Enigma - Remember the Future full album

This is a video combining the often erotic and always hypnotic music of Michael Cretu/Enigma with extraordinary visuals that is full of surprises.  I would love to watch this on a large screen with an excellent sound system and the freedom to move and dance within the space.  I hadn't heard this album before but I have most of their other albums and all of the albums that contain the songs on this video.  Very different to hear them with visuals attached to the music. The imagery from the first album did not have a lot of surprises for me but the ones after that most definitely did. Someone sent me this video ages ago and I hadn't ever watched it.  Tonight I saw it and thought how much I missed hearing their music so I decided to listen/watch- so glad I did!

The only downside is that it made me miss having the Soundweaver set up so much! For those of you who don't know, the Soundweaver is a vibroacoustic sound healing environment comprised of a mat with speakers built into it which is set up on a massage table surrounded by a large copper dodecahedron.  You lie on the mat and when music is played through it you feel the vibrations of the music through your whole body. It is really a phenomenal experience- deeply relaxing, powerful, healing, blissful, cathartic- words cannot describe it. I used to love to listen to Enigma on it and their music is incredible for sound   healing sessions- I use it a lot when I have it set up.  This is the first time in almost 20 years that I haven't had it set up either where I'm living or in a designated healing space and suddenly it is beginning to feel like it's almost time to get it going again!

A Message on Mudras

I am quoting this from a Facebook post by Nubia Teixeira, jau Uttal's wife, yogini and exquisite dancer. From wholistic sound to wholistic dance- dance as an expression of wholeness and life.

Hands are filled with the mystery of creation. ....Hands are an extention of the Heart Center and can express all the feelings and forms in the universe. ViniYoga is the science of Hand Gestures.

The Abhinaya Darpan mentions that the dancer should sing the song by the throat, express the meaning of the song through hand gestures, show the state of feelings by eyes and keep track of the time with feet.
From the Natya Shastra, a text on the arts:
"Yato hasta stato drishti"..."Where the hand is, the eyes follow"

"Yato drishti stato manaha"..."Where the eyes go, the mind follows"
"Yato manaha stato bhava"..."Where the mind is, there is the feeling"
"Yato bhava stato rasa"..."Where the feeling is, there is mood"
So vast is the hand gestures that it covers almost all the aspects of human life and the entire universe.
Hence 'Mudras' form a distinct code language and bring unique poetic element while performing abhinaya and thus the language of the mudras enables the dancer to express practically anything and everything.
Om Namah Shivaya !!!!!

The Road to Recovery with Dr. Mitchell Gaynor: Sound Healing

This is such an important video! Hooray to Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, oncologist, who has realized the importance of sound for facilitating healing and is bringing it to the awareness of the Western medical community. At last! At last! This is only the beginning of so much important information that is coming to light.

This is a testimonial from someone in a workshop I taught who had a healing that we all witnessed- a dramatic change in his skin cancer in literally a 24 hour period. It was profound. (He did request that he remain anonymous for his own reasons...)

Hi, Rosie,

Again, nothing but praise and thanks to you for this workshop on Sound Healing Therapy that finished up just yesterday.

My experience was very positive.

Everyone in our class saw with their own eyes that the skin cancer on my nose began shrinking -- and looked greatly improved-heading-toward-being-healed -- during that second day of your class.

The healing began with the C and G tuning protocol that you performed on everyone of us early in the first day of the class. And then it continued with the Biosonic tuning fork treatment that Jody, a fellow student, performed on me during day number one.

And then early on the second day Cheryl, also a fellow student, mentioned the healing effects regarding cancer of the Tibetan bowls.

Almost immediately you jumped up and took me into the next room where the bowls are kept and invited me to "find" the one that I felt would help me.  Quickly I found "my bowl."

I used it almost continually from then on. I think everyone probably enjoyed the beautiful sound that the bowl made each time I tapped it with the special "mallet."

From then on the healing of the skin cancer proceeded more rapidly and very noticeably.  Everyone in the class saw it.  Some had tears in their eyes as they express their thrill at seeing my healing. 

Needless to say I'm also thrilled.

I cannot say today that this skin cancer is totally gone yet. But the above that I've related is exactly what I experienced and everyone -- including yourself -- witnessed this.

Also I want to mention that  I am a different man today -- and will remain such into the indefinite future -- from having experienced your course and your healing touch. 

You asked me at the beginning of the second day to share with the class what the treatment that the entire class had performed on me  did for me. I will repeat my answer here:

My answer: "Two words: Universal Bonding."

And also I related that there had also been a shift within me. I've always tended to get agitated very easily. But what I now notice is that if I do get agitated that I can let it go virtually "instantly."

Already today I've shared this with a friend who needs the exact same "ability." We cannot make people not say or do things that could get on our nerves. But now I have the ability to keep my inner peace regardless of perceived negative input. This is priceless.

Thank you, Rosie.

Sincerely,

[anonymous] LMT

Express Your Self

I don't have much to say right now because it's ridiculously late. But I do have a little something to say. I have been thinking a lot about how people express themselves on social media networks lately.  It has been coming to my attention that some people use these venues to vent- Facebook is the only one I really use enough to be familiar with.  I don't understand Twitter... But I wonder how people can feel so comfortable presenting a sometimes very unattractive side of themselves without apparently thinking about what they are showing to the world and what kind of energy they are putting out there.  I know that on one hand people think there is some sort of sincerity to that and don't want to simply appear vapid and phony- but I also feel like we can use this media to express the very best and highest of who we are and leave our pettiness behind- that we have an opportunity to censor ourselves when we say too much or are overly critical, angry or abrasive.

Just sayin'...

Revelation of the Heart

This morning I read a  line from the book Little Bee by Chris Cleave. "The dreams of my country are no different from yours- they are as big as the human heart." It lead me to thinking about the heart. I envisioned the energy of the heart as it expands from the physical heart.  The HeartMath Institute and other scientific researchers have measured the electromagnetic frequency of the heart and found that its energy expands several feet beyond the body, far more than any other organ including the brain.  What came to me is that the energy of the heart is not actually expanding.  It is an all-encompassing energy, the Heart of who and what we are- and that it is compressed, condensed into the form of the physical heart.  What we truly are IS the All-Encompassing Heart of Love.

As Gregg Braden explains very succinctly in the following video is that the first spark of life happens in the heart- it is the first organ to develop and the heart sends signals to the brain- not the other way around. Click here to watch.

A Slight Adjustment

I haven't written in a while- busy getting settled in for what looks like a permanent stay in Rhode Island- at least for a while! I closed my sound healing center in Florida on October 1 after a flurry of activity there in September, then headed back up to New England.  It was strange. I had been gone for four months- May through August- and although a dear friend had taken it over with the desire to keep it open and run it, it had clearly for the most part been lying dormant during the time I was gone.  The garden was untended, the kitchen cupboards were becoming home to insects... a couple of people had rented some space for the first couple of months after I left but apparently didn't have any clients so they had left, and there were no other activities going on there.  Initially it was very sad going in there and feeling the emptiness.  I wasn't really expecting that. The good news is that I went back to get some winter clothes and teach a couple of workshops and was slammed from practically the minute I got there. Sessions, workshops, kirtan, selling merchandise... I actually had the busiest month I have had since I opened the center 7 years ago. Nonetheless, I was leaving and so the decision was made to close, a good decision in all ways.

And now I am in Rhode Island sitting in my new "office"- a small sun room which doubles as a dining room with a table that seats no more than a cozy four people and an old Glenwood cook stove in it. It isn't winterized but the stove heats the room up quickly and the room gets warm and cozy as the sun comes round. I have two other rooms in the house- a bedroom with a four-poster bed and a loft, and a small kitchen with a small fridge and freezer- and the shower is in the kitchen as well! It is great- fun and funky with the touch of an artist's eye everywhere you look.

I am sharing a space for giving private sessions with an old friend in downtown Newport, upstairs in the Congregational Church, a beautiful old brownstone church and historic landmark designed by John LaFarge.  It's very interesting because years ago I used to attend Sanskrit classes up there with my teacher, Swami Bob, so I have a strong connection to it. I also did a concert there with Roop Verma years ago after he taught me to play tamboura. And the person whose space I am sharing worked for me close to 30 years ago when I was a potter and had four small boys all under the age of ten! It is so wonderful to return to the intimacy of New England after the generic spread out emptiness of Florida, where there is such a lack of community simply by design. Each "neighborhood" seems to have its own mall down there rather than the neighborhood coffee shop (with a few exceptions) where you know you will run into someone you know.  It was one of the things I missed most when I was living there. Even out west, where the land is very open and spread out, the layout of the towns are designed to create community- a church, a town square, a restaurant, a coffee shop, whatever...

What happened for me was that I actually created a community there via the sound healing center because I was so starved for it! I wasn't aware of that at the time- I simply knew that the space I was looking at for an office was actually perfect for a sound healing center.  It was a calling I could not ignore. It served many purposes as it turned out- and one was my own personal need for community and connection.

One of the things I have been exploring lately is working with tuning forks for self-healing- conducting an experiment, if you will. Organization is not my strong suit and I have been very challenged moving into such a small space, especially after having lived in a good-sized house in FL and having all my sound healing tools and instruments in their own space- the Sound Body Center.  Now most of my crystal bowls and Tibetan bowls are in my car! I can only have what is really necessary- anything more just takes up space. So... if I come in the house after shopping, put down the groceries, throw my coat and scarf on a chair, take off my clothes to change and don't put them away immediately, suddenly everything is cluttered and slightly overwhelming.

I am working with the brain tuners. Ahhh... simplicity! Tap those tuning forks- in most cases right now the Fundamental (256 hz) and the Beta tuner- a few microtones up from the 256- which creates a beat frequency that corresponds to the the Beta brainwave. The pulse created between the two tuning forks entrains the brain to the Beta frequency for peak concentration and alertness. Every time I find myself feeling a need to organize- whether it's to clean the kitchen, put stuff away in my bedroom, or simply having a lot to do and not knowing where to begin, I tap those tuners and listen. 

Theoretically it takes 40 seconds for the brain to respond to a frequency, but with the tuning forks it doesn't seem to take that long. Maybe it's because you bring them up to yours ears to listen to them and it starts the temporal bones resonating right away, sending the signal directly to the brain. Thus the response is virtually instantaneous. I don't know- that's my theory though, because every time I have done this lately I immediately (within about ten seconds) know what I need to do and where to begin. It's feels like such a tiny little adjustment and suddenly everything is doable- sort of like working on a puzzle and you just need the one right piece to make sense of it all and bring it all together.  That is how it feels- like I look around and nothing quite fits and I don't know how to make it fit- and I use those tuning forks and here we go, really very cool and exciting to see how consistently effective they are.

I've also been using the Alpha tuner to minimize anxiety and the Delta tuner for sleep. I don't have a great deal of anxiety- it's very low level but I have an awareness of it at times, and again- I just tap the tuning forks and it seems to simply disperse within a few seconds, leaving me feeling peaceful and grounded again. Sleep? Not a big problem either, but occasionally after I go to bed it's as if I get a second wind and suddenly could stay up for hours.  Delta tuners... ding! Thirty seconds later I am putting them down on the bed next to me and drifting off into a wonderful sleep- so amazing!

Hopefully, with my new sense of organizing my mind and my time I will be writing more! I think of this blog every day and so often don't get to it. That is definitely one of my intentions for the winter- to write lots more.

We Are Sound... What if?

"But what if on some level we are made of sound? What if in the beginning was the Word? What if the music of the spheres is no myth? What if we ourselves are a harmonic convergence? What if the holographic grid of our being is a linguistic and musical interface between higher-dimensional light, which might be considered a form of divine thought or intention, and sound in higher-dimensional octaves?" ~ Sol Luckman

What if? Huh... I never questioned it. As far as I know we ARE sound.  We are a configuration of pulsing, vibrating, resonating molecules. And hence, we hear a sound... a voice, a bird, a chime, a heartbeat, a breath and we resonate. Not only do we resonate but sometimes we gravitate physically, mentally, emotionally toward that frequency.  Sometimes it is the frequency of silence, of kindness, of compassion that draws us nearer to its source. 

Me? I follow the sound of music- literally! How many times have I heard music coming from a park, a bar, a festival and practically run towards it because it feeds me and it nourishes me. (We can be fed without being nourished, right?) 

Last week I went to a kirtan in Westport, CT, with Jai Uttal. We had a little chat before he started about some of the transitions I am moving through in my life and it connected me into some sensations around my heart- some sadness around letting go of parts of my life that are no longer working for me- no longer nourishing me. When the kirtan started my tears began to flow in a very sweet gentle way and I found that it was the perfect way to release some of the sadness without being overtaken by it- that I was able to move into a deep heartfelt space and to experience the feelings without having to get into naming and details... and as the kirtan evolved and grew stronger my heart grew quieter and more joyful until I was swept away by the music and the singing. I closed my eyes, merging with the music,  and a memory arose of body surfing in the ocean- that feeling of getting into the perfect position when the waves are just the right size- not too big, not too small- first, making the effort to align myself with the oncoming wave and then being picked up by it, swimming a few strokes with it, then letting go and surrendering to it and the sheer exhilaration of being carried, whatever distance, to the shore.  

And I thought to myself, "I am being swept up in a wave of bhakti." 

Maybe bhav is really a better word, as it was really the experience of ecstasy- bhakti refers more to devotion which can lead us to ecstasy. Kirtan is really a practice of bhakti yoga and yoga, any yoga, always has the goal of union with the Divine. 

Enough about that- this isn't really supposed to be a treatise on yoga- just an attempt at clarity!

Anyway, I had a lovely week of sacred sound.  I had only returned from Florida a week earlier and am still getting settled into my winter domicile in Rhode Island. But I was off to western Connecticut, first for Jai's beautiful kirtan and then to perform two Sound Journeys- one at my friend Suzanne Benton's house in Ridgefield, CT, and the next night down the road from there at Blackbird Yoga.  Unfortunately somehow we forgot about photos- also I thought I was recording the Sound Journey on Friday night but it turned out it that I somehow turned "Record" off instead of ON! Oh well, here is a photo of my arrival at Suzanne's- instruments by the door- followed by a couple after they are set up. 

And last but never least- here is a very rocking Hare Krishna kirtan which Jai did in Westport a few nights before. This was recorded in Boston a few months earlier, in August of this year. And check out the woman playing the kartals as it starts to rock- she is amazing! Hare Bol! Enjoy...

In Appreciation of the Gentleness of God

God is being so gentle with me...

I am making huge changes in my life- leaving a long-term relationship, closing my business of seven years, and relocating back to New England- said to be the 3 most stressful events in one's life all going on at once.

This summer when I first officially "moved" back to Rhode Island one of my sons, Moose, and his wife Addie were living virtually around the corner from me which was so lovely and wonderful and comforting- and fun! In September I went back down to Florida and I spent the month house-sitting for dear friends with an amazing house, a Himalayan cat, a swimming pool and a koi pond while I wound things down at the sound healing center.

Actually "wound down" may not be the best way of putting it- I had the busiest month I have ever had there in terms of my business!  And at the end of it I spent the last week cleaning, packing and going back and forth to my storage unit- all that mixed in with last minute visits, sessions, lunches, dinners and cups of coffee and tea with dear friends so that we could say goodbye one more time.

After saying goodbye to my life of 17 years I headed back up to Rhode Island.  I just got back last night. However while I was in Florida my son and his wife moved out to Minneapolis so they were gone when I got back.  It has been strongly in my mind that I need to spend time alone as I have never done so for any length of time and that was my intention when I came up for the summer last May. Instead I was busy getting settled and reconnecting with family and friends, trying to get my business established up here and outside of that getting every minute I could with Moose and Addie knowing they would be leaving soon.

I had a small cabin on an old friend's property but was rarely there for more than three days at a time as I was so busy.  Now I am back and winter is coming on the heels of fall. I drove in last night with the outside temperature at 49 degrees, a windy rainy blustery night.  Perfect. This weather I understand. I felt my cells coming alive again, my spirit excited and happy.

My friend Joya- actually my dance teacher from 40 years ago- who owns the house I am living in leaves in a month- back to California, gone for the winter.  The house will be empty except for me- and I will get my alone time, my healing time.  And I am grateful for the gentleness of the transition. I realized it tonight. The sadness that Moose and Addie are gone, who were such great company over the summer but the awareness that Joya was here still- good company and a great friend- and that the shift to being here alone was being done in such a beautiful gentle way.

This morning I awoke to the sun coming in my bedroom window.

And where is the music? Where is the sound? Everything that has sparked me lately in the realm of music and sound has been soft, gentle, compassionate and humble. The day before yesterday my sister Jenny and I went to see the movie "Searching for Sugarman." The story of Sixto Roderiguez, a brilliant musician who faded into obscurity before he ever had a chance- a beacon of wisdom and humility who accepted that "Reality wins." He worked hard and accepted the reality of his world, the son of hard-working blue collar immigrants, but with his acceptance he never got beaten down by life. He escaped the anger, cynicism and bitterness that could so easily have become a part of his persona. And 40 years later he still had a dream and a gift to offer. You'll have to go see the movie to get the rest of the story!

And finally... this beautiful meditation that was sent to me a couple of weeks ago- today I had the chance to sit down and watch it... and breathe with it.  Take time for yourself.  Use the sounds around you as a reminder to be present to your Self, to be present to your breath, to be present to the Buddha within...

Closing a Door...

Today I continue wrapping things up at Sound Body Center. Henry decided after a slow summer it was too much for him to try to keep it open so this is the last weekend. Last event was Wednesday when I did a private Healing Sound Journey for a group and went from there to St. Pete College as a guest speaker with a bunch of Tibetan bowls and a few other instruments.

It has been amazing being here for the past month and seeing how many lives have been affected, touched, changed, by the center. I have actually been busier this month and made more money than any one month in the past 7 years which is interesting.  Last February I let people know I wouldn't be around as much and set up a bunch of events in light of that and no one showed up! That was actually when I first made the decision to close the center thinking it was apparently played out for whatever reason.

I have spent a lot of time in the space in the last 3 weeks realizing what an amazing gift it was both to myself and to so many others.  For me, to be able to spend my days in there- to be able to go from room to room with clients or just by myself and be able to lay down on a sound table, to be able to sit in another room and play crystal bowls, to walk into the next room and play my tamboura (thank you, Fred Johnson, Cathy and Barry), or sit and play Tibetan bowls for two hours- what an incredible blessing.

A few days ago I walked around and took pictures of everything that other people had donated to help create the beautiful space that it has been.

I love you
I thank you
I respect you

Hearing and Being... in the Here and Now

Blissful Listening Man by Rosie

It's early... a cool morning after a torrential downpour yesterday and intermittent rain throughout the night last night. The rain has cleared out and the air is beautiful. All the windows and doors are open in my cabin.  I still hear moisture dripping from the trees, the sound of cars in the distance and the steady sound of crickets. There is a crow far away and other birds whose songs I have heard all my life but whose names I don't know.

Ten years ago I started writing a book on sound healing. I had gotten a good start on it but when I opened the center in 2005 I put it up on the shelf above my desk in my office, and there it sat. Everyday I would see the binder of the folder it was in and look forward to the day I could get back to it. Occasionally I would take it down and look through it and see if what I had begun was still relevant.  Seven years went by. All the while I was running the sound healing center, hosting events, giving sessions, teaching workshops and having other sound healers come in and teach as well.  Lots of people passed through the center for lots of different events, teaching and learning. I, however, was the one constant there! And because of that I gained a tremendous amount of experience and information and knew that when it was over I would have much more to write about- and I do. 

Yesterday I got my manuscript out again and started working on it which has brought me back to thinking non-stop about sound. I awoke this morning still thinking about it and observing the sounds around me.  I lay in bed in the quiet, my mind wandering.  Then came the birds. There was a crow close by and a seagull. I noted the different quality of sound in each of them.  I also noticed how every time one of them called out it would snap me into the present.  Sound has that ability- it brought to mind the mynah in Aldous Huxley's book Island. "Here and now, boys. Here and now." Only it doesn't need to be said because that is actually what certain sounds do- bring us back to the here and now. Some sounds take us out of the body. Some bring us back.

As I lay there not fully awake I would begin drifting off again at times and on some level became aware that I was in a semi-altered state.  [Right now off in the distance the National Anthem just started playing- a game at a school starting somewhere? It's exactly 8 a.m.] At one point it felt as if I was in a moving vehicle, a train perhaps? And my body was being carried along at an almost unnervingly high speed and then the sound of the crow would slice through my awareness and I was fully present, here and now.  I contemplated the movement and measurement of time and the development of devices for measuring time and how the use of clocks and the actual ticking away of the seconds has brought about, or reinforced, the need for control- and the illusion that we actually might have some control over time, over the events in our lives. And an obsession around it, maybe something like a collective neurosis, that has allowed a deep-seated fear of the future to surface. It is a fascinating thing to think about... how much energy is wasted worrying about not making deadlines, being late for appointments, being upset with other people for being late. For most of us our daily lives are ruled by the clock and the weeks and months that stretch before us neatly marked on a calendar. It is a frightening prospect. So many plans, so many disappointments, so many opportunities to let ourselves and others down.

A few years ago it hit me as I was driving over the Skyway Bridge (I remember the moment vividly) worrying about arriving a few minutes late for an appointment, that if we didn't have this obsession about being bound to the ticking of the clock, if we set our appointments and meetings by the movement of the sun and the moon and the stars we might be far more relaxed and less anxious. I thought, if I were to meet that person when the sun came up over a particular tree 5 minutes wouldn't matter at all.  And they wouldn't wonder where I was unless it rose high above the tree and I still hadn't shown up- and then maybe they would begin to wonder if I had fallen off my horse or been attacked by a wild animal in the woods.

How healthy is it to plan for the future? Is it an exercise in self-discipline or an exercise in futility? Or is it both- a gift and a curse? And where am I going with all this? A fast-moving train of thought!  Part of the gift is that when our fears come to the surface we have to look at them and try to understand where they are really coming from. What are we really afraid of?

A Course in Miracles has some beautiful passages on the purpose and passing of time, how we perceive it and how we choose to use it- essentially on behalf of the ego or on behalf of the Holy Spirit.
The following are excerpts from Workbook Lesson 135- "If I defend myself I am attacked."

    "A healed mind does not plan. It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to Wisdom that is not its own..."
    "A healed mind is relieved of the belief that it must plan, although it cannot know the outcome which is best, the means by which it is achieved, nor how to recognize the problem that the plan is made to solve..."
    "The mind engaged in planning for itself is occupied in setting up control of future happenings. It does not think it will be provided for, unless it makes its own provisions. Time becomes a future emphasis, to be controlled by learning and experience obtained from past events and previous beliefs. It overlooks the present, for it rest on the idea the past has taught enough to let the mind direct its future course.
    "The mind that plans is thus refusing to allow for change. What it has learned before becomes the basis for its future goals. Its past experience directs its choice of what will happen. And it does not see that here and now is everything it needs to guarantee a future quite unlike the past, without a continuity of old ideas and sick beliefs. Anticipation plays no part at all, for present confidence directs the way.
    "Defenses are plans you undertake to make against the truth...
    "What could you not accept, if you but knew that everything that happens, all events, past, present, and to come, are gently planned by One Whose only purpose is your good?"

And Lesson 194- "I place the future in the Hands of God."
 
    "God holds your future as He holds your past and present. They are one to Him, and so they should be one to you. Yet in this world, the temporal progression still seems real. And so you are not asked to understand the lack of sequence really found in time. You are but asked to let the future go, and place it in God's Hands. And you will see by your experience that you have the past and present in His Hands as well, because the past will punish you no more, and future dread will now be meaningless.
    "Release the future. For the past is gone, and what is present, freed from its bequest of grief and misery, of pain and loss, becomes the instant in which time escapes the bondage of illusions where it runs its pitiless, inevitable course.  Then is each instant which was slave to time transformed into a holy instant, when the light that was kept hidden in God's Son is freed to bless the world.  Now is he free, and all his glory shines upon a world made free with him, to share his holiness."

Ainsi soit-il.
 
    So be it.
     
        Amen.

Midnight Meditation

I am sitting in my cabin, in my bed, listening to the outdoor sounds-  mostly the steady sound of insects. More than one kind I would say.  Occasionally an airplane... cars off in the distance.  And very quietly behind it all the steady sound of the ocean. I close my eyes and the sounds are hypnotic, grabbing my awareness.  This will be my midnight meditation tonight and perhaps my lullaby. I feel the sounds move through my body if I am very quiet. The clicking on my keyboard pulls me out of the kinesthetic experience of the  sound. I stop and close my eyes again and feel myself drifting into the rhythm of the repetitive choruses of the crickets and other insects. I can hear at least three different groups of them, each with a different frequency and rate at which they repeat their song.  I think of Jim Wilson and his beautiful recording of God's Cricket Chorus, a recording of crickets slowed down to match the lifespan of a human. Their sound is transformed to what could easily be a choir of angels singing celestial harmonies.

Singing Ringing Tree

The latest most exciting discovery in my world of sound exploration, unusual instruments, sound sculptures, etc.  This video is also brilliantly shot and beautiful. Enjoy!

Tuning Mom

Well, again Mom has had profound results from the tuning forks and I realize I need to be writing about this and keeping track because the results are so dramatic and consistent.

For those who have not read my posts from early last year my mother is 90 years. She is very "with it" mentally, but she does have pretty bad arthritis. Typically a lot of pain in her neck, her hips and her hands. Her mobility is thus somewhat compromised- she uses a walker and after a lifetime of needlework and gardening her fingers have become very stiff and she has lost a lot of the sensitivity that she had in her fingers so it is hard for her to pick things up and to do things that require manual dexterity. 

I began giving her treatments with tuning forks a couple of years ago and she responded really well to them so we have been working with them more and more.  The results are very fast.  

Last week I used the Otto 128 (cycles per second) on her hands- the wrists, joints, and fingertips. She told me the next day that her hands felt much better and she called me three days after that to say that she couldn't get over how much better her hands still were after the treatment.

Today I came to visit and tonight after dinner we were sitting at the table and she complained about a lot of pain in her right hip and butt cheek. I decided to work on her right where she was- sitting in her chair.  I used the Otto 64 on the points that I could get to- no specific protocol, just basically where it hurt and where I could get to with her sitting in the chair. Then I switched to the Otto 128 and did the same thing but also used it on the outside of the right thigh, basically following the gall bladder meridian. I got to one spot and she said all of a sudden her butt was hurting again- I told her I thought it was referred pain and that I also felt that something was clearing and wanting to stay with it a couple more minutes. 

Then I told her that I would work on her some more when she went to bed so that I could work on her with her lying on her side. She decided to go up shortly after that. I told her to let me know when she was ready to get in bed and I would come up. She called down the stairs about ten minutes later and said that the pain in her hip was completely gone! She was astounded- as was I and my sister Miranda who is also here for a visit. I used the otto 128 on her hands after she got in bed but she had no other complaints. Can't wait to see how she's feeling in the morning!

Getting in Tune

Thinking about the tuning fork workshop I took last weekend which led me to this great old song by The  Who...

We come into the world in tune- at least for a little while- then it seems like we spend our lives trying to get back in tune. So interesting... I feel like I am more in tune with myself now than I have been in many many years- really trying to listen and follow the guidance I get- which comes mostly as feeling and impulses from within. Is this situation comfortable? Is that where I want to be? On so many levels from eating the right food to being with the right people to how I choose to move through my day. And refining the levels of discernment- which voice am I listening to? Is it a real gut feeling that is assisting me in making a particular choice or is it my ego looking for a little comfort or instant gratification?

Getting in tune.  I have been away from my home for 17 years.  Florida was never my home. It was just where I lived. I have had shoes that felt more like home to me than Florida ever did!

Life Changes

Well, again... a pause between my writings. Every day I think of it and wonder when I will find the time! Today I decided to simply hibernate and work on my writing- which included a bunch of handwritten cards while I had my coffee this morning. I moved up to Middletown, RI a few weeks ago- just outside of Newport a half mile walk from the beach. Living in a tiny little cabin in a thicket of honeysuckle and wild roses for the summer. It's so beautiful.  In the winter I'll move in to the big house on the same property. All I hear is the wind blowing through the shrubs and trees, birds of all kinds, squirrels jumping from branch to branch, the occasional insect and a few cars or motorcycles way off in the distance very occasionally.  Sometimes there is a chorus of neighborhood dogs or music off in the distance.  Right now a plane going overhead. Earlier today I heard a bird that kept sounding like it was saying "You 'n me, you 'n me..." over and over. A butterfly flew in and visited me in my kitchen this morning and then flew out. A couple of days ago I had to help one out.


It is so wonderful being here.  Work is flowing much more easily for me which is wonderful and I have had so many amazing sound experiences already this year.  I have been able to attend 3 workshops already which had been few and far between for me since I opened the center. The first was the weekend with Shyamji in the Netherlands which I want to write about today. Next was the Temple of Sound weekend with Bhagavan Das and Yogi Amrit Desai in Salt Springs, FL and then last weekend a phenomenal workshop on working with tuning forks with John Beaulieu. And I still have kirtan camp to look forward to!

So... Shyamji... oh, my life changes every time I see him, hear him, experience his beautiful sweet voice and sacred songs and mantras. The first time I experienced Shyamji (Sri Shyam Bhatnagar) was back in 1990. My stepmother Lore, a yoga teacher, took me to a deep meditation workshop with him in New York City. I was a year in recovery for substance abuse, rebuilding my spiritual foundation. We went to New York for the day. It was a Sunday. It was a beautiful day and the sounds he created were new to me. He played his tamboura and chanted seed sounds and mantras and we would repeat after him the sounds he made. We got home that evening and the next morning when I was driving my boys to school I realized I was in a totally altered state. I could function perfectly well but it was as if there were no resistance to the world around me. I was moving through it with ease- almost as if I were in still point and the world was just moving around me. I told Lore when I saw her that morning for yoga class that I felt as if I were an "open window".

On the drive to NY we had talked about A Course in Miracles which my sponsor in NA/AA had told me about.  I was really interested in it and had been wanting copy for a couple of months but didn't have the money to purchase a copy. Lore told me she thought she had a copy but she had so many boxes of books she didn't know where it was.  After yoga class that morning I mentioned the book again.  I had never seen it and didn't know what it looked like- had only heard about it through my sponsor. There were about 4 boxes of books in the room right near us. I looked down and saw a book with the binding facing away from me. I reached in and pulled it out and it was A Course in Miracles! I pulled out one volume after another- all 3 without seeing the cover or the title on any of them.  Lore said laughed and said, "Well, I guess you are supposed to have them." Apparently I was.  It changed my life- and I did have the awareness that for whatever reason I needed to see Shyamji first before I actually got the books. It also turned out to be the beginning of my journey on the path to working with sound as a healing modality- little did I know.

I have had the opportunity to be with Shyamji several times since then- all of them when I was in the process of transformation and healing on very deep levels. This last time in the Netherlands was certainly no different. The trip to the Netherlands in itself was huge for me.  I was going to a country I had wanted to go to all my life and I had actually never been overseas.  The trip had already been so powerful for me. I was finding parts of myself that had been buried so deep- reconnecting with wonder and fascination from my childhood- really happy and joyful parts of my childhood that I didn't even know existed. The workshop with Shyamji was my last weekend in the Netherlands- I was leaving the following Thursday.

Looking down the path at the Spiritual Center, Schoorl, Nederlands

I took a train to Alkmaar and met a woman there who I had met years earlier in Arizona who had been living in the Netherlands for years. She lived in Alkmaar and was a Watsu practitioner and acupuncturist. There was to be a concert Friday night followed by a two-day workshop at a spiritual center in Schoorl. Basia, my friend, and I went to the concert together and he told us that evening that the purpose of his concert and the entire weekend would be to remember what it was like to be one with our mother when we were in the womb, before most likely before the third trimester and any trauma or separation occurred. The next day, seemingly out of the blue, I had an experience of remembering what it was like to be totally and unconditionally loved and loving- not with my mother but with a man I had had relationship with many years earlier. It was not the form that was important though- it was the content- the remembrance of love.

Two days later when I was back at my friends Paul and Jane's in Soesterberg I told Jane how I wanted to rent something in Rhode Island for the summer but hadn't been able to find anything affordable. And hour later I got an email about a place for rent.  I hadn't really told anyone yet that I was seriously looking.  Here I am. This is the place.  This is me.

Common Threads

Sitting at my computer listening to Zoe Keating in the background.  Hmm... I don't think I have posted any of her videos yet... Okay- first things first first, so you can connect with my musical mindset this morning.

Brilliant...

I am awash with so many thoughts about sound that I don't know where to begin.  My mind is full and at so many points throughout each day I think, "Oh I should be taking notes or blogging about this idea... music... process..." whatever, but it rarely happens.  Now that I am out of Florida and have let go of ambassadorship at the sound healing center hopefully it will free me up for more writing!

I think about my last seven years in Florida and what I created there- a community when I didn't have one. A group of people who came together for many different events- meditations, zikrs, sound journeys, kirtan, classes, workshops and private sound healing sessions of kinds- all with personal goals, intentions and reasons for being there, unique to each one but with the common thread of a love of sound and music running through and connecting each person.

It occurs to me that maybe that's one of the things that makes Zoe Keating's music so compelling... these threads that run through and connect the different parts- entraining and entrancing. Others who come to mind with a similar approach- Phillip Glass and Mike Oldfield.

Common threads...

So what is at the front right now? Reconnecting with people from my past, letting people know I am here and ready to start working. 17 years have gone by since I was in Rhode Island for any length of time but it feels like no time. It's really sort of bizarre- like maybe 5 years have gone by? Except what I have done and what I have learned.

I left here just opening to the world of healing with sound, mostly exploring VibroAcoustic Therapy and healing with the voice. When I left I continued to explore and expand in those fields but have done so much more! Workshops with Fabien Maman, studying drum therapy with Buddy Helm, working with tuning forks, frame drumming with Layne Redmond and Barbara Gail, Mantra Therapy with the late Thomas Ashley-Farrand (Namadeva) and his  wife Margalo (Satyabhama), Nada Tantra with Bhagavan Das, workshops with Swami Karunananda and Vidyananda from Yogaville, Kirtan Camp and lots of weekend workshops with Jai Uttal, massage school (Bhakti Academe of Intuitive Massage and Healing), CranioSacral Therapy, Dolphin Assisted Therapy through the Upledger Institute, Biosonic Repatterning with tuning forks, various workshops in Ba Gua and Hsing-I... and more. Well, I guess it would take 17 years to have done all that...

So, I guess it's time to make a brochure...

Home Again

Hmmm... new Blogger page is unknown territory! Feeling my way through their new set-up.

Anyway, here I am- back in Newport RI after 17 years although it doesn't seem anywhere near that long. Familiarity is an interesting phenomenon- like there is no gap in time... But in that time I have done so much, learned so much, grown so much.

My new pad with massage table set up- sweet!
Tibetan bowls in foreground, tuning forks to the left of table!

Now I have a cozy little space behind an old friends house- a tiny cabin with two single beds and enough room between them to set up a massage table. Gave my first session up here a few days ago. The healing environment- the wellness consciousness- has vastly changed, expanded, opened since I left here, at least it seems that way to me. Time will tell what is really real! When I left very few knew much at all about healing with sound and I don't know yet what the awareness is (of sound as a healing modality), but there are certainly many more alternative healing centers here now so I am really looking forward to the opportunity of presenting more.

Lots of possibilities- my prayer is really to have more work than I know what to do with- I can sort out the overflow later! Meanwhile it is just wonderful to be home in a physical environment that really supports and nurtures my being.

 Florida was a place of such incredible growth for me for a lot of reasons- not the least of which was that I was in an extreme Discomfort Zone all the time- it was physically awful for me. Whenever I would get out of that climate I would feel about a hundred times better... so I am extremely grateful to have found a place in which I can make a transition in a pretty undemanding way. I don't have to make any big commitments. I am just here, feeling it all out- and so far IT FEELS GOOD!

On top of all that I am near two of my boys (grown men!), my mother and my grandson.

Life is good.

The Art Of Sound & Letting Go

This is a very good demonstration of cymatics, the study of waves- in this case clearly showing how sound organizes matter. I love that the higher the sound frequency is, the more complex the wave pattern.  And why do we love music so much? It's not just the effect on the emotional body, but the effect on our cells. Fabien Maman demonstrated this beautifully with his photographs of how healthy red blood cells are affected by sound, as well as cancer cells. Many more photographs can be found in his book The Role of Music in the 21st Century. 


I am leaving my sound healing center In Florida that I have nurtured for the last 7 years and going back to Newport, RI, my ultimate comfort zone, for a while. No idea what the future holds- who does? Lol! Hopefully I will find lots of work there teaching, giving private sessions and doing meditations and sound journeys- continuing to do what I love. Also I will be near my mother, two of my sons and daughter-in-laws and my amazing grandson Jonah which will be such a blessing.

Florida for me has been the Land of Exponential Growth- that's what happens when you live in a place that goes against pretty much every aspect of your nature- physical, mental and emotional- you grow and grow and grow! The one oasis I have had has been the Sound Body Wholistic Health Center. As a dear friend said to me a few days ago, I have kept it going with sweat and adrenaline against some very difficult odds. It has been my labor of love. And I am so ready to let it go! Sad, but ready...

Ch Ch Ch Changes!

This has been a most amazing year so far. I feel like I think about what I want and the Universe is coming to meet me at every new thought. Much is manifesting in my life. I have been rooted to my sound healing center which I started 7 years ago for such a long time now. It has been a labor of love, commitment and dedication. In the last two years I have been called to travel more and more, which is what I was doing before I opened the center. This year I have already been to Holland and am going to California in a month to teach there. I spent the winter in New England and when I was leaving to come back down here it hit me that I had been out of my comfort zone for so long and I was ready to be back in it for a while. I also feel that much has shifted in Newport, RI since I have been down here in FL and that the energy is ripe to reintroduce sound healing there. When I left in 1995 very few people had even heard about it but now there are so many more yoga centers and holistic healing centers that I feel I can go back there and really do a lot of work- sessions, group meditations and workshops.

I also felt so strongly that I wanted to be near my son Moose and his wife Addie before they move to Minneapolis in October as well as my son Nic and his family- particularly my grandson Jonah. And my dear mother who turned 90 last fall and is still as sharp as a tack. I had been thinking about this and the high prices for summer rentals in Newport when I got an email forwarded from a dear friend in regards to a rentals available through a mutual friend of ours. And everything I had hoped for was there for me. An affordable room in a wonderful location less than a mile walking distance from Moose and Addie! So I am there for the summer and so thrilled- leaving in a little over a month. Maybe my sentence in Florida is finally up!

Much to do to prepare. So many other things have occurred- too numerous to write about right now- but it's all good and I am very excited to be teaching, learning and traveling.

Remembering Love

Well, I decided to get right to it today! I woke up thinking ten thousand things, played with my theta tuning forks and got quiet inside and now thoughts about sound and frequency have risen to the surface. I got home from Holland just over a week ago. Felt very excited and inspired and soon notice how my energy and creativity begin to wane after just a few days. Florida is not a good environment for me physically, mentally or emotionally. It is good for practice because I am challenged on a daily basis by being far removed from my comfort zone. The only real comforts I have here are Henry and the sound healing center, and the center has played itself out in my life and I am pulling away.

Interesting with all that is going on internally that regardless the theta tuning brought my awareness to a very quiet space within me and as I write I find myself stopping and closing my eyes every few minutes and breathing into that space. That feels like my real comfort zone, the ride on the breath and the awareness of the quiet open space between each inhale and exhale, between the exhale and the inhale...

When I was in Holland I went to a workshop with Shyamji in Schoorl. The picture above is the sand dune that leads down into the village behind the spiritual center where the workshop was held. Schoorl is famous for having the highest and widest dunes in the Netherlands. It was a beautiful location for the workshop.

It was a lovely and powerful workshop with Shyamji (pictured below). Some of my awareness of the shifts that occurred for me did not come until after I got home and I looked at the pattern of openings within me and saw how they were directly connected with the goal Shyamji set forthe workshop, which was to reconnect with the memory of being at one with the mother (and the Mother) before any blockages occurred in the microchakras.

It was interesting because everyone else at the workshop was from either Holland or Belgium except one woman originally from England but she had lived in Holland for over 30 years so obviously was completely fluent in the language. I tend to be shy in groups of people that I don't know anyone and in this case I engaged with the others even less because they were all speaking Dutch- which was maybe good because I was that much more internal during what felt more like a retreat than a "workshop".

Some of the workshops I have taken with Shyamji before have been quite intense for me even in the quiet because we have been doing physical cleansing or purifications during the process so there is a lot of releasing and purging on all levels. This one was very gentle and felt so suited to where I was at the time- and also to the environment. It was a lovely simple retreat center in the woods on the edge of the dunes. Walking up the narrow brick road behind the center leads to an

overlook from one of the highest points in the Netherlands from where you can see an expanse of woods, dunes and the ocean way off in the distance. The air was cool and damp- early spring.

The sounds Shyamji produced during the opening concert and over the next two days were so lovely. His energy is so sweet and gentle, his voice so pure. He speaks without sacrificing honesty and also a great deal of humor. He explained how there are blockages which occur during the third trimester in the womb and more which occur during the birth experience, particularly the way it has been hijacked by the medical profession in the west. These blockages occur in the microchakras of the right channel and they cannot be unblocked but with the right sounds, with proper guidance by a good teacher we can revisit that place before the blockages occurred when we were completely merged at at one with our mother.

What happened for me was on the second day of the retreat I was sitting in a restaurant having breakfast by myself and suddenly, out of the blue- unexpected and unbidden, triggered by a piece of music that came on- the awareness, the remembrance came up of being completely totally and deeply in love. It was my first experience of being really deeply in love with a man and it was now 25 years ago. I didn't make the connection to the sounds Shyamji had been singing during his concert the night before- not until several weeks later when I was relating the experience to a dear friend and I realized that really this is the experience he was talking about. It doesn't matter where or when we experienced it- that first connection within the mother is the anchor to that experience even if it's not in our conscious memory. The point wasn't so much the who of the relationship (or the loss thereof) but of awareness of the experience of deep surrender and merging with another being to where the energy flow is like two rivers coming together as one. What an extraordinarily beautiful gift- coupled with the knowing that that possibility of experiencing deep love and surrender is still and always available to us.

Days of Wine and Roses

Well, I have been in Holland for two weeks now and my blogging intention seemed to slip away. The only time I seemed to have for the computer was late at night and it messed up my sleeping too much so I had to let it go.

Last weekend we had a wonderful workshop in Utrecht, home of the Speelklok Museum, and now I am in Alkmeer, a beautiful city in the north of Holland. I am at the house of Basia Szpak-Borst, a Watsu practitioner I met in Arizona about ten years ago. Tonight we are going to Schoorl for a concert with my teacher Shyamji- www.innertuning.com- where I will spend tonight and tomorrow night attending a workshop on microchakras. I have not been with Shyamji for over 5 years and I love that when I made plans to come to Holland I found out that he was going to be here at the same time!

Sunday, back to Soesterberg and then I cram in as much sightseeing as possible before I leave on Thursday! Yesterday I spent most of the day giving sessions with toning, craniosacral therapy and tuning forks. This weekend is for me! Next week I am hoping to go to Delft, The Garden of Life www.levenstuinen.nl , the Kinderdijks, and see a movie at the amazing art deco Theatre Tuschinski in Amsterdam.

I am fascinated by the use of space here and the ability to keep things uncluttered and tidy. I understand that in a small country with a relatively dense population that space is at a premium and must be used wisely. Everything is narrow- the streets, the cars, the stairs, the refrigerators! I remember when I was little reading the book "The Dutch Twins", which is when I first decided I wanted to go to Holland. The little children slept in brightly painted cupboards! It also has come back to me that someone gave me a little Delft windmill when I was about 6 years old. I have no idea where it came from but I loved it- it was a treasure. So more and more I remember this resonance and the desire to come to this land of windmills and tulips.

Which brings me to the flowers! The supermarkets (which are quite small, more like the old grocery stores from when I was a kid) are full of flowers along with all the other neccessities. Inexpensive- beautiful varieties of orchids for example that would at least twice as much in Florida and twice as much again in New England- and I wonder how this country that is far from tropical can have all these beautiful orchids at a reasonable price!

But... there are greenhouses... and greenhouses and greenhouses and greenhouses! Driving along the highway you look off to the side and there are vast stretches of farmland, green fields and not just one or two large greenhouses, but maybe 20 or 30 all side by side. The Dutch love their flowers!

I went to Lottum last week, a town in the south of Holland. I have always thought of Holland and tulips, but this part of Holland is famous for their roses. Of course they were not out yet- August is the peak season here, but as I walked along the sidewalk I saw that there were these big curlycue structures that looked to be the framework for topiary rose bushes. I don't know that for sure but that seemed to be what they were. I'll google it later! How I would love to come back in August and experience a sea of roses. I imagine the scent filling the air that must be divine.

The sufis use the scent of roses as a way of connecting to the Divine. They place a drop of rose essence in their ear because it is the highest vibration of any plant and causes the consciousness to vibrate at a very high frequency. I tried this once. It was heavenly. Somehow it enters into the system and I was breathing roses- very subtly- but it was intoxicating. Days later after the scent had faded away, I went swimming in the ocean. I dove underwater and when I came up instead of breathing the smell of the ocean I was breathing in roses and went into total bliss. It was so unexpected, but I guess the wash of the ocean released the essential oil once again and it was absolutely beautiful. I lay on my back in the water breathing in sunshine and roses.

Cheese? Oh my God, the cheese! All I eat is goat cheese, no moo cow... but really. Goat cheese with coriander? HEAVENLY!!! I tried about 6 different kinds this morning in a cheese store ("kaaswinkel") in Alkmeer. I have already forgotten what they were but they were all amazing! I may have to go back there before I leave. I don't understand how I can eat all this stuff here I'm "not supposed to eat"and I feel great! Chocolate, dairy, the occasional nightshade... no problem! I swear I am starting to think it's just Florida that doesn't agree with me and all these dietary restrictions are for the birds. However, that being said, I think in general the food is cleaner here. Organic vegetables are organic vegetables- but other than that, I think the milk (which I have been using in my coffee) and the meat is generally better and cleaner.

Also, they don't put heaps of food on your plate. Just enough. A small plate of salad or veggies, a few onion rings and your meat- and the fried potatoes or french fries with green mayonnaise. And maybe a glass of wine. Dessert? One dark chocolate bon bon. Lovely and delicious. It's all so simple and nice. Most Americans don't know much about simplicity! Food for thought...

I know for some of you this is nothing new- but for me? I've never been to Europe before and it is so refreshing! I am loving it.