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Preston Klik here, and I proudly present 3 sound healing systems :: 1) ZEN BED 2) PERSONAL GONG BATH 3) OCEAN OF DEVOTION I'm really lovin' these 3 sonic adventures in consciousness-raising! It's a new way to express my life-long love of sound. Can sound really heal? I believe it can, but not like penicillin or Emily's CranialSacral Therapy, of course. I resonate with composer Aaron Copland's (modified) quote "'Is there healing in music?' My answer to that would be, 'Yes.' And 'Can you state in so many words what the healing is?' My answer to that would be 'No.'" Within Mystery/Consciousness there is a subset called "the material world". Science is a revealing and wonderful tool for subjects that can be measured. But the Spiritual Being called human? There's more to us than the material. And sound vibration is one portal to the intuitive realms, the "energy worlds" pre- (and post-) words/rationality. I do what I can to help heal and purify you of psycho-physical wounds, helping you to reach more deeply, to transform from mere homo sapiens into the emerging Homo Illuminatus. A Luminous Being is healthy and translucent, fully living from and AS the Divine Light within. I'd like to help you access that realization. Namaste' - Preston 1) what is the ZEN BED? "The ZEN BED is unlike anything I have ever experienced - an extraordinary, multi-dimensional vibrational sound-healing experience. Being suspended, you literally feel the vibrations around and through your body. Super cool and stunningly great!" - Amy T. (owner of YOGA NOW) "The peace that flowed through me within the aura of the ZEN BED realigned my energy fields with the Music of the Spheres, and is still with me this morning." - Ann A ZEN BED is a personal one-on-one floating-meditation-relaxation session which takes place @ The Synphorium because of the apparatus involved :: A floating-cross wood bed "floats" a few inches above the floor, hung from the ceiling by 3 x 8ft cables. You lie on your back on the wood "bed", and as I play Tibetan & crystal bowls on the head and foot of the structure the frequencies gently vibrate your cranium, sacrum, and feet. Along with your ears, of course, for 30-minutes. The ZEN BED is very meditational and often creates visions. You have a choice of intention :: either PURIFICATION, or RELAXATION (though each session is always a mixture of both). It also inspires deep inner journeying. So... If the ZEN BED is something you'd like to experience, let's schedule a session! PERSONAL ZEN BED sessions are held on Thursdays noon-midnight, and Sunday eves from 5p-midnight; other times can be arranged. $20 for 30 minutes; $30 for 45. contact Preston, 773-728-2787 2) what is the PERSONAL GONG BATH? The PERSONAL GONG BATH is a true adventure in sound. The gong is a fantastic musical instrument! I don't know if you've heard all the cinematic and inspirational sounds that can be coaxed out of a multi-tone gong by someone like myself... I LOVE making them sing/ sigh/ murmur/ resonate :: choirs, whales, planets whirling, underwater excursions, fire/ air/ earth/ water/ ether, visions of mercury and molten metals, etc. Using a customized 36-inch HEART GONG at your head and a 26-inch CHAU GONG at your feet, I bath you in multiple octaves of sound vibration. The dream-like sounds - plus the rich, deep vibrations - loosen static energies within one's psycho-physical body, allowing unique cleansings and healings (and deep relaxation) to occur. Often very subtle, sometimes powerfully intense, I take cues from you to give you the session you need. So... If the PERSONAL GONG BATH is something you'd like to experience, let's schedule a session! PERSONAL GONG BATH sessions are held on Thursdays noon-midnight, and Sunday eves from 5p-midnight; other times can be arranged. $20 for 30 minutes; $30 for 45; $40 for 60. contact Preston, 773-728-2787

S O U N D H E A L I N G + R E L A X A T I O N Sundays JAN 11 & FEB 15 :: Experience OCEAN OF DEVOTION @ 7pm @ The Synphorium (5602 N. Ridge, Chi, 60660) $15-30 sliding scale donation requested; limited space; doors @ 6:30; you MUST RSVP to Preston; or 773-728-2787 3) what is OCEAN OF DEVOTION? :: Sonic Immersions into the Liquid Presence of the Divine (a Singing Bowl/Gong Bath Odyssey) "OCEAN was a very healing experience. Powerful vibrational healing sounds penetrate when one allows oneself to be drenched as I did. My body twitched and vibrated in your sacred lounge, and a tear rolled down my face from each eye... very interesting. Certainly your Love and sound touched me in a special "just what I needed" way. You really captured the essence of the ocean... a magical world of mystery and wonder. Very powerful and amazing." - Janelle "As I was raised Buddhist, the sounds of gongs and cymbals resonate a sense of spiritual familiarity. Thank you sooooo much. OCEAN OF DEVOTION was a truly meditative inspiration." - Asali "I was incredibly touched, moved, inspired, and freed by the OCEAN experience. I feel lighter and more joyous than I have in a long while." - Jennie "Wonderful. I felt the Spirit with you in each moment. I am blessed." - Shiva A. "Dreams, Visions, you name it - OCEAN OF DEVOTION swept me away. I thought about it all the way home, and kept seeing it in dreams last night. Truly wonderful." - Chaldean photo :: Kat Fitzgerald OCEAN OF DEVOTION is a gentle-but-dynamic 70-minute acoustic group concert-meditation. I have a dozen 7-metal Tibetan and Indian bowls, a trio of gongs, including a customized 36-inch HEART GONG, plus white crystal bowl, rainstick, nut shells, superballs(!), ocean and water and thunder drums, chimes, dorje & bell, various mallets, etc. Surrounded by candles, this richly cinematic musical odyssey-meditation is as beautiful to the eye as it is to the ear, heart, body, and mind. I've been a professional musician all my life, and I really love this OCEAN Gong Bath - and I hope you will too! Very relaxing and healing, OCEAN also inspires deep inner journeying in a community context. (btw :: I plan to host sonic OCEAN experiences @ various people's homes, in Yoga studios, in public "meditations", @ The Synphorium Space, plus "tithe" the experience to cancer centers and hospices.) OCEAN OF DEVOTION concert/meditation sessions will be listed here and on front page calendar. If you'd like to sponsor OCEAN in your home or business, just let me know. Preston, 773-728-2787 NOTE :: If you love sound, I suggest you visit ANDY'S MUSIC & IMPORTS (2300 W. Belmont, Chicago IL; 773-868-1235) thoughts on SOUND+VIBRATION+HEALING POSTURE/COMFORT Some say you should lie with your feet toward the gong, others say your head. I say trust your instincts :: do what you want. Take care of your comfort. Feel free to move about as needed, to sit or lie, but do so with utmost respect for your fellow travelers. As many of the sounds are subtle, please be quiet. GONG PITCHES= THE HEART OF THE MATTER Gongs are not a pure, single-tone instrument like a flute is. Just the opposite. My customized 36-inch HEART GONG releases many notes and overtones simultaneously, many pitches in unity, but not unison. As such, it represents the Spiritualised human's heart. With the bowls I may focus on single pitches at times, but the gong is the Heart of the Matter. That is to say, the human is the Heart of Matter. And the gong represents that Sacred Heart. TOOLS+ME= TOOL The instruments I use are tools. To the degree that my ego is involved, they are tools of (small-s) self-expression. To the degree I deactivate my monkey-mind ego, they are tools of (capital-S) Self-expression. The Divine realizes Its own Beauty best through the complex richness and inner life of self-reflecting humans. As an artist, my discipline is to become one with Beauty. Not that I become beautiful, but that I become more-or-less transparent to the artistic Grace of Spirit, allowing that Beauty to use this body's heart-mind to shine through. It's a bit like an out-of-body experience. The me that I call "I" is somehow still present, but more as a witness to the Beauty being made manifest. Just like you, when in the zone, I get to hear the music being created. SURRENDER/WONDER/MYSTERY/EARS As neuro-psychologist Oliver Sacks' states in "An Anthropologist On Mars", Wonder and Mystery are present for each of us, in every moment, if we allow them to be. I ask that you hear with fresh ears, which means a clean and uncluttered mind. Surrender to the Wonder, so that you enter the Mystery. Be a Yes! RAISE THE FIELD OF CONSCIOUSNESS Consciousness, not matter, is the basis of life. Everything swims in a field of consciousness. Some beings are more awakened or conscious or more realized than others. My goal is to raise your consciousness by purifying your Heart-Mind, and aligning your body to the Sacred. In so doing, we raise the center of gravity of Consciousness Itself. SACRALIZE Nothing in life is sacred, NOTHING - unless we humans make it so. Our goal is to sacralize this extended moment together, to make this music sacred. And in so doing, to let this sacred sound wash over us, and enter us deeply, thereby sacralizing us in a reciprocal resonant ritual. The bowls are Spirit Expressing to the degree that we add consciousness to matter via the quality of our listening. photo :: Kat Fitzgerald more thoughts . . . SOUNDS : HERE & NOW (SENSATION) VS SYMBOLS (POINT) In a real sense tonight's sonic vibrations are always in the here and now. The sounds will trigger sensations within us. In reality, the presence of the sound is all there is in any moment tonnight. But that truth has a flipside. In another sense the sounds are not merely themselves, but are also symbols. The sounds point... they point to that which is not - and cannot be - manifest in this realm. They point to that which is beyond, to that which is beyond the beyond. Whether you hear the sounds for the sensations they are, in reality, or as symbolic guides to your own inner life is of no concern to me. You have creative choice in the matter. Allow the sacred sonics to flow over you and into you. Use them, intuitively, to journey to other realms, and to heal. And let the sounds use you. Let the sounds borrow your body/mind/heart/soul so that they might embody in this psycho-physical realm, if just for a moment in time. It is reciprocal : the sounds honor you as you honor them. IT'S NOT THE BOWL, IT'S THE BOWLER I am the instrument being played tonight, just as much as the bowl is. As the wise Mallethead told me "It's not the bowl, it's the bowler. I turn myself over to the Great Musician. The Creator is ready to bowl with me. The Divine is on my bowling team." Personally, I have created myself as the Possibility of Creative Love. Emily has created herself as the Possibility of Healing and Compassion. As such, the bowls sing tonight of Creativity and Love, of Healing and Compassion. I beg you, get your small self out of the way. Allow the sounds do their Sacred Work of vibrational alignment. MEGAPHONE/BEYOND I may speak through a megaphone - not to distance myself, but to add fuel to your imagination. My purpose is to sound as if speaking from another realm, the realm of dreams and healing, of stardust past and memories future. I wish to reach beyond everyday reality to tickle the ears of your imagination. ORIGINAL BLESSING/PAIN/BLISS Remember :: You were born with the Gift of original blessing, not the burden of original sin. Disempower your pain-body. Empower your bliss-body. Bliss... is our birthright. BREATH/BODY/THOUGHTS/COSMONAUTS So we are about to begin. Tonight we journey, alone and together. At times, be aware of your breath. Feel your body. Sense the other cosmonauts around you, the community we now co-create. Let your thoughts float by like leaves. Pay them no heed. Take 7 deep breaths at your own pace. Sound will then arise from the silence. Lie back and watch the movie within your imagination. Whatever is available to you is yours, and yours alone. Let us enjoy this extended Sacred moment, together. photo :: Kat Fitzgerald even more thoughts . . . FASCINATION IS THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF MYSTERY, MYSTERY= LOVE In philosopher/composer John Cage's composition named "4:33", the pianist sat down at his grand piano, raised his hands, and played... absolutely nothing. For 4 minutes and 33 seconds. His intention was that any incidental or ambient sound the audience heard became the "music" of the piece. In that spirit, if you hear a siren or a door opening, welcome any sounds you hear tonight as part of the sonic landscape, not an intrusion. There is sufficient Mystery to keep you fascinated just in the act of hearing. Fascination is the human experience of Mystery, which is a form of Love. BIG BANG/STARS/GESTATION You and I and we were all together billions of years ago at the beginnings of time, as potential in the Heart of Consciousness. It's true! Each atom of our bodies was created in that original hot soup. It took this long for all of those atoms to gather and organize themselves as you. How do I know? Because you are here, now! THE BODY IS THE LARGER BRAIN Our atoms contain ancient stories we are not conscious of. And our bodies carry the indistinct cellular memories of billions of years of evolution. Musician/philosopher Brian Eno puts it simply :: "The body is the larger brain." The cerebral cortex is a relatively recent addition, the body has a long history. We humans are 70% water, and tonight, our liquid bodies will organically resonate with the sonic vibrations of the OCEAN OF DEVOTION. So if you feel like moving/dancing, do so. INNER= BEAUTY/TRUTH Evolution has recently empowered the inner dimension in humans, the life of the mind. The heart-mind is where Beauty and Truth lie. So enjoy tonight with your animal-body instincts, and/or with your imagination, your contemplation. There is no single right way to experience this ceremony, and you have creative choice in the matter. EYES(OUT) VS EARS(IN) When we see music being made, we listen with our eyes; our eyes extend us out from our bodies to meet what we are seeing, and that is very beautiful. When our eyes are closed we listen with our ears; rather than out, we pull the music deep inside us. Our imaginations rule this realm. Both ways of listening are rewarding, and you have creative choice in the matter. CHAKRAS People ask me about chakra activation. Here's the way I see it : The less-conscious embodied animals A-scend toward Spirit; they activate the lower 4 chakras, starting with the base/earth, ending with the heart. Contrast that with the Super-conscious but dis-embodied angel-spirits. They DE-scend toward matter; they activate the top 4 chakras, starting with the crown, ending with the heart. ONLY fully healthy humans, especially the emerging Homo Illuminatus, or Luminous Ones, are in touch with the full range of 7 ascending and descending currents, from crown to toe, toe to crown. With 3 above and 3 below, the heart chakra is the center of the energetic/symbolic universe. It is the locus of Heart-Wisdom. The healthy heart is the Sacred Chalice, filled to overflowing by the 3 ascending and 3 descending energies, the upward forces of evolution and the downward forces of involution. The human being, when healed and unfragmented, when whole and complete, when fully realized and wholly awakened... this human body/mind/heart/soul is the Divine made manifest. Also, the manifest made Divine. The Word made flesh, the flesh made Word. . . . home/celebrations/meditations/more . . . contact . . . cart . . .