Ep 95 Sound Healing

Sound healing is the practice of using sound to improve your physical health as well as your emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing, and is accessible to people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. In this week’s podcast, guest speaker Jim Powell speaks to us about his many years of experience with this healing and restoring practice, sharing stories of astonishing improvements in people’s overall health. Join us in hearing about how even a simple playlist, or singing “Happy Birthday” in community with others, can create goodness in our lives. 

Additional Resources

Song: Floating Golden Light, written and performed by Jim Powell and Beth Wortzel
Song: Heart Prayer, written and performed by Jim Powell and Beth Wortzel
Song: Song of Gratitude, written and performed by Jim Powell and Beth Wortzel
Website: Scentsy

#SoundHealing #HealingVibrations #Wellbeing #WholeBodyHealth #MusicAndHealing #MovementAndMusic #CommunalSinging 

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Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

sound, people, sing, healing, singing, humming, intention, voice, vibrating, chant, harmonious, chanting

Dominic Kaiser 00:06

Welcome to The Contemplative Life: Three pastors, friends and spiritual companions help us explore spirituality through a contemplative lens. 

I'm Christina Roberts. 
I'm Chris Roberts. 
I'm Kristina Kaiser. We're glad you joined us. 

Chris Roberts 00:24 

Well, hello, it is great to be with you. Today, we are grateful to introduce our guest, Jim Powell to the podcast. Jim is a psychotherapist with an interest at the intersection of spirituality and psychology. We recently met Jim and heard him talk about an aspect of his practice called sound healing. And this was a new term for me. But as I heard him, I found it to be a fascinating topic that we wanted to share with our listeners. So Jim, welcome to the podcast. 

Jim Powell

Thank you. Glad to be here.  

Chris Roberts

So how would you define or explain sound healing?  

Jim Powell

Well, there's so many aspects to sound healing, I won't be able to cover it all. But I would just say that way I think of it as healing comes from the word wholeness. So that sound healing is using sound and its various forms, to bring us back to wholeness. Whether that's a kind of a balance, and whether that's psychologically, emotionally, spiritually or even physically. And of course, in my work, I use it a lot for psychological and spiritual healing, if you will. But there certainly are many situations where people reported some physical healing. And there's talk of that out in the people who are working with it, that hasn't been the major focus, but I've seen it happen. You know, it kind of as an aside to people working on it in the way that we do.

Christina Roberts

I remember talking to you, and you were sharing a story about a Benedictine monastery and how this first kind of came into your frame. I wonder if you could share that story with us?

Jim Powell

 Yes, interest in sound and chanting, and so on, is part of my spiritual path. And so I went to a training seminar where the person I think was Don Campbell, who's one of the sound healers who has been around a bit.  He shared the story about in France back probably in the 60s, that there was a Benedictine monastery that he was talking about. And having been brought up in a Catholic school, I remember the time when there was a change from, I think, the Second Vatican Council and they made a lot of changes to modernize practice in the Catholic Church. And one of them that I remember distinctly was taking Latin out of the mass. And so try to make it more relevant to people with their own language, which obviously has a lot of important value. And so in this monastery, that's kind of setting the tone there, I believe there were like, roughly about 90 monks in the monastery. And according to the story, a good number of them, somewhere around 70 or so, were experiencing a lot of fatigue, chronic fatigue, and as well as depression. And so they brought in various experts to try to figure out what was going on, because they changed their lifestyle based upon this modernization. 

And one of the things that was tried was this one expert that well, they're actually not very well nourished, because they're eating mostly a vegetarian diet. And so they put them back on meat and potatoes and so on, and found out that that didn't exactly change the circumstances for them.  They tried all these other things. So they brought in this expert who's got a lot of background in various aspects of medicine and research. And he looked at the situation, and one of the main things of his suggestion was that because their lifestyle changes, they cut out the Gregorian chant, which in my understanding is part of the rhythms of the day.  I think maybe like eight different times in the day, there would be a lot of chanting the Gregorian Chant.  It would be over six hours a day and parts of the night and so on in that rhythm. And so he recommended that they put that chant back into their lifestyle, and lo and behold, they did and after about six months, most of them recovered from their fatigue and depression. 

And so it kind of struck me and his theory was that the brain needs to be charged by certain frequencies of sounds. And so he talked about that there's certain discharge sounds and then that there's charged sounds.  In the discharge sounds, that's what drains us. So right before coming on with you, I heard a leaf blower in the background. I was thinking, Oh, I hope that doesn't mess up this thing. Now with my headphones on I don't know if it's still going on or not. But anyways, it was just kind of interesting because I just read an article recently about leaf blowers that, besides their pollutant effect, gas leaf blowers, one hour of operation would be equivalent to driving a modern car to Denver from here in terms of the amount of pollution damage to the environment. And so in Washington DC there was this article that was particularly talking about, they're putting a ban on gas leaf blowers. One because the sounds are so damaging, and the people who have to operate them often are people who migrated here and don't even speak the English language. It's like the negative effects of that damaging sound. 

So from a sound point of view, if that's something that those kinds of frequencies are damaging to us, where other frequencies in the right range that actually charges the brain. And so if we get the right frequencies, which is a lot of all the different chat traditions has that and of course, the Gregorian chant in this particular case was one of those.  Especially when it's done in the environments that they're done in such as you know, with the great acoustics, then that has quite a healing effect. So there's many, many different ways that this happens. I think of one of the sound healers that we did a training with her name's Jill Purce, she's from the UK. And she talked a lot about before there was television and radio, a few more things now that people used to sit around or be in communities, and they would sing together a lot of times. And from her point of view, and I don't know how accurate this is, but that there was less depression, because people were singing and getting charged through these different methods, as well as having the sense of connection and community. From my point of view, loss of connection has increased the problems with mental health in this day and age. 

Kristina Kaiser  06:52

This is all so fascinating to me. I think Christina had mentioned to you that I sang professionally for a while. And I don't tell people that anymore. So it's really not great that I'm putting it on a podcast like this. But you know, everyone always wants you to sing, if you say that.  But I certainly have noticed not so much from science, I don't know anything about science. But there's something about the way that the face vibrates. And it tends to lower my sense of anxiety. So when I've wanted to pass that on to others, I often take the singing out of it, like chanting is actually a really easy form of singing.  It's often just a couple notes and this kind of a thing. So we often do humming as opposed to singing, but are you doing it in your practice? Is that how you're engaging? 

Jim Powell

Well, yes.  I would say the bulk of my practice on an individual one on one basis was not sound healing. But I would have people who would come wanting that. And so we did this through workshops and retreats, where we would create this prolonged environment with prolonged time together, and singing together.   I think the singing community or chanting has a lot of power, both from, from the amplification of the sound, and from the sense of more connection. So in terms of what you're talking about, I had this image of, Oh, I'd love to hear you sing in an acoustic environment. Because one of the most healing aspects of sound, you think of all the beautiful instruments we have, which are all part of healing, but the most healing sound is the human voice.  It's your voice. It doesn't matter if you have a great voice or a poor voice. And, and it's because the sounds you make are attuned to you. And so they're vibrating in your body. In fact, you're talking about the cheeks vibrating. And one of the things when teaching people to make sounds in particular, sometimes these prolonged vowel sounds would be an example of the kinds of sounds that we would work with rather than how do I sound out there? It's focusing on what's the vibration in the body? And how do I sound inside? And that has a different effect on what happens with our brain. In fact, as a meditation teacher and one of the things in meditation, working with mindfulness is having people pay attention in the present moment. What's the sensation in the body? And it's interesting how that studies show that it impacts different aspects of the brain. And so the point you're bringing up is something that in this work, the parallels of doing this. 

Chris Roberts 

Well, I find what you're saying very fascinating, Jim, particularly the aspect where our own voice can bring healing to us because it's attune to us and the need for us to actually give voice to the various things that are happening in our life. But I'm also struck by the fact that I've read different passages and there's images and literature that talk about where people might not be at a place to even use their own voice. And so someone, like the famous passage from the Bible is this person, his name is Saul was a king.  He had someone come and play the harp, and said that he was vexed in spirit. And then this sort of music or playing or singing over him, would bring him to a peace or maybe even something that I think of would be to restore him to themselves. And so I know there's also the others, what do you think about this aspect where we can be healing agents to other people with what you're talking about, and sound healing? 

Jim Powell

Yeah, one of the Jonathan Goldman, one of the people we did some intensive training with, he had a, I'm not sure if it was his theory, but his he had this formula that sound is a deliverer of intention. And so sound plus healing intention helps bring us to more wholeness. And so whether you're playing instrumental music or working with vocalization, the intention you have is very important. And so, for example, if we want to look at some basic sound healing, singing Happy Birthday to somebody.  You have a positive intention. And you're naming them by name. And you can tell people are feeling it. I mean, singing Happy Birthday usually goes short. But then it's over with, but I think that the intention is very important. And that's more important than the performance.  

Sometimes when we work with people who have trouble with singing and I do this, sometimes the individual therapy, or we're doing therapy within a group setting is getting people the first sound.  Or they're blocked, it's like, where do you feel blocked inside? Where in the body is that there could be their voice?  It could just be where their emotional stuckness is, and make a sound of that dissonance. It's like, imagine that part of you could make a sound.  Maybe it's a whimper, maybe it's a growl, maybe it's whatever.   To be with that a little bit and if you can't even get a voice with it, just kind of breathe with it, and then maybe turn the breath into a sound, then moving it. So there's something about aligning with connecting with where we are, and then moving to transform it, then moving it to a more harmonious sound. So maybe that dissonant sound might move to something that's more. 

And I will often help people with their inhibition tone along with it. I'll try to match what their vibration is. And just make those sounds. I think that's just one example. Or it could just be that, like we use chanting, both sometimes have a different language, like chanting is very much part of the Sanskrit, the old Tantra Yoga from 1000s of years back.  Or we created a lot of chants that are in English. And sometimes we just do the repetition. When you have a group of people particularly singing it, it allows people to kind of start to join in without having to feel like they're performing. And we really emphasize the intention of coming back to that point, so that people don't feel like this is a performance.  

Actually it doesn't matter how well you sing. I taught myself guitar and so on. And I'm not a trained musician that well, my wife is more trained, she teaches music. And so we've done a lot of groups together. And in some of the groups, I've had a number of people who were classically trained and who are much more trained in musically than I was. To my surprise, they would thank me for helping liberate their voice because so much and you probably know about this, Kristina.  I imagined in opera this is true, but so much of the time people are really trained at a high level, they have so much judgment, and there's comparison and am I doing it right? And they might even have a teacher who's very critical, trying to get them to be perfect. And this kind of throws that whole thing out there. So in a paradoxical way, aligning to where you are in training to where you are is very important. 

Kristina Kaiser

I can absolutely speak to that. I feel like I know so many musicians who, if they really want to get somewhere, like spiritually, it's more like taking it down to bare bones or brass tacks just to see chords.  Or say just humming because yeah, you get so in your head. You were mentioning though, like, let's say that they're starting on a sound and that represents irritation or frustration or some emotion. How does one know when to start moving towards that more harmonious sound? 

Jim Powell

Well, usually, if 'm with them, if I'm guiding, for example, I just kind of get an intuitive sense.  I'll suggest moving it that way. If somebody is doing it on their own, I would say, just stay there a few minutes. And when it feels right to you to move it forward, but not to overdo it. But I think sometimes people have this. Why do it?  Even some popular music.  It's like, where there's an expression of discontent, I come from the Beatles generation. So I'm thinking of a song, Don't Let Me Down. You know, it's like, the singer that sometimes there's this release, and maybe moving that to something more like, Let It Be.  Let it be, speaking words of wisdom, let it be. So you're shifting even the intention of it. 

So sometimes, if people are going to do it on their own, I'll suggest that they could even pick songs that they really like, but that have some of that expression of their feeling. But then move with it something that's more harmonious, or it could just be instrumental music as you were talking about, Chris.  David and Saul, it's funny, in just the spring I was over in that territory in Jerusalem, where it was all taking place. I'm curious about that history. And so I think it's, sometimes there's intuition, but sometimes people need more specific guidance. 

But I want to come back to one thing that you talked about humming, and I think humming is really, really good. And one of the reasons humming is good, I mean, there's many reasons.  But from this aspect of more harmonics or overtones we have in our sound, the more healing the vibration is, and it's a way to feel it more in the body, I'm sure you probably feel it quite a bit. And so humming is really, really powerful. And so that's another way to get people who feel inhibited, as you probably know, to get them going and just do humming. So there's many different approaches. 

Christina Roberts

I appreciate how accessible you're making this and just even mentioning the Happy Birthday, because I was thinking, when do we sing communally?  It's maybe at a baseball game in the seventh inning stretch, we might seem communally, or Happy Birthday. But most of it for me, I'm singing in the shower or in the car, where no one else is with me, because it's safe. And I don't consider myself a musician. So I appreciate the accessibility of a noise, a sound, actually as a starting point that I can then lean into that feels very accessible to me.

Jim Powell

You're really right on with that. When I was way back in some of my early training of helping people with psychedelics and so on, one of the people said, you know, it's like even the Elks clubs when they get together, they sing.  That's important. And I think of an example of a family getting together. Once a year, we do a little family vacation. And one of the things I bring my guitar along and I sing the song that I learned from one of the sound healers, Molly Scott.  It's something like down on the farm, we get up in the morning early, and we sing our praises to the sun, and tell the sun Good morning. So we get the kids that say, what else should we tell Good morning? So one will say, oh, there's the lakes or the fish in the lake. And then we go around and sing to each person who's there. And there's a real affirmation. And then they still like that, even though this last time, we didn't do it every morning, because now they're in their teenage years. And so we're not all getting up in the morning at the same time. But it still works. But that's something that's very simple. It's like you're bringing the intention to sound and it's a community. And so it's a very simple thing. So there's a lot of ways that we do it.  

Sometimes people ask me, Well, there's a discipline to working with toning, over practicing overtone chanting or even humming, you know, you gotta take this discipline. I'm thinking of somebody more recently who's very busy. And it's a very stressful job. And she works with teens, she was kind of in a place of depression where she was like, Oops, I'm really kind of hitting my low here.  The simple instruction from me and this is something anybody can give to anybody is, put together your playlist, because she had a little bit of a commute, of songs you like and just sing along.  Just get the singing going. And so, there are specific reasons why certain sounds are healing and you know, certain sacred songs are definitely useful, but my simple message is that the most healing sound to start with is the music, start the songs you like to sing. And so just do that.

Chris Roberts  20:00

I love that. Thank you so much for just even offering a few practical ways that we can engage with this sound healing. I loved your example of whenever your family gets together and sings. It gets me thinking about Christina and I went on a trip for I think our fourth anniversary and we're at the Maritime Provinces. And something that was really big is this thing called a cèilidh. A cèilidh is this event where people get together and play music and dance. And they have these, like, on a weekly basis, these cèilidhs. And I personally am inspired by what you're saying, because not only can I engage in this with the little tidbits that you've given us, but I'm also looking for ways that I can look out into the community, and finding ways to gather with people and sing and dance and do things that that will bring happiness, if I could just get my kids away from screens.  That is the challenge.

Jim Powell 21:13

No, but you're really right. And you mentioned dancing, it's like if you can add movement dance to it, that's wonderful. Because sometimes, in some groups that we've done, it's like, people start to put a movement to their dissonance, make a sound to eventually move to a more harmonious flowing dance.  Sometimes putting on music in the background, instrumental music or music that can be sung to, or just using their own voices. So adding the movement aspect is very powerful. 

Chris Roberts

Well, thank you so much for just a wonderful conversation. It has been such a pleasure to be with you, Jim. 

Jim Powell

My pleasure to be with the three of you. So thank you, 

Chris Roberts

We wanted to let you know that Jim and his wife have offered us some sound recordings. And we will put a link in the show notes where you can access that for your listening pleasure.

Chris Roberts 22:18

Now is the part of the podcast where we transition to what we are into? What are we into this week? 

Kristina Kaiser

Well, you know, the Fall is here. And so there's a few things that make me so excited in the fall. One of them is smells.  To embrace fresh smells, and something cozy. And my mother sells Scentsy stuff. And I like to get the bakery ones or the cafe ones and make the house smell like graham crackers or apple or cinnamon or whatever. So it's new and fresh, and it doesn't last forever. But that is what I like to do at this time of year. 

Christina Roberts

Very fun. Well, going along with the fall theme. I am into soups, all different kinds of soups.  Every year, I have my standard soups that I start with. And I've been scouring the internet looking for different types of soup recipes. And I've sort of on Sunday night, what are all the leftovers that we have in the fridge and I'll make some sort of a soup out of what it is. And actually, I'm surprised that it turned out really fun and interesting and yummy. So I am all about soups. 

Chris Roberts 

Continuing with the fall theme, I am into the different colors that are just beginning to peek into the trees. And I find it fascinating how trees don't all of a sudden just turn one color. Like there's different colors in the tree. And so I've been walking past a few trees every day. And I'm noticing the subtle changes that happen over the course of a couple of days. And so that is what I am into recently. 

Well, thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure to be with you.  

Dominic Kaiser

If you enjoy listening to the podcast, we invite you to stay connected by signing up for our Foundry Spiritual Center newsletter where you can learn about even more programs and offerings. You'll find a link to subscribe in the show notes or visit us anytime at foundrysc.com. Thanks again for being with us. We hope you have a great week.