The Power of Intentional Sound:

The Power of Intentional Sound:
Thoughts On the World Sound Healing Day
By Tom Kenyon
In tantric Buddhism, or the energy-practices of consciousness, the primordial sound "AH" is associated with the throat center and the action of "enlightened speech."
On World Sound Healing Day, we are being given an opportunity to join others all over the planet to create a conscious sound-wave for world peace. And we will do this by making the sound "AH" for five minutes, either silently or out-loud, either alone or in groups, as our situation allows.
How will this work?
First of all, let's take a look at it from the 'esoteric' or hidden tradition. From this perspective, the throat chakra is associated with the power of creation and the expression of personal will. When we speak, we are using the inherent power of this energy-center. And when we speak with conscious intention, the creations of this center carry the vibrational essence of our intention, in other words, intention put into sound.
As I said at the beginning, the "AH" sound is associated with "enlightened speech." What do I mean by this rather exotic term? Well there are many ways of describing it, but for our purposes I think we can say this - it is joining the creative power of our voices with the wisdom power of our hearts. The wisdom power of our hearts has many aspects, but primarily it is the power to generate compassion. And to speak in ways that are compassionate in nature.
Compassion means literally "to feel with." Thus, when we feel compassion for someone, either ourselves or another, we are feeling with that person. Compassion brings with it the recognition that we are all in the same boat so to speak. We are all in the world of duality and we all suffer from time to time. When we see suffering around us, compassion creates an immediate response of connection. Compassion is not pity. Feeling sorry for someone is actually a kind of spiritual superiority. We feel higher than someone when we pity them.
Compassion is different. It is the heart-felt recognition that we are all connected by virtue of our humanity and what happens to one of us, in some inexplicable way, happens to all of us. Whether we are aware of this or not, is another question.
Now in order for the "AH" sound of creation to do anything other than sound interesting, we have to align it with a positive feeling. It is this union of creative intention with feeling that moves energy into manifestation. If we just make an "AH" sound without conscious intention, it is rather wasted effort. The trick is that the intention has to be held in the heart, not so much in the mind.
In the 'esoteric' traditions of Buddhism, the heart is the residing place of our wisdom-mind. And it is through the heart that we can sense the underlying interconnectedness of ourselves with all beings. In the Christian and Muslim traditions, the heart is also the residing place of wisdom and holds the capacity to express love.
For those of you who may not have a particular spiritual lineage to explain the hidden powers of the heart, let me offer some recent scientific evidence.
First of all, it has been found that the electromagnetic fields of the heart are stronger than those of the brain. In fact, they are 30-60 times stronger. And there is evidence that when we feel strong emotions our electromagnetic fields 'broadcast' these feelings to other biological systems, especially those of humans and higher mammals.
Think of yourself as adding your positive feelings to the planetary broadcast of peace, and you will have some idea of what we are doing here.
If you would like to further explore the scientific understanding of emotion and sound, I would refer you to two sources: the work of Manfred Clynes and the research of the Heart Math Institute. You can find both of these by going to an Internet search engine such as www.google.com.
As we prepare to join our voices to the planetary sound-wave that we will all be creating, it is important that we make contact with a positive feeling from the heart. For some this may be compassion which arises naturally from enlightened states of mind. But for many of us, this might be difficult especially if we are in mental and/or emotional turmoil.
Having studied the effects of positive feelings and their affects on consciousness for many years, I have found a particular feeling-state quite easy for most people to access. I call that state appreciation.
Physiological studies on the effects of appreciation are quite interesting and show that it has very positive effects on the heart, brain function and our immune systems. It is a highly coherent emotion and one ideally suited to our peace efforts through the use of conscious-sound.
Some of you, no doubt, know quite easily how to use this positive feeling-state, but in case you don't, here's a brief suggestion.
You don't need to have a reason to feel appreciation. You can self-generate it. Just remember the feeling. Or if that is too difficult, recall something in your past that you feel appreciation for. Then let the content of the memory drop away, so that you are left with just the feeling. It's that simple.
I strongly suggest you try practicing this a few times before the actual World Sound Healing Day, so that you 'know' how to do it on demand. Then when you start to make your sound for peace, connect to this feeling. Actually put your awareness in your heart center, either your heart chakra or your physical heart, and recall the feeling of appreciation.
As you make the "AH" sound, let it come out of, so to speak, this feeling of appreciation. Imagine yourself sending your sound out to the entire planet. Imagine your voice joining thousands, if not tens of thousands of people all over the globe. Let your feeling of appreciation for life join with theirs. Know that you are broadcasting a powerful feeling-state throughout the planet. The gift of love and appreciation is the greatest gift we can give, especially in this most perilous time.
Know that your efforts will have an effect. Exactly what, we might not know for sometime. But every conscious creation of love given to the web of life has a positive effect.
Bless you for joining us. May we all be lifted up, and may we all attain our highest destinies.
*To find out more about Tom Kenyon, visit the web: www.tomkenyon.com

http://www.healingsounds.com/sounds/

"The power of Dionysus is to ride on the full fury of the life force"
~ Joseph Campbell, American prolific author, philosopher and teacher, (1904-1987)