The Art Of Listening

By: Chris James

The ability to listen, to really listen, has become a lost art. The ability to hear what is actually happening around us is severely impaired by the audio filters that our civilisation has imposed upon us. The path of rediscovering our full spectrum of hearing is one of self-discovery and wonder.

Our ears have unfortunately no lids to instinctively close at the approach of dangerous sounds. They have evolved to gather as much sound as possible. Myth has it that our race once communicated in pure tones only; there certainly wasn't a continuing barrage of sirens, lawn mowers, air-conditioning and Muzac.

Our civilisation has been termed an acoustic nightmare. This constant imposition has led our brain to set up a neural filter system to protect us. The current inability of most humans in our 'developed' countries to talk honestly and to express our basic truths has led to even more aural filtering and conditioning. (Deafness first occurs in middle-aged American males at the frequencies of a raised female voice). We are now in a situation where the healing power of music and the secrets of the sound of the wind go the same way as the whipper-snippers and refrigerators; filtered out. How do we convince our inner ears that it is safe to uncurl and to listen to reality? Well, my experience is that we must listen to our selves. The first thing to listen to is our breath - the oldest meditation known to human kind. There is still so much peace and stillness waiting behind the sound of our inspiration. Meditation and stillness are always the first things that I teach. Out of this perhaps new-found stillness, we are then able to start to hear what we are actually saying when we attempt communication.

I can hear you, even when you don't talk I can hear you. I listen to your thoughts. From this state of stillness, we start to tone, listening to our own voices becoming musical instruments. In my groups, I always stay at this point for a long time, as people get used to hearing their own voices and feeling their voices in their bodies. The voice is one of the windows of the soul. There are so many accumulated rejections, unexpressed feelings of anger and grief locked in our larynx. In being guided into the art of listening and the path of tone, we start to feel those layers dissolve, eventually leaving us with the pearl of true expression.

True listening is an act of will. Within this statement lies one of the great healing aspects of this work, to use our will to become what we truly are. As we start to hear ourselves and each other, we are starting to truly listen; and we are starting to heal our life-force. This healing will probably start to take place around our solar plexus and will spread into our relationships, our work and throughout our life. Even listening to the way that we say our own name, the way we introduce ourselves, the words we actually speak, can start to heal us and to re-educate our creative listening. The undertones of statements rest in the overtones of our voices. Every note that we humans sing or tone consists of the fundamental note and a series of partial tones or overtones co-resonating higher tones. When we start to listen to our own voice producing these sounds, hearing two notes coming from our one throat, the sense of wonder that we naturally feel reassures us that we are on a path that resonates with our most inner sense of sacredness. Reproducing these sounds is actually easy. At least sixty percent or so of group participants will be able to discern these sounds and feel the effects on the first day.

The use of vocal harmonics has almost always been used in a spiritual context. From Ancient Mongolia, across Tibet, to India, from the Australian aborigines to the Gregorian monks. These countries and people reflect the profound effect that the use of overtones in a culture has upon its spiritual potential.

One also soon discovers that overtones cannot be forced, that they are almost like a blessing bestowed. It is not unusual that someone embarking upon pure toning will claim that they cannot hear a single harmonic in their own voice. Asked to demonstrate, they will produce a wonderful series of harmonics that everyone else can hear. One is called upon to hear what is actually there; to let go of the filters and the thoughts. The wonder is that the sounds themselves heal and repair. All our blockages and energy centres are getting aural acupuncture every time we tone.

One of the main vehicles of tone to listen to is the exquisitely slow transformation from one vowel to another. From the i to the ee, taking at least a whole breath to make the transition. From ee to eu. Once we start practising this, we naturally will start to feel the truth behind some old truisms, like OM (AUM), ancient sacred sounds that unlock a sense of wonder and sacredness that nurtures our very soul. Sounds that are the bedrock of ancient and modern worship. These sounds in particular will clean and remove our aural filters and reassure our inner ear that it is indeed safe, that we are truly starting to practice the art of listening. And when we have started thus, we find that the world contains a symphony of messages of hope and heart. The songs of birds, the harmonics of the wind in the trees; the sound of the ocean breathing in over a pebbled beach. All these sounds and more, focusing us and reminding us of the hear and now. We find our skills as healers and therapists greatly enhanced as we become true listeners, without judgement or thought. We start our days plugged into the heart chakra of the earth with our morning tones. We can voice our love and affection and hear ourselves being loved. We can hear what people are saying, even when they talk.

Chris James