Healing Sounds - The Sound of Healing

Interviewed by Rick Martin

Part Two

Jonathan Goldman: No. At the time, my editor told me to act like it was the only book I’d ever write. And never having written a book before, I thought, “okay” and proceeded from that premise. I delivered to the publisher a manuscript that was something like 250,000 words. They had asked for 75,000 words. And to make a long story short, it was too much for anyone to deal with.   that particular manuscript is unpublished, though much of the information was published in HEALING SOUNDS: THE POWER OF HARMONICS. I don’t think of it as a futile experience, though. It really gave me quite an education into sacred sound and sound healing. I know about a lot of things in regard to the subject.

But what I want to get back to is this idea that at first I was really looking for the “magical frequency”. And I think lots of people are still looking for this now. You know, the frequency or frequencies that will do this or that. Change lead into gold. That sort of thing. And I’m not saying they don’t exist. They probably do, but I’m not that interested anymore. Because I think that there is something else at work and this something else defies explanation by traditional science or medicine. It appears to be magic. And unlike Isaac Asimov, or whomever it was who made that statement about the magic of today being the science of tomorrow, I’m not that sure that some of the things I’ve experienced and encountered can be put within the confines of any sort of system or science. At least with our current understanding of what science is.

I mean, I have my explanations about resonance and entrainment and what not, but I think there’s more than meets the eye, the ear or the mind involved when you start working with sacred sound.

Rick Martin: What sorts of experiences are you talking about?

Jonathan Goldman: The one that comes to mind immediately is the one in the ancient Mayan site of Palenque, where I created light through sound. I’ve written about this in HEALING SOUNDS and in SHIFTING FREQUENCIES. It continues to be quite an amazing phenomenon. I was in a darkened room with a number of other people and the guide said “Make sound here” and pointed over a doorway. And I made sound and the room light up and everyone saw it.

The experience was actually so mind boggling at the time that I more or less dismissed it until I got back to the states and began working on HEALING SOUNDS: THE POWER OF HARMONICS. And I began to try to research the experience and come up with different explanations. One of my explanations, incidentally, had to do with the sound triggering the brain to produce melatonin. And interestingly enough, a scientist read HEALING SOUNDS, was intrigued by my conjecture about this and actually proved that melatonin is produced by certain harmonically related sounds.   So, there's some scientific validation there. But I think more was happening than that.

Later on, I seem to have inadvertently rediscovered a chakra which I call the “Angel” Chakra that’s located inbetween the third eye and crown, right at the fontanel area (the soft spot in a baby’s head). I devote a chapter to this in SHIFTING FREQUENCIES. The “Angel” Chakra is a source of light encoding in the human and it can be opened and activated by the same sound I used down in Palenque. What’s interesting is that this sound can be phonetically written as “nuurrrr”, which is an Eastern word meaning, “Light”. I find this fascinating. So, here you have a sort of mystical or esoteric explanation for the experience, but it’s still not enough. Because I think there was and is still an additional ingredient in this whole phenomenon that I call magic or the sacred or the divine.

Rick Martin: How so?

Jonathan Goldman: Well, if it was just purely a matter of physical plane resonance, then you should be able to have everyone make this sound “nuuurrrr” and experience the activation of the “Angel” Chakra. And that’s not the case. And while I have people do a visualization to enhance the sound, in which they see the sound going up through the head, resonating the pituitary/pineal area and create an opening in the “new” chakra, then anyone who made the sound with the visualization should be able to create this activation. And that’s also not the case. Because it seems as though there is an initiatory activation that’s going on during this experience. And it has to do with someone who is able to do this activation being a conduit for the sound to assist people in opening this chakra. That doesn’t make any sense—at least from a third dimensional viewpoint. It’s another example of harmonic transmission. And it really defies explanation.

The more I teach and experience and share my work/play with sound, the less and less I understand. In fact, it seems like I’ve been downloading information from my left brain for quite a while now. I was once a walking encyclopedia on sound healing, but I’m not that interested anymore. I just don’t have much use for a lot of information because what I was trying to do a while ago was put everything into systems—into boxes—and sacred sound does not seem to want to be placed in boxes. I believe this is because systems and boxes are self-limiting and we’re at the point in our evolution where we don’t need to be limited by anything.

I have a friend who spent years, as I did, collecting information and doing research about sound. But unlike me, instead of simply collecting the different systems, he put them all together and created a grand unified field of sound healing. This sound resonates this chakra with this color and this smell. That sort of thing. And while I find it useful for the neophyte who is just starting out and needs a system to work with, I find it quite limiting.

I remember I asked him once, “Why have you done this?” And his reply was that he wanted to leave something for his young son when he grows up. And my reply was, “Yes, but what if by the time he grows up, he won’t need this system?”

Of course, I guess part of me is a system buster. I think that my formula “FREQUENCY + INTENT = HEALING” creates enough parameters for us without getting more specific. I have another formula, incidentally, which is closely related to this. It’s VOCALIZATION + VISUALIZATION = MANIFESTATION. It’s basically the same thing, except that it refers a bit more to chanting and self created vocal sounds. It means that the sounds you make coupled with the visualization that you are making create an end result for the sound. So, for example, if you’re chanting a mantra for compassion like the Tibetan “Om Mani Padme Hum” and you visualize the Buddha of Compassion and try to embody compassion, then you’ll probably end of manifesting the experience of this energy.

I thought I was very clever when I came up with this other formula. I thought I had really found something. I think it occurred after I had read a book about the creation myth in the “Old Testament” and it said something like when “The Lord Said ‘Let there be Light’”, he put the intention or the visualized energy of light onto the sound and thus brought it forth. And this formula, VOCALIZATION + VISUALIZATION = MANIFESTATION came to me. Then, after I got done patting myself on the back for my “discovery”, I realized that this knowledge was a basic foundation of the spiritual and magical traditions on the planet. It was nothing new. But I do think it was important to be able to create a catchy little formula in terms of helping educate people about working with sacred sound.

Before I forget, I want to talk about compassion for a moment. Because it’s a very important part of my work and I think it’s quite important in terms of our evolution as a species.

I believe compassion is a key to enlightenment and evolution. In fact, it may be the key. I’m sure it is the key to our continued survival on this planet. You know, some time ago, I was reading an interview with George Lucas about the “Phantom Menace” and he was talking about various mythological aspects of the film. He started talking about compassion and he said that the counterpart to this was greed.

When I read this, I thought, “You know, on one level, this is true.” Because when you get into greed, you are quite selfish and unkind and you really don’t care about anything but yourself. And my goodness—most of the trauma this planet is currently in is because of greed—people raping the planet and polluting the environment and not really caring what the repercussions of their actions might be. It’s not like the Native American concept of 7 Generations, where one is conscious of what one’s actions are like for the next 7 generations. And it may have to do with just being in the Beta State too much of the time so that you don’t access higher levels of consciousness and begin to care. Or it may simply be based upon a fear consciousness and a belief in there not being enough so you get into greed.

What strikes me so often during our experiences in workshops with chanting the “Om Mani Padme Hum” and other sacred sounds so that we can embody compassion, is that very frequently, the first person that we need to be compassionate to is ourselves. Most of us have to forgive ourselves for so many things. Most of us don’t really like ourselves. And hey—if you don’t like yourself, how can you like anyone else? And how can you do anything for anyone else if that is the case? This, of course, includes healing.

So if you can be compassion with your own self, then you can begin to be compassionate and kind to others. And suddenly when this occurs, you begin to experience the oneness that exists between all conscious beings. And you begin to have what could be termed spiritual experiences—I don’t really know what to call them—but you begin to have experiences in which the fear that created the boundaries and borders between ourselves and other human beings are broken down. And suddenly the person next to you is just a mirror of you and a mirror of the divine. And you would not think of doing anything to them that was not of the utmost kindness and respect.

It’s a little like getting hit with the “Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself” Commandment. And it’s immense because once that happens, things change. Your relationship to self changes. Your relationship to other people changes. Your life changes and you change the lives of those around you. And this is accomplished all through embodying compassion.

With the embodiment of compassion, one could not imagine doing any of the heinous activities that frequently go on on this planet. Because most of those activities are based upon fear. You don’t go to war with your true brother or sister. You don’t take their food. You don’t do this or that. It’s not in your scheme of thinking.

I think compassion is at the basis of all healing. And I think compassion is at the basis of all true higher consciousness. I remember reading once where the Dalai Lama was asked if he had one message he could broadcast to the world, what would it be, and he said “Be kind to each other”. It was that simple and that direct. And to me, it’s that powerful, because kindness is also at the base of compassion. And it’s in the words of Jesus and the 10 Commandments and all these different spiritual texts. “Be kind to each other”. Just think what that would mean?

Some years ago in meditation, I heard a voice say “The way to the Crown is through the Heart!” and I believe this is true. I think that in terms of the chakras, while all chakras are, to some degree, resonating and active, different people have different chakras that are truly activated. These are the chakras from which they draw their energy and abilities. So that someone who is a sex symbol, for example, might have a highly activated second chakra. Most politicians would work from the third chakra. Healers might work from the heart chakra. Musicians might work from the throat chakra (though this is also a second chakra response—I think it depends upon the level of consciousness that is being projected on the sound). Scientists and visionaries frequently work from the third eye, or sixth chakra.

Now, from my understanding, it’s quite possible to be working from both the third chakra and the sixth chakra as the primary chakras that one is drawing from. And this would result in someone who is basically involved with using the mind for power and control. I believe this type of thing went on a lot in what we call Atlantis, and I think this resulted in its destruction.

I’m always reminded of the scientist character in “Jurassic Park” who is horrified at the experimentation going on and says something like: “You people are so interested in trying to find out if you can do something that you don’t bother to ask if you should do something.”   And I think that’s quite true in terms of our advances in technology.

I have a new book out called THE LOST CHORD. It’s an adventure novel about sacred sound. It’s set in Boulder, Colorado and it involves a rock musician whose friend discovers a series of frequencies that creates interdimensional portals. This sound is also highly addictive. This “Lost Chord” promptly gets stolen by a mad man messiah who lives in the mountains and wants to use it to take over the world. The hero of the story has to go through initiation into sound and spirit in order to rescue his friends and get back the Lost Chord. It’s a fun, fast read and there’s a lot of information and knowledge about sound found in this pop novel.

One of the major themes in THE LOST CHORD is this schism between the spiritual and the technological. As Shade, the protagonist finds out, the “Lost Chord” has actually been in existence for ages. But its knowledge and use has been found with deeply spiritual beings who know enough not to abuse it. The fact that it has been synthesized into a series of frequencies makes it accessible by everyone, and therefore subject to abuse.

I like to believe that as one works more and more with sacred sound, the powers and abilities of the sound are revealed. But as you progress in this work, it’s imperative for your heart to be open and to be a primary focus of energy. Otherwise, the full power and energy of the sound will not be revealed. Once again, the way to the Crown, which is true spiritual and divine consciousness, is through the Heart, which is the embodiment of compassion and love. I don’t believe it’s through the 3^rd Eye alone, unless of course, the Heart is opened as well.

I know many people with highly activated 3^rd Eyes—these people work in the realm of the psychic and have some powerful abilities—telepathy, etc. But they become very limited, after a while. Because they don’t understand that it’s through the heart that the truly Divine and miraculous happens.

From my perspective, multi-dimensional consciousness can only occur through an open heart. Maybe I’m wrong. But I think once your heart is opened and you are resonating from love and compassion and not fear or greed, extraordinary things can occur. I know everyone says that mathematics is the universal language. But I’m not sure. I believe that with multi-dimensional consciousness, 1 + 1 = 3. Really. This is a different type of mathematics and most people who are operating from the 3^rd Eye simply can’t get this. Because it doesn’t make sense on a logical level. But it well may be true.

I must add, however, that just having an opened heart may not be enough. I think it’s important to embody the element of wisdom as well. Perhaps it’s really a combination of these two qualities that is the true key to enlightenment.

Now, why have I been going on and on about the importance of compassion and the heart and all this stuff about intention and visualization and what not? Well, the answer has to do with frequency. Or rather frequencies. Because right now, at this particular point in time and space that we call 2000, the search for the “magical frequency” is really in vogue. And while, I think it’s important to continue the search and research, I think it’s also important to understand that use of pure frequency will ultimately become self-limiting and we need to realize this.

I have no doubt that in the near future, there will be astounding inroads made in terms of science. We’ll come up with the correct frequencies to eradicate specific illnesses and diseases. Some of the devices that we’ll see in the not too distant future are like the “Tri-Corder” from Star Trek. You’ll have this small handheld object that someone will hold near a person and using sound, it’ll give a read out of any imbalances. Then with a few turns of a knob or button, this device will send out the frequencies necessary to create balance. That is astonishing and wonderful and a great advancement for humankind and medicine. And I really don’t think it’s too far away.

But, I think that in terms of healing and frequency shifting, we need to take back our own power and abilities to do it ourselves and not rely on machines. Yes, sometimes the assistance of others is useful in the process. But really, it’s through ourselves that all true healing occurs--through empowering ourselves as the ultimate healer.

On a level, what is the difference between having headache and taking a pill someone gives you for it and having a headache and listening to a frequency that someone gives you? It’s still basically very similar, which is having a dependence on someone else to heal you.

As I just said, I think sometimes we need assistance. Sometimes we need someone else to help “jump start” our engines, so to speak. But really, what I think is necessary is for us to start taking responsibility and control of ourselves. Because I think if we do that, we’ll stop being victims and start being co-creators of this reality. And I like to believe that one of the easiest, simplest and most effective ways of doing this is by working with our own sound. Our own frequencies, so to speak. Since it’s my belief that we are all unique vibratory beings, our own voice can really be specific in terms of the frequencies we use for ourselves. And who better to encode intentionality than ourselves?   We can get very good at projecting our own frequencies and intent through using our voice. It’s cost effective. The user’s manual is simple to use. And it doesn’t require electricity or batteries.

Now, I realize that all of this is part of a planetary education process, which is one of the reasons why I and many others are teaching toning and harmonics and mantras and all the other various aspects of sound. I also realize that the use of frequencies through CD’s, instruments and what not, are also highly effective for healing. I’m all for this. I simply don’t want us to forget the other element—the sacred and spiritual element of sound, which is really what it’s all about. As the development of sound as a frequency shifting tool continues, we’ll have all sort of miraculous things occurring. However, knowing the current nature of human development, which is frequently to go to the lowest common denominator of a subject, we’ll also have those who will not be operating from the heart with their understanding of frequencies and will undoubtedly use it for power and control. Nothing new. And that’s all right. But we need to understand that whatever is created in this manner is nothing in comparison to what can be accomplished through using the heart and the mind together.

I mentioned previously that at this point in our development, Frequency and Intent are both 50% of the formula. As we progress in our evolution and achieve higher realms of consciousness, the frequency becomes less and less important and the intent becomes more and more important. This has to do with opening the heart more and more in order to experience higher dimensionalities. I also said that there are probably saints and holy men throughout the world who can groan or belch or what not—they can make any sound they want—and they can encode on this sound whatever healing frequency they want. And we need to remember the possibility of this. Because otherwise, one will become too dependent on finding the specific frequency and forget that this is only part of the formula. I might add, this focus on merely frequency, will not create the most effective result of the frequency, simply because it is only part of the formula.

So, the use of frequency for healing is true up to a point, and then it becomes not true. It then becomes totally the intention and the frequency merely becomes a carrier wave for whatever the intention is. And it could be any sound.

Currently in traditional medicine and science, I do think it’s very important that the investigation into the uses of different frequencies continues. In fact, it’s vital that this occurs because traditional medicine and science is very 3^rd dimension based and we are of course, among other things, 3^rd dimensional beings.

Right now traditional medicine is finally acknowledging that music can help relax and reduce stress. That’s actually quite a significant leap in understanding—finally recognizing that music can assist us in helping to relax. And the understanding that stress is a powerful factor in the creation of disease is also now occurring. It’s taking awhile, but science and medicine are getting there. Who knows? In the not too distant future, energy medicine may finally become truly validated and accepted in the traditional medical fields?

Usually, when people ask how sound is being used in medicine, I talk about the use of ultra sound to help pregnant woman, or the use of sound waves to break up kidney stones. Both of these are pretty rudimentary in terms of what sound will finally be accomplishing in the healing process, but it is a start. That vision I had about a Tri-Corder type of device being used for healing isn’t that far away—but it may be some years down the road.

I remember once I was attending a Music Medicine Conference at a major medical center. And during the conference, I was just blown away by how primitive the understanding of most of the people there was toward the uses of sound to heal. And the research and experiments that were going on in regard to this was devastating to me. It was like trying to cut up the worm into smaller and smaller parts in order to find out how it crawled. They were missing the major understandings of certain things. When I had the opportunity to discuss ideas such as intent, most of the scientists and doctors at this conference looked at me like I was from another planet. Because, of course, for the most part, in terms of 3^rd dimensional instrumentation and measurement, intent was something that could not be validated. So it was not real.

I was staying at a friend’s place at the time and I remember sitting outside being pretty depressed about the current state of Music Medicine. And I heard a voice say, “If you wanted things to be the way they will be, you would have been born 50 years later. But you were not, because you are to serve as a bridge. Remember that.” And I try to. That was about 10 years ago. So, the future of sound in terms of that Tri-Corder type of device could probably be 40 years in the future.

Who knows how far in the future it will be when people can really shift their vibratory rates through using their own sounds? Oh, there are those who can do it now. But when this becomes common in the general populace? I don’t have a clue when that might occur. But I think it’s important to keep awareness of the possibilities inherent in sound in people’s minds and in their hearts.

About 10 years ago, there was an article in the NY Times Science Section about sound experiments with ultra sound that were happening. And the headlines read, “Sound shaped into dazzling new tool—can make, break or rearrange molecular structure and levitate objects”. I was amazed that this information was running in a newspaper. It involved some research trying to grow crystals in zero gravity. But as a metaphor, it really described the power of sound.

Now, if you can make, break or rearrange molecular structure, there’s virtually nothing that inherently can not be healed or transformed with sound. So the possibilities are endless. We’ll be able to use sound to shatter virus’s that attack us and build up and even regenerate organs that need assistance. I think that there are some individuals who can do this now, but I see this as being common place in the future. I know of people who are working with DNA right now using sound. They’re trying to facilitate our evolution in this manner using sound. And I think they’re pretty successful.

I’ve been worked with tuning forks in an interesting fashion that I’d like to tell you about. As I’ve stated, I’m less interested in working with frequencies than many people are. But I’m quite interested in working with intervals, which are the relationships between frequencies. An octave, for example, is two notes that share the same name and have a frequency relationship in which one of the notes vibrates at twice the frequency of the first. So, it is vibrating at a ratio of 2 to 1.

I mentioned harmonics before and said that these were frequencies that were geometric multiples of a given frequency. With a piano, most of the intervals on a piano are not really harmonically related. They’re not really composed of whole number ratios, like 2 to 1 or 3 to 2. That’s because the tuning of a piano is based upon the square root of two.

Now, I have a good friend, a doctor, who has shown that certain ratios, such as the 3 to 2 ratio, seems to be particularly balancing and therapeutic for the human nervous system. He’s had aluminum tuning forks developed that you strike and then bring near the ears, and these tuning forks really create a very calming response in the individual who experiences them in this way. It also balances the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Incidentally, it doesn’t appear to be the frequency or the keynote of these tuning forks that creates the effect, but rather simply their relationship. So it could be the notes C and G or the notes E and B. Same effect. There are other very wonderful results from these tuning forks, but I’d like to continue on.

Several years ago, due to some interesting experiences that are rather too long to get into, I was guided to having tuning forks cut to the ratio of 8 to 13. I did this as an experiment. I had no idea what they would sound like, because believe me, there are some intervals that sound hideous and really do not interact with the human nervous systems or energy field in a positive manner. I didn’t want to give you the impression that just because intervals are in whole number ratios, they’re beneficial. They’re not. Only certain ratios seem to be beneficial.

I didn’t know what these tuning forks would sound like. But when I did, I immediately felt spiraling and heard angels singing. It was really great. I want to acknowledge that many of my “discoveries” such as the Angel Chakra were really quite slow in unveiling their true essence to me. With the Angel Chakra, I had been doing activation of this area with sound for several years before I finally realized what was going on. With regard to the 8 to 13 ratio and the tuning forks, I simply was intrigued that the sound was so beautiful and effected me so deeply. I really did not have a clue that they might be truly transformative.

I began first by having some more 8:13 tuning forks made to see how other people would respond. Everyone who utilized them seemed to have positive experiences. So I began making them available at workshops simply as experimental tools. People reported experiences, such as I had, of hearing the angels or feeling light coming into their body or seeing spirals. That sort of thing. We found out that they also balanced the left and right hemispheres of the brain as well as balancing the chakras. Quite interesting. Also interesting is the fact that to my knowledge, and I’ve checked with a number of authorities on this—people who really know world music and scales and intervals and such—this is the first time, at least in a very long time, that this interval of 8:13 has appeared on the planet.

Once I was teaching a workshop and there was a very well know medical doctor who was also an energy medicine authority.   When I began demonstrating the tuning forks on someone, I asked her to check what was going on. She pulled out her pendulum and other devices. While this was going on, the person experiencing the tuning forks was describing the sound going down into her body as light, creating balance and alignment at a cellular level.

Someone asked me if I thought these tuning forks would assist in activating DNA. I smiled and told them I thought it could only happen if the tuning forks were in the key of D n’ A. Now, this was a joke. Remember that it is basically the interval—the ratio—and not the keynote or frequency in terms of these sets of tuning forks.    But I did have the tuning forks cut in the key of D. And now people who are working with DNA activation tell me that these tuning forks are quite stellar for the process.

These tuning forks, incidentally, were not the work with sound that I was initially thinking about when I mentioned sound and DNA. There are a number of scientists who have supposedly discovered the DNA sequence through sound. Of course the fact that to my knowledge, these scientists do not agree upon this musical sequence is telling. It probably all has to do with intentionality, but I’m beginning to repeat myself.

I think there’s something quite transformative and powerful about this 8:13 interval. I’m not exactly sure what it is or why it is. It may have to do with people’s consciousness opening to a new sonic ratio. Or it may have to do with the fact that 8 to 13 represents an outer octave of the spiral created by the fibbonacci series—this is the same sort of spiral that’s found in the inner ear and in a Nautilus shell. But it seems to have something to do with our evolutionary acceleration. More on this later. We’re still gathering data, but it’s very positive.

Throughout this interview, I’ve focused upon the importance of intention and my belief that we need not become too systematized in terms of cataloging the effects of the effects of sound, nor its relationship to color and geometry. I just want to say that this doesn’t mean I don’t think the subject isn’t worthwhile investigating. It’s just my belief that you can take any sound and encode any color and geometry upon it.

In my HEALING SOUNDS INTENSIVE, which is a 9 Day training. we have people from throughout the planet come to study with me. And it really is a glorious experience. We manifest Light and Love through Sacred Sound for those nine days and it’s one of the most profound most enjoyable and transformational experiences that you can imagine. I highly recommend it for anyone who is serious about exploring the extraordinary power of sound to healing and transform.

At the end of those 9 Days, the groups constructs what I call a “group merkaba”—a multi-dimensional field which we create using specific sounds, intervals, harmonics, colors and sacred geometry. We do this in order to assist both personal and planetary evolution and it’s wonderful. But the thing I want to say is that in order to construct this, we do use specific sound, colors, etc. And there is a reason and a basis for this. And when we have constructed this with our sounds and consciousness you can actually feel the merkaba. The energy is discernable with your hands. And the gravitational fields are different around it. In fact, the whole time space continuum is different around this form. So, it’s real. And it’s definitely an evolutionary leap that the different groups who do this are able to experience.   I remember the first time I was guided to create this with a group. I didn’t have a clue what would happen really—only some idea that if we could it would be beneficial for all. And we did.   I’m waiting in the silence that accompanies the sound. And I hear a voice. It says “Congratulations! This is the first time this has been accomplished in many a millennium.” It was quite interesting.

The reason I told you about this merkaba and our ability to create it was to say that despite my desire to eliminate systems so that we can open our consciousness and not create limitations upon ourselves, I also believe that it’s good to have a beginning to start with. I couldn’t just say, “Okay, we’re going to create this multi-dimensional geometric form” and have us do it. I’ve got to go: “We’re going to sing this interval with these vowel sounds and these harmonics and visualize these colors and so on and so on.” And it takes some training and practice. Not difficult mind you, but just a little experience.

Now, someday, I believe I will be able to just say, “Okay, we’re going to create this multi-dimensional geometric form….” And we’ll be able to do it. But for right now, I think we all need training wheels. Or whatever metaphor you want to use for needing to crawl first before one can run.

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