2.3.11

Thinking about sound, teaching about sound, talking about sound. Making sound- toning, chanting, reciting mantras, playing tamboura, Tibetan bowls, treating people on the sound table but I have not been writing about sound lately! Time to get back to it. What have been some recent powerful moments or openings I have seen?

Last week my kindergarten teacher came to visit me- the first time I had seen her in over 40 years! She had been a very special person in my life when I was young and we had reconnected in the last year but not actually seen each other. It turns out that music and dance have been very important healers in her life. She came to the sound healing center and at one point I played for her a crystal bowl. She had never heard them before. The first one I played was a frosted 8" G# bowl. She was sitting on the edge of the massage table and when she heard the sound her mouth dropped open and she said, "Oh Rosie..." in a voice of amazement and her eyes filled with tears. The beauty of the sound took her breath away. It was a very powerful moment.

This past weekend I taught a sound healing workshop. My sister Miranda was visiting, attending the workshop and helping me. On Saturday morning after showing a film on cymatics- the effect of sound on matter- featuring the work of Hans Jenny, I did a sound journey so the participants could feel how the sound of different instruments affected them. I used a variety of instruments- an A-minor Freenote (an instrument much like a xylophone), Tibetan bowls, 2 small clear crystal bowls, ocean drum, rainstick, aboriginal clapsticks, a 22" wind gong, a small wind gong, Native American drone flute, condor feather flute, and a didgeridoo. (maybe one or tow others that I don't remember!) I only played each instrument for 2-3 minutes in general because we were short on time. I did go around the room and play one of the gongs around each person as well as the didgeridoo. After the sound journey we all took a break and she and I went for lunch together. When we got in the car she said to me, "Okay, I just want to say one thing. If everybody were just to go home right now they would have already gotten their money's worth." I guess she liked the sound journey!