Music as a healer. 

                           Analogue sound recordings versus digital.

Through eons of time, music, song and chant have always been used to heal.Music is one of the great healers, and throughout recorded history the shaman, the priests, the Greeks, the Hebrews and all the indigenous peoples of the world have recognised the deep healing benefits of music, chant, and song.

 Since the advent of computers and binary language, music has been recorded in binary form or digital eg.01010011010, a series of ones and zeros.

Those of us that can remember vinyls,turntables,etc music and song was recorded in an analogue format.Analogue sound is recorded in a wave form onto vinyl or magnetic tape.To record it onto a CD or DVD, it is converted into binary language i.e. digitalized.

 It is in this process of digitalization that something is ‘lost.’

 Over a number of years I’ve when working with musicians they say something is ‘missing’ in a digitalized recording.They use phrases like “a depth is lost”,”a relaxing quality is missing”,’a warmth is lost”,digital recordings are “cold” “empty” “a richness is missing.”

Children are especially aware of this, they know instinctively what’s “good” for them.(Sadly there is a whole generation of children/young adults who have never experienced analogue sound, having only listened to digitalized sound).

As a Chiropractor and Applied Kinesiologist(AK) I use a very subtle form of the standard AK muscle test to evaluate the neural network and also  the Chi energy that runs through the Chinese meridian system.

This is the system of evaluation I use to determine the benefits or not of digital/analogue sound.The muscle would show to be inhibited(“weak”) if the recorded music was detrimental to the listener.

Sound is not just heard by the ears as music, it is also”felt”by the body, via the Chinese meridian system.For example, if you listened to an analogue sound recording of a Beethoven symphony (a composer of deep love and compassion) conducted by Furtwangler(a deeply loving human being) it will immediately lift up your Chi energy, de-stress the meridian and neurological systems and you will feel more content and relaxed.It will be an excellent therapy for you, as music should be.Play a digitalized recording of the same music and it will not have the same beneficial affect!

Sound engineers are aware of this problem and have identified it in the pulse code modulation(PCM).One for the more technical among you!

I know its not the answer to replace all our CD’s for vinyl, yet all is not lost.I have found it of therapeutic value to use rose quartz crystals, air ionisers and green plants around tv sets, cd players etc.Singing along to the music helps.Making your own music, take singing lessons, learn to play a musical instrument all are of great benefit in counter acting modern stress. 

The above graph illustrates the difference between analogue sound recordings and digital sound recordings. The red line is a waveform of analogue and the angular,sharp,box like edges are the digital recordings.