Are sound healers hitting the right note, or just making noise? Maddox joins us to investigate frequencies, facts, and fallacies on this Skeptical Sunday! Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by Maddox, the blogger behind The Best Page in the Universe and bestselling author of The Alphabet Of Manliness, I Am Better Than Your Kids, and F*ck Whales: Also Families, Poetry, Folksy Wisdom and You! On This Week's Skeptical Sunday: Sound healing's purported benefits lack strong scientific evidence. While some studies show modest stress reduction benefits from sound meditation, claims about treating serious medical conditions are unfounded. Sound and vibration can actually cause physical harm. Research has documented damage to nerves, circulation, and other systems from certain frequencies and prolonged exposure. Many sound healing practitioners mix legitimate scientific concepts with pseudoscientific claims, often misquoting scientists like Einstein and making unsubstantiated statements about quantum physics and cellular vibrations. The lack of regulation in sound healing is concerning, particularly given potential risks to vulnerable populations like pregnant women and children. The FDA only provides general guidance on "complementary and alternative medicine." Sound healing can be beneficial when used appropriately as a relaxation tool. Research shows it may help reduce stress and anxiety when combined with meditation. Those interested can try sound meditation classes or sound baths, while maintaining realistic expectations about benefits and continuing any prescribed medical treatments. Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at [email protected] and let him know! Connect with Maddox at The Best Page in the Universe and pick up one of his books! Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1108 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What is sound healing and how is it perceived?
After all, each individual blood cell in our bodies have to be similar enough for our bodies and organs to recognize them, right? That makes sense.
Look, we can't be so unique that our individual cells are unidentifiable. So if people want to lay down and listen to some gongs, more power to them. I've done it. I kind of like it. It is relaxing. I guess it seems harmless, right?
Well, not so fast there, Jordan. This stuff isn't without risk, and this is an area that many advocates gloss over. Sound can actually be damaging to our nerves and cells.
Alright, I was wondering about that, because if sounds can be healing, then theoretically it stands to reason that sounds can be destructive as well.
Right. Some people find cold play relaxing, for example. Others want to light themselves on fire when they hear the first few bars of clocks.
Okay, understandable. And now that's going to be in my head for the rest of the day. Thank you very much.
With apologies. And obviously sound can be damaging to our ears and senses like prolonged exposures to leaf blowers or standing next to speakers at a dubstep concert without any protection can lead to permanent hearing damage. Though some might argue that it might be worth it to get your face melted off at a Skrillex concert.
The jury is still out on that one. I heard, by the way, do you remember Manuel Noriega, the sort of drug trafficking general from Panama? Anyway, when they went in to get him, I want to say he holed up in the Vatican embassy and the Marines decided they weren't obviously going to storm the Vatican embassy. That's a massive breach of international protocol.
So what they did is they set up massive speakers. And they blasted heavy metal until he came out. And it took like four days because, of course, how long can you not sleep to heavy metal? And the way they got that idea was they were strategizing about how to get him out.
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Chapter 2: Can sound healing really cure ailments?
Is there a reason why it works for some people and not other people?
Well, there's no strong consensus, though there's a physiologist named Dr. Craig Richard who published a paper that found that regions of the brain activated during ASMR are similar to the regions of brain that are activated when you receive kindness or reassurance from a friend or caretaker in the real world.
I see. So it sounds like what you're saying is kindness from a loved one is like sandpaper on my nipples. Got it. Okay. Do people listen to this stuff? I guess they do because these videos are super popular and some of them get banned off of YouTube because they think it's porn, which I feel bad for the girl who creates those because she is pretty, but it's definitely not porn.
You can see somebody at YouTube being like, this is making me feel kind of funny, like Garth from Wayne's World. And they're just like, I'm going to say that this is obscene because I don't understand it.
Yeah, it's definitely adjacent to, and I think that's why a lot of people like me and yourself feel uncomfortable hearing this stuff. I don't know what to feel. But it is popular. It's so popular that it was showcased in a Super Bowl ad a few years ago. Back in 2005, Zoe Kravitz appeared in a Michelob Ultra beer commercial doing 45 seconds of ASMR.
Wow. The Super Bowl is about as mainstream as you can get. So if they're doing ASMR during the Super Bowl, even back then, wow.
Okay, that can't be real? But it's YouTube, so it probably is. Oh, it is. And it's not even the weirdest stuff out there. If you spend a few minutes going down the rabbit hole, you can find ASMR for just about anything, including Dr. Phil threatening your life while he stalks you outside your home.
So someone made ASMR of that. It doesn't seem relaxing at all. But again, I don't get ASMR in the least. Maybe I'm missing something, but the whole thing, it goes right over my head slash again, I can't deal with it. It makes me itchy, like you said.
Exactly. Not only is it real, the stuff is surprisingly very well produced. It's hard to explain, but they actually did a good job of making it sound sinister, but still soft enough that some sociopath might find it relaxing.
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