T Q & A

Jonathan Goldman

Jonathan Goldman founded the Sound Healers Association, dedicated to the education of the uses of sound and music for healing. He has studied sound healing for more than 30 years and has written several books, including The 7 Secrets of Sound Healing. He has also released more than 25 CDs, one of which was nominated for a Grammy. On Friday, Nov. 1, Goldman speaks at Unity of Tucson. On Nov. 2 and 3, he presents Frequencies of Healing with his wife, Andi, a psychotherapist, at the Tucson Osteopathic Conference Center. For more information, visit healingsounds.com.

What is the basic principle of sound healing?

The basic idea of using sound for healing comes from both an ancient mystical tradition as well as a modern quantum physics tradition. Every organ, every bone, every tissue, every part of our body is in a state of vibration. When we are in a state of health, we are like an orchestra playing the symphony of the self. We say we are in sound health. What happens if the second violin player loses their sheet music? They begin to play out of tune. Pretty soon the entire string section sounds off (then) the entire orchestra sounds off. This is akin to a part of our body that has lost its natural, healthy, resonant frequency. It becomes out of tune. We say it is dis-eased. What if we can somehow project the correct resonant frequency to that part of the body if it is vibrating out of harmony?

How can that be done?

The most healing instrument that we have is our voice. We are not talking about getting up in front of an audience and singing a song. This is not music therapy. What we are talking about is learning to use your voice to vibrate different parts of your body in order to change the vibration. That is scientifically known as entrainment. It is part of the whole phenomena of using sound for healing.

Do you need to have a musical background to be able to use sound this way?

Absolutely not. We are all sound healers simply because we can learn to use our voice to resonate different parts of our body. When we make an elongated vowel sound, some extraordinary things occur, including the production of melatonin, and the release of nitric oxide that opens up blood flow. We can reduce heart beat, our respiration, our brain waves. It causes a reduction of stress. Everyone can learn to use sound as a healing modality.

What will you discuss in the workshop?

We will use a system of vowel sounds that I discovered to resonate the energy centers of the body, or the chakras. They are related to the physical body as well as the endocrine system. They can be an extraordinary tool for healing your health. In addition we will be working with Pythagorean tuning forks. These help rebalance our nervous system. They are useful implements for sound healing anyone can use. I believe that because sound is so powerful there is no person that cannot be enhanced by learning about the power of sound.

Is this a cumulative practice—the more you do it the greater the effect?

I would definitely say that. You are actually exercising the stapedius muscle of the ear to allow more sound into our brain and nervous system. The more you do this, the more powerful the sounds that you hear will be. Hearing is an extraordinary way of using sound for healing.

What other effects come from using sound?

If you think about it, we've been using self-created sounds since the beginning. What happens when you stub your toe? You make a sound. It was scientifically proven that people can endure more pain when they make sound. I'm helping reawaken people to the power of sound to heal and transform themselves and other people. It's so natural and something that we have simply forgotten.

What feedback have you received from teaching sound healing?

For many people, they say it's a life-changing event. Think of it this way: What we are literally doing is changing the way we perceive sound and changing the way we hear. There are five senses. You are altering and enhancing one of these senses. If you do that, you change the way you perceive reality. It is an experience you won't forget.