I’m writing this as I listen to some music specifically composed to stimulate maximum productivity, and I’m listening on my IPOD. It makes the music so much fun to hear…like being in the middle of the musicians. (I used to play flute in a symphony orchestra – now that’s a high!) If I was listening to anything else it would have my total focus, but this music is assisting me to be creative, I hope!

I can’t hear anything else….the phone, my cat crying for me to get off its tail, my husband asking if I want some tea. I am in my own world. If I wasn’t writing this and only listening, I wouldn’t have to interact with anyone.

So Shakespeare, here’s what we have discovered may happen when we use IPODs (or any MP3 player):

~there is a potential for hearing loss if you listen through earbuds with the volume cranked up. No problem you might say, we can ask people around us to talk louder and maybe someday invest in a hearing aid.

~you don’t have to be social. I was riding the subway in Boston last year. People were in their own worlds talking on cell phones or into their headphones and earbuds. (For those of us that find people talking on cell phones in close public places to be annoying, there is a device that can disable the phones within a small radius!) Even when I got off the train and walked around, people were doing the same thing. No eye contact with one another, no kindly smiles to one another, no passing comments at the corner.

~you can store an amazing amount of data on one of these things! I don’t have to travel with a suitcase of CDs to demonstrate music in my Music Medicine classes and trainings. Never mind that I do have to travel with a compatible stereo system to play it on so participants can hear the selections.

~listening with headphones/earbuds can be a distraction while doing some other task that needs your full attention, like driving. What ambulance? I was going how fast? (as I listened to my favorite hip hop tune).

~more people are listening to music – YEY! There is so much music available these days and you can now take it with you wherever you go. More people are discovering that there is music that makes you feel good. Maybe this will help replace Prozac. By the way, there are music and frequencies specifically composed to do this, and lots more.

~people are exercising less efficiently because they get distracted by the music and either slow down their routine or stop. OR, they are using music that does not match their own exercise rhythm or tempo. Research within the field of physical therapy shows that if you listen to music that matches the beat of what you are doing and you enjoy it, you will exercise longer, and increase your productivity. The aerobics group really has made good use of this, except maybe the ones who use classical music put to a different beat. Good grief. That’s like taking fine wine and adding seltzer or 7-UP.

~you can take it anywhere! Have you seen the little 1 inch square IPODs that you clip to your lapel (do clothes still have lapels?); it holds something like 294 songs. This is just mind boggling to me. However, think of all the ways you can positively use this: gym, jogging, belly jiggling, studying in the library (use the RIGHT music, Einstein), bathtub, hot tub, wash tub, sick bed, hospital (clip it to the pillow speaker strip!) eating, sleeping, singing, raking, mowing, meditating, massage (you listen to your music, your therapist listens to hers), OR, ER, …….

~you don’t have to share a listening experience, i.e., you don’t have to hear your teenagers’ music, or they yours. You don’t have to talk about your reaction to a piece of music because no one else heard it, unless, of course you have the speaker system.

~ I have just learned that a specialist researcher in subtle energies and sound, Freddy Silva, has stated that binaural CDs will play beautifully in MP3 players, BUT the binaural effects will most likely be lost. This is due to the file compression technology that eliminates many of the frequencies. Even though our ears cannot tell the difference, our bodies won’t receive the full effect of the binaurals. This is most likely true for any of the technologies that use embedded frequencies. With that being said, I have found that when you import the programs as a WAV or AIF file, you will keep the full effect of the binaurals and frequency CDs.

~With your MP3 player you don’t have to listen to your body, mind, emotions, or spirit. “Just keep my buds plugged in, my pod turned on, and my tunes a playin’.”

As my husband has said: When there is constant music, you can’t hear yourself.

So, is IPOD a 4 Letter Word: I think Shakespeare had it right 400 years ago:
it is both HARM and GOOD.

To learn more about healthy usage of music, check out my book: Take Two CDs and Call Me in the Morning.

Labels: hearing, IPOD, MP3, music pollution

• The open ear/over ear design allows you to continue to hear sounds around you while listening to your music. Therefore, GOOD for bicyclists, runners, etc.
• These are not designed for music lovers – the sound quality is just not there. So, BAD, for audiofiles.
• Instead of speakers, these are tiny transducers that will vibrate.
• They are less harmful than ear buds – GOOD
• Renders voice material like pod casts really well.
• Deaf and hard of hearing persons respond really well to these. Sound therapist Regina Murphy played our Etheric Sweep to a profoundly deaf young man who went ecstatic as he heard and felt the music! So, GOOD for those with hearing issues.
• People with dementia and Altzheimer’s tolerate these better than headphones when using frequency programs like Altzeimer’s.

Are they useful for Musical Medicine Programs?
We bought several pair of the Aftershokz AS400  to experiment and test.

Our results show that these headphones increase the effectiveness of these Musical Medicine programs:
Bone Builder                        Etheric Sweep
Immunizer                            Oxygenizing Tones
Parkinson’s Nature               Resonance
Shoulder Repair                   Spinal Ease
Tuning Up

AND our 2 NEWEST programs are designed specifically for BC headphones: 

HEART HEALTH is a set of frequencies to assist in decreasing the symptoms of congestive heart failure and arrhythmia. We also made a separate version for headphones and/or vibro acoustic device.
These programs are 30% off during February. Just enter  feb2016 at check out to get your discount

DETOX ASSISTANT is a set of frequencies to increase the strength of already strong cells, decrease cravings, and stimulate the immune system and the process of ridding the body of toxins. Recommended for everyone for a yearly Spring clean out [I’m listening right now as I write this blog] and  especially for those with Altzheimer’s/dementia, Parkinson’s, obesity, cancer, liver issues. We also made a separate version for headphones and/or vibro acoustic device.

You can order our cds at: www.musicalmedicine.net

Email Dr. Jonas for recommendations for your symptoms.

Although all human beings are similar in composition, each of our bodies is a universe unto itself that has been influenced by your life style, environment, emotions, and genetics.  Quantum physics tells us that everything is vibration. This includes every part of us. And research demonstrates that our body responds to sound vibration, often with profound changes in the physical and emotional levels.

The carefully prepared audio programs of Musical Medicine can be highly effective for many symptoms such as arthritis, bone healing, spinal issues, PTSD, and Fibromyalgia, to name just a few. There are also times when these programs may be too general, i.e., you need your own sound prescription. This is similar to the difference between an over-the-counter treatment or getting a prescription.

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If you live near Inner Harmony, you can arrange for an in office voice print to see what is out of balance, get supplement recommendations, and receive a CD to begin the re-balancing process.

If you are not close to us (or not ready to vacation in the Smoky Mountains.), there is a new alternative which I have been refining for several years. Now there is a way of making a personal program for individuals based on your list of ‘symptoms’, physical and/or emotional. 

You can read more about it on my Inner Harmony website.

I just read a very well written article of 2015, in which the authors set out to find out what has happened in the scientific research world to produce such variable outcomes that are so prevalent today.

The article begins with a look at social psychologist Dr. Stapel at Tilburg U. in the Netherlands.  Your jaw will drop as you read his description of his fraud process that brought him notoriety.

But outright fraud is just one potential derailment in the research process, there are multiple ways a study and its dissemination can be tainted. 

There are now researchers who do meta analyses of studies to see if there is any truth in any of them and where they ‘went off the rails’.  As an example,  the article contains a graph of 9 foods shown to both protect us against cancer and cause cancer as found in various scientific studies!

When the public hears about research misconduct or fraud and sees contradictory studies, it is easy to fall into not trusting science.

For those of you who rely heavily on scientific articles to ‘prove’ a point or to justify  or not justify a treatment or set up a project or just change your diet, be sure to read this article.

Here is a summary of the derailment points in any research study that can have huge ramifications: (these are well flushed out in the article with interesting and shocking examples.)

1.     Researcher may falsify data. Not as prevalent as the following points.

2.     Biases are not reduced – meta researchers found more than half of studies fail to do this.

3.     Too small in sample size or effect to generalize

4.     Much research has no enduring value, ie., unimportant, redundant, flawed.

5.     Studies cannot be replicated.

6.     Peer reviews can be flawed through the reviewer’s bias, lack of time or knowledge, and even fraud.

7.     University press offices can be full of hype

8.     Press can exaggerate claims.

9.     Difficult to access scientific research, i.e. from cost, or broken internet links

Because of these now well-known problems, it’s not unusual to hear statements like those from the The Lancet editor Richard Horton that “Much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue.” He continued: “Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.”

Even if you are not a researcher or read scientific articles, it is important to understand science as a human construction, the result of a tedious, incremental process that can be imperfect in its pursuit of truth.  Look for meta research articles on a topic for a broader picture.

AND, remember that humans are always influencing each other in overt, covert, and energetic ways. In a conversation I had with the astronaut Edgar Mitchell many years ago, he was aware at that time of studies showing how the energy of the researcher was unconsciously influencing what cancer cells were doing to liver tissue in the petri dishes.  Certain researchers petri dishes always had the same results, while other researchers always had opposite results when doing the same study protocol.

One of the key principles of quantum physics is entanglement.  This occurs when two people/particles/objects become related.

 Institute of Heartmath did a variety of studies where 2 people sat next to each other or across from one another and first their heart rates became the same, then their brainwaves.

Makes you wonder how many research experiments can become unconsciously biased.

YOU ARE IN TROUBLE!

Every time you become angry, frustrated, anxious, your body instantly responds by releasing a variety of chemicals in your body to help you escape from the imaginary tiger that is after you.

All of these organs respond in an attempt to keep you safe:

• Hypothalamus
• Adrenals
• Thyroid
• Digestive Tract
• Pancreas
• Liver
• Heart
• Lung
• Blood
• Skin
• Senses

If this high level response continues on a regular basis, over time your body will use up its ability to go back to normal and you will be living in a state of disease of one kind or another, like chronic headaches, heart conditions, irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis. The condition of one of my clients, Karen, (of course it is not her real name!) describes this perfectly. For 20 years she lived on adrenaline as she forced herself to do 150% in her job, run the most and farthest, eat and sleep as little as necessary, and pride herself on never having to ask for help. She is currently in hormonal collapse manifesting as extreme internal vibrations, fatigue and lack of focus, no appetite, digestive and heart issues, and anxiety.

Untangling a life of running on super fast is a challenge requiring multiple professionals; a perfect example of ‘it takes a village’ to get her back into health.

What if you didn’t have to have a physical symptom to let you know you weren’t being the best you can be?

Your 3 Steps to living in Grace (pleasing and happy manner).

1. Starting now, read The Four Agreements by Ruiz.  It is a game changer. It is the most important book that anyone could read in  how to change your responses to perceived stressors and live your daily life in an emotionally  healthy and productive manner.

2. Begin some type of daily relaxation/meditation practice. You must get your mental/physical/spiritual body reset every day. This has enormous consequences. Karen has been able to increase her focus and decrease anxiety by using several audio programs:

~ Deep Relaxation/Self Healing – (Scroll down the link page)

2 guided relaxation exercises, one for those who are left brain dominant, and one for right brain dominant. Both are embedded with binaural technology to assist in relaxing faster and synchronizing your hemispheres. This rarely happens in daily life, but when the whole brain is in sync – amazing things happen, like increased productivity, focus, memory and health

~  Wave 1 Discovery from the Monroe Institute – a 6 CD set that progressively    assists you into deeper and deeper states of relaxation

3.  Play our specialized stress decreasing audio programs in the background in your place of work or in the home. This will assist in keeping you more focused, less anxious, and in an all around better frame of mind so you can respond to potential stressors with calm and clarity. (after clicking on the links, scroll down the page to the CD)

1. StressLess – ocean sounds with embedded frequencies to help stay calm
2. Well Being – frequencies embedded in a mountain stream to increase your feelings of peace, calm and overall wellbeing.
3. Etheric Sweep (Karen’s favorite) – specific frequencies embedded in music with binaurals to assist in decreasing anxiety and panic attacks. If your workplace/home is highly stressful, play this in the background!

Why I don’t recommend calming music to be played in the background.
In an already active or chaotic or pressure driven environment, calming music will only serve to intensify that energy. And, if you have co-workers, forget trying to find music that everyone will like.

Also, music doth have charms to soothe the savage breast, but not always, and not in an already chaotic/pressured environment. It will not even assist many  people after the difficult day they have been in it for too long. The frequency of the relaxation music is too far from the hyped up energy of the listener.

On to sound therapy.  I have spent over a decade researching and acquiring combinations of specific frequencies that will target specific issues, like anxiety and digestion and ADHD. (see here for a full listing) 

And, nature sounds are in and of themselves healing. So the combination of specific frequencies in nature sounds are amenable to all and can be played at any level for effect

I do emphasize that your computer was built to be a computer not a quality audio player. That is why they are not sold in the audio department/store. If possible play our programs through some external speakers from your computer, a boombox, or headphones. Don’t settle for mediocrity!!! (another blog another time

Unfortunately for many people today, it is so easy to fall into unhealthy routines and beliefs. Following these simple suggestions can significantly put you on your way to leading your life with Grace, and out of the doctor’s office. 

FULL Listing of Stress Reduction Programs and how to purchase.

Musical Medicine Podcasts

We are familiar with the idea that classical music can improve our brain activity, and influence our emotions. But plants? Research studies at the National Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology in Suwon, South Korea examined the effect of 14 different classical pieces including Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata in rice fields. They found that the music helped plants grow at a faster pace, and is evidence that plants have genes that enable them to “hear.”

Plants respond to sounds in profound ways that not only influence their overall health but also increase the speed of growth and size of the plant. It has been determined through repetitive testing by scientists that plants do respond to music and sound. Many high school students have done simple experiments with plants and music; all produce the same result: plants are affected by music.

So, how do your plants look? Perhaps playing some quiet classical music might perk them up, particularly if they are subjected to many sound pollutants like noisy TVs, radios, kids toys, video games, and hard rock music. Research indicates that playing hard rock music to plants stunts their growth! What do you think it might be doing to your pets!

Most new pharmaceuticals and cosmetics are tested first on mice as their biological systems are close to ours. An enterprising high school student examined the effect of music on mice running through a maze. For 3 weeks, 10 hours a day, David Merrell played Mozart to one group, hard rock music to a second group, and no music to the third group. By the end, the mice that had heard no music had managed to cut their time in half, averaging five minutes to complete the maze, simply as a result of regular practice. The mice that had listened to Mozart averaged an impressive one and a half minutes. For the mice that had listened to hard rock, navigating the maze had become more difficult and their original average time tripled to a staggering 30 minutes! Also worthy of note is the fact that David had tried to conduct a similar experiment the previous year, but cut it short when the hard rock mice killed each other off.

There is much research of late focused on the use of music to calm pets. And not just any music will do! You can read more in the article Healing Music and Sounds for Pets in this blog.

According to Donna S. Wayner, Ph.D., an audiologist and author of several books on hearing loss, “People tell me that a certain level of sound used to bother them but they got used to it. In reality they have reduced the efficiency of their hearing, and in time, the problem will spread. Typically, hearing loss is painless, so we think we’re not vulnerable,” says Dr. Wayner. “It’s not like one day you can hear and the next day you can’t. It’s all cumulative.” Experts say one in 10 Americans has a hearing loss that affects the ability to understand speech. Deciphering consonants at the ends of sentences may be especially difficult.

And it doesn’t take a thunderous rock concert to cause hearing loss. Any repeated high-volume experiences or one-shot booms can damage the delicate nerve cells of your inner ear. And once damaged, these cells do not grow back. A good rule of thumb is that damage is occurring if you have to shout to be heard over the racket.

According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, a power lawn mower, a leaf blower, and a chainsaw all produce sound at 130 decibels, enough to damage hearing. Prolonged use of hair dryers, shrill kids toys, guns and rifles, jackhammers, loud music, theater sound effects, and jets taking off can contribute to slow hearing loss, aside from increasing our stress levels.

Paying attention to what sounds are in your environment can have huge payoffs. Want to be able to focus better, decrease anxiety and stress, create a peaceful environment, have healthier plants, animals and kids? When we become more tuned into what our ears are hearing we can choose to play ‘healthy’ sounds. I can’t tell you how many times I have asked restaurant wait staff to either change the music being played or turn it off. If more people requested this, restaurants might begin to pay more attention, though, Hard Rock Cafes are at least honest in their advertising!

Don’t forget your pets in your playlists; they are directly affected by the type of music played, just like us.