The loveliest explanation of AUM is found within the ancient Vedic and Sanskrit traditions. We can read about AUM in the marvellous Manduka Upanishad, which explains the four elements of AUM as an allegory of the four planes of consciousness.
Music Therapy: AUM – The Unstruck Sound
Ancient teachings and modern science agree on this score: you, I, all living beings and all things in existence are, at their most essential level, made up of vibrating, pulsing energy.
Music Therapy: The Power of Vibrating Breath
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.
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Music Therapy: Listening to AUM
When one really “listens” to this silent sound, this unstruck vibration, one comes inevitably to stillness, to pure and open existence. The poet Gerhart Hauptmann says the aim of all poetry is “to let the Word be heard resounding behind words”.
Music Therapy: Nada Yoga – The Yoga of Sound
Nada Yoga means “union through sound”. It is the ancient spiritual art and science of inner transformation through sound and tone. Meditation on sound is one universal path to Self-Realization, accessible to anyone, and appropriate for people of any religion or spiritual aspiration.
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Music Therapy: Applying Self-Generated Sound in Yoga
Marcia Goldberg has led workshops and trainings on Yoga, meditation, spiritual attunement and self-discipline throughout North America for more than 20 years. The unique combination of sound and postures that she has developed combines her many years of personal experience and study in the field of Yoga with the science of the power of sound.
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Music Therapy: The Connection of Sound and Spirit
Breathing is a basic human need. We can exist only minutes without breath. And so the arts of Pranayama, chanting, toning, and singing all derive their power from a basic and elemental human function. “I love this connection of sound and spirit: by uniting sound and breath, we release physiological tension in specific areas, induce relaxation, energize and promote deep breathing with prolonged exhalations.
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Music Therapy: Toning
Toning is the creation of extended vocal sounds on a single vowel in order to experience the sound and its effects in other parts of the body. No melody, no words, no rhythm, and no harmony – just the sound of the vibrating breath.
Music Therapy: Absorption in Sound
Our mind easily becomes absorbed in sound. This is why everybody – even infants and animals – enjoys listening to music. When the mind is fully concentrated on anything, there arises a feeling of inner bliss. In Nada Yoga, we learn that the source of the sound may be external or internal.
Music Therapy: Healing Vowel Sounds
U can be used for the pelvis, hips, legs, feet, and lower body in general, O for the lower trunk and abdomen area from the solar plexus to the groin. A is for the chest cavity, heart, and the body as a whole. E is for the throat, upper chest, and head regions. I is for the back, skull and head regions.