By Dr. Mark Wiley

When you’re plagued by lethargy, stress and anxiety, the simple practice of healing sound can renew your sense of well-being. If you try the ancient Taoist Qigong practice of human sound healing, you’ll find it simple to use but profound in its benefits.

Human sound is an essential part of our existence. Indeed, the spoken word is nothing but an intricate combination of sounds strung together to form spoken words.

If you think about everything you do, you will find that sounds are involved. Lift a heavy box and you grunt. Eat a delicious food and you say, “Mmmmm.” Bang your finger and you scream, “Ow!” If you are sad, you sigh or moan. When happy, you laugh. And the list of activities and sounds goes on and on.

Sounds of all types have been central to our ceremonies, too. What is a wedding without music, a birthday without singing or a religious event without chanting or singing?

Sounds Are Linked To Healing

For centuries, human sound has been directly linked to the healing process. In fact, it is a natural part of life from birth. Women scream and grunt during labor to help centralize energy and apply force when pushing. A baby cries when it is born to open its lungs. Children cry to help soothe their feelings, and parents say “hush” or “shhh” to babies to quiet them.

I would like to introduce you to an ancient Taoist Qigong practice of human sound healing called Liu Ze Jue Qigong, or the Six Healing Sounds energetic breathwork.

The Six Healing Sounds are monosyllabic utterances that, when repeated and sustained, help:

* Unify the mind and body

* Remove symptoms

* Return the body to homeostasis

* Quiet the mind

* Enliven energy

The practice is a form of mindfulness meditation, as you focus your observation on the sound being uttered and the sensation felt in the organ it is meant to influence.

Miraculous Resonance

The sounds themselves miraculously resonate only with the organs they are meant to affect. Thus, there is an undeniable link between the sound and the illnesses brought on by organ dysfunction.

If an organ is in excess, is deficient or possesses stagnant energy, blood or fluids, the healing sound will rebalance the organ and, over time, remove the dysfunction.

All internally contracted diseases are brought on by imbalances in the organs or in the energy, blood and body fluids derived from those organs. Because of that, the healing sounds can, if done for prolonged periods over time, return the body to balanced homeostasis.

Why does the practice of Liu Ze Jue Qigong encompass only six sounds when there are 12 major organs? In traditional Chinese medicine, organs are grouped as being either yin or yang, and each yin organ has a yang counterpart, and vice versa. So while there are only six sounds, they affect all 12 individual organs or the six yin-and-yang organ pairs.

To begin the sounds/meditations, sit or stand or lie down as you like. It is important to wear loose-fitting clothing and be in a quiet room with dimmed lights. If you can be undisturbed for 30 minutes, you will have plenty of time to relax and get into the exercise.

Here are the sounds and the organs with which they resonate:

* Xu (shooo): Calms the liver and gallbladder.

* Ho (hooo): Opens the heart and small intestines.

* Fu (fooo): Cools the spleen and stomach.

* Xi (sheee): Awakens the lungs and large intestines.

* Chu (chooo): Releases the kidneys and bladder.

* Hey (haaa): Energizes the pericardium and body trunk.

Think of the syllables as song sounds, as opposed to word sounds.

For best results, especially for the novice, place your hands over the organs you are sounding to and then sing or hum the sounds so you can feel the resonance in the organ.

When you feel ill, tired or stressed, anxious or depressed, the practice of the healing sounds can bring new energy and balance to the organ systems affecting the mood and help you become vibrant and healthful again.