All language subtitles for Going.Om.2021.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG

♪

Well, to me,
a sound is something

that we definitely
take for granted.

♪

All kinds of sounds
that we appreciate, music,

sound of the waves of the ocean,

babies, children,

all kinds of sounds
that can bring joy to you.

Some sounds can bring sadness.

Sound can evoke
emotions, memories,

or a state of being.

And it's a vehicle
for me for actions,

and to get from one state
of mind maybe to another.

So, for example,
if I'm trying to go work out,

I need a bit more high
intensity, a bit more energy.

I might get a higher beat,
beat-per-minute type of song.

And then, if I'm
trying to go to bed,

and I'd like to calm down,
relax, bring myself down

to a more calmed frame of mind,

I might use something like

soothing wind sounds or rain.

Sound, for me, is
most related to music.

I think all sounds
can be a music rhythm

to it, in a way.

Sound to me, I guess,
is kind of everywhere.

I don't know, energy waves.

♪

Sound has always been there.

It's how I can tell you
the timeline of my life,

based on the music
I was listening to.

So, life presents challenges.

There's ups, there's downs,

but what I noticed is sound

was always there for me.

Think about it.

Why do we spend money on music?

Why do we go to concerts?

Why do we travel to go see
a grave site, or a house

of a performer that passed away

that we really liked?

It's because their music
impacts us, it touches us.

We connect with it.

For example, Elvis Presley,

has been deceased
for over 40 years.

He sold over a billion records,

and 600,000 people

visit Graceland annually.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,

last year,
over half a million people

came from all over the world

to see it.

So, sound can be used for good,

but it can also
be used as a weapon.

If you recall

the invasion of Panama,

the US really wanted
to oust Manuel Noriega,

and he locked himself
up in this building.

So what did the US
do to get him out?

They set up these giant speakers

and blasted heavy metal music

at the building,

and they kept blasting

until he couldn't
take it anymore

and finally came out
of the building

and surrendered.

So, while sound
can be used for good

and as a weapon,

I have used sound to find peace.

So, years ago
I got a singing bowl,

and I would play it
through really tough times.

And what I realized is

when I was playing
my singing bowl,

I wasn't thinking
about my problems.

I was just present
with the sound.

And then I started
working with clients,

and I noticed that they had
very similar experiences.

So I decided to
investigate why sound

impacts us the way it does

and how it works.

- Good morning, welcome.
- Nice to see you, thank you.

- Thanks for havin' us.
- No, it's good to have you.

Oh, absolutely, no, no.

- I'm excited.
- I'm really excited.

The organ is more than
2,000 years old,

and so, for the great
bulk of its history,

organs have had to
have been tuned by ear.

The psychology of music

is inseparable from our own,
from our being.

Music goes way back.

Music goes way back
into prehistory,

and, well,
it has to do with language,

which, of course,
music is language,

and that's one of the most

important things
about being human.

Not just speaking, of course,

but certainly there was music

at the very
dawn of civilization.

I've been an organ builder
here at Taylor and Boody

for 30 years.

It's a very
interesting job to have.

We build expensive things,

which go, often,
to small churches.

And so, our product,

which is at a very high level,

very carefully built,

goes to small communities

of people who come
on Sunday to hear the organ.

And so, we hope that as
a company, as an industry,

we're providing something
that enriches people's lives,

and enriches
the community as a whole.

♪

I once heard
an interesting quote.

Somebody said that
"the organ is the most

powerful thing made by human
beings that doesn't explode."

There's a...

Well, we go back to
the psychology of sound.

An instrument that's this large,

even when it's
being played quietly,

has a great impact emotionally.

♪

Another interesting thing
about the organ as an instrument

is that the pressure,
the wind pressure,

that the organ uses to play...

On average, it varies...

Is about the same that
our lungs produce when we sing.

Sound, super important.

That's it, in a nutshell!

♪

My name is John Adams.

Being a little kid
in Cleveland growing up,

when they had real
seats at a ballgame,

wood and metal, not plastic,

every kid was a seat banger.

So, your hands were too small
to make a lot of noise,

so you'd grab
the seat next to you

and just slam it down,

and everybody would be doing
that in the park in unison.

So, one day sitting
out in the bleachers,

where there's no seats to bang,

and being a drummer,

I thought, "Well,
I'll bring a drum down."

♪

Making noise with a drum,
that's what I do.

I send out good vibrations

to the Cleveland Indians

and join everybody
together in sound.

Every now and then,
you notice, well,

everybody starts
clapping in unison.

♪

And that's what it's about,

so I'm sending out
the vibrations for them

to clap in unison,

and everybody's like one
in the ballpark.

It's a great feeling.

Sound has been used
throughout the ages

to elicit a certain
kind of feeling.

So, whether it's
a sporting event,

or ceremonial purposes,

or even entertainment,

sound has the power
to bring us together.

Sound and vibration induce
a certain kind of feeling.

It brings us to
a certain kind of state.

So, if it's having that
kind of impact on us as humans,

what is it doing
to the animal kingdom?

We went to Thailand to find out.

♪

♪

The focus with
Patara Elephant Farm

is to work on
elephant conservation.

One of that.

We bring them here,
rescue, adopt.

And then, we help them
in the best way we can

with all kind of knowledge
and technology available

to make them healthy.

And when I say applying
knowledge and technologies,

it doesn't have to be
something very modernized,

something that's only available
in the Western countries,

but we're talking about
the knowledge of sound therapy

and treatment
by the singing bowls.

And it's very useful

for all kinds of
healthcare processes,

activities that
we do with elephants...

Including small things,
like skin care, eye checks,

foot care, foot bath techniques,

even helps us to make
the elephant relax

so that we can
draw blood for lab tests

in a very friendly and easy way

with less stress
for the elephant.

Not even simple things,
but also in major operations,

elephants need to be,
for example,

very heavy IV treatment,

which is kind of long.

We're talking about eight hours,
ten hours a day process,

so, the elephant,
many of them kind of

not happy with that.

The singing bowl
helps the treatments

be conducted in a much more
relaxing condition,

and it's helped us
from using heavy chemicals

and some of the stressful

restraint systems.

Actually,
I realized that being me

and being responsible for
these numbers of elephants

and the people involved,
I actually...

With or without
myself noticing...

Create a lot of stress,

so I do have someone
do singing bowl for me

for relaxation and help me to go

into the deep sleep

as much as I can.

Thank you so much.

♪

I have been playing
the singing bowls

for at least a dozen years,
I think more like 14.

So, I played them
kind of just for my own

relaxation and my own
enjoyment for a long time,

and then I started
working with people

and putting
the bowls on the body,

and I took the classes for that.

But then,
when I went to Thailand,

which was January of 2017,

I was fascinated
by the elephants,

and I went to the elephant farm,

and I just... when I came home,

I just wanted to
work with elephants.

But I live in Illinois,

and there are no elephants here,
except for in the zoo,

but we have a ton of horses.

Now, you can't come too close,

- sweetheart.
- Yup.

Can you see it?

What is that, Precision?

Hi, baby.

What do you think?

I know!

Just enjoy it, yeah.

Lip's starting to
droop a little bit.

Yeah.

See, his head's
gotten lower now.

He had it up high,
I think he was watching.

- Look at his eyes.
- Yup.

You are startin' to...

Yeah, you are.

See, his eyes are closed.

Yup.

There you go, nice breath.

For a creature... how much did you
say they weigh approximately?

- How much do horses weigh?
- 1,200...

I think Ben's about 1,300.

- Yeah.
- 1,200, 1,300 pounds

for a bowl this size,

right, to have
that kind of impact

on a creature of that weight,

I mean, that's incredible.

♪

Some of my favorite sounds,
the ocean,

dogs barking,

and birds chirping, no question.

Some of my favorite sounds
are waterfalls,

thunderstorms,

tree frogs, and the ocean, yeah.

In the fall,

when the leaves are falling,

and the sound

when the wind blows
through the trees,

through those leaves,

and you just hear this kind of

subtle little sounds.

I just like being able
to get away from

the sound of the city,

and then it feels like
you can be alone

because then, any time you spend

a significant amount
of time in nature,

you just sort of are able to

feel connected with nature.

I feel like it's
a natural input for

the human brain.

The thing that I am really
concerned about, though,

is sounds in nature,

and I think that,

that hopefully

we'll protect those sounds

because I don't think there's
anything purer than the sounds

that we witness in the woods,

or in canyons,

or in streams, and whatnot.

♪

I use sound and vibration
in my work in many ways,

and it's kind of
come to me organically.

My first experience was,

was hearing the, what we call,
the music of the mountains,

music of the trees,
up at about 10,000 feet here

on a winter solstice
many years ago.

And I played my trumpet
for an hour or two,

and I listened, then,
to the silence

'cause I got too cold
to play my trumpet.

And then from about
ten minutes later,

from around the mountain,

came this angelic sound,
orchestral sound,

that blew my mind.

And years later,

someone brought me a machine

that seemed to allow that sound
to come right out of a plant.

And I'm like, "Oh,
I've heard this before."

This is actually the sound
of nature, and somehow

someone invented this machine

that was able to do that.

And so in my work,

I use sound,

number one,
I think to relax myself

and to relax people,
to center myself.

I use it in the sense of being
able to identify life force,

and its vibratory pattern

associated with
different plants.

Generally speaking,
for the concerts,

we use machines,
or multiple machines.

And the machine is able to
measure the electrical output

of the needle,
or the leaf, or the flower,

and then also of the root,

and then it compares it
and assigns a MIDI value,

and then the synthesizer,

and then you're able
to pick the voice.

Sometimes the plant
or the machine

picks the voice for you,
and you can't change it.

So this is
the Music of the Plants

machine from Damanhur.

It's the original machine.

It has a built-in MIDI
and synthesizer.

It has 128 different
sounds to it.

This is the battery to power it,

and this is the speaker.

And then, out of this port comes

the wires that go to the leaf
or needles of the plant,

and then also the roots.

And here, in the ground,
you can't really see it,

is the grounding one,
and then right here

is the one, the green one,
that goes to the plant leaves,

or needles in this case,
it's a juniper.

♪

And the juniper's playing
a string synthesizer right now.

♪

I think this machine
allows the plants

to offer an expression through
their electrical voltage.

In this work with
doing music with nature,

I call it nature fusion

because it's inviting
nature to play with us,

and I think it's actually
really the other way around.

Nature's actually inviting us.

It's already playing,
most of us cannot hear it.

Most of us don't even
know the secret

of being able to hear
that music up there,

and here it is, the secret
is listen to the silence.

You might say,
"Well, what do you mean?

There's nothing to listen to."

Try it, try it,
and if it gets too much,

then stop, make some sound.

On that experience,
I kinda dared myself,

"How long can I
listen to this silence?"

And then I actually liked it.

We're not just vibration.

We're vibration in space.

And what vibration can do

is point to like,

"Pay attention to the space."

Pay attention to that space,

not just the vibration.

Vibration can take you
right home to the space.

It's really important,
and you can bring that into

other aspects of your life.

And so, vibration
can show us the space.

♪

Everything has sound.

That picture is a picture of
sound, light, and vibration.

You can feel the sound
going out, right?

And then it shakes, vibration,
and then there's light,

- right?
- Mm-hmm.

And there's, we say,

the way that energy
emerges from the void

is through those three things.

And through sound,
light, and vibration,

everything emerges.

So, this is our
aura machine right here,

called Auracom,
and as you can see,

on the front of it
there are some fingerprints,

metal fingerprints.

Basically,
it's a biofeedback machine.

I don't know if you've ever
heard of biofeedback.

I've heard of it, but why don't
you tell us more about it.

So basically, the Earth...

I always like to
start with the Earth

when I explain about
how biofeedback works.

The Earth has
a magnetic field around it.

If it didn't have
a magnetic field around it

that went like this,

it wouldn't just suspend
itself in space, right?

And in the same way, our bodies,

within three feet of our space,
we also have a magnetic field,

or an energetic field
around our bodies.

So, that energetic field

actually can be
felt through heat.

There are different
signals from the body

that kind of interpret
that field for us.

So biofeedback
is using those signals

that are especially evident
through the hands and the feet

in order to kind of
draw a picture

of what the field
looks like around us.

Well, we brought
someone with us.

She's been on our crew
and traveling with us.

Her name's Donna Williams,

and she has volunteered today

if that's okay to have
her photographed, so.

- Absolutely, yeah.
- Okay, is this a good time

- to bring her in?
- That would be

the perfect time
to bring her in.

- Yeah.
- All right.

So, Donna, come on in
and join us.

Are you ready to have
your photo taken?

- I am!
- Are you ready to... okay.

You're gonna place your hands
on the biofeedback hand prints,

- and the machine will read...
- Okay.

And interpret
through biofeedback

and then demonstrate
to us in color.

All right,
and closing your eyes.

♪

There you go.

You can open your eyes.

- There's your aura.
- Wow.

How do you feel seeing that?

I always love watching
people's reactions

when they first see their aura.

Some people are like,

"I thought that's
what it would look like,"

and some people
are like, "What?"

Those are my favorite colors,
so that's great.

Yeah, so that's not uncommon
that a lot of times

people see their auras
and they'll be like,

"Those are my favorite colors."

- Those are what those are.
- Yeah, yeah.

Some of my favorite.

So, are you familiar
with chakras?

- A bit, yes.
- A little bit? Yeah.

So just like I explained
that there's a magnetic field

around your body,

you can break that down
into what we call chakras.

They're like generators,
energy centers, in the body.

So, you have this kind of
generator around your body

that's interacting
with your body,

and then each chakra's like
a specific kind of generator.

You can kind of
see this picture here.

That's why I like,
I like this picture

'cause it illustrates
kind of the colors

and where the chakras
are located,

going from your tailbone,
the base of your spine,

all the way to
the top of your head.

In actuality,
there are more chakras

than are illustrated here,

but these are
the ones that are famous,

that everyone knows,

according mostly to
Indian yogic tradition...

And that's the energy
moving through,

that line that's
connecting them...

That's right, it's
the energy moving through.

And so, it goes all the way
from your first chakra,

which is about survival,

through pleasure, power,

your heart, your voice,

your third eye... clarity...

All the way to inspiration.

Okay, so I know looking at this,
right side, left side,

and the green is appearing
on the left side,

which I know is going
to the nurturing aspect.

So I know that primarily,

you're emotional about,
let's say,

nurturing-oriented things.

It means that
when you're working,

you're probably...
Because when people work,

they primarily, probably tend
to the more masculine traits...

But when you're talking
about relationship,

things you're passionate about,

love, you know,

the more feminine
aspects of life,

that's when the like "Ah!"

the fire comes through.

Does it make sense?

Sound and vibration seem
to impact the animal kingdom.

We also saw that
vibration from plants

can be translated into music.

And our own vibration,
our own energy field,

can be captured via photograph,

and it looks like this beautiful
array of colors around the body.

Yolessa Lawrince from
the Sedona Healing Arts Center

said that everything has sound.

So if sound is so
important in our world,

what would happen if we woke up

and lost it?

I was tired, so I laid down
to take a nap.

I woke up, I was totally,
totally deaf.

But to go from hearing poorly

to nothing is a dramatic drop

in your senses.

Sound and communication
go hand in hand.

People who can't hear,
oftentimes, become isolated.

I often tell parents,
or ask my patients, actually,

"Are you sitting at
the Thanksgiving table

just nodding your head and going
along with the conversation,

or missing the jokes
that are being said?"

And you don't wanna look like
you don't know what's goin' on,

so they kinda nod
their heads and go along.

And most of my patients say yes.

It becomes so much
of an effort for them

to communicate with others
because they can't hear,

and others don't wanna
communicate with them

because they have to
speak very loudly

in order for their loved one
to understand what's going on.

So, they do become
quite reclusive

and distance themselves
from society quite a bit.

So hearing, hearing aids,
cochlear implants,

doing surgery on the ear...

Sometimes those little bones
we talked about get stiff.

We can correct those and bring
back the hearing to a point

where they're like you and me,

where they can
at least communicate

well with others.

We're social beings,
we're social beings,

and if you're not
getting that information

to effectively communicate,
to effectively understand what

your loved ones
are saying to you,

you're isolating yourself.

That just changes
your brain chemically.

Finally, I wound
up with Dr. Shaia

and the cochlear implants,

and I was crossing my fingers,
"Please God,

let him take me on.

Let me be a candidate,"

because I was desperate.

What we have here is
a standard cochlear implant.

There's several companies.

They're all basically
shaped the same.

They have three basic
components that are present.

They have a magnet here
that helps the processor

stick through the scalp
to the cochlear implant.

There's a processor here,

and then there are
little electrodes

that go down into the cochlear

that we feed into
the hearing organ

to stimulate the hair cells
that help us hear.

And so then,
the cochlear implant itself

that has the magnet here,

patients are given a unit

that fits on
the outside of their ear.

- Should I do it this way?
- Yup.

- Do you have that?
- And this little wire

with a magnet goes
against their scalp

like that, and it
kinda sticks up there.

What it's sticking to
is this magnet underneath.

And through this processor here,

goes up through the magnet
and down the electrodes

to stimulate energy,

to give energy to
the little hair cells

so that they can
start hearing again.

Mr. Neblett,
he's an older gentleman,

but he has done excellent
with his cochlear implant.

His initial day of coming
in to actually receive

the external portion
of the cochlear implant,

which is called a processor,

and that initial,
we call it activation, date

actually was very...
Well, for him,

he was able to understand speech

right away,
which is not always the case.

Everyone has
different experiences

during that initial
day of activation

of the cochlear implant,
but he's one that actually,

his brain adapted very quickly

to processing this new
electrical signal

that it had not heard before.

So, it's a life-changer
for a lot of people.

My older patients,
who know what sound is like,

then they slowly lost hearing

to the point where they
needed a cochlear implant,

90 percent of them do wonderful
with the cochlear implantation.

They enjoy the sound.

They can hear things
that they never heard before.

It may sound irrelevant
to someone like you and me,

but if I walk outside,
I can hear the birds chirping,

and they can hear that sound,
and that makes them feel normal.

And it's something that
we don't appreciate every day,

but we should.

When I was about 15...

This would put us about 1940,

we weren't yet in a war...

And the Met would go on tour

and came through Richmond
with an opera.

Well, my next-door neighbor

was a managing editor
at the Times, Dispatch.

He had a daughter
and a couple of tickets

to the opera that
the Met was putting on.

So, he wanted
his daughter to go.

He couldn't stand operas.

He needed her... he wanted her
to have an escort,

so I went with her
to hear the opera.

When I heard that

first introduction to the opera,

from that point on,

there was only one music
that ever touched my soul,

and that was grand opera.

♪

♪

And it stayed in my memory.

Now, I go through
this deafness, obviously,

I don't hear a thing.

But now with the cochlear,

that is the one...

You can usually restore
speech fairly well,

but to restore sound or music

is much more
difficult programming.

So, I'm going through
that experience.

But what I'm hearing

is only about 40 percent

of what the real sound is,

but I make up that 60 percent

with my memory.

I can recall it
exactly how I heard it

50 years ago.

♪ Figaro ♪

♪ Figaro ♪

♪ Figaro, Figaro, Figaro,
Figaro, Figaro, Figaro ♪

♪ Figaro, Figaro, Figaro,
Figaro, Figaro, Fi... ♪

We saw John Neblett's
love for the opera

and how grateful he was
when he could hear it again.

So, sound and vibration
definitely move us.

Certain sounds are
more pleasant than others,

but do they actually
have an impact

on our wellbeing?

♪

Sound obviously is a vibration,

and it's not that we
literally hear something.

What happens is
our brain translates

the audio signals
into vibrations.

Vibration is extremely
important to our wellbeing

because, medicine can tell you,

that ultimately
every portion of the body

operates at homeostasis,

that there's
an interconnectedness between

all the body parts, the organs,

the blood pressure,
the temperature, the blood flow,

and that when something
is out of whack,

- illness results.
- I started

where I wanted to harness sound
and deliver it to people

in an affordable, accessible way
that was non-invasive,

that would help them de-armor.

Like, you go through life
and you collect your wounds,

and you collect your bruises,

and you start to
armor up, right,

start to shut down.

And in just my own
personal experiences,

you go through life, and then
you're no longer available

to the love that's
available to you.

You almost can't even see it

because you're
too busy locking down.

So I wanted to find
some way to use sound

to help people de-armor, right,

non-invasive, accessible,
affordable, we can all have it.

How does sound affect
the human body?

How does sound affect
our brain, and our emotion,

and our thoughts,
and our cognition?

So, I went to school
to study that.

And to harness it... because
the world of sound is endless...

♪

There are things that,

that you can access
emotionally through music

that you can't
always get through

just speaking or
listening to somebody.

So music's very
powerful for that,

for really piercing the armor

and getting into
the emotional stuff.

So our brain does
this neat thing.

It's constantly
doing a Google search

of whatever's in front of us.

And that's super useful
because then we don't have to

reinvent the wheel everyday,

and figure out
how to get out of bed,

or how to move around
in our world.

So, we've got all this
pre-existing data in there.

Then our brain will take
whatever's in front of us,

and say, "So, what in the files
do I have that is useful?"

And that's why you'll
trigger memories

when you experience, say,

a song you haven't
heard in years.

I'm the research coordinator
here at The Monroe Institute

in central Virginia.

I'm helping to do
research here at TMI.

So, I'm involved in, right now,
three different studies.

One of them involves looking at

basic brain mechanics

of the effects of sound.

- Correct.

Activity of the brain
is producing currents

that are running
right through here.

These things are
picking up the voltage

that arises
based on those currents.

♪

The participant would
come in just one at a time.

We would wire them up
to the cap, to an EEG cap,

take them to the shielded
room we have here,

give them a book,
say, "Read this book

while you're listening
to sequences of

two- or three-second
clips of sounds,

and we're just recording
what's going on in your brain."

Each one of these lines
represents a channel,

an electrode on the head.

Okay, and this is
scrolling across time,

and the amplitude...
The little squiggly line...

Represents the voltage
that's being measured

at the electrode on the scalp.

For example, see these
little oscillations here?

That's an Alpha burst.

This stuff right here
is an eye blink.

What we do is take
all these sequences

and overlay them, average them.

When you do that,
the stuff that's synchronized,

the EEG that's synchronized
with that sound

is gonna start appearing
outta the average.

♪

♪

The first one we're
looking at is brain activity,

so that would be EEG.

So that first study I mentioned,
which is basic brain mechanics,

that's looking for
what they would call

frequency following response,
or a driving effect,

in brain function caused by

some particular sound

program or sequence
that's being use.

The classical one here is

based on binaural beats,

which is a combination of tones.

One of the tones might be, say,

4 Hz different
from the other tone,

and they're presented separately
to the left and right ears,

and with the result
that you might see

at 4 Hz driving response
in the brain.

The reason that's
so interesting is because

the primary brain
frequency can tend to

signify or reflect state
of consciousness in a person.

The binaural beats are low.

They often are masked
with white noise.

And yet, there are
studies showing that even

with these binaural beats
completely masked

so a person cannot
hear them at all,

but they are there in the sound,

they were still able to
measure differences in, say,

vigilance and mood.

So, it's having an effect,

even if you're not
consciously hearing it.

♪

When you talk about
using music to induce mood,

or emotion, or affect,

it absolutely changes
your cognition,

and your ability
to pay attention,

and what you pay attention to.

It shifts the way
that you think.

It's not just candy.

Somebody did a study where they
went into an office building

and found that

the hum coming off
this computer is this note,

and the hum coming off
this light is this other note,

and this sound
from this other thing,

from the air conditioner,
is another note

and it's discordant.

Can you put any kind of

acoustic padding
around something,

or do something,
so you don't have this, all day,

you have this discordant note
playing in your background?

So there are things like that.

Another factor is,

a lot of people,
in psychological studies

on what we define as noise,

has to do with is it
controllable and predictable?

So, when you can turn
the volume down on something,

or you know when the next
sound's gonna happen,

we don't interpret it as noise.

It's when it feels like
a thing we can't control

that... and can't predict... that's
when it feels threatening,

and we interpret it as noise.

These things are...
I would say they're tools

in consciousness exploration.

So, the more you can
explore consciousness,

that would seem to be
quite important to me

for health and wellbeing.

I really try to
implement the tools

that the body already has
to heal itself.

So as an osteopathic
family medicine physician,

we're taught that
the mind-body connection,

mind-body spirit
is very important

and, given
the appropriate tools,

the body can heal itself.

So really, I look
at the root cause

and try to figure out
what is the root cause

of what is ailing the person

and then educate them
and give them

whatever tool it may be

to help them to heal themself,

because truly, I believe
that we are our own best healer.

So, your vibration is created
by what you put into your body

as well as what you put out.

So as long as you become
more cognizant

of what you're doing
to yourself,

I think it is possible
to raise your own vibration.

What we know is that
we can just be around busyness

and absorb that stress
and that energy,

whether we're sitting
in traffic,

whether we're walking
in the mall,

whether we are just
around coworkers at work

or projects.

And so, really, I have found,

in being a therapist
and in my own life,

that using meditation,
taking a time-out,

and getting hyper focused
on something,

a sound and a vibration
are very, very helpful

and beneficial to focusing us

into a state of relaxation.

Everything has vibration.

Whether it's the cells
in our body,

to a plant, to an animal,

to a thought, to a color.

Sound is very beneficial

in helping in mood disorders,

anxiety, depression,
irritable bowel,

a lot of
the inflammatory disorders.

You know, the inflammation
that occurs in our system

a lot of times
is because of tension,

and so when we use
sound therapy,

that vibration that occurs
throughout the body

can help to relax
in those areas.

♪

Really what it's doing
is it's activating

your parasympathetic
nervous system.

It's relaxing your body

to a state
where it can heal itself.

Another way that you can use
sound therapy

is in healing of fractures.

So there was a particular
patient that I knew of

that had played on
an ankle fracture

and the ankle fracture healed
much faster

than what the physicians really
thought that it could ever heal

and I think it was the vibration

that actually
created the healing.

So it allowed the bone
to start to heal on its own

a little bit quicker
than what otherwise

would have occurred.

I have a lot of clients
who come in

that are on prescription
anxiety medication,

and one of the goals of therapy

is to use different modalities

to help reduce their need
for the medication at all

or to lower the dosage
of the medication.

And what I have found
very quickly,

within just several sessions,

is we are able to do that.

So, the prescription medication
and need for it

is being reduced.

I had been on a prescription
steroid, prednisone,

for three years.

I have hard-to-treat asthma.

And just having
the bowls around me

and on my physical body,

within the course of that week,

I ended up, for the first time
in three years,

being completely off steroids
for almost three weeks.

And as I continued
the treatment,

it is keeping me
off of those steroids

or a very low dose
of the steroids,

where in the medical community,

even trying a variety
of treatment combinations,

they were not able to do that.

So I have
a really personal story

that goes along with
using the bowls.

And I learned over time, really,

that sound can vibrate the body

in a way that takes you
to a place

that you may not otherwise get

when you don't have that.

So, in my work...

I guess I should say
in my personal life,

I did a didgeridoo
guided meditation journey.

When I was in that journey,

I was really thinking to myself,

"Oh my goodness,
this is so relaxing,"

and I really was at
such a place of peace and calm,

one of which I hadn't
experienced for quite some time,

and I thought, "You know,
I really needed this."

And then I thought,
"My patients need this,"

and then I thought, "You know,
my community needs this,

the world needs this."

♪

Edgar Cayce's
been called the founder

or the father
of holistic medicine.

In fact, in the 1970s,

a group of medical doctors
got together

and founded the American
Holistic Medical Association

because of their interest
in the Edgar Cayce material.

And the reason he's called
the founder of holistic medicine

is not because he only
relies on ancient remedies

or because he's only
into homeopathy,

but he saw total wellness
as really

all the parts of the body,

all the parts
of the individual...

Body, mind, and spirit...

Working together
to promote wellness.

Edgar Cayce was the most
documented psychic of all time.

He lived between 1877 and 1945.

For 43 years of his adult life,

he was able to put
himself to sleep on a couch,

close his eyes,

and respond to
any question imaginable.

Of the 14,000 readings,

approximately 2,000 talk about
the subject of vibration.

And according to Edgar Cayce,

vibration is really
at the root of everything.

Science would say that vibration

really is how our senses work.

Quantum physics would say that

essentially everything
is made up of the same stuff,

just vibrating at
different levels of vibration.

We live in
a very sympathetic world.

So we're all running

and we're going here,
there, and everywhere

and it's not often enough

that we're implementing
our parasympathetic

and when we utilize
sound therapy,

and especially employing it

as a kind of training wheels
to help us,

it really helps us
to get to a spot

that we couldn't otherwise
get to.

♪

If sound and vibration
can influence our wellness

and help with issues
like anxiety, depression,

fibromyalgia, digestive issues,

inflammatory disorders,

aid in getting patients
off medication,

and even assist
with healing fractures,

then what about our voice?

Our voice is a sound.

So, can our voice
aid in our health?

And our words.

Do these things matter?

Edgar Cayce
actually gave a number,

a suggested chant,

that he said could be
very helpful

to raise your vibration.

One of them was...

He said that the word "home,"

that if you could put
the word "home"

into a vibration, like...

that that kind of vibration

could really have resonance
inside the being

to make the person
feel at home wherever they were.

♪

Humming,
which my wife Andi and I

wrote this wonderful book
on humming

called The Humming Effect,

has been, like,
shown to be so important

in terms of releasing
nitric oxide

in the nasal cavity.

So if you can hum...

for even five minutes a day,

it's probably very therapeutic

as well as chilling you out.

Is there anything they have
to do to prepare in advance?

Is there a certain kind of space
they need to be in?

Do they need
to be fully hydrated

or not eat anything beforehand?

Well, these are really,
really good questions.

I would say no to everything
except finding a space

where you'll not be disturbed,
okay?

Then sitting there,
closing your eyes,

taking some nice deep breaths,

and then focusing your intention

on what you would like
the hum to achieve.

Because I have this formula
which is

frequency plus intent
equals healing, right?

So, if you focus your intention
on what you want,

whether it's to resonate
your sinus cavity

or just fill yourself

with a lot of luminosity
and whatnot,

and then you clo...

And make sure your eyes
are closed

because believe it or not,

you have different
brainwave activity

when your eyes are open
than when your eyes are closed.

Get, also really important,
to the point of stillness.

So a lot of people
have a very hard time...

♪

I've worked with
all sorts of safety sounds

for 40 years

and one of
the more frustrating things

is simply that
a lot of people go,

"Well, I'm not
a trained musician,"

or, "I'm not a trained vocalist,

I can't do these sounds."

And so everybody's
really judgmental

about the sounds that they make

but there's nobody that I know

who basically is judgmental
about their humming.

It's something that babies do,

it's something
that old people do.

Yeah, I mean,
that's a really good point.

You know, because it's something
you're experiencing,

although it's audible
to other people,

but it's more of
an internal process, correct?

- Is that accurate?
- It's the most powerful

vibroacoustic sound
that we can make.

There are two ways
that sound affects us.

One is sound goes into our ears,

into our brain,
affecting our heart rate,

our respiration, our brainwaves.

This is called psychoacoustics.

It's sound going
usually from music

or from voice,

but it's going into our ears

through the act of hearing
or listening.

And basically,
it's affecting us,

our nervous system.

But the other is called
vibroacoustics

and these are where
the sound literally goes into us

on a cellular level,

causing our cells in our body

and literally a musical massage,
if you like,

or a sonic massage

and it's extraordinarily
powerful.

And humming is,
from my perspective,

the most powerful
vibroacoustic thing.

An om to go home.

Exactly. Exactly. Yes.

So, yeah, I tell people
that, you know,

no matter where they are,

and I've heard other people
mention this too,

that when you do that,
that is the home.

That is the home.
It brings us there, right?

So, on this journey

have mentioned
and made reference to that too.

So, can we do one together?

- Would that be okay?
- Sure.

Now, take a nice deep breath
when you do it.

♪

♪

Excuse me, it got me at the end.

- Clearing.
- Right, I felt it move.

Thank you.

♪

It's also about the spoken word.

For example, if a bunch
of people at work

are gossiping
or talking about someone else,

you can enter in
something positive,

a positive comment,
and change the vibration.

Everything we think,

everything we say,
everything we do

creates a vibration,

and ultimately, Cayce would say,

our job is to somehow
grow spiritually,

raise our vibration,
transform ourself,

and in turn,
transform the world.

♪

I think it's important to
consider the words that we use

have a lot of power in our lives

and I think even, you know,

people talk about gratitude.

Those that express gratitude

really do have
happier, healthier lives.

And we look at the people
that live the longest

and they seem to have
the most positive attitude.

You're looking at different
disease processes

like cancer, heart disease,
there's power in...

If a physician tells you,

"You only have
this long to live,"

a person may think that
that's all that they have,

but really, there's nobody
that can really determine that.

So, I think it's important
to be positive

and to use positive words
and positive affirmation.

♪ Well, that's all right,
yeah, that's okay ♪

♪ 'Cause you gon' make it
at least today, yeah ♪

♪ Come on ♪

♪ Yeah, come on ♪

♪ Whoa, whoa ♪

♪ Yeah-hey-hey ♪

How important is the voice
as an instrument

to maybe achieving
a state of wellness?

There are certain teachers

that I love the sound
of their voice so much

I feel calm.

My nervous system drops

and there's this sense
of all is well.

I feel that just in the sound
of their voice.

And that's huge.

I think it's a huge part
of their teaching

and their communication.

It's really happening
on different levels.

On one level,
it's what they're saying

and what they're saying
is important,

but on another level,

you could say it's
at the level of vibration

or at the level simply
of how those sound waves come

and impact us.

It's as much a teaching
as the words themselves.

Our own voice
is a natural expression

of the human instrument
that we are.

In that way, so is our face,

so is our smile.

It's not really any different.

And if you walk by
and somebody has

just a beautiful smile,

it lifts everybody up.

You know, you just see
the person in the grocery store,

they smile, and suddenly
you feel so much better.

And it's the same
with our voice.

When we speak,
just to anybody passing by,

and we say, "Enjoy the day,"

and our voice has that quality

like a big, open smile

with heart and beauty in it,

we're lifting other people up

and we have the opportunity
to do that every single time

we open our mouth.

♪

If our own voice
can evoke a state of wellness

and bring us to balance
through things like humming

and even the words we choose
in a mindful manner,

then what about silence?

We went to
the Green Bank Observatory

in West Virginia

to find out what the
National Radio Quiet Zone is

and why it's important.

♪

Right now,
we're in what's called

the National Radio Quiet Zone.

This is an area
of 13,000 square miles

that straddles the
West Virginia-Virginia border.

This was set up in the 1950s

whenever
the Green Bank Observatory,

then called the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory,

was founded,

as a way for us
to limit transmissions

that could interfere
with the telescope.

In radio astronomy,

we can observe through clouds,

we can observe if it's
really bright outside,

but we can't observe
if there's a cell tower

anywhere near us.

So, things that interact
with our observations

are cell towers, TV stations,

anything that is emitting
lots of radio energy.

Here on site,

I'm under contract not to have
a microwave, for instance,

because microwaves,

even though all of the energy

is mostly sealed inside
that metal box,

some escapes

and that's radio energy
at similar frequencies

as we observe with
the Green Bank telescope.

And so,
the National Radio Quiet Zone

is an area in the U.S.

that prevents people

from erecting
fixed commercial transmitters

nearby the telescope

that would interact with us.

It keeps cell phone companies
from building things nearby,

which means that you don't
get cell service

for about an hour
surrounding the observatory.

There's another quiet zone
that is smaller

and centered right around
Green Bank.

It's about a ten-mile radius,

so significantly smaller

than the National Radio
Quiet Zone

which is 13,000 square miles.

This West Virginia quiet zone

prevents people from having
personal transmitters

that would interact
with the telescope.

So, that smaller quiet zone

is why I can't have a microwave

and I can't have Wi-Fi.

I do have the internet,

but it's all wired
over the Ethernet cable

and I can use my cell phone,

but I have a little dongle

that plugs it straight
into that wired internet.

So it's kind of wild
the ways we have to work around

some of these restrictions

that protect the telescope

for what we see
as modern ways of life.

♪

Since we are looking at

such faint signals
from outer space,

we can't have a lot
of stray radio energy.

We need to be
in this radio quiet zone.

We need there to be
radio silence

around the site.

If we're going to detect
these faint signals

of a galaxy that is
billions of light-years away,

we need to be in a place
where we're not seeing

someone's cell tower
from two miles away

broadcasting at those
same frequencies.

And so it's very important to us

to have a radio quiet
environment.

For people, I think there's
something also to be said

about the intentionality
of having silence,

being able to collect
your thoughts

and know what it is
that you're focusing on.

And so, that could be
a corollary

between radio telescopes
needing silence

so that we can actually
look at the objects

that we want to look at

and not have interference
from every direction,

and how we go about
our daily lives

and not have noise
from everything

bombarding us all the time.

If the telescope
at the Green Bank Observatory

is so sensitive

that things like Wi-Fi,
cell phone towers,

and microwaves are off limits

due to the disruption
they could cause,

then what are our surroundings
doing to us?

We've learned a little bit
about sound,

but what about silence?

Sitting quietly in silence

I think has a great impact

on becoming familiar
with who you really are.

It's just kind of like
helped me to

kind of like rethink
of what it is

and what I can heal or what
can I do to fix a problem,

those kind of things.

So I think quiet time
is something that

actually makes you realize
like what you need to do.

All the different sounds
from the world,

just your day to day rigmarole,
running around,

dealing with this person,
that person,

dealing with this business,
you know, sometimes

you gotta clear all that noise
out of your head

and just take a moment
of silence

to kind of just regroup.

You know, reconnect
with yourself.

It's mandatory
that I do that, you know,

several times a day.

Silence is actually
really important

in our mental health
and physical health

and I can personally tell you

that when I spend my Sunday
planning my week ahead

that I will strategize
what I'm doing

with not just my food
but my exercise

and also my downtime.

It's home.
Silence is home.

This is really important,

I want to share this with you

because it's something
that a lot of people

who are investigating sound...

It took me about 15 years
to discover this really...

simplistic concept.

The power of silence.

Silence is the yin
to the yang of sound.

Silence is the place

where the sound can create
the shift and changes

on a vibrational level,

on a physical, emotional,
mental, and spiritual level.

So after you go, "Om"...

♪

After you've done that
for five minutes, be in silence.

You'll be amazed,
'cause if you try to get up...

Well, first of all,
you might pitch over

because you might be
so blissed out,

but also, you're shifting
the frequency.

Allow the frequency
or frequencies

that you've created

to have the ability
to create change in yourself,

and silence is mandatory.

A lot of folks don't realize it

and a lot of people don't even...

They've never actually
been in silence

because they gotta keep moving,
gotta keep changing this...

No.

♪

Silence has always
come into my life...

at the right moment
and it's healed me

through some really, really
tragic, terrible things.

You know, one of the things
we're starting to see

is that, you know,
this area in the brain,

the amygdala,
that has all this chatter,

if we don't settle that down,

it's going to lead
to more health problems.

A big one is dementia.

And so, unfortunately,
in our country...

You know, I always say,

there are so many diseases
that we can reverse

but dementia is one
that we don't have

a lot of medications
to help that,

and once you get dementia,

you really are looking at
adding medication

to really preserve your memory

and hope that you don't lose it.

So, you know, taking that time

to really rest your mind
and relax it

is imperative for your
overall health and longevity.

It balances out
one's mental state.

I think we fill it all the time

with sound and the radio

and especially now with this
whole political climate

and social media and stuff.

I was going nuts,
you know, watching...

Doing Facebook and Googling

and watching all the news

and all the events
that are happening,

and listening
to the radio all the time,

and I was getting uneasy

and it was like,
well, what's going on?

It was like, oh!

I'm away from
that deep anchor of home.

That...

that pure, eternal nothing

which can't be defined.

In silence, there is so much.

There's the sound
of infinite space.

There's the sound
before creation.

There's the sound of potential.

There's the sound
of what wants to come forth

that hasn't yet come forth.

So often in our culture,

we have something
going at all times

and even when you choose
to have silence,

it's hard to attain it.

There's this wonderful story
about John Cage

where he went to a...

I think it was Princeton

where they had
an anechoic chamber,

so a chamber that
has as little sound

as you can possibly have
in a space.

And so he went into this space

and he's very interested
in silence and in sound,

so he thought,
"I'll go in this space

and see what silence
is like."

So the only sound in that room
was his own functioning.

As kind of the name implies,

"anechoic,"
it means without echo.

So, it also happens
to be very quiet.

So this is isolated from
the rest of the building

with very thick walls.

What you're probably hearing now
on the video

is a lot of my voice

and not much of anything else.

We don't hear the reverb

we likely hear in rooms
that you're used to.

We're also not going to hear
any outside influence...

Cars, air conditioning,
any kind of noise like that.

So it should sound
pretty pristine.

♪

It's a very calm state
of present awareness

as to what's going on

and you still maintain
your choice

as to where you put your focus.

That's really what meditation is

is you're training your mind
to keep a focus

and still be able to process
what's happening in real time.

Like you are now present with

actually everything
that's going on.

You know.

At the area of the brain
that's responsible

for depression and anxiety,
the amygdala,

and there was a lot of chatter
in that area

with these people with
depression and anxiety,

so they took two groups
of people

and they put one group
on medication

and they put the other group
on modalities

like yoga, tai chi,
meditation, mindfulness,

things that would relax them

with these
integrative modalities,

and after eight weeks,

they looked at the functional
MRI of the brain again

and saw that there was
a reduction in the area

of the chatter in the brain.

So, you know, the person
then has a choice.

Do they want to choose
a medication

or do they want to choose
a mindfulness-based approach

to implement that
instead of the medication?

♪

Silence and meditation.

Taking a moment
to find stillness in this world

can really help with relaxation.

It also has health benefits.

So, we are often told
to live a balanced life.

A balanced diet,
balance between work and play,

and we even have
the yin-yang symbol.

So what is that, right?
It's the perfect balance.

So, what are some other ways
we can find balance?

♪

So, some of the things
you can do

to help balance the body

include taking time
for meditation and prayer...

going for a walk...

listening to music,

include a healthy diet,

exercise program,

being careful what thoughts
come out of your body

as well as what
you take into your body.

I think if you're trying
to find balance in your world,

I think it's important
to not just, you know,

do the things like exercise
to be active

but it's important to find
things like downtime to relax.

And we all have our drive
into work,

you know, that we may have
to be able to be silent

and you can do meditation

and mindfulness
when you're there.

You know, I tell people,
don't close your eyes

at the traffic light, but when
you're at the traffic light,

you can actually just, you know,

kind of put your head back
on the headrest behind you

and breathe and just
count your breath

and do that
slow, deep breathing.

You don't have to have
the radio on,

you don't have to make
that phone call.

Do it when you're in the shower.

Do it when you're
brushing your teeth.

You know, find a spot
in your day

that is kind of a routine
for you

that you can implement
the silence

and the relaxation things,

because I think that
when you make it a habit

then you're always
going to have it with you.

The thing I recommend the most

is the mindfulness exercises,

and you can...

The nice thing is you can
do them absolutely anywhere.

People often think
that relaxation

involves sitting on
a mountain in Hawaii,

and that sure is great
to do that

but how often can we do that?

So, if you can be on the bus

going to
your doctor's appointment

and be mindful about all
the sensory data around you,

not judge any of it
but try to keep in your mind

an awareness of all
of the different factors,

what you hear and what you feel,
the air on your skin

or the vibrations of the vehicle
as it travels,

and you fill your mind
with all of this

without judging it,

it crowds out
all those things like,

"What if I go to
the doctor's appointment

and they do something painful?"

or "What about that terrible
thing that happened

when I was three?"

You've crowded that out

by thinking about where you are.

A lot of that is how many sounds

can I hold in my awareness
at once?

So in any moment,
there could be many frequencies

and things happening
that we can hold in our mind.

Yes, you're really
in this moment

when you do that.

And so often we're not.

We're sort of in this moment

while we're also thinking
about this thing

and being distracted
by that thing.

So, it's a skill to be able to
pull in that focus

and just be
in this moment right now.

There's a saying that

if you're stuck in the past,
you're depressed,

if you're stuck in the future,
you're anxious,

and if you're in the present,
you're calm.

I believe that was
Eckhart Tolle, yeah.

I love that idea
that we can choose

where we put our awareness.

The more you're really
supportive of your child

or the more you're kind
to your spouse

or the more you really
go out of your way

to be of service to someone,

you create
an energetic resonance

that really can couple
with the energy of other people.

And I really took that to heart

that somehow if,
even in my own little room

with every day we work with
positive thoughts,

prayer, meditation,
affirmations,

that we can transform ourselves

and in turn
help transform society.

♪

♪

The way we use sound
in the Tewa culture

is just with our singing,
our drumming.

It's just in everything
that we do.

Our prayers, everything,
meditating,

being able to balance one's self

and harmonize, you know,
with everything around us.

And those are
just some of the ways

that we utilize sound
within our community.

All our songs have
a special message

depending what we're dancing.

You saw today the Buffalo Dance

and we honor the buffalo
in that song.

You know, a lot of our songs

discuss everything
from the earth to the sun,

the waters, the trees,
the different plants,

the different animals,

and we ask them to bring
their spirit to us.

Sound, to me, I think has been
a blessing.

To be able to hear,
to be able to feel,

a lot of people don't have that,

but they're able to feel
the vibration of the drum,

the vibration of the rattle,

the vibration of, you know,
your feet touching the earth.

It's just very important.

♪

♪

♪

♪ I just laugh ♪

♪

♪ And I relax ♪

♪

♪ Try to forget ♪

♪ About the past ♪

I think if we can
pay close attention

to the colors we seek,
to the music we seek,

we would know how
to heal ourselves.

But it all comes
from something, I think,

in our core.

And I think it's proven
by our love of music.

♪ This is my happy song ♪

♪

♪ Sound of my happy, happy,
happy, happy, happy song ♪

♪

♪

We have this exercise

where we take our energy body

and we rev it up.

And we do that easily
with a vocal toning.

So it's a...

You know, something like that

and it just takes
that energy body that we have

and just raises it up like that.

It's that energy
that's raised up

and you can just be there

and be in a really great place

when everything else
around you is just like crazy.

♪ There's no words
worth saying ♪

♪ There's no time for praying

and your tears
won't set you free ♪

♪

♪

♪ Midnight man
comes a-wanderin' around ♪

♪

♪ He snatched up
all the girls in your town ♪

♪

♪ He's gonna go and get some,
you better lose a fight ♪

♪ He'll put a man down
'cause he own the night ♪

♪

♪ Oo, yeah ♪

♪

Woo, I like that.

Major chord!

Woo!

I feel like maybe I'm watching
a television story.

You are.

You're part of one.

So I'm in the television story.

You are
the television story, yes.

You're very welcome.

I'm so happy
to share this with you.