Love Your Vibe: Using the Power of Sound to Take Command of Your Life

By Matt Omo

If you are struggling with life in any way, it is within your grasp to take command and live a life of true harmony. We all have an innate wisdom to find this harmony and express it fully. Life is vibration, or, in essence, it is sound. We have just forgotten how to allow life to sing through us. We resist this sound of life and mute the strings

• Language: English
• Publisher: Atmosphere Press
• Release date: Mar 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644672129

Book preview

Preface

This book is the result of dozens of other book ideas that never got written—in a way, the story of my life. From a young age, I had an affinity toward the mystical, spiritual, and occult worlds. I can remember back to grade school carting around a 350-page book on how to develop your psychic abilities. I would sit in the back of the classroom with a straw balanced on the tip of a pin sunk into a wine cork on my desk and try to move it with my mind until the teacher removed it from me – at which point, I would turn my attention to the fly trapped in the classroom buzzing against the closed window, convinced I could use the power of my mind to manipulate it into submission.

Despite my determination and vivid imagination, I never made much progress with these practices; however, the possibility that there was something more to life than learning about diphthongs, derivatives and division made my heart sing.

Thanks to my undiagnosed ADD, ADHD, OCD, or whatever acronym could be used to define my inability to sit in a classroom, I found myself in the Principal’s office more times than I care to admit. My parents’ creative ways to discipline me and bring me into conformity never landed very well, which led my dad to subject me to hours of personal development cassettes and the monotonous ramblings of ‘new age’ gurus of the era. My ticket to freedom from the confines of my bedroom grounding was to write a report on the teachings of each series.

Ironically, I started to enjoy and devour the wisdom found on these tape series. This began my journey at the age of nine, ten – or perhaps 11 – into the world of meditation, positive thinking, self-help, motivation, and inspirational stories from the greats; Anthony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Brian Tracy, Stuart Wilde, Deepak Chopra, Denis Waitley, Jim Rohn and many, many more.

As I tucked my feet under my Super Friends cartoon quilt and popped the cassette into my Sony Walkman, I found freedom and excitement layered with infinite possibilities and hope – something much needed in the confining cornfields of Middle America.

I suppose if I took to heart all the advice on these tape series, I would be living a much different life, but I was defiant, rebellious, and quite a stubborn child. Some things never change.

This sent me down some dark roads of self-discovery and sometimes hardship. I had to learn for myself and, in many ways, it was that aspect of who I am that allowed me to break the mould of my middle-America, middle class, Catholic upbringing, sending me off on an international journey to discover the truth of myself.

Looking back, I would say I was avoiding my gifts and true calling in many ways, but I believe this derailing of my focus allowed my free spirit to experience the width and breadth of what life had to offer, giving me an invaluable perspective on spirituality and self-reliance.

From the pretentious Hollywood scene to the raw depths of the Peruvian jungle, I’ve gained insight and invaluable lessons on who I am and the meaning of life itself.

My insatiable desire to experience the mystical and understand my soul has taken me through training, teachings, healings and initiations that I could have never imagined. It led me to a career as a massage therapist that ignited my empathic gifts and evolved into my work as a coach, mentor, spiritual teacher, and now sound healer.

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I always had an affinity for sound and music. I seemed to know how to play the piano at our home without much training at all – it just flowed out of me. I also learned to play the guitar and other instruments on my own. Something that always fascinated me was how quickly my depressed mood would lift, or my sadness would shift playing or listening to music. Whatever challenges or struggles I had in life I could always escape through music. I suppose it’s no mistake that I was exploring healing modalities that utilised the power of sound in them.

Looking back my time in the Peruvian jungle is what distilled my understanding of the expansive healing nature held within the power of sound.

I had been exploring mantra and chanting through Kundalini yoga, drumming at Native American sweat lodges, learning to play the didgeridoo whenever I could, and exploring the power of toning into the body through my massage work. I had a decent understanding of sound and how it can heal, yet most of it was more a conceptual understanding. Even getting a diploma of sound healing didn’t anchor in the true depth of sound and the wisdom it holds. This was at the beginning of my exploration of using sound in healing with my first Tibetan bowl, named Chester, a few crystal bowls and my greatest teacher, the gong.

In time, I found myself working with Peruvian shamans in a sacred ceremony held in the depth of the jungle, far from any electricity, phones or modern conveniences. We sat in a humid and hot screened-in hut. The shaman led the ceremony with his mapacho (jungle-tobacco) cigarette in one hand, and his bundle of leaves shaking in the other, his bone-chilling Icaros recited with repetition and rhythm, rising above the night sounds of the jungle.

My mind was drifting as it does in these ceremonies. I was traversing the inner landscape of my self when the shaman stopped his Icaros. Instead of silence, I had the momentary experience of enjoying what I thought was the most divine musical track I’d ever heard. Within seconds I realised there was no music, no radio, no musicians; I was in the middle of a jungle with only a handful of people.

The sound I was hearing was the spirit of the jungle. I was listening to the sound of life or creation, resonating through the screens of the hut. I was blown away to realise the truth that everything is vibration. At that moment, I knew and experienced firsthand this divine harmony playing through all of life, as if the vibration of creation was whispering the secret of life into my ear. In some way, the wisdom of sound and vibration was embedded in my psyche that night. Or perhaps it was just turned on, and I was reconnected to what we all innately are – vibration. It is always available if we can relax into it and listen deeply. I believe it was in that moment that my inner ear actually opened, and I woke from that ceremony hearing life in a new way. It was as if I could hear the spirits behind the realm of form speak to me. This began my emergence into the world of sound healing.

For the first time in my life, I found I could relax my brain and sit in a chair for longer than 30 seconds. The harmony I heard outside myself was resonating inward as well. The inner listening that began that night gave me the ability to hear and know when my thought patterns were out of harmony. I was able to catch the discordance in my feelings; my breath, my body and everything else I experienced in my life, and fine-tune them back into harmony. Not only could I fine-tune myself but I could also more effectively encourage other people to do so. I think it’s easier to hear and assess others vibrational state over our own because we aren’t so enmeshed in it.

I had long experienced how toning through my meditations allowed me to drop my chattering mind and actually relax, but this was another level altogether. Things started to make sense as I continued to explore my inner soundscape. Little did I know this was the beginning of a new career. For the longest time, I considered my hypersensitivity a curse and a hindrance in my life, being agitated by loud, overwhelming environments that most people can cope with without a problem. I was unaware that I was different and extremely sensitive and that this was, in essence, my gift to helping others.

Once I acknowledged this part of myself and began to honour it as a gift I was on my way to my life’s purpose in healing with sound and vibration. It was only sound that could take me to these deeply altered states of consciousness that I had been seeking through meditation, bodywork, exercise, nature, and many other outlets. It was no wonder the teachers and my parents couldn’t keep me in line throughout my childhood. I was seeking an inner harmony that I didn’t understand until that moment in the jungle when I was reminded and awakened to the song of life so to speak. Very quickly I began to understand why sound had such a profound effect on me and there was no turning back. The soul of sound was literally singing to me; I just had to express it.

At the point of writing this book, I have spent the last eight years working with sound, vibration and breath with thousands of people around the world. Even today I continue to realise more and more the power of sound and diving deeper down the rabbit hole of frequency and vibration, only to scratch the surface of understanding how intricately woven sound is in the web of creation.

My aim is that those seeking, the free spirits, will resonate with the journey and be inspired to connect with the vibrational source of all of creation. This is what the Sufis call the abstract sound, a sound that fills all space beyond time and matter, the saut-e sarmad.

Those who are able to hear the saut-e sarmad and meditate on it are relieved from all worries, anxieties, sorrows, fears, and diseases; and the soul is freed from captivity in the senses and in the physical body. The soul of the listener becomes the all-pervading consciousness, and his spirit becomes the battery that keeps the whole universe in motion. -Hazrat Inayat Khan

What if we could all live from that place of being?

I imagine we would all be kinder, more compassionate and greater human beings not only in life but within ourselves.

The simple fact is we are all part of this Universe-one song, and if we listen to the vibrational resonance of our spirit, we can take command of our own reality and live a more harmonious life. A world full of people with that consciousness is the world I would love to be a part of and the world I hope to leave for my kids.

I hope this book inspires movement toward creating this vision.

Introduction

For the longest time, I used to think that life was challenging, stressful and that I just had to deal with it. What I didn’t realise is that life flows, and there is, in fact, a divine harmony in all aspects of it. You might scoff at this as you look at the bills piling up, have the whingy child clinging to your leg or you work more than 80 hours a week and hardly have time to pee, or perhaps your partner is sleeping on the opposite side of the bed and not understanding what is going on for you. You feel isolated, alone, frustrated, and just stuck in life.

What divine harmony? you may ask.

We have gotten so busy, overwhelmed, numb and disconnected in our lives that we have forgotten how to enjoy it. We are so focused on clothing, feeding and dragging these meat suits around we have forgotten how to have fun and take command of our innate creative power that wants to be expressed into the world. We are really denying our true nature of vibrational spiritual beings having a human experience. We came here to play in this sandbox of life, and too many of us are upset because there is sand between our toes, instead of being joyous that with a little moisture of intention and focus we can mould it into whatever our hearts desire.

My intention for you is to embrace practical tools and ideas that will allow you to maintain an inner harmony regardless of any situation or experience that life throws at you. You don’t have to be pushed and pulled through life. It doesn’t have to be hard work. Once you realise life is happening through you and not to you, you can have fun and create an inspired life of divine harmony, if you wish.

I’m sure if you are reading this book you have been exposed to some sort of meditation or personal development program in your life. Trust me, I have done them all, from the most authentic and empowering to the most ridiculous fluff I have ever experienced – but the one thing I have learnt is that after all the motivational speeches, the hyped-up sales pitch, the elusive dream boards, and money back guarantees, we don’t change unless we commit to change.

It seems much of the ‘new age’ movement and personal development industry is saturated with every made-up healing modality imaginable to make us better more conscious and spiritual people, however, the world around us is becoming more polarised and toxic than ever before.

Even though many people are getting ultra-spiritual and uber-conscious in their communities, we still live in a society full of overworked, stressed out, angry, depressed, addicted, suicidal, and bullying individuals (not to mention the insanity of the state of our world).

It seems to me there is a huge gap beyond the actual reality in the world and the spiritual consumerism of how we so proudly rock up to get our chakras balanced under the full moon eclipsing Uranus.

We may look flash with our activewear or when we are chanting kirtan on a Saturday with our overpriced water bottles and designer yoga mats in hand, or when we are squeezing into our enviro-friendly Tesla car with our Save the Whales bumper sticker and dream catcher dangling from the rear-view mirror.

We are obviously rocking out the spiritual vibe! But then, why aren't we seeing a reflection of such abundance, harmony and love rippling through our world?

Do world peace and living as a kind human being have shitty marketing campaigns?

Maybe all of this spiritual work is just a waste of time?

Or maybe we need to bridge the gap between the blissed-out state we hit at the end of our goat-yoga-sound-healing-shamanic-light-language-meditation with our fast-paced, high stressed lack of empathy state we grind into our everyday life?

I mean, what's the point to having a regular spiritual practice if it doesn't encourage inspired action, give you tools to create healthy relationships or embody practical ways to live a more harmonious, loving and joyous life?

You can Om as much as you want over your dirty chai latte during mercury retrograde, but if you still act like a jerk to your friends and family, you're just living in spiritual denial holding an image instead of embodying true spirituality.

It feels like the polarisation of the world today is calling for us to step up and make some practical changes in the way we act as humanity.

As a 'healer' and teacher of this work, I feel it’s time to stop fluffing each other’s spiritual ego. It is time to wake up and infuse our everyday life with the divine harmony of spirit.

This book is an experiential process designed to empower you and your life so together we can create the spiritually infused world we all dream about creating. Each chapter introduces philosophies and poses questions to help get you exploring ways to be more harmonious and empowered in yourself and your life. Every chapter builds upon the next with key practices at the end of each chapter designed to help you anchor the philosophies into your life.

Practices?

Yes, there is a bit of work involved. Sure, you can read the book and skip over the practices, yet having a conceptual idea of the work is one thing, actually living it is another. If you take the time to spend just ten minutes a day on the practices, you will start to notice significant shifts in your life.

If you’re looking for a quick fix – a miracle solution to living a harmonious life – then set this book down and read your horoscope. Nothing against astrology, but this book is about exploring a new way of being which requires you to be in life in a new way.

So, if you’re ready to commit to yourself and dive into some fun practices using sound, breath, and other tools – let’s get vibing!

Preferably you will take the time to contemplate and integrate the practices at the end of each chapter. I would recommend at least a week dedicated to each chapter to really get a solid foundation before heading into the next practice. Ideally, two weeks allows you the time to anchor in the work.

As you explore the work, you may notice that certain things resonate, but others don’t. These practices are designed to give you an experience of the core concepts and a step-by-step guide. It is simply a framework for you to embody and make your own. I have written from my personal experience and the experiences of previous participants in the group work process, which has been fine-tuned over the years into this powerful version you are reading here.

Each one of us is a unique instrument allowing the divine harmony to flow through us as only we can. I’m not trying to tell you how to do you. I’m simply offering a practice that will allow you to open more to yourself and from there make it your own.

My mission is to share this with as many people as I can because what I have experienced personally in my practice and observed through those I led through the process is that it can be profound and inspiring.

If we all embody the philosophies of this book, the world we live in will be a more loving world, a harmonious and kind world. A world I would want to leave for my kids. I’m starting to sound a bit la la, peace, love and mung beans!

If we want to change the world for the better, those changes start with you and me. As we hold together an authentic way of being and acting in ourselves and to each other, the world around us will echo authenticity and kindness back to us at the same rate we embody it.

And I won't stop until everyone can ride their unicorn to work on a moonbeam.

Giddy Up! (Unicorns not included).

Preparing for Your Sound Journey

Ground Rules

In preparing for your sound journey, there are a few ground rules that I would suggest to get the most out of the full process and working through this book to completion.

1. Create support

Just because it’s a book that you can escape into after the kids fall asleep and your partner is snoring, doesn’t mean you have to travel it alone. These practices and processes are going to bring things up. They are going to challenge you and inspire you. There may be things you would like to bounce off a friend or loved one. What better way to get the support than to have the people in your life or your community actually doing the work with you? It’s one thing to be harmonious and loving in yourself, but it’s an even more powerful thing to have the people around you aligned with that as well.

I would suggest at least getting a buddy to explore this work with. Schedule a weekly or fortnightly meet up to review each chapter, talk about the practices and share your experience. When you work with others, you will find they become invaluable mirrors to reflect back aspects you may have missed as you dozed off in the middle of a chapter.

Be sure to also ask for help if you are particularly struggling as you work through the process. Many times, we are too proud or self-righteous to admit when we need help. We don’t want to burden others. In this process, be a burden. Ask for help, and reach out. What you share with your support crew might just inspire them to go deeper into their process. That’s the beauty of working in a group or with a buddy. Their journey inspires your journey and vice versa.

2. Create a safe and sacred space

When you sit down to do the practices, it is a great idea to do them where you won’t be disturbed and can feel free to explore them deeply. Some of these you will be doing on the fly during your daily routine, and others take a few minutes each day to drop in and be present with yourself. Many of them are using sound and breathwork. Some require you to lie down, others you will do seated. The best thing to do is find a place where you can go every day and be alone. A place where you won’t be interrupted by the internet, cell phones, kids or anyone else. This sacred and safe place can have little trinkets and artefacts that beautify the area. Perhaps a candle or a spiritual deity statue, some crystals, or flowers are also great ways to create a sacred space. Or perhaps it isn’t a physical space for some. I had one participant in the process who used a notebook that she decorated with all kinds of motivational quotes and images. Inside that notebook was her sacred space. She would take it early to work with her, get into her day and then sneak off to a coffee shop or a park to open her notebook and create that sacred and safe space to do the practices. Anything is possible. If you want to do this work, make the space to do it. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time.

3. Be gentle with yourself

The other thing to consider is we come from a society of ‘pushing’ and ‘doing’ so much every day. In fact, we push beyond our limits and most of us will go go go until we drop and then spend days sick or burnt out, recovering from our over-motivated life. This