This page is divided into two parts, the first section addressing my personal awakening to Inner Sound, the second with soundwork in one on one sessions.
My Awakening to Inner Sound
TM is a internal mantra or sound based meditation technique to contact pure consciousnesss through the transcendence of sound or mantra. There was so much happening on the TM course in terms of spiritual experience that my awakening to sound happened without much awareness on my part. With my attention riveted on the energetic processes of light, I barely noticed that I was vocalizing sounds such as ha, hey, oh and others that popped put of my mouth. As meditation was a movement toward inner silence, I wanted the sounds to cease but they gradually and increasingly took on a life of their own.
Many of the early vocalizations were a outer reflection of the 'purification by light' occuring within my body. Some sounds were due to the release of tension though others were pleasing and mesmerizing, mirroring the more blissful states. In the back of my mind though, I assumed that they were a curious and temporary phenomena that would thankfully cease one day. That was not be the case at all.
In the late 80's, I attended a presentation on healing at the Church of Religious Science in San Diego by Patricia Sun, the first healer that I knew of who incorporated toning, (the sustained, vibratory use of the voice based on the vowels a,e,i,o,u), in her practice. I sat in the back of a large auditorium watching as Patricia worked on volunteers from the audience. Every so often Patricia would begin toning. Though I was a considerable distance from her, the tones filled the entire room and went deep into my body, a sonic massage right down to the bones.
It was an enchanting and an enlightening moment, one that gave me a green light to walk into this world of toning and healing with sound that I had been skirting for the past few years. I now gave myself willingly to the process, with long, sustained tones, some high pitched, others low, some from the heart, others from the head or belly, issuing forth, the tones eventually taking on a whole other dimension, sounding more like crystal singing bowls or liquid light.
The inner recognition dawned that the tones were a outer expression of the inner light, my voice a sound carrier of this light. An exploration of the innate relationship between the light, breath and sound began and their mutual effect on the body will be addressed on the next page.
Soundwork
Soon after I began a practice in bodywork, I would sometimes find myself toning towards the end of a session as I did in meditation. Once again I was so absorbed in the light present within the body that I often did not realize that I was toning. I was still not clear about the process and was reluctant to even use it during a session. Yet toning simply happened by itself whether I wanted it to or not. It was always an outcome of the presence of light and breath within the client's body. Using the example discussed on the previous page, once the solar plexus area was balanced, a vibrant light energy would flow into my body via my hands. This manifested in my body as sound. I would spontaneously tone into an area of the body, with the client often toning as well.
Clients would ask what those tones were that I was making. I'd shrug and say that I can hear the light within your body and would leave it at that. But the tones kept occuring and clients kept asking and eventually I was invited to tone in groups which mortified me no end. I could not yet understand what to make of it all. While I am aware of the quality of the clients experience I am not necessarily aware of the content. People were having all kinds of visions, past life experiences and so forth that I could not acount for
Toning seemed to thrust the entire body consciousness into another dimension entirely. I realized that it was because of the use of the voice that made it so powerful. Just as people were literally starved for light and shallow breathers, they also did not have full use of their voice which was in a sense a disembodied one, the voice itself having been repressed and conditioned. So the notion of recovering your voice and speaking your truth took precedence at times during private sesson work.
I realized that without the conscious connection to the breath, the tones could be too confronting and challenging. It must be practiced with great care and attention to the innner processes it evokes. The body will adjust itself if you give it time to adjust to the internal changes. On two occasions, clients wanted a toning only session. Both had headaches a few hours after. On the other hand, people have had profound healings of physical and emotional conditions when toning occurs naturally, without force or a goal.
I soon found client's bodies opening to reveal the multi-dimensional nature of the body which will be discussed in the next section on bodywork.
Light | Color ~ Breath | Energy ~ Sound | Voice ~ Touch | Movement
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