Humans and dolphins have always had a connection. Now, besides the ‘feel good’ factor, new evidence suggests that dolphins emit sounds with healing qualities.
In 1971, educational anthropologist Betsy Smith witnessed an improvement in her mentally retarded brother after he waded into the water with two young dolphins.
Intrigued by the results, neuropsychologist David Nathanson began testing whether dolphins could help two children with Down’s syndrome to process and retain information.
Nathanson found that the children learned four times faster with dolphins than they did in their more conventional educational settings and retained 15 per cent more information.
Nathanson replicated his work with six other children who suffered from various severe physical/mental handicaps. Again, the dolphin interactions elicited up to 19 times more correct speech than the usual classroom setting, with nearly three per cent greater retention (Anthrozoos, 1993).
Nathanson went on to treat 700 children between 1988 and 1997, with 35 different diagnoses, such as cerebral palsy, autism and brain and spinal-cord injuries (Anthrozoos, 1997).
Since Nathanson’s groundbreaking research, therapists have attempted to use captive dolphins to aid every type of trouble or handicap, including anorexia, chronic depression, post traumatic stress disorder, dyslexia and even cancer.
One research facility in the Ukraine reported a 60 per cent improvement in childhood phobias and a 30 per cent improvement in patients with infantile cerebral palsy, using dolphins.
Dolphin-assisted therapy (DAT) does not work in every instance. Autistic children enjoy the sessions, but don’t show measurable or lasting changes compared with other disabled children.
A number of organisations such as The Dolphin Experience, Living From The Heart in Morrison, Colorado, and Dolphin Reef Eilat in Israel, offer short- or long-term DAT programmes.
However, only recently have organisations attempted to study exactly what happens to humans in close proximity with these special mammals and how it can accelerate learning or healing.
David Cole, a computer scientist in the US, found that the dominant brainwave frequency slowed significantly after interacting with dolphins – from a beta frequency to what resembled an alpha state, the frequency of light meditation or dreaming.
He also found that the brain’s left and right hemispheres emitted brainwaves in synchrony and at similar frequencies.
Studies of psychoneuroimmunology have shown that alpha states boost the immune system, while others show that increased alpha and theta waves can enhance learning.
The Back Institute of Florida demonstrated that the production and uptake of the brain’s neurotransmitters are strengthened by increased contact with dolphins.
So far, leukaemia research shows that cavitation can help disintegrate the membranes of cancerous cells. Cavitation refers to microscopic bubbles, 100 microns in diameter and formed as a result of intense sound waves, that implode in less than a microsecond (Sci. Am., 1989). Such implosions heat liquid (in this instance a cell) to 5,500 degrees centigrade (roughly the temperature of the sun’s surface).
This extreme heating may be what causes the chemical and electrical changes in the brain. Others suggest that sound waves in developing tissue cause neurons to migrate (Lancet, 1992).
Cavitation is also thought to stimulate the production of immune system T cells to release endorphins, which are the hormones involved in coping with stress and modulating pain perception. We know that bottlenose dolphins are capable of soundwave intensities that can create cavitation, but this may not be the whole story.
A project in Key Largo, Florida showed that bottlenose dolphins produce low-frequency electromagnetic (EM) waves. In this experiment, special recording equipment was used to record all of the signals emanating from the dolphins, as well as the brain frequencies of the children participating in the study.
When the dolphins were present, an extremely low-frequency signal was recorded in nearly three fourths of all the trials. On examining the brain recordings of the children, they saw profound brainwave shifts to a predominant frequency near 16 Hz after interactions with the dolphins. From this they concluded that dolphins sense human electrical fields and are trying to communicate at the same frequencies.
One worrying aspect of DAT is exploitation. The dolphins may be healing us, but at a cost. Dolphins in captivity live for only four or five years compared to an average lifespan of 45 years in the wild.
Dolphins also drastically curtail their use of sonar in captivity as the signals bounce off the walls of their holding tanks and confuse them.
The answer and more humane way is a Virtual Reality Dolphin Encounter (VRDE), which tries to recreate the auditory encounter in the participant’s head. However, we still need to have a clearer understanding of the EM effects of dolphins before we can recreate the actual experience.
Some DAT websites for further information are: www.dolphinhumantherapy.com – can help establish a rehabilitation programme for those with disability, depression and special needs; www.aquathought.com – offers information on DAT research; www.dolphinswim.net – offers programmes at ‘Dolpin Land’ near Antalya, Turkey, specifically for eating disorder sufferers; www.cancun.com/Swim_with_Dolphins/ – offers holidays in the Mexican Caribbean with various interactive swimming with dolphins; and www.idw.org – offers teaching aids and virtual dolphin systems, portable plastic structures containing dolphin sounds and images.
kathryn@maltanet.net