Harmonizing And Relaxing With Healing Tuned Pipes

In this video, Tony Nec describes and demonstrates a set of 7 healing pipes tuned to A432 Hz.

There is an interval of a perfect fifth between each note, making the healing sounds very harmonious and relaxing.

Please listen to the sounds and be aware of how your body, emotions, mind, soul and spirit respond. The soundscape begins at around the 4 minute mark in the video. For best results, please listen with headphones or earbuds.

The use of these notes in Chinese medicine is referred to by Fabian Maman in his book "The Tao of Sound".

The use of these notes is also referred to by Suren Shrestha in his book "How to Heal with Singing Bowls - Traditional Tibetan Healing Methods". 

Background

Chinese medicine is based on the relationship between the 5 elements - accordingly there are 5 sounds / tones - one for each element.

This is covered in Chapter 65 of the Huang Di Nei JIng Ling Shu - one of the classic books of Chinese Medicine.

Fabian Maman took this as the starting point in his research, and developed a system using the 7 notes in the perfect fifth sequence that we have used for our healing tuned pipes: F2, C3, G3, D4, A4, E5 and B5.

When we talk about balancing the chakras, or balancing anything else, we need to be mindful of the state of energy. If something is out of balance there is either too much i.e. excess energy, or too little i.e. deficient energy. This is a foundational principle of Chinese medicine, including acupuncture.

The notes we have used for the healing tuned pipes are very harmonizing for the physical nervous system - both central and peripheral, including the autonomic and enteric systems, as well as the more subtle energy systems, such as meridians and chakras, which western science has found difficult to accept because subtle energy is difficult to measure using currently available technology.

In contrast, using the Ionian mode / diatonic scale of C, D, E, F, G, A, B  is good for energizing the nervous system and chakras, but not so good for harmonising them.

Chronic Stress & Associated Health Challenges

There have been countless studies published in peer reviewed journals linking chronic stress to many chronic illnesses. Chronic stress creates an overactive sympathetic nervous system and an underactive parasympathetic system functioning.

People with health challenges associated with chronic stress, such as heart problems, hypertension etc benefit most from harmonizing sounds, as this helps to calm the sympathetic system.

People with health challenges associated with a dominant parasympathetic system such as depression and fatigue, benefit more from energizing sounds.

So, in sound healing, sequences of notes using perfect fifths are very beneficial for some people (sympathetic dominant) and sequences based on the Ionian mode / diatonic scale are good for others (parasympathetic dominant).

As the notes in the healing tuned pipes create a series of perfect fifths, they are beneficial for people with a dominant sympathetic nervous system including:

• Digestive problems

• Headaches

• Heart disease

• Sleep problems

• Memory and concentration impairment

The Overtone Structure

Our good friend, Richard Azim, a wonderful flute player and Sufi healer, has pointed out the significance of the overtone structure of these healing tuned pipes. 

The upper partials tend to die out more quickly than the fundamental, and the higher components are not quite "true" in their tuning, so they are close in effect to the gentle beats associated with metal singing bowls.

He points out that there are at least 4 overtones on the lowest chime (one sounds like a subharmonic or "resultant tone"), and all have the characteristic metallophone dominant upper harmonic, which is approx an octave and a fourth above the principal tone.

The History Of Metal Singing Bowls

Researchers of metal singing bowls have found few, if any, written references to the use of these bowls being used for healing. There is some evidence that an oral tradition exists. This centers around families who have passed on the knowledge, skills and techniques for making and using the bowls from one generation to the next.

For example, Suren Shrestha, originally from Nepal, descibes how he grew up with alternative healers such as shamans, monks, lamas bijuwas and spiritual teachers as part of normal life. 

However, the use of singing bowls for healing was a dying art in Nepal and in only a handful of these healers' homes were singing bowls found. He mentions 2 people who were actively using singing bowls for sound vibrational healing in the traditional way: Master Dorje Tingo of Kimathanka on the northern border of Nepal with Tibet and Jejen Lama ("How To Heal With Singing Bowls" p. 15 - 17).

Suren Shrestha recommends using perfect fifths. This is a Western musical interpretation of the traditional Tibetan healing art with singing bowls. He uses the same note form as we use in the tuning for these healing tuned pipes: F, C, G, D, A, E, B, and he suggests various protocols using combinations of these notes. These protocols can easily be played on the healing tuned pipes.

Also, the late Dr. Mitchell L Gaynor describes how he was introduced in 1991 to metal singing bowls by one of his patients, Odsal, a Tibetan monk who was in his late thirties at the time.

Osdal came to his apartment one day and "brought with him a Tibetan singing bowl of the sort that the monks of his lineage commonly used to accompany their chanting and meditation" ("Sounds of Healing", p.3).

Odsal then instructed Mitchel Gaynor on how to play the bowl, and he was so impressed with the sound and its effects that he went onto integrate metal bowls into his successful integrative oncology practice in New York City.

Do you want to find out more?

Sign up for our FREE course, Perfect Fifths Healing Tuned Pipes & Forks!

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