From ancient shamanism to modern organized religions, all cultures have used sacred instruments, including the human voice, for prayer and healing. But nowhere on earth has the intentional use of sound for ritual, worship, and healing been developed to such a degree as in the snow-crowned peaks and windstruck plateaus of Tibet, origin of exquisitely resonant singing bowls, cymbals, and bells.

No one forgets their first experience of the sound of Tibetan bells. The very air seems to shiver and vibrate as a multitude of harmonic tones reaches out into an infinite universe. The essence of your cells -- your very being -- reacts, reorganizes, and harmonizes. The ever-questing mind finds itself at an unfamiliar peace, allowing the body to come into a natural healing state of equanimity.

For hundreds of years (perhaps millennia if one accepts the indigenous Tibetan Bon version of their history as going back 18,000 years), the uses of the resonant singing bowls have remained obscured. One of the gifts of the tragic invasion of Tibet by China has been the bringing of the Himalayan singing metal instruments to the West along with their underpinnings of Buddhist dharma and indigenous Bon.

The unique flavor of Tibetan Buddhism is a result of its influence by Bon, the original shamanistic religion of Tibet. Many Buddhist practices -- from prayer flags to worship of spirits of place, from fire ceremonies to the masked cham dances -- have their origin in this powerful tradition. The singing metal bowls and bells are probably no exception.

Many people are familiar with the use of the bell and dorjee in Tibetan Buddhist Tantric rituals. These two tools must always be used together, as the ritual is a bringing together of male and female energy. The sweet purity of the bell symbolizes feminine wisdom, while the dorjee thunderbolt symbol symbolizes masculine compassion.

Contemporary Bon-pos use a unique and rare flat bell, the shang, along with a chak-shing. The shang, which looks like a hand-sized cymbal, is always played or placed on an altar with the clapper upright. The chak-shing is a scepter with a double yungdrung (the Tibetan word for swastika, an ancient sacred symbol long before the Nazis misappropriated it). The Bon are known for their ability in exorcism, and the shang is a powerful spiritual tool for breaking up and removing thought forms that clog a person's auric field and life.

The ting-shas, palm-sized double cymbals connected by a leather cord, are gentle by comparison, but still very powerful. Each set of ting-shas is different in tone, quality, and note. I once sounded about 100 pairs in Kathmandu, Nepal, in order to match my energy field. Many were exquisitely beautiful, but not quite "right."

Traditionally, ting-shas are used in Tibetan rituals as punctuation for prayers. They welcome the spirit of the Buddha invoked, and are a sound offering to the deity. Today, many healers also use them for harmonizing the body with the spirit, diagnosing energy blocks, and clearing auric fields and living spaces. The pure sound of the ting-shas vibrates with a slight dissonance when passed over a disturbed or disharmonious area of a person's energy field, or when sounded in a living area permeated by distress. Often, additional sounding of the ting-shas is all that's needed to clear the imbalance.

Singing bowls further harmonize the auric field and promote healing on a cellular level. No one knows the true origin or history of the singing bowls. Some have suggested an extra-terrestrial origin of the secret of combining metals to create the pure harmonic overtones of these exquisite instruments, at once breath-taking and breath-giving. Some scholars believe that the modern Bon-pos still closely hold secret information about these instruments.

What we do know is that older bowls, bells, and ting-shas are made of a seven-metal alloy, the metals corresponding to the visible planets. A Tibetan friend who deals in singing metal instruments says that most of the best are at least 150 years old. She carefully tests the quality of each one she purchases, spending hours in bazaars in Nepal and India. She uses the bowls in her own spiritual practice, and draws no distinction between physical and spiritual healing: "Meditation is healing," she says with a smile.

The best quality modern instruments, made in exile in Nepal and India, are crafted of seven metals. Cheaper imitations, not nearly as resonant or long lasting in their tones, only contain five metals. The test is in the listening and the feeling. Which tones resonate with your body-mind? One can spend hours, even days, testing bowls and feeling their frequencies. However, as in the rest of life, there are no accidents, and you always end up with just the right bowl for that moment in your life, the one that produces the sound that opens your chakras and vibrates your cells to higher levels and dimensions.

Though no scientific research is yet available, there are many anecdotal reports of dis-eases being healed through the use of Tibetan bowls. People report long-held pains and congestion vanishing, and, in some cases, tumors have appeared to dissolve and pass through the system. Bones are said to knit more quickly, and people with back pain in particular seem to benefit. Many people use the bowls and bells to bring about a state of calmness when receiving medical treatments. One friend experienced a pain-free biopsy by asking the nurse to sound her ting-shas at regular intervals.

There is no doubt in the mind of anyone who has experienced the sound of Tibetan bowls first hand that the healing power is enormous. It is sometimes subtle, sometimes dramatic, but always very present and palpable.

One can increase the effect by actually standing inside large bowls, while smaller ones can be placed and sounded directly on one's chakras and body parts. Gently and steadily rubbing wooden mallets along the rims of these sacred instruments produces tones and overtones that harmonize with angelic beings and deity realms."

Bowls can also be used on the body, in patterns around the auric field, on the chakras, or in healing spirals. They can be used for shamanic journeying, or simply to transport one's consciousness to another place. Allow spirit to be your guide as to how to use the sacred singing metal instruments of Tibet for maximum healing potential and power.