Sound Heals (2019) Movie Script
1
(gentle guitar music)
I went to my first rock
concert in Dublin, Ireland
when I was a wee lad.
And I had a kind of a epiphany.
(gentle guitar music)
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.
(chuckles)
("Whiskey in the Jar")
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
Whack for the daddy oh
There's whiskey in the jar
Mush a ring a ma dor um dah
Whack for the daddy oh
Whack for the daddy oh
There's whiskey in the jar
(audience applauds)
Thank you very much.
(faint voices talking)
[Narrator] In the
beginning was the word.
And the word was with God.
And the word was God.
(explodes)
(enlightening music)
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.
(birds chirping)
(ocean waves crashing)
(dolphins squeaking)
Sound surrounds us.
(bees buzzing)
(upbeat lively music)
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.
(gentle piano music)
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.
[Narrator] 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.
(enlightening music)
[Narrator] 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.
(dramatic music)
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.
(mumbles)
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
[Narrator] 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
[Narrator] 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
(faint voices talking)
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
- (audience applauds)
- [Narrator] We all hope
to be the heroes of our own stories.
Thank you.
[Narrator] 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.
[Man] There's 11 new
cases of the coronavirus
in New Hampshire.
[Woman] The toy just
suddenly started burning.
Whispers in your ear
Tells you things that
you don't wanna hear
[Narrator] Media and news
outlets are filled with fear,
omens of war and numerous
threats to our very way of life.
[Man] 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.
[Man] 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.
[Man] Two, two, two, two.
(faint voice talking)
[Man] I think we're good.
Can, can I?
Can I?
Can I?
[Man] One, two.
(lively band music)
Climb some trees
I would love to scrape
my knees with you
Yes it's true
[Narrator] 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
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
[Man] Yeah.
[Alexander] Sounded good?
- Okay.
- Yeah.
It's my liberation, yeah.
It's our liberations.
(laughs)
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
[Man] 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
(laughs)
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.
(gentle music)
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.
[Man] Good job, buddy.
Oh, buddy.
(laughs)
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...
[Alexander] I've heard Caution a lot.
New songs and I'd rather do Phylis
'cause it's newer than Caution.
[Alexander] I'm behind you on that.
[Man] Can we just run it?
- (faint voice talking)
- Wanna give it a shot?
Run it real quick?
- Yeah.
- And see how we feel?
(upbeat lively music)
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
(audience applauds)
[Presenter] 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.
(cannons firing)
(explodes)
[Narrator] In the early
part of the 20th century,
(gun fires)
the world suffered devastation
on a whole new level.
(gun fires)
(melancholic music)
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.
[Man] 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.
[Narrator] 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.
(enlightening music)
[Narrator] 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.
(enlightening music)
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.
[Chrissy] What are we gonna sing first?
[Sabrina] "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
[Chrissy] 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.
[Chrissy] 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.
[Chrissy] Not green.
- Blue.
- Blue, right.
Yellow and pink.
[Chrissy] 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.
(indistinct singing)
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.
[Chrissy] 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.
(indistinct singing)
[Chrissy] 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.
[Narrator] 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.
[Narrator] 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?"
(laughs)
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.
(crystal bowl ringing)
The basic definition of a
sound bath would be an event
where somebody plays
instruments and people relax,
listen, and have an experience.
(voice drowned by vibrations)
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.
(laughs)
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.
(humming)
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.
(humming)
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.
(gong clanging)
(crystal bowl ringing)
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.
(voice drowned by gong vibrating)
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.
(laughs)
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.
[Narrator] 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.
(crystal bowl ringing)
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.
(enlightening music)
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.
(laughs)
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.
[Linda] Just sit here
in this wonderful space.
I feel like the Buddha.
(laughs)
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.
(laughs)
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
[Narrator] 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
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
When we were still alive
When we were still alive
When we were still alive
(gentle guitar music)
I went to my first rock
concert in Dublin, Ireland
when I was a wee lad.
And I had a kind of a epiphany.
(gentle guitar music)
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.
(chuckles)
("Whiskey in the Jar")
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
Whack for the daddy oh
There's whiskey in the jar
Mush a ring a ma dor um dah
Whack for the daddy oh
Whack for the daddy oh
There's whiskey in the jar
(audience applauds)
Thank you very much.
(faint voices talking)
[Narrator] In the
beginning was the word.
And the word was with God.
And the word was God.
(explodes)
(enlightening music)
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.
(birds chirping)
(ocean waves crashing)
(dolphins squeaking)
Sound surrounds us.
(bees buzzing)
(upbeat lively music)
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.
(gentle piano music)
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.
[Narrator] 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.
(enlightening music)
[Narrator] 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.
(dramatic music)
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.
(mumbles)
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
[Narrator] 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
[Narrator] 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
(faint voices talking)
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
- (audience applauds)
- [Narrator] We all hope
to be the heroes of our own stories.
Thank you.
[Narrator] 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.
[Man] There's 11 new
cases of the coronavirus
in New Hampshire.
[Woman] The toy just
suddenly started burning.
Whispers in your ear
Tells you things that
you don't wanna hear
[Narrator] Media and news
outlets are filled with fear,
omens of war and numerous
threats to our very way of life.
[Man] 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.
[Man] 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.
[Man] Two, two, two, two.
(faint voice talking)
[Man] I think we're good.
Can, can I?
Can I?
Can I?
[Man] One, two.
(lively band music)
Climb some trees
I would love to scrape
my knees with you
Yes it's true
[Narrator] 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
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
[Man] Yeah.
[Alexander] Sounded good?
- Okay.
- Yeah.
It's my liberation, yeah.
It's our liberations.
(laughs)
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
[Man] 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
(laughs)
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.
(gentle music)
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.
[Man] Good job, buddy.
Oh, buddy.
(laughs)
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...
[Alexander] I've heard Caution a lot.
New songs and I'd rather do Phylis
'cause it's newer than Caution.
[Alexander] I'm behind you on that.
[Man] Can we just run it?
- (faint voice talking)
- Wanna give it a shot?
Run it real quick?
- Yeah.
- And see how we feel?
(upbeat lively music)
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
(audience applauds)
[Presenter] 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.
(cannons firing)
(explodes)
[Narrator] In the early
part of the 20th century,
(gun fires)
the world suffered devastation
on a whole new level.
(gun fires)
(melancholic music)
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.
[Man] 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.
[Narrator] 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.
(enlightening music)
[Narrator] 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.
(enlightening music)
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.
[Chrissy] What are we gonna sing first?
[Sabrina] "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
[Chrissy] 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.
[Chrissy] 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.
[Chrissy] Not green.
- Blue.
- Blue, right.
Yellow and pink.
[Chrissy] 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.
(indistinct singing)
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.
[Chrissy] 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.
(indistinct singing)
[Chrissy] 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.
[Narrator] 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.
[Narrator] 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?"
(laughs)
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.
(crystal bowl ringing)
The basic definition of a
sound bath would be an event
where somebody plays
instruments and people relax,
listen, and have an experience.
(voice drowned by vibrations)
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.
(laughs)
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.
(humming)
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.
(humming)
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.
(gong clanging)
(crystal bowl ringing)
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.
(voice drowned by gong vibrating)
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.
(laughs)
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.
[Narrator] 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.
(crystal bowl ringing)
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.
(enlightening music)
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.
(laughs)
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.
[Linda] Just sit here
in this wonderful space.
I feel like the Buddha.
(laughs)
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.
(laughs)
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
[Narrator] 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
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
When we were still alive
When we were still alive
When we were still alive