---

Have you found your favorite place yet?

---

If you have ever taken a self improvement, or personal development workshop over the past 30 years or so, guided visualizations are often part of the program. In how many countless visualizations have you been told to "go to your favorite place..."?

Since I am not by nature predominantly visual, I have one of two reactions: I either get no images, or a series of images that flit by so quickly, I can't pick out a favorite one. This has always been frustrating to me. But when I discovered a special place in the Great Smoky Mountains, a secluded forest/power spot/vortex, I knew I had found my spot.

Although it might be dating ourselves, if you were on a path when the first Carlos Castaneda books were published, you may recall Don Juan's instructions for Carlos to find his "spot." I thought it was metaphorical, or virtual, and not something you could really feel or really know. Now I know that it can be real, too.

If there is a place within you, a sensitivity within you, that resonates to seclusion, solitude and quiet ... if you treasure " perhaps even crave " silence and solitude, and being one with nature, connecting to earth's energies, there is a spot you should know about--the Smoky Mountain Sound Sanctuary.

For the last seven years, I have been co-owner of this property which includes a couple of houses and 15 acres. I have been coming here twice a year since 1995, except my visit last fall was cancelled in the aftermath of September 11. I wondered whether I would still feel a strong connection to this land, and if it were still something that I felt needed to be shared with others--especially if they lived within driving distance.

The answer was a powerful "Yes!" It came to me very clearly in meditation as I was sitting on a moss covered rock by a briskly running mountain stream. I literally heard a whisper in my ear that said someone who may be reading this column is the person who is being called to be a co-owner. Whether or not this may be you, I invite you to see pictures of this magical place, please, at: www.innerpeacemusic.com/soundsanctuary.html

Babbling Brook Meditation

When was the last time you really listened to a mountain spring, or a slowly flowing body of water like a lake, lagoon or even the ocean? I mean deeply listening, breathing with the sound of the water. Hearing the stereo image as it is perceived in each ear, notice that you can most likely hear two different melodies when you slow down enough to listen to "the space between the notes..." the space between the bubbles in the babbling brook.

I've recorded many brooks and rivers and streams and lagoons, and I am always fascinated by how different the same stream of water sounds simply by moving a couple of feet in either direction. Each is unique, like snowflakes, yet each is different, and some are definitely more interesting than others.

The mountain stream at Smoky Mountain Sound Sanctuary is an all-star stream. It is one of the sweetest sounding streams I have ever heard. I will be offering audio and video samples on my website in the near future, but there is nothing like being there in person.

In last month's installment, we delved into some of the more scientific studies and state of the art recordings that Bernie Krause has done. The Sound Sanctuary is still one of the only places where you hardly hear any human-made sounds most of the time. There is an incredible stress-reducing and nurturing benefit for body, mind and spirit.

But no matter where you live, affirm to yourself that you will find a place in your local environment, where you can spend some quality time with yourself, with nature ... and listen deeply.

Yours for Sound Health,

Steven Halpern

---

Steven Halpern is the leading composer of music for healing and "sound health". His latest releases are Chakra Suite, an expansion of his New Age chakra-balancing classic, Spectrum Suite and Transitions: Music for Solace and Comfort. Hear samples at www.innerpeacemusic.com.

---

Next Article

Return to This Month's IndexGo to