I went to my first rock concert in Dublin, Ireland
when I was a wee lad.
And I had a kind of a epiphany.
The concert was for an album
called, "Thunder and Lightning."
So they started off with all the flashing lights
and like this big, like heavy metal riff,
that they came up playing with.
And I was just totally like, "Wow, I wanna do that."
It was so powerful and exciting.
And I remember thinking if I could touch people
the way that I've just been touched by this music tonight,
what an extraordinary thing to be able to do.
And I knew at that moment, that's what I have to do.
I wanted to pick up the guitar and sing songs.
Okay, I'm gonna do another Irish song.
Most Irish songs are either about dying,
fighting or drinking,
and in this case, all three are involved.
♪ I was going over ♪
♪ The Cork and Kerry Mountains ♪
♪ I met with Captain Farrel ♪
♪ And his money he was countin' ♪
♪ I first produced my pistol ♪
♪ I then produced my rapier ♪
♪ Sayin' stand and deliver for I am your bold deceiver ♪
♪ Mush a ring a ma dor um dah ♪
♪ Whack for the daddy oh ♪
♪ There's whiskey in the jar ♪
♪ Mush a ring a ma dor um dah ♪
♪ Whack for the daddy oh ♪
♪ There's whiskey in the jar ♪
Thank you very much.
In the beginning was the word.
And the word was with God.
And the word was God.
In many cultures and religions around the world,
sound plays a prominent role in our cosmic creation.
From a divine utterance to the songs of our ancestors.
But to truly understand
why sound has always been so important to us,
I want you to just listen.
Sound surrounds us.
It permeates every cell in our bodies.
It has the power to manipulate molecular structure,
to see where our eyes cannot,
and most importantly, to heal us.
Beautiful.
Good job.
Sound has been used for a long time in medicine.
One of the most common imaging techniques is ultrasound.
It's very noninvasive
and there's not radiation associated with it.
So we're looking at a sound that's going in
and it's bouncing back
so we can get a picture of what's going on.
There's also therapeutic ultrasound
that we can use for muscle pains, injuries,
and potentially mechanically to break down adhesions
and things a little bit.
So it's very powerful.
It's focused.
We've seen resonant vibrations,
do everything from kill cancer cells in research,
to break apart bacterium.
We are made of membranes that resonate.
And if you combine the right frequencies of sound,
we won't have to cut things out of people.
We might be able to use sound
and that sort of thing instead.
There's been a lot of research.
Much of that is back in the '90s,
as far as meditation and sounds effect on the brain.
But what they found was
the lower brainwave frequencies activate
in response to certain sounds.
And as that happens,
then the body also has a physiological effect.
Sound can make people relax.
Sound can excite you.
Sound can terrify you.
There's a lot of responses that people have from sound.
It's not cringey.
It's solidly based on physics.
We really start responding to sounds even before we're born.
Music came before language.
Our brains have inherent responses to music into sound.
You don't need research to tell you this.
It's kind of, like how could you not believe that?
Have you ever cried when you've listened to music?
Have you felt happy when you listen to music?
Yeah, because it's having an emotional effect on us,
'cause it's having a brain effect on us.
Music is accessing both sides of the brain.
On the right side, I would say the creative side,
is the melody, the harmonies, the emotional side of it,
and the logic side would be the rhythm,
the timbre, the mathematical side of music.
So when we're both, even if they're inhibited
by other things, by illness, by disease,
we can still access other areas.
You know, you can't deny the experience.
It's so profound.
And so you could say that, "Yeah, it's a placebo,"
but all you need to do is try it.
We know that these vibrational modalities work
at a cellular level.
And so it's natural to try and look for ways
that we can use sound to affect people's health.
And now we're starting to see an explosion actually
of these wonderful new kinds of therapies
that involve things like sound
to alter us at a chemical level.
A brave new world of stimulating vibrations
and transformative audio are revolutionizing how we treat
mental health, physical disease and emotional trauma.
What we do with sound therapy
is that we just basically play music on your body.
And it just makes you feel better.
I very much believe in the healing power
of sound and music.
I think it's where everybody can find themselves peace.
These visionaries are accredited
music therapists, assisting memory recall
in Alzheimer's and dementia patients,
artists, spreading positive messages
to uplift audiences and explore their own psyche,
yoga instructors, balancing mind and body
through sacred sound instruments,
and spiritualists, providing the tools and safe space
to delve within and pursue inner enlightenment.
We're just bombarded with toxic information,
toxic food, toxic water, toxic air.
We can't escape it.
And I think that that builds up imbalances in the body.
It can build up stress.
It can create dis-ease.
Our society, it's almost like
people are taught to kinda repress their emotions,
they gotta stay together.
I think that's one of the great things
about sound therapies, 'cause somehow you have permission
in that sacred space or that calmness,
that serenity to kind of surrender those emotions.
The body is designed to heal itself.
As you reach a state of relaxation,
it's like you're giving the body a chance to turn on
its innate healing abilities.
For those with chronic ailments,
and for those who are just hearing
this white noise in their head,
this static, this hum, this screech,
it's like turning on the radio
where you might have a little static going
until you tune it right.
And sound healing gets rid of that static
so that you feel like you're in harmony.
We can have such a profound effect on someone's
emotional sphere.
It makes sense that we can then use that therapeutically.
Like if something has a profound effect on us,
we use it as medicine.
People can say that sound therapy
and different things just don't work, but I actually saw it.
My son had a pretty profound speech delay.
And when something like that happens
and your child isn't talking to you,
and when traditional medicine
is not giving you any answers,
you, all of a sudden, find yourself considering things
that perhaps before you would've thought were bonkers.
This is the frustrating thing is,
because, as parents, we can tell
that he had good awareness.
But unfortunately, when he's not talking
and he doesn't seem to be clearly understanding
what's being said to him, it's an understandable thing
that people will go to, that he was deaf.
I remember sitting in front of one of the top experts
in Ireland, on Child Development Disorders,
and realizing, sitting there looking at him,
that I knew more from my research in the Internet
than he did about what's happening with my son.
And that's not an arrogant thing, 'cause, believe me,
that guy had much more training than I did,
but Matthew presented a case that they just,
they couldn't figure it out.
One of the things that we tried,
we heard about this guy who was a healer
and that he used sound as a means of therapy.
I'm really glad that we did,
because it was one of those therapies
that I think in the first couple of years
was probably one of the ones that gave us
the closest indication that, to me, at least,
that he could be helped.
So after many years of going to every expert
we could possibly find, we came to the United States
and found this amazing school.
It was the first time that anyone had ever
clearly said to us, "We think this is what it is,
"and this is what we would do to treat it,
"if you brought him here."
And they said it was something called
auditory processing disorder.
And the way that she describes it is literally like
the child is in a swimming pool underwater
and someone is talking,
the parents are talking to the child.
It's not that they don't want to understand or don't learn,
but that just the sound that's coming in
is not being processed correctly.
But what this program does is it retrains the brain
how to take in the audio through the use of ear phones
and video games.
And this was just a brilliant piece of sound therapy.
He very quickly started speaking in sentences.
His ability to understand and his ability to learn
just exploded after he did this program.
It was one thing to get the help, but to hear him,
to hear him talking, I think for the first time
you felt such a sense of relief
'cause you feel like you're carrying it all
on your shoulders and you wanna help him.
And so many places they're telling you they can't help.
So to find people, to find a school
that has the expertise and the knowledge to help him,
it was just an extraordinary thing.
You can see the difference that sound therapy
can have on a child.
And whether it's gongs and incense and approaching
in that way or whether it's video games and the headphones,
no matter what your goal is, it changes life.
I mean, I wonder like where would he have been
if you hadn't done that program.
I mean, that profound.
That was my first experience of sound therapy
and seeing what the tone that can come
from different instruments can actually have
a profound impact on the body.
♪ You make me believe in miracle ♪
♪ You make it seem like anything is possible ♪
Thanks to the innovative combination
of spiritual and scientific sound practices,
Hugh's son was able to reach his full potential.
♪ Light that shines in your eyes ♪
♪ So bright yeah ♪
Witnessing his own miracle
and the impact of his songs on listeners worldwide,
Hugh's own journey of healing and self-discovery
was illuminated.
Writing songs and playing music
has had a profound impact on me spiritually.
It's been the foundation stone, the rock
that has been always there.
♪ You make it seem like anything is possible ♪
The songwriting is a fantastic way
to be able to express emotions,
even when you don't realize
that you're dealing with those emotions.
Like sometimes you can write a song
'cause you're feeling sad,
and then realize that you are a writing,
but some other whole thing.
Yeah, I thought it was a love song.
I thought it was this or that.
But it was actually a song about spirituality
and about wanting to be more connected
to the universe and more connected to myself
and more in touch with my purpose.
It's a very unique therapy to have,
to be able to write songs.
♪ You stabbed me in the back ♪
♪ Without a second thought ♪
I think the way people choose the songs that they listen to
is a way that, I think, everyone has used sound therapy
and they don't even know it.
We all just listen to music.
"Oh, this song makes me calm.
"This song makes me take on the world.
"This song makes me angry."
So you see how certain songs affect people.
And then to write that song that has that impact,
it just has an interesting, because it gets you to go back
and look at your own song and say,
"What is it about, the words that I've written there
"that are affecting people in that way?"
And it's an interesting part of,
on the journey of discovery of myself
and of the impact that sound can have on people,
and sound through songs.
♪ Here I go along the road again ♪
♪ The ditch north to Fresno and Interstate Five ♪
♪ But that show in Tucson seems so far away ♪
♪ Man I'm puttin' on the miles yeah ♪
The one song I think that people react to the best
is a song that I have called "Hollywood Ending",
which is an interesting song because it's,
it really is my story in the song.
♪ I'm not stuck on destination ♪
♪ It's the journey that fills my soul ♪
♪ I'm not waiting for Hollywood ending ♪
♪ Chasing my dream day by day ♪
It's also talking about the connection that I have
with the people that I go and play with,
and it talks about why I do what I do.
And there is a spiritual commodity
'cause you have to have faith in yourself,
'cause at the end of the day we are all connected,
but we all have our own individual spiritual journey.
♪ I'm not waiting for a Hollywood ending ♪
♪ No ♪
We all hope
to be the heroes of our own stories.
Thank you.
But is the narrative rigged?
♪ Fear crawls out of your head ♪
♪ And wraps itself around your neck ♪
Wildfires in the West are tearing through homes.
There's 11 new cases of the coronavirus
in New Hampshire.
The toy just suddenly started burning.
♪ Whispers in your ear ♪
♪ Tells you things that you don't wanna hear ♪
Media and news outlets are filled with fear,
omens of war and numerous threats to our very way of life.
It's one scary bug.
The number one thing I'm telling my patients
is turn the news off.
TV, media, news they're we're exposed to on a regular basis,
is a large stress for many people.
I mean, ask yourself, "Is it really serving you?"
More Americans had been ordered to lockdown.
Entire neighborhoods practically submerged.
Locust crisis threatening the food supply
for millions of people.
It's like a constant noise to our nervous system.
Our nervous systems continually don't have a way to relax
and reset because there is all of this stimulation,
the sensory stimulation.
♪ If we could find the cure for it ♪
♪ Our discourse ♪
Right now, here in the U.S.
during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown,
there's a lot in there that's just filler
to keep you watching, right?
And it might not even be news.
It should be serving us to give us facts
and that's about it.
Turn your TV off, put the screens away, and get out outside.
Be creative.
Use this as an opportunity to find that thing
that you've always wanted to do and haven't done
or revisit something you love to do.
♪ This world won't disappear ♪
♪ Careful when you rip my heart out ♪
♪ Diggin' through the wreckage we burned down ♪
The world is scary, but I think music is probably
one of the most powerful weapons we have against destruction
and in the darkest parts of our existence
that we all walk through today.
Right, buddy?
Yeah.
Two, two, two, two.
I think we're good.
Can, can I?
Can I?
One, two.
♪ Climb some trees ♪
♪ I would love to scrape my knees with you ♪
♪ Yes it's true ♪
Mr. Feelgood and The Firm Believers
spread positivity and love
through uplifting lyrical melodies,
striving to keep hope alive during these difficult times.
♪ I've been so so ♪
When people don't know what to do,
'cause the troubles are too large and out of our hands,
we write easily.
♪ You come home ♪
♪ And make that change ♪
Music can create a great oasis from negativity
and all the dark things going on in the world,
all the troubles.
Music can stop wars and stop fights.
Music can heal people from devastating things in their life,
from negativities that do bring out physical ailments.
Music can save people from a negative mindset.
♪ Oh oh oh ♪
Yeah.
Sounded good?
- Okay. - Yeah.
It's my liberation, yeah.
It's our liberations.
All right, Bellingham?
Bellingham!
Glasses breaking, we're having a party.
Put your hands together.
From Mr. Feelgood and The Firm Believers, everybody.
Y'all having a good time in the house tonight?
♪ Here I am walking down the street ♪
♪ Children everything is so sweet ♪
♪ Doing my thing and I'm doing it slow ♪
♪ Just one thing I would like you to know ♪
When I was 16 years old,
I've been playing guitar for a while and piano,
and I ended up going to Jamaica.
We didn't really hang out in tourist area
so I got to hang out with Rastamen on the beach and.
and discovered Bob Marley.
And that's when it all clicked for me.
I said, "Oh, I can help people with music."
Music came easy to me.
It brought me so much joy.
That joy that I felt, which made me feel invincible,
I wanted to share with the world.
Well, thanks to Bob Marley,
I saw somebody who did it on an extreme level.
♪ Hit me from the top you crazy motherfucker ♪
His determination and his ability to see
with an eternal optimism, that beyond all odds,
he can free people with music.
And in the dark world where everyone's trying to find love,
he knew how to face the darkness with love.
And he brought the light out of darkness with love.
And so I was inspired and that's when I decided that's it.
That's my life.
♪ I might not love you the way you want me to ♪
♪ I'll always love you the way that I know how to ♪
♪ I might not hold you the way you like me to ♪
♪ I told you the truth when I say ♪
♪ You're beautiful to me ♪
Is that different?
Yeah.
One thing that I didn't cared for, lyrically, growing up,
which helps me in my philosophy nowadays
in what I like to write about,
is people expressing their anger,
but in a way that wasn't productive,
in a way that other people would hear these songs
and learn the lyrics in which they could relate to,
but you'd hear it and just bring out
more hatred in other people.
And other people thought it was cool to be negative.
♪ I might not love you the way you want me to ♪
♪ I'll always love you the way that I know how to ♪
♪ I might not hold you the way you like me to ♪
♪ I told you the truth when I said ♪
♪ You're beautiful ♪
♪ To me ♪
When you spin the wheel like that, it's a revolving door,
it just gets worse.
And so what I wanted to do with my music
is be able to acknowledge the things
that people are lamenting,
but also remind them that they didn't come here
just to suffer, you know.
A lot of people fall into suicide.
You know, a lot of people that you wouldn't see
as being depressed are.
And I've also had my dark experiences,
which inspires me to be more passionate
about fighting to be positive.
And everyone's strong enough
to come from where they're from
and to get to where they need to go.
We don't have tall amazing trees,
because it was cuddled through its existence.
Now it wanted to be here, it fought hard, stood strong,
grew deep roots and grew tall branches.
That's what we wanna do.
And music for me is the way that
we're going to be able to transcend all,
all of the vibrations that might hold us back
and keep us at a certain levels where we can't grow
and expand anymore and progress.
That's where the deepest part of my passion
for writing music stems from.
I wanna say I get it and we're gonna get through this,
and I'm gonna write some songs that help remind you of how.
Don't give up ever, ever, ever give up.
That was fun, guys.
Good job, buddy.
Oh, buddy.
Do we wanna talk about like whether or not to do Phylis?
They love it so much.
It's fun, it's fun.
I would rather do Caution.
Just because there's more to it than Phylis, personally.
I'm feeling like it's something new that we do
and we hear a lot of fake people say, like...
I've heard Caution a lot.
New songs and I'd rather do Phylis
'cause it's newer than Caution.
I'm behind you on that.
Can we just run it?
Wanna give it a shot?
Run it real quick?
- Yeah. - And see how we feel?
I'm not going to allow myself to know something like I do
and feel so much passion for compassion and humankind
to allow just because the world is dark
and there's a lot of scary and violent people in it.
I'll never let myself not do what I'm supposed to.
What makes my heart whole.
And so as fierce as the people are that are violent
and destructive in this world and don't care about you,
well, I'm just as fierce about loving
and protecting people that I do love,
and I do care about other people.
♪ Oh I'm a slippery slope ♪
♪ But did you know what I don't know ♪
♪ Our lives are slippery slope friends ♪
♪ But now you can't give up hope ♪
♪ And I am broken ♪
♪ Have you found your reasons to believe ♪
♪ I am gonna be someone's better than you have seen ♪
♪ Have you seen a lot now ♪
And it's great when you look down at people
and through your words they know,
and you make some eye contact and it's, it's so real.
It's so real to feel accepted.
And I love seeing when everyone's walls are broken down
and then truly dancing and they feel free to.
You see people dancing as if they're dancing
in their bedroom alone.
Right there, that's gold.
It shows the fire that we understand we're trying to bring,
it has been brought.
And we're happy that we can raise the energy that way.
So it's a heart-swelling thing.
It's true love.
It's great.
♪ I'm a slippery slope ♪
♪ Did you do know what I don't know ♪
♪ Our lives are slippery slope friends ♪
♪ And now you can't give up hope no no no no ♪
♪ I'm a slippery slope ♪
♪ But did you know what I don't know ♪
♪ Our lives are slippery slope friends ♪
♪ But now you can't give up hope ♪
♪ But I am broken ♪
Thank you!
With Mr. Feelgood and the Firm Believers.
Don't forget, we're all still together, right?
We love you all.
Peace is the answer.
Love is the answer.
I'm gonna speak about it.
I'm going to rally people through my call for love
through my songs.
I'm gonna do something about it.
When we have everyone's attention and we're all together,
we're gonna talk about things and we're gonna face
our true nature.
We're humans.
We have flaws.
In the early part of the 20th century,
the world suffered devastation on a whole new level.
Two global wars, claiming the lives
of over 90 million people and wounding countless more,
were the culmination of humanity's most colossal flaws.
Patriots returned home shellshocked,
suffering from an array of physical
and psychological trauma.
Veterans hospitals across America began recruiting musicians
to ease the minds of their patients.
Here, we're proud of the advances made
by modern medicine.
Naturally, licensed doctors and registered nurses
are in charge of the patients in these buildings.
But to their strictly medical skills
has been added a whole area of therapy
that seems far removed from the sickbed,
the laboratory, or the operation room.
But when doctors and nurses
began seeing physical improvements as well,
the idea for a new program was born.
We know that simply listening to music is good for us.
It stimulates different parts of the brain.
You know, it releases hormones.
It affects our heart rate.
All of that stuff is a positive and good thing.
And then in music therapy, we kind of take that further
and work with the person to really be aware of the music
and why we're using it to help them.
By 1950,
the National Association of Music Therapy was founded,
laying out rigorous university-level training programs
throughout the United States,
and providing guidelines by which all accredited therapists
would adhere to.
Continued success of the American program spread.
And over the years, other countries began forming
their own foundations and university programs.
Including the Canadian Association for Music Therapists,
which oversees accreditation and supports institutions
that promote music therapy across Canada.
Institutions, such as the Canadian Music Therapy Fund
headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.
The center was opened in 2001.
It was a project of the Canadian Music Therapy Trust Fund.
So it was opened completely on donor dollars
from the Canadian music industry.
And it was opened really with the mission of providing
accessible music therapy for people,
who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it.
That mission continues today.
What I have here in my hand is a pill box.
And this pill
can elevate our mood to take us down.
This pill can move us and can make us sleep.
And this pill has been shown in over 16,000 studies
to modulate our brain and to improve our health
for a variety of diseases and illnesses.
Pill that I'm talking about of course is music.
And the doctors that I'm talking about are music therapists.
In Canada, you have a right, not just to exist,
but you have a right to a quality of life.
And this provides quality of life to so many people.
The people that are coming to us
for music therapy services are coming
'cause there's something that they wanna work on.
There's something that is challenging them in life
or there's something that's affecting them physically
and they're seeking that help,
they're seeking having someone to work with.
In one session, I can be working with someone,
who's just had a stroke, and help them
to be able to speak again.
And in a different session,
I can sit down with a child with autism,
who normally can't focus for more than a minute,
and have him focus on me for five minutes.
It's what makes their life better.
It's what allows them time to access themselves creatively,
to express themselves creatively and to feel good.
And watching them shift from being
hunched over in their seats with their eyes to the floor
and kinda shrugging to sitting up and smiling
and making music together and feeling like
someone's hearing me today, those kinds of experiences
really validify belief in this kind of method.
If you think of physiotherapy,
physiotherapy uses the medium of exercise
to work towards the goal.
A dietician uses looking at your diet
to work towards the kind of their goal.
So if you use music to work towards the goal,
it's just another medium.
It's not magic, it's not woo,
it's based in science.
And it works and it's really quite remarkable.
And it's directed by the clients.
So we're empowering them to make those decisions,
to make musical decisions.
They choose what they want to play.
They choose how to make it sound.
We don't really care if it sounds beautiful.
We're not concerned with the musical output.
We're concerned with the process.
We have clients who come in here
and they may be nonverbal.
And after so many sessions, I get to hear them
and understand what they're saying.
- Hello. - Say hello.
What are we gonna sing first?
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
Good job, Sabrina.
I heard every single one of those words.
I'm gonna sit here and play with you, okay?
How about if you announce your song?
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
Beautiful.
One, two, three, go.
♪ Twinkle twinkle little star ♪
I can't even begin to explain
what this has done for Sabrina.
About a year-old, she started having seizures,
so we brought her in.
And at the time, at about a year,
she was about a year and a half,
that she would be globally delayed
and she would have, probably have seizures
for the rest of her life.
What color of shaker are you gonna pick?
You wanna go pick two shakers for Sabrina
and one for Chrissy, okay?
- Which color is this? - Green.
Not green.
- Blue. - Blue, right.
Yellow and pink.
Pink and what?
- Yellow. - Yellow.
Good job, Sabrina.
You got them all right.
Sabrina was nonverbal up until maybe, I'd say a year ago.
I had Sabrina in a speech and language,
but Sabrina had absolutely no language.
So they couldn't teach her outside of the box,
outside of their program.
♪ Shake shake ♪
♪ Way up high ♪
Can you reach my shaker?
Catch Chrissy's blue shaker.
Yay, high, high, high, good girl!
So it was kinda difficult
and we're getting a little frustrated with her
and it was bothering me.
And they just didn't know how to have her pay attention,
they just couldn't adapt to her.
It just didn't feel right.
But I would bring her anywhere, because then I'm thinking,
"Well, maybe this will help her."
Because you don't know, you can't, she has no verbal skills,
you don't know where she's supposed to go
or what she's supposed to do
or what level she's supposed to,
you have, you're clueless.
You're out there, you're on your own,
and you're trying to do what's best for your kid.
And then I found this and I'm like, "Oh my,
"this is best for my child.
"This was perfect.
"This was way beyond any speech pathologists
"could ever teach her."
It was magic emotion.
This was exactly what Sabrina needed.
♪ Time is finished ♪
Nice.
You wanna see my guitar fingers?
There they are.
I don't know what it is with music.
She just gets it.
And when she walks in the door, this is, she lights up.
This is her home.
This is where she wants to be.
And she'll leave here for hours after so happy.
Like, she played with the piano,
she played with the guitar and drums.
She'll tell me the whole session, exactly what she did.
What animal is next?
- A cow. - A cow.
Because it was music, she remember everything about it.
Like if I brought her to a skating rink or something,
she won't remember any aspect of it.
But because it's through music,
she remembers every little minute of what she did here.
And since then she's, her language has just exploded
and it really is all because of music,
because she learns the words through the music.
And then she realizes when she's singing them,
she could say them and then she'll string them together.
So it's amazing.
It's amazing.
Wow, is that fun?
Yeah, good job.
It makes a difference in the lives of the client,
and it also makes a difference in the lives of the families
and the caregivers and the friends of the client.
It's just, you're not involving just one person.
When they step through the door,
there's a whole circle of care that is made better
by having a session.
You know, it is a really feel-good place to be, I think.
And the therapists love coming here, I think,
because they know that we're reaching people,
who might otherwise not be reached.
Until you really witness it
or talk to someone who's benefited from it,
you really can't know for sure exactly what's involved
and exactly how fantastic it is.
As transformative as the therapy is
or those suffering from trauma,
Alzheimer's or other disorders,
what can be done for the rest of us
simply trying to make it through each day
under the weight of our modern lives?
♪ Never ease the pain ♪
♪ 'Cause they can't last forever ♪
♪ Now I wish I had amnesia ♪
♪ But all I have are bad bad bad memories ♪
I see stress in every patient that I see.
It is a player in their health.
And in today's world, whether we're in traffic or at work,
we find ourselves constantly in fight or flight
or in sympathetic overdrive.
♪ I had mastered the perfect art ♪
The way that we've developed our culture in our society,
everything's fast, everything's sped up,
there's all this mental pressure upon ourselves
to perform in a certain way.
But, hey, we have to also go home and like be parents.
Your nervous system is divided
into a couple of different parts.
The automatic part of how your body works
is controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system,
which is the rest and digest part,
and the sympathetic nervous system,
which is your fight or flight response.
In the parasympathetic, the digestive juices
get excreted and heart rate decreases.
We get blood to our extremities,
So that's where we can actually rest,
and that's where we can digest our food and assimilate it,
and that is where healing happens,
is in that parasympathetic phase.
♪ Won't somebody hit me over the head ♪
♪ 'Cause I want so badly to be able to forget ♪
It's bacteria, viruses, parasites, food we eat,
or it's a relationship,
it's a boss you don't get along with
taking your body into fight or flight.
And our body doesn't know the difference,
that it's not a tiger, and it's really not dangerous.
And so while it thinks is trying to protect us,
it is actually taking us into a stressful state.
♪ And I met a selfish man who ran the road ahead ♪
♪ My mama I was sad ♪
The effect it has on the body is
we shunt blood to different places,
our pupils dilate, our digestive functions basically stop.
The sympathetic nervous system
also makes your heart rate increase
and the reproductive functions will shut down,
like with chronic stress.
You begin to have elevated levels of insulin,
elevated inflammatory markers,
and it places you at risk for diabetes, like heart attacks,
strokes, cardiovascular disorders.
And what we now know is that people under greater stress
have a reduction in their ability to fight off pathogens.
And when they get sick, how quickly they recover?
So in light of that,
any way that you can bring yourself back
into autonomic balance between the rest and digest
and fight or flight, you're giving yourselves a chance
to decrease inflammation and for your body to heal.
♪ But all I have are bad bad bad memories ♪
The question is really was our body designed
to handle all of that?
And I do think our bodies are amazing and could adapt.
In fact, we have to find a way to adapt
and change our ability to handle the world around us.
Sometimes you find these situations in life that are just,
the last thing on earth that you wanted to find yourself
in the middle of, which you are,
and you just have to deal with it.
We need to find more ways to de-stress
and de-stress on a cellular level.
But how do we lower stress?
We think of exercise.
We think of meditation.
We think of music.
All these enjoyable, pleasurable activities
that can lower stress.
A lot of us really don't know how to create sacred space,
or we don't know how to meditate for 20 minutes.
And as you meditate, you're in an alpha state.
And that is around 7.8 Hertz to 12 or 13 Hertz.
That alpha state is where we have our aha moments,
where we get connected to our spiritual self,
where we feel calm, where we don't have a disease process.
We see that when people do this.
They sleep better at night.
All that mental stress, the mind spinning and spinning,
seems to relax
and help your body, help your mind.
We really wanna find ways that we can reduce that stress,
especially if we could find ways that people enjoy.
That's the best.
Meditation, massage and yoga practices
are considered three of the top relaxation methods
in the United States.
But in the last decade,
sound baths have become a growing outlet
for stressed out souls,
needing to recharge, recenter and reground.
And at The Soundbath Center in Los Angeles,
yoga and sound have been combined in an unprecedented way.
I do try to combine a lot of music therapy
and also physics in with what I'm doing with sound.
The great thing about playing gongs
and crystal singing bowls
is you don't have to have a music or physics background
in order to play them.
However, just knowing a bit about it
helps in combining instruments.
What's gonna sound good together?
What's not gonna sound good together?
What might create a little stress or tension,
and what might create relaxation and harmony?
That's why I started the trainings,
'cause like it's gotten so popular.
But people like get a bowl and they're like,
"I do sound baths," and like, bang, bang,
bang, bang, bang, bang.
And I'm like, "What are you doing?"
Gonna be pretty much a gentle practice
restorative sound bath.
So let me get started.
Close your eyes.
Just sit in a comfortable position, hands resting on thighs.
I've been working with sound for the past 15 years
and really I was one of the pioneers in Los Angeles,
both giving sound baths and combining yoga with sound baths,
and I found that that really helps introduce people
to the powerful effects of the gongs and the bowls
and of sound baths.
The basic definition of a sound bath would be an event
where somebody plays instruments and people relax,
listen, and have an experience.
Just cross opposite elbows and hang.
Knees would be bent.
Just let the upper body sway, let your head shake out.
So I would call my classes Yoga and Sound.
Now relax.
I would lead people through mostly
kinda some type of flow class.
Once everyone was laying down
into your traditional yoga class,
it would be maybe a silent Shavasana,
I would extend it and make it 15 to 20 minutes
and I'd play gongs and crystal bowls during that time.
And the response I got back was people loved it.
And now rise and stand
and sweeping that maybe little backbone, pause.
Exhale, fold right back and forward.
I did occasionally do classes where we would combine
the sounds during, while people were flowing.
I also found that if people were flowing
and hearing gongs and bowls,
they really just wanted to go into child's pose.
Gone were the strong warriors.
'Cause the sound just kinda,
they make you want to go in and they relax you.
So it can be challenging to do like a hard flow class
while hearing the gongs and bowls.
Good, inhale, rise to table top.
Tuck the toes and exhale.
Rest the hips back, start to straighten the legs,
little down dog.
People really like it with yoga.
Yoga already has the meditation focus,
it already uses sound, you use the voice, use mantras,
you use toning to focus your mind and affect the body.
And arms reach out.
And adding the gongs and bowls in is just an addition.
that really, I think, enhances the yoga practice.
And I found that using sound as a meditation works faster
than just telling someone to be quiet
and focus on their breath or focus on something else.
You can't not focus on the gong when you hear it.
The sound fills the whole room and it draws you in.
Your mind just automatically focuses on that.
And then you also get the benefit
of how the sound is affecting your brain.
And then in turn, your body starts to relax.
I choose to use gongs and crystal singing bowls.
They do have a lot more frequencies.
You get more of a bandwidth of sound.
And also, especially with the gongs,
your mind isn't going to follow along
with a specific beat or tone.
But when you're hearing something that's playing a melody,
your mind zeroes in on that melody,
which can be therapeutic, but it's a different experience
than a sound bath where you're just immersed
in these sounds, your brain states change,
your nervous system reacts,
the body and the mind relax, and turns people in
to their inner experience.
A lot of people will have insights come in
where they get creative ideas
or they just see something in a different way
that they couldn't see,
because they reached that relaxed state.
So generally, the benefits I see
are all related to relaxation.
From there, a lot of different benefits can come out of it.
So I was a biologist.
Like I went to school for biology.
I really had the science background.
And then when I got into doing sound,
a lot of what I learned was kinda more, more like New Agey.
And I was told a lot of stuff about it,
like these specific frequencies do this,
and this is gonna connect you with this specific planet.
And I've seen this a lot.
I've learned some of it and how to actually unlearn it.
A lot of the misinformation comes from
just a lack of understanding of either physics,
music therapy and how sound affects us.
Or some of it is just simply misunderstood,
because we live in a culture where there's a lot of memes.
There'll be one sentence,
is taken out of an entire research paper.
And if it's misunderstood, then that can get spread around
pretty quickly.
Right now, it's being spread about that C, D, E, F, G, A, B
correlate with the chakra system.
Ah, you play the F bowl
and it's going to attach to your heart.
There's just simply isn't any research that confirms that.
There's actually only research that does the opposite.
As far as like selling instruments and things,
if you call it a heart chakra bowl,
people are gonna want that more than if you just call it
an F bowl.
So there is some sales involved with it,
and everyone wants to work on their hearts.
Just because it's a, quote, unquote, healing instrument,
it doesn't mean it always creates healing.
It's not about just using a specific frequency
for the eradication of disease.
That's like a side effect.
If that happens, that's amazing.
But there simply isn't enough proof or evidence
that any specific sound can always heal
any specific type of disease.
I'm using all of these combinations of sound
to create an environment for people to have
whatever experience they're gonna have.
Sometimes people have an experience
where they feel a lot better, they release stress.
Some people may have a decrease in the symptoms.
But also some people simply just get relaxed.
They sleep better.
They might have shifts in their consciousness or awareness,
or they might not even know what they're getting.
They just really love the sound and it feels good to them.
I've seen a lot of people tune more into themselves.
And in doing that, it will sort of highlight
hat's not working in their lives
and inspire them to make changes.
I saw that within myself.
Through working with sound, within one year,
I changed the job, I left a relationship,
and I started acupuncture school
without ever even having acupuncture.
I just decided to go to it.
So I made a lot of huge changes with that first year.
So I would say that the sounds, if you decide to go there,
whether you're playing or whether you're receiving it,
you'll have huge opportunities to go deeper within yourself
and the things that aren't working in your life,
or maybe aren't of the highs, good for you,
you'll find that those are highlighted
and at some point you make a decision.
Change or not change.
And the more I see people in with sound,
the more you're willing to go there,
the harder it is to not make those changes.
The most acute and heartfelt adjustments
to our inner self can truly change how we see
and interact with the world around us.
And based on how humans have treated the planet,
the animals, and our very own bodies,
we have a lot of inner work to do.
We are absolutely drowning in toxicity.
Noise, air, our food.
Everything seems to come with a toxic overload.
And in this modern age, we have more stressors
than any other time on planet earth.
From the workload, from cellular phones,
arguments, politics, think of all of the stressors
that are in our lives.
And we don't always know that we have been traumatized.
We don't always know that we have dis-ease in the body.
We don't always know that we're stressed
on a cellular level.
And so we're just needing a break from it, a recess from it.
That's why most clients come to Wise Awakening,
because normal pathways of healing have not served them.
So they're looking for alternatives.
That's why we established the temple
where we place the inner-dimensional sound chamber.
Well, 'cause we're, really everyone's seeking, right?
We're all seeking.
And we're all seeking to know ourselves.
Who are we?
Who am I?
What do I want to accomplish in this lifetime?
How do I want my life to be?
How do I wanna be with others?
And so that is one of the major accomplishments
of the inner-dimensional sound chamber.
I started Wise Awakening about 14 years ago,
after finding an inner-dimensional sound chamber,
which birthed this whole process.
The inner-dimensional sound chamber is totally based
on sacred geometry.
This is 144 triangles.
In the chamber, you're on this comfortable bed
and you're totally immersed and raptured in sound
because there's eight speakers in the bed
and eight speakers in the steel housing.
We use headphones so that you'd get binaural beats.
And we play therapeutic music.
It's a totally relaxing experience.
And it's very comfortable.
Reverend Tom Hunt is a mathematician, a sacred geometrician,
and inventor of the inner-dimensional sound chamber.
Two angels came to him and told him
how to construct the device.
And they also told him to build it with steel,
because steel, other than water,
is the highest conductor of sound.
I mean, there's only nine of these on earth,
and there's only three of them being used for sessions.
It had so much to offer and I wanted to share it.
That's when Wise Awakening was birthed.
I found a place, I set it up,
one thing led to another.
And the first day of operation, we had the temple,
and the store, and two full time employees.
It just took off.
When you hold that intention,
because our intention is what lies with us,
then the sound can help us bring clarity,
bring information to that intention.
Linda Hopper is my colleague and one amazing practitioner,
because she helps people to get to that grounded place
so that they can receive the full impact and full benefit
of the inner-dimensional sound chamber sessions.
I was an employee from the state of Washington
for 33 years.
But when I retired about 10 years ago,
I didn't know what I was gonna do next and I wasn't sure.
I felt that I was at a crossroads.
There was some fun and relaxation with retiring
and then there was the stress of not knowing
what the future is gonna be like.
So I came in for a session,
and my experience was one of deep relaxation
and de-stressing, deep clarity.
It's like, you don't have to worry about it,
you have to be open to letting things unfold for you.
That was the information I got as I went deeper with it.
And so when I came out of the session, it was like,
I'm gonna be fine.
I'm going to be okay.
I don't know exactly what I'm gonna be doing,
but I know that I'm on my path
and it will continue to unfold for me.
That's when, oh, this is really, this really works,
and this is something that I wanna explore more deeply.
So one of the most important things
before you get in the chamber is if you have an intention
that you're focused on for today and wanna share that.
My intention is to revitalize my immune system
and just bring sort of a recharging to my whole body.
Right.
Good, wonderful.
All right, you ready?
- Yeah. - All right.
I wasn't sure I understood it from the mathematical
and the geometric perspective that it was designed.
But I knew that when I was in it
and felt the sense of resonance
going around me and through me
that it was very different
from anything else I had experienced.
I think my favorite part about working as a facilitator
for the inner-dimensional sound chamber
is the people that come in.
They are from all walks of life.
I've recently seen folks from New York City
and Minneapolis, Minnesota, New Orleans,
so it's not just the local Bellingham community
that's being aware of sound, of vibrational healing,
it's folks who are visiting or in the area
and making time to have a session here.
I was under a lot of stress.
There are some things going on in my world
that were just really bringing me down
into a lower state of consciousness.
And have a seat.
That's fine.
You're back.
Congratulations!
I knew that something had to change.
I didn't know what,
I couldn't get clear about what direction to take.
And so I decided to have a session.
And that was what broke me open.
From coming out of that, it became very clear to me
what I needed to do in order to address the stress creation
in my life at that time.
And it was involving relationship.
So not my husband.
No matter what state I am in when I go in,
I come to a space of calmness by the end of it, and clarity.
I don't wanna do anything right now.
I just wanna be here.
Just sit here in this wonderful space.
I feel like the Buddha.
I think there's lots of reasons
why people come looking for sessions.
Probably number one is they're really stressed out
and they're looking for a way to relax,
to go into a relaxed state that then they can
maybe gain some more clarity or feel a little bit better.
We're bombarded with so much negativity all the time
that it's really hard to stay balanced.
If we can incorporate into our lives,
either a meditation practice,
a sound and vibrational practice,
that can help bring us back into balance again.
Meditation helps us to go deep within
and be at one with the present moment.
The sound chamber helps us to go deeper within
and open to the present moment.
And let that sound and vibrational energy
do the deeper cellular healing.
The inner-dimensional sound chamber or the alchemy bowls
or the tuning forks are all tools
that can support us in our healing
in combination with our focused intention for healing,
that creates an opportunity for that to occur,
that allows the vibrational energy to work with us.
Last time, we talked about building bridges,
if I move forward in my journey.
Yes.
But the other part today is just being filled
with gratitude.
And I know I have a sense that's going to be
related to building bridges, but,
well, even as I talk about it,
I think you tear up a bit,
because I have just been so blessed for the past year,
year and a half or longer, yeah.
From my background, as a psychologist,
I've dealt a lot with people who are grieving
and it comes in many forms,
but for everyone, there comes the point
when you finally have to face that emotionality.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer,
and then my mother was diagnosed and died
within three years.
Then my best friend was also diagnosed with cancer
at the same time.
My best friend also died.
As a psychologist, a lot of the tools
that I had learned were helpful,
but it didn't take me quite to the level that I needed.
And so through the sound chamber work,
there is a real release of emotion.
And I've found that really helpful
n going through the whole grieving process.
What the sound chamber has done for me, personally,
is it's accelerated that process.
And that acceleration, when you're getting to my age,
is kind of an important thing.
I mean, I cried throughout the whole session practically,
but they were really tears of joy.
There was such an incredible
sense of blessing and gratitude for,
I mean, I've been through a tough time,
but it isn't, it isn't a tough time,
it's a, I guess it's the bridge I built
to get to this place.
And I'm so, I am so grateful for you and for Wise Awakening,
because it was here that I was able to transform
all of that into something.
So, into a new foundation that is,
that one can really have confidence in.
Yeah, yeah.
Being a facilitator of the sound chamber
has really deepened my respect for the inner work
and spiritual work that people do here.
It's deepened my respect for
anything that's vibrational energy,
is a very, very powerful healing energy.
And I knew it, but I get it at a deeper level now.
And the chamber has offered me that opportunity
to experience it at a deeper level.
Well, I'm the luckiest woman on earth.
I mean, I have a device that,
there's only nine of them on earth, and the people came.
It's almost like the "Field of Dreams".
"Build it and they will come."
And they have.
And I feel so blessed, so humble.
So happy
Musical warriors, psychological innovators,
and spiritual trailblazers are making their voices heard,
sharing brave new insights and miraculous testimony
in the Sonic Revolution.
I totally love predicting the future of medicine.
And I think the path is clear.
Now that we have data coming out,
I would expect that it,
it's not even going to be a hundred years,
it'll be 20 years, maybe even less before it's mainstream
that we're using sound therapy.
Its only barrier is understanding.
And I'm not saying that drugs are not helpful,
but we are a vibration.
And that's why this kind of thing works for us.
♪ And I just need some time ♪
♪ And time to start healing ♪
♪ And times all it's healing ♪
♪ And I don't wanna get caught up and caught up ♪
♪ And caught up and caught up in the middle ♪
I think that there are really interesting ways
that we could start to use sound and music more.
And there's definitely not enough research,
but there is research out there.
The more people that know about what's happening here,
the better, especially in these times.
People really need to find this kind of community,
and these people to support everybody and doing the work.
♪ And I am just fine ♪
♪ It's not what you think ♪
♪ 'Cause I don't wanna get caught up and caught up ♪
♪ And caught up caught up in the middle with ♪
Once somebody sees music therapy in action,
they realize it changes people's lives.
That's valuable.
Very valuable.
I could talk for hours to tell you stories,
tell anyone stories about music therapy,
reaching people from so many different backgrounds.
It's really incredible stuff.
It's the most ancient healing modality that's beyond
anything else that you can do.
I've done hundreds and hundreds of sessions.
I've seen the results.
It's almost like taking a breath in and a breath out
when you're really stressed.
That's what sound therapy does.
I feel balanced after every treatment,
emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually,
It's just greatly impacted my life in a positive way.
And I've never had a bad experience.
Every experience is unique.
It's never the same twice.
Once you do it once or twice, you're like,
"Well, why did I never have this done before,"
and you wanna just keep going back in and doing it again
'cause you feel so much better.
It's important that we find therapies,
not only that are helpful for people, but that they enjoy.
And what is nicer than sitting and listening
to some singing bowls?
They can be powerfully effective.
And I'm sure that before I'm done doctoring
that it's going to be mainstream
to use these kinds of things.
To the skeptics, I would say, what do you have to lose?
You come, you lay there in a group of people,
you listen, you have an experience,
and then you see how you feel afterwards.
If you hate it, you never have to go back.
If you get something out of it,
then you're gonna wanna go back.
I would encourage anybody else to jump in.
The water's fine.
♪ I know the story of your life ♪
♪ Through winter storms and summer skies ♪
♪ There was a time when you were young and free ♪
♪ So let's go back to teaches us that always make you laugh ♪
♪ To forests where we found a hidden cow ♪
♪ To summertime on 2005 ♪
♪ When we were still alive ♪