Grounded in a Sound Reality

I have been practicing sound healing for about 20 years now and studying the effects of sound for considerably longer than that. Today I have been looking over past posts, writings and events I have done over the past ten years. I am as obsessed with sound as I ever was. One thing I notice is that the more I do this work, the longer I stay with it, the more grounded I get. The general perception is that it is "New Age", "woo woo" or just plain "out there" when in fact it is well-grounded in science and physics and deeply affects our physiology and bio-energy. I have people come to me sometimes who are relatively new to the field and very excited and say things like, "When we start playing they won't know what hit them!"

 Okay... I WANT YOU TO KNOW WHAT HIT YOU! That is why I practice, I write and I teach. I want you to know that this is real and much of it is replicable. It is accessible. You do not have to be a wizard, a magician or even a musician. You simply have to be sensitive to how specific tones and frequencies affect you. You learn this by listening- deeply- and observing your own response to what you are hearing; not only learning what sounds in particular make you feel "good" but also those sounds that perhaps make you squirm a little bit or bring up some level of emotional discomfort. You can learn just as much from these as the ones that make you smile, bring warmth to your heart, stimulate your left brain, bring tears to your eyes or make you feel solid and grounded.

We are frequency. All thought is frequency. Our emotions are frequencies and we can use sound to change our frequencies- to give us more energy or to slow down our nervous system. One of the most straightforward ways to do this is by using beat frequencies which affect our brainwaves. Tibetan bowls and certain combinations of tuning forks set up beat frequencies (heard as a pulse) which correlate to specific brainwaves- beta, alpha, theta and delta. Generally the Tibetan bowls will correspond to alpha (8-12 cycles per second), theta (4-8 cps) and delta (0.5-4 cps) which are optimal for learning, deep relaxation, meditation and healing. Brain Tuners, a set of 5 tuning forks, also correspond to brain waves and include a "Beta Tuner" which in combination with the fundamental tone corresponds to the Beta brainwave (13-30 cps) for heightened awareness, maximum brain power, focus and concentration.

Here is a link to an informative article on Brainwave Frequencies and some other ways to access the different brain states: http://synthesislearning.com/article/brwav.htm

Tomorrow night I will be joining my friend Peter Blum for a sound healing event at Santosha Yoga in Cranston, RI which I am really looking forward to. He has a large collection of bowls, gongs and other instruments, pictured below. I will be bringing some crystal bowls, metal bowls and flutes of my own and it should be quite wonderful. We have never worked/played together before but we definitely speak the same language and I think we will be quite in synch with each other.

Yes, we are in synch- he just called me, right after I wrote that paragraph, and said essentially the same thing on the phone as I just said here!

Link to event: http://yogaatsantosha.com/santosha_events/ceremonial-sounds-for-healing/