Earlier this year I received a sound healing session from a friend. She didn't want any money for it. She said she had been guided by Spirit to offer these sessions free of charge. It was quite a lovely session, very powerful and beautiful. The word "transcendent" comes to mind because it really lifted me out of my body and carried me to another dimension. It didn't change my life. It did add to my experience and wonder of the ability of sound to transport us to other realms and realities and remind me again of why I so love this work. The curious element was the discussion that followed and her very strong stance that it is wrong to charge money for the sacred work of sound healing.
The day before yesterday I took my last $100, which I had been saving to buy stocking stuffers for my family and paid the electric bill at my sound healing center, which was due to get shut off. While I was out doing that the internet service was disabled for nonpayment. So, I have sound and money on my mind.
Part of what was put forth in the aforementioned discussion by the woman who gave the session was the idea of trust. Specifically she said, "What ever happened to the idea of trust? That if we do the work Spirit will take care of our needs?" Apparently for her it does. I have no idea whether she has other employment- a "day job". My day job is putting all my effort, energy and time into running a sound healing center, trusting that I am doing the right thing, and that even on what sometimes looks like the thinnest of shoe strings (like this week!) that my needs and the needs of the center will be taken care of!
I confess that I am feeling defensive right now and irritated at the implication that charging money for my sound healing sessions suggests a lack of trust. Or that money is inherently "dirty" and soils whatever (and whoever) it touches. Interestingly I spent years undoing my own belief that "money is bad". So maybe for me this whole conversation was actually reflecting that back to me, inviting me to look at that old belief again to see if I have really healed it. (Judging by my bank account, maybe I have a little more work to do!)
I have had a sound healing center in Florida for almost 6 years- the Sound Body Wholistic Health Center in St. Petersburg. I had no money when I decided to open the center. (You say "Well, you must have had some." No, I had none!) It was initiated by clear direction from Spirit and is continually supported by love, prayers of gratitude and an abundance of TRUST. Financial support and and sufficient income have been sorely lacking and every month that I am able to come up with the rent seems to be a miracle and I see the hand of Grace in all of it.
Most people love sound and music, they seek solace, comfort and healing and they want to learn simple of ways of healing themselves. Most people have music to listen to, many have instruments and we all have a voice. With a little more clarity of purpose and consciousness of how to use the tools already available to us we can greatly enhance our sense of well-being.
I provide a service. I am very clear about this. If I drove a bus- providing a service... say, to a special needs population?... no one would question that I should be paid for it. "Well of course, there's gas, there's your time, there's maintenance to keep the bus running, etc." Is driving a bus for those who need the service, for whatever reason, any less sacred than offering a sound healing session for someone in need? If we put the word "sacred" in front of the word "sound" does it preclude an energy exchange from the person receiving the treatment? Both persons in any relationship should have the opportunity to give and to receive in equal measure in whatever form is befitting, comfortable and appropriate for the situation and the people involved.
Is it less sacred to give than to receive? Is there any difference between the two? I think not. A Course in Miracles puts it like this, "To give and to receive are one in truth."
Some questions have no answers.
ReplyDeleteCharles Eisenstein is a great author and I enjoy his perspective.
He talks at great links about community, money and moving forward into a new age, the age of reunion.
"what does it mean for money, or anything else for that matter, to be sacred? It is in a crucial sense the opposite of what sacred has come to mean. For several thousand years, increasingly, the concepts of sacred, holy, and divine have referred to something separate from nature, the world, and the flesh. "
Great article...
http://www.realitysandwich.com/sacred_economics
http://www.realitysandwich.com/sacred_economics
ReplyDeleteYears ago, I used to pay for my massage by giving Kati the money and saying, "Here's the filthy lucre!" We both would grin, but then she started objecting – correctly – to the assertion that money was dirty. That money translated into keeping her lovely Florida home cool, or her body fed, or the plants watered. It was a means, not an end – and even if it WERE an end, even if she WERE able to just keep stacks of bills in her garage, that wouldn't make it dirty.
ReplyDeleteThat's when I started putting the money into pretty envelopes or, once, even PAYING SOMEONE to make a flower from each bill, ending up with a money bouquet. Heh.
When I get defensive, I try to remember my wise friend's advice: Keep your eye on your own plate. Don't compare.
As you said, Rosie, we have to breathe out AND in.
Thank you so much for your feedback. Josh, that is such a beautiful article. I am looking forward to reading the book! It is so interesting as we change our perception of the world around us. Money can certainly be equated with greed and all kinds of negative "stuff". But really, it's energy- it's all energy- and it's how we perceive it that causes it to manifest in whatever way it does for us.
ReplyDeleteI had an amazing experience about ten years ago opening for a conference of philanthropists in Jekyll Island with sacred sound. Their purpose was to clear their own issues around having money so that they could use their abundance for the highest good. They used sacred sound throughout the week as one of the tools for consciousness and clearing.
It was such a beautiful, powerful and healing experience for me to be around a group of people of great wealth who were so conscious and dedicated to personal growth and a life of service.
I gave many sessions to a number of these extraordinary people the week I was there. I was set up in a conference room at the Jekyll Island Club with my sound table- surrounded by pictures of the Astors, Vanderbilts,etc. all the guys who had started the World Bank, looking down at me- little me with my sound table and dodecahedron! It was wild. And I realized as I sat in this room that I was healing my family's past around money as well as my own personal stuff (my father's stepfather was William K. Vanderbilt). The people who set up the conference had chosen this location specifically because the current monetary system had been set up there and part of their intention is to change the mainstream paradigm around money, wealth and scarcity. It was beautiful.
One of the keynote speakers was Bernard Lietaer, author of "The Future of Money"- another book you will find extremely interesting!