January 1, 2025 • 21 mins
Exploring the profound connection between sound and healing, Claire and Rohini invite listeners to delve into their personal journeys and experiences. They discuss the ways sound can transform emotional states while fostering self-discovery and healing through various sound modalities.
• Claire shares her musical background and its grounding effects
• Rohini explores the intersection of sound and healing in medicine
• Discussion on the unseen energies and vibrations of sound
• Emphasis on the emotional and psychological impacts of sound
• Invitation to listeners to engage and reflect on their own experiences
Thanks for joining us!! Drop by our website and socials to say Hi and leave us any questions or comments :-)
Image credit for the beautiful bird/sunrise-Image by Kev from Pixabay
Song used for introduction - Kuan Yin (including Chopin's Raindrop Prelude) by Claire Bigley Song used for epilogue - Resolution by Claire Bigley https://thesoundandthehealing.buzzsprout.com -podcast website
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61570919104816 -facebook page
https://www.instagram.com/pianisticmuse - Claire's instagram page
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rohini Kanniganti (00:03):
Well, hello everybody.
This is our first episode.
We're so glad you joined us Inthis episode, claire and I want
to introduce ourselves to youand we'd love to talk some and
(00:24):
reflect with each other anddiscover with each other the
meaning of the title of thispodcast the Sound and the
Healing and perhaps then explorewhat it means to each of us.
This Rumi quote that we usedabout the branches and the roots
(00:48):
, we're hoping that you willdiscover alongside with us.
Claire, do you want to say hiand introduce yourself?
Claire Bigley (01:02):
Thank you, rohini .
I would love to yes, yes, yes,welcome.
We're so excited to beembarking on this new,
exploratory, playful, joyfulproject and creative musings
(01:23):
with you all.
Let me take a few minutes andkind of introduce myself and
share with you what brings me tothe table.
So I started playing the pianoat a young age.
(01:43):
Always been drawn to music, tosound, I took a very classical
route in getting started andwent to university and played a
lot, got my piano performancedegree and for many years I was
(02:09):
an accompanist, I was a teacher,I worked as a pianist with a
voice teacher as well, so I wasimmersed in music.
I've been immersed in music mywhole life.
It served as a guardian and aWithout me even being aware of
(02:31):
what it was doing.
From an early age I knew that,no matter what was going on in
my life, that if I sat down atthe piano, if I walked into band
class, if I walked into chorus,everything would melt away.
(02:52):
Walked into chorus, everythingwould melt away.
I became harmonious, I becamegrounded in a way, and I was
able to forget all theannoyances, anything that was
clouding my vision, anythingthat was clouding my vision.
(03:14):
So this was a lifeline for mejust from the get-go, and so I
worked mainly as a musician formany years and then, probably as
I entered into my 40s, I had mylife kind of dropped out from
(03:54):
under me, which I think happensto many of us on a certain path
in our mid meditation, you know,kind of metaphysical or
spiritual or whatever you wantto call it direction.
I was really curious andinterested and I found myself
(04:28):
working with a man who ended upteaching a course that I took
for a while, and it entailed anenergy work, tapping many
different modalities of healing,and sound happened to be one of
them.
And I remember him saying youknow, you think you're behind in
this particular journey, and hesaid you're really very much
(04:50):
ahead of the game.
He said you're really very muchahead of the game because he
(05:10):
said sound is such an important,viable way of healing and
energy shifting, frequencyshifting.
And he said you don't have anyidea of how into the game you
are already.
And so in taking this class, Istarted to realize what he was
talking about.
I had been training for this mywhole life without being
(05:31):
conscious of it, had beentraining for this my whole life
without being conscious of it.
No-transcript in a verydifferent way working with
(05:53):
clients, working with tuningforks, just so.
It's kind of taken its owndifferent path.
So that's kind of where I amnow.
I also record my music.
I got into working withdifferent states that I would
(06:15):
feel I was in an emotional stateand I would sit down at the
piano and record what would comethrough my fingers.
And so I started recording andI'm always fascinated by what
shows up on the other end,because I'll start at a certain
(06:38):
state and as the piece continueswith music, you can go through
many facets and it willtransform itself in a note to a
different state.
So you end up on the other sideof the piece in a completely
different place than where youstarted.
(06:59):
So it's just a fascinatingjourney for me.
And when Rohini suggested thatthe two of us do a podcast, that
little girl inside of me wentyes, yes, yes.
So here here we are and I'm soglad to have you listening.
(07:21):
So thank you for joining us and, ro, let's hear about your
journey a little bit and whatyou bring to this podcast thank
you, love.
Rohini Kanniganti (07:33):
It was just joyful to receive your story.
I've heard it before and yetit's not the words, it's not the
story.
This resonance comes through,which is so powerful.
I could feel the opening everytime you sat down to play, going
(07:59):
deep into your roots, and theaccess you had to everything,
doors upon doors opening, and somuch comes through your voice,
claire.
And so much comes through yourvoice, claire.
Claire Bigley (08:24):
The sound from your voice is healing music.
Well, and that's so true of allof us, isn't it?
There's something about thebody that so responds to our own
voice.
Rohini Kanniganti (08:35):
And I hope we'll get into that in the
following sessions, that we getto really play with our voices
and the resonance of our voice.
So you asked you know where didI come from?
So you asked where did I comefrom?
(08:59):
I grew up in a culture reallymarinating in poetry and in
sound no-transcript and thatthese vibrations are deeply
(09:47):
healing at profound levels thatare unseen.
And so in that Rumi quote, whenwe talk about you know we live
in the branches right.
Talk about you know we live inthe branches right.
Our senses can see and feelhere, have a very direct
(10:10):
experience with the outer world,and so we tend to focus our
attention there.
But what is unseen and deep andintertwined and mysterious and
beautiful and resilient andresourced, so many ands here are
(10:31):
the roots of our system andthat so much can be learned and
derived when we connect to thesource of who we truly are.
And I am hoping, claire, that,and I am hoping, claire, that we
(11:01):
get to be in this beautifulprocess of discovery together
with our listeners.
I went from this childhood thatwas immersed and permeated with
the sacredness of sound ofvarious forms.
I also heard sound that wasreally painful in various forms,
(11:23):
whether it was screaming orshouting, and I understood.
I was observing how it affectedmy nervous system.
And this was my one of thefirst ways in which I sensed the
(11:45):
response of a nervous system toits environment and I became so
deeply interested inunderstanding the roots of who
we are and why we are what weare, what is trauma, what is
pain, what is joy.
(12:07):
And I ended up at firststudying chemistry in college
which was incredibly holy andsacred and we can talk about
that a different time and fromthere developed this love of
(12:29):
providing counseling and healingto people from a more
psychotherapeutic perspective.
How does that connect withchemistry?
You know you'll have to pay forthat ticket.
Hear that story.
And then I went to medicalschool.
There was grad school in there,working with EPA projects in
(12:54):
the environment, but I ended upin medical school, which was a
really extraordinary and sacredjourney.
It was painful, it was hard,and my teacher, sally Erickson
at that time, coached me everytime and she kept saying this is
(13:17):
a labor of love, rohini.
And these were words, butthere's a way in which these
words landed very deeply intolayers and layers of my heart
because she connected laboringwith heart and it created a
(13:45):
different container with which Iapproached studying and
learning and then offering thegifts of this learning.
Over the years and decades, youknow I've gone into a lot of
(14:06):
family medicine, into geriatricmedicine, into hospice and
palliative care and mostrecently, integrating that into
integrative psychiatry,utilizing modalities such as
psychedelics for healing.
That's a whole other discussionagain, and my work puts
(14:30):
together all of these fields,really.
But what's incredibly importantfor me to feel into with you,
listener, and with you, claire,is that when we are deeply
present with who we truly are,the veils become very thin.
(14:53):
What does that mean?
That's a whole otherexploration.
And ironically, in sufferingand in illness, the veils become
thin, as they do in sleep, indreaming, in experiences of our
own dying or being around otherpeople's dying.
(15:15):
This is what makes theseexperiences so sacred and so
powerful as teachers.
And the way that we heal inlife and in all of these
experiences is nonlinear.
It's unpredictable.
(15:36):
But when we are deeply rootedinto who we truly are, our
branches can engage beautifullywith life without fear.
Branches can engage beautifullywith life without fear.
So I'll say this much there'sjust so many more layers and
(16:04):
layers and layers, and perhapsthis is enough for now.
I can't wait to keep exploringthese elements of healing
through sound, through vibration, and really the intention here
is to have you experience whoyou truly are listening to this
(16:31):
podcast and everything that thatmight blossom within you.
Claire Bigley (16:41):
Well, and it's fascinating for me as I hear you
, rohini, speaking of everythingyou touched on and dove into.
I'm struck by you.
Take sound, the very envelopingof sound.
(17:10):
There don't have to be anywords so it can hold everything
without any separation, and Ifeel like there is a similarity
between that and healing.
You know both states.
Rohini Kanniganti (17:30):
I feel like there's a similarity between
that and healing.
Claire Bigley (17:31):
Mm-hmm.
You know, both states aresituations where you're not
necessarily having to explain orrationalize or speak.
(17:54):
It is in being, with both ofthese two things, you know,
you're sort of catapulted intothat liminal space, into that
all.
Rohini Kanniganti (18:09):
So, yes, very very sacred sound has the
capacity to be felt at thephysical level, at a very gross
body level.
I say gross, I don't meansomething bad or pejorative, I
just mean at a very dense bodylevel, at a subtle level, within
(18:35):
feelings and sensations,emotions, thoughts, and then
within this very open spirituallevel of that liminal space that
you just described.
We get to explore this together.
Claire Bigley (19:02):
I'm feeling exciting.
Yes, I was just going to sayI'm feeling pretty darn lucky at
the moment.
Rohini Kanniganti (19:12):
We get to play with each other.
Claire Bigley (19:14):
Yes.
Rohini Kanniganti (19:15):
Right.
Claire Bigley (19:16):
Yes, yes, yes.
Rohini Kanniganti (19:17):
What a metaphor that is in music, and
maybe we end there for today.
We're so glad that you joinedus.
Claire Bigley (19:29):
Welcome.
Welcome, and we hope you'lljoin us for more.
Thank you.
Rohini Kanniganti (19:40):
Bye-bye.
Well, hello everybody.
This is our first episode.
We're so glad you joined us Inthis episode, claire and I want
to introduce ourselves to youand we'd love to talk some and
(00:24):
reflect with each other anddiscover with each other the
meaning of the title of thispodcast the Sound and the
Healing and perhaps then explorewhat it means to each of us.
This Rumi quote that we usedabout the branches and the roots
(00:48):
, we're hoping that you willdiscover alongside with us.
Claire, do you want to say hiand introduce yourself?
Claire Bigley (01:02):
Thank you, rohini .
I would love to yes, yes, yes,welcome.
We're so excited to beembarking on this new,
exploratory, playful, joyfulproject and creative musings
(01:23):
with you all.
Let me take a few minutes andkind of introduce myself and
share with you what brings me tothe table.
So I started playing the pianoat a young age.
(01:43):
Always been drawn to music, tosound, I took a very classical
route in getting started andwent to university and played a
lot, got my piano performancedegree and for many years I was
(02:09):
an accompanist, I was a teacher,I worked as a pianist with a
voice teacher as well, so I wasimmersed in music.
I've been immersed in music mywhole life.
It served as a guardian and aWithout me even being aware of
(02:31):
what it was doing.
From an early age I knew that,no matter what was going on in
my life, that if I sat down atthe piano, if I walked into band
class, if I walked into chorus,everything would melt away.
(02:52):
Walked into chorus, everythingwould melt away.
I became harmonious, I becamegrounded in a way, and I was
able to forget all theannoyances, anything that was
clouding my vision, anythingthat was clouding my vision.
(03:14):
So this was a lifeline for mejust from the get-go, and so I
worked mainly as a musician formany years and then, probably as
I entered into my 40s, I had mylife kind of dropped out from
(03:54):
under me, which I think happensto many of us on a certain path
in our mid meditation, you know,kind of metaphysical or
spiritual or whatever you wantto call it direction.
I was really curious andinterested and I found myself
(04:28):
working with a man who ended upteaching a course that I took
for a while, and it entailed anenergy work, tapping many
different modalities of healing,and sound happened to be one of
them.
And I remember him saying youknow, you think you're behind in
this particular journey, and hesaid you're really very much
(04:50):
ahead of the game.
He said you're really very muchahead of the game because he
(05:10):
said sound is such an important,viable way of healing and
energy shifting, frequencyshifting.
And he said you don't have anyidea of how into the game you
are already.
And so in taking this class, Istarted to realize what he was
talking about.
I had been training for this mywhole life without being
(05:31):
conscious of it, had beentraining for this my whole life
without being conscious of it.
No-transcript in a verydifferent way working with
(05:53):
clients, working with tuningforks, just so.
It's kind of taken its owndifferent path.
So that's kind of where I amnow.
I also record my music.
I got into working withdifferent states that I would
(06:15):
feel I was in an emotional stateand I would sit down at the
piano and record what would comethrough my fingers.
And so I started recording andI'm always fascinated by what
shows up on the other end,because I'll start at a certain
(06:38):
state and as the piece continueswith music, you can go through
many facets and it willtransform itself in a note to a
different state.
So you end up on the other sideof the piece in a completely
different place than where youstarted.
(06:59):
So it's just a fascinatingjourney for me.
And when Rohini suggested thatthe two of us do a podcast, that
little girl inside of me wentyes, yes, yes.
So here here we are and I'm soglad to have you listening.
(07:21):
So thank you for joining us and, ro, let's hear about your
journey a little bit and whatyou bring to this podcast thank
you, love.
Rohini Kanniganti (07:33):
It was just joyful to receive your story.
I've heard it before and yetit's not the words, it's not the
story.
This resonance comes through,which is so powerful.
I could feel the opening everytime you sat down to play, going
(07:59):
deep into your roots, and theaccess you had to everything,
doors upon doors opening, and somuch comes through your voice,
claire.
And so much comes through yourvoice, claire.
Claire Bigley (08:24):
The sound from your voice is healing music.
Well, and that's so true of allof us, isn't it?
There's something about thebody that so responds to our own
voice.
Rohini Kanniganti (08:35):
And I hope we'll get into that in the
following sessions, that we getto really play with our voices
and the resonance of our voice.
So you asked you know where didI come from?
So you asked where did I comefrom?
(08:59):
I grew up in a culture reallymarinating in poetry and in
sound no-transcript and thatthese vibrations are deeply
(09:47):
healing at profound levels thatare unseen.
And so in that Rumi quote, whenwe talk about you know we live
in the branches right.
Talk about you know we live inthe branches right.
Our senses can see and feelhere, have a very direct
(10:10):
experience with the outer world,and so we tend to focus our
attention there.
But what is unseen and deep andintertwined and mysterious and
beautiful and resilient andresourced, so many ands here are
(10:31):
the roots of our system andthat so much can be learned and
derived when we connect to thesource of who we truly are.
And I am hoping, claire, that,and I am hoping, claire, that we
(11:01):
get to be in this beautifulprocess of discovery together
with our listeners.
I went from this childhood thatwas immersed and permeated with
the sacredness of sound ofvarious forms.
I also heard sound that wasreally painful in various forms,
(11:23):
whether it was screaming orshouting, and I understood.
I was observing how it affectedmy nervous system.
And this was my one of thefirst ways in which I sensed the
(11:45):
response of a nervous system toits environment and I became so
deeply interested inunderstanding the roots of who
we are and why we are what weare, what is trauma, what is
pain, what is joy.
(12:07):
And I ended up at firststudying chemistry in college
which was incredibly holy andsacred and we can talk about
that a different time and fromthere developed this love of
(12:29):
providing counseling and healingto people from a more
psychotherapeutic perspective.
How does that connect withchemistry?
You know you'll have to pay forthat ticket.
Hear that story.
And then I went to medicalschool.
There was grad school in there,working with EPA projects in
(12:54):
the environment, but I ended upin medical school, which was a
really extraordinary and sacredjourney.
It was painful, it was hard,and my teacher, sally Erickson
at that time, coached me everytime and she kept saying this is
(13:17):
a labor of love, rohini.
And these were words, butthere's a way in which these
words landed very deeply intolayers and layers of my heart
because she connected laboringwith heart and it created a
(13:45):
different container with which Iapproached studying and
learning and then offering thegifts of this learning.
Over the years and decades, youknow I've gone into a lot of
(14:06):
family medicine, into geriatricmedicine, into hospice and
palliative care and mostrecently, integrating that into
integrative psychiatry,utilizing modalities such as
psychedelics for healing.
That's a whole other discussionagain, and my work puts
(14:30):
together all of these fields,really.
But what's incredibly importantfor me to feel into with you,
listener, and with you, claire,is that when we are deeply
present with who we truly are,the veils become very thin.
(14:53):
What does that mean?
That's a whole otherexploration.
And ironically, in sufferingand in illness, the veils become
thin, as they do in sleep, indreaming, in experiences of our
own dying or being around otherpeople's dying.
(15:15):
This is what makes theseexperiences so sacred and so
powerful as teachers.
And the way that we heal inlife and in all of these
experiences is nonlinear.
It's unpredictable.
(15:36):
But when we are deeply rootedinto who we truly are, our
branches can engage beautifullywith life without fear.
Branches can engage beautifullywith life without fear.
So I'll say this much there'sjust so many more layers and
(16:04):
layers and layers, and perhapsthis is enough for now.
I can't wait to keep exploringthese elements of healing
through sound, through vibration, and really the intention here
is to have you experience whoyou truly are listening to this
(16:31):
podcast and everything that thatmight blossom within you.
Claire Bigley (16:41):
Well, and it's fascinating for me as I hear you
, rohini, speaking of everythingyou touched on and dove into.
I'm struck by you.
Take sound, the very envelopingof sound.
(17:10):
There don't have to be anywords so it can hold everything
without any separation, and Ifeel like there is a similarity
between that and healing.
You know both states.
Rohini Kanniganti (17:30):
I feel like there's a similarity between
that and healing.
Claire Bigley (17:31):
Mm-hmm.
You know, both states aresituations where you're not
necessarily having to explain orrationalize or speak.
(17:54):
It is in being, with both ofthese two things, you know,
you're sort of catapulted intothat liminal space, into that
all.
Rohini Kanniganti (18:09):
So, yes, very very sacred sound has the
capacity to be felt at thephysical level, at a very gross
body level.
I say gross, I don't meansomething bad or pejorative, I
just mean at a very dense bodylevel, at a subtle level, within
(18:35):
feelings and sensations,emotions, thoughts, and then
within this very open spirituallevel of that liminal space that
you just described.
We get to explore this together.
Claire Bigley (19:02):
I'm feeling exciting.
Yes, I was just going to sayI'm feeling pretty darn lucky at
the moment.
Rohini Kanniganti (19:12):
We get to play with each other.
Claire Bigley (19:14):
Yes.
Rohini Kanniganti (19:15):
Right.
Claire Bigley (19:16):
Yes, yes, yes.
Rohini Kanniganti (19:17):
What a metaphor that is in music, and
maybe we end there for today.
We're so glad that you joinedus.
Claire Bigley (19:29):
Welcome.
Welcome, and we hope you'lljoin us for more.
Thank you.
Rohini Kanniganti (19:40):
Bye-bye.
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