The gifts I have been given. Well-being for life. 2014
Translation by Joanna Newson
Whenever I meet a young child or see a baby, I offer them a dedication, which I say quietly in my head, “ You made it! Welcome to earth and thank you for coming”. One child, who came to a lecture of mine with his mother, really seemed to connect to what I was silently saying to him. Children seem so princely and dignified these days. It is as if they know so much already. Maybe they are old souls.
Through my Sound Healing work one person I have had the pleasure in meeting is an Obstetrician Akira Ikegawa. In 1999 he began a scientific study of foetal memory after hearing stories from midwives about children having pre-birth recollection. In one of his books he writes that before we are born on earth we wait on the clouds for our ‘turn’ and when it is time we choose our own parents, we even decide whether or not we will become ill in this life. Even brothers and sisters choose each other. Interestingly, the United States began research into this field in the 1970’s.
Modern science says that we store memory as information in our brain cells. However, the leading light in pre-birth psychology Dr. David B. Chamberlain asserts that “…memory is not just something which comes to us as we grow. It is something we have always had from the very beginning…”.
I was born in the town of Takamatsu in Kagawa prefecture in Japan and I have always wondered why I was specifically born in that place to those particular parents? My mother was a busy woman, who taught dressmaking at home. Whilst she was pregnant with me, she found it very relaxing to listen to classical music. She also had her favourite Leonardo Da Vinci painting on the wall, The Mona Lisa. This kept her smiling. My father preferred jazz and hotter, Latin music. When I was really young I remember how they loved listening to those single, 78 vinyl records together. Listening to music in those days was quite rare, as it wasn't as widely circulated as it is today.
When I was thirteen I got an unexplained illness. My mother and I were in and out of different hospitals until I was finally diagnosed with something similar to kidney disease. I was sent to a specialist clinic where I was told that this would probably be a lifelong condition. I can remember how low this made me feel. What got me through that time in hospital was listening to music! When I was quite ill, music really helped me to relax. Upbeat music didn't really work for me; it was classical music that touched me…it felt familiar.
After about a year of being ill, I had lost my self-confidence. I was a timid and lacklustre school student who didn't have the confidence to speak his own mind. Hence, I had to repeat a year of high school. This illness transformed my life in so many ways.
My mother took me to natural treatment clinic and it was there that I learned about my own innate, healing power and how it would do more to help me than any doctor could. Rather than spending time trying to battle this illness I listened to music and spent quality time being happy and I actually started to get better. I also recognized then that this illness wasn't all about me. When I cared for others who were suffering like myself, my own problems would dissipate.
Despite all this, I carried the emotional scars of my illness into later life. Every time I over exerted myself, I got kidney pain, fevers and I would start feeling low. Although I had been diagnosed with a lifelong condition I nevertheless still worked extremely hard in a company. It came to a head one night after working late. I remember looking into the toilet mirror and how I broke down at the sight of my own reflection.
Slowly, I came to realize that the symptoms I experienced which made me seem ill actually served a purpose for a healthier future! The fever and the depression were part of a process to rid my body of all the negative things I had accumulated in the past. From then on, whenever I had a high temperature I didn't take any medication, instead I waited it out. Then would come quite an offensive smelling sweat.
I recognized that smell as the medicine I had taken back when I was a high school student. Each time I would sweat or cough up phlegm however, I actually felt lighter. Whatever symptoms I got, I simply carried on drinking plenty of water and did the things I had learnt when I was younger which were simply to sends words of thanks to different parts of the body, to relax and wait. After each bout of illness I was healthier than ever.
In my late 30’s I joined a three-week program facilitated by a spiritual centre, which included a one-week food fast. I had heard about this program through a friend. It was a method to spiritually train yourself whilst carrying on with your everyday life. Before the fast I met the spiritual leader of the centre and told her about my kidney problem. After looking straight into me she finally said, “There is no problem with your kidneys. The only problem you have is that you are still holding on to the thought that your kidneys are bad”. As you can imagine, those words had quite an impact on me.
It dawned on me exactly how much my own thoughts created my reality. During the fast I went to work as usual and it was recommended that I do some exercise so I went swimming. My body felt lighter, my senses were heightened and my concentration levels increased. Since that fast my kidneys have never given me any problems and I feel so much stronger. By practising spiritual breathing and offering words of gratitude to all the different parts of the body I started to sense that life energy came from something else, something other than food. Cutting down on food intake made room for more of this ‘something else’, this sustenance to come in my being.
I also discovered for myself that this same kind of sustenance could be found within some but not all music. So what was it exactly? I began searching for it. I felt it to be a translucent quality, a certain clarity present within musical resonance and, it could be captured in both live and recorded music. Even two pieces of the same music composed by the same person would ‘feel’ different because the essence of any music is intrinsically linked to the people who perform it.
I was committed to producing music full of this special quality. In order to do this I knew I must train to connect myself to it authentically. I read books and practised spiritual breathing and did what I could to attune myself to this thing that I felt was inherently present in all of us.
One way that I felt drew me closer to it was by not identifying myself too much with my own fleeting emotions. Another way was to listen closely to music that had this special quality within it. I still practise this type of spiritual technique to this day and I have met some very pure people along the way.
It has been 20 years since I embarked on this mission to use sound to improve well-being. I was determined to spread a healing vibration out to people and to use music to do that so ‘Healing Vibration’ is the name I used for my company. In those days, the word ‘healing’ was uncommon.
I had taken this name from the body sonic machine that I had helped to develop whilst still working at the company I was in before I set up on my own.
Hideo Itokawa, the father of Japanese Rocket Science first had the idea to develop a machine to conducted sound directly into the body. Mr. Itokawa played the cello in his spare time and was very interested in ‘bone conduction’ i.e. how vibrations from an instrument like the cello were conducted into the body through the bones. He thought it was imperative that someone develops a means to electronically transmit these healing vibrations into the body. The company I was working at started developing this idea and we came up with the body sonic machine. It was an ideal and innovative instrument, which transmitted harmonic vibrations into the internal body environment thus bringing it into balance rather similar to how acupuncture works.
When I combined this with extra treatment methods that I learnt when I was a student, I achieved a much deeper level of relaxation. Unfortunately for me, I was the only one who was interested in this. My company almost went bankrupt a few times.
I tried to find other people who believed in this little machine as much as I did and I met a well-known Oncologist from New York, Dr. Mitch Gaynor. He suggested that I set up the Sound Healing Association of Japan in order to fully explore the possibilities within sound and so, in 2001 that is what I did. Around the same time, I established my own method of ‘Sound Healing’, which was about bringing happiness to people, nurturing them and teaching them about the calmness and vitality that sound can provide. There were times when I was alone on this mission but I just carried on regardless.
Looking back, I can say that the very things that seemed to be the most difficult to overcome were actually the keys to my success. In order to realize my mission I had to believe in myself. I think that there was meaning for me in everything that I experienced along the way. Everything was meant to be.
I couldn't have done this alone. Human relationships were integral to my own growth and for me to fulfil my pre-scribed life mission. There were clues for my future success in everything I did be it good or bad. I tried to watch my emotions, which arose as a result of what happened to me externally. I tried to delve into what the lesson was meant to be and I finally understood how important it was to have had the confidence and ambition to transform myself. I truly thank all the people who have played their different roles in my life.
I will carry on with Sound Healing. I can now boast of the most stunning group of friends in Japan, the US, Canada and the UK, all of who have a similar mission of using sound to promote life vitality and peacefulness. They too have co-created their own journey by believing in themselves.
As Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara impressively asserted in one of his lectures, ‘…Life is time allotted to us which, as children we spend on ourselves and as adults we spend on others …’
I will continue co-creating my life of well-being and use my time to help others. Please join me and we will create your own life of well-being together.
May peace prevail on earth. May peace be in your heart.
