Sound Healing, Ayahuasca and Balance with Lea Garnier

[Music] This is synchronicity. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Welcome to synchronicity. You're going to have to forgive any sniffling or weird voice sounding or coughing on this intro because I've been sick because EY's been sick and now Lexus is sick. I got my dad sick a couple of weeks ago because daycare, that's what happens. That's what happens in daycare apparently. I also don't know if you're like this. I am what you would call a huge bitch when I'm sick. I do not handle it well. I collapse into myself very quickly which is a not so subtle reminder that I don't completely have all of my shit together because whenever I get sick just immediately my emotional and mental and psychological fragility is just completely exposed.

On the plus side, I did see a lot of cool stuff on Netflix, Hulu and HBO, some good stuff out there. My guest today is Leah Garnier. She is awesome. She's based in Woodstock, New York. She has the Sage Academy of Sound Energy. It's amazing. I've been there a few times now for sound baths that she does with her partner Beth who they together just do some amazing stuff. It's hard to explain if you haven't done a sound bath. For those of you who might remember with the mind wave event, which was only a year ago, I was talking to last week's guest Justin about this. It's like, "Was that two years ago?" He's like, "No dude, that was last year." It's like, "Really? That was only last year?"

It's like, "Oh yeah, okay. Time is really not working the way I thought I did." But anyway, and you think I would remember it because I have a kid who's aging a year at a time and I know he's not older than two yet. Anyway, my point is we did a sound bath out there. My friends, Lulu and Nikki, it was the first sound bath I ever went to. It was at an event I was putting on, and it was amazing. It's hard to describe to someone who doesn't partake in them. I think it can seem a little woo or it can seem a little like, "What are you doing?" It's like, "Why would you do this?" Try one out. If you have one in your area, Leah gives some great suggestions on kind of where to get started at the end of this.

Really start at home, listen to some stuff, explore, and see what you can do there, but it's great. I also have spoken briefly about Tom Kenyon and Hathor's and how this kind of related to the genesis of the synchronicity that I guess you could say is the genesis of this show in some way. I'm a big fan of sound. More importantly, I'm a big fan of sound as a healing modality. I put a tremendous amount of stock on that, mainly from experience. We can include music in sound, but they could be looked at as different things. Leah does a great job of explaining this, so I'm not going to step all over the episode and go into the intricacies of what we discussed.

But I think you're really, really, really going to enjoy this episode. It's an in-person one, which is always, those are always some of my favorite episodes to do because you're with there. We were in her space at Sage. It's just amazing how many instruments and cool stuff she has around, and her knowledge and wisdom on this particular subject is just clearly evident in her ease of speaking about it and some of the perspectives she's bringing. Of course, this is not just about sound, and it's not just about healing, although it kind of is. We talk about feminine divine, balancing masculine and feminine, and trying to really delve into these things in a substantial and practical way, and not just approaching them from a meme standpoint.

So, yeah, this episode, I think you're really going to enjoy it. There are links to Sage that you can check out, and Leah, I'm putting her bandcamp on there. I just picked up her album, her latest album. What is it called? Let's see. So people can know. The Pearl Within. It's amazing. So go check out all of the links on the site. If you want to learn more about this, I will have also at the end the exact URL. How would I just give it to you now? Sage Academy of SoundEnergy.com. If you're in the Woodstock area, or the Duchess County area, or Ulster County area, and you go out to one of these, you will probably catch me there, because I'm kind of hooked, and whenever I can go, couldn't go last week because you live sick and I was sick, but whenever I can go, I like it to go.

So, without further ado, no, no, nothing else. This episode, I'm not going to say anything else. I'll thank Patrick Nemcke, of course. Thank all the patrons on Patreon, of course. But other than that, let's just get right to the episode, and I'll see you on the flip side, and I think, I know, dare I say, I know, you will enjoy this episode without further ado. Here is Leah Garnier. [Music] Alright, awesome. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for asking me. This is your first podcast, I think you said? Yeah, I don't even know what a podcast is. It's really, it's not anything. It's just a terrible name for something that people record and put out into the world. It's not like, kind of like the new radio.

Yeah, and it is, because it's like anything. It's like a YouTube, it's like a blog, social media. It's something that, you know, you can talk about either a specific thing or a general thing, and people kind of know, "Oh, that's what this is about," and you put it out. But it's access through the phone, right? Mostly? Anything. So, it goes through iTunes, Spotify, the website, on your phone if you want. So, it's just accessible. It's like everything nowadays. If it's there, you can kind of get it wherever you are. I imagine that's only going to continue. That's technology. Yeah, the double-edged sword.

Well, so let's, I think this is a really good place to start. We were talking a little bit about psychedelics, and people were well versed on this podcast with my... Three-month-long synchronicity, you know, that was propelled by an LSE experience. But you mentioned you were kind of directed on this path from an ayahuasca experience you had about a decade ago. Could you tell me a little bit about that? Yes. So, I don't know where to even begin, but I guess it was my first ceremony experience with working with ayahuasca medicine. And I had a very profound experience on, you know, this is who you are. This is who you'll always be. And now, you know, go heal yourself and type of thing.

But within that, and back in that day, you know, like nine, ten years ago, the shaman would come. The ceremony sound would be very minimalistic. So he would just take a chakapa, you know, he would do his limpia healings on each person. Just with that, I don't even... And just his voice, basically, don't even think in a rattle. So those were basically the three instruments where, you know, probably many of your listeners now have had that experience. And it's a big sing along now, you know. But it's beautiful because that's one of the things that those ceremonies did was to help us open our voice, our throat chakra, which, according to a lot of the yogic philosophy and teachers out there now, this is the chakra that needs to open so that it's known as the stopper between our mind and heart.

When this is clear, heart energy can meet the mind and vice versa. And then we're really awakening. The suda. And I think it's this... I failed to mention that one of the things about the synchronicity is I woke up one day and knew all of the Sanskrit chakras. I just woke up from Mooladhara all the way up to Sartre. Never hearing but to... No, never did know what they were and had it like Google. I'm like, what is this? What am I saying? What are these words? That was pretty nuts. It's interesting because it's a sound all in its own with the Sanskrit sound. So, all that being said, it was very profound for all of us to understand what his sound was facilitating in the ceremonies.

The Ikeros that he was singing and understanding the spirit running through all of it and many different types of spirits. So, what happened to me in particular was I had the experience of somebody in ceremony picking up a Himalayan singing bowl and rimming it. This one drone sound, this continuous sound and my heart just opened. And I was like, oh my god, what just happened? I never felt anything like that. I just... I had never felt anything like that. And I was my husband when we were doing the ceremony together also had different kinds of experiences with sound. And we had, before we became the Sage Academy of Sound Energy, we were a healing arts center for a few years.

And in that moment, we both knew possibly in that same ceremony because he was also being visited by beings that were actually showing him physically what happens. What does sound look like when we're speaking and we're telling these same experiences and we were just like, whoa. Now, somehow we need to bring this into our center, also knowing that there was going to be many, many people who will never do an Oesca ceremony to understand the power of this. So, it was very shortly after that we were like, there has to be pioneers of sound out there, we have to find them. And that's what we did, and that's how our whole center changed, and we then went into doing the first sound healing symposium at Menle Mountain Retreat, which is a block from here.

And that was about eight years ago, and that's where we brought the sound pioneers in to talk about sound. And that's funny enough, there were people in our life back then who were supporting us, but at the same time was like, you know, that's never going to work. And we were just like, you know, then the right person actually walked in and said, I'm totally supporting you guys with this, because this is where we need to go, this is where the world's going. And it was so hugely successful, and what we realized is that we didn't, you know, create the first sound healing symposium, we just simply brought it back into the forefront of this very, very old modality, you know, that's been around forever.

Yeah, yeah, I was going to say, that's awesome, and I mean, I think that's a testament probably to the intention that was born out of that experience too, because, I mean, I think when anyone is starting something or doing a full scale shift into something new, like you said you had friends who are supporting you, but I don't really know, like that requires a tremendous amount of belief that really also has to be kind of linked together with intention, because otherwise it can just get thrown away, the first difficult experience or the first people were kind of naysing. But that's awesome, that kind of prosper. I'm not surprised. So I mean, for people listening, I came to one of the sound sessions, I guess a month ago, maybe a little longer, and I went to another one and honestly just incredible, like truthfully.

And like, I, you know, I don't say that as a put on or to convince anyone of anything, I just know from a direct experience standpoint, you know, what was happening, how I felt afterwards, just the entire experience. So I guess from, what about like from a personal experience, you know, what kind of hooked you with this whole sound thing after the ayahuasca experience, let's call that the seed that this kind of sprouted out of this tree sprouted out of, but like what, what was really like the kind of continuing look of sound for you? And were you interested in it before? Well, you know, I'm a cranial sacral therapist, so I've been in the healing arts for, you know, really long time over 20 years working, you know, in healing therapy.

The sound is a also a therapeutic response and way to heal. So I mean, it's a very tricky. It's a fine line. It's nebulous too. Yeah. Yeah, because you don't want to say that, Oh, okay, you know, get on the table. The sound is going to heal your cancer. Right. Right. But there has been scientific studies, a lot of scientific study about that, you know, the power of sound and even just measuring our vibrational fields, our organs, everything vibrates at a certain level. For certain frequency, we go in and out of tune. In fact, our whole body is a stringed instrument just with our whole fascia system. And so there's so much to say about it.

And, and the thing is you mentioned intention and, you know, I have people who are like, Okay, I want to take the sound training because I have a sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and they're having problems with this organ. There is, is there a vibrational frequency that I can use a specific sound to help tune up their organ? Yeah. Well, yes, you can help tune it up, but nothing may, you know, full on healing may not happen if that person is invested in their, you know, their illness. Right. Really, it's a two-way street. Right. Right. Really, really have to want to heal. And some people really just don't want to. Those that do get the healing. This is a really, really interesting line of inquiry too. And I also, I agree with this. I mean, I, I mean, this is kind of the mind, not mind over matter, but mind in conjunction with matter.

I always thought I believed in mind, like over matter. Like, yes, of course, what we believe has an impact on our, on our body. Then I, a couple years ago, started getting intense nerve pain down my neck and through my arm and every, like 20 seconds, like a stinging pain. Went to a doctor. They gave me steroids. They gave me dallium. It was laid out on the floor. And this was coinciding with us moving from New York City back to Maryland for a little bit. So we can have our kid. And three people within three days told me to read this book by Dr. Sarno, a traditional, you know, Western clinical physician mind over back pain.

Of course, right. People know that book because this is like a lot of people for the skeptical. You know, I need hard empirical science. That's all fine and good until you get a debilitating pain somewhere. And then you go and read. Well, maybe this is unconscious rage or whatever it is. Anyway, read the book immediately. The pain started moving around my body. I was like, Oh, shit. Like, this is something else going on. And it just obviously taught me in a more experiential way that mind over matter where there's this integration. And I think this is really important when we're talking about any type of healing modality because there is an aspect of faith to it, whether it's Western medicine or not. When we go into a doctor, we have some degree of faith and confidence that they know what they're doing.

But if that doesn't exist, that that wouldn't be stand to reason that it would impact whatever remedy or whatever healing modality we're entering into. So I think that's important because I think we're on the cusp. Who knows? In 100 years, when we're talking about sound healing, they'll be listening at this podcast around being like, Oh my God, they weren't just like full sale believing that this could have like a positive impact on people's lives. But there is that kind of trust and degree. What's you do this for a living? Like what's been your experience watching people come in and out of the space that we're in now, which is amazing.

By the way, well, I mentioned I'm cranial sacral therapy. So what I do now is integrate the sound lots of times into that modality. But sometimes I'll strictly use the sound with, you know, a private session for people that request that. And so I don't know if we were talking about this before we started recording, but I do believe that from a shamanic perspective, all of the sound tools have a spirit flowing through them. I look at the gongs and Himalayan bowls as a kingdom. They're all kingdoms with the metal kingdom with the crystal kingdom. We have the animal human and plant kingdoms. It's all sentient. So I really just when I'm doing a session, I kind of really let go.

My intention always for the sound is for it to go or it needs to because that's just, I work with it in two ways individually and in groups and an intention and sound is a really big deal. People are just like, how does that work? You know, what is the difference between music and sound? Yeah. Believe me, I've had so many conversations with musicians who are just like, oh, this is crap. Yeah, yeah. Talking about, but really just thinking about it fundamentally, it's, it is focused. It is clear, meditative focus on, you know, and maybe because I've been in the healing arts so long, it's very easy for me to do that.

Yeah. Just let go and trust. Yes. That my intention is for healing. It's to go where it needs to go in the bodies because it's not just the physical body and that the spirits will come through and help. And they do. They want relationship right now, especially if we talk about a gong, a planetary gong, it is to the frequency of Earth. The planets want relationship. The plants want relationship. We've been really far and away removed from, you know, our brothers and sisters, you know, it's all one. So I love this. I love that sound also is kind of the bridge between kind of what you were talking about before. And I've mentioned God knows how many times is this rebalancing of feminine and masculine, which now is almost a meme and almost trite for a lot of people to hear because it's been used so much.

I hope what doesn't get lost in that is no, that's actually like what's going on. It's not. If you look at the women's movement, what's happening now is they are balancing their masculine energy with their feminine energy. If they started coming in and inquiring years ago and through our center, you know, this was all women coming. You know, what is feminine energy? They didn't even know, you know, we didn't even know what are, what does this mean, you know, and do a lot of inquiry and a lot of, you know, I mean, honestly, for I would say the last nine, ten years of my life, it's been every weekend studying with somebody, you know, who's ever coming through on these topics.

And so I've just seen a lot, you know, from A to Z and what I really see right now is that women are now, you know, they understand who they are from a feminine perspective to get it. And now they're balancing their masculine energy. So, you know, masculine energy is action. They're marching. They're out there. And this is, but in a peaceful, receptive way, which is the feminine. So, I'm not sure. No, no, I couldn't agree more. And I think on the same token, we have, and I'm pleased to say where I felt is a very small minority of someone who is actively trying to balance their feminine as a masculine energies.

So, I've kind of been bent to that. I see a lot more guys now saying things. There is something, I have a server for cryptocurrency of all places. And there was a conversation about one of the people in there is down in South America creating kind of a permaculture or sustainable indigenous kind of like Haven, where they're bringing a lot of different medicines from a lot of different places. And I was just watching the conversation in the server. And it was two guys just being like talking about the hardships of indigenous women and like how, you know, their femininity and their just lives have been stripped away from them. And I was like, this is like, I can't believe two guys are having this conversation with the level of tact that it requires.

And I'm seeing that. Absolutely. That's been the most beautiful thing. Like I mentioned it before, it was all women coming to these things. And now a lot of men are coming through. And I actually attribute that not even so much to the yogic scene, but to the ayahuasca ceremony scene. Men are really really their warrior energy somehow is like, this is what they want to do. This is what they need to open. And they're opening. And it is beautiful. And they're supporting women. And they're understanding. It's very difficult. It's incredible because you're acknowledging a tremendous amount of oppression, suppression, not just culturally and historically, but currently. That's what I think. That's why I also think race is such a hard issue in this country is people, people want to be like, yeah, racism is wrong, but to face the way it's ingrained in our society.

The same thing with how feminine energy has been just massively suppressed for at least a few thousand years. It's tough to reconcile that. And I think, unfortunately, for Western culture, a lot of the way the men have been raised and boys have been raised, it's to suppress those feelings and energies. So when they come full throttle at you, when the reckoning comes, whether it's an ayahuasca experience, any psychedelics, meditative, whatever it is. Or your girlfriend. Yeah, truth. I mean, that's, that's, you probably said the most accurate thing. Yeah, right there. You know, it's a lot for people to deal with. And I think, unfortunately, again, a lot of people turn away from it. And if you can just lean into that using the pemma children thing, that is, it's one of the best things you can do.

And by the way, it's not just men, it's women too, who have, you know, their hearts are just as closed in some ways because of their childhood experiences and wounding. So that's a very, you know, if we want to say a masculine wounding as well. Because the feminine is generally thought of as a heart opening and, and so forth. So it's a running through all of us. And, you know, it's, it's not easy. It's not an easy time, not an easy time at all, but it, but at the same time, it feels very beautiful. Yeah, it does. It really does. And it also is, it feels like an auspicious time too, because for his turbulent, maybe as uncomfortable as things are, there seems like a lot of opportunity to where I see paradigms.

I mean, I couldn't imagine having this conversation 15 years ago, just ran. I have these conversations multiple times a day in places, you know, in financial sectors of all places like weird things are happening all throughout the world. Oh my God, when we first started, like, you couldn't even get a hospital to open up to the idea of having a sound come through. I mean, things are so they're just opening up massively. And why, why sound why now why this, you know, I want to say that from, I feel like, you know, talking about the sound and music thing and the difference, you know, from my perspective sound came first.

I mean, it did. It's, yeah, I agree. And, and it is, there was a prophecy. I don't know where I read it, but it said that the world would be healed by one continuous drone sound. And what needs to be healed is us, of course. And so, who can't, who can't pick up a singing bowl and remit, you know, who can't play a gong, who can't strike a tuning fork and play a shooty box and be affected and feel like, you know, they're actually doing music or, you know, and, and the more you do that, the more confidence you get, then music comes out of that. You make chords like, I mean, I was actually playing my Charongo, which I, it's like my favorite. It's so good. I know. I mean, I was really lucky enough to be one of the first Charongo players because of our shaman who was coming who doesn't come here anymore.

But he, you know, was my first teacher and he didn't speak English. I didn't speak Spanish, but we would get together and he would just play and I would watch him and he would watch me and, you know, he would help me and I didn't know chords or anything. And I didn't want to know chords actually. I mean, it wasn't, didn't matter to me. I was not a musician. I had fingers. I had hands because I played guitar from as a kid. So I had, you know, had that. The muscle memory index there. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. But I did in no way really want to know chords or anything like that. And so, you know, since, you know, this was like 10 years ago. And now there's like a group of Charongistos, they call them and they're like coming around. They're like, come on, let's play Charongo.

And it's so beautiful because they're playing and they know the chords and I look and I'm like, and they're like play CDG and I'm like, what's G? I don't see what G is. And then she'll show me and I'll be like, oh, that's Jose's chord. That's how I know it. So, so I think that that's very freeing, you know, because people get very intimidated. That's such a good point that as a musician, I don't know that I've thought about. One of my favorite books is, I recommend it all the time is the mysticism of sound and music. Oh, that's the one I recommend. That's the one I recommend. Right. Because it's like, it gets to the meat of it. My favorite part of that book actually is the part where he's yelling about jazz.

He gets so angry about jazz. He's like, jazz is the devil's music essentially. It's just funny to read out of context. But that's a really important point because I think I believe inherently that everyone has musical ability in them. That may not mean they can play a guitar beautifully or like a virtuoso or piano or whatever. And I've tried to reconcile that kind of those two thoughts, knowing that that's in people, but maybe their music is expressed a different way. But sound. My sister just started getting crystal bowls out of the blue. I gave her my harmonium because she's getting into sound healing.

It can be something that anyone can do. However, it can be very catabolic playing crystal especially because it can be played too loud. Totally. And it also, we've had the experience with very sensitive people. It can release DMT and you can have a psychedelic experience. You can see fractals. It's out of all the sound. That's the one that you really need some lessons with. And with all of this stuff, people have picked up a bowl and smashed it from the inside or taken the wrong end of the stick. I mean, really people, there's a certain amount of learning that has to happen with these. I think that's a really, an analogy I'd give is like my toddler trying to learn how to interact with my dog.

You know, I have a little golden doodle and my toddler's not, he's not speak, he's not speaking yet. So he has limited expressions and one of those is unfortunately physical contact that can, you know, verd on hitting. And what's interesting is I would say with like any musical instrument, any sound generating thing, you want to approach it gently and understand what it is. You don't want to just go smacking on it hitting it. You can, but that's not playing it. Oh, let me tell you a story, actually. Do you know who Tito La Rosa is? No. Okay, so you have to come. Yeah, no, I don't know anything. Just be clear.

So Tito La Rosa is a, what we call a corindero de sonaro from Peru, a sound healer. And he's very profound. He's just such a beautiful, beautiful teacher and being. And he really uses the sound right on the body. He's been doing this for a very, very long time. He's also really well-known musician in Peru. Cool. Now, he, I just lost my thought. You were talking about how there was sound healing. I was talking about how to approach instruments gently. Oh, so, oh, so, okay, yes. So a friend of his gave him three beautiful alchemy crystal bowls. Cool. Very, very expensive. The alchemy bowls are made up of, you know, specific gems and those have properties.

Wow. And so crystal is an amplifier of energy. So if you put emeralds into a crystal bowl. Oh, that's so cool. That'll amplify that energy. That's so cool. Somebody came up during one of his concerts after the concert just without permission, picked up the bowl. Started playing it really, really loud and it shattered and just completely blew up. And he was like, he couldn't believe it. You know, he was very, of course, it wasn't even his. And it was even a part of like a tuned set. It was, it was a disaster. We also have had experiences like that too, where my partner Beth had these beautiful whistling vessels, also from Tito La Rosa side of the world, his sister makes those.

And somebody came and just didn't ask, picked it up by the handle and completely broke it in half. You know, so things like... I'm just like in awe that someone would do that, but geez. The training. Even like things you wouldn't even think about, like, how do you pack up crystal? Yeah. You know, I can't tell you how many people have called me up and I busted a crystal bowl. I dropped it, I didn't pack it. Well, you know, these little things so much. It's an art and it seems like a science, both, right? Yeah. Like, I mean, there's, there's the empirical kind of properties and qualities that can be addressed, but also there's that subtle kind of, you know, mystical undertone of what these are.

And if you don't approach them in the right way, they can't, something can shatter. Well, I believe that they're all sacred and they show you also what they're used for. Like when the crystals actually are the newest sound healing tool out there. And the pyramids, crystal pyramids are the absolute newest. So when they came, I don't know, four or five years ago, we had no idea how to use them. And we were doing a sound bath at ananda ashram, which is ananda yoga ashram. Not a, you know, mean being the yoga of sound. Yeah. And so this guy comes in and, you know, I was looking at his head and his hair was greasy.

You know, you could just see there was like stuff in his head, you know. And he, you know, came late and he laid down and, you know, I was, you know, we started the sound bath and I was then walking through with the pyramids. And I have synesthesia, which is being able to see color, which is also sound. It's a higher or lower vibration of sound. I can't remember which at the moment, but it's better up sound. And so I'm using the, I was just directed to his head with that pyramid, which actually makes sense because if you think of the pyramid form, you know, the pinnacle would be the head, you know, trying to release and connect with the total, the divine.

And I used it around his head and suddenly I just saw this big flash of purple crack out of his crown. And he was like, whoa, you know, and I was like, okay, I understand this is supposed to be before. And after the sound bath, he came over and he was like, what happened? You know, I just felt like my head, and in looking at him, everything was so clear. Everything, whatever happened there energetically, whatever he was holding on. It just cleared. He was able to connect, you know, with them some kind of all that is, which is another thing that this drone sound does. It stops the chattering of the mind.

And when that happens, you have the experience of connecting with all it is with just this primordial sound, which is very, very deeply relaxing. Yes. And ultimately, if that's all it sound does, then it's done its job because when you're relaxed and the mind is like calm, you hear the wisdom of the heart, or your higher self, or if you have your eyes, whatever it is, can come in and say, this is your next step. Yeah. This is what you need to do next. And that's all we all need to know is, what are we doing next? What do we do with this? Or just being in tune with that, even being a question we could potentially get an answer to.

I think a lot of people are just stuck on autopilot. Myself included, you know, it just, the ease of getting into habitual pattern, whatever it is. You shifted a little bit is just kind of something that I don't know if it's a human thing. But it seems like our culture kind of pushes that on us. So being able to relax and decompress, I know this over the past three months, I have had the least amount of physical, mental, and just like emotional space I've ever had. I've been taking care of my kid three days. I'm trying to, you know, run several businesses. My wife's going, it's a whole thing. And I was started to lose it.

I mean, I really started to lose it. And I don't consider myself mentally or psychologically unstable person, but you can see how quickly, you know, I was watching this of all things Dave Letterman and Jay Z and Jay Z was talking about this kid who was kept in solitary confinement for 120 days, just, you know, with no reason. And he was just saying everyone who's ever been in solitary after 40 days, 43 days, you flip, you just loot, you break all semblance of reality. So that's when people ask me about sound healing and the sound bass. I say, you know, you say, I say, it's just relaxing. I don't go in and try to say, hey, it's going to heal this.

It's going to do that. I mean, I do think that those things are embedded in it and it can certainly have those. But if for nothing else, you just have that opportunity to just kind of like decompress. I have to say, I don't, I think it may be planetary, but there will be sometimes that that will be the intention going in. Yeah. You know, I, you know, pretty much follow the energies of the moons and, you know, sometimes there'll be sound bass where we'll be just like, okay, we're going to go into bus things up. This is because the cosmic energies are there to support this. And if you are here, you, you're here to release and we're trusting more now.

We've been doing this, the sound bass for so many years now. And then people really trust, you know, how, how we bring the sound and, you know, cause it's scary to let go, isn't it? Yeah. Because you don't know. Especially if you haven't done it late until your first time. Yeah. So let's just say that the talk about the Himalayan singing bowls for a minute. These are nothing but soothing sounds. They're not here to break up energy. They're not here to do anything, but completely and totally relax. And I find these are really amazing for insomnia. People who can't sleep for people, for the minds that just keep going, going, going.

They also have, they also do release things in the body. Sometimes you feel like, you know, popping, coming out here and there. But by and large, they're, they're just, they're also known as standing gongs, sitting gongs. They're just the drone-like kind of, yeah. Yeah. Or just striking them and listening to the sound disappear is a very good meditation. But they very quickly calm the mind. You just reminded me of something. I, I have a Tibetan singing bowl and I was, when I first got, I was really into it. I was playing it for like everyone who'd come through my apartment in the city. And one day we had someone come in and we had smoked a little bit.

And he put it in his hand and started playing it and he passed out. Like he legitimately fainted for five minutes. And we thought there was something wrong. He woke up, was as disoriented as anyone I've ever seen, looked a little scared and nervous and just left. Like he wasn't like a close friend of anything. He was brought over by someone else. And I was like, I've never seen that happen. They're like, yo, you're, you're something wrong with your bowl. I'm like, no, I don't think so. I don't know what that was. But yeah, I find it to be, like even my, my toddler, like he's relaxed whenever this, this is played.

And I find actually it's so funny that they, the young, young young ones, they love the medals. Yeah. They really resonate. I had a young. Yeah. The crystals in the medals. He loves. Unfortunately, they're not touching the crystals. That's not happening. But like for example, the chimes, you think little kids would like the chimes? Not so much. They're, you know, they're not as David because they're very child. Like they do bring adults back into childhood, but children. They're not really drawn to them as much as they are to the metal sounds. Like we do a gong puzha every New Year's Eve, New Year's Day rather.

And people have brought in babies and young kids and they just, they just pass out there. That's awesome. They do resonate. But the gongs, you know, the gongs are obviously much, much more powerful. You could talk about gongs for days, but I would say the gongs have the power to, to break things up in the body and also to decompose. You really can decompose your whole entire body and same with the frosted crystal balls because the amplitude on the frosted crystal balls are as deep as gong vibration. And you can also, I'll never forget I had this one guy. It was really early on when we were doing sound gas and it was his first experience with crystal and he was sitting up, you know, most of the people lay down.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was just like refused to lay down and he was just like up. He was going to stay up and you could just watch all this. Like they're right at the very, towards right at the very end, all of a sudden, boom. He's just out. He's just like totally surrendered to the power of, of, yeah. It was a good imagine fighting the sound bath for the entire time. I know. Eventually. Well, he was just trying to figure it out. Totally. You know, he wanted to see, you know, he was curious and that's so interesting. Instead of having the actual experience of. So I know this is probably like trying to get you to pick like one of your favorite kids.

Like what, what are some of your favorite instruments? They're not like overall, but at least right, right now. Well, I have to say, okay, so as a kid, luckily, lucky me. I, you know, grew up in the 60s and dancing and singing and just pretty much having a great time. Yeah. And, but then, you know, you turn into an adult and, you know, things happen and you're really then only just like singing in the shower. And I would also say that people's number one fear is speaking in public. Yeah. Well, I became a yoga teacher and then I had to face that fear and work through, you know, trying to just, it's really what it is.

It's just trying to share whatever it is you've experienced and, and the teachings and so forth. And they're so vast. And how do you do that? And what's the void? No, I know exactly where you're talking about it. And it's excruciatingly painful, you know, for everybody to find their voice, you know. So what started happening to me was, again, the bowls started showing me how to use them. And it was a crystal bowl. It was a practitioner bowl, which is a handle bowl. And I was working with, with D. Sure. And I was in ceremony working in, you know, but not really so much drinking anymore, but just assisting.

And now these drone star sounds start to come in to the ceremony scene. And of course, they're very soothing and they're a shaman in particular with loving vegetables. And then be like, okay, you're starting the ceremony. I mean, that's like a whole other story too, because in my, my journey, that's actually what ended up happening was being asked to, you know, come in with the shaman and help make the sound in the ceremony was like coming full circle. That's amazing. Yeah, that was, that's a whole other thing, but, but getting back to the crystal is so it just started showing me how to sing with it, right, to, to merge with the, the drone sound.

Yeah. And really in either just humming or working with the syllables, you know, or the seed syllables and Sanskrit. So, so a song came, you know, a mantra, you know, it was a Gayatri mantra, and I just started singing that into the crystal bowl and loving it, like, like, that, that was like so huge for me, so huge. And then to try and, and then start bringing that into our crystal sound baths and, you know, it was hard to, to, to sing really, like, yeah, no, I get it. And then, then what happened was I received an e-carole in my garden and an e-carole is a, it's a song, it's a melody given by the plants when you have healed yourself a certain amount and are now ready to offer that to others.

Yeah. And that happened, you know, as part of the journey and this beautiful e-carole came through that, through my personal garden, through my personal bowl and, and, and I noticed nobody was singing into bowls, you know, and, and then I started to sing into other instruments, like the frame drums, beautiful to sing into. And then, of course, the Shruti box is just like, everybody has to have a Shruti box because it's full of overtones. Yeah. And my teacher, Don Conroe, 84 year old, gong master, master teacher, who we, you know, retreat with every year, he's like, well, you know, the Shruti boxes are very forgiving, aren't they?

So if you're, you know, slightly tone deaf, you know, it doesn't really matter. You're going to hit one of those. Yeah. And then you're going to feel liberated. Yes. And then you're talking about liberating the throat chakra, right. And when we liberate the throat chakra, we really are stepping into a freedom beyond anything. And I have to say that that's really what I feel happened to me. When my voice opened and I got over that ego part of, you know, performing because we're not performing at all with sound, we're transforming. And I got to that place, you know, I got to that place and I have to say my husband helped me a lot with that because he was like, look at, you know, you're not singing for yourself.

Right. You're singing to the gods, honestly, to the, to the angels, to the beings, you know, and that was really important perspective, you know, the shift. Huge. And the other thing though, which was also amazing and shamanism, or teacher, or shaman, he would often go off key on purpose. And I noticed during ceremony when he would go off key with his singing, boy, you would go to a different place and you're healing, he was almost like the roto-ruder of sound like you would get to a place, oh my God, I realized I was holding that, yes, and release it. So I learned in our, the particular way that we flow a ceremony to use those dissonant sounds, you know, to, I mean, everything goes, you know, there's no mistakes with the sound.

It's like the, this is why I, I have to have the house writing, I can't, the jazz thing, is that, that is to me part of the essence of jazz is that, you know, there aren't any mistakes. The wrong notes are the right notes, not because you're purposely paying the wrong ones, but because there's a function to them. We may not grok that one. We're listening to it. It may not be pleasurable for everyone, but still that exists. That's, that's super awesome. You just described, I mean, because this process of learning, singing to your instruments and learning your instruments and them teaching you is something that it sounds kind of crazy to people who don't have that experience, but any, any musician will get that, obviously.

Like I have my acoustic guitar that I've had for 12 years, like that's, I played other guitars. I'm like, what's wrong with this guitar? Like why, why is it not doing what it should do? The other thing you were talking about is the throat chakra. I think there's an interesting link, um, Terence McKenna spoke about this a lot with, you know, when you're taking mushrooms or, or a lot of other plant medicines, um, you know, you get the, the verbal on, I'm on a Pia, the glacellalia. That seems like the genesis of the, it's like clearing your throat chakra. It feels like, because that, I know there were a few psychedelic experiences I had when I was late teenager where the next day I could just speak.

I could, everything that was in my head that was hard for me to express before just flowed. I mean, it just like wasn't a problem anymore. So it's interesting. I mentioned like that was a big personal transformation for you because I think when we can separate that we're doing this, like this is like our performance. This is our ego, which like any, any scene sound healing has that like anywhere else. People are bringing that with them. Well, when that's just cast aside and you can let the medicine do its work, the sound medicine. Yeah. Because as I said before, not everybody is going to feel comfortable, you know, taking psychedelics.

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, so that place that the problem is is that you have to have patience and perseverance with the sound. Yeah. I, you know, I've given surety boxes away to massage therapists and yoga teachers and things like this and they're, you know, some of them are still, they just don't work with it enough to, you know, take out patience is huge, but we have a lot on our plates today. So it's, you really have to make time. But I mean, for me, I mean, that it's my practice. That is my sad. This is, you know, what we, we can do this no matter what we have going on. I mean, I have so much going on in my life right now, like you can't even this whole, you know, we do six retreats and trainings a year and, you know, I mean, they're in a place of flow now because I've been doing them so long, but still, it's a lot of work.

It's a lot of responsibility, but I make time every morning for my practice. It's almost as if the gods are like, okay, here's your practice. You know, here's your day, you're going to go to sleep and wake up and everything that you learned that David Moore is gone, you have to start all over again. I can, I get that and we have to. That's why it's called a practice and, you know, it's challenging, but we have chose chosen this embodiment to, to learn and grow and what all that's about. I agree. Like the sound is here right now in the way that it was in the sixties, how, how music was so important for the shift and consciousness that happened then, mantras in particular, but even just the sounds of the sixties with Hendrix and this freeing, this, this, that happened, this, this freedom, you know, through movement, through dance, so all of that, you know, psychedelics, same planetary aspect, you know, the Pluto during a square, which there was maybe only one or two and then, you know, things opened massively, but then boom, they conjuncted again and closed down and then we had, you know, Reagan on like so forth.

But here we are again, since 2012 with those same aspects, but like seven times over. So nothing is closing. Oh no. Now, and this opening is also allowing other planetary energies to come in, asteroidal energies perhaps that never even affected us before, but now here they are, like we don't even understand what we're being hit with, but it's so interesting that we have the sound again leading the way, and it's in a much more accessible way. That's what I really wanted to, to say that, you know, people who have been told you can't sing, you can't be a musician, you know, the chords, blah, blah, blah, doesn't matter now.

That's so beautiful to me. That's what you reminded me of. That's what I think what you said that, that it was a catalyst from here, truthfully right now, is that that is the accessibility point. A lot of people aren't going to be able to be convinced that they can learn chords on a piano or a guitar, or might not have the patience for it. But if it's like anything, you know, people talk about ayahuasca when you get the call, right? Do it when you have the call. That's why I haven't done ayahuasca. I actually feel that it's probably calling me, but I'm just going to wait to pick it up for a little bit.

But people talk about the call. I think sound has the same call. Even if you are a music fan, or you're moved by it, you know, emotionally, that may be part of the call. Like you may be interested in this. I mean, I highly recommend anyone experiencing any degree of sound bath. What would you recommend for someone who's listening, first time they've ever heard about a sound bath? Maybe they've heard about it before, but don't really know what it is. Like, where would they start to just like kind of explore this world? Well, it would depend on, I mean, I would go to any sound bath. Yeah. It would be a beautiful way to start.

Just depends on where you live and who's offering it. I mean, it's kind of... Of course, of course. It's hard to mess up a sound bath. There's a lot of, you know, really good soundies out there, I think, you know, you're going to get something from... Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. You know, they get out of their own way and let the sound do the thing. Right. And the other thing is you can have a private, you know, you can also take a training. There's lots of trainings out there, too. Funny enough, this year I have a lot of musicians taking the training. They're very interested in... I'm not a musician, so it's like, okay, how are we going to, you know, how is this going to flow?

It's happening now. But it's...but they want to know, they want to understand how...well, how...I understand that music is healing, but how do I actually use this for healing? Where I come in, my experience as a healer, I've never liked to call myself, but that but as a cranial sacral therapist, you know, I've done tons and tons and tons and tons of sessions and, you know, and I understand what to, you know, look for in the body, how to hold space, let's say, for somebody to do their own healing, which is ultimately what's happening. Yes, yes, yes. I mean, obviously there's techniques doing cranial sacral therapy because it's an actual system in the body, and I know the techniques, but how do...if somebody has never worked in that way before, how do they really bring that sound in, you know, how do they know which one to pick up?

And that really, I think, is just experience. Do you have to do it over and over and over again, like I had to do even as a cranial sacral therapist? Well, yeah, there's a system, and these are the techniques, but you know, it's so subtle, how do I do it? Exactly. And sound is just as subtle, so...but the one thing I can guarantee you is if you're interested in this and opening up a practice or using anything therapeutically is to start with the tuning forks, because the tuning forks are weighted, and I mean, they're very vast, there's a lot going on with the tuning forks, but the weighted ones you actually use on the body, you can access the meridian points, acupuncture points, things like this, and you really will have an experience, profound experience with just using tuning forks on somebody.

Really? Absolutely. Yeah. That would be the beginner, which is what we're, you know, we're...how we're starting our training with John Bullier, who's the father of the tuning fork. I heard his name mentioned after that night two more times, which was the Magic 3. Oh. Yeah. It was someone, again, through my cryptocurrency world, was an astrologer, and just started talking about...heard me mention the soundbath, and he's like, "Oh, I know someone in Woodstock," and mentioned his name. I don't know if they knew him personally, but someone else who was here in this general area, and was like, "Yeah, like, there's this guy," and was like, "Oh, that's interesting."

And then someone else mentioned it on Facebook, so I was like, "Okay, that's three." Yeah, he's in Stone Region. He's brilliant. That's so cool. Because he's a musician. Yeah. He's a naturopath, and he's a sound healer, and he's brilliant, and he's been doing it a really, really long time, and he's also documented a lot of scientific knowledge around this. This is what the musicians actually want. They want to understand the science. Yeah. And I'm not so much, you know, concerned with that personally, it's like time just goes by too fast. I agree. I agree. I need to just relax. I agree, and I think the flow state aspect, which is why a lot of musicians do like to analyze, and you know, especially if you're creating a song, there's structure, there's all of these things.

This is very masculine energy, by the way. Absolutely. Which we need to balance right now. I could probably use a little bit more of that when I'm making music, probably a little more structure and actually finish a song from now. Time and again, that would be nice. But I mean, I just, this has been amazing. I just want to check our time here. Oh my God. We could, I have a feeling we could probably talk for hours on end, but I do want to wrap it up. What would, I end with three questions, and then a longer question, but before that, I wanted to say, if people want to find out more about you, Sage, just in general, what, where do they go?

I'll have links for everything when people listen to this, but just this is your opportunity to let people know too. Yeah. Well, yeah, they can email me or call me if you're going to provide. I will. I will have all the links on that. Yeah. So email is probably the best and you can check out the website too. It's very comprehensive. It has everything we're doing on there. Awesome. I mean, I'd love to do this again and actually get some of these instruments recorded so people can hear too, but I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again in the not too distant future. So here are my last three questions and I have one kind of open-ended one.

They may seem silly, but they're not. What is your favorite color? Blue. What is your favorite number? Seven. Cool. What is your favorite animal? My cat. Good one. And last question, what's a practical tip that's helped you in your life that you could share with other people? Well, I guess at my stage of maturity, I would say I'm really just trying to learn how to surrender and meditate really is that I think that's really just the key just to learn how to sit and when we sit and all the answers come, they just do, that the breath comes. So just the most thing that's helped me is to just sit and breathe.

Is that your daily practice? Yeah. Meditation. Yeah. And I just, I sit and I do my sound and do you have a particular form of meditation? You do or just quiet sitting? I'm just, yeah, basically just sitting and breathing, I focus on my breath. I have, you know, I love the teachings of Tignaton, you know, and I'm also a yoga teacher and yin yoga is my practice. So I, I, that is a full body somatic meditation. That's a whole nother thing, but we're also, I'm doing a retreat. The last retreat of the year is going to focus a lot on yin yoga and sound healing and how to merge the two. It's, you know, directed at yoga teachers.

That was one of the things I really also just brought in for years now. So how do I merge the sound, the nod with, with yoga and it goes perfect with yin. Yeah. Cool. So yeah, many things, I guess that only the question of answers. You're, you're doing a lot and I, I get the sense of really how much you're doing, but I just want to thank you for doing it because the, the fruits of your labor are felt just from my limited experience with you. And I think, you know, I know this time we're living in is turbulent, difficult in a lot of ways and surrender. Like you said, is a huge aspect of this entire thing.

No, if we didn't have sound during this time, it would be extremely difficult. I don't think I could either. I don't think it would have signed up for this ride. No, me either. If I didn't know that this was here, it's an instant medicine, it's beautiful to us and we need it. Well, thank you so much, Leah. Thank you.

Thank you very much. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Thank you for listening to that episode. Again, if you wanna check out more of Leah, go to SageAcademySoundEnergy.com. Wanna make sure I didn't mess that up? Nope, perfect, nailed it. If you wanna visit, it's in Woodstock, you know, that Woodstock, it's pretty cool there. I went, funny story about Woodstock. I went there, I don't know, a few months ago to get a slide, like a bowl for my bong. And I went there, and the place I went, of course, it's a head shop. It wasn't open, even though it was 1 p.m., called them, left a message.

Of course, they called me like six hours. We were open now, it's like thanks guys. But went across the street, and of course, there was another place where I could purchase a slide for what I needed. So I did that, it's that kind of place. It's pretty cool, it's a hip little place. Just called it a hip little place? Whoops. (laughs) Anyway, go check out Leah, go check out what she's doing. If any of the sound stuff peaks your interest, I really highly recommend for anyone who's not, you know, a listener from the beginning and haven't heard me mention it a million times, check out the mysticism of sound and music by Hazrat Eniak Khan.

One of my favorite books, we mentioned it here at the beginning of this episode. It's very, very, very cool, very cool. So yeah, check that out. Anything else to that I wanna mention? Oh, how about some stuff that I got to watch? 'Cause I really don't get to watch a lot of TV these days. Here are my recommendations for various things, if you want. All right, for comedy. If you're looking for comedy, the best show on TV right now. It's on Hulu, it's on Fox, I believe. Last Man on Earth with Will Forte, it's incredible. Watch it from the beginning. Catch up. Be easily best comedy on TV right now.

So there's one thing. The new Lost in Space on Netflix is also really good. Now I can't tell if it was because of my weakened emotional state because I was sick, but I was tearing up pretty much consistently throughout the entire thing. They really nailed the characters and make you feel not only for the characters, but also the robot. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's true. Also here and now on HBO, I really hope this show doesn't get canceled 'cause the reviews have been terrible. It's awesome. Haven't seen the finale yet, waiting to see it. Really recommended. If you're into things like synchronicity, kind of mysticism, it's from the creator of Six Feet Under.

It's a really good show. It also has one of my favorite Holly Hunters. Lexus doesn't understand why I love Holly Hunter 'cause she's awesome. She's amazing. Everything she does is really good. So what else did I see? I think that's probably all that's worth mentioning. If you saw Wild Wild Country with the Osho thing by the Duplace brothers, that was really, really good. Now, let's talk about Osho for a second. Osho clearly a Huxter. Let's just be clear about this, whatever you believe. Everyone has some validity or inner spark of spirituality and authenticity. This dude was just a straight Huxter.

There's no, I mean, the first tip off, just in case there's ever kind of like a clear signal that maybe someone isn't really an ascended master. If they have a hundred Rolls Royces, typically not something you will see in the spiritual texts and you know, in light and being accumulating. So Osho, go watch that. It's a pretty crazy story. All right, that's it. Big thanks to everyone who's listening. I have to get some guests scheduled for next week because I just took a whopping from getting sick and with Eli being sick, but I'm gonna do it. That's my promise to you. I will figure out one way or the other, do it.

So I will see you next week. Lincoln Tech provides career training that keeps America working. At Lincoln's Maawai campus, you don't just sit in a classroom. You train in fully equipped labs, work with industry leading technology and learn the skills that hiring managers are looking for. With personalized support and connections to top employers, your future in fields like advanced manufacturing with robotics, automotive, electrical, HVAC, and welding starts the day you enrolled. Visit LincolnTech.edu for details.