Your own voice is one of the most immediate instruments available to you for working with sound. You do not need an instrument, previous musical training, or a particular singing ability. In this personal training, you will learn to consciously work with sound, resonance, overtones, and sacred vowel sounds and experience their effects directly through your own voice and body.

At the heart of the training is the Divine Name, a sacred sound healing practice taught by Jonathan Goldman. As an authorized instructor, I will guide you through this practice and teach you how to intone the sacred vowel sounds of the Divine Name.

The training also explores the foundations of sound healing, harmonics and overtones, an introduction to overtone singing, chakra sounds and Bija mantras, as well as the relationship between sound, breath, intention, and mudras.

Your Voice as a Healing Instrument

Unlike singing bowls, gongs, tuning forks, or other external instruments, the sound in this training originates within you. You create it through your breath and voice while simultaneously experiencing its resonance within your own body.

This makes the voice a very personal and readily available tool. Once you have learned the techniques, you can practice them wherever you are, without needing any additional equipment.

The purpose is not to sing beautifully or to perform. We explore how different sounds and vowels are produced, how resonance can be perceived and directed, and how breath, voice, vibration, and intention can work together.

You will also be introduced to overtone singing – the fascinating ability to emphasize individual harmonics contained within the human voice so that additional tones become audible above the fundamental tone. The aim is not to become an accomplished overtone singer within the course, but to understand and experience the principles and begin developing the technique yourself.

Course Content

1. Understanding Sound & Resonance

Before working with the different practices, we explore some of the principles behind sound and how we experience it. Topics include the nature of sound waves, frequency, wavelength and amplitude, resonance and vibration, harmonics and overtones, the relationship between sound and intention, and historical and contemporary perspectives on the use of sound for healing – including its place in different spiritual traditions.

The intention is not to turn the training into a physics lesson, but to give you enough understanding of sound to make the practical work more meaningful.

2. Exploring Your Voice

We then move from understanding sound to producing and experiencing it ourselves. You will explore breath as the foundation of vocal sound, consciously producing and sustaining different tones, experiencing resonance within your own body, the relationship between vowels and vibration, harmonics within the human voice, and an introduction to overtone singing – with practical exercises for developing greater awareness and control of your voice.

No singing experience is necessary. This work is about vibration and resonance rather than musical performance.

3. Chakras, Mantras & Sacred Sound

In this part of the training, we explore the relationship between sound and the chakra system. You will learn and practice the commonly known Bija mantras of the chakras, advanced Bija mantras and chakra sounds, the divine sounds associated with the chakras, and mudras used in conjunction with the chakra work – finding ways to combine sound, breath, intention, and mudra in your personal practice.

Rather than simply memorizing sounds, we work with them practically so that you can experience their different qualities and develop your own relationship with them.

4. The Divine Name

The central practice of the training. We explore the historical and linguistic background of this ancient Name of God and its use as a sacred sound practice. You will learn the sequence of vowel sounds, their intonation, and how they are brought together through breath and voice.

We then practice the Divine Name together so that you can experience the complete technique and become comfortable using it independently. The intention is to give you a practice that does not depend on an external instrument or another practitioner. Your breath, voice, awareness, and intention become the instruments through which you work with the sound.

Practical Details

Sound is something we normally experience as coming from the world around us. In this training, we approach it from another direction: you become the source of the sound yourself. Through breath, voice, resonance, overtones, sacred sounds, mantras, and ultimately the Divine Name, you develop a set of practices that you can continue to explore and use independently – with your own voice as your primary instrument.