The roots of rhythm healing lie in the shamanic cultures of ancient Siberia. The single-headed frame drum originated in Siberia along with shamanism itself thousands of years ago, and then spread in successive waves to the rest of the world. Shamanism is based on the principle that the spiritual world may be contacted through the inner senses in ecstatic trance. The drum, sometimes called the shaman’s horse, provides the shaman a relatively easy means of controlled transcendence. Researchers have found that if a drum beat frequency of around three to four beats per second is sustained for at least 15 minutes, it will induce significant trance states in most people, even on their first attempt.

The drum provides the shaman a relatively easy means of controlled transcendence

Active Meditation With a Drum

The first thing you might ask is how does drum induced trance differ from traditional meditation? The two forms differ absolutely in their approach, because Eastern sitting meditation empties one of thought, while shamanic drumming is very active and filled with content. Just like a yogi or a monk who exists in a spiritual state most of the time because of constant devotional practices, we can readily induce those profound states of deep meditation and heightened awareness. This ease of induction contrasts significantly with the long periods of isolation and practice required by most meditative disciplines.

The capacity to enter a range of trance states is a natural manifestation of human consciousness. It is this ability that makes us humans different from shamans. What makes shamans unique is their mastery over an otherwise normal human trait. The shaman is described as a hollow bone who can enter an altered state, clearing out his or her personal ego space. This makes way for spirit to use them as a healing tool. In this way, the shaman is a channel for higher consciousness.

The capacity to enter a range of trance states is a natural manifestation of human consciousness

The Hollow Bone Teaching

The hollow bone teaching is an ancient practice in Zen Buddhism, shamanism, and Native American spirituality. It is another way to shift your consciousness to become an empty vessel for spirit. The idea is to become like a conduit for spirit. When we can move our ego and rational mind out of the way to channel the divine power of the universe through us, all healing is possible.

Frank Fools Crow was a venerated Native American Holy Man who taught that you must become like a hollow bone to be a great healer. According to Fools Crow, “We are called to become hollow bones for our people, and anyone else we can help, and we are not supposed to seek power for our personal use and honour. What we bones really become is the pipeline that connects Wakan Tanka [whom we could call Brahman or Tao], the Helpers and the community together.”

The four stages of becoming a hollow bone

In his becoming a hollow bone, Fools Crow believed that he went through four stages:

First, he called in Wakan Tanka to rid himself of anything that would impede him in any way, such as doubt, questions or reluctance.

Then he recognised himself as a clean tube, ready to be filled with hope, possibilities, and anxious to be filled with power.

He experienced the power as it comes surging into him.

Finally, giving the power away to others, knowing that as he is emptied out, the Higher Powers will keep filling him with even greater power to be given away.

Benefits of Being a Hollow Bone

The hollow bone teaching has been with us for thousands of years. In traditional teaching, techniques include ways to clear away anything that could possibly clog the bone of our spirit and mind. Meditative practice is an important part of the ongoing task of keeping our insides clean. This form of meditation also facilitates a transcendent state of unity consciousness. True enlightenment means feeling and recognising our true oneness with everything else.

Ecstasy doesn’t necessarily mean joy or bliss. It’s the feeling of oneness

The benefits of attaining this state of unity consciousness include relaxation, healing, more energy, better memory, greater mental clarity, and enhanced creativity. Feelings of peacefulness, timelessness, and spiritual wellbeing are common, along with a oneness of feeling and purpose with the totality of a dynamic, interrelated universe. When we feel that deep oneness we are ecstatic. Ecstasy doesn’t necessarily mean joy or bliss. It’s the feeling of oneness.

Becoming a hollow bone is a simple and effective way to induce this profound state of consciousness.

How to Become a Hollow Bone

To become a hollow bone, try the exercise outlined below. To perform the exercise, you will need a drum or a shamanic drumming recording. A digital shamanic drumming recording can be downloaded from any online music store. Audio recordings allow complete freedom to meditate without the necessity of placing part of the conscious mind on the physical aspects of playing a drum. If you do not have a drum, simply improvise one from available materials. Try tapping on an overturned plastic container with a spoon. The larger the container: the deeper the sound. A five-gallon bucket, for example, makes an excellent improvised drum.

The 6 steps for becoming a hollow bone

Read through the exercise first to familiarise yourself with the process:

1. Dim the lights and sit comfortably erect in a chair or on the floor. Close your eyes and breathe slowly and deeply seven times. Let your abdomen rise and fall as you breathe. Focus on the breath as it enters the nose and fills your lungs, and then gently exhale any tension you might feel, clearing the energy channels of your body.
2. When you are fully relaxed, ask the ‘Higher Powers’ to remove any blockages that prevent you from functioning as a hollow bone. Repeat the affirmation, “I choose to be a clean, hollow bone.” Visualize yourself as a hollow bone or tube that is all shiny on the inside and empty. The cleaner the bone, the more energy you can channel through it, and the faster it will flow.
3. The next step is to enter a trance state. Either listen to a shamanic drumming recording or begin drumming a steady, metronome-like pattern at a tempo of about three to four beats per second. Focus your attention on the sound of the drum, thereby stilling the chatter in your mind. Allow the drum to empty you. Become one with the drum.
4. As you drum, imagine the unifying spirit of the divine source flowing through you. Visualise a spiral of energy descending from the heavens above, entering your hollow bone and travelling down into the earth. You may feel it, see it, sense it, or simply imagine it. As you focus on it, it will occur, for energy and life force follow thought. Allow spirit to flow into and embody you so that the speed and rhythm of your playing come under its control.
5. As the drum journey evolves, you will become more ecstatic and spirit will perhaps create new rhythms. You are now moving into a higher state of universal consciousness and developing a new shamanic skill. At the higher levels, a healer becomes adept at detaching all sense of self, fully present in the moment, as a hollow bone or living conduit for healing energy to move through.
6. When it feels appropriate, gradually slow the tempo of your drumming to draw your consciousness back into your body. Do not rush the transformation. Visualise yourself fully grounded in your body, and then slowly open your eyes. Once you have returned to ordinary reality, end your drum journey with four strong beats to signal that the sacred time of focus is ended. If listening to a shamanic drumming recording, you will hear a similar call back signal near the end of the track, followed by a short period of rapid drumming to assist you in refocusing your awareness back to your physical body. Sit quietly for a few moments, and then open your eyes.

Becoming a hollow bone is a simple and effective way to induce this profound state of consciousness

Binaural Beats for Meditation

In addition to drumming recordings, there is a new technology called binaural beats that can easily induce transcendent states of awareness. German researcher H.W. Dove discovered that when two pure tones close in frequency are presented, one to each ear, the brain detects the difference between them as a third frequency. The two hemispheres of the brain entrain to this binaural beat rather than the audible tones. For example, a 90 Hz tone and 95 Hz tone will induce a 5 Hz theta brainwave cycle.

Theta activity reflects the dreamlike state between wakefulness and sleep. Theta rhythms are associated with meditation and shamanic states of consciousness. Theta increases creativity, enhances learning, reduces stress, and awakens intuition. Binaural beats can induce profoundly deep altered states within minutes. All you need is a pair of stereo headphones and a comfortable chair. The sound technology does the rest. Rhythmic stimulation continues to offer today what it has offered for thousands of years: namely, a simple and effective technique of ecstasy.

Adapted with permission from the book Shamanic Drumming: Calling The Spirits by Michael Drake.

The post Healing With the Hollow Bone Meditation appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

The magic of music

The healing and calming effects of music have been recorded since antiquity. “Music has the capacity to touch the innermost reaches of the soul,” claimed Plato, the Greek philosopher. Pythagoras, also of Greek descent, was extremely interested on the effects of music on human psyche, and even established a school in his effort to study the influence of music on human passions and behaviour. In fact, each night, even as his students slept, Pythagoras, faithfully performed odes and other musical compositions which he maintained had a healing effect on the subconscious. Not only did his students report a night of restful sleep, but some also claimed to have prophetic dreams and visions whenever Pythagoras played his nocturnal odes.

Widespread belief in ancient China also ascribed healing energies to music. The Chinese believe that all musical notes spring from the heart, and hence, every note in the exterior world of sound corresponds to an inner sentiment. Zen master Su Ma T’sien, who dates back to the 1st century BC, was convinced that music had a direct impact on human behaviour. He stated that harmonious notes had a beneficial effect on human conduct, whereas discordant notes had a deleterious effect.

Closer home, we have the Indian Raga, the exact scales of which provoke the same results. Tansen, one of the nine gems in Akbar’s court, could make a cloud rain when he sang the raga ‘Megh Malhar’; and light an oil lamp with the power of ‘Dipak’ raga.

Music and the mind

Cyril Scott clearly demonstrates the effects of music on the human psyche in his book Music: It’s Secret Influence Down the Ages. He shows, for instance, how the sombre and restrained interiors of the Victorians were co-related to the funeral odes of Handel’s music. In sharp contrast to Handel is Beethoven, whose flamboyant musical style had a powerfully liberating effect on the subconscious, claims Scott.

Another famous study states that listening to classical music for extended periods leads to a heightened sensitivity and greater creativity. This is called The Mozart Effect, a term coined for the alleged increase in brain development in children who were exposed to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The study states that particular sounds, tones, rhythms and especially the music of Mozart, can strengthen the mind, unlock the creative spirit and even heal the human body. Don Campbell, in his acclaimed book The Mozart Effect, offers dramatic accounts of how doctors, shamans, musicians and healthcare professionals use music to deal with conditions like anxiety, cancer and high blood pressure. The director of a Baltimore coronary care unit claims that half an hour of classical music produces the same effect as 10mg of Valium [a tranquiliser used to relieve anxiety and relax muscles].

Healing melodies

For composer and sound healer Shawna Carol, singing is akin to natural medicine. She has developed a process which she calls ‘Spirit Songs’, which helps people release their emotional and creative blocks, which is therapeutic.

The scientific reason behind all these exploits is very simple. Sound, like electricity and light, is a conventional form of electromagnetic energy. Today, we have a clearer understanding of how vibrational frequencies can affect us at a cellular level. Sound has the ability to rearrange molecular structure. Everything in the universe is in a state of vibration, including the cells in our body. When these cells vibrate harmoniously we experience health. Tranquilising music can alter brain wave patterns and induce a relaxed, calm state in the listener, and has a beneficial effect on health.

No wonder the Egyptians referred to music as the ‘physics of the soul’.

The emotional factor

At the emotional level, music acts as a facilitator in altering our moods. It affects the limbic system, that part of our brain which is the seat of emotion. Hence listening to soft and gentle melodies calms emotions and brings about a state of mental wellbeing. In itself, music is neutral energy. It is we who are responsible for its ultimate effect. We need to use its energies with awareness. Loud, aggressive and discordant sounds will lead to violent and stressful states, whereas soft, calming music will engender peaceful and loving states. Helene Caya states in her groundbreaking book From Sound Springs Light, “the gentler the music, the more love it transmits.”

One of the most beautiful effects of music is the eradication of anxiety. Fear and anxiety are the underlying causes of various psychosomatic disorders. Even listening to harsh, distressing sounds can generate an autosuggestion of fear. Conversely, listening to soothing and harmonious sounds can generate a sense of immediate peace and wellbeing in the listener. Hence, music can be used as an effective therapeutic tool to root out anxiety and keep the mind in control.

Music and the spirit

In all spiritual traditions across the world, music plays an integral part in connecting the individual to his divine source. Lord Krishna is known for stealing the hearts of the gopis by his melodious flute. The Bible states: “Seek out a man who is skillful in playing the harp; and when the evil spirit is upon you, he will play it and you will be well” [I Samuel 16:14-16]. And from the Sufi tradition, Al Ghazali avers, “The purpose of music, considered in relation to God, is to arouse longing for Him, and passionate love for Him.”

Intense absorption in a piece of soulful melodies can lead to a feeling of expansion or elation of spirit. The soul feels intimately connected with the Divine. This leads to ecstasy and a feeling of joyous wonderment in the listener. The peace of spirit descends upon him.

Last updated on 21^st September 2019

The post Discover the healing power of music appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.