Over the years, I’ve heard a lot about the healing energy of sound—that practices like chanting and using sound bowls have healing properties. However, I never fully understood the healing power of sound until I experienced it firsthand through the beautiful, healing sound of cats’ purring and a subsequent deep dive into the research behind purring and other high vibrational sounds.
At the beginning of the summer, my husband and I made the decision to adopt three sibling kittens who immediately bounded into our family’s lives and hearts. Over the course of the last few months, I’ve learned more than I could have possibly anticipated from Max, Eve and Pearl. These new playful and captivating additions to our home also explain why I didn’t blog over the summer! As with all sentient beings, I believe that there is inherent wisdom in all animals. Each day, these baby kittens, with their exploration of their environment, care of and attention to each other, bonding with us humans and their purring, especially, has had me in awe of these three incredible furry, four-legged additions to our home.
Not long after adopting the kittens, I sat in my daily meditation with them nearby, purring contentedly. Surrounded by and then soon engulfed by their rhythmic, low and deeply relaxing purring hum, I felt my attention following this sound and its vibration, so transfixed by it that at one point I was literally moved to tears. It sounded and felt so beautiful, so profound and, what occurred to me as their purring entered into my meditation, so healing.
That healing felt-sense had me on Google immediately following the meditation, researching any science, studies and wisdom I could find to learn about the energy of sound and potential healing properties of purring and more.
Studies Show That Purring Leads To Physical Health Healing
I first landed on a website called The Conscious Cat (great site name, right?), reading an article entitled, The Cat’s Purr: A Biomechanical Healing Mechanism? The article began by explaining that while we still don’t know the exact reason why cats purr, other than it is calming and relaxing (cats purr when they are both in a relaxed state and when in distress, as purring is believed to help them self-soothe), researchers are finding that a cat’s purr does, in fact, have physical healing properties, with studies were showing that the purring helps to heal bones, muscles and tendons.
According to the article,
“In a 2006 study conducted by Fauna Communications, researchers found that the frequency of a cat’s purr is between 25 and 140 Hz. This covers the same frequencies that are therapeutic for bone growth and fracture healing, pain relief, swelling reduction, wound healing, muscle growth and repair, tendon repair, and mobility of joints. This would support the theory that purring is not just self-soothing for cats, but is actually a form of self-healing.”
The article continued by explaining that research has also shown that a cat’s purr and even just being around cats can have a positive impact on the physical health of humans.
“A 2008 study at the University of Minnesota showed that cat owners have a 40% reduced risk of heart attacks. Other studies have shown that just petting a cat can lower your blood pressure.
There are numerous reports from cat parents recovering from surgery or injury of cats insisting on laying on or near the area of the human’s body that needs healing. So I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to think that they don’t just do this because they love us or are worried about us, but that there’s actually a tangible physical benefit when they literally purr us back to health.”
As my Google search continued, I found link after link, study after study, detailing how the purring of a cat leads to physical and, as I investigated further, emotional healing in humans. I learned through reading various articles, all which reported similar information, that purring releases endorphins in cats, as well as in the humans nearby. Purring also was shown to lower stress hormones, lower blood pressure and promote all forms of healing, as well as help people cope with the mental/emotional aspects of illness. I also came across stories of people with migraines whose headaches were eased or extinguished when their heads were close to purring cats, as well as a lot of information on purring helping to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in their owners.
Here are a couple of interesting articles to check out if you, too, want to know more!
The Science-Back Benefits of Being a Cat Lover
The Power of Pets: Health Benefits of Human-Animal Interactions
How Cats Help Improve Mental Health
Excited to share this newfound knowledge, I reached out to a fellow cat-lover friend, explaining what I had learned. This friend, who practices yoga and chanting as forms of healing, has been diagnosed with PTSD multiple times by multiple therapists and clinicians over decades. Following my share, I could see her face light up through my screen (we were on a zoom) as she explained that when she was going through a particularly challenging time, deep in the throes of a PTSD episode, that her cat, a indoor/outdoor short-haired male gray tabby who spent most of his nights during the warmer months out all night galavanting around the neighborhood, would not leave her side during this time. Instead of his nightly escapades, he would lay his head next to hers, occasionally licking her with his scratchy tongue and, you guessed it, purring!
Both Purring And Humming Our Good For Our Health
The information I learned about purring got me thinking more about how we, as humans, can make and use sounds to heal ourselves. And, the experience I had with the kittens purring had me thinking, too, about how the sound they make when purring isn’t very different from the sound we make when humming. The information I found about humming mimicked what I found about purring. Wow!
Research on humming, which is known to be a self-soothing sound (like purring), has shown that it can reduce stress, induce calmness, enhance sleep, lower heart rate and blood pressure and even produce neurochemicals, such as oxytocin, also known as the ‘love hormone.’
Om: The Healing Power & Energy of Sound
It’s well known and documented in much Eastern philosophy that there is healing power in sound and that healers and meditators have used sound in their healing work for centuries. We’ve seen an increase of sound healing practices in the West in recent decades through sound baths, chanting, kirtans and even what might seem like simple humming. Western science is finally catching up with what many Eastern philosophies have known for centuries and science now shows that certain frequencies and tones of sound can have healing effects on the human physical, emotional and, I’d also say, the spiritual body.
As a long-time meditator, I started thinking more about the sacred sound of Om.
As described in a MasterClass article, The Meaning of Om: How to Use Om in Your Yoga Practice, “Om or aum (pronounced ah-uu-mm) is a sacred sound considered by many ancient philosophical texts to be the sound of the universe, encompassing all other sounds within it. In Sanskrit, om is called Pranava, which means to hum, and is considered an unlimited or eternal sound. Although the term is linked to Indian culture, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism, om chanting is a spiritual practice that transcends culture and religion and is inclusive of all possible definitions and interpretations of God, or Brahma.”
Chanting the sound Om consists of three parts or stages. Patañjali, who was a sage in India around 200 BCE and is believed to have authored a number of Sanskrit texts, most prominently the Yoga Sutras, interprets these three stages as the beginning, middle and end of all other sounds in the universe
While it’s written Om, it sounds more like A-U-M.
A: The first sound in om is “A,” pronounced "ah."
U: “U” or "oo" is a natural continuation of the sound that begins with "ah."
M: The “M” sound is made by sealing the lips to complete the oral part of the mantra.
If you’re unfamiliar with the sound of Om or to simply heat a beautiful sound meditation of Buddist throat singing monks chanting Om (this sound meditation can also help with relaxation and sleep and/or enhance your meditation), listen here.
Using The Energy of Sound in Your Meditation Practice
In this blog, I’m offering you a unique sound meditation—one that could very well bring you into the experience of a cat! Some of you may know this sound well and some of you may never have had a cat, but have a general idea of what a purring cat might sound like. And, some of you may associate this experience with cats you’ve loved that have since passed on.
I invite you to try this meditation as an experiment and see what comes up.
Like cats, sometimes meditation can be playful. We can encourage ourselves to step out of our usual routine and practices, and use our imagination to shift into another head and body space.
We’ll use the myNoice app’s (this can also be found online and is very cool!) Furry Friend: Frequency- Shaped Cat Purr Noise Generator to provide the purring sound for the meditation so you’ll have an opportunity to try it in a guided format.
Sound is a very powerful way of anchoring ourselves into the present moment. I invite you to explore and play with it! You might try listening to chanting, such as the throat-singing monks, or chanting AUM (om). You can also explore listening to sound bowls or meditation bowls, or the wind, rain or the ocean. Youtube offers seemingly countless videos that give us the opportunity to listen to just about anything!
Blessings,
Karen
