Notes for the Esoteric Sound Group Meeting
26 January 2008
Esoteric Sound Group 1
Saturday 26th Jan 08
Notes by Kathleen and Andrew
Chris started the group by giving a brief explanation about the importance the gentle breath plays in the connection to ones inner heart and how when working with sound (speech ,music and song) it is this connection that is paramount. In everything we express we are either harming or we are healing. Once connected to the inner heart through the gentle breath we are also able to discern for ourselves whether the music we choose to listen to is either harming us or healing us. This you can feel distinctly in your bodies once you have made the connection to your centre. Chris gave an example of a past experience of him trying to learn a particular piece of music whilst driving along. He found himself to be in physical pain .It was only after a suggestion by Jenny that he turn it off that his head stopped pounding and his stomach settled down. Chris described this new way of listening is like having ears in our heart. This way of listening empowers one to discern for one’self.
Chris then talked us through a mediation on the gentle breath.
Then we proceeded to make the ooo sound with the emphasis on the shape of the mouth. The object being that we can use a rounded mouth to produce a bell like tone which emanates rather than being produced by expelling air through the lips. We ensured that the palms of the hands were facing up and that the body was relaxed, and all the time we were connecting the sound to the heart centre. At times our hands were placed over our heart centre so as to bring greater awareness to the importance of living, singing and expressing from our inner heart. This awareness brought a feeling of great warmth around the heart centre. The exercise was then expanded by opening the mouth as wide as possible whilst still producing a similar bell like sound. Then the volume was to be increased incorporating movement in the body. With the increase in volume and the louder expression the sound changed to an aaah,
We partnered up and observed each other in these exercises then shared what we were feeling. We partnered again and placed hands on the toner’s heart and self-empowerment chakra and then wherever there was tension in the body; example smoothing out frown lines on their face, or placed hands on shoulders to remind them to relax etc.
This exercise was repeated using the aum sound.
Q. Is it possible to use this connection to the heart to improve the quality of mantras I am trying to learn?
A. No .You will have to connect to your inner heart and feel for yourself the effect the mantra is having on you. Chris then described a student in one of his groups, a perfectly intelligent well adjusted person who insisted on singing a particular chant .As he commenced to sing or chant his eyes glazed over immediately and his face hardened and dropped and he seemed to have aged 10 years. It was evident to anyone that was connected the devastating effect of the chant, and the fact that the chant had overtaken him completely.
Q. I am having difficulty with my breathing while singing. Is it possible to breathe through the nose whilst singing so as to maintain the gentle breath?
A. One does not sing like a didgeridoo player using the circular breath. You simply take whatever breath you can when you need it. When you are in your heart your body will dictate the rhythm of your breath naturally as you are in grace.
Finally we rehearsed one of Chris’s new songs while maintaining the tone and connection to the inner heart that we had practiced and explored that evening.
Esoteric Sound Group 1
Saturday 26th Jan 08
Notes By Alison
We started with the gentle breath meditation to ‘Silk in the Clouds’ CD – track 1. The sound (CD) impulses the body to expose any contraction, to release, to connect, to feel and to connect to the inner heart. This allows us to listen with the ears of the inner heart, not the human ears which can trick and deceive us. The ears of the inner heart know the truth and allow us to hear the truth and speak our truth.
Exercise 1:
Eyes closed, sitting with your spine straight, both feet on the ground and hands facing palm up.
Focus on the cool ‘in’ breath at the tip of the nose. Feel it gently enter the very tip of the upper nostril. This also gives the mind something to do so that the spirit is quiet.
When the ‘in’ breath is gentle then connect to the ‘out’ breath as it leaves the lower rim of the nostrils. It may feel a little warm as it exits.
As the breath becomes more automatic start to feel the body and your inner heart and any places where you are holding on. Are your shoulders tight, your body rigid, is your face scrunched up in concentration? Release any area of contraction.
This meditation allows us to address any resistance in the throat chakra and expose it so that it may heal and thus we can bypass the throat chakra all together and go straight to the heart. Please note that we do not want to visit the lower three charkas that are the charkas furthest from God.
Group Feedback: Many commented that they could feel their heart area expand, feel warmth or tingling and their aura expand.
Everything is either healing or harming. This is true of sound, the spoken and sung word, and music. Spiritual New Age music can be the most harming as it sounds ‘nice, relaxing and calming’ but in fact it is laced with prana. It is not obviously harmful (as compared to heavy metal music) and so accepted as being OK. And this can be true of classical music, opera, modern music, all music. Chris suggested that we may like to have a look at our CD collection and see what CD’s we were still hanging on to when in truth we know they are not healing. Go into the gentle breath and feel to know the truth.
Exercise 2:
As before – eyes closed, spine straight, palms facing up, feet on the ground.
Chris started with gentle ‘Ou’s. To make this sound make an ‘O’ with your lips and lower jaw slightly out. Breath gently (as above) and when in gentleness and you feel it in your heart, let the sound impulse you and gently make the sound. Again release any areas in your body and gently make the sound. Put left hand on your heart.
When everyone was in tune and gentle we then gradually opened our mouths wide to make gentle ‘A’s. Stay gentle, don’t force the sound. The shape of your mouth (like a cavern) creates the resonance.
Feedback: We then shared with a partner how the exercise felt and any insights.
Exercise 3:
Standing with eyes closed and spine straight Partner A goes into the gentle breath and is then impulsed to make the ‘Ou’. Relax everything including the face that often contorts when we concentrate, tone and sing. Partner B, also in gentleness, observes partner A’s mouth, body, shoulders, hands and body to see where there is any contraction. Partner B puts her left hand on Partner A’s heart and right hand on the self-empowerment chakra at the back of the neck (the knobbly bit). In the gentleness there is no imposition. Nothing is forced or ‘sent’ – there is just gentleness and observation. Partner B is then impulsed to put her hands on other parts of the body.
Feedback: Where were you holding on? What did you both feel? Share with your partner and then swap.
At the end of an exercise/meditation/toning open your eyes slowly. When we open our eyes quickly it is the spirit jumping in to stop the stillness. The trick is to stay connected in stillness with our eyes open. And to stay that way when we leave the group.
We finished the night singing one of Chris’ new songs. The whole group was in tune and in harmony.
Esoteric Sound Group Dates for your diary:
Wednesday 13th February 7pm (NSW time)
Saturday 15th March 6.30pm (NSW time)
Esoteric Sound Group 1
Saturday 26th Jan 08
Notes by Nicky
This is a report of my first Esoteric Sound Group which was held on 26th January 2008.
The event started at 6:30pm at Mcleans Ridge Hall and lasted a little over 2 hours.
The hall is a really nice, intimate and homely venue. There were 20 eso participants plus Chris and Jenny.
At the very end Chris asked for 4 volunteers to write up notes and I was the 4th. Usually I keep accurate notes if I am going to write up notes but this was a complete surprise so I sit here with no idea yet of what will come, let’s see……..
We started with a gentle breath meditation. It was really nice, quite different to other guided meditations because it had the Chris flavour but the same essence. Afterwards there was a gentle harmony in the room and between the participants.
The key to everything was to allow the sound to come from the heart – ie gentle breath => connect => sound.
Another aspect of allowing this connected sound is to do just that, allow the sound don’t ‘push’ it out.
Recently I had quite a few ‘swimming’ lessons with Simone which taught me an enormous amount and this is the same. With Chris you can experience how to speak, live, sing, express from a connected space. With Simone you can learn how to walk, move and be on this planet whilst connected. A large part of learning how to live and express in the fiery way is to become aware of the opposite ie seeing when we are disconnected and the consequence of that.
Once you experience the connected livingness you can then play with expanding it – ie be all that you are – emanate.
For example early on Chris had us make an oooh kind of sound. That was a really nice, easy, gentle sound to make.
He then asked us to open our mouths wide and make an aaah kind of sound. I felt that it took more awareness to allow the open mouth aaah kind of sound without moving out of the fiery connection into a doing version. It was really fun to play with that sound and then to allow it to expand.
When allowing from the connectedness the sound can be anything from soft to very loud but it does not impose and does not have the usual pranic quality of being pushed out.
With both the playing in the water with Simone and the playing with sound with Chris you get an instant feedback. Both seem to magnify the experience and provide a wonderful opportunity to experience the difference between the pranic and fiery versions of the same small movement or expression. You can experiment with very subtle changes and see how they affect the quality of the expression. The more that you get to see this clearly, the easier it becomes to feel and make the fiery choice in everyday life.
The above happened through simple exercises where Chris would guide us into singing different notes. In several of the exercises we paired up with a partner and one would emanate the sounds and the other would give feedback. After each bout we would have a group feedback.
It felt to me that everyone in the room was present, experiencing and having revealed to themselves whatever they needed or were ready to learn.
Next we did the same oooh and ahhh sound with the same partner but on this occasion one made the sounds and the other one felt. The one who was feeling would put their hands wherever they felt there was a restriction or where it was needed. In between Chris also guided quite a bit so that the whole group would put their hands in specific places such as the heart and self-empowerment. We then shared our experiences with our partners and the group.
At the end of the evening we all sang together. Chris had a song for us to sing that I had not heard before. He would sing a line and then we would all sing that same line. It was joyous. Everyone (as far as I know) sang along as one at quite a volume and it was very harmonious.
I would say a revelatory joyful time was had by all. Christoph and I certainly enjoyed it.
With love ~ Nicky |
