I met Mathias Palmsteiner while in Goa, India, introduced through mutual friend and fellow healer, Judit. Mathias is an expert in sound therapy and after years of experimenting with healing sound frequencies, as well as cultivating an in-depth and holistic knowledge of the human body – largely through self-practise of yoga and other bodywork techniques – he created the ‘Soma-Board’. What looks like a simple, beautifully designed piece of wood, is actually an incredible piece of self-healing equipment. The Soma-Board, when placed underneath your spine and connected to sound vibrations that resonate through the wood into your body (either digitally or hand played), can send the body into a state of deep relaxation. From there, it undertakes its own healing process.

I was fortunate enough to try the Soma-Board while in Goa and have blogged in detail about my experience here. To sum up, I found the effect of the treatment truly magical. Lying on my back on the floor with the board underneath me and soothing sounds playing through headphones, I was quickly transported into a state of blissful relaxation. After experiencing being in a dream-like, meditative state for the thirty-minute session, afterwards I felt emotionally, mentally and physically revived.

While still floating on air, I talked more to Mathias about sound therapy, the Soma-Board, and his interest in holistic healing in general. Here’s what he said:

HB: Can you describe what the Soma-Board does?

M: To explain simply, the board helps put you in a state of deep relaxation to the point where the body can perform self-healing. This is the same as a deep [conscious] sleep state, such as Yoga Nidra, [through which] the speed of neuro receptors slow down.

For this the sound samples are not required. The equal pressure of the board along the spine is enough to create the effect where the central nervous system can relax the muscles around the ligaments.

It supports physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. On a physical level the board supports and guides the body into symmetry and balance, so that tensions can relax. At a deeper level, by supporting relaxation at the spine, central nervous system and endocrine system, this helps take the user towards a state of homeostatic balance, where real self-healing takes place.

HB: What effects does it have on people?

M: [He pauses] I want to avoid promising anything… It’s individual. It differs from person to person. Advanced human beings may sense the presence and joy of their own knower. Others may enjoy an astral state where they experience the dynamic of different bodies (physical, emotional, mental). [Incidentally I felt something of this nature during my treatment]. A feeling of openness and wellbeing is very common.

HB: How does sound work to promote healing?

M: Sound has been used for thousands of years for healing. Certain types of sounds and music have been proven effective in creating states of relaxation, balance, healing and visualisation.

There are many different explanations for the effect of sound on healing. I have collected some research from respected authorities, as well as my own interpretations on my website: http://somaboard.com/research/ There are many links here to explore.

One explanation is that by delivering sound frequencies through the body, spinal cord and areas of the brainstem and brain, there is the possibility of a deeper whole-body response. Directly stimulating living cellular tissue with sound frequency vibration has shown to achieve significant cellular organelle response, increased cellular metabolism and therefore a possible mobilisation of a cellular healing response.

The human body is over 70% water. Sound travels five times more efficiently through water than air. So sound frequency stimulation directly into the body is highly efficient for total body stimulation, especially at a cellular level.

HB: How did you become interested in sound therapy?

M: I started working with low-vibrations (sub-frequencies) fifteen years ago, with the didgeridoo. I discovered that sub-frequencies are very useful on a physical level as they move very fast through body tissue.

H.B. How was the Soma-Board ‘born’?

M: The board was born two years ago. The idea behind it was to refine the invention [of sound healing devices] to a size that could be practically transported for travelling. A sound bed for example is very heavy and non-transportable. I’m a traveller and I want to carry it around, so it had to be as small and as light as possible. By doing it in a digital way, anyone can use it [the board] at home in their living room.

I wanted to take it [healing] away from the healer – from needing the healer to be present. The idea of a healer (or efforts to get healed) starts by somebody having the idea of being sick (not whole) and needs a healer. There’s nothing wrong with the healer or a treatment, but this very idea creates the notions that a state or experience you have is something wrong or incomplete (imperfect) and needs therefore an effort or person can change that. Such an idea or mental program can be quite conditioned and keeps you most likely ignorant to who you really are in its wholeness and perfection. 

M: I want to create an overall sense of wellbeing by tuning the taurus (light) field of the body to wholeness. Once healthy electromagnetic current is established in the system, various issues will disappear by themselves (the body performs its final balance). I only support the overall outcome.

There is no scientific proof from my side but lots of research to support the use of sounds on meridians and energy fields and their corresponding muscles and tissues.

H.B. What is your education / training background in healing practices?

M: I studied lots of yoga, bodywork, the chakra system… I learnt on a practical level. I don’t read many books. I worked with my body and learnt from that. Then I met many other people who spoke the same language as me, who were working with the same techniques as me. Independently from me other people had come up with very similar insights.

This also matches with the ancient techniques of Ayurveda, Chinese medicine etc. The energetic circuit of the body works the same as it did thousands of years ago; now we are just doing it digitally.

Now I practise Scaravelli Yoga, which is focused on the electro-magnetic circuits on gravity and anti-gravity. If you pay respect to this energy field you come to a phenomenal result.

It’s all directly related to experience. That’s why I became a practical tool and not a book.

None of this I was really asking for. It just happened…

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Find out more about the Soma-Board here.

Read my personal experience of sound healing here.

Follow The Healing Network Blog for future interviews with healers, and much more.

Namaste x