Sound Immersions
It is an honour and privilege to share these teachings with you, as they have been shared and taught to me by my teachers.
It is my hope that these Sound Immersions highlight the important role of Nāda Yoga - be it through sound, mantra, or chanting.
These practices are truly transformational, and can, if allowed to, permeate into all aspects of your life.
ॐ लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिःॐ
Jessica Defoe, B.M.A, B.Ed, E-RYT 500 (200 hour + 300 hour Jivamukti Yoga) – Jessica was guided towards the musical path by her parents and grandmother at six years old. After completing degrees in piano and instrumental music education at the University of Windsor, she was even more convinced of the transformational power of music, and founded the instrumental music program and Jazz program at École secondaire catholique E.J. Lajeunesse in 2004.
Once introduced to the Bhakti limb of Yoga as a yoga practitioner through the Jivamukti Yoga lineage and method, her curiosity and interest grew into devotion to those practices. Jessica combines sound, chanting and music at the core of her classes in order to uplift the practice, in hopes of providing students with mantras that can serve them, as well as a working knowledge of Sanskrit.
As a student, she has had the fortune of learning the Bhakti path and sitting with teachers Michael Cohen, Jai Uttal, Krishna Das and Bhagavan Das. Jessica has also had the opportunity to attend the Jazz at Lincoln Center Band Director Academy in New York in 2013, 2014, and 2015.
“ON NADAM - Listening for the unstruck sound”:
One of the five tenets in Jivamukti Yoga, described in The Jivamukti Book of Yoga, is Nada — Nada Yoga, the Yoga of sound — the “development of a sound body and mind through deep listening”. It allows for practitioners to “refine hearing through listening to uplifting, spiritually directed music during asana practice, and refine speech though kirtan” (Gannon and Life 15).
Another tenet of Jivamukti Yoga is that of bhakti, or devotion, to “encourage the practice of kirtan and japa.”
“Indian music is profoundly spiritual. As Raviji Shankar says, “Our tradition teaches us that sound is God - Nada Brahma. That is, musical sound and the musical experience are the steps to the realization of the Self. We view music as a kind of spiritual discipline that raises one's inner being to divine peacefulness and bliss.” In most Eastern and African cultures, music and dance are spiritual practices. In our culture, music has been turned into a commodity” (Gannon and Life 222).
"Everything in existence vibrates to a certain resonant frequency. Every part of our bodies, every thought and emotion all have an inherent sound. The practice of Nada Yoga is to fine tune these frequencies so that we can embody health and wholeness on all levels" (Le Jivamukti de Paris).
Sound and vibration have a profound impact on our well being, on our relationships, on our creativity... It allows us to become more in tune with ourselves, and therefore the beings and world all around us.
Sound Immersions combine the healing properties of a Sound Bath with live instruments and sound equipment from Audio Two. Through Nāda Yoga, the Yoga of Sound and powerful and purposeful intention setting, this practice aims to help guide transformation through the meditative vibration of music.
Nāda Yoga, the Yoga of Sound, involves deep listening. It uses pure sounds as a means of meditation. In many ways it is a paradoxical practice - both passive and active - meditative listening and receiving of sound and also actively moving sound through our bodies. This pilgrimage through the body and mind will be guided via sound and vibration.
Jessica plays many instruments, including:
- Chakra Tuning Forks
- Tibetan & Crystal Singing bowls
- Chimes and Tingshas
- Harmonium
- The Chakra Overtone Drum - The COD is a healing-musical instrument implemented on the research of Dr. Barbara Brennan, an American physicist, and pioneer in the field of energy healing. The COD is tuned to seven specific sound frequencies that resonate very accurately in the human energy centres - our chakras.
