Resonance Within and Around You and Its Power in Sound Healing and Global Peace
- Brainz Magazine
- Apr 17
- 7 min read
Alessandra Mantovanelli is a Sound Therapist and Integrative Coach, offering energy and somatic healing, mindful eating coaching, and Psych-K facilitation. She founded Waves for Thriving to help you shift from surviving to thriving by cultivating a heart-centered connection and coherence between your mind, body, and soul.
Everything in nature vibrates. Resonance happens when an object or life form vibrates in response to another with a similar frequency, amplifying its vibration. All parts of a healthy body resonate in harmony, like a well-tuned orchestra. Sound therapy uses the principles of resonance and entrainment to shift dissonant patterns in the body and biofield into balance and coherence.
What is resonance?
Resonance is a way of storing energy by vibrating at a specific frequency. When an external vibration matches the resonant frequency of an object or being, it absorbs energy and vibrates with greater intensity. An easy way to understand resonance is to think about a swing. When you push it at just the right timing (its resonant frequency), the swing stores more energy and goes higher and higher.
While many people use the term "entrainment" interchangeably with "resonance," they are different concepts. Entrainment is the synchronization of one rhythm with another when two or more oscillators pulsing at different vibrational frequencies ('out of sync') fall into sync and begin pulsing at the same, strongest frequency. Synchronized, coherent systems communicate faster and maximize energy flows. For example, the heart's electromagnetic field acts as a synchronizing signal for the body. By aligning our circadian rhythms (sleep-wake cycles) with the natural light-dark cycle, we can enhance sleep quality, mood, cognition, and overall health. A stunning example of entrainment is "murmuration," where thousands of birds fly together in a coordinated dance by mimicking the movements of their neighbors.
Everyone and everything resonates
Everything in the universe has its resonant frequency, including material things, electromagnetic fields, light, and quantum particles. Musical instruments, pendulums, and various types of machinery all have their resonance. Global warming is caused by the resonance (i.e., absorption and re-emission) between greenhouse gases and infrared radiation, leading to the heating of our atmosphere. The moon's and the sun's gravitational pull on Earth's oceans generate resonant tidal oscillations.
The cavities in our heads (mouth, throat, and nose) act as resonance chambers that amplify and modify the sound produced by the vocal cords when activated by air movement as we breathe. Resonance among neurons is critical for their function and communication. The long-range synchrony between brain cortical areas and a shared resonance (synchronization of vibrations) is key to the nature of consciousness itself. Sound and rhythm underlie every creation.
What is sympathetic resonance?
When two entities vibrate at the same frequency, their oscillations combine to create sympathetic resonance. In other words, things with the same resonant frequency trigger each other, creating a 'resonant field' greater than the two resonating separately. People naturally 'sing' their notes when they hear a sound that activates their resonant frequency. We often unconsciously mirror the actions and emotions of others, which is a form of 'sympathetic resonance' in social contexts. Falling in love generates an intense resonant energy field, entangling one with another.
What is destructive resonance?
Conversely, we can use destructive resonance, such as focused high-intensity ultrasound waves (i.e., very high, inaudible frequencies), to destroy cancer cells and kidney stones without harming surrounding cells. Although a rare phenomenon, the resonance caused by the wind on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge amplified its vibrations until the structure could no longer withstand the stress and collapsed. Chaotic and dissonant vibrations are a way to release emotion and tension. Babies cry to express their feelings and let go of built-up stress.
How do we use resonance in Sound Healing?
Sound waves travel from their source and push objects, making them resonate when the sound's frequency matches the object's natural resonant frequency, much like a swing. That is why a high-pitched tenor's voice can shatter a glass. Unlike glass, the human body is flexible and mostly made of water, a good conductor of sound. When sound waves hit us, they resonate with the natural frequencies of different body parts, like our bones or tissues, and the body as a whole.
Each body part has its resonant frequency. Like a finely tuned orchestra, a healthy body vibrates in harmony. When we are out of alignment, this disrupts the entire body and its biofield (a subtle energy field within and around us). Sound therapy uses vibrational resonance and entrainment to bring out-of-sync bodily rhythms back into balance and coherence. When we play a frequency that matches the resonant frequency of a cell, organ, or any part of the body, we feed energy into it, amplifying its vibration. Sound vibrations align, soothe, and increase energy flow by triggering a person's natural resonance, calming the body, and releasing energy blockages. Moreover, binaural beats can induce brainwaves in the alpha, theta, and delta ranges, which are associated with presence, creativity, calm, and sleep, resulting in deep relaxation.
How can we entrain ourselves to coherent, stable vibrations?
We are constantly exposed to and may entrain ourselves with chaotic or dissonant vibrations, such as electricity, cell phones, city noise, and other people's fear, stress, anxiety, or anger, which scatter our energy and disrupt our innate peaceful states. Connecting with stable, coherent vibrations is essential to restore balance and recharge. The Schumann resonances, the electromagnetic resonances of the Earth's ionosphere (known as the Earth's heartbeat), are beneficial, consistent vibrations that can help us regain our sense of harmony.
Many healing instruments, such as Tibetan bowls, crystal bowls, tuning forks, gongs, didgeridoos, and toning vowels, produce stable, long-sustained notes with consistent, coherent vibrations. Regularly exposing yourself to these stable vibrations found in nature, the Schumann resonances, enjoyable music, sound baths, binaural beats, the warmth of sunshine on your skin, walking barefoot, dancing, and feeling deep gratitude can help restore balance and inner harmony.
What is transformative resonance?
Maintaining a harmonious vibration in today's world can be challenging. We often fluctuate between feelings of joy and familiar patterns of complaint and pain. In physics, transformative resonance occurs when a stronger vibration or force permanently alters a weaker vibration into a stronger one. People who experience a spiritual awakening or a spontaneous remission from diseases once thought to be incurable are examples of transformative resonance. Here, a profound shift caused by a thought, emotion, or experience leads individuals to transcend their old identities and habits, resulting in significant breakthroughs in life.
Can our resonance promote global peace?
Research from the HeartMath Institute shows that our emotional state affects our heartbeat and the electromagnetic field generated by the heart around our body. Emotions such as frustration produce an erratic, disordered heartbeat. In contrast, focusing on positive emotions, such as appreciation, can immediately transform the heart's rhythm into a coherent and harmonious pattern. Remarkably, studies also show that a group of people feeling elevated emotions (like love and gratitude) can, through heart-to-heart synchronization, entrain others into a coherent state. When the brain and heart rhythms are coherent, people experience a sense of wholeness and joy. Moreover, the resonances of the human brain, cardiovascular system, and autonomic nervous system overlap with the range of frequencies (approximately 0.01 to 300 hertz) produced by the Earth and its ionosphere. This overlap suggests that we can both influence and be influenced by the Earth's electromagnetic field.
The Global Consciousness Project, using Random number generators (RNGs), showed that: "when an intention event synchronizes the feelings of millions of people, our network of RNGs becomes subtly structured. We calculate one in a trillion odds that the effect is due to chance. The evidence suggests an emerging noosphere or the unifying field of consciousness described by sages in all cultures". Other global intention experiments, such as those conducted by the Global Coherence Initiative (HeartMath Institute) and Lynne McTaggart, have shown that when large groups of people focus on a shared heart-centered intention from different parts of the world, they can positively affect distant areas by reducing violence and increasing peace. These findings indicate that a focused, heart-centered intention can create a resonant field that has the potential to influence others across distances, thereby contributing to a shift in global consciousness.
We are immersed in a field of infinite possibilities and can bring various outcomes to fruition through resonance. To achieve a lasting state of joy, expansion, and harmony, we must recognize ourselves as vibrating beings made of energy, each with a unique and ever-changing vibrational signature. Our emotional state, thoughts, intentions, attention, and actions all affect the whole, as everything in existence is interconnected and emanates from a singular source. We can transform ourselves and the world by cultivating kindness, compassion, gratitude, and joy. Imagine a world where every person vibrates at the frequency of love and appreciation. This powerful resonant field could elevate collective consciousness and lead to peace. Sound vibrations are profound resonators, aligning us with a healthier, more peaceful state essential for connecting to nature and the higher intelligence that gives us life. Love is a strong, resonant field that connects us all.
Read more from Alessandra Mantovanelli
Alessandra Mantovanelli, Sound Therapy and Integrative Coaching
Alessandra uses a unique integrative approach to help people move from survival to thriving, integrating and harmonizing their body, mind, and soul in a freeing dance. She holds a Master’s in Sound Therapy along with certifications as a Mind-Body Eating Coach, Somatic Trauma Healing and Reiki Practitioner, and Psych-K® facilitator. By combining her knowledge of physics and wave frequencies with biofield and energy balance therapies, she bridges ancient healing techniques with modern science. As the founder of Waves for Thriving, Alessandra is dedicated to helping individuals embrace their healthiest, happiest, and most conscious selves, unlocking their highest potential.
References:
Hunt T and Schooler JW (2019). The Easy Part of the Hard Problem: A Resonance Theory of Consciousness. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 13:378.doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2019.00378
Heather, S. (2007). What is Sound Healing? The International Journal of Healing and Caring – Online.
David Gibson (2022). The complete guide to sound healing, pp. 408.
The Global Coherence (HeartMath Institute).
Joe Dispenza (2017). Become supernatural, how common people are doing the uncommon, Hay House, 348p.
