My Awakening with Sound Healing
From Childhood Melodies to Spiritually Inspired Music
I was brought up in a busy family home with three older sisters. Two of my sisters played guitar, and we would often sing folk songs together.
My love of playing music began at around eleven years of age, when my sisters first taught me to play the guitar. I took to it quite naturally, and for a while, my mum managed to pay for classical guitar lessons, although I always found reading music rather difficult.
As my playing developed, I eventually found myself teaching my sisters, who had first introduced me to the guitar!
Over the years, I have owned several guitars, including a beautiful twelve-string guitar which I absolutely loved, but I still have my very first guitar.
As my spiritual journey developed, I discovered the healing qualities of sound through Tibetan singing bowls, crystal bowls, tuning forks, gongs and the use of my own voice through toning and chanting.
Music gradually became another expression of my spiritual work.
My First Two CDs
In 2005, I travelled to Devon to record my first two CDs, Light Transmission and Divine Temple.
The recording studio was in a little barn beside some horses. I arrived with my collection of sound healing instruments and my voice, but no compositions or prepared music.
Over three days, we recorded spontaneously, allowing the sounds to develop naturally. Sometimes we even had to stop and wait for the horses to settle down before we could continue!
From those three days, we created two complete CDs.
Light Transmission brought together crystal singing bowls, tuning forks and planetary gongs, while Divine Temple included Tibetan singing bowls, a guided meditation and a shamanic song for soul retrieval.
Both recordings were spiritually inspired, created with the intention of sharing my work with sacred sound.
Rainbow Warrior — An Unexpected Collaboration
In 2008, following a journey to the United States and my experiences connected with White Buffalo Calf Woman, I collaborated with a musician named Patrick.
We had no idea what we were going to create.
As I shared my experiences, Patrick began translating the inspiration into music and words. Over three days, we recorded four pieces, combining keyboard, spoken words, chanting and voice.
One recording, Rainbow Warrior, explored the story of the White Buffalo and Rainbow Warrior.
Another became particularly meaningful when, listening back, Patrick suddenly asked, "What is it I am saying?"
He then recognised the words as "Hilda May", my mother's name, which he had never known.
It was a surprising moment for us both, and one that I came to associate with my own ancestral healing.
I Am In Heaven
My final CD, I Am In Heaven, emerged through a very different experience.
Following the passing of a young woman I had known through my spiritual work, I experienced what I understood to be communication with her.
I felt inspired to play the keyboard, although I had never learned to play chords. For the first time, I connected the keyboard to my laptop to see if I could record what I was playing.
The most amazing, magical sounds began to emerge as I played, and I found myself becoming completely lost in the music. When I listened back to the recording, I was amazed at what I had created.
During meditation, I experienced a connection with the young woman, who I understood was asking me to give this uplifting music to her mother.
The message was simple: "I Am in Heaven." She was safe and happy, and I understood that the music was intended to bring comfort and support her mother's healing.
I intuitively created three musical tracks, which represented the stages of her passing:
I Am in Heaven
Eternal Sunrise
Eternity
I named the album I Am In Heaven, a collection of gentle keyboard melodies and angelic chants.
For me, it remains a deeply healing and uplifting recording, born from a very personal spiritual experience.
Creating My Own Meditation Music
In later years, I learned to use GarageBand, allowing me to record my guided meditations and create my own accompanying music.
I began combining several musical tracks with subtle sounds from tuning forks, rainsticks and drums, bringing together my experience as a meditation teacher and sound healer.
Looking back, from my first classical guitar to my spiritually inspired recordings, music has accompanied me throughout my life.
For me, music has always been more than something to listen to. It is a way of expressing spiritual connection, exploring sound and sharing experiences that words alone cannot always convey.
With love and blessings,
Dee Banton