Telluride Times, October 1, 2026
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” – attributed to Nikola Tesla
I just acquired a tuning fork, a 128 Hz weighted aluminum fork aimed not at identifying the note C in music (which it does), but specifically used to calm the parasympathetic nervous system. Think a buzzing vibration — a buzzing that brings one’s whole being down a notch.
My husband can tell you I am a tool and gadget junkie, prone to experimentation and ever on the lookout for new inroads to health, even knowing very well that healing can arrive mysteriously in a multitude of ways and under any type of condition. Or it can remain at bay no matter how much we feel we’ve attended to it. It is a journey.
Personal backstory about sound and vibration therapy (stop reading if procedural descriptions are not your jam):
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had a salivary stone under my tongue on the right side. For most of my life, it remained non-invasive. Seven or eight years ago, however, the blockage started to cause swelling and pain around that gland. Sucking hardy candy and warm compresses (recommended) weren’t going to do it, this was clear. Massage worsened it.
The first MD, an ENT, was unequivocal about attending to it right away: this was a procedure done under general anesthesia and scheduling surgery ASAP was our next step. My policy has always been to go slower – and sometimes stop altogether — when met with alarmism. Calmly indicating potential urgency is one thing; but alarmism, which generally triggers a fear response, is a red flag for me.
In this case, I put the brakes on and got a second opinion from an old-timer oral surgeon in Grand Junction who told me if it were his wife, he’d have her come in for an office visit to remove the stone via the mouth (a sialolithotomy) rather than via the neck, attended to by an ENT. Long story short, it was the biggest stone he had ever removed (pea sized) and he showed it around the office as if it were some sort of harvested treasure. Recovery was quick.
Fast forward a few years, to another round of pain and obstruction in the gland and an appointment to see yet another ENT (old timer had retired) who gave me steroids and antibiotics and see if the swelling would go down on its own. There was no stone, he said. If the duct were no longer working, it might have to be removed via surgery – the hard way.
The steroids did help with the swelling; but there was still a lot of pain, and I started to get nervous. Approaching the gland from the outside meant risk of facial nerve damage. And general anesthesia? Not my thing, quite honestly, if there is any other way.
Meanwhile, a friend who gives gong baths had invited us over to participate in a sound healing session and we went, happy to simply lie there and zone out, washed in deep and penetrating sound vibration. Done well, this is, at the very least, a pleasant and relaxing experience. I don’t know what actually happened in my body, but a short time thereafter (some days), I woke up in the middle of the night with something in my mouth, thinking, in a sleepy haze, that I had lost a tooth.
The rice-shaped thing I removed from my mouth was actually the salivary stone that I had been told didn’t exist – and the pain was gone, gone, gone. Though I have no proof, I am going to say that the effects of vibration contributed and maybe even effectuated healing.
I bought the tuning fork based on a friend’s experience with it, and because of a prior session in which a Reiki practitioner effectively used one on me. This kind of fork has two weighted tines that, when struck on a dull surface, resonate both aurally and physically. The handle end can be placed on a specific point, like the sternum, for an immediate sensation of calm.
It’s hardly exotic, when you think about it. We encounter sound and vibration every day—in birdsong, for instance, and rain, rivers, music, humming, singing, even the rhythm of our own breathing. Maybe that’s why sound can feel so deeply regulating: long before we understood the nervous system, we were already responding to the rhythm, resonance and pulse of life all around.
I can’t prove that the gong bath helped dislodge my salivary stone. But I know that something shifted for me, and possibly helped open me more to healing itself. We don’t always have to understand exactly how something works to notice that it does something.
Of course, we go on getting checked out by the experts. But a little tuning fork on the side, something that puts the body into a buzz state? I’m willing to give it a go.
