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Building Permanent Brain Connections:
The Benefits Of Long Term Sound Therapy Listening
By Rafaele Joudry

          New Sound Therapy listeners sometimes ask “how long will I need to listen for?” We are much better equipped to answer this question now, 20 years on, than we were when Patricia Joudry first wrote her ground breaking book, Sound Therapy for the Walk Man. Much has been learned since then about the science of the brain, how learning takes place and how brain connections are built.

Brain Connections
          In fact just since the early 90s our understanding of the brain has evolved considerably. For more than a century scientists thought the adult brain could only lose nerve cells, not form new ones, but in recent experiments with mice, scientists from Johns Hopkins' Institute for Cell Engineering have discovered how new neurons can be formed and integrated into the brain's existing operations. We now know that the brain can form new connections and even build new neurons, at any age. This is what we mean when we say the brain is “plastic.”

          The brain is in fact much like a tree, it grows new branches and filaments all the time, but the pattern is more circular and more complex than a tree. The similarity lies in the fact that there are bigger, stronger pathways, like the big, central branches of a tree, and there are newer, flimsier pathways like the twigs. The strength of each pathway depends on when it was formed and how much it is used. The more it is used, the stronger it gets. Skills and thought patterns we set up early in life become like the trunks of the tree and are likely to become stronger and form the foundations for later knowledge. More recently learned information is built on fragile links, like small twigs. Many people may need to learn new information three times before it is fully entrenched. Then we need to keep revisiting this information to make sure the links are strong and resilient.

          This resilience depends on the structure and number of connections formed for a particular purpose, so how are these neurons formed? Any time that a neuron receives a certain amount of stimulation it builds up an electrical impulse which, when it reaches a certain level of charge, will send a signal to another neuron. This will either reinforce and strengthen an existing connection (synapse) or form a new one. These new brain connections, also called axons or dendrites, are formed whenever the neurons receive adequate stimulation. This stimulation may be provided through emotional engagement, mental activation (learning new and interesting facts) or by sensory input. For example, high frequency sound is very stimulating, particularly if it is in the form of beautiful, complex, harmonious music. The added filtering of Sound Therapy, with the high frequencies boosted in specific patterns by the Electronic Ear, greatly enhances this stimulating effect. Therefore, whenever we listen to Sound Therapy we are actually forming new brain connections, just by the process of listening.

Brain Connections and Sound Therapy
          The use of Sound Therapy supports brain development in several important ways. Music is known to be a powerful stimulus for whole brain integration. Classical music in particular builds and integrates the neural network by activating numerous brain centres all at the same time. This is due to the rich combination of complex melody, rhythm and harmony used in Western classical music. When several brain centres are activated together, we enhance the connections between all of these centres, enabling our different thought processes to work in harmony. Thus we end up with a brain that works like a well organised office, files labelled, accessible and full of useful information instead of muddled and chaotic.

          For a great example of an organised brain, lets talk about professional musicians. Musicians who work daily at honing and refining their musical skill build exceptionally efficient brain structures, which make a strong foundation for good coordination, learning and judgement. It is now known that learning a musical instrument can help to stave off senility and memory loss. Conductors have to have the greatest scope for comprehending and mentally sculpting multiple strands of music at the same time. Perhaps this exceptional brain performance explains why conductors are known to have the greatest longevity of any profession! Imagine the super highways of neuronal connections built by classical musicians and conductors over a lifetime through hours, weeks, months and years of practice! No wonder they can accomplish performance levels with technique and speed that seem incomprehensible to us. The rest of us may think that we could never accomplish such a high degree of brain development, as we do not have this level of discipline.

          This may be true, but in some senses, Sound Therapy gives us the opportunity to achieve at least part of the benefit gained by dedicated musicians. While listening is not the same as performing, it still does engage the brain in many ways and serves to reorganise and improve the efficiency of our brain structure. It follows too that the more we listen, the more we reinforce this good organisation. And since listening to Sound Therapy is so easy, requires no extra time and can be done during our usual daily activities, once we own our listening program, we can accomplish thousands of hours of listening for only the cost of a few batteries.

Permanent Brain Connections
          Our experience over the last 20 years has shown that many people discover on-going and increasing benefits when they maintain their listening for several years. One of the most interesting examples was Hilary Peart, of Western Australia, who recovered from severe, debilitating epilepsy through the use of Sound Therapy.

          Research at Lund University Hospital in 2006 showed that new neurons generated as a result of neural damage due to epilepsy show a reduced excitability compared to older neurons. They believe this may assist in reducing seizures. The
researchers said their results suggest that therapies for epilepsy aimed at inducing neurogenesis (creating new neurons) could therefore prove effective in alleviating epilepsy.

          Hilary’s case certainly bears this out, but it took some time to see the full effects. For some years she found it essential to continue several hours of listening daily to prevent recurrent seizures. Eventually, after about nine years, the effect became more or less permanent.

          Today, Hilary says, “Finally it set. I don’t have to listen all the time now, but if I do get a bit stressed I listen for a couple of days and I’m ‘right again. The big difference is, I have a life now! I didn’t have a life before Sound Therapy.”

          Most of us don’t have such a clear way of observing the difference Sound Therapy makes, but based on the knowledge of new brain science, we can know that when we listen to Sound Therapy we are improving our brain power and efficiency, and the more we listen the better it gets. This effect is also increased each time we add a new music range and progress to a more advanced level of Sound Therapy.
 

Testimonials
          Here are some of the comments made by listeners about the advanced Sound Therapy programs. Hilary Peart is featured in the documentary DVD on Sound Therapy: Creating Enhanced Listening Around the World.

“I had suffered from a heart condition all my life and in recent years developed epilepsy. After listening to the Basic Kit for six months I had stopped having seizures but I still had a fuzzy head. I was conscious of the seizures sitting
in the background.
I started using Full Spectrum and very quickly the fuzzy feeling eased dramatically. I found my mind was still, but very active, instead of being fractured. I could be busy and stay deeply calm.
I also believe Full Spectrum had a profound effect on the subconscious as I experienced a deep healing of the emotions at that time.”

Narelle Russel, who also appears in the DVD, has experienced relief of her tinnitus and improved hearing even though she suffers from otosclerosis, a degenerative condition of the middle ear bones. She puts this recovery down to having used Sound Therapy for the last nine years and also taking the nutrition for the ear supplements.

“The effect of Full Spectrum for me was that the unconscious and conscious mind seem to communicate more, so creativity happens quite easily. I found I was able to be calm and peaceful and active all at the same time. I actually had a sense of my nervous system healing.
I found I was very focused with my studies and using the Full Spectrum helped me to bring the information together and process it faster. Because the Full Spectrum has the two bands of music on it, I found at first I listened either to the high or the low band. This was a challenge in the first few weeks. Then at a certain point I realised I was able to listen to both at once. Now I actually turn it up to enjoy it. I love to hear it all!
Once this integration of my listening happened I found that I was functioning on 3 levels at the same time.Very useful when you are a mum and a wife and a therapist!”

Another listener reported that he did 1000 hours in six months on the Basic Kit. He became much calmer and his sleep improved but the tinnitus did not stop. Then he started using Full Spectrum and in 3 days the tinnitus went! This result was possible because of the preparation of the nervous system through the Basic Kit so it was ready to open to that new level with the Full Spectrum.
 

Sarkis Doueihi, a professional athlete, football player and personal trainer wrote of his Sound Therapy experience:

“There was this new intensity to my workouts. My work had a new spark, and my life felt energized. When the earaches dispersed there came a new sense of balance and proprioception. There was clarity in my brain, not just in my mind. I had so much energy and more than anything I became totally addicted to my Sound Therapy albums. I seemed to feed on them.
About two or three months later I ordered the advanced albums. I listened to them for about 100 hours before it all started to happen again, but from a higher order. The symptoms came on for only five days this time and the after effect escalated the original by at least four fold. I was so energized, so “earful” it was great! Like my hearing seemed to get deeper and wider. And I noticed more than ever how I slept like a baby, totally stress free. Most of all I seemed to be able to feed off all the sound around not only the Sound Therapy. I was always energized.
What next you ask? Well I tried the Full Spectrum audios and was totally blown away. They have a depth, a dimensionality to them like nothing I have ever heard. To describe them almost seems impossible, because to hear them is to go beyond the horizontal mind, into a verticality beyond words.
Sound Therapy is performance enhancing, it is life enhancing. If you are after truly getting an edge on yourself then it would pay you handsomely to try the Sound Therapy experience. Persist through till the end and you will swear by them too.”

          Listeners are advised to use the Basic Kit for approximately 300 hours or until a breakthrough, shift or opening has occurred (whichever is sooner) before going on to Full Spectrum or other advanced Sound Therapy programs.

More information about how it works
and about the basic kit.
 

References
# Song, Ge Goh, Sailor, Kurt, Kitabatake Yasuji and Ming, Guo-Li, “New
Neurons Take Baby Steps in the adult Brain,” December 22, 2005, Johns
Hopkins' Institute for Cell Engineering and the departments of neurology
and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Cited on
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2005/12_22b_05.h
tml
?# Lindvall, Olle et al, “New neurons could act to alleviate epilepsy” Neuron,
21st Dec 2006, Cell Press.
# Greenfield, Susan, The Human Brain, London: Phoenix, 1997.

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