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for cancer patients," he says, "as it reduces stress, helps the body heal itself, and makes it easier to cope with all the side effects of typical cancer treatments." Hays says sound healing also helps relieve the side effects of cancer treatments, including nausea, insomnia, lack of appetite, irritable bowel syndrome, and pain; it also helps patients let go of stress and noisy mind chatter. "Most people find an immense sense of relief." How Does Sound Healing Work? Sound healing uses both audible and inaudible sounds and vibrations to achieve a therapeutic effect that shifts brain waves into alpha or theta states in order to activate the body's regenerative pathways. These pathways allow for healing on a cellular level. During sound healing treatments, vibrations pass through tissues to massage the cells and help facilitate shifts in the brain. This process is called brain wave prepared for a proper, healthier response to stress and illness. Most constructive sound is audible sound. Used correctly, vibrations can gently massage the cells individually (generally in the 20–2,000 hertz range). Destructive sound, at the right frequency, is used to break up tumors, clots, stones, scar tissue, bacteria, viruses, etc. Most destructive sound is above hearing level—approximately 20,000 hertz (ultrasound) and is performed in clinical locations by doctors. 3 History of Cancer Treatment Using Sound Since the 1940s, ultrasound has been used for treating disorders and injuries of connective tissue, ligaments, and tendons. The US military incorporated music into recovery programs during World War II (described as the official dawn of music therapy). Beginning in the 1960s, ultrasound was—and still is—used to view a developing fetus in utero, to check for reproductive system abnormalities like uterine fibroids, and to help screen for breast cancer. In recent years, doctors, educators, and scientists have been using various sound therapy treatments as a safe and noninvasive cancer treatment alternative. Hays says ultrasound has a 90 percent success rate for destroying prostate cancer without remission. Today, the interest in using sound frequency to boost human health is growing, and research is beginning to back up its therapeutic benefits. "We can be met with some skepticism," says Hays, 60 m a s s a g e & b o d y w o r k j u l y / a u g u s t 2 0 1 9 entrainment (BWE), 2 a practice that uses rhythmic stimuli to alter the brain's state. By using rhythm, vibration, and frequency, brain waves can be synchronized (entrained) to slow down the normal beta state (waking consciousness) and enter into an alpha (relaxed consciousness) or theta (meditative) state. Some clients might even enter a delta—sleep and healing—state. BWE has been investigated and used since the late 1800s, although many clinicians, scientists, and practitioners are just becoming aware of its existence today. Vibrational sound healing can either be used "constructively" or "destructively." Because sound has the fundamental properties to manipulate all matter, vibrations can be used to organize (or disorganize) molecules and reorganize cells. Constructive sound, used by bodywork practitioners, returns the brain to a normal, unexcited state, where the immune system can calm down, inflammation and swelling may subside, and the brain is better Joanne Berry, a trainer with Eastern Vibration, offers sound healing in a client's home.