Fundraiser for Tibetan Temple

It was an awesome place to do a sound healing concert. A huge home in San Diego with gardens, fountains, enormous fireplaces and expansive rooms. Setting up my Tibetan singing bowls and Chiron gong I had a feeling that the instruments were longing to sing. When Drupon Samten Rinpoche arrived with his assistant and set up Tibetan flags, jewelry and other items to sell, the setting felt complete. I played for an hour and as expected the bowls and gongs sang out like old friends. The best part was how well Rinpoche was able to express what I was doing with the instruments after the concert. He said that the music was an expression of beauty and peace. The gong I play in a textural manner and then expands into a crescendo of sound. Rinpoche said that our egos need to be overcome and the loud sound did just that- quieting the ego and allowing us to just feel ourselves in space/time without anything else going on. It was a lovely and accessible description of what I was doing. After that he offered a meditation and New Year Blessing. A perfect end to a wonderful day.

Sound Healing as a Mirror

At the end of this months intensive weekend workshop we did a partnered exercise that gave participants a view of themselves from someone else's perspective. In this way students got a glimpse of how they are perceived. One student was surprised at all the uplifting, true and lovely things that were said about her from her peers because her sense of herself was so negative. The feedback she got showed her that despite her inner critic, she is what she is.. and the jewel of that is visible to other people. Her whole being lit up as she permitted herself to open to her obvious gifts and relinquish her self sabotaging belief system. When we hold the vision of the best in others, they begin to see and experience that for themselves as well. When we speak to that, they hear it. The Sacred Sound family-Tibetan singing bowls, tingsa's, gantas and dorjes are effective tools in reawakening us to who we really are. We sentient beings are all moving, breathing instruments of sound and are capable of reawakening in others the best that is in them. As we journey into a new year I hope we can remember how powerful we are and keep blessing our environment with our love and compassionate words and deeds. Next Sound Healing Workshop is in January

New Sound Healing Video

Here is a new Tibetan Bowl Sound Healing video made by Satiama, a wonderful organization that promotes those healers, artists and musicians whose work inspire and awaken.

I have been taking tap classes.. Yep- something fun to do that taxes the brain and the feet. It's great to be creating dynamic rhythmic patterns and I now find that the sound of the patterns stay in my mind for a long time. One thing that is great about learning new things is the opportunity to examine our thoughts -to make sure they are encouraging and positive even when faced with challenges and insecurity. We humans learn by repetition- steps, words, thoughts, actions. Over time the work done with sound energy healing with the Tibetan bowls has greatly transformed my own thoughts and actions and because of it learning new things is a source of great fun rather than frustration. Sound healing brings us back to our essence again and again and that helps have a positive perspective for whatever we do.

Kripalu Yoga & Sound

Yikes! I haven't been here in a while. No matter, life gets busy. I'm here now and getting ready to do a Kripalu Yoga class to Tibetan bowls with an extended meditation at the end. I have only spoken to the yoga instructor but we both feel totally comfortable with just doing it. Playing for yoga classes is the most natural thing.. just following the movements as they happen with the sound of the bowls.. changing up the pace, the volume, the textures of sound. For the students, the sound of the singing bowls and gong goes into their consciousness and their limbs making the poses even more meaningful and effortless. It is as though the sound carries them through the movement.. At least, that has been the reports. So if you happen to be in Cardiff by the Sea, CA on November 15 at 5:30 pm, come to EZIA at the Sanctuary, 230 Birmingham Drive. This is our gift to the community so there is no charge, but you do need to register at 760-845-1400

Sound Healing Interview

Listen to this interview on Tibetan bowl sound healing with Diane at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/illuminated/2009/09/10/Luminous-Living-interview-with-Diane-Mandle

Sound Healing and Consciousness

Over the years the voice of my inner critic has changed a great deal, thanks to working with the Tibetan singing bowls. These instruments that teach compassion through their magnificent voices, that touch the soul and help us to remember who we are have made a major impact on my own life and the lives of my sound healing students and clients. It is good to once in a while, acknowledge our accomplishments and the other day, when I surprised myself with a tone of voice that did not match the image of who I want to be.. I just stopped. This voice has been part of me for a long time and pops up now and then, when I am tired, irritated or rushed. It is a voice that does not feel good to me or to the person receiving it. I am speaking here of a tone of voice rather than words used. In working with the bowls daily, I am able to access the highest part of myself. I do not require that I walk around ignoring my humanity tho.. But in this case the tone just didn't feel acceptable anymore.. I recognized that I had far outgrown the need to express myself in that way. I just released it because it no longer serves me rather than because I felt I should. The tone has been replaced by a moment.. a pause, a silence in which I can make a decision rather than a habitual reaction. The singing bowls, bring us into alignment so in using them often alignment becomes the norm rather than the exception. In this way what is not in alignment falls away simply because it feels right. I'd love to hear your stories about how the bowls have impacted on your life. Check out the websites at http://www.soundenergyhealing.com and http://www.tibetanbowlschool.com

New Theraputic Tibetan Bowl Meditation CD

Finally, I got this done just before leaving on my month long journey to Europe ( in another post) I wanted to make a cd that would help my clients to continue the healing work we did in private sessions as well as for those who cannot get a private. The idea was to create an atmosphere that would put the listner into a deep meditative state and to stregthen specific aspects of themselves. I wanted to make the spoken part of the cd totally positive and inspiring to the spirit and say those words in a context of sacred sound that would take hold in the subconscious. So here it is.

Being Well: The Journey. Guided meditations by Diáne Mandle w/Tibetan Bowls, Gongs & Sacred Sound Instruments. Each 15-20 minute recording within this series is designed to reawaken and strengthen as specific area of consciousness that can help the listener access wholeness.(Opening the Heart, Becoming Whole, Inner Healer ) The instruments are played with patterns of sacred geometry and tones that best support the issue) To order go to www.soundenergyhealing.com/productsforwellbeing.html.

Discord

Last night I played a sound healing concert in a health facility. I wanted to share this unusual experience with you. The room was nice enough but the ceiling was low, the floor carpeted and the acoustics not the best. The sponsors were welcoming, helpful and excited, many of them scientists. I was happy for the opportunity to introduce this modality to a group of people in the health field but as the room filled something felt off. In general I play in yoga studios, or places that have a strong spiritual connection. Here, that connection was not as evident- the people may have had this connection but not the space. When I started the concert my electronic tembura wouldn't work and the singing bowls sounded flat and discordant. People seemed to be shifting around quite a bit, there were babies who made quite a bit of noise, the owner decided to do something with the sound system in the middle of the concert that produced a loud hiss for several minutes...things that unsettled me.. Throughout the concert I was aware the the bowls just would not go into harmony with one another so I decided to play the gong earlier than usual in the evening. That did it for the audience. Within moments the power of that instrument settled people down and I returned to a group of bowls that were much more in harmony with eachother than how I had left them.. In the end, people raved about their experiece but I still felt uncomfortable and my Tibetan bowls definately did too.

Tibetan Bowl School News

The last of the Tibetan bowl school June Intro classes was completed on June 20/21. It was evident from the students that most people do not know how to choose quality instruments. Students arrived with their collection of tingshas and bowls to show me with hopes of adding to their collections after the course. There were a few good bowls in the group but most of the bowls that came into the class had a tinny sound, few and faint harmonic overtones and the sound of the instruments faded away quickly. This is not the quality one would desire for sound healing sessions. Tingshas were suitable for getting attention but completly unacceptable for use as a diagnostic tool. They had a great deal of chatter, no lingering tone, and felt piercing rather than awakening in texture. During the weekend when students had the opportunity to listen to really good quality instruments, they began to hear tones and textures that they had not heard before. It was the first time for many of them that they were able to assess quality of sound. This was a great revelation to them and will serve them well for future selection of the sacred sound instruments.

New Rochelle

Have you ever been found? This week three people from my high school contacted me after finding me on Facebook. I haven't had any contact with them since 1969. As I look into the photos on their profiles I search to see if the spirit of the young friends I had back then is still with them. It is comforting to revisit part of ones history and to see where we have grown

A Worthy Sound Healing Publication

My friend Amrita Cotrell ( amrita@healingmusic.org) spends hours combing the internet to assemble valuable information on sound healing around the world. From her research, she puts together a Chronicle of Sound Healing e-publication that contains articles, studies, information and research about sound healing. If you would like to receive this journal email her for further details.

New Tibetan Bowl School Video

Sound Healing Tour Gift

Many people view concert touring as a romantic thing. That is certainly part of touring but a great deal of it is also driving huge distances, loading and unloading heavy equipment, sleeping on mats and having little choice about available healthy foods. It is a lot of hard work away from home and normally an excellent support to annual income too!  I just returned from a wonderful Tibetan bowl sound healing concert tour in the Sierra's  What a beautiful part of the country that is. The tour was a great success on many levels although the economic situation really made itself felt.  Part way through the tour I decided to let go of financial goals and dedicated this to be a  "Service tour" .  In that way I could totally give myself to the sound healing concerts and not think about or be dissappointed by the financial aspects.  The folks I met were wonderful, the weather beautiful, and bags of delicious fat red cherries were all over the little roads in farm stands.  I was gone for 12 days of concerts, workshops and private healing sessions.  In the end I did just fine financially, but the tour was the best ever because I was able to let go of that part of it.  One of the instruments I play during the tour is a Chiron gong.. an amazing instrument that through sound teaches us to 'see the gift in the wound" -- to transmute challenges into something for deepening... This tour was an opportunity for me to do just that and I feel so blessed.  Just wanted to share that with y'all.   Blessings.

Toning with a Master

May 4th, 6pm PST Sound Healing Teleclass- The topic this month is Toning. My special guest presenter is Internationally known Overtone Master Wayne Perry. I started working with Waynes overtone tapes years ago and still feel that they are the best. Why? Because they break down the syllables, textures and areas of the mouth, throat etc where different overtones occur. His work is the most accessible I have found and lots of fun to work with. Wayne will present an simple overview of overtoning and one aspect of it that very much relates to the singing bowls. Then he will answer your questions.

Wayne has asked that questions be sent to him prior to the teleclass so please email yours to me at diane@soundenergyhealing.com. To register go to: www.tibetanbowlschool.com/regist.shtml. $20. You will receive the call in numbers by email after you register. Registration deadline is May 1.

Ancient Bowls, New Bowls

The other day a friend of mine was raving about the sound meditations offered by a friend of hers. The person in question is a sweet, open hearted being who offers these meditations from a place of great authenticity. He uses new bowls. For most of the people who attend the meditations, they are the only bowls they have ever heard. I invited my friend to experience as sound healing session at my home. She was speechless. Never had she heard such magnificent tones and harmonics. Not just that, she felt the energy of the blessings and mantras offered by the monks during the making of the bowls. This is part of their inheritance and it is infinate in nature. My friend began to stutter and smatter about how completely different the experience was.. and she really "got it" about the energetic, tonal and experiential difference between the old bowls, made for consciousness transformation and healing, and new bowls, often machine made and made for commerce. It was obvious.

People are always wanting to get a lot of bowls at a cheap price. I maintain that one old bowl of high quality is so much more than several newer ones. The students that come to my school often want an entire set of bowls right away. I suggest they get no more than three high quality ones to work with for a while.To really develop a relationship with a few good bowls takes time. That is not to say that all old bowls are good. Today there are less and less high quality ancient bowls available. There is so much one must take into consideration when purchasing a bowl. Does the vendor have a direct relationship with the supplier in Nepal or Tibet. If so, for how long. Was the bowl purchased from a wholesaler in the USA who brings in other products? I get my bowls from a Tibetan Buddhist who has a 30 year relationship with the Tibetans and goes over there to maintain that relationship on a regular basis. This is so important to establishing trust and being sure that we get the best of the best instruments.

Sound Healing and Animals

A special teleclass on Sound Healing for Animals will be held Tues ,April 7th, 6pm The focus of this class, sponsored by Diane Mandle's Tibetan bowl Sound healing school, is how to use sound with animals for healing purposes. Anne Smith VMD is the guest presenter. Anne has been working with animals for over 20 years and has successfully used the sacred sound instruments with both large and small critters. We conducted a presentation together a while back in Phoenix for 45 dogs and their owners. Anne talked about the 'trigger point's in animals and how that shifts with exposure to vibrational sound instruments. She also introduced the group to several pets she had worked with to see exceptional changes in them. This class is only an hour but if there is enough interest I will offer another session at a later date. To save time, Anne will answer questions that have been sent ahead of time. Don't delay. Please in your questions or comments that relate to the topic to diane110@cox.net. REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS April 3rd. No exceptions. $20

To Register: http://www.tibetanbowlschool.com/regist.shtml or call 760-944-3441

New Tibetan Bowl Video at Cancer Center

Sound Healing Session Surprise.

I got this blog from a woman who came to a sound healing session with no idea of what it was. This is the entry in her blog which I thought might amuse y'all. The title is
Cranky Pants Meets Tibetan Bowls.

Some folks are adventurous optimists. They assume that all new experiences will be fun. Ask one of these folks: "Hey, optimist, wanna go Naked Ice Fishing in the Antarctic?" Chances are they'll say "Sure, count me in!" And even if they go naked ice fishing, catch nothing but a bad cold and even lose a few extremities to frostbite in the process, you can still ask them next time: "Hey optimist, want to go sunbathing in the Sahara?" And their answer will be: "Sure, count me in!"
And then there are their opposites. I am one of these creatures. You can call us "party poopers," or just say we're "cautious." We are picky about how we spend our time. We assume that most new things outside of the tried-and-true will NOT be fun. Our default answer to most new activities is "no thanks!"

Before you say "how terrible! That's so limiting!" keep in mind that our ability to say "no thanks" is often hard-won. Most of us crankypants cautious types have been talked into outings and parties and performances for decades and we've been assured we will LOVE them. And then we go, only find ourselves bored, anxious, disappointed, or annoyed. We've learned to trust our own instincts and ignore the enthusiastic promises of the adventurous optimists. Don't get me wrong: we Party Poopers still have plenty of fun; we're just way more selective about how we have it.

All this is to say that while in San Diego, Crabby McSlacker, queen of the Crankypants Party Poopers, got talked into a "Sound Energy Healing" session involving the playing of Tibetan singing bowls (and bells and gongs and other exotic objects).

How did this happen? Well, it was one of those situations where despite some skepticism I couldn't really decline unless I wanted to be a total... what's the female equivalent of a prick, anyway? So the Cautious Crab went off with the Lobster to a sound healing session, generously offered by a friend's mother who happens to be a certified Tibetan bowl practitioner (and a very cool person).

So what does a Tibetan Singing Bowl Sound Healing session entail, and does research say it's effective or is it just a whole lot of hooey?

The Science of Sound
Actually, there does seem to research backing the notion that various kinds of sound, music and rhythms can have healing powers. According to oncologist, Mitchell Gaynor, "We know that music is capable of enhancing immune function, lowering heart rate, lowering stress-related hormones like cortisol that raise our blood pressure and depress our immune systems." Other research suggests that music "trims complications after heart attack, calms anxiety, slows breathing and increases production of endorphins, the body's natural painkillers."

Gaynor is a big proponent of using Tibetan bowls to help cancer patients, but says that there is more going on than just the effects of relaxation. He implies that there is something special about these bowls that taps into spiritual energy that can help cancer patients heal.

Furthermore, in a sound healing article in the New York Times, one practitioner explained: "When the body is sick - it could be a cold, a broken bone, an ulcer, a tumor, or an emotional or mental illness - it's all a matter of the frequencies of the body being out of tune, off balance, out of synch. Vibration can help bring that back into balance."

Er... maybe. I'm frankly skeptical about the whole vibrational balance explanation. I think that there is so much evidence about the beneficial effects of stress reduction, meditation, and even placebo power that we don't even need to go there. But hey, if people believe that the sound vibrations are going into their bodies and messing with their cells in positive ways and resetting their frequencies or whatever, I think that's a good thing, whether it's true or not!

What is a Tibetan Bowl Sound Session Like?
It's pretty cool.

We went into a room that had dozens of Tibetan bowls of all sizes as well as some bells and who knows what else. (If I were a proper reporter instead of a lazy blogger, I probably would have thought to ask what all the stuff was). Tibetan bowls can be struck or rubbed, and they have a very rich sound with lots of overtones. Apparently they are tuned to the frequency of "aum." In more technical terms, they sound pretty.

As instructed, we removed our shoes, lay down on a comfortable mat, were covered by a blanket, and were given nice little eye pillow thingies. This triggered pleasant massage associations and was a nice surprise.

Then I start to forget the order of things. Did our host make the trance-inducing suggestions about letting go and ripples and ponds and hearts blossoming open and such before she put the bowls on our chests and bellies? Or did the cool bell tones and chimes start first and then the suggestions and then the belly bowls?

Anyway, I do at least remember that the sounds the bowls made being struck and rubbed all around us (and on us) were VERY soothing. The tones were rich and warm and layered and luxurious. Because I could feel the vibrations, the sounds seemed to worm their way into deeper places in my head and body than regular music normally goes.

By the end, I was so relaxed I could barely speak.

I didn't go in with any specific medical issues to deal with, so I can't attest to the pain-relieving, disease-fighting properties of Tibetan bowls, but I can say that they are pretty wonderful things to be around. As someone who sucks at meditation, I am always looking for ways to turn down the mental chitter chatter a few notches. (Which is not to say that the yapping in my brain went away entirely, but at least it was contented, meandering, quieter yapping).

Anyway, the Crankypants Crab will continue to defend to her dying day the practice of saying "no thanks!" to new experiences. But, um... sometimes new experiences actually turn out to be awesome. (Thanks Diáne!)

(For more information on Tibetan bowls, Tibetan bowl music cd's, or attending sound healing concerts or presentations, check out Diáne Mandle's Sound Energy Healing site.)