When I try to explain to Ghanaians that they are destroying themselves, their health and the future of their children with noise they either laugh or smile or tell me I am mad. It doesn’t matter if it is a person in the market, a pastor, a policeman or a municipal authority officer responsible for controlling noise, nearly all just ignore me and let the health and spiritual destroying noise continue. Even church music and preaching through loud speakers is grossly destructive but I guess the pastors must think that God is deaf and they need to blast Him with mind and soul destroying decibels.
I give up, why I should put myself at risk when those I try to help do not want to help themselves and are happy in their downward spiral of destruction. It is the kids though that I feel sorry for. Noise truly destroys their health, wellbeing and peak learning abilities. The World Health Organisation even says “Noise Can Kill”.
May be there is someone out there who will be interested to understand more and if so I urge you to read the following except taken from this website:-
http://spiritweb.dk/artikler/sound-can-heal-or-destroy-it-must-be-used-wisely/
Sound can heal and sound can destroy. We are continually influenced by the effects of sound in our lives. As with so many things in our world, there are both positive and negative sides; how we apply sound is the key to our better or worse health. Here is conclusive documentation about both sides of the use of sound.
Healing means to make whole, restore to original purity or integrity, to return to a sound state. Sound health is a powerful concept deeply rooted in our everyday language. When someone is healthy, we say they are sound in body and mind. We speak of ideas being sound when they ring true to us. When we feel good with someone, we say we are in tune with them, or on the same wavelength. These are all sound metaphors. We are continually influenced by the rhythms and vibrations of sound. Vibrations are a powerful physical force that can be felt throughout our organisms, not only heard with our ears.
Vibrations affect every cell and molecule of our bodies. As living vibrating organisms, we are changing all the time. We are emitting vibrations outward which affect others around us, as well as receiving vibrations from the environment. There is a continuous interchange and flow of these vibrations which affects the electromagnetic energies within and around us. We each have a unique vibrational frequency, our own underlying tone which expresses our life force and essential nature. Our bodies are like musical instruments that need regular tuning. All the different parts of our being express a symphony of vibrations, dancing and singing in perfect harmony.
Sound Can Bring Us Into Alignment
When our rhythms and vibrations are not in alignment and harmony on all levels of our being, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual, we fall into states of disease and stress. We become ill, suppressing our natural expanding consciousness and flow of energy. We all have deep wounds within us. If these wounds are not taken care of, the skin grows over, but the infection grows deeper. We have to allow our wounds to be opened, and to bleed through us. Through the power of sound, we can begin to heal our wounds and replenish our life force, learning ways to reconnect with our deepest inner rhythms, and re-tune the frequencies of our bodies. Scientists have shown that sound and music affect our brain waves, metabolism and physiological responses, and can create profound cellular change.
Edgar Cayce, the well-know trance medium, has proclaimed that sound will be the future medicine. Many progressive clinics and hospitals are now beginning to use therapeutic sound and music. Educators are finding sound can accelerate learning and brain activities and help treat learning disorders. Sound is now being directly applied to the body for healing. British osteopath Peter Guy Manners, carrying forth the work of Hans Jenny, determined that each part of our body vibrates at a specific audible frequency and that each of these frequencies can be measured, reproduced and then transmitted into the body to the appropriate diseased areas restoring balance and health. Manners developed an instrument called a cymatic applicator for this purpose. Experimenting in England for over 20 years, he’s had excellent results, especially with acute and chronic conditions in the body tissue. Modern medicine is now also using a technique called vibrotherapy which involves placing the patient in a bath of radiant light or sound to tune and rebalance the frequencies of their bodies.
Negative Sound as a Destroyer
Sound, because it is so powerful, has the ability to destroy as well as to heal. For example, when a singer sings a certain high pitched frequency, the sound can shatter glass. Through the shattering laser-like power of sound, chronic, fixed crystallized patterns of energy can be broken up and destroyed. This ability of sound to break up patterns can, when used consciously, be a powerful tool and transformative force in the healing process, opening up a space for new growth, reorganization, alignment and balance to occur.
More and more, however, we are creating sound pollution in our environment which, researchers have found, is very harmful to our health and well-being. Studies have shown that people living near airports or heavy traffic or industrial plants, for example, experience 30% more stress-related illnesses than persons in similar towns away from such noise. Loud sounds can be very damaging to our health. Here are a few statistics related to intensity levels of certain sounds, measured in units called decibels.
Levels of Sound
These are documented in Steven Halpern’s book, Sound Health. 0 = threshold of hearing, and 120-140 dec. is the threshold of pain, which can cause permanent hearing loss. The maximum continuous exposure for humans over an 8-hour period is 75 dec., and we cannot tolerate more than 15 minutes continuous exposure at 115 dec. Amplified rock music, screaming children, police sirens, loud traffic, jet engines are all between 100-140 dec. range. Even seemingly harmless household appliances, like refrigerators, are in the 45-80 decibel range. Not only do these sounds destroy our hearing but effect our overall health.
Sound is scientifically measured in units called Hertz which measure the number of vibrations or cycles per second which this energy produces. Sound that is audible to the human ear is limited to vibrations between 16 and 25,000 hertz. The slower moving vibrations produce low, bass sounds while the faster vibrations produce the opposite, high, treble sounds. Sounds in nature have been recorded as high as 40,000 hertz. What about sounds beyond our normal range of hearing? Studies are now showing that even these extremely low frequencies (ELF) and ultra sonic frequencies are detrimental to our health, especially when we are exposed to one frequency over long periods.
Plants and Sound
It has been demonstrated through several studies that sound can kill plants. These studies have been documented in Dorothy Retallack’s The Sound of Music in Plants and Thompkins and Bird’s Secret Life of Plants. Plants were given the same soil, water and light. One group was exposed to the taped musical notes of B and D which were played repetitively at one minute intervals alternated with 5 minutes of silence. The taped music played continuously for 12 hours a day. At the end of the third week all the plants had died. The control group, allowed to grow in peace, flourished.
Other studies were done over a month-long period playing different kinds of music. The plants responded most positively to classical and East Indian music. They had very full leaves and roots and actually were leaning toward the music and in some cases wrapped themselves around the speakers. Plants stimulated with rock music grew away from the music, even when the pots were turned around, and had very spindly roots. This research tells us that plants, with no prior conditioning, are physically effected by music and sound. If plants are effected in this way, imagine what these sounds are doing to the more delicate cell life of humans and especially children.
