About our Instruments
Equipment we use at Sound Sessions Concerts and Recordings
Ami plays Quartz Crystal Bowls (keys of C, D, F, G, A, B,); Platinum, Gold and Rose Quartz
Bowls, Holographic, Indigo and Ultra Light Quartz Bowls, Molavite, Clear,Aqua Gold and Earth Quartz Singing Bowls. Various Tibetan metal bowls, bells, chimes and percussion.
Steve plays Shakuhachi Flutes (keys of C, D, A,) Powell Concert Flute and Bansuri Flutes (C, E, F) Harmos, Beard and Chandler Lap Steel Guitars, Korg Radias Synthesizer, Moog Voyager Synthesizer and a Moog Etherwave Pro Theremin all currently running through a Mac G4 Power Book with Ableton Live. We also use E-MU Planet Earth World Sound Module, M-Audio Fire Wire interface and Korg and Akai EWI 4000s wind Controller.
Shakuhachi's made by Hoshi Bonchiku, Monty Levenson of Tai Hei Shakuhachi and Ken LaCosse of Bamboo Music; Silver Flute by Powell of Boston; Bansuri's by Jeff Whittier; Quartz Bowls from Crystal Tones and by Crystal Distributors, Houston, Texas.
THE SHAKUHACHI
The Shakuhachi is a Japanese end-blown flute, crafted with infinite care and skill from a bamboo root. It is by virtue the most versatile of all flutes allowing the performer a freedom of expression unattainable on western flutes.
The Shakuhachi is infinite in its moods and mystery - to seek to encompass them has been likened to a physicist seeking to enumerate the exceptions to a non-existent law.
It is a Zen Koan to which each Shakuhachi player must find his/her personal answer.
The origin of the Shakuhachi is lost in the mists of pre-history. It's uniqueness arises from its being adopted several hundred years ago as an instrument of Zen for the purpose of performing the classical Zen Honkyoku repertoire of the wandering mendicant monks, or KOMUSO - the " Priest of the Empty
Nothing." In performing these Honkyoku one is said to be Blowing Zen - a unique form of meditation combining breath control and acoustic discipline in a manner that encourages the exploration of one's inner space.
The Shakuhachi is an instrument, which enables instruction to flow from the source to the performer then into the listener. LIFE IN BALANCE processes the Shakuhachi with modern technology to bath the listener
in a relaxing ethereal sound-scape. We process and create real time samples that are then moved within the room in a 3 dimensional Cymatics. The sound enterers the listener, bringing one into a state of sympathetic vibration. The sound then goes to were it's needed the most. Shifting the listener with a
form of musical cellular entrainment.
adapted from: "The Annals of the International Shakuhachi Society".
CRYSTAL BOWLS AND PURE TONE MUSIC
The multi-use, high-frequency bowls used by LIFE IN BALANCE are 98.9% quartz crystal. The bowls have been used by the semi-conductor industry as a medium of intense energy for growing crystal silicon chips. Because of its ability to condense and radiate energy, we use the crystal bowl as an
instrument for healing and to create pure sonic environment's.
Many cultures recognize the importance of music and sound as a healing power. In the ancient civilizations of India, the Orient, Africa, Europe and among the Aboriginals and AmerIndians, the practice of using sound to heal and achieve balance from within has existed for centuries. The Tibetans still use bells, chimes, bowls and chanting as the foundation of their spiritual practice. In Bali, Indonesia, the echoing gamelan, gong and drum are used in ceremonies to uplift and send messages. The Australian Aboriginals and Native American shamans use vocal toning and repetitive sound vibration, with instruments created from nature, in sacred ceremony to adjust any imbalance of the spirit, emotions or physical being.
The priests of ancient Egypt knew how to use vowel sounds to resonate their energy centers or chakras.
There is a direct link between different parts of the body and specific sounds. Such a technique appears extremely old, yet healing through sound goes back even further, at least as far back as Atlantis where the power of sound was combined with the power of quartz crystal.
At the present time, the Hopi American Indian prophecy is being fulfilled with the "Coming of the Rainbow People", through the keepers of the crystal bowls. This ancient wisdom has emerged to heal and uplift the consciousness of the universe through pure crystal tone. The American psychic Edgar Cayce, and German philosopher, educator and artistic genius Rudolf Steiner, both predicted "pure tones will be used for healing before the end of this century". Nostradamus foretold the healing of cancer through pure tone by 1998. The pure tones created by crystal bowl music enters as a fulfillment of this prophecy.
Crystal bowl music is a form of vibrational medicine which validates that everything in the universe is in a state of vibration, and the frequency at which an object or person most naturally vibrates is called resonance. The chakras, bones, and organs in the body all possess a different resonant frequency. When an organ or part of the body is vibrating out of tune or is in disharmony, it is called "dis-ease" or disease.
A body is in a healthy state of being when each cell/organ creates a resonance that is in harmony with the whole being.
Vibrational medicine is based on the idea that all illness or disease is characterized by blockage in the channels on some level, either in nadis, arteries, veins, nerves. When there is a lockage, the organ in question stops vibrating at a healthy frequency and thus it results in some kind of illness. So through sound and light one can break up, dissolve and release these blockages that initiate in our light or etheric body. Ultrasound has recently been used to cleanse clogged arteries. Ultrasound works on the same
principle of light equals sound and tone equals radiance manifesting in form.
Crystal bowl music emits a pure holographic template of radiant light that corresponds to the octave of sound within our etheric body. Since sound can be translated into color, the body may be seen as visible frequency that produces an auric color field which reflects emotional states of consciousness and thus the physiological status. The visual spectrum has therefore the same wave frequency as the auditory spectrum. There are seven musical notes that correspond to the seven colors of the rainbow and these
are related to the seven main chakras, which in turn correspond to the different areas of the endocrine gland system.
The pure tone of crystal bowls produces a vibrational sound field which resonates the light body chakra and corresponding physical aura. Pure crystal tone facilitates the rebalancing of each receiver back into an elevated level of etheric radiance. Clear quartz contains the full spectrum of light that is related to the seven energy centers (chakras) and thus heals the listener by bringing pure light through sound as specific color back into the human aura. Crystal acts as an oscillator, magnifying and transmitting pure tone.
This is why pure silicon crystal is used in all of our most advanced telecommunication systems.
Like a powerful radio transmitter, the crystal bowls transmit energy into the atmosphere, filling a person's aura with vibrational radiance which translates into the seven main colors of the rainbow.
Through the pure crystal tones, as the sound effects brain wave activity, one can travel into an altered state of consciousness. As different parts of the brain are affected, it is probable that they can release different hormones and neuro-chemicals which can suppress pain, strengthen willpower in one's creative talents and to overcome addictive patterns..
Each crystal bowl is made of 98.9% silicon quartz. One reason why the pure tones vibrate our body is that the body has a natural affinity to quartz.
The human body is composed of many crystallite substances;
the bones, blood and DNA are crystalline in structure as well as the liquid crystal-colloidal structure of the brain. Even on a molecular level, our cells contain silica, which balances our electro-magnetic energies,
and this is the same formula as natural quartz crystal.
Quartz crystal music holds the vibration of white light which ultimately refracts into the rainbow and acts directly on our chakra's when played. It has the power to bring about a positive shift in our consciousness and as our awareness expands, we grow close to our original selves and start to reflect the highest radiance in our physical form. Crystal is able to maintain the balance of electro-magnetic energies between the north and south poles. It is extremely accurate, and consequently, quartz crystal is the foundation of timekeeping systems in all our contemporary watches. The same electro-magnetic field exists within all life forms. Clear quartz integrates and balances our own electro-magnetic energies.
Edward Back, M.B., B.S., D.P.H., author of Heal Thyself, An Explanation of the Real Cause and Cure of Disease, 1931, and founder of Bach Flower Remedies, clearly understood illness as a reflection of disharmony between the physical personality and the soul. He states the cure is to balance the magnetic qualities of the higher subtle bodies. Through pure tone one can re-pattern the energy field organization that ultimately effects the cellular expression of disease or wellness. Crystal bowl music is all the more
powerful as it can be programmed; quartz crystal, as a holographic light template, is able to hold, transmit and receive thought forms. It is fundamental to the memory "mother boards" of all computers.
It is interesting to note that dolphins and whales are thought to communicate through 3-dimensional holographic thought forms. Jonathan Goldman in Healing Sounds, the Power of Harmonics, 1992, writes,
"the intention behind the sound is of extreme importance. It may, in fact, be as important as the actual sounds that are created". The power of thoughts is the means by which we create our reality. Nothing can be created if it has not first been thought. When using crystal to heal, the crystal amplifies the thought programmed within. The crystal has this amazing property and thus it can be used to bring out a special quality or feeling in people and simultaneously release and replace thought forms that are not of
the highest radiance for the listener.
Contact us: lifeinbalanace@comcast.net
