Tengsha: Sound for Healing

Tips for Getting Nasty Smells out of Drums

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:17:00 +0000

I received an email today asking how to get the smell of rancid oil out of drumheads. A drummer who lives in an extremely dry climate had been advised by an "expert" to apply almond oil to the skins of two frame drums. The oil had gone rancid and smelled bad.

The woman who wrote to me wondered if it would help to put clove oil on the drum heads in hopes of covering the smell. (Not a good idea.)

It took me awhile to compose a reply, and then I thought the info might be useful to other drummers. In the last few months I have spent time around two very smelly drums from Africa (really nauseating), so I know that brand new drums often have poorly prepared skin heads that stink to high heaven.

So here is what I have learned about getting rid of nasty smells without harming drumheads:

CAUTION: Be very careful about actually applying anything to drum heads, especially natural skin heads.

My djembe teacher would have advised using palm oil if necessary to protect a drumhead in a dry climate. But only the tiniest, tiniest bit.

Normally drums that are used constantly get enough oil from the hands of the drummer.

To remove any excess oil you have applied, you could store the drums skin down on paper towels in a warm place (not hot, or the skin could split). The paper towels will absorb excess oil.

Assuming excess oil is not part of the problem, there are ways to remove odor that you can try.

The smell will eventually weaken some on its own.

However, here are some methods that may help.

Apple Slices

The best deodorizer is to place a drum in a big trash bag with a some apple slices. You slice up an apple or two and spread the slices out on a tray (for maximum exposure), then put a wire rack (such as those used to cool cakes and cookies) over the tray to keep the drum from touching the apple slices.

Seal up the bag and leave it sealed up for at least a week.

Apple will absorb quite horrible organic odors (as of dead bodies, for example), so it should work for your drums.

Baking Soda

After the apple treatment, if there is any remaining smell, you could try using baking soda in the same way you used the apples slices (tray, wire rack, sealed garbage bag).

Baking soda is not nearly as efficient as the apples but could help remove the remnants of scent after the apple treatment. If there is any residual odor after the apple treatment, I would try the baking soda treatment for a week.

Do NOT try to combine the apple and baking soda in the same treatment. They will sort of cancel each other out. They must be done separately.

Incense

After the apple treatment, you could try sealing the drum up in a bag with incense (not burning) and leaving it for a few days. If the incense is strong, that should mask any remaining odor somewhat. (If you do the incense before or with the baking soda, the soda will just absorb the incense scent, negating the effect.)

Or you could actually smudge the drums with incense smoke to mask any remaining odor.

Essential Oils (Not Recommended)

As to the clove, essential oils are not actually oils. They are the fine, volatile particles of the plant. The difference between oils like corn oil or almond oil and essential "oils" is like the difference between vasoline and jet fuel. Both vasoline and jet fuel are petroleum products, but you would not put jet fuel on your skin.

Only the citrus oils, such as orange, lemon, lime, mandarin, etc. (which are not true essential oils) are actually oils pressed out of the plant. It is possible that a **tiny** dab of orange oil might be OK to use to mask any remnants of rancid scent after you do the apple absorption method, but it is risky.

Anything that you would not rub directly into your own skin is risky to put on a drum, and lots of things that are good for your skin are still bad for drums.

Drum heads are just dead skin after all. As such, they are fragile. Being stretched so tightly under such high tension as they are on a drum, they are incredibly vulnerable to any substance that may weaken them even slightly. Any liquid is risky to apply to a drumhead.

Scents During Storage

You could put any essential oil that you like on a pad of some kind and store it in a sealed bag with the drums. Just be careful to make sure the essential oil does not touch the drum head. Once you figure out a way to do that, you may want to store the essential oil pad in the drum case with your drum all the time.

Or you could simply keep a couple of boxes of richly scented incense in the drum case instead. Nag champa, for example, smells nice and will eventually permeate anything it is stored with.

I would only do that after deodorizing the drums with apple and baking soda, but you may want to experiment. Good nag champa incense is inexpensive and you can always try it again after the apple treatment.

Remember, though, sliced apple works better than anything that I have ever heard of.

Harmonic Toning, Trance, and Drumming

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:18:00 +0000

Harmonics are the extra sounds above and below the main notes in music. Tibetan bowls and Mongolian throat-singers are famous for them. But you can also hear them in certain Tibetan chants (the really deep, growly ones), some other singing and musical instruments, and in certain kinds of drumming.

It is said that shamans actually travel on the overtones (harmonics of drumming) and I believe it. I can sometimes here overtones in rattling, too. And it sounds to me as though a form of throat-singing is how that characteristic sound is made in the didgeridu.

Our shamanism Meetup group sometimes practices harmonic toning---not often enough, I guess, but whenever we need to use it with an ecstatic trance posture. (For more info on ecstatic trance postures see Shamanista.com or my Houston Shamanism Examiner column.)

Last Saturday I taught how to do it again, because there were some new people present, and then I taught them a new trance posture to do the toning with. All I did was get them started in a couple of the simpler forms of hoomei, or Mongolian throat-singing.

It was one of those nights. The CD player would not work, so instead of getting to try out the posture with them, I had to drum. But I also needed to tone with them, because in a smallish group (nine of us), people tend to be shy about singing or making what are to them weird noises.

The problem was that toning tends to make my drumming slow down too much, and I was really tired already from drumming for a couple of other journeys.

So I started drumming, intending not to tone, but I did anyway, and it was amazing. I got more harmonics (the high whistling or fluting sound in throat-singing) than I probably ever have (since I never practice). And the drumming did not slow down.

Apparently I tranced out while toning. One of the other participants claimed that I drummed for 40 minutes, when I thought it was just 15 or 20 minutes. I knew harmonic toning was a great meditation, but I did not expect to trance out like that while doing it.

So here is my recommendation: Find a place to learn harmonic toning or throat-singing, and give it a try. If nothing else, get some good throat-singing CDs and harmonic toning CDs, like those of David Hykes and his Harmonic Choir, and listen to them carefully while in a quiet, meditative state.

Listening to harmonic sounds will make you feel great! And it is the first step in learning how to do it yourself.

Learning to make harmonic sounds yourself will make you feel even better.

Tips on Caring for Shamanic Drums

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:30:00 +0000

I just posted a new article on Houston Shamanism, "6 Tips on Caring for Shamanic Drums in Houston," but these tips are applicable to just about any natural skin drums anywhere.

There are tips on drum storage, safely transporting your drum, the dangers of too much heat, what to do about too much moisture, using the right kind of beater to avoid damaging your drum, and avoiding undesirable metaphysical influences.

I hope you will stop by, take a look, and leave a comment.

Choosing a Drum for Shamanic Journeying

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:09:00 +0000

Shamanic drumming is one way to use sound in the healing process. The drumming itself does part of the work, and the shamanic practitioner does the rest.

I just posted a couple of articles on my new column, Houston Shamanism Examiner: Shamanic drumming for journeying, and How to choose a shamanic drum.

I hope you will stop by and take a look.

Music Helps Parkinson's Patients | BYBS

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 05:23:00 +0000

Here is the link I promised to an interesting KUHF radio feature on medical research studying how music helps Parkinson's Disease patients, by reporter Melissa Galvez.

http://app1.kuhf.org/houston_public_radio-news-display.php?articles_id=1239229773

You can hear and download the audio file (MP3 or iTunes format) and read and print the transcript.

Medical research on the use of sound for healing Parkinson's: What a blessing!

Drumming to an Ancient Beat

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:39:00 +0000

I love radio and TV stories that feature African drumming, and I thought you might, too. My teacher, Abubakr Kouyate, is often on the radio or TV, but normally it is a complete surprise, and most of us miss it.

Recently, however, one of our Thursday night classmates, Melissa Galvez, a reporter for KUHF radio, did a feature on the class, called Drumming to an Ancient Beat. The feature aired on KUHF on April 16.

KUHF had recently done a feature on drumming as therapy for Parkinson's disease, and this was a followup story on the benefits of drumming. (I will find and post the link the Parkinson's story, too, if I can.)

Melissa recorded some clips of Abubakr and parts of the class and she interviewed a few students afterward.

You can hear and download the audio file and also read and print the transcript here:

http://app1.kuhf.org/houston_public_radio-news-display.php?articles_id=123991760\
5

(To download the audio files, scroll to the bottom.)

Melissa did a fabulous job, even mentioning Temples Gate, the shop that hosts the class, http://www.templesgate.net in the lead-in and providing a link to Abubakr's web site, http://www.abubakr.info

Thanks, Melissa! (And thanks to KUHF for making the recording and transcript available on their web site.)

I hope this inspires other radio or TV reporters to do their own stories on the mental and physical health benefits of
drumming.

So please checke it out. I don't know how long features like this remain available on the KUHF web site. If you like it, download it while you can.

Full Synth Piano Widget | BYBS

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:30:00 +0000

Want to play piano on your computer? Now you can. Easily. For free.

If you scroll all the way to the bottom of this page, you will find a full-keyboard synth piano that you can play with your mouse. It actually sounds great that way.

If you click on the button in the upper right corner, just above the keys, you can play it by pressing the actual keys your computer keyboard. I tried it, and it seems great to me, but I don't play the piano. Those of you who do, please try it out and leave a comment.

As always, you can click on a tab at the bottom of the widget to go get the widget for your own site. A full synth keyboard that you can play on a netbook. What a blessing!

Add Meditation Chimes to Your Site | BYBS

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:02:00 +0000

Just for fun, why not add some zen meditation chimes to your web site or blog for you or your visitors to play. You can download a fun, free Zen Meditation Chimes widget like the one in at the top of the right-hand column from the widgetbox web site.

When you move your mouse over the chimes, the cursor turns into a mallet, and you can play the chimes by clicking on them. Each chime plays a different note.

Or you can just got the widgetbox site when you need some chimes, and play them there.

Something fun, unexpected and uplifting to share with others. What a blessing!

Stonehenge Acoustics Ideal for Healing-Trance Rituals | BYBS

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 06:03:00 +0000

Rupert Till, an expert in acoustics and music technology at Huddersfield University in northern England, says the large standing stones at Stonehenge were designed to reflect sound perfectly. That means the stone circle originally was perfect for listening to repetitive, trance-inducing rhythms.

To study the original sound qualities of Stonehenge, Till and a colleague, Bruno Fazenda, mathematically analyzed the archeological site and predicted its acoustic effects, using cutting-edge technology.

Because their goal was to measure the acoustic properties of Stonehenge when it was built, they also went to a full-size concrete replica of Stonehenge in Washington state that has replicas of all the original stones in place, where it was possible to test the original acoustics.

Using special acoustic software, Till and Fazenda compared their calculations, computer simulations, and the results of tests conducted at the Stonehenge replica.
They were able to create examples of "what the space sounded like" originally.

Judging by the echoes, they believe that simple rhythms would have been played at the same tempo as the echoes or at multiples. That would be about 160 beats a minute, the same speed as fast trance-dance music like the samba. It is also the same tempo as a fast human heartbeat, such as would be achieved by vigorous exercise such as very fast dancing.

For years, archeologists have debated the purpose of Stonehenge. In recent years two theories have been most prominent: that it was a place of healing, and that it was a place of the dead.

There are also areas within the circle that amplify sound perfectly for speaking to a large crowd and may have been used by priests or shamans leading rituals or ceremonies.

Till and Fazenda's research helps corroborate the theories of archeologist Aaron Watson, whose research suggests that the builders of Stonehenge knew how to direct sound so that the human voice would be magnified and the sound of drums or other low-pitched instruments would carry for long distances.

The new research findings indicate that Stonehenge would have been perfect for large rituals for healing or for sending the souls of the dead to the spirit world. In fact, it may very well have been used for both.

To read the entire article, go to http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/01/07/stonehenge-trance.html

Some of us were already convinced that the art of using music for healing is ancient. Research confirming that, however, is a blessing.

Healing with Tibetan Mantras | BYBS

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:28:00 +0000

If you are interested in the use of the voice for sound healing, you may want to watch a video of Tibetan lama Tenzin Wangyal Rimpoche giving a teaching. You can find some on YouTube by searching for "Tenzin Wangyal" or "Ligmincha".

If you have listened attentively to recordings or performances of harmonic toning or chanting, you may recognize the edge of harmonics in Rimpoche's intoning of the various seed syllables and mantras connected with the teachings.

In India and Tibet, mantras are considered to have great power if correctly intoned. The belief in the power of certain words and phrases when properly sung/spoken was once probably worldwide, and it is still alive in many cultures.

If you are open to the fact that many religions have great healing wisdom, and we can learn from all of them if we approach them with openness and respect, participating in a Tibetan ceremony, even on line, can be a great learning experience on the use of sound for healing.

Today I watched a live teaching and ceremony in which Rimpoche taught and led the practice of the Bon deity Sherab Chamma (shown in the painting above). Her name means Wisdom Loving Mother. The practice uses a mantra, breathing, and visualizations to heal the body, mind and spirit.

Tenzin Wangyal is an authority on the practices of the Tibetan Bon religion, of which he is a renowned teacher. He is the author of several books of teachings and the founder of the Ligmincha Institute. In December of 2007, I reviewed his book and CD on Tibetan Sound Healing.

Today's webcast was the first of a series of live teachings Tenzin Wangyal will be giving over the Internet. To receive notice of them as they are scheduled (so that you can participate live, ask questions, etc.), sign up for a free subscription to the Voice of Clear Light newsletter.

For more information on Sherab Chamma, the Wisdom Loving Mother, go to this page at Ligmincha online store.

I feel blessed to have participated in this event.

Caring for Your Healing Drum | BYBS

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:00:00 +0000

Once you have a drum, you need to know how to care for it properly. Even synthetic drums require some care. Proper care can vastly extend a drum's useful life.

Heat Can Kill Your Drum

Leaving a drum in the car is a great way to ruin it. Heat can cause the skin of a natural drum to tighten so much that it bursts. Djembes and other drums that are headed with goatskin under high tension are expecially susceptible.

As heat causes the skin to tighten, the extreme pressure can cause the frame of the drum to warp. That can ruin a frame drum or hoop drum.

If the hoop is made of jointed wood (instead of all one piece) or of soft wood, the frame can break, ruining the drum completely.

Think of the dangers of leaving small children and animals in cars for just a few minutes. Leaving a drum in the car is also a very bad idea.

High Humidity Loosens Drum Heads

High humidity can cause drum heads to become looser (though still under tension), so that they sound terrible. Very high humidity over a few hours or days can cause the drum to slacken enough to lose the harmonic overtone and undertone sounds that are often used in healing. In other words, the drum sounds flat.

You have probably seen people with hoop drums, holding them over heat sources or warming them with a hair dryer to tighten them. That is why they do it.

Note that if you have to constantly tighten your drum, either it was not strung tightly enough to begin with, or it may have been made in a dryer environment and not intended for the level of humidity where you live. Drums made in Taos, for example, will probably not be strung tightly enough for Seattle or Singapore.

For short-term humidity problems, one remedy is to keep your drum in a container, so that the humidity has less effect. At least, the drum has more time to adjust. In some cases, quick humidity changes will not affect your drum at all.

For example, if you do not have air conditioning, but you keep you drum in a plastic container, such as a Christmas tree skirt storage box, a brief thunderstorm will likely not affect your drum at all.

Low Humidity Can Cause Splits

Low humidity can be just as dangerous to your drum as moisture. If you take a drum that is tightly strung enough to be used in a humid environment, such as a coastal area, and move it to a desert environment, your drumhead may tighten so much that it splits.

Even in a moderately humid area, storing a drum in a dry upstairs closet or on the wall during the winter can be just like taking it to the desert if you use central heat all winter. Central heat sometimes lowers the humidity in your home until it is even dryer than a desert.

You might need to keep your drum in a plastic container and mist it occasionally so that it does not split in the extremely low humidity.

The lesson here is to buy a drum that was made in your geographical area in the same conditions in which you will store and use it.

Getting Wet Can Be Fatal to Drum Heads

Getting a drum head wet can cause it to split even without being played. Only a few drops, if not wiped off instantly, can destroy a djembe head. The skin is just so thin and under such high tension, and the liquid weakens the skin very quickly, causing it to split.

Djembes and similar drums with thin heads laced to a high tension must have the pressure relieved immediately if they get wet. If you wipe off the liquid right away, and it is more than a drop or two, you must immediately loosen the drum lacing to lower the tension on the head while the skin dries. Once the head is completely dry, you can retighten the lacings and tune the drum.

Generally frame drums and hoop drums that are laced onto their frame (not tacked or glued), are not in so much danger. Native American drums in particular are usually made of stronger hides. If you wipe them off immediately and keep them from drying out too fast, they should be OK.

Do NOT try to loosen the rawhide laces on a frame drum or hoop drum unless you are a drum-maker! Unless you know exactly what you are doing, the drum will be ruined.

Transportation

When transporting drums it is always best to put them in a case or container of some sort, especially if you have to carry them on foot or in an open vehicle. Even a large, heavy duty trashbag can protect your drum from rain or spills.

Parties and Public Gatherings

Beware at parties, drum circles and other events that most people do not realize how fragile drum heads are. They have no idea that a little spill can fracture your drum head. So be careful where you put your drum.

Don't leave your drum unattended even for a few minute. Some people will thoughtlessly set a drink or heavy object on top of a drum! So beware. It is best to cover the head of the drum while you take a break.

Even synthetic drum heads need to be protected from getting wet. While Remo and other synthetic heads are great for use in humid, even damp environments. they are not made to actually get wet. They need cases, and don't try to play them in the rain.

Sharp or Abrasive Objects

Sharp objects are the enemies of drums. But objects that you might not think of as sharp can also damage drums.

Never wear a ring, bracelet, or watch while playing a hand drum such as a djembe. Even a smooth ring intensifies the pressure on a small area and can break the drum head, especially if there is any weakness in the skin already.

A bracelet or watch can easily puncture or cut the drum head when you hit a base note (hitting with flat palm in the center of the drum head). Never risk that, especially if the drum is not your own.

That is another reason not to leave your drum unattended at parties or public events. Someone who knows nothing about drums may start playing it while you are gone, without removing their rings or bracelets---and damage the drum head. I have had it happen.

Avoid Any Pressure on Head

Be careful, when you store and transport drums, that nothing can press on the head. Loads shift in transport, and the drum may roll or fall against something that will stretch the head. That can sometimes be fixed, but other times it can cause a rupture.

That's why a hard container, such as a smooth plastic box for a frame drum or hoop drum, or a case with a hard top for a djembe, is best.

Do I have to say it? Never, never ever use a drum as a table. Even setting something on the drum for a moment can result in damage that will split the head.

Good Care Pays Off

No drum will last forever. In traditional societies, a good drum may last for the life of one drummer, but the drum head may have been changed many times.

Hoop drums, if headed with strong skins such as buffalo, should last much longer. Traditionally they were not reheaded if they did break. A new drum was made instead.

Djembes and other heavy African drums with thin heads are another matter. The hardwood base may last for centuries.

The head and its lacing cord of such drums can be replaced many times without affecting the base as long as the wood is protected from insects, excessive moisture and heat. And because the hardwood base is hand-shaped from a single piece of wood, it is well worth the cost of reheading.

Metaphysical Drum Care

If you use drumming or other sound for healing, you probably know the importance of intention and vibration, the metaphysics of healing. If so, you will understand that the spiritual environment in which you play and store your drum is important, too.

Sometimes you have to take your drum into a negative environment in order to do healing. If so, be sure to spiritually cleanse the drum afterward.

Drums that will be used in healing should not be taken into negative environments just for fun. Avoid taking drums to parties or other events where people are drunk or drugging or have destructive, ridiculing attitudes toward others. You do not want those vibes in a drum that will be used for healing.

If you are a professional musician, and you need to play at such events, it is best to get drums that you use only for that purpose, and leave your healing drums at home.

I know that playing music can have an emotionally healing effect on a crowd, and that is good. But that is not what I'm referring to.

If you are a healer, you know what I mean, even if you have not thought about it. If you use sound for healing, it is good to be aware of the spiritual vibes in the tools that you use for healing.

Such awareness, like the ability to use drumming for healing, is a blessing.

How to Select a Djembe Drum to Buy | BYBS

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:31:00 +0000

Having the opportunity to help someone else is considered to be a blessing by Jews and by Buddhists. Both groups have sayings to that effect.

I think it is always a blessing, if you take the opportunity and do help, and if you do it with a glad heart. I feel sure that there are people in other spiritual belief systems who feel the same.

Yesterday I got an email from someone I have never met, asking how to choose a djembe as a present for her son. I'm glad I took the time to write some guidelines for her, and now I can share them with you.

My drum teacher, Abubakr Kouyate, says that traditional West African people consider the sound of the djembe to be a healing sound. He says the healing actually comes from the tones (one of the three types of djembe strokes: tone, slap, and bass).

So playing traditional rhythms on the djembe and its accompanying dunnun family of drums is a very old way of healing with sound. Generally djembe ensemble rhythms are played to heal a whole community.

In case you have thought of learning to play djembe in the traditional way, here are some guidelines for choosing one.

1. Wooden body with a real goatskin head. If you buy a "djembe" with a fiberglas body and artificial head, you will quickly become unhappy with the sound as soon as you hear real djembes.

Artificial drums are OK for camping, because they are light to carry and resistant to moisture. But the sound is very different from a real djembe.

2. Do not buy a so-called djembe that has metal bolts around the top edge to hold the head on. That is a sure sign that the drum is artificial and the sound will be wrong. The heads of real djembes are laced on with strong nylon cord (such as mountain climbers use). That allows them to be tightened.

2. Make sure the wood is not cracked. Examine it closely.

3. The body of the djembe should be made from a single piece of heavy tropical African hardwood, called lingue wood, hand-shaped on the inside. Definitely you need a hard, strong wood.

4. Carving on the outside is just for looks. Don't let it sway your choice. You could end up with a low-quality drum that only looks pretty.

5. The head must be goatskin (not cowhide). Only goatskin is thin enough to give the right sound.

6. Make sure the head does not have any holes or tears (even tiny ones). If it does, it will soon require reheading, which costs $50 to $100, I think---unless you get a super deal on a drum with a broken head and can factor reheading cost into the price.

That is, if you get the wooden body cheap enough, you could afford to have it reheaded. That's a good thing, because drum heads only last a few years anyway. A reheaded drum is like a brand new drum. You know it will be good for several years, unlike a used drum with an old head.

7. Any drum that has been played a lot, or that has not been used in awhile, even a new one, may need to have the head tightened. That is not hard to do, but you need to know how. My teacher or any **real** djembe drummer can show you how.

8. Real, authentic djembes, come from Africa, from Guinea, Mali, Senegal, and other West African countries. However, some nice djembes are also made nowadays in Indonesia (if they use a heavy tropical hardwood), and they will be less expensive.

9. Must be big enough! A real djembe is about 24 to 28 inches tall and 10 to 15 inches in diameter. You need it to be tall enough that you can stand it on the floor, tilt it slightly away from you, and play at a comfortable height.

Also, it needs to be plenty big enough to spread out both hands flat above the near edge of it at once. Anything smaller than that is too small to play and will not give a good sound.

I hope this helps in selecting a djembe for yourself or for a gift. Playing a djembe in the traditional way is not only healing to those who listen. It is even more healing to those who play. It is a real blessing either way.

Water Crystal Healing Music | BYBS

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:55:00 +0000

I've just started working with a very interesting book, Water Crystal Healing, by Masaru Emoto, the best-selling author of Messages from Water. His work was featured in the film, The Secret.

Dr. Emoto has what seems to me to be a whole new take on the subject of sound for healing: viewing a crystal formed by the energy of a musical piece while listening to that particular piece of music.

He says "when you listen to a piece of music and look at the water crystal created by the vibration of that music simultaneously, you can 'see' the vibrational pattern of the music in the crystal and absorb all the vibrations into your body through your eyes and ears."

In case you are not familiar with Dr. Emoto's work, his lab developed a way to photograph individual water crystals. They found that the emotional atmosphere around the crystals affects their shape. Even taping printed phrases to the outside of a water container would affect the shape of the crystals that formed in the container.

The results were not caused by the experimenters. Similar crystals were caused by similar sentiments even when the phrases were in foreign languages and the technicians did not know what they meant.

Unpleasant words made for ugly, blob-like crystals. Phrases expressing sentiments like love, gratitude, and other benevolent emotions caused intricate and beautiful crystals.

What does that have to do with using sound for healing, you may ask? Well, the premise of this book, which comes with two music CDs, is that when certain pieces of music are played in the presence of pure water, the water forms exquisite crystals with a certain energy vibration, or (in Japanese) hado.

Gazing at a photo of particular crystal while at the same time listening to the piece of music that caused it to form will supposedly convey to you the healing benefits of that particular piece of music.

This is all very interesting, you may say, but how did they measure the effects of the music? All I can tell you is what Dr. Emoto wrote. He says that he measures the energy vibration, or hado, of the water crystal photograph by placing it on a hado-measuring device called a Magnetic Resonance Analyzer (MRA).

Dr. Emoto says he has been using the MRA for years to analyze people's hado and treat water for them to drink to adjust their energy so that they are healthy. He says it works. He says "Organs and diseases have measurable hado, a subtle form of energy that is easily transmittable and present in all things. In English, hado translates as 'wave' or 'vibration'."

Because he had discovered that he could analyze photos of absent patients with equally good results, he figured out that he could measure the hado of music by playing it in the presence of vials of water (50 samples for each piece of music) and measure the hado of the resulting water crystals.

So if this seems like somewhat circular logic to you, well, it does so to me, too. I have admired Dr. Emoto's work in the past. I've read a couple of his books and watched his video. But this seems a little far-fetched to me.

The music on the CDs is all European classical music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To each musical selection are attributed emotional hado and physical hado.

For example, the first selection is The Moldau, by Bedrich Smetana. It is said to convey emotional hado of calmness, peace of mind, and relief from irritability as well as physical hado of improved lymphatic flow. The crystal is especially intricate and lovely.

My favorite crystal is the one that represents Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. The emotional hado is said to cleans the heart and body and relieve emotional stress. Physically it is said to affect the lumbar vertebrae and improve lower back pain.

I would love to know what Jonathan Goldman would say about this one. And I would love to know what you have to say about this book and CD set after you have worked with it.

Anyway, the musical selections are lovely, and I love the photos. Just when you think there is nothing new in a field, here comes something like this. Whether it works as advertised or not, it is fun to experiment with, and I feel blessed to have found it.

I'll let you know how my experiments turn out. Please leave a comment to tell the rest of us know about yours, OK?

Blog Your Blessings Sunday

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:32:00 +0000

Today I'm grateful for a wonderful blog network called Blog Your Blessings Sunday. Through them I have met some wonderful people and read some great blogs. I highly recommend it.

If you are interested in joining, go to http://lifeamongotherthings.blogspot.com/ for more information.

Intention and Sound Healing

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:00:00 +0000

Since I reviewed the book, 7 Secrets of Sound Healing by Jonathan Goldman, I've been thinking. One of the main points of the book, almost the main idea in the book, is that intent is the most important element in healing.

All right, that is true in energy healing. And sound healing is, I guess, a form of energy healing. But what about all the medical research that shows that certain speeds of steady, unison drumming cause specific changes in brain waves?

Of course, Goldman is talking mainly in terms of assigning various notes to various ailments or parts of the body, or the idea that certain genres of music are healing, while others are not. His point is that the right note to heal one person of a specific problem might not be the right note to heal another person with the same problem---or even the same person at a different time.

So maybe the medical research does not invalidate what he is saying. But i wonder.

If you work with sound healing, especially if you have read 7 Secrets, what do you think?

7 Secrets of Sound Healing | BYB

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:17:00 +0000

I just read 7 Secrets of Sound Healing by Jonathan Goldman. It is the best introduction to healing with sound that I have ever read, and it comes with a 26-minute CD of healing music composed by Goldman.

The small hardback book is not much larger than the CD it contains, but it is about three-fourths of an inch thick and 161 pages long. It is beautifully designed.

The book is printed entirely in Indigo ink on cream-colored paper. That is startling at first, but it is easy to read. And the dark, dark blue becomes a soothing element, contrasting with some startling ideas.

7 Secrets of Sound Healing is full of good information and experience from one of the pioneers of modern sound healing. Even without the CD it is worth the $17.95 list price. I bought it at Amazon.com, though, and paid only about $12.50. And the CD is lovely.

Goldman was a rock musician until he decided about 25 years ago to pursue the possibilities of healing with sound. Since then he has founded the Sound Healers Association, has won Grammy Awards for his healing music CDs, and has authored several successful books on healing with sound. He has devoted his life to studying and teaching the use of sound for healing.

This book not only explains the basic principles of healing with sound. It also debunks a lot of myths about sound healing, including some that Goldman himself believed in until research evidence and experience taught him otherwise.

Although I will probably write more about this book in the future, I won't list the 7 Secrets right now. Each one takes a whole chapter to fully explain.

I just wanted to let you know about it as soon as possible if you haven't read it already. This is by far the best book on Sound Healing that I've read. I highly recommend it. Whether you are just starting out or have been in the field awhile, I believe that you will find this book valuable.

7 Secrets of Sound Healing will make you think, and it may force you to reconsider everything you have been taught about healing with sound. And that could be a blessing in disguise: It could make you a much better healer.

Please read the book, listen to the music, and let the rest of us know what you think.

Poll: 92% Believe Music Is Healing

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 01:39:00 +0000

In the Polls section of a site called Care2, about living lightly on the earth, I ran across poll results showing that 92% of those who took the poll believe that music can be healing.

The people who took the poll may not be representative of the public at large. They tend to recycle, care about peace, and be concerned with water and wildlife conservation and the environment.

Even so, it was by far the most definitive poll on the Care2 site (and I took dozens of them, just because they are interesting and fun). Most of the poll results were about what you would expect from a well-educated, green-leaning audience. Pretty sensible and often pretty evenly divided on issues.

But almost everyone believes that music can be healing. I find that very encouraging. How about you?

Seeing Sound: Harmonic Overtoning | BYB

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sun, 18 May 2008 23:37:00 +0000

Last Saturday was the monthly Meetup of my group that works with sound for healing.

We always use rattling and chanting to break up and reform the energy in the workspace for our purposes, and we always use drumming, which in itself is healing. However, sound is not always the main focus of the healing work we do.

But last Saturday we were doing psychopomp work. We were guiding the souls of the dead, especially those who had died unexpectedly with no one to properly mourn them.

To do that kind of work, calling the spirits of the dead who may not yet realize that they are dead, and calling the spirits of loved ones or spiritual figures to come and escort them to the other world, we use an ecstatic trance posture. (See the work of Felicitas D. Goodman, Ph.D., for more info on that.) The psychopomp trance posture requires toning or wailing to call the spirits.

In preparation for the work, we did a little bit of practice with harmonic toning---not that harmonic overtoning was required for the work, but it is especially effective. And doing harmonic toning is also very healing for those who do it.

We spent 30 minutes in the posture, toning (or wailing) to call the spirits. It was a moving experience, as it always is. This time, though, was especially rewarding in a different way.

One of the healers, Lyn Clark, who trained for several years with South American shamans, was able to psychically See the sound. At the times when we were successful in creating harmonics, she saw the sound as light. And she saw us weaving strands of that light into a huge cube. What a blessing to share with us!

Lyn has worked with us many times before, and has done that same kind of work with us several times. But we had never toned harmonically while doing that work. (We just wailed.) And so she had never seen that particular vision.

You can be sure that we will be working even more with harmonic overtoning in the future!

Music and Sound in the Healing Arts | BYB

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Mon, 05 May 2008 00:23:00 +0000

John Beaulieu, the author of Music and Sound in the Healing Arts, discovered for himself the energy and power of sound for healing. Beginning as a little boy of 6 years old, he noticed that certain songs he played on the piano had the power to calm his family, to defuse tense situations, even to prevent fights.

Later, as a professional musician on tour, he played many musical genres, from classical and jazz to country and pop. He noticed time and again that even the same song, played different ways, with different energy, could be used to affect the audience deeply in very different ways. The energy in the music could cause the audience to do whatever the musicians wanted: eat more, buy things, dance, calm down, and so on.

Then Beaulieu became a therapist in a hospital and began to experiment seriously with the use of sound as energy for healing the body and mind. He went back to school and became a doctor of naturopathy. And his successful work with patients drew the attention of physicians and other therapists.

Music and Sound in the Healing Arts is a brief book, packed with facts, diagrams, exercises and the genuine experience of a gifted intuitive with a professional credentials. It describes his work and his discoveries and tells how to use tuning forks, voice (toning) and all kinds of music to heal the mind and the body.

This is a beautiful little book, and I highly recommend it. Personally I feel blessed to have found it.

Great Harmonic CDs for Healing | Blog Your Blessings

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:16:00 +0000

Currently I'm buying and reviewing harmonic CDs. I'll be back soon with more reviews and recommendations for CDs to use for healing.

I'll won't tantalize you by recommending unavailable recordings, but there is no need to miss out on something just because the chain stores do not carry it.

Meanwhile, I just want to say what a blessing it is to be able to locate hard-to-find, out-of-print CDs on Amazon.com. Often there are plenty available---but there is no other reliable way to get them.

Stay tuned...

Book of Sound Therapy | Blog Your Blessings

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:06:00 +0000

The Book of Sound Therapy by Olivea Dewhurst-Maddock, is subtitled Heal Yourself with Music and Voice. That's an ambitions promise, and the book delivers pretty well.

At 124 pages, the book is more of a survey than an in-depth textbook, but it still covers a lot of ground and gives a good introduction to the field.

I can see this as the basis for a course of study, with experiential lessons in using musical instruments and in hearing and creating harmonic overtones to supplement the text.

Written by a voice teacher, the book is focused mainly on the use of the human voice. Though I tend to work more with musical instruments, especially percussion, I think The Book of Sound Therapy is well written and well worth reading and working with. Topics include

* Introduction (including a history of the use of sound for healing)

* The Nature of Sound

* The Voice

* The Languages of Music

* Self-Exploration Through Sound

* Five Sounds for Meditation

* Healing with Sound

* Resources (Useful Addresses, Bibliography, and Discography)

There are physical exercises to improve voice quality (to be expected, I guess, since the author is a voice teacher).

Surprisingly there is also a section on using crystals to enhance voice quality.

As one might expect, the book is Eurocentric (presumably without the author realizing it). There is the usual nod to South Asia (mantras and chakras), a bit on Sufism, and a single page on harmonic chanting (though nothing about the use of it by Central Asian peoples). And there is nothing on the use of sound by indigenous peoples in Africa, Australia, or the Americas.

What The Book of Sound Therapy does cover, it seems to cover well, and there are some unusual topics and ideas. For example, the section on mantras covers more cultures and religions than I expected, including Celtic and Sufi mantras as well as the expected Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Jewish ones.

The retail price of this book is $14.00, but you can buy it for much less on line. The book was published in 1993 by Gaia Books Ltd in London and by Fireside Books (Simon & Shuster) in New York. It is nicely designed and well illustrated.

I plan to work with this book, hopefully with a group. I'll let you know what happens. If you have worked with this book, please share your experiences.

As always, I feel blessed to have access to such authors through their books. And I feel blessed to have you to discuss these ideas with.

Blog Your Blessings

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:35:00 +0000

Sorry to say that I've been too busy to blog lately. I've been blessed with a great new job!

But it comes with a long commute. And then I got sick!

I'm on the mend, so watch this space. I'll be back soon with more on sound for healing.

Till then, please check out some of the blog links on the lower right side of this page.

Healing the Land with Sound | BYB

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:16:00 +0000

Sound not only heals people, animals, and plants. It also heals the land itself. In recent years people have begun experimenting with chanting, for example, to clear polluted lakes. And it works.

I discovered interacting with the land through sound for myself, almost accidently some years ago.

We went camping in Big Bend National Park, a vast desert area that stretches north from where the Rio Grande flows through the mountains of Northern Mexico and Southwest Texas. The park is huge, many miles across, and mostly desert.

We were there in early February, because the heavy rains are in March and September, and anyway, between March and October it is just too hot to enjoy. Presidio, which is right outside the park (and farther north than much of it) is often the hottest spot in the United States.

Because we were there during the week, there were even fewer people around than usual in the winter. It was lovely! You could hike for hours and not see another human being (and that was on the "easy walk" hikes).

On the first day we managed to get a camping space in the Chisos Basin, which is the high crater of an extinct volcano. High above the desert floor, the Basin is an oasis of grass, oak trees, a creek, and lots of friendly wildlife. It is also much cooler than the desert floor below. That's important, even in the winter.

After setting up camp, we went hiking. One of the "easy walks" at Big Bend is along Oak Creek to a hole or window in the crater walls where the creek falls for a hundred feet or more to the desert floor below. The view out that window is spectacular. You can see for miles.

But after that easy walk, we were tired and hungry. We sat down on a bench to eat an early supper before the long walk back to camp. It was very, very quiet in that little canyon with no one else around.

After we ate, we started drumming. I had packed a couple of small drums and rattles in our day packs along with the food. It was pleasant, but something didn't sound right.

We stopped and looked at each other for moment. "What's wrong with this picture?" "No echo!"

That's right, we were in a small canyon (maybe 40 feet across) with high rock walls, yet there was no echo at all when we drummed. It was as though the walls were hungrily absorbing the sound.

We drummed as long as we could with the early winter sunset coming. By the time we left, it was getting late, and we had not brought a flashlight. Uh-oh. Total darkness on a rugged, rocky path with cactus along the edges and mountain lions in the area.

So we had to move fast. Yet I wanted to keep feeding the hungry land. I couldn't really drum and walk fast, so I started rattling. Immediately it was as though someone put his hand on my lower back to help me along. And it did help.

Whenever we met some (unwise?) people going the other way, I felt foolish and stopped rattling. Immediately the helping hand was gone. Each time I started rattling it returned.

We continued the practice of drumming or rattling on all our hikes in the park. We had some other interesting experiences, too. After conferring with others who had had experiences in other desert environments, here's what we concluded.

We know that even before the Indian peoples of historic times came to the area, it was home to paleo-Indians for thousands of years. We believe that they gave back to the land for its generous support by drumming, singing, and dancing. And the land was nourished by that.

But they have been gone from that area for at least 100 years. The white ranchers did not feed the land. And the modern tourists tend to either go there to throw off the stresses of modern, perhaps urban, life or to soak up the peace, quiet and healing vibes.

But no one comes to feed the land with healing sounds anymore. If it had not been for that quiet canyon, we might not have noticed either. Try it, and see what you discover.

In later years my friend Bill Freeto used to go to a forested park on the outskirts of Chicago. He would walk deep into the woods to a certain spot to meditate. After a few years, a buck started coming to escort him to his spot. Later sometimes two or three bucks would escort him.

Eventually several does started hanging around. They felt safe, I guess, because while he did not get to go often, he had been meditating there for years. When he began to practice throat-singing, the does would come closer, seemingly drawn by the sounds.

Make of this what you will, but I believe that all of us who use sound for healing should also be using sound to heal the land. Try it and see. I believe that being able to give back something to a place that nurtures and supports you is a true blessing for everyone.

Sound-Healing Cyber-Sangha | Blog Your Blessings

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:17:00 +0000

One of the best things about blogging turns out to be the people you meet because of it. I am astonished by and grateful for all the people who comment here or contact me by email about sound healing.

I live in a big city, and while I have met many healers, I rarely meet others who deliberately use sound for healing. So it really helps to have a community on line to talk with. It reminds me of the Buddhist concept of sangha---a group of like-minded practitioners who help and encourage each other along the path.

Through Meetup.com I was contacted by someone who was organizing a drumming for peace event in Virginia. That led me to a group that had organized a similar national event. I introduced them, and now I'm part of a group that discusses drumming and dreaming of world peace. Some of them have studied with my favorite author on the use of dreams for healing.

Through BlogCatalog (an active online support group for bloggers) I found the Blog Your Blessings movement. Talk about supportive! Blog Your Blessings keeps me posting week after week instead of letting things slide.

Best of all are the thoughtful and thought-provoking comments, public and private. They are both encouraging and inspiring. I feel truly blessed to have found a sort of cyber-sangha, people who work together on the web and off line, using sound for healing.

Best wishes for the week ahead.

Is Your Cat's Purr Healing Her--and You? | BYB

whitecranes@sbcglobal.net (White Cranes) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 05:42:00 +0000

A cat's purr is not just a sign of contentment, as biologists had previously assumed. Veterinarians and others have long known that cats also purr when giving birth, when gravely ill, or when recovering from injuries.

An interesting website called AnimalVoice.com cites a paper that was presented at the 2001, 142nd annual Acoustical Society of America, American Institute of Physics, International Conference. The title is "The Felid Purr: A healing mechanism?"

The article explains that all small cats, such as domestic cats and ocelots, and many of the large cats, such as lions, purr. And they purr at or near a particular frequency of vibration of 100 Hz, which has been shown to heal broken bones and other injuries in humans. Physicians, therapists, and trainers often use a metal plate, vibrating at 100 Hz, to help heal injuries and build new tissue.

The speculation is that cats use the vibration that causes the purring sound to heal themselves. Researchers cited the fact that cats heal easily from surgery, illnesses and traumas from which dogs would not recover.

Then the paper discusses many illnesses, such as some types of cancers that dogs have, that either do not occur or only very rarely occur in cats. It also gives statistics on many types of surgeries and traumas from which cats recover much faster than dogs.

It is very impressive, and the implication thoughout the paper is that the cat on your lap or pressed against your side, purring, just may be also healing you.

If the researchers are right, it is actually the vibration rather than the sound itself that heals. But as I mentioned in my last post, sound is a spectrum, not all of which is audible to humans.

The effect of the purr probably comes from the same part of the sound spectrum as the sub-bass vibrations I mentioned then. But the frequency is different, the rhythm is different, and so the effect is different.

I suggest going to this link and reading the article for yourself. Then you decide.

Meanwhile, for those of us who love cats, as if being loved by a cat were not blessing enough, now there's this one! Cats healing with sound. Imagine that!