Martyrs of Sound: Blogs/News

Breathing into Bliss
How to use bliss to create transformation and healing.

By Sara Wiseman
Bliss begins with the breath. We breathe in, and accept all that is new. We breathe out, and release all that has passed. When we breathe deeply, we have the potential of attaining the same trancelike euphoria found in meditation, prayer, chanting, ecstatic dance, kirtan and by listing to particular kinds of music.
Yet we don’t have to do this in a yoga room, on a massage table or in meditation. We can achieve this blissful state anywhere, at any time.
One method of reaching the euphoric state is through the technique of The Calming Breath, said Dr. Steve Koc, a long-healer and practitioner of Kundalini yoga. To begin the Calming Breath, sit down, close your eyes, and start breathing long and deep, in through the nose. Fill the belly, fill the chest with air, and hold it for a while. Then let it out slowly and fully through the nose – hold it out. Remember, you hold the breath in, but you also hold it out; both are important. The key is to slow this cycle, to slow down your breath rate.
You can do this deep breath anywhere. In line at the post office, sitting in traffic. “They say ‘wherever you go, there you are,’ but what’s also true is that wherever you go, there is your breath,” Dr. Koc said.
The way to use the Calming Breath to reach bliss is to practice techniques frequently and regularly, so that your body, musculature and glandular system get used to being in that state, he explained. In this way, when you come across a situation that causes anxiety, you can mechanically begin the breath technique, and your body will instantly revert to that state of deep relaxation.
“It’s the concept of nerve accommodation,” said Dr. Koc. “The nerves fire off easier every time you use them; that’s how habits get formed. When we are training the nervous system with a new breathing technique, the muscles and nerves learn the pattern; they will reach it faster and more efficiently each time.”
To slow the breath further actually causes a shift in your body’s hormones. Start by breathing 6-11 breaths per minute, to give your body a chance to incorporate the change. Then, slow down to one to five breaths per minute, with one breath cycle being an inhale, hold in, exhale, hold out. “This will create the physiological and psychological response of the meditative state,” said Dr. Koc. “It’s very restorative.”
The result of this carefully slowed breath is that the glands release, the muscles relax, and the parasympathetic nervous system becomes dominant, as opposed to the sympathetic system.
“The sympathetic is our fight or flight system, the adrenal based system of our body chemistry. It rules nervous excitability. The parasympathetic system is the at-ease state, the relaxed state in which your body does self-healing and rejuvenation. It’s the way you feel right before you drift off to sleep, the feeling of peace and calm you get when you are in nature, or when you are day-dreaming,” said Dr. Koc.
If you can slow your breath with the Calming Breath, you will be able to get near to, or actually within the parasympathetic state, where your body does self-healing.
Breath of Life, Breath of Death
“We talk about the idea of holding the breath out,” said Dr. Koc. “This is the place of no breath at the end of your exhale. It is the opposite of what you do when you hold your breath in.”
“The ancient yogis have said that by mastering the practice of holding the breath out, one can master the fear of death, or failure. By mastering the practice of holding the breath in, one can master fear of life, or success,” he said.
“It’s strange, but many people are more afraid of success than of failure. They are more afraid to really live fully, then to live a deadened life,” Koc said.
Signs of Bliss in the Body
How to know if you’ve reached bliss? Sometimes bliss comes as total body-mind euphoria, an ecstatic altered state, what we think of when we hear the phrase “blissed out.” Other times, bliss is a smaller wave of yummy, feel-good style happiness. Here, fifteen sure-fire signs you’re there.
15 Signs of Bliss
1. Your jaws are relaxed; you can easily smile. You may have trouble NOT smiling!
2. You laugh freely. In fact, you may find yourself laughing without any reason.
3. It’s easy to close your eyes, yet you feel alert.
4. Your body may tingle or vibrate, especially down your spine, neck or head.
5. You have a feeling of expansiveness in the chest
6. You have a feeling of lightness or floating; there is no sensation of heaviness.
7. You feel deeply relaxed, yet in a highly alert state.
8. Your heart feels at peace.
9. You feel safe in the environment you are in, no matter where this is.
10. You feel expanded in your connection to the world and to the space around you.
11. You feel a rush that is not an adrenal rush, but an euphoric rush.
12. You don’t feel physical pain, or your pain is lifted or blocked.
13. You feel a sense of divine grace, of being in the presence of the universal divine.
14. You experience a state of altered consciousness; an ecstatic state.
15. You may experience bliss for a few minutes, hours, days or an entire lifetime.
Bliss may last for a moment, or it may last for lifetime. It may return again and again, even when it’s not sought out or expected. Extreme experiences of ecstatic bliss may result in an altered state that changes a person forever.
“All the mystics, the great spiritual teachers: Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed—they felt bliss all the time. Those beings existed in a state of never-ending bliss. Infants, children, the elderly, the mentally disabled, those who have been enlightened by great sacrifice or pain, they also may exist primarily in a state of bliss,” said Dr. Koc.
Bliss is a state that is removed from our current reality, but it doesn’t have to be so, he said. “To be alive is to hold the possibility of bliss in the next moment.”
Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Hold. Close your eyes and do it again.
This is the first step to a happy life.

Mantra Chill, the debut release from Martyrs of Sound is scheduled for October 5, 2007.

We’re really excited. Mantra Chill has just been picked up by Spirit Voyage, one of the top new-age music distribution companies. AND, we’ve also been asked to be a part of an Australian compilation, by a company that's sort of the Putumayo of Down-Under.

We’re already midway through the creation of our 2nd album, which is up-tempo, percussive, organic and uses everything from Sikh to Byzantine to Hindu chanting to actual lyrics in English! We’ve been working with the terrific talents of John Doan, Tom Nunes, Mark Powers, Beth Eck, Bob Brevort, and if we're lucky, some of Paapa Wastick’ s reggae.

We will be enjoying kirtan and friendship this fall with Jai Uttal at a long-awaited trip to The Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA, and hope to begin touring next year.



Wow! Take a look at all the cool and talented folks who’ve signed up at www.myspace.com/martyrsofsound

We’re excited. Mantra Chill is getting GREAT feedback from music industry folks:

“Dr. Steve's soundscape is as healing and enjoyable as his chiropractic adjustments!” Jai Uttal, Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist

“Crafted with love… and lovely. This music is quite suitable for yoga practice or meditation, long introductions, smooth instrumentation and vocals.” Wah! New Age recording artist

“Beautiful—it rises above most music in this genre. I loved it.” Bette Timm, Grammy Awards - New Age division

“Flawless guitar work, quite entrancing.” John Doan, Emmy-nominated musician and historian

The Making of Mantra Chill

Mantra Chill has been a long time coming. Two years ago, I’d hear Steve downstairs playing these beautiful songs on his guitar – and realized there had to be an album. After a while, things built up to a point of no return. We met Jason Carter, our gifted studio Meister. I started to find sheets of the “lyrics” left on the kitchen counter, which were of course, ancient mantras that have been chanted by mystics in India for thousands of years. I was going to sing these sacred words? Apparently so.
The goal throughout the making of this first album was to provide a soundscape that promoted healing: a tool that people could use to literally heal themselves from the stress of their day, their lives. As a chiropractor and musician, and after all the years as a Sikh, Steve knew the power of music, voice, sound to heal the emotions, the body, the soul. This was the goal: to produce a sound that would allow people to enter the same state as prayer or meditation—without having to know how, or without having to try. Just listening would create this state.
We got our first hint that Mantra Chill was working when our engineer Jason, who basically lives on Red Bull, Red Vines and Cloves started nodding off as he worked on our CD. We suspected it was working when we’d put on the CD at home, and our youngest householder, Emma, fell asleep in 30 seconds flat. We were certain it was working with another young friend, known for his high energy, enthusiasm and talkativeness, fell fast asleep in the car (as a passenger) while the CD played.
Mantra Chill is not just about falling asleep; though it will help you do that. It is about a soundscape that allows you to deeply, deeply relax. You don’t need to know how to meditate; you don’t need to know mantra or kundalini or yoga, or really anything: the CD does the work for you. Listen to it as foreground music, leave it on as background. Listen to it actively, if you are a music lover. It works, no matter how you use it.

As Mantra Chill developed, we were surprised and delighted by the musicality of the CD. It was my first time singing in the studio, and I found my voice expanding every time I sang. Steve kept picking up instruments and playing them: drums, various guitars, percussion—even that tricky, tricky rainstick—but he’s always been a savant like that. Just picks it up and plays it like he’s played it forever. We took this CD to our friend John Doan, who gave us great advice.
We printed the CD, set up this website, and took about… well, maybe three days off. And then we went up to Whidbey Island with the kids, and ended up writing five songs in four days. Who needs a break?
Steve and I work in tandem, in a what might appear disorganized fashion to some. I might write lyrics, Steve might compose a tune. Or he might write lyrics, and I’ll hum the song. I read music, he doesn’t. I only play piano, and again, he plays… everything.
We have not defined our sound, because everything is our sound. Mantra Chill is an album Steve had wanted to do for a long time. But our next albums will be surprises: we’ll bring in the drums. We’ll bring in the words. We’ll bring in songs about love and loss and God and … you’ll see. As we started recording some basic tracks for a future album we asked Jason what he thought. He said “It’s different.” “How?” we asked. “It’s in English!” he replied.
We are a mix of all the music we have ever heard, all the places we’ve been, all the life we’ve lived, everything we have ever known. It’s a lush, beautiful, interesting, mesmerizing sound, and we hope you like it.
We do all this, of course, in the midst of our day-to-day responsibilities: Steve as a chiropractor, me as a journalist and novelist, Steve teaching Kundalini yoga, me teaching trance dance and writing classes. With three kids and 13 animals roaming around, things can get kind of busy.
What’s next? We’re starting to plan dates for our first tour, which will be in 2008. We’ll keep you posted.

Some people have wondered about the cover art used for the Mantra Chill album. The angel images are from the diptych (two panel) work called “Convergence.” I painted them this past year with acrylics on ¾ inch furniture-quality birch veneer plywood. Each section is about 2 feet by 3 feet.

I love working with metallic paints and the iridescent fine copper is my favorite these days. The boards looked great just covered in the copper alone and it was tempting to just go “minimalist” and hang them like that. The pattern of the wood grain and the metal finish would morph with the light throughout the day and night. You could “see” all kinds of cool images in the patterns. But, alas, I’m not recognized enough as an artist to pull off a stunt like that, so I continued to add more paint.

I wanted to do the face of a spirit that has been hanging around for a long while, many years. I wondered what it would look like if it took human form. Most of my art is somewhat channeled so this approach was not any great departure from my normal way of doing art. The difference was this time I did it with intention as opposed to laying down abstract colors until something took shape. What eventually became the red wings was meant to be hair. Butwhen I went to fill in facial features nothing came of it. I kept seeing wings of an angel instead of a face. So, then I went to the other board and laid down some more “hair” and of course it just looked like another angel so I gave in and turned them into what you see now, the full diptych on the inside of the CD booklet.

The originals hang in my home but the first $350,000.00 takes them. Ha!