Sound Intentions

Soil and Soul: People Versus Corporate Power
Author: Alastair McIntosh
Rating: 5
My comments: A beautiful book, calling for a deep change in our underlying vision, coming from the authors experiences growing up on the Atlantic fringe of Europe.

The Spirit of Trees: Science, Symbiosis and Inspiration
Author: Fred Hageneder
Rating: 5
My comments:

The Living Wisdom of Trees: Natural History, Folklore, Symbolism, Healing
Author: Fred Hageneder
Rating: 5
My comments:

Like This: 43 Odes
Author: Rumi
Rating: 5
My comments:

Sounding the Inner Landscape
Author: Kay Gardner
Rating: 5
My comments: This book is about writing and composing music for healing, with reference to many different world traditions as well as modern research.

Being and Vibration: Philosophy of a Native American Visionary
Author: Mary Elizabeth Marlow
Rating: 5
My comments: The words and philosophy of Joseph Rael, a fascinating book giving his mystic experiences of language, sound, vibration and ‘reality’.

It’s the Thought That Counts: The astounding evidence for the power of mind over matter
Author: David Hamilton
Rating: 5
My comments: Dr David Hamilton shares how intentions and thought affect our “reality”, in a simple and down to earth manner and language.

Cymatics: A Study of Wave Phenomena
Author: Hans Jenny
Rating: 5
My comments: The complete reprinting in English, in one volume, of Dr Hans Jenny’s work, full of photos.

Healing Sounds: The Power of Harmonics
Author: Jonathan Goldman
Rating: 5
My comments: The original book by Jonathan Goldman that got me started on healing with sound and the voice. Excellent.

Tuning the Blues to Gold: Soundprints with CD (Audio)
Author: Vickie Dodd
Rating: 5
My comments: Vicki Dodd is an american sound healer. This book is written as a phonetic sound-journey, with sound-poems, to lead you through stages and spirals of healing. I really love her approach. The book includes a CD of “soundprints”.

The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality (Penguin Press Science)
Author: Brian Greene
Rating: 5
My comments: So far as I know, his is the best and most “readable” book on the latest theories about he structure of the Universe. If you want to know about Superstrings - here you are.

Nada Brahma - The World Is Sound: Music and the Landscape of Consciousness
Author: Joachim E. Berendt
Rating: 5
My comments: This book is fabulous. It is so far-ranging, across art, music, medicine, science. A deeply absorbing and learned book, written with great clarity and simplicity.

Healing with Form, Energy and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra and Dzogchen
Author: Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Rating: 5
My comments: I studied with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in the USA in 2005, he has a very direct and humorous way of putting across concepts quite unfamiliar to most Westerners, with good analogies. I’m finding this book very interesting to work with.

The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
Author: Wangyal Rinpoche Tenzin
Rating: 5
My comments:

The Mysticism of Sound and Music (Shambhala Dragon Editions)
Author: Hazrat Inayat Khan
Rating: 5
My comments:

You Can Heal Your Life
Author: Louise L. Hay
Rating: 5
My comments:

Mudras: Yogas in Your Hands
Author: Gertrud Hirschi
Rating: 5
My comments:

Healing Mantras
Author: Thomas Ashley-Farrand
Rating: 5
My comments:

Shifting Frequencies
Author: Jonathan Goldman
Rating: 4
My comments:

Sacred Chorde
Artist: Steven Halpern & Fabien Maman
Rating: 5
My comments: I love the shimmering singing sound of this CD, featuring two leading sound healers - Fabian Maman on the 77-stringed Monochorde (all tuned to the same note, so you get an incredible interplay of harmonics) and Steven Halpern on piano.

Savane
Artist: Ali Farka Toure
Rating: 5
My comments: I love Ali Farke Toure!, the master of Malian music.

Tijilatjila
Artist: Charlie McMahon
Rating: 5
My comments: One of my fave didge CDs with Didge, Cello and Piano floating in a dreamy landscape. Charlie McMahon is a great player and innovator. This CD is also sold under the title “Didjeridu Vibrations”.

Hearing Solar Winds/Hykes
Artist: Harmonic Choir
Rating: 5
My comments: Incredible soaring harmonics that build and build. Not always available, but keep searching - its worth it!

In the Heart of the Moon
Artist: Toumani Diabate
Rating: 5
My comments: Ali Farke Toure and Toumani Diabate, recorded on the banks of the Niger. Two very different musicians at their peak. I find this a beautiful CD.

Gayatri Mantra: Hymn to the Spirit Within the Fire
Artist: Rattan Sharma
Rating: 5
My comments: I like this particular CD of the Gayatri - the “mother of all mantras”. It is not always available, but there are many recordings of the Gayatri.

Himalaya
Artist: Original Score
Rating: 5
My comments:

Tibetan Tantric Choir
Artist: Gyuto Monks
Rating: 4
My comments: Amazing, however its not “easy listening!”

Harmonic Meetings
Artist: David Hykes & The Harmonic Choir
Rating: 5
My comments:

Genghis Blues [Australian Import]
Artist: Paul Kongar
Rating: 5
My comments: Wonderful throat wrenching blues of Paul Pena, singing “vocal harmonic” blues with his Tuvan friends. Watch the video!

Chakra Chants Vol.2
Artist: Jonathan Goldman
Rating: 5
My comments:

What The Bleep Do We Know!?
Director: Revolver Entertainment
Rating: 5
My comments: Quantum Physics, Spirituality, Consciousness all meet in this hit independent movie.

The Story Of The Weeping Camel [2004]
Director: Byambasuren Davaa
Rating: 4
My comments: Nothing happens for 90% of this film - telling how life is for a nomadic Mongolian family. Then one of their camels gives birth and doesn’t want to accept the baby. After trying everything the family call in a traditional sound healer - for a completely incredible sequence in the film.

Genghis Blues [1999] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Director: Roko Belic
Rating: 5
My comments: Genghis Blues records a pilgrimage made by the blind American Bluesman Paul Pena, to Tuva, to take part in the Throat Singing championships. Paul had a hit in the 1970s and played with some of the greats, but had fallen on hard times, looking after his wife who was very ill. After she died, he found healing in listening to the short wave radio. One day he heard the Tuvan group Huun Huur Tu, singing vocal harmonics. Instantly he knew he had to do this, so he sought out records and taught himself to sing in Tuvan, and to do vocal harmonics, especialy Kargyra, the deep sub-octave growl.

He taught himself some Tuvan, in Braille, through an English-Russian and Russian-Tuavn dictionary. Then one day Huun Huur To toured the USA, and he got to see and meet them. They invited him to Tuva the following year to take part in the chamionships. This is the film, made by two students who accompanied the trip.

Its a beautiful story with a soundtrack from somewhere beyond Mars. This man, rejected in the states because of his blindness and colour, greeted as a brother in a far distant culture.

Paul Pena passed away in October 2005.