Healing Systems: Vedic & Tibetan

Healing Systems: Vedic & Tibetan

There are two main sound healing systems, one based on the Vedic scale, which Westerners recognise as the diatonic scale, and the other system based on the body’s meridians and chakras, which are derived from Chinese and Bon (the indigenous people of Tibet) practices. Bodhisattva honours all of these sound healing systems and does not validate any one over the others.

In this course, we will use the traditional Tibetan chart.

You will feel, sense, know, see, hear, develop and attune your abilities, and it will be accurate and unique to you, even if it has not been written in any books or taught on this course. With practice and integration of your abilities, you will find your own personal sound healing language. In that case, you may choose which system you prefer to use or, if you have a strong affinity to using a particular bowl in a certain way, you can ignore both systems and follow your intuition. If you feel, for instance, that an “A” note resonates with your heart, then perhaps you should use it for healing your heart, and so on. 

You will need to know the notes of the chakras in the Tibetan system for the practical element later on in the course.

VEDIC SYSTEM

TIBETAN SYSTEM

Mercury is both planet and metal in both Vedic and Tibetan Charts.

Download Vedic Tibetan System Chart here.

The System of Fifths

The notes were determined through a Tibetan system called The System of Fifths. You could call it a Tibetan music scale.

Teachers of Tibetan singing bowl therapy from ancient times set up their singing bowls in a pattern where the intervals between the notes corresponding to the chakras are each a fifth apart, with F at the Root chakra:

F – Root (GAB)

C – Sacral (DEF)

G – Solar Plexus (ABC)

D – Heart (EFG)

A – Throat (BCD)

E – Third Eye (FGA)

B – Crown (CDE)

N.B.: The letters in brackets are the chakras notes between the fifths in alphabetical order A-G.

The sound of the interval of a fifth is relaxing, soothing and centring to listen to. It is beautiful to the ears, and the vibrations of the fifth resonate particularly with the heart chakra.

The Director of the Institute of Harmonic Science in Phoenix, Arizona, Dr Harold Grandstaff Moses, commented on the interval of fifths as follows:

“We have run numerous experiments with sound frequencies, harmonics, chord progressions, tempos, color, lighting and visual imaging in order to gain insight on ways to influence emotions and feelings, while facilitating healing, reducing stress and generating a heightened state of spiritual awareness. Our research indicates that the musical interval of the perfect fifth and the resulting harmonic overtones have the ability to favorably influence the parasympathetic nervous system while modifying the listener’s state of consciousness. I am fascinated by the approach to the chakra system through a map based on perfect fifths. I encourage any sound worker to experiment with this tuning system.” 

Personal notes and experience:

• Most of the Tibetan bowls produce more than one note (most produce between two and seven notes) and therefore affect more than one chakra. Those who are willing to practice and do healing work will want to acquire a set of bowls that will be able to affect all of the chakras.
• As Tibetan singing bowls are not tuned to a specific note, nor made for a specific chakra, for that reason, they cannot really be related directly to music notes. The same way a chakra varies in a spectre of frequency and light, there can’t be only one chakra note. You will hear the fundamental tone plus two or three harmonic overtones in a genuine handmade singing bowl. Therefore, each singing bowl is of a much greater world of possibility than “this note for this chakra”.
• In healing with traditional metal instruments, it is taught that each of the sacred metals used in the alloy is aligned with one of seven heavenly bodies (also called planets) in our solar system and the seven chakras in our bodies.