Singing and sound has shaped my life. Not unlike how iron filings arrange themselves into intricate patterns when placed on a flat metal plaque while being vibrated with sound-waves. This study of wave phenomenon, called Cymatics, was the discovery of German scientist Hans Jenny in the 1930’s and most visually demonstrated the way that sound shapes matter.
We are all being shaped by everything that is vibrating within us and around us and we are all making intricate patterns of our lives whether we mean to or not.
My musical shaping began at a young age singing with my Father in musicals and concerts where he was the feature singer and I sang in the chorus where I felt more comfortable and where I could blend in with other people. I was a shy kid and when I was at home and wanted to sing, my shyness led me to the closet to sing with the doors closed.
And when I came out of that closet, I really came out. For the next 15 years or so I would proceed to sing for my bread and butter and travel to various parts of the world singing in concert halls in China, smokey clubs in Finland and the UK, Jazz Kellers in Germany and United States. I would become the first White Supreme in history backing up ‘Mary Wilson of the Supremes’ and saw the whole Motown era revisited through backstage eyes. I performed a solo in David Foster’s song “Can’t You Feel It” at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary and wrote the World Games theme song 2001. I recorded four albums and wrote three theme songs.
I was shaped by these events and created many intricate patterns within me which I would then spend the next 20 years re-harmonizing and re-turning back to a state of harmony within me from a state of dis-harmony. These big events as amazing as they had been had impacted my body and my psyche to the point of exhaustion. My voice had collapsed and so had I and I was at a loss as to how to move forward in my life.
And so I listened. I became still. I took deep breaths and over time and to my surprise the voice that had been pointed outside of myself for others turned towards me and the healing sound of my own voice began to pour its medicine throughout my body and my being.
I know first hand the healing powers of the voice from the emotional, spiritual and soul levels. I have spent years and years allowing my voice to penetrate and soften me to my core. I have not done this because sound and singing brings relief from stress and anxiety, improved concentration and enhanced creativity. I have not been trying to improve my vision or rebalance my brain hemispheres, or increase alpha brainwave activity. I have not been trying to access higher consciousness or move energy through stimulation of the cerebrospinal fluid increasing the kundalini life force. All I have been trying to do, is. To. Feel. Feel my voice moving through my body and waking it up piece by glorious piece. I have done this to feel the beauty of my voice again and how it feels like every cell dances to the sound of one note and to remember how my body feels so open and alive after I sing. The voice lights up life and our whole being the way that nothing else can. Oh, and that other stuff is good too.
A message from the director of the Association of Sound Healing Nestor Kornblum who says, “through the regular use of sound combined with intention we may begin to vibrate faster at a cellular or molecular level. This what is meant by “raise your frequency”. The higher rate of vibration creates larger spaces between the cells, making us less dense, and preventing negative or intrusive energies from sticking to us easily. In the 1930’s the medium Edgar Cayce predicted that sound would be the medicine of the future. That future is now. So let’s all raise our vibration to harmonize with the energies of this New Millennium!”
Like I said, all that other stuff is good too.