Secrets of Sound for Self-Healing (Part 1 and 2)

Finding resource links in the lectures.

Please read through the information below to help you navigate through Udemy's course layout. If you have a question or need any help... please, please, please, contact me so I can assist you! ;-)

• At the top of the video in the right hand corner there is a blue button that says resources.
• Once you click, look to the right where a panel will appear. There are 4 tabs.
• The first tab is your original guide tab to the course sections.
• The 2nd tab has an arrow, it will show you if there are extra resources and/or videos to the section you are in. If there are, there will be links or additional information. Just click and it will download the document and/or take you to a Youtube link etc...
• The 3rd tab is for discussion. You can pose questions here and I usually check this area daily, if not every other day, to ensure everyone is taken care of.
• The 4th tab is for taking notes.

This lecture will provide you with an overall expectation of the course objectives.

This is a brief look at the world's history regarding sound use and who has been known to utilize this modality for healing.

Learn what sound healing is (in simple terms), so we can understand how we might use it in a therapeutic application.

Learn about how music and sound has been a miracle healing modality for a man with "dystonia", a disease that affects a person's ability to control their muscles.

In this lecture we will get the chance to meet another man who has been able to live out the last of his years with a deeper quality of life... all because someone cared enough to utilize music to engage his cellular memory.

In this lecture, I review how Sound Healing can be achieved through various methods, including the human voice.

I also discuss how everything in the Universe vibrates at its own individual resonance and, in order to heal, if we can find the right correlating frequency, it will bring it back into balance.

A quick note:

You will find that Music Therapy and Sound Therapy are listed as two separate modalities when it comes to healing.

To many individuals across the globe, Sound Healing and Music Therapy are exactly the same... while others may argue that each are different and present their own value as individual modalities.

Technically it's really challenging to discuss one without the other in our contemporary world. So, I believe all sides would agree that no matter which part of the fence they are on, SOUND HEALING would be the overall umbrella and Music Therapy would be listed as one of many therapeutic applications for sound.

Keeping it simple is a preference of mine due to the nature that I personally believe we can develop our intuition to guide us to the right practice and/or practitioner that we need. However, if you prefer to review an overall picture of inclusions, I have listed some approaches below since you will find that the education and training varies widely even though there are many similarities included in both.

Sound Healing tends to believe that sound itself impacts our overall functioning. Noted below are inclusive to sound healing overall:

• May use ideas from Eastern philosophy and medicine
• May include entrainment from rhythm, pitch and vibration
• May be utilized to entrain brain waves, hemisphere functioning, energetic pulses and more
• May use instruments from rattles and drums to various other standard instrumentation, tones and toning, vocal techniques, resonance therapy, chanting, sound projection into the body to engage the energy field, rhythmic entrainment, recorded music, and the list goes on.

We'll break some aspects down in this introductory course, however again... I like to keep things fairly simple so everyone can feel like they can access this information no matter where they are coming from in their life at this time.

I believe that each individual can sharpen their own internal guidance system just by going "within" for personal body awareness. So, while I will go into some detail for overall educational purposes, my hope is that you will use the information and begin to open up to your own intuitive nature ... which will in turn assist you on your path to personal wellness and healing.

USING THE HUMAN VOICE

One of the simplest forms in sound healing is using your own voice. While you can sing along to your favorite songs or make one up as you go along, just humming can be an incredible way to move your body into immediate self-healing mode.

Jonathan Goldman, one of my favorite mentors in Sound Healing, explores the many different aspects of how and why humming works in his book THE HUMMING EFFECT. If you have an interest in learning more about humming and sound healing, I highly recommend his books. He is truly one of the first pioneers in our modern day understanding of this ancient practice.

Below are 7 reasons why humming can become a practice to enhance health and wellness for everyone. (This is an excerpt from Jonathan’s website at HealingSounds dot com.)

1.Everybody Can Hum

As teachers and practitioners in the world of sound healing, we are well aware of the ability of sound to heal and transform. We also know that the most powerful sounds we can experience are often the ones we create ourselves. People sometimes confuse this ability of making self-created sound with the necessity of having some sort of music ability such as playing a musical instrument or being able to sing. We know this is not the case. Everybody can hum. From infants to the elderly, everyone can hum. And you can experience the positive benefits of humming for health and happiness.

2. The Humming Effect is Real

The Humming Effect is about the power of the hum to heal and transform us on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level. Through humming, we can all learn to use our own voice as a tool of empowerment—learning to create and use the power of resonance to manifest harmony and balance. We’ve personally worked with self-created sound from many different traditions, both Eastern and Western, and have found that from our perspective, the hum may be the most powerful. We’ve used it to relieve pain, reduce stress, help us sleep and much, much, more. It’s real and it’s true. We know that sound can heal—vibrational healing has been known about since ancient times and is now slowly being acknowledged in traditional medicine.

3. Humming is Empowering

It can enable you to experience aspects of yourself that you may never have thought possible.

4. Humming is Healing

We knew that people would be skeptical about the positive benefits of such an easily made sound. So, if you choose to read The Humming Effect, you will find that the first chapter focuses on various “peer review” studies (from medical and scientific publications) in order to validate the phenomenon of humming. Some of these physiological benefits include:

· Increased oxygen in the cells—enhancing health and wellness.

· Lowered blood pressure and heart rate

· Increased lymphatic circulation—clearing toxins from the body

· Increased levels of melatonin—a hormone that enhances sleep

· Reduced levels of stress related hormones—enhancing health and wellness

· Release of endorphins—self-created opiates that work as “natural pain relievers” and make us feel good

· Increased levels of nitric oxide, (NO), a molecule associated with vasodilation and the promotion of healing

· Release of oxytocin –the “love” hormone, creating trust between us.

If you think about these benefits from the self-created sound of the hum, it’s rather remarkable. Simply being able to lower your heart rate and blood pressure without pharmaceuticals is important. So is the reduction of stress related hormones—we all know how a majority of the illnesses that occur are stress related. We can reduce stress without pharmaceuticals. That is extraordinary.

5. Conscious Humming is the Key

What is conscious humming? It is simply the focusing of our attention on what is happening when we are humming. When you project intention onto your hum, the effects of your own self-created sound are amplified and can be quite monumental.

We’ve described some of the physiological benefits of humming, but very few people have ever experienced this on a conscious level. The reason for this is that most people are prone to humming unconsciously—usually when they’re happy and feeling good. This is wonderful, but to truly experience the vibro-acoustic effects of sound, it’s necessary to take part in conscious humming.

To begin conscious humming, all you need do is to first set aside a few minutes to allow yourself to actively experience the effects of humming. Most people we know, even though they have been humming throughout their lives, are amazed when they spend a few minutes consciously humming. They become aware of the resonance that the hum creates and when they add the aspect of intention to this, the effect of the hum becomes amplified.

There are really only a few important steps that are necessary for conscious humming. The first is to set aside some time when you will be able to experience your humming and to find a place where you can do this without being disturbed. The second is to takes some nice slow and deep breaths before you begin to make sound. While you are doing this, we suggest that you check yourself out—how are you feeling? Is there something in your body that is causing discomfort? Is there something that you emotionally would like to work with? Become aware of how you are feeling in order to experience the power of the hum when it occurs. The third thing we ask is to for you to close your eyes when you begin to hum. The fourth is hum for a few minutes, focusing your attention totally on what you are experience. And lastly, we suggest that you allow a few minutes after you have finished humming to allow the energy of the hum to create the positive shifts and changes that it can produce. Check yourself out after you have hummed and note any changes or differences you may have experienced. You may find some extraordinary shifts have already occurred.

6. Humming is Sacred

In Jonathan’s research, he discovered an advanced form of humming that is practiced in the Hindu Yoga Tradition of Shabd Yoga, called Bhramari Pranayama. It is considered a very powerful and potent healing and transformational practice. The benefits of bhramari pranayama includes all of the above peer reviewed material we previously described as well as emotional, mental and spiritual benefits including assistance with Alzheimer’s. We’ve had many anecdotal stories about this, including from people who have suffered from strokes and were able to successfully utilize humming to assist themselves. We’ve also been told of people with PTSD who have used humming to feel better and known of one well known neurologist who has his patients with PTSD hum as a healing modality.

Per Jonathan – “Our first understanding about the sacred nature of the hum occurred when we were teaching together at Yogaville, an ashram founded by Swami Satchadinanda, the guru who started off the Woodstock Festival in 1968 by having half a million people chanting. We found a copy of Pantajali’s “Yoga Sutras” that had been translated by Sw. Satchadinanda. In it, he wrote about the first sound— “pranava” or the humming of prana (life energy). This humming needed a name, so they called it “OM”. Thus, according to the Hindu tradition, the first sound was a hum. This is also a phenomenon that has been validated by astrophysicists.”

7. Humming is Fun

Last, but certainly not least is something we don’t need to tell you. Humming is fun. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be unconsciously doing it when you feel good. As previously noted, when we hum, endorphins, those wonderful self-created natural opiates that make us feel good and work as pain reliever are released. So is oxytocin, the “love” hormone that helps create trust. The release of these hormones and neuro-chemicals maybe some of the reasons why humming is fun. But there may be a lot more. In fact, there may be a “feedback loop” that occurs when you hum. You hum when you feel good and you feel good when you hum. This is humming for happiness. The one thing we know for sure is that the more you hum, the better you feel. We predict that once you start consciously humming, you’ll not only start feeling calm and relaxed, but you may begin to experience the healing ability of your own sound. How extraordinary!