KINDRED SPIRIT Sound Healing

CRYSTAL SOUND

frequencies associated with quartz crystal. ‘Each bowl plays a vibrational note that

corresponds to a chakra within our body. The body has seven major chakras and these act like storage containers where we hide emotional and physical issues that are detrimental to our health,’ says Berkshire-based vibrational sound practitioner, Reiki Master practitioner and teacher Kimberley Solari, who combines crystal sound healing using quartz crystal bowls with Reiki, aura chakra diagnosis and feedback in the form of messages from spirit, in her treatments.

‘What the bowls do is like dynarod, they really go deep into the body. They are gentle, loving, and pure in sound. When the bowls are played around and on a client, they break down blocks of stale energy and open the pathway to pure energy flow. The body needs this flow to be healthy.

‘When I have someone lying on the bed and the bowls are playing at a very high pitch, it’s like hearing an orchestra warming up – you think, “oh, it sounds out of tune.” But that’s because the bowls are lifting stuff out. After a number of treatments, each chakra will sound like a perfectly in-tune orchestra playing your own unique tune.

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‘The sound has a meaning,’ Kimberley adds. ‘Over the years I’ve learned the language the bowls use to “speak” to each other. You could have eleven bowls playing at once, all talking to each other and in turn they’re bouncing off your body. I’m like the conductor, understanding the different note changes that a bowl makes.’

Kimberely says she has successfully treated all types of cancer, ME, IBS, insomnia, stress, sports injuries, gangrene and infertility. ‘I’ve seen male and female cancer sufferers, stressed business executives, footballers, boxers, children and pregnant women – you name it.’

The single treatment I experience with her is powerful and thorough to say the least – the transition from reiki healing to crystal sound healing is seamless (and accompanied by a CD of her own making) and the whole session leaves me feeling strengthened physically and emotionally. The aura-chakra image taken using a biofeedback imaging system and in-depth diagnosis of my emotional energetic state is fascinating too. (Apparently I have the makings of a healer and need to work on unblocking my lower chakras.)

Jini Reddy experiences the transformative healing powers of crystal singing bowls and pyramids

Have you ever been soothed by sweet birdsong, a piece of music, or the crashing of waves? If so, you’ve had a taste of sound therapy.

The use of sound to heal is based on the idea that every bit of our bodies – including our chakras, organs and bones – is vibrating. The frequencies may be beyond our hearing range, but they exist and when the vibrations get out of sync, we can become unwell. The cure, say practitioners, is an acoustic remedy.

In simplistic terms, ‘feel good’ notes, formed using an assortment of instruments – among them gongs, bells and crystal bowls – travel through the physical body to rebalance our chakras or energy centres.

Though little scientific evidence exists in support of the therapy, studies carried out by French musician, healer and acupuncturist Fabien Maman at the University of Jussieu in Paris in the 1980s appear to show that a series of acoustic sounds caused cancer cells to dissolve and healthy cells to become energised. And increasingly doctors who favour a holistic approach to healing are using sound as part of their integrative medical practice.

Singing BowlsIt isn’t a new approach – sound healing is part of many religious and spiritual ceremonies and harks back to ancient times, but it is experiencing a resurgence. A particularly powerful form of sound healing involves the use of crystal singing bowls. Practitioners say that as the human body is crystalline in structure, this allows it to respond and resonate with the

Healing

Genevra Jolie

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Alchemy BowlsIt is crystal sound healer and crystal singing bowls distributor and Reiki Master teacher Genevra Jolie, from Lewes, who’d put me in touch with Kimberley. Genevra offers healing using crystal singing bowls combined with reiki, on a one-to-one basis, as well as group sound baths, and uses both pure quartz and alchemy bowls (all made in and sourced in the US). The latter are combined with gems and precious and rare metals which can subtly alter the sound of a singing bowl, making it smoother, or softer or more energising.

Genevra has a hypnotically soothing presence and tells me she works intuitively: ‘On a physical level, the bowls are stepping forward to me and I’m playing them. They also play together with other bowls that step forward. They literally want to come off the shelf and be played.

‘I’m not consciously thinking about what a person needs – the bowls take you away from that kind of thinking, which is an old way of thinking. Lots of people go to learn about sound healing but I don’t work like that. I just think that the bowls teach you how to play them. They are crystal beings and pure consciousness. As a natural overflow of their being free in their song, this healing happens and it’s very profound’, she says.

Find out moreGenevra Jolie charges £60 per session per person for a 60-90 minute session, or £80 per couple. Visit www.genevra.org.uk or www.crystal-singing-bowls.co.ukSoundlove Group sessions with Genevra Jolie and Gabrielle Baker, from £15 per person in a Mongolian yurt in Seaford – www.soundlove.co.ukKimberley Solari charges £120 for an initial assessment and diagnosis using aura-chakra imaging, reiki healing and crystal sound healing, and £65 thereafter. Visit www.healingbykimberley.com

I had no energy. I also had a lot of abdominal and lower back pain. My first sound healing experience with the crystal bowls was amazing: it was so subtle, gentle and peaceful. My whole body became soft and it felt as if cells were beginning to awaken again, realign and remember their own resonance and frequency.

‘It’s given me an inner peace like never before. I have more energy, stamina and am pain free. My head and thought processes are clearer and sharper. I trust more and have a much deeper connection to nature and the elements. All in all I feel like my body can be healed through sound on a very deep level without any trauma. And Genevra makes everything easy, ‘ she says.

I’d vouch for that. When I turn up for my treatment, I’m suffering from post-viral fatigue and it is only seconds before I drift off on the treatment table and succumb to the sounds wafting around me and Genevra’s gentle healing touch. There is a phenomenal heat coming off her hands and it together with the clear, pure tones of the crystal singing bowls and pyramids seems to penetrate my very core. The whole experience is profoundly restful. The treatment lasts about an hour and best of all I’m left to ‘come to’ at my own pace, so I have space and time to linger in the beautiful stillness.

Genevra believes that sound healing is the future of medicine, ‘If everything is vibrating then surely it’s also vibration that’s going to correct things that are out of balance. So purely from what I’m witnessing I believe the bowls are a powerful medicine and we’re only just diving into it all.’ Hear, hear.

‘Some bowls like to be played gently, slowly, others quickly, with pressure, for a moment or for a long time. Each variation will be different on each bowl and intuitively you learn in that moment how to play the bowl. Sometimes the surface of the bowl responds in different ways with the sound it produces and the length of the sound waves change. They are all unique.

‘The smaller bowls generally tend to have shorter sound waves and the large bowls have longer sound waves. People experience the longer waves in a more grounding way. They feel vibration in the lower parts of their bodies and the sound drawing them down into the earth. The smaller bowls are experienced by many people as taking them upwards.’

Singing PyramidsGenevra also uses crystal singing pyramids created by award-winning German glass artist Dieter Schrade following a vision he had whilst in the Mohave Desert in the 1990s. ‘I was meditating, clearing myself. At the time I was studying A Course in Miracles. I was very much inspired by the book, and the idea just came into my head to build the pyramid. It was simply a vision,’ he says.

‘The crystals come from North Carolina, in the US, and it’s the shape of the pyramid that creates the pure, clear sound. When people listen to it they feel they are in the presence of something sacred, they feel deeply centered or connected.’

Genevra echoes his words and is enthusiastic about the potency of the treatment she offers: ‘I have personally witnessed profound shifts in others, emotional and physical transformations and increased awareness of inner peace and awakening in people receiving crystal sound.

‘The physical sensations, feelings and thoughts that arise are different for everyone. For one person, a certain frequency may trigger a sad emotion. For another, the sounds together may create a space where someone is able to transcend their body, visit past trauma, life experiences, visions of the future, and experience themselves as an infinite being of love, connected to all that is,’ she says.

Julie Caddy, a kiniesologist from Eastbourne, Sussex, had sound healing with Genevra following surgery and a hysterectomy and raves about its effects: ‘I was low emotionally and physically.

A crystal singing pyramid

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