David Gordon is a singer and vocal coach from California. He is on the voice faculty of the University of California at Berkeley, and Sonoma State University. He is also the Education Director and resident vocal coach of the Carmel Bach Festival. He has spent many long years researching the power of AUM. He shares a few of his experiences with us.
It is evident that AUM, the most powerful sound in the world, has been exported from India for further, more chiseled and concentrated research. Aum has entered every part of the world and is still being studied for its mystery, power and control. Aum traveled with Yoga all over the world to mystify and enchant audiences across cultures.
“My first experience of the power of the voice was during a Yoga session years ago,” says Gordon. “We concluded with a silent meditation, and ended the meditation with the usual Om. But this time, the teacher suggested that we prolong the sound, entering more fully into the awareness of the vibrations of the tone.
The group began toning, each of us breathing at our own natural pace, so the group sound was continuous. When the sound ended, it seemed like my entire being was still vibrating. This experience opened a new door of perception to me.
“Soon after, another wise teacher invited me to realize the very concept of Om. We focused awareness on the breath, imagining what the tone would sound and feel like even before the sound began. We then initiated the audible tone with a low murmur, dark and breathy: the sound of ‘uh’ as in the word ‘cup’.
Through this low, unformed, earthy sound I experienced more fully the reality that it is my breath itself that vibrates to produce this sound. I deepened my connection with prana. It was as if respiration gave me inspiration.
“Only later I realized that we were practicing an aspect of Nada Yoga – the use of self-generated sound vibration to draw awareness inward in order to experience the deeper layers of the self. Ever since those early experiences, I have been fascinated with the connections of breath, sound and spirit.
I even found connections in the language itself. Our English word ‘spirit’ comes from the Latin word spiritus, which connotes both ‘breath’ and ‘spirit’. Many other languages use related word forms to denote breath and spirit.”