Chapter 8: Good Vibrations

Though the Beach Boys are best known as a ‘60s surfer band, they were also pretty good biotherapists. Ohh, ohh, yeah, we still feel those “Good Vibrations.”

Unfortunately, however, we can also feel not-so-good vibrations. Whatever their nature, we constantly sense vibrations all around us. This is neither musical hype nor metaphysical mumbo jumbo; it’s quite literally true, and is increasingly borne out by cutting-edge science. Why are these findings important? At worst, they can dramatically alleviate stress; at best, they help prevent it altogether.

You might say that life is a “moving” experience. At the subatomic level, everything is in motion, like an amusement park full of thrilling rides, with subatomic elements constantly whizzing around at incomprehensible speeds and performing feats that once defied logic as we knew it. Quantum physics has had to rush new terms and concepts into play to describe events that refuse to accommodate themselves to standard Newtonian physics. In this chapter, we explore how some of these bold new scientific concepts play out in music, words, and even in the human heart.

The Sound of Music

Music is known to have properties that enhance learning and alter moods. The “mind-alert/body-relaxed” use of music, pioneered by Bulgarian psychiatrist Georgi Lozanov, uses rhythm to slow down bodily functions and high frequencies to charge the brain. Indeed, music has long been used by casual listeners and health-care professionals alike to calm nerves and experience the pleasure of sound. But just as there is the beauty of a favorite soft and gentle melody, there is also the screeching of fingernails on the blackboard or the thundering of a jackhammer on the pavement just feet from your ears. The fact is that sound can be either greatly empowering or highly toxic depending on how it’s used. This is why we do workshops focused solely on what we call the purposeful use of music.

Psychoacoustics

French physician and psychologist Alfred Tomatis, called by some the “Einstein of the ear,” was an early pioneer in the development of psychoacoustics--the study of the effects of sound on the central nervous system. Working through much of the latter half of the 20th century, Tomatis discovered that sound is actually a neurological nutrient that charges the neocortex of the brain.1 We can, of course, survive without these sounds, but with them, our higher-order thinking skills become greatly enhanced; conversely, Tomatis discovered, other kinds of sounds can damage or discharge energy from the body.

What distinguishes healthful sounds from unhealthful ones? One of the most critical considerations is the rate or frequency at which the sound vibrates. Because sound is carried on waves, the vibration of sound is measured by determining the speed of one sound wave or cycle per second. This unit of measurement is known as a hertz. The musical note A, for example, vibrates at a frequency of 440 cycles per second, or 440 hertz. The normal range of hearing for humans is generally between 20 and 20,000 hertz, although some people can hear above 20,000 hertz, as can many animals, including dogs, dolphins, alligators, and elephants.

Everything physical – from people to the earth itself – has a frequency at which it most naturally vibrates. This is its resonant frequency. When we hear sounds that do not resonate with us, we get a sense of vague discomfort on one extreme to outright illness on the other. So what are the sounds that our brains thrive on? What exactly are those vibrations? According to the research of Dr. Tomatis, they include higher frequencies of sound: Eighty percent of the neuroreceptors for sound respond only to frequencies above 3,000 hertz, and one-third of the charge that the ear supplies to the brain comes from these frequencies. Tomatis discovered that frequencies above 8,000 hertz provide enormous neurological benefit to the brain. To put this into some perspective, consider that typical human conversation ranges between 750 and 3,000 hertz.2 Optimal frequencies for charging the neocortex, then, are well above what we hear in our usual working day.

Ranges of human hearing influence different areas of our lives. Low frequencies – from 125 to 750 hertz – greatly influence the vestibular system and, therefore, have the greatest impact on the body. Human languages usually operate at midrange frequencies – 750 to 4,000 hertz – although some use frequencies up to 12,000 hertz.3

Unfortunately, we live in a world that is largely unaware of the power of sound. Have you heard cars rolling down the street with the bass turned up loud enough to stun small animals a hundred yards away? Our friend Joshua Leeds, one of the most knowledgeable and dynamic presenters we’ve encountered on the topic of psychoacoustics, calls such bass-heavy music “sonic Valium.” This is because extended exposure to loud bass sounds tends to discharge cerebral energy, thereby dulling the physical senses. “In areas like inner cities,” Joshua recently told us, “kids want sound that will chill them out. Heavy bass does that.” Joshua’s concern for what he calls secondhand sound has led to the forefront of a new movement called “sonic activism.”

“It really is time to deal with second-hand sound in much the same way that we’ve come to deal with second-hand smoke,” Joshua told us. “I urge people to reclaim their sound space. People should determine for themselves what sounds are healthy and pleasing to them. There are just too many other people out there impacting my nervous system with sound. We live in a culture that’s been filled with garbage noise, all kinds of unhealthy sound stimuli. Sound becomes empowering or not as we consciously use it or fail to. It’s time for us to control how we take in sound as a nutrient.”4

When we consult with schools about their music use, one of the first things we do is to check music playback systems everywhere in the building. The bass is almost always far heavier than it should be. Keeping the bass in proper balance is critically important to prevent physical burnout, especially for teachers who have music playing most of the school day (and perhaps continue to listen to it on their own time). Likewise, it’s important to keep the upper frequencies turned up as high as the playback system will allow while still keeping the music pleasant. Reaching this balance often requires outside ears, because most people’s sense of sonic balance itself is out of optimal balance; few people realize how toxic their listening habits have become. (There are a number of psychoacousticians available for consultation, though they can be hard to locate. Readers interested in contacting such a professional may contact the authors.) Because we’re both musicians as well as educational consultants, we’re constantly asked by teachers, “What music should we play in the classroom?” This question is often posed with trepidation. Many educators fear a tense showdown with students (or even with each other) over issues of personal musical taste or cultural preference. We’re always delighted to be able to completely defuse that concern. The answer gracefully skirts all such issues, because it has to do almost entirely with psychoacoustics.

Any music that provides optimal neurological nutrients is acceptable in the classroom. Ideally, that means music recorded, mixed, and mastered with a high percentage of high acoustic frequencies and played with the best frequency balance possible. Interestingly, music tends to self-organize by broad categories when considered from a psychoacoustics perspective; for example, classical music is generally more healthful sonically than are many forms of contemporary popular music.

Even governmental agencies have come to realize the significance of psychoacoustics and have used their properties to remarkable benefit. The city of Vallejo, California, attracted international attention in the winter of 2001 when it started playing certain kinds of music over speakers in high petty-crime districts. The crime rate in these areas plummeted dramatically – “some 25 to 40 percent at the bus transfer station,” according to Mark Mazzaferro, public information officer for the city. “We saw similar programs used successfully in New York, Montreal, and Boston, so we decided to give it a try here. At the bus station, the only thing that changed was the music.” The program cost all of about $200 per site. “We just went down to Target and bought a CD player, speakers, and CDs,” Mazzaferro told us. “It was enough to do the job.” People whose ears are psychoacoustically accustomed to particular musical properties have a very hard time tolerating sound that does not match those properties.

Listening habits can of course be changed, and there are numerous programs designed to do just that. Such programs can recondition the ears, first to discern the higher, healthier frequencies, and then to listen to them enjoyably. Some of these programs have demonstrated astonishing benefits for people suffering from a huge range of difficulties, from severe depression to autism. In our experience, the best of these is the Listening Program from Advanced Brain Technologies.5

The Sound of Money

The power of psychoacoustics has not gone unnoticed in the entertainment industry. Not long ago at a conference in New Orleans, we went into a major casino to have lunch. The first thing we heard was the sound of countless rows of slot machines all chiming in a very specific musical interval – that of an open fifth. This particular interval played with constant repetition, as happens in a casino, easily captures the attention of the ear and can be very hypnotic. Every time someone won at a given machine, that machine added another note – a major third – which combined with the open fifth to create a pleasant-sounding, full chord of music. It seemed like the machine was chiming in to help celebrate the gambler’s good fortune!

But the truly astonishing part of this experience occurred when we went into the casino dining room, just beyond the main slot machine area. We could still hear the machines hypnotically chiming away, but now there were also pop songs being played over the dining room sound system. Lou thought, “Well, this is going to be interesting. Surely some of these songs are going to conflict sonically with the sound of the slot machines.” But none of them did. Why? Because every song played was either in the same (or closely related) key as the slot machines. (Each was either in the same major key or in its relative minor.) The entire time we were there, not one song was played that didn’t musically match the slot machines.

The tempo of the songs in the casino dining room also changed in interesting ways. The most relaxing tempo is considered by many to be 60 beats per minute – roughly the pulse of the adult human heart at rest. Most of the casino music was between 54 and 70 beats per minute, but only for a certain length of time; the casino wanted people to feel relaxed, but not for long enough to quit gambling. So after about 35 minutes, the tempo increased to between 80 and 124 beats per minute – still a very pleasing range, but obviously more upbeat. Musically we were being gently prodded to leave the all-you-can-eat buffet and get back to the slot machines.

The Sound of Words

When listening to music, exchanges between Lou and Lynell often go something like this:

Lynell: “Weren’t those beautiful lyrics?”
Lou: “The song had words?”
Lou feels the power of songs primarily in the melody; Lynell sees the melody more as a vehicle to carry the words.

The combination of words and music can be very powerful and sometimes playful. To get a good sense of how power and play can work together, consider the country song. Some of the most colorful expressions to have ever emerged in the English language are in that unique musical genre, as is evident by the song titles in Figure 8.1

Pause and Apply 8.1

This makes a great group activity for adults or intermediate or high school students. Have each group of 3-6 participants choose any

12-15 titles from the actual songs listed below. Their assignment is to use the words in those titles to create a story in letter, poem, or narrative style. They can use partial titles, and they can add up to 20 connector words. The final composition must be between 100 and 125 words. Each small group will have the opportunity to present its work to the large group.

The left-hand column is provided to reorder the titles (manually, or by using the Sort function in your word processor).

Song Titles

1. All My Exes Live In Texas
2. Am I Double-Parked by the Curbstone of Your Heart?
3. Billy Broke My Heart at Walgreens, and I Cried All the Way to Sears
4. Bubba’s Inconvenience Store
5. Don’t Believe My Heart Can Stand Another You
6. Don’t Strike A Match (To The Book Of Love)
7. Guess My Eyes Were Bigger Than My Heart
8. Here’s A Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)
9. High Cost of Low Living
10. How Can I Miss You if You Won’t Go Away?
11. How Can You Believe Me When I Say I Love You, When You Know I’ve Been A Liar All My Life?
12. How Come Your Dog Don’t Bite Nobody But Me?
13. I Bought the Shoes that Just Walked Out on Me
14. I Don’t Do Floors
15. I Don’t Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling
16. I Fell for Her, She Fell for Him, and He Fell for Me
17. I Gave Her My Heart and a Diamond, and She Clubbed Me With a Spade
18. I Got Through Everything But The Door
19. I Guess I Had Your Leavin’ Coming
20. I Keep Forgettin’ I Forgot About You
21. I Sent Her Artificial Flowers For Her Artificial Love
22. I Would Have Wrote You a Letter, But I Couldn’t Spell Yuck!
23. If Love Were Oil, I’d Be A Quart Low
24. If She Hadn’t Been So Good Lookin’, I Might Have Seen the Train
25. I’m Just A Bug On The Windshield Of Life
26. Is It Cold in Here, or Is it Just You?
27. My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, And I Sure Do Miss Him
28. Occasional Wife
29. Overlonely and Underkissed
30. Redneck Martians Stole My Baby
31. Refried Dreams
32. She Made Toothpicks Out of the Timber of My Heart
33. The Pint of No Return
34. They May Put Me In Prison, But They Can’t Stop My Face From Breakin’ Out
35. Train Wreck Of Emotion
36. Walk Out Backwards Slowly So I’ll Think You’re Walking In
37. You Can’t Have Your Kate And Edith Too
38. You Done Stomped On my Heart (and You Mashed That Sucker Flat)
39. You Were Only a Splinter as I Slid Down The Banister Of Life
40. You’re Out of Step (With The Beat of My Heart)

Our Song

Music has a way of attaching itself to emotional events in our lives. Hearing the song that played during your first slow dance, for instance, or selections from your wedding, can almost instantly transport you back to the special time you heard them and to the emotions you felt at that time.
Advertisers are acutely aware of this phenomenon and select music accordingly. As Tom Mucciolo revealed in his dynamic session at the 2002 Presentations Conference, advertising campaigns often will decide on a target audience and, to create nostalgia, incorporate hit music from when that “demographic” was 15 years old. Pay attention to television ads, particularly those that use a nostalgia-evoking sepia tint.6 If you recognize the music, you are the target audience! We can get mad at advertisers who manipulate us, or we can gladly adopt their most effective techniques to achieve our own objectives. In this case, we can remember songs that made us happy, and we can create new associations and build up an invaluable collection of instant mood elevators – giving new meaning to the term “elevator music.”

Pause and Apply 8.2

Make a list of songs with memorable lyrics that touch your heart. Try to remember the situation or event with which you associate each song. Pause to savor the memory.

Words That Hurt

The old saying “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me” has finally proven untrue. According to the Journal of Women’s Health and Gender-Based Medicine, words can be very painful indeed.

The department of anthropology at the University of Connecticut studied the emotional state of a group of working women of different cultural backgrounds. The study found that those women who were routinely subjected to insults and demeaning remarks were 85 times more likely to be clinically depressed than those who were spoken to favorably and with encouragement.8.

If you are currently working in a classroom, try displaying the words “Kindness spoken here” atop the entry door. Consider writing those words in every language spoken by your students.

And Now a Word from Your Biggest Critic

Who is the most critical person in your life? Your mother? Father? Older sibling? Boss? Spouse? Kids? All of the above? Use the two columns in Figure 8.3 to tally all the criticism you receive on a given day. Place a check for every instance of self-criticism on the left, and one for every time others criticize you on the right. Count “constructive” criticism as well – as social anthropologist Jennifer James says, “Constructive criticism is just a slug in a tuxedo.” And make sure to include those nagging self-reprisals: “Should have,” “Ought to,” “If only,” etc. They’re slugs too, every one of them.

Pause and Apply 8.3

Make a list with two columns.

Me Others

At the end of the day, add up the tally marks. Which column has the most marks? Are you surprised?

If the tally marks could be changed to all positive comments in just one of the columns, which one do you think would have more impact on how you felt about yourself by the end of the day?

Self-Talk: Take it to the Bank

Imagine a fantasy in which your fairy godmother gives you an infinite supply of $1,000 checks. If you are like most people with house and car payments, a little credit card debt, and elderly parents or college-bound children to support, you might even take a few days off work to stay home and write checks. But there’s more. In this fantasy world, you can put these checks into your bank account, either as credits or as debits. Would you take time off work to put the $1000 checks into the bank as debits? Millions of us do. That time is called “sick leave.”

When we talk to ouselves, in a very real sense we “charge” our bodies with either sickness (debits) or health (credits). Comments with a positive emotional charge energize and enrich our lives and put resources into our reserve account; comments with a negative emotional charge drain us and leave us vulnerable to every “virus” that comes along. There is no “neutral” column in Figure 8.3. You have to decide where to make the entries.

Verbal Antidotes

In Feelings Buried Alive Never Die, Karol Truman lists 759 commonly used negative “feeling” words, each with several powerful antidotes.9 For example, consider one of our most basic negative emotions, fear. Truman calls it “the dark room where all the negatives are developed.”10 Conventional wisdom postulates that the antidote for fear is courage. In many cases, courage does triumph over fear. But courage rarely sustains itself unless it is backed by an even more powerful emotion: love. Ultimately, the opposite of fear is love.

A second power word, which shows up 100 times in Truman’s “positive” feelings column, is forgiveness. Truman says that if we consistently forgive ourselves and others, we can defuse a hundred negative emotions, including anger, animosity, bitterness, defensiveness, disappointment, hostility, guilt, hurt, irritation, malice, pettiness, punishment, rage, regret, remorse, and resentment. You made a mistake? Learn from it, be thankful for the lesson, and move on. As our ever-joyful friend Joani Culver puts it: “Life is full of lessons. Make mine quick!”

We propose a third power word: called. Educators, like ministers, often feel called to their profession. This sense of purpose – the passion for the cause – is the positive charge that energizes and keeps us going even under difficult circumstances.

Those words – loved, forgiven, called – can ring true in all of our lives. A heart filled by those words can transform a stressed-out human into a resourceful saint. Pause for a moment and do the exercise in Figure 8.4.

Pause and Apply 8.4

Loved, forgiven, called. Think of the life of Mother Teresa. Reflect on how each of these words plays out in her life and yours. Savor the privilege and appreciate the power of these emotional states.
Make your own list of power words. Look for appropriate opportunities to say them to yourself . . . and to the people around you.

Your Heart Knows

In an August 2000 workshop, Richard Bolles pointed out that our hearts know the words we want to hear. He shared with us that even though he is a writer, he could never write about nuclear bomb parts, say, or medieval instruments of torture. It’s his passion for a specific content area – career and mission planning – that inspires his gift for written expression.

To bring this point home in the seminar, Dick gave us a wonderful resource: The Random House Webster’s Word Menu. This book – a combination dictionary, thesaurus and almanac – organizes language by subject matter rather than by the traditional, decontextualized, alphabetical listing. Dick invited us to leaf through the book and find pages that contained words we would want to hear on the job, on a daily basis.

Lynell started wandering through the “Science and Technology” section. While words like “CPU,” “computer” and “RAM” were familiar, they weren’t particularly inspiring. So she moved on to “Institutions: Social Sciences: Education.” Again the terms were very familiar, and some even tugged at the heartstrings. But it was upon reading the words listed under “The Human Condition: Faith: Truth, Wisdom, and Spiritual Attainment” that involuntary tears started pouring Lynell’s cheeks. Words like awe, forgiveness, grace, harmony, numinous, peace, radiance, splendor, and vision felt like a calling.

Lynell went into the exercise already quite certain that her job would be that of a teacher, public speaker, or writer. She came out of the exercise knowing that the content of her lessons, presentations, and books is less likely to be science and technology than it is ways to improve the human condition. There is no right or wrong answer in the Word Menu book; it is simply a tool for identifying your highest calling. As this calling lights your life’s path, it also dispels the darkness. Stress, fear, resentment, anxiety – all these negative emotions are replaced by peace and a sense of certitude and abundance.

In a Heartbeat

While we’re on the topic of good vibrations, it’s time to consider the human heart. Though people have long believed that the brain controlled most of our physiological functioning, researchers have recently discovered that the heart is far more centrally involved in body regulation than the brain, and that there are far more ascending signals from the heart to the brain than there are descending signals from the brain to the heart.12.

Much of this research has been conducted or collected by the Institute of HeartMath.13 The Institute has taken these amazing findings and applied them with remarkable results to schools, police departments, corporations, and even individuals. We’ve had the pleasure of learning about the institute’s research as frequent guests at its facilities in Boulder Creek, California.

There are basically two kinds of bioelectrical signals that emerge from the heart. One is called a coherent signal because it has a smooth, gently curving appearance, and its “message” to the brain is that the heart is in a coherent, well-focused, smoothly functioning mode. The brain “hears” that message and initiates functions that reflect that state. The other kind of signal from the heart is incoherent, jagged and disjunct; its “message” is Red Alert! Prepare to panic! The brain “hears” that message and issues orders to support it.14.

It is no accident that each of these signals from the heart has only one broad kind of emotional content connected with it. When we ask in our workshops what kind of emotional content people might suppose is carried in an incoherent signal, the responses include fear, anger, anxiety, frustration, guilt, shame, and depression. All of these are correct. An incoherent signal is always associated with emotions we customarily refer to as negative; conversely, a coherent signal is always associated with positive emotions such as love, appreciation, caring, and compassion.15.

We are left with the profound understanding that negative emotions impair body and brain functioning, whereas positive emotions enhance them.

Far Out

The brain and the heart both have electromagnetic fields that can be detected with an instrument called a magnometer. The brain’s electromagnetic field can be measured as far as two inches away from the body. The heart’s electromagnetic field, on the other hand, is far more powerful and can be measured at distances of 10 to 15 feet away from the body! Because the electromagnetic field carries with it an emotional content, we all quite literally effect one another’s vibrations – good or otherwise.16 Try the exercise in Figure 8.5 to see how this applies to the classroom.

Pause and Apply 8.5

Imagine a teacher standing in the middle of a 30-foot by 30-foot classroom. The electromagnetic field emanating from that teacher spreads 10 to 15 feet in every direction.

How do you think the class atmosphere is impacted by the teacher’s emotional state?

Feeling Good

HeartMath’s research led the organization to develop specific approaches to create and hold positive emotion in the heart consciously, in such a way as to allow the feeling to generate physiological and emotional responses of well-being and peak performance. We think there is a profound elegance to the HeartMath research, which reaffirms what we’ve always sensed in our own hearts: emotions that make us feel good actually do us great good. We may have thought this was merely poetic metaphor; now we find that life imitates poetry. Good vibrations? Ohh, yeah.