Shamanic Sound Healing: The Power of Awareness
Last month we began by tentatively defining shamanism and shamanic sound healing, this month we will look at the shamanic use of awareness and intention in a sound healing context.
Awareness is essential to working with the energy body. Most shamans distinguish between ordinary everyday awareness and a second non-ordinary awareness. This second-order awareness can be developed over time or appear all at once, but once it is discerned the world is never the same.
Our ordinary awareness is formed by our habitual behaviors and patterns of belief, social norms, and cultural conditioning. In essence, our ordinary awareness is a collective illusion or dreamworld. Yet it is taken for reality as such and most of us are sleepwalking through it. The shaman alters our state of consciousness so that we temporarily awaken from this collective dream. Then we can look on ourselves and the world with the eyes of a newborn baby. This can be healing in and of itself, for the layers of conditioning form a second skin that distances us from our essential self and leaves the body tense, energetically weak, and prone to physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual dis-ease.
The shamanic sound healer uses sound to awaken this non-ordinary awareness both in himself and his apprentice. The shaman can then sense the energy body and apply healing tones and vibrations where necessary. Earth energy is also available to assist in the healing. Remember, everything is ultimately a vibration made up of energy, is self-aware (or conscious), and is intercommunicating through the exchange of information. This includes plants, animals, the earth and sky, and even the universe itself. Once the shaman awakens non-ordinary awareness, he then uses intention to access signature vibrations. The shaman calls on (or intends to merge with) these signature vibrations for healing and life enhancement primarily through the use of ritual: smudging, offerings, prayer, dance, chant,
sacred sounds and music. Through the use of ritual, the shaman resonates and in a sense unites with the signature vibration of choice. These signature vibrations are known by indigenous peoples throughout the world. Examples of signature vibrations include Eagle, Wolf, World Tree, Sun, Moon, Father Sky, and Mother Earth. These names signify the physical manifestations of each signature vibration; while the names vary slightly across shamanic traditions, every shamanic tradition has them.
Signature Vibrations are similar to Plato’s ideal forms or Jungian archetypes, but are much more than mental geometry or collective thought forms: they are vibratory forms of energy in their own right existing beyond the conscious mind. With non-ordinary awareness and intention, they respond to the shaman’s call. This is not an abstract theory, it is a non-ordinary awareness that you can
develop for yourself: in a state of reverence and humility, offer a gift of fresh leaves, or flowers, even cornmeal will do (the important thing is your intention to give offering with a sacred object), light a smudge stick or incense, close your eyes and call on Eagle for healing, insight, and flight. Do this with deep awareness and pure intentions; then observe yourself. Trust your responses however subtle, be they visual, auditory, tactile, and/or emotive. And remember to feel the experience from your heart. Once you’ve successfully done this, try it with other signature vibrations, using music, song, or dance to intensify the experience. The shamanic sound healer is simply someone who has fine-tuned this process, and learned to do it consistently and effectively for a variety of purposes.
When discussing shamanism and sound healing, we have to be careful of not committing what the integral psychologist Ken Wilber refers to as the pre/trans fallacy: confounding pre- and trans-rational states of awareness. Ultimately, shamanic sound healing goes beyond the mind, but it is not irrational. In fact, the rational mind is a necessary part of the process. The shaman makes use of reason to go beyond it, not do away with it altogether. This is the difference between the shaman, who is thoroughly enculturated in his society but able to transcend it at will, and the schizophrenic who has lost the ability to recognize the distinction. For more on the relationship between trans-rational states and shamanic sound healing, stay tuned for next month’s installment of Shamanic Sound Healing.
About the author
Scott J. Simon, Ph.D. is a musician, educator, and shamanic sound healing practitioner in Sedona, Arizona. Dr. Simon has recently recorded a Sound Journey CD featuring Tibetan singing bowls, Native American flutes, Buffalo drum, and voice. You can learn more about his SoulSound® therapy at scottjsimon.com
