"The Healing Power of the Human Voice"

What resonates long after finishing James D’Angelo’s The Healing Power of the Human Voice is D’Angelo’s spiritually inspiring and physically embodied message that the human voice contains the seeds of healing. Reminding us that ‘at the spiritual level we are all connected to the One Sound of Sounds, but cut off from its full impact, ’ D’Angelo invites the reader on a journey of re-discovery of their own inner and outer pearls of sound vibrations.

Starting with breathing techniques for a healthy and connected sound, he assures the hesitant it’s not the quality of the sound that matters as much as the intention behind it. He then enticingly invites us to re-connect to our inner source of sound in a childlike spirit, by starting with the natural sounds of our emotions such as yawning, sighing, wailing, which, he emphasises, are ‘intended by nature to be purifiers.’ Within this context, it is not surprising that his exercises are literally rituals, with guidelines for starting and finishing mindfully, implicitly acknowledging the spiritual potential of vibrations to penetrate our being and allowing us to be our own sound healers.

The book then explores the varying textures and qualities of speech sounds and their potential spiritual significance. It gives practical tips on how to find your own fundamental tone, and to experiment with and wonder at the essential vibrations contained in our names. It then moves into toning, chanting sacred mantras from various religious traditions, and overtoning the chakras to heal and re-tune the body. The rituals for giving voice in a sense become containers for sacred physical, emotional and spiritual possibilities: a means of re-connecting to our inner world, and paradoxically, ‘letting go’ of our often enclosed, cut off inner personal world in order to ‘allow’ a state of transcendence. Here again is the implicitly wise encouragement to connect first to what is inside, to feelings, emotions, (which, he points out, literally means, to move out from), rather than attempting a kind mystic flight that ignores the intensely personal, the vulnerabilty of re-connecting with the power and potential our own voices. This reveals D’Angelo’s spiritual understanding of the pathway to transcendence through entering into our humanity through our relationship with our body and feelings, through voice and ritual.

Sound and movement rituals are clearly described alongside simple diagrams of D’Angelo demonstrating the movements. The CD is an auditory sampler of vocal passion; his full bodied baritone demonstrates each sound ritual with loving commitment, exemplifying the many years of musical and spiritual research, exploration and practise. His instructions demonstrate the potential latent in every detail: for example, wonderfully fruity instruction to ‘squeeze as much juice as you can from the opening consonant,’ acknowledges the implicitly grounded, visceral qualities of earthy consonants. The ‘natural sounds’ are given as much importance as the more overtly sacred sounds, and the keening in particular, is a most extraordinary example of the astonishing range of a voice connected to deep wells of emotion. As in all of his rituals, after a series of repetitions he will remind you to ‘take the sound inside as a meditation, tuning into them in outer silence,’ implying the ongoing resonance within. It is in the silence that we can feel the sound literally resonating within our being, feeling the effects of the ritual ripple through us in inner space. Silence following the voiced sounds are as important as giving voice itself. All is connection, sound and silence need each other.

D’Angelo’s passion for creating connections is clear in his curiousity about the connections between language and sound, and the acoustical impact of speech sounds, as well as the inherently spiritual impact of sound frequencies created by the specific arrangements of tone and syllable in mantras. This leads the reader to re-consider the classic linguistic notion that the connection of sound and signifier is arbitrary. For example, his invitation to consider your own name as ‘a sound formula that embodies who you are’ is a glorious invitation to resonate with one’s own inherent characteristics from an entirely new perspective. It provides thought provoking reflections on how language from various spiritual traditions can create insights into the nature of sound, the literal potency of the Word to create, and the spiritual consciousness of our ancestors that lies lurking unknown inside our modern language. Generously, D’Angelo’s appendix creates new pathways and connections for his readers, listing other sources of research, teaching and voice and sound therapies.

The Healing Power of the Human Voice is a sumptuous journey, as D’Angelo constantly moves from the spiritually healing aims of voice work, to the visceral joys of producing gibberish, from the musically technical (is it a pentatonic scale or a major scale?), to the sublime moments of connection through sound and silence. D’Angelo’s own psycho-spiritual wisdom is implicit in his invitation to connect to the body, to the emotions and sound within. By coming in to land first, he provides strong foundations from which our voices may take flight, allowing vibrations and their residual silent echoes to create “a quiet pulsation of energy that feels like pure love, a great clarity of mind, and a deep serenity of spirit.” It is a book buzzing with possibilities for anyone interested in any aspect of healing, and is a profound reminder that the voice is both a resonator of the immance of spirit as well as a pathway to transcendence.

Katharine Firth, 2007.

Available through James D'Angelo. See BOOK page.

Katharine Firth is a voice teacher, psycho-spiritual psychotherapist and chaplain at the Multi-Faith Chaplaincy at the University of the West of England.

Excerpt from Daily Express article on 11 September 2000

HOW TO SING YOURSELF WELL

Over the past eight years James has been compiling his repertoire of rituals from spiritual practices around the world. His workshops contain everything from Tibetan chants to more modern breathing exercises. He calls his exercises rituals because he says they are much more than music. It’s a more emotional practice, he says. It brings you out of yourself to a different state in much the same way as meditation and yoga. In fact, the noises he produces sound more like a series of groaning, wailing, sighing, hissing and humming noises - exaggerated and accompanied by specific hand movements. The movement is there to encourage the sound, says James. Voice and body movements have always gone together. I find that if people move while they make the sounds it opens them up and encourages the more introverted people to get properly involved.

It is this self-consciousness that James sees as the main enemy. He always runs his workshops in groups large enough for those who are reluctant to get involved to be inspired by those more extrovert but small enough that they do not feel embarrassed. James sees the reluctance to express our emotions vocally as a destructive trait. When we laugh, we laugh in short bursts and try and control ourselves. We are denying a natural emotion that even conventional doctors agree is good for us. The same philosophy says it isn't right for men to cry but this is necessary and we can do ourselves more damage by holding back the tears. All I’m really trying to do is to prolong and intensify these natural reactions and when I see what a glow it gives people I know I’m on to something.

As I keep laughing away at myself I can’t help but see what he means. I really am feeling more uplifted. When I leave James, I step out into the rain, splashing through the puddles, chuckling to myself all the way to the station.

John Triggs

Copyright Express Newspapers 2000