About
Gary and Linda Bonnell
Linda Sousek Bonnell has had a varied work background working with a prominent law firm in Columbus, Ohio, and an international banking group in Naples, Florida. She also founded a startup company, Vibrant Skin, Inc. in Atlanta Georgia that specialized in an all-natural body cream that was the first to include vitamins. Her products were sold through spas and dermatological offices.
Upon retiring from business, she began to explore her love of drawing and painting. Her first oil painting was included in a juried show at the von Liebig Art Center in Naples, Florida. Her subjects are painted in a wide range of mediums. She is a commissioned artist and currently displays her works at www.lindabonnell.com
Gary Bonnell also had varied work experiences. Upon completing a graduate degree in Psychology, Gary took time off in the Caribbean to take a job as a photographer. Moving back to the States, he began a very successful career as a commercial artist, creating illustrations that appeared in most major magazines, company brochures, a many regional newspapers. His career took him into retail as a hardlines illustrator specializing in home furnishings and then as advertising manager with Rich's Department Stores in Atlanta, Georgia. As photography replaced illustration, Gary joined two other gentlemen in a furniture retail venture that went from one store to a chain of stores in five states. His role in the company was as VP of marketing and advertising. Along with one of his partners, he also designed many of the furniture pieces. After their IPO and sale of the company a year later, he retired from retail in 1986 to explore his first love, psychology, and esoteric studies. After 40 years he has authored over 20 books, toured internationally as a public speaker, and began a school in Tokyo, Japan where he has taught esoteric studies since 1991. He is considered an expert in the meditative arts and the subject of Akashic Records. He has one painting hanging in a permanent collection at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. His websites are: in the USA - www.theknowingway.online; in Japan - www.theknowingway.jp.
Ancient Traditions Morphing into Modern Practices
American psychic Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) — known as “the sleeping prophet” because he delivered readings in what appeared to be a trance state — predicted that sound would be the medicine of the future. Sonic therapists use sound, vibration, intonation, and music to heal the body and mind. Yet sonic therapy is not new; ancient cultures revered the natural world and its healing sounds. Using environmental music such as waterfalls, birdsong, wind, rain, and children’s laughter, ancient healers encouraged a sense of wellbeing that is still relevant today. This is especially so in urban life, where we may feel far removed from exploring the senses and interacting with the natural world. Humans have also had a hand in constructing healing sonic environments, with ancient and later societies using healing sound devices such as Tibetan singing bowls, Australian Aboriginal didgeridoos, Native American thunder drums, African water drums, and Celtic harps, along with Indian Tantric sounds, Gregorian chanting, Mongolian harmonic chanting, Mongolian throat singing, Bulgarian open-throat singing and so on.
While most of these are ancient traditions, their practice is considered relevant by vanguard therapeutic science today. For example, the didgeridoo, when used in tonal massage, has an effect on the body at the molecular level, similar to the effect of modern cymatic therapy and its simpler version, toning.
Consider Tibetan mantras, which are popular today because of their deeply resonant effects and the transcendental meanings of the sounds. Mantras are “words of power” recited for various purposes; for example, achieving altered states of consciousness, resonating with divine energy, and manifesting enlightened and compassionate states by opening the chakras. The word mantra is derived from Indian Sanskrit and means thoughts that liberate us from samsara (the world of illusions). Grounded in ancient Indian Vedic myth and tradition, mantra chanting today may involve Kundalini energy chakras in the body, dynamic movement, and quantum field awareness (neural transformation in the brain by activating the left and right lobes).
Inspired by the acoustics of ancient Indian Vedic cave rituals, Axis Mundi, a group of musicians and sacred sound ritualists in the US, seeks to re-create the same transformational energy fields. Founded by Dr. Stuart Sovatsky and Sondra Slade, Axis Mundi melds modern science, electronic technology, and ancient rituals to incite healing attuned to today’s world. Aspects of shamanic trance drumming and Buddhist mantras, along with melodic resonation using specific tones and intervals, are their tools of sonic therapy.
Modern healing modalities such as sound-centered physical therapy and psychotherapy along with emotional triggers and cognitive development are all considered in sonic treatment. These sonic treatment activities change the inner workings of the body, from brain waves to energy chakras and circulation. Neural effects include stimulating the quantum field awareness of the listener by entraining the alpha rhythms of the brain, which has been proven to incite healing.
Ancient sonic therapy was not unique to India, of course, as sound healing was also common amongst the ancient Greeks. Prior to the 6th century BC, when the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras explored the healing qualities of sound, the temples of Asclepius (the “dream healing temples” of the Greek god of medicine) were devoted to healing by sound, working with the visitor’s spiritual consciousness and emotional responses.
Nor is the chakra system unique to Vedic practice, as reflected by traditional Chinese medicine’s consideration of the body’s subtle energy systems and the “element theory”. According to this theory, energy centers in the body are related to the five elements of the earth and are also ascribed their own sounds or musical notes. Orchestral healing is an ancient practice in the East.
The Biblical David is said to have played his harp to lift King Saul’s depression. Alexander the Great’s sanity was supposedly restored by hearing music played on the lyre. Pythagoras used songs and incantations with melodies and rhythms designed to cure disease. Egyptian scrolls more than 2500 years old refer to incantations as cures for physical pain and infertility.