My path to Sound Healing

Clear waters of island of Kauai’i, photo by Author

Two weeks ago a friend visited me in Croatia, not any friend but a friend which kind of marked my life and inspired my action and my sound healing journey — a friend from Hawaii. We met in small fisherman village of Rogoznica, Dalmatia where she and her husband came for a night stop before moving on with their ship for bike tour and island hopping. Our minds went back to a time when we shared energy of the birth of the sound healing wave which circled the planet in last 30 years. 

Before going to share my story which I published already some time ago in my Amazon Kindle published book “Sound Healing — good vibes for body and soul” let me quote H.P. Blavatsky, author of The Secret Doctrine, a theosophical classic from 1888 and her chapter about the Force whose time is yet to come. 

 “We say and maintain that SOUND, for one thing, is a tremendous Occult power; that it is a stupendous force, of which the electricity generated by a million of Niagaras could never counteract the smallest potentiality when directed with occult knowledge. Sound may be produced of such a nature that a Cheops pyramid of would be raised in the air, or that a dying man, nay, one at his last breath, would be revived and filled with new energy and vigor.” ²___ 

 ² H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1 Cosmogenesis, page 555, chapter „The Coming Force“ 

 I don’t know about pyramids or dying people, but I do know that sound certainly moves living people. Sound always fascinated me and although I don’t have a formal musical education I can freely say that throughout my whole life music and sound have been present around me and I know they will be there as a constant until my last breath. One of the most important events related to the awakening of my interest for the healing aspect of music was the ”Healing Sounds” workshop with Jonathan Goldman in the year 2000. 

Invitation to paradise 

At that time I lived in San Francisco, California. One day my friend Kathryn called me. She was a rebellious medicine student, massage therapist and a trained gymnast. She looked like a main character from the movie Hair with her free nature and messy hair, which reminded me of the beginning of the hippie movement. She disliked medicine studies because they were mostly focusing on the physical aspect of the human being, so she was searching for other ways of healing, for something more. 

She asked me if I would like to go with her to Kauai, called the Green Island of Hawaii where she had vouchers for a time share apartment. She suggested that we should fly using an air hitch method which is basically filling in the free places in a plane because this kind of travel lowers the cost of the plane ticket for about 50%. 

The next day I was dining with my dear friend Steve. I told him what Kathryn said. He was delighted and told me that accommodation is the biggest cost in Hawaii. ”I will pay the trip to Hawaii for you as my Christmas gift!” — he said, and a beaming smile lit up my whole face, because it was only October! A trip to Hawaii! What a surprise, this kind of gift is a rare bird! I told my friend that I would go with her and she showed me a flyer which said that a certain Kimba Arem was organizing a sound healing workshop with Jonathan Goldman, a pioneer of Sound Therapy, on the same island, exactly at the time when we were planning to be there. Right away I felt that this was the reason why I was guided by some invisible hand into the middle of the Pacific, to a paradise island of Kauai. We signed up for the seminar. Kathryn landed on Hawaii a day earlier and we met after my successful air hitch. 

One could talk a lot about the wonders of Hawaiian nature, the spirit of Aloha, orange sunsets and of somewhat sad indigenous people of Hawaii who seemed to be waiting for something, maybe the return of their lost King? 

Healing Sounds workshop

The “Healing Sounds” workshop started on Friday night in the lobby of Craig’s house — a new, just built villa. In the lobby there was a big pool with goldfishes, pretty big and fat ones — a very good Feng Shui symbols of luck. Golden fishes were enjoying the waterfall which whirred from the wall above the pool. Around fifty pretty exotically dressed people of all ages came to this introductory lecture. 

Kimba, the organizer of this workshop, a recognized sound therapist and scientist, introduced us to the atmosphere of the workshop with the soft, gentle, subtle, and at that time for me a powerful and unearthly sound of the Australian didgeridoo. I had never heard anything like that before. One term that could describe “this” is love in sound form, which gently but omnipresently stroked every bit of my physical and possibly other, non-physical, cells. 

Jonathan gave an interesting introductory lecture followed by a slide show about the origin of sound therapy, and about sound and its influence on matter and psyche. His voice filled with excitement for the subject, he introduced us to the theory and future practice of healing sounds. One of the things that Jonathan said that night is still resonating in my head even today. It was the title of a New York Times article from 1988: “Ultrasonic rays may create, break or rearrange molecules and lift objects in the air.”

Kimba Arem — Hawaii based sound healer and a musician, photo by Author.

There are days in our lives when minutes are like hours, and days are like weeks. The two following days were like this. Time got MP3 form, compressed itself, so that it could unroll later. Now, many years later, that condensed time is starting to take effect. 

On the first day of the workshop we learned the basics of overtone singing. Jonathan wore a ceremonial robe and an exotic hat on his head. Later I realized that he looked like one of the wizards from Harry Potter, with one difference: he was a REAL magician of sound and he shared his knowledge with the joy of a child. At that time I believed that one and a half months before that I got enlightened at the Burning Man festival, which is held in the Black Rock desert, Nevada, so coming to such a colorful gathering and to Jonathan’s lesson on chakra meditation with sound seemed a little strange to me. 

The truth is I did feel the different states of mind of the people around me and with Katie Fisher, who was sitting on the left of me, and without words I shared a plunge into deeper states of consciousness. It was like diving and exploring the depths of unknown waters. She would submerse and I would follow her and vice versa. It was a beautiful feeling of some sort of companionship with a dolphin. 

Mainly, I constantly meditated, trying not to lose the state of inner ecstasy achieved by concentrating on the ajna chakra — an energy center on the forehead between the eyebrows. 

Group of around 40 participants slowly progressed in the skill of overtone singing. Vocal harmonics were gathering in the upper empty space of our hall penetrating into invisible dimensions above the house. These tones were merged together with the hypnotic sounds of the Pacific waves. They were splashing on the sand of the Hawaiian shores down below. 

One tone chord 

Jonathan also demonstrated the ancient skill of Buddhist Tibetan monks of the Gyuto tantric order, where three tones produced simultaneously create a so called “One tone chord”. 

During the American tour of these Buddhist monks in 1985 and 1986, Jonathan tried to make them teach him this technique, which they jealously kept for themselves, and which Tibetan lama Je Tzong Sherab Senge received in 1433 in a dream. He heard one incredibly deep sound and with this sound, one more of a higher pitch. In his dream, these two sounds meant the uniting of the divine aspects of male and female energy. The next morning, during the recitation of prayers, out of the throat of Je Tzong Sherab lama came the same deep voice as in his dream and that’s how the technique of tantric Tibetan singing started. 

For a long time Jonathan tried to produce that tone on his own but did not have any success. As he wasn’t initiated in that tantric order, the priests did not want to reveal their secret. During their tour Jonathan got the unique opportunity to record their singing in a studio. After recording and just before he went to bed he listened to the recording again. The next morning he tried again and then it happened! He started to sing with the “One tone chord”! 

When he came to the recording studio the next day, the technician who did the recording told him that he could perform the same tone as well. They both looked at the lama who guided this group of monks and he just smiled. It was his present to them. 

Jonathan didn’t try to teach us the technique of the “One tone chord”, he said that he doesn’t know how to do it and that it is given from teacher to student by direct transmission, that is, it happens when young lamas are staying in the same room with other monks chanting the same style. 

I have tried to produce that tone in Jonathan’s presence and it seemed to me that I succeeded at one moment. Later, when I went back to San Francisco, I tried to chant that tone again and then the deep tone appeared, not produced with vocal chords but deep down in the windpipe area. 

Today, years later, I can still produce this tone, still feeling that I am on the edge to do it right. It seems that my throat is not relaxed enough and I could experience scraping or coughing after several attempts. Maybe one day a lama will appears who will give me a mysterious smile and I will easily sing the “One tone chord” for the good of all sentient beings. 

Jonathan Goldman leading Healing Sounds workshop, Kauai’i, Hawai’i, photo by Author

Inner vision 

On the second day of the workshop we went deeper into transformational work with sound, we used tuning forks to quickly change our state of mind, crystal and metal Tibetan bowls, and we learned the sound diagnostic method, that is a „siren“ technique in which one scans the body of a client similarly to an ultrasound machine and performs Sound Healing treatment with vocal harmonics. 

Jonathan also brought us in touch with Shamael, the angel of Sound, and for the end of the seminar he left the most powerful method, the practical application of vocal harmonics in group healing sound treatment. 

One person would lie down in the middle of the room, she or he would say her or his name or the name that she or he would like to be called just for this exercise, and also she or he would name one quality such as love, tenderness, or strength and would say one color associated with that quality. The task of us in the Sound Healing circle around the receiver was to sing the name of the person and at the same time imagine the quality and color mentioned by the receiver. 

This group treatment is one of the most powerful tools that I experienced in my work with sound. Voices were blending one over the other, gradually building their way towards other dimensions of existence which opened at one moment. 

Suddenly, in my inner view, the roof of the villa where seminar was held disappeared and in front of my spiritual eye appeared the vastness of heavenly spheres where, above and around our sonic medicine circle bathed in sounds, tones and positive intentions for the person who was receiving the treatment, floated dozens of angelic beings in their spiritual bodies of semi-transparent light. They were witnesses of what was happening, but they also took part in the whole process. 

When the session was over the person who received the treatment described THE SAME experience! I was deeply touched. Such an experience is very subtle, almost untouchable and unsubstantial; it can’t be recorded nor firmly grasped, as if it were spun with silk threads which evaporate under the influence of awakened consciousness. 

And then only this feeling of being moved, of an open heart and blissful elevation speaks of the reality of this experience and stays as a gift woven into all the cells of my body and my soul. Thank you Jonathan for introducing me to the miraculous world of Sound Healing! 

Inspiration for creation 

I was inspired to create my own sound healing records Om Didge, Sound and Silence of Cheops and Omming.

This article is also published on Medium.

Article written by Svemir Vranko, holistic Deeper Life Coach