HEALING SOUNDS AND TONING JONATHAN GOLDMAN
http://healingsounds.com/articles/nexus.asp
The Sound of Healing: An Interview with Jonathan Goldman By Ravi Dykeman This interview was printed in Nexus, Colorado's Holistic Journal (March/April 2003) and appears here with permission from Nexus (www.nexuspub.com). The use of sound as a healing tool dates back thousands of years. Now, the field of sound healing is gaining considerable attention, as sound pioneers promote the healing benefits of music, tones and instruments. Jonathan Goldman, director of the Sound Healers Association, is one of the leading experts in the field. He is also president of Spirit Music, which produces music for meditation, relaxation and self-transformation, including the best-selling release Chakra Chants (Etherean, 1999), and the author of several books, including Healing Sounds: The Power Of Harmonics (Inner Traditions, 2002). In this interview with Nexus publisher Ravi Dykema, Goldman talks about research in the field of sound healing, using music and sound as healing and spiritual modalities, and how sound can heal the planet. RD: How did you become involved in sound healing? JG: It began with an experience I had around 1980, when I was playing lead guitar in a rock and roll band in Boston. One night, when I looked out at the audience, I realized the ambiance in the night club was very negative, and that the music I was creating—a dark, punk-rock type of music—was influencing that. Now, no doubt the alcohol and the different intoxicants that people were taking were adding to it, but the music was really driving the negativity. People were angry, throwing beer bottles, getting into fights, screaming at each other. When I realized that, I thought: “I wonder if music can be used to make people feel better?” It was like the light of God struck me, because it hit me so suddenly, after 16 years on stage. I decided to find out about using sound and music for healing. A couple of weeks later, I began to seek out books and recordings, of which there weren’t many. I took a workshop on using sound and color as a healing modality. And I began to meet informally with a number of people who were using music and sound as healing and spiritual modalities. One of those people was Randall McClellan, who taught what was at that time the only college-level course in healing with sound in the United States. After a couple of months, we stopped meeting, because no one had the time. As these gatherings became more infrequent, I said: “Listen, I’m going to take this over and organize it so that people will come and join us.” And everyone said: “Go ahead. Go for it.” I knew from ancient Hebrew kabala that if you name something, you give it energy, so I called the group the Sound Healers Association. We had meetings once a month that drew in wellknown doctors and scientists who were working with sound, healers, and musicians. It was incredible. I got a tremendous education in the potential uses of sound and music for healing. I then went to Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and said: “I want to create a degree in researching the uses of sound and music for healing.” They were skeptical, so I came up with about six inches worth of papers proving that my idea was based in reality, and I created a degree program for myself using research in the uses of sound and music for healing. RD: Do you consider sound healing a branch of holistic healing? JG: I would say yes, or energy medicine. RD: Please describe sound healing. JG: First, let me point out that modern science is now in agreement with what the ancient mystics have told us—that everything is in a state of vibration, from the electrons moving around the nucleus of an atom, to planets and distant galaxies moving around stars. As they’re creating movement, they are creating vibration, and this vibration can be perceived of as sound. So everything is creating a sound, including the sofa that we’re sitting on, or this table, or our bodies. Every organ, every bone, every tissue, every system of the body is creating a sound. When we are in a state of health, we’re like an extraordinary orchestra that’s playing a wonderful symphony of the self.
But what happens if the second violin player loses her sheet music? She begins to play out of tune, and pretty soon the entire string section sounds bad. Pretty soon, in fact, the entire orchestra is off. This is a metaphor for disease. I have the greatest respect for traditional allopathic medicine. But with regard to our string player who’s playing the wrong music, allopathic medicine currently has the approach of either giving this player enough drugs so she simply passes out, or cutting her head off with a broad sword—analogous to surgery. I ask the question, “What if we could somehow give the string player back her sheet music?” What if we could somehow project the correct resonant frequency to that part of the body that is vibrating out of harmony, and cause it to vibrate back into its normal, healthy rhythm, restoring it to a condition of health? That’s the basic principle of using sound as a healing modality. RD: Let’s imagine you have a client who has a headache. How would you determine what’s going on and which intervention is best for him? JG: With a condition such as a headache, I would probably use tuning forks. These are very special tuning forks that are tuned to a specific ratio—a ratio is a relationship between two notes. Would you like for me to try it on you? RD: Sure. JG: I’ll just ask you to sit up straight and relax, then I’ll take two tuning forks and hold them on either side of your head. [The tuning forks are struck and sound a tone for several seconds.] The tuning forks balance out the left and right hemispheres of the brain. They also seem to balance the auric field and the energetic levels of the body. Let me do it once more. [The tone sounds for several seconds longer, followed by a long, silent pause.] Sometimes, that’s all it takes. How did you like that? RD: I loved it. JG: Isn’t it nice? And you can’t get that experience wearing headphones and listening to that tone. You have to use it with the tuning forks in this manner. RD: I could feel something happening inside my head. JG: Yes, it’s powerful. I think the tuning forks affect the cerebral spinal fluid, which is said to be the carrier of kundalini energy. I’ve seen vertebrae pop into alignment and all sorts of other wonderous things happen, just from using the tuning forks. Then there’s another way of using different types of tuning forks, where you put them on the acupuncture meridians. I sort of stumbled upon using tuning forks, as I stumble upon a lot of things, but now somebody’s created a whole series of tuning forks and a training program, and they call it “acu-tronics” or “acu-tonics,” something like that. In addition to the frequency of the tuning forks, I’m also working with other aspects of sound healing, especially intent. I believe that part of the experience you had was the result of my intent, the energy behind the sound. So, in other words, when I was working on you, I was also putting my energy into the tuning forks to have a perceived effect of balancing and making you feel good. RD: Would it work the same no matter what the notes were on the tuning forks? JG: It’s not the note or notes. It’s the relationship of the notes that is very important to healing, what we call the interval, the chord or harmony. The two notes I used happened to be in the key of D and A#. (Here’s what’s interesting: some people say these tuning forks actually work down to a DNA level, so we call these the “D ’n A” tuning forks.) In holistic healing, one concept is that disease is blocked energy, and if you can get the energy to flow, it becomes unblocked and the disease is mitigated. A headache is often blocked energy in the head, so if you can get it moving via tuning forks, the sound simply moves and shifts the energy so it’s able to flow, and then the pain goes away. It’s that simple. RD: If it’s that simple, a whole lot of different sounds would have the same effect. JG: That’s true. A whole lot of different sounds would have the same effect. But it also depends on the intention you put upon the sound. When I was writing Healing Sounds, at one point I was sitting at my computer with 800 pages of text and dozens and dozens of systems of using sound for healing, dozens of different frequencies and notes. I was particularly interested in researching the relationship between
sound and the chakras, and the uses of sound in different organs and on different meridian points. But no one could agree on what the frequencies or sounds were. So I was sitting at my computer with my head in my hands saying, “How can this be? It just doesn’t make any sense.” And I clearly heard a voice say: “It is not simply the frequency of the sound that creates the effect, but the intention of the person projecting the sound.” All of a sudden, everything clicked, and I created the formula of frequency + intent 3D healing. RD: We can measure frequency, but intention is hard to pin down. JG: Actually, there has been a pretty good amount of research regarding intention. In one experiment, a friend of mine who’s a doctor had three different petrie dishes with yeast or bacteria or something in them, and he held his hand over one dish and thought: “Stay the same.” He held his hand over the other, and he thought, “Grow.” And he held his hand over the third and he thought, “Cease.” And that’s exactly what happened in each dish. He was simply working with energy. What could be seen as vibration adhered to his thoughts, but it affected the media in the petrie dishes. That was just one of the experiments done demonstrating the importance of intention. Other people are doing research as well. In fact, there’s an organization called The International Society for the Study of Subtle Energy and Energy Medicine, which meets once a year in Boulder. A couple of years ago, their main focus was on intentionality, and all these scientists were proving and demonstrating the importance of intention in the healing process. RD: We were talking about using tuning forks for a headache. If the headache didn’t go away with the tuning forks, what would you do next? JG: I would probably work with other kinds of sound. I teach people certain self-created sounds that I call “vocal harmonics.” Some people call them “overtoning.” Here’s an example. [He sings a tone for several seconds.] If I had a headache, and didn’t have my tuning forks, I would make that sound with the intention that the sound is going into my brain. RD: That might get rid of my headache today, but in the realm of healing, it’s paramount to try to get to the source. How would a sound healer get to the source? JG: I don’t have a clear answer for that. Years ago, I spoke to Dr. Randall McClellan, who was part of that sound healer group years ago. He wrote a book called The Healing Forces of Music. He gives an example of a story of somebody who’s got a tack in his shoe. You can put a band-aid on the foot, but until you actually remove the tack, that is, until you get to the source, the foot’s not really going to get better. With regard to sound healing, I’ve seen the tuning forks, for example, work for some people and completely stop their headaches from recurring. And for other people, their headaches keep coming back. I think it has something to do with the attitude of the person being healed. I’ll tell you a story: about 10 years ago, my niece came to visit me. She had been debilitated by chronic headaches for four or five years. I thought, because I’ve been trained in all sorts of different healing modalities from reiki to acupressure and others, I could simply put my hand on her and say, “Heal!” and she’d be healed. It didn’t happen. I spent a month working with her, taking her to the best healers I knew. Finally, a month later, she was at the airport getting ready to return home, and she said, “Uncle Jonathan, thank you so much for your experience, for this. You’ve given me a lifetime’s worth of experiences. But I just want to go back to New Jersey and go back to being a Jewish-American princess.” Those were her words to me. I realized she had made some sort of major decision about her path in life, and no one could help her. She went back to spend the next four to six years in bed, and she died a couple of years ago. I’m a major believer that, with regard to the healing process, one has to take responsibility. She was an ultimate victim. I also realized at that time that I knew very little about the healing process, that it was like an onion—you’d pull off one layer, and there would be another layer. I think we all have a very limited knowledge of healing. Nobody’s got the magic bullet yet. RD: What instruments are typically used for healing? JG: Some people use the voice, some use instruments, like the didgeridoo, or Tibetan bowls or bells. Some use tuning forks or scientific instruments, such as the somatic instrument, which uses direct application of sound on the body for healing. There’s another branch of sound healing in which people take someone’s speaking voice and find frequencies that are dormant or missing, then feed these frequencies back into them.
And then there’s the work of Dr. Alfred Tomatis, who’s considered to be the Einstein of the ear. Dr. Tomatis uses something called the electronic ear to stimulate and enhance the ear and various neural pathways to open up the brain. It’s extremely effective with learning disabilities and emotional disturbances. There’s also work with sound phenomena that can be called “sonic entrainment,” using sound to cause the brain to synchronize and change different levels of brain wave activity. RD: How is that done? JG: Entrainment is a phenomena that was discovered in the 16th century, and it means that something can lock in step with another object, so one vibration can cause another object to lock in step. In the 1960s, a man by the name of Robert Monroe began to do research on entrainment. He found that, for example, when you put a frequency in one ear, let’s say 100 cycles/second, and a frequency in another ear, say 104 cycles/second, the difference between those two frequencies is four cycles/second. He found that the predominant lobes of the brain would vibrate or entrain to that four cycle/second frequency difference, and that the left and right hemispheres of the brain, measured by electroencephalogram, would also synchronize together. He called the process “hemi-synch.” This technique has great repercussions in terms of both psychological and physiological healing. RD: Let’s switch gears for a minute, and talk about sound healing versus music therapy. How are they different? JG: Music therapy uses music as an adjunct or an assistance to traditional therapy to help people feel better, whether they’re going through hospice work or they’re suffering in a hospital. It’s used for pain relief, to help speed recovery, as occupational therapy, that kind of thing. It’s using music as a tool to assist the healing process, but in a much more conventional way. Sometimes I perceive of it as being more about working with behavioral medicine. Additionally, music therapy is a licensed degree program, whereas sound healing is not. Most people who are into sound healing are doing it because they’re musicians or they’re healers—they’re musicians who want to incorporate healing into the process, or healers who want to incorporate music into their process. RD: What would you consider adequate training for someone to be a sound healer? JG: We have a nine-day healing sounds intensive, which goes from early in the morning to late at night. We deal a lot with the scientific basis for using sound for healing, then we have the experiences of working with everything from tuning forks to toning to mantras. I also think it’s important for a sound healer to understand the principles of resonance, entrainment and various modalities of using sound for healing, whether it’s tuning forks, mantras, toning or other methods. Many years ago, I thought I would be helping initiate a college program in training people with the healing sound of music. Perhaps that will be the next generation. RD: Has sound healing become a significant part of the curriculum in music therapy in any universities or colleges that you know of? JG: I can’t answer that. I have taught for different music therapy programs at times. But I have to admit that I have not been actively engaged in music therapy programs for quite a while. I’ve been sort of doing my own thing and working with other people. Frequently, when people ask me, “How can I get some sort of certification?” I usually turn them toward music therapy. RD: If I were looking for a sound healer, would you recommend that I find someone who’s a registered music therapist? JG: Not necessarily. Sometimes, in fact, sound healing may be discouraged by certain music therapy programs. I’ve had a number of music therapists come to study with me, and they say, “Well, you know, this stuff will never be accepted in my school, even though it may work.” Because, for example, the research behind sound therapy is too cutting edge, even though some of these therapies—like mantra therapy, for example—go back thousands of years. RD: So sound healing is still very much in the research stage? JG: Yes, it is. But what I’d like to suggest is that sound healing as a modality is very ancient.
People have been using mantras and other sounds for various types of healing and consciousness shifts for thousands of years in different traditions. But the research still needs to be done, and it’s very hard to get research done on sound healing, because most of it needs to be privately funded. It won’t be funded by the drug companies, because you can’t patent a tone. There are, however, people who are doing studies on sound and healing. A friend of mine named Fabian Maman has done some fabulous research showing the effects of sound on hemoglobin cells. He would hit the note “C” and then he would do what is called a kirlian photograph of the hemoglobin cell. Then he would wait about a minute and hit the note “C#” and then he would photograph the cell again. You can actually see major changes and shifts in the hemoglobin cell. And he also did the same thing with cancer cells. RD: So, speaking of cancer, what sorts of conditions lend themselves best to sound healing? JG: It may not depend so much on the condition as on the person being healed and the healer. In Tibetan medicine, there are three components. There is the belief of the healer in the medicine. Then there’s the belief of the patient in the healer, and third, there’s the karma between the two. Another way of saying that is there’s a resonance between a person and a particular healer. When we talk about sound healing, we’re dealing with an energy, a power that has the ability to rearrange molecular structure. When people ask, “What conditions can sound heal?” I say, “If you understand the concept of rearranging molecular structure, then conceptually any condition can be healed with sound.” RD: Conceptually. But I would want to see results. Either anecdotal or in research data. JG: Then I can say that, anecdotally, I have heard of every type of condition being healed with sound. RD: Does the science of sound healing include a map or model of how a specific sound, used for a specific imbalance, returns balance to the system? JG: Yes, and there are people who have created this in their work—for example, earlier I mentioned those who use the “missing frequencies” in the voice. They have these huge charts, pages and pages as thick as the Bible, in terms of what the missing frequencies mean. From my perspective, it doesn’t mean their work is any more effective than the work of somebody who doesn’t have that map and who is simply using intuition coupled with knowledge of sound. For example, the Shamanic traditions have effectively used sound to heal for millennia. They have not had the guidelines, the map, the Bible, and yet they’ve had a great deal of success. For some people, yes, having a specific road map is helpful. But the map is not the territory. There are some people who will get in the territory without the map and be able to work with a sound to create incredible healing. At the same time, those who have the map may be sitting there doing what I call the cookbook remedy of healing. And sometimes they’ll be very successful, and sometimes they won’t. Because I believe in a dynamic, fluid flow of the universe, and also in terms of the healing process. RD: So let’s look at another aspect of this. We were talking about sound as healing, and common conditions, like headaches. But sound in the Eastern traditions is utilized for human potential development. JG: Or we could say consciousness enhancement? RD: Yes. What do you understand about the use of sound to change states of consciousness? JG: Certain sounds cause the nervous system to react and create tension. For example, as we were speaking, there was a vacuum cleaner running one floor above us. As soon as that sound went off, I could feel my body release. That alone is a consciousness enhancer—being able to release and be relaxed. I’m very interested in what I call helping people wake up using sound. I don’t mean getting into states of enlightenment—though we all want that—but simply being more aware of many aspects of existence on this planet. I believe many people are in a state of fear because of various things that are going on, and
there’s a great deal of manipulation occurring through the media and other means to keep people in a state of not really understanding, not being able to see clearly. As we begin to wake up more, we realize that there are a lot of strings being pulled, and that perhaps, as humans, we need to take more responsibility and unite together so that we can help create peace. On Valentine’s Day, February 14th, we’re having World Sound Healing Day, when people throughout the planet are going to be making a heart sound, an “aahhh” sound, for five minutes at noon, wherever they are. They’ll send this energy throughout the planet. It’s my belief that sound, created with consciousness, can actually create changes on the planet. I recently created a recording called Ultimate Om, which is an “om” that lasts for about an hour. When you get done listening to that, the barriers that seemed to exist between yourself and other people seem to disappear, and you realize that all of us are vibratory beings. When that happens, I think you get into a mode of cooperation versus competition. I also believe that sound can be assisted through meditation. I believe that one of the keys in sound healing is the importance of silence. So if you’re chanting for 10 or 15 minutes, and then all of a sudden you go into silence, you’re opening to extremely deep and transformative states. RD: It’s as if the sound is preparing the person for the experience that occurs during the silence. JG: I believe that’s true. And we’ve seen evidence of physiological changes that occur in brain waves, heart rate and respiration. A fast mantra, for example, can cause the heartbeat, respiration and brain waves to speed-up. If you chant the same mantra very slowly, it will slow brain wave activity and create shifts in heartbeat and respiration. RD: What kind of science supports those changes? JG: I’m not terribly thrilled with what we call scientific proof. I want to tell you a quick story. About seven or eight years ago, I was at a music medicine conference, and I was sitting next to a woman who had studied with me. She said: “Jonathan, I’ve done the only work now on the effects of mantra to create physiological change.” And I said, “That’s fabulous. What mantra did you use?” She told me what mantra it was, and I said: “And you found no decrease in brain wave, heartbeat or respiration.” Her mouth dropped open, and she said: “How did you know?” I said: “Because the mantra that you used was very fast.” And the fast mantra would cause the heartbeat, respiration and brain waves to speed up. I told her: “If you had had the participants chant the same mantra very slowly—like at 60 beats per minute, as opposed to 120 beats per minute—you would have found extraordinary shifts in brain wave activity, heartbeat and respiration. Now, your research proves that this stuff doesn’t work.” That’s one of the reasons why I say I’m not thrilled with research. I think in modern science, the person doing the research frequently influences the outcome of the experiment. Also, I don’t necessarily see scientific evidence as being that essential. I know, from a left-brain point of view, it’s very important to people to know how sound healing works, but I also see things that have become gospel scientifically become flawed and incorrect a few years down the road. Then a new theory takes it over, totally disproving what once was “proven.” I also think we may find that our thoughts help in healing, that it’s not a placebo effect but rather the relationship between body, mind and spirit. RD: The fact that scientific theories are modified when new data is discovered or collected increases my faith in science. It’s heartening to me that scientists are willing to reform their theories. JG: Well, it is, and I’m not meaning to put down science at all. I truly bless science and say they have great ideas. But they’re also the folks in the ivory towers in the universities who are holding onto information that is sometimes very outdated. The bottom line is that I’ve been in this field for 20 years, and I hope to pioneer it. The reason I do this, the reason I’m still into it, is because I see that it works. There are other ways of making a living besides doing this. At one point, an album I had released was named the Pick Hit of the Week in Billboard Magazine. So I had other options. RD: What happened with that album? JG: I pulled it from the market. Shortly after that experience I had on stage, when I realized the negativity in the audience, I was with a woman who was a healer and a nurse. I made a vow that my life was going to be dedicated to bringing the awareness of sound and
music for healing to the public. The next day, I got a phone call from a music business lawyer in New York City who had been dodging my phone calls for a year. He was a very big, well-known guy, and he said “Congratulations on Billboard.” I didn’t know what the heck he was talking about. “Oh, you know, you got a Pick Hit of the Week in Billboard.” I said “Wow!” I thought it was so interesting, because it was the day after I’d made this dedication. I ended up pulling the album from the market and started dedicating myself to using sound for healing. I didn’t think that album was creating positive vibrations for the planet. RD: But its sales were assured, at least for the short term, because of the Billboard review? JG: Right. And my family thought I was crazy. They said: “This is your big opportunity. What are you doing?” I said: “There will be other opportunities.” I saw that what I was doing was playing into the same audience I saw on stage that night, one that thrived on emotions such as violence and fear—some of the songs I had written were very scary. As I became more awakened, I saw that it wasn’t necessary to put any more of this energy onto the planet. I also saw that the positive things I did might be well-received and that I should really focus on them. For example, my recording Chakra Chants (Etherean, 1999) won the 1999 Visionary Awards for Best Healing-Meditation Album and Album of the Year. A couple of days ago I went to see a group called Def Leppard, who I’d never seen or even heard before. The drummer in the band had actually taken a workshop of mine and was very keen on my work. So I went to see the group, and I thought they were enjoyable. I stopped playing rock and roll when I first got into sound healing, because I felt that it was the devil’s music. Then I realized that it isn’t the rock and roll. It’s the energy that you put into the music. The Beatles were some of the most extraordinary, luminescent light beings on the planet. But what cracked me up was that I was backstage talking to Rick, the drummer, and he said: “You know, before I met you and became aware of this whole aspect of using sound as a modality that can shift and change us, I’d get myself really pumped up and wired to go onstage, and I’d be exhausted halfway through”. But now, he said: “I sit and listen to Chakra Chants before I go on, I meditate to slow down my breathing, heartbeat and respiration, and now I get out there and I have lots of energy and I’m so focused.” I said: “You’re in the zone.” And he said, “Totally.” I thought that was so sweet. Just another example of the way somebody can use music as a tool to enhance human potential. It’s my belief that we can all learn to use sound, our own self-created sounds as well as sounds that we listen to and hear, to reduce heartbeat, respiration and brain waves, to help us relax, and to lead a more balanced, harmonious life. Everybody can do this. I urge everyone to contemplate using sound in conjunction with whatever else they’re doing to heal themselves and others.
http://healingsounds.com/articles/mantra.asp
Mantras An Interview with Jonathan Goldman © by Vandana Mohata
[email protected] 1) What is the science behind Mantra chanting? There are a number of different “sciences” behind mantric chanting. Some of these are the “hard” science—physics, psycho-acoustics, etc. Some of these are spiritual sciences such as the different yogic practices that work with sound. I write about many of them in HEALING SOUNDS. There’s also a lot of information on my website: www.healingsounds.com On one level, one can see that mantric chanting, as observed years ago by Dr. Herbert Benson, helps induce the “relaxation” response, causing reduction of heart beat, brain waves and respiration. On another level, as Dr. David Shananoff-Khalsa believes, mantric recitation enables the tongue to stimulate the acupuncture meridians inside the mouth (particularly on the roof), thus enhancing help. Dr. Ranjie Singe found that the chanting of specific mantras caused the release
of the hormone melatonin and is investigating the importance of this in the healing process. He has found that there are many benefits including shrinkage of tumors and enhanced sleep because of this. He writes about this in his book POWERFUL SELF HEALING TECHNIQUES. It’s also been found that self created sounds such as chanting will cause the left and right hemispheres of the brain to synchronize. Such chanting will also help oxygenate the brain, reduce our heart rate, blood pressure and assist in creating calm brainwave activity. In addition, listening to certain chants has great beneficial effects. Dr. Alfred Tomatis has utilized the sounds of Gregorian Monks to stimulate the ears, brain and nervous systems of clients. His work is very important with regard to the scientific and medical uses of sound and chant. He found that certain sounds that are particularly high in vocal harmonics will stimulate and charge the cortex of the brain and the nervous system. Some years ago, there was a very popular recording of Gregorian chanting that occurred just when this research was being made public. I know that many other types of chanting from different traditions have very similar effects. These are just a few of the hard physical phenomenon of mantric chanting that have been observed. There certainly are others, as well. Some believe that the recitation of sacred mantras actually causes the physical and etheric bodies to change their vibrational frequency level—becoming more attuned if you like, with divine energy. Thus, when one chants a mantra for an extended period of time, to invoke, for example some deity, the higher energies of that deity will encode itself upon the chanter. This is one purpose for much mantric chanting—to become one and unite with the energy of the deity that one is chanting for. If the person has some sickness or imbalance, this imbalance can frequently be released by having the energy of the deity encode itself upon the person. This actually comes from the concept of vibrational (as opposed to allopathic) medicine, which is the basis of many healing modality, including homeopathy and acupuncture—that all the universe including our bodies, is simply made of vibration—a concept, incidentally, that the new Superstring theory of physics supports. Everything is in a state of vibration and when we are in a natural, resonant vibration, we are in a state of health. But if some part of the body begins to vibrate at a counter frequency, the energy becomes stuck and disease sets in. Therefore, by mantric chanting, one can cause stuck energy to become released, and we can return to our natural state of resonance, effecting a cure. I have, incidentally, observed this phenomenon many times during workshops. We will be reciting a mantra to invoke a specific entity—perhaps Tara, Tibetan Goddess of Compassion for example, in order to better embody the energy of compassion. However, during and after the process, I’ve seen people with chronic health problems emerge from the chanting quite healthy. It’s amazing. There are of course, actual healing mantras as well as specific mantras to balance and align the chakras. The Bija Mantras are an example of this. We work with these in workshop and healings will also occur due to the balancing and alignment of the chakras. Chakras are the energetic wheels of light that transduce subtle energy into the body. They come from the Hindu tradition, but as my book HEALING SOUNDS notes, they are found in almost all of the esoteric traditions on the planet. Psychic and mystics from all different spiritual paths can sense—see, feel or hear these energy centers. We may not yet have scientific equipment that can adequately detect the chakras, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And incidentally, the equipment to measure chakras is actually being perfected, so it is just a matter of time before the scientific and medical communities will acknowledge the chakras, as they are beginning to acknowledge acupuncture meridians. There are 7 main chakras. For over 20 years, I have studied the use of sound to effect the chakras. It’s quite powerful—mantras are particularly effective at creating this of the chakras. Thus, one can use Bija mantric chanting as a preventative tool, or to help assist an imbalance. 2) Can you tell us anything about the history and origin of chanting and trace it to the present stage-what is the level of awareness of chanting & sound healing in present day & age? This is an excellent question, but one which truly requires a book length answer to cover all the aspects inherent in this question. I will do my best to attempt to a short reply. Simply put, I will tell you that there is virtually no tradition, no culture, which does not include chanting of some sort as a spiritual and health practice. The recitation of prayers is found worldwide and has been with us since the dawn of humankind. In the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Islamic and Hebrew traditions, you have some sort of chanting of prayer or recitation of a Divine name. Whether it’s a shamanic or pagan tradition, you will have some aspect of chanting that could be considered mantric chanting in their rituals and prayers. Sometimes these chants are used to invoke Divine entities.
Other times they’re used for healing or to ask for some benevolent process like bringing rain. With regard to present day and age, we are seeing more interest, awareness and use of chanting for health and wellness. Some of it is based upon the realization by 2lst century people that there actually is something more than pure “superstition” going on during chanting—that there are actual physiological changes occurring. Our nervous system, for example, is being affected by our own self created sounds. And through this many extraordinary shifts and changes in the body and mind can happen. Also, many people realize that using chanting creates a means of directly assessing higher states of consciousness. The ability of sound to create altered consciousness is extremely powerful and important to people who are looking for more meaning out of their lives. 3) Can the power of sound alter cellular structure and molecular structure- the DNA encoding etc? Any documented proof? Any recent scientific research on the above? There is no question that sound can alter molecular structure. In the 1960’s, a medical doctor named Hans Jenny conducted experiments that showed that sound was able to actually create form in various substances such as plastics, plastes, liquids and water. He would place these substances—powders, etc. on a steel plate and then using a crystal oscillator, vibrate these plates with sound. The various substances took on the most organic looking shapes—they look like microscopic organisms or underwater life. Quite astounding. He called this work Cymatics. Masuru Emoto of Japan demonstrated that water molecules are actually affected by sound and our intention. Intention, incidentally, is our thoughts, our feelings—it is the energy behind the sounds that we create. I’ll talk about this later. Emoto found that clean water looked like a snowflake—very geometric. Polluted water looks like mud. Emoto has photographs of polluted water, which at first look like mud. After a priest has chanted over this water, it is photographed again. This time, the water looks like a snowflake—the sound and intentionality has restored it to its natural pristine harmonious shape. The work of Fabian Maman, a French acupuncturist and sound healer has taken Kirlian photographs of hemoglobin blood cells that were exposed to different sounds. In particular, he took photographs of blood cells exposed to an ascending chromatic scale—C, C#, D, etc created on a xylophone. Each note effected the cell differently, creating a different shape and different Kirlian color. This demonstrates clearly that cellular structure and energy is effected by sound. These are just a few demonstrable examples. I have a new video called “HEALING SOUNDS” and many of these slides are found on it, as well as most of the material and information I’ll be talk about in this interview. And once again, my website, www.healingsounds.com also has much material. There’s also an excellent bibliography of books and articles on the subject of sound as a healing and transformative modality. 4) While chanting, what is the role of intention on the human body? ( I did see the effect of intention in the works of Japanese researcher Mr. Masaru Emoto on affect the molecular structure of water, but we would like to know the know the effect on human body? Many years ago, I was collecting information and writing a book on the effects of sound to healing. In particular, I focused upon the use of sound to affect the chakras, though of course, I also looked at the use of sound to affect different organs, as well as different conditions. What I found was that there were different schools of sound healing, based upon different teachers and different traditions. These different schools might use the same mantra to resonate different chakras—with great success. Or they might use different mantras to resonate the same chakra. Om, for example, could resonate the heart chakra, or it could resonate the throat chakra, or the third eye or crown or whatever. It depended upon the path and the teacher. I remember sitting at my desk being quite confused. How could this all work? I distinctly heard a voice saying “It is not only the sound that creates the effect of the sound, but also the intention of the person making the sound.” Suddenly, everything made sense and was clear. I understood. Yes, the intention—the energy behind the sound was an equal part of the effect of the sound. This energy of intent was carried upon the sound wave and was actually was equally responsible for the effect of the sound. It was a major “aha” moment, and I immediately wrote
down the formula “Frequency + Intent = Healing”. For many people, this has been a sort of unified theory of sound healing because it is able to bring together the differences in many different schools and many different beliefs. I also created the formula, “Vocalization + Visualization = Manifestation”, which is very similar and is particularly relevant with regard to chanting and mantras. This means that visualization of the chanter that is coupled with or mantra the sound being chanted creates the effect. If you are for example, chanting for a specific deity, it helps to be able to visualize that deity in order the invoke and embody the effect. Actually, some people are not great a visualizing, so if they can simply “feel” the energy of the chant, it works just as well. If you have trouble visualizing Tara, but you can feel the energy of compassion while you are chanting the Tara mantra, it will really help and assist the manifestation of compassion. The same thing is true when you are making sounds to resonate the chakras. It’s good to be able to direct your attention and intention when you are attempting to resonate a particular chakra with sound. This is a major key to working with sound—to use the power of consciousness to focus our attention and intention on what the sound is doing. 5) Is mantra chanting and sound healing the next frontier in science, playing a significant role in healing, removing the need for allopathic treatment? I’d like to suggest that until we all move into another dimension of consciounsness where thoughts instantly create reality, there will always be some need for allopathic treatment. And coming from a family of allopathic physicians, I really want to honor allopathic medicine. I think that we should perceive of all vibrational medical treatments, whether it’s sound or whatever, as being complimentary with allopathic medicine. I think this is really important because then the different modalities can work together, as opposed to being adversarial—an “us and them” mentality. Rather than “alternative” medicine , let’s use the word “complimentary” and resonate with each other. Cooperation, not competition—I think that’s a real key to our continuation and evolution as a species in the upcoming years. 6) How is chanting vowels beneficial for health? any recent scientific research on the same? The chanting of vowels has very similar benefits to mantric chanting. Often, I will work exclusively with using vowels as mantras. In workshops, we will use vowels in conjunction with pitch to resonate the chakras. What I like about chanting vowels is that many people still have a “thing” about mantric chanting—it’s either too weird or else, they are from a religious path that does allow them to make sounds from other paths. But nobody has problems with chanting vowels. They’re part of every language. Not too many people realize that the vowel sounds are considered sacred in many different traditions—from the Hebrew Kaballah to Tibetan Buddhism. So people can chant the vowels with no religious conflicts and still experience the benefits of chanting. With vowels in particular, you have specific harmonics that seem to effect both the physical and the etheric bodies. 7) what is special about vocal harmonics? is it related to chanting? Every sound that we make is actually a composite of sounds—a fundamental frequency and geometric multiples of that sound, called harmonics or overtones. These harmonics are whole number ratios, 1:1, 2:1, 3:2, etc. These vocal harmonics make up the “timbre” or tone color of sound and are responsible for the way our individual voices sound. They’re amazing—the geometric multiples of harmonics actually represent the waveform phenomenon of the universe—they display universal principles. Many people think they are particularly sacred and spiritual. And one can learn how to begin to isolate and enhance specific harmonics in the voice for this purpose. My book HEALING SOUNDS focuses on much of this. I’ve already mentioned Dr. Ranjie Singh’s work showing the release of melatonin with regard to certain chanting, which of course, includes harmonically related sounds. This research is extremely important and yet I believe, it is just the “tip of the iceberg”. I think we can make new neural synaptic connections in the brain with vocal harmonics. Harmonics can also improve our vocal quality, charge our brain, improve our hearing and heighten our consciousness. We can also activate the 7 chakras as well as new chakras with these sounds. Vocal harmonics are one of the major things I immediately teach in my week end
Healing Sounds Seminars, and of course, during the 9 day Healing Sounds Intensive, which occurs every year in July in Colorado. People come from throughout the planet to do this training and it’s extraordinary 9 days of toning, teaching and transformation. We learn many other aspects of sound for healing and transformation besides harmonics, including major work with various mantras. But the beginning to first then and then create vocal harmonics is truly amazing. I tell people it’s as though they’ve been wearing earplugs and we’re now going to remove them so they can first hear and then create a whole new spectrum of sound. This process truly empowers people with the ability of their own self created sounds to be used for healing. We are therefore able to enhance the sense of sound— particularly, the sense of hearing. Thus the way we perceive reality is shifted. It changes people’s lives! What a blessing! I also have an instructional recording that teaches people how to resonate their chakras with the vowel sounds and how to create vocal harmonics. It’s very important. On my website, www.healingsounds.com are some heat thermography photographs showing me chanting overtones and projecting them into my forehead. You can see almost immediately shifts and changes in the color of the photographs, which indicate changes in the organs from the chanting. 8) What's the science behind the award winning album Chakra Chants? When was this album released? Is it therapeutic? Can you give us some testimonials for the same? Having studied the various schools of sound that effected the chakras for 20 years, I finally decided to create a recording that combined the knowledge I had. I utilized many different schools, including the Bija Mantras, the Sacred Vowel Sounds, Shabda Yoga sounds and much more to create a recording that was designed to balance and align the chakras. I used a harmonically related diatonic scale so that each chakra was assigned a particular fundamental frequency going from C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The root chakra, for example was “C”, the 2nd chakra was “D” and so on. These are similar to the white keys on a piano—however, they are related to the whole number ratios created from musical harmonics and therefore, the frequencies are actually different from those on a piano. Some believe this adds to the power and effect of the recording. I have over 5,000 words in the liner notes of the album about the creation and use of the recording. It’s won many awards including the 1999 Visionary Awards for “Best HealingMeditation Album” and “Album of the Year”. I have pages and pages of testimonials from people about the healing effects of it. People use it for everything, from massage and meditation to actually trying to heal specific conditions. Yet, of course, with any healing modality or situation, I think there’s a variety of components that come into play. Among these is my belief that we are all unique vibratory beings and therefore what works for one person many not work for another. This is true in all sorts of medicines, including allopathic, where you’ve got something like penicillin, which will heal probably 80 or 90% of the people, but not everyone. I say this because I think it’s unethical to present any healing modality as being “the” way—it depends upon many things including the person receiving the modality. A couple of years ago, I got an email from a well known woman writer who related to me an experience where she said that she and her husband got into their hot tub while “Chakra Chants” was playing. She took off her glasses, soaked, got out and forgot about her glasses. She told me she didn’t need glasses after that. I find this quite amusing because I have poor eyesight and wonder why this didn’t happen to me? I have no doubt that this woman’s story was true. I have no doubt about many of the seemingly miraculous stories I’ve received from people who use my different music. But I don’t believe that everyone will receive the same sort of healing. 9). What about “The Lost Chord”? This was your follow up to “Chakra Chants” How was it different? I think out of all my albums, I’m most impressed with the extraordinary and sophisticated sonics found on “The Lost Chord”. It is so advanced! As I may have told you, I like to bring down new forms on to the planet—things that have never been done before. “Chakra Chants” for example, was an experiment—to see what would happen if a number of different sound healing systems could be combined and would work effectively together. I wanted to go further with “The Lost Chord”, combining more systems. And in fact, this recording is both a journey through the chakras, and the Kaballistic Tree of Life from the Jewish Tradition.
So, there are Hindu, Tibetan and Hebrew chants occurring simultaneously. It’s quite amazing. And instead of using the harmonically related diatonic scale I used on “Chakra Chants” (the “C”, “D”, “E”, “F”, “G”, “A”, “B” scale), we utilized the sacred ratios of the Fibonacci Series—the mathematical formula known as “phi” which defines the “golden mean” and the creation of the sacred spiral—for the chakras. So that the ratios are 1:1, 1:2, 2:3, 3:5, 5:8, 8:13. For the fundamental—we used a “B”, which is the keynote that many Tibetan Monks do their sacred rituals in. With this recording, there are 7,500 words in the liner notes to explain the creation and use of “The Lost Chord”. P eople who have achieved a certain level of spiritual awareness and activation can truly resonate with this amazing recording—I have pages of quotes from very well known teachers who “get” the recording and think it’s some of the most powerful sonic work on the planet. Some claim it’s the most potent sonic initiatory experience on the planet. It has received awards and recognition, but I think it may be a little too advanced for a lot of people. A friend of mine who owns a bookstores says he recommends it to the people who have been practicing yoga and meditation for some years. Otherwise, he usually suggests something else. Someday, I think it will be recognized as a sort of “Sgt. Peppers” of sound healing. At times there are 50 different mantric forms from different traditions in sacred ratios resonating with each other. It features chant masters from different traditions—Hindu, Tibetan and Hebrew and it really is extraordinary. We’re going to be creating a multi-media presentation at the planetarium here in Boulder using “The Lost Chord”. Combining visuals with these sounds is going to be something else. I’m very excited about this. 10) What about Om Chanting and its health benefits? Is there any research done on this? Speaking about the “Om” chant, one of my latest CDs, “ULTIMATE OM” features this sound and I’d like to talk about it. “ULTIMATE OM” was initially created after I went down to New York City to present a workshop shortly after 9/11. The fear was tangible and I realized that I needed to create a recording that would accessible to almost everyone (some of my CDs such as “THE LOST CHORD” require knowledge of mysticism and yoga in order to be thoroughly appreciated) and could be used as a tool for stress reduction and relaxation. Something that would help people release the fear and anxiety that is abundant these days. “ULTIMATE OM” was the result. It sounds like a huge temple filled with hundreds of people chanting the sacred mantra “Om” in a continuous and fluid wave of beautiful sound. This was done with dozens of tracks in the recording studio, although there are some live tracks of hundreds of people chanting as well. I wanted to combine science and spirituality again, so here we have the people chanting the “Om” at the sacred ratio of 2:3, which many believe is the most healing and balancing musical interval. This interval, which is called the perfect 5th, was said to be the tuning of the Greek God Apollo’s Lyre. It can balance the left and right hemispheres of the brain, as well as the auric field. “Om” as you know, is said to be the original, primordial tone of the universe—the original sound of creation, if you like. It’s interesting, but apparently, astrophysicists have now detected echoes of the “Big Bang” that happened at the beginning of time. And this sound they have detected is a humming sound, very much like that of the “Om”. So, here with “ULTIMATE OM”, we have the sacred mantra “Om”, which by its very nature is a mantra that can clear, balance and heal. Then, in both the studio and live recordings that we used, we had a very strong intention of creating this Om to balance and heal. Now, couple that with the psycho-acoustic effects that we included—the “Om” being sounded in the perfect 5th, and you have a very effective recording—it is quite gentle, but extremely powerful. In addition to all this, we include vocal harmonics that weave in and out of the sacred sounds at various times. These harmonics stimulates the ear, the nervous system and ultimately, the brain, so that the sound doesn’t become so repetitive to the listener that it gets ignored. The sound will blend into the background and then every so often, you’ll become aware once again that’s it’s there and you’ll notice how effective it is. It really works 11) The album Trance Tara encompasses Tibetan overtoning chanting. What is the connection between Tibetan overtoning chanting and healing of diseases? When was this album released? These are really two different questions, so I’ll answer them separately, although of course,
they are also related. . “Trance Tara” was released in the mid 1990’s, but interestingly enough, Etherean Music, who license it, just did a sort of re-release of the recording. This was because I facilitated a Tara Trance Dance (which I briefly mentioned at the beginning of this interview) at a major gathering called the International New Age Trade Show. We had about 500 people at this event—people who also happened for the most part, to be storeowners. And many of these people really had a transcendent experience. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trance Tara again began resonating in lots of different stores. Now, how I ended up doing this Tara Trance dance is also interesting. Tara, as you may know, is the Goddess of Compassion and Protection. And since the initial recording of “Trance Tara”, I have done these Trance Dances, where I teach a room full of people the mantra for Tara, and then we sing it all together. Soon, with the help of a few drummers, the room is full of dancing and chanting people. Usually, at the end of this experience—and it can go on for anywhere from a half hour to an hour or more—we sit in silence, projecting energies of healing throughout the planet. For many people it’s the first time they’ve ever been engaged in the repetitive chanting of a mantra and it’s particularly powerful when you add intention to the actual mantra. At this International New Age Trade Show, I was given the opportunity to perform. But instead of actually performing, I thought, “How about if the audience and I co-create a Tara Trance Dance experience?” Rather than people getting entertained by me, I’m really into empowering people with their own ability to use sound to co-create a powerful spiritual experience. As I said, I’ve done this particular activity of the Tara Trance Dance many times before. I remember when I did it at the Findhorn Community in Scotland, their director said to me: “I’ve never seen so many people have such a good time for so long”. It’s always a great experience and one that I believe works for both personal and planetary healing. With regard to the Tibetan “Deep Voice” Chanting, that is me doing the very low, almost growl like tone on “Trance Tara”. I write fairly extensively on this in the chapter “Tantric Harmonics of HEALING SOUNDS. The Tibetan “Deep Voice” which is a form of overtone chanting, is quite exquisite and difficult to duplicate. In 1986, monks of the Gyume Tibetan Tantric University began to tour the United States for the first time. As you may know, Tibet was initially invaded by the Chinese the 1950’s and ultimately most of the Tibetan Buddhists monks who survived, including H.H., the Dalai Lama, had to flee the country and take up residence in India. The Gyume Monks were from the oldest monastery, where the Tibetan Deep Voice is said to originate. Here is just a quick quote from the first paragraph of the “Tantric Harmonics” chapter of HEALING SOUNDS for your readers. ”One night in 1433, the Tibetan lama Je Tzong Sherab Senge awoke from a startling dream. In it he had heard a voice unlike any voice that had ever sounded on the planet. It was a low voice, unbelievably deep, sounding more like the growl of a wild bull than anything human. Combined with this first voice, there was a second. This voice was high and pure, like the sound of a child singing. These two voices, so totally different, had come from the same source and that source was Je Tzong Sherab Senge himself. In this dream, Je Tzong Sherab Senge had been instructed to take this special voice and use it for a new chanting style that would embody both the masculine and feminine aspects of divine energy. It was a tantric voice, a sound that could unite those chanting it in a web of universal consciousness. The next morning, Je Tzong Sherab Senge began to chant his daily prayers. The sounds that came out of him were the sounds he had heard in his dream — unearthly sounds, tantric sounds — and he gathered his fellow monks together to tell them of his dream”. “That year, more than 500 years ago, the Gyume Tantric Monastery began in Lhasa, Tibet. The monks of this monastery learned to chant in the same voice which Je Tzong Sherab Senge had heard in his dream. It was a voice that enabled each monk to chant three notes at the same time, creating ‘One Voice Chords’. Within that same century, another monastery in Lhasa, the Gyuto Tantric College, was founded. The monks at this fellow Tantric College also incorporated this chanting technique in their sacred rituals”. You can understand that it’s a very special voice—for many people who hear it, it’s very purifying and quite healing. There’s this incredible amount of light and energy that is transmitted during the voice. I’ve been told this by people who have heard the “Deep Voice”— either on many of my recordings or when I do interviews on the telephone, etc. I am actually one of the few Westerners who has the Deep Voice, although the number is increasing quite rapidly. After I recorded the Gyume Monks, I took a cassette of the recording home and listened to it in my meditation room. The next morning when I woke up, this
incredibly low, growl tone came from my voice. It was extraordinary. It’s said to take the Monks years to learn this, yet, I was spiritually gifted with it overnight. It’s an amazing example of what my friend Don Campbell called “Harmonic Transmission”. What’s most interesting is that while I do not actually teach this voice in most of my workshops, people now somehow receive the voice by being in my presence. And this can included both male and female workshop participants. Rather amazing. Of course, on some of my recordings such as “The Lost Chord” or “Medicine Buddha”, I utilize the gifted chanting of Lama Tashi, who happens to be the Chant Master of the Drepung Loseling Monastery, as well as a dear friend whom I sponsor. When I first met him in the early 1990’s, he was touring with the Drepung Loseling Monastery—not yet 20 years old. But we had this wonderful and deep connection. Now he’s the Principal Chant Master of the whole Monastery of 4,000 monks—he’s just an extraordinary being, full of compassion and love. He usually comes over to visit us here in Colorado and assist with the Healing Sounds Intensive during the summer. During that time, he also helps find sponsors for many monks, nuns and children. If possible, I take this time to record him and use his voice whenever possible to be able to help spread the Tibetan Buddhist energy—the dharma—the teachings. We’ve also made a recording called “Chant Masters” of us chanting together. For those interested in Lama Tashi’s work, we’re creating a website: chantmaster.org in which information about him and the Siddhartha Foundation is featured. 12) The album Sacred Gateways combines chants from six different traditions. How does the combination of these chants impact healing? When was this album released? “Sacred Gateways” was also released in the early 1990’s. It was originally subtitled “Men’s Drumming and Chanting”, since it features a large group of men doing chants from the Native American, Hindu, Tibetan, Mayan, and Hebrew/Islamic Traditions. We changed the title because so many woman and children really liked the recording and we wanted to make sure the title didn’t discourage their listening to it. While I know of stories of people using this recording for healing, it is most frequently used as an initiatory experience—with people playing certain chants during a particular initiation such as a Coming of Age or something like that. Shortly after “Sacred Gateways” I created the “Song of Saraswati”, which is now available on the CD “The Angel and the Goddess”. This is a chant to Saraswati, the Goddess of Music and Medicine—Science and Sound—from the Hindu and Tibetan Traditions. I wanted to balance the energies of the masculine oriented “Sacred Gateways” with the feminine by invoking and honoring Saraswati. It’s really quite beautiful. And of course with this recording, men seem to love it as much as women. What a blessing. 13) The album Dolphin Dreams is supposed to affect heart beat, respiration and brain waves. When was this album released? “Dolphin Dreams” may my favorite recordings because it was created for the birth of my son Joshua, who incidentally just celebrated his 14th birthday. The album was initially released in the late 1980’s as a recording to assist the birthing process. Of course, like anything else I create, it was an experiment. I wanted to create a sonic environment that would simulate an underwater birthing experience, complete with dolphins surrounding the birthing mother and baby. As you can gather, I guess I was successful, because here it is many many years later, and the recording is still being successfully used. In addition, I’ll tell you that I also created it for regular adults as well. You don’t need to be pregnant or birthing in order to appreciate it. I frequently use it when I need to relax—particularly during work. I’ll have it playing in the background and it’s great for reducing stress. In fact, when it was first reviewed by “Vogue” magazine, the critic said: “Reduce stress without valium!” Not a bad quote. The psycho-acoustic effects on “Dolphin Dreams” do indeed reduce heart beat, stress and brain wave activity, helping induce relaxation. Some people find it useful to help them sleep. We’ve got reports from nurse in neo-natal units of hospitals who use it to assist colicky babies. What a blessing. “Dolphin Dreams” incidentally, was the first commercial recording to feature the sounds of dolphins. 14) Any new projects in the future specifically related to chanting?
I’ve just released a recording called “Holy Harmony”. This is composed of two very different sounds. One sound is tuning forks cut to specific frequencies that these doctors, Joseph Puleo and Leonard Horowitz decoded from the King James version of the New Testament. The story of this is available in a book called HEALING CODES. The other sound on “Holy Harmony” is a sacred mantric chant that I received in dreamtime that is an ancient name of Jesus—it’s the Hebrew letters Yod, Hey, Shin, Vav and Hey. After my dream, I found out that indeed this mantra was extremely useful for purification and healing. I later found it verified in a number of different books—I always like physical verification and validation when I receive something in dreamtime or meditation. The same type of verification occurred when I received information about Shamael, Angel of Sacred Sound. After a meditation informing me of the presence of Shamael, whom I had never heard of, I received a book called A DICTIONARY OF ANGELS which featured information about Shamael, the Angel of Sound. A more complete version of this rather interesting story is found in the liner notes to “The Angel and The Goddess” as well as in my book SHIFTING FREQUENCIES. After I received validation about Shamael, I created a recording that would invoke and honor that energy, called “Angel of Sound” and now available on the CD, “The Angel and The Goddess”. It combines Hebrew, Tibetan and Hindu mantras. This combination of mantras from different traditions is something I really feel drawn to do. From my perspective, the sacred sounds from different spiritual paths really are aspects of the One, and therefore, they can all resonate with each other. This really feels to be true. Getting back to “Holy Harmony”, I was initially guided to create this recording on Christmas Eve. I did so, and like so many of my other recordings, it was just an experiment to see what it would sound like. As I said, I like to bring down new forms—particularly sound forms. And this was certainly one. Well, the combination of the ancient chant with these newly decoded frequencies was just extraordinary. I found it so relaxing and calming. So did other people who listened to it. I continued to work and refine it and now it’s been released. The response from people has been extraordinary—it seems to really help bring down and encode the Christ energy. Also, I had a very deep meditation recently, where I saw that the Healing Code frequencies with the YHSVH chant created a spiral of sound, that was able to encode and activate the Christ Light in the DNA. It was quite an extraordinary vision and one I believe may be correct. There’s something very important about this particular recording. We probably won’t be able to prove anything about this DNA activation—at least until the equipment is scientifically invented, but usually when I receive something this strong in meditation, it turns out to be true. Just like melatonin being released during mantric chanting, which I mentioned in the beginning of this interview. 15) There seem to be many different school of thoughts on chanting? Which is the most effective for health and healing? I believe that whichever system or school of chanting works for you is the best. Remember, “Frequency plus Intent equals Healing”, so if something resonates strongly with you, it probably will be most effective for you. If it doesn’t feel good or proper for you, it probably won’t be that effective. Some people can work with a mantra containing hundred syllable —others can work only with a mantra with one or two syllables. Perhaps they simply can’t remember more syllables. Whatever—yet, more is not necessarily better. And less is not necessarily better. It depends upon the person. And the time and place and need of the individual. And also remember that we are all unique vibratory beings, so that what works for one person may not work for another person. And we are all in a constant state of frequency shifting, so that something that may not work one day (or week, month or year), may suddenly resonate very differently with you at another time. Trust your inner wisdom and guidance. And believe and understand that sound has the ability to create profound and wonderful changes. I’m going to leave you with a story that I first heard from Dr. Randall McClellan, author of HEALING FORCES OF MUSIC. I believe it’s very old, but I like to credit Dr. McClellan, who was a great influence on me many years ago. I think this story illustrates something important about sound, and particularly about mantras. In an exotic country, there was a man who had a musical instrument that he would play all day long. The instrument had many different strings, but all he would do was pluck one string—the same string and same note over and over again and again. One day his wife said to him “Dear—you have this wonderful instrument and you sit and play it
all day long, but all you do is hit this one string over and over again and again. The instrument has many different strings. All your friends have this same instrument and they play all the different strings, making many different notes and creating wonderful melodies and songs. All you do, hour after hour, day after day, is play that same string and that same note over and over again and again. Why is that?” His wife was obviously very exasperated and confused. The man looked at his wife and gently smiled. “My dear wife who I love beyond all measure,” he said, “thank you for bringing that to my attention. And now here is the answer. That is because they are all still searching for their note, while I have found mine.” May we all find our own sound. And may we use this sound to assist personal and planetary healing. I send Blessings of Light & Love through Sound to all! Jonathan Goldman Biography Jonathan Goldman is a writer, musician and teacher. He is an internationally acknowledged authority on sound healing and a pioneer in the field of harmonics. Jonathan is the author of HEALING SOUNDS; The Power of Harmonics, SHIFTING FREQUENCIES and THE LOST CHORD and creator of numerous best selling recordings including: “Dolphin Dreams”, “The Lost Chord”, and his latest release, “Ultimate Om”. His overtone chanting is heard on Kitaro’s 2001 Grammy Award winning album. Jonathan’s best selling release “Chakra Chants” won the 1999 Visionary Awards for “Best Healing-Meditation Album” and “Album of the Year”. The director of the Sound Healers Association; a non-profit organization dedicated to education and awareness of sound and music for healing, Jonathan is president of Spirit Music, which produces music for meditation, relaxation and self-transformation. His background and approach is in both the scientific and spiritual traditions of sound healing. Jonathan holds a Master’s Degree in Sound Healing from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is a lecturing member of the International Society for Music and Medicine. He has studied with spiritual masters from many different disciplines and has been empowered by the Chant Master of the Drepung Loseling Monastery to teach Tibetan Overtone Chanting. Jonathan has written numerous articles and interview on sound healing which have appeared in many national and international publications. He has appeared on national television and radio, including Art Bell’s “Coast to Coast AM” and has been featured in “USA Today”. His annual Healing Sounds Intensive attracts participants from throughout the world. He travels throughout the world teaching Healing Sounds. Jonathan Goldman lives in the Boulder, Colorado area. http://healingsounds.com/articles/chakra-chants.asp
Chakra Chants
An Interview with Jonathan Goldman by Tae Darnell for Etherean Q: You've been involved in helping bring awareness of sound healing to the public since the early 80's. Your latest recording "CHAKRA CHANTS" just won the 1999 Visionary Awards for both "Best Healing-Meditation Album" and "Best Album of the Year". Do you think this is an indication of a trend toward greater appreciation of the use of sound as a healing modality? A: I like to think so. When I first began in this arena, there were only a handful of recordings that focused on using sound and music for healing. Nowadays, the market seems to be glutted with them. But unfortunately, many of the ones I've encountered that claim to be therapeutic, at least from my perspective, are not. Or, if they do demonstrate therapeutic possibilities, they are not very listenable. I'm extremely honored that enough people thought that "CHAKRA CHANTS" was not only a good album for healing and meditation, but that it was also a good album period. Q: What do you think is so different about "CHAKRA CHANTS"? A: Most of the recordings that I've created have been very cutting edge. "DOLPHIN DREAMS" which I made for the birth of my son Joshua many years ago, was the first
recording that ever featured dolphin sounds. I had initially wanted my son to have a dolphin assisted water birth, but when I discovered that unless we moved to the Soviet Union or New Zealand that wasn't possible. So, using my knowledge of sound, I created this energy--the morphic field, if you like-- on a recording. Such a sonic experience simply wasn't available, so I created it. The same is true about my other releases. In the early 1980's, I first began researching the relationship between sound and the chakras and the more I delved into the subject, the more overwhelmed I became. There were literally dozens of different systems of using sounds that seemed to be successful for resonating and balancing the chakras. But very few of these systems were in resonance with each other. It made for a lot of confusion for me, and also a lot of skepticism. And brought me to the realization of "Frequency+ Intent = Healing" , a very important sonic formula that first appeared in my book HEALING SOUNDS. Q: Frequency + Intent? What does that mean? A: Frequency is a way of measuring sound and for me is a metaphor for the actual physical sound itself. Intent is the energy behind the sound. It was the answer that came to me after becoming totally frustrated by seeing that few, if any, of the different systems of chakra resonance agreed with each other. It didn't make sense. Then my -inner guidance came forth with the "Frequency + Intent = Healing" formula, and suddenly, I could understand how different notes or chants or mantras could all effect the same chakra. It came from the intention of the person creating the sound. With "CHAKRA CHANTS", I actually combined a number of different systems for chakra resonance that had never been put together before. In truth, like many of my other recordings, it was an experiment. I really didn't know if the Sacred Vowel Sounds could work with the Bija Mantras or a harmonically related diatonic scale or Shabda Yoga Sounds or any of the other elements that I wanted to try. Thankfully, they did. I think that the combination of these different systems is one of the reasons why "CHAKRA CHANTS" is so effective. If one of the systems is not in resonance with a listener, there's a good chance that another is in resonance. Also, I was very conscious of the concept of intention. With my background and training, I was able to concentrate on a specific chakra I was working with and hopefully, put this intention into the sound that I was creating. Q: You mention resonance a number of times. Could you define it? A: Well, resonance is simply the natural vibrations of an object. Everything is in a state of motion. From the electrons moving around the nucleus of an atom to planets moving around stars in distant galaxies--there is movement everywhere. And if there is movement, there is vibration and there is sound. This is an ancient understanding that modern science is beginning to accept. Our body is in a state of vibration. Every organ, every bone, all our different tissues, all our different systems, like the nervous system of the circulatory system, these all create sounds. An analogy I like to use is that the human body is like this wonderful orchestra that is playing an overall harmonic of health. When we are healthy, we are in sound health. But continuing with our analogy, what happens if the second violin player in this orchestra looses their sheet music? They begin to play out of tune, out of harmony, out of rhythm. Pretty soon, the entire string section sounds bad. Soon after, the whole orchestra begins to sound off. With this analogy, this would be what we perceive of as disease! Right now traditional medicine has the approach of either feeding this string player enough drugs so they simply pass out or cutting this players head off with a surgical instrument--which works at least to get them out of the scene. But what if it were possible to give this string player back their sheet music? What if it were possible to project the correct resonant frequency back into the part of the body that is vibrating out of tune? This is the basic principle of using sound to heal. And it is one of the concepts behind the energy of "CHAKRA CHANTS". Q: How so? A: When I worked with these different systems, whenever a sound was being recorded, my intention was that not only would it resonate a particular chakra, but that it would help balance and align it. This is important because I believe that energy went into the recording and then was received by the people listening to it. I also believe that "CHAKRA CHANTS" is an interesting musical journey. While chanting a mantra in one key for an extended period of time may be effective, for most people, this type of recording becomes tedious and difficult to listen to.
I wanted to avoid this type of experience. There are over 48 different tracks-on "CHAKRA CHANTS" -most of them vocal--and while it's sometimes subtle, there's actually a lot happening in the recording. Most people find it quite an extraordinary and powerful sonic experience. Q: Getting back to my first question, do you sense a change in the field of sound and music healing since you first began nearly 20 years ago. A: Certainly. More and more people are becoming aware of the power of sound and music to heal and transform. More people are looking for music that will help put them into balance and more people are starting to consciously create music that will do this. It can, hopefully, only continue to get better and better. Q: You've worked with Tibetan Monks, Hindu Swamis and Shaman from different traditions, among others. Does any one group really have a handle on sound healing? A: I think they all do. And no one does. All different aspects of the Creator. Q: You have two non-fiction books--HEALING SOUNDS and SHIFTING FREQUENCIES. Now, you have just produced THE LOST CHORD, an adventure novel revolving around sound. Why a novel? A: Because it hadn't been done before. I like creating things that haven't been done. Way back before I got into sound healing, back before I was a professional musician, I was a writer. Wrote my first novel when I was 15. So, the energy of creative writing has been in me for a long time. Like most of the things I'm involved in lately, THE LOST CHORD was divinely inspired. Q: How so? A: I awoke from a dream. And in the dream, I was writing a novel. I didn't remember anything about the story itself, I just knew that it was a very "pop" easy to read story. And as I was awakening from the dream, I heard a voice say "Get yourself a Power Book!" I didn't have a clue what this was, but a week later, I had a fully loaded used lap top computer. And I just began to write. It was like taking dictation. Two months later THE LOST CHORD was completed. Q: THE LOST CHORD, is set in Boulder, Colorado. It's about a computer program that produce a series of frequencies which are both highly addictive and create interdimensional portals. It's told from the viewpoint of a blues guitarist named Christopher Shade. You played lead guitar in bands for many years. How real is the book and how much of Christopher Shade is you? A: The information about the power and effects of sound is real. The scientific material and the spiritual experiences in THE LOST CHORD are based upon fact. Except for the actual creation of the Lost Chord itself. Most of that information is correct as well, but I threw in a couple of total fabrications in case anyone wanted to try and create it. Q: Could you create it if you wanted? A: I wouldn't, if I could. But I can't. Although I must admit that when I lead groups of people in sacred chanting, coupling vocalization with visualization we come very close to some of the energy of the Lost Chord. And this idea of humans working with combined consciousness being able to better create the Lost Chord, is definitely in the book. So is the concept of scientific technology versus spiritual teaching and practice. There's a lot of important material about sound as a healing and transformative modality in those pages that lots of readers who may get turned off by text type books will be able to read and enjoy. Q: And are you Christopher Shade? A: Perhaps in another dimension or a parallel life or something, he may be an alter ego of mine. Because he's very real. But no, he's not me. Shade cracks me up. I think he is very funny. A total spiritual skeptic who finds himself in incredible situations that he can't get out of. And Shade keeps denying what's going on. He just wants to get back to playing guitar in a blues band. But he can't because he's going through spiritual awakening and there's no turning back. Q: Shade uses the Lost Chord and meets Shamael, the Angel of Sound. Is this being
also a total invention of yours? A: Actually, Shamael is a little known angelic entity who is regarded in some very esoteric traditions as being the "divine herald" and "master of heavenly song". He is a being I have often encountered in meditation and altered states of consciousness. But never through the Lost Chord. Q: How would you define your novel? Is it science fiction? Fantasy? Mystery? Metaphysical? A: All of the above, and hopefully more. First and foremost, it's an adventure which has within elements of science fiction, fantasy and metaphysics. And music. And sound healing. And shamanism. In truth, as I was writing the novel, I realized that there was the potential of both entertaining and educating the reader. Perhaps, also assisting in the process of enlightenment, if that is possible through books. Q: Quite a tall order. Anything else? A: I really just wanted to have fun writing THE LOST CHORD. And I figured that if I had fun writing it, maybe someone else would have fun reading it. Thus far, that seems to be the case. I've been getting wonderful response from readers who really have enjoyed it. Some are calling it "THE CELESTINE PROPHECY of Sound". We'll see. Q: Any new recording projects? A: Sure "THE LOST CHORD: The Recording". Q: Seriously? A: Well, I'm going to take some of the ideas and knowledge about psycho-acoustics that I write about in the novel and apply them to this new recording. But unlike the Lost Chord frequencies in the book, which is generated totally by computers, this will feature lots of real time human vocals and human instrumental players. It will be totally safe. And totally listenable. It'll be based on sacred ratios and feature toning and chanting and should be just a lovely experience for anyone. Perhaps also, "THE LOST CHORD: The Soundtrack to the Book", with different musical compositions to depict different episodes of the story. It's an exciting concept. We'll see what happens. There are all sorts of possibilities. You never know. Q: Thank you. http://healingsounds.com/articles/chant-sacred-sound-master.asp
Chant and Sacred Sound Master An Interview with Jonathan Goldman by Lane Badger
Four Corners: You have been deeply involved with the use of sound for the transformation of the Earth, and for personal transformation for years. What is the power of sound? Jonathan: What isn't the power of sound? The power of sound can encompass so many things from working on resonating and changing vibratory rates in the physical body- in the brain, the nervous system, the cellular structure and the molecular structure- the DNA encoding--that type of thing--to working with the chakras, and changing the vibratory rate of the subtle bodies. I 'm also interested in the creation of what I call interdimensional fields of sound .called merkabahs or the light vehicles. A merkabah is an interdimensional field which you can travel through, or bring energy forms in or out of. There are many different ways of doing this- not just one. Four Corners: How do you create a merkabah? Jonathan: Well, in my second level of my workshop I teach and actually do create what I call an interdimensional field using sound. We couple the sound with a specific harmonic so there is a particular vibratory sonic ratio as well as specific colors and a specific geometric form. You can feel it while we 're creating this actual field You can put your hands around it. And then, we usually either raise it up or sink it down into the Earth. They are like diamonds---etheric diamonds.
Four Corners: Are you talking about a conscious implantation of a sound energy field in a particular area ? Jonathan: Totally...the Tibetan monks work with these mandalic forms which are interdimensional fields created when the monks visualize specific sacred forms. And they 're real. No question about it! If you've ever seen the monks chanting and have sensitivity you realize that there are these beings that come down and through these geometric forms and fields. Actually, you 're able to go through a portal that has been specially created I think that the aboriginal people with didgeridoos are able do this too. There are a lot of different traditions that work along these lines. Four Corners: Where do these portals lead? Jonathan: Anywhere you want them to. There are lots of different planes or dimensionscountless ones. And one might go to where your intentionality has guided you go. I 'm very, very specific about what the field is and what its purpose is because I do not want to bringing in or out any energy forms that are not for the highest good of everybody. So you've got to be kind of cautious with this stuff. I consult inwardly as well as outwardly. Four Corners: What effect does working with sound have on the brain? Jonathan: I 'd like to just speculate that the brain indeed is really a transmitting and receiving device. Just perhaps, the mind is not located in the brain. Okay? Perhaps the brain is really a transmitting and receiving device that we can tune and open to different types of circuitry. One of my major interests in working with sound is to be able to retune the brain by creating and activating different portions of the brain. With respect to this, dolphins are here to teach us new paradigms about the brain and a new myths. I don 't think a lot of people are aware of the new. I 'm not sure that I am either, but I think our children will be creating the new . For example, when my son was born there weren't too many paradigms that I could lock into in terms of being a father, in terms of being willing to, not only co-parent, but manifest the Divine Mother through the male energy I think that this is possible because one aspect of Tantric is to embody both the male and female aspects. In my Tara recording, I work with the tantric aspect of Tara ,both undertones and overtones, for the embodiment of the divine female and the divine male in the Goddess .. My latest recording is called Trance Tara. It is an invocation and an evocation to Tara, the Tibetan goddess of compassion and protection. It works with the energies of the White Tara and the Green Tara and in specific with the energies of the White Tara of the Autumn Moon, who is the healer of infectious diseases. It features Tibetan overtoning chanting, which is that [makes sound] growl sound, male and female mantra choral voices chanting "Om Tara tu Tara tum," Tibetan bowls and bells and tamboura and just extraordinary tribal drumming It 's designed for both movement and meditation because I wanted to create something extraordinary. Four Corners: What is trance dancing? Jonathan: People are now beginning to combine movement and music for frequency shifting. I 'm usually one of the musicians who are playing around when the people are moving. We having a Tara Trance Dance in Sedona on January 10, 1997. Four Corners: What are your highest ideals for your work in sound? Jonathan: I have this this vision that everything in the universe is vibration, including our emotions, and the energy of love. We will discover the frequency of love and that it will be recordable. We'll be able to put this frequency within our instruments. It will be pouring out of every juke box and every radio station in the world. And it will just change the vibrational fields of people, make everybody wake up. You know it 's a dream I have. It 's a nice one. Four Corners: It 's a good dream. I mean if you 're going to dream of something that 's real exciting. http://healingsounds.com/articles/newfrontiers-sound-healing.asp
How can sound, in whatever manifestation, assist in healing and human transformation?
by Jonathan Goldman 1. HOW CAN SOUND, IN WHATEVER MANIFESTATION, ASSIST IN HEALING AND HUMAN TRANSFORMATION?
This is an extraordinarily vast question, because sound has almost unlimited abilities to assist in healing and human transformation. Sound can affect us on the physical, the emotional, the mental and the spiritual. On the physical, sound has the ability to rearrange molecular structure. This is a scientific fact. As we know, everything in the universe is in a state of vibration, from the chair you may be sitting in to the pages of this magazine. All the various parts of our body are also in a state of vibration, from the various organs, tissues, bones, etc. When we are in a state of health, all these bodily parts are working together in harmony, creating an overall harmonic of health. If one of these parts begins to vibrate at a different rate, this is what we call disease. One of the basic concepts of healing with sound on the physical body is to project the correct resonant frequency of the organ, or whatever is out of balance, back into the body. On the emotional and mental bodies, music is very effective. In particular, music affects the limbic system, that aspect of the brain which governs emotional response. Through using specific music (specific for the individual), we can help elicit certain emotional responses that may be very therapeutic and transformative in their nature. For the spiritual body, both sound and music can be equally effective. In particular, I believe that self-created sounds such as mantras, vowel sounds and harmonics are most powerful, though of course, listening to either recorded or live music or chanting can also be very effective. Naturally, since we now know of the inter-relationship between the mind and the body, that which affects the emotional or mental will also effect the physical and vice-versa. This includes the spiritual body as well, of course.
2. CAN YOU GIVE US SOME EXAMPLES? For working with the physical body, we are dealing with the concept of resonant frequency healing--that is, projecting the correct resonant frequency of an imbalanced area back into the body--in order to affect a healing. This can be done through various external instruments or it can be done using what I consider to be the most natural and effective tool on the planet--our own voices. There are a number of different people who are working with different electronic or acoustic technologies to achieve this. I have been researching this area of sound healing for quite a while and one of the interesting paradoxes is that the different people working with finding the correct resonant frequency of, say the heart or the liver, will all seemingly have great success with their frequencies. And yet, these frequencies will all differ. When I first encountered this paradox, I was mystified. I couldn't understand it. This also seemed to hold true for the frequencies for the different chakras, as well as mantras for different chakras. Then, I came up with this formula, which is stated in my book “HEALING SOUNDS”. It is this: FREQUENCY + INTENT = HEALING. What this means is that the energy that occurs when a sound is created (the "intent") is of equal importance to the actual sound (the "frequency") that is used. Intent is the energy behind the sound and it is something that should be considered whenever we make a sound, particularly a sound for healing or transformation. In my Healing Sounds Seminars, I teach students how to learn to resonate their physical body and their chakras with their own self-created sounds. This is fairly simple to learn to do and very powerful. Exercises for how to do this are found in my book HEALING SOUNDS and in the "Healing Sounds" Instructional tape. What is most interesting, is that these sounds may change from day to day, particularly the sounds for the chakras. I teach a method working for with the vowel sounds to resonate the chakras which is very effective. Often, my students will verify that while the vowel sounds seem to stay the same, the pitches for these vowel sounds will change, depending upon what state or condition they are in.
I also teach how to create and use harmonics, which are sounds within sounds, in order to resonate the brain. It is my belief that we will find out in the very near future, that self-created sounds may be the only way we can actually stimulate different parts of the brain through mechanical resonance. Now, there are various technologies that are being offered in which sound travels through the ear into the brain in order to affect the brain. But this is a different phenomenon--what I'm talking about is a direct resonance of the brain using our own sounds. I believe it is possible to make new neural-synaptic connections in the brain with sound. And that it is possible to stimulate the various glands such as the pituitary and pineal with these sounds. I'd like to suggest that the brain may be just a transmitter and receiver of different frequencies. The brain may be thought of as a kind of radio that can be tuned to different signals. If we can learn to tune the brain to different frequencies using sound, we can open up to many different aspects of consciousness and energy. As I mentioned before, music seems to work best on the emotional and mental. However, music does also affect us physically. An quick example of this is that our heart beat, respiration and brain waves all entrain, or synchronize with different rhythms. Slow music tends to slow down our heart rate respiration and brain waves. Fast music has the opposite effect, tending to speed us up. This little bit of information can be very effectively used by your readers, who no doubt intuitively understand this but may have never given it much conscious thought. If you want to speed up your heart rate, respiration and brain waves for activities such as movement or even staying awake, then fast paced music is your best bet. But if you want to relax, usually, it's the slower music that works best. One of my recordings, "Dolphin Dreams" was created initially for the birthing process and features the sounds of ocean, heart beat, choral voices and dolphins. It contains a lot of frequencies designed to help slow down our body and brain rhythms is also ideal for relaxation and sleep. I wouldn't personally use it if I were jogging or doing some sort of activity that required stimulation. I know of one very famous artist who uses it for painting and others who use it for enhanced creativity. But this is different than physical stimulation. On an emotional level, we all have different tastes in music. I think there is about a 60% agreement in the way people respond to different music's. Everyone is different and has different tastes. One piece of music may bring a person to states of euphoria while the same piece of music might depress someone else. So in terms of music affecting our emotional states, it really depends on what we like and don't like. If we could take a sort of musical Rx for ourselves and write down what particular pieces of music created specific emotional states for ourselves, we could use these different pieces of music to help elicit different emotional states. If we were depressed and knew of a certain musical selection that made us feel joyous, playing that music would be helpful in changing our emotional state. Obviously, then, depending upon the time, place and need of the individual, what music works best to elicit different emotional and mental states depends upon the person. In terms of affecting our spiritual states, I have seen incredible experiences occur with my students through working with specific mantras, as well as working with vowel sounds and harmonics. In my book HEALING SOUNDS, there is another formula which I would like to share. It is this: VOCALIZATION + VISUALIZATION = MANIFESTATION. This formula seems to be found in the spiritual sound work of most of the great mystical traditions of the world. One chants a mantra, for example, "Om Mani Padme Hum", an ancient Tibetan Mantra, while visualizing becoming the Buddha of Divine Compassion, for whom this mantra is specifically designed. In my workshops, after chanting this mantra for twenty-five minutes, you can actually feel the presence of this Buddha. People have mystical visions and many other extraordinary and transformative experiences. Chanting in group creates a group consciousness that is synergistic, with the whole being greater then the sum of the parts. It is amazing! Listening to certain types of music can also help elicit these spiritual states, though perhaps not as effectively as actually chanting in a group which has a focused intention. My latest recording "Song of Saraswati" is an extended chant to Saraswati, the Hindu and
Tibetan Mother Goddess of Music and Science. Many people are able to achieve not only deep relaxation when listening to this recording, but to travel on the sound and achieve higher levels of consciousness. I give thanks. It is my belief that we are all unique vibratory beings and because of this, one sound or one type of music will effect one person in one way and effect another person in a very different way. So that if we can begin to become aware of the effects of music, and in particular, our own selfcreated sounds, we can really begin to use sound and music to affect us on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level. I believe that not only are we unique vibratory beings, I believe that we can learn to shift our frequencies--that is to change our vibratory level. I think that really, this is the key to healing and transformation--being able to shift frequencies. We are living in extraordinary times. There are frequency shifts occurring on both personal and planetary levels. We can learn to use our own sounds to consciously affect our own vibratory patterns and align with these energies for health and transformation.
3. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BREAKTHROUGHS IN SOUND TECHNOLOGY? Edgar Cayce, the "Sleeping Prophet", predicted that sound would be the medicine of the future. And the future is now. There are many amazing tools now being developed and appearing in the marketplace which use sound to affect our brain waves, our physical body--all sorts of different things. There are so many different instruments beginning to appear that I am hesitant to start naming them. Perhaps it would be best just to credit a few of the early pioneers such as Dr. Peter Guy Manners, M.D., who invented the "Cymatic Instrument", which uses direct application of specifically tabulated sound frequencies on the body for healing, Robert Monroe, whose "Hemi-Sync" showed that it was possible to synchronize the left and right hemispheres of the brain, affect brain wave activity and induce altered states of consciousness using sound and Dr. Alfred Tomatis, M.D., whose "Electronic Ear" has been proven very effective for working with all sorts of learning disabilities and for emotional imbalances as well. I would just like to conclude by saying that while I believe that all the instrumentation that is coming forth is quite extraordinary, it is important to remember that we have within ourselves that most amazing and god given instrument of sound for healing and transformation. That instrument is our voice. It is natural, cost effective and does not require batteries or electricity. And perhaps most important, once you get into using your voice for frequency shifting--for healing and transformation--you'll find it will give you a lifetime of joy. What more could you want? http://healingsounds.com/articles/power-harmonics.asp
Power of Harmonics & Chanting An Interview with Jonathan Goldman by Sita Murti SM: Sound seems to be anew and upcoming approach to healing. Can you tell us about it? JSG: In the last decade, there has been increasing awareness of the uses of sound and music as therapeutic modalities. I've attended and lectured at newly formed societies that are focused on merging science and the arts, particularly music. However, this use of sound and music to heal and transform actually dates back thousands of years, perhaps to the first uses of music itself. In the ancient Mystery School of Egypt, Athens and Rome, for example, sound was understood to be the fundamental creative force of the universe. You find knowledge of this in the sacred texts of different traditions. For example, in the book of Genesis, it is written: "And the Lord said: 'Let there be light'" and in the Gospel according to St. John, is the statement: "In the Beginning was the word"- the creation of the universe occurring through sound. This may seem
like mythic fancies of a primitive culture until you see the "Cymatics" works of Dr. Hans Jenny, M.D. SM: Jenny was a medical doctor and scientist who experimented with observing the effects of sound upon shape and form, wasn't he? JSG: Yes, Jenny spent year photographing different substances such as plastics, liquids and pastes that were exposed to different sound frequencies. His photographs are quite extraordinary, showing quite organic and geometric looking forms that were created solely through the power of sound vibrations. One look at these pictures and you begin to realize that perhaps the ancients were quite advanced in their thinking because Jenny's experiments show proof that sound creates form. The ancient mystics such as Pythagoras believed that everything was in a state of vibration and this vibration could be perceived and understood as audible sound waves. SM: That seems very much in alignment with modern scientists. JSG: It is. The concept of healing with sound follows this thought. Every organ, bone, tissue and other part of the body is believed to give off frequency. When we are in a state of perfect health, we are like this wonderful orchestra that is performing a piece that is a "Suite of the Self." However, if some portion of the body becomes out of alignment and begins to vibrate differently, this is perceived as a disease. If we continue our analogy, it is as though the third violinist has lost their sheet music and is playing out of harmony and out of rhythm. If we were somehow able to find the proper vibratory resonance, and cause that which was vibrating out of alignment to begin to vibrate to its correct frequency, a state of health could be restored. It would be like giving our violin player back their music. SM: And sound can do this? JSG: That is the primary focus of many scientists working in this area. It also seems to be an explanation for many of the ancient traditions that have used sound for healing and transformation - particularly those traditions that used mantras, chants, and tonal frequencies. The scientists seem to be more interested in working with machinery that can do this. I am most fascinated with the use of our own very organic and natural sound instrument the human voice - as a vehicle for healing and self-transformation. SM: Your book, Healing Sounds: The Power Of Harmonics focuses on sound healing, but it explores a fascinating aspect of the human voice, the ability to create two or more notes simultaneously. JSG: Yes, this is called "vocal Harmonics" or "multiple overtones." It is a very powerful and ancient esoteric technique that has been employed in various shamanic and spiritual traditions, including Mongolian shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism. It also has been used in various magical schools that probably date back to ancient Egypt, if not before. SM: What exactly are harmonics? JSG: Harmonics, or overtones, are a phenomenon of sound that occurs whenever sound is created. All sounds that are produced are not single tones, but mixtures of pure tone frequencies or harmonics. There is a fundamental tone as well as overtones which make up the spectrum of sound. These harmonics are geometric multiples of the fundamental, meaning that if the fundamental frequency is 100 cycles per second, and the next overtone vibrates twice as fast, at 200 cycles per second, and the next overtone vibrates 3 times as fast, at 300 cycles per second and so on. Harmonics are responsible for the tone color or the timbre of different instruments and our voices. Just as you can hold a prism to white light and refract the different colors of the rainbow, it is possible to learn how to use your voice to break up these harmonics into specific sound frequencies. SM: Your book examines the use of harmonics in shamanic and spiritual traditions, as well as in their application in scientific and medical arenas. What is so special about these "vocal harmonics"? JSG: From a spiritual aspect, harmonics may resonate different etheric centers and subtle bodies and fields and invoke specific deities and energy forms. From a more scientific and physiological viewpoint, harmonics seem to be frequencies that affect the nervous system and the brain. As Dr. Alfred Tomatis, M.D., indicates, high frequency sounds may actually charge the brain. They are extraordinary tools for relaxation and may hold a major key to the use of sound for
healing and transformation. SM: Healing Sounds also has a number of chapters which give instructions to readers on how to create vocal harmonics and use them for healing and meditation. Can readers actually learn this material from a book? JSG: Yes, there's no doubt about that. I've also created a tape to accompany the book which is helpful to those who actually want to hear examples of the material described, though it certainly is not necessary. And of course, I teach workshops on vocal harmonics focusing on Mongolian "Hoomi" style of double voice singing, and have recently begun to teach sacred Tibetan Overtone Chanting. But the exercises and techniques in the book were designed to work on their own and enable readers to gain the ability to create vocal harmonics themselves. These exercises are easy to follow and safe to use. And they are also a great deal of fun. SM: Besides Healing Sounds, you have a new recording called Gateways: Men's Drumming and Chanting that has been very well received. Are there vocal harmonics on this recording? JSG: Yes, there are examples of vocal harmonics on this recording, but Gateway's was not specifically designed for that purpose. Gateways was created as a sonic environment to be used for sacred rituals for men, and contains chants from six different traditions, including Hindu, Tibetan, Native American, Mayan, Hebrew, and Islamic. Interestingly enough, women and children seem to like it as well. Before Gateway's I created Dolphin Dreams, which was designed as a sonic environment for birth and features the sound of the ocean, heart beat, choral voices and dolphins. Dolphin Dreams is an excellent example of sonic entertainment the ability of sound to affect our heart beat, respiration and brain waves. There are frequencies on this recording which I am convinced have therapeutic effects, including an Om sound that is phased at 7.8 cycles per second, the Schumann resonance, a heart beat pulsed at about 48 beats per minute, choral voices singing wordless melody that incorporates the "Ur" (primordial) song, and of course the sounds of dolphins. While women have utilized this for the birthing experience, some of its biggest fans are men. But getting back to your question about "vocal Harmonics" on Gateways, as I said there are a number of different pieces on there that employ conscious creation of harmonics, including "Om Mani Padme Hum," which utilizes the Tibetan "Deep Voice" and Kodosh / Allahu," a combined Hebrew and Islamic chant that utilizes some "Hoomi" or Mongolian overtone chanting styles. However, it is not the focus of this recording, which was to utilize chants and drumming that could be immediately learned through listening to Gateways. I felt that such a recording would benefit and accelerate transformational work in men's groups and reports thus far indicate that this is true. I believe it is very important for men to be in an environment of cooperation, not competition. And this seems to happen when men drum and chant together. You can't compete and make sound together. It just doesn't work. You can observe the same thing happening in any musical situation. If you've got a band whose members are competing with each other, the music falls apart. This is particularly true of drumming and chanting together in groups. There can be very positive and beneficial results. Feelings of camaraderie and friendship. And of course, getting in touch with that aspect of our essence that is connected with the Divine. It makes you feel positive and worthwhile and really improves self-esteem. You no longer feel isolated and alone. Suddenly that connection with yourself and others can become apparent. It can be quite a mystical and beneficial experience. SM: Are the beneficial results from "vocal Harmonics"? JSG: On a purely physiological level, harmonics can be an extraordinary tool for enhanced meditation and relaxation, which naturally helps reduce stress, one of the primary causes of imbalances and disease. The therapeutic affects of relaxation and meditation include lowered heart rate, respiration, and brain wave activity, which seems to alleviate many different medical problems including heart disease, stroke and imbalances of the immunological system response. On a subtler level, when we learn about harmonics and consciously gain the ability to hear them and create them, we open to a whole new level of sound. We can resonate portions of the body and perhaps the brain that have never been stimulated in the matter before. We make new connections in ourselves, to ourselves, and to others.
As I mentioned before, Dr. Tomatis believes that high frequency sounds charge and energize the brain. Along with this, it may be possible that vocal harmonics actually vibrate portions of the brain and may create new neurological connections. What an exciting concept! It may be that the ancient traditions that have utilized harmonics as transformational tools for countless centuries actually had an intuitive understanding of this and we are just now beginning to explore these concepts in the light of science. I am particularly fascinated with this possibility of resonating the brain with harmonics. I know of people who are doing this work now with some interesting results, but this is all anecdotal information. I hope that some day soon we may be able to verify this phenomenon. There are so many extraordinary implications in the field of health and education if this work with harmonics and the brain does become validated. On an even more esoteric level, I believe that there are many different vibrational changes on this planet. Things seem to be speeding up and sometimes it's quite hard to catch up with this quickening without becoming really imbalanced. Through sound and particularly harmonics, we can learn to operate effectively at higher vibrational levels. This may take the form of enhanced meditation, new neurological connections and processes, physical resonance or something else all together - the changing of our vibratory fields. I believe that as we progress in our knowledge of science and spirituality we may find that this concept of changing our vibrational rates is the key to transformation. Keeping up with shifts in the personal and planetary vibrations will become more and more important and necessary for our well-being in these times. And sound, particularly harmonics, may be the most effective tool we have yet to find for this process.
http://healingsounds.com/articles/spectrum1.asp
Spectrum Interview
An Interview with Jonathan Goldman Interviewed by Rick Martin Rick Martin: There may be some confusion in the minds of our readers about the subject of sound healing. I’ve been asked, “What do you do?” Do you just sit there and listen? Do you have to focus on something specific? Do you have to meditate? Do you have to close your eyes? How does it work? How do you use this? What are the “technical steps” that the person experiencing sound healing must be aware of? Jonathan Goldman: I think before we begin to explore the arena of “What I do”, it’s first necessary to have an understanding of “What sound does”, i.e., the basic principles of using sound as a healing and frequency shifting modality. The basic principle of sound healing begins with the understanding that everything in the universe is in a state of vibration, from the chair you may be sitting in to the pages of this newspaper. The ancients understood this and now, of course, scientists are validating this. Everything is in a state of vibration, from electrons moving around the nucleus of an atom, to planets moving around stars in distant galaxies. And if it’s in a state of vibration, it’s creating sound. Now, this vibrational essence of the universe includes of course, the parts of the human body. Every organ, bone, tissue, etc. is in a state of vibration and therefore putting out a frequency. When we are in a state of health, we call this “sound” health. Everything is vibrating at its natural healthy “resonant” frequency.
But what happens if some part of the body begins to vibrate at another frequency. It begins to vibrate out of harmony with the body, out of balance with itself. This is what we call “disease”. Sound, incidentally, is a waveform. One way of measuring this waveform is how many vibrations, or waves, the sound is creating per second. This is called its frequency. Very low sounds travel very slowly. Very high sounds travel quickly. The lowest note on a piano is about 40 cycles per second (also called hertz). The highest note on a piano is about 4000 cycles per second. Now, we hear from about 16 hz. to around 16,000 hz. (more when you’re younger). I would like you and your readers to contemplate that sound, however, is much more than what falls within the audible spectrum. Dolphins, for example, can receive and project information (actually being able to project holographic thoughtforms on their sonics) at around 180,000 hz. This is more than 10 times the level that we human can even hear. However, while we might not perceive these dolphin frequencies as sound, I’m sure our friends in the ocean certainly do. So, it’s really important to think of all vibrations as being sound—not merely those that fall within the audible bandwidth of human’s hearing. Getting back to the idea of healing with sound—think of the body as this incredible orchestra that is playing this wonderful “Symphony of the Self”. When we are in a state of “Sound Health”, all our sonics are working together in perfect harmony and we are this wonderful orchestra creating an overall harmonic of health. But what happens if the 2nd violin player looses their sheet music. Pretty soon the string section sounds off. Soon after, the entire orchestra will begin to sound poorly. This is a metaphor for what we call disease. I come from a family of doctors—my grandfather, father and brother all MD’s. And I have the greatest respect for allopathic medicine for treatment of certain conditions. However, traditional medicine at this point in its development, has the approach when dealing with the string player of our orchestra who has lost the sheet music, of either giving this player enough drugs so they simply pass out, or cutting their head off with a broadsword, so they no longer play the wrong notes. Now, while this certainly alleviates the problem, you do have a bit of a void created by the absence of the missing violin player. What if you could somehow give this player back their music? What if you could somehow project the correct resonant frequencies to that part of the body, which was vibrating out of harmony, out of tune? This would conceptually create a curative response. This is one of the basic principles of using sound for healing. Now, I’ve been in this field for over 20 years, and I spent about 10 of those years chasing after the “magic frequencies”—the ones that seem to promote healing or create transformational experiences. And it’s interesting—when I spent those first 10 years collecting frequencies, I noticed something very unusual. There would be people claiming extraordinary effects and successes from the frequencies they were using. And personally, I believed their research and reports. But what was most unusual is that none of the frequencies matched. You’d have different scientists and researchers using different frequencies and some of them would be healing the same imbalance. With different sounds. It all became very confusing to me. How, I wondered, could it be possible that different frequencies would heal the same ailments? The same thing would be true with mantra chanting—where one guru would have his disciples chant a particular mantra for say the “crown” chakra and another guru have his disciples chant the same mantra for the “heart” chakra. And the devotees would have the resonance and effect in that chakra. What was going on? Same sounds affecting different areas? Different sounds affecting the same area? It didn’t make sense. Then in meditation about 10 year ago, I received the guidance that there was another aspect of the phenomenon of sound healing and it was this: intent. Intent is the energy behind the sound. As my friend Steven Halpern says “Sound is a carrier wave of consciousness” and the intent is the consciousness of energy of the sound. So, I created a formula, which I still think is one of the more important things I’ve brought down
to the planet. It was first described in my book, HEALING SOUNDS. The formula is this: FREQUENCY + INTENT = HEALING. This means that the energy behind the sound being created is as important as the actual sound. In other words, you could make one sound and put in two different intentions and you would have two different effects. Or you could have two different sounds with a very similar intention and you might be a very similar effect. Now, I have observed this over and over again since that time and I think it’s really quite important. Particularly with regard to music and with the use of the human voice. Intent or Intention or Intentionality—what ever you want to call it, seems to really be making itself known in the subtle energy medicine field, where they are practically demonstrating the importance of intent. It’s my belief that this formula FREQUENCY + INTENT = HEALING, is at this point in our development, a formula, with all parts being of equal importance. I say this, because I believe as we continue our acceleration of consciousness and evolution into what may be called higher dimensionalities, the importance of INTENT will grow and grow, while the importance of the actual frequency will become less and less important. From, say a 5th dimensional viewpoint, we may find that INTENT is 80 or 90 percent and FREQUENCY is 10 or 20 percent. As some mystics have said: “All is consciousness”. And therefore, INTENT is a major aspect of consciousness. So the more we evolve, the more our consciousness interacting with the sound will be the determining factor for the effects of the sound. However, for those of us still operating on a 3rd dimensional consciousness, (and in truth, almost everyone I know still has resonance there), it’s really important to pay attention to the frequency of the sound. To begin to understand the “psycho-acoustic” effects of the sound— that is the effect of sound upon the mind/body. My intent might be to calm you down, but if I come up to you and shout in your ear, the odds are that on a purely physiological basis, the loud shout will cause you to react in a negative and possibly even violent manner. The sound would cause the fight or flight release in your body— your heart beat, respiration and brainwaves would speed up, your nervous system would tense up. You’d definitely pull away from the sound, and probably push me away at the same time. Now, because of the psycho-acoustic effect of the situation, this is a natural response to loud sounds—the fight or flight response. And I think that in most cases, regardless of my intent, you would have the same reaction. So it’s very important for us to become aware of the psycho-acoustic effects of a sound, as well as the intentions that we want to put on the sound. I believe there are probably saints and other extraordinary beings on this planet who can probably belch or make any sound and create any response that they want. But I think for most of us, until we can levitate, walk through walls, that sort of thing, it’s important to pay attention to the frequency—to the actual sound being created. I believe that we’re going to find the aspect of intent to be of great significance as our consciousness continues to expand and evolve. I remember several years ago, a friend of mine who is a well know medical doctor did an experiment with a well known scientific researcher. Putting it simply, the doctor put his hands over petri dishes with bacteria in it. Over one dish he projected the thought “grow”. Over the second dish he projected the thought “stay the same” and over the third dish he thought “shrink”. And that’s exactly what occurred. Now, the frequency, which was the energy from his hands, whether you want to call it Reiki or therapeutic touch or whatever, was basically the same. It was his intent that differed. And he was able with his intent to affect the outcome of the experiment. I think this is just one example of the power of our thoughts—our consciousness. And we are going to see more and more people becoming aware of this. How we basically cocreate reality. It’s an exciting concept and one which may change the very way that we interface with the world. With all this said, I would like to suggest that the importance of frequency in terms of influence and effect on 3rd dimensional reality can not be overstated. It is extremely important. We live on the physical plane and this plane is certainly influenced by specific resonant frequencies. There’s no doubt about that.
Many years ago, this wonderful Swiss doctor named Dr. Hans Jenny did these experiments, which he called “Cymatics” which is Greek for waveform (since sound travels as a wave). He took plastics, pastes, liquids, etc. and put them on a metal plate that he resonated with sound. These different substances would vibrate with the sound and create the most extraordinary shapes. Sometimes these inorganic substances would look like underwater lifeforms, or some microscopic organism. It’s quite extraordinary and makes you understand about the power of “The Word” that the ancients always talk about—that original creative sound. Now, Jenny found that even slight variances in the frequencies that he was using would create differences in the shapes and forms and these substances. The actual frequencies are very important. The more precise and exact these frequencies are, the more precise and exact their effect will be. The statement about every organ, bone, tissue, etc. being in a state of resonance is correct. And the idea of disease being an out of tunement of these parts is also correct. The question remains about how to find the exact resonance of an out of tune part of the body. Another question is whether this part of the body is resonating to one frequency or a series of frequencies. I know some scientists who are working with a composite of three different frequencies to effect a certain part of the body, or to effect an imbalance. I know of another scientist who utilizes five different frequencies to create this same effect. What’s very interesting about these composite frequencies, is that they are not very musical at all. In fact, when you listen to them, they’re kind of harsh sounding and really unpleasant. That is because they are frequencies meant to be encoded into the body and not necessarily listened to with our ears. There’s a big difference. So this idea of using resonant frequencies for healing is very real and very true. And from a truly 3rd dimensional approach, these frequencies must be really exact. And if you think of the extraordinary bandwidth of just the audible frequencies, you’ll see how difficult this could be. I know of one doctor, who was working with sound to reduce pain and he claimed to have found the right frequency that would do this. But it had to be accurate to a 1/10th of a cycle per second in order to work. That’s pretty precise. And it came about through trial and error, which is certainly one way of determining frequency response. There are other ways too—you can use pendulums, kinesiology, psychotronic devices, scientific devices, pure observation or what not. You can use yourself or someone else as a guinea pig and then keep trying with different frequencies until you come up with the one that works for the situation you’re dealing with. And of course, you hope then, that your resonance matches everyone else so you can effectively use what you’ve discovered on someone else. So you can see, it’s very complicated. I had at one time hoped that everyone who was doing this type of work would effectively pool their information. You find the frequencies of Dr. X and then you compare them with those of Dr. Y and Dr. Z and maybe you won’t have to reinvent the wheel and you’ve got something that really works. But I don’t think that will happen. At least, not right now. Rick Martin: Why not? Jonathan Goldman: I remember about 15 years ago when I was at a MusicMedicine Conference and I met a doctor from another country who was working on this chair that projected sound into the body. I think he was using it for treatment of arthritis or something. I knew a lot about sound at that point and I knew a lot about other people’s work with frequencies as well. I asked him what frequencies he was using and he became very silent. “I can not tell you” he replied. “There is too much money in it for the person who discovers the correct frequency”. I imagine that attitude is pretty prevalent in certain of the communities that are working with sound and trying to discover the “magical frequency”. The effects of greed are pretty interesting, but I’ll discuss that later. I’ll also discuss some aspects of the potential healing that can be created through sound later. But for right now, I’d just like to say that from my perspective, extraordinary healing can result
from sounds that are not particularly precise if the person using the sound is able to operate from a higher dimensional level. The more one is able to encode intention onto the sound, the more effective I think the sound will be. Particularly if you are anywhere in the ballpark near where the natural resonance of what is needed is occurring. Spirit gives us a lot of grace, especially when you’re working with sacred sound. But most people, particularly scientists who are researching frequencies don’t know this, and won’t accept it. It goes outside their realm of belief. So it doesn’t occur. And they’re still searching for the “magical frequency” and maybe, just maybe they wouldn’t have to look so hard, if they could try to view things from a higher level of consciousness. Rick Martin: Would you discuss the role of music and harmonics in stress reduction? Jonathan Goldman: This brings us to the topic of psycho-acoustic—the effects of sound and music upon the body and the brain. It also brings us to another topic, which is the uniqueness of the individual. Both of these topics interface with the concept of music and harmonics for stress reduction. I’d first like to create a very simple delineation between sound and music. This is just a definition I’m using and not necessarily how other people define them. I like to think of sound as being basically single tones (with their associated harmonics), that don’t really change much with the elements that are defined as musical—that is rhythm, harmony, melody, etc. For example, a chant that is on one note, perhaps a long extended “Om” would be considered a sound. But if you add the other elements like rhythm, harmony or melody, and your “Om” changed pitch so it became a melody—a song—well then it would become music. I’ve came up with this delineation simply because with many of the recordings that I’ve created, I define them as sounds so that people won’t listen to them with the expectation of walking away humming a melody. My recording “DOLPHIN DREAMS” is a good example of this. It was initially created for the birth experience. “DOLPHIN DREAMS” consists of ocean sounds, heart beat, choral voices and dolphins sounds all layered and textured together. I call it a “sonic environment” because it creates a field of sound attempting to emulate the energy inherent in a dolphin assisted water birth. It’s beautiful to listen to and sooths practically every person who listens to it. But I would not necessarily call it music. “DOLPHIN DREAMS” has become one of the more popular recordings for the birthing process as well as for use with newborns, infants and children. It is also used extensively for the reduction of stress and is one of the most relaxing recordings I know of. Interestingly enough, recently two college professors wrote a college textbook on listening and included a chapter on “DOLPHIN DREAMS”. Because the way the sonics are constructed, it really stimulates the ear and brain with many different sounds and is quite a listening experience. But the authors of this textbook suggest to the reader that the recording does not fit into the category of music as people normally perceive of music. I agree. This would be why listening to fast music might at first seem soothing to someone who is stressed. Because the music is matching their nervous system. Listening to slow music might at first make them feel even more stressed. Because there’s such a contradiction in terms of vibrational rates. I think that gradually going from fast to slow music would be the ideal key in this type of situation. I need to say at this point, that it’s my belief that we are all unique, vibratory beings and that what works sonically for one person may not work for another. We all know that not everyone likes the same sort of music. In the same way, not everyone responds to the same type of music the same way. I guess if we did, it would be a very boring world. In terms of using music for stress reduction and relaxation, it’s important for us to honor our personal responses to music. Just because someone says that listening to Mozart or Bach is the best for this or that situation, does not mean it’s true for you. We need to be able to create a kind of “sonic Rx” for ourselves and realize what types of music we like to use for certain situations. And then begin to use that music for those situations.
Maybe listening to a sad love song is the thing that can bring you out of a mild depression. Or maybe it’s listening to Gershwin or the Beatles or Beethoven. Whatever. We need to begin paying attention to how different pieces of music affect us on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level. And then begin using different music to help put us in balance. Now, I don’t really know why different music seems to affect us so differently. There are so many possible variables in regard to this and once again, I think it brings us to the question of our uniqueness and individual response to various things. I think sometimes it’s experiential (where were we when we heard a certain song?), sometimes it’s taste (what music do you really like? What do you dislike?) and there are probably dozens of different variants in terms of this. Sometimes it’s educational (if you never heard Balinese music, you might find it very discordant the first time. After a while, it might grow on you). Sometimes it’s another factor. But it’s important to understand our resonance with different music and utilize this in our daily lives. For example, if you want to find music that is going to stimulate you, perhaps to enhance an exercise program—well you’re going to want to use something that’s up beat and pretty fast. Listening to slow music would actually be contrary to the response your nervous system wants. Such slow music would probably cause you to be less effective in whatever chore or exercise you were doing. However, if you wanted to rest and perhaps enhance sleep, then slow music would be a good choice. Trying to sleep while fast music is influencing your nervous system and body would be difficult. But once again, there are so many parameters involving the influences and effects of music that you really need to understand specifically how particular pieces of music effect you. I’d like to turn back to a topic I briefly discussed a little while ago—brain waves. In particular, I would like to talk about this in regard to an idea that is primary to many of the visionaries of modern times—that our vibrational rates are accelerating. I agree with this concept, and in fact, my book SHIFTING FREQUENCIES deals with ways in which sound, light, sacred geometry and other vibrational modalities may be utilized to deal with these frequency changes. SHIFTING FREQUENCIES focuses upon some fairly esoteric subjects, from the use of harmonics as a tool for multi-dimensional activation to crystal singing —how to resonate and project sonic energy through quartz crystals. It has important information that many people have found extremely useful for assisting their evolutionary development. It’s been suggested that our vibrational rates are speeding up and that indeed, time itself is speeding up. I think this is true. Most of us have experienced the phenomenon of getting up in the morning, having a cup of tea, making a few phone calls or whatever and suddenly realizing it’s time for bed. Time definitely seems to be compressing and as this happens, we become more and more stressed out by our inability to accomplish the things we normally have been able to do. A short while ago, I mentioned “Delta” brainwaves. These are from 0.5 to 4 hz. When I first began researching brainwaves, Delta brainwaves were described as being found in comatose patients. People who were unconscious. But within the last decade, this has changed. I had a friend, a medical doctor, who was a pioneer in the field of mapping brain wave activity. He began testing healers, psychics, channels, and shaman and found that many of them were registering brain waves of 1 cycle per second and were able to talk and communicate while they did their work. If they were working on a client, it turns out that the brain waves of the client would also be resonating at about l cycle per second. It was very interesting. What was even more interesting was that this doctor found brain wave activity of 128 cycles per second that was occuring at that spot on the cranium that we call the “crown chakra”. Now, these were brain waves that had never been measured before. My friend passed away before he was able to make this information known to many of his colleagues, but it was fascinating. It seemed to indicate that in order to register these high frequency rates; an individual had to be at a very slow rate of brain wave activity. When I began meditating on the significance of this, it came to me that in order to encode
higher frequencies of light and love into our brain, body and associated energy fields, it was necessary to slow down our vibrational rate. In other words, we had to be in a deep state of calm and relaxation in order to effectively shift our frequencies. This makes sense. If you are operating in a state of beta, it’s very difficult to be calm and relaxed. The nervous system is operating at a fast rate and our consciousness seems to be locked into the here and now. When you’re in beta, it’s hard to meditate. It’s hard to experience expanded consciousness. We’re too focused on the physical plane and with doing some activity which makes it very difficult for frequency shifting. When one has slowed down the nervous system and is in a deep state of calm, I believe that what happens would be the equivalent of going off a diving board and springing upward. That 128 hz. that my medical friend was able to measure is actually a harmonic, or geometric multiple of 1 hertz. By slowing down the brain, we are actually able to raise our frequency rate. It seems to be a paradox—that in order to speed up our vibrational rate, we must first slow down—but I believe it is true. This initial slowing down of our vibrational rate—in particular, the frequencies of our brain and nervous system—is not easy to do. In fact, it’s very difficult. But I know that when I’m in a calm and relaxed state, it is often much easier to deal with many different stimuli simultaneously occurring, from the phone ringing and answering email and someone talking to me all at the same time than when I am nervous and stressed out. However, being able to be in a calm and relaxed state while all this activity is occurring is a challenge. Rick Martin: Can sound help us achieve this relaxed state? Jonathan Goldman: Most certainly. Sound and of course, breathing. Slow, deep breathing helps reduce heart rate and brain wave activity. I find that by sounding a single note or a mantra such as “Om”, it automatically creates a state of calm and relaxation. One of the reasons for this of course is that breath is the basis of creating sound. So that if one begins sounding a tone or a mantra for a while, you are automatically slowing your respiration. You are also doing a number of other things to yourself, including helping release endorphins and other neuro chemicals that may be very beneficial and healing. This sounding of a single tone or note is called “toning”. More and more people are becoming aware of the importance of this activity. You can simply use toning to help relieve stress in yourself. You can also use it to help resonate and align an imbalanced part of your body or energy field. I teach a very powerful exercise called “Vowels As Mantras”, which was initially described in HEALING SOUNDS and is also available on the accompanying instructional cassette. In this exercise, we utilize the vowel sounds in a particular order in conjunction with pitch, to resonate the “chakras”. Normally, in a workshop, we do this for about a half hour or more and it is both a powerful healing experience and a powerful transformational experience. Towards the end of the exercise, after we’ve resonated all 7 of the main chakras, we remain silent for about 5 or 10 minutes. This silence is crucially important in allowing a person to receive an experience that is of the greatest benefit for their spirit and soul. During this time, those in the workshop will frequently have extraordinary communications with guides, angels or other divine beings. I believe one of the reasons this occurs is that we have slowed down our nervous system and balanced our energy fields and can shift our frequencies because of this. We are in this deep state of receptivity and thus can allow higher octaves of light and love to encode themselves upon ourselves. Frequent meditators will tell me that the experience usually surpasses any that they have had before. This may have to do with the fact that we are using sound in conjunction with breath and visualization and it is simply more powerful and transformational. The sound will resonate the chakras as well as the nervous system and the brain. It is a physical based phenomenon that because of the harmonic inherent in sound, also
resonates etherically as well. Most of us find it difficult to devote a half an hour a day to a sonic practice. It should be mandatory, but it’s not. So, I also teach my students how to tone the chakras with vowel sounds for a minute or five minutes and achieve some beneficial results. Even a minute or so of sounding will help shift our consciousness and allow us to access states of calm and relaxation. It may not have the profound effects of a half hour of toning, but it’s still quite good. Rick Martin: You’ve mentioned harmonics a number of times—can you tell us what harmonics are? Jonathan Goldman: Whenever a sound is created, that sound is really a complex composite of frequencies called harmonics. These harmonics, which are geometric multiples of a given fundamental, are actually present all the time in different sounds. We are simply unaware of them. With harmonics, the first overtone (harmonics and overtones can be used interchangeably) vibrates at twice the frequency of the fundamental tone. The next overtone vibrates three times as fast as the fundamental. The next overtones vibrates four times as fast and so on. Just as you can take a prism, hold it up to sunlight and refract the different colors of the rainbow—well, harmonics are really the color of sound. They actually create the timbre or tone color of an instrument or our voices. And we can learn to refract some of these colors of sound ourselves, simply by learning to use our voice in a particular manner. I first came across this nearly 20 years ago when I heard the sacred chanting of Tibetan Monks and the Hoomi or throat singing of Mongolia and Tuva. It was extraordinary and out of this world. These people can sing two or three notes at the same time. Shortly after I heard these sounds, I studied with some teachers who were able to teach me some techniques for creating these vocal harmonics. Now, of course, I have written HEALING SOUNDS: THE POWER OF HARMONICS, and teach these techniques to students myself. There is, in fact, a reemergence of interest in vocal harmonics. I think that’s fabulous. I must say, for those already familiar with Tibetan “Deep Voice” or Hoomi throat singing, that what I teach is different. People can indeed create two or more notes at the same time. But it doesn’t require some of the training and potential strain that accompanies the Tibetan or Hoomi voice. And my teaching of vocal harmonics also works with the therapeutic and transformational use of these sounds. It’s not just a party game or something to impress someone, but a deeply powerful frequency shifting tool.
Rick Martin: But you’ve been taught how to do the Tibetan and Hoomi Voice? Jonathan Goldman: Actually, with the Tibetan “Deep Voice”, I received this voice in “dreamtime”. In 1986, it was my honor to record the Gyume Tibetan Monks in a modern recording studio. It was a wonderful event. I took the tape of the recording home and listened to it in my crystal meditation room. When I woke up the next morning, I had the Tibetan “Deep Voice”—I could create their extraordinary multi-phonic sound. It was quite amazing. It’s said to take the Monks up to 10 years to receive this voice. What happened to me is an example of what I call “harmonic transmission”—receiving information or a transformative experience through sound. I did take a lesson in order to learn the Tuvan Hoomi style, but personally found it rather taxing on the vocal chords. I can do this style, but only do so for demonstration purposes. I decided that this was not going to be a technique that I would share when I teach because of the potential dangers inherent in it. I don’t want anyone straining their voice due to something I’ve taught. So, the vocal harmonic techniques I share are quite safe and simple—many of them are based upon working with vowel sounds—and almost everyone who studies with me is able to hear and then create vocal harmonics.
These harmonics can be utilized for many extraordinary things. You can use them, along with their associated vowels, to resonate the chakras. You can also use them to resonate different portions of the brain. Through learning to first hear and then create vocal harmonics, you can also improve the quality of your own voice as well as enhance your ability to hear. This makes sense. With the regard to the five sense, it’s almost as though we’re wearing sonic ear plugs and then through working with harmonics, we remove these earplugs and truly experience a higher aspect of the sound spectrum. One of our senses becomes expanded and because of this, our consciousness as well is expanded. I’ve even helped rediscover a very ancient technique which I call “overtoning”, in which you project a siren like vocal sound to someone else. At a particular point in the siren, a specific harmonic will occur which is the “healing” sound needed to put in balance something that’s out of alignment in the other person. It’s quite powerful and quite extraordinary. What’s very interesting in regard to the Tibetan “Deep Voice”, which I do utilize for sacred chanting, is that frequently in a workshop someone will receive the voice simply by being around me. It will be nothing I have actually taught. And it’s not always a man who receives this voice. Sometimes it will be a woman. I remember once when a little old lady came to the second day of the workshop. “Jonathan”, she said. I look at her and smiled. Then she opened her mouth and out came the Tibetan Voice. It was amazing. In the Tibetan belief system, the “Deep Voice” is a gift from the Divine. I can believe it. The more I am involved with the use of sound and music as therapeutic and transformational tools—the more experiences I have with the extraordinary abilities of sounds to create shifts and changes—the less and less I am able to put these experiences, these frequencies shifts, into a container that fits into any scientific mold. It’s quite amazing. I started out very left brained, I think as a result of the medical practitioners in my family lineage. I was very much into collecting frequencies and creating systems. In fact, back in 1988, I wrote a book called AWAKENING THE LOST CHORD for Ballantine. It was essentially nothing more than an encyclopedia of sound healing, with chapter devoted to everything from harmonics and mantras and frequencies to sonic shamanism. Quite an overview of the field. And I must admit that twelve years later, there’s not that much new in the field. Oh, people have made advances in areas, whether it’s the use of sound to resonate specific portions of the body or the use of frequencies to increase plant growth. But, these are only minor advances—at least to my knowledge. The basic work and research, I guess, was already in progress, though of course, many of the people doing this work don’t know this. So when they come upon an idea or a discovery, they think it’s brand new. Probably, of course, much of this work has been going on for eons and we’re just reawakening to some of the knowledge and ideas that the ancients worked with. But anyway, I really did my homework a while ago in terms of researching the effects of sound and music, in terms of what other people had done. Jonathan Goldman: No. At the time, my editor told me to act like it was the only book I’d ever write. And never having written a book before, I thought, “okay” and proceeded from that premise. I delivered to the publisher a manuscript that was something like 250,000 words. They had asked for 75,000 words. And to make a long story short, it was too much for anyone to deal with. That particular manuscript is unpublished, though much of the information was published in HEALING SOUNDS: THE POWER OF HARMONICS. I don’t think of it as a futile experience, though. It really gave me quite an education into sacred sound and sound healing. I know about a lot of things in regard to the subject. But what I want to get back to is this idea that at first I was really looking for the “magical frequency”. And I think lots of people are still looking for this now. You know, the frequency or frequencies that will do this or that. Change lead into gold. That sort of thing. And I’m not saying they don’t exist. They probably do, but I’m not that interested anymore. Because I think that there is something else at work and this something else defies explanation by traditional science or medicine. It appears to be magic. And unlike Isaac Asimov, or whomever it was who made that statement about the magic of today being the science of tomorrow, I’m not that sure that some of the things I’ve experienced and encountered can be put within the confines of any sort of system or science.At least with our current understanding of what science is.
I mean, I have my explanations about resonance and entrainment and what not, but I think there’s more than meets the eye, the ear or the mind involved when you start working with sacred sound. Rick Martin: What sorts of experiences are you talking about? Jonathan Goldman: The one that comes to mind immediately is the one in the ancient Mayan site of Palenque, where I created light through sound. I’ve written about this in HEALING SOUNDS and in SHIFTING FREQUENCIES. It continues to be quite an amazing phenomenon. I was in a darkened room with a number of other people and the guide said “Make sound here” and pointed over a doorway. And I made sound and the room light up and everyone saw it. The experience was actually so mind boggling at the time that I more or less dismissed it until I got back to the states and began working on HEALING SOUNDS: THE POWER OF HARMONICS. And I began to try to research the experience and come up with different explanations. One of my explanations, incidentally, had to do with the sound triggering the brain to produce melatonin. And interestingly enough, a scientist read HEALING SOUNDS, was intrigued by my conjecture about this and actually proved that melatonin is produced by certain harmonically related sounds. So, there's some scientific validation there. But I think more was happening than that. Later on, I seem to have inadvertently rediscovered a chakra which I call the “Angel” Chakra that’s located inbetween the third eye and crown, right at the fontanel area (the soft spot in a baby’s head). I devote a chapter to this in SHIFTING FREQUENCIES. The “Angel” Chakra is a source of light encoding in the human and it can be opened and activated by the same sound I used down in Palenque. What’s interesting is that this sound can be phonetically written as “nuurrrr”, which is an Eastern word meaning, “Light”. I find this fascinating. So, here you have a sort of mystical or esoteric explanation for the experience, but it’s still not enough. Because I think there was and is still an additional ingredient in this whole phenomenon that I call magic or the sacred or the divine. Rick Martin: How so? Jonathan Goldman: Well, if it was just purely a matter of physical plane resonance, then you should be able to have everyone make this sound “nuuurrrr” and experience the activation of the “Angel” Chakra. And that’s not the case. And while I have people do a visualization to enhance the sound, in which they see the sound going up through the head, resonating the pituitary/pineal area and create an opening in the “new” chakra, then anyone who made the sound with the visualization should be able to create this activation. And that’s also not the case. Because it seems as though there is an initiatory activation that’s going on during this experience. And it has to do with someone who is able to do this activation being a conduit for the sound to assist people in opening this chakra. That doesn’t make any sense—at least from a third dimensional viewpoint. It’s another example of harmonic transmission. And it really defies explanation. The more I teach and experience and share my work/play with sound, the less and less I understand. In fact, it seems like I’ve been downloading information from my left brain for quite a while now. I was once a walking encyclopedia on sound healing, but I’m not that interested anymore. I just don’t have much use for a lot of information because what I was trying to do a while ago was put everything into systems—into boxes—and sacred sound does not seem to want to be placed in boxes. I believe this is because systems and boxes are self-limiting and we’re at the point in our evolution where we don’t need to be limited by anything. I have a friend who spent years, as I did, collecting information and doing research about sound. But unlike me, instead of simply collecting the different systems, he put them all together and created a grand unified field of sound healing. This sound resonates this chakra with this color and this smell. That sort of thing. And while I find it useful for the neophyte who is just starting out and needs a system to work with, I find it quite limiting. I remember I asked him once, “Why have you done this?”
And his reply was that he wanted to leave something for his young son when he grows up. And my reply was, “Yes, but what if by the time he grows up, he won’t need this system?” Of course, I guess part of me is a system buster. I think that my formula “FREQUENCY + INTENT = HEALING” creates enough parameters for us without getting more specific. I have another formula, incidentally, which is closely related to this. It’s VOCALIZATION + VISUALIZATION = MANIFESTATION. It’s basically the same thing, except that it refers a bit more to chanting and self created vocal sounds. It means that the sounds you make coupled with the visualization that you are making create an end result for the sound. So, for example, if you’re chanting a mantra for compassion like the Tibetan “Om Mani Padme Hum” and you visualize the Buddha of Compassion and try to embody compassion, then you’ll probably end of manifesting the experience of this energy. I thought I was very clever when I came up with this other formula. I thought I had really found something. I think it occurred after I had read a book about the creation myth in the “Old Testament” and it said something like when “The Lord Said ‘Let there be Light’”, he put the intention or the visualized energy of light onto the sound and thus brought it forth. And this formula, VOCALIZATION + VISUALIZATION = MANIFESTATION came to me. Then, after I got done patting myself on the back for my “discovery”, I realized that this knowledge was a basic foundation of the spiritual and magical traditions on the planet. It was nothing new. But I do think it was important to be able to create a catchy little formula in terms of helping educate people about working with sacred sound. Before I forget, I want to talk about compassion for a moment. Because it’s a very important part of my work and I think it’s quite important in terms of our evolution as a species. I believe compassion is a key to enlightenment and evolution. In fact, it may be the key. I’m sure it is the key to our continued survival on this planet. You know, some time ago, I was reading an interview with George Lucas about the “Phantom Menace” and he was talking about various mythological aspects of the film. He started talking about compassion and he said that the counterpart to this was greed. When I read this, I thought, “You know, on one level, this is true.” Because when you get into greed, you are quite selfish and unkind and you really don’t care about anything but yourself. And my goodness—most of the trauma this planet is currently in is because of greed—people raping the planet and polluting the environment and not really caring what the repercussions of their actions might be. It’s not like the Native American concept of 7 Generations, where one is conscious of what one’s actions are like for the next 7 generations. And it may have to do with just being in the Beta State too much of the time so that you don’t access higher levels of consciousness and begin to care. Or it may simply be based upon a fear consciousness and a belief in there not being enough so you get into greed. What strikes me so often during our experiences in workshops with chanting the “Om Mani Padme Hum” and other sacred sounds so that we can embody compassion, is that very frequently, the first person that we need to be compassionate to is ourselves. Most of us have to forgive ourselves for so many things. Most of us don’t really like ourselves. And hey—if you don’t like yourself, how can you like anyone else? And how can you do anything for anyone else if that is the case? This, of course, includes healing. So if you can be compassion with your own self, then you can begin to be compassionate and kind to others. And suddenly when this occurs, you begin to experience the oneness that exists between all conscious beings. And you begin to have what could be termed spiritual experiences—I don’t really know what to call them—but you begin to have experiences in which the fear that created the boundaries and borders between ourselves and other human beings are broken down. And suddenly the person next to you is just a mirror of you and a mirror of the divine. And you would not think of doing anything to them that was not of the utmost kindness and respect. It’s a little like getting hit with the “Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself” Commandment. And it’s immense because once that happens, things change. Your relationship to self changes.
Your relationship to other people changes. Your life changes and you change the lives of those around you. And this is accomplished all through embodying compassion. With the embodiment of compassion, one could not imagine doing any of the heinous activities that frequently go on on this planet. Because most of those activities are based upon fear. You don’t go to war with your true brother or sister. You don’t take their food. You don’t do this or that. It’s not in your scheme of thinking. I think compassion is at the basis of all healing. And I think compassion is at the basis of all true higher consciousness. I remember reading once where the Dalai Lama was asked if he had one message he could broadcast to the world, what would it be, and he said “Be kind to each other”. It was that simple and that direct. And to me, it’s that powerful, because kindness is also at the base of compassion. And it’s in the words of Jesus and the 10 Commandments and all these different spiritual texts. “Be kind to each other”. Just think what that would mean? Some years ago in meditation, I heard a voice say: “The way to the Crown is through the Heart!” and I believe this is true. I think that in terms of the chakras, while all chakras are, to some degree, resonating and active, different people have different chakras that are truly activated. These are the chakras from which they draw their energy and abilities. So that someone who is a sex symbol, for example, might have a highly activated second chakra. Most politicians would work from the third chakra. Healers might work from the heart chakra. Musicians might work from the throat chakra (though this is also a second chakra response—I think it depends upon the level of consciousness that is being projected on the sound). Scientists and visionaries frequently work from the third eye, or sixth chakra. Now, from my understanding, it’s quite possible to be working from both the third chakra and the sixth chakra as the primary chakras that one is drawing from. And this would result in someone who is basically involved with using the mind for power and control. I believe this type of thing went on a lot in what we call Atlantis, and I think this resulted in its destruction. I’m always reminded of the scientist character in “Jurassic Park” who is horrified at the experimentation going on and says something like: “You people are so interested in trying to find out if you can do something that you don’t bother to ask if you should do something.” And I think that’s quite true in terms of our advances in technology. I have a new book out called THE LOST CHORD. It’s an adventure novel about sacred sound. It’s set in Boulder, Colorado and it involves a rock musician whose friend discovers a series of frequencies that creates interdimensional portals. This sound is also highly addictive. This “Lost Chord” promptly gets stolen by a mad man messiah who lives in the mountains and wants to use it to take over the world. The hero of the story has to go through initiation into sound and spirit in order to rescue his friends and get back the Lost Chord. It’s a fun, fast read and there’s a lot of information and knowledge about sound found in this pop novel. One of the major themes in THE LOST CHORD is this schism between the spiritual and the technological. As Shade, the protagonist finds out, the “Lost Chord” has actually been in existence for ages. But its knowledge and use has been found with deeply spiritual beings who know enough not to abuse it. The fact that it has been synthesized into a series of frequencies makes it accessible by everyone, and therefore subject to abuse. I like to believe that as one works more and more with sacred sound, the powers and abilities of the sound are revealed. But as you progress in this work, it’s imperative for your heart to be open and to be a primary focus of energy. Otherwise, the full power and energy of the sound will not be revealed. Once again, the way to the Crown, which is true spiritual and divine consciousness, is through the Heart, which is the embodiment of compassion and love. I don’t believe it’s through the 3rd Eye alone, unless of course, the Heart is opened as well. I know many people with highly activated 3rd Eyes—these people work in the realm of the psychic and have some powerful abilities—telepathy, etc. But they become very limited, after a while. Because they don’t understand that it’s through the heart that the truly Divine and miraculous happens. From my perspective, multi-dimensional consciousness can only occur through an open heart.
Maybe I’m wrong. But I think once your heart is opened and you are resonating from love and compassion and not fear or greed, extraordinary things can occur. I know everyone says that mathematics is the universal language. But I’m not sure. I believe that with multi-dimensional consciousness, 1 + 1 = 3. Really. This is a different type of mathematics and most people who are operating from the 3rd Eye simply can’t get this. Because it doesn’t make sense on a logical level. But it well may be true. I must add, however, that just having an opened heart may not be enough. I think it’s important to embody the element of wisdom as well. Perhaps it’s really a combination of these two qualities that is the true key to enlightenment. Now, why have I been going on and on about the importance of compassion and the heart and all this stuff about intention and visualization and what not? Well, the answer has to do with frequency. Or rather frequencies. Because right now, at this particular point in time and space that we call 2000, the search for the “magical frequency” is really in vogue. And while, I think it’s important to continue the search and research, I think it’s also important to understand that use of pure frequency will ultimately become self-limiting and we need to realize this. I have no doubt that in the near future, there will be astounding inroads made in terms of science. We’ll come up with the correct frequencies to eradicate specific illnesses and diseases. Some of the devices that we’ll see in the not too distant future are like the “Tri-Corder” from Star Trek. You’ll have this small handheld object that someone will hold near a person and using sound, it’ll give a read out of any imbalances. Then with a few turns of a knob or button, this device will send out the frequencies necessary to create balance. That is astonishing and wonderful and a great advancement for humankind and medicine. And I really don’t think it’s too far away. But, I think that in terms of healing and frequency shifting, we need to take back our own power and abilities to do it ourselves and not rely on machines. Yes, sometimes the assistance of others is useful in the process. But really, it’s through ourselves that all true healing occurs-through empowering ourselves as the ultimate healer. On a level, what is the difference between having headache and taking a pill someone gives you for it and having a headache and listening to a frequency that someone gives you? It’s still basically very similar, which is having a dependence on someone else to heal you. As I just said, I think sometimes we need assistance. Sometimes we need someone else to help “jump start” our engines, so to speak. But really, what I think is necessary is for us to start taking responsibility and control of ourselves. Because I think if we do that, we’ll stop being victims and start being co-creators of this reality. And I like to believe that one of the easiest, simplest and most effective ways of doing this is by working with our own sound. Our own frequencies, so to speak. Since it’s my belief that we are all unique vibratory beings, our own voice can really be specific in terms of the frequencies we use for ourselves. And who better to encode intentionality than ourselves? We can get very good at projecting our own frequencies and intent through using our voice. It’s cost effective. The user’s manual is simple to use. And it doesn’t require electricity or batteries. Now, I realize that all of this is part of a planetary education process, which is one of the reasons why I and many others are teaching toning and harmonics and mantras and all the other various aspects of sound. I also realize that the use of frequencies through CD’s, instruments and what not, are also highly effective for healing. I’m all for this. I simply don’t want us to forget the other element—the sacred and spiritual element of sound, which is really what it’s all about. As the development of sound as a frequency shifting tool continues, we’ll have all sort of miraculous things occurring. However, knowing the current nature of human development, which is frequently to go to the lowest common denominator of a subject, we’ll also have those who will not be operating from the heart with their understanding of frequencies and will undoubtedly use it for power and control. Nothing new. And that’s all right. But we need to understand that whatever is created in this manner is nothing in comparison to what can be accomplished through using the heart and the mind together.
I mentioned previously that at this point in our development, Frequency and Intent are both 50% of the formula. As we progress in our evolution and achieve higher realms of consciousness, the frequency becomes less and less important and the intent becomes more and more important. This has to do with opening the heart more and more in order to experience higher dimensionalities. I also said that there are probably saints and holy men throughout the world who can groan or belch or what not—they can make any sound they want —and they can encode on this sound whatever healing frequency they want. And we need to remember the possibility of this. Because otherwise, one will become too dependent on finding the specific frequency and forget that this is only part of the formula. I might add, this focus on merely frequency, will not create the most effective result of the frequency, simply because it is only part of the formula. So, the use of frequency for healing is true up to a point, and then it becomes not true. It then becomes totally the intention and the frequency merely becomes a carrier wave for whatever the intention is. And it could be any sound. Currently in traditional medicine and science, I do think it’s very important that the investigation into the uses of different frequencies continues. In fact, it’s vital that this occurs because traditional medicine and science is very 3rd dimension based and we are of course, among other things, 3rd dimensional beings. Right now traditional medicine is finally acknowledging that music can help relax and reduce stress. That’s actually quite a significant leap in understanding—finally recognizing that music can assist us in helping to relax. And the understanding that stress is a powerful factor in the creation of disease is also now occurring. It’s taking awhile, but science and medicine are getting there. Who knows? In the not too distant future, energy medicine may finally become truly validated and accepted in the traditional medical fields? Usually, when people ask how sound is being used in medicine, I talk about the use of ultra sound to help pregnant woman, or the use of sound waves to break up kidney stones. Both of these are pretty rudimentary in terms of what sound will finally be accomplishing in the healing process, but it is a start. That vision I had about a Tri-Corder type of device being used for healing isn’t that far away—but it may be some years down the road. I remember once I was attending a Music Medicine Conference at a major medical center. And during the conference, I was just blown away by how primitive the understanding of most of the people there was toward the uses of sound to heal. And the research and experiments that were going on in regard to this was devastating to me. It was like trying to cut up the worm into smaller and smaller parts in order to find out how it crawled. They were missing the major understandings of certain things. When I had the opportunity to discuss ideas such as intent, most of the scientists and doctors at this conference looked at me like I was from another planet. Because, of course, for the most part, in terms of 3rd dimensional instrumentation and measurement, intent was something that could not be validated. So it was not real. I was staying at a friend’s place at the time and I remember sitting outside being pretty depressed about the current state of Music Medicine. And I heard a voice say: “If you wanted things to be the way they will be, you would have been born 50 years later. But you were not, because you are to serve as a bridge. Remember that.” And I try to. That was about 10 years ago. So, the future of sound in terms of that Tri-Corder type of device could probably be 40 years in the future. Who knows how far in the future it will be when people can really shift their vibratory rates through using their own sounds? Oh, there are those who can do it now. But when this becomes common in the general populace? I don’t have a clue when that might occur. But I think it’s important to keep awareness of the possibilities inherent in sound in people’s minds and in their hearts. About 10 years ago, there was an article in the NY Times Science Section about sound experiments with ultra sound that were happening. And the headlines read: “Sound shaped into dazzling new tool—can make, break or rearrange molecular structure and levitate objects”. I was amazed that this information was running in a newspaper. It involved some research
trying to grow crystals in zero gravity. But as a metaphor, it really described the power of sound. Now, if you can make, break or rearrange molecular structure, there’s virtually nothing that inherently can not be healed or transformed with sound. So the possibilities are endless. We’ll be able to use sound to shatter virus’s that attack us and build up and even regenerate organs that need assistance. I think that there are some individuals who can do this now, but I see this as being common place in the future. I know of people who are working with DNA right now using sound. They’re trying to facilitate our evolution in this manner using sound. And I think they’re pretty successful. I’ve been worked with tuning forks in an interesting fashion that I’d like to tell you about. As I’ve stated, I’m less interested in working with frequencies than many people are. But I’m quite interested in working with intervals, which are the relationships between frequencies. An octave, for example, is two notes that share the same name and have a frequency relationship in which one of the notes vibrates at twice the frequency of the first. So, it is vibrating at a ratio of 2 to 1. I mentioned harmonics before and said that these were frequencies that were geometric multiples of a given frequency. With a piano, most of the intervals on a piano are not really harmonically related. They’re not really composed of whole number ratios, like 2 to 1 or 3 to 2. That’s because the tuning of a piano is based upon the square root of two. Now, I have a good friend, a doctor, who has shown that certain ratios, such as the 3 to 2 ratio, seems to be particularly balancing and therapeutic for the human nervous system. He’s had aluminum tuning forks developed that you strike and then bring near the ears, and these tuning forks really create a very calming response in the individual who experiences them in this way. It also balances the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Incidentally, it doesn’t appear to be the frequency or the keynote of these tuning forks that creates the effect, but rather simply their relationship. So it could be the notes C and G or the notes E and B. Same effect. There are other very wonderful results from these tuning forks, but I’d like to continue on. Several years ago, due to some interesting experiences that are rather too long to get into, I was guided to having tuning forks cut to the ratio of 8 to 13. I did this as an experiment. I had no idea what they would sound like, because believe me, there are some intervals that sound hideous and really do not interact with the human nervous systems or energy field in a positive manner. I didn’t want to give you the impression that just because intervals are in whole number ratios, they’re beneficial. They’re not. Only certain ratios seem to be beneficial. I didn’t know what these tuning forks would sound like. But when I did, I immediately felt spiraling and heard angels singing. It was really great. I want to acknowledge that many of my “discoveries” such as the Angel Chakra were really quite slow in unveiling their true essence to me. With the Angel Chakra, I had been doing activation of this area with sound for several years before I finally realized what was going on. With regard to the 8 to 13 ratio and the tuning forks, I simply was intrigued that the sound was so beautiful and effected me so deeply. I really did not have a clue that they might be truly transformative. I began first by having some more 8:13 tuning forks made to see how other people would respond. Everyone who utilized them seemed to have positive experiences. So I began making them available at workshops simply as experimental tools. People reported experiences, such as I had, of hearing the angels or feeling light coming into their body or seeing spirals. That sort of thing. We found out that they also balanced the left and right hemispheres of the brain as well as balancing the chakras. Quite interesting. Also interesting is the fact that to my knowledge, and I’ve checked with a number of authorities on this—people who really know world music and scales and intervals and such—this is the first time, at least in a very long time, that this interval of 8:13 has appeared on the planet. Once I was teaching a workshop and there was a very well know medical doctor who was also an energy medicine authority. When I began demonstrating the tuning forks on someone, I asked her to check what was going on. She pulled out her pendulum and other devices. While this was going on, the person experiencing the tuning forks was describing the sound
going down into her body as light, creating balance and alignment at a cellular level. Someone asked me if I thought these tuning forks would assist in activating DNA. I smiled and told them I thought it could only happen if the tuning forks were in the key of D n’ A. Now, this was a joke. Remember that it is basically the interval—the ratio—and not the keynote or frequency in terms of these sets of tuning forks. But I did have the tuning forks cut in the key of D. And now people who are working with DNA activation tell me that these tuning forks are quite stellar for the process. These tuning forks, incidentally, were not the work with sound that I was initially thinking about when I mentioned sound and DNA. There are a number of scientists who have supposedly discovered the DNA sequence through sound. Of course the fact that to my knowledge, these scientists do not agree upon this musical sequence is telling.It probably all has to do with intentionality, but I’m beginning to repeat myself. I think there’s something quite transformative and powerful about this 8:13 interval. I’m not exactly sure what it is or why it is. It may have to do with people’s consciousness opening to a new sonic ratio. Or it may have to do with the fact that 8 to 13 represents an outer octave of the spiral created by the fibbonacci series—this is the same sort of spiral that’s found in the inner ear and in a Nautilus shell. But it seems to have something to do with our evolutionary acceleration. More on this later. We’re still gathering data, but it’s very positive. Throughout this interview, I’ve focused upon the importance of intention and my belief that we need not become too systematized in terms of cataloging the effects of the effects of sound, nor its relationship to color and geometry. I just want to say that this doesn’t mean I don’t think the subject isn’t worthwhile investigating. It’s just my belief that you can take any sound and encode any color and geometry upon it. In my HEALING SOUNDS INTENSIVE, which is a 9 Day training. we have people from throughout the planet come to study with me. And it really is a glorious experience. We manifest Light and Love through Sacred Sound for those nine days and it’s one of the most profound most enjoyable and transformational experiences that you can imagine. I highly recommend it for anyone who is serious about exploring the extraordinary power of sound to healing and transform. At the end of those 9 Days, the groups constructs what I call a “group merkaba”—a multidimensional field which we create using specific sounds, intervals, harmonics, colors and sacred geometry. We do this in order to assist both personal and planetary evolution and it’s wonderful. But the thing I want to say is that in order to construct this, we do use specific sound, colors, etc. And there is a reason and a basis for this. And when we have constructed this with our sounds and consciousness you can actually feel the merkaba. The energy is discernable with your hands. And the gravitational fields are different around it. In fact, the whole time space continuum is different around this form. So, it’s real. And it’s definitely an evolutionary leap that the different groups who do this are able to experience. I remember the first time I was guided to create this with a group. I didn’t have a clue what would happen really—only some idea that if we could it would be beneficial for all. And we did. I’m waiting in the silence that accompanies the sound. And I hear a voice. It says “Congratulations! This is the first time this has been accomplished in many a millennium.” It was quite interesting. The reason I told you about this merkaba and our ability to create it was to say that despite my desire to eliminate systems so that we can open our consciousness and not create limitations upon ourselves, I also believe that it’s good to have a beginning to start with. I couldn’t just say, “Okay, we’re going to create this multi-dimensional geometric form” and have us do it. I’ve got to go: “We’re going to sing this interval with these vowel sounds and these harmonics and visualize these colors and so on and so on.” And it takes some training and practice. Not difficult mind you, but just a little experience. Now, someday, I believe I will be able to just say: “Okay, we’re going to create this multidimensional geometric form….” And we’ll be able to do it. But for right now, I think we all need training wheels. Or whatever metaphor you want to use for needing to crawl first before one can run.
Rick Martin: Your latest album, CHAKRA CHANTS, has been exciting a lot of people. Would you explain the process in making and it and talk about your “intent” while making the album CHAKRA CHANTS? Jonathan Goldman: CHAKRA CHANTS was really an experiment in sacred sound. And I’m so glad it’s being well received. I didn’t know what it would sound like during its creation, or the effect it would have upon people. I wanted to combine a lot of different systems that utilized sound for healing and put them together. See if they worked side by side —see if they could live together. And from my perspective, I felt they could. But I didn’t know how other people would react. It seems they are reacting fondly. It won the “Best Healing-Meditation Album” and “Album of the Year” at the 1999 Visionary Awards. I was quite honored at the extraordinary recognition it has received. I combined the sacred vowel sounds with the Bija mantras, as well as Shabda yoga sounds and elemental toning that all corresponded with a particular chakra. It starts at the lst Chakra and goes up to the Crown. Each chakra is a different sonic landscape and it’s quite powerful. During this recording, I’m sure they were a little puzzled in the studio. I’d lay out an alter and light incense and candles and ask the Goddess of Music and the Angel of Sound to come in and be on the recordings. And of course, when I was working with a particular chakra, I would have the intention resonating that chakra. It seems to work. I continue to be amazed at the extraordinary response people seem to receive from listening to CHAKRA CHANTS. I frequently get letters and emails from people who have deeply transformative and healing experiences working with this recording. Recently, I received correspondence from a woman writer who listened to CHAKRA CHANTS and afterwards found that she no longer needed to wear her glasses. It was outrageous. Completely unsolicited and as far as I know, true. Now I’m not saying that if you listen to CHAKRA CHANTS you won’t need glasses. It certainly did not happen to me. But I must tell you that when I receive feedback like this, it really is quite rewarding and joyful. Rick Martin: Any last comments? Jonathan Goldman: I’d like to say something that I say at the beginning of every workshop I teach. And that is this: what I share is the result of years of experience and it is what I believe to be true at this particular point in time and space. However, I know that reality is fluid and things change. Including my understanding of sound. I’d like to be able to wake up tomorrow morning and find out that everything I’ve believed and known thus far has been wrong. And I’d like not to spend the rest of my time defending my old beliefs. There are so many aspects of sound as a healing and transformational vehicle, that I’ve just scratched the surface of some important ideas. And there are many more. But it’s important to remember the sacredness of sound. In all our different spiritual traditions, we have the belief that the universe was created through sound. From the OLD TESTAMENT, we have “And the Lord said ‘Let there be Light’” In the NEW TESTAMENT, we have “In the beginning was the Word”. From the VEDAS, you have “In the beginning was Brahman, with whom was the Word”. The Hopis believe that the Spider Woman sang over the inanimate forms and gave them life. Same thing with the Mayans, in POPUL VUH. The Polynesians have the creator gods blowing a conch shell. In the East, a gong is hit and the universe begins. I could go on and on. All the different traditions understand this. Sound is sacred. Sound is the original creational force. It’s important to remember. We need to honor the sacredness of sound. And not get too carried away with the scientific analysis of sound and frequencies. I remember reading an interview with the Chant Master of the Gyuto Monastery, where they do this extraordinary harmonic chanting. The Chant Master said that there was not even a word for "harmonics” or “overtones” in the Tibetan language. The sound of the harmonic comes as a result of one’s attunement with the divine. He thought that the Divine beings associated with sound were probably having a good laugh at all the attempts at Western science to understand this.
I think there’s probably a lot of truth in that. Rick Martin: Who, in your expert opinion, are the musician leaders at the cuttingedge of healing sounds work? Jonathan Goldman: This is very difficult to answer because there’s probably a lot of people I don’t know who I should name and a lot of people I know who I shouldn’t name. And I’d have to name musicians as well as healers, and teachers who may not be musicians or healers. I’d forget some names and leave out people who deserve to be cited because if I didn’t, the list would be enormous. Rick Martin: Go ahead. Just name a few so our readers can have some names. Jonathan Goldman: As far as musicians go, Steven Halpern and Iasos are actively up there as people who consciously create music for healing. Kitaro is incredible for shifting consciousness with music. So are a lot of other people. John Beaulieu is a great teacher and sonic practitioner who creates some very interesting recordings. Don Campbell has helped illuminate mainstream consciousness to the power of music. Fabian Maman has done some wonderful work. Jim Albani leads amazing group toning experiences. The list goes on and on. Laraaji creates great celestial music. Sarah Benson is a wonderful flute player and conduit for divine love through sound. Kay Gardner has been a pioneer in writing and teaching about healing music. There are chanters and musicians in all the different countries who create transformational and healing music. There are people from all over the world who may not be known about in our Western society, but may be doing extraordinary work with sound as a healing and transformative modality. Sometimes we confuse the ability to promote oneself with the ability to be gifted in an area. Just because someone is well known does not mean they are masters in a field. They simply may be master promoters. Also, we may have a person who knows nothing consciously about healing with music, but whose music embodies a healing ability. I think John Lennon would have probably been exploring this venue. Jimi Hendrix too. The CD imprint of one of Peter Gabriel’s live albums has Cymatics pictures on it. I’m sure Carlos Santana is aware of the healing power of music. This awareness of sound as a transformational and healing modality is flowing into mainstream! It’s amazing. I think you have to remember that healing music can come in many varieties. And frequently, it depends upon the listener and how they resonant to the music or the ideas or the frequencies that are consciously or unconsciously created by us all. Rick Martin: What about the subject of digital vs. analog recording quality? Would you comment, please, on the range of sound as actually heard by the human ear; that which is out of the range of human conscious perception, as well as the benefit to the listener of including those higher-end harmonics within a sound healing recording? Jonathan Goldman: This is a question that is frequently asked in workshops—the difference between digital and analog. To be truthful, my thoughts and beliefs about the difference continue to evolve as our digital technology evolves. When digital recordings first came out, there was some data to indicate that they were not very beneficial to our energy field. I’m talking about digital records now—remember them? I once worked with a doctor who showed that digital recordings weakened certain acupuncture meridians such as the lung meridian and heart meridians. Then, later on compact discs started coming out. At the time, I was quite anti-digital. I had hoped that it was just a passing fancy, but no such luck. For many years, I refused to release my recordings as CDs because I was quite sure they were not beneficial to our nervous systems and our energy field, and, I must say, I read some data indicating that this was correct. But eventually I realized that I would be missing a large part of the music listening audience if I did not get with the times and go digital. I began first by putting “DOLPHIN DREAMS” out as a CD, and then many of my other recordings. Now there is a difference between digital
technology and CDs. Similar in certain aspects; different in other aspects. At first, I was most concerned that digital nullified intention. A scientist who is an extraordinary innovator in the field of sound told this to me about 15 years ago and I tended to believe him. It felt correct to me because as you know, intention is very important to me. But as the CD listening public became larger and larger, I realized that I would be losing a very large audience if I did not change to CD format. My biggest concern at the time was that the various divine energy forms that I work with on my recordings would not want to be digitized. I believed that they had no problem resonating with magnetic medium, such as tapes. But I wondered about being digitized and being turned into zeroes and ones. So, with “DOLPHIN DREAMS” and with every subsequent recording I have done, I take the master recording that will be used to duplicate copies of this recording and I put it into a crystal grid, a powerful geometric arrangement of quartz crystals which creates interdimensional fields. Once the master recording such as a DAT (Digital Audio Tape is in the grid, I ask the divine energy forms, the gods, goddesses, angels and whomever it is that I’m working with, if they would not mind being digitized and to please come into the recording in order to assist and benefit the planet. It seems to be effective. I did that for “DOLPHIN DREAMS”, my first digital recording, and I have continued to do it with each subsequent recording. I think it’s extremely important. And I think it works. But there’s something else as well. The fact of the matter is that we live in a digital society. Digital is here. It is no fad. It is not going away. And I believe that beings of higher vibrations than we are—Divine entities if you like—have agreed that they will be digitized and converted to zeroes and ones in order to assist us on the planet right now. I’m not sure that this was true at the beginning of the digital recording phenomenon, but I believe it is true now--too many listeners tell me of Divine manifestations that occur when listening to my recordings. For example, I receive reports of Tara, the Tibetan Goddess of Compassion, coming to listeners while the CD of “TRANCE TARA” is playing—that sort of thing. “TRANCE TARA” is an invocation to this divine female energy of compassion. Obviously, Tara has consented to being digitized in order to assist listeners. I think what my scientist friend said about digital nullifying intentionality may have been true at one point, but it is true no more. In fact, my friend who said these things to me many years ago now works heavily in the digital domain. So things change. I’m currently working on a new recording called “THE LOST CHORD”, based a bit upon the technology I invented in my novel, THE LOST CHORD, which describes a computer generated set of frequencies that create interdimensional gateways. But unlike the Lost Chord in the novel, this will be a very safe and listenable sonic environment. “THE LOST CHORD” will employ extraordinary digital technology, but it will also focus upon the human voice and sacred chant. We’re going to be doing things that were sonically quite unimaginable some years ago, but now with digital technology, it will be possible. And the potentials for healing and selftransformation in regard to this are amazing. It’s really quite exciting. I think that with the proper intention, digital technology may prove to be an extraordinary asset to us. This is the positive aspect of the situation regarding digital. Some concerns I have regarding this situation include the fact that many digitized sounds are not real. I have a friend who is an extremely well known recording artist. Some years ago, he sold his very expensive digital equipment to buy very expensive analog equipment. When asked why he said: “Because I want people to know what things really sound like.” And I totally understand and agree. Instead of using a synthesizer to play a violin part for a concert, he will have a violin player actually play the part. It’s wonderful! I think that there is certainly a difference between real instruments and synthesized instruments. But not everyone is in a position of touring with a string section. Synthesizers certainly have their place in music. You can do things with synthesizers that you can’t do with acoustic instruments and vice versa. I just hope we all continue to remember what real instruments sound like!
What is still quite disturbing about digital technology is the playback medium—CDs. Some of the recording technology is quite sophisticated, with sampling rates that are quite high, taking up a very large amount of the sonic spectrum. And it’s advancing and getting better all the time. But CDs! CDs are something else! I mentioned before that we hear up to around 16,000 hz. -16,000 cycles per second. Children can hear a lot higher than that—probably close to 20,000 hz. So CD manufacturers decided that since people couldn’t really hear higher than 20,000 hz., they would not include sonic information above 20,000 hz. There is a cut off filter that removes all sonic information above this on CDs. Now granted, we can’t hear above 20,000 Hz., but we may be able to receive information— higher harmonics of sound—that influence and affect our nervous system, our aura, and various other aspects of our bodies and our energy fields. There may be sounds that are way beyond our realm of hearing that influence our health and energy field. It’s been suggested that these higher frequencies that we can’t hear may really be aspects of higher planes of consciousness. It could be possible. By cutting off all frequencies above 20,000 hz., we’re being denied these energies. But as I’ve said, things change. And that hopefully will include digital playback. We must not forget that cassettes do not reproduce frequencies from above 10 to 14,000 Hz. — it depends on the type of cassette. They don’t have the capability to do this. Also, remember that many people do not have playback devices with an optimum fidelity range and can not accurately reproduce the sonics of the recording. When I do a presentation, I will play recorded examples of some of the phenomenon that I talk about. And while I ask for a good sound system to be provided, I’ve been in situations where all that’s available is a small portable cassette or CD system. One time I had a large room full of people and I was playing a recording on this tiny portable system. The initial recording was quite wonderful, but what we listened to on the system was really poor. And I remember joking to the audience that this was somewhat like watching “Gone With the Wind” on a three-inch television. Something was missing. Still, there were people at that presentation who had profound experiences from even that dismal playback unit. So anything is possible. I wonder what would have happened if those people who did have positive experiences had heard the sonics on something that came close to reproducing the actual recorded sounds? Any last questions? Rick Martin: Do you have any insight or theory about which tone or note Archangel Gabriel’s horn might be? Jonathan Goldman: Ha! (laughing) That’s great! The sound that Gabriel made was The Lost Chord! But how do you know he didn’t play an electric guitar? Because everything is sacred. Every sound is a part of the Divine. Seriously though, I work a lot with a being named Shamael, who is the Angel of Sound. In texts, he is referred to as the Leader of the Cosmic Choir and is probably a direct manifestation of the Mutation energy form. Anyway, I believe one of the reasons this angelic being, Shamael, has begun to manifest so much in the consciousness of those who work with sound and music healing is that we Westerners need a Divine Aspect to relate to when doing this work. I’d like to conclude by leaving you with the Shamael Invocation, which I always utilize whenever I am working with sound. Many students of mine, as well as others around the planet also work with this invocation. It is something I suggest doing if anyone is using sound as a sacred tool. It is this I Invoke the Spirit of Shamael Angel of Sacred Sound The Sound of Light surround me The Light of Sound guide me The Sacred Sound come through me For the Harmony of All!
http://healingsounds.com/articles/healing_day_article.as
World Sound Healing Day Creating Sound Temples Some time ago in deep meditation, I was instructed on the importance of cocreating events in which people would create sacred sound together in order to heal the planet. World Sound Healing Day is such an event. I was told that gatherings where people sounded sacred tones filled with the intention of Love were THE single most effective tool for manifesting change on the planet at this most precarious time in our existence. The gatherings of people in this manner is one aspect of the creation of Sacred Sound Temples, where people could sound together and experience the divine without getting tied down in the duality of separatism by giving it a name, or a belief system or a particular dividing code. People would simply sound together and through sounding together, experience the oneness of all. These Sacred Sound Temples were and are not an original idea—others have spoken about them before and they are indeed ancient in origin. These Sacred Sound Temples would be non denominational—allowing and accepting the love, worship and reverence of all who wish to resonate together regardless of race, creed or color. This concept of worshipping the Divine (or whatever name you wish to call it) without having to follow a specific path, without competition or creating the other as being wrong is of paramount importance with regard to creating peace on this planet and creating peace within and without. The actual creation of the Sacred Sound Temples is simply a focal point, though their manifestation on the physical and etheric planes does provide key anchoring points for transformative energies. I believe that Chris James, Tom Kenyon and others have already achieved this and we give thanks for their work. However, no temple is needed—it is simply an etheric matrix or blueprint of consciousness that needs to evolve and allow people to sound freely and become one with each other and the divine in this process. The greatest Sacred Sound Temple that can exist, is of course, the Earth itself.
The Importance of Intent In my book HEALING SOUNDS, I present the formula “FREQUENCY + INTENT = HEALING”. In the book is an additional formula: “VOCALIZATION + VISUALIZATION = MANIFESTATION”. This means that the sound coupled with the energy behind the sound creates the effect of the sound. This energy is best manifested as a heart felt intention of love. There are specific ways of utilizing this energy in order to assist the process of prayer. (Please see the article, “Projecting Intent” on this website for more information on this subject). The more I work with sound, the more I realize that the higher the level of consciousness we achieve, the more the importance of the intent of the sound. Thus, from my perspective, too much emphasis on which frequency (or frequencies) are needed is missing a main aspect of the formula—particularly for those working from a high level of consciousness. It has been my experience that with particularly spiritually developed beings, the sound gives way to the intention. A spiritual teacher can have an “unmusical voice” and yet perform miracles when they speak or sing. It doesn’t matter. Regardless of the frequency, their heart felt energy of love and compassion is going out on the sound. And that is what is being received.
The “AH” Sound As discussed more thoroughly in another article, it is my belief that the “AH” sound is one of the easiest tones for people to sound. The “AH” sound is almost universally regarded in different traditions as a heart sound—a sound for resonating the heart center and embodying compassion and love. It is also, simply, a vowel sound and thus, while being quite sacred, it can be utilized by any tradition, regardless of beliefs or language. The “AH” is thus unconsciously understood to be a sound without borders—it can be utilized by anyone, regardless of race, creed, color tradition or religion without people having prior
concept of what it means. For most, there is an unconscious positive feeling during the sound that naturally resonates in and from the heart. It is a sound we frequently make when we’re in love, or when we’re feeling a deep sense of peace. (Please see the article “The AH Sound” on this website for more information on this subject). For those who would like to have a specific frequency to tone along with at the given times, we are offering a 13 second download of an “AH” sound especially created by my wife Andi and I. This “AH” is sung in the keynote of “C” vibrating at around 256 cycles per second (a harmonic of 8 hz. which many believe to be the resonance of the Earth). When we sang this “AH”, there was much energy of love and compassion put into this sound by my wife Andi and I (as well as many of the people from the Healing Sounds Intensive). This “C” note is a harmonic of what many believe is the resonant frequency of the earth—the Schumann Resonance, which is an electro-magnetic pulse measured at between 7.8 and 8.2 cycles per second. (note: since this is actually an “average”, due to the pulsations that occur, even this particular resonance is not very specific—it fluctuates). Please be aware that different scientists cite many different “magical frequencies” as being the best to utilize. Early on in the creation of World Sound Healing Day, select graduates of the Healing Sounds Intensive met on our Chat Room at www.healingsounds.com to present ideas and exchange thoughts about this. In addition, members of the Sound Healers Association did the same. These included well known scientists offering their thoughts about which frequencies were best. Some cited different notes and frequencies for the Earth Resonance, including 10 cycles per second, whose harmonic would be an A at 440 cycles per second as well as the keynote of note F, which the ancient Chinese believed to be this resonance. However, we have worked with this particular frequency for many years and find it the most prevalent frequency acknowledged by more healers and scientists. Therefore, it seems as good a place as any to start with to using a sound that people could download. It is not, however, the be all and end all of frequencies—it is simply a place to start if this feels resonant with you. There are of course many other sounds that can utilized for working with planetary healing, as there are many other frequencies. (Please see the article “Planetary Healing Sounds” on this website for more information on this subject). In addition, from many years of experience working with sound, I find that we all have different resonance—especially our voice. This is quite important with regard to much of my work, which honors the wide variety of vibrations of which we are composed. We are indeed, unique vibratory beings. Thus what works for one person will not necessary work for another. This of course includes what might be the “best” note to sing to project sacred sounds. I have found that when people sing in a comfortable and relaxed range, their voices are not only more effective for vocally creating the sounds, but also the energy coming from these people is more in alignment with their true essence. Thus, I place much less emphasis on the actual note being sung and much more emphasis on the energy being generated and transmitted by the sound.
Maximum Resonance During discussions about World Sound Healing Day, there were additional questions that arose. One was the ideal amount of time needed to create the most effective resonance. In order create the maximum amount of people engaged in our World Sound Healing Day; we agreed to suggest that the minimum time people tone for would be least 5 minutes. Certainly, people could tone for much greater time periods if they desire, and indeed, there are sacred sound groups occurring throughout the planet that will be engaged in sacred sound for much of day of February 14th. But for those who cannot do this, (and we know this will be the majority of the population who co-creates the Sound Heard Around the World) 5 minutes can generate miracles! We all agreed that if possible, it would be great if everyone could stop what they were doing and devote an hour, or two hours, or perhaps even the whole day to focusing their attention on creating and projecting sacred sound—sound with the intention of love—towards the planet. What an incredible idea! We do this during the annual Healing Sounds Intensive, when for 12 hours; the entire group focuses our energy and projects tones for peace and planetary consciousness. It is an extraordinary event that has tremendous benefits for the planet. And it would be great if this type of experience could manifest throughout the planet. However, I am also aware of two things with regard to time: 1). Most people do not have a full day to devote to making sound. Many people don’t even have an hour. But almost everyone can spare 5 minutes of their time to project sacred sound
towards the planet and, 2). Time and space are mere illusions of our consciousness. Vibrational shift and transformation can occur instantaneously. Miracles can occur through the briefest intervals of focused sacred sound. On one level, I agree that with regard to the power of sound, if I could, I’d have everyone toning for the entire day. The Day of Toning at the Healing Sounds Intensive is, for almost everyone who experiences it, one of the most powerful events, not only of the Intensive itself, but also of their very lives. The Day of Toning is quite amazing. People’s vibrational levels shift and change permanently. It must be experienced to be understood. On another level, I have seen the extraordinary—great healings and major transformations— occur after only a short time of sacred sounding. Sometimes sound projected with focused intent can create powerful and permanent changes that occur almost instantaneously. Thus, both levels of understanding with regard to sound and time are true. In order to assist the largest capacity of people sounding together, 5 minutes of toning the “AH” heart sound was agreed to work best. Another questions arose regarding the minimum amount of people necessary to create the maximum resonance on the Earth. Many wondered if there was a specific number of people needed to effect change on this planet, particularly during group meditations or group soundings such as the 5 minute toning of the “AH” sound for World Sound Healing Day—“The Sound Heard Around the World”. One number that is frequently cited is the square root of one percent of the population. Gregg Braden, in THE ISAIAH EFFECT refers to research in which the first effects of mass meditation and prayer became noticeable when the number of people participating in the event was greater than one percent of the population. Crimes and terrorist activities dropped to zero in the area during the time of mass meditation and prayer. If you consider the population of the planet as approximately 6 billion people, then the square root of one percent of the population is approximately 8,000 people. Scientists working with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of TM, (Transcendental Meditation) describe the “Maharishi Effect” in which measurable reduction in crimes and violent activities occurred when less than one percent of a given population engaged in meditation. Their belief was that meditators were able to create a much greater field of consciousness than simply the space they were in—it was a bit like throwing a pebble into a lake—the tiny pebble creates ripples or waves that can spread out through the entire lake. Other scientists, including those at the Global Consciousness Project, have also observed this field of consciousness. While they have not stated any particular numbers necessary with regard to creation of this worldwide field, they did find this field of consciousness was able to directly influence sensitive electronics such as random number generators. If 8,000 people can influence help create the energy of peace, just think of how much greater the effect could be with more people participating in a meditation—particularly if these people utilized the power of sound with intent to amplify the energy such as we are doing with the “AH” sound on World Sound Healing Day. As Gregg Braden has said, the more people who participate in these events, the more accelerated the effect. It is possible to make a truly powerful, and permanent shift in our everyday reality through generating peace and compassion through sound. We can make a difference! What a blessing!
Calibrating Consciousness Recently, I came across a book that added some information with regard to this question of the minimum number of people required to create the maximum resonance of consciousness on the planet. Called POWER VS. FORCE, this book deals with the use of kinesiology to test for consciousness. The author, David Hawkins, MD, has created a scale from 1 – 1,000. It goes from lower to higher. 20 is one of the lowest calibrations for consciousness—here the person is living in shame—they are miserable, despising themselves and everything else. 1,000 is the highest calibration, indicating someone who is enlightened such as Christ or Buddha. This is someone who has achieved a state of pure consciousness. According to Dr. Hawkins, 85 % of the Earth’s population is operating at 200 or below. It is interesting to note that Koko, the signing gorilla is operating at 250. This is due to her compassion and caring about life. Unless someone has truly developed a loving opened heart, they calibrate at below 500—even if they are a noted scientist, artist or thinker. Being in state of compassion, peace and love is the key to heightened consciousness.
The more compassion and love we generate, the more divine we become. A small percentage of the population operating at higher levels of consciousness through generating compassion and love is able to balance the energy of everyone else. Through peace and compassion we can change the world, especially if we utilize sound to manifest this loving energy.
Biblical Prophecies With regard to the minimum numerical amount of people necessary to create change, there are also those, like Dr. Len Horowitz, author of HEALING CODES who feel that 144,000 is a very special number with regard to Biblical prophecies. This number is cited several times in the OLD TESTAMENT. Dr. Horowitz believes that 144,000 people singing Yah’s praise together will instantaneously and miraculously deliver this entire planet back to the oneness of the Creator. (Please note that the “AH” sound is in the name, “Yah” as it is in the names of many of the Divine names throughout the planet). Perhaps, from a Biblical standpoint, 144,000 represent a minimum number of semi-awakened individuals necessary to create some positive change on the planet through a sonic meditation such as our World Sound Healing Day. The sonic vibrations created by 144,000 spiritually evolved people could bring about the transformation on the Earth, thus creating a condition of peace. While some believe that there are very specific frequencies that must be sung in order to initiate this planetary transformation, I believe that having a large group simply tone the “AH” sound while projecting the heart felt energy of Love and Peace is enough to make a major difference. Together, we can effect powerful change on the planet Earth. These effects will be even more powerful if we can create an actual wave or “ring” of sound around the planet—The Sound Heard Around the World. Thus, on World Sound Healing Day, there will be a number of different soundings that will occur. Two global ones—one at 12 noon New York time and one at 12 noon Tokyo time—as well as individual soundings at the noon hour for all who participates time zone. The global ones will be carried by Internet radio; worldpuja.org and kirael.com. These two major Heart Soundings will allow those in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres to take part in this Sound Heard Around the World. In addition, at noon time wherever we may be throughout the planet, we can all send a sonic valentine to the Earth with an “AH” sound filled with the intention of Peace and Love! By sounding at the local noon hour, we will be sending a wave of divine sound that will resonate throughout the planet. What better way to celebrate this joyous day then to tell the Earth you love her and to generate peaceful energy throughout the planet with sound!
Conclusion What will happen on World Sound Healing Day? Perhaps we will manifest a new dawn of humankind and peace will forever permeate our planet! There will certainly be more balance instilled on the Earth—more harmony and peace. Higher grids of consciousness will be anchored, encoded and activated. We will have created more compassion and love onto the planet. In so doing, we will have initiated extraordinary beneficial change. We will have manifested positive shifts generating Light & Love through Sound. What a blessing! I thank all of you for your interest, your time and your loving energy in helping manifest World Sound Healing Day. Let us join together as a Celestial Choir and co-create the Sound Heard Around the World. Know that together our voices, our hearts and our consciousness can make a difference! Harmonically Yours, Jonathan Goldman http://healingsounds.com/articles/ah.asp
The 'AH' Sound To Generate Peace and Compassion by Jonathan Goldman
I would like to suggest that you have people use the "AH" sound, in whatever key or tone feels comfortable for them. This is an extremely powerful sound--particularly useful for generating peace and compassion. I know you will agree that peace and compassion are truly keys to transformation of consciousness on this planet.
As you may know, the "AH" sound is a sacred seed syllable. It is found in most of the God and Goddess names on the planet (Tara, Buddha, Krishna, Yah, Astara ), as well as many of the sacred words (Amen, Alleluia, Aum). Most mystical traditions worldwide also find it to be the sound of the heart chakra. Yet, as a vowel sound, it defies denomination or description as a mantra and is acceptable by everyone. To do this, simply sound the “AH”, feeling the energy of peace and compassion as the sound resonates in your heart center. While making this “AH”, visualize a beam of pink and gold energy going initially from you and spreading throughout this planet. As you make this sound, and do this visualization, feel the energy of peace and compassion within and without yourself. This feeling of peace while you make the sound is essential to the effectiveness of projecting the “AH”. Here is another exercise using the “AH” sound that is extremely beneficial for developing compassion within self and then generating it to others. Start first with yourself and begin to tone the “AH” sound while feeling the energy of compassion and peace within. Once you have been able to achieve this feeling, visualize a person with whom you have neutral energy and send this energy to them while making this sound. Finally, make the “AH” sound while sending the energy of peace and compassion to someone with whom you’ve had some difficulty. It is this last part of the exercise that provides the greatest opportunity for spiritual growth. It is easy to send love and peace to someone you already love. Or, with the second part of the exercise, someone you don’t have any real feelings about. It can be a real challenge to send compassion to someone you don’t love and whom you may consider to be an enemy. Yet, herein lies the most extraordinary evolutionary activation that can occur on both a personal and planetary level. If we can learn to do this, we will great assist the ascension of the Earth. http://healingsounds.com/articles/planetaryHS.asp
Planetary Healing Sounds by Jonathan Goldman
The following article contains information about three short and powerful mantras—sacred sounds that may effectively be used individually or in groups for transformation: “OM”, “AH” and “HU”. These mantras are particularly useful sounds for projecting specific intentions. Please note that it does not seem to matter what pitch, frequency or keynote the mantra is chanted with regard to the effect of the mantra. The intention of the chanter, however, does seem to affect the power of the mantra and can amplify the energy even more. For this reason, you may find the article on “Intention” of interest. Mantras Mantras are “words of power”. The word “mantra” is Sanskrit and may be translated as the “thoughts that liberate from samsara (the world of illusions)”. Mantras are listened to or recited by a practitioner for many different purposes; as a means of achieving different states of consciousness, to create resonance with specific attributes of divine energy, and to manifest different qualities, from resonating the chakras to embodying compassion. Mantras are found in all the different sacred traditions including Judaism and Christianity—the “Hail Mary” or “Amen” in the Christian Tradition or the “Shema” or “Shalom” in the Hebrew tradition are the equivalent of mantras, as is any repetition of prayer, chant or sacred sound. The prayers, chants and sacred sounds of the Native American tradition or the Islamic tradition may also be considered mantras. In fact, there is virtually no spiritual tradition, including indigenous peoples, in which the recitation of sacred sound as mantra does not occur. While there are many mantras that are quite long and complex, many people are often looking for short mantras that may be easily sounded when people meet together in a group.
Within the context of mantra, the most famous of these mantras— the mantra that is considered the “first of all mantras” is the OM. For this reason, the “Om” is an excellent mantra to work with. In this writing, we will examine several such short mantras which may be used effectively.
On “OM” Of all the sacred sounds on this planet, the one that is most often chanted is the “OM”. Undoubtedly, at any given moment, there is someone, somewhere chanting this sacred mantra. The “OM ” is considered one of the oldest vocal sounds in existence—many speculate that it has been chanted for untold thousands of years. It is considered to be the original, primordial sound—the mantra of creation. OM is a mantra from the Hindu tradition. OM is a Sanskrit word, which is said to be the original primordial creative sound from which the universe and all of creation first manifested. While pronounced “OM”, certain Sanskrit scholars state that it is written as “AUM”. Many consider the two words to be interchangeable because of this. OM is said to be the sound that contains all sounds--it is the totality of all other sounds. Swami Sivananda Radha says, “The cosmic sound AUM, or its condensed form, OM, is the origin of all other sound. OM is everything. It is the name of God.” OM is a multi-dimensional sound, and as such, may be understood a number of different ways. One understanding is that OM (or it’s written form “AUM”) represents attributes of the major trinity of Hindu gods; Brahman, Vishnu and Shiva. The sounding of the “A” represents the energy of Brahman, the creator and the creational process. The middle portion of the sound, the “U” represents the energy of Vishnu, the preserver and relates to the maintenance and preservation of what has been created. The final “M” represents the energy of Shiva, the transformer and relates to the vital transformational energy to shift and change that which has been created and preserved. Another understanding of the OM (or “AUM”) is that the “A” represents the physical plane, the “U” the “mental and astral planes” and the “M, all that is beyond the reach of the intellect. “AUM” or OM is the initial syllable, which begins almost all mantras. Thus OM represents the Infinite, the One Mind, the all embracing consciousness—that which is the very essence of existence. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the OM (“AUM”) represents different aspects of the trinity of the Body, Speech and Mind of the Buddha, or an enlightened being. The “A” represents the Body, the “U” represents Speech, and the “M” represents the Mind. Sounding the AUM in this manner puts one in resonance with these qualities of consciousness. The OM is a Bija (or “seed”) mantra and may be utilized to resonate the third eye. However, it may also be chanted as a 3 syllable word “AUM” (and pronounced as “AH – OH MMM”) to resonate the heart, the throat and the crown chakras. In fact, the OM can, through our intent, become a multi-purpose mantra with capabilities of resonating and aligning all the chakras—of cleansing imbalanced energies and purifying self. Sung with sincerity and devotion, vocalization of the OM can put the chanter in touch with the source of all creation, providing a bridge between the spiritual and physical dimensions and opening the way for inspirational contact with higher realms and beings. Many people ask if there is indeed a correct pronunciation for the OM. Is it “OM” or “AUM” or something else? In reality, there does not seem to be a correct pronunciation. Depending upon the country, language and dialect, the OM can be pronounced “AUM, UM, UNG, ANG, ONG” and so on. Yet, the resonance and effects of this mantra seem to be very similar despite varied differences in pronunciation. Much depends upon the intention of the person creating the sound—where do they wish the “OM” to resonate—which chakra and for what purpose. . OM as a sound symbolizes the supreme source. To many, the sound of OM is synonymous with the energy of peace. OM may be found as the root of many sacred words of different languages including our western “Amen” and the Hebrew “Shalom”, which has many meanings including “peace”. The OM initiates peace and tranquility when it is listened to, and particularly when it is chanted.
On “AH” One of the most powerful mantras on this planet is the sound “AH”. This is an extremely powerful sound--particularly useful for generating compassion. I know you will agree that compassion is truly a key to transformation of consciousness on this planet. The "AH" sound is a sacred seed syllable—a sacred mantras in many Eastern traditions
including Tibetan Buddhism. It is also a vowel sound—a divinely inspired sound that is considered sacred in many different traditions including Hebrew Kabbalah. The “AH” sound is found in most of the God and Goddess names on the planet (Tara, Buddha, Krishna, Yah, Yeheshua, Saraswati, Wakantanka, Quan Yin, etc.), as well as many of the sacred words (Amen, Alleluia, Aum). As a seed syllable, the “AH” is universal and may be utilized differently in different traditions, depending upon its purpose. In the Tibetan tradition, the “AH” is as a sacred mantra. In Western mystical traditions, it is a vowel sound. Most mystical traditions worldwide that work is the vowels sounds in relationship to the chakras find that the “AH” sound the sound of the heart chakra. This chakra, which is located in the center of the chest is the energy center associated with love and compassion. Indeed, when many people think about the energy of love, they express it as an “AH” sound. Many spiritual masters believe that the activation of this chakra is most helpful for achieving higher consciousness and enlightenment. Most agree that the energy of love and the heart is the primary, essential energy of the universe. Many people believe that the “AH” sound is the primary sound that is created when we are born —the sound being birthed on the inhalation of the first breath. The “AH” sound is also the last sound we make, riding on the energy of our final exhalation. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a co-meditation technique which uses the “AH” sound. Chanting “AH” together (or even simply by just breathing together) allows people to attune and resonate with each other. It seems that the heart beat, respiration and brain waves of two people will entrain with each other through breathing or sounding “AH” together. This use of the “AH” sound may be particularly effective for those involved in hospice work. In this situation, the “AH” sound may once again be used as a sound of the heart chakra. I often recommend the “AH” as a sound for people who want to work with short mantras in groups. The reason for this is that as has been discussed, “AH” is an extremely transformative sound. Yet, most people know of it only as a vowel sound, and thus it defies association with any spiritual denomination or description as a mantra. While other sounds such as “OM” might be rejected by certain audiences because they are recognized as Eastern mantras or coming from another spiritual traditions, the sounding of an “AH” is acceptable by everyone regardless of their background, culture or religion. Here is an easy exercise with regard to working with the “AH” sound to generate the energy of compassion. All you do is have people sound an "AH" while they are generating the energy of compassion. Start first with yourself, then with someone you love, then with someone you have neutral energy with and finally with someone you have difficulty with. It is this last that provides the greatest opportunity for spiritual growth, since it's easy to send love to someone you love and real hard to do it to someone you don't.
On “HU” Just as many traditions believe that the “OM” is the original creative sound, there are traditions that believe that this energy may be attributed to another sound—the “HU”. In the Shabd Yoga traditions, including Master Path and Eckankar and in the mystical Islamic path of Sufi, the “HU” is considered to be the highest vibratory mantra that can be sounded. Chanting the “HU” is said to lead one to transcendence—to God realization and enlightenment. “HU” is believed to be the universal name of God, which is present in every existing language. The “HU” sound has been described as many things from the buzzing of bees to the rushing of wind to the flute of God. It is said to be present in the words we speak, in the sounds of animals; that it is the wind in the trees, the rushing of waters, the roaring of water falls, the beat of the sea against a beach—that it is everywhere, in every plane. Like the “AH” and the “OM”, the “HU” may be perceived of as a seed syllable. Depending upon its pronunciation, it may also be perceived of as a vowel sound—the “U”. The “HU” creates extraordinary energy for balance and clearing. Many believe it activates both the heart and the crown chakras. When sounded together in a large group, it is extremely powerful and transformative. Different spiritual paths seem to have very different ways of pronouncing the “HU”, the sacred name of God. Certain spiritual paths from the Shabd Yoga traditions will chant it as one would the word “you”. Other spiritual variants of Shabd Yoga, will chant it as the word “who” which is said to be good for clearing the crown chakra. In the Sufi Tradition, there is even a way of chanting the “HU”, doing it with lips barely touching and being the primary vibrator, so that this “HU” sound almost sounds like a motorboat or a
buzzing insect. The Sufis perceive this “HU” is good for resonance of the throat chakra. Different groups may insist that their pronunciation of “HU” is the only correct pronunciation. However, regardless of the way it is chanted, continued, elongated sounding of “HU”, particularly with specific intention and visualization, will lead the reciter into an elevated state of consciousness.
Conclusion “OM”, “AH” and “HU” are just a few of the one syllable mantras from different traditions—there are many others. These three have been described because of their recognition and power. Interestingly, these one-syllable mantras combine quite easily. In fact, if one chants the “OM” or “AUM” as a three-syllable sound as suggested elsewhere—“AH OH MM”—you have one combination which contains at least two of these sounds. When pronounced in the way, the “OM” or “AUM” should be sounded on one breath. Project the 3 syllables as three separate sounds so that the “AH” resonates the heart center, the “OH” resonates the throat center and the “MM” resonates the third eye and crown. This way of sounding the “OM” is extremely effective in a group for bringing the energy of the people together. The Tibetan Buddhist Chant of “OM AH HUM” also contains these sounds. The “OM AH HUM”, the Mantra of Blessing frequently precedes the recitation of other mantras. In this setting, when utilized as part of this mantra, the “AH” embodies the principle of creative sound and pure speech and is used to resonate the throat chakra (with the “OM” resonating the crown chakra and the “HUM” resonating the heart chakra). In conclusion, these three mantras of “OM”, “AH” and “HUM” are particularly effective for working with a group in order to create and then project sacred sound for use to assist in planetary healing sound—using sound to assist the creation of peace and harmony on the earth. As always, it should be stated that the intent of the chanter is of great importance. In the article on “INTENTION” is much information on understanding this and in particular, the formula Vocalization + Visualization = Manifestation. By themselves, these mantras have their own extraordinary divine resonance. But through skillful means, one can project intention upon these sounds, amplifying and making even more extraordinary the great healing gifts they can bring. http://healingsounds.com/articles/project-intention.asp
Projecting Intention
by Jonathan Goldman Excerpts on the subject from HEALING SOUNDS: The Power of Harmonics From Chapter 1 “Hermetic Harmonics” When I first began working with sound and music for healing, I understood that everything was based upon frequency. As the Hermetic Principles tell us, the universe is nothing, more or less, than an endless number of vibrations and rhythms. Yet, as I began to pursue and study this work more, I began to notice another interesting phenomenon. Sometimes different people apparently used different frequencies or different sounds to heal the same problem. ‘How could this be?’ I wondered, unless there was something else besides the frequency. There must have been something equally important in sound that I had been ignoring. It was my friend and fellow colleague Steven Halpern, PhD, who first brought my attention to the missing area in question. ‘Sound is a carrier wave of consciousness,’ Steven said. This means that depending upon where an individual’s awareness is placed when he creates a certain sound, the sound will carry information on that state to the person receiving it. If, for example, you are angry and you create a sound, even though it may be a pleasant sound, you will be sending anger that is incorporated into that sound. This will be perceived on some subtle level by those receiving the sound. I like to think of this as the intent or purpose behind the sound. With this word ‘intent’, we are really talking about the consciousness of the sound being
created. This encompasses the overall state of the person making the sound and involves the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of that person. The initial understanding of intention involves our conscious mind. Is the conscious intent of the sound to heal or to hurt, or is there no specific intent or purpose there at all? A more advanced understanding of intent involves what may be understood as alignment with the purpose of our higher selves, or the ‘Divine Will’. It is that aspect of consciousness that is able to align with the sacred energy of sound. It is ‘Thy will’, not ‘my will’. When we have reached this level, our intent is to become a vehicle for sacred sound and we are able to by-pass the lesser aspects of self which may be out of balance. For many people, the initial understanding of intent is a major stepping stone in using sound as a transformative and therapeutic tool, for most of us have never created sound with conscious awareness and purpose. Once I began to bring the concept of intent into the area of healing with sound, answers appeared for me. The concept of intent relates to the Hermetic Principle that all is mind, for intent stems from the mind of the creator of sound. All is vibration and rhythm, but what is the intent behind the energy? Dr. John Diamond, MD, worked for years with behavioral kinesiology, a method of muscle testing. With kinesiology you would test a person to determine if his muscle was strengthened or weakened by an external force or stimulus. For example, when someone held a cigarette and you pressed their arm down, their arm would be much weaker than before they held the cigarette. Cigarettes, among many other things, tend to rob us of our life energy. Dr Diamond spent many years demonstrating that not only would certain substances make us strong or weak, but that music could do the same thing. The main aspect of what made the music positive and strengthening or negative and weakening depended upon the intention of the person creating the music. An example of this was demonstrated when I listened to a classical piece performed by an orchestra with a well-known conductor. While I listened to this piece of music, I had my muscle tested for strength or weakness. I was also asked just to observe my respiration and my heart beat: both of these were slow; I was breathing deeply and regularly. Then I listened to the same piece of classical music performed by the same orchestra with a different conductor. The music went on and before I was muscle tested, I was again asked to observe my heartbeat and respiration. Much to my amazement, I found that I was breathing shallowly and that my pulse was faster. When I was muscle tested, I tested weakly. What was different? It was the same piece of music with the same orchestra! How could such a dramatic change have taken place within me? The answer lay with the conductor. The first conductor was a man who was loved and revered by the classical community. He really seemed to be in touch with the flow of music that was being created and acted as a conduit for the music. His music made me strong. The second conductor was a very strict and regimented man who created fear in those with whom he worked. His music always had to be perfect. His reputation and his ego were committed every time he picked up the baton. His music made me weak. Here was a perfect example of intention creating the difference in the effect of the music. The sound had been the same and yet the influence it had had upon me was very different. The major focus in this book is upon the human voice. There are two reasons for this. First, the human voice is the most accessible of instruments. We do not have to go out and buy a piece of scientific machinery or a musical instrument in order to experience harmonics. Second, the easiest instrument through which intention can be focused and channeled is the human voice. It is a bit more difficult to pick up an instrument and project your intent. It is more difficult to turn on a machine and project your intention, especially if the machine is designed for healing and all you have to do is turn it on and leave the room. Because of this understanding of the importance of intention within the use of sound as a modality for healing and transformation, I have created a formula which is important for us to comprehend. It is this: FREQUENCY + INTENTION = HEALING
It means that the intention of the person working with the sound is as important as the frequency which is being projected at a person to create resonant frequency healing. Since the concept of intention is, at present, a scientifically immeasurable quality, it is extremely difficult for many in the medical community to understand it. Nevertheless, I am convinced that this formula is correct and that without the aspect of intention, working with pure frequency alone is not the answer. This is another reason why I have been working more closely with the human voice. When we have learned techniques for harmonic toning, the human voice is able to create nearly every frequency, at least within the bandwidth of audible hearing. Due to the Principle of Correspondence, these sounds can potentially relate to any vibrating object. We therefore have the resonance and entrainment aspects of sound within our own capacity. Try this for yourself. Take a little phrase such as ‘I really like you’ and project different qualities on to this. For example, say ‘I really like you’ and imagine saying this to a loved one such as a parent, a child, a brother or a good friend whom you haven’t seen in a long time. Close your eyes and see this person and say ‘I really like you’ to them. Now imagine that you are with a person whom you find sexually attractive. It may be a husband, wife, boy or girl friend. Whoever it is, imagine your attraction to this person and then say ‘I really like you’ and perceive the difference in the way you felt it from the first time you said it. Now imagine that you are with a person who is a dreaded enemy. This is someone you really don’t like and really can’t stand to be with. Now close your eyes and feel the disharmony in the situation and now say ‘I really like you’ to this imagined person. It may sound very different or it may sound very similar. But the energy behind this ‘I really like you’ is certainly different from the other two. Even if you use the exact tone of voice with all three ‘I really like you’s, do you think the different people receiving these sounds would be able to perceive the differences in intention in them? They are the same words (the same frequency) but with the different intentions they will affect us very, very differently. We can learn to use our voices for positive means or we can create the opposite effect. The human voice seems to be the most potent creator of sound frequencies that can be coupled with intention. An additional formula which uses the same principles of frequency and intention is: VISUALIZATION + VOCALIZATION = MANIFESTATION This formula developed through an examination of the creation myths from many different traditions. In many of these myths, the creator God would manifest the world and all its objects through sound. This God would visualize or first think of the object to create, placing intention upon this. Then the God would vocalize the sound for the object, creating its frequency and bringing it into being. In Genesis, 1:3, for example, we have: ‘And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.’ The creator God speaks the name ‘Light’ and through this creates Light. Similarly, the Ancient Egyptians believed that the God Thoth would speak the name of an object and bring it into being. Other examples of this creation through sound are: ‘In the beginning was the Word.’ (St. John, 1:1) ‘In the beginning was Brahman with whom was the Word.’ (Vedas) The Hopi legends tell of the Spider Woman who sang the song of creation over the inanimate forms on the earth and brought them to life. And from Popul Vuh in the Mayan tradition, the first real men are given life by the soul power of the voice. Through the principles related in this writing, we can understand how the voice may be used to heal and transform. We can embody the mystical and sacred power of sound and rediscover our own innate ability to use our voices as extraordinary instruments of health and wellbeing….
From Chapter 10 “Overtoning” The importance of ‘intention’ has been stressed in various chapters throughout this book. Intention is the energy behind the sound being created. It is the consciousness we have when
we are making a sound. While intention seems to be a very ethereal concept and certainly difficult to quantify, I have little doubt that as we become more aware of the power of sound to heal and transform, intention will become an aspect of sound that receives much more attention. The human voice is able to focus and project energy of intention during sound-making better than any other instrument. Some scientific machinery may be geared towards projecting the specific frequencies of an organ to that organ. However, it is easy enough for the applier of these sounds to be using such instruments on someone while daydreaming of a time at the beach or something else. When we use our voice ourselves or on someone else, we immediately focus on the present moment in order to create a healing situation. We come in the now and our intention is similarly focused. We can easily understand this concept of intention in relationship to the human voice by thinking of the ability of singers to affect us. We can listen to a vocalist with an extraordinarily excellent voice (a voice whose frequencies correct) and yet be perfectly bored. We may hear this excellent voice, but something is missing and the sound does not affect us. Y et, we can listen to a singer whose voice is craggy and perhaps critically defined as poor and be moved tears by their sounds. The difference in the ability of these two singers to affect is certainly not in the frequencies they are projecting. It must lie, therefore, in the intention they have in creating their sounds. We may find as we continue this investigation into the therapeutic effects of sound that intention is of equal, if not greater, importance than the actual sound being created. Where is intention created? It is created in our minds and our hearts before we make a sound. It can be an imaging or a visualization that we focus upon, which we project upon the sound when we make it. When is the intention created? It is usually created during the breath we take before we make the sound. In particular, it seems to be most effective at the stillpoint that occurs when the breath is already in our lungs waiting to be released. This stillpoint between the in-breath and the out-breath (in our case, the sound) is believed by many to be the time during the cycle of the breath when the human body is locked in resonance with itself. Scientist Itzhak Bentov, among others, believes that during this time, the body creates a wave form that operates at about 7.8 cycles per second. This is a frequencywhich is believed to be the resonant frequency of the Earth and that during this time, we are, however briefly, also locked in resonance with the energy of the Earth. For a moment, take a breath, hold it and then release it. See if you feel this stillpoint. The breath is the key to all sounds that we create using our own voice. Without our breath there is no sound. Breath is the essence of life, for without our breath, we would have no life. In many different traditions, the life energy inherent in breath is considered sacred. This energy is called ‘prana’ in the Hindu traditions. In Orient, it is called ‘chi’ or ‘ki’. The Hebrew word for breath is ‘ruach’ which is the same as the Hebrew word for ‘spirit. Please note that while this stillpoint may be considered by some to be the most ideal point at which to project intention onto sound, it is by no means the only place where this may be done. If, during your projection of intention you find yourself becoming too concerned with focusing intention only upon the stillpoint—to the degree that this becomes a distraction with regard to generating the energy of intention—it is suggested that you work with focusing intention in a manner that feels comfortable and natural to you. In this writing are only suggestions –one does not want to get locked in or fixed in the belief that “this is the only way”. There are many different ways of working with intent…. There is one addition to the projection of sound upon intent this is very helpful when done either individually or in a group setting. When making the sounds, imagine that there is a beam of energy coming from your heart, your throat and your third eye. Imagine this energy coming out of your centers and meeting at the point of a triangle that is the beam of sacred sound. From your heart is coming Divine Love, from your throat is coming Divine Sound and from your third eye is coming Divine Wisdom as you make the sound. This visualization will enhance the sacred sound and make this work with projecting sacred sound even more effective. http://healingsounds.com/articles/lost-chord-15.asp
Lost Chord: Chapter 15 by Jonathan Goldman "The world was created through sound!" Shamael said. I nodded my head and watched as he waved his hand. I saw the creation of the earth and the planets, of suns and galaxies and universes. "It is not sound as you would think of in human terms. You think of sound as that which you perceive through your sense of hearing. Everything in the universe is in a state of vibration and has its own natural frequency. Everything in the universe was created from these frequencies which are unique and natural to themselves, " the angel continued. "From the spinning of your electrons as they revolve around the nucleus in your atom, to the rotation of the planets around your sun, all these create vibrations which may be understood as being sound. They produce the sound and they are the result of the sound. This is important. Do you understand?" "I do Shamael," I said. "Everything is in a state of vibration." "That is so." the Angel acknowledged. "You are nothing more or less than vibration. Your physical body, etheric bodies and other bodies are merely vibrating at different speeds or different rates of being. It is important to learn to be able to consciously change the vibrations of these different bodies in order to be able to acclimate to the different frequency shifts that are occurring on your planet now. Do you understand?" The Angel waved his hand again and suddenly I was looking at myself, or rather looking at my selves, myriad versions of me all vibrating at various speeds. It was fairly awe-inspiring and rather complicated to understand. "I think so," I answered. "This is what your Lost Chord does. This is how it creates a gateway that allows dimensional access." Shamael touched my forehead and I was back as one being talking to the angel in the domed temple, standing next to a marble pillar and a fountain with luminescent liquid flowing from it. "These gateways have been accessed before by humans, particularly those who have devoted their lives to the sacred. They have worked with both the frequency of an object, and its intention." "It's intention?" I asked. "When the Creator first spoke that word which brought illumination to the Universe, the Creator did not merely say "Light" or the Divine equivalent of this." "No?" I said, still trying to follow. "No", Shamael repeated. "The Creator thought of the energy and of the intention of light which was then encoded this upon the sound." "Oh," I said, still not comprehending. "A sound may be encoded with an intention, an energy or a thought form. It also may simply be a sound. When it becomes encoded with an intention, it becomes more powerful. When the Tibetan Monks on your planet chant one of their mantras, they are not merely chanting words which are create a frequency. They are also encoding the words with intentions. They do this through precise visualizations. This allows them to gain inter dimensional access to various places. This creates the Gateways." "I understand this," I said. "Through repeating these mantras, which by their very nature are sacred and then adding their visualizations, the Tibetan are able to make their mantras more powerful. The mantras become encoded with specific energy. By chanting previously encoded words such as these mantras, an uninitiated person may experience some of this Gateway effect and perhaps travel to other realms of consciousness. The very act of repeating a mantra creates an intentionality. Nevertheless, discipline is required for continued clarification of the process. There is a built in protection in self-created sounds which does not allow those working with it to go beyond their own abilities." I nodded my head. Then I understood. "The Lost Chord does not require any intention or any discipline." "Exactly," Shamael affirmed. "Through the transformation of the mantric formulae into sonic formulae, your friend has created an acceleration in the machinations of the universe. As has been said, this has happened before. It will happen again. But the Lost Chord is able to create the Gateways without the conscious intention of the individual using it. Because of this, it can be manipulated by any who have knowledge of this process."
Uncle Jude, I thought. "Exactly," said Shamael. "But how can I stop him?" I asked aloud. "You do not need to stop him. He will stop himself, but you must be part of that process." "I don't understand?" I exclaimed. "Only experience will reveal this truth," Shamael said. Suddenly I woke up. I had been asleep in the backseat of my Bronco. I was covered by a blanket which I kept in the back. I rubbed my eyes and looked up. It was getting light. I looked at my watch and saw it was after 6:00 am. Charlie Singing Eagle was not in the car and I didn't have a clue as to where we were. I sat up and stretched. We were somewhere out in the woods, that much was clear. There was a little cabin about 50 feet from where the car was parked. I got out and began walking towards it. A light was burning inside and I could hear voices. "Here he comes now," I heard Charlie say as I walked up four steps to the cabin. I entered the wooden cabin. It was a tiny A frame made of logs. There was a fire burning in the fireplace which cast long shadows over the two figures sitting in front of it. One of the figures was Charlie, who was sitting on an old lounge chair. The other figure sitting in a wooden rocker I knew instantly. "Christopher," Charlie said, "This is Grandma Gladys Goodnight." I walked over to the tiny woman sitting with a blanket wrapped around her. "How do you do, ma'm?" I asked. She was the oldest looking woman I think I'd ever seen. Her entire face was one huge set of wrinkles. She had the clearest eyes I've ever seen and light seemed to radiate around her. "Just fine Christopher," she laughed, her eyes twinkling. "Did you have a good sleep." "Excellent," I responded. "Well I believe you needed it after what you've been through," she said. "I guess so." I answered. "Pull up a chair and sit down with us," she stated. "I'd love to ma'm" I said, as humbly as I could. "But I don't think we've got time." I looked at Charlie. "I thought you said it was urgent we get to the Ranch." "It is Christopher," Charlie said. "But it's even more urgent that we get some advice from Gladys." I shook my head and yawned. "Get the boy some coffee, Charlie!" Grandma Gladys said. "Sit down boy!" She motioned to a stool that was next to her. "Coffee?" Charlie asked me. I shrugged my shoulders. "Sure. Why not?" Charlie walked over to a pot of coffee that was sitting next to the fire. He poured me a cup and handed it to me. I thanked him and sat on the stool. Then I turned to the old woman. "Any advice you can spare?" I asked. "Anything that could help me out of this situation? I don't know how much Charlie has told you but....". Grandma Gladys held up her hand. "I know enough to tell you that there are some very powerful spirits involved in this situation of yours. Not all of them are very good either. You can use every bit of help you can get." "That's for sure," I confirmed. Gladys looked at me and shook her head. "You've sure been through a lot of changes in the last few days." "That's for sure," I said again. I was beginning to sound like a broke record. "A quick initiation in the spirit world," she offered. "I guess you could say that," I affirmed. "It is a powerful, good experience you have had." I nodded my head. "That doesn't make it any easier." "Easy is not the answer," she said. "Truth is." I liked this old lady. There was something very comforting about the words she spoke and her wisdom. Still, I was scared. "I'm scared." "Scared is only sacred misspelled," she answered. I thought about that for a moment before I understood. Then she laughed. "It's alright to be scared, but you have to know what you're scared of. This is very unpleasant and it could get more unpleasant. You must take action." "I know," I said rather glumly. "But I'm still scared."
"Now Christopher," she said very sweetly and gently, "You've got this big old archangel standing right behind you and you say you're still scared. Why shame on you. " "You can see him too?" I exclaimed. I looked at Charlie who laughed at the expression of my face. "She trained me," was all he said. "This is for real then?" I asked. "As real as anything," Gladys said. "Or as unreal as anything. All your mystics and masters have always asked what is reality and what is illusion?" "Okay," I said, smiling as I waved her to stop. "I get it. Or I don't get it. I mean the three of us are sitting here casually talking about an angel that probably no one else in the world can see and that's alright. But my two friends are being held as mindless zombies by some crazed cult leader who thinks he's the second coming and wants to take over the world using sound. That is a reality". Grandma Gladys looked at me with a long, piercing look. "What are you scared of boy?" "Lots of things," I answered. "Scared ain't nothing but sacred misspelled," Gladys repeated. "You said that before," I told her. "Yes, but you still don't truly understand." she replied. She bent over and petted the head of a large wolf dog that was asleep at her feet. I hadn't noticed the animal before. "Maybe not," I admitted. "Everything is sacred, Christopher. Everything is an aspect of the Great Spirit. But sometimes things are twisted and that's alright. You have to have black in order to have white. It's part of the Great Spirit's plan. Do you know what I mean?" "Yeah, I get that," I acknowledged. "Balance is part of the process of nature." "That's right boy," she laughed. "Now what're you scared of? You scared of me?" "Of course not," I answered. "But you are scared of this Uncle Jude, right?" "That's a fact, ma'm," I replied. "Yet Uncle Jude and I are the same," Grandma Gladys said. "Except that you're working the light side and he's working the dark side," I said. "He wants to control and manipulate. Do you want to do this?" Gladys shook her head. "No I don't Christopher. I don't need to. But Uncle Jude does. Do you know why?" I was about to say "no", when it hit me. "Because he wants love." I said. "That's right Christopher. Because he wants love. And whose love does he want most of all?" "God's love?" I asked, but I already knew it was the answer. "God's love!" she repeated. "The love of the Great Spirit, the Creator, Wakantanka or whatever you want to say. That love is the greatest love of all and it is sacred. That boy, your Uncle Jude, is just lost and confused. That's all. He wants to find the sacred, but he's scared, scared that he can't. So instead of trusting in the natural order and finding God's love within himself, he tries to twist and manipulate things to his own workings, so that people love him. Then he feels that maybe he's worthy of receiving God's love." "Yeah," I said, "I can relate to this from a psychological or spiritual understanding of the situation. And on one level I feel sorry for Uncle John. But that still doesn't change the situation." "Maybe it doesn't," Gladys said. "Maybe it does. What scares you most about Uncle Jude?" "That I'll have to fight him," I said immediately. "He's powerful and strong and quite frankly, I've never liked to fight." "Fight him with love, child," she answered. "What?" I exclaimed. "Fight him with God's love, Christopher. It's the most powerful thing on Mother Earth." "What!" I repeated. "Calm down boy," she said. In her soft and gentle voice she told me "Now close your eye and take a deep breath." I did as I was told. "Now as you breathe in, feel God's love inside of you. Become aware of God's love as being part of everything. Everything is sacred." I breathed in and experienced this warm glowing feeling. As I did, my heart began to tingle and my third eye began to vibrate. Suddenly some of the memories that I had during my Lost Chord experience began to come back. I remembered the interrelationship of all things and how the entire universe and all the different dimensionalities were connected in a web.
"Feel the energy of the Great Spirit's love. There is nothing this love can not penetrate. Feel this love like an ocean. Know that if you can be fluid like the ocean, if you can vibrate to the different waves of this energy, then you can be part of this energy. Do not be stuck. That's what happened to your Uncle Jude. He's stuck in a place and he can't get out. To be stuck means you are fighting. It means you are scared. To be fluid allows you to change with the energy of the moment. It is like that old image of the wheat bending in the strong wind while the board that is rigid breaks. You don't have to fight anyone. All you have to do is love. Raise your vibrations when you come across Uncle Jude. He won't be able to do a thing to you." I saw the multi-colored wings of my angelic friend and was filled with an extraordinary feeling of peace and light. All the fears I had about trying to rescue Rusty and Dave and getting the Lost Chord back had vanished--at least for the moment. "Everything's going to be alright," I stated, opening my eyes to the pleasant sight of Grandma Gladys and Charlie Singing Eagle looking at me. "You bet it is," Gladys affirmed. "Just walk in the Great Spirit's path and you will be fine." "How about if I walk in God's sound?" I asked, remembering what Shamael had told me about sound creating light. "Now you've have it," Gladys laughed. "How do I do that?" I asked. "Didn't that big angel teach you nothing?" Gladys laughed again. "I guess he left that for you to do," I said, shrugging my shoulders. "I guess he did," Gladys said, nodding her head. "Okay Christopher, I have teaching for you and not a lot of time. But you've had quite an education in the past few days--kind of like getting your high school diploma overnight." "Kind of," I admitted. "Now, it's time for a crash course in college," Gladys told me. She turned to Charlie. "Charlie, can you scramble some eggs and make some food. This boy's going to need some nourishment. We all will. " Charlie nodded and walked over to a box to do something. I didn't follow his movements because I was once again caught in the gaze of Grandma Gladys Goodnight. "Now you listen good, Christopher," she began, "I'm going to teach you how to walk with the sound of the Creator.” http://healingsounds.com/articles/healing-sounds-intro.asp
New Introduction to Healing Sounds - 2nd Edition by Jonathan Goldman
Welcome to the 2nd edition of HEALING SOUNDS. The original edition was published in 1982 and has since become a landmark in the field of sound healing. It has been translated into German, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish and a number of other languages. The publishers have requested that I contribute a new introduction to this edition. It is with pleasure that I do so. Since the first printing of this book, it ha been my great honor to travel the world presenting HEALING SOUNDS Seminars. I continue in wonderment at the power of sound and its ability to transform people's lives. Sometimes this transformation occurs through physical healing. Sometimes it is through mental, emotional or spiritual changes. Through these Seminars, individuals are empowered with sound. They explore new horizons in human potentials. They realize a new aspect of their being. They experience themselves as vibration, as being sound. Through this, they experience transformation. Since the first publication of HEALING SOUNDS, the field of sound and music for healing has greatly expanded. This is in part due to the pioneering efforts of many who are initiating others into the experience of sound. It is also due in part to the great changes in consciousness which we are now undergoing.
SHIFTING FREQUENCIES We are living in extraordinary times, times of enormous shifts in awareness, times of great changes in culture and society, times of planetary evolution. Some would say that Vibrational Modulations are occurring. Others would say that it is Earth Changes. Others would say that it is the End of the Millennium Blues. I like to talk about Frequency Shifts and their relationship to people and the planet.
For many different reasons, we are waking up, becoming aware. About ourselves. About human potential. About creating a better world. About changing reality. Sound plays a key role in these times, for sound is helping us adjust to the frequency shifts that are occurring on so many levels. In the many different traditions and cultures of this planet, our connection to the Source is through sound. "In the beginning was the Word." The Sound! The Harmonics. This understanding is both spiritual and scientific. Everything is in a state of vibration. Everything is frequency. Sound can change molecular structure. It can create form. We realize the potential of sonic energy; we understand that virtually anything can be accomplished through vibration. Then, the miraculous seems possible. Through practice and experience with sacred intent, we can learn to shift our own frequencies using harmonics. These sounds can resonate our body, our brain and our etheric fields. We can change our vibrational rate through our own self-generated sounds. These sacred sounds, made with a specific intention, and with the energy of love, can interface with the different planes of consciousness, invoking and evoking different levels of awareness. This is particularly true when harmonics are made with conscious intention in a group. One of the most powerful ways of consciously using Vocal Harmonics and Overtoning is to create sacred sound together in a group. Sounding in a group can create a morphic field resonance through a unified consciousness. Fields created through group sounding have potentials far greater than we've dreamed. On our own, we can consciously interface and effect our own vibratory levels. In groups, sacred sound can influence not only ourselves and those around us, but can adjust the planet to a new level of consciousness. It is the throwing of a tiny pebble into a still lake. The ripples and waves created by the pebble grow in size and strength and reach to the farthest ends of the lake. This rediscovery of our own ability to shift frequencies through harmonics is a gift that we are being given.
HARMONICS AND HEALING SOUNDS Harmonics are there and yet not there, tangible and yet not tangible. They are present and yet not noticed, until the shift begins to occur. First our hearing changes--we can perceive things that were hidden. Next, our voices change--we can create sounds that were not previously there. Then, our consciousness changes and other realities come into our awareness. HEALING SOUNDS focuses on the ability of harmonics to create vibrational changes. These changes may occur in the physical body, or in the mental, emotional and etheric bodies. When these changes occur, they initiate transformation and healing. The purpose of this book is to link interdisciplinary, multi-cultural, sacred and scientific approaches to sound through harmonics. Harmonics display universal principles and are a constant in the various traditions and societies that use sound for healing and self-transformation. Through experiencing harmonics, we can learn a great deal about ourselves and the worlds around us. I trust you will find a resonance with them. I trust they will awaken something in you. They can be sacred, magical and truly transformational. I trust that at time you will "read between the lines" and see the possibilities within possibilities in using sound. Some of the potentials are described in this book. I trust you will discover the other potentials yourself. Harmonics have been and always will be a great inspiration of mine. It is now apparent that many others also share this interest. Since the completion of this book, there continuous to be a tremendous reawakening of the interest in sound as a healing and transformative modality. In particular, a large portion of this interest has focused upon harmonics. Awareness and use of harmonics are truly expanding in this last decade of the 20th Century. This would not have occurred without the openness of the masters of Vocal Harmonics: the Tibetans, Mongolians and Tuvans. Members of the different Tibetan Monasteries have toured throughout the United States and Europe, sharing their sacred chants and much of their knowledge of Tibetan Overtone Chanting. A number of different Mongolian and Tuvan overtone singing ensembles have also toured and given workshops in the extraordinary vocal techniques of "Hoomi". This has allowed those interested in harmonics to have the opportunity to experience and learn these ancient vocal techniques.
NOUVEAU EUROPEAN VOCAL HARMONICS It has become apparent that there is now a new form of vocal harmonics that I and other Western teachers of sound are imparting to audiences. It is different from the Tibetan "One
Voice Chord" and the Mongolian and Tuvan "Hoomi" style. It is primarily this new vocal harmonic style that is being taught and practiced in the United States and Europe. I call this new style Nouveau European Vocal Harmonics. Nouveau European Vocal Harmonics is based upon some of the techniques utilized in the Tibetan, Mongolian and Tuvan traditions. However, this new style does not require years of practice nor present the possibility of straining the voice in order to create vocal harmonics. You will be learning in Chapter 9, "The Fundamentals of Vocal Harmonics". Nouveau European Vocal Harmonics are easily learned and can produce powerful results. This style of creating vocal harmonics represents a new form of sounding that is accessible to those in the West. As the awareness of sound continues to expand, we now have a new way of sounding that incorporates this awareness. This could not have occurred if the Tibetans and Tuvans had not shared their techniques with us. It is my pleasure to continue to meet amazing people who are working with vocal harmonics and to have wondrous encounters with them. Some have been musicians, others have been scientists, healers and mediators. I have had teachings through my experiences with masters of vocal harmonics from the Tibetan and Tuvan traditions. I will share several recent adventures with you. I trust they are appropriate to the spirit of sacred sound and harmonics.
DREPUNG LOSELING MONKS In my biography at the beginning of this book, it is stated that I was empowered by the Chant Master of the Drepung Loseling Monastery to teach Tibetan Overtone Chanting. This experience occurred after the first edition of HEALING SOUNDS was published. This is what transpired: On Sunday, December 15, 1991, Monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery gave a performance of Sacred Tibetan Music in Boulder, Colorado. These Monks have developed a chanting style that is as deep and resonant as that of the Gyuto and Gyume Monasteries. I had the privilege of spending the next day with these monks, sharing my work with sound with them. That night, the Drepung Loseling Monks gave a special workshop in Boulder on their chanting techniques. This was a transformative experience which realized in retrospect I had been awaiting since I first had heard the Tibetan "One Voice Chord" many years before. In this workshop, the monks first demonstrated their extraordinary chanting. Then, they openly discussed the creation and use of their chanting techniques, which they called The "Deep Voice" or "Voice of Melodious Tones", said to be the embodiment of the fully developed speech of the Buddha. There were 9 monks in this group. Of these 9 monks, 3 were considered "Chant Masters", deeply skilled in the ability to create and project the "Deep" Voice. These Chant Masters worked with the audience encouraging those in attendance to try to create own "Deep Voice" sound.
THE EMPOWERMENT Among those present that night was Rinchen Chugyal, the Chant Master of the entire Drepung Loseling Monastery. Rinchen Chugyal spent time with me, helping to further refine and develop my Tibetan chanting techniques. Of the fifty in attendance, I was the only one who was able to create the "Deep Voice". After Rinchen Chogyal was satisfied that I had absorbed his refinements, he looked at me and said: "Teach!" "Are you empowering me to teach the 'Deep Voice'?", I asked in amazement. "Yes!" , he said. "You teach!" Since I had developed the "Deep Voice" on my own (with no supervision on the physical plane), I had not felt it appropriate to attempt this before. Indeed, as I relate later in this book, my first experience attempting the Voice was not entirely successful. I still believe that improper methods of learning the Voice may be damaging. Until that time with Rinchen Chugyal, I had never consciously tried teaching anyone the Tibetan Chanting techniques. However, with the empowerment from the Drepung Loseling Chant Master, I was encouraged to begin teaching the "Deep Voice".
TEACHING THE TIBETAN VOICE I taught my first class in teaching the "Deep Voice" two months later to a group of Buddhist men who had attended the Drepung Loseling Monks Workshop. One third of the class were able to minimally produce the "Deep Voice" during my workshop. Others received the "Deep Voice" later.
Since then, I have become more proficient at understanding the physiological mechanism of the "Deep Voice". I have also realize the extraordinary power and sacred responsibility of the Voice and reserve the actual teaching of the voice for higher levels of the HEALING SOUNDS Seminars. It is, however, not unusual for a student at my opening Seminars to receive the "Deep Voice" simply by hearing me sound and by being around me. These students have been both men and women! It is quite an experience and a remarkable example of "harmonic transmission". I believe that the "Deep Voice" is a gift which I received through association with the Gyuto and Gyume Monks and which has now been amplified through the Drepung Loseling Monks. Almost two years later, I had another profound experience with Tibetan Overtone Chanting and sacred sound which I would now like to share.
IN CONCERT The extraordinary musician and composer Kitaro invited me to perform with him in an ensemble for a benefit concert for Tibet that was to take place in New York. One week prior to the concert I was informed that the Drepung Loseling Monks would be performing with us! As there are now several groups of Tibetan Monks who perform on tour, I found this occurrence rather synchronistic. The night of October 9, 1993 was one of the most sacred sonic experiences I have ever had. The concert took place at the Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. 5,000 people attended this performance. The "Voices of Tuva" began the concert, performing folk songs from Tuva in the "Hoomi" Voice". Next, the Drepung Loseling Monks sounded forth with their powerful chanting. Then Kitaro's ensemble came on stage. Kitaro performed on synthesizer and taiko drums. There was also a guitar player, a tabla player, another keyboard player and a didjeridu player. I played Tibetan bowls, bells, bamboo flute and percussions, and chanted in the "Deep Voice" as well as the Nouveau European Vocal Harmonic style. Then, the Drepung Loseling Monks performed for a final sacred chant in which I joined. It was a wonderful evening of old and new harmonic music, honoring the sacred sounds from many different traditions. I trust in some small way, through my part in the performance, I was able to return to the Tibetan Monks some of the extraordinary gifts that they have dispensed throughout the planet.
ONE LAST NOTE As the final note for this book, I would again thank the Masters of Sound Current. They continue to assist in my teaching and in this work. They have helped in the creation of this book and to assure that HEALING SOUNDS has found its way into the right hands. I would also thank you for sharing a mutual interest in sound with me. I trust that I will have the opportunity of creating and sharing Vocal Harmonics with you. May sacred sound flow you for the harmony of all. http://healingsounds.com/articles/9-insights.asp
Nine Insights Into Sound Healing by Jonathan Goldman
Sound and music have been used since ancient times for healing and transformation. Yet there is today a growing re-emergence of interest in this field of sound healing with many different thoughts and ideas about the effects of sonics and their use as a transformative energy. Many of the major questions about sound healing are still unanswered. The following thoughts are just my own and may not be based upon the reality of anyone else. They may, however, prove to be useful insights and considerations for others.
One: We are all unique vibratory beings. To begin, we address the concept that the basic principle of sound healing is that everything is in a state of vibration, including our organs, bones, tissues, etc. If these parts of the body become imbalanced they may be healed through projecting the proper and correct frequencies back into the body. This works for imbalances and over-or-underactivity in the chakras and the energy fields.
I believe that this concept is correct. I merely question whether the various frequencies that have been tabulated by numerous scientists and sound healers as being the frequency for the liver, for example, or the root chakra, are correct. My reason for questioning this information is that first, usually none of these frequencies that have been tabulated agree with one another. The second is, do you really believe that you have the same vibratory rate as anyone else? When I first began this work nearly fifteen years ago, I was involved in a project researching and investigating the effects of tone upon the chakras. I found dozens of different systems that used different sounds to achieve the same result. How could this be? I wondered. Later on, I came across the works of different scientists who used different frequencies to achieve the same result (and, I might add, with apparent success.) This led me to create the formula: Frequency + Intent = Healing The only commonality in many of these different systems was that the practitioner had the intent of vibrating or balancing a particular area or field with sound. However, this formula also stemmed from my own work with students, healers, and healees. It seemed that the more experience I had teaching and showing how to use sound as a transformative modality, the more validation I received that no one and nothing were the same. Which led to my believe that we are all unique vibratory beings, in a constant state of fluidity and flow. On a cellular level, there may be generic tones for specific organs. However, we may be lacking certain information regarding the proper understanding of this. Along with a frequency for the structure of the organ, there may also be a modulated frequency which is the pulse of the organ (how the organ interacts with the various energy which passes through it--is it slow or fast? etc.) The brain, for example, pulses at different frequencies (alpha, beta, delta, theta,) but these are not the frequencies of the tissues of the brain. There may be at least two very different types of sonics which influence and affect any organ. To make the assumption that we are all at the same level of physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual development, (and therefore that our chakras all behave the same and resonate to the same frequencies,) is rather simplistic. In Tibet, it seems that different chakras receive different mantras as sounds to resonate them, depending upon the level of development of the student. An "Ah" sound, for example, might work for the throat chakra at one level of development, while it might work for the heart chakra at another level. Years ago, a student of mine found a system for working with sound and the chakras which used the note "C" for the root chakra and went up the chakras diatonically ("C," "D," "E," "F," etc.) so that the seventh or crown chakra vibrated to "B." In principle, it was a very neat system, though it did not strike me as being correct for several reasons: First, it seemed that low frequencies affected my root chakra while high frequencies affected my crown. If the diatonic scale system were true, then that would mean that a low "B" would affect my crown chakra while a very high "C: would affect my root chakra, which did not seem to be the case. Also, is that note "C" resonating the root chakra before or after coffee? Early in the morning or late at night? Before or after meditation? It well may be that these activities and ingestions affect the frequency rate, not only of our physical body, but also of the chakras and the etheric fields. So, to the question, "Do I believe we all resonate to the same frequency?" I answer, "No! I do not." I believe we are all unique and different vibratory beings with different frequencies for our bodies, brain, and energy centers. And these frequencies can change.
Two: Because of the uniqueness of the human vibratory rate and the uniqueness of our response to music, it is difficult to accurately test the effects of music upon the human body and energy fields. One of the most effective measurements for testing the effects of music upon the body is kinesiology, a method of muscle testing. While highly trained practitioners of kinesiology can sometimes determine profound insights,
kinesiology is a very difficult and specific tool if the practitioner is not skilled or clear about its purpose. It is necessary that the persons doing the testing be well trained in the various subtleties of kinesiology, and that they be extremely clear, with nothing to prove when doing the testing. Thus, one sometimes questions the results of kinesiological testings, particularly involving music, if the person doing the testing has anything to prove. Here is one final thought on using kinesiology to check for the positive or negative effects of music. Given that if a practitioner checks a patient while the music is on, both parties will be influenced by the music and the results are not balanced nor accurate. However, if one of the persons wears headphones while listening to the music, it is speculated that headphones actually add their own influence into the kinesiological testing and change the results. The ultimate answer would be to use a machine that used the same amount of pressure each time. However, while such a machine does exist, it is not commonly found nor used.
Three: The energy inherent on recordings may be as important as the sound reproduction of the recording. As we move more and more into audiophile consciousness, with the advent of high-tech recording and playback equipment, a certain bias is developing which insists that for recorded music to be beneficial, it must be well recorded, without any distortion. There is an aspect of truth in this. "Clean," clear music, without distortion, etc., is very nice to our ears. It's great in fact, and I prefer it to poorly recorded sounds. But let's fact it, clean music isn't necessarily therapeutic. If one believes that there is an energy form (we'll call it "intent" for this purpose) outside the actual frequency range of the music, then something else is also going on when we listen to music. Have you ever heard a poorly recorded "bootleg" of a fabulous concert that absolutely sent you soaring when you heard it, then when you heard the same song released on the album that was clean and clear, it did nothing for you? I have. I have a number of recordings of chanting from various spiritual masters on which the fidelity is questionable. But the energy inherent in these recordings is marvelous and somehow the healing or transformative energies are still transmitted through the sounds. If someone is so biased that they cannot bypass the audio fidelity of a recording, I have no doubt that these people will not allow themselves to access the energy inherent on poorly recorded cassettes and discs. This may be a problem unique unto the individual and not inherent in the actual recording. Let us not bias others with our own biases. It certainly qualifies and quantifies what's good and bad for us.
Four: No one recorded sound medium is better than another. This brings us to the insight of whether analog recordings (cassettes and record albums) are more beneficial than digital recordings (or vice versa.) The sonic jury is still out on this. No one knows. No doubt, both analog and digital are very different and, no doubt, they both can have positive results. When kinesiology was first used as a method of testing the effects of music, it really seemed that digital was not beneficial. At the time, this may have been true. The early digital recordings sounded different: they were clear, but cold. Some people would develop headaches while listening to them. Still later, as digital continued to develop, I found people who believed that digital recording created sounds that were not beneficial to the cells of the body or auric field. There may be truth to this. It is difficult to accurately test the effects of music. More recently, a friend of mine who is a fine musical magician suggested that I was anti-digital because I was afraid of new technology. "Once you stop being afraid, you'll be able to work with digital and synthesized sampled sounds as a sonic form that can be worked with (and influenced) like any other sound." His words rang true. "Besides," he added, "digital is working with quartz based technologies and you know how you love to work with quartz crystals." I listened to my friends advice and began to incorporate some digital and synthesized sampling
technologies in my work. For example, during the recording of Angel of Sound, I utilized both analog and digital studio techniques. In addition, during the recording, I consciously asked Shamael, the Angel of Sacred Sound, to come into the recording (regardless of whether it was analog or digital.) From all reports, the Angel is there. One last thing: Some purists tend to think of analog as being a purer sound than digital. More real. Conceptually, this is true, until you add all the other elements of recording and playback to this. When you take an analog recording such as a cassette and play it back through a transistorized system (which most of us have,) that analog signal is significantly changed. The sounds that come out of the systems are no more "real" than anything else. Prerecorded music is in some way altered and changed from what it originally was. Therefore no one recorded sound medium is really better than another.
Five: All tunings from different instrument have healing potential. Many people believe that only harmonically related tunings are healing. Without getting too technical, let me say that the tunings of keyboards are, for the most part, tempered tunings. This means that the natural harmonically related intervals and ratios of different notes, when played together, are changed and different. On a piano, the ratios are logarithmically related, not harmonically, They don't possess the naturally occurring ratios that are a part of the harmonic series. Blame it on Bach, if you like, since he pioneered equal tempered music. It did change the intervals on the keyboard, but it also allowed players to be able to change keys without hitting "bad" notes. There are those who feel that only music which has harmonically related intervals created either by the voice or by instruments that are not equal tempered have therapeutic value. As the author of a book which focuses on harmonics I understand this belief, though it doesn't resonate with me as being true. Too many people have received healings, experienced transformations, and generally had wonderful times listening to music that was created by instruments such as the piano which uses equal temperaments. One cannot denegrate these healing experiences by proclaiming that tunings must be harmonically related to be healing.
Six: Both intent and frequency create the transformation experience. In my book Healing Sounds and in the workshops which I teach, I focus a lot of energy and thought on the importance of intention: the energy behind the sound. I point out how important intention is in the healing process. Never, however would I say that intention is the only thing. Remember, Frequency + Intent = Healing. It's not just one or the other. As the saying goes: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." As another writer pointed out, the path between conception and execution can be quite distant. If, for example, I want to calm someone and I shout in their ear, my intent may be one thing, but the actual sound I make may be quite another thing and create quite a different effect. Intentionality is extremely important and something that needs to be worked on consciously and consistently by sound healing practitioners. Frequency is equally important and not to be ignored. We need to be aware of the psychophysiology of sound, how we use sound, and how sounds affects us. We are vibratory beings and different sounds will resonate and influence us, unless we get to a level of attunement practiced by certain masters. Perhaps it is regarding this ideal level of mastery and attunement where most people get confused. Few of us have achieved this vibratory level or the clearness of intent inherent in it. Usually, we are working at a level where we still need to clear ourselves when we're working with projecting intention. Just having a desire to be clear doesn't mean we're there yet. Probably when one has reached a mastership of clarity, where one can truly project divine intention--the difference between "Thy will" and "My will")--one can make any sound and have
a desired effect. However, this is not often the case. It's important, as we go through our spiritual evolutionary process when working with sound, to become aware of the effects of the sounds that we are projecting, as well as our proposed intentionality. It is the only way.
Seven: Sound is subtle. We still live in the old paradigm of "more is better," and particularly, louder and longer is better. However, when working with sound, the volume, duration of frequency, and the effect of the sound are not necessarily interrelated. We all know about how loud volumes can cause hearing loss. Also, in terms of physiological response, loud sounds do have specific and not particularly therapeutic effects. They trigger the fight or flight response, release adrenaline, raise heart beat, respiration, and brain wave activity, and may interfere with immunological functions. There are therapists, for example, who use music played at very high volumes to elicit certain responses. This is valid, but we must remember that this is a specific use of music for a specific purpose. It may be that when working with sound, loud volumes actually have less ability to make those changes down at a molecular level than do soft, gentle sound. Very loud sounds may be too overpowering to achieve a desired and long lasting effect, merely passing through the body without creating change. So louder is not better and neither is longer necessarily better. While we may still have a "more is better" consciousness, this is not necessarily true in terms of sound. A frequency, or tone, may be effective when listened to or chanted for a brief period, but the effects may nullify or even become adverse over too long a period of time. There may be a minimum amount of sound duration that is necessary to make changes in the physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual body. Some sound healing practitioners say that five minutes is needed for a tone to really make change. Others say ten and others, twenty minutes. There are some sound practitioners who have people sound or listen to music for many hours. Since we are all unique vibratory beings, I believe it differs from individual to individual. I certainly have observed extraordinary changes in individuals who have received sound for only a couple of minutes or less. With the various sonic equipment and recordings that are now available which create specific sounds, there may be people who will be sounding or listening to a particular frequency all day long. Depending upon the individual and their needs, this may be fine, or it may not be healthful. More is not necessarily better and with sound, too much can possibly be debilitating to the nervous system or other systems of the physical and etheric bodies. Balance is an extraordinarily important aspect of any transformative or healing work and principles of balance should be applied to sound.
Eight: Sound and light/color are different forms of energy. This thought may be quite controversial for some who believe light and sound are the same. No one really knows. My belief is that sound and light are related, but they are not the same. One way to look at this relationship is through the harmonic series. Harmonics are the notes created from a fundamental tone which display universal principles of whole number ratios. A note vibrating at 100 cycles per second will affect any note that is a harmonic of this. This means a note vibrating twice as fast at 200 cycles per second, a note vibrating three times as fast at 300 cycles per second, and so on. This is the sonic equivalent of the ancient Hermetic Principle: "As above, so below." We can therefore conceptually take that 100 cycles per second note, and say it is harmonically related to a note 1 million cycles per second. However, this does not mean it is the same note nor will it necessarily have the same effect. What has happened with the sound-as-light phenomenon is that mathematical scientists have either taken the frequency of a note and then doubled it forty times, until this frequency is within the same range as a particular color of light, or taken the frequency of a color and
halved it forty times until this frequency is within the same range as a sound. Then these scientists have said, "This is that." It may be, but no one has actually turned a sound into light. Different colors have been assigned to different notes, with devices like light organs, but it's still all theoretical. No one has been able to take one sound frequency and jump it up forty octaves, without relying on putting it into different instruments or computers which, of course, change the natural process of a sound wave. It may be that as a frequency enters a different energy state (sound would have to turn into many different types of energy such as heat before it became light,) the frequency goes through a conversion process and the mathematics are very different. As energy is transduced, the math may become much more complicated than we know. The simple doubling process may not be relevant. My thoughts are that sound and light are complementary energy forms, but not necessarily the same. Assigning specific colors to specific tones may be an oversimplification of a process we do not yet understand. It may be that we can encode any color upon any frequency. This is another idea that I wanted to share with you, as long as we're on the subject. No one really knows the answers to this insight at this time.
Nine: All music potentially has therapeutic qualities. Many people believe that only New Age Music is healing, or whatever type of music you want to substitute for "New Age." This gets into the same conundrum I experienced many years ago when I first began this sojourn into sound. Everybody wanted me to talk about how rock'n'roll was the devil's music and bad. I wouldn't. It is my belief that any music, depending upon the time, the place, and the need of the individual can have therapeutic effects. It is not that any music will have therapeutic effects, but that it can, if it is correct for the individual. Knowledge of the psycho-acoustic effects of sound is helpful here. Certain sounds will often create similar physiological responses in many people. Slow pulsed music, for example, will have a tendency to slow down our heart rate, respiration, and brain waves. Often, fast music will have the opposite effect. If it's three o'clock in the morning, I'm tired and driving home from a party, and I put on a piece of deeply relaxing music, what happens? I become even drowsier and such music would probably be extremely hazardous to my driving. However, if I were to play some loud, uptempo music, most likely it would stimulate me, keep me awake, and under those conditions be quite therapeutic. This is not the same situation if it's three in the morning and I'm trying to find music to help me sleep. Very different responses required. Very different types of music are needed. Knowing how you want to use music is extremely important, as is understanding the potential psychological and physiological effects that are inherent in the music. Slow pulsed New Age music is excellent, of course, for relaxation but it's not ideal for dancing. Yet, if dancing (and the extraordinary energy release found by dancing) is desired, slow New Age music is not ideal. What is your purpose for using a specific piece of music? Is it for meditation, guided imagery, dance, deep recollection, or for emotional release? Realizing that every type of music has the ability to resonate with us on many different levels, it is possible that any type of music can have positive results. We should be open-minded about all music and the possible transformative and therapeutic results that can occur from it. One of the best ways of working with music is to create a musical prescription for yourself. Find out what types of music you respond to best. What specific music makes you feel joyful? What music makes you feel sad? Write down the different music that elicits different responses and use this music when you want to create a feeling or a mood. No one piece of music will affect everyone the same way, especially when it comes to our emotional responses to music. You can not expect someone else to have the same experiences as you do with any music. However, frequently, with our own experiences, if we have had a specific emotional response to listening to particular music, we will have a similar response when listening to that music again. When working with others, you must find out what music works best for them in order to help create their musical prescription. It may be possible that a person is blocked from enjoying certain types of music because the sounds resonate imbalances within them. For example, one time a student could not listen to very low sounds, particularly those
produced by chanting Tibetan monks. This was a response to a blockage in the lower chakras. Once this person was able to acknowledge the situation and open to the resonances created by the deep sounds, the blockages disappeared and they were able to release the imbalances. It was quite a transformational experience. This story illustrates how it is possible to find music that we really dislike, which can actually be useful in helping us to encounter and heal imbalanced aspects of ourself. My final suggestion is to allow the potentiality of healing to occur in every piece of music. Music can reach into aspects of our psyche that we may not have a clue even exist. There are people working solely with classical music, or "sacred" music, or New Age music. The reality is that all forms of music, from rock, to country, to jazz, to all the world musics that are now available to us, may have the potential of reaching further into our bodies, minds, and souls to initiate healing and transformation. Be open to all possibilities. You can never know what may transpire until you have tried. http://healingsounds.com/articles/overview-sound-healing.asp
Overview Sound Healing by Jonathan Goldman Sound Healing, as the name implies, is the use of sound to create balance and alignment in: the physical body, the energy centers called "chakras", and/or the etheric fields. The sound may be applied by an instrument or by the human voice. Sound Healing is a vibrational therapy and can be understand as being energy medicine. While the use of sound and music for healing is ancient and can be found in many spiritual and sacred traditions, "Sound Healing" is a relatively new modality in the traditional (allopathic) and complementary healing arts. The current field of Sound Healing is enormous in its scope. Sound encompasses virtually all aspects of the auditory phenomenon--from music to nature sounds to electronic sounds to vocal sounds. Practitioners who use sound may likewise use anything that falls within this scope; from classical music to drumming and chanting to electronically synthesized sounds to acoustic instruments. The depth and variety of a "Sound Healing" may vary extensively, from a client listening to soothing music that calms and relaxes to a client lying on a specially designed bed that projects specific sounds into their body. Some "Sound Healing" sessions may include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Music in Imagery: in which a client will listen to specific music while using imagery in order to open their psyche to for self-discovery. Music Therapy: in which therapist will work with clients using songs and music to help elicit states of behavior modification. Cymatic Therapy: in which specific frequencies via an instrument are projected into a client's body in order to create physiological change. Tapes: with specifically designed frequencies, either generically created or specifically created for an imbalance of a particular client. The Electronic Ear: in which a client will listen to a program of specially filtered music via headphones, designed to open the ear and the brain to greater frequencies of sound and treat imbalances such as dyslexia and emotional issues. Toning and Overtoning: in which a client may receive the vocally created sounds of a practitioner to balance and align imbalances on the physical, emotional or etheric. Harmonic Resonance: in which a client will be tested using kinesiology and receive frequencies from synthesized sounds in order to balance the physical. Bio-Acoustics; in which the missing frequencies of a client's voice are found and played back via synthesized sounds. Hemi-Sync; in which a client listens to synthesized sounds designed to balance the hemi-spheres of the brain and induce altered states of consciousness. Mantric Chanting: in which a client will sound specific mantras designed to balance and align their etheric field. Tuning Forks: in which a client will receive the frequencies from specially designed tuning forks for relaxation and balance. Vibro-Acoustic beds, chairs, etc.: in which a client will sit or lie on a specially designed
bed that projects music into their body. Such devices include: the Somatron, the Betar and the Genesis. These categories are by no means inclusive of all the various possibilities inherent in the field of Sound Healing and are listed to give the reader some examples of the potential variation of treatments found in the field. Perhaps the greatest instrument of healing--one that is natural, cost effective and does not require batteries or electrical outlets--is the human voice. Toning is a generic term to describe the use of the voice for release of pain and stress, and to help align imbalanced portions of the body. Sighing, moaning, groaning and other sounds we frequently make are all aspects of toning, as are the sounding of different vowels. Often, a Sound Healing practitioner will make sounds to a client they are working on. Usually, the client is lying on a table during a session. These sounds made can be purely intuitive, coming through the practitioner as they allow themselves to become a conduit for sacred sound. Some practitioners claim to be able to sense or hear trauma that is trapped in the physical body. By repeating these sounds they are able to release the trauma. Some practitioners work with a technique called "Overtoning" .
WHAT A TYPICAL SESSION IS LIKE "Overtoning" is a technique in which a Sound Healer will use their voice to scan the physical body of their client and then project vocal harmonics (overtones) into an imbalanced portion of the body (or etheric center) that is found. A practitioner begins by making a siren like sound, starting which at the bottom of the clients feet with a very low sound and continues up the body, raising in pitch, until a very high sound is created at the client's head. An experienced practitioner of this technique will be able to hear changes in their tone as they do this. The vocal timbre (or tone color created by harmonics in the voice) actually changes when the sound reaches a place of imbalance. The practitioner then proceeds to project this specific harmonic into the area of the body where the imbalance was found. This may be for a few minutes or longer. When the harmonic become less audible or disappears and the tone becomes normalized, the sounding for that area is complete. Frequently, a practitioner will find a number of areas where sounding is needed. A practitioner may conclude the session with discussion of the experience with the client. This technique, while quite simple, utilizes a combination of listening and sounding. The practitioner is listening for a change in their tone which occurs as a result of their sound interfacing with the energy field of their client. They must be extremely aware of the subtle changes in their sound in order to do this technique most effectively. The results of Overtoning can be quite astounding. Since sound can rearrange molecular structure, it is quite possible for seemingly miraculous things to occur; vertebrae align, muscles relax, chronic pains disappear, traumas and blockages are released. Clients may report feelings of being energized, ecstatic, light headed, or drowsy. However, it is also possible for nothing to happen at all. As with many of the healing arts, much of this may depend upon the relationship of the therapist with the client and vice versa. Techniques such as Overtoning are particularly effective when combined with the many different bodywork modalities, from massage to chiropractic to therapeutic touch. A skilled practitioner will be able to create sounds which facilitate their modality and enable their bodywork to reach new levels of effectiveness.
HISTORY
The use of sound as a healing modality dates back to prehistoric times, when shaman chanted and drummed to heal people. In the ancient mystery schools of Egypt, Greece, India, Egypt and other centers of knowledge, the use of sound and music for healing was a highly developed sacred science. Sonic vibration was known to be the fundamental creative force in the universe. In modern times, the Cymatic experiments of Swiss Medical Doctor Hans Jenny demonstrated how various substances such as plastics, liquids and sand would take on different shapes depending upon the frequencies they were subjected to. These experiments showed that sound
has the ability to affect and change molecular structure. Since the body is composed of over 75% water, it is therefore easy to understand how sound can create change in the body. Some pioneers in the field of Sound Healing created through instrumentation, include: Peter Guy Manners, MD from England, whose Cymatic Instrument projects specifically tabulated frequencies into the body, Alfred A. Tomatis, MD, from France whose Electronic Ear, uses sound to treat many learning disabilities and emotional problems and Robert Monroe who discovered how to use sound waves to synchronize the hemispheres of the brain and cause accelerated consciousness. The voice has been used as an instrument of healing since the earliest times and has continued to be used in this manner in the East. The technique of "toning", using the voice for healing, was first named and described in the book of the same name by Laurel Elizabeth Keyes. "Overtoning", the technique described in "typical session" was first named and described in HEALING SOUNDS.
THE THEORY ABOUT HOW IT WORKS The basic principle of Sound Healing is that of resonance; every object is in a state of vibration and therefore creates sound. This includes the various parts of our body, such as our organs, muscles, bones, etc. If these parts of our body are vibrating at their normal, healthy frequency, we call this state "health". If a portion of our body begins to vibrate at a frequency which is not harmonious to us, we call this "disease". It is possible to use sound to project the correct resonant frequency of that part of the body which is vibrating out of harmony back into the body, causing it to return to its natural frequency and return to a state of health. This projection of sound can be done through electronic instrumentation or through using the human voice. The primary question in Sound Healing is: what are the correct resonant frequencies of the body? The answer to this has not yet been fully verified. Sound Healing scientists and researchers have determined frequencies for the parts of the body, as well as for specific imbalances of the body. They have invented instruments which project these healing frequencies back into the body and all report success with their sounds. Yet these frequencies are all different and do not correlate with each other. There are many theories about this, but no one knows exactly why. In terms of vibrational medicine, another major questions arises: do all people vibrate at the same frequency? The answer to this is unknown. It may be that the frequencies of different people vary. This could be an explanation as to why different instruments with different frequencies all seem to have success. Different practitioners have different methods of testing to determine the proper frequencies. Some use kinesiology (muscle testing), others pendulums or radionics. There is even a system of Sound Healing which uses a method of determining missing frequencies found in the voice (by having the client speak into a voice analyzer) which when added (via listening to a tape) will supposedly restore the body to a state of health. All of these methods have had some success. Whether they work for everyone is another issue.
BENEFITS, LIMITATIONS, CONTRAINDICATIONS Since sound can potentially rearrange molecular structure, the possible healing applications of sound are limitless. Stories exist of terminal or incurable diseases that have been instantaneously healed through sound. However, while such miraculous experiences may occur, it is also quite possible for a client to receive no seeming benefit from the Sound Healing. When dealing with the plethora of instrumentation and sound devices currently available on the market, it is conceivable that a person receiving the sound from an instrument may not resonate with a particular frequency and could potentially have an adverse effect with sound. While this would be rare, it is possible. The least invasive approach to Sound Healing seems to be that of using the human voice.
EVALUATING A PRACTITIONER Due to the recent rediscovery of Sound Healing, anyone with a musical instrument, an electronic gadget or the courage to project their voice at another person may call themselves a Sound Healers. There are no licenses. There are in fact few programs of study in which an
individual can learn about the physiological and psycho-acoustic effects of sound. It is hoped that a practitioner will have understanding of the physical and energetic mechanisms of the body. The best way to evaluate a practitioner is simply to experience their work and see if it resonates with the individual. If a client feels better after a session, that is good. If not, don't go back for more. RESOURCES FOR FURTHER INFORMATION The Sound Healers Association (P.O. Box 2240, Boulder CO 80306, 303-443-8181) offers training seminars by Jonathan Goldman, sells a nationwide directory of sound healers and other sound healing related books, tapes and products and prints informational literature. Recommended reading: HEALING SOUNDS by Jonathan Goldman (Element Books, 1992) SOUNDING THE INNER LANDSCAPE (Caduceus Press, 1990) MUSIC AND SOUND IN THE HEALING ARTS by John Beaulieu (Station Hill, 1987) MUSIC: PHYSICIAN FOR TIMES TO COME edited by Don Campbell (Quest, 1989) SOUND HEALERS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORY (SHA, 1995) http://healingsounds.com/articles/sacred-sounds.asp
Sacred Sounds - Healing Sounds by Jonathan Goldman Sound is among the most transformative and healing energies on the planet. It can relax us and make us calm, or move us to great heights of emotion. Sound can restore balance and harmony to our lives and make us healthy and well. Conversely, sound also has the ability to adversely affect us and bring our already stressed-out vibratory rates to new levels of imbalance and disharmony. Why and how? What is the difference in the sounds that make us healthy and those that distress us? Sound can affect us on all levels - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Beneficial sounds for us are often sounds that we consider "sacred." These sounds seem to have the ability to charge and harmonize us. There are reasons for this. Knowledge of sound as a therapeutic and transformative force is very old. The Ancient Mystery Schools of Greece, Rome, Egypt, Tibet, and India had great knowledge of sound as being the primary creative force in the universe. The ancients knew what the modern physicists now understand, that all is in a state of vibration. "The World is Sound!" these ancient mystics proclaimed, and indeed it seems to be so. If we examine the basic tenants of many of the spiritual paths of the world, we find a commonality in them. They all share the belief that the world was created through sound. Here are but a few examples. In Genesis, form the Old Testament, one of the first statements is: "And the Lord said 'Let there be light!" In St. John, form the New Testament, it is written, "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God." From the Vedas of the Hindu tradition comes the writing that, "In the beginning was Brahman with whom was the Word. And the Word is Brahman." The Ancient Egyptians believed that the god "Thot" created the world by his voice alone. In the Popul Vuh, form the Mayan tradition, the first real men are given life by the sole power of the word. The Hopi Indian's story of creation tells of the animation of all forms on earth by having the Spider Woman sing the Song of Creation over them. Many of us know of Pythagoras as the father of geometry. However, how many are aware that in the 6th century B.C. in Greece, he had a school that taught, not only the magic of numbers,
but the healing powers of music. Pythagoras taught of the Music of the Spheres and hoe the movement of the heavenly bodies could be perceived and reflected in the intervals of plucked strings. Today, in the West, much of this ancient knowledge has all but vanished. However, we are now in the process of rediscovering that wisdom, and adding to it through information and understanding obtained from modern science. In Healing Sounds, I discuss the spiritual and scientific understanding of the application of sound as a transformative and curative energy. Perhaps the most profound scientific work showing the power of sound to effect shape and form was researched by Dr. Hans Jenny, a Swiss medical doctor and scientist who spent ten years of his life examining the effects that sound had on shape and formation. Jenny photographed plastics, pastes, liquids, powders, and other substances as they were being vibrated by sound. The results of these experiments are truly awe inspiring for they show extremely organic shapes being created from inorganic substances merely be exposing them to different sound frequencies. The different substances, which were once blobs of inorganic matter take on varying geometric form and begin to look like living creatures: starfish, human cells, microscopic life. In his book, Cymatics, Dr. Jenny wrote: "Now it is beyond doubt that where organization is concerned, the harmonic figures of physics are in fact, essentially similar to the harmonic patterns of organic nature...we have the certain experience that harmonic systems such as we have visualized in our experiments arise from oscillations in the form of intervals and harmonic frequencies. That is indisputable."
The Healthy Body According to Dr. Jenny, harmonious shapes and harmonic frequencies are interrelated. Through Jenny's experiments and research we have proof that different sounds create different forms. This phenomenon is one of the basic principles of healing with sound, the principle of "resonance." Modern physics has verified that we are all vibrating atomic and sub-atomic particles. Everything has a resonant frequency, the frequency it most naturally vibrates at. From the chair you may be sitting onto the pages of this magazine. Every part of your body also has a resonant frequency. A concept of disease, observed by the ancients, and now speculated by certain scientists such as Itzhak Bentov in his book Stalking The Wild Pendulum is that illness is an out of tune behavior of the body. When something becomes diseased, it frequency changes and it begins to vibrate differently than it once did. Through sound, it may be possible to apply harmonizing vibrations which will cause the body to become in tune again. In a healthy body, every organ, bone, tissue, and other part is producing balanced frequencies that create a healthy harmonic of the entire body. A healthy body is like an orchestra playing a marvelous and natural symphony, the "Suite of the Self." But what happens if the third violin player from the end looses their sheet music? They begin to play the wrong notes in the wrong rhythm. The "Suite of the Self" begins to sour and this is what we call disease. Continuing with this image, we find that traditional allopathic medicine would probably cut off the head of this violin player in order to alleviate the problem. But what would happen if we could somehow give this violin player back the sheet music? What if we could project the correct resonant frequency back into the imbalanced organ and allow it to vibrate to its normal healthy frequency again? Dr. Peter Guy Manners, a British scientist who has created the Cymatic Instrument, which projects sounds into the body for healing, describes this phenomenon of resonant frequency healing this way: "A healthy organ will have its molecules working together in a harmonious relationship with each other and will all be of the same pattern. If different sound patterns enter into the organ, the harmonious relationship could be upset...they may establish their disharmonious pattern in the organ, bone tissue, etc., and this is what we call disease. If therefore, a treatment contains a harmonic frequency pattern which will reinforce the organs, the vibrations of the intruders
will be neutralized and the correct pattern for that organ reestablished. This should constitute a curative reaction." There is another concept which the ancients understood and which will eventually be recognized by modern scientists. This is the concept of "intention," the understanding that sound has the ability to transmit the intention of the one creating the sound to the one receiving the sound. Intention is the energy behind the sound. It is the thought and will which we have when making the sound. If you are angry or sad when making a sound, despite the frequency of the sound (which creates its resonance), the effect of the sound will convey anger or sadness. Conversely, if we are happy or joyful when we create the sound, its effect, regardless of the actual sound being created, will be one of joy. Kinesiology, a method of muscle testing used by many holistic health practitioners, is one way to measure the effects of intention. an angry or negative thought, when coupled with a sound, will cause an individual tested to become weak. The opposite occurs when positive intention are projected onto sound; individuals when tested become strong. Unfortunately, kinesiology is not considered to be scientifically valid and the medical community is a long way away from recognizing the importance of intention in sound creation. Yet the ancients knew of this importance. Indeed, it was vital in the soundings of any frequency which they wanted to call "Sacred." In Healing Sounds there is a formula I have created which incorporates this concept of intention as an important aspect of healing with sound. It is: Frequency + Intention = Healing With sacred sounds, the intention of the individual making the sound is to align with Divine Will and higher consciousness. If the world began with the creator God or Goddess making Sound, then the ultimate aim of sacred sound is for the sounder to attempt to unite with this Sound. It becomes "Thy Will" not "My Will."
Sacred Sounds Sacred sounds from different traditions can vary extremely in their use of frequencies. These traditions will often use very different tonal scales and rhythms than we are accustomed to here in the West and we may find these sounds extremely bizarre, out of tune, and quite disharmonious. That is, until we truly open our ears and our hearts to what is really going on. Remember that when Westerners first visited Africa, they reported that the Africans loved to sing and dance, but unfortunately the Africans were totally unmusical with no sense of rhythm. Nowadays, we may hear Hindu Ragas, Tibetan Chanting, or Balinese Gamelon music for the first time and feel very similar reactions perceiving these sounds as totally unmusical. However, once we get past this initial response, we may find that these sacred sounds have extremely transformational effects. Dr. Alfred Tomatis, a French doctor, has spent many years researching the sacred sounds of the world. In particular, he has examined much sacred chanting, including Gregorian and Tibetan. Dr. Tomatis has found that many of the sacred sounds on the planet are rich in high frequency sounds, called harmonics or overtones. He believes that these sounds charge the cortex of the brain and stimulate health and wellness. Harmonics, or overtones, are geometrically related sounds that occur whenever a natural sound is created. Harmonics are the sounds within all sounds, responsible for the tone color or "timbre" of an instrument and our voices. The mathematics of harmonics display universal principles corresponding to an underlying framework found in chemistry, astronomy, physics, botany, and the study of other sciences. Knowledge and understanding of these sounds seems to be quite ancient, dating back to at least Pythagoras if not before. The use of harmonics as sacred sounds may be found in many Shamanic and mystical traditions, particularly Tibetan Buddhism and Mongolian Shamanism. Here the sacred sound practitioner developed the ability of creating multiple overtones or "Vocal Harmonics" and singing two or more notes simultaneously. These sounds were used by chanters as a means of invoking different deities and energy forces and for balancing the etheric centers called "chakras."
Listening to recordings of Tibetan Monks chanting in this "One Voice Chord" can itself be a transformational experience. The monks utilize a fundamental frequency that is so deep, it seems to be almost inhuman, like the growl of some wild animal. Coupled with this tone is a much higher voice which sounds like the voice of an angel singing in harmony. These two sounds come from the same being, a Tibetan Monk, and they are the result of sacred sound practices. The creation of harmonics is based upon vowel sounds. The singing and elongation of these vowel sounds is found in most of the major chanting in the world, from Hindu and Tibetan mantras, To Sufi and Kaballistic practices. For example we have "Oooooommm" and "Aaaaameen," Aaaaallaaah," and "Yaaaah Waaaay." Through this form of "toning," extraordinary resonance of the physical body and the brain occurs. When the reciter of these sounds focuses an intention of becoming one with the sacred sound, the results are extraordinary. In the Australian Aboriginal traditions, the sacred sounds are produced by an instrument called the Didgeridoo, a hollowed out tree limb. When it is blown, using a technique called "circular breathing" (which allows for the creation of a continuous stream of air and therefore a non-stop sound), the result is a single tone, very deep and extremely rich with harmonics. Those of you who have heard this sound may have found it very similar to the "Tibetan Deep Voice," which is also very deep with distinct overtones. It is most interesting that these two very similar sounds were created by two very distinct civilizations, separated by many thousands of miles. Could it have been, as their legends indicate, that the initial human creators of these sounds first heard these sounds in the dream state and then tried to create them in the physical body, one using the voice while the other using an instrument? The chanting of a sacred sound coupled with the intention of invoking specific beings or energy forms may create what British scientist Rupert Sheldrake called "morphic" fields. These are energy fields that cause shape and form to occur. In many of the sacred sounding traditions, the recitation of the name of an entity will eventually bring forth that entity and allow one to unite with it. Many times the recitation of these sacred names are called "mantras" (a Sanskrit word). However, this practice is found the world over and is based upon an ancient understanding of sacred sound. In many of the creation myths, the Creator God or Goddess would think of an object and then sound its name. The Being would first visualize the object to create, placing intention upon this. Then the Being would vocalize the sound of the object, creating its frequency and bringing it into being. In Healing Sounds, I developed another formula which describes this. It is: Vocalization + Visualization = Manifestation An example of this would be "Om Mani Padme Hum," an invocation to the Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Divine Compassion. When coupled with the intention and visualization of invoking this being, the vocalization of this chant will have the result of producing a field of compassion. The Tibetans have a highly developed (and extremely powerful!) practice of this in which they utilize extraordinarily specific visualizations of entities in what are termed "mandalas." Whether it is in the Sufi, Christian, Hebrew, or any of the countless other traditions, including the non-tradition of shamanism, this sounding of the sacred names of the Divine is utilized as a deeply spiritual practice to invoke the Divine. IN the creation of Gateways: Men's Drumming and Chanting, the 20 male chanters who worked with me were taught and became aware of this phenomenon of sacred sound. We utilized the various chants from Tibetan, Native American, Hindu, and other traditions with visualization to intentionally call forth spiritual energies for the benefit of those who would later listen to this recording. When we listen to recording of this type of sound, if we are open enough to by-pass any strangeness of language, tone, or frequency, we are often in the frequency of the person making these sounds. And if they are done with the correct intention, we may be able to
experience very transformative results. Usually, this sounding is very slow and repetitive, creating a phenomenon known as sonic "entrainment" in which the brain waves of the listener lock in resonance with the brain waves of the chanter. This is one way of creating altered states - by slowing down our brain waves. Much sacred sound puts us in resonance with frequencies that are within the alpha or theta brain wave range, 7 to 12 Hz, and 4 to 7 Hz, respectively. Many of the environmental sounds seem to resonate to this spectrum of sound and particularly to a frequency called the Schumann resonance, 7.83 Hz, which may be the resonant frequency of the planet. Environmental sounds may be among the most sacred on the planet, for they are the sound of the earth, rejoicing in itself. Whether it is the sound of the ocean, birds chirping, or whales calling, these sounds relax us for two reasons. First, for the soothing visualization they evoke for us. Second for the entrainment they create within us. We breath with the sounds. Our hearts beat with these sounds. Our brains sing with these sounds. In creating Dolphin Dreams, a sonic environment designed for the birth experience and for deep relaxation, I was able to mix together many of these naturally occurring sounds: The ocean, human heart pulsed at 48 beats per minute, and dolphin sounds. Also added were a rolling Om, phased at 7.83 Hz and choral voices singing a wordless melody of the Ur song, A harmonic melodic minor sound that is found in children's songs throughout the planet. The result is an extremely powerful morphic field for transformation. Many of the sacred rhythms of certain cultures, particularly Native American, employ at their center a heart beat which we entrain and match when listening to. Our heart beat, respiration, and brain waves will slow down due to the repetitive rhythms created. However, another method of creating altered and transformational states is to overdrive the brain and put us into a trance state. This is true of many of the polyrhythmic sounds of the sacred music of Africa, Bali, and other cultures. The over-driving of the psyche which occurs can energize us to the point of what seems to be the loss of control. This same frequency response can sometimes be experienced walking down a crowded and noisy city street, but the effect due to the intention may be very, very different. One experience may be a heavenly, blissful state due to the sacredness of the sounds while the other may cause us to feel like we're in Dante's inferno. The difference between the two effects of the sounds described above (the sacred rhythms versus the city street noises) conveys the difference between the sacred and the mundane. While it is possible that any sound can be made sacred due to our intention, most sounds are not. This understanding is particularly important for those of us creating music. Through understanding sacred sound as a vehicle for merging and becoming one with the Divine, we can truly create transformational energies that will benefit the planet. While this knowledge has not yet reached mainstream consciousness, many are becoming aware of the power of sound. When this knowledge is restored, music will be created and utilized for entrainment, not entertainment, and sacred sounds will resonate throughout the planet. http://healingsounds.com/articles/science-harmonics.asp
Science of Harmonics by Jonathan Goldman WHAT IS SOUND? The universe is alive with sound and within all sounds are harmonics. Harmonics, also known as ‘overtones’, are a phenomenon of sound that occurs whenever sound is created. Normally we perceive what seem like single tones when we hear a note struck on a musical instrument like a violin or a piano. However, nearly all tones that are produced by musical instruments, our voices or other sound sources are in reality not pure tones, but mixtures of pure tone frequencies called ‘partials’. The lowest such frequency is called the fundamental. All partials higher in frequency than the fundamental are referred to as overtones. Before we begin our exploration of harmonics as a phenomenon of sound, let us first examine
sound. Sound is a vibrational energy which takes the form of waves. These waves are scientifically measured in units called hertz (‘hz’) which measure the cycles per second which this energy creates. This rate is objectively known as the ‘frequency’. It is subjectively experienced as ‘pitch’.
Frequency A string that vibrates back and forth one hundred times a second will create a sound that can be measured at 100hz. This would be its frequency. One that vibrates one thousand times a second would be measured at 1000 hz. Overtones are mathematically related to each other. Remember the example of the string which vibrated at 256 and created the note C? As that string vibrates 256 times, other sound waves are also being created that are vibrating as geometric multiples of 256 hz. The first of these overtones to sound is vibrating twice as fast as that fundamental, at a ratio of two to one (2:1), at 512 cycles a second. This creates a note which is referred to as the interval of an octave of the fundamental and is also called a C.
THE FIRST 16 HARMONICS Table 2.1 shows the first 16 harmonics created using C vibrating at 256 hz as the fundamental. It also shows the Solfège name of the overtone being created, its frequency and the interval created. The first column represents the note name given to the harmonic. The second column shows the interval within the octave created by the harmonic. The third column is the Solfège name given for the harmonic (the parenthesis represents the number of times they appear). The fourth column represents the partial names for the harmonic. The fifth column shows the frequency of the harmonic. http://healingsounds.com/articles/shifting-frequencies-1.asp
Shifting Frequencies: Frequency + Intent by Jonathan Goldman From "Sedona Emergence" July 1996
This is Jonathan Goldman and Shamael talking to you about frequency shifting and the power of sound. Jonathan will deal with the psycho-acoustics of sound, as well as his own experiences. Shamael will deal with the inter-dimensional aspects of this work. We will unify as one voice for this experience with you. To start, let us say, that everything is vibration. From the chair that you may be sitting in to the paper of this magazine you are holding, everything is in a state of vibration. This is not a new idea. Your ancient mystics have known this for many a millennium, but now your scientists are beginning to understand this and agree with this. It is a wonderful start. From the electrons spinning around the nucleus of an atom, to the planets spinning around suns in the galaxy, everything is in movement. Everything is in vibration. And if it is in vibration, it is putting out a sound. Now, whether or not we can hear this sound is a different matter. Sound travels as a wave form. First, let us say that one way of measuring sound is how fast or slow this wave form is moving. These waves are measured as cycles and sound is measured in cycles per second. This is called its frequency. Very slow waves make very low sounds. Very fast waves make very high sounds. The lowest note on a piano is about 24 cycles per second. The highest note on a piano is about 4,000 cycles per second. Now, we hear from around 16 to about 16,000 cycles per second. Yet just because we can't hear something does not mean it is not vibrating, nor creating a sound. Dolphins can project and receive information upwards of 180,000 cycles per second, more than 10 times that of humans. And this to them is sound. Do not let the notion that if you can not hear an object it is not vibrating or making a sound.
There--we have solved the old Zen Koen asking about a tree falling in the forest. Every object has a natural vibratory rate. This is called it's resonance. One of the basis principles of using sound as a transformative and healing modality is to understand the idea that part of the body is in a state of vibration. Every organ, every bone, every tissue, every system--all are in a state of vibration. Now, when we are in a state of health, the body puts out an overall harmonic of health. However, when a frequency that is counter to our health sets itself up in some portion of the body, it creates a disharmony that we call dis-ease. This is very simple to understand, yes? Now, if we were somehow able to create the correct resonant frequency for something that was vibrating out of harmony, say for example, the liver, and we were able to project this frequency into that area, one could conceivably create a condition of healing by restoring the imbalanced area back to its own resonant frequency. It is as though your body and all its parts are like some wondrous orchestra that is playing some sort of "Symphony of the Self" when we are healthy. But what happens when the third violin player from the end looses their sheet music? Soon this player begins to play out of harmony and rhythm. They are not only playing the wrong notes and the wrong timing, they begin to affect the whole string section. Pretty soon the entire orchestra begins to sound badly. This is what happens when a counter frequency sets into the body. Currently, our medical approach to dealing with this problem is simply to either give the poor string player enough drugs so they collapse and are no longer in the orchestra--either that or to cut the head of this player off with a broad sword. This does alleviate the initial problem. The string player is no longer playing the wrong notes. In fact, they are no longer playing period. But what if it were possible to somehow give this player back their sheet music. What if it were possible to somehow encode and project the correct resonant frequency back into the organ and get it vibrate to its proper frequency? This is the basis of using sound for healing; to restore back to harmony some portion of the body that is vibrating "out of tune". This is a marvelous concept and one which is becoming more and more understood as time goes on. There is another aspect of sound healing which we will deal with later. It has to do with the use of sound frequencies to nullifies the vibrations of that which set the body portion off its normal resonance in the first place. We will clarify this concept in the future. For now, the first is enough for your understanding. Many of your new spiritual scientists, discoverers and therapists are working with this concept of resonant frequency healing to create balance. Many are successful. They have developed different instruments, machines, tapes and other sound devices which project the healthy resonant frequency of a body part, (or, for the matter, of the chakras) into a person. We are all for the various devices and what we call "toys" that you on the Earth plane seem so fascinated with. We would like to suggest that while some of these devices may be very effective for restoring resonance back to that which is vibrating out of harmony, you all have within yourselves the most powerful, effective and wondrous device for healing that you can imagine. It is free, extremely efficient and it does not require batteries or electricity. It is your own voice. Your own, if we may, God given instrument for sound healing. It requires only a little training to use, does not require another operator to be applied, and it allows your to find the exact frequencies for resonance. This does not happen with many of your toys which are "locked into" specific sounds for specific parts. This does not allow for frequency shifting, which is the change of the vibratory rate of either a part of the body, or the whole body and its associated energy centers as well. We will discuss more of this later as well. You on the Earth plane like your toys. Your hospitals and medical centers are full of many toys that project sound and other vibrations. You now have catalogs full of these toys that you can use in your home to induce meditation and what not. Many of your new researchers have developed sound devices that project different frequencies into you for different effects. They are useful and sometimes very fun and we encourage them.
However, it is important to realize that they are merely tools producing and effect. And this effect can be achieved without them if you are interested in doing a little work on yourself. What is most interesting, however, is that while many of these sound devices and recordings do create positive change, the actual frequencies or notes that they use are not the same. To illustrate this, let us discuss your chakras for the moment. They are these spinning discs that feed energy into what becomes the physical body. When Jonathan was first researching this area many years ago, he came across a simple system that worked with the 7 chakras using the seven notes of the C major scale. In this system, your root chakra was vibrating to the note "C". The next chakra resonated to the note "D". The next chakra to the note "E" and so on, with the crown chakra vibrating to the note "B". It was a very easy system and Jonathan was quite pleased to find this. However, as he continued with his investigation into this, he found many other systems that worked with many different notes besides these. The variety of different notes that was used was quite extraordinary. And none of them was in agreement. This caused Jonathan some perplextion as he could not understand how all they different systems were not in agreement with each other and yet all of them seemed to work to some degree. Then he developed a formula which he first put forth in his book HEALING SOUNDS. The formula is this: "FREQUENCY + INTENT = HEALING". Frequency of course, is the actual sound used. Healing was a term he used back then to describe the process of putting something into its healthy resonance. He would today use the term "Frequency Shifting". Intent, in this formula, is the important ingredient. Intent is the energy behind the sound. It is the consciousness that is encoded into the sound. Intent is very important. Jonathan began to realize that it might be possible for two people to make the same sound and have a very different response, depending upon the energy that was put into the sound. Have you ever had someone you were not particularly fond of see you at a party and say in a snake-like tone "Good to see you" and felt as though you immediately wanted to leave the party. While the words (or the frequency) may have been one thing, the intention (or energy behind the words) said quite another. And the effect was not one of welcoming, but rather something very different. This is an illustration of how intentionality affects the outcome of the sound. Returning to the subject of the chakras, Jonathan found that even specific mantras would resonate different chakras, depending upon the intentionality of the person giving them. The "Om" might resonate the heart chakra, or the belly chakra or the third eye--it all depended upon what a spiritual master might be teaching to a person. As Jonathan began to realize the importance of intention, he began to spend considerable time in his teachings stressing the important of this. And at the time, it was necessary to do this. However, we admit that he went a little overboard. Initially he began by talking with scientists and medical doctors who were so interested in examining only the frequency of the sound that the idea of intention was a new (and somewhat ridiculous idea to them). Nevertheless, Jonathan continued sharing the importance of intention in his workshops, lectures and writing. And as usual, things got a little out of alignment. People began to think: "Well, it doesn't matter what sound I make as long as my intention is there". On one level, this is true. On another level, it is not. The formula which Jonathan was given was "FREQUENCY + INTENT = HEALING". This formula was created for the 3rd Dimensional Earth plane as it is currently evolved in your time and space. While it is true that in higher dimensionalities, Intent (and consciousness) does create all, very few beings on your planet have reached the level of development, where the actual sound they create is unimportant and the intention is everything. Now undoubtedly, there are spiritual masters on your planet who can belch or create any such sound and produce miraculous results. However, a majority of you (while you may perceive you are spiritual masters, and you may be) have not reached the state of development where you can do this. We illustrate this point by saying that if you wish to calm someone down with a sound and then you shout in their ear, the result will be that your shouting will undoubtedly
produce severe reactions of agitation in the individuals. Their heart beat, respiration and brain waves will all escalate and they will probably not enjoy your shouting in their ear, regardless of your intent. So we say that until you can levitate or dematerialize or do any of a number of frequency shifting exercises that you will ultimately be able to do, we urge you to pay attention to the frequencies that you are using. As well as the intentionality that you are putting into these frequencies. (To Be Continued)
About the authors: Jonathan Goldman is an international teacher and pioneer in Sound Healing. He is the author of HEALING SOUNDS, president of Spirit Music and director of the Sound Healers Association in Boulder, Colorado. Jonathan has created numerous recordings, including "Angel of Sound". He travels throughout the world presenting Healing Sounds Seminars. He may be reached at (303) 443-8181. Shamael is the Angel of Sound, an inter-dimensional being whose energy has been on this planet since its inception. Shamael is the true name of the angelic presence known as "Metatron", guardian of the Kabalistic energies of Kether. He is present on any sacred sound. He is a consultant of Jonathan. He may be reached by chanting "Eheih Shamael#.
http://healingsounds.com/articles/shifting-frequencies-9.asp
Shifting Frequencies: Compassion through Sound by Jonathan Goldman & Shamael This is Jonathan Goldman and Shamael talking to you about frequency shifting and the power of sound. Jonathan will deal with the psycho-acoustics of sound, as well as his own experiences. Shamael will deal with the inter-dimensional aspects of this work. We will unify as one voice for this experience with you. Last chapter, we concluded our discussion (for the time being) on fields and began to focus on the use of sound to create and influence fields. We briefly talked on the positive aspects of invoking energy forms of compassion for activation and resonance of these sacred spaces. We would like to continue this discussion. It is said that there are only two basic emotions which guide us; love and fear. There is much truth to this. Out of the energies of love come many other emotions such as joy, ecstasy and happiness. Out of the energies of fear, come other emotions such as anger, despair and hatred. Now, this of course is an oversimplification, but you get the idea. What is most important is that our lives and the reality we create are filtered through the glasses of emotion and we tend to see things through the spectacles of either love or fear. It has also been suggested by others (and we are only stating this information, not claiming it as ours, but it is important and should be shared) that in order to reach higher dimensions of consciousness, it is necessary to be present in a state of love. We agree with this. When talking about higher dimensionalities, often the idea of a fourth or fifth dimension is discussed. Recently, a friend of Jonathan's came back from a conference. "I was in the 5th Dimension" the friend said. Asking for clarification on what that was, the friend replied: "You know, when everything is happening just right and you're in the flow. When everything is synchronistic and things that you think about immediately occur." We like this definition because it is not to difficult to understand. It simply describes a state where thoughts become reality. Jonathan believes that if this is the 5th dimension, we may have already entered it. There is truth to this, for as you know, your thoughts do create reality. However, many times, the realities that you create for yourself are not necessarily the kindest, the gentlest--the most loving. Many times these realities that you create for yourself are done so through fear. So, if Jonathan's friend was operating from the 5th dimension (or whatever you want to call it), it was a frequency based upon love and not fear. Jonathan suggested so to his
friend and suggested that perhaps when he returned to his normal, everyday life, his friend had begun to again operate out of fear. The friend agreed. Clearing the emotional body is of such great importance in these amazing and transformative times. If you are becoming more and more capable and conscious of co-creating your realities, both the negative and the positive aspects of your creations come into being. And of course, as you mystics and spiritual messengers throughout time have always said, Love is the answer. This column is on Shifting Frequencies and in particular on ways that sound can be utilized to create vibrational change. Yet we will tell you that the greatest frequency shift that can occur is through changing fear to love. This is the most extraordinary vibrational change that one can experience. And yes, sound can be a wonderful vehicle for doing this. Love is a vibration. It has been postulated that love is a long, coherent wave form that actually interfaces with the helixes of the DNA, helping encode and make frequency shifts. Fear on the other hand, it has also been postulated, is a short, incoherent wave form that creates the opposite effect on DNA. Experiments were done in a laboratory not long ago in which a DNA strand was unbraided. Then a group of researchers working solely with the vibration of love as a thoughtform gathered around this unbraided DNA and beamed love at it. The DNA recoiled itself. What an extraordinary experiment and what a remarkable result. We do not, by the way, suggest that the wave form of love or fear can be reduced to mere frequency in terms of measurement via cycles per second--this is a complete misunderstanding of the subject. Long waves of frequency are not more "loving" than short waves. Otherwise bass notes would be more loving than treble notes and they are not. But in terms of feelings, when you are in a loving state, you will probably notice you are in a much different vibrational state than when you are in a fearful state. And when you are in a loving state, your heart beat, respiration and brainwaves are very much different than a fearful state. In love, your brain waves are slow, as is your heart beat and respiration. In a fearful state, your brain waves are rapid, as is your heart beat and respiration. But again, these are effects of the vibration of love and fear and can not be reduced to cycles per second of sound. Sound can, however, help trigger the response of love. If you would like to try this exercise: sit quietly for a few moments and then think of a very loving experience that you have had. Now, as you think of this loving experience, begin to sound forth with a very gentle "ah" sound. Make this sound as a long, extended sound: "Aaaaaahhhhh" and while you make this sound with this thought or intention of love, feel your heart chakra resonating with this sound. Feel your heart center opening, balancing and aligning with this energy. The "ah" sound is an excellent sound for working with the energy of the heart center and the feeling of love. It is the sound which Jonathan uses to resonate the heart center when he leads workshops in an exercise he calls "Vowels as Mantras". There are different sounds for different chakras, but the "ah" sound seems to work so nicely for the heart. The "ah" sound is also found in so many of the god and goddess names on the planet. Krishna, Buddha , Yeshua (Jesus), Avalokitesvara, Allah, Wakantanka, Yah Way, Apollo, Tara, Athena, Saraswati, Gaia, Shekinah to name just a few. Do you think this is just coincidence? It is not. The "ah" sound, of course, is not the only sound to convey the energy of love. It is but one of many. We merely bring it to your attention as a simple sound which you can work with. And it does not merely resonate the heart chakras--all of your chakras can and will someday resonate to the energy of love and with the many sounds that convey the energy of love. All sounds infact, can resonate with the energy of love. And when this occurs, all sounds will be sacred sounds for you will have reached a point in your development where the intention of the sound supercededs the frequency of the sound. Then you will have reached a point in your consciousness where you can truly resonate with the energy of what Jonathan's friend called the 5th Dimension. Compassion is a key to working with the energy of love for compassion is the understanding of the unconditional energy of love. Unconditional love--what a wonderful concept to conceive and what a difficult concept to really achieve. To love unconditionally is to love all beings equally as
an aspect of the divine. To love unconditionally is to love each and every one as being sacred. How extraordinary and how challenging for to love in this manner is to break down the separation that has occurred between you and to realize the oneness of all. It is not an easy thing. Perhaps the gentlest way of beginning to experience this unconditional love is to start with one's self. If you have already achieved this and have forgiven yourself for whatever imperfections you may have experienced as being human, then you may be able to begin unconditionally loving others (and we do not mean just humans, but animals and trees--infact all life). However, for most, a key to unconditional love lies initially in the loving of one's self. When you can truly love yourself, without condition (for it would not be unconditional love with condition), then you are ready to move onward toward truly loving others. Even divine entities have difficulty with this. In the Buddhist tradition, there is the being known as the Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, whose name has been translated as "Sound That Illuminates The World". This being reaching enlightenment in the physical. But instead of traveling to the highest of heavenly realms to receive his just rewards, the Avalokitesvara decided to stay and help out on the Earth and other planes until all sentient beings reached enlightenment. Legend has it that after only a short time trying this, the Avalokitesvara became so despondent over all the suffering in the world that he literally blew up from the pain. Another divine entity, his spiritual father, came to the Avalokitesvara's aid, putting him back together and giving counsel and increased abilities. The Avalokitesvara realized that even by only helping one other being, he was doing extraordinary work. We tell this story to you to emphasize what an extraordinary gift compassion is, and how difficult it is to embody. With compassion comes the awareness of all the fear on the planet and all the suffering that results from this. It is an incredibly loving state, but one that may also be accompanied by sadness, until one is able to detach from the little self. Then one will realize what a gift compassion is--to love unconditionally, despite all the fear from others one encounters. As one comes into the consciousness of compassion, it is important to realize that through assistance from the Divine (as the Avalokitesvara learned) , all is possible. We also tell you that compassion is necessary for those of you working with the energy you call "healing". With compassion you empathize with and resonate with others until they become as one with you. And the fears and imbalances become transmuted through the energy of love. Through this perfect oneness which has been achieved, healing occurs. Compassion means with passion --with the passion of the Christ-- and it is with this passion that you transmit the energies of healing, whether they be through sound, or light, touch or whatever. We briefly discussed last time how the Christ and may others embodied the wave form of compassion. And we also suggested that this waveform was wonderful for creating sacred space and for shifting frequencies of self and others.Working with this energy through sounding is truly awe inspiring. Once Jonathan had a student who was very interested in finding the right "frequency" for diffusing negative energy. Jonathan told the student that he did not feel there was one correct frequency for this, but that projecting sound with the intention of love might be quite effective for remedying the situation. Jonathan also suggested working with specific mantras that utilized this energy--particularly the "Om Mani Padme Hum" chant (the mantra to invoke the Avalokitesvara) and others which the student felt comfortable with. The next day this student reported that they were driving home when they saw a car driving erratically. They were very concerned that this car would cause an accident, so they began a mantric chant while projecting the energy of love. The other car suddenly stopped their practice driving. All during the two hour ride home, this student continued the mantric chanting, beaming love at any dangerous and aggressive drivers. And it worked. We like to believe that at that time, the student was in the so called 5th dimension and we are grateful for all in that state. Sounding with the energy of compassion, whether through mantric chanting, vowel sounds or
other sacred sounds is extraordinary to do alone. It is even better when done in a group. This is not to downsize the effect of individual sounding, but merely to stress the extraordinary effect that sounding in a group accomplishes. In groups, the consciousness that can be achieved is greater than anything that can be imagined. Sound and intentionality build upon each other. As this occurs, the effect is synergistic, much greater than the sum of the parts. As Jesus said he would be around when two or more were gathered in His name, he was not speaking figuratively. The effect of sacred sound in a group is like that. The mathematics are very different. 1+ 1 = 3 or even more. So we suggest again to you to gather together in sacred sound and experience the results. You can create sacred space in this manner. You can change the frequencies of imbalanced areas in this way. And the energy will stay changed--at least for a while because you have changed the fields--you have charged the fields with sacred sound. And all who enter the field will be effected and changed themselves, long after your own sounds have stopped. Remember when sounding together in a group to have a common intention. We suggest that one of the intentions will be to become channels of Divine Light and Love using sacred sound. If you can add visualization to the sound that you are making--either by invoking specific entities who work with love, or by seeing the sound manifesting sacred geometries of love--this will assist in amplifying and focusing the energy that you are working with. Working with sound in this manner, you will be assisting not only your personal frequency shifts and those around you, but the frequency shifts of the planet itself. We give thanks.
http://healingsounds.com/articles/sonic-entrainment.asp
Sonic Entrainment
by Jonathan Goldman
All life consists of rhythmic processes. From the simple pulsations of a single-cell organism to the rising and falling of our breath, life is filled with rhythm. This rhythm is also called "periodicity," meaning that the activity of something falls in cycles. Much of life is directed by the external rhythms of nature. For example, the earth spins on its axis and rotates around the sun, and around our moon orbits the earth. We attune ourselves to the cycles of the sun and the moon, following the different rhythms they create. With day and night, different behavior is created; we usually get up with daylight and go to sleep at night. When our light-dark cycle is disturbed, as when we take a long jet flight, our ability to function in the new environment is affected for a day or two. We call this "jet lag." Different behavior due to rhythm also occurs for the different seasons of the year and the response of nature to this. Not only our sleep patterns, but our eating patterns, digestive patterns, even our harvesting and mating patterns are affected by the rhythms of these cycles.
Sound and Frequency Sound can be understood as being rhythmic. Sound takes the form of waves, which are measured in cycles per second (hertz or hz). This periodicity is rhythmic in nature. Each cycle of a wave may be recognized as a pulse of sound. Each individual frequency that we measure may be understood as being rhythmic, for the number of cycles per second that make up that frequency creates a rhythm. Low notes pulse much slower than high notes. The lowest note on a piano produces a frequency that vibrates at 27.5 hz; the highest note on a piano vibrates at 4,186 hz. The range of hearing for the human ear varies immensely. The upper range for "normal" hearing is between 16,000 and 20,000 hz. The bottom limit of what we can hear is around 16 hz. We cannot actually hear very slow pulsed notes, below the threshold of hearing, as single tones, but we can perceive them as being rhythmical in nature. These extremely low frequencies (called ELF5) sometimes can even be counted. In particular, sounds pulsed in the range of 0.1 hz to 8 hz are perceived as being rhythmic in nature. Events slower than this are not perceived as part of an ongoing rhythm,
while faster events are heard as a single tone.
Entrainment and Resonance
Entrainment is an aspect of sound that is closely related to rhythms and the way these rhythms affect us. It is a phenomenon of sound in which the powerful rhythmic vibrations of one object will cause the less powerful vibrations of another object to lock in step and oscillate at the first object's rate. This phenomenon of nature has to do with the conservation of energy. It seems that nature finds it more economical in terms of energy to have periodic events that are close enough in frequency to occur in phase or in step with each other. Itzhak Bentov illustrates an excellent example of entrainment in his book Stalking the Wild Pendulum. If you have a room full of pendulum-type grandfather clocks and start the pendulums in motion at different times, they will all swing differently. However, if you walk out of this room and come back the next day, you will find that all the pendulums are swinging together at the same rate. This locking in step of rhythms is entrainment. The Dutch scientist Christian Huygens discovered it in 1665. Entrainment is actually an aspect of resonance. Resonance may be defined as the frequency at which an object most naturally wants to vibrate. One object may set another object into motion if it shares the same resonant frequency. If, for example, you strike a tuning fork of 100 cycles per second and bring it near another tuning fork of that same frequency, the second tuning fork will be set in motion. Even though it has not been struck, the second fork will begin to vibrate and sound merely by being in the same field as the vibrating tuning fork. We have all seen a singer break a glass with his or her voice. This is another example of resonance. This also occurs between two guitar strings, one struck and one unstruck. Resonance is a cooperative phenomenon between two objects that share the same frequency. With resonance you are meeting the natural vibrations of an object with its own vibrations, thereby setting it into motion. Thus resonance may be conceived of as being passive in nature. Entrainment, on the other hand, seems to be active. With entrainment you are changing the natural oscillatory patterns of one object and replacing them with the different oscillatory patterns of another object. You are actively changing the vibrations (the frequency or rhythm) of one object to another rate. The oscillators of television sets, radio receivers and other similar equipment lock on to each other and entrain. With television sets, when you turn the knobs you are adjusting the frequency of your set's oscillators to match the frequency of the station's oscillators. When the frequencies come close to one another, they suddenly lock, as if they "want" to pulse together. Usually, the fastest oscillator will force the slower ones to operate at its pace. Living things are like television sets in that they also oscillate; they pulse, they vibrate, they have rhythm. These rhythms of life allow for entrainment. Entrainment is found throughout nature. Fireflies blinking on and off entrain with each other. Female college roommates often have menstrual cycles that synchronize together. Muscle cells from the heart, when they move closer together, suddenly shift in their rhythm and start pulsing together, perfectly synchronized. This entrainment also takes place when two people have a good conversation. Their brain waves oscillate synchronously. Such entrainment is seen in the relationship between students and their professors. Psychotherapists and clients entrain with each other, as do preachers and their congregation. Within our own bodies, we are constantly locking in our own rhythms. Our heart rate, respiration and brain waves all entrain to each other. Slow down your breath, for example, and you slow down your heartbeat and your brain waves. Conversely, if you are able to slow down your brain waves, you can affect your heart rate and respiration. This is one of the principles of biofeedback. It has been found that the frequencies of pulse, breathing and blood circulation, as well as their combined activities, all function harmonically. That is, their rhythms are strictly coordinated in whole number ratios-two to one, three to two.
Brain Waves Our brain waves pulsate and oscillate at particular frequencies that can be measured, just like sound waves, in cycles per second. There are four basic delineations of different brain wave states, based upon the cycles per second of the brain. They are: - Beta waves-from 14 to 20 hz. They are found in our normal waking state of consciousness. Beta waves are present when our focus of attention is on activities of the external world.
- Alpha waves-from 8 to 13 hz. They occur when we daydream and are often associated with a state of meditation. Alpha waves become stronger and more regular when our eyes are closed. - Theta waves-from 4 to 7 hz. They are found in states of high creativity and have been equated to states of consciousness found in much shamanic work. Theta waves also occur in state of deep meditation and sleep. - Delta waves-from .5 to 3 hz. They occur in states of deep sleep or unconsciousness. Some of the newer brain wave work indicates that a state of deep meditation produces Delta waves in conscious individuals. Two other delineations of brain-wave activity have been noted by some researches: - High Beta-from 23 to 33 hz. They are associated with hyperactivity and some types of anxiety. - K Complex-over 33 hz. They usually occur in short bursts and are often associated with the "aha" moments, when there is a sudden integration of ideas or experiences.
External Rhythms and Internal Processes As the functions of the human body can entrain to each other, it is possible to use external rhythms to affect the internal mechanism of heart rate, respiration and brain wave activity. This ability to affect internal rhythms by external means seems fairly logical and matter of fact. Yet research into this area did not make its way into scientific journals until the 1970s, when studies began to report that resonance and entrainment of bodily processes could occur in response to external sound and musical rhythms. In his paper "On the Effects of Lullabies" Johannes Kneutgen reported on the soothing effects of lullabies played for infants and noted that breathing rhythms became synchronized with the rhythm of the music. A paper by Janet and Hobart Landreth called "Effects of Music on Physiological Response" reported that heart rate changes were directly related to changes in tempo. One series of extensive studies by Harrer and Harrer called "Music, Emotion and Autonomic Function" explored some of the effects that emotional musical experiences have on the autonomic nervous system, including blood pressures, pulse rate, respiration, galvanic skin response and muscle tension. The authors found that heart rate was sensitive to both music volume and rhythm. They also found that some subjects tended to synchronize either their heartbeat or their respiratory rhythm to the music. In 1980, Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder's book Superlearning brought to the public some awareness of the potential abilities of music to entrain. They examined the Lozanov Method of education, which originated in Bulgaria. In part of the program music is used to help induce states of consciousness effective in heightening the learning process. Music pulsed at about 60 beats per minute was found to be helpful in inducing an alpha state. Lozanov utilized baroque music in his work. Almost immediately after the book appeared, sales of baroque music climbed dramatically, due to its use in various learning acceleration programs. However, close examination of the Lozanov Method revealed that only the adagio sections of certain baroque pieces were effective. In Bulgaria Lozanov had limited access to music. It has since been found that much "New Age" music is pulsed at this 60 beats per minute and is as effective as baroque music in entraining brain waves in listeners. These cited studies of the 1970s, as well as information in Superlearning, did not seem to contain conclusive data about the ability of external rhythms to entrain internal rhythms. An external rhythm of 60 beats per minute should reduce the heart rate and a much faster rhythm should raise it, but the change was not always directly proportional; 60 musical beats per minute would not always produce 60 heart beats per minute. For example, some heartbeats might go down from 72 to 64 beats per minute, and others might reduce to 68. This differentiation makes data for certain research studies inconclusive, though it does not rule out the ability of external rhythms to entrain internal rhythms. It is also important to understand that different individuals being tested had the ability consciously to fight against external rhythms and not be affected by entrainment to them. An additional factor is that the strength of response to the entraining rhythm may vary from person to person.
Monroe's Entrainment of Brain Waves During the time much of this research on the various effects of external rhythms and heartbeat was being conducted in universities and medical centers, a great deal of private research was being conducted on using, not specific rhythms to entrain heart beat, but specific frequencies to entrain the brain. This work was pioneered by Robert Monroe of the Monroe Institute.
Robert Monroe was a business executive with a background in broadcasting. He was director of the Mutual Broadcasting System and owner of a group of radio stations and cable television corporations in the southeast. When Monroe began having spontaneous out-of-body experiences in the 1960s, he started private research into the effects of different frequencies on various states of consciousness. Part of Monroe's experience with out-of-body travels involved hearing different frequencies, which he felt, triggered the experiences. He felt that sound somehow could play a role in helping others achieve similar states of consciousness, and with the help of a research team, he set out to discover if he could control or drive the brain with sound waves. Through trial and error and probably a lot of intuition, Monroe discovered that specific frequencies could produce entrainment of brain waves. He found that, much like a glass resonated by a pure tone, the brain resonated when bombarded with pulsing sound waves. Monroe called this a frequency following response, or FFR, and patented this effect in 1975. In particular, the neo cortex, or frontal lobes of the brain responded to sound in this manner. The frequencies Monroe used to entrain the brain were in the same spectrum as the brain waves themselves-from .5 hz to about 20 hz. These are frequencies that the human ear is incapable of hearing. However, working with a psycho-acoustic phenomenon called beat frequencies, Monroe found that it was possible to create very low frequencies from much higher sound. At the same time that Monroe was doing this work, Dr. Gerald Oster, a biophysicist at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York, was independently investigating the effects of this beat phenomenon. The phenomenon is this: If you use two independent sound sources, for example a tuning fork of 100 cycles per second and another of 108 cycles per second, they produce a tone that waxes and wanes in a pulsing wah-wah-wah sound or beat. The rapidity of the beat equals the difference between the two frequencies. In the above illustration, between the two tuning forks of 100 and 108, you would create an 8 cycle per second beat frequency. If the sound comes from an external source, such as a loudspeaker, the beats can be heard with both ears or with only one ear, which is called a "monaural" beat frequency. The phenomenon of beat frequencies is described in many psychoacoustic journals. If the frequencies of the two sound sources are applied separately, one to each ear, a "binaural" beat frequency is created. This beat frequency is not an actual sound, but only a frequency difference between the two actual sounds. This sound is "heard" within the brain itself; the binaural beat frequency is created by both brain hemispheres working simultaneously. Thus, in his attempt to discover a technique to entrain the brain, Monroe found a way to sonically synchronize the left and right hemispheres. In thousands of experiments using an EEG to monitor the brain waves of people hearing a different signal in each ear, he verified that binaural beats could indeed entrain or drive brain waves. The entrainment or frequency following response did not take place only in the area of the brain responsible for hearing, or only in the left and right hemispheres; the entire brain resonated, the waveforms of both hemispheres becoming identical in frequency, amplitude, phase and coherence. This paper is not on the potential uses of brain synchronization, which may have remarkable implications for education, but rather on the ability of external sound stimuli to affect the internal rhythms of the brain. This most interesting side effect-the ability to synchronize the hemispheres of the brain-is mentioned for those interested in further study. In order for this patented process (which Monroe called "Hemi-sync") to work, it appeared that headphones were necessary. Later work with the FFR, however, indicated that entrainment of the brain still occurred with external sound sources, such as stereo speakers, if they were given enough separation in the room. While the effects were not quite as rapid or as powerful as with headphones, sonic entrainment still took place.
Other Work on Sonic Entrainment Monroe is the creator of this technology. However, he is not the only person who is utilizing sonic phenomenon to entrain the brain. A number of other private institutions utilize similar processes. One person, a non-sectarian monk named Master (formally "Brother") Charles, is head of M.S.H. Associates, which specializes in using sound to enhance and accelerate consciousness. Master Charles was a disciple of the Eastern spiritual leaders Swami Paramahansa Muktananda.
He found that through the new sonic entrainment technology it was possible almost instantly to induce states of deep meditation, normally not available to people without years of meditational practice. Charles uses a process called "phasing,'~ which employs a mechanism very similar to Monroe's to create altered states of consciousness. Indeed, it is the innate ability of the brain to detect waveform phase difference which gives rise to binaural beats. An additional aspect of this sonic entrainment technology, brought to my attention by Sharry Edwards, a researcher at Ohio University, is that if the carrier waves creating-the beat frequencies are harmonically related to the beat frequencies, a more powerful sonic entrainment occurs. According to Edwards, the most powerful form of entrainment to induce 7 hz., for example, involves using two differentiated signals that are harmonic multiples of frequencies of 7-say 49 hz and 56 hz. For entrainment of 6 cycles, you would work with a multiple of 6-perhaps 60 and 66. Thus far there has not been much available research regarding this. It does make sense, however, and I mention it for those interested in working with this technology. Ronald deStrulle, director of Holistic Programs, Inc., of New York, utilizes a process which seems to be in agreement with Edwards' thoughts on entrainment. One of the most popular entrainment frequencies being utilized these days is that of 7.8 cycles per second. Both Ronald deStrulle and scientist Robert Tollaksen have created different tapes utilizing this frequency. DeStrulle's is called "Geo-Magnetic Field Entrainment," while Tollaksen's is simply called "Earth Hertz." It is of interest to note that the earth's ionosphere, the electromagnetic field around the earth, has been measured. This is called the Schumann Resonance, and it appears that the frequency of the earth is somewhere around 7.83 cycles per second, which is identical to the alpha wave rhythm of the human brain. Itzhak Bentov, author of Stalking the Wild Pendulum, theorized that persons vibrating at these frequencies during meditation would entrain with the geomagnetic energies of the earth and lock in resonance with it. There are also some researchers who, like Bentov, believe that this 7.8 hz frequency is the resonant frequency of the human body. It has been suggested by Dr. Robert Beck that perhaps this frequency is a "cosmic carrier of information" and could be the "drummer" to which psychics, healers, dowsers, etc. are entrained. By listening to tapes of the 7.8 hz it may be possible that listeners are able to resonate with the frequency of the earth's aura. Both deStrulle and Tollaksen have reported rather remarkable therapeutic experiences from those who have utilized these frequencies. It should be remembered however, that the Schumann Resonance is actually an average of the electromagnetic pulsations of the earth. These electromagnetic frequencies go up and down. Some suggest that 8 hz. is an equally valid frequency that may be used for this resonance. The original innovator and creator of this entrainment process, Robert Monroe, does not utilize beat frequencies of 7.8 hz or those in the alpha frequency spectrum. Most of the beat frequencies in his tapes, such as "Way of Hemi Sync," focus more on delta and theta waves mixed with beta frequencies. Additionally, unlike many of the other recordings to be discussed, Monroe does not deal with one specific frequency but with many. Tom Kenyon, head of Acoustic Brain Research in North Carolina, produces various sonic entrainment cassettes called "WaveForms." Along with "Differential Signaling," Tom's term for the Hemi-Synch process, he also utilizes the pulsing of low tones at specific rhythmic patterns to entrain the brain into the desired state. He claims that an advantage of this form of entrainment is that a person with ear deafness can still get the entrainment, whereas in differential signaling, there would be no entrainment since one of the signals is not being received. Tom has worked with researchers using a 24 channel Neuromap EEG recording of subjects after they listened to his WaveForm tape. This research showed a shift of dominant alpha brain activity and a powerful increase in theta (4-8 hz). Dr. Jeffrey Thompson, a chiropractor working with sound at Sound Sphere Productions has produced the "Isle of Skye," which incorporates music as well as the sonic entrainment technology. This tape, according to Dr. Thompson, "contains specific frequency modulation designed to induce the production of Alpha and Theta waves in the human cerebral cortex. I use multiple variations of Alpha and Theta wave frequencies, phasing the waveforms through the 3.5 to 13 hz. range." Jeffrey uses a number of other sonic therapies besides these tapes, and his work merits further investigation. The use of music to accompany these sonic entrainment frequencies is becoming more and more common. Many of Monroe's tapes utilize music as well as the Hemi-Sync frequencies, with most of the Hemi-Sync frequencies at a subliminal listening level. These subliminal frequencies have been found to be as effective as the audible ones. It is important to understand that with these extremely low frequencies any music which may
accompany the sounds must be pulsed slowly. As discussed before, music pulsed at about 60 beats per minute is ideal for helping to induce alpha states. If music pulsed a good deal faster were used, the entrainment of the heart to faster rhythms would clash with the slow brain waves pulses created by the beat frequency process. The effect would be minimal, if it existed at all. Therefore, slow music must be utilized.
"Dolphin Dreams" The relationship between rhythms and brain wave frequencies is utilized and applied in the Spirit Music recording of "Dolphin Dreams." This is a sonic environment created as a tool for meditation and birth. It features the sounds of the ocean, human heartbeat, dolphin sounds and choral voices. The choral voices utilize a wordless melody containing the "Ur" song, a descending melodic minor tune that is found in lullabies throughout the world. Along with these sounds, there is a choir chanting the Sanskrit mantra "Om." This sound was detuned in each channel to be slightly out of phase in order to attempt to create the "Schumann" resonance of 7.8 hz. Some of the dolphin frequencies heard on this recording also resonated in this 7.8 hz range, with the dolphins utilizing a vibrato effect in order to create this frequency. Scientists at the Aspen Research Center have found that not only do dolphins create this frequency, but they have also been attracted to 7.8 hz when it was sent out via sonic instrumentation during underwater research. In choosing the correct heart beat for "Dolphin Dreams," researchers experimented with a number of different pulsed heartbeats. At first the heart beat of an infant in utero was tried, but the heart beat of the infant's mother was found to be equally if not more effective for calming. A heart beat of 60 beats per minute was also tried, since it is so favored by the Lozanov Method, but a heart beat of 48 to 50 beats per minute was finally found to be most effective for working harmoniously and harmonically with the other soothing sounds on the recording. Since the time of recording "Dolphin Dreams", I have continued to apply principles of sonic entrainment to many of the various recordings I have made. I have utilized the beat frequency phenomenon as well as other sonic entrainment techniques with such recordings as "Chakra Chants" and "The Lost Chord". Researchers have found that these recordings produce very slow and deep states of brainwave activity-including both Theta and Delta. The power of different mantras and chants, specific harmonic frequencies and specific sonic intervals creates by themselves, very powerful effects upon the nervous system and the brain. Some of this information is contained in my book Healing Sounds. The Pythagorean ratio of 2:3, for example, can help induce synchronization of the hemispheres of the brain as well as deepened states of brainwave activity. However, when combined with many of the different psycho acoustic methods available to create sonic entrainment, the utilization of sacred sounds such as mantras and Pythagorean intervals produces the most powerful recordings available for transformation. My recording, "Ultimate Om", is an example of this application, as is "Hermetic Harmonics".
Tibetan Bells, Peruvian Whistles "Sonic entrainment" when first used in this paper was a relatively new term. Yet, sonic entrainment as a phenomenon has been used by medicine men and women and shamans from different cultures since prehistoric days. The ability to create altered states of consciousness through drumming, chanting and music is probably as old as music itself. Jeanne Achterberg in her book Imagery in Healing notes, for example, that analysis of shamanic drumming encompasses a frequency range of from .8 to 5.0 cycles per second, which she refers to as "theta driving capacity." Tibetan bells, or Ting-Sha's, have been utilized in Buddhist meditation practice for many centuries. An examination reveals that the two bells, which are rung together, are slightly out of tune with each other. Depending upon the bells, the difference tones between them create ELFs somewhere between 4 and 8 cycles per second. This falls exactly within the range of the brain waves created during meditation and helps shift the brain to these frequencies. It is little wonder that Tibetan bells are experiencing a worldwide increase in popularity as tools for increased relaxation and reduction of stress. Peruvian whistling vessels are ancient pipe-like instruments, originally found buried with mummies in Peru. For quite a while it was thought that they were just water jars.
Then, some people began to experiment with them, blowing on them as whistles. The psychoacoustic effects of actually blowing these vessels are quite amazing and powerful. Recently, replicas of these whistling vessels have been made available for experimentation and research. The entire cranium of the person blowing them seems to act as a resonating chamber-an effect that cannot be reproduced on a record. These vessels are usually blown in sets of seven and they create tremendous beat frequencies. The March 29th, 1988, science section of the New York Times was devoted to these vessels. The headline read "Complex Whistles Found to Play Key Roles in Inca and Maya Life"; the subtitle read "Much more than toys, the whistles were genuine musical instruments." Stephen Garret and Daniel Statnekov tested the tonal ranges of these vessels using spectrum analysers and frequency meters. They suggested that, rather than being primarily utilitarian liquid containers as anthropologists regarded them, the bottles were specifically produced as whistles. Dr. Garret found that curious sounds were produced when two or three bottles of the same culture were blown simultaneously. Their higher notes would interact to produce deep lower notes that could not be tape-recorded but heard only in the ear, where the effect is generated. He said, "The idea is that these low frequency sounds were important religious rituals for changing states of consciousness." Such vessels were undoubtedly sacred tools, used under the guidance of a shaman or priest and utilized only at specific times and for specific purposes. Listening to these whistling vessels makes one truly appreciate the possibility of profound knowledge of sound among ancient cultures. The Peruvian whistling vessels and the Tibetan bells are two examples of shamanic tools that employed the concept of sonic entrainment for the brain. Numerous other ancient cultures knew of these principles for using ELFs to alter consciousness and applied them in their instruments, drumming and chanting. Today, healers and therapists working with sound and music have the potential of following in the paths of the ancient shamanic traditions, combining magic and mysticism with modern science and technology. These healers and therapists are responsible for being aware of new discoveries of the use of sound and music in this manner.
Hemi-Sync and Other Uses of ELF The technology of creating sonic entrainment may turn out to be a most important aspect of the therapeutic use of sound and music. Private research from various people working with this technology has indicated very promising results. However, the available literature is at this time mostly anecdotal, and experiental data is limited. As creator of this technology, Robert Monroe and the Monroe Institute have done the most research for the longest period of time with their Hemi-Sync, particularly in the area of using sound to enhance education. A number of subjective studies have shown that groups of students in various age groups using tapes with Hemi-Sync had higher test scores and grades than control groups not using the technology. Hemi-Sync has also proved to be of help in the areas of learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism, uncontrolled seizure disorder, emotional disturbance, and Down's syndrome. Sonic entrainment is also being utilized for pain control, stress reduction and relaxation. Ronald deStrulle, cited earlier, utilizes an entrainment frequency of about 1.45 hz, which he calls a "Tri-Thalamic Entrainment Format." It is designed to create entrainment between the hypothalamus, pituitary and pineal centers of the brain. Master Charles is experimenting with this frequency in a select group of test subjects, and he also believes it stimulates the pituitary gland. While there is little research to indicate the effects of utilizing frequencies such as 1.45 hz, it is certainly an area of research that may prove enlightening. In a letter, deStrulle wrote that several doctors and audiologists from the New England Dyslectic Center Group have been obtaining excellent results with dyslexia by using Tri-Thalamic Format and that a study was presently being conducted which indicated profound improvement with Alzheimer's patients. We have been unable to confirm these reports, but they indicate the possibility of great inroads in this area. It seems likely that in the area of neurological illnesses and brain injuries, sound, and in particular sonic entrainment, may prove to be the most effective, especially when this technology is combined with other sonic technologies such as those developed by Dr. Alfred Tomatis. Hemi-Sync has been utilized with stroke and aphasia patients with seemingly considerable success. If, as has been indicated, it may be possible to resonate specific portions of the brain using particular frequencies, it may therefore be possible to treat all manner of physical and
emotional ailments using sound in this manner. Hopefully, we are just at the very beginning of some very powerful therapies which will utilize this technology.
Cautions At the same time, it seems that caution is needed. If such frequencies stimulate the pituitary, for example, what effects would occur from long-term exposure to them? It has been suggested that these frequencies could be dangerous as well as healing, perhaps bringing on premature strokes and other imbalances in the brain. We do not know. Sonic entrainment is by no means the cure-all or the answer to all the potential uses of healing with sound, but it certainly is an important development with astounding possibilities. As with all new discoveries, there is equal concern about misuse. With technology as simple as this, it is becoming increasingly easy for anyone with a bit of recording equipment to produce tapes that create sonic entrainment The ease with which such tapes may also be obtained and used without discretion is of equal concern. Without proper research and study, we may be unleashing a Pandora's box to an unsuspecting public. It is important that the long-term effects of some of these frequencies being utilized should be studied, and that we determine whether they are beneficial or dangerous. We are currently at the forefront of using sound to affect the body, mind and spirit. These are exciting times with many new discoveries and developments. The potential areas of use may be limited only by our imagination.
Bibliography - Achterberg, Jean, Imagery in Healing. Boston: Shambhala, 1985. - Allesch, Christian G., "A Study of the Influence of Music on Pulse and Respiration Frequency." Zeitschr~ft fur experimentelle und angewandte Psychologies, 1981. Vol. 29. - Atwater, F. Holmes, "The Monroe Institute's Hemi-Sync Process," Unpublished research, Monroe Institute, 1987. - Beck, Bob, "ELF Waves and EEG Entrainment," from Kiplinger Magazine, Jan./Feb. 1988. - Bentov, Itzhak, Stalking the Wild Pendulum. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1988. - Berendt, Joachbim-Ernst, Nada Brahma: The World is Sound. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1987. - Broad, William, "Complex Whistles Found to Play Key Role in Inca and Maya Life," New York Times, Tuesday, March 29, 1988. - Burns, Linda, "Conversation with Linda Burns." - Clynes, Manfred, and Janice Walker, "Neurobiologic Functions of Rhythm, Time and Pulse in Music," Music, Mind and Brain, edited by Manfred Clynes, New York: Plenum Press, 1982. - DeStruelle, Ronald, "Letters to Jonathan Goldman," October 10, 1989, November 12, 1989. - Fonatana, Alberto E. & Loschi, Julia A., "Combined Use of Music with Sound of Heart Beats and Respiration Rhythms in Psychotherapy," Acta Psiquiatrica y Psicologic de America Latina, March, 1979. - Goldman, Jonathan, Awakening the Lost Chord, Spirit Music, 1984. Harrer and Harrer, "Music, Emotion and Autonomic Function" in M. Critchley and R. Henson (Eds), Music andtheBrain, London: Wm. Heinemann, 1977. - Hutchinson, Michael, MegaBrain, New York: Ballantine Books, 1987. - Kenyon, Tom, "Acoustic Brain Research," Acoustic Brain Research, Inc., 1989. - Krier, Beth Ann, "Meditation on Tape: Enlightenment Made Easy," Los Angeles Times, January 30, 1987. - Landreth. Janet E. & F. Hobart, "Effects of Music on Physiological Response," Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 22, 1974. - Leonard, George, "The Silent Pulse," New York: E. P. Dutton, 1978. - Morris, Suzanne Evans, "The Structure of Metamusic," Breakthrough. Faber, VA: Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences, 1987. - Morris, Suzanne Evans, "The Effects of Music and Hemi-Sync on a Child with a Seizure Disorder," Breakthrough, 1983. - Myers, John, "Human Rhythms and the Psychobiology of Entrainment," Unpublished, Bell Communication Research, 1988. - Ostrander, Sheila & Lynn Schroeder, Superlearning, New York: Putnam, 1982. - Varney, Karen, "Metamusic with Hemi-Sync as an Adjunct to Intervention with Developmentally Delayed Young Children." Virginia Commonwealth University, 1988. This article has been edited and updated from a paper first presented at IV International
MusicMedicine Symposium, 1989, at Rancho Mirage, California. http://healingsounds.com/articles/sound-healing-article.asp
HEALING SOUNDS
An Interview with Jonathan Goldman by Robert Mann One of the most exciting new areas of research in healing and the transformation of consciousness involves the use of sound. Like much of the "New Age" exploration, this is in large part a rediscovery of ancient technique and practices combined with modern research in psycho-acoustics and physiology. One of the leading teachers of the healing power of sound is Jonathan Goldman. Jonathan is the director of the Sound Healers Association and the School of Sound, and is president of Spirit Music in Boulder, Colorado. He is the author of Healing Sounds: The Power Of Harmonics, one of the best new books on the subject. I spoke with Jonathan from his office in Boulder. RM: Jonathan, how did you get involved with the healing use of sound? JG: It began when I was playing guitar in a rock band in New England clubs in the late '70s. One night I remember looking out at the audience and being quite aware that the music I was creating was contributing to an atmosphere of disharmony and imbalance. No doubt, the alcohol and many other factors were also contributing to this atmosphere, but for some reason on that night, I became aware that my music was adding to the anger and other negative emotions experienced by people in the club. I remember thinking, "I wonder if music could be used as a positive force to help people?" I never contemplated sound as a healing modality - that came later - but just the idea of using music to positively help people was enough to start me on this path. Soon after that, doors began to open for me. within a couple of weeks I was reading the available books on sound healing, listening to soothing music, and attending a workshop on toning lead by Sarah Benson, who has since become a beloved teacher and friend, as well as an artist on the Spirit Music record label I founded to produce therapeutic and transformational music. I also founded the Sound Healers Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to education and awareness of the uses of sound and music for healing. SHA held monthly meetings which featured some of the foremost international authorities on using sound for healing. RM: Who were some of these people? JG: Dr. Peter Guy Manners, the creator of the Cymatic instrument, which uses direct application of sound on the body for healing; Randall McClellan, author of The Healing Forces Of Music, composer and author Steven Halpern; Don Campbell, another well known author/composer; and Joanne Crandall, author of Self-Transformation To Music. We held these meetings for over five years, so this is only a partial list of some of the extraordinary people who came and freely shared with us. Later on, I received a Masters Degree from Lesley College researching the uses of sound and music for healing. Much of the material I utilized came from information received at the Sound Healers meetings. It was a wonderful education. RM: How do you use sound in your own practice? JG: There are so many different ways that sound can be used, from simply creating states of deep relaxation and meditation, to actually resonating and releasing area of imbalance in the physical body and etheric fields. Perhaps the most important use of sound that I work with is something called "vocal harmonics" and "overtoning." The former is the ability to create two or more notes at the same time. This is an ancient technique utilized in various spiritual and shamanic traditions, including Mongolian shamanism and Tibetan Buddhism. These vocal harmonics can resonate the physical body and the etheric fields; they can also vibrate different portions of the brain, which is quite extraordinary. Esoterically, vocal harmonics may be used to attune with different spirits and deities.
Overtoning is another, more advanced, aspect of this in which we can learn to project these harmonics to another person on whom we are working. Just as you can project healing energy through touch, as in reiki, you can do the same with your voice. This is what overtoning is all about - learning to project sacred sounds for healing another. RM: Can anyone learn these techniques? How are they taught? JG: I believe that almost anyone can learn to create vocal harmonics and produce two or more notes simultaneously. Overtoning is actually quite natural, and can also be easily learned (or, perhaps I should say rediscovered, since I believe we've just forgotten how to do this). I teach both vocal harmonics and overtoning in my Healing Sounds seminars. The first day of the seminar is spent learning how to open our ears, our voices, and our consciousness to the fascinating world of harmonics. We learn to work with vowel sounds, which are a key to the creation of vocal harmonics, in order to resonate and balance our physical bodies and our chakras. After that, we listen to different examples of vocal harmonics to train our ears to this aspect of the sonic spectrum. Then I share techniques of creating vocal harmonics and we practice theses. Usually, by the end of the first day, everyone in attendance is able to gain some ability to create vocal harmonics. Most people find this first level of the Healing Sounds Seminar to be quite transformative as well as fun. It's a bit like removing sunglasses and seeing the full spectrum of light, only in this case, we begin to perceive a fuller spectrum of sound that affects the way we hear, speak, sing, and indeed, the way we perceive reality. The second day of the seminar begins with preparation for becoming vehicles for sacred sound, for this is necessary in order to do overtoning. In my book, Healing Sounds, there is a formula which I believe is quite important. Frequency + Intention = Healing. That is, the energy behind the sound is of equal importance to the sound being created. The first day is devoted more to opening up to the frequency level of the sound healing process. The second day focuses more on understanding how we may become clearer channels for projecting the intent and energy of the sound we will be using in overtoning. This is what I mean by "becoming vehicles for sacred sound." The sound does not come from us, but through us. After this, I share the technique of overtoning, which is a method of scanning the physical body and etheric fields and then projecting sound in order to create balance. Overtoning is not difficult, although it is quite powerful. Once again, I believe that this sound work is quite natural and simply a forgotten ability that we are now ready to rediscover and reclaim as another aspect of our own innate healing powers. RM: What is the difference between working with sound alone and using it in a group? JG: Working alone with a technique such as vocal harmonics, you can learn to resonate and vibrate different parts of the body, the brain, and the etheric fields. It's a great way to tune yourself up daily, or to balance problems you may be encountering. Through sounding by ourselves, we can truly learn that we are vibratory beings who can change and tune into other energetic sources by using the power of our own voices. If we take the time to sound alone we can discover an extraordinary amount about ourselves and the universe. Using sound in a group can create the same experience of tuning to higher forces. At the same time, you are resonating with a group, attuning with others and the synergistic effect is quite powerful. When two people create separate harmonics, a third harmonic occurs; this third ghostlike tone which appears from seemingly nowhere helps create a sonic mystical experience in the group setting. RM: What do you see as the future direction for sound healing in general and your own work in particular? JG: The psychic Edgar Cayce predicted that the future medicine would be sound. I think this is occurring now. When I first began this work over a decade ago, there were very few people involved. Now, people from all walks of life and many different professions are beginning to appreciate the power of sound and music to heal and transform. Sound and music are being used in traditional fields to enhance learning, treat stress and pain, and to bring healing. The use of ultra-sonics in hospitals to destroy kidney stones, for example, works with the principle of resonance, which is the basis of sound healing.
I am a member of several different scientific and medical organizations, such as the International Society of Music and Medicine and the International Society for the study of Subtle Energy Medicine, which are now exploring sound as a healing modality, including its use to affect our emotional and mental wellbeing. There is also a lot of private scientific work going on investigating the use of sound to affect the brain and the physical body. Some of it is very exciting and may prove to be groundbreaking in the fields of health and education. The potentials are nearly limitless and quite positive, if the technology is coupled with a conscious understanding of the importance of intent and the sacredness of sound. As far as my own work goes, I am most interested in continuing to teach others how they may use their own sounds for self-transformation and healing. We are entering times of extraordinary vibratory changes and it is important to be able to work with out own vibratory fields to be in harmony and balance with these changes. The simplest and most effective way to do this is with our own sounds. http://healingsounds.com/articles/crystal-resonator.asp
Crystal Resonator by Jonathan Goldman This is a very special aluminum tuning fork. It is cut to a sub harmonic of the actual frequency of quartz crystal. While quartz crystals are effected by all sound, they are particularly aligned with the energies of the Crystal Resonator. People who work with crystals have found that the Crystal Resonator is extremely effectively for charging and clearing quartz crystals. People who do not work with crystals but do work with subtle energy have found the Crystal Resonator to be useful for clearing and balancing of their own energies. Some claim it energize crystals in the brain. Others say that it activates aspects of the auric field. We know of one well known spiritual teacher who took this tuning fork into the King's Chamber (which is composed of marble and quite resonate to this frequency) and used it to help initiate students. To use the Crystal Resonator with a quartz crystal--simply strike it on a hard surface (such as a piece of wood) and then bring the tuning fork close to a quartz crystal. Move it around the crystal. Visualize that you are bathing the crystal in a bath of sacred sound. This will both clear and energize the crystal. Try it and feel the difference. To use the Crystal Resonator on yourself, or a friend--simply strike the tuning fork on a hard surface (such as a piece of wood) and then bring the tuning fork near yourself or the person you are tuning. Use it as you would a smudge stick, or some other vehicle for clearing and balance. http://healingsounds.com/articles/dna.asp
D'n A Tuning Forks Sacred Ration of 8:13 by Jonathan Goldman These aluminum tuning forks create the ratio of 8 to 13--a new sonic relationship to be found on the planet. These tuning forks express the phi ratio, which some believe to be the ratio of love. They represent an outer octave of the sacred spiral. When sounded together they have a most unique effect: some hear angels singing, others become aware of light being encoded in the physical and etheric. Others feel their consciousness spiraling. Still others feel a gateway opening. Health professionals who have experimented with these tuning forks have found they balance the left and right hemispheres of the brain and induce deep states of tranquility. Other professionals indicate they can balance and align the chakras. Still others believe that they actually create balance on a sub-atomic levels and can actual activate new aspects of the DNA helix.
THE RATIO
This 8 to 13 ratio (8/13) can not be played on a piano, because a piano is an even tempered instrument, with the difference in notes based upon a logarithmatically related formula. In fact, this harmonically related ratio of 8 to 13 does not seem to be found anywhere in Western Music. It may exist in Eastern Music, although we have yet to find it. To our knowledge, the 8 to 13 ratio does not appear in any scales on the planet. This ratio was computed using 288 hz. (the note "D") as the fundamental frequency. The 13th harmonic of this fundamental was calculated and divided by 2 until its frequency (468 hz.) fell within the same octave as the fundamental of 288 hz. The "phi" ratio is found in much of the sacred architecture of the world. This ratio is also found in the spirals of the Nautilus Shell and is called the "sacred spiral". The Fibonacci series represents one aspect of the phi ratio. This series goes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 , 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 and so on, with the two proceeding numbers creating the next number. The further up the series one goes, the closer to the "irrational" number of phi (a never ending number abbreviated as .618) one approaches. The ratios of 1 to 1, 2 to 3, 3 to 5 and 5 to 8 are all be found in music today. However, 8 to 13 represents the first new "interval which is not found in music. This 8 to 13 ratio represents an outer octave of the sonic ratios inherent in the sacred spiral. It may represent a new level of listening for humanity. Attunement to this interval may heighten evolution, as it expands our perceptions of sound. It may indeed alter the DNA and allow new encodements of light. We leave that up to you. NO MEDICAL CLAIMS ARE MADE WITH THESE TUNING FORKS. However, we're sure you'll enjoy them. Please let us know any more effects you may experience from them. We're collecting data even as this is being written. Note: These tuning forks are not for everyone! The powerful energies that many experience through their resonance may not be in resonance with everyone. IF ANYONE EXPERIENCES ANY DISCOMFORT FROM THE USE OF THESE TUNING FORKS, STOP USING THE TUNING FORKS IMMEDIATELY. When you first use these forks, find yourself a comfortable and safe space where you can immediately surrender to the energetics of the sounds. DO NOT USE WHILE DRIVING OR OPERATING MACHINERY. As with any sound, the intention of the user is extremely important. Understand that you are using sacred sonic tools that can generate extraordinary responses from those who receive the energy. In HEALING SOUNDS is the formula: "Frequency + Intent = Healing". This means that the intention of the person using the sound is of equal importance to the actual sound being created. Be clear about your intention--what you would like to achieve as the result of using these tuning forks? The sacred ratio of 8 to 13 is quite important in regard to the effects of these tuning forks. However, the intention and desired outcome of their effects is equally important. Some believe this phi ratio expresses the ratio of love. Love is a wonderful intention to transmit and be received when using the tuning forks. From one perspective, all else, whether it be healing or higher consciousness is a result of the energy and the intent of love. Let this energy ride on the carrier wave of the sound! http://healingsounds.com/articles/pythagorean-tuning-forks.asp
Pythagorean Tuning Forks 2/3 (256hz & 384hz) by Jonathan Goldman These tuning forks represent a powerful new way of using sound to resonate the body, brain and etheric fields. These tuning forks were developed by John Beaulieu, N.D., Ph.D., author of MUSIC AND SOUND IN THE HEALING ARTS. These specific tuning forks are of C (256 cycles per second) and G (384 cycles per second). They are of the musical interval (the name given when two notes are sounded together) called "the Perfect Fifth". With these tuning forks, they are two harmonically related notes which vibrate against each other at the ratio of 2:3 (the C tuning fork vibrates two times as fast as an unstruck C of 128 cycles per second--the G tuning fork vibrates three times as fast as that unstruck C. When struck together they create the ratio of two to three, considered sacred in many
traditions with an understanding of the relationship of mathematics to the cosmos. Legend tells that Pythagoras's, ancient Greek philosopher and musician believed that the ratio of 2/3 was extremely therapeutic and transformative. These tuning forks seem to create a great sense of calmness and tranquility. They balance the left and right hemispheres of the brain, reducing brain wave activity and inducing states of relaxation. In addition, many people feel they balance the auric field as well as releasing blocked energy. Frequently, many people experience many other positive effects from using the tuning forks. According to John Beaulieu, "When we listen to the tuning forks our vestibular system via the semi-circular canals reproportions our body based on the natural ratios of the tuning forks. During the listening process our physical body will reposture itself in alignment with the intervals created by the tuning forks. During the process our nervous system via the right and left hemispheres of the brain comes into balance. This special interval is known in music as a perfect fifth. Lao Tzu referred to this interval as the source of universal harmony between the forces of Yin and Yang. In India, the fifth is believed to create a sound through which Shiva calls Shakti to the dance of life. Apollo, the Greek Sun God of Music and Healing plucked the fifth on his sacred lyre to call dolphin messengers to Delphi." Experiment with your tuning forks. Use them on friends and clients. They can produce the most remarkable experiences for many people. Therapists frequently use them to calm and balance clients before or after sessions. As the nervous system comes into alignment, frequently the body and energy fields will also follow this, repatterning with the sacred ratio of the tuning forks. Try humming or sounding with the tuning forks for additional experiences. Have fun using them and remember that they are powerful, sacred implements that can be utilized as extraordinary tools for self-healing and transformation. http://healingsounds.com/articles/chakrasounds.asp
“Sound and the Chakras” By Jonathan Goldman THE CHAKRAS In 1980 I first began my study of the uses of sound and music as therapeutic and healing modalities. This study ultimately manifested with a Master’s Degree in Independent Study of the Uses of Sound and Music for Healing from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My initial investigation into the area of sound healing was the relationship between sound and the chakras. The word chakra is a Sanskrit term meaning “wheel”, for chakras are seen as spinning wheels of light by those with the ability to see subtle energy. The chakras are found in many traditions, including Hindu and Tibetan. Many esoteric and occult “Mystery School” describe these energy centers. While the chakras have been incorporated in many spiritual practices, their existence seems to be based, not upon religion, but upon awareness of energy. There is even scientific instrumentation that is beginning to record and validate them. There are seven main chakras. These chakras are transduction points-- places where subtle energy from higher planes begins to become denser. The energy from the chakras then becomes more dense as it comes into the body. It next becomes the acupuncture points and meridians and finally, this energy transduces into the density of the physical body. Imbalances in the physical body can be detected through the chakras. Frequently, healers who work with subtle energy can detect imbalances before they manifest in the physical body by feeling imbalances in the chakras. By balancing the chakras, imbalances in the physical body will often disappear. There is a feedback loop occurring with the energy of the chakras. The physical body interfaces with this energy and vice versa. Frequently, an imbalance in a chakra will manifest later in the physical body. It is possible, such as through a traumatic injury, for both the physical body and the chakras to be simultaneously imbalanced. Healing of the physical occurs much more rapidly when the subtle anatomy--particularly the
chakras--are aligned after physical injury. Frequency shifting through resonating the chakras allows us to help create balance and alignment within ourselves. There are seven main chakras, seven spinning balls of energy that are located centrally in the front and the posterior of the body. The following is a brief description of the chakras: - The first or “base” chakra located at the bottom of the trunk is involved with the physical process of elimination and the organs which work with that function. It is the chakra associated with the energy of survival. This chakra is also associated with grounding to the physical plane. - The second or sacral chakra, located about three inches below your navel. This is associated with sexual energy, the reproductive organs and with much of the life force. The sexual energy is a divine energy utilized in the spiritual practice of tantra. - The third or navel chakra is located at the navel and a little above. Its energy is associated with digestion and the digestive organs. It is also associated with power and mastery of self. - The fourth or heart chakra is located in the center of the chest between the nipples. On the physical, it works with the lungs and the heart. On the emotional, it works with the energy of compassion and love. - The fifth or throat chakra is located at the throat, at the base of the neck. It is a chakra that is associated with the process of communication; speech and hearing. The ears are associated with this chakra, as is, of course, the vocal apparatus. - The sixth or brow chakra is located in the center of the forehead above the eyes. Often called “The Third Eye”, it is associated with imagination and psychic abilities. Mental activity and brain function are also associated with this chakra. - The seventh or crown chakra, is located at the top of the head. It is associated with the induction of spiritual energy into the body. It is said to control every aspect of the body and mind and is associated with full enlightenment and union with God. This chakra is normally not fully open in most humans, though pictures of saints and other spiritual beings with “halos” are depictions of activated crown chakras. These are the seven main chakras found in the various traditions. These seven chakras are the focus of the sonic resonance I first utilized on CHAKRA CHANTS and now, on CHAKRA CHANTS II. In my study of the relationship between sound and chakras are many different systems of sound that worked to resonate, balance and align the chakras.
CHAKRA SOUNDS Here are numerous sounds that seem to resonate the chakras. Among the most popular are the use of vowels and the use of mantras. This use of vowels seem to be highly effective in balancing the chakras. The Sacred Vowel are considered sacred in many different traditions and Mystery Schools throughout the planet, including ancient Egyptians, Hebrew, Islamic, Tibetan, Japanese and Native American. There are a number of different systems of Sacred Vowels to balance the chakras. I have utilized a system of sounding the sacred vowels that came to me many years ago and that I have shared effectively with thousands of people. An alternative method of resonating the chakras is to use the Bija Mantras, the Sanskrit letters from the Vedic traditions, which by themselves are said to balance and align the chakras. There are silent Bijas and spoken Bijas. These are the spoken Bijas that are chanted aloud in order to resonate the chakras. As with all systems of using sound, there are variations. Such is the case with the Bija Mantras. I utilize a specific system of Bija Mantras that Dr. Deepak Chopra helped bring to public awareness. There are many other aspects of using sound to resonate the chakras as well. Each chakra in the Vedic tradition is also associated with a particular element. In addition are sounds from the Shabd Yoga, the science of the Audible Sound Current. These sounds are considered to be Divine Emanations of the Creator. Another aspect of sonic chakra resonance has to do with the actual frequency or keynote of each chakra. There a multitudinous different keynotes and scales with regard to this. I often will simply sound the vowels on a monotone (in the same key) and let the harmonic (and the specific formant of the vowel) create the chakra resonance. When I do use different frequencies (or keynote) to use for each chakra, I prefer a diatonic major scale, starting on the note C. This is one of the most popular systems utilized to resonate the chakras. It is, as I have said, merely a system and there are others. Of particular note is that the fundamental frequencies used for this system are harmonically related--that is the notes are the natural result of the geometric vibrations of a given string (brought within a single octave). The tuning is different than that of a keyboard (which utilizes a C that vibrates at 261 Hz).
The notes that are created from this harmonically related scale are based upon the harmonics created from the fundamental notes of the note C that vibrates at 256 cycles per second (and then having the harmonics transposed down so that the fit within the octave of that C note). 256 Hz. is a harmonic of 1 cycle a second. Many believe this keynote to be in natural resonance with many of the frequencies of the Earth itself. Some belief it is a harmonic of the actual frequency of the Earth. The following is the system that I have utilized for the CHAKRA CHANTS and it’s follow up recordings: lst CHAKRA - Root - Muladhara Keynote: C Frequency: 256 Hz. Vowel: Uh Bija: Lam Element: Earth Shabd Sound: Thunder/Earthquake Energy: Grounding 2nd CHAKRA - Sacral - Svadisthana Keynote: D Frequency: 288 Hz Vowel: Ooo Bija: Vam Element: Water Shabd Sound: Ocean Energy: Life Energy, 3rd CHAKRA - Navel - Manipura Keynote: E Vowel: Oh Frequency: 320 Hz. Bija: Ram Element: Fire Shabd Sound: Roaring Fire Element: Fire Energy: Power 4th CHAKRA - Heart - Anahata Keynote: F Frequency: 341. 3 Hz. Vowel: Ah Bija: Yam Element: Air Shabd Sound: Wind Energy: Compassion, Love 5th CHAKRA - Throat - Vishuddhi Keynote: G Frequency: 384 Hz. Vowel: Eye Bija: Ham Element: Ether Shabd Sound: Crickets Energy: Communication, Creation 6th CHAKRA - 3rd Eye - Ajna
Keynote: A Frequency: 426.7 Hz. Vowel: Aye Bija: Sham Element: All Shabd Sound: Bells/Space Energy: Insight, Wisdom 7th CHAKRA - Crown - Sahasrara Keynote: B Frequency: 480 Hz. Vowel: Eee Bija: Om Element: All Shabd Sound: Om Energy: Transcendence http://healingsounds.com/research/cymatics.asp
Cymatic Research Cymatics is a word coined by Dr. Hans Jenny, a Swiss medical doctor, who in his spare time investigated the power of sound to create form. Jenny spent many hours observing the effects of sound upon matter. Many consider this work to be the seminal most important demonstration of the ability of sound to shape substance. The word, Cymatics is Greek for waveform because sound travels as a wave. Throughout history there have been people who have observed and investigated the unique ability of the vibrations of sound to effect and shape different substances. Many of us back in high school science might have seen an experiment performed where a science teacher scattered sand on a steel plate and then vibrated this plate with a violin bow. The sand would begin to move and take on symmetrical shapes-geometric and organic looking. These experiments were based upon the work of an l8th century German physicist named Ernst Chladni Dr. Jenny's work was a further extension of this work. His Cymatic experiments show the effects of sound waves upon many different types of material, including water, pastes, liquids and plastics. Dr. Jenny placed these substances on a steel plate, vibrated the plate with a crystal oscillator, which produces an exact frequency, and then photographed the effects. What Dr. Jenny observed with these experiments was recorded and printed in a monumental work entitled CYMATICS. Several of the photographs from this book are printed below as well as other related photos. As you can see, these liquids, pastes, dust and plastics take on incredibly organic looking shapes. Within the hundreds of photographs taken by Dr. Jenny are pictures that look like starfish, human cells and organs, underwater and microscopic life, but are in reality inorganic materials which had looked like lifeless shapes moments before they were exposed to sound. Dr. Jenny's work demonstrates positive proof of the amazing power of sound to create form. While the structures and objects created by the sound are not living creatures, many of them certainly look as though they are. One can almost imagine that, with a "Divine" sound coming from a sacred source, in the beginning the "Word" could indeed create life. Dr. Jenny's work has been carried on by several people in the 21st century, including Alexander Lauterwasser of Germany and John Reid of England. The following images demonstrate the power of sound to create form:
Images 1 & 2 are by Dr. Hans Jenny from his book CYMATICS (Macromedia). They are of two different frequencies creating two different geometric shapes of water being vibrated on a steel plate.
Images 3 & 4 are also by Dr. Jenny from the same source. These are of liquid plastic on a steel plate being resonated by different sounds. One image looks almost like a sea anenomie and the other shape resembles a cell of the body undergoing mitosis.
Images 5 & 6 are Cymaglyphs by Erik Larsen, using John Reid's Cyma-Scope to photograph the effects of sound upon water. From THE 7 SECRETS OF SOUND HEALING (Hay House), these beautiful geometric images, which demonstrate the power of different frequencies to create different shapes, are a further extension of Dr. Jenny's work.
Images 7 & 8 are from a book SHRI YANTRA (Thames). Image 7 is a picture of an ancient Hindu image (mandala) called the Shri Yantra, that many believe to be the visual depiction of the sacred mantra "Om". Image 8 is said to be an electronically enhanced tonoscope (a device much like Jenny's instrument) image into which someone chanted "Om" through a microphone with the sound effecting the form of colored sand on a steel plate.
