Instruments

Over the years I have acquired many sound healing tools. I began with a collection of hand drums, wind chimes, cymbals, shakers, etc. from being a percussionist, before I even began to explore sound healing. My first venture into purchasing instruments for sacred sound was six Tibetan Singing Bowls. Of these, two produce lots of overtones so they are good to use for harmony and four produce single tones so they are good for melody. At a sound healing conference a couple of years ago, I purchased an Otto 128 tuning fork, a frame drum and a friction mallet to go with it, and a crystal practitioner bowl. Not too long ago I bought Tingshas that work nicely with my Tibetan Bowls. My Most recent purchases are the Solar Harmonic Spectrum tuning forks, Fibonacci tuning forks and Brain Tuners, all from BioSonics.com. In addition to all these toys, I use my voice to do toning, mostly based on Jonathan Goldman’s Chakra/Vowel association, and also to chant mantras. I utilize any number of these in individual sessions, group meditation, demonstrations and recordings.

What Is Sound Healing? part 2

Last time I kind of jumped around a lot, so I figured I’d try to explain a few things, mostly from the technical side. As I said before, we call the frequency 440 Hz, “A” in our musical alphabet. This is the note orchestras tune to. The A below (to the left) has a frequency of 220 Hz (440/2). The next A below that would be 110 Hz and the one below that would be 55 Hz, etc. The A above (to the right) 440 Hz would be 880 Hz (440*2), and above that would be 1760 Hz, and above that would be 3520 Hz, etc. The point of all this is that when we divide a frequency in half or double it, we consider it the same note, but in a different octave (the ratio of these notes would be 1:2 or 2:1). Why is this important? Remember all those frequencies outside of human hearing? This is how we can be in tune with them. Even though we can’t create the exact frequency of our organs or cells or atoms, we can create those notes in a lower octave, within our hearing and singing range, and tune them that way.
Here is probably the coolest example (if you thought there was a lot of math involved so far, just you wait). OK, a frequency is measured in cycles per second (cycles/1 second). The Earth takes 365.242 days to make one “cycle” around the Sun. If we translate 365.242 days into seconds, we get 31,556,908.8 seconds in one Earth year (60 seconds * 60 minutes = 3600 seconds per hour. 3600 seconds * 24 hours = 86,400 seconds per day. 86,400 seconds * 365.242 days = 31,556,908.8). So the frequency (cycles/1 second) of the Earth going around the Sun is 1 cycle/ 31,556,908.8 seconds. Now this is obviously not in our hearing range, so to find a comparable frequency, we need to bring it up a few octaves (actually, 32 octaves). 1/31,556,908.8 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 = 4,294,967,296/31,556,908.8 = 136.102282 Hz (to make it a little more simple, I’ll round it to 136.1 from now on).
This frequency of 136.1 Hz is close to, but not quite, the note C Sharp on the piano. Spiritual Masters in India referred to this as sadja or sa, resonating with the primordial vibration, OM. Indian musicians will tune their instruments to this frequency to be in tune with the Earth, and increase the meditative quality of their music. Wouldn’t it be great if we could be in tune with Mother Earth in addition to being in tune with ourselves?
In Harmony,
(((Tim)))

What is Sound Healing? part 1

Some of you may not have heard of Sound Healing. Even if you have heard of it, you may not know exactly what it is. There have been many to come before me whom I have learned from and I suggest that you look into them and their definitions as well. (They include Zacciah Blackburn, Dr. John Beaulieu, N.D., Ph.D., R.P.P., Layne Redmond and Jonathan Goldman, to name a few). I will try to convey my understanding, in my own words.
First of all, what is sound? Everything in the Universe is in motion. Galaxies, stars, planets, life-forms, organs, cells, molecules, atoms, etc. Planets revolve around stars just like electrons revolve around the nucleus of an atom: as above, so below.
The sound that our ears perceive is created the same way. If you pluck the string of a guitar, it vibrates or cycles at a certain speed that creates a sound wave. A visual representation of this sound wave would be a wavy line that goes up and down. The speed at which the string vibrates, or the speed that it takes for the wave to go from all the way at the top to all the way at the bottom, to all the way at the top, is its frequency. Frequencies are measured in cycles per second, or hertz (Hz).
Let's look at this musically. A frequency of 440 Hz would create what we Westerners recognize as the note "A" (the note orchestras tune to). An interesting fact is that if you went to a piano and plays A 440, and then played the next A down (to the left), the frequency of that A would be 220 Hz: exactly half of the original A! If you then went back to A 440 and went to the next A up (to the right), its frequency would be 880 Hz: exactly double that of the original A! So if we divide the frequency IN HALF, we get the same note, but DOWN an octave. If we DOUBLE the frequency, we get the same note, but UP an octave. This will be very important later.
Can you hear a dog whistle? No. That doesn't mean that it isn't making any sound though. The same goes for planets and electrons. Human hearing is in the range of about 16 to 16,000 Hz, but frequencies exist well below and above that range (dolphins can make and hear sounds at around 180,000 Hz).
Now that we have a more broad understanding of what sound actually is, lets see how that applies. Our atoms, our cells, our organs, our bodies, (the Earth, the solar system, the galaxy, the Universe…) are all vibrating, creating frequencies/sounds. When we are at peak health, all of those frequencies are “in tune” and sound good together. That is why the orchestra, or piano, or guitar must be tuned before it can be played. If something is out of tune, no matter what is played it will not sound good. The same goes for our bodies. If we have an illness, it is because a part of us is out of tune.
I heard an interesting comparison (made by Jonathan Goldman). Lets compare our body to an orchestra. If we have a dis-ease, it is like one of the violinists lost his sheet music, so he is just playing what he thinks is the right music, making the entire orchestra sound terrible. One solution is to drug him so that he falls asleep (medication), another solution is to kill him (surgery), but what if, instead of all that, we simply give him the music he is supposed to be playing. Now he can go back to functioning the way he is supposed to and the orchestra can return to its original, intended magnificence.
This is what Sound Healing does. It “gives you your music back”. The Sacred Sounds are used to put your body, mind and spirit back in tune, so that you can create the music you were intended to create.
In Harmony,
(((Tim)))

Greetings

Hello to all! My name is Tim Girard and I am a Sound Healing Practitioner. I have also done level I of Shambhala and Level I & II of the Melchizedek Method, as well as a degree in Music Composition. I am setting up this blog so that anyone who is interested can check for updates for sessions, classes, demonstrations or CD's. More to follow, check back often!
In Harmony,
(((Tim)))