HELLO AND WELCOME- WE HAVE MOVED!!! Our new website, complete with blog and updated events, is located at: www.wholisticsound.com Please visit!!!
This site is a forum for the introduction and discussion of ideas regarding the use of vibration, frequency, sound and music as a non-invasive modality for healing on the physical plane as well as expanding consciousness and furthering our connection to the psychospiritual realms.
First thing when I woke up this morning I grabbed my phone, did my usual check-in to see what the weather was going to look like and then went to my Twitter account to see who my new followers were. This knock-your-socks-off mind-blowing fiddler/violinist was the first to show up. I read the little blurb on her Twitter page: "Genre-defying fiddler (or was that violinist?); exuberant fireplug of a session-player-to-the-stars (Led Zeppelin, The Chieftains, Blue Rodeo, James Taylor)" and thought, "Holy shit- who is this person?" Exuberant fire-plug?! How could you not be intrigued by that, even if you didn't love the fiddle as I do? I followed her from Twitter to her webpage and boom! Here was this video. Wow! What a way to start the day! I was seriously blissed out- grinning from ear to ear.
Music... what a gift! With music there are no boundaries. It cuts
through all the chatter, all the bullshit and just allows you to get
down and get real! Sometimes it's nice to get all philosophical- or
scientific- about this stuff and talk about what it does, how it heals,
why it heals, what's going on in the brain, etc., etc., but other times
you just have to cut to the chase. That is what this music did for me.
It brought to myself, to what is real- here and now- and, I might add, in no time at all! This clip is only 2:02 minutes long.
Thank you Anne Lindsay for following me on Twitter- you seriously rock! My world got a little bigger today.
Whoops- have been up late working on taxes- just saw the time! Had the blessing of giving my new friend and entrepreneurial wizard Lisel Woods a session today in return for the time she spent with me last week. Telling someone what I do is one thing. Having them experience it for themselves is another thing altogether!
And a quick note to say how wonderful it was to have friends, old and new, at my house the last few days. So much appreciation for the sound tools here- all the kids trading off on the various sound tables and recliner- trying everything out- playing musical chairs for real!
Still getting back in the swing of things after a week of intense pain, then sudden almost miraculous relief, followed immediately by having a group of 5 ceramic artists stay at my house last night. Two of them are my dear friends Devin McDonald, ceramic artist extraordinaire and Brian Ransom, musician, ceramic artist and maker of exceptional ceramic instruments. The other three were Brian's top students at Eckerd College. They were all up in RI for the NCECA Conference.
The visit was wonderful although I was in too much pain up until yesterday to be able to attend any of the conference other than one opening last night.
Below is video of Brian Ransom, Barry Hall- author of From Mud to Music, his wife Beth Hall
and Eric Peterson playing an assortment of ceramic instruments at a show in Highlands, North Carolina.
Unfortunately when I filmed it I didn't realize I couldn't zoom in and
out without the camera muting, so there are some interruptions but it
does give you a good idea of the variety of instruments and the
beautiful sounds that are possible when such talented people are playing
them. All of the instruments were made by the musicians.
And on that note, here are a few pictures of one of Brian's students who totally connected with an udu I made in Brian's studio a few years ago! An udu is a ceramic vessel originally made to carry food or water but which doubles as a percussion instrument with a unique sound reminiscent of Indian tablas.
Today's short share. This is seriously cool. Or should I say, cooling?
This does make one think... an external fire? It makes even more sense then, that sound can extinguish the internal flames of worry, fear, anger, doubt and all manner of physical, mental and emotional pain. Why not? Everything is frequency and responds to other frequencies. It's just a matter of observing how we respond to different types of sound, music and frequency and listening to what works.
Spent the day at the hospital and left in more pain than I went in with- and a diagnosis that does not resonate for me. Seems like they missed the mark- so I am going to bed and only writing to say that I am not writing tonight!
I am listening to the sound of the pouring rain. Beautiful. I can fall asleep to that song no problem.
I have not been feeling well for the past three days so tonight I have to make it short. So I just sat back on the chaise longue and listened to a CD that my friend, musician/sound healer Dave Chandler, had recorded of me in the RISD Chapel last year. The good news is that while I was listening to it I did not feel the pain in my stomach that has been plaguing me for several days. It's a 20-minute sound meditation with singing bowls, flutes and rainsticks.
It was nice to sit back and listen to it on a good stereo for the first time. I didn't have it on CD until today so I could only listen to it on my computer before. I had also never really listened to it consciously before except maybe right after we recorded it, which was about a year and a half ago, so it was quite new and fresh to me. I was surprised at how clean it sounded. It was also very interesting to feel the way different sounds washed over different parts of my body and to note the way my body received the sound- a good experience!
On that note I am going upstairs to put it on replay in my CD player and go to sleep to it. Meanwhile check out Dave's website and listen to that first track he has on there. I'm listening to it right now as I write this and it's great!
I watched this video yesterday several times. It is so fun, bright and uplifting. It made me feel good all over.
Is not the fact that music makes you feel good enough of a reason to say it heals? What is healing? Is it a "curing" of symptoms or is a shift in consciousness? If you go from feeling poorly- physically, mentally, or emotionally- to feeling light, happy, positive- does it matter whether you took an aspirin, had surgery or listened to a fabulous piece of music?
This is an article just published on www.sciencealert.com. Sound healing once again tops the list for highly effective non-invasive therapy. What an amazing breakthrough- and more evidence that sound therapy is the wave of the future!
Image: 3Dme Creative Studio / Shutterstock.com
New Alzheimer’s treatment fully restores memory function
Of the mice that received the treatment, 75 percent got their memories back.
BEC CREW
18 MAR 2015
609k5.2k
Australian
researchers have come up with a non-invasive ultrasound technology that
clears the brain of neurotoxic amyloid plaques - structures that are
responsible for memory loss and a decline in cognitive function in
Alzheimer’s patients.
If a person has Alzheimer’s disease, it’s
usually the result of a build-up of two types of lesions - amyloid
plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles. Amyloid plaques
sit between the neurons and end up as dense clusters of beta-amyloid
molecules, a sticky type of protein that clumps together and forms
plaques. Neurofibrillary tangles
are found inside the neurons of the brain, and they’re caused by
defective tau proteins that clump up into a thick, insoluble mass. This
causes tiny filaments called microtubules to get all twisted, which
disrupts the transportation of essential materials such as nutrients and
organelles along them, just like when you twist up the vacuum cleaner
tube.
As we don’t have any kind of vaccine or preventative measure
for Alzheimer’s - a disease that affects 343,000 people in Australia,
and 50 million worldwide - it’s been a race to figure out how best to
treat it, starting with how to clear the build-up of defective
beta-amyloid and tau proteins from a patient’s brain. Now a team from
the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at the University of Queensland
have come up with a pretty promising solution for removing the former.
Publishing in Science Translational Medicine,
the team describes the technique as using a particular type of
ultrasound called a focused therapeutic ultrasound, which non-invasively
beams sound waves into the brain tissue. By oscillating super-fast,
these sound waves are able to gently open up the blood-brain barrier,
which is a layer that protects the brain against bacteria, and stimulate
the brain’s microglial cells to activate. Microglila cells are
basically waste-removal cells, so they’re able to clear out the toxic
beta-amyloid clumps that are responsible for the worst symptoms of
Alzheimer’s.
The team reports fully restoring the memories of 75 percent
of the mice they tested it on, with zero damage to the surrounding
brain tissue. They found that the treated mice displayed improved
performance in three memory tasks - a maze, a test to get them to
recognise new objects, and one to get them to remember the places they
should avoid.
"We’re extremely excited by this innovation of
treating Alzheimer’s without using drug therapeutics," one of the team,
Jürgen Götz, said in a press release.
"The word ‘breakthrough’ is often misused, but in this case I think
this really does fundamentally change our understanding of how to treat
this disease, and I foresee a great future for this approach."
The
team says they’re planning on starting trials with higher animal
models, such as sheep, and hope to get their human trials underway in
2017.
In keeping with the need to be short and sweet for a few days I
continue on with the theme of gratitude. I just finished watching the
incredible film "Genghis Blues"
for the third time, which- as it says on the cover- "no fiction film
could possibly have dreamed up this wonderful story." It is the story of
the late great blind blues musician Paul Pena, who discovers Tuvan throatsinging and a
whole new world opens up to him. It is so joyful and heartwarming in so
many ways while being poignant and bittersweet at the same time- just
the way life is.
I am grateful to Richard Feynman and Ralph Leighton for being the
first to bring the awareness of Tuva to the west, to Paul Pena for
having the openness and willingness to follow a dream with no knowing of
where it would lead him, and to Adrian and Roko Belic who had the guts
to follow through on their dream and make this amazing film,
virtually straight out of college instead of trying to do something
sensible and boring! Also to all the people who supported Paul Pena and
traveled with him to Tuva on this magical journey, and to beautiful
Kongar-ool Ondar whose heart was wide open.
Music transcends languages and cultural barriers. It brings people
together who might otherwise be worlds apart. It creates community and
communicates love and brotherhood where words fail.
This is going to be abbreviated so that hopefully it is posted before midnight! Celebrated my 60th birthday today with some dear friends at a great restaurant (Cav) in Providence. Rough start though... woke up this morning with a terrible pain in my side and my back. Did not want to have to cancel party which has been postponed numerous time over past two months due to various other people's illnesses, inclement weather (that means snow, and lots of it!) and who knows what else.So tonight was the night.
I knew it was digestive, after eating popcorn at the movies last night and then following it up with corned beef and cabbage when my friend Lynda and I got home at 10:30 craving something with protein. As it turned out, that was not the best choice! What to do? Sound healing. Took my pendulum and made a little map of what possible organs it might be. My hope and suspicion was that it was intestinal but the location of the strongest pain said it could be kidneys. This was all after I had taken various supplements to get things moving, had cranberry juice mixed with black cherry juice for sweetener and some water. The pendulum went straight away to large intestine. Whew- I knew at least that was manageable. I was praying it wouldn't go to kidneys, a much bigger problem.
Then I made another map of the all the different notes of the chromatic scale. I had never done this before. It was an experiment. I thought perhaps I could see if there was one particular frequency I needed. The answer (according to the pendulum)? F#, unequivocally. So the first thing I did was get a crystal bowl that was a very pure F# and play that for a few minutes. Then I went and got my set of Fabien Maman's tuning forks which is also a chromatic scale and designed to be used on the body. I tapped the F# and placed it on the area in the front of my abdomen that was hurting and got Lynda to do the same on my back behind my lower left ribs. The pain began to decrease in intensity.
We carried on this way for a while and then it occurred to me to go on the Soundweaver (vibroacoustic sound table within a copper dodecahedron) with Boris Mourashkin's music. Boris is a dear friend and a Siberian sound healer who completely healed himself of severe chronic pain from a very serious car accident with the use of his own musical compositions. I know how powerful and effective his music is. By now the pain was already starting to decrease and move around. I went on the Soundweaver and listened to a 20 minute recording from his CD "Points of Light." I didn't experience any pain while I was on the table and clearly when I got off it had dramatically subsided, if not gone away altogether.
Rosie Warburton, Boris Mourashkin & Linda Romero
at the Sound Body Wholistic Health Center, St. Pete, FL c. 2005.
Ginger tea and followed by some jook- good to go! Wonderful birthday party tonight- no pain! Sound still heals.
The next week is going to be crazy busy for me with a house full of guests. My good friend Brian Ransom, maker of ceramic instruments extraordinaire, is coming up from FL with 3 of his best students for the NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) Conference- , which is being held in Providence this year. They are all going to be staying at my house and we will be spending a lot of time in Providence listening to talks, going to different shows, etc. and I know I will be very preoccupied with that and making sure that everyone is comfortable, etc.
This weekend I have another dear friend visiting for the weekend to celebrate my 60th birthday with me- which we have been trying to do for the last two months but the stuff of life kept getting in the way.
That being said I know that I am going to have very little time to write so I am thinking about how I want to proceed in the coming week so that I don't lose my momentum. What is coming to me in this moment is simply acknowledging some of the things I am grateful for in my experience of sound and music in my life.
Deity of Sound- Brian Ransom
Deity of Sound- Brian Ransom
"All things hollow, or those that are in the form of a vessel, we humans among them, have the capacity to resonate." ~Brian Ransom~
Today I am grateful for the opportunity to work with oncology patients through the Integrative Care Program at Women & Infants Hospital. I feel so incredibly fortunate and blessed to have been given the opportunity to work with these women of all ages and their caregivers, some currently in treatment, some survivors, all grateful and proactive about their health and welfare with amazing attitudes and commitment.
I have had a long and fruitful day today which started off with a 3 1/2 hour meeting today with Lisel Woods, enterpreneur and small business consultant, discussing marketing strategies for my business. Nice that she is a devotee of Seth Godin! It has been so enjoyable meeting with her and getting some fresh perspectives and inspiration in thinking about ways to move forward. One of the ideas that came to me today was to offer 3-day sound immersion workshops for practitioners. They would be very small groups, a true intensive, for no more than 6 people at one time.
I am feeling very inspired but also very tired so tomorrow I will unravel some more of the inspiration that came to me today. I think I need to sleep on it-I feel like I will be able to integrate more of it with eyes closed!
Me resting on the Athena Table- a sound table with speakers built into it made by the Somatron Corporation-
I am actually lying here listening to some great music (Tulku by Jim Wilson),
feeling the vibrations through my whole body!
Woke up with a new devotional ditty in my head this morning. Came down stairs and immediately started singing and playing it on the harmonium. I finally had to stop so I have a voice left for this afternoon when I get to share it in our Mindful Yoga and Sacred Chant class!
Haven't had breakfast, a cup of coffee or my vitamins yet and it's past 2 pm... Singing does take you beyond. I love my job!
Things are revving up and my mind is full. There are so many things I want to write about, to say, to share, about the incredible power of music as a healing salve for the soul that my mind becomes so full I don't know where to begin sometimes. A little while ago I sat down at the computer to write and decided that I would use my alpha tuners (part of the brain tuner set) just to quiet things down enough and see where the next thread of creativity would take me. Well, the tuning forks are sitting on the desk next to me unused. As soon as I opened up my computer this video came up and I found one more poignant, heart-rending story.
Here's Part One:
The comment below the video on Facebook struck an uncomfortable chord in me. "Never judge a book by its cover." I wondered why anyone would assume that a homeless person doesn't have as much talent, brilliance or skill as the next person.
And now... Part Two:
I love this. This video moved me to tears. I love the sound of his voice when he talks about what music means to him- and his awe at being able to sit at a grand piano, his dream. What does it mean, that a homeless person, who may have actually given up their dreams long ago, who will very likely live on the streets for the rest of his life, who is aged far beyond his years, has a dream suddenly come true- not by his own doing but by some grand and strange orchestration of the universe? Or was it by his own doing? Was it the power of his intention? Did his dream still live inside of him, in spite of his outward circumstances, deep within him still living and breathing a quiet life of its own with enough power to create a perfect moment, a manifestation of his heart's desire?
Is it really "a sad reminder that beauty and promise can be found anywhere"? Not to me. It is a happy and glorious reminder. No, his story is not happy but there is such beauty here and it speaks once again to the power of music because it is always where we are in the moment that is important. There is no point in projecting about where we are going to be or what is going to happen- the doomsday prophecy that this moment is not going to last. There may not be another moment. Any moment can be our last. These moments are precious- these moments where we transcend the confines of our life, our beliefs, our dis-ease, of gravity, of whatever is binding us. Music has the power to break these bonds- if only for a moment, but in that moment we know that there is another possibility and another reality. "It's like, you're playing... but, you forget yourself." And that is when you know peace.
Two years ago I taught a class on healing with Himalayan metal singing bowls to a group of women in Sarasota, FL via Skype. At the end of the class they asked me if I could make a recording of the bowls specifically for helping one to go to sleep. I made the recording right away but then didn't know how to actually put it on a CD so I have never done anything with it. Tonight I finally figured out! Really, it was easy- I just had to do it, as it turned out. I am listening to it right now on my good stereo. Up until tonight I had only ever heard it on the computer!
That was about three minutes into the track. After that paragraph I had to go lie down on the floor as I could no longer focus on writing. I disappeared into the sounds. My breathing got very still, as it does in deep meditation. Images came into my mind as in a dream but I don't remember what any of them were.
I had forgotten. I hadn't listened to it in about a year. When I first made it I played it numerous times before going to sleep and I had to conclude that it must work because I never heard the whole thing. Tomorrow I will call a sound tech in Providence and see if he can clean up a few ambient sounds which were caused by me moving around the bowls when I was recording it. Then I can call my friend Nadia and tell her that I will have their CD ready soon!
Tonight I am exhausted but I wanted to do a quick post before I go to bed. I know there is something that wants to be said.
When I was in my early teens I used to "try" to meditate. The big distraction was my breath! If only I could breath totally silently then I was sure I'd be able to meditate. When I got older I learned an amazing mediation technique. Meditate on the sound and the movement of the breath. What a revelation! The one constant as long as I am alive- I am breathing. It was like some major secret had just been revealed to me.
Tomorrow I do a kirtan. Tonight I came up with a very sweet and simple melody for a chant to Lord Shiva. I am looking forward to sharing it. I am grateful that each day I am getting more response to my work up here. It feels good.
I just watched Nick Cave's very myopic movie "20,000 Days on Earth"- I
LOVED it!!! If you don't like Nick Cave you would probably find it
extremely irritating at best. It could be interpreted as narcissistic I
suppose. I was captivated by his music the first time I saw "Wings of
Desire"- not music I would hang out and listen to ordinarily but in a
particular context I find it hypnotizing. When I saw the Leonard Cohen
tribute film "I'm Your Man" I saw a different side of him and found him
not only fascinating as a musician but as a person- eloquent and
thoughtful.
So I was very excited for this film to come out and was deeply disappointed not to be able to see it at the time. I was so happy when I saw tonight that it was on Amazon Prime. My TV is hooked up to a great stereo so it was perfect.
I was so taken by it within the first 30 seconds or so that I grabbed a notebook and began taking notes. It was so meaty and I knew that I would quickly forget much of what struck me.
Some of the things I wrote down (and some slightly adapted for the purpose of this blog): Wonderfully myopic film by/about Nick Cave. I am haunted by his music. His father [said to him after a concert] "You are like an angel." Thoughtful, beautifully eloquent Biggest fear "Losing my memory... because memory is what we are." "Those moments when the gears of the heart really change." He was talking about daredevil stunts they used to do as kids and I thought, My childhood was thwarted by fear. Before you go on stage you don't know how you're going to do it. It seems impossible. Then something happens when you get on the stage. Everything else falls away.
Here is where I have to interject and put in my two cents worth. He is talking about the transformation that happens for the performer and by virtue of that to the audience, and he tells a story about Nina Simone- a concert where he opened up for her and she was raging before the concert- angry and demanding, the impression of someone snarling like an animal and scaring everyone around her. She comes out on stage and she walks up to the edge of the stage and stares the audience down. Then she goes and sits down at the piano, takes her gum out of her mouth, sticks it on top of the piano and pounds on the keys... And then she goes through this total transformation, and she is loving what she is doing. She connects with the audience, they connect with her. Everyone is completely blown away. This is his example of the transformative power of the stage, where everything else disappears and for a little while you can forget who you are.
Here is where I disagree- maybe it's just a matter of semantics. I'm not sure- but my take on this is that, first of all, this is like life. In fact, this is life. So many things that we are faced with- and we say, "Nope, I can't do this one. Too much. Too big. No can do." But it's one of those situations we can't walk away from- whether it's because it's our calling and our vocation, whether it is an obligation that we must fulfill. Doesn't matter. We're there and we have to walk through because we're in it for the long haul. And when we step into it- like stepping on the stage- we remember who we are and why we are here and there is no question that, Yes- I can do this! In fact many times we don't even think about it because there is no choice to be made. We feel the fear, we acknowledge it (or not) and we step up to the plate, and all the other stuff just falls away because we have just met our true calling. Not necessarily in terms of our life's work, nothing so grandiose, but for that moment, for that situation our job is to be present and to handle whatever is in our face. Could be a job interview, could be a sick child, could be a performance... it's whatever our fear is in the moment. Every moment, every choice. That is our life.
This movie is about self-exploration. It's about calling up and honoring the ghosts of the past. Our life doesn't become a story until we tell it. When we are in it, it just seems chaotic and confused. It's in the telling that it becomes a story.
What makes a story worth telling? If it has value to us, then it is a story worth telling. Maybe we just need to find the right person to tell it to. I told my therapist today that I was there to untangle the threads of the past. That's what I feel like this movie is doing and maybe that is why I was so moved by it. That and the fact that the cinematography and the sound- not just his music but the accompanying sound- is absolutely brilliant.
This just popped up on the radar. I have been very busy today sorting out paperwork- aaaaaarghh!- and suddenly here comes this brilliant inspiration about which I am wildly excited! The Sync Project- THESYNCPROJECT.COM- all about researching, understanding and harnessing the healing power of music. In my world it doesn't get much better than that. Please check it out!!!
And while you're at it- watch this video if you haven't already seen it. And of course if you have, then I have no doubt that you will want to watch it again! And then you will absolutely want to watch the movie Alive Inside! So inspiring!
Spent a long time tonight updating events and contact information. should have gone quickly but I added a bunch of pictures to the contact page. Then I had a hard time actually sharing the posts on FB and Twitter so I thought I would write something too!
I always get inspired going through my pictures and revisiting past events, sessions, workshops, pictures of instruments and looking forward to what's coming up. In the end of April I will be going to Holland to teach a workshop. My first trip to Holland was in 2012 and I am so looking forward to going back.
Here are some pics from the last trip to Netherlands.
