Over the last few years I’ve noticed more and more people have become open to sound as alternative way to well-being. Perhaps the reason behind this trend has something to do with the characteristic of the NOW we live in. Through widely spread social media, news, work and technology in general we are being constantly bombarded with more and more words, images, information. This constant virtual chatter can contribute to drawing people towards modalities that give them a break from talking, texting and mental processing.
As the whole world becomes aware of sound therapy, more demand creates more supply, and it’s getting harder and harder to choose skilled practitioners, the same applies in finding honest well-being centers. But on the positive side, the growth of interest has led to a tendency for therapists to conduct a deep research in the field of sound.
As the sound therapy practice is developing rapidly the key importance is to find a practitioner that has a deep expertise of the complexities of sound and not only follows the wave of an increased sound healing interest by the masses.
For me, sound is not only about the intuitive striking of random bowls, gongs or other tools trusting that a divine power will take over and help the individual with some type of healing. This is simply unprofessional and in fact totally UN-spiritual when you think about it. At its core, I believe sound is about connecting, (and re-connecting) to our true self through vibration. To get the most out of sound we must study it closely.
Here are a few of ways of thinking about sound that help us understand its potential.
Connecting to the source through resonance
Being more than just a physical body is one of the most profound realizations for human kind, therefore vibration might help us connect to our true self and our multilayered nature. In its natural healthy state, our physical and emotional body has its own natural (default) vibration. Stress and modern living sometimes causes us to become out of sync with our natural rhythm. Through the principle of resonance induction, exposing our body and mind to certain frequencies evoke our natural state back.
The shift of consciousness by experiencing that we are first and foremost vibrational, energetic, subtle entities is our deepest connection to Source. Sound eases, amplifies and holds space for each of us who is ready and open to embrace the new way of being, and finally start living.
Think about lowering your vibration – not raising it.
Sometimes it seems like we are told we must constantly ‘raise our vibration’ or ‘reach a higher vibration’, but rarely do we take a step back and think about what this really means. Today, the idea of raising your vibration has become a little bit meaningless and there is no reason as far as I can tell that higher is necessarily better.
In fact, by looking lower we can often have more impact. There is no growth without strong foundations and that’s where the idea of grounding comes in. Grounding to me is self-connection – being fully embodied in the now and detached from the mind’s insanity. It’s here we can find real growth.
Generally, lower sounds have the tendency to evoke a stronger and deeper bond with the heart rate and thus the whole cardiovascular system. This means that when we start lowering our vibrations, instead of raising them, we start truly connecting with our physical body.
I believe that… BALANCE and ONENESS are the answer. The famous esoteric quote states “As above so below, what is within is without”. Despite two opposites ruling the Universe there is still Union, light and dark, male and female, black and white, Yin and Yang. These energies don’t exclude each other, on the contrary they have been complementing the cosmic equilibrium since the beginning of time and one cannot exist without the other. Therefore, the idea that high is better than low that only positive feelings make us vibrate higher and that only vibrating ABOVE is a desirable state of being is simply a bogus, sham and deception. One cannot always be on the positive, high side, it contradicts with the perfect code of human creation as well as with the fundamental concept of omnipresent dualism in all existence.
If this commonly propagated and acclaimed idea of always making an effort to rise above the low was legitimate, than where would the emotional balance be? Where would be space for the BELOW, DARK, LOW, for expressing humanly emotions like ANGER, FEAR, UNCERTAINTY… ?
Silence is important too!
In theory, sound is the opposite to silence. I like to think about sound as the perception of audible frequencies, in other words the ‘action’ of hearing. Silence on other hand is the absence of that action, in other words ‘stillness’. The transitions between these two opposite poles form a continuous and intertwining flow and are one of the ways sound has its profoundest effects. Nuances in space and time allow the individual to become inwardly still, silence the thinker within and shift towards wholeness.
In these moments the inner voice or so-called “Primordial Sound” can be experienced. The German naturopath Otto Heinrich Silber explains the phenomena as, “If we are ready to receive these sounds, to open ourselves to them and allow them to enter deeply, they unfold their properties as an archetype reaching to the subliminal, to the primordial substance in us”.
Avoid the myths…
Unfortunately, there are many myths that have developed around sound therapy over years. Whilst they may sound enchanting and magical, for the most part they miss the real power of sound, and I always encourage anyone interested in the topic to look beyond them. In my experience none of these things have any particularly special power and certainly they are not backed up by either science or history.
For example, it’s very common to hear about Tibetan Lama’s, Nepalese oracles or various other shamanic or indigenous traditions as holding some kind of special or ancient hidden hermetic knowledge about sound. Other ideas I also put in this category are ‘divine’ frequencies like 432Hz that are supposed to contain some special attributes and sacred geometry or special visual patterns created by intertwining sound waves that some consider to have special powers.
Ultimately these myths are harmless, but by putting so much of our energy and attention on them we end up in a place of ego and the IDEA of Sound. As a consequence, we miss the opportunity to work (and connect) with Sound on a deeper, more personal level, on Sound without any stories behind, just sound. As in the end “we are sound”!
4 Ways to Think About Sound Therapy
Over the last few years I’ve noticed more and more people have become open to sound as alternative way to well-being. Perhaps the reason behind this trend has something to do with the characteristic of the NOW we live in. Through widely spread social media, news, work and technology in general we are being constantly bombarded with more and more words, images, information. This constant virtual chatter can contribute to drawing people towards modalities that give them a break from talking, texting and mental processing.
As the whole world becomes aware of sound therapy, more demand creates more supply, and it’s getting harder and harder to choose skilled practitioners, the same applies in finding honest well-being centers. But on the positive side, the growth of interest has led to a tendency for therapists to conduct a deep research in the field of sound.
As the sound therapy practice is developing rapidly the key importance is to find a practitioner that has a deep expertise of the complexities of sound and not only follows the wave of an increased sound healing interest by the masses.
For me, sound is not only about the intuitive striking of random bowls, gongs or other tools trusting that a divine power will take over and help the individual with some type of healing. This is simply unprofessional and in fact totally UN-spiritual when you think about it. At its core, I believe sound is about connecting, (and re-connecting) to our true self through vibration. To get the most out of sound we must study it closely.
Here are a few of ways of thinking about sound that help us understand its potential.
Being more than just a physical body is one of the most profound realizations for human kind, therefore vibration might help us connect to our true self and our multilayered nature. In its natural healthy state, our physical and emotional body has its own natural (default) vibration. Stress and modern living sometimes causes us to become out of sync with our natural rhythm. Through the principle of resonance induction, exposing our body and mind to certain frequencies evoke our natural state back.
The shift of consciousness by experiencing that we are first and foremost vibrational, energetic, subtle entities is our deepest connection to Source. Sound eases, amplifies and holds space for each of us who is ready and open to embrace the new way of being, and finally start living.
Sometimes it seems like we are told we must constantly ‘raise our vibration’ or ‘reach a higher vibration’, but rarely do we take a step back and think about what this really means. Today, the idea of raising your vibration has become a little bit meaningless and there is no reason as far as I can tell that higher is necessarily better.
In fact, by looking lower we can often have more impact. There is no growth without strong foundations and that’s where the idea of grounding comes in. Grounding to me is self-connection – being fully embodied in the now and detached from the mind’s insanity. It’s here we can find real growth.
Generally, lower sounds have the tendency to evoke a stronger and deeper bond with the heart rate and thus the whole cardiovascular system. This means that when we start lowering our vibrations, instead of raising them, we start truly connecting with our physical body.
I believe that… BALANCE and ONENESS are the answer. The famous esoteric quote states “As above so below, what is within is without”. Despite two opposites ruling the Universe there is still Union, light and dark, male and female, black and white, Yin and Yang. These energies don’t exclude each other, on the contrary they have been complementing the cosmic equilibrium since the beginning of time and one cannot exist without the other. Therefore, the idea that high is better than low that only positive feelings make us vibrate higher and that only vibrating ABOVE is a desirable state of being is simply a bogus, sham and deception. One cannot always be on the positive, high side, it contradicts with the perfect code of human creation as well as with the fundamental concept of omnipresent dualism in all existence.
If this commonly propagated and acclaimed idea of always making an effort to rise above the low was legitimate, than where would the emotional balance be? Where would be space for the BELOW, DARK, LOW, for expressing humanly emotions like ANGER, FEAR, UNCERTAINTY… ?
In theory, sound is the opposite to silence. I like to think about sound as the perception of audible frequencies, in other words the ‘action’ of hearing. Silence on other hand is the absence of that action, in other words ‘stillness’. The transitions between these two opposite poles form a continuous and intertwining flow and are one of the ways sound has its profoundest effects. Nuances in space and time allow the individual to become inwardly still, silence the thinker within and shift towards wholeness.
In these moments the inner voice or so-called “Primordial Sound” can be experienced. The German naturopath Otto Heinrich Silber explains the phenomena as, “If we are ready to receive these sounds, to open ourselves to them and allow them to enter deeply, they unfold their properties as an archetype reaching to the subliminal, to the primordial substance in us”.
Unfortunately, there are many myths that have developed around sound therapy over years. Whilst they may sound enchanting and magical, for the most part they miss the real power of sound, and I always encourage anyone interested in the topic to look beyond them. In my experience none of these things have any particularly special power and certainly they are not backed up by either science or history.
For example, it’s very common to hear about Tibetan Lama’s, Nepalese oracles or various other shamanic or indigenous traditions as holding some kind of special or ancient hidden hermetic knowledge about sound. Other ideas I also put in this category are ‘divine’ frequencies like 432Hz that are supposed to contain some special attributes and sacred geometry or special visual patterns created by intertwining sound waves that some consider to have special powers.
Ultimately these myths are harmless, but by putting so much of our energy and attention on them we end up in a place of ego and the IDEA of Sound. As a consequence, we miss the opportunity to work (and connect) with Sound on a deeper, more personal level, on Sound without any stories behind, just sound. As in the end “we are sound”!