RockOm

An interview with Himalayan/Tibetan Bowl Sound Healer Diáne Mandle

What are your observations with people experiencing change and self-discovery through sound?

Diáne: Healing through sound is a movement from disharmony to harmony, a spiritual awakening with a profound impact on the physical body. As we awaken and our perspective shifts, a domino effect ensues that also shifts our vibration and our cellular make up. The shifts cannot occur as separate entities - they affect the whole of who we are and extend infinitely. This transformation of consciousness is the foundational principle of the Himalayan Singing Bowls. Tuned to the vibrational frequency of AUM, the sound of universal perfection, their sound reawakens in us our connection to the universe. Their frequencies gently penetrate and calm the body/mind, balance the hemispheres of the brain, initiate the relaxation response and decrease, fatigue, pain, stiffness, and emotional tension. My clients often report that during sessions they feel completely transported to another dimension while being aware of that which surrounds them, and return feeling revitalized, deeply relaxed and filled with joy (a sense of wholeness). I work with many cancer patients and they report that pain and the effects of chemotherapy is greatly diminished, enhanced sleep patterns, more clarity, energy and a shift in attitude that contributes to their quality of life. Other reports from patients include lowering of blood pressure, positive changes in relationships and the ability to act on issues which they could not act on in the past.

The Tibetan Buddhist philosophy that the singing bowls are rooted in teaches us that embedded in the energy and frequency of the singing bowls is the idea that nothing exists independently of anything else. Healing is a process where we are released from an ego centered finite perspective of ourselves in the world and move into our essence where our vibratory energy is connected with the universe and where, even at a cellular level, we can experience the interrelationship of all things. Without healing, the core issue that caused a physical condition in the first place is likely to manifest again. Sound is the train that helps us get to healing.

What is energy healing & healing energy emission?

Diáne: The sound of Tibetan bowls entrain our energetic system to resonate with them in their perfection. In the universe every dissonant chord tends toward becoming a harmony and that’s what they help our bodies to do. The harmonic resonance of the bowls literally pulls us back into a more universal energetic flow. They effectively transmit their soothing and peaceful vibrations through our body in a way that affects our entire nervous and immune system and initiates the relaxation response bringing us into a Alpha/Theta brainwave state (waking dream state that is home to creativity, inspiration, intuition and where we can let go of our ego boundaries, of our consciousness of our physical state and connect with the non-physical, non dualistic.)

Who and how can people benefit from energy healing?

Diáne: Healing with sound is about getting back into alignment with the benefic energy of the universe. It is experiencing a vibration that connects us all to everything. Anyone can benefit who is willing to open to this energy.

What is the role of the patient and client in the process?

Diáne: We are equal partners in the process. The ultimate role of the practitioner is to empower the client to remember and strengthen his/her inner wisdom and healer. Ultimately the client is the healer, the practitioner is the guide back to that rediscovery.

About Diáne: Diáne Mandle has been practicing Himalayan/Tibetan Bowl Sound Healing since 2000 when she was already working as a Polarity practitioner and a Life Coach. Wanting to expand her knowledge of energy work she began a two year course of study of Tibetan bowls on the east coast with Sacred Sound Workshops and became their first certified practitioner. After relocating to California Diáne established a private practice integrating Polarity, Sound Healing and Coaching and in 2004 became California’s first State Certified Tibetan Bowl Practitioner/Instructor. Her work includes educational workshops, trainings and concerts nationally. Presently associated with the San Diego Cancer Center as one of its Complementary Therapy Team members she offer regular sessions to their patients. To date she has produced three acclaimed CDs, Return to Om and Sarasvati’s Dream and Being Well: The Journey, as well as two books Ancient Sounds for a New Age: Introduction to Himalayan Sacred Sound Instruments and How to Clear Space with Sound Using Tibetan Bowls & Tingshas. Diáne has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, been published in a multitude of journals, magazines and blogs and has traveled to Nepal and India to select high quality instruments and expand her understanding of the originating culture and healing modality. In June of 2008 in answer to an increasing demand for skilled sound healing practitioners she, in association with Sacred Sound Workshops opened the Tibetan Bowl Sound Healing School. The schools mission is to help create and maintain a high standard of practice with the Sacred Sound Instruments.

Find out more about Diáne, her books, music and healing work at SoundEnergyHealing.com.

By Diáne Mandle

Music has always been recognized as having a powerful effect on human consciousness. But in the past few years, there has been more research into the science of sound, and how it can be used to improve our lives. We are learning why different kinds of music and sounds have the effects that they do on the body, emotions, mind, and spirit.

Science tells us that all life is energy in one form or another. Further, this energy is eternal, changing and morphing from one shape or form to another. Each ‘energy shape’ has its own particular pattern of frequencies, or vibrations. When one form experiences a matching frequency in the form of a musical note, the form will begin to vibrate in sympathy with the note in sympathetic resonance. A strong enough vibration can even cause a form to restructure itself, as has been noted with cancer cells, crystal glasses, water crystals, etc. With the Himalayan bowls (also known as Tibetan Singing Bowls) every note creates sympathetic resonance with every other note producing harmonic overtones that commence the healing process.

Let us, for a moment, look at the difference between healing and curing: Curing is an end product or finite result. Dictionary definitions define it as “the complete biological resolution of a diseased state” or “the elimination of disease, distress, evil”.

Healing is a process and infinite in nature. Some definitions include: “the making or becoming whole, the mending of a breach”, “to free from grief, troubles, evil”, “restoring to health or soundness”; and my personal favorite by Jeanne Acheerberg, “an intuitive perception of the universe and all its inhabitants as being of one fabric.”

Healing is a movement from disharmony to harmony, from duality to non-duality or Divine Awareness. The journey of healing then is a spiritual awakening with consequences on our physical well being. As we awaken, our perspective shifts. As our perspective shifts, our vibration shifts. As our vibration shifts, our cellular make up shifts. The shifts can not occur as separate entities- they affect the whole of who we are and extend infinitely. This link between body and spirit has been much ignored by the medical profession but the link is quite clear.

Healing is a process where we are released from an ego centered finite perspective of ourselves in the world and move into our essence where our vibratory energy is connected with the universe. Healing can lead to being cured. But if one is simply cured on a physical level, without sufficient healing, the core issue that caused the condition in the first place is likely to manifest again. A vital step in the healing process is that of establishing resonance with the condition in question. Most people resist their condition. You cannot release that which you do not own. Sound is the train that helps us get to healing.

How? We now know that different pulses stimulate different brainwave centers. We also know that we can create brainwave entrainment through a process of sympathetic resonance and that we normally entrain or fall into vibrational step to the strongest vibrations in our immediate environment. Our body is a perfect transmitter of vibration, being 80% water Further, nerve bundles in our spine transmit vibrational sensory data to brain stem and limbic system (our emotional processing center). Placing Himalayan (Tibetan) bowls directly on the body significantly increases their effectiveness. The bowls vibrate at the frequency of perfection, otherwise known as the Sanskrit mantra ‘AUM’. They create harmonic overtones in which each note contains all other notes and none is a separate entity on its own. These bowls are made of seven metals which were collected, smelted and pounded into shape and sound in a ceremonial manner, with monks imbibing them with prayers and mantras. The intention of healing and consciousness transformation still resides in the sacred instruments and is transferred to the listener.

Their sound entrains our energetic system to resonate with them in their perfection. In the universe dissonant chords tend toward becoming harmonic. It is the nature of energy to harmonize. The harmonic resonance of the bowls literally pulls us back into a more universal energetic flow. They effectively transmit their soothing and peaceful vibrations through our water body in a way that affects our entire nervous and immune system. The sound waves initiate the relaxation response bringing us into a Theta brainwave state (waking dream state that is home to creativity, inspiration, intuition and where we can let go of our ego boundaries, of our consciousness of our physical state and connect with the non-physical, non dualistic). The sound vibrations of the sacred bowls balance our right and left brain and with repetition in conjunction with visualization can hold us in the Theta state for longer and longer periods of time. The vibrational sound from the Himalayan bowls initializes our parasympathetic nervous system and helps to raise the disease fighting immune cells while also reducing our stress response and creating cardio-respiratory synchrony (the synchronized flow of our brain, respiratory and heart rate waves). Our capacity to heal from any illness is predicated on our body’s ability to achieve cardio-respiratory synchrony and this is exactly what is achieved by listening to the bowls. When they are placed directly on your body, as in a private session, then the healing potential is greatly increased because you are receiving the vibrations in your muscles and organs in addition to hearing them. In other words Vibrational Sound creates the optimum physical/spiritual container needed for healing.

Dr. Mitch Gaynor, Director of Oncology at the Cornel Cancer Prevention Center states: “‘Sound can redress imbalances on every level of physiologic functioning and can play a positive role in the treatment of virtually any medical disorder.

Himalayan Bowls are teachers: Let’s not reduce the healing that takes place only to science. We have already seen that healing is predicated on spiritual awakening. The bowls can be seen as great teachers. They carry the Buddhist Voidness teachings which purport that nothing exists independently of anything else. Each note from these sacred instruments contains all other notes and herein lies their magic. Although possessing a variety of harmonics, the fundamental vibration of each bowl is rooted in the Sanskrit mantra OM. This is the vibration that our brains entrained with. This primordial sound is the perfection of the universe. The ensuing sympathetic resonance between brain and bowls reawakens the intrinsic blissful self in us.

Our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors will either engage with or sabotage the healing potential as well. Positive thinking can strengthen your immune system and change your life. The combination of the sound vibration of the bowls with positive visualization and affirmations will greatly enhance the healing experience. Thus, sound is a type of energy medicine that creates the sacred space in which people can heal from stress disorders, pain, depression, the emotional roller coaster and more. It also creates the perfect state for deep meditation, creative thinking and intuitive messages. The healing process is initiated by entraining our brainwaves and creating sympathetic resonance with the perfect vibrations of the Himalayan singing bowls.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Diáne Mandle is an author, teacher, healer and recording artist based in Southern California. She is Certified in Tibetan Bowl Sound Healing and Polarity therapy. Diáne maintains a private practice offering an integrated system for healing which includes Sound and Polarity Therapy, Toning and Visualization. She conducts educational programs, keynotes and Harmonic Sound Healing concerts nationally and presents frequently at the Deepak Chopra Center and the Golden Door. She has produced two acclaimed CD’s and the first comprehensive multimedia home study course in Sound Healing using Himalayan instruments (Tibetan, Nepalese and Bhutanese bowls, tingshas, gantas and dorjes) ‘Ancient Sounds for a New Age’, an E-Book/DVD/ CD set available on her website http://www.soundenergyhealing.com

Back in September of 2008, RockOm's featured artist was Diane Mandle - a musician, healer and therapist who uses ancient Tibetan singing bowls in her practice. In addition, RockOm interviewed Diane about her work, the sounds and harmonies created from these bowls and the power of music and vibration.

Since that time, Diane has released two very cool part-concert / part-informational YouTube videos about her work. Check out both videos below...

Check out more of Diane's work at soundenergyhealing.com

RockOm has a big week ahead as a couple of staffers are leaving the East Coast and heading to San Francisco for a week of artist interviews and concert reviews. We will be Twittering our time there, letting you all in on what we're doing and who we're interviewing. If you don't have a Twitter account - you can get one at twitter.com and then once signed up, find us at twitter.com/rockom. For those unaware of the service, Twitter simply allows users to micro-blog - or post very short updates on what you're up to and what you're thinking. We'd love for you to track with us as we spend some time in the greater San Francisco area and so if you've not begun following RockOm on Twitter yet - now's your time. We'd love to keep you in the loop.

Today we bring you a new Featured Track of the week from Diane Mandle - a musician and healer who uses ancient Tibetan singing bowls in her practice. Listen to her soothing sounds on the front page of RockOm.net now through September 29th. In addition, a new podcast was released today featuring an interview with Diane as well as one with next week's featured artist, John Staedler. Be sure to check it out!

Diane Mandle

Links:
Visit SoundEnergyHealing.com
Diane on MySpace

Diane Mandle is a musician, healer and therapist from California who uses ancient Tibetan singing bowls in her practice. Be sure to also check out this week's podcast where Diane shares with RockOm about her work, the sounds and harmonies created from these bowls and the power of music and vibration.

"Return to Om"

"The whole point of these instruments is to bring us back into our memory of wholeness. The bowls are the teachers of the Dharma and that's their main purpose - to help bring us back to our visceral memory of the interconnectedness of all things, represented by the mantra Om." (Diane Mandle)

Click to Play. NOTE: This is a slow, meditative track that takes time to roll in. It will be a few seconds for you to hear the first chimes.