sound for meditation, art  and Yoga – web edit

a contemporary treatment of ancient wisdom

By Damon Craig, JP, Esq, etc.

mastery of sound at the mansion

about the author

Damon Craig is both a qualified Engineer and accomplished Artist. His qualifications have come from the Department of Defence, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and RMIT University.

Damon is a proud Australian and Global Citizen and identifies with the Eagle and Turtle, the river Clyde and Mountains of Canobolas and Vancouver. Damon strives to be a Sonic Crusader, Philosopher and Polymath. Damon has a young family and lives now in the Mornington Peninsula and acknowledges the Boonwurrung people as the traditional custodians of this land. He has completed tertiary study in traditional history and culture of Australia.

a short note

The Author is under treatment for a Major Depressive Disorder and associated complex chronic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of his operational military service. He has an equivalent yoga expertise of over 200 hours and more than two decades of experience with sound, music and aural theory.

The contents of this essay should be used in conjunction with the study, practise or delivery of meditation, art and yoga by an appropriately competent, confident and capable group.  

This work is largely a piece of creative writing based on the life and experiences of the Author. It was written over a few days in Tyabb Country of the Kuruma People and all respect is offered to them and other indigenous people including Elders Past, Present and Emerging. It is accepted that the name ‘Tyabb’ was derived from an Aboriginal word describing waterholes or a mud hole

Introduction

Sound is all around us and within us. Some sounds we hear with our ears, some sounds we feel in our being and others consort with our other senses such as sight to convey a meaning. Those with hearing constraints rely on other sense to help fill in the picture but the importance is not diminished.

At its purity, sound comes from the natural world around us. We have evolved to a complex reliance on technology for both work and entertainment. The use of technology to store, reproduce and re-create sound is not to be discounted; without this many rare and beautiful sounds may not be able to be understood. The use of Digital Signal Processing to analyse, treat and understand sound is very important. Whilst the basis of Fourier Analysis and representation of sound in other domain is rooted in natural mathematics, the vast contemporary computing power available makes this process far more economical.

The approach of soufámay looks to set a series of ideas around the use of sound and declared certain families of sound. This enables them to be better utilised in the practices of meditation, art and Yoga.  There is no attempt to establish soufámay as stand-alone discipline but an adjunct to properly formed groups that work towards the mastery of the established disciplines.

The representation of the soufámay philosophy is a single accented musical note that appear transverse to accepted musical notation – this is to symbolise that the import of the note is more important than the note itself with the accent to allude to the naming of soufámay.

This essay will briefly outline the guiding concepts of soufámay, the classifications of sounds and the uses for them in daily practices.

eleven guides

1. Sound is at core pure and unsullied; it is ancient despite contemporary methods of stimulation. Learning and Healing are facilitated by aural transients. These support Transition of awareness from the sprit, mind and body.

2. Sound is a series of vibrations about a rest position of an item or part of an item. These vibrations move through air, water or masses in a series of waves. Sound has power, both in the wave itself and in the ability of the sound to create vibrations of meaning in another place. The philosophy of soufámay is concerned with generally audible tones in the range of twenty to twenty thousand cycles per second. A short note is covered later on sound beyond the hearing range but these areas are not included in the soufámay  process.

3. Pure sound is from one source only. It may contain complex but natural harmonics and overtones but these form the tambre of the pure sound. It is essential not to over stimulate the source to create undesirable overtones as these become a distraction to the listener and are unwanted noise. The discipline of soufámay is concerned with only using one sound source. 

4. Ancient sounds are passed from generation to generation inside all living things and items derived from living things. It is thus inherent in soufámay that only sound sources from living or natural products are used. Metal may be used in the practice but only when other sources have been considered. An example of this may be a bell, cymbal or singing bowl. It is accepted that these, in the process of manufacture, have inherited qualities from the maker. It is not acceptable thought to have the sound of metal on metal in any form thus some shakers and  chimes are excluded.

5. The Method for encouraging sound or releasing it from an object must be made with the minimum stimulus used to get the desired effect; that is striking with excessive force, plucking or blowing to too hard is excluded from this philosophy. In some cases, such as the blow or bow method, sustained stimulation is required. It may be appropriate to have one person provide the stimulation sound and another to receive the benefit or use some recorded sound if appropriate.

6. An ability to gain a deeper understanding of the sound is essential. The learning is both to assist in better creation and use of the sound but also to learn the impact of the sound on the mediation, art or Yoga in process. I could go far as to say that if you are routinely using the soufámay process and not gaining some insight on the journey then a review of the components of your meditation, art or Yoga must be contemplated. 

7. Healing is the most significant part of the soufámay practice. The sound should be able to heal on some level for a period of time. This is not to be replace or be confused with professional medical advice but soufámay should be considered as part of your complete care package.

8. Transient sounds are the cornerstone of soufámay on which all building are built from. These sounds are both short and temporal but support a Transition to another place or state of understanding. Regardless of your level of understanding and proficiency in soufámay you will be using only brief sound ideas, it is the meaning derived from the contemplation that is the true beauty of soufámay .

9 to 11. The chosen sound in soufámay should be seen as a gateway to the three domains of Spirit, Mind and Body. The chosen sound unlocks each gateway to progress between the states as required. In some cases the practitioner will choose to move from body awareness, through the mind to the spirit and back again; other situations may take this journey in reverse or just to amble and wander amongst all three domains with soufámay to mark our each step in time and space.

seven sounds

Whilst I have a good understanding of the practice of Yoga and some meditations within this, it is not my area of expertise. The soufámay process allows the user to discuss, choose and create a sound for use as part of the meditation, art and Yoga. To support this choice sounds have been derived into seven groups as follows. 

pluck – where a string or item is slowly pulled or moved from rest and allowed to freely return and hence commence it’s vibration. The sound is a function of the tension in the item and its composition. Positioning of hands or other may impact on the tone and sound as with guitars. Pluck sounds are of value when you need to return to the normal status quo.

strike – where a string or item is sharply moved or pulled from rest and immediately commences it’s vibration. The sound is a function of the tension in the item and it’s composition. Positioning of hands or other may impact on the tone and sound. Examples are bells, xylophones and pianos. Strike sounds are of value when you need to deviate to a new state away from the normal.

blow – where wind or breath is directed over a reed or opening to create a sound. The sound is a function of the construction of the reed and the size of the vessel attached to it. Positioning of hands or other may impact on the tone and sound such as with keys or openings on the item. It must be noted that changes to note will have some inherent change to sound quality as with wind instruments and ocarinas. Blow sounds are of use to invigorate change around your current state

draw – where a rough surface such as hair leather is moved across another item to encourage vibrations. Some examples are violins and singing bowls. Draw sounds encourage deeper awareness around you current state.

resonate – whilst similar to the blow family these items are not able to have a change in pitch or mode and are exampled by blues jugs or pan pipes. Resonate sounds bring more allies and supporters to your course or path. 

tones and drones – for this family, it is common to have them produced with some technology support such as synthesisers or audio files on loop; they can be created by voice or a choir of voices. As the soufámay process is concerned with short sounds to support transitions it is reasonable to expect that the human voice, sustained over four or five seconds is sufficient. These sounds are useful to support general meditation art and yoga practice as part of a long term program.

Metronomes – the final family of sound is the metronomes or beats. This could be provided by a single drum or wood block but this family implies a repetition of perhaps a dozen or so cycles. Use or more cycles than that is not advised as is beyond the philosophy of the soufámay process. This sound or series of sound are most commonly used to mark time either in a single work or as part of a series of works. They are also common to start, stop or delineate a series or exercises.

an introduction to humm as an integrated part of the use of soufámay

at it’s simplest essence, humm in the soufámay process is a noun and not a verb. It is not the action of making a tone as this is largely covered in the seven sounds previously. The idea around hum is that it as an internal quality or feeling of the practitioner or student using the soufámay process. It is on many levels an aim of a progression of states of understanding; the ultimate point being the discovery of a true Humm. It is only in reference to this ultimate state that the Upper case or proper noun syntax is used, all other times it remains in lower case as is common in the soufámay process.

The discovery process around humm may use any of the sound families. It would be normal to expect though that as the practitioner or student using the soufámay process moves closer to the ultimate stage, less and less of the seven sounds would be used as candidates along the journey.

It might be common to use language such as ‘searching for humm’ or ‘learning about humm’ for a practitioner or student using the soufámay process. Once there is clarity on the ultimate sound and quality the appropriate language might be ‘found my Humm’ or ‘enlightened to my Humm’. It does not though imply that being an uppercase or lower case is any more skilled in the soufámay process, it is just a place holder for the journey.

I might just mention the Epicurean Curse here. Whilst this term is often associated with elite food concepts it is actually a poor use of the language. The true Epicurean people were fixated on the search for unobtainable perfection and effectively they could not arrive at this stage or the search was finished. It might be more appropriate to use the term hedonistic where th search for perfection was an aim, but reaching the climax was not in contravention of the cause and was easily repeatable. It matters not if someone is searching for hum or has full awareness as long as they remain true to the soufámay process.

The concept of humm is not Sound Healing but may offer restorative qualities. Music therapists work with clients  and their families. The soufámay process remains a key supporter of Sound Healing and Music therapy but does not endeavour to change the beliefs  and landmarks of these orders.

One of the first groups known to heal with sound were the Aboriginal people of Australia. The modern name of their healing tool is the didgeridoo, but it was originally called the yidaki that produced sounds that are similar to the sound healing techniques used in modern day and may be appropriate for the practitioner or student using the soufámay process.

humm pictogram for the use of soufámay

This picture is derived from an interstellar message sent by the inhabitanst of earth to other ystems in our universe. It has been modified to include a representation of sound in all it’s domains (time space and frequency). The graphic is a convenient showing of the search for humm and its true and singular nature for the practitioner or student using the soufámay process. It could be said that many paths lead to humm or that from one place we can take many journeys; both are valid interpretations of the soufámay process. The middle block of colour has been inserted to show how sound is generally centred on the human form and radiates out. I must note that the soufámay process and search for hum are neither gendered nor genderless but inherit this quality from the journey of the practitioner or student using the soufámay process.

humm with the seven sounds of soufámay

Whilst I have a good understanding of the practice of Yoga and some meditations within this, it is not my area of expertise. The soufámay process allows the user to discuss, choose and create a sound for use as part of the meditation, art and Yoga. The practitioner or student using the soufámay process is on a journey with hum in the direction of true Humm. To support this choice sounds have been derived into seven groups as follows as to how they relate to humm. 

pluck – this sound will most likely arrive at a hum with an intonated quality.

strike – this sound will most likely arrive at a hum with a need for external stimulation.

blow – this sound will have a breath like quality and may be useful when it is needed to be invoked without any other supports of stimulus.

draw – this sound will have a high reliance on implements to create vibration and may therefore either fall within a circle of practitioners or students using the soufámay process or conversely be a very private process to create and invoke the humm.

resonate – this sound will sit commonly with areas of traditional sound healing and sound meditations due to the clear connections with the soufámay process and the ideals of other groups. It may be difficult to evoke these sounds for true hum when needed at short notice if your resonators are difficult to take with you on the journey..

tones and drones – these sound will most commonly be known to those who find true Humm within music and complex sound scapes.

Metronomes – the final family of sound is the metronomes or beats is a most appropriate family of sounds for group work again. It is of note that many generations of emancipated peoples found both connection, culture and identity via this family of sounds and it is logical to expect that these may be predominant in the search for hum for many generations ahead of us.

positioning humm as an integrated part of the use of soufámay

to illustrate the journey of hum here is a poem from the collected works of the author and designer of the soufámay process….

Did I know you before we met
and how did we meet anyway?
Now it is you and me together
in this changing world.
Everything that can be done you do.
Life is sculptured by just you,
leave the old behind and take the new
Everything there is belongs to you.
Freedom is something you possess
out in this world doing your best.
different ways, perception and then
go, go, go, for what you believe.
eminent, prominent, yet not really known
rest assured, I will never leave you alone
even in the darkest moments.

the journey in humm for the practitioner or student using the soufámay process is very much a personal pursuit. Whilst it is acceptable to discuss the journey with others any judgement of the speed or otherwise measuring the progress of the journey is strictly discouraged. Open ended guidance like conversation around the journey is possible with someone who is both trusted and equally or more skilled is reasonable in some situations but not required in any sphere

“I was sitting in a seemingly awkward position yet my body was relaxed. We may find ourselves Interwoven in a complex conglomerate of activity. That to the untrained looks bad, sad, but to ourselves feels fine if not divine.”

Damon Craig, JP, Esq, etc.

soufámay – southern winter 2020