Interviews- Reviews and Articles.
"Music can reach farther than any other impression from the external
world can reach. The beauty of music is that it is the source of creation
and the means of absorbing it. In other words, by music the world was
created, and it is again through music that the world is withdrawn into
the source that has created it."
From the Sufi teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan
From the Pittsburgh City Paper.
Read the online Article
Life in Balance releases Om to Ohm on Koch Records
Ami and Steve Sciulli met through a vortex. "I was at working at Mandala Books on Murray Avenue," Steve recalls, "and the owner said there was a woman in Oakmont that had a 'vortex machine' in her living room. So we went out there, and this device had several speakers wrapped around it."
"It was huge," says Ami. "It reached up to my ceiling, was made of piping and had seven different geometric forms. In the middle was a seat. Eventually, Mandala put it in the back of the store."
Ami and Steve soon formed a relationship and, in 1997, a musical project called Life in Balance. Ami had pursued spiritual studies; Steve had a fruitful history in Pittsburgh's underground scene, stretching back to art-punkers Carsickness and Irish rockers Ploughman's Lunch, as well as electronic duo Complex Variables. Life in Balance began with the tranquil base of Ami coaxing ringing tones from quartz crystal bowls and Steve trilling a shakuhachi flute through spacey effects, though their music gradually became more complex, layered and intricate, even as it remained meditative.
Om to Ohm, their newest and seventh CD, is being promulgated worldwide by Namaste (the label run by Steven Machat, co-founder of the WOMAD festival with Peter Gabriel) and distributed by indie powerhouse Koch Records. The CD's title refers to the path from the "divine outbreath" of creation to the transcendent hybridization of humans and technology. Sound sources range from a multitude of flutes and synths (including theremin and breath-triggered EWI) to several guitars (featuring guest musicians Steve Kornicki and Maurice Rickard) and tribalistic rhythm programming.
One piece, "Rt. 70," boasts lapsteel guitar, invoking desert climes like the spaghetti-Western works of Morricone and Badalamenti, or more recently, Lanterna and A Small Good Thing. Along with the likes of Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre and Vangelis, much of Life in Balance's music is particularly appropriate for soundtracks. Just don't call them "New Age." If anything, the duo prefers "post-New Age" for their music, the same way Tortoise is post-rock.
With music as its bread and butter, Life in Balance has traveled around the country -- literally from Anchorage to Key West -- spreading its "sound seeds." The duo have shared stages with gurus and monks, as well as artists from Robert Rich to Rusted Root. Here in Pittsburgh, they're providing live music for yoga classes, planning a release party on Aug. 16 at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, and working in September with the Flow Fest, a benefit for the Tireless Project, which cleans the city's river banks.
"We judge the success of the music not by the take at the door, but by the connections that are made," stresses Steve, sounding more like an activist than a typical musician. "We spent ten years helping people relax. Now we want to wake them up on all levels -- political, social, and emotional. Be aware and be responsible."
From The Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
Article online
Life In Balance takes its meditative sound into a fresh new realm
It's Saturday night and a handful of people quietly file into Yoga on Centre, kick off their shoes, grab yoga mats and blankets, and stretch out on the bamboo floor.
Steve Sciulli of Life In Balance sits cross-legged at the head of the room. He looks like a cowboy zen-master in a straw hat and white hair flowing to his shoulders. His weathered face is hidden behind heavy black-rimmed glasses, and he's surrounded by an array of musical instruments, a laptop computer and a mike stand. He fiddles with the computer and then grabs a flute and fills the air with warm, ambient sounds.
Ami, his wife, prepares the huge array of quartz crystal bowls for action. She moves them with childlike wonder, an inch here, a half-turn there, making sure they are perfectly placed. She gently rings her finger cymbals three times, so that each clear tone resonates high above the flutes. Then she reaches for her mallets and delicately strikes two large bowls, causing a vibrational drone to fill the room.
The sound healing meditation session has officially begun.
Anyone who remembers seeing Steve Sciulli in his early days playing fiery punk with the band Carsickness, world music with Ploughman's Lunch or sitting in and stealing the show from the dozens of other bands he's played with might think that his new direction is a complete departure from the past.
They would be wrong.
Sciulli's career weaves a common thread in the musical tapestry of his life. He's always breaking new ground, always staying ahead of whatever music scene he is involved with -- Life In Balance, his current project, is no different. "I judge the musical experience by thinking, 'If I heard this coming out of a bar, would I go in?' "
By taking the listener's experience and putting it at the forefront of what he is creating, he has once again turned the tables upside-down and conjured up music that is meant to be seen, heard, felt and experienced.
Life In Balance started in 1997 when Steve and Ami came together personally and professionally. Both were exploring the relationship of health through sound and its effects on the subconscious. Eight months later they married in an intimate ceremony officiated by a shaman on a private farm in Smicksburg, Indiana County, with a few friends in attendance.
The progression of music grew with their relationship as they criss-crossed the country performing sound healing meditations wherever they were invited. In these "sessions," they listened to feedback from the participants and tweaked everything from their tonal modalities to spoken monologue in an attempt to usher the listeners to a place of relaxation and healing in the subconscious mind.
"For the most part, we work under the assumption that what a person needs, they already have. We provide the sonic environment for the healing to happen within their own DNA strands."
You'll hear a lot of talk about DNA and energy forces coming from the pair. They bill themselves as "pioneers in ambient and trance-inducing electro-acoustic music -- balancing tradition with sacred technology."
You'll also hear them inviting the listener to "plug into the cosmic transmission to support your own transition." This sounds like a bunch of New Age speak, but even a casual listener who may not spiritually subscribe to the belief system of Life In Balance can't help but to be affected after sitting through one of these sessions.
Ami, whose primary instruments are crystal bowls, explains, "When you are close to the bowls, you physically feel them -- the vibrations are like a sonic-healing reiki massage. It's just massive."
The bowls are made of crystal quartz and range from 14 to 20 inches in diameter. Additionally, there are four higher-frequency alchemy bowls that incorporate other substances from the earth -- rose quartz, moldovite, indigo and gold. Each bowl produces a drone-like sound with a unique tone and vibrational force. They are "activated" when gently struck on the rim with a mallet. The sound and the vibration grow larger and louder as the user moves the mallet around the rim in a constant motion creating a centrifugal force.
After a few years, Life In Balance was getting recognized for its efforts, ending up on the playlist of the nationally syndicated public radio show "Echoes," making annual visits to Denver to perform at the International New Age Trade Show (INATS) and accepting the invitation of keynote presenters for the Universal Lightworkers Conference in Boca Raton, Fla.
During this time they started to move in a more forward musical direction because of the undeniable changes in the political and environmental landscape. "After a number of years of relaxing people, it was time to wake them up. We really became aware of one's responsibility to each other and to the planet."
The group has started performing with more percussion and added a second element -- electronic dance-trance music. The newer wave includes an electronic woodwind instrument, traditional and Japanese flutes, bowls and some other fun things. Now, the pair is working both ends of the spectrum: sound healing meditations for those longing for a quiet introduction to the inner self, and an all-out world-jam for those looking to explore within some controlled chaos.
"The meditative or reflective ambient music is what we call the 'inbreath,' " Steve says. "The external global electronic trance dance music is what we call the 'outbreath' -- this motion keeps us alive and gives us a natural rhythm."
In Denver, they had a mini-revelation. "We were asked to do a showcase to the New Age music industry" -- at INATS, where showcases were quiet meditative affairs. "We were looking down at hundreds of vendor booths where everyone was selling their own brand of spirituality. We decided that we would use our showcase to put the final nail in the New Age coffin and create a post-New Age sound -- we were going to blow the roof off the place and call it a day."
They played their set and pumped the intensity up further and further until the drones of the bowls had the hall shaking. Everyone was staring and dead silence fell when they finished their set -- then the place burst into applause. That week, they struck a record deal with Koch Records.
Last summer, they set out to record their new release, "Om to Ohm," which firmly lays down action from all levels. Steve Kornicki and Maurice Rickard contributed their musical talents while Steve laid down new sounds on the electronic woodwind instrument and lap steel guitar. Ami's "bowl family" continues to grow with her collection of chimes. Steve laid down all of the basic tracks in an astounding three days when he retreated to a cottage in Somerset to work. "Working within the electronic realm, it was just so easy to get super clean takes that were really fresh."
After all of these years toiling to make it, Scuilli has no regrets. "Working in the early days, the music was more about attitude than musicianship. Life In Balance is not what we do, it's who we are. The arc and the attitude of Life In Balance is different and I would never belittle those early experiences -- I learned to trust the music and never compromised my core creative beliefs."
Watching the duo perform is like seeing water spring forth from a natural fountain. There is nothing forced about it. Together, they are hopeful about the future and not focused on material success. "We want to achieve a critical mass and be little sonic Johnny Appleseeds. We roll into town, leave a mark and see how much it has grown the next time we come around."
First published at PG NOW on August 15, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Rosa Colucci can be reached at rcolucci@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3859.
LIFE IN BALANCE
finds perfect venue
The best concert experiences arise when the music matches the atmosphere, whether it's the symphony at Heinz Hall or Aerosmith at the Arena.
Life in Balance, the ambient Pittsburgh duo, finds its idyllic spot under the glass house of the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. On Friday night, it was particularly potent, as Life in Balance was backed by one of the city's premier drummers, Jim Donovan of Rusted Root, for a program called "Air. Water. Rhythm."
The combination of drums with Japanese Shakuhachi flute and quartz crystal bowls is a rare one, to be sure, and far more versatile than one would think, especially in the hands of such skilled players. Ami Sciulli created a deep
vibrational pulse, over which Steve Sciulli and Donovan gracefully moved through compositions that provided plenty of open space for improvisation.
Some of the pieces were soothing and meditative. Some were jazzy and breezy enough to get the little girls in front up and dancing. "The Rapture," a piece from Donovan's record "Revelation #9," employed an electronic program to rock on an industrial groove that was dark and chilling.
Donovan and the Sciullis, who have collaborated in the studio and performed once together five years ago, spent only one night rehearsing, but it's obvious they're tapped into the same vibration.
Had this concert been in a club or a park, it would have been memorable. Hearing it soar all the way to the glass and echo through the floral rooms of Phipps, interacting with the sounds of the fountains, made it exquisite. It was
a one-night stand that we can only hope will become a Phipps tradition.
Review by Scott Mervis,Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
From the winter 2004 POINT OF LIGHT MAGAZINE
Life in Balance: Blending Tradition and Technology
By Gina Mazza Hillier
Eyes closed, I'm listening now to the CD's title track and, as its name promises, I'm going "Deeper." Spirals give way to space gives way to kaleidoscopic patterns give way to space again. Very soon, I'm saturated in a resplendent stillness. I've reached a place of unusual mental clarity and oneness.
Such is the entrancing effect that the music of Life In Balance can have on the listener. But don't call Ami and Steve Sciulli's tunes "sound meditation music." No, their compositions defy classification. And this is precisely what we'd expect from this dynamic twosome from Pittsburgh that's been consistently stumbling towards enlightenment, taking us long for a sonorous ride.
"We come from a basis of no tolerance for mediocrity," Steve opines with the assuredness of a man living his bliss. "When I started working with sound as a healing modality in the ‘70s, there wasn't a set-up for it yet, so it was difficult to explain to people. Now, sound healing music is such a fad, you can buy it at Wal-Mart. It's become sanitized, safe. It caters to the lowest common denominator. We hope to have a longer endurance with our music, and the idea is to break the boundaries of music as a healing or relaxation modality."
"Life is evolving, consciousness is evolving, and our music is evolving right along with it," adds Ami, slipping into Steve's thought stream. "We're creating this new genre of music that's of a higher vibration, and we're not pandering to anyone. There's no big corporate money behind us. It's purely spirit moving through the music into us."I've been loosely following Life In Balance since they harmonically converged in the late 90s.
By then, Steve had already been round the world and back, adept at everything from Celtic-rooted melodies (while living in Dublin for several years) to rock, punk, jazz and classical. He'd just been voted #1 World Musician in Pittsburgh by In Pittsburgh Magazine.
Separately, Ami had been making sonic waves of her own experimenting with tuned quartz crystal bowls and studying reiki, a form of energy healing. They met at a spiritual event where Steve was performing. And faster than you can say "electromagnetic bio-fields", they coupled and became Life In Balance.
"The music just happened, and there's no doubt we came together for this reason," Ami reminisces. "We both incarnated at this particular time and place to perform our dharma, which is Life In Balance."
I attended one of the Sciulli's early performances at Mandala's Bookstore in Pittsburgh, their "pre-quartz crystal bowl" period. Ami played Tibetan metal bowls and chimes, emanating sounds of delicate beauty. Steve's Japanese shakuhachi wafted through the room, imbuing it with an extraordinarily multi-textural resonance at times, tranquil and airy, then intense and transcendental, with a slight underpinning of discordance. (I later learned that the dissonance is intentional, meant to break listeners out of their comfort zones.) It was all hauntingly hypnotic and took me on a flight somewhere outside myself, deliciously lost in time. Ami emotes about the group's progression since then: "The music had an energy all its own and it moved us in the direction it wanted to express itself, which at that time was adding the crystal bowls, different flutes, blending these organic, spirit-based instruments with technology, and developing our signature sound. The energy of us getting together was recreated over and over again in small groups, supported by audience's feedback which further indicated the right [musical] direction to go in. It's brought us to the point
we're at today; on the road a lot, bringing our sound to wider audiences across the country, both physically and through recorded media. We want to do this on a global level now. It's time."
Their newest disc, "Star", aptly reflects the group's expansion into music written for a wider audience."'Deeper' was meant to take people into their inner space, to give them a sense of who they are beyond the physical body," Ami explains. "The next step is to take that increased awareness, bring it back into the body, and celebrate with the body through dance and movement."
The result is a cyber-tribal repertoire of tunes that reach beyond strictly meditative aspects, add rhythm and beat to the mix, and include external musicians offering bass, guitar and percussion.
"We've started to incorporate fast, upbeat pieces into our live sets, and we've found that the audience is expressing the same reaction as they did with the meditative music which is a sense of buoyancy, feeling really great," Ami notices.
Steve completes the observation: "So, regardless of whether people are lying in meditation, or up and dancing to the music, the impact is the same."
"Reactions to the music range from listeners saying a physical pain or chronic condition they had is gone, or they connected with deceased family member, had an epiphany, or a completion of something they've been struggling with," Ami continues. "Whatever they need at that moment, they get.
"It's not us doing it. We're creating an environment for others to fulfill something within themselves. Every day, each of us awakens to our own reality, and Life In Balance opens a space for people to create, within that timeframe of listening to the music, a sense of awareness of what they're capable of, who they are."I was eager to hear demo tracks of "Star." Because I'm a dance enthusiast, adding rhythm and beat to a techno-ambient Life In Balance piece is equivalent to crowning an already richly flavored fudge cake with luscious ganache the experience is made that much sweeter. As I slide the four unmixed "Star" cuts into my CD player, I'm innocently unprepared for the extrinsic reaction that occursthe music taps my body before my mind.
I quickly discern that these tunes are less for a lotus position, more befitting a traipse across the floor.
From "United Dream States" percussive-xylophone marimba beat, to "Viburnam's" use of alluring, India-inspired bansuri and digitized tambura, I'm moved to, well, move. By the third piece, "Calibrate," an up-tempo interspersion of electronica and acoustic guitars, among other sounds, — I'm imagining choreography in my head and extemporaneously marking off steps around the family room sofa and chairs.
I'm amazed at the protean progression of Life In Balance's tonal creations. This duo's achievements strengthen my faith in what can unfold when artists defy conventionality, instead opting to remain rapt in the purity and mystery of the creative process. As listeners, the rewards of such rapture are to our benefit from inner peace to outward, joyful movement, and more.
"Music exists so we can play it. The universe exists so we can understand it. Spirit exists so we can know it."
Steve Sciulli
"I was playing music before I could talk, literally. I played anything I could get my hands on and was building my own instruments by age 11. The idea was to find ways of expression, to create tone out of not just instruments, but non-instruments."
Steve Sciulli
Life In Balance
Life in Balance explores zen and the art of ambient music
Preview For "Star" CD release concert.
By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Most musical instruments don't come with a warning, but in the mid-'80s when Steve Sciulli purchased his first shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute used for zen meditation, the seller in California gave him a caution.
As Sciulli recalls, "He said, 'Be very careful, because this will change your life, this will change who your friends are and everything.
And I said, 'Yeah right, I'm just going to set this through distortion boxes and play it through a stack of amplifiers.' But he was right."
Sciulli was no stranger to wind instruments, having played them in the improvisational Pittsburgh punk band Carsickness and then in the Celtic ensemble Ploughman's Lunch. But when he first heard the traditional Japanese instrument on record, he had no idea what it was.
"I thought it was dolphins playing saxophone or something," he says. "Then when I looked at the cover and saw that it was music from the 12th century being played acoustically by an 80-year-old guy, it blew my mind because it was more abstract than what is considered extended technique in jazz, more abstract, more angular than Anthony Braxton. To realize that this was considered traditional music, it blew the concept of Western mathematical notation out the door."
Separately, his now-wife Ami was studying reiki, a form of energy healing, creating sound with tuned quartz crystal bowls made from moldavite, gold, platinum and (now) even fiber-optics. They met at a spiritual event in 1997 and married within six months. The union was also musical as they formed Life In Balance for the purpose of creating "a sonic environment for deep personal exploration" -- vibrational music for meditation and healing.
If that's not unique enough, Sciulli drew on his knowledge of electronic music to add real-time sampling to the Life In Balance performance.
"As far as I know," he says, "we're the only people doing what we're doing with the instrumentation that we're doing it with. We create a kind of a surround-sound. Our buzz word is 'balancing tradition with technology.' I'm as keen on technology as I am on tradition. No one I know is utilizing these tools in this way."
The healing aspects of Life In Balance might require a few trips to the New Age section of the book store to fully (or even partially) comprehend, but involves vibration and instruments made of materials that share a DNA strand with our own bodies.
"We start with the premise that the body is a living symphony of vibration," Sciulli says. "Most disease starts with some form of disharmony within the body. And the body strives to get back to its natural template of sonic health. How it works, without getting too technical, is that the quartz crystal bowls interact with the silica around [our] cells and from there a form of entrainment happens on a cellular level. For the most part, the shakuhachi was used as a tool for enlightenment for centuries, so strong was it that it was outlawed for a period of time in the 11th century. People who played them were called the Komuso. 'Ko' means emptiness, 'mu' means nothingness and 'so' means priest. So the people who played it were the 'Priests of the Empty Nothing.'
"I always think of Monty Python when I hear that," he says laughing, before breaking into his own little Monty Python shtick.
Since forming in 1998, Life In Balance has played more than 800 shows in everything from clubs to yoga centers and in front of audiences that range from country folk in Alabama to Deepak Chopra and The Drepung Gomang Tibetan Monks.
Their last record, "Deeper," was ambient and deeply meditative. The new one, "Star," furthers the exploration by combining the flute and crystal with the kind of drum tracks, created with Rusted Root's Jim Donovan, you might find on a techno record. Still, it's more "chill" music than dance music.
" 'Deeper' was the in breath, whereas Star is the out breath," Sciulli says. "Where 'Deeper' was more geared toward the subconscious, 'Star' is directed toward the mass consciousness.
It's not necessarily for meditation in the traditional sense. We realized you don't have to be lying down in a meditative zone to get this effect. The idea was this was more of a celebration CD where you physically move around and get the heart moving. I felt these days, politically, environmentally, socially, it's really important to wake up. We've been spending six years bringing people into a relaxed state. We're really concentrating on making people more aware, waking them up."
Although Life In Balance is a long way from the noisy punk he created with Carsickness, Sciulli does see a thread that binds his musical pursuits.
"Even with Carsickness way back then -- I'm sure most musicians notice this -- you see the music's effect on the listener.
For the longest time, with Carsickness and Ploughman's Lunch, although there was a social consciousness to it, it was also geared to having people feel joyous and happy. I realized early on that music has a very powerful effect. Endorphins are
released in the brain, it brings people into a euphoria. I thought, 'Imagine trying to perform pieces of music that sustain that feeling of well-being in the listener.' "
Judging by the international reach of Life In Balance, it seems to be
working.
STAR REVIEW From Pittsburgh City Paper
Star by Life in Balance
MANNY THEINER
For several years, the duo of Steve and Ami Sciulli -- as Life in Balance, a meditative blend of mellifluous shakuhachi flute and the ringing tones of quartz crystal bowls -- have been purveying their unique brand of "sound healing" in sessions and concerts among Pittsburgh's loosely defined new-age community. The feeling they've projected has always been serene and contemplative, reflective of the search for subconscious self and inner space.
But at least for the time being, Life In Balance's attitude has somewhat shifted on their latest CD Star, the yang to the yin of their earlier CD Deeper. That effort's focused simplicity is replaced on Star by a wide range of instrumentation, depth and complexity of production, and driving beats, leaning more towards the mainstream of today's ambient and new-age scene found in record stores and on syndicated radio shows such as Echoes. Ami Sciulli's vibrating bowls, formerly in the foreground, are now further back in the mix, sharing space with many special guests.
Whereas previously LIB's liner notes proudly proclaimed "no synthesizers," now Steve Sciulli deploys armadas of intergalactic synths on tracks such as "Ringo's Star," hearkening back to his '70s progressive rock roots a la Tangerine Dream. "Calibrate" is fairly reminiscent of Steve's '80s-era work with the groups Complex Variables and Banner Day, while "Dimensional Change" (which kicks off with a dramatic flute-led intro) morphs into propulsive proto-ambient techno straight from Jean-Michel Jarre.
He's also busy exploring many sources of world music, such as on "Viburnum," where his solo on the beautiful, mournful bansuri (Indian flute) is augmented by samples of sitar and tambura. "Flux," too, has a techno-organic Mideastern flavor, with dumbek and didgeridoo courtesy of Jeff Kowal (a.k.a. Terra Ambient).
Fans of Rusted Root's Jim Donovan will likely take to his participation in the serpentine space-trance of "Prowl," while reveling in the concept of "Cyber Tribal," probably the most ambitious piece production-wise with serene drones, clicky rhythm programming, and multiple layers of drums and sampled dulcimers building into a frantic wall of Zen, punctuated by the sounds of birds, rain and crashing
lightning.
MAGICAL BLEND MAGAZINE
Deeper - Life In Balance.
Using Quartz Crystal Bowls and enhanced Shakuhachi, Life In Balance creates in this CD a healing musical experience that permeates the very cells. Its quiet, haunting tones provide a vehicle for meditation and personal exploration.
Steve and Ami Sciulli, who are the driving force behind Life In Balance, create this music with the intention that it be a dorm of restorative vibrational medicine, balancing the electromagnetic biofields and facilitating entrainment at the molecular level. All I can say is, it feels good to listen to. It puts you at peace.
- Magya Tor
Review from the Ambient Vision
Sometimes a reviewer just knows that they are going to like a CD. Such was the case with Deeper, by Life in Balance (Steve Sciulli and Ami Sciulli). Two things about this CD grab "about to be" listeners before they open the jewel case.
First, the liner notes proclaim that this is music for "enhanced shakuhachi (and) quartz crystal bowls." Second, Steve and Ami are from the Pittsburgh area. Isn't that city known more for good football, bad baseball, redneck mill hunks and the defunct steel industry? That perception is totally inaccurate. This city thrives! It is a hotbed of medical advances (The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) and technological innovation (Carnegie Mellon University). And, very slowly, Pittsburgh is discovering its new age and e-music bases.
This powerful CD is a minimalist's delight. With minor accompaniment, Steve and Ami build a vast soundscape of atmospheric heights and intense depth. There are no synths but the disc has an electronic and processed sound and
wondrous walls of sound.
There are samples available at www.lifeinbalancemusic.com.
Check them out. It is also important to note that Steve and Ami are opening for Robert Rich in April (right here in Pittsburgh.)
Reviewed by Jim Brenholts, author of "Tracks Across the Universe: A Chronology of Ambient and Electronic Music"
OF SOUND MIND AND BODY
By Steve Sciulli
All matter takes it's form and shape from the vibrations that surround it. You, I, all things in Existence assume the role of sympathetic resonators in a harmonic relationship with the entire cosmos. Each cell within our body is in a vibration that is sounding it's key note frequency.
These cells cluster into cords that make up the human symphony called life.
When our cells become dissonant due to diet, stress, environmental hazards, etc, the harmonic relationship shifts and this dissonance becomes disease. The body strives toward its natural harmonic template which is holographic and energetic. When dissonance invades our harmonic field the immune system will increase the power of cellular resonance and in most cases will succeed in overpowering the non-harmonic area and thus keeping the body symphony in tune.
Study of the geometric and multidimensional patterns of sound predate written history. Just about all of our creation myths find the birth of the universe stemming from a vibrational source. A Pythagorean theory states that all things within the universe emit a tone, but for the western mind it took until the publication of Discoveries Concerning the Theory of Music in the year 1787 by physicist Ernst Chladni for this theory to take hold.
Chladni laid the foundation for that discipline that came to be called acoustics, the science of sound. Chladni made visible what sound waves generate. With the help of a violin bow which he drew perpendicularly across the edge of a flat plate covered in sand, he produced geometric patterns and shapes that today are called Chladni figures.
Others have developed concepts and investigations into the design, oscillation and mathematics of sound but it wasn't until the publication Cymatics-The Structure and Dynamics of Waves and Vibration in 1967 by the Swiss doctor and researcher Hans Jenny that sound as a healing modality was to be studied by contemporary medical practitioners.
Jenny developed the toneoscope - a device that enabled him to view the complex motion and the three dimensional dynamics of sound waves. Jenny soon became aware of the inner connection of all life and matter as living vibrational spiral energy. As Jenny viewed the continuous circular motion of frequency he soon became aware of the similarity of sound and that of sacred geometry. Indeed, some sounds that he inputted into his toneoscope - such as certain ancient vowels of Hebrew and Sanskrit - would generate and produce the same shape as the written symbol
for these vowels. How did the ancients know this? Do these words and vowels have the power to influence and transform physical reality? He also speculated that every cell has its own frequency and that a number of cells with the same frequency created a new frequency which was in harmony with the original, which in turn possibly formed an organ that also created a new frequency in harmony with the proceeding ones. In other words, Jenny was saying that to understand a healthy body is to understand a complex arrangement of tone and harmony produced from and
absorbed into the body as all times.
Sonic Cellular Damage
The body may be seen as a composition of vibrational energy patterns that work in synchronicity to form the whole.
The nervous system impulses occur serially and can be described as frequencies. Much the same applies to the active muscle system. It is from this vibrational field that all the bio-electric, chemical, mechanical, energetic, thermal,
structural, kinetic and dynamic processes take their course (Jenny, 1974). The body surrounds itself with a sort of sonic force field or vibrational aura. What happens when this field is penetrated by waves of sound that are out of synch with the body's protective frequency? One result is "Vibroacoustic Syndrome". When a person is exposed to an environment of prolonged level of sound exceeding 110 decibels at low frequency bands below 100 hertz, the body's vibration changes, and this change may lead to depression and interference with behavior and performance.
Studies have shown that long term exposure to excessive levels of High Intensity Low Frequency sound can actually lead to cellular damage. Highly amplified base music, airplanes, and battlefield noise can cause cellular re-patterning
and damage. The body views this cellular damage as trauma.
The brain then releases endorphins and adrenaline into the blood to anesthetize this physical change. Endorphin is the body's natural pain killer that acts like a form of morphine. This can lead to an addiction-like state, with the drug mistakenly identified as the loud music or any other type of High Intensity/Low Frequency sound repeatedly listened to over and over again.
Vibrational Restoration
We all know that certain sounds and undesirable music can put us in a state of stress and dis-ease, but how do we restore the body to it's state of natural resonance? There are as many ways as there are people. Each person must choose what's right for them.
Some proven choices are drone sound, toning, mantras, chants and the sounds produced by nature. They will assist in the releasing of blocked energy and help in the restoration of the body's own resonant field. Life In Balance, the sound healing group that I am co-founder of, utilizes the Shakuhachi, Bansuri and several Quartz Crystal Bowls. The Shakuhachi is an ancient Japanese flute made from the root of the bamboo plant. It has a breathy and organic sound
which enables instruction to flow from the "source" to the performer then to the listener. Using current technology we process this instrument to create loops that cycle at about 55 cycles per minute. This allows for the slowing of the heart rate and facilitates a deep comfort zone. The Bansuri, the devotional flute of Northern India, is also processed for deeper level of awareness and enhancing one's own degree of intuitive abilities.
The Crystal Bowls that we use are 99.92% quartz crystal. It is through the pure crystal tones that one can travel into an altered state of consciousness, as the sound affects brain wave activity. The body has a natural affinity to quartz as
it is composed of many crystalline 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
electromagnetic energies. We use the tones of these bowls (each one tuned to a Chakra center) within our sessions as a form of vibrational medicine with the intent of transformation and wellness.
There are many different approaches one can utilize in this vast and growing field of Vibrational Medicine. Try as many as you can, for we live in wondrous times and the journey is forever unfolding. It is time to blossom.
Sound Creates and Sound Organizes
"The forms of snowflakes and the faces of flowers may take on their shape because they are responding to some sound in nature; it is possible that crystals, plants, and human beings may be, in some way, music that has taken on visible form." - Cathie E. Guzetta
Sound in its many forms reaches into you more than any other source from the natural world, for not only do you hear with your ears, you listen with every pore of your body. Everything is in vibration and everything is giving you information and knowledge.
We hold deep inside ourselves the key (note) that opens the doors to new creations, new thoughts and new behavioral patterns that have not yet been imagined. Everything that you require is encoded within your DNA. Helixes and galaxies imprint circular forms of spiraling geometric tone patterns that make up the design for the human expression called life. Your distant ancestors knew this and you are them.
We live in a holographic sea of energy, vibration and consciousness and it is through our cultural biasing and our place in the evolutionary chain that we view this spectrum. Realize that it is truly our spirit that is the guide of measurement. Know that you are harmonious energy living an experience called life - a life in balance.
References and Reading Suggestions:
Vibrational Medicine - New Choices for Healing Ourselves By Richard Gerber, M.D., Bear & Co.
Sounding the Inner Landscape, Music as Medicine By Kay Gardner, Element.
The Music of Life By Hazrat Inayat Khan, Omega Publications.
The Annals of The International Shakuhachi Society, Vol. 1.
God Talks With Arjuna - The Bhagavad Gita By Paramahansa Yogananda, The Self Realization Fellowship
Sounds of Healing - By Mitchell L. Gaynor, M.D., Broadway Books.
The Healing Tones of Crystal Bowls By Renee Brodie. Aroma Art. Ltd.
Feeling The Music Can Be Dangerous To Your Health - A Comprehensive Review By Bart P. Billings, Ph.D.
Cymatics - Healing by Sound By Bill Mills, Fountain Magazine No. 46.
Cymatics - The Science of the Future? By Peter Pettersson.
The World is Sound. Nada Brahma by Joachim-Ernst Berendt
