Crystal Singing Bowl lesson with Hiroko Kato in Akabane

Crystal Bowl Healing with Hiroko Kato

Recently, I've been drawn to sounds especially as a healing modality.  Sound healing is not new. Shamans, Buddhist Monks and even Australian aborigines have been using sound as a tool for healing.

I've been looking for either a citrine or rose quartz singing bowl. I like the quartz bowls more than the crystal or frosted bowls. It gives an added dimension to healing from the frequency it emits, to the color it represents and the qualities of the quartz element.

Well, somebody must be listening to my intentions because as I was surfing online, I stumbled upon the Crystal Temple website. The temple was located in Akabane, half an hour from Tokyo where I was bound to, for Vianna Stibal's Theta Healing instructor training.

Hiroko emphasizes to set an intention first

The owner and resident sound healer, Hiroko Kato, was waiting for me yesterday all dressed in white and smiling ear to ear. She owns the temple and is the resident sound healer.  Since she couldn't speak english, she had her friend act as an interpreter.

She gave me a one-on-one course on crystal bowl healing. She said that everything in the Universe is in a state of vibration and all vibration emits some kind of sound. This sound may not be perceptible to the ear. The range of human hearing is between 16 to 16,000 Hertz (cycles per second). She stressed that we do not perceive sound through just our ears but also through our skin, bones and cellular structure, ingesting and consuming sound through our whole being.

The entire body in a relaxed state vibrates at a frequency of 7.8 Hz which is attuned to the basic electromagnetic field of the earth.  Also, the ancient indian rishis referred it the frequency of Om.

Note that there are six brain wave frequencies: Beta (14 to 30 Hz) is the normal waking state, alert, active awareness and tension. Alpha (8 to 13 Hz) is deeply relaxed, passive awareness, composed, daydreaming. Theta (4 to 7 Hz) is deep meditation, shamanic work, channeling, peaceful and everything is slowed down, deep tranquility, dreams. Delta (0.5 to 3.5 Hz) is deep sleep, unaware, deep-unconsciousness. High Beta or Gamma (23 to 33 Hz) is associated with hyperactivity, stress, tension and anxiety. K Complex (33+ Hz) occurs in short spurts and is often linked with the 'aha' moments, when realizations occur.

This is the optimum healing frequency, between Alpha and Theta, being at two worlds at once and at the same time, deeply attuned to the earth's frequency. Sound healing allows the body, mind and soul to enter into this brainwave frequency, to heal the body, transform the self and restore harmony and balance.

The seven energy centers  and corresponding color and note

Sound healing works with  the chakras or energy centers. Dr. R. Gerber, author of Vibrational Medicine, wrote "Each of the chakras is linked to small nerve bundles called ganglia. Each ganglion is like a little brain center. Each of the seven chakras processes and remembers different emotional events and traumas that affect us throughout our lifetime. We seem to store specific types of emotional memories in these centers. This could be why we remember things not just with our brains but our bodies as well. This might also explain why different types of emotional distress seem to affect one part of the body preferentially over another. Chakras are considered to be emotional and spiritual processors."

The theory is, each of the chakras is aligned with a particular note on the scale (see table above) and by using the relevant notes in the area which is sensed as imbalanced, through sound healing, can bring the distressed part of the body, mind and soul back into harmony.

After the course, I ended up getting the citrine quartz singing bowl. Citrine "combines a joyful, cohesive golden yellow energy of pure quartz frequencies that align the root and solar plexus. It dissipates and transmutes negative energies while purifying and balancing auric fields.  It enhances optimism, balance, initiative and personal power." While the G note aligns with the throat chakra which is a catalyst for communication, mental acuity and new beginnings.