Healing Sounds: The Power of Harmonics

Rating:
Summary: An indepth look into the vibrations, and intent of sound
Review: A very insightful book that dived into many area's of healing music. A good portion of the book deals with harmonics, and how they affect the body and also how Gyume Monks of Tibet use overtone chanting. A must read for people intrigued with sounds and their healing properties.

Rating:
Summary: Toning as a means of re-centering self.
Review: HEALING SOUNDS : The Power of Harmonics. Revised Edition. By Jonathan Goldman. New York : Harper Collins, 1996 (1992). ISBN: 1852308486 (pbk.)

Not being either an 'expert' nor a scientist in the field of sound, I was able to approach this book with an unclouded mind and one free of preconceptions and fixed ideas. And the most obvious thing about Goldman's book is that it is not a scientific treatise and should therefore not be judged as one. It is primarily a practical manual which sets out to teach us how we can use our voice, and our ability to create harmonics and tones, in some very interesting and beneficial ways.

Although Goldman has a great deal of experience in various forms of chanting and toning and is a teacher of the subject, it's altogether possible that, from the point of a view of a pretentious, reactionary, and mechanistic official science, his views may be unorthodox in some respects. Personally, I don't give a hoot. It's a long time since I grovelled at the shrine of official science.

The human voice is an amazing and beautiful instrument and all of us have one. Sadly most of us are totally unaware of the power and beauty of our own God-given voice. Goldman's book remedies that ignorance. It gives us detailed and precise instructions for toning - "the singing of prolonged sounds, usually simple vowels, on a single note" (Le Mee)- which anyone can follow.

When used, preferably in conjunction with his practice tape of exercises which can be ordered separately, you will soon be amazed to find yourself producing the most incredible and beautiful sounds. You will also find that it's huge fun, lightens your mood, clears the mind of its usual clutter, and that it can help alleviate certain minor physical problems such as headaches and perhaps even a few major ones. In short, it's great fun and makes you feel GOOD!

Its main effects are to balance the mind, emotions, and body, and if you persist in practice you will learn how to direct certain frequencies to different areas of the body where the sustained natural vibrations of your voice can be used to produce a wide range of beneficial effects.

This makes perfect sense because all things, ultimately, are vibration. Modern Physics and Ancient Science both concur in this. The body is a complex and delicately balanced pattern of vibrations and energy flows which can very easily become disturbed, and which need continual fine-tuning and adjustment to be kept in top condition.

I think that's what toning does for us. I also think that is why wolves howl. They don't howl, as some believe, because they are lonely or to announce someone's death. They howl to rebalance the energies in their body and to re-center themselves. In other words, they love to howl because it makes them feel GOOD!

Human beings are gifted with a much finer vocal instrument than God has seen fit to give to wolves, and Goldman (who has probably never thought of this wolf analogy anyway) is of course not asking you to howl but to tone. My advice would be to give Goldman and toning a try.

Goldman has something very important to teach us. His is one of the best of several books I've looked at on the subject (a related and excellent book is Katharine Le Mee's 'Chant'). And I think that if, as I did, you give it a try you'll find toning enormous fun.

Humming and singing are of course unconscious forms of re-centering, though few of us have the ability to sing well. But when it comes to producing not songs but individual notes, you'll be surprised at how well you can do and how good it makes you feel.

Rating:
Summary: Toning as a means of re-centering self.
Review: HEALING SOUNDS : The Power of Harmonics. Revised Edition. By Jonathan Goldman. New York : Harper Collins, 1996 (1992). ISBN: 1852308486 (pbk.)

Not being either an 'expert' nor a scientist in the field of sound, I was able to approach this book with an unclouded mind and one free of preconceptions and fixed ideas. And the most obvious thing about Goldman's book is that it is not a scientific treatise and should therefore not be judged as one. It is primarily a practical manual which sets out to teach us how we can use our voice, and our ability to create harmonics and tones, in some very interesting and beneficial ways.

Although Goldman has a great deal of experience in various forms of chanting and toning and is a teacher of the subject, it's altogether possible that, from the point of a view of a pretentious, reactionary, and mechanistic official science, his views may be unorthodox in some respects. Personally, I don't give a hoot. It's a long time since I grovelled at the shrine of official science.

The human voice is an amazing and beautiful instrument and all of us have one. Sadly most of us are totally unaware of the power and beauty of our own God-given voice. Goldman's book remedies that ignorance. It gives us detailed and precise instructions for toning - "the singing of prolonged sounds, usually simple vowels, on a single note" (Le Mee)- which anyone can follow.

When used, preferably in conjunction with his practice tape of exercises which can be ordered separately, you will soon be amazed to find yourself producing the most incredible and beautiful sounds. You will also find that it's huge fun, lightens your mood, clears the mind of its usual clutter, and that it can help alleviate certain minor physical problems such as headaches and perhaps even a few major ones. In short, it's great fun and makes you feel GOOD!

Its main effects are to balance the mind, emotions, and body, and if you persist in practice you will learn how to direct certain frequencies to different areas of the body where the sustained natural vibrations of your voice can be used to produce a wide range of beneficial effects.

This makes perfect sense because all things, ultimately, are vibration. Modern Physics and Ancient Science both concur in this. The body is a complex and delicately balanced pattern of vibrations and energy flows which can very easily become disturbed, and which need continual fine-tuning and adjustment to be kept in top condition.

I think that's what toning does for us. I also think that is why wolves howl. They don't howl, as some believe, because they are lonely or to announce someone's death. They howl to rebalance the energies in their body and to re-center themselves. In other words, they love to howl because it makes them feel GOOD!

Human beings are gifted with a much finer vocal instrument than God has seen fit to give to wolves, and Goldman (who has probably never thought of this wolf analogy anyway) is of course not asking you to howl but to tone. My advice would be to give Goldman and toning a try.

Goldman has something very important to teach us. His is one of the best of several books I've looked at on the subject (a related and excellent book is Katharine Le Mee's 'Chant'). And I think that if, as I did, you give it a try you'll find toning enormous fun.

Humming and singing are of course unconscious forms of re-centering, though few of us have the ability to sing well. But when it comes to producing not songs but individual notes, you'll be surprised at how well you can do and how good it makes you feel.

Rating:
Summary: Pernicious nonsense: bad science and bad music.
Review: I am a musician and acoustician with decades of research in overtones and harmonic structure. My response to "Healing Sounds" is a bit like Will Rogers' remarks about President Herbert Hoover: "It ain't what he don't know that bothers me -- it's what he knows for sure...that just ain't so." Goldman knows a lot of stuff that just ain't so, and his faulty grasp of science in general and acoustics in particular makes this a regular cavalcade of foolish claims based on inadequate research and an inadequate concept of rigor. Wishful thinking, alas, never translates as science.

Rating:
Summary: Pernicious nonsense: bad science and bad music.
Review: I am a musician and acoustician with decades of research in overtones and harmonic structure. My response to "Healing Sounds" is a bit like Will Rogers' remarks about President Herbert Hoover: "It ain't what he don't know that bothers me -- it's what he knows for sure...that just ain't so." Goldman knows a lot of stuff that just ain't so, and his faulty grasp of science in general and acoustics in particular makes this a regular cavalcade of foolish claims based on inadequate research and an inadequate concept of rigor. Wishful thinking, alas, never translates as science.

Rating:
Summary: Overview of Healing with Sounds with Practical Instructions
Review: The first part of the book provides an overview of toning and harmonics as practiced, mainly for the purposes of healing, in different cultures: Mayans, Native American Shamans, among Tibetan Monks; as well as use in different esoteric traditions - e.g. Kabbalah, Sufi chanting, Gregorian chanting, etc.

This is followed by an entire section on balancing chakras with sound and suggestions for your own experiments with toning.

Rating:
Summary: Clear and concise. The information is important to us all.
Review: The information in this book about the healing power of sound is not new - the ancient civilisations knew it, respected it and used it. We have lost this knowledge and it is time to re-learn it.