23.7. 1993 Vitoria-Gasteiz / Spain - World Federation of Music Therapy

Ecstatic ritual) of the influences which create the ability
to overcone pain and stress.
One explanation is provided by Prince (as already
mentioned) who differentiates between the easing of
pain due to Endorphine Activity, and that due to hipnotic
Suggestion, Another explanation can be found in one of
Achterberg's researches ( 1982) concerning severelyburned
infants.
As an anaesthetic she made use of heart-beats
recorded in utero, very similar to drum-beats, These
rhythms (which probably match Delta brainwaves: 4-5
cycles per second) created an effective sensory block
against pain, which facilitated even extremely painful
treat ents, Once the infants got used to the presence of
the tape-recorder in their cots, they would fall asleep
within a minute or two after hearing the sound.
Achterberg bases this clinical research on the "Gate
945
Theory" of Melsack and Wall (1965) in which they claim
that since pain-sensations are transmitted by very
sluggish fibres which can be blocked, or limited, by rapid
and powerful counter-stimuli, This could be
acupuncture, mild transcutaneous electrical stimulation,
massage, and even repetetive percussion.
The anaesthetising of infants, children and even adults,
by means of bonotonous and repetetive pulses is
recognised and accepted as effective in a variety of
schools of relaxation therapy, This is generally
attributed to psychological causes, or to physiological
causes associated with a loss of alertness due to the
continuous and monotonous stimulus which holds no
changes and no surprises.
Achterberg (as we have already mentioned) presents
another viewpoint in which she claims that rhythmic
stimulation can be employed not only as an anaesthetic