For McArthur resident Bob Bethel, the idea of using sound to heal was once a far-fetched notion.

In 1993, Bethel survived a serious motorcycle accident that left his lower right leg severely damaged. Several major surgeries and hours of reconstructive surgery were required to create the illusion that his leg muscles were intact. Bethel’s physicians had little hope for a complete recovery and told Bethel to consider himself lucky to be alive.

Unable to continue his law practice in Florida, Bob moved back home to Vinton County to recuperate. He had little hope that he would ever be able to practice law again and still less hope that his passion for tennis would be a part of his future.

At a local grocery store, Bethel met a fellow tennis player. During this brief encounter, Bethel learned that a local company, Sound Health Alternatives, was conducting experimental research to test the idea that low frequency sound could be used to help regain muscle strength and control.

“I’m a lawyer and an engineer, so I was skeptical,” Bethel said, but he had little to lose and nothing else had helped, so he decided to give it a try.

At the research clinic in Albany, Bob met Sharry Edwards, Sound Health Alternatives founder and chief researcher. Bethel’s voice was analyzed, a portable tone box was then programmed to emit the stressed frequencies that Bethel required.

Bethel was very intrigued by the obvious effect that the sounds from the tone box were having on his muscles.

Today, Bethel is no longer a skeptic. “the swelling is gone. There’s almost no pain. I had severe limping and couldn’t run at all. Now I can run, almost,” states Bethel in a very matter of fact manner. “As we continue to work I can move more, and I’m now matching Bill (the person he met at in the grocery store) on the courts step for step…something I never thought I would be able to do.”

The program designed for Bethel worked specifically with the muscles in the lower leg to provide tone and pain relief. Both Bethel and Edwards are surprised that Bethel has improved so dramatically that he is now and assistant coach for the Vinton County High School tennis team. News of his case brought a TV crew to film for three days in Athens. Several OU students and professionals were involved in the filming. Bethel’s success story is just one of over 6,000 case studies conducted since the research institute was established in 1991. Volumes of research on each case show how voice analysis and sound presentation have eased many kinds of body stress and dis-ease.

“Although we can work independently, we prefer to provide pre-management diagnostics to health and medical practitioner,” Edwards said.

How does this technology work? Edwards and her partners do not have a definitive theory but believe that they are working both with the energy patterns of the acupuncture system of the body studied by German and Chinese scientists and the “analog signals” described by Dr. Robert Becker in his publication, “Cross Currents.”

We can show the voice is a representation of the body’s energy patterns and that everything at its base is energy. We have just found a way to look at the vocal print as a holograph of what is going on through the body systems” Edwards said.

Work in this field, dubbed “BioAcoustics” by Edwards, is most closely akin to biofeedback and is just now being perceived as a complement to preventive health practices. Three courses in BioAcoustics are offered at Hocking College for a certificate program. Edwards has presented dozens of papers to conferences across the country concerning her research and findings. Edwards and Dr. Terrence Bugno recently presented a paper to the International Conference of Energy Medicine.

“BioAcoustics has a place in health care. We can assess clients, confer with their health care practitioners and suggest programs of intervention. We provide insight into what may be happening with a person. We offer the opportunity to look at the body as a whole. Many times we can see directions that haven’t even been considered,” Edwards said.

For people like Bethel, it is a miracle. He has his life back. Something he thought would never happen, once a skeptic, he now admits that BioAcoustics may will be the medicine of the future.

“The Sonic Apothecary,” a video about BioAcoustics produced by Healing Vision Films, Inc., is available at area libraries for anyone interested in learning more about Sound Health technology.

Copies of the video are also available by calling, Sound Health Alternatives at 698-9119.

This article was reprinted from the article that appeared in the Community section of the Athens Messenger on Monday, Sept. 13, 1999.