I recently had the very good fortune to attend a weekend course on the use of singing bowls given by Suren Shrestha, the author of this book. My partner, Aimee, had learned about the course from a mutual friend. I am a pediatric cardiologist, which means that 1 care for children with heart problems. Pediatric cardiology is a highly technical subspecialty. My training was based on Western scientific, linear, left brain experience and thought. Ten years ago, if anyone had told me that I would be open to using complementary medical practices, much less writing about them and promoting them, I would have told them they were crazy. But, here I am.

The shift began for me about ten years ago. After about eighteen years in practice, while experiencing the upside of Western medicine, I was becoming more and more aware of the downside. Patients undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease, with the accompanying stays in an intensive care unit, followed by protracted medical treatment and follow up, were developing other problems. These problems were resulting from their experiences with their disease and from the treatments for that disease. For example, babies who go through this process commonly develop gastroesophageal reflux. Oral defensiveness with incoordination of suck and swallow is also common. Older patients might have sleep disturbances, phobias, or difficulty maintaining focus in a classroom situation. Physical symptoms such as headaches, chest pain, palpitations and dizziness, in the absence of an actual cardiovascular cause, are common. Some develop anxiety or panic attacks with hyperventilation and its associated symptoms. More recently, some are being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. These problems are often difficult to characterize accurately, and can be very difficult to treat.

EVERYONE has a vibration that is a signature of their health and wellbeing. You could think of it as a natural result of the processes that run our physical bodies as well as our mental, emotional, and subtle bodies. Similar to a musical instrument that can fall out of tune through use, our bodies can also fall out of vibrational harmony and potentially develop illness. Stress and negativity create blockages of a healthy flow of energy, showing up in the energy field around our body as lower energy disturbances at first, and later as illness in our physical body.

Sound and vibration can be used to re-tune us to health and one of the most powerful modalities for this is the use of Tibetan singing bowls. When there is a deep relaxation through soothing, resonant sound, the body is affected on a cellular level, opening up the flow of energy to move us back toward vibrational alignment with health. Sound can help us shift our energy frequency from lower to higher, removing the lower frequencies of emotions such as fear, anger, and resentment. In fact, whenever you are immersed in lower frequency emotions you can simply chant "Om" to elevate your energy.