In August, still recovering from Covid, I took yet another road trip- this time up to western Mass., Long Island NY, Rhode Island, and Maine. I think the highlight of the trip was the resulting video above. I was a guest practitioner at a spa in Water Mill, NY- Shou Sugi Ban House- giving Hydrosonic Therapy sessions. These are one-on-one sessions where the client is floating in water and I am playing Himalayan singing bowls.
Read moreI AM
I gave myself a vibroacoustic sound treatment today, wanting to relieve my mind and emotional body a bit and continue the healing from my recent appendectomy using Richway’s BioAcoustic Mat together with the Amethyst BioMat, a therapeutic far-infrared heating pad. Mostly I was feeling sad and worried about my brother who is in critical condition with Covid and deeply concerned for his family. I turned up the sound and turned up the heat! I played the album “A Universe to Come” by Tulku, produced by the late great Jim Wilson. All of his work lends itself really well to vibroacoustic therapy.
i dropped in fast and deep. Images came and went before I had to a chance to grasp them. The only thing I distinctly remember was the sense at a certain point that the encumbrances of my physical body had dropped away and my energetic body felt fluid and expanded. it felt like it was dancing, but not like the physical body dancing- more like waves on the ocean, being pushed by the wind and the ocean currents- but in this case by the frequencies, by the rhythms and tones of the music.
When the music was over I lay there for a long time- maybe another half hour. My mind was very still. I got up feeling quiet inside. This is the last track on the CD. It is beautiful and profound.
My Beautiful Life
I woke up this morning to a clear, windy, bitterly cold, snow-covered world. It is beautiful and fortunately I don't need to go any further than my house today. I have a warm fire and a couple of apples filled with rice, pecans and currants baking in the oven as I write this! It doesn't get a whole lot better- unless, like me, you have some fabulous sound healing technology in your living room! I decided to have my coffee in the Somatron recliner this morning (which is located about 6 feet from the woodstove).
It was an interesting excursion. I decided to put on a CD I had never heard before. Apparently it was a sample White Swan Music sent me a few years ago that I'd never listened to. The CD was by Philippo Franchini, called Magic and Grace. Initially, I didn't love it. It sounded too pretty and melodic and New Agey for my tastes and a little too weak for a deep therapeutic experience on the Somatron. I decided to give it a few minutes though and at some point some nice low rumbling tones came in and I began to feel more of the vibrotactile effect, the resonance of the frequencies coming through and massaging my cells. The second track had more of this and some nice deep percussion. I was still thinking about getting up out of the chair and putting something else on but the vibrotactile effect was beginning to have a hold on me.
Before I knew it I was sitting there filled with a profound sense of gratitude, tears streaming down my face- grateful for my beautiful life, grateful for the work I am blessed to do and blown away by the power of sound and music- and specifically this amazing technology which enters through the body and touches the soul.
Weightless
My friend Walter sent me an article a while back about music therapy. In it neuroscientists said that listening to this song by Marconi Union results in up to a 65% decrease in overall anxiety and 35% decrease in the usual physiological resting rates. After reading the article I decided to test the theory and play it for myself at bedtime. It worked like a dream! I was asleep a few short minutes into the song and slept soundly.
Not only a great song but a very cool and beautiful video- and for sure the best use of drones! It also reminded me that I need to get some of their music for VibroAcoustic Therapy. I have one compilation CD with a track by them that I use on the Soundweaver, "These European Cities", very effective for deep relaxation and transporting one quickly to an altogether different realm of consciousness. It's one of my favorite pieces for the Soundweaver.
If you missed the link above click here to see full article: Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song
Soundweaver VibroAcoustic Environment. Client is lying on a Somatron Body Mat with 4 speakers built into it, overhead speakers and a subwoofer underneath the table as well for extra clarity and surround sound experience. She is literally receiving a cellular musical massage through the vibrotactile effect of the speakers in the mat. VibroAcoustic Sound Therapy is not only deeply relaxing and enjoyable on the physical level, but can also be life-changing.
Contact Wholistic Sound for more information or to book a private session or weekend sound healing retreat.
Sound Immersion
I have had the idea of individual personalized sound healing retreats for a while so I am excited that this is finally coming to fruition. This is not quite that- the emphasis of course will be more on education and practice and there will be less time for receiving and reflection. She will very likely get a session each day that she is here however and that in itself is worth the price of admission! I also have several people coming over for sessions during the time that she is here.
If it was you, what would you want for your Sound Immersion? Would you want to learn to heal others with sound? Yourself? How to incorporate an instrument you already play into your healing practice? Would you simply want receive and have time to process with Expressive Art Therapy? Or maybe after each sound healing session you would just want to go over to the beach and take a nice long walk!Your Sound Immersion is for you- you get to design it the way you want it!
Riding the Wave
 |
| Breaking Wave- photo by Andrew Schmidt |
I was in a pretty dreamy state- literally, experiencing snippets of dreams but not sleeping- for quite a while. Then I began feeling some low level anxiety, seemingly unconnected with any actual events or projections- just an awareness of the feeling. My heart rate picked up a bit and I hung out with it, still relaxing into the waves of musical vibration moving through my body, while being curious about what was happening.
Eventually a memory came forth of a frightening experience I had when I was very sick a few years ago. I had a terrible respiratory infection and woke up one night with a high fever and horrible coughing fit. I got up to use the bathroom and was hallucinating- I couldn't find the light and thought there was an animal in the bathtub. I began screaming for my boyfriend, Henry, who was sleeping on the other side of the house because I was so sick. I was in a state of terror, screaming, crying and coughing, unable to make sense of any of it.
The memory faded and my anxiety dissipated. I slipped back into the calm rhythmic entrainment of the music. When it was over I got up feeling clear, calm, balanced, energized and happy.
I don't know exactly what that was about- perhaps a thread of the trauma that was still in my body which the music released. I do know that the illness was very traumatic and I was the sickest I have ever been in my adult life. Ever since, whenever I thought about it or talked about it, I would get triggered emotionally- except that now I don't feel triggered by it at all. I feel a very calm detachment from it for perhaps the first time.
MUSIC
Music
is silence,
music is mountain,
music is freedom,
music is universal,
music is heart,
music is bridge,
music is temple,
music is teacher,
music is path,
path to compassion, love, forgiveness, wisdom,
spirituality, freedom,
joy, happiness, divinity,
and inner-peace.
music is mountain,
music is freedom,
music is universal,
music is heart,
music is bridge,
music is temple,
music is teacher,
music is path,
path to compassion, love, forgiveness, wisdom,
spirituality, freedom,
joy, happiness, divinity,
and inner-peace.
~Nawang Khechog~
Sound Pleasures
Woke up this morning to the sound of the hang drum being played in the next room. How sweet is that? I stood by the door and rather surreptitiously recorded a bit of it!
The first thing I did when I went downstairs was pick up my friend Ine's guitar and play the Devi Stotra.
After breakfast I went out for a walk through the farmland and enjoyed the funny squeaky sounds of the magpies dancing in the fields. I think they've gotten a bad rap. It seems as though I've always heard them spoken or written about in disparaging tones. I suppose they've done something to deserve that but I've only seen their beautiful black and white colours and heard the wonderful sounds they make and so far I have a very good impression of them!
After I got back to the house I went upstairs and listened to a couple of tracks by Jai Uttal on the sound table. That was a really great experience! If you want a really good meditative experience, listen to this track. If you want an even better experience, contact me and have a healing session with it on a vibroacoustic sound table! Even Jai said he really didn't realize all that was going on with this music until I gave him a session on the sound table with it- there are some beautiful low frequencies that you don't really hear when listening but that you feel deeply on a vibroacoustic table.
The house is very quiet- just the sounds of birds, the hum of the refrigerator and off in the distance there are trains- one to Berlin twice a day, and ones from Amsterdam to Soeste and back every ten or fifteen minutes. One tiny little train with only one car goes by, once a day I think- maybe twice? That's the train to Poland!
Sometimes it gets very windy because the land is so flat- there is nothing to slow it down. Other days I've heard the rain beat down on the roof. But today, just the birds, the train and the refrigerator- and the clicking of my keys on the keyboard.
One of the loveliest effects of the hang drum is the simultaneous sound of the fingers tapping on the drum at the same time is it is creating lovely tones and beautiful ringing overtones.
The first thing I did when I went downstairs was pick up my friend Ine's guitar and play the Devi Stotra.
After breakfast I went out for a walk through the farmland and enjoyed the funny squeaky sounds of the magpies dancing in the fields. I think they've gotten a bad rap. It seems as though I've always heard them spoken or written about in disparaging tones. I suppose they've done something to deserve that but I've only seen their beautiful black and white colours and heard the wonderful sounds they make and so far I have a very good impression of them!
After I got back to the house I went upstairs and listened to a couple of tracks by Jai Uttal on the sound table. That was a really great experience! If you want a really good meditative experience, listen to this track. If you want an even better experience, contact me and have a healing session with it on a vibroacoustic sound table! Even Jai said he really didn't realize all that was going on with this music until I gave him a session on the sound table with it- there are some beautiful low frequencies that you don't really hear when listening but that you feel deeply on a vibroacoustic table.
Sometimes it gets very windy because the land is so flat- there is nothing to slow it down. Other days I've heard the rain beat down on the roof. But today, just the birds, the train and the refrigerator- and the clicking of my keys on the keyboard.
One of the loveliest effects of the hang drum is the simultaneous sound of the fingers tapping on the drum at the same time is it is creating lovely tones and beautiful ringing overtones.