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HEALING VIBRATIONS
By James D’Angelo
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God
and the Word was God”. This profound statement in the New
Testament is the ultimate basis for the power of harmonious vibration
as a great healing force in the world. The Word is still a mystery
but scientists are drawing closer to its reality. In a recent article
in The Independent (30 April 01) it was reported that scientists
have recorded the music of creation using an instrument that can,
in effect go back to the origin of creation. They have detected
harmonic notes, minute ripples of sound that became the seeds of
matter forming stars, galaxies and solar systems. Thus the beginning
of our existence was through vibration. The very word ‘vibration’
begins with the symbol V which, when repeated, actually represents
sound waves. That a fundamental vibration created our world is alluded
to in Genesis where God created through his voice - “And God
said, ‘Let there be light and there was light.” The
simplest definition of creation is ‘movement’ but not
just random movement but vast multi-layered patterns of vibration
which physicists would call ‘frequencies’ or rates of
vibration.
What is vibration which when made audible as in music becomes sound?
It is the pull of two opposing forces in the universe for without
opposites creation runs down. On the one hand is the force we call
‘stillness’ as found in meditation, for example. Yet
however deep this stillness movement can still be detected. On the
other is the force that moves outward (as in e-motion) and desires
to take action and endlessly create new things. This interplay is
the source of all vibration which encompasses both the audible and
inaudible worlds.
On this basis every human being is the offspring of the original
Word which contains all possibilities. We are riding on the crest
of this fundamental vibration and if we could feel its full impact
at all times we could be fully realized persons - person = per sonare
=through sound. There is a school of Indian philosophy that, in
fact, states that the nature of consciousness is pulsation or throb.
That is why the sound of AUM given to us by the Hindus and pronounced
as OM is such a sacred vibration. It represents the beginning (Alpha)
and the end (Omega) and the many (the wide open mouth of O = the
universal self) and the one (the closed mouth of M = the individual
self). In Latin we have OMnes meaning ‘all’ and from
‘all’ we have the sacred sounds of ALLah, ALLeluia and
even ALLow.
If the universe is this finely tuned multitude of vibration frequencies,
then using the principle of ‘as above, so below, each of us
is the same. An example of this is the propeller. When at rest we
see four individual blades but when it is at full speed we see what
looks to be a solid object. So to move to a higher dimension of
existence is to vibrate at ever higher frequencies. This is the
nature of the universe. Then the essence of sound healing is the
re-tuning of the human instrument, correcting at whatever level
those frequencies which have become weakened or gone out of tune.
This is done on the basis of resonance, be it sympathetic vibrations
or the power of forced resonance. Basically, whatever part of us
that is ailing can be awakened by harmonious sound sources and remember
at what frequency it should be vibrating. This can occur at the
physical level (from cells to muscles to organs), the subtle level
(changing negative psychology) and the causal level (create permanent
positive changes in one’s nature). It is no accident that
doctors tell us that we are in ‘sound health’ or ‘of
sound mind.’ The medical profession is, to some extent, using
sound therapy. For example, the application of ultrasound in the
treatment of sciatica. At a higher level spiritual teachers initiate
people into meditation through the sound of a mantra. Here the creation
of vibration works in reverse. First there is the form (the mantra)
which then it turns into a wave and finally into a pulse.
What are the practical ways of using sound for healing? Listening
to music for there is no question that everyone who does is practicing
sound therapy. People’s choices of listening depend on the
very nature of their sound frequencies. Music is not just something
that goes into the ear. It impinges on the entire bioenergetic field
(aura) and if there is incompatibility with the music it will be
rejected. Singing, best done collectively, has positive transforming
effects but it is not specifically directed so its effects are not
particularized. Natural voice workshops are certainly on the increase
as the desire for the unity of community grows.
The deeper levels of sound therapy come through primarily Eastern
traditions using singing bowls, crystal bowls, tuning forks and
the human voice in the form of toning, chanting and overtoning.
There is also the controversial field of cymatics , pioneered in
the UK by Dr P G Manners, which uses electronic sets of frequencies
that correspond to different parts of the body. Of all these approaches
the most practical is the use of the voice, an marvelous instrument
we have been given at birth. It was not given just for communication
but also for healing. Each vowel, consonant, pitch, modulation and
overtone can find its place within us. There is a secret power in
language such that if all the world ceased speaking all our energy
levels would sink dramatically. Naturally, in speech it is all fleeting
and random as we move from syllable to syllable. Working with vowels
and consonants in a conscious and deliberate way in the form of
single sounds, mantras, chants and overtones (which are the vitamins
and minerals of the sound) will empower them to do healing work.
For example, we use the word ‘who’ quite frequently
but who would ever think it was a so-called sacred sound. Yet the
Sufis describe this sound spelled HUU as sacred and regularly intone
it in their ceremonies. It is a name of God and a sound of purification,
especially when the H breath sound is emphasized. It subtly expresses
our divinity in the expression ‘Who am I? - I am HUU.
One area of vocal sound therapy taken for granted is natural, emotional
sounds. When we release our emotions in sounds, we are sending vibrations
to particular parts of the body and also to the psyche. Laughing,
groaning, keening, sighing and humming. The greatest of these is
laughter. Everyone likes and needs to laugh otherwise comedy would
have no point in the world. Why is it contributing to positive health?
Primarily because it consists of the spiritual H sound - the power
of the breath and some sort of vowel depending on the personality
of the individual. Often you can see where people experience themselves
by the type of laughter. Just make a vigorous HUH sound from your
belly over and over again and you should find that a burning sensation
appears in the head. That is a powerful energy, one that stimulates
the glands, particularly the thymus, as it rises upwards. And the
medical establishment has confirmed that laughter can boost the
immune system among other things.
Toning can be directed to specific organs of the body and to the
chakra system itself. An effective system for the organs has been
brought to the West by Mantak Chia and it employs movement with
the simplest of sounds. Movement in a similar form to Tai Chi and
Chi Kung is always complementary to healing vibrations because it
encourages the release of the sound and can even direct it to particular
places. This Taoist system uses SSSS for the lungs, WOH for the
kidneys, SSHHH for the liver, HAW for the heart and WOO for the
spleen, all done sub-vocally. Within the Tantra Yoga tradition is
found a profound method for harmonizing the chakras through toning.
Its basis is the sound of AM. In English it is the equivalent to
beingness in I AM. What directs the power of this sound are the
consonants of L.,V, R, Y and H for the first five chakras. Thereafter
OM is intoned for the sixth and the seventh is considered to be
beyond sound but not beyond vibration.
The power of the resonating voice is a gateway to opening up higher
mind, the source of what is called ‘channeling.’ All
creative work is channeling because the person realizes that the
ideas are arising from some special source. It seems like an act
of transcription, just listening and then doing. There are all sorts
of negative tendencies in the mental sphere that are blocking clarity
of thought and they filter down and affect the physical body. Mantras
are the antidotes for this as they cut a pathway through the dark
side and actually dissipate what undermines our true self and its
potential. The structure (vowel/consonant combinations) and repetition
of the mantra, whether intoned out loud are like the tools that
polish diamonds. In this case the diamond is the soul.
Using sound as the medium for healing is within the grasp of anyone
who wants to open up through the voice. There is no need to become
a trained singer. It has nothing to do with a beauty of tone and
everything to do with vibratory power. There are special singers
whose sound is not cultivated but who lift us up with great emotion
- singers like Edith Piaf and Billie Holiday. So much about healing
lies in intent, that desire to transcend what limits us at every
level. Vibrational medicine in whatever form is the future. Never
mind mapping out all our genes. Let science find a way of determining
all our frequencies. Just as the overtone patterns of the voice
are unique to each person, just like fingerprints, so too are the
overall frequencies. The practice of sound health is literally under
our nose - in our vocal cords, etc. In the use of the secret magic
of vowels and consonants, applied with intent and knowledge, we
have a tremendous force for healing body, mind and spirit.
Jan 2005
HOW DOES SOUND HEAL
Before this question can be answered the word “sound”
has to be defined and put into context. For sound to qualify as
a mode for healing it should be created through a regularly vibrating
natural source preferably rich in overtones (1). These sources would
be, first and foremost, the human voice and musical instruments
from both Eastern and Western traditions. Included in this would
be tuning forks. Electronically produced sound, although scarce
in overtones, has a role to play most notably in the Cymatics instrument
first developed by Peter Guy Manners (2)
It has to be taken as given in the field of sound therapy that
the physical, subtle and causal bodies of a human being are also
regularly vibrating sources with their own set of frequencies. From
the cellular level through all the layers of the auric field, including
the seven principal energy centres all is in variant conditions
of wave motion. Thus the health of an individual is directly related
to the degree to which any physical or subtle aspect is vibrating
at its optimum rate. This could range from sluggishness on one end
to over stimulation on the other. In either case the energy is out
of balance or better still, out of tune.
So the object of sound healing is to return that which is out of
balance in its frequencies to its optimum rate or at least moving
towards it.. More than likely it will be an ongoing process because
the energy field, the chakras (representing our psychology), the
organs, muscles and cells of the body will usually not hold to the
applied sound. Just as pianos need regularly tuning or how instrumentalists
are adjusting their tones as they play. Essentially this is achieved
through what is known as sympathetic vibration. That is to say,
all the frequency aspects of ourselves, however dormant or distorted,
have the potential to respond inherently to the influence of those
frequencies sounded within their vicinity. They will literally be
in sympathy with what they perceive and attempt to vibrate with
the applied sounds.
A fundamental part of our energy field are the chakras and with
these we have two vocal systems to bring an attunement in them.
The first is Eastern and is found in the tradition of Tantra Yoga.
It is a series of bijas or seed syllables which can be used mantricly
(3) What is implied is that the power of these vocal sounds intuited
by the ancient seers is in sympathetic vibration with the chakras.
That the very structure of seed sounds without any regard for what
vocal tone is produced is sufficient to awaken these energy centres.
That is to say, what actual tone is chosen to produce the seed syllable
is immaterial because the chakras are responding to the frequencies
emitted by the consonants and vowels that form the seed. Similarly,
a Western system of vowel sounds corresponding to the energy centres
has emerged over the years, first in the USA, through sound healers.
The choices are not universal and variants are to be found. A question
arises: How can both systems be valid and yet different? This writer
has no simple answer to this. Perhaps there are different “doorways”
into the chakras. Whatever the case both systems do make a definite
impact and what makes them so useful is that persons can heal themselves,
Furthermore, the more the chakras are in harmony, the more the rest
of the body responds. In this way it might not be necessary to have
sounds for the actual physical body.
Having said this, there is yet another system of vocal sound with
added movements that are directed at the organs of the body and
it emerges out of Taoism and Chinese medicine (4). It employs four
vowel sounds (OH, OO, AW. EE) and two sibilant sounds (SSS, SH).
It can be presumed that sympathetic vibration is operative in these
sounds inasmuch as the seers who created the sounds chose different
ones for each organ. The principle is that the stress put upon an
organ is due to overheating. The objective is to use the sounds
and movements to release excess heat from the membrane surrounding
the organ, cooling and cleansing it and returning it to its correct
temperature.
The other great source for harmonious wave forms are musical instruments,
primarily non-Western: gongs, bowls, didgierdoo, for example. The
gongs are an interesting example of diverse sympathetic vibration,
A gong gives off a complex multiplicity of frequencies as it permeates
our energy field. So the field and our physical body has many choices
to draw upon. The gong is a kind of overall stimulant comparable
to taking a multi-vitamin supplement. Hence treatments with a gong
are often called “baths.” It is a non-specific energizer.
However, this is not the view of Don Conreaux,(5) the most well-known
purveyor of healing with gongs. Following on from Hans Cousto’s
theory of planetary frequencies (6) Conreaux has had manufactured
gongs that are attuned to all the bodies of the solar system including
our moon. In turn, he has made a correlation between the gongs and
five of the chakras.
Bowls nowadays are of two varieties: the metallic ones of the East,
e.g., Tibet (7) and crystal ones (8) created in the West. The metallic
ones containing an amalgam of seven to nine metals give rise to
a richness of overtones, ideal for the healing process. The crystal
ones emit purer tones with far less of the overtones. In either
case the specifics of their healing sounds to resonate sympathetically
with the condition resides both in the intuition of the person giving
the treatment and the one receiving it. It is the uncanny ability
of a practitioner to determine which bowls will be effective based
on what the root problems are. On the other side the person being
treated intuits which bowls are having an affect. Often there can
be a sense of aversion as the sound penetrates into the region where
it is needed. Because this aspect of the person has for so long
been “out of tune” it is uncomfortable to have it shaken
up by the incoming sound that is attempting to retune it.
There is one other sort of instrument for healing which is not
exactly “musical” and that is tuning forks. These are
the same shape as used by piano tuners except much larger (3-6 inches
long) and thicker and usually made of aluminium. The ones designed
by the polarity therapist John Beaulieu (9) are an interesting case
in point. The tunings use, as a starting point, the so-called Earth
ring calculated at 7.83 cycles per second. However, he has rounded
this figure off to 8 so using the principle of octave doubling the
system is simply based on 1. This fundamental is not significant
because the healing properties of the forks are actually based upon
the simple ratios of intervals found in the overtone series. The
idea here is that the sound of two forks enter the nervous system
through the ears and send a proportional signal to the cellular
level. The cells are resonated because they are vibrating to their
own overtone series and are “listening” for the corresponding
proportions that exist in them. This is sympathetic vibration using
simple ratios such as 3:2, the perfect 5th, e.g., C to the next
upper G.. There are other tuning fork systems designed by sound
therapists Arden Wilkin(10) and Fabien Maman (11) as well as the
recently deceased kinesiologist Alan Sales(12). The latter believed
he had discovered through muscle testing resonant frequencies for
the seven chakras and had forks manufactured on this basis.
Finally, there is the application of sound through electronic means.
The best known instrument for this was invented by Peter Guy Manners
(along with others in Europe) and he called it a cymatic instrument
borrowing the word "cymatic" (Greek for "wave form")
from the Swiss acoustics researcher Hans Jenny. Five sets of frequencies
each are given for all parts of the physical body as well as psychological
states and are adminstered directly into the region in question
by an applicator. To this day, it has never been revealed how the
frequencies were determined and why there should be five in a grouping.
P G Manners, now deceased. kept it secret all his life. We also
know nothing of his success rate with his patients at his Worcestershire
clinic. . However, his disciple Christopher Gibbs (13) has written
a book on the subject, soon to be published and it might shed some
light on the subject. More research is being conducted by the producers
of the new Cymatics instrument in the USA (14).
Ultimately it is our individuality which determines which methods
and frequencies will assist us in the healing process. At a sound
healing conference in Santa Fe in 2006, one of the leading figures
in the field Don Campbell began his keynote address with this statement:
“We have to remember at the outset that no one form of sound
therapy works for everybody.” In many ways vibrations are
having an effect on all the dimensions of our nature: listening
to music, tuning in to the sounds of nature, singing, pouring out
all our own natural sounds (laughing, crying, humming, groaning,
sighing, wailing, etc.) and then all the approaches aforementioned.
Those of us within the field of sound healing would like to feel
that it is the way of the future and we will call it as Dr. Gerber
has in his great work on the subject: Vibrational Medicine (15)
James D’Angelo
REFERENCES:
1) Overtones are frequencies embedded in a fundamental tone that
are higher than the perceived sound and appear in a definitive proportional
sequence.
2) Peter Guy Manners was a pioneer in the field sound healing.
He practiced in England for many years and presented lectures around
the world. His original Cymatics instrument originally used cassette
tapes so that it was even possible to put music into the body with
the electronic applicator. See Christopher Gibbs No.13..
3) See my book The Healing Power of the Human Voice published Inner
Traditions (Healing Arts Press) www.soundspirit.co.uk
4) Taoist Ways to Transform Stress Into Vitality by Mantak Chia,
Healing Tao Books, Huntington New York, 1985.
5) Gongs of our Solar System (CD) www.myterioustremendum.com
6) The Cosmic Octave by Hans Cousto. LifeRhythm Publications, 1987
7) See the work of the Tibetan bowls master Frank Perry www.frankperry.co.uk
8) Sounding the Mind of God by Lyz Cooper, founder of the British
Academy of Sound Therapy. O Books, UK 2009. www.healtthysound.com
9) www.biosonics.com
10) www.inner-sound.co.uk
11) Tama-Do The Academy of Sound, Colour and Movement.
www.tama-do.com
12) Ragg Tuning Forks manufactured by Granton Works, Sheffield.
www.granton.co.uk
13) He was assistant to P G Manners at his clinic and has carried
on his work both in Kidderminster and London. For information contact
chris_dfb@yahoo.com
14)See www.cymatherapy.com
based in Atlanta, Georgia
15) Vibrational Medicine: The Handbook of Subtle-Energy Therapies
by Dr.
Richard Gerber. Bear & Company, Rochester Vermont, USA, 2001.
MUSIC AND SOUND THERAPY: BRIDGING THE
GAP
For at least the last thirty to forty years we have had two groups
of practitioners who use sound as their basis for healing. Their
approaches both diverge and overlap. The way they receive their
training is quite different. Yet each group, the music therapists
and sound therapists so-called, actually has something to impart
to each other through both their rational and intuitive minds. For
a start both use musical tones with a discernible frequency as the
basis for their practice. In ancient times it was understood that
musical tones, i.e., regularly vibrating sounds emerging from the
voice and instruments consisting of plucked or bowed strings or
being blown through, had specific physical and emotional effects
on body, mind and spirit. It would be difficult to call the ancient’s
practices either music or sound therapy. Music is sound but sound,
of course, is not always music. Music is some form of organized,
regularly vibrating sound structures, even if that organization
is nothing more than three tones as in Vedic chanting. Eventually,
music, as Rudolf Steiner noted, could be reduced to a single tone
because contained within it are an infinite array of overtones.
The tone is its own form of organization. Nowadays we are well aware
of this phenomenon through the practice of overtoning as revealed
to us by David Hykes, Jill Purce, Michael Ormiston and the like.
A case in point are the ancient Greek modes (scalar forms) as discussed
by Plato. In the Republic he states unequivocally that each of them
conveys a particular emotional feeling and gives specific examples..
And that they can be used to alter a person’s behaviour. Very
important in this is exactly how the tones were tuned. That knowledge
has been lost. It is not the same to play these modes on modern
instruments because the fineness of the tunings is missing. To what
extent were there fixed compositions and/or pure improvisation remains
speculative. The ancient Greek approach is very much akin to what
we have today in the ragas of Indian music with its fine tuning
of the micro intervals or shrutis. Within classical Indian music
there are schools of music therapy of long standing.
In our own time music therapy became a major subject of study when
Michigan State University and the University of Kansas offered it
beginning in 1944. . Musicians working within a framework of Western
music could earn degrees in music therapy.
In England two schools of music therapy were established. The most
famous, developing in the 1950s and 1960s, was that of the pioneers
Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins. Its essential basis is the piano
to this day. The other, called Analytical Music Therapy, was created
in the 1960s by the cellist Juliette Alvin and developed by her
student Mary Priestley It was housed at the Guildhall School of
Music where they continue to train music therapists. . In the 1970s
Helen Bonny in the USA invented a therapeutc process of interlocking
music and psychology called Guided Imagery Through Music. She took
her lead from the forward looking, self-actualising psychologists
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.
Lying outside academia there developed a separate field of sound
therapy and healing in the 1970s and 1980s. It began primarily with
the voice and the earliest known practitioner was the American Laurel
Elizabeth Keyes. Her book Toning: The Creative Power of the Voice
is still in print and has been updated by another key figure Don
Campbell who, over the years, has been highly instrumental in bridging
the gap between music and sound therapy. His classical training
as a musician has enabled him to understand the healing power of
sound in its widest sense. His book The Mozart Effect remains the
bible for anyone who wants knowledge about both fields. Yet another
figure of significance is Jonathan Goldman who has placed the use
of sound and vibration at the forefront of the many healing modalities
available today.and created the first Sound Healers Association.
In the UK it has been Jill Purce who has pioneered the voice as
the ultimate healing instrument, drawing from the great traditions
of the East. All those who have achieved some status as UK sound
therapists/healers owe her a debt.
The growth of the sound therapy field has followed three lines:
1) the use of the voice as a self-empowering instrument 2) the use
of non-Western instruments and/or original acoustic instruments
(Tibetan bowls and bells, crystal bowls, tuning forks, gongs, didgierdoo
and the like), and 3) the use of technology, working with the Cymatics
and Tomatis electronic instruments, for example. In the first two
cases, practitioners sometimes study Eastern texts and scriptures
and/or actually work with Eastern gurus to gain insight into their
sound healing methods. They understand that healing means to bring
wholeness to an individual. It is not just a matter of correcting
the tensions of the physical body. Practitioners also have to use
their intuitions and experiment with the sounds, especially if they
are adapting traditions. They have to come to a consensus within
themselves of what is actually efficacious . For example, the use
of vowel sounds with the chakras growing out of the work of Jonathan
Goldman in the 1980s and the development of various forms of tuning
forks with different frequencies such as those as John Beaulieu.
What they all have to acknowledge is that no one form of sound healing
methods work for everybody.
The essential practice of the sound healers/practitioners /.facilitators
is administering small packets of sound into the energy field of
persons. The premise is that all aspects of a human being - physical
body, non-local mind, the auric field, the chakras and the soul
consist of frequencies which are not vibrating at the ultimate and
correct rates for that person. That the application of the sounds
will cause a resonance such that a re-tuning of whatever aspect
is effected. The choice of the sound frequencies is both rational
and intuitive. Rationally, a healer could use particular seed syllables
for the chakras from an Indian tradition which, descending from
the rishis, have stood the test time of time.; but how they are
applied is usually decided intuitively. . In the case of Beaulieu’s
tuning forks, there is both the rational and the intuitive. While
the frequencies are derived from the overtone series, categorizing
the tone combinations into the four elements, as he does, is intuitive.
.Clearly, although the sounds produced are “musical”,
what is produced is not music even if listened to without intent
for healing. For example, putting on a recording of a continuous
sound of a gong.
The second point about the field of sound therapy is those drawn
to it are largely not physically or mentally disabled. Here the
definition of “physically or mentally disabled”is someone
who is officially statemented as being so for legal purposes. Of
courses, it will always be difficult to draw a line about what constitutes
being disabled. From the highest level we are all so. The Tomatis
method of music/sound therapy is often used with children with autism
It falls between two stools. Is it sound or music therapy? Music
because it uses pieces of music, largely Mozart and Gregorian chants,
but sound therapy because the music is radically modified by electronic
means.
Most people who would use a sound therapist or practice sound therapy
on themselves usually are simply in some recognizable state of physical
and/or mental stress They have an intuition that fine vibrations
can have a definite effect on their state of being, returning them
to a state of balance and consequently leading them into deep meditation.
Ultimately, they approach the issue of their health spiritually.
They recognize that being bathed in fine frequencies is a refinement
of their being and thus the path forward, Thus it becomes a matter
of self-empowerment..
The training of music and sound therapists is a distinguishing
feature of the two groups.
There is a certain exclusivity in becoming an official, certified
music therapist. Almost all the programmes offered at UK colleges
and universities or at specialist schools, most especially the Nordoff-Robbins
School in London (only for pianists), require a first degree in
music. The cornerstone of music therapy practice is the ability
to improvise on one’s instrument and to create organized patterns
of sound such as may be called “music.“ How they shape
that improvised music according to melody, rhythm and harmony is
thus the key to their work. Percussion instruments are brought into
play where the patients can have a participatory role.
So, essentially, music therapy studies amount to graduate work.
This requirement is a barrier to those musicians whose temperaments
are well suited to working in a therapeutic field and are sufficiently
“musical” whatever that might mean. The fact that they
lack official music training should not hold these people back.
This writer has led workshops at Goldsmiths College, London for
those who have an interest in entering the music or sound therapy
field. Most are surprised to learn that a degree in music is the
entry point for a career in music therapy.
For the sound therapist, up until recent years, there was no official
way of breaking into the field. They need not even be musicians
although it helps if they are musically sensitive and have a reasonably
good voice. Those of us who began in the 1990s or even earlier had
to find our way through different kinds of research and experiment
and then have the confidence to put our approaches forward. Now
a sufficient body of knowledge has been accumulated so that actual
schools of sound healing have emerged. In England four have been
established: The British Academy of Sound Therapy (Lyz Cooper, founder),
The College of Sound Healing (Simon Heather, founder), the Academy
of Tim Wheater and Chloe Goodchild‘s school known as The Naked
Voice.
Those coming out of these schools, even with their certificates,
will most likely not be able to enter the domain of the music therapists.
That is, hospitals, hospices, mental institutions, nursing homes
and the like. One kind of institution might be open to them - prisons.
However, it should be noted that the governors have complete autonomy
and can decide what they want or do not want in their prisons at
any given time.
In the end it is the concept of “healing” that matters.
While the approaches and credentials of music and sound therapists
are different, at another level they merge if the result of their
practices is “healing”, that is, bringing, however small,
a unity between mind, body and spirit. Something of this is, more
than likely ,being achieved even in the extreme cases of an autistic
or Down’s syndrome child. For music therapists who deal with
these situations cannot go just by their training. They, too, have
to apply their intuition and become pioneers. It is high time that
a dialogue between the two groups be established so that they come
to know their common ground. Conferences such as Resonance: A Festival
of Sound Healing at Hawkwood College this year* could lead the way.
James D’Angelo
www.soundspirit.co.uk
*5-7 June. See www.hawkwoodcollege.co.uk
TONES, FREQUENCIES AND THE CHAKRAS
A question that arises from time to time in sound healing
workshops is: Are there any definitive correspondences between the
chakra energy centres and musical tones/frequencies. In surveying
the field of all the propositions and theories postulated, the simple
answer is “no”, no matter how convincing the arguments
for them might be. If we are truly individuals and our energies
are regularly in flux, then how could it be otherwise? Perhaps there
is some ideal for the fully perfected human being but how would
we ever come to know it?
Harry Oldfield who has pioneered what he calls electro-crystal
therapy uses the principle of resonance through sending frequencies
through crystals into a person‘s energy field.. In an interview
with Kindred Spirit he was asked specifically if the frequencies
for the chakras vary with each person. He answered that he uses
a broad frequency range for each chakra as it is not individual
to the person. Like myself he views the increasing number of “petals
“ associated with the chakras in Indian philosophy as the
basic indicator of rising frequencies,
Dr. Valerie Hunt of UCLA has done studies on the chakras and the
human energy field. She has measured the bioelectrical energy variations
in areas of skin corresponding to the positions of the chakras.
She has taken readings for brain waves between 0 and 30 cps, muscles
going up to 225 cps and the heart going up to 250 cps. This latter
figure is quite close to the frequency of middle C in music (more
on this later). Her readings were, like Harry Oldfield, in a broad
frequency range. Overall the band of frequencies from the first
to the seventh chakra was between 100 and 1600 cps. In musical terms
this is a 4 octave range.
In a similar vein researchers at the Heartmath Institute measure
the vital force energy field which they label as the ‘L’
energy. Their primary hypothesis is that energy and information
are the same thing, that everything that exists has energy, energy
is full of information and stored info-energy is what makes up cellular
memories. Furthermore, the heart is the primary generator of info-energy
and thus is central to our system’s recollection of its life
- its cellular memory. They understand the chakras to be transformers
and relay stations used by the heart to communicate info-energy
to the body’s cells. As with Dr Hunt to some extent they have
measured the normal frequency for the heart region as 250 cps, roughly
our middle C.
The English kiniesologist Alan Sales believes that he has determined
the frequencies of the chakras and has encoded them into tuning
forks. In his article in Positive Health he does not reveal what
methods he has used in his practice to come up with his frequency
choices. They consist of a scale of tones beginning on C and move
step by step upwards to a B as follows:
C D E F sharp G sharp A B
It is an unusual scale not found in Western music although if the
A were taken to be the keynote, it is an ascending melodic minor
scale beginning on its third note. Emotionally it feels unsatisfactory
as the heart interval (from the root tone to the heart tone) is
C to F sharp, a clear dissonance which, at one time, was known as
the “devil’s interval.” Later on we will examine
another tuning fork system which has assisted my chakra toning work
even though these forks are not coordinated to the chakras.
The most natural system within acoustics is that of the overtone
or harmonic series. It is produced in variant forms whenever we
speak or sing and it is very much present in all tone-producing
musical instruments. One of the early pioneers in sound healing
was the American Randall McClellan who produced one of the first
books on the subject - The Healing Forces of Music: History, Theory
and Practice. It should be required reading for anyone embarking
on practicing in the sound therapy field. In the book he gives eight
reasons why the major scale, a favored one for many sound practitioners
using the voice, is unsatisfactory. In this I am in agreement as
will be seen shortly.
One of the reasons given is that the fourth and seventh scale degrees
of our major scale (with C as the keynote, the tones F and B) cannot
be derived from the harmonic series. His proposition is that a correlation
between tonesand chakras must arise out of a natural order, namely
the overtone /harmonic series. So he has correspondences between
the 2nd to 8th harmonics and the seven chakras. He states that his
choice of A as the keynote for the systemhas no particular reason.
Perhaps it can be rationalized that A is the note to which musicians
tune in Western music. Here is McClellan’s layout.
Chakra Harmonic number Tone name
Crown 8th A
Brow 7th G
Throat 6th E
Heart 5th C sharp
Solar Plexus 4th A
Sacral 3rd E
Root 2nd A
The fundamental tone of this series is an A an octave below the
root chakra A. So these tones lie in the 2nd and 3rd octaves of
the series. Very satisfying in the layout is that the heart has
the colour tone of the major, the C sharp. Without it we would not
know whether it is major or minor. McCllellan states that persons
can develop two octave ranges in their voices and thus reproduce
this overtone series. Nonetheless the average untrained voice will
find this difficult. If the series began on the low F which I use
in my toning of the chakras, it might just be possible for some.
This would give the tone A for the heart, the musicians’ tuning
focus. I would suggest that McClellan start this series on A flat
so that the tone for the heart would become the middle C which the
Heartmath people have put forward.
For the purpose of using the voice as a resonator for the chakras,
musical scales, being compact and adjustable for vocal ranges, seem
best in the toning process. Almost everyone can produce a scale
of eight tones starting anywhere from a F below the middle C of
the piano (an octave lower for men’s voices) to middle C itself.
It is rare to meet tone-deaf people on vocal sound healing workshops.
The prime candidate among the musical scales for the Westerner
is the major scale which has been at the centre of Western music
for only 350 years or so.. This scale is not universal, not even
within European music. For example, Scottish bagpipe music is characterized
by the use of a mode known as the Mixolydian. This mode is almost
a major scale but its seventh note is lower by a semi-tone, e.g.,
in the C major scale the seventh note would be B flat, Looking more
widely, Indian musicians do recognize the major scale but only in
a theoretical way. In practice they always alter the tones creating
their myriad raga forms. Such ragas employ scale material of between
five and seven tones and the ascending and descending form of the
scale can be different. Vedic chanting consists of only three tones.
The case is similar for the natural minor scale also known as the
Aeolian mode. This scale is more widespread than the major as it
is found in the music of many indigenous peoples. The natural minor
beginning on the tone A is the preferred scale of the pioneer of
toning for healing L E Keyes. She chose it simply because it fits
most voices very well and does not involve the use of any sharps
or flats.
The sound healer Kay Gardner, now deceased, chose an intriguing
seven note scale for toning the chakras which relates to McClellan’s
idea of natural order and, to some extent, Sales.. It is known as
the overtone scale because it corresponds to the harmonics which
appear sequentially in the 4th octave of the overtone series. As
follows:
C D E F sharp G A B flat
Root Sacral Solar Plexus Heart Throat Brow Crown
As with Sales and his tuning forks we have the highly dissonant
interval of C-F sharp between the root and heart. It is a question
of whether these intervals matter between the fundamental and those
above. The B flat for the crown chakra with its relationship to
C at the root emotionally draws the B flat on a downward path rather
than upward, a phenomenon very often observed by traditional Western
composers
The choice of the simplest major scale beginning on C (no sharps
or flats) is formative and too logical. Yes, it is the first scale
anyone learns who studies music because there are no sharps or flats
and thus easy to attain. But what of those learning transposing
instruments? When clarinettists play a C major scale, it is actually
in sound a Bb major scale. Similarly, a French horn player’s
C major scale is actually in sound F major and so on. Furthermore
the centrality of the tone C, although significant because of the
emphasis placed upon it, is not the tone to which orchestras tune.
The orchestra sets its store on A above middle C which, at least
in England, is fixed at 440 cycles per second.
There are other reasons why the C major as a chakra toning scale,
offered by a number of vocal sound healers (Ted Andrews, for example),
can be questioned First of all it has to be remembered that the
rising scale is a psychological tool which gives persons the feeling
of the increasing whirl of the chakras and thus a sense of uplifting
themselves to a higher dimension of existence. Although there are
seven tones in this scale to correspond to the seven principal chakras,
there is no sense of completion or rising to the next level. When
listening to an ascending major scale, step by step, the return
to the next higher C, the eighth tone an octave above, has to occur
to feel that completion. In this way, psychologically, we have arrived
at the beginning of that next dimension. To arrive on the tone number
7,i.e. B for the crown chakra and leave it there without moving
the final semi-tone to C is wholly unsatisfactory. And then there
is the practical consideration that the vocal range of the C major
scale can be somewhat high for some voices. It is easier to begin
on the A below as given by Keyes or even lower in a relaxed range
of sound.
The choice of a scale for toning the chakras for this workshop
leader is known as the pentatonic. This was intuited step by step
and not all at once. The first question to be answered was what
tone will be the starting point. The sense was that somehow the
tone C had a role to play but not as a starting point for the root
chakra. But where? We Western musicians have used it as a tone of
centrality. And what is the point of centrality within us? The heart,
naturally and so that is where the C was placed. Later I discovered
that Valerie Hunt had, in her research, measured the heart’s
frequency as going up to 250 cps. Furthermore, the research at the
Institute of HeartMath in Colorado has reported that the heart’s
normal frequency is 250 CPS. Now this frequency is quite close to
middle C on the piano, roughly 261.6 CPS. However, if our tuning
system was based on C=1 CPS as the central tone, then rising up
through the octaves (multiply by 2) our middle C comes to 256, very
close to IHM’s measurement. In his time the visionary Rudolph
Steiner proposed that our Western tuning system should be based
on A = 432 cps. Proportionally, this tuning would, in turn, make
the C =256 cps.
What would now be the next step? For this I turned to the polarity
therapist and sound healer John Beaulieu who has designed tuning
forks for healing based on the overtone or harmonic series. Because
he treats his patients according to the elements of earth, water,
fire and air through analyses of their voices, he categorized three
of these elements in accordance with interval types. As follows:
Perfect 5ths/4ths Air
3rds/6ths Fire
2nds/7ths Water
In this system there is no distinction made between major and minor
3rds., 6ths and between major and minor 2nds and 7ths. The earth
element is treated separately and, instead of two forks creating
these intervals, single low forks are used. Beaulieu has offered
no rationale for these categories but I am in agreement with his
choices.
Now in the elemental correspondences with the chakras in Indian
tradition, the heart is linked with air. So, using the Beaulieu
system, the heart interval down to the root would be the primary
air interval, the perfect 5th or C down to F. Having F as the foundation
tone has a great precedent in the history of world music. For hundreds
of years the music of enlightened ancient Chinese civilizations
used the approximate frequency of F as their foundation tone. To
some extent F is a foundation tone in Western music inasmuch as
it is usually given as the lowest note for writing for the bass
voice of a choir.
Assigning F to the root chakra also means assigning it to the earth
element of the root. If we equate the earth element with Nature
itself, then we could turn to a piece of classical music which so
powerfully expresses that Nature. Beethoven’s 6th symphony,
the “Pastoral.” which he set quite firmly in the key
of F major. For me it is a intuitive and strong connection.
I had assumed that now that I had the two key notes F and C. It
was just a matter of filling in the rest of the scale tones. But
there was a problem. It is four places up in the chakras between
root and heart but, in a normal scale, it is 5 tones up between
F and C (f g a b c). Then a light dawned and I asked a fundamental
question as did Randall McClellan. Why a major scale? Are there
not other sorts of scales? And the answer came. What is the most
universal scale found in music all over the world? The answer is
the 5 tone pentatonic scale which, coincidentally, has remained
the fundamental scale for traditional Chinese music. And, referring
back to McClellan, its tones can all be found in the overtone series.
As there are just four tones between the F and C in the pentatonic,
the C will correspond to the heart. As follows:
F (root) G (sacral) A (solar plexus) C (heart) D (throat) F (brow)
G (crown)
Here, by the brow centre, the next dimension has already been reached,
symbolized by arriving at a new octave with the upper F. And we
move even deeper into that dimension with the succeeding G of the
crown. Also this sets up a relation between the root and brow chakras,
both being F an octave apart and the sacral and crown chakras, both
being G an octave apart. Practically speaking, this set-up is easily
produced in the voice by both men and women and this is so important
for working with untrained voices.
Finally, I have found the letter names of the notes could stand
for the qualities of each of the chakras as well:
Root Foundation
Sacral Genesis
Solar Plexus Authority
Heart Compassion
Throat Declaration
Brow Foresight
Crown Godhead
At the outset of this article I was unequivocal that there are no
definite correspondences between chakras and set tones. What I have
intuited about using the pentatonic scale beginning on F is not
an absolute. It is not the answer, only an answer. Within me it
feels right for toning the chakras for the reasons given. It is
important that those who work with therapeutic vocal sound find
their own intuitive solution that will psychologically facilitate
the ascent to a higher and purer consciousness.
REFERENCES:
Andrews, Ted: Sacred Sounds: Transformation through Music &
Word. Llewellyn Publications (USA), 1992.
Gardner, Kay: Sounding the Inner Landscape: Music As Medicine. Caduceus
Publications (Stonington, Maine, USA), 1990.
Gerber, Dr. Richard: Vibrational Medicine. Bear & Company *Rochester,
Vermont, USA), 2001
McClellan, Randall: The Healing Forces Of Music: History, Theory
and Practice. iUniverse.com, 2000
Oldfield, Harry: Electro-Crystal Therapy. Kindred Spirit Magazine,
Vol.3, No.9, pp/22-24
Pearsall, Paul: The Heart’s Code. Thorsons (Harper-Collins,
UK), 1998.
Sales, Alan: Tuning Forks for Healing Therapy. Positive Health (UK),
September 2000.pp 24-28
James D’Angelo
4 Sept 2009
