RockOm

"The discovery of song and the creation of musical instruments both owed their origin to a human impulse which lies much deeper than conscious intention: the need for rhythm in life... the need is a deep one, transcending thought, and disregarded at our peril." [Richard Baker, composer/conductor]

This is a continuation of yesterday's post, "Fabeku & Sacred Sound Healing." See PART I here.

RockOm: Do you have a ritual or some way that you prepare yourself for the sessions?

Fabeku: The main way I prepare is that I’m constantly hanging out with sound. The more time you spend with sound the more familiar it gets and the more comfortable you are with it. My morning ritual is that I get up and I work with sound for half and hour to an hour or so, playing with the singing bowls or chanting. So, it’s this constant immersion in sound for me. Before each individual session I spend some time getting quiet and connecting and asking my allies for support and assistance in the session. Once the individual is there I spend a couple of minutes sitting with what that focus is for them.  All of the sounds that come through during a session are just a reflection of their focus. During that time they’re surrounded in this space where everything they hear is a reflection of what it is they want.

RockOm: Where are you going with your work? What are your intentions for your future or your practice and other areas of your career?

Fabeku: I just finished a CD called Remembering Through Resonance.  It’s a singing bowl CD. I’m working on another CD with drums and some other instruments and definitely plan on working on other CDs in the future.  I’d love to do some traveling.  I’m going to start traveling, doing some workshops and sessions, and performing singing bowl concerts. I’ve got 35-40 singing bowls that I’ll pack up and take with me. I'll set up and spend a couple of hours playing the bowls and giving people that first hand taste of what the sacred sound is all about!

Be sure to catch the full audio portion of our interview with Fabeku on the RockOm.net Podcast.

More from Fabeku:

"Sacred sound supports healing, because it is informed by the intention the individual sets. And when I do each session, at the beginning, I pray that every sound that comes through the session be in total alignment with the highest expression of their intention. So we're basically creating a container of sound that can hold this intention for this, so they can then hold it for themselves."

"Sound works at the energy level, it works whether someone is there in person or doing the session at a distance. This work has been profoundly effective for people, and the truth is I've not seen any difference in efficacy between working with someone in the same or working with someone that's thousands of miles away. It's a different experience being present, of course - more immersive - but the work itself isn't limited by distance.

I've done a lot of healing work over the years, and sacred sound has been the most powerful, most effective and, at the same time, most accessible and most gentle medium I've found for supporting change in people's life. And the changes I've seen have been amazing.

In a broader sense, this work ties in with my love of music and has deepened and expanded my love of sound in all forms. My library of music includes everyone from Krishna Das, to Morrissey, to Debussy. Music moves me in a way few other things do, so my work with sacred sound feels like a natural extension of that love of music, and its power to touch and heal and change us."

Find Fabeku online at www.sankofasound.com

"Your basic orientation at a soul level is to rock out with as much goodness as possible. Sacred sound speaks to that, and clears away the stuff that’s made your inherent tendency to gravitate toward goodness hard to see, hard to feel and hard to recognize in your life."
[Fabeku Fatunmise]

Most of us find ourselves caught up in the day to day (if not hour to hour) undulation between ecstatic joy, intense levels of frustration, elation with life’s beauty and then back to inevitable suffering. How can our emotional state turn so quickly from one that is positive into one so negatively charged? Or conversely, how do we become rigidly fixed in circumstances that seem to never change and that drain us of our freedom to choose happiness?

Many are discovering a simple, yet profound way to be shifted into a higher awareness of being and out of negativity using sound and music. Through this process, the inertia is reversed so that one can strike a new balance in life or break through barriers, learning to realize one's true potential. Let's take a closer look at one practitioner of these sacred arts - a professional sound healer from southern Ohio.

Fabeku Fatunmise (www.sankofasong.com) is a gifted and talented sacred sound healer who has worked with sound and music on a transformational level for close to two decades. His practice involves helping individuals learn to shift their energy and become "unstuck." Speaking with him about his work one is struck immediately with his intensity, his personal vibrancy, and enthusiasm for life and for his work. Fabeku explains his passion for sound healing this way...

"Sacred sound healing ties in with my love of music and has deepened and expanded my love of sound in all forms. Music moves me in a way few other things do, so my work with sacred sound feels like a natural extension of that love of music, and its power to touch, heal, and change us."

Fabeku's spiritual background is largely rooted in shamanism, which has maintained a clear relationship to the power of sound for thousands of years.

"Ten years ago, my study of shamanism deepened when I met an extraordinary elder from Africa - Chief Adebolu Fatunmise. Baba Bolu graciously accepted me as his student. He allowed me to learn from him, to be initiated by him, to be accepted into his family."

Today, as part one of a two-part series, we share with you portions from RockOm's recent interview with Fabeku (the full audio of which will be made available in this afternoon's RockOm.net Podcast). Fabeku explains his calling into sacred sound healing and how we can all benefit from sound and music through an understanding of how energy can be shifted into high gear through work with a practitioner. It is then that we can begin to utilize our own abilities to use sound and music, at any time, for "shifting stuff."

RockOm: When did you realize you were being called into sacred sound healing?

Fabeku: I wish I could say I had this big vision, that the "sound healing angels" came to me, but when I first started studying shamanism (some 18-19 years ago) it was through drumming. I bought a hoop drum and realized I could shift the way I was feeling and I was taken by that. I started talking with friends and they thought I was completely nuts but said, "Well, drum for me." And so I did and stuff shifted for them. It evolved out of the work I was doing for myself and seeing how sound shifts stuff for people. I love music and I love to see concrete results when people come to me for sacred healing work.

RockOm: The tagline for your website is “Less struggle, more awesome.” What is it about sound and music in particular that helps us get "unstuck"?

Fabeku: Sound and music bypass the mind. When it comes to sound healing, in particular, it works at the energy level. Everything starts as energy. Sacred sound and music help us go to the roots of what’s going on and change what’s happening there. Sound and music give us access to that blueprint. People can make really big changes, really fast. Stuff can really shift in a flash!

RockOm: Tell us about your sacred sound sessions and what takes place in the course of a session.

Fabeku: There’s two ways to do a session; one is in person, and one is at a distance. It goes back to that energy level - where we’re working. It really doesn’t make much difference if one is in a room or a thousand miles away. The results of stuff shifting are really the same. For distance sessions we spend some time focusing on the intention, and this is really a key part of the equation. It’s what differentiates between making noise and making sound that makes a healing effect.

Be sure to catch the full audio portion of our interview with Fabeku on the RockOm.net Podcast. Also see Part II of this interview.

Fabeku Fatunmise's website

One of life's greatest joys is having a direction, a purpose or a goal and seeing it come to full fruition. What started as a thought in your mind becomes realized in the material world because of your intention. Unfortunately, sometimes our minds also get off track, settling into laziness or apathy. Sometimes we need that catalyst, that boost.

When you need motivated, what music do you turn to? Music can certainly give you the energy to carry on or the power to overcome personal hurdles, but only if it's the right selection for you.

As for me, the songs on Incubus' album, Make Yourself have always inspired me into action. Though there are several tracks that speak to overcoming apathy, perhaps the most straightforward is the song "Make Yourself":

If I hadn't made me, I would've been made somehow...
If I hadn't assembled myself, I'd have fallen apart by now.
If I hadn't made me, I'd be more inclined to bow.
Powers that be would have swallowed me up
But that's more than I can allow.
[Incubus, "Make Yourself"]

In other words, if I'm not going to follow-through, get things done or push forward for myself, then who will?  I give this track a spin any time I'm feeling less than motivated or need to convince myself that it's time to step up to the plate.

What about you... what's your catalyst (or motivation) music?

By Trevor Harden, trevor@RockOm.net

I remember coming to a concert where they had a big catered meal set out for everyone... I went and said, "Miles, man you gotta see all this food they got here." And Miles said, "I didn't come here to eat." [Gary Bartz, on Miles Davis]

Today allow Miles' words to call to question what YOU came here for. Why are you alive today? How can you be used for the greatest good? What would happen if you lived intentionally and on purpose instead of allowing life's circumstances and distractions to call the shots?

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