The bell is not a musical instrument; it does not produce melodies. The main thing in it is timbre, rhythm, tempo. An experienced ringer is able to literally «animate» the metal, and it responds with a soft, velvety sound.
“And the heart trembles and melts with joy” – this is how the Russian writer Alexei Tolstoy heard the bell ringing*. Why are these sounds so mesmerizing? Vibrations of ringing enter into resonance not only with our soul, but also with the body. And they seem to be able to heal him. The bell is not a musical instrument; it does not produce melodies. The main thing in it is timbre, rhythm, tempo. An experienced ringer is able to literally «animate» the metal, and it responds with a soft, velvety sound. On Easter, Christmas, Trinity, many people come to the temple or chapel to hear this wondrous ringing. “It affects our body not aesthetically, with a melody, but with the physical properties of sound,” explains Dina Kirnarskaya, Doctor of Arts, Doctor of Psychology. — This influence is very organic, as it comes from nature itself and does not depend on the properties of music or the nuances of performance. Healing — in the coincidence of the frequencies of the bell sound with the biorhythms of the body, receiving a kind of tuning. Low tones calm us, high tones excite us. Under the ringing of bells, anxiety, fears, irritation go away. Doctor of Medical Sciences, psychotherapist Andrei Gnezdilov has been using the sound of bells in the treatment of hospice patients for many years**. The doctor offers patients to choose the tone, strength and rhythm of the bells. As a result, after 10–15 minutes, some of them calmly fall asleep, while others experience relief: the pain goes away. Physicist Vadim Kiranov, a researcher at the Belarusian State University, recalls that bells produce sounds with a wave frequency of 30 Hz to 100 kHz. Sounds with a frequency above 20 kHz are not perceived by our hearing organs, but it is this ultrasonic spectrum of bell ringing that has a healing effect ***. There is a resonance with the oscillation frequency of our internal organs, they seem to be massaged by sound. There is also … a disinfecting effect: under the influence of the bell ringing, many viruses die. Does this mean that the flu does not threaten bell ringers? Maybe. However, they have real hardening.
* A. Tolstoy «Blagovest». ** A. Gnezdilov «Therapeutic use of bell ringing.» Medical technologies, 1995, No. 1/2; A. Gnezdilov «The Way to Calvary». Klint, 1995. *** More details on the website: www.sb.by/post/27250/