Healing Sounds

Originally appeared in the Arkansas Democratic Gazette
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2010/jun/22/ear-wars-20100622/

Of the five senses, hearing is the one we punish most through excess. About three in 20 people will lose high-frequency tones by their 69th birthday, according to the National Institutes of Health, and many of those by choice.

Some of us like the color green, but we don’t program it into our smart phones for glimpses along the route to work, the brightness turned up all the way.

We like the taste and smell of vanilla, but would it fill the empty hours of a long car trip?

Imagine forking over $20 for admission to an outdoor amphitheater where a bunch of massage chairs awaited. Now imagine if those massage chairs forever numbed our sensitivity to touch.

Unlike a vibrating seat, sweet vanilla or the color green, what one person enjoys hearing, another despises. Oh, someone may say they “hate” asparagus, but we don’t feel empathy for them like when they say the same about the sound pouring into their apartment at night.

Stranger still, if we universally like the sound of cats’ purrs and wind chimes, why do we put on Wu-Tang Clan in the car? And if we roundly agree the sound of two cars crashing is unpleasant, why is the cymbal strike a favorite marker of musical climax?

Consider the Ultimate Om, a recording produced by self-described sound “healer” Jonathan Goldman. It is the antiphony of a car crash or Wu-Tang Clan. It’s not as diverse as wind chimes.

At just over one hour in length, it is the product of layering dozens of vocalists giving voice to the om, the sound of creation in Hinduism and a meditative hum, in the key of C.

A former rock musician, Goldman had an epiphany one night at a bar. If the thump-thump-crash they were pumping into the audience wound up the crowd, perhaps another sound would produce different, calming results.

Today, 30 sound recordings later, Goldman is more convinced than ever that sound influences not just sentient beings with ears and nervous systems but individual living cells. Coincidentally, Ultimate Om is what is played at the website of Princeton’s Global Consciousness Project.

Is this the anthem of our very existence?

Moreover, if this recording of a human chorus titillates our cells and sinks us deeper into harmony with the universe, why is it that AC/DC’s Back in Black, at nearly 50 million copies sold according to The New York Times, is by that estimate 100 times more popular than Goldman’s magnum opus? In fact, many more people can sing the first verse of “You Shook Me All Night Long” than have even heard of Ultimate Om.

That’s it. You’ve got it. “… Was a fast machine/She kept her motor clean/She was the best damn woman that I’d ever seen.”

The contrast is one of quality as well as quantity. The rock album is a black trip into lust and loss and excess. The guitar riffs and harmonies create a frenetic symphony, the howl of strained rock vocals and power chords set to the drumbeats of war. The last track, “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution,” is the aural nemesis of Ultimate Om.

“Basic bottom line … sound waves go into your ear, through the auditory pathways into our brain, and when they do, they affect our nervous system, our heart rate, our respiration,” says the former rock musician. “Goldman’s factoid: Loud sounds basically trigger the fight-or-flight response, causing a release of adrenaline, increased heart rate and respiration and hormonal output, impairing our immunological systems, digestion ….”

‘ALL I HEAR IS BASS’

Fight or flight?

Fight.

That’s the response you have after you’ve sunken into the recliner just after dark. The Mentalist is on and you’re lipping a spoonful of ice cream when that neighbor kid rolls down the street. Here come those epic bass notes boom, boom hitting your ear like the footfalls of a tyrannosaurus. Grab your club!

“All I hear is bass,” says Dr. John Dornhoffer, an otolaryngology doctor and pioneer at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “I hate the bass. It’s visceral.”

Dornhoffer doesn’t live downtown, isn’t plagued by circling subwoofers. He’s nearly deaf. Two frequency transposition hearing aids allow him to hear human speech, but it’s dim. Women sound like men, and everyone sounds like James Earl Jones.

“Hearing loss is kind of the silent disease,” he says, without so much as a smirk. Because loss happens in the highest frequencies first, some people don’t know what they’re missing. They can’t feel the sound. And here’s another thing.

Sound is a strong stimulant of the limbic system – that’s your emotional self. It can make us dance around the apartment, or lull us to sleep. Some studies show loud sounds raise blood pressure. This partly explains why we damage our hearing for a thrill. A more obvious explanation is that the louder the sound, the more physical it becomes – “vibrotactile,” it’s called.

Now, in another context vibrotactility goes by another name: “modal phenomena,” or “cymatics,” the study of sound’s physical influence or manifestation. Researcher and technician John Stuart Reid invented the CymaScope for looking at atoms’ reactions to song, and he believes “the building blocks of musical harmony, vibration and resonance, are two words that are just as important in understanding the fabric of our universe.”

So, sound fills our universe? Hardly. Space is a vacuum, and sound requires a medium. That tremor in particle pressure, that doesn’t exist in space.

“That’s actually not true,” says Donald Gurnett.

The James A. Van Allen Professor of Physics at the University of Iowa helped develop a receiver detecting sound right now from the Cassini space probe orbiting Saturn, and space, he says, “has a lot more variety of sounds than you’d find in our atmosphere” (visit www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/space-audio for samples).

There are sound media in space – solar wind, plasma (or ionized gases). Some of the sound waves have magnetic fields like radio. The sounds propagating in the Auroras, that atmospheric nether region ionized by solar radiation, are plentiful and eerie, like ghosts boooo-ing.

“We played a game here, we asked, ‘How many natural sounds can you think of not produced by living things?’ There’s not that many. Thunder. Wind blowing through trees. Telephone wires produce an aeolian tone. Hardly any that you think of as musical. Then you go out in space, and you hear dozens and dozens of plasma waves produced by solar winds,” Gurnett says. “Space has a lot more variety of sounds than you find in our atmosphere.”

So sound and music are part of the larger fabric of the universe, as Reid believes?

“I don’t know if I’ll endorse that,” Gurnett says.

But we did. We all did, tacitly, when as a planet we sent our calling card out into space in the form of the Golden Records aboard Voyager missions 1 and 2. These mechanical recordings – literally gilded records – contain hours of audio meant to replicate the sounds of our planet, its nature and man’s own music.

No matter. The odds of another living thing finding it and cracking it are “nil to none,” Gurnett says, and he’s one of the optimists. He believes “other things” exist out there.

But let’s return to planet Earth, and the Ultimate Om.

THE HUM OF CREATION

“Oh, yeah, I could listen to this for a while,” said Bill Lovett of Bryant, who at 61 has significant hearing loss in both ears.

Lovett was one of about two dozen people of different ages, races, sexes and musical preferences listening to the Ultimate Om on a sunny day last month. None of them had heard it before.

“It’s the same as dancing – the tone, you allow it to go into the body, and then you and the tone become one,” and it made him want to paint, Lovett said.

Monticello native Marchantia Binz said she closed her eyes and saw colors – light pinks and blues – that filled her whole mind’s eye. Despite listening to Lil Wayne and Taylor Swift in her car so loud “people three cars over can probably hear,” the 19-year-old said she could listen to Om for the entire hour.

“Soothing” – the oft-repeated one-word response. “Well-being,” was Marilyn Fulper’s word. The 56-yearold Little Rocker still favors the Ramones and early Rolling Stones.

She, like many others, thought it was building to something. Ultimate Om can’t just be an om. Where’s the timpanic rise? A threatening cello? Heart-stopping cymbal crash?

There’s something else peculiar about this sound, points out Portia Casey, 23, of Little Rock. “You can’t have this kind of music too loud, it will lose some of its effect.”

How novel! A “music” you don’t turn up to enjoy.

Goldman says the reason we listen to increasingly louder and louder music isn’t because we’re going deaf (though eventually, perhaps) but because we’re adrenaline junkies. Remember, thump-thump fast music puts us on a war footing.

Perhaps it explains why, at a recent ZZ Top show, a few concertgoers seemed inordinately disappointed by the Om, as if physically and emotionally they had prepared themselves for its opposite.

“I feel like there’s a bug in my head,” said Jenny Jones, 53, of Bryant.

So, what are the actual health benefits? The world is filled with snake oil salesmen, and there’s no dearth of websites with names like SoundHealingCenter.com, Acutonics.com, Dream Weaving.com, HealTone. com, NeuroAcoustic.com and SubliminalSelfHypnosis.com.

Where are all the doctors? The research?

In 2003, John Beaulieu coauthored a paper in the Medical Science Monitor that proffered nitric oxide, the molecule that aids cochlear blood flow and mediates the neural pathway from the cochlea to the brainstem, is more abundant in the presence of music, and that stress is reduced when this occurs. In short, sound affects neurotransmission.

He says there are a number of studies suggesting sound and human well-being are strongly correlated, but while some people are overstimulated, others are under-stimulated.

“In my career I have sent many patients to the disco for therapy,” Beaulieu said.

Sound may lead to the next breakthrough in oncology, too.

Nanotechnologist James Gimzewski at UCLA is a Nobel laureate developing the science of “sonocytology,” where the tiny vibrations of cells – They have moving parts, don’t they? They themselves move and morph. Therefore,they must make sound. – are magnified for the human ear and categorized. Cancer cell decryption seems especially promising.

His first paper appeared in the journal Science just six years ago.

Dornhoffer, the UAMS otolaryngologist, said there’s no exhaustive body of work that establishes sound therapy as a cure or palliative, but he’s open to the hypothesis. The evidence should include PET scans (threedimensional imaging used especially to diagnose brain activity).

Goldman, like Reid, believes sounds influence living organisms at the cellular level, but in lieu of scientific evidence he suggests we simply observe its influence on our limbic systems, our neurological selves. The opening bongos, rattles and cries of the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” make us want to tap our feet or swing our arms. Conversely, he says, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” made Goldman once slide off the back of a treadmill.

In short, take seriously the natural pairings of events and music.

Nice Italian dinner in a romantic locale, soft string music that lingers.

Sixteen-year-old in Dad’s convertible, Girl Talk blaring.

The next time you surprise yourself with success, “Ode to Joy.”

Much has been written about 2012—a pivotal year in human consciousness.  It is a time that many historians, metaphysicians and artists have focused their attention on. It is said that the Mayan Calendar, an ancient temporal measuring device will end on Dec. 21, 2012.  Books, movies and even music have been associated with 2012.

Jonathan Goldman, a world renowned pioneer and authority in the field of sound healing won an award last year—the coveted Visionary Award for Best Healing Meditation Album—for his CD entitled “2012: Ascension Harmonics”.  Now, this year, he’s back with a newly created follow up to this album, aptly entitled “2103: Ascension Harmonics”.

Goldman, a Grammy nominee, has had many successful and cutting edge recordings as well as many best selling books that focus on the power of sound to heal and transform. His albums are well known, not only for their unique and extraordinary ability, but also their liner notes.  With “2013: Ecstatic Sonics”, Goldman begins by asking us: “What’s going to happen in 2013?”  He then begins to suggest that: “2013 will be a time of great evolutionary activation—the result of a quantum leap in our consciousness that will have occurred through 2012.”

His new CD is a sonic attempt to create what this represents.  He tells us: “2013: Ecstatic Sonics” is a compendium of different recordings that embody what I perceive of as being the energy for 2013. There are chants to divine entities that interface with frequencies of consciousness shifting and healing.”  This recording features 18 different mantras, chants, and unique sacred sounds combined together to create a soothing, seamless flow of vibrational energy created to heal and transform.

Part of Goldman’s international reputation as a master in the field of sound healing is his creation of sounds (“sonics”) that are new and different—whether they be the first publicly released recording featuring dolphin sounds (“Dolphin Dreams”) or the first recording to ever be based entirely on the mathematical sequence of the “phi ratio” (or Fibonacci series) featured in Dan Brown’s THE DAVINCI CODE which Goldman used in “The Lost Chord”.

With 2013: Ecstatic Sonics Goldman utilized a first time ever sound experience incorporating specific frequencies that encode the psychological condition of joy and ecstasy to the listener, along with the energies of compassion and enlightenment.  These specific sonics came from another sound healing pioneer—Dr. Peter Guy Manners, a British developer of Cymatics Therapy who was a mentor of Goldman’s over 30 years ago.

“Decades ago, I had discussed the concept of applying some of Dr. Manners frequencies in music.” Goldman tells us. “Now, along with all the incredible mantras, chants and other sacred sounds on “2013: Ecstatic Sonics” I was able to apply this very subtle, but powerful layer of composite frequencies developed by Dr. Manners. The response thus far from listeners has been phenomenal.”

This recording is designed to initiate altered states of consciousness and activate heightened awareness.  These Healing Sounds® will transform you. “2013: Ecstatic Sonics” assists vibrational activation and frequency shifts. The sacred, multi-dimensional ecstatic sounds are excellent for enhancing meditation and relaxation as well as for rituals, shamanic journeys and the ascension process.

”2013: Ecstatic Sonics” is available for purchase at www.healingsounds.com, at bookstores and for downloads throughout the Internet.

Dear Family and Friends:

You know that sound healing has reached mainstream when there’s an article on it in Woman’s World. Please see the attachment–I think you’ll get a kick out of it.  I was interviewed for over an hour and as you’ll see, what was used was rather brief. But still, I was able to pick the magazine up at my local supermarket and that means the information on sound, regardless of how meager, is reaching a population I never would have suspected.

Blessings!

Jonathan

Earth Star magazine has included The Divine Name in its Spring reading list.

Here’s their Spring reading list review:

In this groundbreaking work, sound healing pioneer Jonathan Goldman shares his incredible discovery of The Divine Name, a universal sound that, when intoned, can bring harmony and healing to ourselves and the planet.  This name, encoded within our DNA, is the personal name of God, once found in the religious texts that link over half the world’s population.  Prohibited and then lost for nearly 2,500 years, The Divine Name is available once again.  It is a sound that when vocalized has the ability to resonate both the physical body and subtle energy fields of anyone who intones it – irrespective of religion, tradition, or belief.  The Divine Name is a step-by-step process of vibratory activation that will allow you to experience the power, majesty and healing of this extraordinary sound.  Also included is an “instructional” CD that will help you learn to intone The Divine Name yourself, enabling you to revel in its astounding transformational properties.

Earth Star magazine is on the internet at www.earthstarmag.com

Review:  The Divine Name by Jonathan Goldman
Dr. John Beaulieu, N.D., Ph.D.

Jonathan Goldman is unique in the field of sound healing. He makes sounds, embodies those sounds, follows them into alternate realities, and then makes them available to us. He says in The Divine Name: “sacred sound occurs when a sound is encoded with the intention of a positive outcome and beneficial results, such as healing”. I believe that Jonathan has the special gift of focusing his intention, journeying on sounds, and discovering the essence of the mystical.

I have watched him do this for many years. I am always amazed and humbled by his talent. His new book The Divine Name is the result of his latest journey. He tells us his journey started when he was a child in synagogue on high holy day awed by “the secret name of God”. Thus began his “seeking” and in this context I think all of his work or “sound journeys” that he has shared with us are resonant soundings of his seeking the Divine Name.

However for Jonathan he wants to sound it even more clearly, to instruct us all so we can sound together. His new book, The Divine Name, gives us precise instructions on how to sound. It is an amazing work. It is like a “novel of sound”. Your eyes see words and your ears do the reading. The story goes through sounds within sounds as the Divine Name seeks to reveal itself.  Only Jonathan, with his accomplished writing style, which we writers like to call “our voice”, can bring the sound journey into such a high level of focus.

Quite simply the Divine Name has to be sounded. Jonathan tells us how to sound in every way possible. He even includes an instructional CD. The word healing means “to make whole and complete, and “to be of sound mind and body”. The journey to wholeness and completion for Jonathan Goldman is through sound resulting in resonance with the Divine Name. In the presence of the divine,  mind and body become sound. The sounder becomes the sounded.  YHVH

Dr. John Beaulieu, N.D., Ph.D., author MUSIC & SOUND IN THE HEALING ARTS

I like to use the analogy that one is wearing dark glasses and then upon perceiving harmonics, is able to take off these glasses and see the full spectrum of sound.  Only of course, it is not the sense of sight we are dealing with, but the sense of hearing. Through learning to first listen to and then create vocal harmonics, it is almost as though one is able to remove ear plugs from the ears and become aware of the full spectrum of sound that is created.

So, to begin, I tell you that vocal harmonics can be an extraordinary means of heightening your consciousness.  It changes your brain waves and begins to stimulate portions of your brains that can receive greater levels of frequency.  This can be a wonderful way of beginning to shift your frequencies–simply through the power of listening.  You begin to open up to new levels of sound and vibration through your ears, your mind and your heart.

On a physical level, I will tell you that different sounds will affect  brain waves,  heart beat and  respiration.  Some of these, such as the soothing sounds of the ocean or gentle music, can be very relaxing and therapeutic.  Other sounds can actually stress the brain and the body and not be of the highest vibration for an individual.  I will discuss this in greater detail at a later time.  For the moment, I would like to suggest that listening to harmonically related sounds, particularly vocal music, can be one of the most uplifting and transformative experiences currently on this planet.  It can relax and relieve stress and it can allow consciousness to travel to higher planes.

Also, from a scientific level, I can tell you that there is now important research which indicates that by listening to sounds which are high in harmonic content, it is actually possible to provide a great charge of energy to the human brain, and therefore to the body as well.  Sounds that are rich in harmonics provide a nourishment to the body, brain and psyche.  Simply by listening to these sounds, you can begin to learn to shift your frequencies.

1. Sitting quietly before sounding: attempting to get centered.	2. I begin to vocalize the Divine Name and white light begins to appear.

3. I continue to intone the Divine Name as the white light grows.	4. The more I sound, the more the white light continues to envelop me

I had just sent out the completed manuscript of The Divine Name to my editor. I was done with the book. It was the best I could do. I was content.

The next day, I attended INATS, the International New Age Trade show-a yearly event in Denver where authors, musicians, artisans and many others speak, perform or had booths displaying their works or others such as myself, who did signings for those in attendance. The first day had been extremely busy for me, ending that night with my receiving two Visionary Awards, one for “Best Healing/Meditation Album” which my CD “2012: Ascension Harmonics” won and another for “Best Web Site” which the Temple of Sacred Sound won. This was a great surprise to me as well as quite an honor.

The following day my wife Andi & I arrived quite late at the show in order to spend a couple of hours looking around at what we had missed previously due to our busy schedule of activities the day before. As the show was just about to close down, I passed by a booth that had “Aura Imaging” photography.

The study of photographing the aura has been around since the 1930’s, when two Russian scientists, Valerie and Semyon Kirlian accidentally discovered that by passing a slight electric current through a plate that contained living matter, they were able to observe some sort of color “discharge” that extended beyond the physical material-what has become known as the aura or the electro-magnetic field. This work has progressed over many years until there are now sophisticated cameras available that seem to be able to record different colors of the aura relating to moods and other factors of people who are being photographed. There’s much skepticism about the validity of these cameras, though the photographs can be fascinating to observe.

At this booth, there was a monitor that displayed the “real time” effects of people using the equipment. I was asked to sit down and try it. However, I was tired and ready to leave the show-not particularly interested in having my aura photographed. But for some reason, however, I was guided to sit down and as an experiment, see if any changes would occur in my aura while intoning the Divine Name. Apparently, when I did this, the results were quite startling to everyone around the booth including the aura camera operator. I had missed whatever had occurred since my eyes were closed. I was asked to do sound the Divine Name again. This time, the results were recorded.

What I present now are photographs taken from a brief 20-second video made while I intoned the Divine Name. It is not my purpose to validate aura photography or equate any particular meaning to what you’ll see. I simply make these photos available for your perusal. Most aura photography shows one or two predominant colors that are seen swirling around a person. With these photos below, there was an initial slight bluish purple that was visible before I began to vocalize the Divine Name. This bluish purple hue is not visible in the first of these black and white photos. However, as you’ll see, in the next pictures that follow the first, a pure white light almost immediately begins to emerge and then envelope me as I vocalized the Divine Name.

No claims are made about what these pictures represent. I do find it most interesting that rather than the traditional change in the color of the photograph which is usual when people try to affect their aura, these pictures demonstrate something quite different. As I started to sound the Divine Name, white light immediately began to manifest. I’d never seen that before. I don’t believe anyone else had either. I present these photos to you now with no agenda. They may well show one aspect of the power of the Divine Name to initiate Light & Love through Sound. Or they may indicate something else. I trust you’ll find them of interest.

From THE DIVINE NAME ©2010 by Jonathan Goldman, Published by HayHouse

It’s my great honor to let you know that my latest book THE DIVINE NAME, published by Hay House, is now available. I consider the THE DIVINE NAME to be the culmination of my work of over 30 years as a pioneer in the field of Sound and Vibration.

THE DIVINE NAME is about a discovery I made over 15 years ago of a universal sound that has the potential of not only creating wellness on a personal level, but of helping to shift consciousness on a global level. This discovery is a universal sound—what many consider to be the lost sound of God—that has the potential of creating health and harmony within us and assisting all of human kind.

THE DIVINE NAME features a foreword by esteemed Hay House author, Gregg Braden, and includes a free hour long interactive Instructional CD that assists readers in creating and experiencing the power of this extraordinary sound. I invite you to bring THE DIVINE NAME into your life. If you learn to experience this extraordinary sound, it will change you and your world—it’s as simple and powerful and as important as that.

Here’s a link to some very amazing aura imaging that occurred when I intoned THE DIVINE NAME.  Please check it out–I think you will find it most interesting.

The Sound That Can Change the World
By Jonathan Goldman

This is the press release for The Divine Name. Get The Divine Name at healingsounds.com

Sound Healing Pioneer Uncovers the Ancient Universal Sound of God That Can Bring Peace & Healing to Ourselves and the Planet

“…Jonathan shares ancient instructions for creating the sound of God’s name in a way the honors the reason it has remained hidden for centuries. … think of it as a condensed initiation into the great mystery schools, it’s your users’ manual for inviting God’s personal name into your life.”

~Gregg Braden, from the Foreword of The Divine Name

Nearly 15 years ago, sound healing pioneer Jonathan Goldman made a monumental discovery so powerful, he contemplated whether he could share it with the world. In his new book, THE DIVINE NAME: The Sound That Can Change the World (Hay House/ $17.95), he uncovers the secret sound of God, that when intoned, has the potential to transform our lives and the planet. Originally found in ancient religious texts, this name had been banned, suppressed and ultimately forgotten and lost for centuries. In this seminal book, Goldman reveals how this ancient name when vocalized, irrespective of our religious beliefs, has the power and potential to usher in a new era of healing, peace and unity.

“This is a sound-the personal name of God found in the Bible-that has been lost for more than 2,500 years,” shares Goldman, an international authority and pioneer in sound healing for over 30 years. He adds, “I made an astounding discovery-that the intonation of a particular sequence of vowels created the Divine Name. This was not a spoken word, but a vocalization that sounds extraordinarily like the name of the creator God in the Old Testament- the foundational book of the Abrahamic traditions, that is responsible for over half the planet’s religions.”

Goldman made this discovery in the early 1990’s, but put off sharing it with all but his best students until friend and colleague, Gregg Braden, began teaching information from his books THE GOD CODE and THE ISSIAH EFFECT, which dealt with the power of prayer, as well as, the Divine Name. Goldman began to openly teach his material and then decided to share this information, as well as, the technique for readers to learn how to make this extraordinary sound. Included with THE DIVINE NAME book is an “Instructional CD” designed to easily facilitate the learning of this “lost sound of God”.

“When vocalized, this sound has the ability of creating resonance from the top of the head to the base of the spine and then back again and because it is composed of vowel sounds which are found in all different religions, spiritual paths, cultures and traditions, this Divine Name cannot be confined to any particular group or organization. Additionally, these sounds when properly intoned seem to have the ability to affect everyone the same way–creating the same sort of resonance for all,” shares Goldman.

Besides the spiritual effects of self-created sound, the Divine Name, can be used to create extraordinary health benefits for us on a personal level, balancing our chakras and our electro-magnetic field. Goldman believes that if we learn to create this sound we’ll activate our innate God force; generating major positive changes and transformational healing for ourselves and the world.

THE DIVINE NAME: The Sound That Can Change the World is available for purchase at www.thedivinename.com and at bookstores nationwide.

The first sense to arrive is that of hearing.  And hearing is you last sense to depart.  Even scientists will tell you that for those revived from the near death experience the last sense that they were aware of on the physical plane was sound.   These scientists will also tell you that certain studies about  near death experiences reveal  that the most frequently experienced sound that was heard by people going through what you call “the tunnel” to the other side, was that of choral music deep in vocal harmonics.   From an inter-dimensional standpoint, I can tell you that this is true.  Vocal harmonics come as close as you can to create to the singing of angels.

Hearing is an extraordinary sense–it really helps define reality.  You can shut your eyes to block sight and not breath through your nose to block smell, but it really is very difficult to block sound.  Sound is all around and through our sense of hearing our reality is helped to be created.   I would like to take this understanding one step further and tell you that  hearing is a passive activity.  Hearing is a passive activity, because many times you are not aware of the sounds which are affecting you.  The sounds may be vibrating your bodies and going into your ears and into your brain, but frequently, you are not aware of them.   Listening is a conscious activity.   Listening is an active activity.  Through learning to listen we can heighten our awareness of reality and our consciousness.

Take a moment now, after you had read this next paragraph, and close your eyes.  Close your eyes and listen to the sounds that are all around you.  What are you aware of?  Listen as alertly as you can?   Are you aware of the sounds of machines in the room or in a neighboring room.  Or from the outside.  Is there music playing?  Or birds calling?  Is the wind blowing?  Are there people talking nearby?  Are there street sounds such as cars going by?  What are you listening to?  Are you aware of  the sound of your own breathing or of your own heart beating?  Are you aware of the sound  the blood rushing through your veins or impulses moving through your nervous system?  What are the sounds you are listening to?  Take a moment and listen.  And when you have finished, take some time to note to yourself any differences you may have experienced before and after you took the time to listen.  For many people the experience of active listening opens up new realms of sound.

Simply by learning to listen,  we can dramatically heighten our perception of the world and alter our consciousness.  There are many meditation groups and spiritual paths which use sound as a means of entering the Divine.   Listening to the “Shabd”,  the Sound Current, is an extraordinary yogic discipline.    For many of these groups, the inner sounds experienced by deep listening, are among the most profound ways of traveling to higher planes.    Some spiritual masters have even charted the sounds of different planes, from the sounds of bells ringing to the sounds of ocean to the sounds of the humming of bees.  These are inner sound listening  and they are very powerful indeed.   as are the experiences of listening to outer sounds.  And then there are harmonics, which may be the bridge between the inner and the outer sounds.