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.

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.

My first introduction to hearing vocal harmonics came from listening to recordings  many years ago.  I heard the harmonic sounds and tried to duplicate them.  Later on, I studied with masters of the harmonic voice from many different traditions.  Yet, there are now many individuals who hear and consciously create vocal harmonics quite naturally within their own sounds during sacred sounding.  The question is why?

Harmonics, as we discussed last time, have always been around, for they are simply an aspect of the physics of vibration.  Vocal harmonics have also always occurred–particularly when individuals would sound elongated vowel sounds.  However, the awareness of these sounds is new.  They have always existed, but people have not been able to hear them until now.   Once again, we ask you why?

An answer is that harmonics are very much like the aura of a sound.  It is not a totally correct analogy, but it will do for the moment.  Auras have always existed around the physical body of individuals, yet knowledge of these auras, let alone the ability to see them, was restricted to a very select group of individuals.  Until now.   Now, it is not uncommon for people to begin to develop the ability to see auras on their own, or to learn techniques to develop this ability through reading a book or taking a workshop.  In the same way, awareness and development of the ability to create vocal harmonics is occurring.  It all has to do with the shifts in consciousness and in the vibratory rate of the planet and its occupants.

To begin with, when one develops the ability to hear vocal harmonics, it is though new connections in the brain have occurred and this is exactly what does happens.    As  one develops this ability to become aware of and hear vocal harmonics,  and then consciously learn to create them,  astounding things are experienced.

The sense of hearing is one of the most extraordinary on the planet.  One begins to develop this sense of hearing and to become aware of sound while still in utero.  In fact, the sense of hearing begins somewhere around the third month of the fetus.  Think about this.   All you who have delivered children or are thinking about it, become aware that the little being inside of you is sensitive and picking up the vibrations of  the sound around you, including your own voice.   Be aware of  what you say and how you say it, especially if you are with child.

In our last conversation, we began the discussion of harmonics.  We talked about the actual physics of harmonics–their relationships as geometric multiples of vibrating strings.  We also discussed some of their uses in the esoteric traditions such as the Tibetan “Deep Voice” chanting style.  I would now like to discuss Nouvo-European Vocal Harmonics.

When I first began to study the phenomenon of vocal harmonics, I listened to many different styles of creating these sounds, including the Tibetan “One Deep” Voice and Mongolian “Hoomi”  throat singing style.   After many years of listening  to and then learning these different vocal styles, I realized there was an extraordinary difference, not only in the actual sounds of these Eastern vocal harmonics, but also in their creation and  what I and many other American and European harmonic singers were teaching.  I call the technique that I and other Westerners teach “Nouveau-European Vocal Harmonics”.

In many of the traditional styles of vocal harmonics from the East: the Tibetan “Deep Voice” and  Mongolian “Hoomi”, it takes many years of exceptional training in order to develop the voice.   The Tibetan “Deep Voice” is not one which can simply be picked up–frequently, if one tries to duplicate it the results can be disastrous–everything from strained vocal cords to loss of the voice can result.  With the Mongolian “Hoomi” techniques, the results can be equally bad.  There is a great strain on the vocal apparatus in these traditions.  Astounding harmonics are created as a result of this,  but at what price?

From an inter dimensional viewpoint, It became important to implement a different style of vocal harmonics onto the planet which could be learned easily and used as a tool for frequency shifting.   The reason for this was that the vibrational level of the Earth plane had evolved to the point where it was possible for humans to begin to develop the ability to create vocal harmonics without years of discipline and strain to the 5th seal, or chakra.  The time had come where the creation and use of harmonics as tools for self-transformation and healing could be brought to the mainstream of consciousness as opposed to being restricted to purely esoteric traditions and techniques.  And this has occurred.

One way of creating vocal harmonics through the Nouvo-European technique is simply to gently sing the vowel sounds “oo” to “oh” to “ah” to “eye” to “aye” to “eee”.   (Specific instruction as to how to create vocal harmonics through these and other sounds are found in my book book HEALING SOUNDS from Element Books  and the accompanying “Healing Sound” instructional audio from Spirit Music). These vowels sounds, interestingly enough are also  the vowel sounds that when coupled with specific pitches will indeed resonate the 2nd through 7th chakras.  The vocal harmonics that are created by singing these vowel sounds together are beautiful and ghost like and they sound like an angelic voice that is singing along with an individual.

The use of vocal harmonics as a sacred and transformation tool all but vanished here in the West.  In some of the Mystery Schools that survived, there has been continued knowledge of the power of vowel sounds.  These vowel sounds have been understood to convey great energy and some realize that many of your Divine Names may be encoded as vowel sounds.  We will add one more key to this puzzle.  Inherent in each of the vowel sounds are particular harmonics.  So that if an individual were able to properly intone the vowel sound name of a deity so that the specific harmonic resonated, what you would have would be a melody.  In other words, when correctly intoned, these Divine Names as vowels would actually be sonic formulas that would resonate to the frequency of a particular deity.

All of this, has, for the most part, been forgotten in the Western traditions.  The use of vocal harmonics maintained itself in secret in certain Tibetan Monasteries, where the Tantric Colleges would stress specific harmonics in their chanting that was resonant with the particular deity they were working with.  In Mongolia and Tuva, overtone singing is known as “Hoomi” and became a powerful technique where the singers could easily create two or more notes at the same time.  The Tuvans and Mongolians were able to sing specific melodies with harmonics in this manner.  However, the sacred and shamanic knowledge of the uses of overtones became lost to these people (it was perhaps wiped from their memory during the time of Genghis Khan).  “Hoomi” became a folk art rather than a sacred art.  The esoteric uses of vocal harmonics disappeared and only the exoteric, or external folk music remained.

The Tibetans on the other hand seemed to be quite aware of the power of their sound as a sacred tool for manifesting energy.  When the Chinese invaded Tibet, (an abominable massacre of high consciousness), those Tibetan Buddhists who managed to escape began to make public some of the more arcane and hidden of their practices such as their “Deep Voice” chanting.    The Tibetans, incidentally, work with vocal harmonics in a very unusual way.  As we have said, there is an inter-relationship between the vowel sounds and harmonics.  One can simply begin to chant the vowel sounds in a specific way (this is related in detail in my book HEALING SOUNDS) and certain harmonics will evolve.

The Tibetan voice is very different.  It is an extremely deep, guttural sound that is as low as is humanly possibly.  For those of you who know the Australian Aboriginal Didjeridu, the Tibetan Deep Voice sounds much like that.  Now, this sound of the Tibetans creates a chord–that very deep undertone, plus very distinct harmonics, so that it often sounds like a children’s choir singing along with these impossibly deep bass voices.  This chord created by Tibetan chanting is monumental.  It invokes dieties.   And it can create Merkabhas.    As a friend of ours, Sean (as channeled through Kaimora) remarked, “It is a voice that can summon the ships”.   The  Tibetan Deep Voice can create  inter-dimensional fields through which beings can travel.  The Tibetan sound is a very “off world” sound, from an ancient celestial source.  It was given to a high Tibetan lama many centuries ago in dreamtime.   Along with its extraterrestial and multi-dimensional focus,   the  Tibetan Deep Voice is  also an aspect of the creational tone–the embodiment of the low frequency sounds that manifested the physical plane.   The Didjeridu creates a similar sound.  So do certain whale sounds.  It is one of the most powerful tones for resonating with the energies of Gaia.

With harmonics of the voice, we are usually talking about overtones that are anywhere from twice the frequency of the fundamental, up to 15 times the fundamental.  While it is possible that harmonics can conceptually represent sound turning into light (because when a sonic frequency is multiplied by 40 octaves it turns into the electromagnetic spectrum which we call light), the harmonics produced by the human voice are well within the audible spectrum.  Yet, they have profound effects.

The use of vocal harmonics date back to before your recorded history.  They were utilized in Atlantis and Lemuria, and then later on in Ancient Egypt and your other Mystery Schools.  They were utilized by the priests and shaman of these traditions for any number of different purposes:  to resonate the physical body, the etheric fields and the brain.  They were used for healing, for consciousness expansion, for divine and extraterrestials communication, for the creation of inter-dimensional fields and many other activities. At the ancient healing temples in Atlantis they worked with crystals and harmonics in a specific geometric form as a group with an individual lying in the center.  Limbs and organs could be regenerated in this manner.  It was truly wondrous.

I am most interested in using vocal harmonics to activate certain portions of the brain.  I believe that the brain is basically a transmitter and receiver of information.  It is much like a radio that can be tuned to different frequencies and access multi-dimensional energies.  I have found that by creating specific harmonics and then directing them to particular portions of the brain such as the pineal gland, that it is possible to activate these portions of the brain and actually cause a frequency shift which re-tunes the brain.  It is very exciting.

This, of course, is just one of the areas in which harmonics may be used.  The creation of inter-dimensional fields using specific intervals and harmonics is another that will be receiving some rather dramatic attention in the near future.  Those of you who are familiar with the term “Merkabah” may realize that this vehicle of light is really just an inter-dimensional field generator and may be created by using specific harmonics with color and geometry.

Thus far, we have discussed various aspects of sound, including concepts such as “frequency”, “intent”, “vibrational resonance”, “visualization”, “vocalization” and other aspects of using sound to shift frequency.   Last issue, we mentioned the idea of a “harmonic language”.  It is time now to begin to deal with the subject of harmonics, or overtones, as they are also known.

You have heard the term “harmonics” used in many different areas–from the Harmonic Convergence to many sacred science writings.  I particularly like the reference to shifting the harmonic resonance of the Enterprises’s shield on “Star Trek: Next Generation”.  Yet how many of you really known what “harmonics” are?

Very simply put, harmonics are geometric multiples created by the singular vibrations of an object.  For example, if you set a string into motion–let us say that it resonates at a frequency of 440 hertz, that is, it vibrates up and down 440 times a second–this is known as it’s fundamental frequency.

Now, this fundamental frequency is what people pay most of their attention to.  If you were to hit this note of 440 hertz on a piano (or any instrument for the matter), you could call this note an “A”, and you would put most of your awareness on hearing this “A” note as it vibrated.

But in reality, this string that  produces a fundamental vibration of 440 hertz, is also producing many other tones, or overtones.  These harmonics are actually the result of other vibrations within the string created by that fundamental note–vibration that are quantum in nature and are geometric multiples of the fundamental note.

That “A” note of 440 hertz produces the first overtone by vibrating at a frequency that is twice as fast as the fundamental–at 880 hertz.  And this is what you call an octave.  The second overtones vibrates 3 times as fast as the fundamental, at 1,320 hertz.  And the next overtones vibrates 4 times as fast.  The next overtone vibrates 5 times as fast and so on.  Until–at least conceptually–infinity.   So you see that while what you may be perceiving as merely that “A” note vibrating at 440 hertz is actually a complex composite of that fundamental note and overtones, all vibrating together.

In reality, almost every sound that you hear (unless it is created by some electronic laboratory instrument) produces these complex tones–these harmonics.  They are, infact, responsible for creating the different sounds that we hear.  Harmonics contribute to what is called the “timbre” or tone color of an instrument.  When, in an electronics laboratory, the harmonics were removed from recordings of three different instruments, listeners could not tell them apart, yet in real life, it is easy to distinguish between a violin, a trumpet and a flute.  This is also true about the human voice–every voice is different, because every voice has a different harmonics pattern.  While harmonics always sound as geometric multiples of a fundamental tone, different harmonics will be more amplified in different instruments and in different people.

On a metaphoric level (still working within the guidelines of the physics of sound), when one talks about a harmonic of something, that person is talking about a higher frequency that is a geometric multiple.  A geometric multiple is simply a whole number (as opposed to a fraction), which therefore means that harmonics are quantum.    So, a harmonic of say 100  cycles per second (or hertz) can simply be that 100 hertz multiplied by any number (from 1 to infinity).   It could be 200 or 500 or 5,000.

Harmonics are there and yet not there, tangible and yet not tangible. 
They are present and yet not noticed, until the shift begins to occur. 
First our hearing changes – we can perceive things that are hidden. 
Next, our voices change – we can create sounds that were not previously
there.  Then, our consciousness changes and other realities come into
our awareness.

Sound healing focuses on the ability of harmonics to create vibrational
changes.  These changes may occur in the physical body or in the
mental, emotional and etheric bodies.  When these changes occur, they
initiate transformation and healing.  

Harmonics display universal principles and are a constant in the
various traditions and societies that use sound for healing and self
-transformation.  Through experiencing harmonics, we can learn a great
deal about ourselves and the worlds around us.  I trust they will
awaken something in you.  They can be sacred, magical and truly
transformational.  I trust that in time you will ‘read between the
lines’ and see the possibilities are described in this book.  I trust
you will discover the other potentials yourself.

Harmonics have been and always will be a great inspiration to me.  It
is now apparent that many others also share this interest.  Since the
completion of this book, there continues to be a tremendous reawakening
of interest in sound as a healing and transformative modality.  In
particular, a large portion of this interest has focused upon
harmonics.  Awareness and use of harmonics are truly expanding.  This
would not have occurred without the openness of the masters of vocal
harmonics:  the Tibetans, Mongolians and Tuvans.

Members of the different Tibetan monasteries have toured throughout the
United States and Europe, sharing their sacred chants and much of their
knowledge of Tibetian overtone chanting.