Today words, sound and music are being used as powerful tools for transformation and healing by a group of dedicated individuals who could be called Modern Day Troubadours! Gifted speakers and spiritual music storytellers are using sacred sounds, mystical words and uplifting music to help raise consciousness, shift perceptions and create closer connections with humanity and the Divine. Following the age-old tradition of the French troubadours who were singer-poets of medieval Europe, Modern Day Troubadoursare once again using artistic devises to activate inner wisdom, profound healing and universal truths.
Carmen Warrington is a meditation guide, workshop facilitator for corporations and general public and performer/producer of meditative concerts around Australia such as Sounds of Peace and Inner World Music. She has recorded a dozen guided meditation CDs that have helped thousands of people all around the world find inner peace and power. She is the best-selling author of "Today I will; 100 ways to make your life calm and creative" and her 2ndbook - "Who am I; discover your inner world" was published May 2004.
Carmen uses her voice as an instrument to conduct guided meditations and poetic soul journeys, using healing words to soothe the heart and mind, and allow people to contact the real beauty within them - the spirit beauty.
I asked Carmen to explain a soul journey experience. "These are events combining music and meditation journeys. The most vital part of the process is for me to be in a soul conscious state, very introspective and free, where I can feel and respond to the energy of the audience and be brave enough to speak and sing on a soul level. I feel that what I do is like mothering - I create a trusting space where people can feel safe and experience their own innocence and their eternal qualities while I hold them energetically in my arms & feed their soul".
Carmen said that a performance "feels like a ceremony to me - an honouring of the moment, the person - a genuine feeling experience".
Sound contributes profoundly to our state of consciousness. The difference between the random sounds of everyday and sacred sound focused to uplift and transform is that sacred sound produces harmony rather than dissonance. The more beneficial sounds we hear and feel, the greater the effect upon our energies. Bringing the body and subtle energy field into a state of relaxation and balance is the key to facilitating deep transformation.
The tradition of old sought to elevate the spirit, by creating an energetic bridge between the everyday and the great archetypal energies and esoteric teachings inherent in their poetry, music and song.
David Jones is Australia's premier drummer and percussionist. As a Modern Day Troubadour, I asked David if he could share his intention when playing and performing. "I become the instrument - my intent is to be an instrument of God. Because the skill for me is something I don't need to pay conscious attention to these days - I've been playing for 30 years - I like to disappear and yet be fully present. I play from the heart and yet I like to be very detached and watch the whole scene as it is occurring."
David further explained that "the play of energies between the musicians on stage or in the studio and the energy loop that is set up between the audiences, the listeners is something very fascinating and beautiful to me. The predominant experience I have playing music is of divine joy. This is whether I am playing jazz with James Morrison or totally 'edge of your seat' improvisations with my own group or playing specific meditation concert events. My attitude is always the same - I must heal, serve and uplift.”
The Modern Day Troubadourlike those in the ancient fraternity seeks to inspire as well as entertain. Energy follows thought and with this awareness and understanding, the Modern Day Troubadourempowers sound and music with conscious thought to serve and transform.
For 20 years, Chris James has been teaching people that when they uncover their natural voices profound doorways open into personal development, spiritual awakening & personal empowerment. He teaches meditation, energetic awareness and harmonics, the use of sound to still the mind and to raise consciousness and in general the joy of singing. As an International teacher, Chris opens festivals and conferences and has released 9 CDs and a poetry anthology.
I asked Chris about his workshops. "In my workshops I tell participants to optimise their experience by being present and focussed and then to expect miracles. That's when profound shifts of consciousness and powerful physical healing can happen."
Lifting the spirit and gladdening the heart are clear intentions of the Modern Day Troubadour. By using sacred and harmonious musical sounds of voice, words and instruments, energies can be lightened and creative thought stimulated. Sound is vibratory energy. With conscious thought we can become more aligned with the higher frequencies of the unseen world that exists simultaneously with our own. Electromagnetic fields and impulses in individuals, in communities - even countries can be raised to a finer, more refined frequency when groups of people come together to create harmony.
Chris expanded on the inherent power of sound - "When I teach in another country it feels sometimes as if you have to move the energy of the whole country at the same time as teaching the group in front of you. And as the teacher becomes more aware, the intensity of the esoteric aspect of the troubadour's work becomes more profound." He said, "The age of the conscious teacher, the troubadour, the mentor, is now upon us and our role is to empower people leading them into awareness."
Sound Alchemy practised by Modern Day Troubadoursactivates the universal rule of entrainment where sound vibrations of one object are projected upon a second object with a similar frequency, which causes the second to vibrate in resonance with the first. Uplifting, beautiful sound vibrations from the spoken word, singing, sacred sound and music entrain our body systems, our emotions, our mind and our spirit to resonate with the harmonic vibrations of the cosmos. In this altered state of awareness we can reach a point of stillness, a silence often referred to as a point of light, where deep and profound transformations occur.
Sam McNally is a contemporary pianist and keyboardist, composer and recording artist. Sam has recorded 5 CDs of his own music and has worked in the Australian music industry for well over 20 years with artists such as Tommy Emmanuel and John Farnham. A large part of Sam's musical focus has been in the domains of healing and meditation.
I asked Sam to share some of the insights revealed to him through music and composition. "There have been wonderful opportunities for me to use my artistic expression in situations and atmospheres where the music is working side by side with the power of silence. This is one of the lovely paradoxes - using sound to help bring people into a state of silence. That applies to a less obvious extent in my contemporary jazz performances but behind the curtain of the music is an attitude of wishing to bring people into a peaceful state of focus - a point of focus - rather than a highly extrovert state."
Sam continued, explaining what this state of inner silence can do for people. "There is a state of inner peace that is possible to reach and we know it when we reach it. It's a very happy place to be. A state of mind where there is no unnecessary thought. A state of mind where we are not thinking thoughts that have no benefit. For example, in a performance space - if someone is listening to the music and having an experience of inner peace they are in fact enjoying a state of inner silence. Inner silence is not necessarily or literally no sound - like many terms in English it is not literal. It means that there is no chattering of the mind with any unnecessary thoughts."
Sound has been called the new medicine of the 21stcentury. Sound waves are everywhere and everything has a sound. Sound Alchemy is the transformation of denser vibrations of sound that contribute towards disempowerment, disease and disharmony to a state of resonance where each of us can experience the most refined vibrations of harmony, empowerment and health possible. We can transmute dross into gold!
Susie Nelson-Smith has been a student of religion, spirituality and the esoteric mysteries since she was 12 years old. A practising Natural Therapist for 30 years she has been teaching and guiding people to activate their inner wisdom by sharing her love and passion for sound, transformation and the esoteric mysteries in her workshops and concerts travelling around Australia and overseas for the past 10 years. Her focus is to createan experience of deep transformation using crystal 'singing' bowls, essential oils, colour, crystals and guided meditations with deep reverence, love & respect.Susie teaches professional courses in Sound Therapy, Crystal Vibrational Therapy with crystals and gems and Reiki. She has produced 2 Crystal Sound CDs and her 3rdCD "Opening the heart to LOVE" will be released later this year.
I asked Susie to explain what it means to be a Modern Day Troubadourin 2004. "It is an enriching experience on many different levels. As a keeper of the crystal bowl and a proponent of Sound Alchemy I have the opportunity to assist people in awakening memories and knowledge, of strengthening connection to Soul and of amplifying their inner truth. It's a calling - a soul pathway", Susie said, "It feels very familiar and comfortable to travel and work with others in this way. At one level I am serving those I meet being guided by my heart. I believe also that at another level, we all collectively serve the greater consciousness every time one of us shifts from darker into lighter. Everyone on earth benefits energetically because the vibratory resonance on a global level is lifted from dross towards gold. Each of us makes a difference not only to ourselves but too each other and I feel my soul calling is to assist this process."
Modern Day Troubadoursbring awareness with them, a new consciousness that knows and understands every person is musical, has a beautiful symphony of sound within just waiting to be realised. With the artistic devices similar to the troubadours of medieval Europe - poetic words, harmonious singing, sacred sound and music, Modern Day Troubadoursfocus on activating the unique qualities of each person by uplifting, inspiring, informing and guiding with clear intention to support each person's innate capacity to vibrate in harmony with their truest self. As each of us activates the highest octave within, we vibrate and then resonate with the divine sounds of the cosmos.
Carmen Warrington
info@calmandcreative.com.au
David Jones
david@davidjonesdrums.com.au
www.davidjonesdrums.com.au
Chris James
http://www.chrisjames.net& http://www.sacredsound.com
Sam McNally