Evelyn Mulders is the founder of the Kinesiology College of Canada, a senior faculty member for the International College of Professional Kinesiology Practice, owner and operator of Holistic Tapestries Natural Care Center for more than 20 years, and a book author.
Through her work with clients at her center, Evelyn discovered that incorporating vibrational remedies into their therapy helped them to heal more quickly. She explored ways to incorporate sound into a consumable medium and through that work, she was able to program water with sound. But once she accomplished that, she realized people didn’t understand what she had done. So she documented her methods, including formulations, and wrote The Essence of Sound. She included her knowledge of herbs, flower essence and aromatherapy in the book as well since they complement the benefits of sound healing. The work has resulted in somewhat of an encyclopedia for energy healers.
Retailing Insight: Can you tell readers a little bit about what they will find in your book?
Evelyn Mulders: The Essence of Sound was solely created for anyone to sort through what’s going on in their body and what they could choose to help them on a vibrational level using sound. For example, if you were suffering from a stomachache, you could look to see what chakra, or meridian the body was pointing to and then find the answers to help.
The focus is on sound, however the book walks you through the meridians, the chakras and the auric field. The thinking when I wrote the book was to take the reader through three dimensions – and we know we’re in three dimensions because our bodies have three directions – up and down, front and back, side to side. That’s who we are on a three-dimensional plane. The meridians support the body by running up and down, the chakras are in the front and back, and the auric fields surround us for the side to side. It was a different approach because typically, if you were looking at healing, you’d delve deep into Chinese medicine theory and understand meridians and five-element theory. Or you would quickly go into the ayurvedic to understand the chakras and the auric field system. What’s special about The Essence of Sound is that it takes those three modalities and offers readers the information to support themselves on those three levels.
RI: What level of familiarity does a reader need to benefit from the book?
EM: I would say entry level. The world has changed so much since I initially presented this work. It was originally something for energy medicine colleagues, but what I’m noticing in the last five years is that the veil has lifted, so to speak. People are seeking information and this book is a nice overall view that includes so many modalities that might otherwise take weeks of reading. But here, they’re touched upon and you can take it further to a deeper knowledge book on a particular modality if one really resonates.
RI: What inspired you to focus on sound energy and healing?
EM: I was studying herbology with a woman, not in the classroom, but in the woods here in Canada. I’m left-brained, my background is as an engineer technologist. For me to go into this garden where I was told to just feel it, it was a huge brain shift for me from a logical thinker to a feeler. As time went on, she brought in what she called a sound healer. The woman played these crystal bowls and I felt like every cell in my body had shifted and just sang. I wasn’t sick, but I felt I had changed. The next morning, I said I felt so great that I wanted to bottle it for my clinic. I wanted people to walk away from my clinic to have the same feeling I had from that sound bath. I asked if you could infuse sound into matter and she told me she didn’t know – it was my job to figure it out! So after a few years of experimenting with sound in a bottle, I discovered how to program water with sound.
RI: Is there any musical piece you’ve come across that you feel aligns people and their energy?
EM: I’ll see if I can do it . . . (sings The Sound of Music). Now, the other example is the Do-Re-Mi song. If you went through that whole piece, you are balancing every single one of your chakras.
RI: How does sound healing tie into your work at the Kinesiology College? What’s the hierarchy? Where does it sit in comparison to herbology or other methods of healing?
EM: What hooked me into kinesiology are what we call “finger modes.” We do an assessment of the body and then we ask what it needs. But instead of asking verbally, we use finger modes. Each one of these fingers delineates a system, a circuit if you will, in the body. Does the body need something electrically? Emotionally? Spiritually? Does it need some kind of personal ecology (herbs and supplements)? Does it need something structurally?
Sound healing fits in because it can provide something emotionally or spiritually. Sound is what the universe started with, it’s the key to the miracle of life.
When I created the chakra essences with the seven whole notes in the water, I was intuited to add to that master formula with sound of the gemstones related to the chakra, the sacred geometry, the ancient symbols, the positive words that were associated with that, and aroma therapy. It took me almost four years to figure out why I needed to include all those vibrations instead of just sound, the whole note, by itself. The chakra wanted the combination. In that combination everything becomes more powerful because you have the seven vibrations that feed the seven senses. So having all seven vibrations in one bottle offered the body the opportunity to take the vibration it needed. The body has the vibration, if it’s missing something though, it will grab it. If it doesn’t need it, it doesn’t take it. As a healing practitioner, it was a neat place to be because you could never get it wrong. You could offer the body what it needed and it would take it in with its own wisdom.
RI: With pressure points, let’s say in the foot – different spots correspond to different systems in the body. Is there a parallel example with sound? Are there notes that would be aligned to different organs in the body?
EM: It depends on what system you want to look at. With the meridians for example, if you had stomach issues, likely it’s the earth element with the stomach and the spleen meridian. In The Essence of Sound, you’d go through the earth section to see what would support you there. If you’re looking at the chakra, it would be the solar plexus because that’s the area of location of your imbalance with a stomachache. In that section, you would have choices of what would support you and an explanation of why you’re having those problems – too much worry, or angst, or doing too much for everybody else. In the chakra section, the areas related to that are will, self-esteem, individualism, and it goes through the seven senses – the color yellow, the note E, the gemstones related to that chakra, the aromatherapy related to it, the flower essences, the herb essences, the essential oils.
RI: With the outside world getting louder and more invasive seemingly on a daily basis, is it more difficult today for people to tune into healing sounds and nature?
EM: Personally, I like the quiet. At home, I don’t have background noise like you might hear when visiting someone else’s home. But everyone has their own thing. Some people like listening to country rock all day, some like opera. I don’t know if I have a comment on that. I think it’s personal.
RI: What kind of starting points would you recommend for someone looking to explore sound healing? Obviously you have your book, but is there something like checking out a singing bowl to see how that makes you feel or like your experience with the crystal bowls? Do people walk into a store and try things and see if something aligns?
EM: When you go to the metaphysical store for the first time and you start playing the bowl, you’ll see some people will grimace because it’s not what they’re expecting, they’re not used to it. For me, there’s a steel instrument that you kind of bong with your hand and I don’t find it soothing at all. So I think to answer your question, it’s another place where it’s personal.
But here’s what I do know – your own sound is probably the most important sound in the world for you. Your name is the most important sound. When someone says your name and they say it correctly, it sends a vibration to every cell in your body. My parents are Dutch and they gave me a Dutch name, but in English it comes out very different. You pronounce it “evel-lin,” but my cousins call me “eh-və-LEEN.” Can you feel the difference in those two sounds? When I go to Holland and visit my cousins, I just feel like a little baby tucked into a cradle because I’m “eh-və-LEEN.” It’s soft and loving and nurtures my heart. “Evel-lin” doesn’t hardly do that for me. Where I’m going with this is that you need to listen to your heart. Try humming. Try doing the Julie Andrews song and listen to where those sounds come in.
RI: Years back, I discovered if I had a tension headache, I could hum low in my chest, bring it up to head voice and back down and it would usually alleviate the pain. Is that something in line with what you’re explaining?
EM: I’d love for you to include your experience with that because that I think is the true essence of sound healing, your own experience and the fact that we can do it ourselves is wonderful! There’s this one piece, I’m not sure if I can do it, but it’s all the “C” sounds of the chakra and it’s reminiscent of the digeridoo. How it came out of my mouth one day, I have no idea. At the time, it definitely frightened my son! “Mom! What are you doing?”
When I teach the classes on the energy medicine, everyone’s nervous and giggling when they’re trying to do it, but if you get a chance to do it, it moves the energy. And like you with your humming, it takes all the stress out.
RI: And you have a card deck coming out?
EM: When the whole journey started, I wrote a book called Western Herbs for Eastern Meridians and Five Element Theory. That was the predecessor to The Essence of Sound. That’s where I organized the herbs to fit into the meridian system. Back in the day, if you wanted to use the herbs as the balancing modality, you’d have to study traditional Chinese medicine. I did, but not for long. I got irritated because I thought about all the herbs I was growing in my backyard and questioned why I couldn’t use the herbs I grow. So I took all the Chinese herbs out of my clinic. The next day, I came in and put herbs that I grew on the shelves where the Chinese herbs were and the whole vibration of the space just changed. Then I knew I was onto something. I began organizing for my reference, what herbs grow in our area that fit into the meridian system. I developed a chart – fire, earth, metal, water, wood, and organized the herbs how I saw fit. Then I presented it at the international conference. They endorsed my work and asked where the book was. It took many years, but I worked on it. I thought I was done, but realized the plants had to have their say, had to have the chance to connect. So I worked on it another two years until everything felt right. To get it aligned with The Essence of Sound, it’s been renamed The Essence of Herbs. It’s offered as an eBook. From that, there’s a card deck that’s just been developed called Whispering Herbs Healing Cards.
My biggest hope now is to deliver several tools for people to empower themselves in their own homes to help balance their meridians and chakras.
The Essence of Sound by Evelyn Mulders
ASIN: B084Z2NCBG
Published by Satiama Publishing
www.satiamapublishing.com
Author: Sean Ruck
Sean Ruck is an editor and writer. He lives in Vermont with his wife and three children. When he finds spare time, he typically digs into environmental concerns and causes.
