L. A. S. E. R.

I am very fortunate in the number of times participants of a Sound Ceremony say, “I can’t explain what I experienced. You do something very different.” For over a decade now, I have smiled and thanked them for their feedback and left it at that. Today, however, I would like to share one of the paths contributing to my connection with Sound and Ceremony. It came through an extraordinary teacher.

It is very accurate that when the student is ready, a teacher always appears. Yet in 1969, something happened that excited a world of possibilities in my young teenage mind, the Ontario Science Centre opened. One of mine, as it would turn out, was a large building full of science. So enamoured was I that every Saturday for 32 weeks I went to the Science Centre. I was there so often that the staff wanted to give me my own lab coat with the Science Centre crest, but unfortunately, that never happened. They did not have one small enough for me. Scholastically, I can tell you that my report cards were always a source of great disappointment.

One exhibit among the many hundreds I loved was about lasers. At first, the idea of them seemed too complex to understand. I was like most kids listening to the lecture, wishing I was somewhere else. However, something caught my attention, and I started hearing something different. This is why, I suppose, every time I attended the lecture. The lecturer even took extra time explaining how lasers worked to me.

While I may have floundered in school, the Science Centre offered me an endless stream of connections. Upon returning home, I would fall asleep joyfully exploring how scientific theories and possibilities blended. While the laser spoke to me on one level, it encouraged me to explore other sound and sound amplification exhibits. Together, these teachings captivated the daydreams of a young boy.

Back then, I began seeing how light and sound can be seen as fluid motion, and then these could be amplified to create a desired outcome. Then I watched how those theories affected people. I began noticing things like how an intense glint of light from a mirror distracted some people and not others. Riding the hour-long bus home, the effect of bus noises had on commuters. Or when walking past storefronts, how a neon light with a faulty transformer affected pedestrians with its noise and flickering light. I observed everyone’s response to everything. I learned it had to do with their emotions. I now find it rather fascinating that my eleven/twelve-year-old was observing this. Then, to see him watch the layers and harmonics of life in motion, coupled with various intensities of light. I began to surmise all offered predictable outcomes.

In my 20’s, as a bar manager, I dedicated many thousands of hours to watching how energy flowed through people in a room. Then how those patterns shifted or conversations changed with the dimming lights. Or how one song would encourage people to dance very close together, and the next could start a barroom brawl. Every new DJ I hired soon learned what songs they could play. They were also very aware that if they chose not to heed my warnings, they, not the doorman, would break up the ensuing fight. They only ever had to make that mistake once. The message of predictable outcomes was unequivocal. This is why Sound Healers must be very sure of what they are doing.

Every Sound Ceremony, for me, is more than a series of pretty sounds. It is another opportunity to explore what I already know and appreciate what I am learning still. I wish you could hear and see what I experienced in Ceremony. To feel the relationships between what is being offered and how it is being received. To see how Ceremony is a moment by moment, intimate experience that invites the mind to transcend thinking. The ensuing peace allows me to explore a vast unending expression of light and sound. For me, Ceremony is an out-of-body experience while being firmly planted and an active part of the physical experience.

I believe the guide must exist in both realms, for they must be aware of how the soundscape blends with the light, event if it’s a single strand of light through a window, through the dust in the air, as it finally rests upon a flower, table or glass. Or how the subtlety of sound blends with a candle’s dancing flame. Then, to also be aware that it is very probable that focused light is bending the sound in the room.

It is why I start every Sound Ceremony with an acknowledgement that all sounds, in the room, outside the room, everywhere, are part of the Ceremony. It helps to know that Sound Ceremony is a singular focus, expressed in a vast realm of possibilities. I, as your guide, must be part of the experience, yet not fooled into thinking I am the maker of the experience. I have attuned myself to the frequencies, yes, part of it, absolutely, the manipulator, no. As your guide, I rely on decades of being and existing within multi-layered events and still experience the wonder of the one I am within them. It helps to remind me of what I know and how I know what I know. This is important, for the participants of any Ceremony depend upon it. It’s why that as your guide, I hold Ceremony in a sacred trust. attune

I often look back at that teenage boy, sitting in the dark lecture hall, watching the laser come to life. There was a message being offered, more than just the science. A fluid dynamic was being shared—one of action and reaction, knowing what and why was created, and the ensuing accountability. I can still hear the sound of the laser starting up and see its light glow in the room. Am I waxing lyrical on the musings of my pubescent self? Perhaps. However, I can tell you I remember how I felt as I listened to the lecturers and how the room smelled before and after the laser started. I remember the thoughts as my excited teenage mind drifted off and considered endless possibilities.

There is so much more I can share on the topic of sound, light, and Ceremony. Yet this feels like enough for now. I do recognize that at that point in my life, a door opened for me. It was one of many the Science Centre encouraged. Funny, the things we remember.

While you would think my experiences at the Science Centre would have helped with my school grades, it did not. I guess we all learn differently. However, by sharing this small part of how I equated science with the Ceremony, I hope to reveal what is occurring for me in Ceremony. I hope this helps answer some of the questions about why the Sound Ceremony I offer feels different. There are more insights, of course, and I look forward to sharing these and similar experiences with you. After all, any Ceremony is too wonderful to miss.