An Interview with Olav Skille: Sarajane Williams

1. What is VAT? How/why does it work?

VAT is a form of therapy where we transfer sound directly to the human body, using
loudspeakers or transducers as the active medium. The loudspeakers are built into a chair, bed or couch and the patient is sitting/lying directly above the active surface. We know that sound penetrates solid mediums and liquids, and the human body consists mainly of water and solids. Vibrating the surface with sound, we also cause the sound to penetrate the body, and in this was we obtain internal massage. We claim that this massage has a positive effect on us. In VAT we combine low frequency tones in the VAT area (30 Hz to 120 Hz) with music.
We can say that the low frequencies massage the body and that music is massaging the soul. N VAT both the well and ill parts of the body receive the same stimuli - in this way we try to create total harmony in body and soul. 

2. How did you become involved with/develop VAT?

After a discussion with Julie Alvin in 1968 on the physical effects of music, I thought about
this for 12 years, and made the first prototype when I was working in a day care center for
multi-handicapped children. We wanted to reduce spasms in the children, and used low
frequencies to obtain this effect. Bass sounds are more relaxing than sharp treble sounds -
also in auditive music. From 1980 onwards the whole concept has developed, and we now
have more than 40.000 hours of experience behind us in the different centers and private
homes in the world where VAT is used in one way or other.

3. Do specific body tissues or regions of the body respond to specific frequencies? If so, how were the specific frequencies determined? Are there individual differences in
frequency response with patients?

Yes, we have found specific effects based on the harmonics of 40 Hz. If 40 Hz is the base, 50Hz is a natural third above 40 Hz. 60 Hz is natural fifth above 40 Hz and 68 Hz is a
diminished seventh above 40 Hz. We use 40 Hz for general muscle massage and for
spasmolytic treatment. We use 50Hz and 52 Hz for menstrual pains, for low back pains and
for lung massage to facilitate breathing in asthmatic patients. We use 60 Hz for spasmolytic
purposes. We use 68 Hz for neck and shoulder pains. Based on the harp's E (which is about
41 Hz) the frequencies mentioned above give us a E7 chord. You know the chamber tone was
once 432 Hz and not the 440 Hz of to-day, so I think we can permit us some artistic freedom
here when we use E - or 40 Hz - as our basic therapeutic frequency.

4. Can you give an example or case study of someone who had a significant
improvement from VAT?

We have seen considerable palliative effect in patients with Fibromyalgia, children with
MLD or Cerebral Palsy, and in the treatment of menstrual pains. A patient with Multiple
Sclerosis has been using VAT daily for 20 years, and is still able to do his job. He considers
VAT to be the main factor in the unusually slow progression of his disease.

5. What conditions respond to VAT? Do psychological conditions respond?

As we see from the cases study above, we also can observe psychological effects of VAT.
Body and soul are closely linked, and it is impossible to influence one of them isolated from
the other. Psychological effects are : Reduced depression and deep mental relaxation. For
conditions in which the patients rely on their muscle shield to keep sane, we must not induce
this deep relaxation state, however.

6. In what way (if any) do you combine musical elements with specific frequencies totreat specific problems? What is the benefit?

I think I have answered the question above. But it is important for me to state that I always
use frequencies tuned to the music I use on my therapy tapes. I usually make custom made
tapes for patients or therapists who contact me. If I must choose between using a certain
frequency and adjusting the frequency to the music I have chosen, I always let the musical
considerations win. I do not want to put disharmonic frequency combinations into the body of a human being who needs harmonization. 

7. Are there any contraindications to using VAT? Any adverse effects? Have any psychotic reactions been documented?

Active or border-line psychosis is a contra-indication, as the patient easily can go "over the
edge". We also consider external or internal active bleeding (not menstrual bleeding) as a
contra indication. Recent thromboses can start "moving" and we do not treat situations
involving such possibility. The vibrations we use are not very different from the vibrations
we receive when we sit in a bus with a diesel engine. Therefore they are not harmful in any
way. It is important to use common sense.

8. What is your impression of VA/Harp therapy?

I have never thought about this until I met the harp players at the Music Medicine
Symposium in San Antonio. I think the possibility of using live music - eventually combines
with the above mentioned pre-recorded frequencies,- maybe as the base of improvisations on a set of harmonies based on one or more frequencies - is very interesting. Of course, it is
more expensive than using recorded music, but using the harp live give us the positive effect
of direct human contact which ought to be very important if we work in a mental hospital.
We do not have any empirical data on this way of using VAT, and I encourage the harpist to
try out new ways of use!

9. Do you have any suggestions/recommendations for practitioners who are interested in
VA/Harp therapy?

You can read what I have written, keep in contact with each other - eventually using chat
groups as the connecting medium, and share knowledge with each other. Sharing is caring.
Competition will always make the individual weaker.

10. What kind of training or background do you recommend
for potential VAT practitioners?

Both musical and paramedical education. I also hope that every
therapist can have some education in scientific research, so we
can get reliable and comparable data from each therapist. And :
PUBLISH your experiences! Remember: all data are valuable in
order to let us see the overall picture of how music will influence
our physical and mental well-being.

11. In what settings is VAT used in Norway? How has the
medical community responded to VAT?

Mostly in institutions for multiple handicapped, in institutes for physiotherapists and in
geriatric institutions. Some individual users have bought equipment for home use.

13. What do you predict to be the future of VAT?
I think we will find many interesting ways lying open to us when we have enough anecdotal
data collected to say that the evidence on the effect of VAT is overwhelming enough to
convince the skeptics that VAT is here to stay and to be used - in many different ways, and 
by means of many different types of equipment using the principles of VAT. Any time of
sound furniture will provide good effects.

14. Any additional comments?

Yes,- I consider myself to be both a scientist and musician. I have always worked alone, on
my own funding - all money spent on developing VAT has been taken from my income as a
teacher. Commercial interests have entered the scene as the idea has spread and proven to be right. The systems known as Vibro Acoustics, Somatron, Vibroacoustics, Clark Synthesis and MVT have all entered the scene after 1980, and it seems to me that too much interest has been invested in what kind of sound furniture we use for transferring sound to the human
body. For me the main interest lies in the music and the sounds we use. Without the sound
(or vibration), which may come from a cassette, an instrument or some electronic source, the
chair, bed or couch is silent,- dead! I have tried to put the enthusiasm and love of the
musician-artist into my scientific work, and have been criticized by music therapists that I am
too technical, and by university researchers that I am too unspecific. I think we need some
sacrifices on both sides in order to cooperate and develop the still young therapy system
which has got the name Vibroacoustic Therapy. We need the scientists in order to know what
is going on, what really is happening. Being practitioning therapists we need information
from the researchers to refine our methods, but I really hope we do not stop being empathic,
compassionate and intuitive artists in our work. VAT is here to stay - and it is our job to use it
for the benefit of the patients we have responsibility for.

I really hope someone with funding and equipment would take interest in my observations
around the effects of the frequencies involved in the elements of the E7 chord, because we
must use the language of music also when we try to find explanations. I will share my
findings with anyone.
Sarajane,- thank you for your interest. I always get stimulation out of the interest which is
generated around VAT. Let us continue to make music for the silent sound surfaces in
order to improve the life quality of our patients.