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by Joshua Leeds
Vermont: Healing Arts Press, 2001,
p/b, 326pp, £21.99.
Reviewed by James D’Angelo
Joshua Leeds is an American composer, producer, sound researcher
and cofounder/director of Applied Music & Sound that specializes
in the creation of audio programmes for health, learning and productivity.
Since 1986 Leeds has produced 15 therapeutic sound CDs (three
in collaboration with Louise L Hay) and published numerous articles
on the therapeutic application of music and sound leading up to
his first book, Sonic Alchemy. His second book, The
Power of Sound, is a summation of all the research he has
done to date and it is a very rich book indeed. It has been specifically
written for lay people on the one hand and for musicians and healthcare
professionals on the other. In its comprehensiveness of the subject
of psychoacoustics it serves perfectly as a companion book to
The Mozart Effect by Don Campbell. Armed with these two
books anyone interested in music/sound healing would have a very
broad, substantial picture of the subject.
Leeds states that psychoacoustics includes how to listen, our
psychological responses and the physiological impact of music
and sound on the human nervous system. In exploring these avenues,
he has divided the book into three parts. In Part 1 the subject
is the physics of sound and the mechanics of hearing. Here we
find clear, in-depth explanations of what resonance and entrainment
are – two concepts that have not been given as much weight
in other books as Leeds does. This section includes two important
figures in psychoacoustics, the well-known Dr Alfred Tomatis (acknowledged
as a great father figure by many in the sound healing field),
author of The Conscious Ear (sadly, out of print), and
the lesser known Robert Doman. Both were pioneers in the field
of neurodevelopmental auditory training.
In the second part Leeds turns his attention to sound awareness
and presents the latest research into the personal applications
of psychoacoustic principles. Here there is an examination of
stress-induced auditory dysfunction and auditory cross-dominance
as well as an acknowledgment of how important the pulses of the
heart, breath and brain are for sound health. What Leeds takes
into consideration, perhaps as no other, is the relationship between
the vibrations of music and the different ages of a human being.
For example, he delineates what kind of vibrations should be absorbed
by babies, teenagers and what he calls seniors. This has a certain
echo of Rudolf Steiner who also was quite prescriptive about what
sounds should be introduced to the evolving child. His other subject
here is one that needs so much addressing nowadays – noise
pollution. He stresses how much we need to practise sonic safety
because there is a great deal of hearing loss going around. That,
for example, 35% of hearing loss is attributable to excessive
noise.
The third part is completely practical, being a guide to soundwork
techniques, the therapeutic uses of sound and what he describes
as sonic neurotechnologies. This is a wonderfully comprehensive
section of the book, of particular interest to musicians and healthcare
professionals. All the methods that sound healers use are taken
up from tuning forks to guided imagery and binaural beat frequencies.
Leeds also explores all the parameters of music as a way of demonstrating
that it is possible to build up a music that contains specific
effects for specific purposes. It takes practical situations both
in health practices and in the home and essentially recommends
what sound paths to follow. To this end the book comes with a
12 track CD of psychoacoustically refined classical music, that
is, the music is recorded by live musicians but then altered in
subtle ways for its purposes. Then he prescribes which track might
be used under which circumstances and why.
The Power of Sound is very wellorganized and written in
a clear, easy-to-read style so that the lay person will have no
difficulty understanding the concepts. All the appendices are
a goldmine of practical exercises, interviews, a glossary of terms
(so important) and a resource guide. If your reviewer, who has
been working with sound therapeutically for 8 years, has found
this book resourceful for himself then the interested reader can
be assured that The Power Of Sound will be food for thought
as well as an excellent guide for the therapeutic application
of sound.
For further information and online sources from The Power
of Sound visit www.thepowerofsound.com.
© Caduceus, 2003.
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