Henny Interviews TheSoundSanctum

Background:  

Henrietta Whitsun-Jones, “Henny”, is my friend who lives life to the full while living with Multiple Sclerosis.  She is articulate, intelligent, witty, fun to be around and through everything life puts her way, she remains strong and independent.  HENNY runs a blogspot  hennyschilternsmsblogspot which is being reinstated on the Chilterns MS Centre’s newly updated website.

Henny recently visited TheSoundSanctum for a 1-2-1 Sound Session which she found amazing. (I’m sure she will blog on it at some point).  A couple of weeks after that personal Sound Bath Session, TheSoundSanctum visited the Chilterns MS Centre, bringing many portable instruments, to introduce interested members to a Thursday “Give it a Go” session on 13th June 2019.  Fourteen members, including Henny, attended and it was a huge success (see my Blog on this site).  The feedback was very positive indeed.  You could hear a pin drop in the room as people relaxed with their eyes closed and just enjoyed the relaxing, rejuvenating sounds of the Taster Sound Bath experience.

Following these two experiences Henny decided to interview me as she was curious and full of questions. 

What follows is the transcript of our interview together:

• When how and why did you first become interested in vibrational musical instruments?

I’ve always liked music. When I was 14 I learned how to play chords and songs with my guitar around the campfire. I first became interested in vibrational instruments when I was in Germany, a Shaman friend of mine had made herself a shamanic drum. I was absolutely fascinated. Later when I travelled to Norway up to ALTA in the north, I found a museum display of rock carvings and paintings depicting drumming instruments from the indigenous Sami people of the North.  Inside the museum was an example of such a drum oval in shape.  Yes, from that moment  the seed was planted and I felt the urge to learn how to make my own drum.  

My first drum made of Elk Skin I bought on line, but painted designs upon it after journeying in a local Drum Circle .  The following year I attended a workshop with Jonathan Weekes of Heron Drums www.herondrums.co.uk  where I “birthed”  my very first shamanic Horse Hide Drum.  Then in another day workshop I birthed my special Healing Reindeer hide Drum.  I used my own crystal, an Enhydro-Agate which is an Agate with water sealed inside from when it was formed Millenia ago which I placed in the handle to enhance the Drum’s vibration.  I use all three drums.

• Do you remember what was the first musical instrument you bought?

A 2nd hand guitar when I was 15.  

• Do you remember what you paid for it?

I think £17 and 10 shillings.  I saved for ages!  Later it was destroyed to smithereens when my 14 year old son fell out of the top bunk in his room!  My guitar broke his fall and he was unharmed thank goodness!!  Just a bit of a fright and no guitar lessons for a couple of weeks till we could procure a new instrument. My teenage guitar had saved my teenage son  from injury!

• How many instruments do you have in your collection currently?

I haven’t actually counted.  Maybe I should pause and do just that!  I’ll be right back!

If I count every single rattle as well as the larger instruments it totals 40 -45 but more if I add the approx 7 Gong Mallets and several rubber Flumis.

• What is your favourite instrument and why?

Now that’s a difficult question to answer because it depends how I’m feeling and what head and heart space I’m in.  Generally I love my Healing Drum, my Gongs, my wooden Sounding Bowls and my large hanging chimes, one particular Singing Bowl I purchased with my daughter in Hawaii and my Quarzophone:  Oh! HENNY, it’s impossible to choose!  It’s like asking a mother who her favourite child is!

• Can vibrational instruments be used in therapy and do they heal and could they ever help people with MS?

The long and the short of it is that everything vibrates and oscillates at a given frequency and basically as we are made up of 70% water we are the perfect vessels to receive the benefits of Vibrational Sound.

From the earliest times the simple beat of the drum has calmed us as we drum to the rhythms of our bodies and the earth and allowed us to enter states of mindfulness to meditation even trance and healing.  The Aborigine Culture has used Vibrational Sound to heal broken bones.    We as humans may find our brains Entrain or Synchronise during Sound Baths.

We talk of four main bands or frequencies, Alpha and Beta are our normal conscious states.  Delta and Gamma are our relaxed, meditative then deep sleeping states.  There each has even been talk of a 5th band discovered called Epsilon not yet recognised by medical practitioners.  it is associated with deep sleep, suspended animation attained by Yogis.  The frequency of our brain activity can directly affect our mood and may be healing.  ( www.vocalnectar.com article from 20 June 2019, Brainwave States.)

I believe Vibrational Sound can help us come back into Balance in order for us to repair our own bodies.

• Do you offer one-on-one sessions and what is your approach during this session?

I do offer one-to-one Sound Sessions whereby I sit with the client and allow them to relax first and let me know where they are at present in their lives and I intuitively pick up on what instruments may help ease difficulties.  I am not a “Healer”.  I simply listen to what I am given from the client and to me intuitively then I follow that path to enable the person to open that door within themselves and reach their place of respite to rebalance themselves find their frequency and their own healing energy.  We each have this ability.    

I explain about the various instruments I may use then use essential oil, scented water or burn a little Palo Santo wood or Sage to purify the space and clients Aura.  I bring the client to relax (usually seated) and be comfortable explaining if there are any sounds they find unpleasant to let me know and I can move on to another instrument.   Quite often when we have a blockage to clear there may be some resistance to a particular sound and when we can relax through it, it passes and the blockage clears. 

After the session, the length of which we have agreed upon earlier, a client may choose to relate what they felt, or heard, or visualised when they were relaxed during the session.  I offer water to replenish the body.  Some people sense things like shapes & emotions, others may feel themselves transported to places where they’ve been happy or struggled or new places they’ve never imagined before, others may feel people they love are close or visualise bright colours swirling or feel themselves swimming in deep oceans or out in the universe amongst the stars  or may encounter animals real or imagined, Guides and Angels.  It may feel different each time.  There is no right or wrong. Emotions may surface that a client hadn’t felt for a long time.  The experience  unfolds then over the next couple of days.  Usually clients report they have slept very well that night and feel generally lighter in mood and more able to cope with the  thoughts they had when they first entered my space.

I see peoples faces and their expressions change.  More often than not, a person’s face opens up like a flower to the sun with feelings of positive warmth. 

• How do you prefer people to contact you?

Go to my web site www.thesoundsanctum.com and in the first instance, please use the contact page.  Let me know what I can do for you and how you prefer to be contacted. If you see me out and about of course chat to me but its always better for you to clarify what you want to ask on the contact form and we can proceed from there.

Thank you Henny for inviting me the chat with you today and for your thought provoking questions.   I look forward to seeing you in The Sound Sanctum again soon.  

Netty