s a preference of substance over speed.
3. High sense of self-awareness
Carried over from the first two listed traits, these silent social media users incorporate their concern over their vulnerability and their reflective mindset into digital self-awareness. They know what triggers responses out of them and what causes them to engage in impulsive behavior. It could be that they have engaged with a troll in the past and felt foolish. Or that they just felt sad after a post or got into an unnecessary argument that impacted them offline. By knowing themselves and seeing what’s being discussed, they choose to weigh their words carefully or just not participate at all. It’s a form of self-preservation through restraint.
4. Prefer to observe rather than perform
Some folks treat social media as information, entertainment, or a mix of both, and commenting can feel like they’re yelling at the TV, clapping alone in a movie theater when the credits roll, or yelling “That’s not true!” to a news anchor that will never hear them. But contrary to that, social media is a place where those yells, claps, and accusations can be seen and get a response. By its design, social media is considered by experts and the media as performative, regardless of whether it is positive or negative. Taking all of the previously mentioned traits into account, one can see why they would prefer to “observe the play” rather than get up on the stage of Facebook or X.
On top of that, these non-commenters could be using social media differently than those who choose to fully engage with it. Using this type of navigation, there may be nothing for them to comment about. Some commenters are even vying for this for their mental health. There are articles about how to better curate your social media feeds and manipulate algorithms to create a better social media experience to avoid unnecessary conflict or mentally tiring debate.
If you go on a blocking spree on all of your accounts and just follow the posters that boost you, it could turn your social media into a nice part of your routine as you mainly engage with others face-to-face or privately. In terms of commenting, if your curated Instagram is just following cute dogs and all you have to offer for a comment is “cute dog,” you might just enjoy the picture and then move on with your day rather than join in the noise. These non-commenters aren’t in the show and they’re fine with it.
5. Less motivated by social validation
The last trait that Brown showcases is that social media users who browse without posting tend to be independent from external validation, at least online. Social media is built to grow through feedback loops such as awarding likes, shares, and reposts of your content along with notifications letting you know that a new person follows you or wants to connect. This can lead many people to connect their activity on social media with their sense of self worth, especially with adolescents who are still figuring out their place in the world and have still-developing brains.
Engaging in social media via likes, shares, comments, and posts rewards our brains by having them release dopamine, which makes us feel good and can easily become addictive. For whatever reason, non-commenters don’t rely on social media as a means to gauge their social capital or self worth. This doesn’t make them better than those who do. While some non-commenters could have healthier ways to boost their self worth or release dopamine into their systems, many get that validation from equally unhealthy sources offline. That said, many non-commenters’ silence could be a display of independence and self confidence.
Whether you frequently comment online or don’t, it’s good to understand why you do or don’t. Analyzing your habits can help you determine whether your online engagement is healthy, or needs to be tweaked. With that information, you can then create a healthy social media experience that works for you.