Sound Healing

Sound healing is the practice of using audio tones and vibrational frequencies to repair damaged tissue and cells within the body. It works on the basis that all matter is vibrating at specific frequencies, and sickness, disease, depression and stress causes human beings to vibrate at a lower frequency. Playing tones that promote healing, happiness and vitality will allow DNA strands to repair themselves, and several scientific studies have been conducted on the potential healing benefits of audio sound frequencies. Sound has been used as a healing tool for centuries, and is still regularly utilized by many different alternative healthcare centers. Tibetan singing bowels, tuning forks, drumming therapy, and even chanting are all used in sound therapy and many participants experience strong emotions during therapy sessions. Advocates of sound healing claim that it has the power to heal mental illness, arthritis, autoimmune disorders and can even shrink cancerous tumors. Learn about the different forms of sound healing and examine the evidence that supports its use as an alternative medical practice.

The meaning of Namaste

Namaste is used by Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, and other religions and is increasingly heard throughout other esoteric and spiritual circles- particularly modern day yoga practitioners across the globe as it is often translated through Sanskrit. 

Namaste originates in South Asia- namely India, where it has two formal presentations, Namaskar and Namaskara and is often accompanied by a mudra- (energy generating hand/finger posture) in which  the palms are placed together and held at the heart center, then brought to the forehead or third eye center.  This gesture could be understood as a surrender of ego to spirit and recognition that the life force within the individual is the same life force which resides in all other beings in this universe.  Therefore it is a statement of unity and acceptance.

Discovering Real Goodness

Discovering real goodness comes from appreciating very simple experiences. We are not talking about how good it feels to make a million dollars or finally graduate from college or buy a new house, but we are speaking here of the basic goodness of being alive — which does not depend on our accomplishments or fulfilling our desires. We experience glimpses of goodness all the time, but we often fail to acknowledge them. When we see a bright color, we are witnessing our own inherent goodness. When we hear a beautiful sound, we are hearing our own basic goodness. When we step out of the shower, we feel fresh and clean, and when we walk out of a stuffy room, we appreciate the sudden whiff of fresh air. These events take a fraction of a second, but they are real experiences of goodness. ~~~ Chögyam Trungpa from the book Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior

Trungwas (protective amulets)

Trungwas, or protection amulets, are commonly worn by Tibetans. Trungwas can have a variety of different purposes from warding off illnesses. They are usually composed of a string on which hang a number of blessed objects or charms. By wearing a trungwa, it is believed that a Tibetan Buddhist deity is watching you. The purpose of the amulet is to protect from negative forces and bring good luck and auspiciousness to yourself.

Try a Softer Tone, Just One Thing by Rick Hanson

How do you talk to people? The Practice  Try a softer tone.

Why? When our kids were little, I'd come home from work wanting some peace after the daily roller-coaster and often walk into a living room full of stuff - toy trucks, tennis shoes, bags of chips, etc. Irritated, the first words out of my mouth to my wife would be: "How come there's all this mess?" Understandably, after a day chasing children plus juggling her own work, Jan would feel unfairly criticized and sputter back at me. Then there'd be a quarrel or a chilly silence. Not good. And it all began with the tone I used. Linguists like Deborah Tannen have pointed out that most communications have three elements, which I'll illustrate with the example above: * Explicit content - What led to these objects being on the floor? * Emotional subtext - Irritation, blame; startling, the first thing I said; no establishing first of a positive context (like asking about her day before mentioning the clutter) * Implicit statement about the nature of the relationship - I'm on top and get to judge how well she is doing her job as a mother. Many studies have found that the second and third elements - which I define in general as tone - usually have the greatest impact on how an interaction turns out. Since a relationship is built from interactions, the accumulating weight of the tone you use has big effects. In particular, because of the "negativity bias" of the brain - which is like Velcro for uncomfortable experiences but Teflon for pleasant ones - a repeatedly critical, snarky, disappointed, worried, or reproachful tone can really rock a relationship; for example, John Gottman's work has shown that it typically takes five positive interactions to make up for a single negative one. As I gradually learned to use a softer tone, my wife got happier with me - and our living room became less cluttered.

Review for "Guardians of the Gate" by Gloria F. Orenstein

The Surrealists suggested that it would be interesting to consider the continuum of our dreams as the foregrounded narrative of our life---punctuated by moments of awakening from sleep as simply moments of interruption of the dream life continuum---the reverse of the way we think of these states now.  Yana Womack Castle in “GUARDIANS OF THE GATE: An Investigation of Numinous Presence, ‘Visions of the Divine’ in Dreams” created the narrative of her life from the perspective of dream experiences spanning over a decade in which she encountered deities and numinous presences in various forms.  In her numinous dreams, Yana received teachings and empowerments from Buddhist masters, yoginis, medicine women and shamans through methods of energetic transmissions and other means often accompanied by states of profound ecstatic bliss. She also interacted with lions, deer, snakes, flowers and ocean waves, flew above the clouds, met with guardians and shapeshifters and travelled to places inside the earth to receive counsel and healing from her allies.

Tibetan dZi beads

The dZi bead is part of a "family" of beads known as etched beads. This ancient process of decorating chalcedony (a kind of quartz) with a chemical treatment that changes the surface composition seems to have arisen in the Indus Valley Civilization and later moved into Iran in Sassanian Times. In general it can be said that a dZi is an etched agate or chalcedony bead that has the universally recognized patterns: eyes, a circle and a square, double wave forms, and certain stripes and waves. The most desired of these are those with eyes, especially the nine-eyed dZi (which lends more credence that these beads are from the time of the Bon faith, as nine was an important number in that religion whereas it is not important in the Buddhist religion). Also these beads are tubular, generally 1-2 inches long, though there have been cases of longer ones, must contain the shine associated with good dZi, and be in relatively good shape. One interesting type that does not represent the typical dZi at all, but is considered in their family is the "luk me" dZi, or "sheep's eye". This is a tabular bead with circles representing eyes or moons on either or both sides. It protects the owner from the "evil eye"The dZi, particularly those of sought after patterns, command high prices and are very difficult to come by. Most Tibetans will not let go of a dZi once they have it because it provides them with protection, and may cause bad luck if they were to get rid of it.

DNA Can Be Influenced And Reprogrammed By Words And Frequencies by by Grazyna Fosar and Franz Bludorf

THE HUMAN DNA IS A BIOLOGICAL INTERNET and superior in many aspects to the artificial one. The latest Russian scientific research directly or indirectly explains phenomena such as clairvoyance, intuition, spontaneous and remote acts of healing, self healing, affirmation techniques, unusual light/auras around people (namely spiritual masters), mind’s influence on weather patterns and much more. In addition, there is evidence for a whole new type of medicine in which DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by words and frequencies WITHOUT cutting out and replacing single genes. See more

Comparative study on Meditation and Hypnosis

The Taoist scholar Livia Kohn has written an excellent book called "Meditation Works" that looks at Taoist, Buddhist, and Hindu meditation traditions. She draws a strong parallel between meditation and hypnosis, and explores the many ways meditation works with the subconscious. Kohn views meditation as a form of self-hypnosis and a means of reprogramming the subconscious mind.