1. What is intent?
2. What are the key elements in creating an effective intent for healing?
3. How can we develop the ability to become more effective sound therapists by working with the power of intent?
In 4 Part, we’ll dive deeper into the second of these questions through exploring the work of Lynne McTaggart, an author who has a great talent for eloquently writing about recent scientific studies in quantum physics in layman’s language.
The Intention Experiment
Her book “The Intention Experiment” published in 2007 cracks the code for how to create effective healing with intention and also provides a detailed protocol for how to do it. Perhaps, just as importantly, she also outlines how we can develop the skills and state of being that is required for us to work in this way.
If you are going to read just one book on how to work effectively with the power of intent in your sound therapy practice, I’d recommend this one.
In the research carried out for her previous book ‘The Field’ published in 2001, McTaggart was looking for a scientific explanation for homeopathy and spiritual healing. She uncovered the makings of a new science which describes an extraordinary quantum field generated by the endless passing back and forth of energy between subatomic particles.
As she states “ this implies that all matter in the universe is connected on the subatomic level through a constant dance of quantum energy exchange. Each one of us is a packet of pulsating energy constantly interacting with this vast energy sea.”
She became especially curious about the role of consciousness – a substance outside the confines of our bodies – which is a highly ordered energy with the capacity to change physical matter.
The view of the new cutting-edge science described in ‘The Field’ was based primarily on research primarily carried out in the 1970s. So for this book on Intentions, McTaggart scoured the scientific literature for more recent experiments and discoveries in quantum physics.
She also turned to people who had mastered intention and who could perform the extraordinary, such as spiritual healers, Buddhist monks, Qigong masters and shamans, to understand the transformation processes they underwent to be able to use their thoughts to powerful effect.
Every one of the first 12 Chapters of the ‘Intention Experiment’ is filled with relevant findings from these sources. So in my opinion her conclusions cannot be dismissed as airy-fairy, new-age, hippie wishful thinking! There is real evidence for what she suggests.
The first thing to note is that there is widespread evidence that Intention can have an effect – it can change physical matter. Importantly for us, McTaggart gives prime importance to healing with intention, though her inquiry also goes beyond healing into ways that we can work with intention for creating a better world.
This means that the process, or protocol as I call it, that she outlines is directly relevant to us sound therapists working with sounds for healing.
The Intention Protocol
So, in McTaggart’s view, what are the key elements in creating an effective intent for healing?
In summary this is it:
* Create, develop and enter an intention space
* Power up your intentionality through meditation and practices like chanting mantras
* Move into peak focus through mindful awareness of the present moment
* Get onto the same wavelength as your client by focusing on compassion and making a meaningful connection
* State your intention and make it specific to the desired healing outcome
* Mentally rehearse every moment of it with all 5 senses
* Visualize, in vivid detail, your intention as established fact
* Time it right – get in the mood – work with intention and healing when you feel well and happy
* Move aside – surrender to the power of the universe and let go of the outcome
I cover each of these points in more detail in the small book that I’m writing on this subject for our Diploma in Sound Therapy training course run by the Colour of Sound Institute.
There are two additional parts to this protocol that I’ve found in my sound therapy practice and in our sound therapy training which increase the power of the intention process….
Firstly, add an additional element to the above process:
* Amplify the intention with appropriate frequencies by creating sounds with acoustic instruments and our voices, knowing that sound is the carrier wave for our consciousness i.e. our intent.
Secondly, invite your clients to also be involved alongside you as the sound therapist in the same process of working with intent in this way.
By doing this they will be taking greater responsibility for their own health and wellness and they will be adding another intention into the field which will magnify the force of the intention in a non-linear manner. It’s a bit like 1 + 1 = 3.
We must remember that the way this process works best, as Lynne McTaggarts points out, is to not to hold onto too tightly to the idea that intention is like a strong ‘ooomph’, or mental push, through which you project your thoughts to another person to ensure that your wishes are carried out.
We have to step aside from our personal egos, surrender the outcome of the process to a higher force and let go of our attachment to the outcome.
Thank you again for reading these Sound Reflections, and please do send me feedback by email to [email protected] or leave your comments in the box below…..
Warm wishes,
Tony