Healing and Transforming Yourself and Others with Tibetan Singing Bowlsby Diane Mandle
Certified Sound Healer
Science tells us that all life is energy, eternal in nature and morphing from one shape or form to another. Each ‘energy shape’ has its own particular pattern of frequencies, or vibrations. When one form experiences a matching frequency in the form of a musical note, the form will begin to vibrate in sympathy with the note in sympathetic resonance. A strong enough vibration can even cause a form to restructure itself, as has been noted with cancer cells, crystal glasses, water crystals etc. With the Himalayan bowls, (also known as Tibetan Singing Bowls) every note creates sympathetic resonance with every other note, producing harmonic overtones that commence the healing process through a process of entrainment. The sympathetic resonance between brain and bowls reawakens the intrinsic blissful self in us.
In more scientific language, "Sound enters the healing equation from several directions: It may alter cellular functions through energetic effects; it may entrain biological systems to function more homeostatically; it may calm the mind and therefore the body; or it may have emotional effects, which influence neurotransmitters and neuropeptides, which in turn help to regulate the immune system--the healer within." - Mitchell Gaynor, M.D., Director of Medical Oncology and Integrative Medicine at the Strang-Cornell Cancer Prevention Center and New York Hospital
David Bohm, quantum physicist, author of Wholeness and the Implicate Order states
“When the internal and external are at odds with each other--dissonant--the result is disease or a break in harmony. In tonal music the appreciator sought the fundamental in the music as a metaphor of spiritual unity, the ending of a journey. In new music one seeks the fundamental in one's self; the return to the fundamental is anywhere, anytime, and any direction, because the fundamental is everywhere and here."So healing through sound is a movement from disharmony to harmony, from duality to non-duality or Divine Awareness. It is a spiritual awakening with a profound impact on the physical body. As we awaken and our perspective shifts, a domino effect ensues that also shifts our perspective, our vibration and our cellular make up. The shifts can not occur as separate entities - they affect the whole of who we are and extend infinitely. This transformation of consciousness is the foundational principal of the Himalayan Singing Bowls. Tuned to the vibrational frequency of AUM, the sound of universal perfection, their sound reawakens in us our connection to the universe. Their frequencies gently penetrate and calm the body/mind, balance the hemispheres of the brain, initiate the relaxation response and decreases, fatigue, pain, stiffness, and emotional tension. It is not uncommon for a person to feel completely transported to another dimension while being aware of that which surrounds them.
The Tibetan Buddhist philosophy that the singing bowls are rooted in teaching us that embedded in the energy and frequency of the singing bowls is that idea that nothing exists independently of anything else. Healing is a process where we are released from an ego centered finite perspective of ourselves in the world and move into our essence where our vibratory energy is connected with the universe and where, even at a cellular level, we can experience the interrelationship of all things. Without healing, the core issue that caused a physical condition in the first place is likely to manifest again. Sound is the train that helps us get to healing.
How? It has been determined that different pulses stimulate different brainwave centers. We also know that we can create brainwave entrainment through a process of sympathetic resonance and that we normally entrain or fall into vibrational step to the strongest vibrations in our immediate environment. Because our body is 80% water, it is a perfect transmitter of vibration. Further, nerve bundles in our spine transmit vibrational sensory data to brain stem and limbic system (our emotional processing center). Thus, placing Himalayan (Tibetan) bowls directly on the body significantly increases their effectiveness. These bowls vibrate at the frequency of perfection, otherwise known as the Sanskrit mantra AUM. Striking the bowls produces binaural beats to which our brainwaves will naturally synchronize and which are associated with the deep relaxation and altered states of consciousness that leads to healing. When placed directly on your body, as in a private session, our muscles and organs receive the bowls direct vibrations. In other words Vibrational Sound from these instruments create the optimum physical/spiritual container needed for healing. Through playing or hearing the bowls on a regular basis one creates an anchoring to the memory of well being that can override pain, stress and illness.
Said another way, the sound of Tibetan bowls entrains our energetic system to resonate with them in their perfection. In the universe every dissonant chord tends toward becoming a harmony and that’s what they help our bodies to do. The harmonic resonance of the bowls literally pulls us back into a more universal energetic flow. They effectively transmit their soothing and peaceful vibrations through our body in a way that affects our entire nervous and immune system and initiates the relaxation response bringing us into a Theta brainwave state (waking dream state that is home to creativity, inspiration, intuition and where we can let go of our ego boundaries, of our consciousness of our physical state and connect with the non-physical, non dualistic.) The sound vibrations of the Sacred bowls balance our right and left brain and with repetition in conjunction with visualization can hold us in the Theta state for longer and longer periods of time. The vibrational sound from the Himalayan bowls initializes our parasympathetic nervous system and helps to raise the disease fighting immune cells while also reducing our stress response and creating cardio respitory synchrony (the synchronized flow of our brain, respitory and heart rate waves). Our capacity to heal from any illness is predicated on our body’s ability to achieve cardio-respitory synchrony and this is exactly what is achieved by listening to the bowls.
"We know that sounds are stimulating and we also have the technology to be able, in fact, to recharge people with them…The ear, the vibration sensor, serves to charge the organism with electrical potential…The charge of energy obtained from the influx of nervous impulses reaches the cortex [of the brain], which then distributes it [the energy] throughout the body toning up the whole system and imparting greater dynamism to the human being" - Dr. Alfred Tomatis, surgeon, Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, and a pioneer in Applied PsychologyOur attitudes, beliefs and behaviors will either engage with or sabotage the healing potential as well. Positive thinking can strengthen your immune system and change your life. The combination of the sound vibration of the bowls with positive visualization and affirmations will greatly enhance the healing experience when practiced on a regular basis.
Diane Mandle is Certified in Tibetan Bowl Sound Healing through the State of California and Sacred Sound Workshops. Based in Southern California, she maintains a private practice offering an integrated system for healing which includes Sound and Polarity Therapy, Toning and Visualization. Diane conducts educational presentations, keynotes and Harmonic Sound Healing concerts nationally and presents regularly at the Deepak Chopra Center. She has produced the first comprehensive multimedia home study course in Sound Healing using Himalayan instruments (Tibetan, Nepalese and Bhutanese bowls, tingshas, gantas and dorjes) ‘Ancient Sounds for a New Age’, an E-Book/DVD/ CD set available on her website at www.soundenergyhealing.com