Saved by the bell
Sound healing is a growing trend in wellness tourism. A former corporate director turned sound healer shares the art and science of how it works
IT’S A SCORCHING HOT MORNING in Hanoi, but we’re feeling incredibly chill and unbothered. We’re lying on a yoga mat on the floor of a crisply air-conditioned and darkened suite in the opulent Capella Hanoi, as sound healer Ashley Tan conducts the bronze singing bowls in front of her into a reverberating chorus that sends vibrations buzzing through our fingertips. In soothing, bell-like tones, she urges us and the other six guests in the room to relax and let our bodies surrender to the sound. Her spell takes effect quickly – not 30 seconds have passed before one person starts snoring deeply. Even our overactive brain has slowed to a canter.
Our 60-minute Rejuvenating Acoustics class is a one-off; a special session organised as part of the Capella Hotel Group’s annual Senses of Capella event that brings together wellness, culinary and cultural experiences from across the brand’s portfolio. But with sound healing quickly becoming one of the world’s biggest wellness trends – the market was valued at US$1.12 billion in 2023, and is forecast to more than double by 2032, while online searches for “sound healing” grew by 83 per cent in 2023 – hotels and wellness facilities around the globe are increasingly incorporating the practice into their regular offerings.
That includes Capella, which has rolled out expert-led wellness programmes incorporating sound therapy experiences at several of its other properties, such as Capella Singapore, Shanghai, Sanya and Ubud, as well as at Patina Maldives. Meanwhile, other major luxury hotel chains are also going all-in. In Singapore alone, sound baths are currently being offered at Raffles Singapore, Marina Bay Sands and Mandarin Oriental, Singapore, among others.
A new look at an old practice
Experts say the growing demand for a practice that was once regarded as “woo woo” by a large majority is due to rising mental health needs and greater openness to alternative wellness solutions. Another big factor is that science is finally catching up to the benefits the ancient discipline brings. Recently, based on data from clinical trials in the United States and Europe, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a technology that uses histotripsy – or high-intensity sound waves – to treat liver tumours. Now, scientists globally are also testing the technology on kidney tumours and pancreatic cancer.
At the same time, modern sound healers such as Tan are adopting a more science-based approach to sound therapy. A former senior director at Singtel, she switched careers eight years ago after a life-changing experience with sound healing in India.
“When I was learning (about sound healing), there were a lot of things that didn’t make sense to me,” she says. For instance, sound healing typically combines the concept of chakras, or energy focal points on the body, with the use of singing bowls that hit seven specific notes, and Tan wondered how the two applications – the chakra concept from India and the idea of a musical scale from the West – had come together.
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“I also started to ask why the same C-B notes work for one and all? How does sound help us to release stress or unblock chakra? What is so mystical about the number seven; why seven musical notes, not eight, nine or 10?”
The 50-year-old has since spent her second career digging deeper into these questions, pushing the boundaries of sound healing by experimenting with different tools, such as tuning forks, and combining them with other practices such as acupressure. She’s also developed a trademarked treatment that taps on consonant intervals (a combination of harmonious notes) and binaural beats (the auditory illusion of perceiving a third tone when two different tones are played at the same time in each ear) for brainwave relaxation.
Using sound to soothe
But how exactly does all this work to calm the mind and body? Tan explains that the therapy form employs sound to put brainwave frequencies into a relaxed state, which in turn “activates the parasympathetic nerves (a network that controls involuntary bodily functions such as digestion) to push the body into repair and recovery mode”.
One experiment by American biochemist Dr Glen Rein – done using Solfeggio frequencies, which are commonly employed in spiritual music – found that different types of sound clearly affect DNA. In particular, Gregorian and Sanskrit chants had the most healing effects on the DNA in the study, while rock music had a negative impact.
Tan has witnessed some of these miracles of sound herself. A firm believer in how “the body has an amazing ability to repair and recover”, she describes an episode with a client who was cleared of liver cancer after a few sessions. “I’m not saying that sound healing helped her, but maybe it relaxed her into parasympathetic mode,” says the soft-spoken professional, who is adamant that her skills only help facilitate what the body already knows. “She said after the second session that she felt a discomfort on the left side of her liver and that after the session it went away.”
Whether or not you’re a sound healing devotee, one thing’s for certain: with Tan and other practitioners and researchers innovating when it comes to sound therapy and driving the industry forward, it won’t be long before more people start tuning in to the practice.
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