Karina was starting to wonder what it would take to
help her client make a tangible shift. The last two sessions had felt
positive and connected, but still she had been unable to relieve the pain
from her client’s abdomen. For some reason, it felt like they hadn’t
quite reached the source of the issue, and as her client climbed onto
the table for the third session, Karina was unsure how they would get
there…
Despite her deep background in breath work, counseling, shamanic healing
and body work (to name a few), it felt like there was something else needed
– some hidden key waiting to be discovered…
Her answer came halfway through the session. As Karina stood over her
client, she suddenly sensed an energy welling up from deep within, from
the Earth and from all around her. Before she realized what was happening,
sounds began to pour from her mouth. It was like nothing else she’d
ever experienced… like an ancient song or calling was moving through
her. She remained in this sonic trance for about ten minutes and then
the sounding stopped. It was over… and amazingly, her client’s
pain was gone!
~~~
“While I had always felt that there was more to the voice than
what words communicate, this was my first real ‘sound initiation’,”
says the founder of the Soul Voice? school and method, Karina Schelde.
That was 21-years ago, and she’s been working with sound in a very
intimate way ever since – discovering new frontiers for the human
voice as a gateway not only for healing, but for each of us to discover
and express our true essence and infinite capacities in life.
“To me, sound is the synergizer.” Says Karina. “Humans
are resonant beings. Our cells are vibrational energy, so sound is the
building block of everything. What sound has done for me is to unify all
of the healing modalities, experiences and work I have done into a vessel
that can draw upon whatever is needed in the moment to effect healing
and change at a very deep level.”
We have all experienced the transformational effect that sound can have
on our experience… In the natural world we are brought into peace
through the whispers of a breeze, the hypnotic rhythm of waves and the
call of birds. In the human world, the sound of voice and music have a
way of profoundly shifting the energy of any space – be it a concert
hall, temple or a healing room. Beyond the realm of the mind, and often
more direct than words alone, sound has a way of penetrating straight
to the emotional center of our being, opening us up, and moving within.
“It has been scientifically proven that the human voice is the
most powerful and effective of all instruments,” says Karina, who
has focused the past two decades researching and fine tuning her use of
sound energy, while empowering Soul Voice? students around the world to
explore the instrument of the voice as a healing vessel through all the
systems of the body – mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.
“Every word we speak carries the tone of our sound as an instrument
of communication and healing. Understanding how to tune and use this instrument
effectively shifts not only our own consciousness, but also that of those
who receive (and hear) our sounds. I have discovered that each tone and
each sound has a totally unique message and that it is not possible to
express a false note or a wrong sound. Whether you are male or female,
you can heal any condition that may hinder you from embodying your true
essence through the full range of your own vocal scale, seven octaves
or more!”
On a basic level, we know whenever we sing, cry, laugh or sigh, there
is an expression of emotional release. While we adults have a tendency
over time to close down and censor our vocal expression, this doorway
is wide open and free flowing in our children, and as such, they carry
no emotional baggage. As a father of a nine-year-old, I am constantly
amazed and inspired by how instantly and completely my little boy’s
moods and energy can shift to the positive following a moment of genuine
expression. According to Karina, this connection to the emotional body
is a vital aspect of accessing the power of sound.
“Every genuine release of sound awakens our emotional body. With
this awakening comes our direct communion with higher consciousness. As
we let ourselves really go into the feeling of our sounds, and allow them
to guide us, we start to unravel the layers of our own subconscious where
genuine healing can really take place. The emotional body is the most
suffering body in the planet. So when people start to experience and work
with their feelings through sound it can be totally life changing.”
Through time, sound has always been considered a direct link between humans
and the Divine. Ancient mystery schools taught their students the use
of sound as a healing force – bringing harmony to their own being
as well as effecting healing in others. Medicine men and shaman of many
cultures have called upon song, chant and intonation as healing pathway
for tribal members. In recent times, music and sound vibration has been
used to boost plant growth and crop yields, control insect damage, create
geometrical designs in sand and harmonize the crystal formation of water
– to name a few. Even Western medicine uses sound in MRI’s
and other vital frequency-based procedures. Yet in the fast pace, media-rich
fabric of our modern world, many find it a challenge to stay connected
to their own true voice and resonant calling within.
“In the western world we put so much power outside ourselves –
into our computer, our doctor, our boss, etc…” say Karina.
“So much projection keeping us from turning to the infinite power
within. But there is a cry, a call deep within our hearts that wants to
be heard. We long to liberate and rediscover the grandeur of who we truly
are... a force of the highest vibration and creation. I am continually
awed by how sound brings us back into our body, and empowers us to make
real and profound shifts from the inside out.”
Karina believes that our voice has a ‘soul print’ that we
have, since birth, been trying to come in contact with. It is as unique
as our fingerprints, and acts as a map to our body, our personal and collective
stories, our ancestral roots and soul’s aspiration. Through various
Soul Voice? techniques, she guides students to unravel deeper layers of
this cellular memory and latent capacity.? Through her workshops and certificate
training programs, students learn to access their own primordial energy
with sound frequencies, bringing them into contact with what Karina calls
‘our original sound language’. “It is from this place,”
says Karina, “that we connect with the very core of our being, our
vibrational blueprint and the purest wellspring of our potential.”
It is simple and yet truly profound to consider that one of the best ways
for us to connect with our ‘true voice’ and ‘higher
calling’ in life, is to quite literally liberate the voice within
our body. As Karina says, “When we let go of the linear brain through
sound, we begin to open ourselves to this original self and all of its
many layers. It’s like coming back to the indigenous energy in our
self… A feeling of deep remembrance. Many people say during their
first Soul Voice workshop, ‘I feel like I’ve done this before.
Like I’ve come to this place within myself, this essence within
me… and heard my true voice.’”
Karina acknowledges that the first real step for us to begin truly experiencing
the energy of our voice, is to create a space of complete acceptance…
“It is vital for us to feel comfortable and willing to explore our
own sound energy,” says Karina. “We first have to learn to
accept all that comes out of us, because our trained tendency is to say,
‘Oh this can’t be right, This doesn’t sound good. I’m
awful.’ But the truth is, the more we can accept and allow the sounds
that come, the more things really open up in magical ways.”
“AH”… It all begins with a sigh.
When asked how we can begin to access our own inner voice and take a
step toward discovering our unique ‘sound language’, Karina
offers the following Soul Voice? exercise as a simple yet profound doorway
to our greater temple of sound within.
“One of the best places to start is with the ‘Ah’ sound.
Begin by going into your body with a deep breath and allow yourself to
make a simple sighing sound, ‘Ahhhhh’. Just let yourself relax
and open into a genuine sigh of release. Don’t worry what it sounds
like, just sigh. Let this sighing sound expand, and with it, allow your
breath to expand as well...
“Now take an even deeper breath in, and sound another “Ahhhhhh”,
this time let it really flow out, loud and deep. Don’t hold it back.
Do several of these, and you will start to feel the sound actually vibrating
through you… And you will feel where the sound wants to take you.
After a few minutes of ‘Ahhhh’ sounding, you may want to begin
exploring and playing with other sounds, and perhaps there is some intuitive
singing that wants to come out of you. Just follow the sound and see where
it takes you.”
According to sound and harmonics pioneer, Jonathan Goldman, the "Ah"
sound is one of the most powerful mantras on this planet. It is a sacred
seed syllable that is revered in many different traditions.
The “Ah” sound is contained in most of our planet’s
God / Goddess names (Tara, Buddha, Krishna, Yahweh, etc.), and many of
our sacred words (Amen, Alleluia, Aum)… In the Hawaiian and Maori
culture ‘Ah’ is part of the foundational energy of the spirit
and the breath. So as Karina says, “Every time we let ourselves
sigh, we open a doorway to that space of spirit and breath within.”
With her Soul Voice book now going out in seven languages, workshops and
certificate training in Europe, and an extensive New Zealand and Australia
schedule for 2010/2011, Karina is clearly not the only one who has heard
the ‘CALL’ to express the deep and true voice within –
both literally and metaphorically in life. As Karina says, “It really
is a method that nourishes our soul from the physical, mental, emotional
and spiritual body, into all parts of our being and nervous system. Some
people want specifically to go on to become a Soul Voice™ practitioners.
For others it is simply a transformational personal growth process. Either
way, the exercises in the work bring us right back to the clear essence
of who we are, with clear and honest communication and self worth to find
our true voice… to know that we do have a voice and it yearns to
express, and there is nothing to be afraid of or to hide from. This is
about coming into our aliveness and the embodiment of everything we came
here for.”
In the words of Rumi…
God picks up the reed-flute world and blows.
Each note is a need coming through one of us,
a passion, a longing pain.
Remember the lips
where the wind-breath originated,
and let your note be clear.
Don't try to end it.
Be your note.
I'll show you how it's enough.
Go up on the roof at night
in this city of the soul.
Let everyone climb on their roofs
and sing their notes!
Sing loud!
Chip Richards is an author, spiritual
life coach and co-founder of New Earth Creations (www.newearthcreations.com),
a creative foundation devoted to raising planetary consciousness through
film, music, written word and visual art. He can be contacted at chip@newearthcreations.com.
For more information on Soul Voice , visit www.soulvoice.net
or email: contact@soulvoice.net.
Namaste..
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