“Sound is like air. It is always there. We breathe air all the time and hardly ever notice it.
We naturally assume that we listen with our ears. The fact is we listen with our entire body. We listen from the inside out all the time. We just aren’t aware of it.”
(p. 5, Listen from the Inside Out)
Another thing that is always there and we hardly ever notice (at least consciously) is the sound of our own voice. We are more focused in sending the sound of our voice out to tell someone about something, to give instructions or to sing.
The truth is that the sound of your own voice resonates every cell in your body. Sound travels 12 times faster through bone than it does through the air. Your breath vibrates your vocal cords and your tongue and mouth form the right shapes to make the correct sounds for the words you are saying. Your throat, skull and rib cage act like amplifiers so that your voice can be heard.
Can you feel how your voice resonates your bones when you speak? Put your hand on your throat or on the centre of your chest as you say something and feel the bones vibrate. That sound touches every cell in your body.
Sound is a nutrient for the body, mind and spirit. It is food. Like any food, there are sounds that are like junk food and there are sounds that provide us with healthy nutrition.
An example of junk food sound is traffic noise. An example of nutritious sound is bird song or bubbling water from a stream.
The sound of your voice feeds your body by resonating its cells. One of the questions I pose when I speak before a group of people is, “What is the nature of the sounds that you make with your voice?”
Sound is vibrational energy and words carry vibrational energy especially when they are spoken aloud. Feel the difference in your body between saying the word fear and the word love.
Special vocal sounds used since ancient times carry with them huge fields of sacred energy that you bring into your space when you say them. Especially when you continue to say or chant them for a while. This is the most nutritious sound food for the body, mind and spirit.
Sounds like OM, AUM, AMEN, SHALOM, ALLELUIA, HALLELUJAH or MA.
Here is a chance for you to experience one of these sounds sung by 600 people. On October 30, 2010, the Philadelphia Opera Company organized an impromptu performance of the Hallelujah Chorus by Handel sung by 600 people in Macy’s Department Store. Can you imagine the shoppers’ surprise?
I have sung this piece several times in choruses and have listened even more times. Every time I listen to this piece it gives me the shivers.
Check in with your body, mind and emotions before you click on the link to listen and notice. Enjoy this amazing performance and check in again. Do you notice a difference?
It is one thing to experience the sacred field created by one person toning or chanting sacred sound. It is quite another to experience the field created by 600 people. Truly a choir of angels.
Enjoy!