Intentional | Audio Identity Blog

Two weeks back I asked you for innovations in music therapy. (Why leave it to the chronically ill?) My friend Renee has delivered, pointing me to Liquid Sound’s work with Toskana Therme — a spa where “trance dance workshops are in full swing, and guests of all ages travel far and wide monthly for full-moon underwater live DJ sets. The program attracts thousands of visitors a year, and now spas as far away as Miami are starting to take notice.”

While at first this sounds like nothing more than a fancy lightshow, a la Bellagio Las Vegas, apparently there are some healing qualities to this. Or at least the perception of such, according to this article in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Schneider said the combination of light and sound, added to the spa’s natural-healing saline waters, pulls participants into deeper relaxation faster than normal.

As bones and muscles work like a huge eardrum when floating in water, Remann said, underwater sound travels through the whole body. “Even many deaf and hard-of-hearing people can ‘hear’ the music underwater,” Schneider added.

It’s easy to cast this off as experiential hype — I’m not wild about the theme-park component to this — but the healing element highlights the fact that we people, who are comprised mostly of water, are molecularly wired to respond to sound.

The opportunities for innovation? Endless. If recuperation time is measurably sped up through this, keep your eye on the insurance companies to lead the charge with interesting offerings. — NF