Have you ever run your wet finger around the rim of a wine glass or goblet? It makes a singing sound, which varies depending on the size and thickness of the glass. Try it soon if you have never done this! The rotating pressure from your finger actually starts the glass vibrating, which produces sound.

Quartz crystal singing bowls work on the same principle. With the bowls, you use a suede-covered mallet, instead of your finger. You circle this mallet around the outside rim of the bowl, and an enchanting sound begins almost immediately. This tone continues to resonate long after you stop circling with the mallet.

For sound to be produced, something must be vibrating and moving the air. This is easy to see when a harp string is plucked, or when you are watching a big bass drum. With crystal bowl singing bowls, the sides of the bowls are actually flexing and moving slightly in and out as they are played. You can really feel this when you place your hand on the vibrating bowl.

So that is a little bit about how the singing bowls actually make sound. Now we will take a look at how sound is used in various ways throughout the world.

Many cultures recognize the importance of music and sound as a healing tool. In ancient India, Asia, Africa, Europe, and among the Aboriginals and AmerIndians, the practice of using sound to heal and achieve balance has existed for centuries. The Tibetans still use bells, chimes, bowls, and chanting as the foundation of their spiritual practice. In Bali, the gong and drum are used in ceremonies to uplift and to send messages.

The Australian Aboriginals and Native American shamans use vocal toning and repetitive sounds, along with instruments created from nature, in sacred ceremony to adjust any imbalance of the spirit, emotions or physical being. The priests of ancient Egypt knew how to use vowel sounds to resonate their energy centers or chakras. There is a direct link between different parts of the body and specific sounds. Such a technique appears extremely old, yet healing through sound goes back even further, at least as far back as Atlantis, where the power of sound was combined with the power of crystal. In fact, some people today still refer to the crystal singing bowls as being Atlantean crystal bowls.

At the present time, the Native American Hopi prophecy is being fulfilled with the "Coming of the Rainbow People", through the keepers of the crystal bowls. This ancient wisdom has emerged to heal and uplift the consciousness of the universe through pure crystal tone. Edgar Cayce, the American psychic, and Rudolf Steiner, German philosopher, educator and artistic genius, both predicted that "pure tones will be used for healing before the end of this century". Nostradamus foretold the healing of cancer through pure tone by 1998. The pure tones created by crystal bowl music enter as a fulfillment of this prophecy.

Everything in the universe is in a state of vibration, and each object or person has a resonant frequency that is their optimal vibration. The chakras, bones and organs in the body all possess a different resonant frequency. When an organ, or other part of the body, is vibrating out of tune or nonharmoniously, it is called "dis-ease". A body is in a healthy state of being when each cell and each organ create a resonance that is in harmony with the whole being. Vibrational therapy is based on the idea that all illness or disease is characterized by blockage in the channels on some level, such as in acupuncture meridians, arteries, veins, nerves and chakras (energy centers). When there is a blockage, the organ in question stops vibrating at a healthy frequency, and thus it results in some kind of illness. Using sound and light, one can break up, dissolve and remove these blockages that initiate in our light or etheric body. Ultra sound (very high-frequency sound), well-known as a diagnostic tool for fetal development, is also being used to cleanse clogged arteries and break up kidney stones.

The body may be seen as a pattern of visible frequencies that produces an auric color field. The aura changes as it reflects emotional states of consciousness, and thus the physiological status. The appearance of the aura is also conditioned by the qualities and activity of each chakra. A chakra may be underactive, overactive, or blocked. These may be temporary conditions or reflect a more deeply held pattern. For example, sudden emotional stress may drive the solar plexus into overactive churning, whereas long term emotional stress may cause a person to nearly shut down the solar plexus chakra so that the person may avoid feeling any more hurt. Of course, this also means that the person lessens the ability to feel at all, including pleasure.

The sounds of the crystal bowls help balance the chakras in two ways. At the same time that the disharmonious conditions are being adjusted or removed, a sacred space is created for strengthening of the person's Higher Self connection or "Divine Blueprint". When an unbalanced energetic condition is removed, it is always wise to fill the void created with the highest aspect of Source that the person is willing to embrace. The sound waves from the crystal bowls emit a pure holographic template of radiant sound that builds a "Jacob's ladder" to the Divine.

The pure tones of crystal bowls produce a vibrational sound field which resonates the light body energy centers (chakras) and corresponding physical areas. There are seven musical notes that correspond to the seven colors of the rainbow, and these are related to the seven main chakras, which in turn correspond to different areas of the endocrine gland system. A series of pure crystal tone sessions facilitates the rebalancing of each receiver back into an elevated level of etheric radiance. The effects are enhanced because the bowls are made of quartz. Silicon crystal acts as an oscillator, magnifying and transmitting pure tone. This is why pure quartz crystal is used in all the most advanced telecommunications systems. Like a powerful radio transmitter, the crystal bowls transmit energy into the atmosphere, filling a person's aura with vibrational radiance which translates into the seven main colors of the rainbow.

As the pure crystal tones affect brain wave activity, one can travel into an altered state of consciousness. As different parts of the brain are affected, it is probable that different hormones and neuro-chemicals are released that suppress pain, overcome addictions, strengthen willpower, and foster creativity. Eva Rudy Jansen, in her book Singing Bowls (1990). docu-mented the effect of Tibetan metal bowls: "It is possible to record the waves produced by singing bowls. It was found that among the wave patterns of different singing bowls, there is a measurable wave pattern which is equivalent to the alpha waves produced by the brain. These bowls, in particular, instill a sense of deep relaxation and inner space opening up." (page 42)

Each crystal bowl is made of almost 100% silicon quartz (sometimes there are infintisimal amounts of other natural minerals that were found with the quartz). One reason why the pure tones vibrate our body is that it has a natural affinity to quartz. The human body is composed of many crystalline substances - the bones, blood and DNA are crystalline in structure, as well as the liquid crystal-colloidal structure of the brain. Even on a molecular level, our cells contain silica, which balances our electromagnetic energies.

Quartz crystal music holds the vibration of white light, which ultimately refracts into the rainbow and acts directly on our chakras when played. It has the power to bring about a positive shift in our consciousness, and as our awareness expands, we grow close to our original selves and start to reflect the highest radiance in our physical form. Physicists know that quartz is able to maintain the balance of electromagnetic energies between its north and south poles, enabling it to play a key role in timekeeping systems. The same electromagnetic field exists within all life forms. Quartz balances our own electromagnetic energies.

Edward Bach, founder of Bach Flower Remedies, understood that illness reflects disharmony between the physical personality and the soul, and stated that it is easy to cure by balancing the magnetic qualities of the higher subtle bodies. Through pure tone, one can repattern the energy field organization that ultimately affects the cellular expression of disease or wellness. Crystal bowl tones are all the more powerful, as the quartz can be programmed in the same way as any quartz crystal.

Quartz crystal, as a holographic light template, is able to hold, transmit, and receive thoughtforms. In Healing Sounds: The Power of Harmonics (1992), Jonathan Goldman writes, "The intention behind the sound is of extreme importance. It may, in fact, be as important as the actual sounds that are created." The power of thought is the means by which we create our reality. Nothing can be created unless it is first thought. When using crystal to rebalance, the crystal amplifies the thought programmed within it. The crystal has this amazing property, and thus it can be used to bring out a special feeling or quality in people, and simultaneously release and replace thoughtforms that are not of the highest radiance for the listener.