(upbeat music) - Will you consider this?

You know, we have everything going on in Central Illinois: cold, hot, things that are stressful, things that are not stressful.

But if you're really, really overstressed, this lady knows how to help us out.

Harley Easton is a sound healer and she's got some of her sound healing equipment right here to share with us.

But first of all, I want to know about you.

Tell me a little bit about you.

- I'm born and raised in Peoria.

Lived here all but about six months of my life, where I lived in Florida, and I've done a little bit of everything.

For the purposes of this, I've been musical since you know the Abba song Mama said I was a dancer- - Sure.

- Before I could walk.

Yeah, my mom said I was singing before I could actually do anything else.

- Okay.

- We often sang in the car to and from Bartonville to see my grandparents.

And so I was doing that and very early on, piano lessons, guitar lessons, clarinet, violin, I mean a little bit of everything.

And I actually went to Bradley University and got a degree in Music Education.

- Oh, okay.

- So I have a little bit of a background in this.

And then- - Did you ever use that degree to teach or just for your own stuff?

- I didn't.

- Okay.

- I didn't, I got it to teach and when I got out of student teaching, it was about the time when there just were no jobs available.

- Okay.

- So I ended up doing a lot of other things.

I worked at several nonprofits.

I worked at a couple of the hospitals.

I worked at Caterpillar for a little while.

I mean, I did a little bit of everything, and then in 2019 I got very sick.

I got an autoimmune disorder, and it's psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

And I know the commercials on TV make psoriasis look like, "Oh, I have a little spot on my skin."

- It's just gonna go away, yeah.

- Yeah.

85% of my body was covered in open sores.

- Really?

- That would not go away.

And within a month, I went from having full mobility to being in a wheelchair and having no, I couldn't walk hardly.

And so- - Gosh.

- I started when Western Medicine was having a problem kind of diagnosing what was going on before they got me to a rheumatologist and some very good specialists that I get to work with now, I started looking into alternative practices, you know, some herbalism stuff, what'll help ease my joints, what'll help with sores, I looked into just various different things and one of the things I found was- - Holistic.

- Yeah, was sound healing.

- Okay, interesting.

- And with my background in music, it just flowed really well for me.

- It was one of those things.

- It was.

- Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so that little bit of time in Florida, you just went there to try to heal your psoriasis or what?

- Oh no, I worked at Disney World for six months.

- Oh, good for you.

- I've always loved it.

So it was one of those, my sister went for the college program and I went at the same time and just got hired on straight, and we had six months together in Florida and then decided that family stuff was important and we came back to be with family in Central Illinois.

- Good for you.

So, so you studied then, well, you actually, how did you heal then once you found out about sound healing and for your autoimmune disorder, how did you?

Who used it for you, or how did you apply it?

- I first saw it on the internet and kind of got into that.

And then I went to a studio that was in Downtown Peoria on the suggestion of a friend.

And one thing you absolutely have to know about sound healers is that everybody has a very different way of approaching it.

This lady did wonderful things with the dynamics and with a lot of dissonances.

She used bowls that were very close to each other.

And so she was more into activating your system.

- [Christine] To receive the sound?

- You activate the system.

What sound healing does is it works on your- - Parasympathetic.

- Parasympathetic system, and what it'll do is it will switch it from what is effectively fight or flight into rest and relaxation.

So, when you activate it, it leans into that fight or flight and it gets your system kind of revved up and active so that you can heal those kind of things.

And when you lean into the really solid sounds and the chords and those kind of things, it puts you into rest and relaxation, which is what I play a lot more with.

But I went to Downtown, to Soulside, and she did wonderful things.

And then I went to, there's a lady called Kathy Quisenberry, and she does one for the... Oh, it's out by Pekin and I don't remember, their library- - Okay.

- Out there.

And hers was totally different with both the crystal bowls and she has metal bowls that she uses.

And after hers she does a lovely thing where she brings herbal teas in so that everybody can kind of wake up a little bit before they drive home.

- Right, okay.

Yeah.

- So, but I first experienced it just going to different people, and then I have a very supportive family and I said I was going to just buy my own bowls.

And actually the bowls came in and my mom and dad said, "We're just going to buy these because we think they're beautiful and we think it's great that you're continuing your music and it's helping you heal and also we want to experience them too."

So- - Good, good.

- I really started practicing for myself and my family.

And then in 2024, I finally decided to get certified.

- I was going to ask, so you do need to be certified, and then how do you get certified and where do you go for that?

- I took an online course with a lady in Canada.

Her name is Laurie Fullard.

And she did a fully inclusive course that included sound bowls, it included tuning fork therapies, it included crystal pyramids and several percussion instruments.

And she walked you through both what's the history of it, what's the scientific basis of it?

And she had people that would go through a live demonstration of, "This is what it looks like to work with someone individually one-on-one."

And that was part of her certification was there were tests, there were interactions with her.

It was just, it was a really nice course for me because I couldn't find anything around here that I could travel to or get to economically, so that was really good for me.

- Wow, so things, obviously you're healed, I don't see any psoriasis on you.

Or do you have every once?

- Yeah.

- It's every once in a while.

- Well, with the cold weather.

- You know with- - And flare-ups, yeah, yeah.

- The cold weather, yeah.

- Were you pretty amazed that you could get those kind of results when other types of medical approaches weren't working?

- It's a combination.

You cannot do this in exclusion to medical help.

- Okay.

- So I work with a rheumatologist, I do have medications I have to take, but this helps with my system.

I for several years was in a not great relationship and I was overworking myself and I was dealing with problems with family, and so just it was multiple things.

My system had gotten to a point where it was consistently in fight or flight.

- Right.

- And the whole reason I got this was because that will eventually in some people switch on a gene that triggers an autoimmune issue.

- Ah.

- And once it's triggered, that's it.

- Okay.

- You know, it's a- - You can't un-trigger it.

- No, it's a genetic thing.

- Okay, wow.

- And so what this really does is it helps calm me down, but also the bowls are all tuned to a certain frequency and- - So what frequency are these right now?

These are only three of your seven bowls.

- These are only three of the seven I have.

And the numbers escape me.

- Okay.

- Forgive me, but mine are tuned to your chakras.

- All right.

- So if you've heard about the Indian, the Eastern theory of Chakras, they're basically energy, - Energy and your energy, right?

- Yes, they're energy centers in your body.

So this one is tuned to your root chakra, which is basically from your pelvic floor all the way down to your feet.

It is tied to grounding you.

- All right.

- Making you feel comfortable on the ground, but also- - And that's a big thing now is to get grounded every day.

- Yeah.

- Go out and put your feet in the grass and just feel the earth without socks or anything, barefoot.

- Exactly.

- Okay.

- And I'll do sound healings a lot in just my socks or my bare feet if possible.

- Okay.

- But it's also tied to home and safety and stability and just feeling comfortable in your body.

The yellow one, we're going to skip one because there's one in between, but the yellow one is your solar plexus.

- Oh.

- So it's all your digestive organs, but it's also your sense of light.

It's your kind of purpose.

It's what makes you shine kind of- - and wellbeing, right.

- It's, yeah.

It's your wellbeing.

And then the blue one is what all my friends refer to as my favorite, they always say my throat chakra is wide open, I don't mind- - Talking.

(laughs) - Speaking my truth, but it's your throat, so it's your sense of truth.

It's your voice, it's your ability to communicate.

- Well, fascinating.

You also have these wind chimes or chimes.

It's not.

Okay, there we go.

(chimes chiming) Aren't those beautiful?

(chimes chiming) Yeah, no falling asleep camera people.

No, Micah.

(Harley laughing) No, nobody in the control room, no falling asleep to that.

But isn't that relaxing?

- There's about 10 individual tines inside each of these, so it swirls around a series of notes that are all in 1s, 3s, and 5 if you go by musical terms, so like Do-Mi-Sol.

- Okay.

- But this one is tuned for water.

So, and this one is tuned for fire.

They are elemental.

- And therefore the colors to kind of help us know what they're for.

To kind of know- - Okay, all right, all right.

- What they're for.

And I use those primarily as an ease into and out of my sessions.

I have a friend say, "It's great.

It's almost Pavlovian.

I hear that and I know, 'Oh, it's time to wake up.

It's time for me to get up from my nap.

I gotta start coming back.'"

And I do try to talk people into and out of, there's a gentle, "We need to stretch, we need to be comfortable, we need to be safe and warm and good in our space because..." - And to receive it.

- Yeah.

If you aren't then you aren't going to get the full benefit.

- Wasting your time, okay.

- Yeah.

- So, you also, now you have a rain stick.

You didn't bring that with you, but that, it does sound like a gentle rain.

You just tip it back and forth.

And you have a tuning fork here too before we get to the bowls because it was cold when you came in, we're making sure that the bowls don't crack.

So, you have a tuning fork, so what?

This one does not make a sound.

- It makes a very light sound.

- A vibration - Like if I put it up to your ear, you would hear it.

- Okay.

- But these ones are called weighted tuning forks because of these weights right here.

And what happens if you'll put your hand out for me, actually.

(fork ringing) - Oh, it is vibrating.

- Yeah, you'll feel it vibrate.

And this will go through, you'll feel it on your palm, but also people usually feel it.

It's going up my arm right now.

- Yep, up their arm.

I've had people say they feel it down in their calves, in their feet.

I had one lady tell me that she felt it all the way across her forehead.

And this is a 68.5, so it is basically the Earth vibrates at 7 hertz- - Okay.

- As it circles on its axis, and that is supposed to be part of that.

I also have one that's 34 hertz.

- Okay.

- And it's three weights.

It's really heavy and kind of big, but these are really fun.

These ones I use a lot more individually if I'm doing- - Right, tell me about this.

- A one-on-one session.

- So, you do one-on-one sessions, you go into people's homes, your parents, you do that, so you will do some sessions- - Yeah.

- For people.

And then, I found you at Wildlife Prairie Park, you do some sound healing sessions every couple of weeks.

- Yes, the one-on-ones, I actually now have a studio in Pekin through Anaprana Healing.

They're a yoga studio, and I have a little area with a chair and basically someone can come in and I'll say, "Are you looking just to kind of clear out your chakras?

Are you feeling sluggish?

Do you have something you want to focus on?"

My dad has hip problems, and so I use a series of them on his hips and on his feet.

And they all get cleaned afterwards, I mean, everything's like a- - Sanitized.

- A spa or a chiropractor, it's all sanitized.

- Right.

- But it helps him with pain relief.

It's not going to cure the systemic issue.

He also goes to a chiropractor, he goes to physical therapy, he goes to a doctor.

I always say that this is supplemental.

- Right.

- This is not medical, you know?

- Right.

- But it's helped him be able to handle it while he was waiting to get into some of those appointments.

- And so Eastern and Western medicine are coming together basically.

- Which is exactly what it needs to be.

But this is so much more than Eastern medicine.

I mean, the oldest sound healing device is the didgeridoo from Aboriginal tribes in Australia.

But the pyramids.

- Yeah, okay.

- The pyramids, I recently taught an OLLI course in October, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, that works through Bradley.

- At Bradley, yes.

- Yeah, I did a four-week session for them.

One day, one hour over four weeks.

And the first session was all history.

- Okay.

- So we learned fun things like the pyramids.

The Pyramid of Giza actually has rooms that are tuned to the same frequencies as these bowls, so the same as Indian chakra frequencies, because they used it to help resonate.

There were certain frequencies they used in their ceremonies for the dead, there were certain frequencies they used if the Pharaoh was sick and they needed to take someone in, there were certain frequencies they used if they were trying to get to a higher state of consciousness because it was a day for the gods.

I mean, and we're talking Greek, we're talking Egyptian, we're talking, there's some basis for it in- - Aztecs.

- Yes, Aztecs.

American medicine, especially right after World War I, when people were coming back shellshocked.

Once tuning forks were invented, there's some in France, there's some in England.

I mean the Europeans kind of let it go, but all around them, Africa and Asia and early, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, they all used it.

- They got the message somehow.

All right, you think we're ready yet so that we could hear them- - Yeah.

- Just a little bit while we talk too.

So, when you start a session, you kind of clear the air first, and then you start with, do you have a certain order that you go in?

- I always like to start with the root (bowl ringing) because it's very grounding.

(bowl ringing) And these are my mallets that let things go soft, so this is actually really quiet.

- Okay.

- But you'll hear, it'll resonate for quite some time.

- Right.

- And I am a person who likes to layer.

(bowls ringing) (bowls ringing continues) - [Christine] Isn't that pretty?

- And there is a difference in how you play them.

(bowls ringing continues) - [Christine] And how do you know?

Well, part of it was my training with Laurie.

- With music, okay.

- And part of it was my training with music.

And you talk to other practitioners and pick things up.

Like if you are going clockwise around the bowl, you are sending things out.

You are giving intention for people to receive the energies, for it to come in.

If you're going counterclockwise, you're trying to remove blockages, you're trying to get rid of anything that's sitting there.

And it's fascinating.

- So, do you do both?

- I do both.

I mix them in my sessions trying to help people balance.

And the way people will react is amazing because there are people who will get halfway through a session and fall completely asleep and snore.

- Oh.

(laughs) - There are people who will get halfway through a session and will just start crying and be unable to stop.

There are people who will giggle.

There are people, I mean, the emotions that come out, because basically what this does is your cells, we talked about how they vibrate at a certain level and there's a pract, or it's not a practice, it's a theory called entrainment.

- Okay.

- And what these do is they play at the level that your cells are supposed to vibrate and your cells will lean into that.

They've shown it under microscopes that if they have a cell that is vibrating too slowly because it's you're depressed or you're sick or you know- - Overwhelmed.

Right.

- You're sluggish basically.

- Right.

- Your cell will start vibrating more quickly to match the frequency because it knows that's what it's supposed to vibrate at.

- Okay, all right.

- And if you're anxious or you're agitated or you've just been stuck in fight or flight for a long time, your cell will slowly calm down trying to reach the frequency, so once it hears it- - Where it's supposed to be.

- Yeah, and because we're made so much of water, which vibration goes really well through water, we keep this in our body for up to three days after the treatment.

- Yeah, I do remember, I read it in I think it was your brochure and you said that some parts of your body may cramp up or react days later, and I had that happening to me.

- You should have emailed.

That's why I give out those flyers, I have my email on there so I can make sure I check that so I can make sure if people have questions that I can get back to them because I don't want anyone to go through this and think that something's wrong or there's a problem.

- Well, I was glad that I read it because then well then that makes sense why that weird cramp just out of nowhere where you don't usually have cramps.

- Yeah, because what you're doing is emotions and trauma and various things are stored in places in your body - They lock in your body.

- And so when you release that, there's a cramp.

And so I tell people all the time, I'm like, "If you're feeling tired, lean into that.

Let your potty relax, take a nap."

If you're feeling extra jittery, I always tell people to do the hokey pokey in the middle of the grocery store because it'll make everybody laugh.

It also kind of breaks the tension at the end of a session.

- Right, exactly.

But I I really mean it, you know, just literally shake things out because that's getting out of your body what you need out of it.

And hydrate, hydrate so much because that'll flush your system if anything has been released.

Like if you go to a chiropractor or you go to a medical practitioner and you've been through a lot, they'll tell you to drink more water because it flushes your system out.

- Right, right.

- And that's the best way to get through.

- How do you stay awake when you're doing this?

I mean, it's so beautiful and so relaxing, how do you stay with it for and how many sessions do you usually do a day?

I mean, I would be napping in between all the time.

- Right now I'm lucky it's usually about an hour, 40 minutes to an hour set up before you guys get there and then an hour-long session with the intro and the letting people leave and answering questions and all that kind of stuff, and I try to keep a very calming atmosphere so that you don't lose that when you walk out the door, and then it's half an hour or so to pack up.

So I can't do them back to back unless I'm in a stationary place.

- Right.

- Today, I'm bringing them here and then I have a session later this evening at the yoga studio, Anaprana.

And so, it depends on the day and it depends on whether I've got clients booked or whatever, but I have to take time for myself.

This is actually very active if you do it on your own.

The bowls are not lightweight.

- They are not.

- They're quite heavy.

- They weigh as much as my purse.

- As much as mine as well, so I get my lifting in.

- Yeah, so ladies, you can identify with that.

(laughs) Well, so do you ever think that you would get to the point where you would want to instruct people in so that we had more sound healers in the area or?

- We actually already have quite a few, there's several people that are practitioners, but they don't go to studios, they just do it for themselves or their friends.

But we also have multiple studios in the area that have great sound healing programs.

Soulside downtown is great.

Again, I'm working with a studio in Pekin.

There's a lady, Marquette Heights.

Okay.

- Kathy Quisenberry works out of Marquette Heights.

She works through the library and only does it for them because otherwise she does it for herself.

It's just a give back to the community thing for her.

There are several yoga studios or holistic wellness places- - Right.

- That are interested in this and either have someone already in house or work with multiple sound healers, and there are all kinds, this is such a limited amount of what's available.

- But you know what?

- The River Kitty Cafe.

- Okay.

- Which is a wonderful place.

I have a friend who goes there with it's called a tongue drum.

It's a steel drum that's kind of rounded and she plays it with her thumbs and beats on little tongues that are on this.

It sounds a little bit like a Jamaican steel drum.

- Oh, right, yeah.

- And she'll play for their yoga sessions that they do at the River Kitty Cafe.

- Well, (laughs) you know what?

And so, I pride myself in knowing some stuff, and I guess I never really knew this.

I knew about hertz and there's different frequencies for different healing areas of your body and stuff, but I never knew about this, so it's good to know that we have it here.

And so, what do you see in your future?

- I am really trying to grow my individual business and get more private clients because the tuning forks are so helpful, and so I'm trying to grow that.

I love working with Wildlife Prairie Park.

I hope to continue that relationship.

This is the second year I've done it, and we've grown from about 15 people in the first session to now almost 60.

They're almost always booked.

- Yeah.

- Keep going with that, and really just helping other people heal the way that it's helped me.

- Well, it really is interesting that just sound, it can, you know, there was a song "Shake Your Sillies Out."

Well, this kind of, it doesn't exactly shake your sillies out, but it does kind of get your body flowing in the right direction.

And with as much stressful everything that's going on in today's world and we have constant internet, we have constant noise everywhere, that this is a nice noise to bring into your life, don't you think?

- I think it's very calming and very restful, and it is, I'm glad that more people are doing it and more people are experiencing it because it's how we're going to take that de-stress we need.

(gentle music) - All right, well, just spin it a little bit more.

We're almost done, I'm going to say goodbye, and I'm going to thank Harley Easton for being here.

(bowl ringing) And she's going clockwise right now, so that's a good thing.

And I hope you learned a little bit about sound healing and how interesting it is, and we have a lot of options now.

So, thank you, Harley, for being with us.

Thank you for being with us.

Stay warm and be well.

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