A Brief Sound Update!

I have been away from my blog for far too long.  And it is very late at night so I will have to make this short and sweet!

It's been a wild ride lately.  My mother has been quite sick so giving her as much time as I have available has been taking up any free time lately! I am so grateful that she is only 1 1/2 hours from me so I can see her quite often.

Aside from that I spent two weeks in Florida, ostensibly to teach one workshop and spend the rest of the time packing up stuff in my old house where my boyfriend Henry still lives. As it turned out I taught FOUR workshops and did a sound journey in someone's home so there was very little time left for packing.  I was so exhausted by the end of the week that I left some of my Tibetan bowls down there because I just couldn't handle taking an extra suitcase even though I could have on Southwest Airlines.

Here is a picture from one of the workshops. This is one of the therapists just after they had received a session with Tibetan singing bowls.


After I got back I spent a few days with Mum, moved back into the little cabin where I spent last summer and then zipped off to the Catskills for a 4-day workshop with John Beaulieu and Silvia Nakkach.  I am feeling that meeting Silvia has changed my life! What a fabulous weekend!
Silvia Nakkach leading a Medicine Song
From the Catskills I went straight to my mother's and spent 5 days there and today I finally got back to my little cabin this afternoon.  I feel like my life is steeped in sound vibration. I have spent most of my day today either talking about sound with other sound healers, singing my heart out, playing my tamboura and tonight sitting on my bed playing planetary tuning forks which are amazing! 

I am obsessed with sound!

Sound and Synchronicity

It was a wild and busy week last week.  Tuesday I did a workshop at Child & Family Services for some oncology patients from Women & Infants Hospital.  I really only expected about 3 people but instead there were 11 and they all loved it.  It was an introductory program for the purpose of bringing awareness to sound healing sessions being offered at the Integrative Wellness Program. However, since it was so well received I am going to offer it on a monthly basis for the community along with the individual sessions. I happen to have a very soft spot for CFS because when I was in recovery for substance abuse in the late 80's that is where my children and I went for counseling.  I feel like I really got a lot from them and am grateful to be giving something back.

I'm also giving an old friend a series of Tibetan bowl sessions which is wonderful because I hadn't done any since I got up here- only for groups.  So that is a pleasure along with the fact that I am reconnecting with a dear friend who I've known since I was a teenager which makes it even more fun! I give her a session and then we yak yak yak, catching up on all kinds of stuff after being pretty much out of touch for the better part of 20 years! Here is a picture from her last session.

There was actually a ton of synchronicity around this. I was in the health food store a little over a week ago , when I heard a voice say, "Rosie?!" I turned around and it was my old friend Alix.  She said, "I can't believe you're here! I just dreamt about you this morning- I saw a picture of you giving someone a session with all those bowls around them and I dreamt you were giving me one- and just now as I was driving over the bridge I was thinking to myself that I have to get your number and call you as soon as I get home! And here you are!"

That on top of the fact that I had just started reading a wonderful book- "Healing With Tibetan Singing Bowls" by Suren Shrestha- so the sudden arrival of someone wanting to have a series of sessions was especially timely. Suren teaches techniques that have been passed down from healers and shamans in his village in Nepal for centuries. It is a short simple book with some very useful information in it.  I am so grateful to have found a book that actually has the teachings from an authentic lineage.

Up until now I had been able to find very little information about the use of singing bowls as a healing tool. It was my intuition and common sense that told me they must have been because they have such a powerful effect on consciousness, but pretty much everything up to that point had been hearsay, or flat out denial that they were ever used for healing- the much repeated phrase being that the history of the bowls has been shrouded in secrecy"- which I love! What Shrestha says is that the teaching has been passed down orally.

So the last session I gave Alix I used a series of chakras bowls and placed them in the order of the cycle of 5ths starting with F for the root chakra. That is also how Fabien Maman teaches the placement of crystal bowls so I was very familiar with the protocol before but had never used it with Tibetan bowls.  In fact it was the first time I even checked the frequency of the bowls before using them.  Usually I simply walk through the room and pick up whatever bowls call to me and then place them around the body as I am guided.  This time I was very thorough in tuning the bowls first.  Which is not to say that one way or the other was better- but this was good in this case and I would definitely do it again, just as I would do it totally intuitively again. I do not want to get attached to one way of working with them.  There are too many wonderful possibilities and his book opened me up to quite a bit more.

A lot of other really exciting stuff has opened up as well.  I have been invited to play the crystal bowls in a salt cave in Ridgefield, CT in June which I am very excited about! I'm so crazy about that Himalayan pink salt- I can't even believe that I am going to get to sit in a cave of it and play my bowls- too freaking cool!  Then someone called and offered their space for me to do another two day workshop while I'm in Florida in May, so that whole scene is shifting. A few days ago I was panicking that only two people had signed up for the one workshop I was offering and now I am teaching actually two more- one day on tuning forks and one day on healing with Tibetan singing bowls.  Also the place where I just saw Shyamji in Newburyport has invited me to do a Healing Sound Journey there, which is great because it means there is a network opening up near my mother which is wonderful.

Lots of great stuff coming up- my first weekend of the Expressive Arts Therapy Program next weekend and at the end of next month a 4-day workshop with John Beaulieu and Sylvia Nakkach which should be pretty amazing.

Oh.... AND my Facebook webpage has reached over 5000 people in the last 6 days! Woohoo!!!



Perfect Vision

Last night I led a kirtan at my friend Karen Kuzminsky's house in Middletown, RI.  What a wonderful evening!  I have to say before I go any further how grateful I am to Jai Uttal for all the wonderful kirtans and workshops of his that I have attended in the last 8 or so years- but especially for the weeklong summer kirtan camp that I was at two years ago in California.  What a blessing. The greatest gift that I got from it was COURAGE- knowing that it didn't matter if I didn't have a fabulous voice, if I wasn't a virtuoso on some instrument or another- if I could just lead a simple chant and sing from my heart, that was good enough.

As it turned out I was sort of put to the test.  I brought my instruments- guitar, harmonium and tamboura- and was just about ready to go when I realized I had forgotten my music! Since I am a beginner on the harmonium I wasn't too thrilled about that.  But I figured that I knew enough chants on the guitar and at least one chant that I could do with the harmonium that it was probably okay- and it was. We had about 20 people and a few kids which really added so much.  Karen's 6 year old son  was so fascinated by the harmonium he practically had his head in it!

But the best part was connecting with a number of people I hadn't seen in 20 years or more.  I knew that the daughter of an old friend of mine was planning to come who was best friends with my oldest son when they were very little.  Now she's a beautiful woman in her late 30's with a daughter of her own. Her mother used to live next door to my ex-husband and me and little Amy would come to the window every morning and call for Sparky.  They lived on the third floor and we were on the second of the house next door.  I have such a strong memory of her precious voice and seeing her face in the window of their 3rd floor apartment looking down to see if Sparky was out on our porch so they could play together.

She hadn't arrived yet when I began. I sang a couple of opening prayers in Sanskrit and was deep into the first chant when I looked up and there was beautiful Amy smiling at me!  I felt such a welling up of emotion that I was quite overcome and tears began to come- I suspect people thought it was because I was so moved by the chant but really I was just so knocked out to see Amy there smiling at me! I actually thought about stopping right then and getting up and giving her a hug but instead I closed my eyes and went really deep and was able to drop into a place beyond that level of emotion to carry on with the music and just let it flow. We saved our hugs and shared our tears after the kirtan and that was such an incredible blessing.  I don't even know yet what it means, what it was for or what it is leading to.  I just know it was, and is, profound.

The grace of the kirtan was that it allowed me to go deeper and deeper- and maybe also that emotion was a catalyst that really somehow carried the kirtan to another level as well. Who knows? It was what it was. The next one will be different.

Every moment is an expression of perfection- every note, every breath. If it isn't perfect, it is our vision that needs correction- not what we're seeing or experiencing, but how we're seeing and experiencing.
Thank you Jai!!!


One Self, Two Birds

Today's Course in Miracles lesson: "I am one Self, united with my Creator, at one with all aspects of creation, limitless in power and in peace."  I have stayed with this lesson for the past 4 days. The practice is supposed to be 5 minutes at the beginning of each hour.  I set my timer and then remember one time, re-set it and then pretty much forget about it for the rest of the day.  Since this series of lessons emphasizes self-discipline I've decided to stay with it until I feel that I have improved a bit more on that side of things.  Given that I've been studying this for over 20 years and am still in the dream I figure it's time to give it a bit more effort. After all, what is the purpose of the Course? And what is my purpose? On March 28, 2006 I wrote in  my journal that I had realized that the purpose of Henry's and my relationship was to help each other wake up. That was 7 years ago almost to the day... At this point being by myself seems to be a better way to work to try to wake up.

Meanwhile, in my waking dream, I am sitting in my room in Middletown and I meditate on my morning lesson.  As I contemplate the words "I am one Self" I begin meditating on all the sounds around me.  The closest are my breath and the heat coming up.  But outside is a conversation between a crow and a cardinal- the crow calls loudly and repeatedly, "Caw, caw, caw" and the cardinal replies with one whistle that rises in pitch. Back and forth they go, never interrupting. There is a cluster of bells from Arco Santi which ring occasionally, producing melodious arrhythmic tones.

Sound is a good meditation. It is always there.  The rhythm of the breath, the pulses of the body, the blood, the beating of the heart; beneath that the inner sounds which can be heard with deep listening- a quiet white noise with some high frequencies, a steady stream of sound; on the outside, the sounds in the room, in the house and then the sounds of nature from out of doors which cut through everything and delight the nervous system.

Shoulds and Self-Revelation

Just for today I am not paying attention to the shoulds.  I should get dressed, I should check my email, I should work, I should turn my phone on, blah blah blah.  The phone is off, I am in my pajamas- I threw my pants on for ten minutes, ran to the liquor store for a bottle of stout to cook my corned beef and cabbage- and I am mostly sitting in bed drinking tea and reading Jed McKenna's Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment. That's my cup of spiritual reading.  I opened it this morning and all bets were off. Occasionally I look out my window and there is a light flurry of snow.  A blizzard would bring me great joy. Give me an excuse to hole up for a few days- please!

Just now I came in to put on some more hot water, pondering the notions that traipse across my mindscape and decided it was a good time for a blog entry.  Usually I write about music or sound in some capacity.  Apparently not today although I never really know what will show up on the page.  Maybe that will be there too- not like it isn't in my mind- just not at the forefront today, except in the form of needing to call this or that person to confirm a time/date for a recording or a Sound Journey or a workshop... which I am postponing for at least a few hours.  Things are unfolding well enough on their own that I am going to trust that it will continue without my constant attention and occasional interference.

Here is an excerpt from my journal during one of my pauses from reading. (It's fairly heavy stuff requiring an occasional break as I process some piece of my own self-inquiry.)

     "My fuel for the day- oil pulling, a protein shake, green tea (or mate on most days) and A Course in Miracles. This morning I added Jed McKenna and now I'm not going anywhere- until I decide to. And I wonder, if 'I am as God created me' [this morning's ACIM lesson] why do I need any of this? Or does it require a body (and thereby some physical maintenance) to know that I am as God created me.
    "I will cook corned beef and cabbage today...
     "One realization, my family reflects back to me the sum of all my fears about myself. The belief that I am a loser because I don't make enough money to support myself doing what I do. That one came up and reduced me instantly to tears. My defense? What I do has changed people's lives- given them relief from pain, helped them to realize their true purpose, etc. etc.  What does it matter? It is my mistaken belief about myself that says I am a loser. It is my ego- defending myself against myself in the midst of the attack.
     (A little while later...) "I am reading Jed McK and I am getting tweaked. Something deep in my mind... that I can't quite reach. But I am reading and I stop to cry for some unknown reason. That's how I know it is have an effect on my consciousness- not just interesting reading."





Life Sounds Good!

Here I am again- weeks flying by.  The truth is that I spend so much of my time thinking about and working with sound and music that I often don't know where to begin and what to write about- but I know it's important. So today I am just going to let it flow and see what comes out.

We're in a transition from winter to spring.  The weather can't seem to make up its mind here in RI so we gets buckets of snow which lately melts in a day or two.  Today I am looking out my window at green grass and listening to the birds.

I have been obsessively recording outdoor sounds lately with the voice memo app on my iPhone.  Yesterday it was Purgatory Chasm- a split in the rocks overlooking Second Beach where the water flows in- or depending on the day slams in- and then flows out. 

Here is the view- an amazingly beautiful place... I recorded the water flowing in and out but haven't figured out how to upload my voice memos to my blog.  Soon though- I have beautiful sounds of water flowing and all kinds of short tracks of Tibetan bowls, crystal bowls and more. That little invisible mic on the iPhone is pretty incredible!

So many exciting things coming up in the next few months- a workshop with Shyamji in Newburyport, MA in the beginning of April followed by the first weekend of the Expressive Arts Therapy Program I am taking this summer.  Then a long weekend with Sylvia Nakkach and John Beaulieu at John's sound studio in Stone Ridge New York, which should be pretty amazing- it will be a combination of working with voice and tuning forks. I have heard a lot about Sylvia but never experienced her work.  I am really looking forward to it.  Two more long weekends over the summer of Expressive Arts Therapy, week-long Kirtan Camp in August- ki jai!- and potentially 3 other weekends I will be able to attend with Shyamji.  This year is for me! I feel like finally I can sink back into some of the intensive sound exploration with my incredible teachers that I have been wanting to do for a while. 

I just found a wonderful book on healing with Tibetan singing bowls by Suren Shrestha which I am very excited about. It is the first book on healing with the bowls that I have found that seems to have some really authentic information about the ancient traditions of this art. I have about 50 bowls right now, my inventory grows the more I sell! I have been working on recording some, specifically have just done a recording of bowls for helping with insomnia- but again- have not figured out how to upload it so that I can make a CD. I do have the cover photo though!

This is the layout of the bowls from when I made the recording. It was very cozy- it was actually during the weekend of the blizzard and it was a perfect time to hunker down since I certainly wasn't going anywhere. I hung out near the fire and played the bowls for hours on end while learning how to work my cool new Zoom recording device! Very fun- a great way to spend a few days of hibernation.  I know that some people weren't as fortunate as I was during that storm. For me it was a good time!!!

And finally,  this week looks like I will start doing some sessions with the Integrative Care Program at Women & Infants Hospital! So looking forward to that- doing sound therapy for cancer patients which I know will be so amazing.

Right now? It's a beautiful day, the sun is shining and the birds are calling me to come outside for a while. Peace out.






Big Ears

My wheels are turning, turning, turning.  So much to write- so little time! Okay, let's start with the musical inspiration for the day.  I found this lovely video on YouTube of a Tibetan bowl meditation, one of the best I have heard.  Now, it sounds to me like he may have some sort of a recorded track running underneath it but I don't know that for sure.  Whatever, and however he has created it, it is really beautiful. So at some point when you have a chance just lay back and enjoy. It's quite long- over an hour- so do it when you need a little restorative or you feel like having a nice background to your yoga practice.

Last night I went up to Warwick, RI to take a class at the community college on self-publishing your book. The teacher had an emergency (we found out today) and never showed up but there were 12 of us there, some of whom had had experience in publishing in various capacities- large publishing company, self-publishing and digital publishing. So we all hung out for an hour or so and shared what information we had.

I went because I started writing a book on sound healing about ten years ago. When I opened the sound healing center I put it up on the shelf above my desk and there it remained for the next seven years. When I open it and read what I have written so far it seems incredibly relevant and I want to pick up where I left off.  I thought it would be really good for me to be around some other writers who were wanting to get published and because I was sure there would be some helpful information for me- but it was really the energy of being around other writers that I felt would be most helpful for me.

It actually worked out kind of nicely despite the inconvenience because now we are all connected and since the class was rescheduled for next week we will all get to meet up again- which is kind of great!

I also had a wonderful reading from Lee Harris today. I have been wanting to get one from him for a year.  Finally this year I decided to give one to myself for a birthday present. I scheduled it at the end of December and the first available date was today! I am very discerning these days about who I get readings from, and somewhat skeptical, I have to admit, because I've gotten so many that in the end just seemed totally bogus. From the first time I heard one of Lee's Energy Forecasts I totally resonated. I listened to some of his other readings from various venues and every time they (he?) felt at times like he was speaking directly to me on a pretty deep level and I decided I really wanted to get a reading from him.  It was amazing and so worth it.

Of course he knew nothing about me but at some point he started talking about the way I listen, the way I pick up on things around me, and the way I hear. Describing me as being almost as alert to what's going on around me as an animal- and then he said, "You have very big ears." Actually physically, my ears are tiny. An old boyfriend once told me my ears were like little dimes! So I knew he was referring to the way I hear- which reminds me of a funny little preliminary sketch  I did of a happy little man who is thoroughly enjoying his ability to hear deeply.


Then he said, "Book." Long pause. "There's going to be a book. You're going to publish a book." Okay Lee Harris, you are right on! Thank you for the confirmation.

Now- back to the big ears... What I realized from this was that the extreme sensitivity that I have experienced all my life is not because of some old family stuff, is not because I am a "spaceshot" who is easily distracted, but is truly because I am ultrasensitive both in my hearing and energetically to what is going on all around me.  I have had a sense of that for a long time but did not know for sure whether it was actually my own defensiveness that was putting that idea forth.  I know that sometimes my tendency to be easily distracted by the sound of a bird, a chime, an animal, a distant conversation, a song playing in the next room- whatever- has caused people close to me considerable frustration.  The way he described it is that I am more like an animal in the wild- the way they are constantly looking around, listening and alert to all the sounds around them.

He also said that somehow through my work I am teaching telepathy. That was very interesting too. As I thought about it it began to make a great deal of sense to me. I know that I am always stressing in my classes the importance of "deepening one's listening." This definitely means, in part, listening more deeply to one's own intuition- as well as listening to the sounds around you and exploring what sounds cause you to feel a particular way.  So for some it may very well have the result of increasing their telepathy.  One person came to me for a session who was a psychologist. During his session he had a profound spiritual healing and subsequently began hearing messages from people who had "crossed over". He realized his calling as a medium which is what he has been doing ever since!

Now... scroll back up to the top and click on those two words "musical inspiration"- or just click here-
for a really amazing journey to inner space. Enjoy!!!




Be Still...

Yesterday morning I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep so I picked up the journal next to my bed and began skimming through it.  It is the journal I took notes in for many of the sound healing workshops I have taken in the last 7 years.  I opened to 14 pages of notes I had taken during a workshop with the western authority on mantras and Vedic priest, Thomas Ashley-Farrand (Namadeva) and his wife, also a Vedic priest and very wise woman, Margalo/Satyabhama.
Puja with Satyabhama (Margalo Ashley-Farrand) at Sound Body Wholistic Health Center- 2011

Kirtan Camp- San Anselmo, CA- Summer 2011

Rosie and Jai Uttal, the supreme ultimate purveyor of kirtan and bliss!

Nada Yogi, Shri Shyam Bhatnagar

Puja with picture of Sant Keshavadas and the late Namadeva (Thomas Ashley-Farrand)

Satyabhama leading puja at Sound Body Wholistic Health Center- 2011

From there, as I continued reading, I found copious notes taken during various workshops with Shri Shyamji Bhatnagar, at Kirtan Camp with Jai Uttal two years ago, Nada Tantra with Yogi Amrit Desai and Bhagavan Daas and a workshop with John Beaulieu that I attended last summer.

There were so many interesting and enlightening statements from all of these wonderful teachers that I thought I would share some of what I came across.

"Mantra is used to invoke the presence of the deity within you." ~Shyamji~
Two ways to pay back your karmic debts- suffering, or doing your spiritual work. The more you do your spiritual work, the less you suffer. Doing your spiritual work you develop compassion for your ego.  Our cells are constantly in a state of renewal- after 12 years we don't even have the same bones. Tell the painful memories "Wrong address"!

"Memories of the past are a curse on my mind.
Oh God, snatch it away." [Iqbal?]

At night press all the pressure points on your feet and thank them for carrying you through the day.

[Bhagavan Das- as you step from one foot to the other feeling the Mother Earth, say "Thank you, I love you, Thank you, I love you."]

Miracles- we seek them- or "signs"- outside of ourselves and do not recognize that WE are the miracle. The greatest miracle is I AM.

You can't "experience " the Divine. You can only "experience" in duality.

Morning mantra:
       Isha vasya
       Idam sarvam
       Jagatayam jagata

(Above are excerpts of notes taken during Purification Retreat with Shri Shyam Bhatnagar in 2006)

Sanskrit is an energy-based language, which explains the divergent translations. The frequencies are "hard-wired into your chakras." (Thomas Ashley-Farrand/Namadeva) Everything in the universe is constructed of those vibrations.
"God SAID 'Let there be...'" The petals of the chakras vibrate when you chant. You bring in tiny discreet amounts of spiritual energy.
Density provides impetus for spiritual advancement.
(Notes from workshop with Namadeva)

Question: What are the moments you place on the altar of your life?

"How can our voice connect with the deepest core of our being?" 
"We should love ourselves to deep cuddliness."
"Don't pimp your purpose."
(Quotes from Jai Uttal during kirtan camp)

"The instinct to preserve one's self-image is as strong as the instinct to preserve the body."
~Yogi Amrit Desai~
Human beings entire life is in fight or flight/survival mode, on body level and ego/mind level.  Animals do not have I AM so they don't go against their subconscious- ie falsely perceived threats. Unfulfilled goals create an energy field/unconscious pattterns. "Get rid of the alien that is having false perceptions." Bring consciousness to "the wall". Bring prana to the place of fight or flight. BREATHE. In the place of discomfort, BREATHE.
(Above excerpted from discourse during workshop with Yogi Amrit Desai, February 2012)

"Happy thoughts create happy molecules in the brain." ~Shyamji~
Memories form when we are not permitted to be who we are.  Blockages in upper chakras (6th and 7th) form in third trimester in part due to the "commercialization" of the birthing process. Laying down to give birth, induction of labor, etc..."No wonder the only person not laughing and happy is the baby." Working with sounds can take us to the place when we were one with our mothers. 

The 50 sounds of the chakras create all the languages on earth. 

"Each chakra has its own mind." ~Shyamji~ 

There are 330,000,000 mantras!
Chanting in lower octave affects 1st three chakras.  Middle octave affects 4th and 5th chakras and higher (3rd octave) will affect 6th and 7th chakras.
One way to deal with "saboteurs"- TOTALLY DISEMPOWER THEM. If you believe they are controlling you it is very hard to disempower them. Turn it around. Say "I am Divine. Saboteurs cannot touch my divinity." Focus on the solution and avoid the problem. Disempower the saboteurs by establishing our own autonomy.

The tamboura is the external manifestation of the 5th chakra.

Breathing through the mouth activates the animal brain.  Breathing through the nose acts as a filter for prana.
(Excerpts of notes from workhsop with Shyamji, Schoorl, Nederlands, 2012)

Whoever comes into your healing space/office- you have to be able to adapt to them- find their "normal"- as a healer.
Eastern music fills the spaces between the notes with overtones- the spaces of the angels adn the devas. 
Sound- as a healer- is more neutral. Music is based on individual taste.
Dependencies- what do you get from them? Ex. What is the "feeling tone" of chocolate? Sound can create the essence of specific drugs (chemicals) in your body. 
"Sound is a superconscious modality." ~John Beaulieu~
Marijuana- a weed.  Energetic quality of a weed is to take over... take root.  Marijuana takes root in the consciousness (energetic feeling tone). Numbs the somatic consciousness...
(Above snippets from John Beaulieu's workshop on Trance and Tuning Forks, June 2012)
Journal excerpt- "Sita Ram, Sita Ram, Sita Ram"

Journal excerpt- "Hari om tat sat jai guru datta"

Be still
Be still and listen
Be still and know the Truth
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I AM
GOD
Be still and know God
I AM
Be still and know I AM
Be still and know
Be still
Be

(Journal excerpt 7.5.12)



























Chanting Ganesha

Tonight I am reading about and chanting to Ganesha, the great elephant-headed god, son of  Shiva and Parvati, the Remover of Obstacles.  Several years ago in a workshop with Thomas Ashley-Farrand, the late Vedic priest and scholar. He chanted a mantra over and over to Ganesha which I fell in love with and never forgot.

Om shrim hrim klim ganeshvaraya

Brahma rupaya charave

Sarva siddhi pradeshaya

Vighneshaya namo namaha

Tomorrow I am leading a kirtan and since it is the New Year much of it will be devoted to Lord Ganesha, full of prayers for the removal of obstacles.

That being said another Baha'i prayer comes to mind as well.

 "Is there any remover of difficulties save God? Say: praised be God!  He is God!  All are His servants and all abide by His bidding!" ~The Bab~

I found the

following

on a website devoted to Ganesha when I was looking for translations of the previous mantra. Another mantra that I will begin weaving into my practice as well.

Ganesh Mantra: Om shrim hrim klim glaum gam ganapataye...

Ganesh.Mantra

Whether you recite, whisper or utter them silently to yourself, mantra japa or repetitive chanting is said to be the simplest way to access God. The 15 Ganesha mantras are described as ‘siddhi mantras’ (siddhi in Sanskrit  varyingly means “perfection”, “accomplishment” or attainment of spiritual power.), with each one containing powers attributed to the elephant God. Meditating on these awakens our own untapped potential for accomplishment in varied endeavors. Regular chanting will also enhance one’s ‘psychic body’, energizing the kundalini or subtle energy that lies coiled at the base of the spine. Thus, the worshipper is freed from negative thoughts and emotions; at the same time, his mortal body too is cleansed of toxins.

Om shrim hrim klim glaum gam ganapataye... 

vara varada sarva

janamme vashamanaya svaha

The bell-like tones of this mantra bring forth a shower of blessings from Ganesha. In uttering them, the worshipper surrenders his ego to the Lord, seeking His protection and grace at all times.  Notice the first line which contains several seed (in Sanskrit, “beej”) mantras, single syllabic utterances from Vedic texts whose meanings vary depending on their intonation and the purpose of incantation. ‘Om’ for instance, is an affirmative sound, one which fuels our energies and is associated with divine protection and benevolence. ‘Shrim’ invokes love and beauty; it concerns the heart and hence, both physical and emotional health. ‘Hrim’ is associated with Maya, a syllable that empowers us to see through the illusory nature of the world. ‘Klim’ is forceful, stimulating and energizing; symbolically, it is represented by a thunderbolt that destroys lowly ignorance. ‘Glaum’ is the earth element while ‘Gam’ is the primal Seed, Ganesha himself. In chanting this mantra, the devotee seeks the grace of Ganesha in his present life and all future lifetimes.

Below, the last two lines are a slight variation but still… very beautiful. Have not found all the words to post them here.

Change is Afoot (God is Alive)

Well, I think for many it has been a rough transition from 2012 to 2013.  Many people I have spoken to in the last 3 days have lost loved ones or someone very close to them has.  It seems like a lot of people checked out at the end of 2012.  I (like many) became painfully aware of it with the awful tragedy in Newtown, CT. Since then it seems like we've heard of one death after another as  the issue of gun laws, mental health care and the safety of citizens was hammered into our psyches- and of course the belief that schools should unquestionably be a safe haven for children.  And clearly they are not. So sad.  We can only pray this has finally reached a level of awareness that can no longer be ignored and will be addressed.

Beyond that, as I mentioned above I have talked to several people who very unexpectedly lost loved ones over the past several days- completely random and unexplainable deaths- a healthy 55 year old cyclist riding his bike and suddenly died, a healthy young man of 24 suddenly dead for no apparent reason.  Granted, autopsies may show obvious reasons for their death- a congenital but undiscovered heart disease?  Who knows... but they are gone.

And then the emotional angst that has come up for some- sudden rifts in important intimate relationships- which is what is suddenly present in my own life.  What I see and believe is that it is time to heal some very old stuff.  Change is being forced upon us.  In some cases it looks like relationships we thought were fairly stable suddenly have shifted and the damage seems irreparable.  I don't believe that is true even though for me it feels pretty awful and I am very raw right now.  But really I think we are (I AM) just being shown what parts of ourselves (myself) we (I) still need to heal. 

So... change is afoot. God is alive, magic is afoot.
And so- the magic... the changes...

And? For me, my great excitement is that I have been hired as a member of the Integrative Care team for Women & Infants Hospital. Still going through the preparatory stages- getting bloodwork and immunizations as I will be mainly working with oncology patients and their caregivers and family members. I have a couple more appointments at the hospital next week as well as a test I have to take so the following week I should be ready to start.  I couldn't have dreamed this up.  I tried for so long to make connections at a couple of hospitals in Florida and over the years have done some volunteer work and various events & presentations for the nurses at a couple of different hospitals in St. Pete. To actually be getting paid to do this work in a Western medical facility is what I have wanted for so long- and what I know is so desperately needed!

There are 3 different sites that I can potentially work out of- one not more than two miles from my home! The program is open to the public as well- they just have to pay a little more than the people under the care of the hospital.  I can also teach workshops for anyone who is interested- caregivers, therapists, patients, whoever... so there is tremendous potential to be doing a lot of work there.  It will be interesting because I still more than anything want to open another sound healing center up here but meanwhile... this is such an amazing way to really get into the heart of the community. I really don't know what anything is for.  I just know that this door opened and I am sure there is a very good reason for it.  And I don't have anything else solidly in place yet, nor do I want to at this time, so it's perfect and I am so grateful.

I won't say it seems to good to be true (although I could) because I think there are major paradigm shifts happening and as Bob Marley said, "Good things come to those who wait."  Look at Roderiguez!





Enigma - Remember the Future full album


This is a video combining the often erotic and always hypnotic music of Michael Cretu/Enigma with extraordinary visuals that is full of surprises.  I would love to watch this on a large screen with an excellent sound system and the freedom to move and dance within the space.  I hadn't heard this album before but I have most of their other albums and all of the albums that contain the songs on this video.  Very different to hear them with visuals attached to the music. The imagery from the first album did not have a lot of surprises for me but the ones after that most definitely did. Someone sent me this video ages ago and I hadn't ever watched it.  Tonight I saw it and thought how much I missed hearing their music so I decided to listen/watch- so glad I did!

The only downside is that it made me miss having the Soundweaver set up so much! For those of you who don't know, the Soundweaver is a vibroacoustic sound healing environment comprised of a mat with speakers built into it which is set up on a massage table surrounded by a large copper dodecahedron.  You lie on the mat and when music is played through it you feel the vibrations of the music through your whole body. It is really a phenomenal experience- deeply relaxing, powerful, healing, blissful, cathartic- words cannot describe it. I used to love to listen to Enigma on it and their music is incredible for sound   healing sessions- I use it a lot when I have it set up.  This is the first time in almost 20 years that I haven't had it set up either where I'm living or in a designated healing space and suddenly it is beginning to feel like it's almost time to get it going again!

A Message on Mudras

I am quoting this from a Facebook post by Nubia Teixeira, jau Uttal's wife, yogini and exquisite dancer. From wholistic sound to wholistic dance- dance as an expression of wholeness and life.

Hands are filled with the mystery of creation. ....Hands are an extention of the Heart Center and can express all the feelings and forms in the universe. ViniYoga is the science of Hand Gestures.

The Abhinaya Darpan mentions that the dancer should sing the song by the throat, express the meaning of the song through hand gestures, show the state of feelings by eyes and keep track of the time with feet.
From the Natya Shastra, a text on the arts:
"Yato hasta stato drishti"..."Where the hand is, the eyes follow"
"Yato drishti stato manaha"..."Where the eyes go, the mind follows"
"Yato manaha stato bhava"..."Where the mind is, there is the feeling"
"Yato bhava stato rasa"..."Where the feeling is, there is mood"
So vast is the hand gestures that it covers almost all the aspects of human life and the entire universe.
Hence 'Mudras' form a distinct code language and bring unique poetic element while performing abhinaya and thus the language of the mudras enables the dancer to express practically anything and everything.
Om Namah Shivaya !!!!!
Hands are filled with the mystery of creation. ....Hands are an extention of the Heart Center and can express all the feelings and forms in the universe. ViniYoga is the science of Hand Gestures.

The Abhinaya Darpan mentions that the dancer should sing the song by the throat, express the meaning of the song through hand gestures, show the state of feelings by eyes and keep track of the time with feet.
From the Natya Shastra, a text on the arts:
"Yato hasta stato drishti"..."Where the hand is, the eyes follow"
"Yato drishti stato manaha"..."Where the eyes go, the mind follows"
"Yato manaha stato bhava"..."Where the mind is, there is the feeling"
"Yato bhava stato rasa"..."Where the feeling is, there is mood"
So vast is the hand gestures that it covers almost all the aspects of human life and the entire universe.
Hence 'Mudras' form a distinct code language and bring unique poetic element while performing abhinaya and thus the language of the mudras enables the dancer to express practically anything and everything.
Om Namah Shivaya !!!!!

The Road to Recovery with Dr. Mitchell Gaynor: Sound Healing


This is such an important video! Hooray to Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, oncologist, who has realized the importance of sound for facilitating healing and is bringing it to the awareness of the Western medical community. At last! At last! This is only the beginning of so much important information that is coming to light.

This is a testimonial from someone in a workshop I taught who had a healing that we all witnessed- a dramatic change in his skin cancer in literally a 24 hour period. It was profound. (He did request that he remain anonymous for his own reasons...)

Hi, Rosie,
Again, nothing but praise and thanks to you for this workshop on Sound Healing Therapy that finished up just yesterday.
My experience was very positive.
Everyone in our class saw with their own eyes that the skin cancer on my nose began shrinking -- and looked greatly improved-heading-toward-being-healed -- during that second day of your class.
The healing began with the C and G tuning protocol that you performed on everyone of us early in the first day of the class. And then it continued with the Biosonic tuning fork treatment that Jody, a fellow student, performed on me during day number one.
And then early on the second day Cheryl, also a fellow student, mentioned the healing effects regarding cancer of the Tibetan bowls.
Almost immediately you jumped up and took me into the next room where the bowls are kept and invited me to "find" the one that I felt would help me.  Quickly I found "my bowl."
I used it almost continually from then on. I think everyone probably enjoyed the beautiful sound that the bowl made each time I tapped it with the special "mallet."
From then on the healing of the skin cancer proceeded more rapidly and very noticeably.  Everyone in the class saw it.  Some had tears in their eyes as they express their thrill at seeing my healing. 
Needless to say I'm also thrilled.
I cannot say today that this skin cancer is totally gone yet. But the above that I've related is exactly what I experienced and everyone -- including yourself -- witnessed this.
Also I want to mention that  I am a different man today -- and will remain such into the indefinite future -- from having experienced your course and your healing touch. 
You asked me at the beginning of the second day to share with the class what the treatment that the entire class had performed on me  did for me. I will repeat my answer here:
My answer: "Two words: Universal Bonding."
And also I related that there had also been a shift within me. I've always tended to get agitated very easily. But what I now notice is that if I do get agitated that I can let it go virtually "instantly."
Already today I've shared this with a friend who needs the exact same "ability." We cannot make people not say or do things that could get on our nerves. But now I have the ability to keep my inner peace regardless of perceived negative input. This is priceless.
Thank you, Rosie.
Sincerely,
[anonymous] LMT

Express Your Self

I don't have much to say right now because it's ridiculously late. But I do have a little something to say. I have been thinking a lot about how people express themselves on social media networks lately.  It has been coming to my attention that some people use these venues to vent- Facebook is the only one I really use enough to be familiar with.  I don't understand Twitter... But I wonder how people can feel so comfortable presenting a sometimes very unattractive side of themselves without apparently thinking about what they are showing to the world and what kind of energy they are putting out there.  I know that on one hand people think there is some sort of sincerity to that and don't want to simply appear vapid and phony- but I also feel like we can use this media to express the very best and highest of who we are and leave our pettiness behind- that we have an opportunity to censor ourselves when we say too much or are overly critical, angry or abrasive.

Just sayin'...

Revelation of the Heart

This morning I read a  line from the book Little Bee by Chris Cleave. "The dreams of my country are no different from yours- they are as big as the human heart." It lead me to thinking about the heart. I envisioned the energy of the heart as it expands from the physical heart.  The HeartMath Institute and other scientific researchers have measured the electromagnetic frequency of the heart and found that its energy expands several feet beyond the body, far more than any other organ including the brain.  What came to me is that the energy of the heart is not actually expanding.  It is an all-encompassing energy, the Heart of who and what we are- and that it is compressed, condensed into the form of the physical heart.  What we truly are IS the All-Encompassing Heart of Love.

As Gregg Braden explains very succinctly in the following video is that the first spark of life happens in the heart- it is the first organ to develop and the heart sends signals to the brain- not the other way around. Click here to watch.

Testimonials and Appreciation


Tuning Fork Treatments (Tuning Forks or Magic Wands?)

Since I reached 60 years of age I have had some arthritis, sciatica and tendonitis causing pain in my lower back and in my neck- hardly able to turn my head to the left or right. It was not agony, but it was constant chronic pain, debilitating both physically and mentally. Tendonitis was when I was 40 and had to give up tennis which I loved. I am now 90 years of age.

I have had several tuning fork treatments with Rosemary Warburton. I cannot believe the difference. My neck is fine and has been pain-free since my first treatment.  Ditto my back.

I call her tuning forks magic wands.

Maybe they are.

~Margarett M. Vernon~ 7.14.12

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Rosie.
I have mixed emotions for the great news that you are returning home! First of all  I'm very happy for you! I know you have put so much energy and effort into your life of sound healing and creating such a wonderful space in both your home and the Sound Center. I thank you for that!
I thank you for your healing and support from both you and Henry.
I thank you for your healing energy, intentions, prayers and healing hands that have lifted me through and up in so many difficult times in my life.
I thank you for the wonderful hospitality of great food and dancing at the house.
I thank you for being so honest.
I thank you for your prayers and healing when I really needed it most.
And for you loving smiles, hugs, sparkling eyes and amazing sound journeys.
Thank you Rosie.
Thank you for being you.
 I love you. I will miss you.
 I will be coming to visit at some point and time.
The right time...
I love you! 
I also am now a current student at Eckerd College! Finally! 
This too is my time!
We talked about this so many times and I am here.
With all my love,
Christy

~Christy Aderhold~ 9.1.12

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I just want to thank the people who made it to the sound journey and the workshop.  Though small in attendance, it was a big event and my heart is overflowing with gratitude towards you.  And I am totally appreciative and filled with love for my friend, Rosie.  Rosie Warburton filled the stage with instruments- tuning forks of all kinds- angel tuners that tinkled sound when struck, Tibetan bowls with every range of frequencies, rain makers, wave drums, chimes, crystal bowls, didgeridoo, flutes, whistles-  and filled the chapel with sound so pure and resonating that I could feel it while sitting on the Fellowship's porch waiting for late comers on Saturday night.  Sunday was filled with information about using sound to heal self and help others, each of us receiving a healing session from Rosie and then Dana and Paul gave a healing session to Rosie that she described as 'out of this world'.  Paul played a large crystal bowl while Dana sang beautiful tones that just swept Rosie away.  We have such talent among us that I hope we will share it together even when Rosie is unable to join us, (special hint to Dana and Paul here). I LOVE sound healing.

~Janis Sommers~ 7.17.12

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When I was down you helped me through your ability with the vibrational healing and it was something you invited me to do when almost everyone on earth was rejecting me, so it meant a lot. It was a starting point. It was a delineation or a before and after mark. Through the years I alwaysd looked back as that as the beginning of the beginning for me to rejoin the human race.

~Bill Kelly~ 7.11.12

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I gave my friend Betsy this session just one day after I had returned from a weekend of Nada Yoga with Yogi Amrit Desai and Bhagavan Das.  What was so extraordinary was that I had not told Betsy anything about my experience and the intention of that workshop. It seemed however as though she embodied the totality of our weekend in her experience which was completely blew me away! Everything we were being taught over the weekend she seemed to integrate in her experience and her being during this session.

My Experience with the Dance of Creation & Dissolution:  Shiva Nataraja

As I lay on the sound table with the heart opening rhythms of Jai Uttal vibrating through my body, Rosie was by my side energetically supporting me as I moved through this journey.  The experiences I had opened my awareness and understanding, shifted limiting energetic patterns, and gave me insight into Satya:  Truth.  

The following words explain as much as they can of what I experienced, but cannot encompass the wholeness of it.  I could feel my body energetically receiving the images, information and awarenesses in fully integrated form, as if a hologram was downloaded into my being, although I was able to view it in linear fashion.  

Lying on the table with my eyes closed, the form of Shiva as Nataraja danced into view.  I felt the energy, the movement, the creative life force flowing through the dance and out into manifestation.  As the dance continued, the universe was created, and desires were made manifest.  I saw, knew, understood that as I danced with Shiva/as Shiva, my deeply felt thoughts, beliefs, words, and actions came to be what I experienced as the 3-D material world.  I saw, knew, and understood that I had created every situation in my life through this dance.  Whatever I put energy into through my attention to it, became manifest.

In a brief instant I asked, “How do I then change the things I don’t like or want in my life?”  Very clearly, I was shown that as Shiva Nataraja put his foot down and came to stillness, everything dissolved back into pure consciousness, Purusha.  So it is in the stillness that the maya, the illusion of separation dissolves.  It was when Shiva lay down in stillness under the foot of his Beloved Kali, that Kali was able to stop and recognize Him as her Beloved.  The illusion dissolved.

And so it became clear that the opportunity in this lifetime in this moment is to consciously dance our dance of creation by choosing our thoughts, words, and actions to reflect the world we want to live in and then feel the reality, the truth of them in our bodies, dancing them into being.  If we want peace, then we must live peace.  When confronted with situations that are not what we want, we shift them by moving into the stillness, reconnecting with the oneness of pure consciousness, and merging our thoughts, feelings, words, attention and actions into our desired manifestation.

~Betsy Vaught~ 2.27.12

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I had the unique opportunity to be treated by Rosie and to participate in a wonderful workshop that Rosie held at the Six Harmonies Traditional Wellness Clinic in Los Gatos, CA. As a licensed acupuncturist, I am familiar with the healing power of our body but Rosie’s treatment session was special. What an amazing feeling when the tuning fork sound encourages the bones to talk. It seemed like the bones needed to address their grievances: my right ankle broken at the age of 4 riding on my dad’s bike, my jaw complaining about the traumatic experiences to have four wisdom teeth taken out with brutal force… Once I acknowledged their grievance by remembering it again, painful throbbing sensation disappeared and the sound seems to travel through the bones without interruption. After learning more about tuning forks from Rosie, I use them now as an adjunctive modality with my own clients who have had wonderful experiences as well. Thanks again Rosie to introduce me to the powerful modality of sound healing. Always with Gratitude, Yvonne Edler-Guettaf

~Yvonne Edler-Guettaf~ 11.4.11

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I received this a few days after a tuning fork workshop by a participant who had an extraordinary healing of skin cancer, visible to all, during the two days of the workshop.  He wishes to remain anonymous.
 
Again, nothing but praise and thanks to you for this workshop on Sound Healing Therapy that finished up just yesterday. My experience was very positive.
Everyone in our class saw with their own eyes that the skin cancer on my nose began shrinking -- and looked greatly improved-heading-toward-being-healed -- during that second day of your class.
The healing began with the C and G tuning protocol that you performed on everyone of us early in the first day of the class. And then it continued with the Biosonic tuning fork treatment that Jody, a fellow student, performed on me during day number one.
And then early on the second day Cheryl, also a fellow student, mentioned the healing effects regarding cancer of the Tibetan bowls.
Almost immediately you jumped up and took me into the next room where the bowls are kept and invited me to "find" the one that I felt would help me.  Quickly I found "my bowl." [He actually asked me, when he heard this, where he could get one of these bowls. I had many of them in the next room]
I used it almost continually from then on. I think everyone probably enjoyed the beautiful sound that the bowl made each time I tapped it with the special "mallet."
From then on the healing of the skin cancer proceeded more rapidly and very noticeably.  Everyone in the class saw it.  Some had tears in their eyes as they express their thrill at seeing my healing. 
Needless to say I'm also thrilled.
I cannot say today that this skin cancer is totally gone yet. But the above that I've related is exactly what I experienced and everyone -- including yourself -- witnessed this.
Also I want to mention that  I am a different man today -- and will remain such into the indefinite future -- from having experienced your course and your healing touch. 
You asked me at the beginning of the second day to share with the class what the treatment that the entire class had performed on me  did for me. I will repeat my answer here:  My answer: "Two words: Universal Bonding."
And also I related that there had also been a shift within me. I've always tended to get agitated very easily. But what I now notice is that if I do get agitated that I can let it go virtually "instantly."
Already today I've shared this with a friend who needs the exact same "ability." We cannot make people not say or do things that could get on our nerves. But now I have the ability to keep my inner peace regardless of perceived negative input. This is priceless.
Thank you, Rosie.
~Anonymous~ 4.11.11

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This came from a woman who attended a sound journey performed together by my partner Henry and I a couple of years ago...
Hello Rosie and Henry!
I took your advice last night to experience the journey as a shamanic journey rather than a meditation. I also set an intention that had to do with getting clarity in my love life.  I didn't have any expectations about what the journey would look like nor preconceived answers.
I started seeing animals after a bit.  The first one was a Phoenix bird rising up from the ashes.  I knew I was that bird.  I felt powerful and confident and ready to fly straight up like a rocket.  This is not an image or myth that I think about often so it really surprised me.
The next one was an otter and I knew that represented my boyfriend whom is not being faithful.  I felt happy with the otter spirit and image.  I went home and read the Sam's and Carson Medicene Book.  While it did indeed describe my friend, I also felt that it was giving guidance that I need for myself at this time.
The next animal was a buffalo.  I thought it was representing something about a potential mate and I was disappointed, but when I read about its animal medicene, I was elated.  It has to do with abundance, prayer, and bringing peace and calm.
The final animal was a seal.  This surprised me and I had no idea what the totem power was for seals.  I did not associate this seal with any person.  I found an explanation of seal energy on a shamanism website.  It is an awesome energy and I believe I am supposed to work with "seal energy" and call her in to my spirit. 
I came to the session quite fatigued from a hard work week and emotional stress.  But when I left, I felt refreshed and energized.  And, of course, am excited to see how I will transforming as i leave my ashes.
Thank you both for coming again to Yoga 4 All and sharing your passion, talents, instruments, and caring. 
~Barbara Johnson~  9.18.10

A Slight Adjustment

I haven't written in a while- busy getting settled in for what looks like a permanent stay in Rhode Island- at least for a while! I closed my sound healing center in Florida on October 1 after a flurry of activity there in September, then headed back up to New England.  It was strange. I had been gone for four months- May through August- and although a dear friend had taken it over with the desire to keep it open and run it, it had clearly for the most part been lying dormant during the time I was gone.  The garden was untended, the kitchen cupboards were becoming home to insects... a couple of people had rented some space for the first couple of months after I left but apparently didn't have any clients so they had left, and there were no other activities going on there.  Initially it was very sad going in there and feeling the emptiness.  I wasn't really expecting that. The good news is that I went back to get some winter clothes and teach a couple of workshops and was slammed from practically the minute I got there. Sessions, workshops, kirtan, selling merchandise... I actually had the busiest month I have had since I opened the center 7 years ago. Nonetheless, I was leaving and so the decision was made to close, a good decision in all ways.

And now I am in Rhode Island sitting in my new "office"- a small sun room which doubles as a dining room with a table that seats no more than a cozy four people and an old Glenwood cook stove in it. It isn't winterized but the stove heats the room up quickly and the room gets warm and cozy as the sun comes round. I have two other rooms in the house- a bedroom with a four-poster bed and a loft, and a small kitchen with a small fridge and freezer- and the shower is in the kitchen as well! It is great- fun and funky with the touch of an artist's eye everywhere you look.

I am sharing a space for giving private sessions with an old friend in downtown Newport, upstairs in the Congregational Church, a beautiful old brownstone church and historic landmark designed by John LaFarge.  It's very interesting because years ago I used to attend Sanskrit classes up there with my teacher, Swami Bob, so I have a strong connection to it. I also did a concert there with Roop Verma years ago after he taught me to play tamboura. And the person whose space I am sharing worked for me close to 30 years ago when I was a potter and had four small boys all under the age of ten! It is so wonderful to return to the intimacy of New England after the generic spread out emptiness of Florida, where there is such a lack of community simply by design. Each "neighborhood" seems to have its own mall down there rather than the neighborhood coffee shop (with a few exceptions) where you know you will run into someone you know.  It was one of the things I missed most when I was living there. Even out west, where the land is very open and spread out, the layout of the towns are designed to create community- a church, a town square, a restaurant, a coffee shop, whatever...

What happened for me was that I actually created a community there via the sound healing center because I was so starved for it! I wasn't aware of that at the time- I simply knew that the space I was looking at for an office was actually perfect for a sound healing center.  It was a calling I could not ignore. It served many purposes as it turned out- and one was my own personal need for community and connection.

One of the things I have been exploring lately is working with tuning forks for self-healing- conducting an experiment, if you will. Organization is not my strong suit and I have been very challenged moving into such a small space, especially after having lived in a good-sized house in FL and having all my sound healing tools and instruments in their own space- the Sound Body Center.  Now most of my crystal bowls and Tibetan bowls are in my car! I can only have what is really necessary- anything more just takes up space. So... if I come in the house after shopping, put down the groceries, throw my coat and scarf on a chair, take off my clothes to change and don't put them away immediately, suddenly everything is cluttered and slightly overwhelming.

I am working with the brain tuners. Ahhh... simplicity! Tap those tuning forks- in most cases right now the Fundamental (256 hz) and the Beta tuner- a few microtones up from the 256- which creates a beat frequency that corresponds to the the Beta brainwave. The pulse created between the two tuning forks entrains the brain to the Beta frequency for peak concentration and alertness. Every time I find myself feeling a need to organize- whether it's to clean the kitchen, put stuff away in my bedroom, or simply having a lot to do and not knowing where to begin, I tap those tuners and listen. 

Theoretically it takes 40 seconds for the brain to respond to a frequency, but with the tuning forks it doesn't seem to take that long. Maybe it's because you bring them up to yours ears to listen to them and it starts the temporal bones resonating right away, sending the signal directly to the brain. Thus the response is virtually instantaneous. I don't know- that's my theory though, because every time I have done this lately I immediately (within about ten seconds) know what I need to do and where to begin. It's feels like such a tiny little adjustment and suddenly everything is doable- sort of like working on a puzzle and you just need the one right piece to make sense of it all and bring it all together.  That is how it feels- like I look around and nothing quite fits and I don't know how to make it fit- and I use those tuning forks and here we go, really very cool and exciting to see how consistently effective they are.

I've also been using the Alpha tuner to minimize anxiety and the Delta tuner for sleep. I don't have a great deal of anxiety- it's very low level but I have an awareness of it at times, and again- I just tap the tuning forks and it seems to simply disperse within a few seconds, leaving me feeling peaceful and grounded again. Sleep? Not a big problem either, but occasionally after I go to bed it's as if I get a second wind and suddenly could stay up for hours.  Delta tuners... ding! Thirty seconds later I am putting them down on the bed next to me and drifting off into a wonderful sleep- so amazing!

Hopefully, with my new sense of organizing my mind and my time I will be writing more! I think of this blog every day and so often don't get to it. That is definitely one of my intentions for the winter- to write lots more.

We Are Sound... What if?

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"But what if on some level we are made of sound? What if in the beginning was the Word? What if the music of the spheres is no myth? What if we ourselves are a harmonic convergence? What if the holographic grid of our being is a linguistic and musical interface between higher-dimensional light, which might be considered a form of divine thought or intention, and sound in higher-dimensional octaves?" ~ Sol Luckman

What if? Huh... I never questioned it. As far as I know we ARE sound.  We are a configuration of pulsing, vibrating, resonating molecules. And hence, we hear a sound... a voice, a bird, a chime, a heartbeat, a breath and we resonate. Not only do we resonate but sometimes we gravitate physically, mentally, emotionally toward that frequency.  Sometimes it is the frequency of silence, of kindness, of compassion that draws us nearer to its source. 

Me? I follow the sound of music- literally! How many times have I heard music coming from a park, a bar, a festival and practically run towards it because it feeds me and it nourishes me. (We can be fed without being nourished, right?) 

Last week I went to a kirtan in Westport, CT, with Jai Uttal. We had a little chat before he started about some of the transitions I am moving through in my life and it connected me into some sensations around my heart- some sadness around letting go of parts of my life that are no longer working for me- no longer nourishing me. When the kirtan started my tears began to flow in a very sweet gentle way and I found that it was the perfect way to release some of the sadness without being overtaken by it- that I was able to move into a deep heartfelt space and to experience the feelings without having to get into naming and details... and as the kirtan evolved and grew stronger my heart grew quieter and more joyful until I was swept away by the music and the singing. I closed my eyes, merging with the music,  and a memory arose of body surfing in the ocean- that feeling of getting into the perfect position when the waves are just the right size- not too big, not too small- first, making the effort to align myself with the oncoming wave and then being picked up by it, swimming a few strokes with it, then letting go and surrendering to it and the sheer exhilaration of being carried, whatever distance, to the shore.  

And I thought to myself, "I am being swept up in a wave of bhakti." 

Maybe bhav is really a better word, as it was really the experience of ecstasy- bhakti refers more to devotion which can lead us to ecstasy. Kirtan is really a practice of bhakti yoga and yoga, any yoga, always has the goal of union with the Divine. 

Enough about that- this isn't really supposed to be a treatise on yoga- just an attempt at clarity!

Anyway, I had a lovely week of sacred sound.  I had only returned from Florida a week earlier and am still getting settled into my winter domicile in Rhode Island. But I was off to western Connecticut, first for Jai's beautiful kirtan and then to perform two Sound Journeys- one at my friend Suzanne Benton's house in Ridgefield, CT, and the next night down the road from there at Blackbird Yoga.  Unfortunately somehow we forgot about photos- also I thought I was recording the Sound Journey on Friday night but it turned out it that I somehow turned "Record" off instead of ON! Oh well, here is a photo of my arrival at Suzanne's- instruments by the door- followed by a couple after they are set up. 



And last but never least- here is a very rocking Hare Krishna kirtan which Jai did in Westport a few nights before. This was recorded in Boston a few months earlier, in August of this year. And check out the woman playing the kartals as it starts to rock- she is amazing! Hare Bol! Enjoy...





In Appreciation of the Gentleness of God

God is being so gentle with me...

I am making huge changes in my life- leaving a long-term relationship, closing my business of seven years, and relocating back to New England- said to be the 3 most stressful events in one's life all going on at once.

This summer when I first officially "moved" back to Rhode Island one of my sons, Moose, and his wife Addie were living virtually around the corner from me which was so lovely and wonderful and comforting- and fun! In September I went back down to Florida and I spent the month house-sitting for dear friends with an amazing house, a Himalayan cat, a swimming pool and a koi pond while I wound things down at the sound healing center.

Actually "wound down" may not be the best way of putting it- I had the busiest month I have ever had there in terms of my business!  And at the end of it I spent the last week cleaning, packing and going back and forth to my storage unit- all that mixed in with last minute visits, sessions, lunches, dinners and cups of coffee and tea with dear friends so that we could say goodbye one more time.

After saying goodbye to my life of 17 years I headed back up to Rhode Island.  I just got back last night. However while I was in Florida my son and his wife moved out to Minneapolis so they were gone when I got back.  It has been strongly in my mind that I need to spend time alone as I have never done so for any length of time and that was my intention when I came up for the summer last May. Instead I was busy getting settled and reconnecting with family and friends, trying to get my business established up here and outside of that getting every minute I could with Moose and Addie knowing they would be leaving soon.

I had a small cabin on an old friend's property but was rarely there for more than three days at a time as I was so busy.  Now I am back and winter is coming on the heels of fall. I drove in last night with the outside temperature at 49 degrees, a windy rainy blustery night.  Perfect. This weather I understand. I felt my cells coming alive again, my spirit excited and happy.

My friend Joya- actually my dance teacher from 40 years ago- who owns the house I am living in leaves in a month- back to California, gone for the winter.  The house will be empty except for me- and I will get my alone time, my healing time.  And I am grateful for the gentleness of the transition. I realized it tonight. The sadness that Moose and Addie are gone, who were such great company over the summer but the awareness that Joya was here still- good company and a great friend- and that the shift to being here alone was being done in such a beautiful gentle way.

This morning I awoke to the sun coming in my bedroom window.

And where is the music? Where is the sound? Everything that has sparked me lately in the realm of music and sound has been soft, gentle, compassionate and humble. The day before yesterday my sister Jenny and I went to see the movie "Searching for Sugarman." The story of Sixto Roderiguez, a brilliant musician who faded into obscurity before he ever had a chance- a beacon of wisdom and humility who accepted that "Reality wins." He worked hard and accepted the reality of his world, the son of hard-working blue collar immigrants, but with his acceptance he never got beaten down by life. He escaped the anger, cynicism and bitterness that could so easily have become a part of his persona. And 40 years later he still had a dream and a gift to offer. You'll have to go see the movie to get the rest of the story!

And finally... this beautiful meditation that was sent to me a couple of weeks ago- today I had the chance to sit down and watch it... and breathe with it.  Take time for yourself.  Use the sounds around you as a reminder to be present to your Self, to be present to your breath, to be present to the Buddha within...

Closing a Door...

Today I continue wrapping things up at Sound Body Center. Henry decided after a slow summer it was too much for him to try to keep it open so this is the last weekend. Last event was Wednesday when I did a private Healing Sound Journey for a group and went from there to St. Pete College as a guest speaker with a bunch of Tibetan bowls and a few other instruments.

It has been amazing being here for the past month and seeing how many lives have been affected, touched, changed, by the center. I have actually been busier this month and made more money than any one month in the past 7 years which is interesting.  Last February I let people know I wouldn't be around as much and set up a bunch of events in light of that and no one showed up! That was actually when I first made the decision to close the center thinking it was apparently played out for whatever reason.

I have spent a lot of time in the space in the last 3 weeks realizing what an amazing gift it was both to myself and to so many others.  For me, to be able to spend my days in there- to be able to go from room to room with clients or just by myself and be able to lay down on a sound table, to be able to sit in another room and play crystal bowls, to walk into the next room and play my tamboura (thank you, Fred Johnson, Cathy and Barry), or sit and play Tibetan bowls for two hours- what an incredible blessing.
























A few days ago I walked around and took pictures of everything that other people had donated to help create the beautiful space that it has been.

I love you
I thank you
I respect you