#176 My wonderful guest this week is Ian Morris. Ian is a multi-instrumentalist, poet, author, artist, intuitive healer, and the founder of Listening to Smile. During our conversation today, we talk about Ian’s musical journey, his battle with cancer and MS, and how music and sound became a highly effective tool for his healing.

If you struggle with health issues and or excessive stress, and if you are looking for new ways to heal yourself, then this episode is for you.

“The last10 years of my life has been me being a student of intention, of learning the power of intention, and how it creates the manipulations in matter, that you want to create your life.”

If you enjoyed this podcast, you may also like: Learn The Science & The Remarkable Healing Properties Of Sound | Matt Omo

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About Ian: Ian Morris is the founder of Listening to Smile – Healing Frequency Minded Music for Personal Growth and Wellbeing.

Ian has over 25 years’ experience in the performing arts field and has made it his life’s goal to use his gifts and passion to be of service to people in search of healing.

As a multi-instrumentalist, he instinctively sought solace in music. It was during this time of very poor health that he came across information about the sacred healing potentials of sound and vibration and began to study further. He began creating and producing compositions of tones and frequencies which lead him to personally reclaim his health. He started his career at Interlochen Centre for the arts in Interlochen, MI. Shortly after, he founded a non-profit called Homemade Genius where he worked in the underserved community with music, art, and after school programs. His healing method quickly grew into the beginning stages for his company Listening to Smile which he founded in November 2016. Today Listening to Smile is international. Iran runs his company with his partner, Dana Kato, where they are growing awareness for Sound Healing and working as true pioneers in the field.

►Audio Version:

 

Key points with time stamp:

• Using Frequency Minded Meditation Music to Transform (00:00)
• What is a sound alchemist? (00:41)
• The potential of live performances in our time (02:41)
• Ian’s musical journey (5:27)
• The effects of breathwork and sound healing (8:37)
• Books, meditation, or music? (12:46)
• The power of intention (15:28)
• The importance of taking your power back (17:47)
• The effects of stress on your health (18:44)
• Lifestyle changes when dealing with an illness (20:18)
• Career, music, and healing (22:36)
• Stepping into the unknown of a career in music (25:05)
• Is hitting rock bottom really the reason for growth? (30:19)
• What are frequencies? (34:23)
• What are sound palettes? (38:39)
• Frequencies and their impact (40:55)
• The future of frequencies and music (44:58)
• Listening to Smile (48:08)
• Using your voice to tone into your energy centres (51:21)
• The true power of voice (54:47)
• Breathwork, meditation and sound healing (58:53)

Mentioned in this episode:

• Noel Gallagher
• Victor Wooten
• Béla Fleck
• You Can Heal Your Life, A book by Louise Hay
• The healing power of sound, A book by Dr. Michael Gaynor
• Reversing diabetes with diet, 2006. A book by Dr. Neal Barnard
• The schumann resonance
• Chakra frequencies
• Dr Todd Ovokaitys
• Matt Omo

Ian’s Website:
listeningtosmile.com

 

About me:

My Instagram:
www.instagram.com/guyhlawrence/?hl=en

My website:
www.guylawrence.com.au
www.liveinflow.co

 

TRANSCRIPT

Guy 00:02
Ian, welcome to the podcast.

Ian 00:03
Thanks for having me I’m really excited to be here.

Guy 00:08
I’m genuinely, I say this to all my guests, but I genuinely get excited. I’ve been very excited to listen to what you have to say and share today. I feel like a kid in a candy store sometimes been able to jump on a microphone and have conversations with people like yourself, especially when the work seems so interesting. Yeah. And what you do seems very interesting,

Ian 00:32
I think, yeah, thanks man. And I’m excited I get to in my line of work, I get to talk to awesome people like you, I’m super excited too.

Guy 00:41
And I always kick off the show made. If you were at an intimate dinner party, nobody knew you and you sat next to the stranger. And they started talking to you and ask you what you did for a living right now. What would you say?

Ian 00:53
So I would say that I am a sound Alchemist. That’s kind of the general, you know, term that I put out there. But I always say that the more general answer would be music licensing, you know, sacred frequency music licensing. And so yeah, so a lot of people say then, what is a sound alchemist?

Guy 01:18
That’s my next question. Even the word alchemists. Yeah, you’re turning it into gold. What’s not? Well,

Ian 01:25
you know, it’s, it’s interesting. someone the other day asked me would you perform live and I said, it would take a lot to get me to perform live again. And I said, you know, the Beatles stopped recording because people weren’t paying attention to the music, they were paying attention to the icons that they had become. And so I’m not saying that that’s me in any way, shape, or form, but I can understand that logic of, you know, wanting people to focus on the music. And so for us listening to smile, um, we’ve really concentrated on the recordings and the licensing of those recordings. Because the environments that we’re placing the music in, people are listening, you know, it’s yoga studios, where people are, you know, really deeply connecting to the music, it’s people using the music at home for meditation and for pain management and for anxiety and sleep issues. And so people are getting their full attention and using it as a tool that it was meant to be used for. And I think in a lot of the modern venues, it’s the phone and its conversations and things have shifted, where the music is not even a background. It’s just kind of like a token that’s standing there, but no one’s really paying attention to it. So, um,

Guy 02:40
you know, I’m sorry to cut you off. The fact that you say that I was only listening to Noel Gallagher being interviewed a few nights ago, right? Because his new album, “high flying birds” album is out and I’ve always, you know, always this were my era. And growing up, and he was talking about the fact that you’ll never get those days back, performing live, because he said you didn’t have phones back then and everyone, you know, they would fill Wembley Stadium, I think they filled net worth, like 250,000 people in the heyday, said nobody had phones, and everybody was there for the music, and they were all singing along and then he said, Now I turn up and everyone’s got a phone and his bloody record.

Ian 03:22
And then, um, but the greatest thing I had ever heard was Victor Wooten. Are you familiar with him the bass player, so he paid plays in a band called bayla flip, and it’s kind of a bluegrass, it’s based spacecraft. You know, it’s a really psychedelic far out, kind of progressive, bluegrass country jazz music. But they he said on this interview that he was on tour in Africa, and he said, if he almost never wanted to tour anywhere else after playing there, because the entire village where they were performing came out, like it was everyone, every single, you know, man, woman child came out and everyone was dancing, everyone was excited, and everyone gave their full attention to the music while it was being played. But he said even after the music was over, there was still conversations and engagement and people were genuinely just so excited that they were there, you know, sharing their gifts with the village and so, you know, I really hope that one day we return to that type of attention with music because I know for myself personally music, I wouldn’t be alive today without music. You know, music has been such an integral part of my growth spiritually, emotionally and physically. And I just feel that one of the things I always say is, blockbuster movies, you know, if you turn the music just took it completely out that movie would never be the same, the climactic and the epicness and the, you know, the emotional love scenes and all the different connections in the movie are really enhanced by the music. And so I tell people all the time, what we’re doing with this meditation, music is the same. It’s just instead of hyping you up or getting you excited. We’re trying to create a soundtrack for the collective each month and a soundtrack to your self care practices. And it’s just exactly like those movies do. We’re scoring the soundtrack to your self care, you know?

Guy 05:27
Yeah, amazing, isn’t it? We take it for granted. In a world that everyone is kind of beg for your attention. You can’t get away from it. Yeah, you know, and, and that’s why I’m so passionate about this work. As I’ve said this a couple of times on the podcast, we’re here to start the other day that we’re receiving more information in a day now than we did in a lifetime than 150 years ago. Right. And, and it’s diluting everything. And if we can, we can, I guess take our senses away from the outer world and come back in and, and music evokes so much emotion. And if we can, almost it’s like having a romance with it and feel these these amazing different emotions that we can feel within us. And we don’t need the external to create our internal world. And it’s, it’s really now, I believe, I’m fascinated by your journey, mate, because I know you’ve been on a bit of a health journey yourself. And I’m assuming because you play a lot of musical instruments. I heard it was 25. Yeah. That’s not Yeah. Well, yeah.

Ian 06:40
Well, it’s, it’s funny, because I started off the first band ever played in was punk rock, you know. And then I got into like, heavier, you know, metal bands and progressive rock. And then I started making that transition into playing with cover bands. And then I got into playing like, world instruments and started playing with like, world ensembles, bluegrass, and things like that. But then I made an even greater leap. And I started getting into beatmaking, and getting into hip hop and hip hop, and, you know, things like that. So I’ve just, I love all forms of music. And so that journey of following the music just brought me to all these different instruments. And you know, that’s, it’s just, it’s funny how that happens.

Guy 07:26
Incredible, like, back in those punk rock days that you’re exploring, did you ever think you’d be recording music for me? No, no, it’s like, polar ends of the spectrum.

Ian 07:36
No, not at all. What’s really funny is the graphic guy that made the first album cover for me, is still my graphic guy. We’ve been working together for over 20 years. And the thing that was funny if he pulled up in an album, the very first album I recorded on my own outside of the band was called slow time sheet. And it was a meditation album, ironically, and it had no drums, and it was just keyboards and a lot of, like vocals and, and things like that. And he pulled it up. And he was listening to it. And he said, Man, can you imagine if people heard this? You know, he’s like, literally you the first album you recorded on your own is very close to the music that you’re doing now. It’s almost like a prophecy of the work that you’re going to be getting into, you know, analysis. Like, I never had even thought of it in those terms, you know, but it was just so neat that he was kind of putting that up in my face and saying, hey, check this out, you know. So yeah, it’s funny, the journeys, we go on with all this stuff.

Guy 08:37
Yeah, I’m being open to it, and some of the hardships that lead us into these new directions. So take us back as you had your own health issues, I believe, is that Yeah. And yeah.

Ian 08:52
Yeah. So in 2012, I started having some health issues. And it’s really interesting that time in 2012, you know, I know a lot of people sharing their stories. Now I run into healers, and they say, well, in 2012, this happened or in 2012, I went through this change, and it you know, kind of put people on a new trajectory of life path, you know, and that’s definitely what happened with me, I got diagnosed with MS and colon cancer. I was going through some really debilitating digestive issues and I was getting skin rashes. I was getting muscle spasms, chronic headaches. I was having, you know, heart palpitations, and I was like my, there was points where my vision was kind of like, you know, blurring out and getting in, like almost going blind at some points. It was just really a lot of, you know, multifaceted issues all at one time. And so um, I was a musician, I didn’t have health insurance, the treatments that they were wanting me to do were pretty astronomical, in price. And so I chose to start doing research, I left the hospital, you know, I was in the emergency room for the third or fourth time that year. And I remember getting really frustrated with the doctor and I said, You know, I need you to do something different. This test you’re wanting to run has already been run at this other place. And, you know, we are, we’ve already been through this, I need you to play jazz come up with something to help me and, you know, he was very frustrated with me. So I remember just walking out of the emergency room and going home that night, and started looking online for holistic options, you know, for the symptoms that I was going through. And for whatever reason, Louise Hay you can heal your life was a book that I kept coming across, and I felt like, you know, God, or the universe was like, you know, saying, hey, I want you to read this. And when I started reading that book, The next day, I just started tearing up, I started feeling the connection to a lot of the information in the book. And it led me to start that day, the next day from coming home from the hospital, to start reading and just really filling my you know, eyes and brain full of information from this book. But also the other book was the healing power of sound by Dr. Michel Gaynor. And he was a traditional cancer doctor that was working with sound with his cancer patients. And those two books simultaneously led my awakening, you know, to a new life path. And so I just went full force, you know, and it was about a year of starting breathwork meditation and sound healing using frequency. You know, I started with things off YouTube. And I started noticing differences, I started noticing differences in the way my thoughts and my feelings were, you know, being assembled. And I started noticing that within about two to three weeks, my body started feeling different, but I felt like there was a shred of hope of moving forward. And so within a year’s time of continuing that process, I had lost over 100 pounds I was I was 315 pounds at my heaviest, you know, when I was Yeah, with MS and colon cancer, that diagnosis, I was about 315. And I was eating very unhealthy. I was eating my emotions, it was a lot of depression and a lot of trauma that I had experienced earlier in my life. And that led up to that, you know, very unhealthy state. And so these two books really started that chain reaction, and then I just never looked back. I just kept diving down the rabbit hole.

Guy 12:46
Later, I was gonna ask you, so did you find from when you decided read those books? And you’ve gone? Because I’m assuming you still had colon cancer and MS at this point. Yeah. And the trajectory is changing? And was it from the breathing the meditation and looking into the frequencies of sound that as you was it was making you feel better with insights was allowing you to start maybe seeing more clearly and make better choices for your food and your health with the other aspects that you were bringing? Yeah,

Ian 13:17
yeah. So people ask this question a lot is which one do you think helped you? Right? That’s like the big question. And so I tell them, it’s all of it, that I believe that healing is a multifaceted approach. I don’t think there’s one magic pill or one thing that’s going to fix you. And I think each person’s protocol will be very different. But for me, what I found the most beneficial was the sound. And when I put the headphones on and started working with binary beats, I remember having a conversation with my mother and I told her for the first time in my life, I was in my 30s. I said, for the first time in my life, I felt peace today, I felt like I was sitting in the quiet of the storm of my mind that I could feel the anxiousness and I could feel the negativity of like being frustrated, you know, like you would say, I can beat this, I’m going to I’m going to keep living, I’m choosing to live and that little voice in your head, like, oh, you’re not gonna beat this, you know, you haven’t beat anything else, you know, it’s like that that negative voice that’s there that has come from failures of past experiences of things not working out before. And it’s there on a in your subconscious just on kind of a loop. You know, and so as you start learning the power of mantra, you start learning the power of, you know, standing in the power of intention, and you start learning the power of integrating that into your breathwork and into your sound work. It’s just truly monumental, the shifts in energy, and honestly the master of the master manipulator that you become of matter. You know, like You can literally change pretty much anything in your body with just basic, you know, building blocks of self care, which is like nutrition, mindset, breath work, and exercise and sleep. It’s like those five things, you know, it’s like you put those together and give your body what it needs. And it can pretty much do anything that you ask a bit, you know what I mean? It’s a really powerful machine. So I started learning the power of that. And I would honestly say that the last, you know, 10 years of my life has been me being a student of intention of learning the power of intention, and how that creates your manifestations, how it creates your physical body, how it creates the manipulations in matter, that you want to create your life. You know, so

Guy 15:49
intention is insane. And I still boggles me that people are not aware of it, and, and how focused and how powerful it can be become. You know, it’s amazing. I’m so I’m so glad you said that. You know, with it, you opened up a couple of guests there, but I’m debating which one to jump in. But so where’s your health right now? Let’s start with that one. Because obviously, your illness was very, yeah,

Ian 16:20
yeah. So where I’m at right now is, in 2019, I was actually diagnosed with diabetes, my dad had died when he was diabetic. And I chose to not take treatment, and I didn’t do you know, any kind of pills or medicine and I also didn’t want to get on blood pressure medicine or anything like that. I was eating relatively healthy, I had to make some shifts, but I, there’s a book called reversing diabetes with diet, and it’s by Dr. Neil Barnard, I highly suggest that book for anyone who wants to tackle diabetes with a diet, it’s, it’s, it’s amazing. I’ve been doing the diet now for nine months, I’m not doing any, the only supplement that I’m taking is chromium every once in a while, and I feel that I my body needs it. Um, but for the most part, I’m just eating, you know, Whole Foods, vegetables and fruits, low fat, and, you know, doing that for the diabetes, but it’s it’s very, you know, there’s so many different paths, you can take the keto, and, you know, I believe that each one of them work, they work in different ways. And I find that this one really works for me, in what I’m doing right now, I’m 160 160 pounds, I’m six, two, I’m, you know, my body weights getting where it needs to be, you know, every day, I’m feeling stronger and healthier. And so I am just so very thankful and blessed that we live in a time where information is shared, you know, that you can find a lot and and I think we’re also living in a time where we’re being called to kind of take our power back, to do research and to connect with our bodies on an intuitive level, even deeper, so than maybe we have done in the past, um, to achieve the goals that we’re wanting for our health, because I think people are starting to see in the world that we have our best interests in mind, it’s not the governments or the doctors or, you know, it’s us as individuals. And so if you can intuitively Connect, and, and take charge more of your health that I think we’ll all be in the better, you know, for that.

Guy 18:35
Totally. And what happened with the colon cancer and the MS?

Ian 18:39
Yeah, yeah, so this is my take on ms as I believe, you know, obviously, you you’ll hear how stress, um, you know, really enhances most disease. But Ms is one that it really, really, you know, if you’re having stress, it’s really going to enhance the side effects and everything, the symptoms of Ms. And so for me, what I tell people is by doing the breathwork, and the meditation will sound on a daily basis, you know, most of the times I’m doing about anywhere from an hour to two hours of meditation, and I try to do it before bed and when I wake up in the morning, and I’ve incorporated prayer and gratitude prayer, you know, with that in the mornings, and it’s just been a huge, huge help. And so by targeting the stress response to the body, um, I have, you know, very very little of the MS symptoms anymore. Like I was constantly losing control of my muscles, you know, getting muscle spasms and having and those are almost non existent and a lot of the things that I was dealing with with you know, colon cancer is is kind of trickier to pinpoint. So it’s something that you have to have, you know, checked on, but you know, I’ve been doing so well and just really thankful For the blessings of how much the you know, the combinations of those changes in my life and nutrition in the mindset, the breath work and the meditation, I really helped me to be in a more clear, healthier state, you know?

Guy 20:13
Yeah. Because like I mentioned off air, you know, I used to work with people who had cancer, and I would do the weight training programs. And but I would, you know, when I, obviously, I got to know many people in that situation, and I was talking, because I always think about, regardless which route you go down, whether it be conventional, or start looking at alternative means, it requires a lifestyle change. And it’s like, which lifestyle change Do you want to take, because even if you go down the convention, and you’re resisting, looking at that, there’s still going to be a massive lifestyle change that’s about to happen. And, you know, in your case, that the fact that you were monitoring it, looking at it, but then looking at all the changes and exploring different ideas allowed you to progress in in a, in a way that gives you confidence, and to move forward as well. It’s so important. Yeah, yeah.

Ian 21:13
The one thing that really stands out to me about, you know, speaking on what you’re saying is Jay Shetty. He said, whenever he looks at things, now, he looks at the end results instead of the beginning. And he said, you know, let me explain what that means. He said, when you think about junk food, you think this is going to be delicious. And I’m going to eat this donut, and I’m going to eat all this junk food, right? And then he said, at the end, the end result is you wake up the next day feeling like, oh, if I want to eat that stuff, I’m not feeling too good today, you know, it kind of changes, you know that, you know, the, the salt, the sugar, or the you know, the excess. And so then he said, but when you think about in the beginning, you’re thinking about it sounds delicious. And at the end, users feel bad. And he said, but when you think about health food in the beginning, like, I don’t really want to eat that. And that’s not going to be the greatest and but then the end result is when you eat that way, consistently, you know, I feel better. And I’m starting to see the differences in how my body responds to this type of food. So he said, I’m just gonna not look at the beginning anymore, and just kind of jump to the end of where I’m, you know, if I eat this, I’m going to feel bad. If I eat this, I’m going to feel good. And so he started making decisions based on the end results, you know, of like, instead of looking at the beginning, you know, the initial thoughts around that decision. And I just thought that was really interesting. You know, it’s, it’s really brilliant. Yeah, yeah.

Guy 22:32
So true, isn’t it? So true. So when did you decide to start making a career out of this? Because you must be you must be sitting. I mean, I’m just assuming, but the fact that you love music, you’ve been exploring it your entire life. And all of a sudden, you’re discovering a new element to it to support your own healing journey. Yeah. I mean, was that exciting to you? That was the Oh, what was it like? Oh, my God, this now I know my path. What What happened?

Ian 23:02
Yeah, it it. Um, it was really exciting. But it was also challenging, because my whole life like the people who make sacred geometry paintings, versus someone like Jackson Pollock, who makes the splatter paint, the organic, free flow, kind of, and my music, creation had always been organic and free flow. And now I was going into something that was like sacred geometry paintings, you had to have patience, you had to learn, you know more about your craft, you had to go deeper into music theory, you had to go deeper into the science, you know, and then you had to also start looking at experimenting, because music for entertainment is very different than music for release, work and healing. And so it was almost like tackling a new genre. The other day, I had a conversation with a yoga teacher who brought a guitar player into her class, and she was cringing, you know, she was like, it just did not work. And it was, you know, she was very frustrated at the outcome. And I was telling her, I said, just because he’s a musician doesn’t mean that he understands, you know, like, I was talking, talking to her about the abrupt changes that’s in pop music, there’s abrupt changes, you know, and in for doing stuff, where you’re working with people with trauma, or doing stuff where you’re working with people that are wanting gentleness, those kinds of changes are too much, they’re too loud and they’re too up in your face. And so, it the the type of music that we select to work with people is very customized and it’s very customized for that, that that there are different needs and that you have to address and different focuses that you’re working with, with different people, whether it’s a cancer victim or PTSD, or someone that has a learning disability, you know, or even working with children on the spectrum like autism and, you know, Tourette’s and things of that nature, you know, yeah.

Guy 25:00
Yeah, that makes sense. So when did when did you put your first because I love people’s journeys, especially when we have been going down, you know, road day. And all of a sudden, we’re now having to figure out Roby, because I work with a lot of people, people that come to our personal retreats and workshops are probably in that, you know, that melting pot of have been going down this road for so long. It’s not feeding my soul anymore. I really want to go, I really want to turn right. And I’m heading left, but it terrifies me and I don’t know what yeah. So we end up staying with the familiar and creating more pain on ourselves. Yeah. You know, until we have to rip the tooth out. So So what did that feel like? For you? That Can you remember when you first put your first gig together workshop or sound album? and get it? Yeah,

Ian 25:50
yeah. So 20, like, mid 2014 2015 is when I first started working events like this. And, you know, we we have now that’s grown into the title of Sonic meditations, that, you know, by listening to smile. And so we created those first events in like, mid 2014 2015. And then I started the company really in 2016, um, you know, and started growing from there. And so, hosting those events, we started traveling and taking them on the road and doing like unity churches, and, you know, unity churches are founded by Christian belief, but they are a little more encompassing, you know, a little more broad, okay. And, and, you know, I’ve been to Unity Church, where they read Sanskrit and get into, you know, singing bowl meditations, and they, they talk about Buddha and Allah, and they talk about Jesus. And it’s a, it’s a very broad, you know, all encompassing kind of view. And so, like, we started getting into those churches with the sonic meditations. And then we started working with companies. And we started getting contacted from Australia, from Scotland, Ireland, you know, China, and, you know, people reaching out saying, I want to use your music in my practice. And the thing that was so funny, that a lot of people don’t know is the health issues that I went through in 2012 2013. I found myself homeless, I, you know, had to sell my car sold a lot of my music equipment, to pay bills that I had incurred from all of the doctor’s visits. And, um, you know, there was a few nights of sleeping outside and, you know, sleeping on friend’s couches, bouncing around, and there was this moment where I said to God, I said, Okay, God, you got my attention, you know, I lost everything, I lost my health, I lost, you know, my relationships, my friends, my, you know, everything, it was over a very lightning bolt moment, you know, where I said, I know, I’m smart. I know, I’m talented. You know, how can I need help? You know, I just remember asking God for help. And so when I started putting together these events and doing things, it was with help of people that you know, would say, hey, you can use my living room, or, hey, you can use my yoga studio, and it just kept growing getting bigger and bigger. And, like, I think we had around 50 or 60 people at the, the Unity Church that we did, and it just kept getting larger. And so the people in Australia started reaching out saying, you know, hey, I’d like to use your music. And I was like, well, we don’t really have an affiliate program, everyone kept asking for an affiliate program. And it just about the 10th time someone asked, I just felt God’s voice like I came in to help you out brother trying to help you out, you know, just, you know, make move, you know. And so it was just really funny. I started like, sketching out the the affiliate program and had a lot of friends who had business experience that started helping some ideas to form around molding a business model, that would be a win win for everyone, you know, involved. And so that’s, you know, we started implementing that affiliate program about three years ago. And so right now we’re in seven different countries, over 200 affiliates made over 200 affiliates worldwide and just growing, you know, each month and so we’re just really thankful. But I think the biggest thing that I just give thanks for every day is that I’m able to, like you said, do what I love. It’s inspired me to learn more and to take it into new realms, and then be able to create a product that is then shared, much larger than I could do by myself through this affiliate program that’s adding value and revenue to the affiliate, but it’s also reach So many people around the world and it’s so humbling and so exciting to be a part of that. It’s just truly a blessing. You know, it’s just really, really something that I wake up and give thanks every day for this is my dream job. You know, I love working with people and helping people.

Guy 30:19
But you just blew me away, mate. We just said that was all. Because I want to touch on frequencies. Okay, but before we do, let’s just recap that because I think that needs to mention, you know, you had ms, you were overweight, you had colon cancer, used up all your money on treatment ended up homeless? Like if, if that’s not rock bottom? I don’t know what is. I mean, that’s the go through two questions for you. Do you think you needed to go through that experience to project you at the other side? Or would you would you have come to this? anyway? And the second question is, what do you think that is experienced has done for you? Long Term reflecting back?

Ian 31:00
Yeah, I don’t think I would be here without those experiences. And I think that those experiences helped me be a better space holder. For individuals, um, it almost so many people come to me now through the internet and through in person, and they’ll say, you know, I have digestive issues, and the doctors can’t figure it out. And I’ll say, I understand, I feel you, you know, and I share my story. Like, I’ll say, I went 12 days without food, because my digestive my digestion, the digestive tract hurt so much when I ate food, that it felt better to be hungry than to eat food. And I remember explaining to the doctor, you know, I will tell them, I was telling the doctor, this is what it feels like. And I went through every inch of my digestive tract. And he started laughing. And he said, I’m not trying to laugh at you. But he said something I’ve never heard someone describe in such intricate detail the digestive process, you know, the digestive process, in that, you know, description, descriptive, you know, way where it’s just like, he was like, man, I know, you’re in a lot of pain, because he’s like, most people don’t feel that they don’t feel every you know, the food going through every inch of the digestive tract. And so, um, you know, so when you start sharing stories like this with people and say, Hey, I’m with you, I understand what that feels like. The, sorry, the, you know, I understand what that feels like. Um, it helps people to feel comforted, like there’s someone in the trenches with them. And when you’re able to do that, there’s a trust that’s built, that creates a bond between the person holding the space and the person that is going through that trauma, and when you can show them like I did this, you can do it too, and here’s the tools that I use, and you can help lay out a kind of a timeline or a template for them to move forward, then they have this hope. And when you see that over and over again, it’s not only humbling and exciting to be a part of, but it gives you hope, that that what you went through was not for nothing, that it was for your enlightenment and for your growth. But now it’s being able to be given back to other people to say you can do this too. And it’s an it’s changing you know lives and so it makes you feel that that journey was you know meant to be you know that you were meant to be a scout in a sense and that journey to go ahead of you know, a group of people and then bring back the knowledge and say, Hey, this stuff’s up ahead but you’re going to be alright you know

Guy 33:46
the there’s a book deal in there somewhere made tell you that’s incredible. I always joke even at a workshop say I’m a treasure hunter You know, I’ve been off mining for gold in different different ways and actually bringing it back and this is what I found and if you want to walk the terrain here Yeah, yeah, yeah, I relate to that but you have to walk it that resonates with me Yeah, incredible night. Wow. Incredible. I can’t I can’t believe that. Yeah, we almost skipped past them before jumping in. Ah dude so let’s talk about frequency a little bit and and this talk please for the layman, you know, because it is something that comes up as well in our workshops questions around it and what is frequencies? How does it work? How can it support me? Like I for instance, I pulled off your website, you know, this servizio scale Sophia, can you pronounce it right then you got the Schumann resonance. You got chakra frequencies tones of our solar systems. You know, it can very, very quickly some very common Yeah. And and you know, when we have cognitive dissidence, sometimes we can just go Oh, that just all sounds a bit hippy. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So how would you explain? Yeah,

Ian 35:09
um, my uncle is a really awesome guy. And he’s very spiritual. And I remember him saying one time that people would always ask him, where he got all of his knowledge from. And he said that his teacher told him that when someone asked that question to say, I read a good book once. And then if they said, Well, what book was it, then he said, that they were, you know, on the level to engage in to actually take the information and move forward. But he said there was so many people asking the teacher, you know, how did you get this information, and you would give it to them. And they’re just kind of like, okay, but there was no movement in that. So you’re spending all this time with people that weren’t going to retain the information or utilize the information in any way. And so he was saying that time is very valuable, and to make sure that people were ready to take the knowledge and to use that. And so that, that’s always been interesting to me. And so what I try to do, is, we try really hard to stay away from the woowoo. When we’re doing like in person events, and we’re explaining, you know, if I’m doing any kind of lecture on frequency, we really like to focus on just the connection of how it makes you feel. And so if people get really interested in it, like, see, like, once people experience it, then they’re like, okay, I want to understand this now. Because if you try to do the understanding, first, I think it just doesn’t line up with a lot of people that are not, you know, have a musical background or, you know, play instruments or anything like that. So, for me, the simple answer is, frequency is the, you know, the great disrupter, that’s what I say a lot. Frequency is the great disrupter. So the patterns of belief, the patterns of, you know, routine, the neuro pathways, you know, I’m talking about these tracks that have been established over time, you put the frequency and it just breaks everything apart, almost like an exploded model, like the exploded parts model, when they take something and they show you the whole product, and then it exploded parts and it shows you all the different, you know, parts that make up that whole, I believe that that’s what sound does with our you know, our patterns, you know, that are in, you know, the neuro pathways, our belief systems are kind of routines, it breaks everything apart, and you’re able to be an observer, so it changes perspective. And through the facilitation of that on a conscious level, there’s also a cellular level, you know, that takes place by sound. And so that’s represented whenever you look at sound visualized, like cymatics, like when you see the sign the sand or the water affected by the music, and to show people notes, that notes of music have different patterns that they’ll farm and simatic. And so when you show that to someone, and you say, your body is made up of mostly water, so look at this bowl of water and how it’s affected by the sound, okay? Now think about your body as a whole. And that’s mostly made up of water, and that the cellular on the cellular level, there are interactions with sound. On the mental and conscious level, there are interactions with sound. And so whenever you start programming it with intention, this vehicle becomes all encompassing, it becomes deep rooted, you know, it becomes part of your conscious awakening. And the one thing in the physical that I try to explain to people is just like you have a taste palette, you know, like, you know, you’ll go to a restaurant and sometimes they’ll give you palette cleansers like a ginger or something that will you know, that you’ll eat in between your meals so that you have your taste buds for each meal that you’re eating. The same kind of thing with sound like we all have a sound palette, and that sound palette is used to mundane things like you get up in your house you have the same kind of routine for the most part, you’re on the drive to work you’re kind of on the same streets, you’re dealing with the same sounds there might be a new siren here there but it’s the same sound same frequencies each day day in and day out when you start expanding the you know the palette of sound by going into 1000 hertz or 2000 hertz or you know, going you know, lower like a 30 hertz or 50 hertz and you start exploring the sound on a on a consistent basis. The brain starts being trained, and it starts noticing the sounds in your everyday environment more so. So like people who have been doing treatment for a month, two months, they’ll come back and say, you know, I’m hearing the leaves and the the the wind blow through the leaves and the trees you know the the breeze I’m hearing hums of engines, I’m hearing the bird sing more, you know, just different things like that. And they’ll say, you know, why is Why has my hearing changed? And I said, No, your consciousness has changed, your awareness has changed. And that sound palette has been expanded. And sound is such a powerful part of our awareness that people take for granted. Like, when we’re in the womb, coming in, you know, getting acclimated to this reality, the first thing that that we’re being greeted with is vibration and sound. And so, you know, some of the first things that are acclimating us to this world, and so when you fast forward 30 40 years, people are still wanting that comfort of the womb, and it can be achieved through sound, it can be, you know, the comfort and healing can come from that, but also the expanded awareness, because of the sound is such a powerful tool of training, you know, um, so it’s just, it’s really, really powerful, too.

Guy 40:55
Yeah, no, that’s incredible. And where does what do you advise people then like, up, because obviously, everything even on your website, isn’t it’s not to replace any kind of health medication. But at the same time, you know, are you supporting all sorts of people, whether it be pain, whether it be emotional, whether it be different diagnosis, I mean, how far do we, how far can we take the frequencies to work with different elements?

Ian 41:24
So I’m, I’m in South Carolina right now. And what we’re doing here, I’m here, we just put, there’s a hospice house here, where people go for their end of life transition. And there’s 20 rooms here, with patients. And so we went in this past about a week ago, and put in our music in each room. And then we put information in each room where people can read about the music, and the families can opt to use this music, for helping comfort their loved ones as they’re suffering and going through this transition. And, you know, the CDs that we’re working with are for pain management, anxiety, and sleep. And so there’s an album that we created called for pain relief, and we’re utilizing pain relief frequencies, we’re utilizing a frequency that we discovered called the frequency of peace, which is 390.6 hertz, we found we’ve worked with over 1500 clients with that frequency, and it’s been so powerful. And when we asked people to listen to that music, and just give us a response, like we didn’t tell them what the frequency was, we just asked them, here’s a, you know, questionnaire, will you just write down what comes up for you while listening to this track. And this is not an exaggeration, every single person that listened to that track, wrote peace somewhere in their description, it was like, this is the most peaceful track I’ve ever listened to, or this track is what peace sounds like, that was one of the descriptions, you know, you know, so there was just such a, an, I believe that it’s the frequency because we also moved it into upbeat songs as well experimentally with 390.6, and we still got the same responses from people, I just feel such peace. This song is so peaceful, but you know, so it’s, um, so we were utilizing all these different frequencies and those types of settings with pain management, you know, anxiety and sleepless sleep issues, but we’re also working with cancer patients with like pain management, we’re working with children that have disabilities, like dyslexia, I grew up dyslexic. You know, in third grade, through sixth grade, I was in learning disability classes, I had kind of a speech impediment. And so that’s one of the things that frequency did for me was, you know, my mother and my sisters and friends that had known me, you know, for over 2030 years, you know, they would say, uh, you know, in this last 10 years, you seem like, you’re talking faster, you seem smarter, they’re, you know, they would say, I’m noticing a difference. And, you know, I would always make jokes and say, you know, it’s the frequencies man, you know, it’s like, you know, it’s like, always telling people that that this really is working and you need to try it, but the the possibilities and the applications of using frequency, we, we trademark, frequency minded music, so it’s basically, you know, utilizing music that is completely built around the frequency in tune with the frequency and the whole focus and intention of the music is based on the intention of frequency, you know, so that’s the foundation of how it’s created. And so this music there really is such a limitless possibility of the ways that it can be used, you know, we’re using it in gyms, we’re using it in companies for mindfulness programs. We’re using it, you know, with pain management, anxiety, all that stuff. So it’s just it’s such a powerful tool, because it’s targeting the stress response of the body. That’s what we’re doing.

Guy 44:58
Which is everything It’s huge, huge. Yeah. Where do you think this is all heading with with this kind of work? Are you are you kind of got a vision of the future nine for yourself but for frequencies and working in general, like how far do you think we can take? Well,

Ian 45:18
so that’s that’s really the thing is we’re just on the tip of the iceberg the I believe the future is frequency, when you look at like there’s a clinic, the Cleveland Clinic here in the states and they’re really advanced for the medical work and research they do innovative, you know, kind of ahead of its time, and they actually have a machine that is using sound waves to basically dissipate and break apart inoperable brain tumors. And so they’re using sound to break up these tumors and to help you know, patients heal. And you know, sports medicine is starting to get into, you know, sound therapy. And there are so many companies that are going into mindfulness programs, learning and then COVID, you know, COVID made so many people, it put a magnifying glass on mental health. And so people are seeing that breathwork meditation and sound healing and yoga are like the go tos for helping people feel better to move energy, being stagnant energy in the body is what stress does stress and being oppressive and our thoughts and feelings and locking ourselves down, you know, suppressing our emotions. That’s where disease comes from. And these tools, yoga, you know, breathwork, sound healing and meditation, these are tools of release work. And so people are starting to see the the immediate impact, but they’re also seeing that it’s something that is needed in corporate America and down to you know, every individual’s home and, you know, daily routine. This is the future, what we’re what we’re, you know, all of us are working on, you know, this is the future.

Guy 47:06
Amazing, isn’t it? I had Dr. Dr. Todd and ovsky, I was getting my name wrong. And at the beginning of the year, and this guy’s incredible man, like he was recently drafted in as Mike Tyson’s doctor to get him ready for the big mighty did recently, and bring his biological age down. And the because he had a shoulder injury as well. But he’d been working on stem cell therapy for many years. And, and I think, and I don’t want to butcher this, because I’m really listened to the conversation. It was a while back, but I’m pretty sure he was saying he was using sound and frequency to help target certain areas of the body for the stem cell therapy. So it was almost like spot targets in stem cell therapy, as opposed to just injecting stem cells on hoping for it to come out in different areas. That’s amazing. So yeah, it’s absolutely incredible. Yeah, you know, couple of questions before we wrap up. What, one I’m curious why Listening to Smile?

Ian 48:11
what’s so funny is I was just thinking that I haven’t shared the bed story. And I was like, Oh, I forgot to share the bed story. But that’s where this it’s so funny that that’s what you ask, because that’s just what I thought I was like, Oh, we didn’t talk about that story. But here we go. So, um, one of the first things I did was I took a massage table, and I put speakers underneath it and screwed them to the, you know, put some isolation foam and screwed them underneath the table to the table top and turn the whole table top into a vibrating surface. And so I started working with making each speaker play the frequency of the chakra and made the kind of chakra you know, formation on the table. And so I started laying on the table and going to sleep at night with each chakra playing over my chakras, you know, while I was sleeping. And

Guy 49:02
did you have a speaker lined up every shocker?

Ian 49:04
Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And, and each speaker was playing a different frequency and then playing it into my body. And so I would lay on that and sleep, and I would wake up the next day, and I would just be vibrating, you know, I would feel energetic. And I would feel just like, pulsating. You know, my body was pulsating. And so I would explain this to people and people are like, well, I want to come try it out, you know, so people started coming over to the house. And as soon as I would turn it on, they would just start smiling. They, you know, they would just start smiling so big and so about the third person and I said, That’s it listening to smile, you know, that’s what I’m going to call this company. And so it just, um, it that literally came from just so many people smiling whenever I would turn that table on. And so I just got a call last night from a guy that had been working with our music for two years and he had sent me an email and said he wanted to talk with me and I said, Let’s get on the phone. Let’s talk, you know, And he was telling me how much the music has changed his life over the last two years of listening to the music. And he was saying that he smiles a lot when he’s listening to the headphones, and it just makes him feel comfort. And he said, even knowing that the name is listening to smile, and that he sees that it’s making, you know, him do that, you know, meant a lot to him. And he said that he just smiled thinking about how it really does make you smile, you know, and, you know, so that’s really where that that the name came from, was from that bed and in from people just giving testimonials like that.

Guy 50:37
Maybe if you patent that bed,

Ian 50:41
well, there are so many companies out there making beds, I just when I was going through all that, with my health, I didn’t have the money to buy the bed back then. So I created my own those beds run about five grand from different companies, you know, two to eight grand sometimes for the bids, and even higher. And so I just built my own out of necessity to want to try it, you know, and so I ended up selling the bed, and I ended up moving into doing the work with headphones, because I knew it was more affordable and more accessible to most people. And I wanted to be able to everyone to be able to work with it. So

Guy 51:21
100% Yeah, it just sounds very indulgent piece of equipment. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. You know, it’s interesting, because I, like I say, and I work with a sound healer, Matt, you know, we live in flow and what we do and, and since been working with Matt, I find myself using my voice a lot more, and actually toning the different vowels in different sounds. And, and part of the exercise that he’s taught me over the years is actually toning into those energy centers and using my voice. And it’s powerful, just that alone, as well. And that awareness and tension and vibration and sound. But obviously, if you live in a in a closed suburb, with busy neighbors, it can be quite passive. But yeah, it made me think of that. Yeah, yeah, you know, similar

Ian 52:12
voices. Voice is such a powerful thing, because one of the things that I really liked to do is teach people where you start vocal toning, and it’s almost like a whistle, where you are kind of puckering your lips like a whistle. But you’re also putting your you’re starting with your teeth together, when you’re doing your own. And you basically are doing kind of pushing the breath like you would a whistle, but you’re also doing the ohm. And when you do it in the correct way, you get this vibration that starts here in the cavity in your your mouth. And then it goes into your nasal cavity and you’ll feel it even to your ears, and the vibration, whenever it’s stimulating, you know, your ear canal, your nasal canal and your your mouth, you know, your, your open cavity of the mouth. And then you start feeling it down in your throat and into your like sternum area, you know, down here, and when you start vocal tuning to that degree where you’re feeling the vibration on that level, the hairs start standing up on your body, and there’s this feeling where you’re like, Man, this is unlike anything that I can get from like a guitar or, you know, the voice is definitely a very unique instrument and, and a tool for your self healing. And it’s um, it’s just very, very powerful. A lot of the Gregorian chants you know, if you’re familiar with, with that, it’s, it’s where really the self agio kind of, you know, came, you know, came from, and there’s just a lot of very powerful they believe that if you saying those six notes in unison overtop of someone who was sick, that there was a healing that take, you know, took place from that vibration being held over, you know, that space being held over the individual, it will sit so

Guy 53:59
well, what a funny one, it’s just load landed on me. Now, you’ve seen all of that, because you might speak into the Saavedra just a little bit before we wrap it up, because the same guy, Dr. Todd, c. e. Polk put a choir together, and he took them out into the middle of some desert somewhere, and had them all singing these songs chanting into the into the cosmos at this particular time. And, you know, because you go on beyond space and time without going, Yeah, it doesn’t matter. Once you get beyond space and time, there’s no past present purchase is the present now. And he was sending healing tones into that space to serve humanity. And like he brought hundreds of people.

Ian 54:43
So cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The thing that’s interesting, so there’s a woman in Australia. That was the first person I started working with and her name’s to Neil Bentley. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her, but she’s a truly awesome sound healer. She’s put together a new movie over there called encoder. That’s about 432 hertz. And the whole movie is about 432 hertz. And she’s brought together researchers, she’s putting together an interview with me in the movie. And so there’s a lot of different sound, sound practitioners and things of that nature. But the reason why I’m bringing her up is her voice is truly beautiful. I mean, it’s a it’s an amazing voice. And she does a lot of vocal toning, but she also does kind of light language that she sings, you know, over the music, and we’ve worked on music together, where I’ve created the music, and, you know, she did the vocals, and then she’s been doing that we did that for a few years together. And now she’s taken off on her own path where she’s doing her own, you know, healing music, you know, that she’s starting to create. And we have these conversations about how powerful the voice is and how much of a unique element, it brings, like, everyone, everyone out there can learn how to roll a stick around the ball to do a sound bowl, you know, it’s not that it takes some musical talent, it’s something that you can be trained to do and to, you know, to do it and a lot of different diverse ways and be professional in the way that you’re doing it. But when you start adding really unique elements, like your voice, and start adding in the things where people are channeling in these kind of like light languages and things like that, that’s where you’re really putting your stamp on it. And it’s really creating this unique connection where that’s that’s the songs that people are identifying with. It’s not just the singing bowls, the singing bowls, after a while will will fall out. And I think that the the way the world is what what I mean by fall out is, after about four or five sessions with a singing bowl, people are kind of like, Okay, I get the gist, I get what it’s like. But if you make it new, each time someone’s interacting with that bowl with your voice, and you start adding different elements and different methods, and you start adding other instruments in and creating experiences so that every time someone comes, it’s new, it’s a new experience, then they’re excited each time. And it’s going to take them to new places and new destinations each time. And they’re going to experience different thoughts, feelings, and emotional released each time. And I think that that’s where we’re at is that it’s not creating an album that someone uses for six years, it’s creating, like, we’re create an album every month, and it’s based on the astrology and the current events. So we’re creating an album for the collective each month that our affiliates are able to use. And we do that with hip hop, hip hop folk, you know, kirtan shamanic drumming, or doing you know, every, all the things because we want it to be different and new every month, so that they’re excited to work with it. And I think that’s what sound healers are going to have to do. You know, yeah, in the future is, is creating an experience that is new and exciting each time, and that they’re utilizing on multi facets, you know, their voice vocal, toning, kirtan, chanting, you know, you know, light language, you know, and creating things that are just really exciting and fun.

Guy 58:10
Amazing. Do you have information on your website that people can dive into the more if they want to learn more about the different frequencies and the different thing?

Ian 58:18
Yeah, there’s so if you go to the top of our page at listening to smile.com, there’s a resources menu. And in the resources menu, there’s a tab that’s called sacred frequencies, and it has literally every frequency that we work with, listed and what it does, and all of that on that site. It’s a reference page for sacred frequency.

Guy 58:40
Amazing. Last question, before we wrap it up, Ian, is it after everything we’ve covered today? Is there anything you’d like to leave our listeners to ponder on?

Ian 58:53
Um, I think that this breathwork, and meditation and sound healing is something that is affordable to everyone. And I think that the biggest misconception is that it takes a lot of work, which it does not. And I was telling someone, just a couple days ago, on a video conference call, I said 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes at night, you know, just before bed. So 20 minutes a day, and you give that two weeks, at 20 minutes a day, you’re going to see a difference in your life, you’re going to see a difference in the way you think and feel. And you’re going to see that this works, which is going to hopefully help you you know, cheer you on to do this on a regular basis for your life as a tool of maintenance, you know, something that keeps you balanced and, and a lot of times people will get to where they’re feeling better, and then they’ll drop the routine and then they’ll come right back and it’s like a cycle. So instead of doing the cycle, my urge to your listeners is that it doesn’t take a lot in to stay consistent with it and you’re going to see change in your life.

Guy 1:00:03
Amazing. Amazing. I, I’ll just be sure for everyone listening to this. There’ll be links in the show notes so they can pause and jump across to learn more. And yeah, he and I just want to thank you for coming on the show, mate. That was phenomenal. Your journey is incredible. You’re clearly extremely passionate about this work and it’s just a beautiful thing to see and making a huge difference out there. So I have no doubt there’s a lot of a lot of amazing things coming your way in the future. And I’d be fascinated to see where listening to smile goes. As you reach more.

Ian 1:00:37
Thank you so much, man. I’m so thankful for being on here and I really enjoyed this today. So thank you.

Guy 1:00:44
Likewise, thanks legend. Cheers.