Historically,
sound has been used as a point of focus and invocation in meditation,
prayer, healing, and ritual throughout much of the world. As with so
much that is mystical, our culture has lost touch with the nature of
sound as a healing vehicle. Yet more and more healers and musicians are
focusing on the power sound has on our bodies and wellbeing.
There
are two principal aspects to sound, as I see them, in healing and
ritual. One aspect of sound, like a chant or mantra, creates a point of
focus for the mind-force, through which one's intent forms a basic
structure, or energetic grid, and through which energy may flow and be
contained, invoked or built into a healing vehicle.
The
other aspect is the carrier force of the sound itself. This is dual in
nature. The sound becomes a river upon which, through which, an energy
may flow. The sound also has an intention, a vibration, an essence or a
resonance which can be a healing mechanism.
As one becomes
involved with sound as a healing vehicle, whether through one's own
intuitive guidance, or in some traditional manner, one sees the power which sound creates unfold.
We can see the traditional use of
this power by looking at the African shaman invoking celestial allies
through chant, song and prayer, drum or rattle in hand, healing the
imbalances in one of his or her people. We can see it in an entire
Native American village chanting ancient rites to the corn maiden at
planting time, or an Israeli village granting blessings upon a newly
married couple through song and dance.
We can look at an
African-American gospel choir pouring out their hearts in song,
reaching remarkable states of ecstasy and joy. Or we can look at an
East Indian playing sitar, focusing through power of meditation and
specific ancient scales, invoking the balance and harmony of a specific
deity (energy stream) into the room.
With any of these
examples, and throughout most native cultures, sound is and has been
used as a point of focus of creative intent and invocation of divine
energies. Sound is a vehicle through which one may carry one's message
to the divine, and through which one may merge with, and express, the
creative divine.
The path to sound as a healing vehicle begins
within the self. By exploring deep inside ourselves through sound, we
can easily tap into our own ancient mysteries, unfelt feelings, and
creative energies. That sound may come out in the form of "unchained
melodies," improvisational "noise" or infant cries, but by paying
attention to the sounds a particular wave of energy within our body
wishes to make, we can create a truly healing process for ourselves
and, eventually, others.
This process requires a certain degree
of trust and release of inhibition, yet doubt or inhibition is a form
of fear keeping our creative, expressive powers at bay. Whatever form
of release we wish to use, the nature of healing and empowerment is to
release the fear or limiting process within the self, and walk into the
creative impulse resonating deep within our being.
By sounding
that creative impulse, which is our expressive self, we can walk
through all of our agony and pain, fears and prejudices, and all
limiting thought-forms we have created within ourselves, in this and
other lifetimes, which keep us from our true creative self.
All
of those devastating habits and self-agonizing behaviors, which have
been built through years or lifetimes of reacting to traumatic
circumstances or lack of nourishment, have embedded themselves in our
fibers. They have diminished our being. Sound can
resonate and discharge those emotional energies which have been locked
so long in our tissues, our cellular memories, our
emotional, energetic and physical bodies. Sound therapists can guide and nurture
us on the path to self-healing through reconnecting us with our own
inner sound, our own inner child, and helping us express it.
That
inner child holds abundant energy, love, and grace. By letting go of
the noise and confusion of the outer self, we can hear our deeper, more
intimate self sounding, resonating--at first ever so timid and quiet,
but with each breath, with each courageous expression, through waves of
joy and hope that break through all the pain and doubt we have built
around us.
Yes, this may be painful at first. But with courage
and determination, we can break through the pain and fear, and find
unlimited oceans of beauty and wisdom emerging from within.
The Nature of Thought-forms & their Effect on the Etheric Body
To
help us understand this process a little better, let us look more
deeply at the nature of our energetic bodies and the creation of
limiting forms of energy within them.
We have often heard that
we create our own reality. The nature of that reality is so complex it
seems difficult to comprehend just how that might be. Yet, when we look
at the nature of thought-forms as creative forces, it becomes apparent
that the development of a positive, light-building field of energy
around us, through our own thoughts and actions, with our own creative
will and intent, is a major key to our wellbeing. For that energy
field, as a "thought-form," is an electromagnetic grid that
attracts or dispels other energies around us.
The thought-form
is the elemental nature of the creative potential of thought. It is the
energetic "substance" created by all thought, desire, and action. On an
energetic level, we constantly tap into raw (pure) energy and mold it
with the resonance of our thoughts/desires/actions. We also tap into and
"channel" life-streams of energy which resonate with various qualities
of existence, both creative (expansive) and destructive (contracting).
Intelligent
forces work through these streams of energy, whether such interactions
are conscious or unconscious. These interactions may take place in the
emotional, astral, or other fields of our bodies. They may interact on
a more tangible plane, as we invoke them (consciously or unconsciously)
in saintly acts of kindness or generosity, or in debilitating acts of
alcoholism or abuse.
Thought-forms are the residual energetic
effect of our thoughts/desires/actions, and of our interactions with
these energetic streams of consciousness. Thought-forms create
illuminating flames or binding shrouds of energy within our subtle
bodies, depending on their resonant quality. If the residual effect of
a thought-form is of a binding or limiting nature, it can be removed
only by a compensatory action, energetic in nature, which has a quality
opposing or balancing it.
Because the thought-form's nature is
of vibration, or resonance, the sound healer may find a resonant
quality with which to heal, extract or balance it, through the nature
of sound itself. However, if the nature of the wound is related to
conscious "negate-ive streams" of energy, a more skillful approach is
required, in which the healer must have a conscious relationship with
healing energies of a divine nature.
The potential for danger
exists for the practitioner, no matter what the modality, who interacts
with these negate-ive energies without conscious awareness of these
processes or the skills to complete them. Indeed, these energies
interact in and complicate our lives more deeply than most of us can
imagine. Because of the nature of thought-forms, and these negating
streams of energy, we each need to focus on practices for clarifying our
thoughts and actions, and strengthening our energy fields.
Through
previous patterns of creative thought (energy), we are attracted,
through birth, to parents who help develop a grid of energy that
provides maximum potential for our own growth. It is not until we begin
to take responsibility for our lives and choices that we can see this
clearly. But by focusing on our daily thoughts and actions, and seeking
to fill them with the highest and purest form of good we can
imagine, we slowly gravitate toward a more light-filled body
of energy.
The Nature of Creative Will
The
sound worker sees an inextricable link between sound, light, and
creative intent. Once we understand the nature of our energetic self,
we begin to see the importance of the content and intent of our
thoughts and actions, and how these interact.
The physical body
is but one level of expression of our spirit-self. Beyond the physical
are etheric fields of energy which comprise our expressive self. These
fields or energy bodies are interwoven through our major chakras
(energy centers) within the body, and are interconnected with the
divine centers of heaven and earth through spirals of light energy
which course through our bodies and these sacred centers. These sacred
centers, in turn, give off more and more subtle levels of energy which
radiate through our light-field.
Thought is a tangible creative
field of energy which interlaces our light-field and creates grids of
energy resonating through the chakras and about our body. When our
thoughts resonate from a point of fear, inhibition, doubt, confusion,
anger or jealousy, we create through our thought itself a limiting or
binding grid of energy. We are not allowing ourselves to resonate in
expressive, expansive forms of creative joy or love.
Such grids,
or patterns, are magnetic fields that attract potential situations to
us, allowing us to make choices to help us grow. I emphasize potential,
for we work within a school of free choice, and there is a high degree
of fluidity due to the interactions of all beings' free choices, which
create the ever-unfolding formation of reality. Psychics can read this
potential and give us a probability based on how definitively those
grids are in place, but the concept of free choice is always in play,
ruling our aspect of the universe.
Our intent and focus of that
intent (will) are the creative tools of our expression of self (via our
thoughts and actions--i.e., the choices we make). Consciously or
unconsciously, we use our will in the creation of the unfoldment of our
daily lives. And we can use it at any given moment to alter the course
of our previous choices.
If we do not, any thought-forms that
have become embedded in our energetic field eventually will affect our
daily lives. For most of us, they already have, impacting our clarity
of consciousness, emotional wellbeing, relationships, and even professional
success.
In the end, these thought-forms may emerge as physical
symptoms ... repetitive sore throats for those afraid to speak up and
express their feelings, chronic fatigue for those who
have had non-nurturing relationships, ovarian or breast cancer for
those subjected to sexual trauma, etc.
The Use of Creative Will in Sound Healing
The
sound healer focuses intent to create a channel through which divine
energies, or "higher resonances," may be poured into the recipient's
energy field. The primary focus of intent is on being a clear vessel
to allow the greatest good to manifest for the individual's wellbeing.
Once
the sound work has begun, the focus of intent may become more specific.
For instance, the healer may see an ingrained pattern of thought in the energy field constricting the recipient's
energy flow, and may call upon specific energetic tools to remove or
transform it. That pattern may be manifesting in a limiting behavior or
illness in the recipient's life. Or the focus may remain more general,
creating a doorway through which divine energies may enter the more
tangible planes and work within the recipient's field for the greatest
good.
The sound healer also may work with thought-forms or
elemental energies which are not of this person's making. These may be
projections from other individuals' creative intentions (repressive
parents, for example), or projections from other streams of
consciousness of a lesser realm.
The recipient must be a willing
participant, wanting to receive these energies and to release/heal
unwanted thought-forms. The greater the level of focus and intent on
healing the recipient can manifest, the greater the potential for
positive outcome will be. Also, the recipient may need to take some
tools home to reinforce these new patterns of behavior or energetic
qualities within the self.
In my work, my point of focus is
usually either in the Ajna center (the third eye) or the eighth chakra
(above the crown of the head). From the Ajna center, I can direct
specific light-energies into the body through the vehicle of sound
utilizing specific tools.
The eighth chakra is a powerful
interdimensional point linking the primal soul and divine seat. Within
the eighth chakra, the focus is more specifically on illumination,
opening the doorway through which divine energies may enter more
easily, with greater power and awareness than my more conscious self
can provide. This requires much more giving of self, more surrender,
and thus the quality of light pouring through is brighter and purer. I
become more unconscious of the specific interaction of energies with
the recipient, but both of us are drawn to a higher, clearer state.
The
point of intention remains the same. The intent of the healing
practitioner is to focus on the most pure, worthy energies for the
recipient's needs. The intent opens the doorway. The sound becomes the
vehicle through which the light moves. And it offers an extraordinary
point of focus for the healer to place his or her intentions upon.
In
my work, the sound may come with the use of an instrument: a crystal or
brass bowl, a tingshaw
(Tibetan brass cymbal), a flute, rattle, or
Native ceremonial drum. But more often, I am the sole instrument,
opening the voice to a sacred mantra, chant, song, prayer, or what I
like to call "dialects." These dialects are a form of divine
invocation, or prayer, a sacred
language, a speaking in tongues, in which the energy becomes most
pronounced.
Whatever the instrument or modality, the sound
itself, through its own vibration or resonance, rearranges the
molecular structure of cells, lifts thoughts and energy into an
elevated dimension, and invokes/carries a higher energy (intelligence)
through it, which interacts with the energy field in a variety of ways.
Sound resonance may function like a set of tuning forks, in which the
pure resonance of one tuning fork, once set in motion, carries waves of
energy to the other, which, by its like nature, begins resonating.
Or the sound may act on the crystallized blockage of energies in the
energetic body as a pure tone might upon a crystal glass, causing it to
shatter, quicken, or release. The resonance of sound may be sensed as a
pure stream of energy, like a waterfall, cleansing the energy field and
re-energizing it; as a rain shower; or as waves of peaceful light.
The Interplay of Sound & Light
Coupled with the intent of the sound resonator (healer), specific
qualities of light, or specific energetic streams, may be called upon,
or invoked, to aid the practitioner in removing binding or shrouding
energies, and to recharge the energy field with light.
The interplay of sound and light is important to the conscious user. In
modern physics, we find that the principal difference in sound, light
and matter is one of vibrational frequency, or resonance. The
interrelationship of these is more like a broad spectrum of energy than
three separate forms.
In so many tales of Creation, it is sound which is the first and
elemental form of Creation, and the vehicle which moves energy from the
potential realm to the manifest world.
In Hinduism, the sound of "Om" resonates as the elemental
causal form of all creative manifestation. In Australian Aboriginal
culture, perhaps the oldest culture on the planet, the
"Ancestors," defined as "fathomless, luminous beings of light and
energy," dreamed of all forms of life in Creation and "sang" them into
existence through templates of thought energy along "songlines," which
are comparable to the ley lines, or electromagnetic grid, of the Earth.
In Judaism, the ancient mystical Cabalistic roots of the culture teach
us that each of the twenty-two letters of the alphabet not only
symbolizes, but carries and emits through its enunciation, with pure
intent, one of the principal aspects of universal energy. Linguistic
interactions in letter configurations (words) are significant in this
universal flow and unfoldment. This was so clearly understood that it
was considered sacrilege to enunciate the cryptic word for "God," the
Anglicization of which is Jehovah, or Yahweh. In its cryptic verse,
understanding the meaning of this one word itself, in all its depth,
potency and purity, was a path to enlightenment.
In Christianity, many sources indicate that Jesus taught esoteric
thought to his disciples in far greater detail, in private settings,
than his more popular metaphorical stories to the public would
indicate. Many of these sources also say Jesus was an initiate in the
ancient mystery schools of the East, receiving teachings in the great
temples of Egypt and traveling to India, where tales still exist of
"Saint Issa," who returned to his people in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago,
only to be crucified. The Book of John, written by one of his principal
disciples, opens with the verse, "In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
The nature of this verse is extremely specific. The "Word," the sound,
is the first manifestation of creative vibration, or intent, and holds
in its resonance the very essence of the Divine. In Greek, from which
we get much of the New Testament script, and from which we get the
origin of "Word," Word means "to say."
This implies an innate understanding that the very resonance of sound,
of the Word, draws power to it, and carries power through it. We have
often heard of "the power of the spoken word," but we may not have
given much credence to it. It is our thought, will and intentions that
give power to the spoken word, and to sound in all of its forms and
uses. Sound is a profoundly powerful healing vehicle. The nature of its
power rests in the conscious, and unconscious, intent of its initiator.
Copyright (c) 2009 by Zacciah Blackburn. All Rights Reserved.
[Zacciah Blackburn is a sound
healer based in Vermont trained in classical healing, shamanic
traditions, and sacred sound cultures. Director of Education for the
Sound Healing Network, an international community of healing
practitioners broadening the awareness of sound healing through
networking, education and scientific research, Zacciah is also
Cofounder of the World Sound Healing Organization and All One Now
Network, a non-profit organization joining the efforts of numerous
individuals and organizations worldwide, embracing sound as a healing
catalyst in simple ceremony throughout the world. For more information,
visit http://www.thecenteroflight.net and http://www.worldsoundhealing.org.]
