Healing Mantras: Using Sound Affirmations for Personal Power, Creativity, and Healing (Paperback)

by Thomas Ashley-Farrand (Author) "Listen ... Listen closely ... What sounds can you hear right now?..." (more)
Key Phrases: Brahma-rishi Vasistha, Far East, King Trishanku (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
"Sound is more than simply a medium of artistic expression. Sound has practical and powerful applications in the real world."

Mantras, or simple chants, are short phrases packed with energy and intention--specifically designed to generate powerful sound waves that promote healing, insight, creativity, and spiritual growth. Healing Mantras is the practical, how-to guide that makes the strengths and benefits of mantras available to everyone. The transformative power of sound has been passed down to the present from the sages of India, the classical scientists of ancient Greece, and the medieval monks of Europe. Mantras, sounds, and chants have inspired, comforted, and mended the lives of individuals, religious orders, and even entire cultures. Even though the science and discipline of chanting and formal prayer are practiced in every religion around the world, this is the first time that ancient Sanskrit mantras have been explained and adapted to Western needs.

One of the few Western experts in Hindu and Buddhist mantras, Thomas Ashley-Farrand has practiced mantra-based spiritual disciplines for twenty-five years. In this illuminating book, he explains how and why mantras work and shows how to use them for everything from controlling habits to overcoming fear, from curing specific ailments to finding inner peace. In each of the more than fifty mantras, all translated from the original Sanskrit, Ashley-Farrand unlocks the power of every word, explains its appropriate application, and tells you how to pronounce it in easy-to-follow phonetic symbols. Inside, you'll find mantras for

- Health - Worldly Success - Habit Control - Protection - Grief - Anger - Controlling Fear - Personal Attraction - Wisdom - Concentration and Mental Clarity - Healing Life Issues - and more!

These mantras can be repeated aloud or in silence and can be used by people of any religion or spiritual practice, "as you wash dishes, as you drive on the freeway, as you meditate, or as you cook." Sound can help and sound can heal, and Healing Mantras now makes this sound medicine available to everyone.

From the Inside Flap
"Sound is more than simply a medium of artistic expression. Sound has practical and powerful applications in the real world."

Mantras, or simple chants, are short phrases packed with energy and intention--specifically designed to generate powerful sound waves that promote healing, insight, creativity, and spiritual growth. Healing Mantras is the practical, how-to guide that makes the strengths and benefits of mantras available to everyone. The transformative power of sound has been passed down to the present from the sages of India, the classical scientists of ancient Greece, and the medieval monks of Europe. Mantras, sounds, and chants have inspired, comforted, and mended the lives of individuals, religious orders, and even entire cultures. Even though the science and discipline of chanting and formal prayer are practiced in every religion around the world, this is the first time that ancient Sanskrit mantras have been explained and adapted to Western needs.

One of the few Western experts in Hindu and Buddhist mantras, Thomas Ashley-Farrand has practiced mantra-based spiritual disciplines for twenty-five years. In this illuminating book, he explains how and why mantras work and shows how to use them for everything from controlling habits to overcoming fear, from curing specific ailments to finding inner peace. In each of the more than fifty mantras, all translated from the original Sanskrit, Ashley-Farrand unlocks the power of every word, explains its appropriate application, and tells you how to pronounce it in easy-to-follow phonetic symbols. Inside, you'll find mantras for

- Health - Worldly Success - Habit Control - Protection - Grief - Anger - Controlling Fear - Personal Attraction - Wisdom - Concentration and Mental Clarity - Healing Life Issues - and more!

These mantras can be repeated aloud or in silence and can be used by people of any religion or spiritual practice, "as you wash dishes, as you drive on the freeway, as you meditate, or as you cook." Sound can help and sound can heal, and Healing Mantras now makes this sound medicine available to everyone.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wellspring/Ballantine (August 24, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345431707
• ISBN-13: 978-0345431707
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85,514 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Contains the most powerful chants I've used yet, for change., October 16, 1999

By	Dana Marniche ([e-mail]) (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

No review here. Sorry. Nothing but praise. This book is changing my life so fast that I feel like I'm in a dream! I've used the Nam Myoho Renge Kyo Buddhist chant for years to transform my life internally and externally, but its brought up so much karma I knew I had to find a new and gentler path. Now, mystical happenings abound in a more directed way, and it's only been a few weeks! These mantras give one the power to work on specific problems related to everything from finance and relationships to physical and mental affliction. The results I've had have been tremendous!! Incredibly well-written, and easy to read, no doubt due to the Saraswati chant by the author. The mantras in this book if done as a "Sadhana" advised by Mr. Ashley-Farrand (40 days straight)I'm sure can change one's life dramatically as if one were taking medecine. They'll be making a dent in many people's negative karma soon, ultimately changing the course of the world. As far as I'm concerned, this book will make a priceless gift to loved ones. God bless!!

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars POWER OF THE WORD, October 31, 2000

By	Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

What a revelation! This book has given me incredible insight and is a joy to read and to study - like magic jumping out of the pages. As a guide for improving one's life, it is unparalleled. A thorough discussion of the background, lore, history and application of sound in healing, together with Vedic cosmology and the views of scientists, as well as pieces on Karma, Astrology and the Chakras. All the important areas of life are covered and the various relevant mantras provided, with phonetic guide to pronunciation and English translation. Throughout, examples are given of healings achieved and problems solved through the use of specific mantras. The author has an engaging style and it's hard to put the book down. I strongly recommend you get the CD at the same time (available here on amazon) as it helps immensely in "getting into" the mantra habit and with pronunciation. It is also very beautiful to listen to. The book has a glossary of Sanskrit and other terms, an extensive bibliography and an index.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sacred Sanskrit teachings are now clearly explained., September 19, 1999

By	Ray Zone (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

Imagine a language made of simple sounds. And these sounds embody what they describe. This is the ancient language of sound called "Sanskrit." When these sounds are assembled into formulas called Mantra or "divine speech" they will, in the words of a Sufi master, actually "knead the flesh of the body with sound." These ancient formulas of divine sounds have been "held in trust and in secret for ages," according to the author, in India and Tibet. With "Healing Mantras," Thomas Ashley-Farrand has created a breakthrough for the West with a work that illustrates, with great clarity, both the symbolic significance and the practical benefits of chanting mantra. Students of the esoteric arts as well as those new to the subject will find this book entertaining, illuminating and, above all, accessible. In fifteen well-organized chapters Ashley-Farrand demonstrates how mantras comprise "our spiritual physiology," how they work and gives specific instructions as to their use in creating abundance and self-empowerment, or mastering health and love. Though there is great scholarship in the book, this is no dry tome, but a manual for the use of ancient and powerful tools. Throughout the book are personal stories which succinctly illustrate how the practice of mantra has benefited the author as well as those he has instructed in its use. Readers will be lured by the practical simplicity of this book to utter the divine speech themselves. And the consistent use of this sound energy may well prove to be transformative, giving those with the intent, the power to change their lives.