Reiki and Sound Healing with Classical Vocal Music, finding a reiki practitioner sound healer, finding a soprano soloist lecturer for your wedding, handfasting workshop or healing event, Teacher, lecturer, plays all time favorites on Clairseach, in Boston Minnepolis Twin Cities St. Paul Great Lakes Massachusetts Minnesota New England Midwest

Kathryn Mannyng

Reiki and Sound Healing
with Therapeutic Voice
~Relaxation and Revitalization~

How true indeed. Music, especially voice, has the power to heal whether you are listening or participating in the making of it. The voice has the capacity to touch us in such an elemental way because it is literally the very first instrument. It is part of our physiology, human nature, and collective unconsious.

For music to be healing, the most important thing is that you like and "resonate" with it. It needs to be accessible to you, since you alone will be doing the work of accessing how it affects you. When choosing music to relax with, acoustic live music is best, in my opinion. Canned music is like canned, food. It is convenient, but loses it's nutritional value through over processing. Digital music is literally reduced to numbers and spit out again. Live music is excellent because you are getting an authentic fresh interpertation, the musicians intention and a shared experience with other audience members. This serves to facilitate a connection with the rest of humanity in a physical, emotional and harmonious way. The musical intent can come through more easily.

Singing and listening to song is therapeutic for many reasons. Some of them have physical, psychological and communal effects. The vibrations created by one's own body in singing are self-healing in that they vibrate the brain, thymus, heart, and exersize the lungs in an aerobic way by getting more oxygen in your body. Classical singing is basically controlled screaming. Opera was created so that you can express emotions and events that transcend words.

For instance, when you go to see an opera or musical, you are witnessing something similar to a Greek play. Greek plays were a form of opera and psychological healing in the Greek collective unconsious and often employed Pythagorean musical principles. Music was highly utilized in the song, controlled speech, dance and orchestra aspects of the Greek theater. These plays were performed as part of religious festivals. When written in these dramatic traditions, operas or muscials can provide a release through comedy with laughter, or through tragic catharsis. Catharsis being used in the classical Greek dramatic sense. The tragic formula of the Greek theater consists of a noble character (of the nobility) who through his own pride (hubris), comes to his own tragedy and realizes what he/she has done (catharsis). The catharsis is the realization, acknowledgement and acceptance of the situation. The listener gains empathy with the main character and feels his or her own catharsis at the same time. It is the music itself that does the healing, not necessarily the instrument or vessel it comes through.

Webster�s Definition of Catharsis is
Ca`thar�sis 2. (Psychotherapy) The process of relieving an abnormal excitement by re�stablishing the association of the emotion with the memory or idea of the event that first caused it, and of eliminating it by complete expression.

In choral music, the vocal ranges of boy sopranos, and early music singers create the harmonic and the other types of voices fill out the musical range. Vibratos of certain classically trained singers have been said to produce alterations in brain waves, inducing the relaxation responses similar to that produced with Tibetan singing bowls. When your brain waves are altered in this manner, they are altered through entrainment.

Entrainment is the phenomenon where all the clocks in the same room become synchronus and tick together. Your body does the same thing with music or other energy waves. You start to vibrate in sympathy with the strongest wave form. The easiest and most obvious gauge of this is your heart which can become synchronus with the tempo and beat of the music producing many physiological changes in your body. For instance the tempo largo will generally produce a relaxation response, and presto can produce a stress response depending on the rest of the composition. Your cells also vibrate with the music and its other elements such as pitch, rhythm, harmonics and intent of the performer. Logically, you can use sound and music to induce a desirable pattern in yourself, or help to change an undesirable pattern.

Desirable brain wave frequencies for an allopathic sound healing application are the deeper states of Alpha and Theta. These are the frequencies that can induce deep meditative and peaceful states, clarity of mind and enhance intuition.

Research has shown that when breathing and heart rate are in synch this produces a resonant frequency in the body similar to the resonance produced by Tibetan bowls, a full harmonic range, or a still point. This is extremely beneficial for the heart and the entire body. During a session of Tibetan bowl sound therapy, cardio-respiratory synchrony increased dramatically as measured by J&J Engineered Biofeedback equipment. Data showed that during the sound therapy session there was an increase in Parasympathetic Nervous System activity and a decrease in the Sympathetic Nervous System drive. In other words, the relaxation response was initiated and the stress response was inhibited. This means the Autonomic Nervous System was balanced.

The piano is a hybrid of a drum (another very ancient instrument) and a harp. Thus, it is as basic and effective as the above mentioned instruments. It also has the added benefit of being fully chromatic, thus hitting all your "chords" so to speak. For more information on the Drum, please read Mickey Hart's book "Drumming on the Edge of Magic".

Music is healing if it is played with healing intent. Intention is an important distinction when seeking an effect. You might want just to relax, to learn, to be entertained, or mesmerized. When seeking out a musician's services, be sure they know exactly what you want, otherwise you might not get what you think.

Kate has personally been practicing relaxation, visualization, guided imagery and meditation techniques since 1981, and has been involved in meditational singing (anglican plainchant) since 1971. She is certified in Reiki from The Reiki Healing Connection Association, 603-654-2787. She started leading group relaxation and visualization sessions for actors in 1987. Her initial relaxation/visualization teacher was Wendy Lehr of Minneapolis, Minnesota. She gained knowledge in harmonics and tuning techniques through an apprenticeship in piano tuning with Bill Saddler, University of Minnesota. For more performing experience information, please see Resume.

She has taken a course of Alexander Technique to augment her previous dance body knowledge from Hannah Goertz of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Purcell and Britten, Faure, Mozart, Puccini with explainations as to why certain pieces are healing and how to apply them.

Kathryn Mannyng has been singing professionally for over 20 years, and has been broadcast on live radio on Broadway in NYC. She is a certified Reiki practitioner. She has been working in the performing arts since she was five years old (acting and singing), and is well versed in visualization and relaxation techniques from her extensive theatre, music and dance training.

�2000-2004 Kathryn Mannyng
Page last updated 6/5/2003
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