Taiz Design

Tactile Sound

What is tactile sound?

Tactile sound (vibroacoustics) is the sensation of sound transmitted directly to the human body by contact, rather than by sound waves through the ears. Sound in the natural world exists across a wide spectrum of frequencies and biologically it takes both hearing and feeling to perceive the full range. The Sensorium environment is capable of reproducing ultra-low frequencies in the “kinesthetic” range (0-30Hz) and captures the physical action of sound wave motion and transfers it to the sense of touch via vibration.

The human body is primarily composed of water and sound waves travel five times faster through water than air, making the body’s waters an excellent conductor for sound.  Tactile sound stimulates the brain and the neural network increasing serotonin, dopamine and other neuropeptides that help to optimize performance. When music is heard through the body as well as the ears, it has a broader and deeper capacity to engage the senses, stimulate the mind and relax the body.

Altering brainwaves through sound

Specially engineered music composed for sound healing, played through the proprietary Sensorium delivery system, utilizes specific sounds, rhythms and frequencies to entrain brainwave states in the listener. These states include beta (focus), alpha (creativity), theta (deep relaxation or meditation) and delta (deeper levels of meditation or sleep).

Binaural Tones

A binaural tone occurs when different sound frequencies are delivered to the brain separately through each ear, the two hemispheres of the brain function together to “hear” not the external sound signals, but a third phantom signal. This signal is called a binaural beat and it pulses at the exact mathematical difference between the two actual tones.

Research has established that binaural beat frequencies drive or guide brain activity into a wide variety of specific brain states. Thus, effortlessly and naturally, your brain activity slides into rhythm with this binaural beat, and the brainwave frequency of either beta, alpha, theta or delta. Within minutes, the sound frequencies start to balance the left and right hemispheres of the brain – creating a remarkable state called hemispheric synchronization and driving the electrical activity of your brain into powerful states for creative insight, euphoria, intensely focused concentration, deep calm, and enhanced brain functioning.

Who invented vibroacoustics?

The Sensorium utilizes and is guided by the principles of vibroacoustics and sound therapy. Vibroacoustic technologies were independently developed in Scandinavia by Olav Skille and Petri Lehikoinen between 1970 and 1980. Olav Skille presents a theory that builds on the work of Drs. Karel and Heda Jindrak exploring the concept that physical vibrations of sound provide an internal cleansing massage.

In the last century, sound therapy has been deeply influenced by the research of French physician Dr. Alfred Tomatis. One of his major discoveries was that the ear’s first function in utero is to govern the growth of the rest of the physical organism and in addition to the ear’s functions of communication and balance, the ear’s primary purpose is to charge the nervous system and neocortex of the brain with electrical impulses created by sound (Joshua Leeds, The Power of Sound).  Tomatis concluded that sound is a nutrient and we hear not only with our ears but also with the entire body through skin and bone conduction.

An individual’s response to sound can create changes that slow down the heartbeat and respiration, alter brainwave patterns, activate neurotransmitters and hormones effecting emotional, mental and physical states.  Sound can accelerate and excite or decelerate body rhythms into a deeply relaxed and meditative state.

Sound therapy is based largely on the sciences of:

  • Psychoacoustics — the study of physiological and neurological responses to sound, frequency and resonance that includes the study of vibroacoustics.
  • Music Therapy — therapeutic applications based on the effects of music on the emotions and psychology.

To find out more about sound and music therapy please visit the following links:

Book Recommendations

  • The Power of Sound:  How to Manage Your Personal Soundscape for a Vital, Productive & Healthy Life and Sonic Alchemy:  Conversations with Leading Sound Practitioners by Joshua Leeds
  • The Healing Power of Sound by Mitchell L. Gaynor, M.D.
  • The Conscious Ear:  My Life of Transformation Through Listening by Dr. Alfred Tomatis
  • The Mozart Effect by Don Campbell
  • The Yoga of Sound by Russill Paul