Jonathon Goldman, On Healing Sounds

A fascinating conversation with highly respected sound healer Jonathon Goldman. We talk about the 30th anniversary of his book, Healing Sounds. We talk about humming, frequencies, sending energy and the way sound carries.

Transcript

And I am very happy to have on the phone right now,

Jonathan Goldman,

Who I love talking to.

You know,

I am a sound fanatic.

I love frequency.

I love energy.

And I love sound.

And Jonathan Goldman has been a sound pioneer.

I cannot believe that your book,

Sound Healing,

Is now 30 years old.

Jonathan,

Welcome.

How are you?

Cindy,

What a pleasure it is to be talking to you.

And yes,

Indeed,

Healing sounds,

Not sound healing,

But healing sounds is,

I just had its special 30th anniversary edition release.

And what a blessing.

It's never been out of print,

But this time it's bigger,

Better.

And I trust it's going to help raise the vibrations of everybody on the planet.

Well,

It has.

And it's been an amazing journey where you have gotten more and more involved with this.

Of course,

You have done some wonderful CDs and then once a Grammy nominated one,

And you've worked with some amazing groups of people,

As you have done,

And kind of the leader in this energy in many aspects,

Including the aspects of not only using tuning forks,

But humming and exploring what can be done and how you tune in to these sounds.

And what was the first key that kind of opened the door for you some 30 years ago?

Bottom line was I was playing in a rock and roll band in Cape Cod,

Massachusetts,

Coming in from a break.

I strapped on my Stratocaster,

Started playing,

Looked at it in the audience,

And realized that the music that I was creating was helping induce an ambiance of negativity and violence.

And Cindy,

Obviously the alcohol and the other intoxicants that people were involved in were doing that as well.

But the music that I was creating at that specific time was helping do that and I thought,

Gee,

I wonder if music can be used to make people feel better.

Within a week that shifted to a wonder of sound can be used to heal.

Doors opened up,

My life changed,

And wow,

It's probably been 40 years later.

By 10 years after that,

I wrote Healing Sounds,

Which initially became very,

Very successful and has continued to stay on there and then founded the Sound Healers Association and have about a half a dozen other new books,

About 30 different recordings.

And I'm so blessed that on one level,

Sound really has begun to blossom in the consciousness of not only the holistic health community,

But just people all over in terms of being able to utilize sound for meditation,

For yoga,

For healing,

For stress reduction.

I mean,

Everything,

Everybody's so stressed out these days and they're beginning to realize you can use sound to help that situation.

Absolutely true.

Now you live in Colorado,

Is that right?

That's correct.

And Colorado is a very,

Very high energy place,

Of course.

And I know that also you got married here in Hawaii.

You're familiar with Hawaii.

You've traveled around the world.

You've been to Bali and Panama.

Have you noticed,

Because I've always been loving traveling and loving sound and loving meditating and all that,

I notice a couple of things.

I notice wherever I go in the world,

There's a certain different light wherever I go.

And you know,

I know you know,

And I know that light has frequencies and sound also has frequencies and energies,

Correct?

I cannot argue with any of those things for sure.

So do you go,

When you go to places,

Do you feel a difference in the energy of the sound frequencies?

I know you've been to Arizona,

Of course.

I love Sedona.

You love Sedona.

Did you,

Do you notice when you're going to these different areas that are power spots,

You've been to many,

That you feel there's a difference in these sounds that come forth?

In ostensibly,

Yes.

And then if you get a little more refined,

It depends upon where at these different places you are.

Because for example,

You could be in New York City,

Which has got one of these more unique vibrations on the planet.

And yet if you go into the Church of the St.

John,

Which is in New York,

That's totally different as a,

You know,

Resonating chamber of the divine.

So what do you think about that?

Well,

I think,

You know,

It's interesting,

We have here Hali Akhala,

And that's been called the quietest place on earth,

Because you can go into the crater,

And you don't get the outside sound.

But I can't help but thinking since we've got Mauna Loa going off,

I've been sensing this different charge of energy in the air.

And I couldn't help but wondering about the sound of a volcano coming up and exploding and coming out in the fire and the sound of fire and how that changes and what that energy vibration and sound would be like,

You know,

The sound of fire,

You know,

Rolling down.

Well,

It's interesting as you're talking about that,

Because in one of my first recording chakra chants,

For the sound of the root chakra,

I actually use the sound of lava and,

You know,

Moving through the earth as a sound of the base chakra.

So it's so interesting.

Root chakra is fire.

That is so that,

That,

And of course,

When we think I've been getting the word core,

Because you know,

When you go into the Pelli energy and the fire,

It's down below the core,

You know,

It's actually it is a root chakra,

I guess,

Of the volcano we're seeing coming up,

Right?

We're talking about chakras too.

I remember reading a long time ago whether or not this is true.

But that,

You know,

The volcanoes were literally,

If you like the chakras,

Or at least an acupuncture release of the planets.

And you know,

Earthquakes and things that go along with that too.

It's sort of Mother Earth not only shaking herself,

But having release through one of the energy centers and obviously,

Paraíochola and all these other places,

Pretty intense.

I absolutely agree.

And you know,

It's interesting how the earth and the tonal energy of the earth actually does vibrate.

I know you've studied this,

And I've been fascinated.

I just did a new album actually called Love Conquers All when heaven merges with earth.

But you know,

Because in that though,

But I thought about the sound of the stars and the symphony of the stars,

And the music of the spheres and how that inspires us in ways we may not even know.

And you know,

And I know NASA has been exploring the sounds and has sounds that they have recorded of what they think the sounds of other planets are,

Right?

Well,

Listen,

One of the really interesting things in healing sounds,

Subtitle B,

Power of harmonics.

And for people who don't know harmonics or,

You know,

When we hear a sound,

We're not hearing single frequencies,

We're actually hearing composite frequencies that are basically all these different tones that are mathematically related.

And that's,

They're mathematically related,

And they're called harmonics,

And they are responsible for each and every sound that we hear.

They're slightly different in each of us.

So that,

For example,

One of the reasons why we have unique voice prints is because we have a different,

If you like,

Set of harmonics in each of us that creates the resonance of our voice and makes us unique.

But I wanted to just jump into the fact that people like Pythagoras talked about the music of the spheres and what they were really dealing with.

He was the person probably responsible for bringing awareness of harmonics into our modern culture.

Pythagoras was the father of geometry 600 BC.

And so this idea of the music of the spheres,

Because if you like,

Whether it's a periodic table of elements or the orbital distances of the planets,

They all adhere to harmonic principles.

I love that idea.

And it makes total sense because I know you've studied the chanting of the monks and the ones in Tibet that do the guttural sounds,

And that will look,

They literally went around the country and would do concerts where they just sit on stage and do those amazing sounds,

Which are based in harmonics,

Aren't they?

Don't want to blow up the sound system.

Yes,

They are.

And sub harmonics,

But those are really,

Just a little aside is the fact that these Tibetan monks who do these very,

Very powerful frequencies,

They don't actually have a term for overtones or harmonics in their language.

What results is if you like an aspect of them,

The sacred aspect of sound.

You know,

It's funny because I'm recording this and as you did that sound,

That sound that you get of,

And they can actually do the root chakra and the head chakra at the same time by having the harmonics.

As you did it,

The sound that you actually made was like a solid sound different when we see recordings,

It's up and down,

Up and down,

Up and down,

Up and down.

It was a solid sound,

Not with up and downs,

But one solid sound that was like a block of energy that didn't go up and down.

I've never noticed that before.

And it was interesting to see how that sound is just a block of sound.

And when you think of that,

That's very powerful if you're listening to those chants that are that sound.

And if you,

I know you've been,

I think,

Did you ever go to Tibet?

I never did,

But I had the pleasure of having some of the most high level Tibetan chant masters visit me and actually befriend me.

So what a blessing.

Yeah.

In fact,

You know,

A friend who's coming,

Who lives in Kalarara,

You might know him,

He's a flautist,

Nguang.

Oh,

Sure.

You know Nguang?

I have performed with Nguang.

He and I performed with Katara together at the Church of Saint John the Divine in New York.

Oh my gosh,

He's amazing,

Isn't he?

And he's going to be doing a concert here again.

He did it before,

He's going to be doing it again in March.

But again,

He's friends with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and everything.

So we think of what's going on and you have been doing for a long time on Valentine's Day,

A Universal Sound Day.

And it's been growing and growing.

I think this last year you had one of the largest groups of people doing sound in that wonderful day of love than ever before.

Is that right?

Well,

You know,

Thank you for bringing that up,

Because I think it's so important.

It's called World Sound Healing Day.

It takes place on Valentine's Day,

February 14th.

This year,

It's actually the 21st annual one.

And each year it seems to grow and grow.

Last year,

We had over 200 separate events throughout the planet.

We're looking for more of those.

But then again,

On a level,

It's not necessarily the quantity,

But the quality.

And the quality is really pretty high.

So ultimately,

If anybody's listening,

Go to World Sound,

Everybody who's listening,

Please,

Not if anybody,

But if World Sound Healing Day.

Org is the name of the website.

And it's not totally,

Shall we say,

Finished for 2023.

But it's getting up there.

And we're expecting a really huge,

If you like,

Positive manifestation of sonic energy,

All sorts of different types of sonic energy from,

Indeed,

Tibetan monks to flute players,

To people chanting,

To people playing crystal balls,

To jazz people,

Even poets.

We've had a,

You know,

Because if you like the words you speak,

If they're encoded with love,

Those are healing frequencies.

Well,

And of course,

Your website's healingsounds.

Com,

Which is a great site.

But let's talk about healing.

And let's talk about healing and sound.

We more than ever,

I know so many people now who have been actually being able to record the difference of sounds being used for healing.

And you have experienced this,

And you've been asked many times to actually share and work with people in healing sounds.

What and how do you use sound for healing?

All right,

Bottom line,

There are two basic ways that sound affects us.

One is called psychoacoustics,

Where the sound goes into our ear,

Into our brain,

Affects our nerve system,

Our heart rate,

And our respiration.

And this is just as we're talking now,

If we're listening to music or anything like that,

That's one way.

The second way is called vibroacoustics.

And that's where sound goes into the body and affects us on a cellular level going down to our molecules.

So I like to differentiate that just as an overall gestalt of people go,

Aha,

Two different ways that sound affects us,

Number one,

And then you go,

Okay,

So you can therefore project sound in,

You know,

As music or what I can use it going into our ears into our brain and affecting all sorts of things,

Including our chakras,

Or you can do it making sounds like one of the most powerful vibroacoustic sounds that we can all make is with the simple hum.

My wife,

Andy,

And I wrote a wonderful book called The Humming Effect.

And the hum has so many different physiological benefits,

Including the release of melatonin,

The release of nitric oxide,

You get a lowered heart rate,

Respiration,

Brain waves,

All sorts of positive things happen when you hum and it's a sound Cindy,

That everybody can make.

And you have a book on this and you actually you have a CD,

Which is very helpful as well.

And and the thing is,

You need to do it to feel it.

And once you feel it,

You get it right?

You nailed it,

Dory,

Once you experience it,

Then it's real for you.

You can read up and down about anything,

But once you experience it,

Which is one of getting back to healing sounds,

My book,

Which has just been released,

What we added,

Which makes all the difference in the world to this book,

Which is so very,

Very important,

Has been one of the like forerunners of the whole sound healing field,

But what we added was 100 minutes of new audio,

Including guided meditations,

Specific sounds,

Sonic exercises,

Etc.

Because I can talk about harmonics,

But for example,

Once you hear a friend of mine named Christian Bowman,

Singing Amazing Grace,

He's on just one tone.

And yet through his harmonics,

He you can hear him,

He does it live.

He's doing Amazing Grace,

You go,

Oh,

My God,

That's incredible.

I can describe it once you hear it,

It changes you.

So it'd be best to get the audio book of that,

Right?

The audible?

Well,

Actually,

The audible has it but also the fabulous,

The regular Kindle or whatnot has a,

It's like 100 minutes of downloadable.

So I want people to get this regardless of how they get it so they can get it through the book,

Or they can get it through the audible,

Which is not yet released,

Incidentally.

So you got to be psychic to have known that.

Well,

You're in sound,

You'd have to do that.

And you got a great voice.

And of course,

That's the way to go.

But I didn't know you could do downloads through Kindle.

I had no idea.

Yeah.

And,

And I did actually I did.

Thank you for that.

I ended up not doing the voice I had the friend of mine who's an engineer,

Do the thing because one of my,

If you like lesser gifts or lesser abilities is being able to read well.

That shocks me that that really does.

That's amazing.

But you're certain your your CDs are they I know they're available through your website,

Right?

Because you have some amazing CDs,

They're really valuable to listen to.

Oh,

And also,

I'm going to suggest that people can find them just,

You know,

Tell your Amazon or whatever.

They're on Amazon,

They're on Spotify,

They're on,

You know,

Apple,

You know,

ITunes and all that stuff.

But they're over the all over the place.

And I am so grateful for that,

Because it's really given people to say play Jonathan Goldman,

Hopefully,

You'll like what you hear.

So when you travel to places,

I only have two minutes left,

But when you travel to places,

Do you find that it's valuable to root yourself and sound attuned to the place and the energy fields and the frequency of where you go?

Yeah,

But yes,

Very,

Very much so.

And oftentimes,

I will do that simply through I have a couple of different sonic practices that I do and I take with me and one of them is what I call the divine name,

Which is simply a sequence of harmonically related vowel sounds and also humming,

Believe it or not,

Depending upon the intention that you put upon the hum,

The hum can manifest almost anything because perhaps the original sound of creation was the hum,

The vibration of prana.

And that goes so deep.

And of course,

We use the word mana here in a way,

You know,

And there's no mistake that prana and mana are so close and just M&P,

Right?

So close together.

And there is that energy field that you do sense and it can be expressed in and chanting here in a way that the chant is just that,

Right?

Oh,

My goodness gracious,

Yeah,

I've had some wondrous experiences with not going to take the time now,

But there with your fabulous who knows,

Stuff like that.

Just incredible,

Incredible things.

I mean,

They call in the ancestors with the sound of the chant.

I was privileged to take part in calling in the hondu,

The giant sea turtles there.

They came and it was very cool experience.

I don't know.

Yeah,

I was allowed to like,

Do that with this master.

So anyway,

Life is like that.

Well,

I am so glad you took the time.

I know you've been really busy and it's been so well received your 30th anniversary.

This book is is has reached so far so wide.

I mean,

You never could have guessed where it would have taken you but people can go to healing sounds calm,

And they can look Jonathan Goldman up on Amazon.

And they can get inspired,

They can get healed,

They can get in tune with the universe.

Well,

So yeah,

I'm so very,

Very grateful for you and your work and everything and best of luck with your radiant album.

I know it's gonna be fabulous.

I'll make sure you get a copy of it.

And I thank you for taking the time to call in.

And we'll talk again soon sometime and say hi to Nguong for me.

Okay,

Blessing to know here.

Okay.

Okay.

Bye bye.