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Originally Posted On: https://bellsofbliss.com/blogs/good-to-know/notes-and-chakras-spiritual-fraud-with-the-best-intentions

 

Sound healing for chakras

There are many “authorities” in sound healing community and some of them are misleading the subject by spreading unreliable teachings about the relationship between notes and chakras. I know that some of these teachers were misled themselves and they strongly believe that there is nothing wrong with the knowledge they teach. They have the best intentions, projecting so much love and care, but yet, if you choose to blindly follow the path they offer, will you discover the truth?

Unfortunately, there are also fake gurus and I will allow myself to say BE AWARE OF THE SPIRITUAL FRAUD!

*The key is, no matter what story you tell, make the buyer the hero.

Chris Brogan

When I started my research on Himalayan singing bowls, a major part of the information I was absorbing seemed to be nonsense. One of my big doubts was related to the resonance of chakras to the notes of the modern Western musical scale.

which singing bowl for which chakra?

Many websites or physical stores that offer singing bowls for sale, will tell you what chakra a particular singing bowl is good to work with. Even when you go to India, Nepal or Tibet you will be offered to purchase the “chakra attuned healing singing bowls”. Wanna know the real story on the chakras?

When I interviewed elder healers in Nepal and spoke to a shaman of a Bon Po tradition they weren’t familiar with the concept of western musical scale or relating certain notes to chakras. Yet, if you are looking for a singing bowl someone may just say to you: – Yes sir or madam, you tell me you are having difficulties with self-expression- here is a throat chakra singing bowl! Do you have a broken heart? – I have just the thing for you! The note “F” will work with your heart chakra!

The “authentic” Tibetan sound healing teachers will share with you the technique which is based on the Western musical scale system (frequencies of modern scale). More than that, the placement of the bowls around the participant’s body by this “authentic” technique is nothing, but a combination of consonant sequence – Perfect Fifths! Example of singing bowls placement: F, C, G, D, A, E, B (when F2 bowl is being placed by the feet or first chakra, note C3 next to the second chakra, G3 solar plexus, D4 heart, A4 throat, E5 third eye, and B5 crown chakra).

As you can see, the Perfect Fifths circle starts with the note F2 (in my experience, the most commonly found big antique Jambati bowls are F2 and G2) and goes all the way to the note B5.

How do you use singing bowls for chakras?

Why does this system suggest starting with the note F2? There is no evidence of that in any ancient texts! The notes of the Western modern scale cannot be mentioned in ancient teachings, that would be absolutely absurd! Note F2 has a precise frequency which is in the case of A4=440Hz equal to 87.31Hz. For those who prefer the tuning of A4=432Hz, F2 has a value of 85.72Hz. If you apply Just Intonation tuning, first you have to define what note and what frequency you are taking as a reference to calculate the ratio of the following notes.

No matter how you look at this having just a little doubt and common sense, it becomes clear that ancient Tibetan tradition COULD NOT be so specific about what frequency is assigned to note “F” and therefore there must be another explanation to the system described above.

Here is my insight on this issue: It is pretty rare to find an antique bowl with a lower note than F2, for example – E2 or lower. Also, if the count would start with the higher note – G2 for example, following the next six bowls with the interval of Perfect fifth would end up being too high – D6.

Conclusion: From the practical perspective, choosing the F2 bowl at the bottom of the scale is just more accessible and requires less effort to put together.

With all that being said, the teachers of “authentic” Tibetan sound healing in most cases will offer you quite a different set. This set may include contemporary bowls with the following notes: F2, C3, G2, D2, A2, E2 or E3 and B2. As you can see, these notes are not forming a circle of Perfect Fifths. Yes, the names and the string of notes is the same, but there is one nuance – the octaves are different!

As a person who educates and deal with the sales of singing bowls here is what I have to say: singing bowls playing these notes are big and heavy, therefore are pricey and worth to sell. This is not all… If you are educated enough and adequately doubtful, you may check the frequency of each singing bowl and see how far are the frequencies from being the exact note!

Yes, it may do the job, but please do not get caught with any unreliable system!

What if all my chakras are blocked?

Maybe you are starting to feel that I am skeptical about the authenticity of some offered methodologies and even being negative. Please keep your trust in humanity anyways even after reviewing the second and most common method of working with chakras.

This “authentic” method offers placement of bowls in ascending correspondence to chakras C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Guess what, the octaves are not specified!

WHY?

When I first read about this system, I wondered how it was even possible that the note “C” of the second octave and the same note, but three-four octaves higher, yet would activate the root chakra? I am still wondering why people believe it! Everything you’ve read about the previous method is still relevant in this case as well.

Can you use one singing bowl for all chakras?

The coloration of the sound, meaning its character, the intensity, the direction and the intention behind it, not the pitch only, will invoke a certain mental, emotional and physical reaction!

It is much more complex than just working with the musical notes to heal the aspects and areas related to the chakras, please understand this! Do not be blindfolded by the salesman teachers!

In the article “The pulse of a singing bowl”, you will learn that each sound partial of the singing bowl has more than one frequency! No one talks about it but that’s how you hear the bowl emitting beats. These beats are the result of interference between two slightly different frequencies in each partial (fundamental tone and each overtone). Even if one of these frequencies is hitting the exact numerical value of a particular note’s frequency, the other is slightly higher or lower. You never get a pitch of the exact note! Also, quite often the overtones of singing bowls are dominating in intensity over the fundamental tone. In this case, if you get a bowl with the fundamental note “C” and first overtone “G” which is playing louder than the fundamental, what chakra will you treat?

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