For thousands of years, people everywhere have turned to sound and color as a source of healing. Without even realizing it, humans are naturally drawn to colors and sounds that nourish the mind and body.
In ancient China, Qi Gong masters paid special attention to the way in which sound and color affect us. They quickly realized that these phenomena of nature held immense healing power that could be channeled and harnessed within us.
In this post, we’ll be exploring the origin of sound and color healing in Qi Gong. We’ll also discuss some of the fundamental principles that guide sound and color healing practices.
Discovering the Healing Sounds
Healing sounds were first officially recorded during the Qin Dynasty, which took place between about 221 and 207 BC in ancient China.
During this period, Qi Gong masters were studying the patterns and energies in the body that contributed to health and wellbeing. Many of their discoveries became cornerstones of modern Qi Gong, including what they learned about sound and color.
Once they started exploring our relationship with sound, they realized that humans have a natural tendency to use sound for healing. Almost universally, they saw that people produce certain sounds in similar situations.
For example, laughter is a sound that is expressed by individuals in every known society on earth. Even if we don’t realize it intellectually, in our body, we all know that the “hah” sound corresponds to heart energy being activated.
Similarly, after a stressful situation has passed, most people will issue a sigh of relief. In doing so, their body is able to naturally release tension and return to a more calm state of being.
Once Qi Gong teachers realized these natural patterns between sound and emotion, they started to study them more closely in order to delve deeper into how different sounds affect various parts of the body.
In addition to examining how people involuntarily use healing sounds in everyday life, they decided to study how intentions could be integrated to magnify these healing effects. Not surprisingly, they discovered that when they used a healing intention while performing the sound, the healing effects were greater. Of course, this is consistent with how we practice Qi Gong — we combine the intention of the mind with various practices to experience a positive transformation of energy within us.
Over time, dedicated practitioners gained more and more insight into the relationships between various sounds and parts of the body. During the Sui Dynasty around 590 to 618AD, a Qi Gong master named Zhi Zhuan identified six different sounds that have unique healing effects, each corresponding to a specific organ.
These became known as the Six Healing Sounds because of their ability to purge noxious energy from the body. When combined with movement and breathing, they were incredibly effective for addressing a wide variety of health ailments.
The Healing Power of Colors
In Qi Gong, sound healing is often accompanied by color visualization meditations.
Color healing dates back to around 1550 BC in ancient Egypt.
At that time, Egyptians saw color as an important element in healing. Often, they would use stones and gems to create different light displays and energies. Like Qi Gong, they often based the healing qualities of color on the elements they observed in nature. Ancient Greeks also dabbled with color healing.
In China, color healing emerged about 2000 years ago, around the same time as sound healing. The process of discovering how color affects humans mirrored a similar journey as sound healing — Qi Gong practitioners studied the relationship between various colors, emotions, and energies in the body.
Energetically, they discovered that each color corresponds with a different energy within us. Like sound, the light waves of each color are unique and have their own energetic qualities that we can experience.
Although sound and color are both used for healing in Qi Gong, they have a slightly different role.
Sound is used to purge toxic energy in the body while color generally has a tonifying effect. In other words, sound is used to help the body let go of toxic emotional or physical energy, and color is used to cultivate nourishing, vital Qi within the body.
For this reason, many healing practices start with sound healing to let go of energy and then use color to cultivate. Often, color visualization meditations are an important part of color healing.
Just like sound, different colors correspond to different parts of the body.
For example, red is connected to the heart and fire element. Blue is connected to the kidneys and water element. And white has an overall effect of purification.
By purging noxious Qi with the Healing Sounds and then cultivating nourishing energy using color visualization meditations, practitioners are able to let go of toxic physical and emotional energy and replace it with rich, nourishing Qi. Qi Gong movement is another key element that helps to circulate and move the energy throughout the body.
Self-Healing with Sound Workshop
This workshop will primarily concentrate on teaching self-healing Qi Gong practices based on the healing qualities of sound, and will also share some wonderful color visualization practices. This includes learning how to purge toxic energy from the organs, cultivating nourishing Qi throughout the body, and restoring emotional balance.
Like all of Lee’s workshops, this workshop will include both spoken lessons as well as experiential practices, so students can gain a holistic understanding of sound and healing.
It’s important to note that this is not a passive workshop like sound baths or other sound healing experiences. Rather, this is an engaging experience in which you’ll have the opportunity to develop skills and practices to become your own personal healer.
Click on the banner below to sign up and discover the healing power of sounds.